Cream of Potato Soup

Everyone has their comfort food or even "sick food" as I sometimes call it. Part nostalgia part comfort, mine include Stouffer's macaroni and cheese, Spaghettios, and Campbell's Cream of Potato soup. The cans of potato soup at one point inexplicably featured a recipe for "soup-a-rice", which called for adding a canful of rice to the cooked soup. Why adding another carb to a bowlful of carbs was a good idea I'll never know. Anyway when I'm sick you know rice goes into my potato soup!

Canned soup is also a sodium blast so I have finally figured out a good recipe for it. It is quick and makes the perfect amount. And surely it's slightly healthier than canned!

Quick Cream of Potato Soup

1/2 tbsp. butter

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup water 

1 chicken boullion cube or equivalent 

1 medium to large red potato, peeled and diced

1 tbsp. flour

1 tbsp. milk

1 tbsp. cheddar cheese (optional)

Melt butter on medium heat and add garlic. After a minute add water, boullion, and potato. Boil until potato is tender, about 5 minutes. Use an immersion blender to purée the soup, leaving some potatoes whole. Whisk in flour, milk, and cheese if adding. Stir as soup thickens. 

Here's a picture of soup which is probably indistinguishable 

from every other picture of soup because pictures of soup are boring.

Current Obsession: Mason Jar Salads

Finally, a Pinterest project that works. Coming up with different combinations & themes actually makes me excited to eat lunch in the office. It is definitely *not* a sad desk lunch! My favorite is Greek with spinach, kalamata & green olives, carrots, red peppers, chicken, feta, quinoa & red wine vinaigrette. But below is a spinach, sweet potato, black bean, chicken & quinoa salad with balsamic vinaigrette; and above is an Asian themed salad with brown rice, edamame, carrots, red pepper, shredded beef, oranges & spinach with a soy-sesame-honey-Sriracha vinaigrette. That's a bomb ass jar right there. 

Balsamic "Cream" Sauce

I rationalize a lot. Like, "well, it wasn't the worst thing I could have eaten" or "feta has less calories than cheddar so I can have more". That's how I feel about this sauce. It contains no cream, so it breaks down like this:

2 tbsps. unsalted butter, 200 calories, 22 grams fat

2 tbsps. all-purpose flour, 56 calories, .16 grams fat

1 chicken bouillon cube, prepared with 1 cup water, 5 calories, 0 fat 

2 tbsps. balsamic vinegar, 10 calories, 0 fat.

I don't really know how to calculate it, but straight up adding all that equals 271 calories and 27.16 grams of fat. That's a lot of fat! And I don't know how to get around that, but the sauce was delicious and surely even a cup of 2% milk would have added about a 120 calories and 4 or 5 grams of fat. But see, I saved those calories for my pasta! And chicken. And tomatoes. And mushrooms. And dang it, some fresh mozzarella. 

It all works out. 

Balsamic "Cream" Sauce

2 tbsp. unsalted butter

2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

Melt butter & whisk in flour, for 1 minute. Add

1 cup chicken broth and whisk until smooth. Add

2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar. 

Cheddar Bay Biscuits

This Cheddar Bay biscuits recipe is a perfect copycat of Red Lobster biscuits. Also, super easy! I'm always leery of breads and biscuits and I definitely avoid yeasted breads. I'm also intimidated by "cutting in" cold butter. This recipe was super easy. I even bought buttermilk and thought the technique of mixing the butter in it was super cool.

I doubled the amount of garlic powder & cayenne so the biscuits had the perfect zing. Of course I also topped them with the Pioneer Women's Spicy Stewed Beef so it was the perfect comfort food meal. 

Challenge Accepted

I recently participated in a very fun project hosted by one of my favorite blogs, The Bitten Word. Cover to Cover 2013 assigned each volunteer a recipe from the September 2013 issue of Bon Appetit. This is the dish I was assigned:

Carrot and Beet Slaw with Pistachios and Raisins

I provided the following review: "This lightly-dressed slaw is the perfect side for a BBQ, but with it's jewel tones and earthy flavor it would be just as at home on the Thanksgiving table."

It's true. I had fun trying something new, and testing out my julienne skills! And it reminded me what a great alternative white wine vinegar is to red or balsamic. I would definitely make this slaw again.

Avocado with Goat Cheese, Blueberry & Sunflower Seeds

I traveled to visit a friend in Bentonville, Arkansas over Memorial Day weekend. We had meals at some very memorable places: The Hive, where I tried a 25-minute egg; Tusk & Trotter for brunch; and lastly a casual dinner at the Press Room, a coffee shop with breakfast, lunch & small plates. At the Press Room, one of the dishes we shared was the avocado chevre crostini: crostini topped with sunflower seed pesto, celery, chevre, avocado and arugula.

It was then I realized that I do like avocado, but had always avoided it because it was typically in the form of guacamole and guac always contains onions. But the avocado on this crostini was simply sliced, and the combination of that with sunflower seed pesto and goat cheese was just fantastic. I'm so glad I tried it, and the flavor combo has stuck with me since. This has been my breakfast more days than not, smashed avocado with goat cheese, blueberries and sunflower seeds on a whole-wheat English muffin. All the healthy fats right?! Sure, we'll just say that.

All the Things!

Balsamic. Bourbon. Brown Sugar. Bacon. Tomatoes. Alfredo. Chicken. Pasta.

Everything!

I changed the marinade for the chicken, trying to be clever, but it didn't work. It needs to remain: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, steak seasoning. I subbed out some of the vinegar with bourbon and it failed. It was tasteless, it just wasn't the right combo. Maybe on steak? But from now on I will stick with the original chicken marinade recipe - from Pioneer Woman. That really is magical on its own.

Also, did the organic chicken tenders from Trader Joe's really taste a hundred times better or was it just me? Seriously a difference.