Potato Soup

What are we on now, snow day number four? Pretty soon I'm gonna start losing track! And two-hour delays. Yeah, I don't even try to count those. Not enough fingers and toes. 

To be honest though we're literally snowed in. Take a look at our driveway bobsledding track. Let me tell ya, the turn is just lovely! Barb wire or electric fence? Take your pick! If it wasn't for the snow piles (aka-bumpers) I'd a taken both out eons ago! 

So mom and I decided it was a good day to make potato soup. We finally have some freezer space and really, what else was there to do? Great mother-daughter bonding experience. Totally recommend it! Mothers and daughters that peel/chop potatoes together stay together! Okay...I think it's time to move on...

Start by peeling, rinsing, and chopping the potatoes. You'll wanna cut em in half, half again, then chunks. Keep going till there's a good six cups and add em to a large pot. 

Pour in the chicken broth.

Add the onions, celery, and margarine/butter.  Fresh or frozen don't make a difference.  Around here we like to freeze pre measured bags of onions and celery. One- we grow way to many onions and Two- it's so much easier! 

Add the salt...

And the pepper...

Now just a quick stir, put on the lid, and bring it to a boil. You'll wanna cook it until the vegetables are fork-tender. 

Turn down the heat to medium-ish and stir in a can of sweetened condensed milk. Now here's the important part. Cook another 30 minutes, stirring often, but DO NOT LET IT BOIL. Got it?

Now this is all personal preference. You could leave the soup as is (chunky) or 

let it cool slightly and throw it in a food processor/blender (creamy). We prefer it creamy, but you could even do a half-half kinda thing. 

Potato Soup

:Ingredients:

6 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed

5 cups chicken broth

2 cups onions, chopped

1/2 cup celery, chopped

1/4 cup butter or margarine

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

12 ounces evaporated milk

:Directions:

Combine first seven ingredients in a large pot.  Cover and cook until vegetables are tender, stirring often.  

Reduce heat to a simmer and add evaporated milk.  

Cover and cook 30 minutes, stirring frequently, not allowing the soup to boil.

Allow to cool slightly before pureeing in a food processor or blender.

Click for printable recipe.

Banana Bread (the BEST ever!)

Banana bread is my go-to recipe when we have overripe bananas. It's simple, quick, and easily freezes. Nothing is better than pulling out a loaf in the middle of a school week. Breakfast...check! Now if only dinner were that easy!

It took some time to find the "perfect banana bread recipe" but I think we've got it. You'll never guess where. Mom actually tried the recipe on the back of the Gold Medal Flour bag! It was delicious!

Warm, cold, room temperature...in the morning this bread is amazing anyway. Butter, plain, my sister even spreads it with Nutella! So much easier than making Banana Nutella Muffins and it tastes exactly the same!

Banana Bread (the BEST ever!)

by Simple and Sweet Creations

6071142

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 stick butter or margarine, softened
• 2 eggs
• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup nuts, chopped (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Grease either two 8 x 4 inch loaf pans, or one 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

In a mixing bowl cream together butter and sugar.

Add eggs, banana, buttermilk and vanilla. Mix on medium speed until smooth.

Stir in flour, baking soda, salt and nuts until just combined. Pour batter into pans.

Bake 8-inch loaves 60 minutes, 9-inch loaf 75 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes.

Remove from pans to cooling rack and cool completely before slicing.

Powered by Recipage

Potato Soup

Every year, usually sometime in October, my great (literally great) grandma comes up for a visit.  It works out perfectly as my mom could use an extra hand peeling and canning potatoes.  We always seem to plant way too many!  A couple years ago we had over 500 pounds!!  Yes, 500 pounds of potatoes for four people!  Of course we shared with family, friends, and neighbors.

But seriously, what do you do with that many potatoes?  No matter what you do -mashed, boiled, baked, fried- they become old after a while.  My mom tried canning them.  Everyone else loved them, but they weren't my favorite.  They were a little soft for my liking.  She also froze several batches of potato soup.  Let me tell you, nothing is better than going in the freezer on a cold day and pulling out a container of potato soup.  Just heat it up and lunch/dinner is served. My kind of cooking!

Since we had so many potatoes my mom offered to send home soup with my grandma.  Of course she accepted!  Who would turn down potato soup!?  My grandma has a one-of-a-kind sense of humor. One morning, my mom went out to feed the horses and left her in the kitchen peeling potatoes.  When she came back in, my grandma was holding a sign that read "Will Work For Food."  

To this day we still laugh and tell her she'll have to help if she wants her share of the garden.  Every year she keeps coming back, so the labor must be worth the reward!

Potato Soup

:Ingredients:

6 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed

5 cups chicken broth

2 cups onions, chopped

1/2 cup celery, chopped

1/4 cup butter or margarine

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

12 ounces evaporated milk

:Directions:

Combine first seven ingredients in a large pot.  Cover and cook until vegetables are tender, stirring often.  

Reduce heat to a simmer and add evaporated milk.  

Cover and cook 30 minutes, stirring frequently, not allowing the soup to boil.

Allow to cool slightly before pureeing in a food processor or blender. 

Copyright © 2014, Grace George. Simple and Sweet Creations. All Rights Reserved.

Click for printable recipe.

Individual Turkey Meatloaves

Mondays have become my busy days.  Some weeks I even have to pack my breakfast, lunch, and dinner Sunday night!  To simplify this meal prep and still have a delicious meal I'm experimenting with some of my favorite dinners, making single servings and freezing them.  The first experiment...meatloaf...

I absolutely love meatloaf.  While chicken is my favorite, if I have to have beef it better be a meatloaf.  Warm, cold, fresh, day-old, there's nothing like my mom's homemade recipe.  But being the cook I am I had to try something different. Solution...turkey meatloaf!  It'll be perfect for my grandpa who has to watch his red meat intake too!  My version has been adapted from All Sorts of Pretty.  

One batch makes either 12 muffins (2-3 per serving) or 6 ramekins (1 per serving).  After using the muffin tins I think I'd make them in ramekins simply because they'd be easier to clean.  Not that the muffin tin was terrible but I'm all about easy clean up.

Start by preheating your oven to 350º F.  Combine the ground turkey, eggs, oats, zucchini, onions, garlic powder, italian seasoning, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl.  Mix until everything is well incorporated.  It's almost impossible to over mix!

Evenly divide among 12 muffin tins or 6 ramekins.  Bake muffins 25-30 minutes or ramekins 35-40 minutes.  

In a small bowl, combine ketchup, sugar, and dried mustard.  This sauce is so good...try not to eat it all like me!

Spoon (whatever sauce is left) evenly over the meatloaves.  Bake another 5 minutes.

Look how beautiful...and delicious!  The batch made 12...but I won't tell you how many I actually froze.  Let's just say they didn't all make it...

Turkey Meatloaf

by Simple and Sweet Creations

6071032

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup oats, ground
• 1 cup zucchini, grated
• 1/3 cup onions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2/3 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons sugar (or other sweetener)
• 2 teaspoons mustard powder

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Combine first nine ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix well.

Evenly divide among 12 muffin tins or 6 ramekins.

Bake muffins 25-30 minutes, ramekins 35-40 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine ketchup, sugar, and mustard powder.

Spoon evenly over meatloaves.

Bake additional 5 minutes.

Powered by Recipage