Clean it out Vegetable Soup

You have to trust me that my kitchen smells AMAZING.  Every few days I decide my diet is going to be healthier, I will add more vegetables and good stuff to my eating.  And then dinner happens or date night or Krispy Kreme lights up the "HOT" sign.  I am a work in progress.  But that being said, I now have lunch prepared for today and the next 5 days or so.  

Clean it out Vegetable Soup

1 frozen chicken breast

2 c shredded carrots

1/2 head cabbage

4 red potatoes

2 bell peppers

2 jalapeno peppers

2 onions

2 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp green curry sauce

3 c beef broth

Chop chicken with cleaver (it was really frozen!)  Add carrots.  Core cabbage, chop coarsely. Cut your potatoes into quarters. Seed and chop bells and jalapeños. The jalapeños add just the perfect kick to this soup.  Chop onion into chunks.  Add garlic and curry on top of this massive pile of chopped vegetables.  Pour broth over the top.  PC high 12 minutes.

Mine is creamy style because as I was cleaning out the vegetable drawer I noticed some cream cheese in there... so I added it after the cooking and stirred it into the hot soup for the creamy wonderfulness that it adds.

(btw this is the 2nd week in a row to make a variation of this soup, which is why I had 1/2 a head of cabbage just waiting to be used.)

is 10:30 to early for lunch??

Yippee-ki-yay-casserole

The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas...

The Cowboys say "yippee-ki-yay"  deep on the heart of Texas.

Like any fabulous Texas grandma, I have taught parts of this classic price of music to my grands.  Just enough to annoy their parents.  It makes my heart sing when they sing.

So tonight my young adult came home with Texas shaped pasta, so of course we had to eat something Texan. 

The cast of characters

1 pkg Texas pasta

3 bullion cubes (2 chipotle and 1 cilantro)

4 cups water

1 can wolf brand chili without beans

1 cup shredded cheese

Method:

Place pasta and bullion in PC, cover with water.  Low pressure for 4 minutes, quick release.  Add chili and cheese.  Stir.  I enjoyed mine with a dollop of sour cream and we ate it along side blackened salmon.

Yummy Brussel Sprouts

So I made just a veggie…
I cooked up some bacon just to brown it a bit

Whole bag of Brussel sprouts (costco size bag) sprinkled with garlic & parsley sea salt
Crumbled Bacon

For my water -
1 TBSP minced garlic
Tomato & Chicken bullion (I found this in the Mexican section of Safeway)

ON my PC it was 5 minutes at High Pressure steam
about 2 minutes of natural release but then I just quick release

Turned out soooo yummy

I love brussel sprouts, especially love I have them in less than 10 minutes!

I don't have pic - next time

Red Lentil and Carrot Soup with Roasted Chickpeas

This delicious soup is adapted for the Pressure Cooker and my families taste- original stovetop recipe can be found here.

For the chickpeas:
2 can of chickpeas (drained)
Cumin
Paprika
Coriander
Drizzle Olive oil
Ckuole dashes Chipotle Smoked Tobasco (or red chilli flakes... whatever you've got)
Crushed sea salt

For the Soup:
5-7 peeled and chopped Carrots
1 large diced onion
2Tbs garlic
1/2 Tbs Cumin
1 Tbs Parsley
Salt
Pepper
1 cup Red Lentils
8 cups chicken stock

For the Chickpeas: Preheat oven to 400. Mix chickpeas and all other ingredients together in a bowl, drizzle with the olive oil, salt according to taste. On a foil covered cookie sheet, roast for 40-45 min, stirring halfway through.

For the soup:
Saute the onion and carrots in the olive oil (be generous with the oil) (PC setting:sear/brown) for 8-10. Add the garlic and continue for another two minutes. Add the remaining seasonings and let them get fragrant for 1-2 more minutes. Add the lentils and the chicken stock. Close the pc and cook on high for 20 min.

Next time, I think I'll try a curry twist and double the red lentils, and hopefully have an immersion blender. I think this would be great as a blended soup. The pc literally obliterated the lentils, which is good because my husband doesn't care for them much, but me and the kids are huge fans. Meat can be added- I just didn't want any tonight and am not yet sure what kind would pair best. 

Variations on a Theme

So my dear friend sent me a package the other day.  It had two boxes of that lovely Knorr seasoning cubes that my market here doesn't seem to carry (If they do, I sure can't find it!).  And my sweet daughter-in-law called and talked about making beans at her house.  So I knew I needed a pot of beans.  But who wants to wait to soak overnight and all day to cook?  Not me!  So I chose a time when my adult daughter was gone.  She still does not eat beans.  I know, it's a sure sign I failed in the way I raised her.  Or she just doesn't like beans.  Either way, today I am making beans!

I pretty much followed Char's recipe below, only I had Great Northern Beans instead of pintos.  And we are carnivores, so I had to add sausage to the pot.

30 minutes on high with natural release, and then I thickened the juice with a little bit of dehydrated potatoes.   Char was right, they are the best beans ever!

Frogmore Stew

My intentions were good. I took a before picture...then we ate dinner and I forgot to get a picture of the finished product before it was consumed. 

This is also known as 'Lo-Country Boil'.  Whatever the name, we call it delicious.

6 red potatoes cut in half 

2 chicken thighs

3 Cajun sausages

3 ears corn on the cob

10 oz frozen medium size shrimp, cleaned, uncooked

1/4 c Old Bay seasoning

3 c chicken broth 

Brown chicken in a little butter.  

Layer in pressure cooker as follows:

Potatoes

Chicken

Sausage (poke the casing to keep from splitting during pressure)

Shucked corn broke in half

Old Bay

Chicken broth

Pressure on high 4 minutes.  Natural release for 8 minutes, quick release after that.  While waiting for the natural release, sauté the shrimp in a little butter in a separate pan until shrimp is just barely pink.  Open pc cut sausage and chicken into bitesize peices and add the shrimp sausage and chicken to the pot.  Serve in bowls with some rolls on the side.  (Broth is for flavor and cooking, it's too salty to actually eat as a soup).  Enjoy!

Easy Sausage Rice

We eat this meal quite a bit...it's quick and filling.  My issue is I keep forgetting to take a picture of it. But tonight I removed the fork out of my mouth in order to take this photo.

It's very adaptable to families of all sizes. My mother used to feed the masses with 5 cups of rice, but we have downsized significantly so I only used 1 1/2 c rice, which fed the 3 of us and had enough leftover for a lunch later in the week.

Sausage Rice

1/2 lb hot sausage (we like hot, but any flavor will do.  This was Owens brand)

1c chopped celery (3 stalks)

1 envelope Lipton chicken noodle soup mix

1 1/2 c long grain rice

3 c water

Using brown setting, brown the sausage in the pressure cooker.  Add celery, soup mix, rice and water. Mix once.  Lock on lid, push rice button.  If your pc does not offer a rice setting, high pressure 6 minutes.  Natural release for 5 minutes and quick release the rest.  Serve with a green salad and if you are my husband, applesauce, because everyone knows if your meal has rice in it, it must be paired with applesauce.  I don't understand it, but I have learned over the past 29 years when to put the applesauce on the table.