Minestrone Soup

(Ssh, I had a little help with this Minestrone Soup! Do you like my fancy dinnerware?)

I was looking for something quick I could feed my son for lunch and that I could turn into supper tonight for the girls when I came upon a bag of minestrone soup mix my husband got from the store. This isn't something I normally use (I just make soup from scratch, usually chicken noodle soup) but I figured I could add some ground turkey and bowtie pasta to make it *almost* homemade.

I cooked the ground turkey with onions and then set it on a plate to drain. Of course my son in his quest for lunch grabbed the plate and dropped all the meat onto the floor. I salvaged what didn't hit the floor, which wasn't much, and put it in the soup.

It turned out pretty good and I *think* the girls will eat it. I'm headed out to grab some crackers to go with it.

What's for supper?

*Sigh*

The never-ending question: What's for supper?

It's getting colder and I can finally turn the stove and oven on, and I'm in the mood for soup.

So tonight it's Chicken Noodle Soup for us! I'm using egg noodles instead of angel hair pasta tonight. It's got a bit of chicken noodle soup mix in it that my husband bought. I just threw it in the pot with the homemade.

Potato salmon patties

This sounds yummy and like something that everyone would eat!

This one comes from AllRecipes.com.

Potato Salmon Patties

• 1 (14.75 ounce) can salmon, drained and flaked
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup garlic and herb seasoned dry bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup dry potato flakes
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon dried dill weed
• 1/4 teaspoon celery salt
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

1. In a medium bowl, mix salmon, eggs, garlic and herb seasoned dry bread crumbs, dry potato flakes, onion, garlic, dill weed, celery salt, salt, and pepper. Form the mixture into 2 inch balls, and flatten into patties about 1/2 inch thick.
2. Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. In batches, cook patties about 5 minutes on each side, until lightly browned.

The recipe says it's good served with rice and a veggie on the side!

Broccoli lasagna!

I haven't ever made lasagna but I love a good pan of it. I just ran across this recipe for Broccoli Lasagna from All Recipes. I think I can do this!

Broccoli Lasagna

• 9 lasagna noodles
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
• 1 (10 ounce) package chopped frozen broccoli, thawed and drained
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
3. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Cook onion and garlic in butter until tender. Stir in flour, pepper, 1/2 teaspoon salt and nutmeg. Stirring continuously, pour in milk, a little at a time, allowing mixture to thicken. Bring to a boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat and stir in parsley. Set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, broccoli, Parmesan, 1 cup of mozzarella and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir until well blended.
5. In a 7x11 inch baking dish layer: 1/4 cup white sauce; 3 noodles; one-third of remaining white sauce; half the broccoli mixture; 3 more noodles; half remaining white sauce; remaining broccoli mixture; 3 noodles; remaining white sauce. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella. Cover with foil coated with cooking spray.
6. Bake in preheated oven 30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Time for the slow cooker!

It's cooling off outside and that means it's time to plug up the slow cooker!

About.com's Busy Cooks has a great list of Favorite Crockpot Recipes.

My husband prepared some pork ribs in the slow cooker yesterday after marinating them for 24 hours and then roasting them on the grill for two hours. He told me what he did but it sort of went over my head. I'll have to ask him again.

Happy slow cooker-ing!

Five ingredient meals

What's not to love about five-ingredient meals? Nothing, that's what, especially if the kids love them.

Busy Cooks at About.com has a great collection of five-ingredient meals.

I have lots of great few-ingredient, one-pot meals that I've come up with in the past few months. Here are some of them!

Chicken Noodle Soup (this one is my favorite)

One Pot Chicken with Potatoes and Veggies

Beefy Potatoes and Peas

Chicken Pot Surprise

Chicken and Veggie Pasta

Parmesan Pasta with Turkey Sausage

Those recipes are all kid-friendly and hurried-mom-who-hates-the-kitchen-friendly. They are all meals I put together myself with little time and few ingredients available. It seems that preparing hot, nutritious meals for five hungry children can inspire even the worst of cooks.

Comfort foods

Here are quite a few recipes for some five-ingredient comfort foods from Busy Cooks at About.com.

After batting a stomach virus for the past 24 hours I think I'm on the rebound and could use some comfort food myself!

"Real" chicken noodle soup

Last night I made what amounted to Chicken Noodle Soup, but I kept the ingredients separate and served it to the kids as a wet dish rather than full-blown soup. I slurped it up as a soup myself. So good.

This time I used chicken legs, egg noodles, and a big can of mixed vegetables. I cooked the chicken in a pot on the stove, poured some of the juice off into a pan and cooked the noodles in it. When the noodles were almost done I tossed the vegetables in with them. I served the girls the noodles with veggies and a chicken leg to the side, with just a bit of chicken broth.

Tonight I intended on serving it to them as soup, and I cooked up some more noodles (angel hair pasta since I used all the egg noodles last night) and warmed up some frozen chicken stock. I put that together with what was left over from last night.

My 10-year-old niece asked me what we were having, and so I told her it was what we had last night, chicken noodle soup. She thought for a moment (trying to recall what we ate for supper last night, I guess) and then said, "I want some REAL chicken noodle soup."

I knew what she meant but I asked her anyway. She said, "You know, REAL chicken noodle soup. The kind in a can."

ACK. There's no comparison. I feigned hurt feelings and said, "What do you mean, REAL chicken noodle soup? THIS is REAL chicken noodle soup ... chicken, noodles, and vegetables!"

She still wasn't convinced and furthermore, decided to pass on my chicken noodle soup. All the kids decided to pass. Good, more REAL chicken noodle soup for me!