A Soup Post

Most of my posts here are recipes.  And I have to tell you that I fully intended this post to be a recipe. But, as usual, I didn't use measuring utensils and I forgot to write anything down, so now, you have yourself here a technique piece.  I hope you enjoy, and I will definitely try to take measurements the next time I make some of my soup :)

You know what I love about soup?  There aren't very many rules.  You don't have a chemical reaction, as in baking.  The only thing you really need is the broth and something to put in it.  I used to be a very picky eater.  Going by my old standard, I'm a positive foodie now.  But others, I know, would still classify me as picky.  That's fine.  I'm happy trying things at my own pace.

What does that information matter to you?  Well, I had never tried parsnips or turnips before my Mother-in-law put them in some homemade chicken noodle soup at Christmastime in 2011.  And she didn't ask me if I would mind if she put them in, she just did.  So I braced myself before tasting that first bite.  And you know what?  The flavor of that broth, that soup, was so much more improved I couldn't believe it was still just your basic chicken noodle soup!  The parsnips and turnips added such a richer flavor note that I loved it.  Truth be told?  I put turnips and parsnips in every pot of chicken soup I make now.  I find that when I leave it out, the flavors are just too lacking for my taste.

Now, this past weekend, both of my boys were down with pink eye (bacterial) and a virus.  And I had just developed an ear infection.  I was tired and just wanted some comforting food.  When I'm sick like that, and it's cold to boot, the only thing that spells comfort food to me is s-o-u-p.

But I really didn't have it in me to boil a whole chicken to get the broth and the meat for my soup.  And I didn't want a whole 4 qt. stock pot full of soup to freeze and keep.  I decided to compromise - I went to the grocery store and picked up a medium parsnip, a large turnip, and deli-counter roast turkey breast (I didn't realize it was turkey until I got home and was opening the package; no matter, it was still delicious) that had been previously shredded.  So that cut a ton of time off the top for me.  I peeled and diced my parsnip and turnip and some carrots I already had on hand.  I tossed in two handfuls of my previously chopped and frozen onion and celery and a couple teaspoons of chopped garlic and sauteed them all in 2 Tbsp. of butter to release the flavors and soften them.  Then I poured in 6 c. of water and 2 Tbsp. of better than bouillon soup base (chicken flavor).  I brought it to a roiling boil for somewhere between 15 minutes and a half hour (I'm not sure on the time because one of my kids pooped his diaper, the other was having a potty crisis, and my husband wasn't home).  Basically, I got my veggies good and cooked in the broth.  But then, instead of adding my herbs, chicken, and pasta, I ladled half of my soup up and put it in a pyrex to cool on the counter a bit before freezing.  You see, now I have a ready-made soup base, to which I will only need to add meat, seasonings, and a starch!  Voila!  After I had the set-aside portion dished out, I added some water (the boiling had reduced the liquid level), my shredded turkey, and a half a box of ditalini.  I brought it back to a boil to cook the pasta and then I was ready to go.  I had my semi-homemade soup and quicker solution for the next time I might want to whip up some soup, semi-homemade style.  And really, setting aside a portion to freeze and use as a soup-base later worked very well, because I had much less soup I felt compelled to eat right away.  And by using just the veggies and the broth, I can add whichever meat and seasonings I want to change the style of the soup.

So now you know that I like soup as comfort food, and that I love turnips and parsnips in my soup.  Seriously, you have to try them.  But I also tend to add both dill and parsley to my homemade chicken noodle soup.  I read an article in a Women's World issue that talked about the different health benefits of all of the components of chicken noodle soup and each had health benefits (I can't remember what they were, but they were good).  I had never thought to add dill to chicken noodle soup before that article.  Parsley was pretty standard (as long as I remembered), but the dill was a new thought.  Well, as with the turnips and the parsnips, I loved it.  You can almost always find dill and parsley in my homemade chicken noodle soup now.  And I really don't feel like I need to add more than that - those simple ingredients combine together to bring such a wonderful, full flavor to my soups that I don't even need to add any other salt and pepper.

What is your favorite addition to chicken noodle soup?  Have you ever had parsnips and turnips before?  Would you try them?

Adventures in freezer cooking

Oh, ladies and gentlemen, I am tired.  So tired.  I just spent five hours chopping, dicing, portioning, tagging, and bagging vegetables and meals.  I piled way too much on my plate, so to speak.  Yes, I punned. ;)

Firstly, let me just say, chopping 10 lbs of onions in one go-'round was maybe not my best idea.  Do I have chopped onions in reserve now in my freezer to use at a later date?  You betcha.  And that will be nice.  But folks, my eyes are not thanking me right now.  They are still a little burn-y from all the onion fumes.  I was running the knife under cold water after each onion, and running each slice of onion under cold water before chopping it, and it still burned like lemon juice in a paper cut.

Secondly, I also chopped and bagged 4 bunches of celery and a quart-sized freezer bag of bell peppers.  I don't know about all of you, but peppers and celery do not stay fresh in my fridge very long.  So at least this way, I am not throwing away money by tossing spoiled produce.

Thirdly, if you decide to embark upon a freezer cooking session, I have a serious piece of two-pronged advice to give you.  Go big, and build a stash, or be modest and spend some time doing other things with your day.  Five hours is a long time to spend in the kitchen grouping ingredients for your recipes.  But now I have 14 meals (plus tonight's dinner is also in the crockpot) and a couple bags of chopped veggies to go, too.  At this point, I figure I can spend an hour a couple times later on this week and add three more recipes (that's six more meals) to my freezer arsenal.  At this rate, if I do one freezer-cooking session a week, I can always have some freezer meals on hand, and that is something that will be super nice for those days when life interferes.

Below, you can find the pages where I drew my recipes (or in some cases, my inspiration).  I will blog about each recipe as I thaw it, cook it, and we consume it, so you can look forward to those upcoming posts.  Some of the pages have multiple recipes on them, and I didn't make all of them, but if they interest you, you do your thing!

http://kristisrecipebox.blogspot.com/2011/09/crockpot-pork-chops.html
http://www.ringaroundtherosies.net/2012/02/freezer-cooking.html
http://www.laaloosh.com/2012/07/09/crock-pot-beer-chicken-recipe/
http://ldsliving.com/story/68979-easy-slow-cooker-recipes

Have you ever done any freezer cooking?  Are you interested in it?  What did you cook?  Did you like it or would you change the recipe the next time?  Do you have any advice for others who might want to freezer-cook?  What is your favorite freezer meal?

P.S. I will be blogging about tonight's dinner tomorrow (probably), so if you have chicken, beer, and garlic, and are looking for a meal idea, check back tomorrow (probably)!

My relationship with food

I told you that I would write some more about my experiences with food.  In my family (namely my mother's family, my father's side isn't really all that close), food was a big part of our familial celebrations - holidays, birthdays, etc.  Each household would bring a dish every time we got together.  We typically had ham (my grandmother was a big fan of ham, I don't know why, that's just the way it usually worked out) if it was a holiday like Christmas or Thanksgiving or burgers or hot dogs on the grill if it was a summer holiday.  Someone would almost always bring cheesy potatoes (I'll have to post that a little later) and there would inevitably be some kind of crackers and dip.  But the big focus was almost always dessert.

Who doesn't love dessert?  We'd usually have at least two desserts, sometimes more.  And if we were at my aunt's house, we'd usually congregate around the food.  Much easier for snacking, but much harder on maintaining healthy eating habits.  When I got to college, my eating habits did not improve, that was for sure.  Through the course of my undergrad studies, I gained about 50 pounds over 5 years.  I ate very few vegetables because frankly, in my experience, they were never prepared in a manner that made them tasty and I have issues with food textures.  In fact, when I was growing up, the only cooked vegetables I would willingly eat were potatoes and corn - not even the healthiest vegetables.  I'm proud to say that I eat many more vegetables now, but I'm still a pretty picky eater.

I would have to say that my biggest issue with food is that I eat my feelings.  Stressed?  Eat something (usually something sweet, ergo unhealthy).  Sad?  Eat something.  Bored?  Eat.  Happy?  Eat.  So you can understand how moving across the country by myself for a job and to be closer to my then-boyfriend-now-husband when he returned from deployment must have impacted my weight.  (If you didn't put it together, the weight went up.  By about 25 pounds.)  Now, my husband can pretty much eat whatever he wants, but as long as he is working out, he will lose weight.  Me, I struggle with weight loss.  I've tried portion control, calorie counting, increasing water intake, exercise, cooking more healthfully.  I still have trouble losing weight.  But I feel better about myself when I work out and then eat a balanced meal afterward.  Having a toddler and an infant, I need to be much more conscientious about my diet.  I want to be able to be active with my boys.  So I continue to work hard at losing weight and eating healthfully.

Do I still struggle with emotional eating?  Yes.  Will I always struggle with it?  Probably so.  But by cooking at home instead of eating out or always making a boxed or frozen meal (which are very high in sodium and other preservatives), I can control the quality of our meals and make food that is going to provide quality nutrition instead of a bunch of empty calories.