My Favorite Things: Fall Recipes Edition

I am not a fan of fall and winter, or cold weather, but I am a fan of soups. I love making and eating soup. Lots and lots of soup. It is hard to make lots and lots of soup in the summer time (it is hot in NC!) So I try and take full advantage of the cooler weather. I tend to be a bit overzealous with my fall cooking in the beginning of the season... the lucky people who live and work near me get to benefit from this enthusiasm. Soup recipes make a lot of food, and I love handing out portions of my creations!

---

Butternut Squash Soup

My preferred serving style: topped with reduced-fat sour cream, sunflower seeds, and served with a side of cornbread. 5 P+ per serving (plain), 11 P+ when served as suggested.

---

Crock Pot Turkey and White Bean Pumpkin Chili

My preferred serving style: 2 servings poured over 1/2 cup of brown rice and topped with reduced-fat sour cream. 3 P+ per serving, 10 P+ when served as suggested.

---

Low Fat Creamy Potato Soup

My preferred serving style: topped with scallions, cheese, and bacon bits. Sour cream would be good too, but this soup is pretty creamy by itself! 5 P+ when served as suggested.

---

Thyme and Vegetable Lamb Stew

My preferred serving style: as-is! This soup is delicious as-prepared. 6 P+ as-prepared.

---

Of course, making soup requires some very sophisticated kitchen tools. Not really, but here are some of my kitchen must-have's for these recipes.


- Immersion Blender (I got mine at Wal-Mart)

- Slow-Cooker

- Good cutting boards in a variety of sizes

- Calphalon Contemporary Knives
Now go, make these Fall recipes and let me know how they turn out! What are some of your favorite Fall recipes?

Hoarders: Canned Goods Edition

Apparently, I am auditioning for an unannounced show called Hoarders: Canned Goods Edition. Credits belong to Food Lion, Aldi, and my father.

My Rubbermaid handy-cart post-Aldi trip filled with some of the goods
It is funny the habits children pick up from their parents without even realizing it. I make fun of my dad for having a pantry full of canned goods and making chicken noodle soup. I now have a pantry full of canned goods and made chicken noodle soup with said canned goods last week.

Exhibit A
A few weeks ago, I got some fun pantry organization supplies from Rubbermaid! A can organizer as well as a helper shelf. They have tons and tons of organizational tips and tricks on their website as well as their blog. Check it out!

I feel fully stocked for the winter (canned goods, peanut butter, pasta sauce, and toilet paper have all been purchased in bulk). Speaking of peanut butter, prices are going up! Stock up while you can. I got two jars of reduced fat Jif at Food Lion today.

In other news, with my newly built stockpile, I plan on making and eating a lot of soups! Healthy, nutritious, and filling. On tap for the next week or two:

- Beef stew (beef, orzo, diced tomato, green beans, potato, onion)
- Turkey white bean pumpkin chili from Gina's Skinny Taste
- Butternut squash soup is in the freezer - best served with sunflower seeds and sour cream on top, with a side of cornbread
- North African Meatball Stew over couscous will be next week (I use turkey meatballs instead of making my own).

I really enjoy making soup because it is easy and portable. And it is also basically foolproof. While I have not really messed anything up in the kitchen before (minus my recent kale incident - which I don't like to talk about)... soups are incredibly easy. Chop some meat up, open a few cans, toss in pot, add some seasonings, and heat until the flavors have melted. Or even easier, throw all that stuff in a crockpot and come home to a yummy smelling dinner!!

Thursday's Thoughts

And I am back from a whirlwind trip to Atlanta. As soon as I finished my 5K, I scarfed down some black bean burger leftovers and hit the road. When I road trip solo, I basically have a concert in the car. I may not be the world's best singer but I sure do have fun. This was a Taylor Swift themed trip in honor of her concert on Sunday night (that deserves it's own separate blog post).

The trip to ATL flew by.. some of the highlights include: shopping, dinner at Matt's (spaghetti and meatballs and some delectable mushroom puff pastry appetizers), out at Twisted Taco, naptime, getting ready for Taylor Swift, Taco Mac for beer, food, and waiting for Taylor Swift, and the Taylor Swift concert. That was just the weekend - then I had a very full three days of work.

Enough of that nonsense.. I am just thankful tomorrow is Friday (and next week, I am on vacation on Friday). I have never been more excited to have no weekend plans. Lately, I have been falling off the food bandwagon every weekend and gaining what I have lost during the week (not. healthy.) I am looking forward to staying on track this weekend and getting back in to my workout routine.

Tonight I made what I like to refer to as 'Po' Gal's Soup.' I am not a huge fan of chicken, but I had a shredded rotisserie chicken and fresh corn in the freezer - so I decided to make some homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. I happened to stop by the Dekalb Farmers Market in Atlanta (one of the best places in the world) and stocked up on some fresh homemade pasta. If you have not been there and are anywhere near Atlanta, you should check it out. Everything is super cheap and there is an amazing selection of fruits, vegetables, and so much more.

The whole pot of 'Po' Gal's Soup' cost me about $10 to make and I will get about 8 meals out of it. The best part is you can throw almost anything in the mix! You could make with pasta, or rice, any kind of vegetable or meat you wanted to and I believe it would still be delicious with the chicken broth and thyme base.

In this pot:
Fresh Pasta ($2)
Chicken ($3)
Canned Okra, Corn, and Tomato ($1)
Canned Garbanzo Beans ($1.50)
Canned Green Beans ($.50)
Box of chicken broth ($2)
Fresh corn (frozen from fresh - free, thanks mom and dad!)
Fresh thyme (free - from my probably dying herb garden)
On another note, I would like to give a big shout out to Calphalon. I love their Unison line of pots and pans - non stick and dishwasher safe. While the pots and pans are pricey, the investment is worth it. In fact, I just got my Unison grill pan in the mail today. I am looking forward to cooking something on it this weekend. I am thinking black bean burgers, peppers, and chipotle ranch! I will probably be eating that and chicken soup all weekend and well in to next week. With the farmshare that we get each week, I am really trying to cut back on my grocery bills and focusing on eating out of the fridge/freezer/pantry, and have been pretty successful and resourceful so far!

If you made it all the way to the end, thanks for reading a super exciting post. Be on the lookout for a concert update. The Taylor Swift concert was certainly an adventure.. and one of the most fun nights of my life!