Escarole and Bean Soup..lunch for Mommy

What do you eat for lunch during the week?  When I was working, I lined up Riley, Talia and my lunch boxes and packed them full of healthy options. The girls' lunches are still filled with a variety of satisfying, healthy treats but mine is pretty much non-existant! I never went back to work after Lola was born and since then I have been very inconsistent about feeding myself healthy lunches!  I seem to have breakfast and dinner down but lunch either gets skipped or I find myself foraging, eating the remnants of Talia's soup or the crusts of Lola's peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  I'm not big on resolutions but this is something I would like to be more consistent about in 2013.

Soup is always a great lunch option for me (and the kids).  I make it over the weekend and we eat it for several days during the week.  It's quick to reheat in between preschool pick up and the arrival of Talia's afternoon kindergarten bus!  Escarole and bean soup is on the menu this week!

Prep Ahead Plan:  I made this soup on Sunday and as the week goes on, the flavors marry and taste even more wonderful.  Soup only gets better with time!

Escarole and Bean Soup
Ingredients
1 head of escarole, washed and chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
dash of crushed red pepper (optional)
2 (32 oz) cartons of low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
15 oz can of cannelloni beans

Directions:
1.  Heat olive oil in a large soup pot.  Add garlic and crushed red pepper and saute for about 1 minute.
2.  Add escarole and saute for a few minutes until the leaves get wilty (if that's a word).
3.  Add broth and beans and bring to a boil.  Simmer until the leaves are tender enough for your taste!
4.  Serve with a sprinkling parmesan cheese (optional).

chicken and rice soup in the slow cooker

Busy, busy, busy.  Forgive my lack of posts!  How do these other bloggers do it?  For me, sitting at my computer for any kind of extended period of time while my children are awake is virtually impossible.  Forming a coherent thought between the hours of 6:00am and 8:00pm  is simply out of the question.  Am I doing something wrong???  Once the girlies go to bed, my husband and I can FINALLY catch up and have some quality time before one of us crashes (usually "the one" that has to get up at 5:00am is the first to go!).  I am usually not too far behind my hard working husband who leaves at the crack of dawn, but here I am tonight, up way too late, sharing my chicken and rice soup recipe for friends to enjoy!!!! I will regret this in the morning.  What are the chances my kids sleep in (i.e., past 5:05am)???? :)  Sleeplessness aside, it's so easy and so delicious! Please let me know what you think!

Prep Ahead Plan:  Toss everything in the slow cooker insert EXCEPT for the brown rice anytime before you want to cook it!  I like to do it the night before or up to one day ahead of time!   


Chicken and Rice Soup

Ingredients
1 onion, chopped
1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
3 stalks celery, chopped
4 large or 6 medium sized carrots
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup or chopped fresh parsley or a few shakes of dried parsley
3 raw, boneless chicken breasts chopped up (You can use raw or cooked or the meat off of a store bought rotisserie chicken! Anything goes!) I used raw in the recipe pictured.
Fresh ground black pepper
salt to taste
3 (32 0z) cartons of Natures Promise low sodium chicken broth
1 boil in a bag brown rice*
Directions
1.  Add everything but rice to the slow cooker insert and cook on low for 8 or more hours. 2. Anytime before serving, cook rice according to package directions and add as much of the cooked brown rice as you like to the soup (I add the whole bag).
*You can buy regular brown rice and add it to cook into the soup instead of the bag. Sometimes I do this and it soaks up too much of the broth, or my timing is off so I like to cook the rice separate! 

Paula Deen's Snake Bites for Halloween!

***photo credit:  The Food Network***

Just thought I would share our dinner recipe for tonight!  You can make it ahead of time and leave it in the fridge until you're ready to bake it!  (I put the food coloring on right before baking!).  It's super easy to do with store bought crescent roll dough! I do half plain cheddar and half with ham and cheddar for my plain Jane's!

Here is the link to her video and recipe!  

Paula's Snake Bites!


Happy Halloween everyone!

Slow Cooker Collection

Breakfast Recipes

slow cooker porridge

Appetizers

slow cooker queso blanco

Soups and Stews and Chilis

slow cooker smoky turkey chili (weight watcher recipe)

slow cooker chicken tortilla soup

slow cooker minestrone soup

slow cooker pasta e fagioli -Olive Garden Style

slow cooker beef and barley soup

slow cooker (Weight Watcher) Italian beef and lentil stew

slow cooker beef stew

slow cooker garden vegetable soup

Chicken and Turkey

slow cooker chipotle lime chicken

slow cooker whole roasted chicken

slow cooker chicken and rice casserole

slow cooker chicken cacciatore

slow cooker (Wight Watcher) chicken paprikash

slow cooker creamy Italian chicken

slow cooker turkey and stuffing

slow cooker honey soy chicken

Pork

slow cooker sweet and saucy pork tenderloin

slow cooker carnitas
slow cooker kalua pork

slow cooker Thai pork with peanut sauce
slow cooker bbq ribs

slow cooker bbq pulled pork with homemade onion rolls

slow cooker maple glazed pork tenderloin

Beef

slow cooker beef burritos

slow cooker asian style pepper steak

slow cooker meatball parm grinders

slow cooker pepper steak over noodles

slow cooker steak fajitas

slow cooker tomato wine sauce 

Seafood

slow cooker jambalaya

Pasta

slow cooker mac and cheese

slow cooker ravioli  casserole

Baked Tomato Basil Shrimp

This shrimp dish has been a staple on Sunday afternoons since football season began!  It’s a great appetizer that’s easy to prepare and doesn’t require two pounds of cheese like most of my favorite football foods!  Although we have been generally trying to eat healthier, we are in no way foregoing some of our absolute favorite dishes including slow cooker queso blanco and Asian style wings!!!  I see those in our near future for sure!!!  We’ve been serving this shrimp as an app with a bowl of toothpicks on the side but it could just as easily turn into a nice light weeknight meal when served over rice or pasta with a steamed veggie on the side!  Hope you like it as much as we do!

Prep Ahead Plan:  Prepare the entire recipe the night before or several hours before and keep it in the fridge until ready to bake.  It tastes better when it has a few hours to marinate but it can be baked right away too. 

Baked Tomato Basil Shrimp

Ingredients:

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tablespoon olive oil

¼ cup tomato sauce

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

10 chopped fresh basil leaves

salt and pepper to taste

¼ teaspoon (or more) cayenne pepper

2 pounds raw, deveined shrimp

olive oil cooking spray

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9 X 13 baking dish with cooking spray.

2.  Mix the first 7 ingredients in the baking pan and mix well. Toss in shrimp and stir.

3.  Refrigerate until ready to bake or bake for 20 minutes and serve! 

honey glazed soy chicken in the slow cooker

Over the summer I had several failed slow cooker recipe attempts so I was excited to go two for two last week and add slow cooker meatball grinders  AND this honey glazed soy chicken to my repertoire!  I adapted this recipe from The Tasty Kitchen altering the cut of chicken and swapping out a few ingredients.  Success!!!!

Just a note about slow cooking boneless chicken breast…..

I have dried out chicken in the slow cooker many times!  I have learned that my slow cooker has a tendency to cook quickly!  Chicken breasts can cook no longer than 3 hours on low in my pot.   Yours may be 2 or 4.  Test it and see so you don’t end up with a dried out mess! 

Prep Ahead Plan:  This isn’t a “set it and forget it” cook all day kind of recipe BUT it’s perfect for those crazy, jam packed hours after school where everyone goes in 10 different directions and you are the taxi service that gets them to their designated locations!  Take 5 minutes and prepare the recipe in the slow cooker the night before and let the chicken marinate all night, which is even tastier.  Turn it on at 3:30 and eat at 6:30!

Honey Glazed Soy Chicken

Ingredients:

4-5 skinless chicken breast (not too thin)

ground pepper (to taste)

1 cup of honey

1/2 cup of low sodium soy sauce

1/4 cup ketchup

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 small onion, diced

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (or more)

1 tablespoon cornstarch

2 scallions

cooking spray

Directions:

1.  Spray slow cooker insert with cooking spray.

2.   Mix pepper, honey, ketchup, soy sauce, vegetable oil, garlic, onion and red pepper flakes in the pot.

3.  Place chicken in the honey/soy mixture, turning to coat and refrigerate overnight (or cook immediately).

4.  Cook on low for 3 hours adding 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon of water during the last 30 minutes.  Serve over brown rice topped with scallions.

Slow Cooker Meatball Parm Grinders

I love having success with a new slow cooker recipe!  I found the original recipe on Pinterest and made some adaptations including the addition of herbs and red wine.  I also opted for 93% lean ground turkey rather than lean ground beef simply because lean ground turkey is lower in saturated fat.  It is true that beef has more iron than turkey meat but I'd rather save on the saturated fat and serve a spinach salad on the side of my ground turkey meatball grinder.  I guess once we loaded it with cheese all fat count considerations go out the window anyway!  Either way, I hope you enjoy these quick and easy meatball parm grinders!   

Prep ahead Plan:  I prepared the recipe the say before and let the slow cooker insert sit overnight until I was ready to bake it!  

Ingredients:

For the Meatballs:

1 pound 93% lean ground turkey

1 ¼ cups of seasoned bread crumbs

2 teaspoons basil (dried)

2 teaspoons parsley (dried)

2 eggs

2 cloves of garlic, minced or crushed for meatballs

For the Sauce:

2 cloves for sauce, minced or crushed

2 28 oz. cans san marzano whole tomatoes

¾ cup red wine

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 bay leave

1 Tablespoon fresh basil or a handful of fresh basil leaves torn up

grinder rolls

garlic powder

olive oil cooking spray

sliced, fresh mozzarella

iphone pic

Directions:

1.  Spray the inside of a slow cooker insert with cooking spray.

2.  In a large bowl combine all of the ingredients for the meatballs.  Mix with hands and form into 1 ½ inch meatballs.  Place them in the slow cooker.

2.  Open the cans of whole tomatoes and squeeze each tomato over the meatballs.  Pour any remaining juice from the cans on top of the meatballs too.

3.  Combine remaining ingredients in pot and stir making sure not to mash up the meatballs.

4.  Cook on low for 8-9 hours.

5.  To make grinders.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Spray grinder rolls with olive oil spray and sprinkle them with garlic powder and bake for 5 minutes.

6.  Remove from oven and place meatballs in the roll and top with sliced cheese.  bake for another 5 minutes or so until the cheese is melted. Enjoy!