Food Storage Friday: Potato Pearl Soup

Ok,  if you have potato pearls you have to try this. To quote my husband "It tastes like Thanksgiving in a bowl." And it's EASY! If you don't have potato pearls, go get some.  I found this winner in Food Storage for the Clueless by Clark and Kathryn Kidd, which a friend recommended to me. Unfortunately it is out of print and it was awhile before a copy was available for less than $40. I eventually found one and I haven't really started reading it, just trying a few recipes. This soup is fast, easy, yummy and uses mostly food storage ingredients. I can't say that it's healthy, but it tastes like comfort food and sometimes you need that...like when everyone in the house has had a cold sometime in the past two weeks. Just saying.

Potato Pearl Soup
Food Storage Ingredients:
4 & 1/2 cups milk
2 Tablespoons dried chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt
dash of garlic salt
dash of pepper
2 cups potato pearls
2 & 1/2 cups broth/stock

Fresh Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup water

1. Heat butter, onion, salt, milk and pepper until scalding. 2. Gradually stir in potato pearls. Keep cooking and stirring until smooth. 3. Gradually add the broth & water. 4. Garnish with paprika and parsley if desired.

The original recipe called for more salt and butter. I cut them down and still added the water to get it to a place where I liked the taste. I also used turkey stock that I made and froze after Thanksgiving last year. Hence the strong Thanksgiving flavor and the small bits of carrot. So yummy. The original recipe calls for chicken broth, so I'm sure that that is good too. You *could* use fresh milk for this, but when I make recipes that call for cooking more than 2 cups of milk, I mix it up from my food storage. It's cheaper, no one can taste a difference and I need to rotate the stuff anyway.

Food Storage Friday: Chicken Enchilada Soup

This is by far my most requested soup recipe by family and friends. It is another recipe that took me awhile to figure out to incorporate food storage in a way that didn't change the taste. A few weeks ago I had a breakthrough. I originally got this recipe from the book 101 Things to Do with a Tortilla, but have made several adjustments to it over the years.

Chicken Enchilada Soup
Food Storage Ingredients:
1 packet enchilada sauce seasoning
1 cup tomato juice
1 cup water
1 6oz can tomato paste
1/2 cup white bean puree
3 cups chicken broth
1 6 oz can diced green chiles
1 Tablespoon canola oil

Fresh Ingredients:
2 cups cooked, chopped chicken breasts
1/2 cup diced red onion
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
4 corn tortillas
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
tortilla chips and cheese for garnish
1/2 red bell pepper, diced (optional)

1. Combine first four ingredients and simmer to make enchilada sauce. (See packet for details.) 2. Saute chicken in oil. 3. Add onion and garlic (and pepper) and cook until tender. 4. Add broth, green chiles and enchilada sauce to chicken. 5. Tear tortillas into small (2" square or smaller) and add to soup. Simmer for 5-10 minutes. 6. Add sour cream, beans and cheese and stir until melted. Serve with cheese and tortilla chips.

I love this recipe, and all though it has a fair amount of sour cream and cheese I have to say that I have cut back the saturated fat a great deal from the original with my adjustments. Also I usually use one cup of leftover grilled chicken and a can of cooked chicken. The cheese, enchilada sauce and green chiles overpower any unpleasant taste associated with the canned chicken.  Recently I read in a food storage book where it recommended adding bean flour (ground dried beans) to soups for added protein and fiber. I'm certain that this would work if you don't want to cook and puree your beans, however I'm certain it is more likely to cause gas. This same book supports the idea that you can't live on bread alone, but you can live on bread and soup. I like that idea. If you have several food storage soup recipes on hand (or even just several cans of prepared soup) you can add some bread and feed your family from your food storage without having it be strange or traumatic.

Food Storage Friday: Chicken Vegetable Chowder

There are six basic staples of long term food storage: rice, wheat, oats, pasta, beans, and potatoes. Potatoes are pretty darn easy to incorporate into your diet. To quote my friend Liesa "Mashed potatoes are the fast food of food storage." Anyone can add them as a side to a meal with very little effort. Mashed potato flakes can be stored for approximately 30 years. I am not a big potato person, however growing up my mom made this chicken vegetable chowder that I loved. Getting the recipe out of her is easier said than done, because she doesn't cook by recipe, more by taste and eyeballing it. So here is my version. To me, this is comfort food. :) If you wanted to, you could use fresh baked potatoes or even just mashed potato flakes. The point is to get your family used to eating these staples on a fairly regular basis.

Chicken Vegetable Chowder
Food Storage Ingredients:
1 (15oz) can of potatoes, drained
1/4 cup mashed potato flakes (or more if you need them)
3 cups chicken broth
1 (12 oz) can of evaporated milk

Fresh Ingredients:
6 cups of finely chopped vegetables
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon prepared honey mustard
1 cup cooked chopped chicken (I've done this many times with canned chicken too)
1 cup shredded cheddar
pepper to taste

1. Put vegetables, canned potatoes, onion, garlic and chicken broth in crock pot. Simmer for 2-4 hours on low. 2. Mash everything with a potato masher until potato chunks pea sized or smaller. 3. Add evaporated milk. 4. Add potato flakes to thicken to desired consistency. 5. Add remaining ingredients and cook on low until heated through (30 minutes or so)

Notes: I served these in soup rolls, but you can do as you please. For vegetables I generally use carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, but this time I used parsnips instead of cauliflower because I had them from my Bountiful Basket and didn't have a clue what else to do with them. My mom always used half and half for this recipe. I don't like purchasing half and half. The remainder of the container always expires before I get around to using, besides you can get the same creaminess from evaporated milk with fewer calories and less saturated fat. She also uses bacon grease mixed with flour to thicken her soup instead of potato flakes. Yes, I know it taste better, but I detest working with bacon. Period. Yesterday when my husband heated some of these leftovers for lunch he accidentally put a dash of balsamic vinegar in it. It made it better. When I got home from work he fixed some for me that I way and I agreed. Give it a try.

Food Storage Friday: Taco Soup

This week's food storage tip is try to pick recipes that you already have the ingredients for. For example, taco soup. (Mexican food and soup together, love it!) There is not an ingredient in there that I don't normally stock for other meals also. It makes it easier to purchase cases of them and have them available. Using your food storage doesn't have to be super elaborate, it just has to work for you and your family.

Taco Soup

Food Storage Ingredients
1 can black beans, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can corn
1 can of olives, drained
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can diced green chiles
1 can cooked chicken
1 packet taco seasoning
1 packet ranch dressing mix
1/2 tsp chicken bullion + 1 cup water or 1 cup chicken broth

Fresh Ingredients
sour cream
shredded cheese
tortilla chips
1 tsp lime juice

Optional Ingredients
avocados, chopped for garnish

1. Dump all ingredients into a pot. Stir and heat until cooked through. (About ten minutes.)

Usually I used canned tomatoes because it's easy, but this time I used a couple fresh because I had them. It made the soup a little more watery and foamy, but still good.

I have tried at least a dozen versions of taco soup. This is the one that I always go back to because I like the way it tastes and it's so blasted easy. I've tried it with grilled chicken, beef, pork, ground beef, and ground turkey. (And it wouldn't be hard to make it meatless.) Canned chicken trumps because it is the easiest. When I was pregnant with #2 and working full-time nights I made this almost once a week. I can make it in my sleep. (And considering that I was working nights I probably did make it in my sleep at some point.) Enjoy!

Soup is on baby!

Easy Homemade Chicken Stock

I love soup. I eat it about once a week, spring, summer, winter and fall. (It's just something that MLM deals with.) I have a couple cookbooks devoted just to soup. And everywhere that I read says that to have really good soup you have to make your own chicken stock, which is a 8-10 hour process. I can just buy the canned stuff and deal with it. It occurred to me last week when I found myself with a chicken carcass, I may have better things to do than spend an entire day making chicken stock, but my crock pot doesn't! So I did some internet searching and compiled this recipe from a few I found using things that I had on hand. And it smelled sooooo good. This stuff is ridiculously cheap to make and is better for you than what you purchase in the store because lacks the salt and preservatives.

 Easy Chicken Stock
1 whole chicken carcass
4 large carrots chopped into quarters
1/2 bunch of celery into quarters
1 onion, quartered
1 twig of fresh rosemary
3 cloves of garlic chopped
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 lemon, sliced
6-8 cups of water (Depending on the size of your chicken, you want it to be just covered with water.)

Put everything in the crock pot. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Remove stoneware from pot and cool. Pour through a large colander into a bowl. Voila! Chicken stock. If you're feeling ambitious (and I was), you can take a few of the cooked vegetables and blend them with a 1/4 cup of chicken stock, then pour and mix it back into the big batch. (My family can use every vegetable I can sneak to them.) Pour it into plastic containers and freeze for later use.

Chicken Soup

So I'm at home with my sick kids and what makes this even more thrilling is that I have no voice. I feel like I'm screaming to barely be audible. And frankly right now I just want a nap, but I'm waiting for the munchkins to fall asleep. So while I wait I'll blog about what I made for lunch. I found this recipe on the foodnetwork, but I modified it to make it easier and a little healthier. (Does anyone out there actually make their own chicken stock? Who has that kind of time? Does it really make that much of a difference?) I feel like this recipe really hits the spot when you're sick. (And when you and your family are sick, do you really want to spend your whole day in front of the stove? I didn't think so.) The combo of chicken broth, garlic and cilantro does wonders.

Easy Chicken Soup

1 medium onion
3 garlic cloves
2 medium carrots
2 celery ribs
2 T fresh cilantro
2 T olive oil
1/2 tsp dry thyme
2 qts chicken stock/broth
1 1/2 cups cooked chopped chicken
8 oz dry whole wheat noodles

1. Throw first 5 ingredients in food chopper.
2. Sauté in olive oil in a soup pot for about 5 minutes. Add chicken stock. Bring to a boil.
3. Add remaining ingredients and cook until noodles are tender.

Southwest Cheese Soup

Here's a recipe that I recently found that is fast, easy, uses ingredients I have on hand, and the best part is my family loved it. (I love soup, and it's just something my husband usually tolerates, but he really enjoyed this one.) It was perfect when I needed to make something warm and fast, after spending the late afternoon at the park with my family. The original recipe called for 16 oz of Velveeta. I am not a big Velveeta fan, it has a distinct processed cheese after-taste. However I read several reviews where they tried to use real cheese in this soup, and it just didn't work. They could never make it smooth and it was just a clumpy mess. Here's what I did below and turned out perfect.

Southwest Cheese Soup
1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained
1 15 oz can of black beans, drained
1 15 oz can of corn, drained
1 c skim milk
8 oz of Velveeta, cut into cubes
1 c grated cheese (I used a pizza blend, but I think pepper jack would also be good.)

Mix all ingredients and stir over medium heat until cheese is thoroughly melted and mixture is smooth. (About ten minutes) Serve with crushed tortilla chips.