Soup Without Meat: Broccoli Cauliflower Soup

As a soup lover, I always feel one can't have too many soup recipes. I am not a big meat eater--just simply don't like the taste of most meats--so I love a good soup that isn't meat based. Assuming there are others out there like me, I am choosing to share a good soup recipe that is begetable based and doesn't involve meat. This recipe for Broccoli-Cauliflower Soup produces a delicious rich, creamy soup. With the broccoli, cauliflower, onion and chicken-flavored bouillon, you can eat and enjoy this soup without getting a mouthful of meat. I like it with a rustic crusty bread. However, if you still want meat, it is perfect to serve with a sandwich on the side. This soup also makes a great appetizer course. This soup is also okay for diabetics as it has half as many proteins as carbs.

BROCCOLI-CAULIFLOWER SOUP

1 1/2 cups water

1 pkg (10-oz) frozen chopped broccoli, thawed

1 pkg (10-oz) frozen cauliflower, thawed

1/3 cup chopped onion

2 tsp chicken-flavored bouillon granules

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp cornstarch

3 cups fat-free milk, divided

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

In a small Dutch oven or large saucepan, combine water, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, and bouillon granules. Cover pan and bring to a boil. Cook 5 to 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender. (Do not drain.) Stir in garlic powder. Process vegetable mixture in blender (will have to do in batches) until mixture is smooth. Return mixture to pan. Dissolve cornstarch in 1/2 cup of the milk, stirring until smooth. Stir cornstarch mixture into the vegetable mixture. Add the remaining milk, salt and pepper to the vegetable mixture; stirring well. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until mixture is thickened and bubbly.

15 one-half cup servings. Per serving: 35 calories, 6 g carbs, 3 g protein

Enjoy.

Author : Linda Wilson

About the Author :
For more of Linda's recipes and diabetic information, visit her site at http://diabeticenjoyingfood.squarespace.com

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Crockpot Cooking - How to Make Chicken Noodle Soup

Did you know that your humble crockpot could make a delicious pot of soup? While you are off at work or running errands, your soup will be simmering merrily, creating a delicious concoction of goodness. It does not matter if you are accomplished in the kitchen or if you only cook when absolutely necessary... you can make a wonderful chicken noodle soup in your crockpot that will be a vast improvement over canned soup.

If You Use Only the Freshest Ingredients...

If you only use the freshest ingredients, the crockpot can still make your soup easier. Remove the skin from your chicken. You can use a whole chicken, parts or boneless breasts or thighs... whichever you have handy. Put the chicken in the crockpot with enough water to cover it. You can add a stalk of celery, an onion, a carrot, and some herbs if you wish. Let it simmer on high for three to four hours.

Once your chicken is thoroughly cooked, take it out and cool it. Strain out the vegetables you have added and put them in your compost bin. Once your meat is cooled, debone it and cut the pieces into bite-size bits before replacing it in the crockpot. Chop up some fresh vegetables. Carrots, celery, rutabagas, sweet potatoes, and many others make excellent choices. Add some garlic and fresh herbs.

Keeping the crockpot on high let it cook for a couple more hours. Do not open the lid until it is time to add your noodles. Taste the broth about 45 minutes before you want to serve the soup. Add salt and other seasonings as needed. Add your noodles. This can be egg noodles, linguine, fettuccine, or any other noodle you prefer. Perhaps you have made homemade noodles to add... if so, they only need to cook about 20 minutes until they are tender.

Super Simple Chicken Noodle Soup

If you want to make soup extremely easy, try this tried and true method. This homemade chicken noodle soup is so easy a rank amateur could make it. If you have leftover chicken in the fridge, you can use that in your soup, or you can pick up one of those rotisserie chickens at the market.

Put the chicken in the crockpot, bones, and all. Cover with a large can of chicken broth. Simmer the soup on high for three or four hours. This will add the chicken's flavor to the commercial broth. Remove the chicken and let it cool before deboning it. Cut up the meat before putting it back in the crockpot.

Add some vegetables. You can use fresh sliced carrots or other vegetables, or you can use frozen vegetables. To make it really easy, just put in some whole baby carrots from the market. No peeling, slicing or dicing! Let the soup cook for a couple more hours.

About 30 to 45 minutes before serving, add the noodles of your choice. Perhaps you like the frilly egg noodles, or maybe some ramen noodles. Maybe all you have in the cupboard is a box of old lasagna noodles. If so, just break them into smaller pieces and put them in the soup.

Author : KC Kudra

About the Author :
Everyone loves chicken noodle soup. It helps us feel better when we're sick, or just feeling blue. For more inspiration, check out http://www.ChickenNoodleSoups.com for recipes, cooking tips and fun facts about everyone's favorite soup. Also find informative articles about chicken soup's health benefits and other info like cooking tips.

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Quick And Easy Breakfast Recipes

Breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day. Since you are still sleepy from a good night’s rest, it is only right that you should know some quick and easy recipes that you can come up with in a few minutes.

If your kids love milk, then offer them something by combining milk with some cereals and fruit. To do that, you pour cornflakes from the box and into the bowl. Add milk and then slice into small pieces a banana or some strawberries and then serve.

For adults, you can substitute cereal with oatmeal which is quite healthy since it has been proven to lower your cholesterol. You can add with your bowl of oatmeal some fruits as well which are also good for you.

You can’t have cereal or oatmeal everyday so why don’t you try something else like an omelet. There are different ways to make it and the simplest one is to cook 2 eggs and add margarine into a frying pan. You can add flavor to it by also putting in some sliced mushrooms, onion and sliced sausages.

Once the omelet begins to set, use a spatula to push the edges of the egg mixture in. Keep doing this until you can flip one side of the omelet over the other one and then serve on a plate.

Do you want some bread for breakfast? Well you can by making blueberry French toast. To do that, you will need some eggs, milk, cream cheese, blueberries, vanilla and cinnamon.

Using a blender, beat together the milk, cream cheese, and blueberries until smooth then set aside. Using a medium mixing bowl, beat the eggs then add vanilla, and cinnamon. When you are done, add the blueberry mixture.

The last thing to do before serving is to dip the bread in the batter, and fry in a pan or griddle until slightly browned.

Another all time favorite is the waffle and if you want to add some spice to it, don’t just make any and go for the German waffle.

The ingredients for the German waffle include half a cup of butter, some sugar, egg yolk, milk, flour, baking powder, salt and gratings of lemon.

Now cream the butter and add the sugar until this turns into a cream then add the egg yolks and beat thoroughly. Next, sift the flour, salt, and baking powder together and add this to the creamed mixture alternating with the milk. Add the lemon peel and blend thoroughly then cook using a hot waffle iron and serve.

Pancakes anyone? Well try out the French Jelly Pancake. If you know how to make pancakes, we can already skip forward and move on to the best part which is adding the jelly. You have to do this while it is still hot and spread this evenly to keep it from spreading.

Next, dredge this with sugar and to make it look attractive, burn some lines around it using your toaster before serving.

Breakfast is important and fortunately, there are a lot of great quick and easy recipes that you can serve when you get up in the morning. As refreshments, always serve it with a cup of coffee or tea for the grownups and milk or juice for the kids.

Author : Joe Golson

About the Author :

Overwhelmed and confused about how to take off weight and lose the belly fat for greater stomach loss.Don't be,Click here for FREE Weight Loss Information.

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The Versatile Kitchen Tool - Crockpot Cooking

Cooking with a crockpot can make it easy to have dinner waiting when you come home. By filling up the crockpot before you leave for work or school in the morning, you can be greeted by the delicious scent of dinner when you walk in the door at the end of the day.

Tips for Using Your Crockpot

There are a few tips that will help your crockpot meals turn out perfect every time. First, never overfill the crockpot. Make sure when you are filling it up that the pot is between half and three-quarters full. Too full, and your food will not cook enough. If the pot is too empty, the food will cook too quickly and you will come home to a dinner that is overdone.

If you are using fresh vegetables, put them on the bottom. They will take longer to cook than your meat. This is a bit hard to believe, but it is true. If you are using frozen vegetables, place them on top of your meat, since they will cook faster.

You may want to try browning your meat before placing it in the crockpot. This renders fat and caramelizes the natural sugars in the meat, creating a delicious flavor. If you wish to deglaze the pan afterwards with broth, water, or wine, you can add these tasty drippings to your crockpot so you can enjoy them later. Removing extra fat and skin will also help your meat cook better.

Tender ingredients like tomatoes, mushrooms, and dairy products should be added the last 30 to 45 minutes of cooking. Make sure the temperature is on low for dairy products to keep them from curdling. If you are adding thickeners like cornstarch, it should be added in the last hour with the temperature on high to activate their thickening qualities. Rice and pasta should be added during the last 45 minutes so they do not get too mushy.

While cooking, try not to remove the lid. If you need to add more ingredients, add them all at once if possible to reduce losing heat from the crockpot. Every time you lift the lid, add another half hour to your cooking time.

Meals You Can Make in the Crockpot

These easy tips can help make your crockpot useful and versatile. You can make almost anything in the crockpot. Pulled pork with barbecue sauce is easy in the crockpot, as is Asian chicken. Stew and chili are old standbys for the crockpot, as is chicken soup. Vegetable dishes like creamed corn with cream cheese is delicious for a side dish.

Did you know you could even bake in your crockpot? It is true! Cakes, breads, and other baked desserts are simple to make in your crockpot. All you need is an insert pan. Crockpot cookery is easy and versatile. It can serve you well several nights a week.

In today's fast past busy lifestyle a crockpot can help give you back some of your free time and make dinner time much more enjoyable for the working cook of the family. The crockpot is also the perfect tool for summertime cooking as it gets you out of the hot kitchen and out enjoying the extra free time you will find.

Author : KC Kudra

About the Author :
Crockpots are not just for one-dish meals. If you are intrigued with using your crockpot, visit ChickenNoodleSoups.com for new soup recipes to try while you are away from the house. It is so nice to come home to a fragrant, delicious meal already waiting for you. Nothing but chicken soups of all kinds. Also find informative articles about chicken soup's health benefits and other interesting info like soup cooking tips.

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Recipe for Creamy Tomato Soup With Dill

This recipe is good for all of your family and friends including the diabetics in your group. This Creamy Tomato Soup with Dill can be used in several different ways. If you are planning a large, several course meal, this soup is perfect for the first course when served in small serving cups as an appetizer. It is good for a light lunch when served with some crackers and fresh fruit. Or serve it for lunch or dinner with a salad or a sandwich. A grilled cheese sandwich is always good with tomato soup. So give this versatile creamy soup a try soon!

CREAMY TOMATO SOUP WITH DILL

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tbsp olive or canola oil

1 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp salt

dash of black pepper

3 large tomatoes, sliced

1 can (6 oz) tomato paste

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups water, divided

3/4 cup whipping cream, whipped

1 to 2 tablespoons finely minced fresh dill OR 1 to 2 teaspoons dill weed

In a large saucepan over low heat, cook onion and garlic in oil and butter until tender. Add salt, pepper, and tomatoes; cook over medium-high heat for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in tomato paste. In a small bowl, combine flour and 1/2 cup of water; stir until smooth. Stir into saucepan. Gradually stir in remaining water until smooth; bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Place mixture in a sieve over a bowl. With the back of a spoon, press vegetables through the sieve to remove seeds and skin. Return the puree to pan. Add cream and dill; cook over low heat just until heated through. DO NOT BOIL.

Yield: 1 quart

Enjoy!

Author : Linda Wilson

About the Author : For more of Linda's recipes and health information, visit http://diabeticenjoyingfood.squarespace.com

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Cooking Healthy And With Less Fat

By cutting down on fat, you can easily reduce your energy intake without affecting the other essential nutrients. And by choosing the right types of fat, using low fat and fat free products whenever possible, and making small, simple changes to the way you cook and prepare food, you can reduce your overall fat intake quite dramatically and enjoy a much healthier diet without really noticing any difference.

Watching your fat intake doesn't have to mean dieting and deprivation. Using the right ingredients and using substitutions can result in tremendous weight loss, while retaining the great taste and texture of many of your favorite foods.

For instance, if you have a recipe that calls for ½ cup of vegetable oil try substituting the oil with ½ cup of fruit puree. To make a fruit puree, you simply put 4oz of any dried fruit into your blender with about 5 tablespoons of water, then blend until it's smooth. There is no real conversion "factor". If the recipe calls for ½ cup of oil, just substitute with ½ cup of your puree. This substitution works quite well with almost any recipe except for pastries which require the actual fat for consistency and baking.

The best fruits to use for your puree are prunes, peaches, apricots and apples. You can also use fresh fruit by eliminating the water to make the puree. Applesauce works quite well in many recipes that call for vegetable or other oil.

Another method of reducing fat in your cooking is to use non-stick cookware.

Also, when baking foods such as chicken or fish, rather than adding a pat of butter to the food, try baking the food in a loosely sealed package of foil or greaseproof paper and adding some wine or fruit juice and herbs and spices to the food before sealing the package.

Other methods of reducing fat intake are to steam or boil, rather than bake. Marinate your meat or poultry in mixtures of alcohol, herbs and spices; or use fruit juice. Marinating helps to tenderize meats, adds unique flavors and, in addition, the marinate can be used to baste the food while it's cooking.

For vegetables, resist the urge to add a pat of butter to your serving. Instead sprinkle with chopped fresh herbs or ground spices.

Simply by rethinking the way you cook, can greatly reduce the amount of fats you eat each day. You NEED fat, but controlling how much you consume can help to reduce the amount of fat calories that you consume each day.

Author : Andrew Mullins

About the Author :

Fat Loss 4 Idiots has a diet plan to fit the needs of any individual. Start your new diet regimen today and be ready for summer! To see a complete review of the internets top 5 weight loss programs visit Weight Loss Reviews.

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