Brussels Sprout and Sausage Soup

I love soup! If I lived by myself, I would eat soup and only soup. This is a hearty, healthy fall soup that I love to make for Phillip (he is a huge brussels sprout fan). The only problem with soup is that I can never get a very good picture of it.


Ingredients

1 pound brussels sprouts
1/2 pound sausage (I use a chicken sausage with apple that is great)
1 teaspoon olive oil
3 large potatoes
2 bay leaves
4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

Preparation

Trim ends off brussels sprouts, remove any damaged external leaves, and cut in half lengthwise. Set aside.

Cut sausage into 1/4-in.-thick slices. Put olive oil and sausage in a medium pot over medium-high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until sausage is well browned, about 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel potatoes and cut into roughly 1/2-in. pieces.

When sausage is browned, add bay leaves to the pot. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add potatoes, broth, and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil. Add brussels sprouts. Partially cover pot and reduce heat to low or medium-low to maintain a steady simmer. Cook soup until potatoes and brussels sprouts are tender, about 15 minutes. Remove bay leaves and serve soup hot.

Source: Sunset, January 2008

Zuppa Toscana

Soup season is here! I love soup so much that I make it every week from the first hint of fall until spring is almost over. One of my favorite soup to eat out is the Zuppa Toscana from Olive Garden. It is so different than other soups and it is super healthy with the addition of freash kale. This was the first time that Phillip & AJ had tried this soup and they were pleasantly surprised that it was so hearty.

Ingredients
6-8 cups chicken broth
1 lb italian sausage, removed from casings
2 baking potatoes, scrubbed
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt & pepper to taste
1 bunch fresh kale
1/4 cup half & half

In a large dutch oven over high heat, add the chicken broth and bring to a boil.

While the broth is coming up to a boil, prepare the potatoes by slicing in half lengthwise and then cutting each half into 1/2 inch slices with the skin on. Set aside.

With the italian sausage removed from the casings (or you could use bulk italian sausage too), crumble the sausage into the hot broth.

Add the potatoes to the pot, season with spices and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 15-20 minutes.

As the potatoes soften, prepare the kale by cutting away the tough core and stem. Slice the leafy greens into slices and place in a bowl.

Once the potatoes have softened up, remove from heat or turn the heat off. Stir in the kale and half & half. (The heat of the soup will cook the kale without turning it brown.)Serve hot.

Source: What's Cooking Chicago?, Joelen's Culinary Adventures with Friends and Food

Laughing Cow Chicken

While Phillip & I were on our pre-Mexico diet (we're still on it, just on a smaller scale), I scoured all of the food blogs that I read for some healthy recipes. When I found this, I scored the healthy weeknight meal jackpot! It is so fast and easy that I make it almost every week. The star of this recipe is the Laughing Cow brand Light Cheese Wedges. I use the garlic & herb flavor, but you can use any flavor that you find. You can normally find the cheese in the specialty cheese case by the deli (I've beed told it can't be found in Rushville, you can also use any light cheese spread).

Ingredients:


4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
4 Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedges
Cooking spray
1/2 cup Breadcrumbs
dash of dried Parsley Flakes
dash of grated Parmesean Cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F.

Lay each chicken breast flat on a cutting board. Cut a horizontal slice to create a pocket in the side of the chicken breast. Stuff the pocket with the cheese, don't skimp, it's good! Pat the chicken breasts dry with paper towel, and spray with cooking spray. Combine the breadcrumbs, parsley and parmesean, and sprinkle over both sides of the chicken breast. Bake on a cookie sheet for 15-20 minutes, until done.

Serves: 4

Adapted from Macaroni and Cheesecake

Roasted Beet & Goat Cheese Pizza

Since Phillip & I have been eating lighter, I've been forced to mix it up a bit to keep our dinners from getting boring. This pizza was great, even though Phillip thought it could have used some meat.


Ingredients

1 (4-ounce) golden beet
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 frozen pizza dough
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled goat cheese
1/4 cup thinly sliced onion
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon honey

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 450°.
2. Leave root and 1 inch of stem on beet; scrub with a brush. Wrap beet in foil. Bake at 450° for 40 minutes or until tender. Remove from oven; cool. Trim off beet root; rub off skin. Cut beet in half crosswise; thinly slice halves.
3. Position an oven rack in the lowest setting. Place a pizza stone on lowest rack.
4. Increase oven temperature to 500°. Preheat pizza stone 30 minutes before baking pizza.
5. Gently brush oil over Basic Pizza Dough. Arrange cheese, beet slices, and onions evenly over dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Slide dough onto preheated pizza stone, using a spatula as a guide.
6. Bake at 500° for 8 minutes or until crust is golden. Remove from pizza stone. Sprinkle with salt, and drizzle with honey.

Source: Adapted from Cooking Light

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Phillip & I are trying to lose a little weight before we go to Mexico over New Years, so I'll be posting some lighter recipes on here for a while. I loved these, they were so filling that I actually couldn't finish it all. Phillip thought that it could have used a little more meat, which is easy to fix next time.

Ingredients

4 small acorn squash, 1 to 1 1/4 pounds each
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1/2 pound ground pork
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup white wine
1 1/2 cups cooked rice *
1 (10-ounce) package frozen spinach, completely thawed, drained and chopped
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
Generous pinch kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut 1-inch off the top of each acorn squash and scoop out the seeds. If necessary in order for the squash to sit upright, cut off a small portion of the bottom. Put 1 of the 4 pieces of butter in the cavity of each squash. Set squash on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large saute pan over medium heat, brown the ground pork until no longer pink. Remove the meat from the pan, add the olive oil and saute the onion, celery, and carrot until they begin to soften, approximately 7 to 10 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the white wine.

Return the pork to the pan along with the cooked rice, spinach, pine nuts, oregano and salt and pepper, to taste. Stirring constantly, heat mixture thoroughly, approximately 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat. Divide the mixture evenly among the squash, top each squash with its lid and bake for 1 hour or until the squash is tender. Serve immediately.

* I used Uncle Ben's Long Grain & Wild Read Rice, which made it really easy, just zap it!
**I also halved the recipe and only used one acorn squash, because I could only find really large ones

Source: Alton Brown, Food Network