One Pot Sweet Potato Chili

Tried this recipe for Sweet Potato Chili a couple weeks ago.  The recipe came in our little magazine from the health clinic.  Loved, loved, loved it!  We will definitely be making this again.



The lime juice and fresh cilantro make it AWESOME!

Case in point, one of my daughters tried my soup--all doctored up--then served herself some and told me that it wasn't as good.  Well, she hadn't added the yogurt or cilantro to it.

Recipe pdf. found HERE.

And just as good leftover as the day you make it.
Yummy served with corn or tortilla chips too.

Changes I made:

• Doubled the recipe for our family.
• Used 1 can each pinto and garbanzo beans, undrained, but they were my home canned jars and so they have less liquid than store bought cans.
• Used 1-15 oz. can corn, drained
• Did not double the red pepper (only because I forgot to buy 2 instead of 1)
• Used plain yogurt.

Canning Split Pea Soup

Two weekends ago it decided to cool down here in Minnesota.  We had been enjoying unseasonably warmer weather for Fall, which was fine with me.  But now that we are cooling down it is time to can some soups.

I am pretty much the only one in my family who will eat split pea soup.
I don't care.
I like it.
Even if it does look "gross" per the kids.
I'll give them that much
But when I can it in pint jars it is just about the perfect amount for one serving--ME, for lunch.



I just canned some more Chili this week too.
Stocking up for the cold months ahead.
Now we just need a deer or two from our hunters and I'll can some venison chunks for stews.

Notes:

• I used the recipe from the Ball Blue Book, pg. 65, "Split Pea Soup".  I doubled the recipe and got 11 pints.
• I don't thicken mine any more than the recipe indicates when cooking it before canning because it thickens up quite a bit once it is all pressure canned.
• This recipe has split peas, ham chunks, carrots and allspice.
• Canning Homemade also has a recipe for a slightly different version of split pea soup.
• 1 - 1 pound bag of dried split peas is equal to 2 cups dry uncooked for those of you who prefer to buy in bulk (which is usually cheaper).
• If you need some good soup recipes to can--those you can dump and heat up--try The Amish Canning Cookbook.  I checked it out from my local library and found some yummy recipes.

Home Canned Black Bean Soup

I canned a batch of soup over the weekend. Part of my crew was pheasant hunting and it was rainy. So it turned out to be a great time to do some canning.

This is the first time I have tried Black Bean Soup, pg. 177 from The Amish Canning Cookbook.  (It looks like this link will give you a good sampling of the recipes from this book.)



This soup recipe includes black beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, onions.  Looking forward to eating this with some tortilla chips and sour cream.

Notes:

• I was able to get 10 quarts worth of soup instead of 6 as indicated by the recipe.  And I followed it exactly.
• Instead of putting the beans in the jars first and separate from the other ingredients I combined everything and then put them in the jars.
• I canned some in pints so that I would have smaller portions for lunch, and in case the rest of my family doesn't like it.
• Check your local library to see if they have the book.  I was mostly interested in their soup recipes although there was lots of different recipes.

A couple yummy recipes

I've been trying to change up my diet a bit--much to the chagrin of my family.
Have I ever mentioned how I like change, and they don't?
Anyway, here are a couple recipes I've found and tried, and liked.

Avocado Smoothie from BHG.



Super delicious.  My kids don't love it, but hubby does.
At times I throw in a bit of kale or spinach too.
I think the ginger is the key ingredient in this.

Pumpkin Bran Muffins from Woman's Day Magazine



Really liked these.  We froze 2 per baggie and hubby pulls a bag out the night before so he can eat them on the way to work the next morning.  I like these with honey as well as the orange cream included in the recipe.

Tomato Soup for food allergies

As Emily wrote about earlier last month, we all are having some changes occurring in our respective lives.

A couple things for us includes:

• Two new vehicles this year, unplanned on both accounts.
• Hubby's new job which after working from home since last August has greatly increased his work commute.
• This change of job may also include a move down the road....but not right away.
• Oldest daughter getting her driver's license--both great and scary all at the same time.

However, the most stressful for me has to do with our #2 daughter.  She has a wheat intolerance that we've known about for at least a year now.  Removing wheat from her diet improved her lifestyle for awhile and then last Fall sometime she started complaining again.  Recently I took her to a naturopath (because the pediatrician wasn't as helpful as I'd like) where we had some blood work done and the results came back that she also has a dairy, egg, and peanut issue too.

I have to say that after dropping her back off at school after that appointment and then browsing through the grocery store to see what kind of options she'll have, I went back out to my vehicle and cried...and called my mother.  I felt like dealing with the wheat issue was a piece of cake (yeah, punny) compared to this new diagnosis.

It was a temporary meltdown on my part, but right now I have a love/hate relationship with food because of all of this going on with my daughter.  I think that is normal.  I'm pretty sure I'll get over it, because we sort of went thru this when we discovered the wheat issue--denial, anger, acceptance, etc. all those grieving steps.

Anyway, the saddest part about all this for me, thinking of my daughter, is that she will eat anything, and likes about everything, and here she can't have all these things.  That is probably a huge blessing too, because I'm not sure any of my other kids would have as many options as she has because of their food "pickiness".  We're working through it and she is being a good sport as we try new recipes and I figure out a new way of cooking for my entire family, because I am not making a couple different things every night just to make everyone happy.

She and I have a shared love of tomato soup.  Regular canned soup, i.e. Campbell's, has wheat in it--if you didn't already know that.  Gluten-free canned soup is expensive, and really neither one is as good as homemade.

I found this tomato soup recipe from The Chew--one of my favorite shows to watch.  I made it the other night night and it was delicious.  #2 ate hers with some Glutino pretzels and was super happy with it.  I've been eating the leftovers for lunch.


pic from The Chew

Recipe changes/details:

• I used 4 pints of my own canned tomatoes
• Substituted rice milk for the cream.
• And didn't use as much garlic as the recipe called for.

__________________________________

Down the road I'll probably be sharing some things here and there with what we are doing to make her life better and some things that I've learned or I am doing to switch up the diet.  There are certainly lots of websites and books out there to help us out.

Here are a couple helpful books I found at our local library.

• Allergy-Free Desserts by Elizabeth Gordon
• Allergy-Free and Easy Cooking by Cybele Pascal
• The Ultimate Allergy-Free Snack Cookbook by Judi and Shari Zucker
• Allergy-Friendly Food for Families

Kidswithallergies.org

Lemon-Honey Jelly {Gift for the Teachers)

I don't know about you but sometimes we are good about giving the kids' teachers a nice gift for Christmas and sometimes we're not.  Usually I just wait until the end of the year to thank them for dealing with having my kids during the year.

This year I am little more inspired for the two elementary teachers.  I've been perusing some canning books from my local library to get a feel for anything new I might want to try.  Found a fun book from BH&G called Can It!.  I decided to try the recipe for Lemon-Honey Jelly.  I am a huge honey fan, especially on homemade bread.  So I thought the combo of these 2 would be so yummy and fun to give to the teachers for a little Christmas gift.



Some other recipes from this book that I want to try are:

• Tangerine Marmalade, pg. 77
• Lime-Kiwi Freezer Jam, pg. 123 (already made this and it is FABULOUS!)
• Spiced Peaches (next summer), pg. 141
• Farmer's Market Corn Salsa, pg. 159

Notes:

• I used a zester instead of a vegetable peeler to remove the peel.
• Scooped out the cooked zest and foam with a mesh colander instead of a spoon since the zest was so tiny.
• I was able to can 6 half-pints and not 5.
• And after licking the spoon when I was all done I am REALLY looking forward to eating some of this myself with homemade bread.  It is delicious!  The recipe says to wait 2 weeks before eating to let it set up good.

In a Jam....or jelly

My neighbor Vicki came over earlier in the week to use my canner to make some jam.  Her kitchen was slightly out of commission as her husband and FIL were putting in a new back door.  She had everything ready to go except for the cooking part and putting it in jars for processing.  It took us about about 45 minutes for 13 pints.

Process 10 min. for pints in a hot water bath or steam canner.

I don't normally make cooked jam.  I'm more partial to the freezer variety, but canned jam will last longer, especially if the electricity goes out.  I know that from experience, unfortunately.

She makes this jam every summer (usually brings me a small jar) and uses the recipe off the Sure-Jell® package (yellow box) for Triple Berry Jam--raspberries, strawberries and blackberries.  (There is a no or less sugar recipe for this jam too--use the pink box.  I try to use the reduced sugar recipes for my family)  The only change Vicki makes is she prefers the triple combination with blueberries instead of blackberries.  Either way, super delicious.

She left me a pint as a "thank-you" for the equipment use.  I made homemade bread the next day--just for the jam.

 I love the deep red color of this jam.

Don't let those darker spots in the jam scare you--those are the skins of the blueberries

If you get the chance, try it.  I guarantee you'll like it.
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Earlier in the summer I also made some strawberry rhubarb jam.  With Idaho roots on our mother's side you just have to have a recipe or two for rhubarb in your repertoire.

Not remembering exactly what recipe I've used in the past, I used the recipe for Strawberry Freezer Jam found in the Sure-Jell® for Less or No Sugar Pectin box (pink).  Instead of using the 4 c. of crushed strawberries as the recipe indicated I used only 3 c. and then added 1 c. chopped rhubarb for a total of 4 c. crushed fruit.  Then followed the recipe as indicated on the package directions.

Daughter #2 and 3 both tried this jam and they are on board.  I might have to make more from some of my freezer rhubarb now that I'm not the only one eating it.

**The Ball Blue Book also has a recipe for cooked Strawberry Rhubarb Jam.  Or you can go to Ball's website for more recipes for jams and jellies. 

Canning Garbanzo Beans (Chickpeas) and Homemade Hummus

I took advantage of cooler weather this week, especially in the mornings, and canned some more dried beans for the pantry--red kidney, pinto and garbanzo.  About 40 pints worth total.

Then I also made some homemade hummus with the garbanzo beans that I canned specifically for that reason.  I'm trying to be a little healthier around here as well as find some different recipes for our wheat intolerant daughter.

This recipe I found was in the book "4 Ingredients Gluten-Free: More Than 400 New and Exciting Gluten-Free Recipes Using 4 or Fewer Ingredients" by Kim McCosker and Rachael Bermingham.   Whew!  That is a mouthful of a title.

EASY HUMMUS
1 - 15 oz. can of garbanzo beans (or 1 pint jar home canned), drained and liquid reserved.
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 tsp. cumin (actual recipe called for 2 but one was PLENTY in my opinion--and I like spicy stuff.)

Combine all in blender or food processor with 1/2 tsp. sea salt.
Blend at low speed, gradually adding the reserved bean liquid 'til desired consistency.

Notes:
When using home canned beans I find that there isn't as much liquid to reserve vs. store bought cans.
I didn't use much of the reserved liquid making this--maybe a tablespoon.
I can't imagine putting 2 tsp. of cumin in 1 cup of hummus......WOW that just seems like SO much.
Tried this with carrot sticks, celery sticks and tortilla chips and loved it.

Easy Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

One of the things that I love most about summer is homemade ice cream.  For years growing up we had a hand cranked ice cream maker that we each had to take turns helping with.  Either you cranked or you sat on the ice cream maker when it got tough to crank sometime during the process.  If you didn't help you didn't eat.  I have fond memories of those times.  Sometimes I wish we had a hand crank ice cream maker.  But for now I'll just stick with our electric one.  It works lovely.

This is a long time family recipe that we got from our mom's friend years ago when we lived in Overland Park, KS.  It is super easy and super yummy!

Mimi's Vanilla Ice Cream
2 quarts of Half & Half
1 cup whipping cream (I usually add another 1/4 c. to 1/2 c.)
2 cups sugar
4-6 Tbs. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt

Mix all in a large bowl (or directly into your ice cream container) until sugar is dissolved.
Put in electric ice cream maker and make according to manufacturers directions.

If you can, once it is finished processing I pull it out and put it into an ice cream bucket and then put it into the freezer for at least an hour or so so it can harden some.

One of the beauties of this recipe is that you can easily adjust the flavor if you like.  Add mashed or chunked fruit to make peach, strawberry or raspberry ice cream.  We've added mint extract and mini chocolate chips to make mint chip.

But to be quite honest our favorite is really just straight up vanilla.