Chicken Sausage, Sweet Potato and White bean soup

Last night I kind of made up my own recipe altered from another recipe found here: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-potato-sausage-kale-soup-10000001591026/

I had sweet potatoes I wanted to use up and it turned out really good with great flavor!

I give this recipe a 5!  Although the kids would rather there weren't sweet potatoes in it so maybe next time we'll do regular potatoes.  The nice thing about this soup is you could use any combination of meats and vegetables and I think it would taste great!  Sorry I forgot to take a picture of it!

Ingredients:

cooking spray (or 1Tbsp oil)
1/2 onion diced
4 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
6 or more fully cooked chicken sausage links (or other meat of your choice)
1 large sweet potato peeled and diced (about 3 cups)
3 (14.5 oz)cans chicken broth
2 cups water (I just filled one of the chicken broth cans up one time)
2 cans white beans (you could also substitute black)
1 cup half and half

Directions:

(If using a different type of meat that needs to be cooked, brown the meat first, drain it and then add onions, garlic, etc.)

Spray your pot with cooking spray (or use 1 Tbsp oil).  Add onion; sauté 5 minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, crushed red pepper, and garlic; sauté 1 minute.

Add chicken sausage to the pan, cook for 2 minutes to warm it.

Add the potatoes, water and broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 8 minutes.
Stir in remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, beans and half and half; cook 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Zuppa Toscana (like Olive Garden)

I needed to use up some spinach and potatoes and I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com.  It's Tim's favorite when we go to Olive Garden so I hope he likes it!  I think it tastes pretty similar!  I would give this a 5 for the sheer fact that my kids ate it!  My changes or notes are in red.

Ingredients

1 pound bulk mild Italian sausage

1 1/4 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes  (I used less but it still had a kick to it)

4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I used refrigerated bacon bits)

1 large onion, diced

1 tablespoon minced garlic

5 (13.75 ounce) cans chicken broth

6 potato, thinly sliced

1 cup heavy cream (I used half and half and just added a little extra)

1/4 bunch fresh spinach, tough stems removed (I used baby spinach)

Directions

Cook the Italian sausage and red pepper flakes in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until crumbly, browned, and no longer pink, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and set aside. (I don't have a dutch oven, I just used a large pot)

Cook the bacon in the same Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp, about 10 minutes. Drain, leaving a few tablespoons of drippings with the bacon in the bottom of the Dutch oven. Stir in the onions and garlic; cook until onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. (Since I wasn't cooking any bacon I just left the sausage in the pot and cooked the bacon bits, onions and garlic all together)

Pour the chicken broth into the Dutch oven with the bacon and onion mixture; bring to a boil over high heat. Add the potatoes, and boil until fork tender, about 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the heavy cream and the cooked sausage; heat through. Mix the spinach into the soup just before serving.

Twice baked Sweet Potato Casserole with Bacon

Here's what to do with all those sweet potatoes you've got lying around :)  I LOVE sweet potatoes, but not everyone does.  I'm the only one in our family who does.  Tim will tolerate them but that's it.  Well I found this recipe in the Pillsbury Annual Recipes 2010 cookbook and I just had to try it!  I mean come on it has bacon in it!  It was awesome!  It made me love sweet potatoes even more!  The kids ate it ok but Tim actually liked it!  I give this recipe a 5!  As always my variations will be in red.

Ingredients:

6 lb dark-orange sweet potatoes (9 large or 12 medium)

8 oz bacon (8 to 10 slices)  (I used real bacon bits)

1/4 cup Progresso® panko crispy bread crumbs or Progresso® plain bread crumbs

1 tablespoon butter or margarine, melted

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened

2 medium green onions, chopped (2 tablespoons)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:
1 Heat oven to 350°F. Line 15x10x1-inch pan with foil; spray 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. Pierce sweet potatoes several times with fork. Place in pan. Bake about 1 hour 15 minutes or until tender. Cool 10 minutes. When potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel potatoes and cut out any eyes or dark spots.

 2 Meanwhile, cook bacon as desired until crisp; chop. In small bowl, mix bread crumbs and 1 tablespoon butter; set aside.

 3 In large bowl, mash potatoes with potato masher. Stir in chopped bacon, sour cream, 1/4 cup butter, the onions, salt and pepper until well blended. Spread mixture in baking dish, or form individual servings in dish with 1/2-cup ice cream scoop or measuring cup. Sprinkle crumb mixture evenly over top.

 4 Bake 20 to 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated and bread crumbs just begin to brown.

Potato Broccoli Cheese Soup

Hey everyone! Hope you're making it through the cold weather months and staying warm. The recipe I have to share with you today will help keep you warm! Who doesn't like soup when it's cold outside?! Anyway, this "recipe" comes from my Mother-in-Law and I put the word recipe in quotation marks because it's one of the recipes that can be adapted and put together pretty much anyway you want but it makes one awesome soup! There will be a lot of commentary with the instructions and ingredient list so you can see what I mean about adapting it. I definitely give this recipe a 5!

Ingredients

-Fresh broccoli chopped up (you can also use frozen) use as much or as little as you want

-Chicken Broth/vegetable broth (again use as much or as little as you want, we like to make a big batch at once because this soup gets better as the days go by, it's great for leftovers!) I used about 58 oz. or 4 cans of broth

-potatoes cut up small (again as much or as little as you want and it can be cut up as big or as little as you want)

-chopped carrots (as big or as little, as much or as little as you want)*
-chopped onions (ditto)*-cornstarch (for thickening use as much or as little depending on desired thickness)
-shredded cheddar cheese (as much as you want, the more the better!, I used about 3-4 handfulls)
-salt and pepper to taste

*as a side note to the onions and carrots, if you have little kids who don't like this kind of thing, then put them in a food blender and get them as finely chopped as you can so they kind of blend into the soup.

Directions
Put all ingredients except for the cornstarch and cheese into a pot and bring to a boil. Then simmer until the potatoes and other vegetables are tender.

Add the cornstarch to desired thickness, then add in the cheese until melted. Salt and pepper to taste.

Variations: there are many! Use other vegetables if you want. Also if you don't have potatoes on hand (like I didn't tonight) use instant potato flakes instead and then you can skip the cornstarch because the potato flakes will thicken up the soup themselves.

Prep-Ahead Mashed Potatoes

Last night I made a regular home cooked meal complete with meat, mashed potatoes and vegetables and plenty of A1 sauce! The recipe I used for the mashed potatoes was amazing. I did all but the mushroom part...I'm sure that part is good but I just wanted mashed potatoes and I happened to have 5 perfectly good red potatoes sitting on the counter and I didn't want them to go to waste. So when I saw this recipe in the Kraft Food and Family, Holiday 2006 issue, I had to try it. I love mashed potatoes of all kinds and this one added sour cream and cream cheese to it, how could that be bad? And I got to use my potato masher for the first time! I was so excited! I just bought that masher a month ago (that's right I went through 2 1/2 years of marriage without a potato masher) because Tim decided it was one of those "kitchen gadgets" we didn't really need when we first got married. Needless to say we had some interesting times between now and then trying to mash up potatoes...forks just don't cut it. Anyway, my potato masher worked wonders...who knew mashing potatoes could be that easy? Well I did acutally...but was never able to have that "luxury" until now. Oh and Tim liked the potatoes, he actually was starving while I made dinner and since the potatoes were done first he decided to have a few scoops ahead of time. Then after dinner a couples hours later he decided to eat some more potatoes because he was still hungry! I definitely give this recipe (without the mushrooms) a 5! You'll have to try the mushroom part and tell me if it's good.

Ingredients(if you're just making the potatoes you need all but the last 3 ingredients)

3 lb. red potatoes (about 10 medium), cut into chunks
1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream
4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cubed
1/4 cup milk
2 Tbsp. butter
1 pkg. (8 oz.) fresh
mushrooms, sliced
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh thyme

(and do all but the last 2 steps if just making the potatoes)

PLACE potatoes in large saucepan. Add enough water to completely cover potatoes. Bring to boil on high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook 15 min. or until potatoes are tender.

DRAIN potatoes; return to saucepan. Add sour cream, cream cheese and milk. Mash with potato masher to desired consistency. Spoon into microwaveable serving bowl; cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to use.

MEANWHILE, melt butter in large skillet on medium-high heat; add mushrooms. Cook 5 min. or until mushrooms are tender, stirring frequently. Spoon into small bowl; cover. Refrigerate until ready to use.

VENT plastic wrap covering potatoes. Microwave on HIGH 6 to 8 min. or until heated through; stir. Top with mushrooms. Microwave, uncovered, an additional 2 to 3 min. or until heated through. Sprinkle with thyme.