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Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana

20 Mar

This is one of my favorite soups.  I haven’t made it for a while, but with the recent cold snap in the weather here, I thought it would be perfect for dinner.  I served it with roast beef and swiss on sourdough melts.  Delicious!

Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana
Serves 8 as a side, 4 as a meal
Original recipes here and here

What you need:

1 lb Italian sausage, casings removed
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 tablespoons bacon bits, optional
2 cans (or 4 cups) chicken broth (I used my Homemade Chicken Broth)
4 cups water
1 pound potatoes, cut in 1/4 inch round slices
2 cups chopped kale or chard (or another leafy green, like salad savoy)
1 cup heavy whipping cream or half and half

How to make it:

In a large pot, break up and brown sausage.  Remove from pot and set aside.  Put onion, garlic, and bacon bits in the pot, cook until they have softened.   Pour in water and chicken broth, then add potatoes.  Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until potatoes are soft.  Add sausage, kale and cream or half and half.  Heat through, do not boil.

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Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

20 Mar

I apologize that the pictures doesn’t look more appetizing, but my husband was eager to dig into this!  Neither of us are Irish, but we do like to have corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day.  Best time of year to make it, the ingredients are all cheap at the store!  This is wonderfully easy in the slow cooker, and the taste is amazing!  Of course, you have to somewhat like corned beef and cabbage to fully enjoy it.  The vegetables do get very tender, so make sure that’s what you want.  If you don’t want them as tender, add them about halfway through cooking.

Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage
Original recipe here
Serves 6 – 8 

What you need:

4 large carrots, peeled and cut into matchstick pieces
10 baby red potatoes, quartered (I only had baby butter golds, so that’s what I used)
1 onion, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
4 cups water (I had 2 cups of chicken broth that needed to get used, so I used 2 cups chicken broth, 2 cups water)
1 (4 pound) corned beef brisket with spice packet
6 ounces beer, optional
1/2 head cabbage, coarsely chopped

How to make it:

Place the carrots, potatoes, and onion into the bottom of a slow cooker.  Pour in the water, and place the brisket on top of the vegetables.  Pour the beer over the brisket.  Sprinkle the brisket with the spices from the packet.

Cover and cook on low setting for 6 – 7 hours.   Stir in the cabbage and cook for 1/2 to 1 hour more.

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Weekly Meal Plan: 3/18/2012 – 3/24/2012

20 Mar

After taking last week off, I am flooded with food and produce!  Time to start getting through it all!  Hopefully, I can stick to it, I’m not feeling the greatest, so I’m not real motivated to cook.

Sunday: Leftover Slow Cooker Corned Beef & Cabbage (recipe coming)

Monday: Teriyaki Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry, using asparagus, Bok choy, carrots, water chestnuts, and green onions from Bountiful Baskets

Tuesday: Roast beef and swiss melts on sourdough bread and Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana, using potatoes, onion, kale, and savoy salad from Bountiful Baskets

Wednesday: Grill out Zaycon Foods hot dogs and German sausage, Twice Baked Cauliflower

Thursday: Chicken and Green Chile Enchiladas, using green chiles and corn tortillas from Bountiful Baskets

Friday: Fish Tacos with avocado cream sauce, using Zaycon Foods cod, avocados and onion from Bountiful Baskets

Saturday: Take out

I’ll also be making Salsa Roja and Salsa Verde with the produce in the Mexican themed veggie pack to enjoy with homemade corn tortilla chips (I have part of the chip pack I got a while back in the freezer).  Oh, and I will be making some breakfast burritos with breakfast sausage, potatoes, Poblano peppers, scrambled eggs, cheese, and large flour tortillas.

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Basket Breakdown – 3/17/2012

19 Mar

This week, I went a little crazy!  I got the conventional basket for $15, the Mexican themed veggie pack for $8.50, 2 tortilla packs for $10.50 each, and the organic 9 grain bread for $12, for a total of $58 after the $1.50 handling fee.

Here is what was in the conventional basket:

Russet potatoes, carrots, pineapple, Pink Lady apples, bananas, tomatoes, Bok choy, Romaine lettuce, green onions, salad savoy, and cucumbers.  There was also cantaloupe, but we were short on it, so my basket did not have it.

The Mexican themed veggie pack had yellow onion, green onion, garlic, tomatillos, avocados, key limes, Poblano peppers, jalapeno peppers, green chiles, and cilantro.  I want to make Salsa Roja, Salsa Verde, breakfast burritos with the Poblano peppers, and enchiladas with the green chiles.

The 2 tortilla packs each had 3 dozen large flour tortillas, 2 dozen small flour tortillas, and 2 dozen small corn tortillas.  These are very good!  They are par cooked, so they have to be refrigerated or frozen, then cooked when you use them.  I use them for all kinds of things.

Not sure if I’ve shown a pictures of it before, but here is how the bread comes.  This 9 grain, the multi grain and the honey whole wheat all come pre-sliced, the other breads do not.  Makes excellent toast and sandwiches, my favorite was using it for Bread & Celery Dressing for Thanksgiving.

I’m excited because this coming weekend (3/24), the new site I have been helping to get open will finally open!  I hope that it all goes well!

Note: The type and amount of food may vary from another basket because of geographic location and because of variances in how the ends of produce cases are distributed after everything has been distributed evenly.  I also volunteered this week and got 1 extra item for volunteering.

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Zaycon Foods Ground Beef, German Sausage, and All Beef Hot Dogs

18 Mar

 

Last month, I bought seafood from a Zaycon Foods event, and have been very pleased with the process and quality of the seafood.  So, when the opportunity came to get 93/7 ground beef, German sausage, and all beef hot dogs I went for it.  In the picture above, the German sausage is top left, all beef hot dogs top right, and the 2 big chubs are the ground beef.

This time the units available were:

– 40 pounds 93/7 lean ground beef at $2.99 per pound
– 10 pounds German sausage at $2.99 per pound (approximately 50 per box)
– 10 pounds all beef hot dogs at $2.99 per pound (approximately 50 per box)

I split the order with a friend of mine, so my share was 20 pounds ground beef, 5 pounds German sausage, and 5 pounds all beef hot dogs.  The ground beef ended up being only 38 pounds, and my part was just over 19 pounds, so I will get a credit for the 2 pounds not in the box.  The German sausage had 49 pieces, so we split it 24 for me, 25 for her. The hot dog box had 51 pieces, so 26 for me, 25 for her.

I recently got a Foodsaver from a friend of mine that she was no longer using (thank you Rebecca!), so I put it to use for the first time for this meat order to package it all for the freezer.  For the German sausage and hot dogs, I put 4 pieces in a quart size bag (1 bag of hot dogs had 6) and vacuum sealed them.

 

Next, I worked on the ground beef.  I weighed out 1 pound sections using my food scale, then again used quart sized bags to vacuum seal it.  I also used some of the beef to make bags of 4 patties, each 1/3 pound, to quick thaw for burgers.  I ended up with 14 one pound packages and 5 packages of four, 1/3 pound patties, about 5.3 pounds total.

 

It was a bit of work, but worth it to have meat ready in the freezer.  This week, I am picking up chicken from Zaycon Foods, and I am working on how I will prepare all of it for the freezer.

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Basket Breakdown – 3/10/2012

10 Mar

This week I got the conventional basket for $15 and the Asian themed veggie pack for $8.50, so a total of $25 after the $1.50 handling fee.  Here is what I got:

From left, oranges, bananas, altaulfo mangoes, pineapple, apples, Romaine lettuce, cucumbers, asparagus, carrots, sweet peppers, green chiles, green onions, and kale.

In the Asian themed veggie pack, from left, snow peas, Napa cabbage, onions, garlic, ginger root, Bok choy, water chestnuts, celery, green onions, and Thai basil.

I’m working on what I will make this week.  My parents are in town visiting and we have 3 birthdays to celebrate this week, my daughter’s, my mom’s, and mine, so I’m not sure how much cooking at home I will do.  But, I will share what my meal plan is if I make one!

 

Note: The amount of food may vary from another basket because of variances in how the ends of produce cases are distributed after everything has been distributed evenly.

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Farmer’s Market Finds – 3/8/2012

8 Mar

I remembered to go to the Farmer’s Market again this week!  Here are the yummy finds for this week:

Tortillas, $3 for a dozen

Alaska Sourdough bread and Spinach Feta bread.  I got lucky and he gave me a discount because it was close to the end of the market and he didn’t have much left, $6

Honey sticks, 5 for $1

I tried a tortilla and a piece of the Spinach Feta bread, delicious.  I’ve been trying out a new vendor each time, hoping to continue that next week.  I’m thinking maybe some goat cheese or tamales next.

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Tomato Meat Sauce

8 Mar

 

Some day, I will get a chance to try making my own pasta.  For now, one of our favorites is tortellini, and I normally get the Six Cheese Tortellini from Schwan’s.  I normally use a jar of tomato sauce with this, but since I had tomatoes, green peppers, and onion from Bountiful Baskets, I decided to make my own sauce.  I didn’t really do any measurements, just added in as I went.  It turned out pretty good!

 

Tomato Meat Sauce

What you need:

1 lb ground beef
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
6 Roma tomatoes, sliced
1 6 oz can tomato paste
2 teaspoons fresh oregano, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste

How to make it:

In a large skillet, brown ground beef.  Add garlic, onion, green pepper, and parsley.  Cook until onions and peppers are soft.  Add sliced tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, salt, and pepper.  Crush tomatoes as they cook.  Let simmer for 15 – 20 minutes.  Serve with your favorite pasta.

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Spinach, Feta, and Pesto Pizza

5 Mar

This cauliflower pizza crust is really growing on me.  I was skeptical as first, but the second time around, it turned out great again.  I did notice that with 1 large pizza, the center stays a little soft, but I think that might be solved by making individual size pizzas.  Even with it a little soft, no complaints in this house, and everyone just used a fork to eat it.  Even my kids gobbled this up, and I love getting an extra veggie in them for the day hidden in the crust.  This time, instead of tomato sauce, I made Spinach Basil Pesto for the sauce. Then, I put chopped red onion, sliced black olives, torn fresh spinach leaves, a 4 oz container of crumbled feta cheese, and a 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese.  I had forgotten how much I love feta cheese on pizza.  This was a delicious meal!

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Weekly Meal Plan: 3/4/2012 – 3/10/12

5 Mar

Here is what I am planning on making this week!

Sunday: Wasn’t feeling well, so we had sandwiches/wraps for dinner

Monday: Kotopoulo Lemonato and Roasted Brussels Sprouts.  Whole chickens were $.77/lb at Fry’s this week, so I picked up 2, I will make one tonight and the other will go in the freezer for another time.  I will use the bones to make Homemade Chicken Broth in the slow cooker again, most likely will go into the freezer for a meal another time.

Tuesday: Cauliflower crust pizza, with Spinach Basil Pesto, topped with spinach, feta, red onion, black olives, and mozzarella cheese

Wednesday: Top sirloin steaks we got from the Farmer’s Market, Twice Baked Cauliflower

Thursday: Not sure yet..

Friday: Baked Crunchy Cod, rice, steamed broccoli

Saturday: Out to dinner with my parents

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