Creamy Tomato Soup with Cheesy Croutons

Yesterday was so blustery and cold! I didn't have a lot of food in the house, but I did have a large quantity of broccoli and a few cans of diced tomatoes. I really wanted soup, so it was either broccoli or tomato. I suppose I could have combined the two, but I ended up settling on tomato, as you may have deducted from the title of this post. Clever you... 

It's strange to me that I decided to try tomato soup, since I've never really liked it, but after reading a few recipes and picking and choosing which ingredients I thought sounded good, I pieced together a recipe that sounded good to me, using ingredients that I already had. I was shocked at how delicious it was! It was amazing. Kimball and I both loved it, and it was surprisingly filling.

Creamy Tomato Soup:

Since I was sort of throwing it together as I went, I'm not sure of the exact amounts of certain things.

Add the following to a big pot:
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon of chicken bouillon
1-2 cups water depending on how thick you want your soup to be 

(you can use chicken broth in place of the bouillon and water)
a teaspoon or so of salt
a teaspoon or so of pepper

While that's heating up, brown the following in a skillet with a bit of olive oil:

Half a yellow onion 

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon of sugar

When the mixture's lightly browned, add it all to the pot of soup. Stir it in, and add the following, to taste:
celery salt (it's strong, so use a little bit and taste before you add more)
oregano (a couple teaspoons)
basil (a couple teaspoons)

You can use fresh or dried herbs. Be sure to taste it as you add the spices. If you add way too much, you can add another can of tomatoes to dilute it a little bit. 

When the soup comes to a boil, turn the heat down, and slowly pour in some heavy cream. I don't know how much I used - maybe half a cup - Just be sure to start with a little, and stir as you pour. If you add too much you'll really taste the cream. Pour, stir, and taste until it looks and tastes how you want it to. You can also omit the cream altogether.

You can stop there, or, you can puree the soup. I used an immersion blender and partially blended it up. I wanted to make it a little thicker by blending some of the tomatoes, but I retained the chunky texture of the onions and some tomatoes. If you don't want to do this, but you want the results, you could use 1 can of crushed tomatoes, and 1 can of diced.

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It seems like people love the combination of tomato soup and grilled cheese. I'm not a fan of grilled cheese sandwiches, but I improvised and came up with a healthier, easier, and tastier substitute. I call them croutons because of they're size and shape, but they're only delightfully crispy, not crunchy like the kind you buy. They were also surprisingly delicious. 

Here are the directions:

Cheesy Croutons:

Preheat oven to 350F

Bread - I used regular whole wheat sandwich bread (1 slice per person), but you could use rolls, french, or other bread

Olive oil

Shredded cheese - I used mozzarella and asiago. Parmesan would be good, too

Garlic salt

Paint the bread lightly with olive oil, and cut it into squares. (If you're using rolls, you can cut them into cubes, and toss them with a bit of oil in a large ziploc bag instead of painting them. Arrange the bread squares on a tin foil-lined baking sheet (it's so much easier to clean up!). Sprinkle the bread lightly with the shredded cheese. Make sure the squares are close together, or even touching, so you don't waste cheese! Bake them at 350 for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese starts to turn golden brown. I didn't time them. I just checked periodically till I liked what I saw. Remove them from the oven when they look done, and sprinkle them lightly with garlic salt. Pull them apart carefully, so they retain their cheese. They'll get soggy if they sit in the soup too long, so just a few at a time when you're ready to eat. 

I served our soup with these croutons, and a few sliced grape tomatoes thrown in. They add a really nice touch, and make it feel even more like real tomato soup.  

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (healthier...)

I've recently succumbed to the enticings of Pinterest. (Facebook really doesn't do it for me anymore). I don't recommend Pinterest if you're busy, but if you're looking for a great recipe, hairstyle, decorating idea, or tutorial of any sort, I'd most certainly bypass a google search and head over to the picture gallery of inspiration, especially if you, like me, are a visual person. I don't like trying recipes if I don't have a picture of the outcome. Because I want to help people like me, I've started photographing some of the food I make in an effort to help you understand how great these recipes are, which brings me to the next trend I'm on board with: Instagram. I'm loving the way these filters enhance my pictures. I admit, I've gone over board, and there are now few photos which haven't been enhanced in this way. So, laugh if you will, but in the meantime, enjoy these pictures and these recipes. Oh, and by all means, feel free to pin them! 

this recipe makes about 24 little cookies

I'm going to give you all a recipe that you all need. I don't think I've ever made pumpkin cookies before, and I'm so glad that the first attempt will likely be the recipe I use from here on out. These are the best pumpkin cookies I have ever eaten. Way better than store-bought. They aren't dry at all, and though they're sort of full of sugar, they are somewhat healthier than your average cookie. They have whole wheat flour, and contain no oil or butter! They are amazing. They're low in cholesterol and high in vitamin A (well, and high in sugar - omit the chocolate if that's a concern).

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

*recipe is adapted from this recipe.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a cookie sheet, or simplify your life and use parchment paper or a silpat baking mat.

Combine: 

1 cup canned pumpkin, 

1 shy cup white sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1 egg

In a separate bowl, mix together:

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

a pinch (about 1/8 tsp) of each: nutmeg, allspice, & cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix the wet and the dry ingredients and stir in

1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 1 teaspoon of milk to make a paste

1 tablespoon real vanilla extract

Mix well, and add

2 cups (1 package) semisweet chocolate chips (this was a LOT of chocolate - you could use less)

Drop spoonfuls of whichever size you choose onto your baking sheet, and bake until golden brown and firm in the middle. I baked the little cookies for about 12-14 minutes, and the huge second batch (seen below) baked for more like 25 minutes.  

And for those who are wisely trying to be more aware of what they're ingesting:

confetti salad

I've been lucky enough to be able to do a lot (seriously, a lot) of cooking lately, and I just have to share the things I've learned. This is becoming an amateurish food blog for the next little bit, interspersed with little glimpses into our lives. Sorry if that bores you. 

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Oh my goodness, this is tasty! I found this recipe on a delightful little food blog, Mel's Kitchen Cafe (I have made so many of her recipes... it's a little embarrassing how much I trust her), and set I about making it, only to realize that I was missing a few ingredients... so here's my version, adapted from this one. I used an orange bell pepper instead of red, and I use a red onion instead of green. I loved how colorful it turned out, and I love that it had purple and orange... not a common color combo in food, I think. I also used a blend of lemon and lime juice in place of red wine vinegar, which I didn't have. This recipe is pretty versatile, and I bet there are a million different ways to make it.


Here's how it goes:


Ingredients:
- 3 cups cooked rice - cooled
- 1 can black beans, rinsed & drained
- 1 can black-eyed peas, rinsed & drained
- 1 can corn, drained
- red onion, diced (I used about 3/4 of a small one - just depends on what you like).
- 1 orange bell pepper, seeded, cored, diced
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (once again, depends on what you like - add more or less if you want)

Dressing:
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/8 cup or so lemon juice
- few tablespoons lime juice
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp chili powered
- 1/4 tsp black pepper



*I didn't measure on a few of these things - you really just need to mess around with it till it tastes good.

It's so easy, just throw everything thing together in a big salad bowl (it makes a lot of food) and mix up the dressing ingredients separately. Pour the dressing on, mix it in well, and put it all in the fridge till it's time to eat. It's best to leave it in there for a couple hours so the flavors get nice and blended.


*I only added about 3/4 of the dressing, and kept it in the fridge. This recipe makes so much, we had leftovers for a couple days. On about day three, the salad seemed a little dry (the rice just kept absorbing that moisture) so I threw the rest of the dressing on the remains of our confetti and it was delish!

A day in the kitchen

Today was fantastic. I must say, I truly love living in my own place with no roommates (no offense to my former roommates). It is so nice not sharing a fridge, cupboard space, bathroom, and dirty dishes with anyone else. I didn't cook a lot in my old place for a couple reasons: I was pretty busy with school, and all of the stuff in our apartment (including, actually maybe especially the oven and stove) was old, unreliable, and dirty. My new place is gloriously new and clean, and everything in it is my own! It's such a contrast. I decided that, since Kimball works all day, and I don't, and we only see each other for about 3 hours when he gets off work each day, that I'd start cooking us dinner. 

I spent a good part of yesterday grocery shopping, menu planning, and recipe reading to figure out what we could have for dinner for the next two weeks. I'm very excited to finally do this. The stars have aligned perfectly. Since my mom is traveling her heart out right now, I've been lucky enough to borrow her car for three weeks! I've never had a car. Not ever. This makes cooking difficult. Previously, trips to the grocery store included walking for 25 minutes to and from the nearest grocery store. I'd walk there with an empty back pack, purchase only what I could carry, and what wouldn't break, and I'd walk home with about 30 pounds of food squished into my backpack and whatever bags I could carry. It was exhausting, and stressful. There were so many days where I'd get home only to realize I'd forgotten to buy toothpaste, or something essential for a recipe I'd wanted to try. It was tricky, but now with a car, free time, a fantastic little kitchen, and a hungry man showing up for dinner, the conditions for cooking are perfect! 

Most of my menu selections come from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. It's a food blog that I am starting to love. 

Today I made sweet & sour chicken, with baked brown rice (yeah, you bake it! So easy!) and broccoli It was such good meal! I take no credit; I followed a recipe. 

For a little treat, I decided to bake a cake for Kimball to congratulate him on making his app (it's not out yet, but it will be soon). He LOVES chocolate, so I wanted to make the best chocolate cake there was. I recently got a lovely little cake stand from a friend as a wedding gift, and I have been anxious to put it to use, so I decided on this Unbelievable Chocolate Cake, and this Magical Frosting (the chocolate version). 

It took me all day. And part of yesterday. 

The frosting is very finicky, and you have to make it halfway, where you get it boiling, and then you have to cool it to room temperature - not too cold (which took all night... luckily I started yesterday). Next you mix in little chunks of butter (a lot) and mix them in completely, which was seriously a challenge by hand with a very unruly whisk (I do not yet own any sort of mixer), add melted chocolate, which has to be at room temperature (so tricky! You have to get it right before it hardens... I melted it down and waited for it to cool three times before I caught it in time). 

Anyway, it was exceptionally complex compared to anything I've ever done. I'd never made a layered cake, but I figured if I was going all out, I'd better go all out. I don't own any cake pans either, so I bought three little tin foil ones. They were 8" pans, but my cake stand only caters to a 6" cake, so once they were baked and cooled, I had to trim them down to 6" using a little plate as my guide.

I also had to trim the tops to make the cakes flat. This would normally require a bread knife. As luck would have it, I don't have one of those either, so I used this handy little lettuce knife. It worked quite well, actually. 

Mel suggested lining the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, (which I did have! and I'm so glad I did.) The cakes slid right out of the pans and stayed in their proper shapes while I transfered them to the cake plate. 

I watched a tutorial on Martha Stewart's website on how to frost a cake (I know... I'm very much an amateur). I didn't have time to do all the steps she suggested, but it still worked out okay. 

I couldn't be more pleased with my lovely little creation! It ended up looking like a real cake! I'm glad I did chocolate frosting... it makes it harder to detect all the chocolate cake-crumbs in there. 

I put it in the fridge (because the frosting is basically chocolate-flavored butter, and it was beginning to get melty), and I saw a box of strawberries Id purchased earlier, so I decided to top it off. So cute. 

Kimball LOVED it. He was so giddy, and happy, which made me giddy and happy. We ate our cake in bliss. It is seriously sooooo good! I wish I didn't know what was in it. We still have tons leftover for the next few days! (but we have to work out every day or it's strictly forbidden). 

After cutting the edges and tops off my three cakes, I had SO much leftover cake, so I decided to make Cake Bites (even though I don't love them, and I think they're over-rated and over-priced) For those unaware, they're easy to make - you mix crumbled cake with frosting, roll the gooey mass into a ball, and dip it in chocolate. You can also mash up Oreos with cream cheese, and dip them in chocolate if you want your heart attack earlier in life. They're very intense and very rich. I made mine extra tiny, and after I ate one I had to have a full glass of milk. 

I'm going out with a bunch of my lady-friends tomorrow, so I plan on giving most of them away. I have about 75, though, and I only had enough chocolate to dip about 30. I may freeze most of and save them for another day when chocolate isn't so plentiful in the house and I need a little sweetness. 

What a fantastic day. I should have photographed the dinner - that sweet and sour chicken was quite involved as well. I spent about 7 hours cooking and baking and doing dishes today (I used all of my silverware and measuring spoons/cups at least thrice). 

Call me crazy, but it was heaven!

Thoughts on sweets.

Once of my all-time favorite things to do, is to buy a pint of Ben & Jerry's or some really over-priced chocolate (actually, it's usually worth what you pay...) and just savoring it bite by bite until it's gone. I love love LOVE ice cream and chocolate. More than a lot of things. 

Despite all this, I'm not eating anything that could be considered a "sweet" (ice cream, chocolate, cookies, cakes, soda, or juice with added sugar - stuff like BBQ sauce, salad dressings, granola, yogurt etc. don't count.). I got the idea from my sister, Brooklyn. She and her husband have been successfully sugar-free for a long time now - since about the beginning of the year. I started feeling guilty around them when I would stuff myself full of unhealthy things, and I decided to just join them. Easier said than done, my friends... easier said than done. 

Before you get all judgy on me, and think it's too extreme, you must know, I'm not doing this to lose weight. I started doing it as way to develop more self-control, and to just see what it would be like, for once in my life, to celebrate the holiday season (Thanksgiving and Christmas) with no ice cream, egg nog, chocolates, pies, homemade caramels, glass candy, advent calendars, sparkling cider, hot chocolate, ginger bread, peanut brittle, etc. Wow... I only just realized how intensely difficult this will be...What's Christmas without these things?!?! That's the point of this I guess. I'm going to find out. (I have a feeling it's a little more focussed on, you know, the real reason we have Christmas in the first place). 

Anyway, it's an experiment, and a test of my will. It's interesting too; I have found that I'm becoming very aware of social customs, obligations and expectations... the findings are disturbing. America (and other places I'm sure as well... but judging by the chart below, I'm sticking with America) is a society that revolves around treats. (I might also add that I'm proud of Canada).

*source

It's been interesting to do this while still a student. It seems like every single social function I've been to, since I started doing this a month ago, has served junk food. Only. That's the only option there ever is. And the drinks are always some form of liquified sugar. It's strange, but I'm finding it's good for me. 

My motivation for going to things like opening socials, reunions, career fairs, grad. school fairs, firesides, FHE, ice cream socials, dessert nights, and ward "break the fast" used to be, well, tied up in the fact that there would be something tasty and free that I could enjoy. Now I find myself still going, but I'm just there to simply be there, to socialize, be edified, and to practice self-control. It's not easy. Functions like these are often very awkward, not to mention the awkwardness of dating - have you any idea how awkward/painful it is to sit for an hour around a fire nibbling graham crackers while the normal kids are making s'mores?! Or telling a boy, after he tells you about the date you'll be going on, that he'll actually have to change his plan, "cause I can't eat donuts"? 

I usually have to defend my decision to chocolate-covered faces, staring incredulously at me, bewildered, shocked, and almost offended. "That's a stupid idea!" is often the response I get. Maybe so, but I have every right to be the one who decides what goes into this body of mine, right? Why should I eat what's there, when I'm not hungry (not that these things even satisfy hunger), just because it's free? Or, even worse, just cause everyone else is doing it? I used to think peer-pressure died off after high school. Turns out it's alive and well in most of the adult world. People of the world: You don't actually have to do what everyone else is doing!

I have come to realize that people need a healthy option. From now on I think I'll be that one lady who always brings fruit and cheese, or bread, oil & vinegar, or gives out raisons at Halloween...Ok, scratch that. Raisons have NO place in Halloween. 

My point is, I'm a changed woman. I think. And I feel fantastic. I usually get sick with the amount of sleep I'm (not) getting this semester, but I've never felt better. I can feel my immune system thanking me.

The down side: I feel great about the fact that I eat no sweets. So much so that I can now justify eating, well, anything else. I find myself giving in to salty-snack cravings and putting a lot more butter on vegetables and a lot more cheese on pasta. I even participated in a pizza-eating contest today (and won $50!) which made me sick (not physically, I'm actually doing quite well...) but just the thought of it and the feeling of all that grease all over my hands and face... (shudder). It was disgusting. Would I have done this if I hadn't been limiting my sugar intake? I don't know. But I think I'm really not too worried about it. 

Once this is over, on January 1st, I'll return to candy land, but I'll proceed with caution. If there's one thing I've learned, it's the value of temperance and balance. 

This has been a grand experience thus far, and I'm so glad I'm doing it. 

...but I really cannot wait for January 1st 2011. This is killing me. 

My suggestion? Try it. You have absolutely nothing to loose... except for those killer cravings, and maybe even a few pounds. Just do a month. Or a week. It's intensely empowering. 

i love it so much!

ok, it sounds and maybe looks disgusting, but i am in love with this meal. seriously, i sometimes can't believe how amazing it tastes. i'm eating it as i type and i can't help vocalizing my approval. good thing i'm home alone. oh my goodness! SO good!

so, when you don't have a car, and you do most of your shopping at costco once a month, you tend to get creative as food supplies run short, and thank goodness! this little concoction of mine has been a favorite for some time now, but tonight i just enhanced it significantly.

first let me say, i love rice and i love beans (black or kidney... preferably black). i gained this on my mission. i could eat rice and beans every day and be oh so happy. one day, when it was rice and beans again for dinner, i decided to try to spice it up a little. i was wishing i had some sour cream, or, even better, this stuff that hermana salgado used to give me in LA called crema i think. mmm, so good. anyway, all i had was cottage cheese and i figured, "it's made of the same stuff, right?" so i added it to the warm rice and beans, threw a little salt on there and was nearly overcome with delight.

it was incredible.

i couldn't believe it. i kid you not when i say that this is now probably the most common meal that graces my table. my roommates think it's gross, but they have yet to taste it, so to them i say, well, nothing. i just laugh inside as they eat cereal and quesadillas.

tonight i cooked up some chicken, so it was chunks of chicken mixed with rice instead of beans. i added some edimame to the mix, and as i went to put the leftovers in the fridge, i saw the lonely little can of black beans sitting there next to the lonely little carton of cottage cheese... "No," i kind of gasped to myself in wonder, "could I do it?"

i had to.

i added black beans, to the chicken, rice and edimame, microwaved the thing ('thing' being bowl of heaven) and when it came out it was much too hot to eat. (here's another reason i love this meal): i added too big forkfulls of cottage cheese, mixed it all up, and the temperature was perfect for eating, which i did. (i've now finished the bowl). it is so satisfying. i would invite all who enjoy cottage cheese to change it up a little, and try it in a warm dish. and to those who don't: maybe it's time to give it a chance? might i add, these meals are healthy too. maybe brown rice would be better, but i just love basmati rice so much (and i'm still going through a costco bag of the stuff that i got in january... i think it'll last me till next january too).

well, that's all. maybe i'm crazy and i'm the only one who will ever love this, or even try it. i'm fine with that. it makes me so happy.

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