I love making meals that are easy and that I know the entire family will eat. With Easter weekend coming to an end I thought I would make something for dinner tomorrow night with the Easter dinner leftovers in the fridge.
We had a leg of lamb for Easter dinner, so I still had quite a bit of meat, plus the leg bone. Hmmmm...what to make? Leftover Lamb stoup of course! What is that you ask? Well I took out my trusty slow cooker and added the following:
- leftover lamb meat, cut into small pieces (approximately 2 cups).
- the leftover lamb bone.
- a package of white mushrooms, sliced.
- 1 white onion, chopped.
- 3 stalks of celery chopped.
- 2 large carrots, peeled and chopped.
- 1 large parsnip, peeled and chopped.
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled.
- 3 potatoes peeled and cubed.
- 1/2 cup barley.
- 1 tetra pack of low sodium chicken broth, approximately 4 cups.
- 1 tetra pack of low sodium beef broth, approximately 4 cups.
- freshly ground pepper, to taste.
I literally throw everything in the slow cooker at once, set it to low and let it cook for approximately 8 hours, and voila, dinner is ready.
The best thing about this stoup (thicker than a soup, but not as thick as a stew) is that there really are no set rules as to what you can add. I just open up my fridge and pantry, take a look and throw what I think will taste good into the slow cooker. I only added pepper to this stoup, because the lamb had a
lot of seasoning on it already, but again, you can add in any seasoning you would like. Mix
up the veggies and meat as well, I have used leftover beef roast and added in rutabaga as a veggie,
with yummy results.
An easy and healthy dinner that the whole family will love. Yummy!
Monday, April 1, 2013
Friday, March 22, 2013
Beans, beans, the magical fruit!
Strangely, from what I hear about most other kids, my boys LOVE beans! I am not talking about green beans, although they love those too, but rather kidney beans and black beans and even chick peas (I am not even sure a chickpea is a bean, but anyhow I digress).
One of our family's favorite bean recipes is pasta and bean soup and because it is still so cold and miserable outside I thought I would have the boys help me out and make some for our dinner. This recipe originally came from a cookbook we have by Rose Reisman, I really like a number of her recipes, and the rest of the family does too. I have made a couple of tweaks but it is still pretty true to the original.
I thought to make everything a little easier I would prep some on the ingredients.
The boys found their aprons to put on, quickly found a spot and then promptly started fighting over who was closer to the soup pot, seriously?!
We carefully sautéed the onions, celery, carrots and garlic.
At this point the boys gave up and decided they were going to watch Transformers...leaving me to finish the soup. One thing I have to say is that this soup is so easy to make. It has ingredients we almost always have on hand in our house and from start to finish this soup only takes about 45 minutes. Best of all this soup, like many things, tastes even better the next day!
So my little helpers abandoned me, but I finished the soup off.
Yummy dinner for a chilly spring night. My boys each finished their entire bowl, and so did I!
Here is the recipe if you would like to try making it at home. I have substituted rice pasta in on several occasions with great success.
Pasta and Bean Soup (Fagioli)
Ingredients:
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1/3 cup chopped celery
2 tsp. minced garlic
4 cups chicken stock
1 can diced tomatoes (28 oz.)
2 tsp. granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
Dash salt and freshly ground pepper
3 cups canned kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup small shell pasta
Directions:
Add olive oil to large non-stick saucepan and place over medium heat. Saute the onions, carrots, celery and garlic for five minutes.
Stir in the stock, tomatoes, sugar, dried basil, dried oregano, salt, pepper and 2 cups of the kidney beans. Mash the remaining 1 cup of kidney beans and stir into mixture. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook covered for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the pasta. Cook for 5 to 8 minutes, until the pasta is tender but firm. Ladle into individual bowls and serve with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese on top.
Enjoy!
One of our family's favorite bean recipes is pasta and bean soup and because it is still so cold and miserable outside I thought I would have the boys help me out and make some for our dinner. This recipe originally came from a cookbook we have by Rose Reisman, I really like a number of her recipes, and the rest of the family does too. I have made a couple of tweaks but it is still pretty true to the original.
I thought to make everything a little easier I would prep some on the ingredients.
We carefully sautéed the onions, celery, carrots and garlic.
At this point the boys gave up and decided they were going to watch Transformers...leaving me to finish the soup. One thing I have to say is that this soup is so easy to make. It has ingredients we almost always have on hand in our house and from start to finish this soup only takes about 45 minutes. Best of all this soup, like many things, tastes even better the next day!
So my little helpers abandoned me, but I finished the soup off.
Yummy dinner for a chilly spring night. My boys each finished their entire bowl, and so did I!
Here is the recipe if you would like to try making it at home. I have substituted rice pasta in on several occasions with great success.
Pasta and Bean Soup (Fagioli)
Ingredients:
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1/3 cup chopped celery
2 tsp. minced garlic
4 cups chicken stock
1 can diced tomatoes (28 oz.)
2 tsp. granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
Dash salt and freshly ground pepper
3 cups canned kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup small shell pasta
Directions:
Add olive oil to large non-stick saucepan and place over medium heat. Saute the onions, carrots, celery and garlic for five minutes.
Stir in the stock, tomatoes, sugar, dried basil, dried oregano, salt, pepper and 2 cups of the kidney beans. Mash the remaining 1 cup of kidney beans and stir into mixture. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook covered for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the pasta. Cook for 5 to 8 minutes, until the pasta is tender but firm. Ladle into individual bowls and serve with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese on top.
Enjoy!
Friday, March 15, 2013
It's been a long time...
I must admit that we completely fell off the blogging bandwagon long ago, but as spring approaches we are feeling a wee bit nostalgic and thought we would resurrect 4 Peas in a Pod.
It's still too cold to plant anything in our garden and frankly last years garden was a bit of a lost cause, but we are committed to starting again and the boys are definitely excited about this!
In the interim we have decided to start posting some of our family's attempts at healthy snacks and meals. Less processed junk and more whole, natural foods. We are not silly enough to think that we are going to abandon processed food altogether, but we sure are going to give it a try!
It's still too cold to plant anything in our garden and frankly last years garden was a bit of a lost cause, but we are committed to starting again and the boys are definitely excited about this!
In the interim we have decided to start posting some of our family's attempts at healthy snacks and meals. Less processed junk and more whole, natural foods. We are not silly enough to think that we are going to abandon processed food altogether, but we sure are going to give it a try!
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