Kitchen

I’m loving soups right now: warm, comforting, and easy.


Sausage Minestrone

Ingredients:

• Onion, chopped
• Sausage (I used breakfast sausage because it was on sale, but Italian would be super yummy too)
• 28 oz Can of diced tomatoes
• box of low sodium chicken broth
• Can of beans (optional, I used kidney)
• 1/3-1/2 cup Alphabet Pasta (or any small pasta)
• Swiss Chard or Spinach, cut up or torn into small chunks.
• Garlic power, basil, rosemary, thyme, and pepper to taste.

Directions:

1. Cook Sausage and Onion in a bit of oil until Sausage is cooked through.
2. Add tomatoes, broth, beans and pasta.
3. Bring to a boil and cook until pasta is tender.
4. Turn off burner and add Swiss Chard or Spinach.

I doubled this and froze some for a lazy day.  So easy and so good.

For me, the hardest part of going milk free was adjusting my thinking to what I could eat rather than lamenting what I’m missing. However, once I did some research on all the dairy replacement products out there, googled some dairy-free recipes, and thought about how I could adapt what I normally cook, going milk-free wasn’t so bad. In fact, I’m really enjoying trying some new dishes! But I won’t lie: I’m tempted to feed the girls frozen milk for two or three days so I can binge on Mac and Cheese, Pizza, Tacos, and Ice Cream…

So for those of you with the same Milk-Free Restrictions  the girls have put on me, I’ve decided to start a dairy-free recipes series.  As I’ve already mentioned, most of my cooking is a fun creative experiment. I toss things in the pan and see what happens.  But since I have two little ones to care for, most of these recipes will be very simple and quick.  However, sometimes I do cook-a-thons on Saturdays or Sundays while Derek cares for the girls, so some recipes take longer. I’ll try to remember to mark more weekend-oriented recipes.

Ham and Bean Soup 
Hands on Time: 10-20 minutes chopping veggies. Less if you roughly chop them in the food processor.
Total Time: 30-40 minutes

 
Ingredients

• Onion
• Celery
• Red Potatoes
• (Any other veggies dying to get out of your fridge)
• 2 packages of cubed ham (or a ham and turkey mix)
• 2 Cans of Great Northern beans
• 2 containers of reduced Sodium Chicken Broth

 Directions

1. Finely chop onion and celery and cook in a little oil until translucent.
2. Add finely chopped potatoes and ham cubes.  Cook while rinsing your beans.
3. Add beans and broth.  Bring to a boil.
4. Turn down to a simmer and simmer until potatoes are tender (15-20 minutes)
5. Serve with homemade Jiffy Corn Muffins (dairy-free mix!) if desired.