Chicken and Vegetable Soup

Yes, I know.  I have been on my diet for 12 days and I haven't lost the ten pounds I want to lose. I'm tired of dieting and want a cookie.  Or a loaf of bread.  A whole loaf of fresh baked bread, slathered in butter.  Well, to be fair, I CAN have butter on Atkins.  I just can't have any bread, potatoes, or rice to put it on.  sigh

It is cold so I made some soup.  Not a soup with rice or noodles or barley.  But it was delicious, so I should quit complaining.  Lee did not gain 10 pounds last year, or if he did he went on a diet for a week and lost it, because he is a man.  And life is not fair.  Ever.  But particularly when I am on a diet.  Good thing I have such a SUNNY nature.

I did mention to Lee that he could have a happy, fat wife with no wrinkles or a thinner, grumpy wife with wrinkles.  But we have been married almost 35 years and he knows better than to enter a no win argument. 

And it was cold.  So I made soup.  He got crackers with his.  I got Sprite Zero.  sigh


 

Chicken and Vegetable Soup

32 ounces of chicken broth
3 chicken tenders, you can use more, but I had these left over from another meal
1/4 onion, chopped
2 or 3 ribs celery, sliced.  I chopped up a bit of the celery leaves, too
Broccoli and cauliflower, I bought a frozen bag or just chop about 3 cups of fresh
Italian Herbs
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped

 

Pour the broth into a Dutch oven and add the chicken tenders.  I trimmed off the tendon first.  You can use chicken breasts, but the tenders will cook faster.  Add the onions, a pinch of salt and a few turns of a pepper grinder.

 

Bring to broth to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes.  If there is no pink in the middle of the largest tender, they are cooked.  Remove the chicken and add the celery, broccoli and cauliflower. 

 

Sprinkle in about 1/2 teaspoon of the Italian Herbs.  I didn't measure, just sprinkled about that much in the palm of my hand, crushed it a bit with my finger to release the flavors and dumped it in the pot.

 

While you bring the vegetables to a boil, use two forks to shred the chicken.  Return the shreds to the pot and reduce to a simmer for 10 more minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Sprinkle with the cilantro just before serving.

 

Serve with crackers.  Unless you are eating low carb.  Gaze enviously at anyone at the table that DOES get crackers.  Remember the 10th Commandment.  Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's crackers.

Feel virtuous and, dare I say it, just a tad bit thinner.

Pub Grub

   

I have one more recipe from our pub crawl.  OK.  Two pubs in Nottingham and one pub in London.  That is a crawl for US.  The brew pub is Nottingham had a recipe book that espoused the opinion that if a recipe called for liquid, you could pretty much always replace it with beer.  I'd hate to see that done in a custard, but it worked for the Hefeweizen Beer Bread so I thought to try it with, wait for it...

Beer Braised Sausages and Garlic Mashed with Peas and Carrots

Sausages
Onions
Olive Oil
Pilsner

First of all, I didn't know what a pilsner is, so I used my trusty cell phone to search while at the store.  I was informed it was a pale lager.  We were at the Fresh market to get some fresh made sausages so we made up our own six pack and got the brew for two different meals.

   

We bought 3 sausages because I couldn't decide between them.  Two were chicken with Granny Smith apples. The other one was turkey with wine and garlic.  See?  We couldn't decide either!  They were very soft and fragile so if you get fresh ones handle them gently.

   

Heat some OO in a cast iron pan.  Brown the sausages on all sides and set them aside.

   

Cut up a half of an onion for every person, so we used a whole one.  I cut it in half and then thinly sliced it. The onions went in the hot pan and cooked until they were caramelized. Start heating the oven just before the onions are done.  It needs to be at 315 degrees.

   

Return the sausage to the pan with the onions and cover them with beer.  It took about 1 and 1/2 bottles, but if I had more sausages, I probably could have gotten away with 1 bottle.  But then I wouldn't have had an open bottle that must be consumed or wasted, so that all worked out for me.  I popped it in the fridge until everything was cooked and made a shandy with some Sprite Zero.  A shandy with pub grub sounded good to me.

Put the sausages in the heated oven for 2 hours.  Go take a rest. 

Garlic Mashed with Peas and Carrots

Potatoes  We used 3 medium sized Yukon Gold, but Russets would also do.
Garlic
sour cream
butter
milk
s & p

carrots
peas

   

After one hour come back and make up the garlic for the mashed potatoes. Take a whole garlic and peel off all the loose "paper". Cut off the top and place it in the middle of enough foil to cover the whole thing. Drizzle olive oil over the top and season with s & p. Seal the foil and pop it in the oven with the sausages for the last hour. Go take another rest. This is hard work.

When there is only 30 minutes left for the sausages, start the potatoes.  Peel and cut them into cubes for faster cooking.  Cover them with water and bring to a slow boil.  Keep an eye on them so they don't boil over and also so they don't get over cooked.  Every once in awhile, pick one up with a spoon and cut it with a sharp knife.  When it cuts easily, you are done.  Drain and place in a large bowl.

   

After you start the potatoes, start the carrots.  I just used a steamer over a bit of water and heated it to a boil.  Put a handful of baby carrots in the steamer and cover with a lid.  When they are mostly done, add another handful of frozen peas. When done remove the strainer and dump everything in a serving dish.  Add a bit of butter.

Remove the garlic from the oven.  Let it cool a bit.  Then peel back the foil and squeeze all the garlic on top of your potatoes and start mashing.  A ricer will give you mashed potatoes with no lumps, but it is a pain to clean, so I just mashed away and decided to embrace the lumps.  I put in a hunk of butter and a dollop of sour cream.  Add s & p and mash some more.  Then add a bit of milk and keep mashing.  Keep adding SMALL amounts of milk until the proper consistency.  Don't go crazy with the milk or it will get soupy.

   

To serve, place a circle of mashed potatoes in the middle of the plate.  Put a serving of the peas and carrots on top of the mashed potatoes.  Then top everything with the sausages and spoon some of the onions with a bit of the reduced beer/sauce.  Because there were two of us and three sausages, I cut them in half before serving.  That way be both got to taste each type of sausage.

   

I somehow managed to make some really excellent Pub Grub.  Perhaps I will start a Pub instead of a B&B!

I decided to use the Hefeweizen banana bread for a dessert.  One slice covered in sliced strawberries with a dollop of Cool Whip may not be traditional Pub Grub, but it was delicious.