Spicy Tuscan Soup...

Okay, I love Olive Garden.  Reasonably priced Italian with portions big enough to save for another meal when you get home and breadsticks to die for.  (If you can do bread right, you pretty much have my vote anyway...lol).  Anyway, when I was scrolling through Pinterest, I saw this soup that looks suspiciously like Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana, that I adore (unlimited soup, salad & breadsticks anyone??).  So, I decided I must make it.  The original recipe can be found at Tasty Kitchen if you wanted to check it out.  It was pretty easy to make, and should reheat pretty well, since there wasn't much cream in it.  The recipe is as follows:

Spicy Tuscan Soup
6 servings - 522 calories each

Ingredients
1 lb. breakfast sausage
1 med. red onion, chopped
2 slices bacon, diced (I just used bacon bits...yep...lazy)
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 russett potatoes, cut in half lenghwise and then in 1/4" slices
4 c. water
3 cubes chicken bouillon
1/4 bunch kale, roughly chopped (I wound up getting a box of baby kale, because I couldn't find the regular anywhere)
1/2 c. heavy cream
Seasonings, to taste

Directions
Brown sausage in pot over medium high until done.  Drain and set aside.  Add onion, bacon, and garlic to pot and cook until onions are tender.  Add water, potatoes and bouillon cubes.  Simmer 15-20 minutes, until potatoes are nearly done.  Add kale, cream, and the sausage you set aside earlier.  Simmer another 5-10 minutes until potatoes are done and everything is heated through.  And that's it...easy peasy, right?  Looks like Olive Garden!  I'll let you know the final result with the recipe update in a week or two :)

Chunky Potato Crab Chowder...

I've had a thing for chowder lately.  I had a couple bowls of it in New England when we were there for vacation, and it was so delicious.  I thought this one sounded interesting and decided to give it a show.  You can find the original on myrecipes.  Here goes:

Chunky Potato Crab Chowder
6 servings - 265 calories each

Ingredients
2 T. butter
1 c. chopped onion
1 cloved garlic, minced
3 1/2 c. cubed red potatoes
3 T. flour
2 1/2 c. milk
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 - 14.5 oz. can corn
1 - 14 oz. can chicken broth
8 oz. lump crab meat, shell pieces removed
Salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning to taste

Directions
Saute onion and garlic in butter for 4 minutes.  Add potatoes and saute for 1 minute.  Add flour and saute for another minute.  Stir in milk, seasonings, corn, and broth.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring frequently.  Reduce temperature, cover, and continue to simmer another 20 minutes until potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally.  Add crab and cook another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Recipe Recap
Eh...this was alright.  I think I liked the concept better than the end result.  And it doesn't help much that I had delicious chowder in Maine just a week before this...that's what I really wanted, afterall.  The taste was fine, the texture was a little off, it was just okay.  I probably won't be making it again, at any rate.  Better luck next month, I suppose!

Potato & Corn Chowder...

For a little while in college, I worked at a restaurant.  The chef there periodically made this corn chowder with bacon, and it was amazing...he literally only did it like 1 day every couple of months, and everybody went crazy for it when it actually popped up on the menu, myself included.  But that was a long time ago, and I had since kind of forgotten about corn chowder...until Pinterest arrived :)  So I found this Potato & Corn Chowder recipe on Mama Loves Food and I was competely obsessed with it all winter.  I decided to make it one more time before it starts getting much warmer outside, since it's a happy, cozy little recipe.  Potatoes, corn, bacon...what's not to like?  The original recipe called for celery...I don't really do celery unless it has peanut butter and raisins on it (I know...I'm a child sometimes), so I skipped that.  I also skipped the seasoning salt in the original and added my own seasonings.  Just personal preference :)

Potato & Corn Chowder
8 Servings, 325 Calories Each

Ingredients:

1 box pre-cooked microwave bacon, crispy and crumbled
6-7 sm/med Russet potatoes (don't bother peeling them), diced into 1/4"-ish cubes
8 cups frozen corn
1 med/lg sweet yellow onion, diced fine
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
4 c. chicken stock
2 c. half & half
Seasonings (your choice)

Directions:





















Put everything EXCEPT the half & half into the crockpot, set on low, and let it cook for about 10 hours (the original  recipe says you can do it on high for 6 hours if you don't have that kinda time).  Blend with an immersion blender (or pour it in a regular blender) to the texture you like (I leave mine pretty chunky).  Add the half & half and cook, uncovered, for another 15-20 minutes. 

 

I'm having mine with a crescent roll (packaged separately in a ziploc bag, obviously) for a total of 425 calories :)