Kitchen Chaos

Sometimes something wonderful happens when you just throw some things together. It works like magic. And even stranger is when everyone likes it. Even the picky kid who doesn't like anything. That happened to me the other night. We had a 4-H thing to go to and I knew that we probably wouldn't make it home till 8 and we would all be past ready to eat. And - as much as I love Chick-Fil-A - I would rather have chewed my arm off than have to eat another Chick-Fil-A salad. So I looked to see what all I could throw together in the crockpot and then prayed it would be good. It was. It was so good that it was gone before I thought to get a picture (bad blogger). Now you can try it. Pizza Soup As with all soups, if you don't like something, leave it out. If it is your favorite, then add some more. 1 cup of browned hamburger meat 1 onion chopped and browned 1 or 2 bell peppers chopped (and browned if you don't want them crunchy) 4 ounces Hormel peppero...

Yesterday was another day of dreaded errands and by the time I had finally gotten home, I had a headache. A doozy. So I wanted to throw something together with minimal effort that would taste good. So I thought of lentil soup. I love lentils, they are such a small bean that they don't need any soaking and cook in about 30 minutes. I also had a head of cabbage that needed to be used and cabbage does well in soup. I first chopped up an onion and threw it in the old stockpot with 5 slices of turkey bacon, I then got involved in something else and let the onions get a bit burned too caramelized. But with my throbbing head, I just poured some red wine vinegar over it and then lots of water (at least 8 cups but I used the sprayer on my sink so this is a guess). Then I added the lentils - about 1 cup or maybe 1/2 cups - but be careful to look them over and pick out any rocks (oops) and rinse them first (I did do that). I then chopped up a cabbage and added that. I also added a ...

Ok, I have to be honest this is more of a method than a recipe. The nice thing about soup is it is really difficult to ruin it - unless you burn it and there is no rescue that I can find for scorched soup. If you know of one, let me know please. Anyway, since the whole family wanted to come down with (or fight) some sort of respiratory illness (kids had "the crud", Hubby has sinus issues, and I am trying to come down with the crud) I thought it was the perfect opportunity for Chicken Noodle Soup. Junior thought it was a horrible idea until I let him help me decide what to put in it. So here is what we did:

I have to confess, I thought split pea soup would be gross. I am not too fond of canned peas (I don't pick them out of things though) and that was my thought of what this would taste like. I was wrong. It doesn't happen very often, but yes I was wrong. Hubby also was not thrilled with the idea of trying it, but he likes it as well. About the only way I can think of descibing this is a spring vegetable soup. It just tastes like spring. This is great with grilled cheese, or bread or any number of things I can't eat. 10 cups water 1 pound dried split peas 1 pound ham cut into pieces or ham bone 1 medium onions 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 2 or 3 carrots chopped 2 or 3 celery stalks chopped Heat water and peas to boiling, boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat and put in crock pot. Let sit for one hour then plug in crockpot. Toss in remaining ingredients. Cook on low for eight hours or high for 4 hours. Ok, now a confession: if your family ...

I got this recipe from Recipezaar.com - one of my favorite places to get recipes. Apparently the person who posted it on recipezaar, found it on Hillbilly Housewife 's website. In any case, this is a yummy filling recipe that even my "I don't like black beans" Hubby liked as well as my "I don't like soup" son. I served it with the gluten-free corn bread which went nicely. Oh, why dried beans? They are cheaper, lower in salt, and that's what I had. I had bought the beans before finding a recipe, I know a bag of beans will make a good sized pot of soup. I am not sure how many cans it would take. I think this recipe could be converted to gluten-free it just has the bullion cubes which have wheat and I am not quite sure how to replicate their flavor with ease.