Corn and Potato Chowder

It’s soup season! I had some lovely Quincy corn in the fridge that I needed to use and a recipe I wanted to try, so Corn and Potato Chowder was on the menu for dinner last night. The ingredients. These are things I almost always have on hand. The only thing I had to buy was whipping cream.

This took about 45 minutes start to finish (not including cooking the bacon). I think I can get this down to a 30 minute meal with a few tweaks. The original recipe does not call for bacon, but everything is better with bacon, right?! This was a totally filling comfort food dinner. If you sub vegetable broth for the chicken broth, the chowder is vegetarian.

This makes about 4 main dish servings. It will not freeze well due to the corn and potatoes.

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2 cups corn
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled

Sauté corn, onion and garlic in a large saucepan until the onion is tender. Process half of the vegetables in a blender or food processor until finely chopped. Return to saucepan.

Add broth, potatoes and thyme. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 10-15 minutes. Stir in cream and simmer 2-3 minutes or until heated through. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve topped with crumbled bacon.

Variations: try adding diced ham instead of the bacon.

Top with shredded cheddar cheese and/or chives.

Project 365 Marches on – This week’s menu

The Menu this Week. April 9-15 2011

As usual, these are not in the order that I will make them. Fruit/dessert on the menu this week is pineapple and cantaloupe. I’ve already messed up the menu, but tonight will be the Rigatoni. And I have some watercress to use… I’ll have to find a recipe for that.

Sat – Going hiking with the kidling, so I need a fast and easy dinner.

Sun – Chicken Athenos #330056 from 1001 More Low Fat

Mon – Pizza Burgers #445820 from 365 Grill (make double and freeze?)

Tues – Pineapple Rum Turkey Kabobs #231845 from Low Carb, Rice and Snow Peas

Wed – Lemon Herb Swordfish Steaks #452353 from Low Carb

Thurs – Rigatoni with Escarole and Italian Sausage (sausage from freezer) #334597 from 1001 Low Fat

Fri – PCT Movie night. Leftovers or pizza.

Breakfasts – Sunday, unless we go out to breakfast. Almond Pancakes from Beyond the Moon

Lunches – Blackeyed Pea Salad from Beyond the Moon

Dessert – Applesauce Cake #451271 from Spices of the World

Lunch from the Freezer and Pantry

No time to pack a pretty bento lunch this morning, I just grabbed something from the well stocked freezer.

Butternut Squash and Pear Soup. I rounded out the rest of my lunch with some cheese and crackers. Easy peasy. And very tasty!

This soup has a nice little zing to it from the curry powder and just a hint of sweetness from the pears. Just the thing for a gray day like today.

Menu for March 26 through April 1st

Restocking the freezer this week.  Some doubling up on recipes throughout the week.   Ground turkey is on sale at Safeway for buy one get one free, so I’ll be making a HUGE batch of meatballs to freeze. I also want to restock my freezer with roasted red bell pepper and tomato soup.  I might throw some beans in the crockpot for some sort of freezable stew later this week too. I bought a giant package of chicken breasts, so those will go in the freezer in at least 3 different marinades. (to be determined)

As of today, I am at 99/365 recipes. As always, these are in no particular order.  (Already changing the menu since I forgot a few things at the store last night…)

Sat 26 – Shrimp and Snow Pea Stir Fry – Cooking Light 04
Steamed rice, dumplings (freezer)

Sun 27 – Mini Meatloaves – Cooking Light 2004 (make double) and Twice Baked Potatoes (make at least double. hubby loves these)

Mon 28 – Pork Chili with Greens – 1001 Slow Cooker  and Sweet Corn Cheddar Pancakes – From Asparagus to Zucchini

Tue 29 – Sage Stuffed Chicken Breasts – George Foreman Green Beans (wondering if this would freeze well?)

Wed 30 – CORN/Leftovers night (might change since I won’t be around this weekend to cook)

Thur 31 – Pork and Fennel Ragu – Cooking Light 2004 Rice, Bread, Salad

Fri 1 – Off to Canada! I’m teaching a 4 hour backcountry cooking class. So not ready! Hubby and kidling to eat leftovers or eat pizza.

Breakfasts – Strawberry Cinnamon Muffins – Cooking Light 2005 and Ginger Dessert Waffles – Spices of the World

Lunches – Green Apple Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette – Cooking Light 2004 and  Tarragon Tuna Salad – Spices of the World and and Potato Salad with Parsley and Chives – Cooking Light 2004 (for hubby. Didn’t get made from previous menu) Slaw of some sort? I have green cabbage to use up.

Dessert – Applesauce Cake – Spices of the World (made with home canned applesauce) I also picked up an angelfood cake at the store – to be served topped with Cool Whip and home-canned berries.

Lunch and Dinner from the Freezer

Lentils – Make ahead and freeze.

Lentils are cheap and easy. For a little more than a dollar, I can get a whole pound of dried brown lentils.

They are also good for you. They are low in fat and high in fiber, protein and folate. They are a good source of iron and potassium. One cup of cooked lentils has 230 calories, almost no fat, 7mg of iron and 16 grams of protein. Plus they are delicious!

I cook the entire bag of lentils, either in water or broth, then freeze the cooked lentils in 1-2 cup portions. A vacuum sealer works wonders for this. Try to freeze the packages as flat as possible so that you can stack them in your freezer like library books.  Don’t forget to label and date the bags. This same method also works for barley and rice. It is nice to be able to make soups, salads and pilafs almost instantly because you have done much of the work ahead of time.

When you are ready to make a lentil dish, just thaw and add the lentils.

Some lentil recipes I’ve tried recently: (recipe titles are links to the recipes)

Lentil Pear and Goat Cheese Salad – from Eat Well Stay Well

Lentil and Fennel Salad – from Cooking Light (holey smokes batman! This is fantastic!)

Lentil Salad with Spinach, Cheddar and Pecans  – from Food & Wine

Country Lentil Soup

– from 1001 Low Fat

 

 

And some old favorites:

Bacon and Lentil Soup

Lentil Soup with Cauliflower and Bacon – from Food & Wine (this freezes well)

Tomato Lentil Salad

Mushroom and Lentil Soup – from Super Foods (this soup also freezes well)

Green Lentil and Mixed Vegetable Pan Fry

– from What’s Cooking Vegetarian

 

 

 

Still need more ideas? These are on my to-be-tried list:

Lentil Soup with Chard – from Cooking Light

Bay Scented Lentil Salad with Pancetta – from Cooking Light

Barley-Lentil Salad – from Beyond the Moon

Lentil Vegetable Soup – from Horn of the Moon

Lentil and Pancetta Soup – from Cooking Light

Bulgur and Lentil Pilaf – from 1000 Great Recipes

Sweet and Sour Lentils – from Moosewood Low Fat Favorites

1001 Low Fat Recipes

Project 365 Marches on. As of today, I am at 78 recipes. Ahead of schedule on purpose since I know there are quite a few days coming in April that I will not be cooking.

I am slowly adding series of books to my cookbook collection. The 1001 series by Sue Spitler is one of these. I have four, with plans to add at least two more.

Let’s start with 1001 Low Fat Recipes. So far this year I have made five recipes from this book; Italian Turkey Burgers, Chicken China Moon, Garbanzo Parsley Salad, Artichoke Delight, Country Lentil Soup and Potato Seafood Cakes.

Except for the Seafood Cakes, which I ended up heavily modifying, everything has been delicious. The recipes are well written, easy to follow and flavorful. Not something you always get from a low fat cookbook.

Other recipes I have tried (prior to 2011’s Project 365) include
Mushrooms in Vermouth and Turkey Marsala.

I have a ton of recipes tagged to try soon as well. Mushroom Barley Soup with Herbs, Chinese Coleslaw, Fruit Filled Muffins, Salmon Salad Farfalle, Sesame Shrimp Stir Fry, Easy Chicken Saltimbocca, Golden Spaghetti Squash… I could go on and on.

One thing I really like about this book, compared to other low fat books, is that it doesn’t call for a lot of “low fat” product substitutions. Instead, she uses less oil and cooking techniques to make the recipes healthy. They rely heavily on seasonal vegetables and fresh herbs. Food itself has a lot of flavor if you cook it right.

Most of the recipes take 30 minutes or less and don’t have an extensive list of ingredients. Additonally, they do not call for hard to find or “weird” ingredients. There are a lot of re-worked classic dishes throughout the book.

There are 18 chapters, starting with Appetizers. This is a very well organized book. Sometimes the chapters may be short, but it makes recipes very easy to find.  For example, there is a whole chapter on Dinner Sauces. Vegetable Entrees are followed by Vegetable Side Dishes.

Pear Overload – Part #3

Okay, I am officially sick of pears… And despite that, I am going back today to harvest the rest of the tree. Yes, I’m nuts. But I never say no to free food!

Saturday night I cut up the pears so that I could have everything ready on Sunday morning to dump in the crock pot. What was I making? Ginger Pear Butter. I had never made pear butter (0r any kind of fruit butter for that matter) before, so this was a bit of an adventure.

Ginger Pear Butter

3 lbs ripe pears, peeled, cored, and chopped
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup water
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon peeled and minced fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Add the first 4 ingredients to the slow cooker; stir to combine. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours. Remove the lid and stir in the fresh and ground ginger. Increase temperature setting to HIGH; cook, uncovered, 1-2 hours, to thicken and blend, stirring occasionally. Let cool completely, then transfer to glass jars or other containers with tight fitting lids; store in the refrigerator where they will keep for several weeks.

Since this was all new to me, I mostly followed the recipe for a change. I did double it. I’ve decided that I could probably use a kitchen scale. I felt a bit ridiculous weighing my pears on the kidling’s old baby scale. Hey, it worked! LOL.

Into the crockpot everything went and I was off for the day. I love crock pot recipes!

I came back home to a house smelling amazing. I added the ginger and increased the heat. I didn’t exactly measure the fresh ginger. I just grated it right into the pears. I may have gotten a little carried away. The final product is VERY gingery.

I took my stick blender to the mass of chunks in the crock and let the butter cool a bit before packaging it up. Oh man, did the house ever smell good! Like fall had moved right on in.

I think either my pears were a bit wet or I added to much water initially because the final pear butter is more like a thick sauce than something spreadable. From 6 pounds of pears, I got about 8 cups of pear butter (sauce). My foodie friends say this is freezable. So I think about half will be frozen and half will be gifted and eaten right away. 

So what do you do with a super gingery pear butter? Well yesterday I had it spooned over some vanilla yogurt.

It would also make a nice glaze for ham, pork or chicken. Maybe served on some green beans? Drizzled over ice cream. Toss with cubed winter squash or sweet potatoes and baked?  Made into some sort of salad dressing? Top pancakes or waffles. Served over chevre like you would serve a chutney… I’d love to hear other ideas. I have a ton of this stuff!

Pear Overload – Part #2

Yesterday the kidling and I needed breakfast, and I still needed to use up all these pears. I went on a hunt for a recipe for pancakes or waffles using pears… RecipeZaar let me down this time. That rarely happens! found a recipe at Everyday Health that turned out beautifully.

Pumpkin Pear Waffles

1 cup flour, whole-wheat pastry
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup pear, finely diced 

Mix together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Beat together the eggs and sugar. Add in the flour mixture. Fold in the pumpkin and pear. Pour batter into a hot waffle iron coated with nonstick cooking spray and cook until waffles are crisp and browned. The batter will make 3 waffles.

I have posted it to my account at Zaar for safe keeping (not public yet). The recipe says it will make 3 waffles, but I think it depends on your waffle maker. I doubled the recipe and got a lot more than 6 waffles. If you use an egg substitute, these can be vegan!

Of course, being me, and completely unable to follow a recipe as written, I made a few changes. First, I doubled the recipe. I wanted some to freeze and I wanted to use up as many pears as possible. I was out of cinnamon, so I omitted that, but added about a teaspoon of real vanilla extract. In hindsight I think I could have added more vanilla and a bit less nutmeg.

One can of pumpkin puree is closer to 1 1/4 cups, not the 1 cup I would need for doubling. The whole thing went in. A little extra pumpkin flavor won’t hurt, right?

I used regular all purpose flour. I don’t keep lots of different flours on hand. It worked fine. Just let the batter “rest” before you start spooning it into the waffle maker. This will help make nice fluffy waffles.

One thing I learned the hard way was that the waffles will stick, despite having a non-stick waffle iron. Spray that baby!

After breakfast, I let the leftovers cool. I froze them individually before bagging them up. I have a plastic deli tray that is perfect for this. I use it for berries and apples too. Now the kidling can have gourmet waffles for breakfast any time she likes.

I think I’ll have some this morning topped with the ginger pear butter I made yesterday… Tomorrow’s Pear Overload post. Stay tuned.

Pear Overload! Part #1.

I recently had the privilege of harvesting an entire tree’s worth of pears. Almost 5 gallons worth (and there’s still more to harvest!). What to do with all these pears?

I just happened to have a butternut squash in the fridge that needed to be eaten as well… So I did a quick search on RecipeZaar and found a great, easy recipe!  Butternut Squash and Pear Soup.  And it’s vegan! Bonus.

I wanted to use the entire squash, so I more or less doubled the recipe. I also used my new lemon curry powder, which is lighter in taste and worked perfectly in the soup. I didn’t have any vegetable broth on hand, so I used water and vegetable buillion.

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 lb butternut squash, cut into 1-inch pieces (about half a medium squash)
2 ripe medium bartlett pears, peeled, cored and cut into 1-inch pieces
3 1/2 cups fat-free low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth

Heat oil on medium heat in Dutch oven or soup pot. Gently sauté onions until softened—about 5 minutes.

Add curry powder and stir, sautéing for 1 minute. Add butternut squash and pear pieces. Sauté for 3-4 minutes.

Pour in vegetable broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes until squash and pear are tender. Transfer soup to a food processor or blender and purée until smooth, working in two batches if necessary.

I let the soup cool, then took my stick blender to it. The soup is creamy and thick, but not gloppy. Into tupperware it went! Each container is about 2 cups (~2 servings) of soup. Labeled and put most of it in the freezer for later. It isn’t really soup weather right now, but this will be fantastic in about a month as the weather turns cooler. I intend to eat it for lunch – maybe with some grainy crackers and chevre cheese.

And so begins my fall food storage…

Simple but Delicious – Dinner and Dessert

Broccoli, cheese and noodles are my daughter’s favorite foods, so when I found the “Pasta, Cheese and Trees” recipe via Every Day with Rachael Ray, I knew I was going to have to make it for her.Brunch Peach Parfait originally comes from my 365 Easy Low Calorie Recipes book. I love this series of books! The recipes in them are alway excellent and often very adaptable. This one was no exception.

This is a super easy and versitile recipe. The ingredients are basically pasta (I used farfalle), broccoli and two cheeses; ricotta and Parmesan. I sauteed some onions for just a little more flavor. Great comfort food dinner! You could easily add leftover ham, turkey or chicken to this.

I had some leftover peaches from a peach-glazed pork recipe I had made a couple of nights ago. Hubby apparently “doen’t like cooked peaches” so it was up to me to eat them. RecipeZaar to the rescue again! This recipe for

It calls for fresh peaches, vanilla yogut and crushed graham crackers. I used cooked peaches, but canned or another fruit would be just as good. And it is a very healthy dessert too!

btw – the glass isn’t dirty. It looks that way because I smeared yogurt on the inside as I was making the parfait. I tried to wipe it off for the photo, but I think I made it worse. lol.