Instant Pot Potato Soup

Ingredients:
1 small onion - chopped
1 TBSP butter
1/4 tsp celery seed
32 oz package cubed hash brown potatoes
4 cups vegetable broth
12 oz evaporated milk (large can)
1 cup corn
bacon - cooked
shredded cheddar cheese

Method:
Using saute function on the Instant Pot, melt butter and add onions. Saute until transparent.
Add celery seed, potatoes, and vegetable broth. Using soup function, cook on normal for 30 minutes. Let pressure release naturally for 25 minutes, then release the rest. Add milk and corn, then cover and heat through. Serve with shredded cheese and crumbled bacon.

Serves: 8

Back to School!

Friday - kids in Burley, Bam Bam's for John, Alton, and me
Saturday - cornbread waffles and chili, toppings, fruit
Sunday - chicken tortilla soup, quesadillas fruit
Monday - The Dip, fruit
Tuesday - grilled flank steak, potato salad, corn on the cob, fruit
Wednesday - skillet mac and cheese, fruit, veggie
Thursday - sloppy lasagna
Friday - Maxwell's Birthday!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 1/2 pounds chicken, cooked and shredded
15 oz can whole tomatoes
10 oz can enchilada sauce
1 md onion, chopped
4 oz can green chilies
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups water
14 1/2 oz chicken broth
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 bay leaf
10 oz package frozen corn
1 T cilantro
6 corn tortillas, or tortilla chips
2 T vegetable oil
grated Parmesan cheese

In slow cooker, combine shredded chicken, whole tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chilies, and garlic. Add water, chicken broth, cumin, chili powder, salt, black pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn and cilantro. Cover and cook on Low 6 to 8 hours, or on High 3 to 4 hours. Remove and discard bay leaf.

Preheat oven to 400. Lightly brush both sides of tortillas with vegetable oil. Cut tortillas into small strips. Spread strips on baking sheet. Bake, turning occasionally until crisp, 5 - 10 minutes. Sprinkle tortilla strips and Parmesan cheese over soup. Serve.

Makes 6 -8 servings.

Sloppy Lasagna

1 1/4 lb uncooked Italian sausage
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz dried lasagne noodles
2 c chicken broth
2 c water
1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 c (4 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Cut sausage from casings, brown slowly with onion and garlic. Stir often. (use large kettle pan)
2. Break noodles into 2"-3" pieces.
3. To pan, add broth, 2 cups water, tomatoes and juice, tomato sauce, herbs, and noodles. Boil, stirring often until pasta is tender (about 15 minutes).
4. Serve in bowls, sprinkle with mozzarella cheese, and serve.

Goes well with sourdough bread and salad.
from Carla

Minestrone Soup

I got this recipe from Ginger, and I think that Carla has one that is similar, if not the same one. I love this soup, and would make it more often if the kids were better at eating it. As it is, we have it more than they would like. :) It's great in the summer when you have fresh garden vegetables, and it's a kind of comfort food in the winter.

Minestrone Soup
1 onion, diced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, sliced
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 zucchini, chopped
1 summer squash, chopped
1 potato, chopped
1 cup cooked medium pasta shells
vegetable broth
italian spices (I usually use basil and oregano)
olive oil
salt to taste (depends on the broth you use)

Saute the onion, garlic, and carrot in a little bit of olive oil until they start to get transparent.
Add the potato and the vegetable broth. Bring to boil, and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the potato starts to get tender.
Add the kidney beans, canned chopped tomatoes, zucchini, and the summer squash.
Cook for another 10 minutes or so, and add a little water if necessary.
Add the cooked shells and heat through.
Serve with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

Options: You could saute some celery with the onion, garlic, and carrot at the beginning. Frozen peas can be added with the beans, tomatoes, zucchini, and squash. You could also add green beans at that point. You could also substitute some other type of beans, like garbanzo beans, for the kidney beans. I like to have this soup with warm homemade bread. Ginger suggests a baguette and some kind of french cheese, like camembert.

Recommended Recipes

I thought I'd list a few of the recipes that I've tried from The Pioneer Woman Cooks.
She does such a great job of writing them down (and illustrating them with photos), it would be silly for me to try to improve them. Here are the links, instead.

Delicious Creamy Mashed Potatoes -We had these with our Thanksgiving dinner. Sooo good, and just in case you have some cream cheese haters in your home, the cream cheese flavor didn't really come through. The potatoes were just GOOD.

Egg-in-a-hole - John and I sometimes have these for a snack before bed. Yum.

Farfalle with Zucchini - This is a great recipe for summer zucchini. We haven't had it for a few months, so I'm not sure whether it was a hit with the kids, or not. I'll have to update after I make it again.

Chicken Rice Soup - This was really good. A nice, creamy soup. I even added the yellow food coloring. :)

Ranch Chicken - We had this for dinner last night. I was skeptical because I'm not a big Dijon Mustard fan, but the flavor was really good. John really liked it (although he admits that not having eaten all day might have pushed this recipe from just "good" to "really good").

Crash Hot Potatoes - I know that we had these potatoes last summer. I don't think that the kids liked them, and John wasn't impressed, but I thought they were good.

Tuscan Chickpea Soup

from Ginger's blog
adapted from Cooking Light Magazine
Serves 6

2 Tbl. olive oil
2 c. finely chopped onion
8 cloves garlic, minced
4 c. water
1/4 tsp. dried rosemary
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
3 cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes (do NOT drain)
2 Tbl. balsamic vinegar
Parmesan cheese

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Add onion and garlic and saute for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the water, rosemary, salt, pepper, chickpeas, and tomatoes, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for approx. 20 minutes.Use an immersion blender to puree the soup until it is well blended and mostly smooth. If you do not have an immersion blender, you can stick 2 cups of the soup at a time into your blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Stir in the vinegar, and bring soup back to a boil. Remove from heat and serve with a bit of Parmesan grated on top of each serving.