Snowstorm Nemo & Homemade Soup

Happy Monday! SH here. Hope everyone is safe from Snowstorm Nemo this weekend.

Snowstorm weekends are a great excuse to stay holed up and cozy in your apartment. As a New Yorker - I have no car to take care of, no driveway or sidewalk to shovel, so snow is a generally lazy event for me. I joined the rest of the NYC crowd at the grocery store on Friday ~ my greatest fear is that my diner won't be able to open and deliver any food to me at any time I want #firstworldproblems, so I went overboard due to the impending snowstorm.

View from our apartment on Friday night

I made a new homemade chicken noodle soup recipe earlier last week and LOVED IT. D and I love our homemade stews like Starving Taco Stew and Beef Crock Pot so I have no idea why I hadn't try to make my favorite soup ever at home. I found this recipe on Closet Cooking - one of my favorite sources for new recipes. It's the Chicken Noodle Soup recipe and it is simple and perfect. Definitely check out the website and try the recipe.

Stages of homemade soup # instagram

Once the snowstorm was on it's way, I took the day to work from my apartment (I work in online advertising so as long as I have internet, I can work anywhere) and stop by the grocery store to stock up. I decided to make double the amount of chicken noodle soup, and D volunteered to make grilled cheese sandwiches. A perfect way to spend a snowy night :)

Sledding in Central Park

Perfect combo after a long walk through Central Park :)

What are your favorite snowstorm comfort foods? Do you order food or cook food? Do you have favorite soup recipes from your family or do you scour the internet for new ones all the time? What is your favorite soup side - do you prefer grilled cheese like me?

Post storm stroll through Strawberry Fields

via

"Cream" of Broccoli Soup

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Lydia, from Made For More (a fellow English major while I was at Messiah), posted this rather tasty-looking recipe for "cream" of broccoli soup, which so happens to also be my absolute favorite type of soup.  Due to a normal cream of broccoli recipe being loaded with milk and cheese, I haven't actually had it in probably over 2 years. Needless to say, I've missed it, and this recipe was ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE.

I made it in about 30 minutes and truly could not believe how true to the original it tastes. I thoroughly recommend you all try it. The only change I made was substituting the coconut oil for extra virgin olive oil. I just didn't have any coconut oil on hand.

Go to this post for the actual recipe!

Here are some photos from last night's cooking session!

Yikes! Too expensive at this store. Will be going to trader Joe's next time.

So, I don't own a big blender, so I used my food processor and
it worked just fine. It over-filled a bit so it leaked a teeny-tiny bit, but
I managed!

 

What dinner looked like!

Sweet Potato Chili

You could absolutely do this recipe in a crock pot, but I use this as my quick, throw together and make in less than 30 minutes recipe. I'm also a little nervous the sweet potato will get mushy by the end of the crock pot session. I adapted this from eatingwell.com's recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1-2 sweet potatos, diced (with skin)
1/2 onion
1 celery stalk, cut into 1/2 inch sections
1 garlic clove, crushed/diced
1 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Dash of onion powder
Dash of salt & pepper
3 cups vegetable broth
Handful of sliced mushrooms
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can corn
1 cup diced tomato (canned or fresh)

Fresh cilantro for garnish

Directions:
1. In an oiled medium-high head skillet, heat diced sweet potato, onion, and celery for 5 minutes.
2. Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Turn heat to medium and cook for 2 minutes.
3. Add vegetable broth and cover for 10 minutes or until sweet potato is soft.
4. Add mushrooms, beans, corn and tomatoes. Reduce heat to low and let sit for 4-5 minutes covered.
5. Top with fresh cilantro.

This is from my regular veggie chili, since my phone lost all my photos from this cook session.

-Lacey

Vegan White Chili

I got this recipe from The Pioneer Woman, who has some incredibly tasty recipes.  I simply adapted it to be vegan & crock pot friendly! (Her recipe calls for chicken, chicken broth, whole milk, cheese & it is cooked on a stove top.)

Ingredients:
1 medium onion
4 cloves garlic
1 can chopped green chillies
1 pound raw Great Norther Beans or Navy beans
8 cups Vegetable Broth
1 whole Jalapeno, sliced
1 1/2 Tablespoon ground Cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon Paprika
Salt to Taste
1 cup Soy milk
2 tablespoons cornmeal
Vegan Monterey Jack cheese (I could only find Pepper Jack)
Cilantro

Directions:
In a pan, saute onions and garlic in olive oil for 3 minutes. Add chopped green chillies.

Put onion, garlic, chillies mixture in your crock pot.

 Add rinsed beans & vegetable broth.  Add jalapenos, salt, pepper, and cumin. Turn crock pot on low for 4 hours.

After four hours (or when beans are soft), mix milk & cornmeal in a bowl.  Add to chili.  Add cayenne pepper & paprika.  Turn crock pot on high for 30 minutes.

Add your "cheese" and give in a few minutes to melt.  Serve in your bowl and top with fresh cilantro!

Thanks to The Pioneer Woman for putting this recipe together. I hope you all love the healthy adapted version I came up with.  I certainly loved it!

D's Starving Surfer Taco Stew Recipe

Taco stew just sounds delicious. So the fact that it's easy to make and it's healthy (gluten free, dairy free, can be made meat free) gives you no excuse not to try this recipe! As fall approaches, I am beyond excited (for D) to start cooking more soups and stews! Last year I discovered the amazingness that is homemade soup and I refuse to go back to canned soups. Making stew recipes at home will add major nutritional value and cut back on sodium; it's also a great way get your daily veggie servings. My saving time game plan for the winter -- make mass leftovers for lunches!

D's STARVING SURFER TACO STEW

Ingredients:
1lb beef or turkey (optional - leave out meat to make vegetarian)
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can kidney beans (try to use organic and/or low sodium)
1 chopped (medium) onion
1 pack of taco seasoning
1 bag corn chips
 

D's Starving Surfer Taco Stew

Directions:
[We made turkey taco stew]
1. Cook the turkey in a pot until brown
2. Then add the can of kidney beans (we used dark red kidney beans), 1 can whole kernel corn, 1 can of diced tomatoes and the chopped up onion into the pot of turkey
3. Stir, then cover and simmer the mix until it boils
4. Once it gets to a boil, mix in the taco seasoning
5. Cover the mixture and let it simmer for 40 - 50 minutes, stirring occasionally
6. Let it set for 10 -15 minutes
7. Crumble in corn chips - to each individual bowl (added chips to the whole mix will make the chips get soggy)

Crumble the corn chips into each individual serving

Perfect for your starving surfer

D's Taco Stew mixed with corn chips

*Pack up the leftovers for tomorrow's lunch (bring the corn chips in a separate bag)
*This reheats perfectly

> Also - TOMORROW IS YOUR LAST DAY to set your end of year goals and enter our Sunfood Giveaway! So like our Facebook page and Sunfood's Facebook page and then leave us your goals in a comment on the giveaway post and you are golden.

Cheers to healthy, hearty, creamy fall foods!

- Stephanie