Pasta E Fagioli

Wow!  Black Hawks fever has hit our great State big-time.  Congratulations to the Chicago Black Hawks Stanley Cup win!  Hurray!  Truth be told, I am not really a big sports fan but gosh once a city is involved in play-offs, I am all over it.  lol  Love the excitement around town even way out here, way north of the city of Chicago.  Now down to business.

Today let's make Pasta E Fagioli.  It is quick and easy but really very good.  I mix it up a little bit from the original recipe but I stayed pretty true to the Progresso soup recipe.  Okay so here goes:

Pasta E Fagioli

The Ingredients:

Brown the onion, garlic and hamburger in vegetable oil until juices run clear:

Drain and rinse cannellini beans:

Add remaining ingredients except for macaroni and the cheese:

Heat to boiling, then simmer:

Add macaroni, cook until tender:

Serve piping hot in bowl, top soup with cheese:

Ingredients:

1/4 pound ground beef (this is when I use up that little bit of left-over meat) opt.
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 can (15 oz) cannellini beans, drained, rinsed
1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes
1 carton chicken broth (Progresso preferred your favorite brand is fine)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (dried is fine too)
1 teaspoon basil leaves, crushed
1 cup uncooked elbow macaroni (4 ozs.)
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:
In a 3 quart saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add hamburger (if using), garlic and onion, cook until juices run clear, drain.  Return meat, onion and garlic mixture to pot.

Add remaining ingredients except macaroni and cheese.  Heat to boiling.  Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove cover; increase heat to high.  Heat to boiling.  Reduce heat to medium.  Add macaroni; cook 10 to 15 minutes or until tender.  Sprinkle each serving with cheese. 

Note: If you have trouble finding the beans at your grocery store, check both the canned vegetable area as well as the area where the kidney beans are kept.  I have gotten them at our local grocery stores as well as Trader Joe's. 
Enjoy!

Evelyn

After what we are estimating to be 12" of snow, it is soup time....

A nice warm bowl of soup was waiting for my husband after he "braved the elements" as they say, and cleared off our driveway of about a foot of snow.  As I look out the window this afternoon I do see some stray snowflakes falling even now a day later. 

Time for some:

Chicken Noodle & Vegetable Soup

As I have mentioned before and you will see here, I do take advantage of short-cuts, one, if time is short and two, if they are just plain good, so why try and duplicate with all the fuss and work involved.  Shown here are a few examples of my doing just that:

I have always loved a soup starter per se.  A lot of the seasoning has been done for you and those little extras are taken care, plus I am sure there are probably enough preservatives in there to make the kids think it is from the local fast-food chain and they will love it.  Just kidding.  I really do not know about the preservatives but I do think they just might like this one.

I used the left-over turkey and bones but a deli chicken, some plain chicken pieces or any poultry will work here.  Try to make sure a bone or two is in there, even the chicken or turkey neck is great in this case.  It will enhance the flavors, you will discard before serving of course.

Add the turkey, or chicken to the broth mixture, whole, intact, this will be removed later:

Here is my honey or "sous chef", preparing the vegetables for me.  He is paid well, trust me.  :)

He does such good work doesn't he?

Add the vegetables to the soup pot:

Remove the turkey bones and all, from the soup, allow to cool; cut to spoon/soup size pieces:

Return turkey pieces to soup pot; simmer:

Mix everything well, allow to simmer for at about one hour, until vegetables are fork-tender:

This is also the time to add any vegetables that are already cooked i.e. left over corn, green beans etc..

Warm the soup bowls in the microwave, serve soup in the nicely warmed bowls:

Once again here we are adding another view:

Chicken Noodle and Vegetable Soup

The Players:

1 left-over turkey, with meat still attached and bones in place or

1 deli rotisserie chicken or left over poultry of your choice

1 32 oz. box of Progresso Chicken Broth

1 Bear Creek soup mix or any favorite soup starter type product (pictured is Chicken Noodle)

1 tsp. salt 

1/2 tsp. pepper

garlic and onion powders

3 stalks celery, wash and cut into bite size pieces

3-4 carrots, wash, ends removed, scraped and cut into bite size pieces

1 small onion, diced

any left over vegetables you feel like adding i.e. corn, green beans, white beans (a little of each will work too)

8 cups of water, more may be necessary as simmering may reduce amount of liquid

Noodles and/or rice, uncooked (will cook in soup)

Optional: add rice, additional noodles or macaroni when you add the left-over vegetables.  If you plan on freezing left-over soup, keep noodles separate as these will absorb all the broth.

Just make noodles the same day as you plan on serving the soup.  If noodles are in soup starter this will be just fine, it is the extra noodles that will absorb so much of the broth.  Is this clear as mud?

Instructions:

Place whole turkey carcass, or deli-rotisserie chicken in soup pot, over medium high heat on stove.  Cover with 8 cups of water, add soup starter mix and box of Progresso chicken stock.  Begin to simmer.

Add onion and vegetables to pot.

Add spices; sprinkle in onion and garlic powders to taste, add salt and pepper. Stir well.

Reserve any pre-cooked vegetables until later.

Bring soup to a gentle boil, reduce heat to medium low or low, allowing soup to simmer and vegetables to cook or at least one hour. 

When vegetables are fork-tender, remove turkey meat and bones to a cutting board, allow to cool until easy to handle.  Remove meat from bones, cut into bite sized pieces.  Return meat to pot, discard bones.

Add any pre-cooked vegetables to pot to heat through.  If using left-over vegetables that are frozen add at the same time, these will cook up quickly.  We save any left-over vegetable by putting them in small snack size storage bags, placing them in the freezer to be used later on soup day.  Also add any extra noodles or rice if you so desire, at this point.

Allow soup to simmer for about 10-15 more minutes. 

Place soup bowls in the microwave for a few seconds, to warm.  Add hot soup. 

Serve.

Any left-over soup can be frozen for another meal. 

Enjoy! 

Keep warm!

This should help a little bit. 

Evelyn