Crockin...Potato Soup Version

Hi my name is Jules and I love to eat....especially anything that contains cream...hmmm creamy goodness... I have to snap out of that thought and drown myself in a slightly healthier yet still super creamy potato soup.

I have been on a mission to make everything a little healthier for my family and in that mission I never dreamt of potato soup because all the cream combined with potatoes is never a good combination. Until I was flipping through the recipe book that came with my newest crock and ran across a recipe for potato onion chowder and thought I have a ton of potatoes and some fresh mushrooms that need to be used so I began testing out ways that I could use the base recipe for the chowder and end up with a creamy potato soup using everyday items found in most kitchens and no cream so I could enjoy it without feeling too terribly guilty!



Chop a small onions, 2 celery stalks and 2 cloves garlic and sauté them in olive oil until the onions are cooked through. As you can see I like the onions and garlic to be a little more on the brown side.
I typically have garlic, celery and onions on hand at all times, but if you don't no worries this will still come out amazing if you leave these out. You can also substitute fennel, carrots, or any other veggies that you like as this just adds a kick of flavor to the soup.

I used a 6 quart smart pot and basically just about filled the bottom with the garlic, onion, and celery mixture. If you like more veggies add them in as I haven't found a way that this can be a mess yet! I must add that I have tried hard to mess this up and have quite a few quarts of super yummy potato soup to vouch for it in my freezer.

I used the mix of gold potatoes I had on hand when I was photographing, but have used a mix of white and reds as well. Just use what you have and aim for about 10-12 small to medium large potatoes.

I make a mixture of larger and smaller chunks of potatoes as I want some to turn to mush and mix into the base and others to remain firmer so there are some chunks in my soup. This is completely my preference, but if you want perfectly smooth soup make all your chunks uniform and on the smaller side. If you are adding fresh mushrooms, slice and add them here as well. I have added up to a pound of sliced mushrooms here without changing anything.

 Once the potatoes are in I open my very messy spice/random kitchen stuff cabinet and wanted to share this picture since I was recently told that my house is always spotless! Hello I have kids...there is always kid stuff everywhere and I am terrible at organization..see pic to right if you need confirmation of that.

Please note that I do not endorse any specific brand of spices or herbs..these are just what is readily available and non budget breaking in my area.

Since I already had the garlic and onion I added the Herb Provence mix..this is not an everyday spice mix I buy but a nice size container under 5 bucks how could I pass and it is primarily Rosemary, Marjoram, and Thyme..and some Sea Salt. If you didn't have any garlic or onion and have some powder feel free to add generous amounts of both here. This is 2 heaping tablespoons of the herb mix and 1 teaspoon of the Sea Salt. When I am not documenting the recipe I shake away until my heart is content then give and extra shake for good measure and that works too!

Once you have your spices added you need to add water until you cover your potatoes. Using the same amount of potatoes that I used it comes to 6 cups of water. This is where you might go awry....make sure the potatoes are covered by the water but don't get too upset if the spices collect on the sides of your crock. I use a wooden spoon and push them down into the water but there is no need to stir at all. Maybe you are a better water pourer than I am and don't make an herb mess on the side and I say woohoo you rock....I aim to get the water in the crock and not on the floor!

 I usually mix up everything at night and put it in the fridge so in the morning there is minimal time needed to get dinner going. So if you have your soup chilling in the fridge put it straight into the base and turn your time to low 10 hours and forget about it while you are working. No stirring or worry needed.....right up my alley.

 When you get home, if you have a stick blender get after the soup with it. If not a blender of food processor also work amazingly well. I used a gift card to get my stick blender at an amazing price online, but I am addicted to buying kitchen gadgets!

 I added 1/2 cup sour cream to the mix to get the creaminess that I crave. Here is where if you have food sensitivities especially to gluten to watch your sour cream to ensure that it is gluten free as not all are gluten free. I know this as a friend has recently had to go gluten free for her daughter's health, so as part of her support net I am trying to get educated.

 Once it's all mixed this is what it is going to look like. It is thick like the potato soup my Grandma made and just as flavorful as I recall.
I do have a confession to make here that at first I was also adding cheese to the soup and mixing it in......oh so good but I ultimately cut out the cheese in the soup to save on a few calories....but I won't tell if you walk on the wild side and add it in!

I, of course, add cheese to the top of the soup once I get it into my bowl, but would be good with anything you like to add to the top.










I hope that this is a super easy soup that can help you through the long winter without breaking the bank or your calorie count if you are counting them. As I mentioned this soup freezes like a dream and is super thick when it is cold but once you reheat it goes back to the same consistency as the day you made it.


For printable recipe visit here.

Thanksgiving is all about stuffed birds....and my family is no different

So maybe Thanksgiving is all about the turkey, but after years of dried out terrible turkey growing up I cannot bring myself to buy one, so if your looking for turkey advice I sadly have very little. My family loves all things bread so stuffing is a requirement for all holiday gatherings if you want to make it through dinner without too many complaints. So this year I set out to infuse the horrific stuffing dish that stuffs our waistlines with some veggies. Please don't get me wrong stuffing is a far cry from a healthy dish, but if your family must have it sneak in some veggies.

 

So I took the requisite bag of processed bread chunks and set it on the counter a few weeks ago for inspiration. Let me tell you while standing at my juicer half awake and seeing the processed chunks taunting me is something that I will not miss. So let’s talk about how I managed to take a dish that I dread watching my family eat no stuff into their faces and make it a little less cringe worthy.

 

Ingredients:

1 bag of prepared herb bread chunks

1 bunch of celery (mine had 8-10 ribs on it)

1 medium yellow onion

3 sprigs of thyme

1 sprig of rosemary

1 bag of fresh cranberries (remove any hard or super soft cranberries)

8-10 sprigs of parsley

2 apples (I used Fuji as they were getting to the end of their usability)

First I chopped the celery, onion, and apples into bite size chunks and placed them into a mixing bowl. I pinched the leaves off parsley sprigs until I had about a cup, add in the rosemary leaves (I don’t use the stalk but pull the leaves off by running my nail against the growth pattern) and rough chop them. Add the chopped parsley and rosemary to the mixing bowl, then work on the sage. My thyme leaves were pretty small so I just added them directly to the bowl after I pulled them off the stalk the same way I pulled the rosemary off the stalk. Then I added the cranberries to the vegetable mix and let the flavors meld. Truth be told I pre-cut the veggies in the morning, added in the cranberries, and stored the mix for several hours in an airtight container to make my dinner preparations that much easier.

 

When it was time to make dinner all I had to do was mix the vegetables mix into the bread crumbs, add 4 tablespoons of melted butter (I use hormone free butter over the fake margarine but I am pretty certain margarine will work as well.) and 5 cups of boiling water to the mix and bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 325 degrees or until the cranberries burst. I cooked this the same time that I heated up the pre-made cinnamon sweet potatoes. Please forgive the awful cell phone pic of the finished stuffing, even my bread loving don't make me touch salad family approved of the additional veggies added in and have asked for it again on Christmas.

 

 

Happy Fall

As the Fall settled in very abruptly in my neck of the woods in the past few days I have found myself very thankful for the reprieve I have also found myself having. I have been extremely busy with a few things that I wanted to share with everyone:
First I have a post coming about updating my front door and porch.

I am working on finishing up a post about my ruffle wreath which I hope will be gracing my front door this weekend.

I have also found myself extremely busy preserving the fall bounty that I have been able to pick up at the produce co-op that we participate in. I am thinking of sharing some of my tips for making apple butter with everyone, but may opt for sharing my new favorite kitchen appliance instead. Hint this has made my preserving much easier and I wish I would have spent the money long ago.

Speaking of the co-op, I decided that my community needed a site as well and have been working to bring a site to my hometown. Which is where a lot of my time has been spent.

As a side note, I have had a few people approach me about various diets and I wanted to share some changes I have made for my family that really has made all of us feel better almost instantly. This is not a diet but is more a lifestyle change. Also there is a yummy "helper" recipe that I want to share with everyone because it was out of this world amazing! Shhh....I may just have to move this post to the top of my priority list.


I hope that everyone is just as excited about the holidays as I am and this year I am trying to maintain a sugar free....as in refined sugars...holiday season. I hope that you will take the challenge with me! I am going to take one day at a time on that one.

Happy Fall everyone!

Hello Georgeeeeous...let's be bold together

Well if you couldn't tell my all time favorite past time is treasure hunting. Some people call this thrifting, junkin, antiquing, or any other term that you can think of; basically this is searching for great items that may or may not be on the curb for the garbage man. This is treasure hunting at its finest, there was a time when I was appalled at the thought of loading someone's cast asides into my vehicle......good thing at that time I drove a small car. Now I have a much larger SUV that I definitely treat as a truck and have been known to load stuff into possibly in heels and a skirt.

Regardless of what you call it, many people overlook some really great finds. So while I was at an auction there was an overlooked gold mirror. I have to admit it was gold 70's style but there was a charm about it. Because we all love an ugly duckling story here is the before picture taken on my kitchen floor the night I brought it home.


The truth is I loved the swirls and the curved edges....I was hypnotized by its beauty. How could you pass up this exceptionally drab gold plastic mirror on a Saturday evening when dinner with great friends would be so much more fun. I was shocked that no one bid against me on this beauty and carried it out with a great vision.






When I first envisioned the mirror it was a glossy white finish but then I got a twinge of possibly making it a turquoise color. I may need a treasure hunting intervention as I have filled my garage with treasures and possibly enough furniture for an entire house.

I was hunting for the turquoise color spray paint....yes I said spray paint....and happened upon a great color called Lagoon and knew that was the perfect color.

I took the mirror out so I could spray without abandon. Which I did on my no longer white patio railing. I do have to say I am glad that I went bold on the color and love the mirror.



I have the perfect place to hang this beauty where it will bring great joy into my mornings. Right now I must make the wall as fabulous as the mirror!

My thought of the day is go bold and don't be afraid to take a chance on something that has been overlooked by everyone!

To Pancake or not to pancake now that is the question

Pancakes how I love thee.....warm and delicious covered in syrup....add a side of sausage and oh how my morning or afternoon is all that much better. Hmmm....

Now back to reality I must go, I love pancakes and sausage with a big glass of milk. This is not a healthy meal at all and feel like I have to point out that although this is what my family had for dinner so I could get some photos, we have not had pancakes in many months and actually had to buy syrup in order to take photos.

I also have to admit that I have a box of pancake and baking mix that I used as the base for this recipe as I have not perfected my own mix, but as soon as I get the mix perfected I will share it.

The first thing I do is get my trusty griddle fired up and get the sausage going because pancakes without sausage is just so so. I would love to say I make my own sausage but our local meat locker has some amazing sausage patties and I love them with or without pancakes.

 Once that is going I mix up the batter by mixing the dry mix, 1 tablespoon of sugar (yes I use sugar here but this is an exception to our daily routine), and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. I then add in the milk, and eggs. Before adding the eggs into the batter I lightly beat them with my wire whisk. Once that is all mixed up I add in 2 teaspoons of real vanilla...if you haven't ever tried it watch for the post as I am making my own because it is so expensive in the store.

Once everything is all mixed up, I pour the batter onto a hot griddle and wait for it to begin bubbling. There will be a few at first them the pancake will begin to get some height to it and that is the making of success. If your batter is flattened out at this stage add some more of your pancake mix as you most likely added too much milk as I frequently do...I always do a test pancake....just to make sure they are edible you know.

Once the edges begin to dry you can carefully lift the edges to see if the bottom is ready to brown and then flip it over at which time it will look like this. Here you can see the edges are nice and tall with some nice air bubbles.









Once you have a few made up stack them up and add some...or a lot of syrup because you know you want to and a few sausage patties and enjoy every bite. You know you want to!








So I know that you think wow this is super easy and it is super easy that anyone can do this. Let me tell you it took me years of horrific crimes against pancakes in order to make even a single pancake that was edible. I, Jules, am a dog lover and even though I know it is wrong I will let my beloved pups eat my cooking mishaps and they almost always oblige happily, but there have been many times even my most voracious pup would not eat my pancakes. So I tell you even if your pancakes could double for Frisbees and even if the dogs would rather go hungry than eat them you cannot go wrong with this recipe.

One last thing....I will share my secret to perfectly browned pancakes.....shh....during one years black Friday madness I bought an electric griddle. You know the ones that are over priced all year long and then go on sale with a rebate the day after Thanksgiving....yeah that's the one and I love it to the moon and back! This is not another kitchen item that lives on top of the cabinets under an inch of dust....if yours is there get it out and set it to 325 degrees and whip up some batter and make you some pancakes. Eat one or two now and freeze the rest in friendly portions these do great in the freezer and are a nice treat after a long work week!

Busy happens....then before you know it you have a shameful secret

So the last month has been a whirl of church camp, band camp, tile scraping, air conditioner repairs, and some light plumbing work. To say the least I have been super busy....then add on to that the fact that my day job has been ramping up into insanely busy and an entire month has slipped by when it seems like just yesterday I was playing Russian roulette with my herb cubes in the kitchen.

So what has been happening in Jules kitchen....not much I hate to admit. We have continued our day to day attempt at clean eating, and I haven't been super great at planning ahead so when it comes time for the family to eat Grandma has been in charge. Here comes the ghastly confession which has me doing the walk of shame of so often.....I feel like there is a huge blinking arrow above me that says doing the walk of shame...so here goes my confession. Grandma loves a certain large pizza chain and they opened one up here...you can see where this is going can't you....well when it comes time for dinner should I be at the day job still, out mowing the yard, folding laundry, or they just don't like what I am cooking for dinner.....my mother can easily sway my children into ordering pizza from this certain chain store before I get home and have me pick it up. There it is I Jules, advocate for preservative free living, is picking up pizza and I have been so busy that I didn't even mind the occasional break until the girl who answers the phone said you order so often and always get the same thing that I know what you want when I hear your voice thinking I was my mother. Man oh man this is a huge issue for our preservative free way of eating and a huge sign that I need to get my mother through preservative detox as she is a bad influence on my children and I need to do a better job of planning ahead. Well I have picked up the pizza so often that I now have rewards card for said pizza joint in the dash cubby of my truck. It makes me want to barf every time I see it, but some days I choose to pick my battles, eat the preservatives, and enjoy a slight break. There it is folks I am not Supermom, just a busy Mom trying to balance life.

Not everyday is perfect, well most days aren't perfect and that I am ok with because it is the best I can do and tomorrow is a new day which means I get to start over and try to do better.

In my effort to meet in the middle I have tried to mingle the convenience foods my family loves with fresh veggies. So when everyone was complaining about what I was planning for dinner, I knew it was time to pull out something just as amazing as the green box preservative laden pizza, which also means less walk of shame walking for me!

So I would like to share my quick go to snack and although not technically preservative free it is better than the chain stores pizza. I love this as a quick evening dinner or even a Saturday afternoon snack.  When buying the ingredients be sure to check the ingredient labels carefully.....I just looked at the brand of crescent rolls I buy most often and low and behold they have snuck red 40 and yellow 5 plus the host of other unsavory ingredients that you need to be a scientist in order to pronounce. I used them here (only because I am cheap) and loved it but will no longer be buying this brand. The bonus is this has gotten me back to looking at every ingredient list on every manufactured item I purchase and have found some ghastly ingredients in things that have been "improved" or marketed as healthy and natural (warning sirens should have sounded but I must have been sleep purchasing that day...I just call this item my antifreeze ice cream).

Ingredients
1 tube of crescent rolls
1 1/2 cups of shredded cheese the soy cheese also works really really well here
An assortment of fresh veggies I like to use the leftover veggies in my fridge


Here I used spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and some bacon leftover from breakfast. I have also used asparagus and turkey bacon which was also just as amazing.

I begin by using my favorite kitchen essential....my mister to spray some olive oil on a cookie sheet. These are the little droplets on the sheet to the right. I unrolled the crescent rolls and push the seams together the best I can. The crescent rolls will not cover the entire sheet and I don't get too excited about it. I then slice the veggies and layer them onto the "crust".

I sure don't mind the sparse amount of cheese on this compared to the chain stores. I am a pizza girl from growing up in the windy city part of the country and for me the sauce has always been a huge part of the pizza experience...yes pizza is an experience. I prefer to use sliced tomatoes in place of sauce to help keep preservatives to a minimum.

After the veggies cover the entire crust I sprinkle the cheese on top of them and then bake the pizza at 325 until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted. Once the pizza is done I slide it off the cookie sheet onto my wooden cutting board to cut the squares. I am very methodical in cutting and make 8 squares but this can easily be cut into smaller sizes for bite sized snacks.

Here is my piece of the final pizza and it is just as fresh tasting and amazing as it looks.

I hope that this serves as a springboard for your own combination of fresh veggies in a super quick meal that may just keep you from sporting the preservative laden pizza chain reward card and doing your own version of the walk of shame!

Epic fail and some Russeeean Roulette is in my future

I am always trying out some new things that seem like a great idea at the time. My downfall is that I usually give myself more credit than I should. Well here it is my fail.....or at least one of them...I have herbs hanging by dental floss in my pantry and then ordered 750 meters of bakers twine....I didn't think to read the length of the rolls just saw all the great colors and thought why not get one of each. I was definitely inspired by all the great herbed olive oils all over pinterest. Man oh man I have got to get my pindiction under control!



Well here is the outcome...a bunch of rock solid frozen chunks of coconut oil with mystery herbs in them. Well not so much mystery herbs as much as I know what I had just not which is which because I sure forgot to label the trays.







What I did to make these great little cubes was cut up fresh herbs and place a few pieces..ok its quite a few pieces into my ice cube trays. Yes these are the same ones I use for my fruit cubes that you can read about here. Once I had the herbs in the trays, I melted some coconut oil; I have really bought into using this in place of butter for so many things, but I still do love my butter.....shh don't tell my doctor he says I have high cholesterol and need to cut out the butter for good.

I would say that the cut up herbs fill about the bottom 1/3 of each cube. Once the herbs are in the trays I melted some coconut oil in a glass jar in the microwave and filled each cube only enough to cover the herbs. Once I had the coconut oil in there I just slid the trays into the freezer. Here is where I caution you to use some tape or make a note of what herbs are in each tray. If not you will have a ton of cubes and not know what is inside them. So right now I have a baggie full of cubes with unknown herbs, so I just grab a few and hope for the best. Note to self label the trays because you can't tell until you begin cooking and I really don't like dill on my beef!

I may like to think that I am supermom but this is a time when I was not on my game but just trying to keep things from going bad, because it isn't a great deal if you don't use it is my food motto!