Ground Turkey and Butternut Squash Soup

Ground White Turkey with Vegetables and Butternut Squash Soup

Cooked Ground Turkey Mixture Served with Cooked Brown Rice

Quick meal utilizing leftovers

How I prepared three meals from one main recipe and enjoyed every one of them!

On a cool, rainy day I decided to prepare my favorite fall soup recipe, Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup.

Here is the link to this recipe from my Blog:

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8505913197660197866#editor/target=post;postID=3500940049654445869

Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup

(smooth, creamy and non-dairy)

Spices in my Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup

These Spices bring intense flavor and heat to the pureed soup.

With leftover soup for the next day, I wanted to prepare a hearty dinner using the leftover soup so I got the idea to cook some ground white meat turkey (can use ground beef instead if you choose), saute some onions, carrots, celery and red peppers making a larger amount of the mixture to serve to the family. The sauce, leftover cooked soup from the refrigerator, was added to the ground turkey mixture, warmed up with the ground turkey and vegetables. This mixture now became a thick, hearty, flavorful meal with very little effort during the cooking process.

Now with the larger amount of cooked, ground turkey mixture, I still had some for leftovers the next day and served this with a side dish of cooked brown rice. Yum!!!

How wonderful to use one soup recipe for three separate meals! A little creativity and having produce in the refrigerator and meat on hand in the freezer makes cooking at home enjoyable and rewarding. I might add the word "impressive" to those tasting these meals for the first time. 



Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup

My new photo of Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup (non-dairy) (The Souper 2012)

What do you do when there is a brisk chilly feel to the outside air and the wind is howling around the house but it is brilliantly sunny outside? You make soup, of course!
I took out from my refrigerator the very basics for a good hearty, spicy vegetable soup. There was a half of a large butternut squash sitting quietly in my refrigerator along with a large bag of carrots. I discovered a half of a large onion just waiting to jump into a food creation of mine. Supporting the major components of this throw-together soup are my spices always ready to flavor-up a dish.
With a full stock of staples in the pantry, I of course had a box of low-sodium chicken broth to blend into a pot of soup or rice stirfry sidedish.
There you have it. Chopping the vegetables, adding seasonings and broth blends into the most satisfying, creamy tummy-warming soup in just about one half an hour. Yes, from the chop to the blend I was eating not one but two bowls of this velvety smooth liquid meal in under an hour! How wonderful is that?
With the basic kitchen skills and tools, you too can impress yourself as well as your loved ones with a healthy, nutritious pleasure.

Prep time about five minutes. Cooking time about one half an hour.
Serving suggestions: Add soup crackers, or small cooked pasta to a bowl of soup. (If you can tolerate dairy, grate some melting cheese on top of the soup or a tiny bit of cream.)

What you will need:
Cutting board, large
Kitchen knife
Vegetable peeler
Small bowls for chopped vegetables
Large pot with matching cover
Wood spoon
Large soup spoon
Measuring spoons
Pot holders
Immersion blender or food processor (even a blender if soup is cooled.)

Ingredients:
Canola or Olive Oil, 3 tablespoons
1/2 large sweet onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 large butternut squash, cubed into small pieces
2 medium carrots, washed, peeled and cut into thin discs
1 box, 32 ounces of low-sodium chicken broth. (Swanson's)
Kosher salt, add during cooking and flavor cooked soup
(about 1 teaspoon during cooking onions, 1 teaspoon when butternut squash and carrots added to the cooking onions. Add 1 teaspoon if needed when soup is finished cooking and still in the pot if more flavoring is needed.)
Crushed black pepper, 1-2 teaspoons during the cooking process
Turmeric, 1/2 teaspoon on top of the cooking butternut squash and carrots
Smoked Papika, 1/2 teaspoon on top of the cooking butternut squash and carrots.

The process:
Wash, peel, cut the carrots and set aside until needed
Peel butternut squash and cut into small pieces
Peel the onion and chop into small pieces and set aside until needed
Peel clove of garlic and crush into small pieces
Add the oil into the large pot and put on the stove burner turned on medium-high heat
Add the chopped onions, some salt and stir with the wooden spoon often.
When the cooking onions look shiny and appear to be softer in texture, add the crushed garlic and keep stirring with the wooden spoon often.
Quickly add the cut butternut squash and cut carrots into the cooking mixture and keep stirring around often with the wooden spoon.
Add more salt, add crushed black pepper as well as the turmeric and smoked paprika and keep stirring with the wood spoon.
When the cooking vegetables appear to be softer, slowly add the chicken broth and keep stirring the mixture.
Reduce the heat under the pot to a low setting, cover slightly with the matching cover.
Check on the cooking soup in about 25-30 minutes, taste a little bit with the clean, large soup spoon and add more salt or crushed black pepper to your personal taste.
The flavors come together with a correct balance of seasonings. (Your tastebus will tell you if more seasonings are needed.)
With the stove burner off, use the immersion blender slowly to blend the cooked chunks of vegetables into a smooth, velvety texture.
If using a food processor or blender, let the soup cool a bit before blending.

Chicken Soup

Chicken Soup in Natural Light - my personal photo (The Souper 2012)

When I was a little kid home with a bad cold, my nose stuffy, chills running through my body from a fever and all I wanted was to be comforted and be held in loving arms. With a scratchy throat I did not want to eat anything solid that I had to chew and I did not want to talk.
Ah, but then warm, soothing relief came in the form of a bowl with steam rising out of it. My Mom brought me her homemade cold remedy, Chicken Soup! As the steamy bowl of soup came closer to my face, breathing became a little bit easier. Then a spoonful of hot soup reached my mouth. My dry lips from breathing from my mouth felt moistened as soothing liquid entered my waiting lips. The first drops of this salty, tasty warmth slid down my sore throat. "Mmmm," automatically came as my first words since being sick. I wanted more soothing soup immediately. I began spooning this miracle liquid faster. The warmth ran through my body and then my nose started to drip from the hot steam of the soup and I reached for the tissue box. Yes, I was beginning to breathe again. What a miracle!

Fresh Chicken Soup is easy to prepare. Prepare some for your family and friends. A big potful of soup will make several quarts. Freeze some for the times when you need this wonderful relief from a cold and congestion. Or when you just want comforting memories, defrost and heat a quart of fresh Chicken Soup and get your bowl and spoon ready for your treat.

What you will need:
One large soup pot with matching lid
One whole fresh chicken (about 3 lbs) or assorted chicken parts of choice.
One large onion, fresh
Carrots – 3-4, fresh
Celery – 1-2 stalks, fresh
Parsnips – aka white carrots (optional), 1-2 fresh
Cold water – enough just to cover the chicken (NOT to fill whole pot)
Kosher salt – several tablespoons to begin with. Add more to flavor when final tasting the soup.
Soup ladle
Small bowl
Large spoon
Large spoons with holes or strainer with handle
Large bowl or platter

Preparing Chicken Soup:
Take out any inner plastic bag full of giblets, remove chicken neck for soup but other giblets not needed for the soup.
Rinse fresh chicken (inside and out) or chicken parts with cold water and pat dry.
Put the chicken or chicken parts into the large soup pot
Add cold water only to cover the top of the chicken, not any more. This will make a more flavorful chicken broth instead of a watery, diluted broth.
Cover the pot with matching lid and turn stove burner to medium high heat.
Wash, dry and peel carrots, celery and/or parsnips.
Peel the whole onion and do not cut it.
When you hear the water boiling or see steam escaping from under the lid, carefully take off the lid and turn down the heat of the stove burner to medium heat.
At this time take a large spoon with a small bowl to collect the foam off the top of the soup. This is called skimming.
Discard all of the foam that you have collected from skimming the soup.
While the soup is still at a rolling boil, add the vegetables.
Add the Kosher salt
Return the lid partially back on the soup pot while cooking continues.
Lower the stove burner to low heat.
Continue to cook the soup for about an hour and a half to two hours. The chicken should be floating to the top of the pot and the meat should be tender.
Carefully taste the soup for salt content. Add more Kosher salt at this time to your personal taste.
Turn off the stove burner under the pot, remove the lid.

Serving chicken soup:
Carefully lift the chicken or chicken parts out of the pot with large spoons with holes or strainer with handle. Put chicken in/on a large bowl or platter. Let chicken cool a bit and then take meat off the bones. Discard skin and bones of the chicken.
Remove the celery, onion and parsnips from the soup pot and discard.
Keep the cooked carrots for serving in the bowl of soup.
Ladle soup into a small serving bowl with pieces of the soft, cooked carrot.
Add some cooked chicken meat into the bowl.
Now enjoy a steaming bowl of wonderful, flavorful homemade chicken soup
Options: add some soup crackers to your bowl or cooked thin soup noodles or small pasta.

Salmon Salad - No Mayo - My First Blogaversary Gift To You

Fresh Salmon Salad - No Mayo

Here is my gift to you during the week of my First Blogaversary :)
Last July 2010, I created Prep2eat. As my first adventure into the blogging Foodie World, I am so happy to offer you this healthy, nutritious, fresh and flavorful recipe for my version of Salmon Salad.

My goal for blogging here at Prep2eat is to inspire home cooking without intimidation in the kitchen. If I assisted in any way to help you eat healthier and save some money at the same time, then I have achieved my goal. Hopefully my food photos have caught your eye to investigate further what I am preparing in my kitchen.

Most important education from my food blogging experience this past year is that I have networked with so many "foodies" just like me! I have learned how to write posts with more focus on details from following advice of authors and publishers I interacted with online. I have found my Voice. Thank you so much for your feedback and advice! Thank you also to my followers here at Prep2eat as well as on Twitter (@soupiton). I have so much fun getting to know you and learning from you. :)

This Salmon Salad Recipe has been adapted from a recipe I found that had fresh mint, olive oil, shredded carrots and other good things. What caught my eye to create my version of Salmon Salad was no mayo was used in this recipe! What keeps the price of preparing this recipe down is using canned, Alaskan Red Sockeye Salmon - an excellent source of Omega 3's and not farm-raised salmon. Fresh Sockeye Salmon is wonderful, but not available all year round and it is very expensive for feeding several people.
Therefore, I can have a very healthy, nutritious, economical meal any time of the year!

Ingredients:
One Can Alaskan Red Sockeye Salmon
Olive Oil, two tablespoons
One Carrot, grated on box grater
Cucumber, one half, peeled and grated or cut into small pieces.
Tarragon, one teaspoon dried.
Dill, one teaspoon dried.
Zest of one fresh Lemon
Juice of one half of fresh lemon.
Flat Leaf Parsley, fresh, chopped: two tablespoons (optional)

Serving suggestions: Put Salmon Salad in a sandwich, hot dog bun or serve with healthy tortilla chips.

Ingredients for Fresh Salmon Salad - No Mayo

Preparation:
Large Bowl
Can Opener
Kitchen Knife
Box Grater
Zester
Measuring Spoons
Large Spoon
Strainer

Plain, drained Salmon

With a can opener, carefully open the can of salmon.
Drain the liquid from the can of salmon using a strainer.
Put drained salmon into a large bowl.
Separate out the large bones and skin from the salmon.
(small bones are ok to keep in. they have lots of calcium.)
Add the olive oil into the bowl with the drained salmon.
Add the grated carrots into the bowl.
Add the grated or chopped cucumber into the bowl.
Add the dried Tarragon and Dill into the bowl.
Add the lemon zest along with lemon juice.
Add the chopped, fresh parsley. (optional.)
Mix all the ingredients together with a large spoon.

Roasted Turkey Breast - any day of the week.

(Uncooked split-turkey breast ready to go into the oven.)

What a wonderful surprise to find a small, fresh split-turkey breast in my supermarket. This special find fulfilled my goal of purchasing poultry that fits my criteria: Humanely Raised; Vegetarian Fed; No Antibiotics; No Growth Hormones. Thank you, Plainville Farms. www.plainvillefarms.com Check out their website or on Facebook.

The simplicity of my recipe for roasting the fresh split-turkey breast on a bed of cut veggies made up of carrots, celery and onions creates a magical sauce in the bottom of the roasting pan. The flavor dripping off of the cooking turkey into the vegetables under and around the turkey breast makes a gravey that is sweet and light in texture and flavor.
If you want to enhance and thicken this gravey, just add flour mixed in some cold water, add it to the gravey in a small saucepan, heat and stir until the gravy is your style. That's it. All done.

(Cooked split-breast turkey breast)

Preparation time before cooking is about 15 minutes.

Cooking time about one hour and forty-five minutes, depending on oven temperature accuracy and size of the turkey breast. The size of this split-turkey breast is 2.58 ounces and will serve six to eight people if serving about 4 ounces per person. (or cook and freeze small portions for fewer numbers of people eating.)
Test for doneness: A meat thermometer should read 170-175 degrees F. or
until juices flow clearly with a prick into the turkey breast meat.
During the cooking process, if you check the turkey breast and see that it is browning on top, cover lightly with a piece of aluminum foil to prevent further browning and drying out.
If you notice the vegetables have very little water around them, just add a bit more for the duration of the cooking process.

Ingredients:
Carrots, 2 medium, peeled and sliced
Celery, 1 stalk, peeled and sliced
Onion, 1/2 sweet onion, sliced
Split-turkey Breast
Salt, 1 teaspoon
Black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon, crushed
Paprika, 1 teaspoon
Olive oil, 1/4 cup dripped over the turkey breast
Water, 1/4 cup cold

Preparation:
Have oven rack in the center of the oven
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Wash and pat dry the turkey breast
Wash and dry carrots and celery. Peel and slice
Peel and slice the onion
Put all uncooked vegetables in the bottom of a roasting pan
Put the turkey breast on top of the uncooked veggies
Sprinkle salt, pepper and paprika on top of the uncooked turkey breast
Drip olive oil on top of the turkey breast
Add water around the vegetables in the roasting pan
Put the roasting pan with the uncooked turkey breast and vegetables into the oven on the center rack placement.
Roast the split-turkey breast until done.

Take the roasting pan out of the oven, cover the turkey breast with some aluminum foil and let stand without cutting for about 15 minutes to let all the juices remain in the turkey breast, leaving each slice moist and flavorful.

Veggie Medley Sauteed

Tonight's sidedish with dinner was a medley of veggies we had on hand in the refrigerator and pantry. A small zucchini, small yellow squash, one small carrot, half of a Vidalia onion and three cloves of fresh garlic. Assorted herbs and olive oil completed this sidedish. Fresh cherry tomatoes added at end for garnish.

Prep: Gather your veggies, wash and dry them. Have a cutting board, a sharp knife, a large frypan, three cloves of fresh garlic, peeled and sliced, not crushed. Sliced garlic gives a milder flavor. Cut the zucchini, yellow squash and carrot into small cubes or short sticks. Cut the onion in slices or dice it. Your choice. Dried herbs of choice this evening were oregano, basil, tarragon, pinch of red pepper flakes, and Kosher salt. Have a wooden spoon ready for stirring.

Saute: Put a few tablespoons of regular olive oil in the frypan. Turn heat on stove to med.high temp. When heated, add the onions first with a pinch or two of Kosher salt and stir around with wooden spoon. When onions look shiny, add the sliced garlic and keep stirring. After a few minutes, add the rest of the cut veggies and keep stirring. If more olive oil is needed, add some now. Sprinkle your dried herbs on the veggies while cooking and add a pinch more of salt to taste. When veggies look a bit softer, this dish is done.

Serving: Put the sauteed veggies into a nice serving dish. Add a few cut, washed fresh cherry tomatoes for a pop of color contrast. A sprinkle of dried tarragon gives a fresh look to the cooked veggies and another pop of color contrast.

Enjoy.