Winter Vegetable Soup

Sometimes you just need a quick and easy, comforting, warm, delicious meal on a cold winter night. This soup is just that! It’s hearty and filling, but still healthy and light. It has a slight Italian flavor and goes great some warm Focaccia or garlic bread. It is quick enough to have on the table in about 20-30 minutes. 

Winter Vegetable Soup

Chicken & Dumpling Soup

Is it cold where you are?? It’s pretty frigid here and we needed something comforting and warm! I had never made dumplings before going gluten free so I can’t tell you how close these are to traditional dumplings. However, I can tell you that they taste great and are much easier than I thought! This is a healthy, hearty soup that is full of flavor. This recipe serves 6-8.

2 chicken breasts, cooked & shredded

3 cups water

1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

1 tsp sea salt

2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp thyme

½ tsp oregano

2 bay leaves

4 small potatoes, cut into small chunks

2 cups carrots, cut into chunks

2 celery stalks, diced

1 onion, cut into chunks

Dumplings

2 cup GF flour

1 cup almond milk

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp black pepper

1 egg

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp parsley flakes

• In a large stockpot, combine chicken, water, broth, salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, bay leaves, potatoes, carrots, celery and onion. 
• Bring mixture to a boil and cook for about 20 minutes or until vegetables are soft. 
• Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt, pepper and parsley flakes for dumplings. Add in milk and egg and stir or mix until well blended. 
• Form dumplings into small dough balls and place in stockpot with boiling soup mixture. 
• Once all dumplings are in pot, cover with a lid and cook for about 15 minutes or until dumplings are cooked. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with additional parsley if desired. 

Crockpot Beef Stew

Brr…. I’m over this cold weather. Cooking is my favorite hobby but something about the cold just makes me want to lay on the couch with a blanket! Today was one of those days. I wasn’t feeling like making a huge dinner so instead I decided to throw this stew in the crockpot. That way, when I got home tonight, it was cooked, warm and ready to eat! I did throw in some cornbread to go along with it though. This recipe is super simple and yet very tasty. Taking a few frozen veggies makes it even quicker but still healthy. This serves about 6 but can easily be increased to serve more.

4-5 oz round beef steak, diced (whatever cut you like, but don’t get crazy, the cheap cuts are fine!)

1 12oz bag of frozen mixed veggies (or you can cut your own fresh veggies)

1 15oz can of diced tomatoes (juice included – fresh will also work)

2 cups beef broth

1 cup russet or red potatoes, peeled and diced

1 tsp garlic, minced

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp black pepper

2 bay leaves (or 1 tsp bay leaf flakes)

• Okay, here’s the best part: throw all of the ingredients into a crockpot. 
• Give the mix a good stir.
•  Set your crockpot on Low – cook for about 8 hours.
•  Go to work/school/wherever and come home to a homestyle, comforting beef stew!

Leftover Turkey Noodle Soup

Sometimes it is hard trying to figure out what to do with all those leftovers. If you are anything like my husband, you do not want to waste any food, ever! I can’t say that this is a bad thing. I used to be very wasteful but thanks to him I am not anymore. After our lovely turkey dinner, we had some leftover “crappy” sections. I call them crappy because I don’t like them. It was a leg and a thigh – all dark meat. Don’t get me wrong, it has a lot of flavor, I just don’t like that portion of the bird. Anyway – he was out hunting one evening and I knew he would need something hot to warm him up when he got home. I decided to make a turkey soup using those leftover pieces. It worked. I was able to use up all of the meat, flavor the soup and cut the meat into chunks large enough I could pick out what I didn’t want to eat. Everyone wins – plus we got rid of the leftovers! This makes about 6-8 servings.

1large cooked turkey leg (or other part of bird, bone in)

1 large cooked turkey thigh (or other part of bird, bone in)
4 cups of water or vegetable broth
½ cup chopped celery
1 ear of corn
¼ cup diced onion
½ cup chopped carrots
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
½ tsp garlic salt
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp parsley
8 oz of GF pasta (I used rice penne pasta)

•  In a large stockpot, sauté celery, carrots and onion for about 10 minutes or until soft. Add in water or broth, turkey pieces, corn, salts, pepper, sage and parsley. B
• ring to boil and cook for about 20 minutes. Remove corn and turkey from pot. Cut corn from the cob and return to pot.
• Cut pieces of the turkey meat into small chunks and return to pot. Add in pasta and return to boiling.
• Cooking time will vary at this point, depending on your type of pasta. Just watch the soup closely until pasta is finished cooking.