Quick Soup

I love soup. It's warm when it's cold outside, it's comforting and it's yummy.

Of course coming home from work on a week night is not when I want to spend a lot of time making soup. Nor do I want to open a can and heat it up. So this is my quick soup fix that combines fresh ingredients and some store bought help.

1/2 Rotisserie Chicken

8 Ounces sliced mushrooms

1 Zucchini

1 Crookneck Squash

10 Baby Carrots

1 Onion

1 Box Lipton Recipe Secrets Chicken soup mix

8 Cups Water

Fill a pot with the 8 cups of water. Chop all the veggies to bite sized pieces or smaller depending on how quick you want them to cook. Put the Onion, squash and carrots in the water and bring to a boil. Add the Soup mix and let cook about 2 minutes. Chop the breast, leg and thigh meat from half the chicken into bite sized pieces and add to simmering soup with mushrooms. Bring back to a simmer and let simmer about five more minutes.

That's it. Quick and simple. Another great thing about soup is you can add different veggies depending on what you like or what's on hand.

Busy Bee

My alarm went off at 5:15 and I changed it to to 6:30. I got up then and took my shower, the dogs were wanting out of their cage and I thought no harm since they've been so good. BIG MISTAKE! They peed on my comforter, they peed and pooped on the floor. My comforter had to go in the wash and it's now in the dryer with a load of sheets in the washer.

After all the cleanup, I took the dogs in the car with me to the grocery store. We came home and in the car Tasha puked on my hoodie. So then I cleaned out the car, brought in the dogs and the groceries, putting them away. Took the dogs for a quick walk. We came back and I left them to run about while I worked on putting a load of dishes in the dishwasher. Then it came to cooking time.

First up was two pots of water on the stove a small one with 6 eggs and large one for the pasta. The plan is BBQ Chicken, Macaroni salad and fruit pizza. By noon the salad and pizzas were complete and soon I have to go trade in my propane tank for a full one.

Here are my recipes for the salad and fruit pizza.

Macaroni Salad

1 Package macaroni cooked according to package directions, drained and rinsed with cold water
6 Eggs hard boiled, chopped
2 Large cans sliced olives
2 cans small shrimp
1 Sweet Onion chopped
1 bunch Green Onion chopped
Miracle Whip

Mix the first 6 ingredients together in a large bowl until well mixed. Sprinkle in Mrs. Dash and Old Bay Seasoning. Then start adding Miracle Whip until the salad has the desired moistness. Chill well before serving to let flavors mix.


Fruit Pizza

1 Package refridgerated Sugar Cookie Dough
1 8 ounce container of whipped cream cheese
1 8 ounce container of whipped topping
1 teaspooon Vanilla
1/4 cup powered sugar
Fruit and berries

Spread the cookie dough out on a pizza pan and place in a 350 degree pre-heated oven. Remove from oven when golden, let cool completely.

In a mixer combine the cream cheese and whipped topping and combine well. Add the vanilla and powered sugar and beat until well mixed and fluffy.

When the cookie crust is completely cool, spread the creamy mixture over the entire surface of the crust. Arrange fruit in a pretty pattern and put in refridgerator to chill.

I actually made mine in two pie tins and used a peach, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries and rasperries on mine. Never made this before so I will have to post later to say how it went over.

Soylicious

On Friday I went shopping at Trader Joes on my lunch hour. I picked up a number of things to eat this week while I'm home alone and only have myself to feed. Experimentation time!

I picked up a package of Soy Chorizo, some small but not baby portabello mushrooms, cheese tortellini which I used for dinner tonight.

Here is my recipe for Soy Chorizo stuffed Portabello Mushrooms

1/2 Cup of chopped onion
1 cup chopped mushrooms (I used 2 of the smaller portabellos and stems)
1 Package Soy Chorizo
1/2 Cup Italian bread crumbs
1/2 Cup shredded Parmesan Cheese

Saute the onion in some olive oil over medium heat until soft. Add the mushrooms and cook until wilted. Add the chorizo crumbling and mixing well with the veggies. The chorizo is very spicy so I find that there is little to no seasoning needed. Once the mixture is well mixed and heated through, add the bread crumbs and about 1/4 cup of the cheese. Mix well and heap into the mushroom caps. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and place in a preheated 350 degree oven just until the mushrooms are heated and softened and the cheese is melted.

I served this with the cheese tortellini.

The one thing you have to watch with the Soy Chorizo and I think regular if you choose to use that is, you do not want to cook it too long because it drys out easily. I really liked the flavor and texture of the soy chorizo so I plan to use it again in the future. I think it will be awesome in my Mexican Lasagne and Stuffed Peppers.

The Idea

Yes ok I did recently watch Julie & Julia and seeing all the blogs that people have been posting got me thinking maybe I should do one too. First of all it might be kinda fun to keep track of the stuff that I do when it comes to the house and cooking.

Part one I am learning from necesity how to remodel a home. Ok so no I'm not tearing out walls and doing that kind of stuff. No Extreme Home Makeover here. However in the past year or so I have learned how to cut out a section of subfloor, cut a patch from 3/4" plywood and patch the bad spot. I had help the first time and that didn't go so well but the helper was well meaning so we don't hold it against him. Then I did a section in the living room but now adjacent to that there is a brand new hole. My bedroom is a big project but I will have to post about that later.

The other part of this blog I hope will be what recipes I end up putting in a cookbook someday. I love cooking and experimenting so that is what I am going to use this for and just in general as a place to talk about food. That way people will stop telling me on facebook to stop posting about food because I make them hungry.