Progresso Soups

We have tried quite a few soup brands and we finally decided the soups made by Progresso are the best. They taste like home made, which gives us a quick and rather inexpensive emergency-type meal. The soups by Progresso does not need extra fixing, but I still season them a bit, in my way.

We still haven't tasted all the soup kinds they make, we still have our favorite ones, though. The lentils soup is especially good when served with fresh corn bread.

Pork Stew

Ingredients: 

• pork stew meat (a half a pound)
• some flour
• some oil for frying the meat
• chopped onion
• some frozen vegetables
• 4 peeled potatoes
• 1 2/4 cup water
• three TBs tomato sauce
• 1/2 tomato chicken bouillon cube
• salt pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• some parsley flakes

Procedure:

1. Season the meat with salt and pepper
2. Coat it with some flour - shake off the excess of flour.
3. Heat the oil in a pan.
4. Fry the coated meat till brownish.
5. Put the fried meant into a pot, add 1 1/4 water to a bigger pot, frozen vegetables, onion, potatoes cut into pieces, tomato sauce, bouillon cube, and oregano.
6. Cover the pot, cook at 2 for about 1 1/2 hour (till the vegetables are soft)
7. Mix 1 Tbsp flour with 1/4 hot water and to the soup and cook for a few minutes longer.
8. Season with salt and pepper.
9. Serve with some parsley flakes and corn bread.

Soups on Our Menu: Chicken Noodle Soup

Since we like having chicken noodle soup at weekends, I am sharing my way of making the soup.

What you need:

(yield: for two persons)

• 1 chicken breast cut into small pieces,
• 1 bay leaf + dash cracked black pepper,
• some onion - diced,
• a bit of oil to fry the onion,
• a few baby carrots cut into pieces,
• 1 can cream of chicken,
• 1 chicken bouillon cube,
• salt and pepper,
• some pasta,
• some dried parsley.

How to make the soup:

1.  Put the chicken breast pieces into a pot (not a very big one), cover with cold water, add the cracked black pepper and bay leaf. Cook the meat at 4 till it is done (usually it takes about 20 minutes or so).
2. Fry the diced onion for a few minutes (4-5), until it is soft.
3. Add the onion and the carrots to the pot with the cooked chicken pieces.
4. Cook it all till the carrots are soft.
5. Add the cream of chicken to the soup, stir it well and keep on cooking (at 4).
6. Add the bouillon cube, boil the soup. Season with salt and black pepper as you like.
7. Cook the pasta in a separate pot, according to the instructions given on the pasta package.
8. Drain the pasta. Put it into soup bowls, pour the chicken soup over the pasta.
9. Add/pour some dried parsley to each bowl/serving.
10. Serve and enjoy. 😊

Soups on Our Menu: Onion Soup

A few years ago, I was served onion soup in a restaurant. The soup was awful and I did not eat it. Since that was the only time when I had onion soup, I thought I could try to make some good one for us.

I found a recipe, which seemed easy, and decided to follow it.

There was no problems with making the soup, except the final part. The recipe calls for broiling the soup, bread + cheese in the oven and we do not have small soup serving bowls which are oven proof. I did it anyway - in a bit different way -  just used a big pyrex dish.

The results were not good enough though. The slices of bread were mushy.
I also tried melting the cheese in the microwave: the soup got extremely hot but the cheese did not melt entirely.  All in all, no matter what my attempts where, the final effect was not very enjoyable.

Attempt #1

We ate the onion soup - attempt #1 - even though it was very sweet. Too sweet according to our likes.

Some time later, I made it again but that time I skipped the sugar. The onions, prepared according to the recipe are sweet enough, so no sugar is needed at all.
Finally, before serving, I topped the soup with a 'good' amount of shredded cheese and some croutons (instead of broiling bread and cheese slices). And this is our  way of making and serving the French onion soup.

As my husband said: 'The soup gives a good taste to the palate'. It is very good for an appetizer indeed.

Final result which we like......

Soups on Our Menu: Ground Beef & Beans Soup

I found this recipe on Leanna's pages here. When I first read it, I thought I would make the soup for us. The day came yesterday - I was ready to cook it. However, I modified the recipe (ingredients) a bit, to adjust it to the Texas cooking style and our likes as well.

What I used:

• 1lb ground beef,
• 3 celery stalks - cut into pieces,
• 1 big onion - as above,
• 3 garlic cloves - chopped,
• 1 tsp salt,
• 1 tsp cumin,
• 1 Tsp chili powder,
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper,
• 4 cups water,
• 2 chicken bouillon cubes,
• 1 can diced tomatoes with green chili,
• 1 can cannellini beans - drained,
• 1 can red kidney beans - drained
• grated Mexican cheese (Queso Quesadilla) & chips to serve with the soup.

While making the soup, I followed the procedure given in Leanna's recipe.

At the end, when the soup was already in the bowls, I sprinkled it with some grated cheese.
It was a very nice meal which we both enjoyed. Certainly, the recipe is a keeper.

Thank you Leanna!

Soups on Our Menu: Chicken & Dumplings

Although soups are a nice option to a meat only dinner, I do not cook them often. First of all, a soup does not last long: having had a soup, you rather quickly get hungry again. On the other hand, when we eat a bowl of soup, we are not able to eat any second course then.

There are only a few kinds of soup which we both like (3 or 4?) and which I cook every now and then. I thought I could try to expand our soup menu and look for some new (and maybe worth trying recipes). Every month I am going to make some new stuff and share my soup attempts with you. Since we fancy cuisine of various countries, I wish I could possibly find a variety of good recipes, so that we would have soups more often.

Here is our soup number 1: chicken and dumplings. I am happy to say, I finally managed to find my own way of making it. The soup which I cooked last time was my best ever. Mainly because I discovered the advantages of canned cream soup. Previously I made chicken and dumplings from  scratch - without adding cream chicken soup and, despite my tries and efforts, the results where not equally tasty then.

Chicken and dumplings recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 single chicken breast;
• 1 chicken bouillon cube ;
• 1 can cream chicken soup;
• 1 celery stalk - cut into small pieces;
• 1/2 small onion - chopped;
• 3-4 baby carrots chopped;
• about 1 TBS oil
• salt;
• pepper;
• 1 bay leaf and 3 grains black pepper (to cook the chicken breast);
• water;
• 1/2 - 1 TBS dried parsley;
• 2 flour tortillas cut into square stripes (yes, they make good dumplings!).

What to do with it all:

1. Place chicken breast in a pan (add black pepper grains and a bay leaf), cover the breast with cold water and cook slowly (at 4). Cooking does not last long - the breast is ready when it is no longer pink (inside and outside).
2. Take the chicken breast out of the pot, shred it with a fork, leave it aside on a plate.
3. Add cream chicken soup, chicken bouillon cube to the pan with the water in which the breast was cooked. Stir it and cook till the soup boils again.
4. Heat the oil in a frying pan, put the celery stalk and onion pieces in the pan - cook it for several minutes until the vegetables are soft. Stir frequently.
5. Add celery and onion to the soup.
6. Cook the carrots in a small pot (add some water) until they are soft enough to be added to the soup. Do not cook too long as the carrots will get mushy.
7. Add carrots and chicken pieces to the soup .
8. Season with salt and pepper - as you like.
9. Add dried parsley pieces - mix the soup with a spoon
10. Add tortilla pieces. (usually, after adding tortillas I need to season the soup with a bit more salt - somehow flour tortillas tend to make the soup bland).
11. Simmer the soup for about 15 - 20 minutes and serve.

Bon Appetit!

Taste of (Polish) Summer

Summer in Poland means, besides warmer weather, fresh fruit based dishes. At least to me.
Strawberries served with cream and sugar, blueberry pierogi, plum knedle, blueberry soup and cherry soup made by my mum. All so very tasty and refreshing at the same time!
I enjoy having and making various kinds of food: Southern, Tex-Mex, Asian, Italian or, generally speaking, European. But, sometimes I do crave the meals we had at home in Poland. The familiar/favorite tastes of the cuisine not available here. Since I am not good at making any type of pierogi (I have tried a few times but the results were rather miserable), I do not even attempt to cook anything like that these days. That is why, missing the summer Polish dishes, I finally cooked cherry soup. Easy to make and so enjoyable! All you need is the fruit, water, sugar and some cornstarch ( I used Polish potato flour instead). Some time ago I bought a bag of frozen, pitted cherries - I thought I would make a pie. Later I forgot about them. When the crave for the fruit meals came, I had the key ingredient in the freezer, ready to be cooked.

What I used (for two servings):

• 1 bag (12 oz) frozen (pitted) sweet, dark cherries  - I used about 99% of the bag content
• water,
• 3 TBS sugar,
• about 1 TBS potato flour (cornstarch),
• 2 qt pan.
• And: 1/2 cup elbow pasta.

 

What to do with it:

1. Cover frozen cherries with water and cook (at 4) to boil, add sugar (the soup should be refreshing, not too sweet). 
2. Mix potato flour (or cornstarch) with a bit of cold water, add this mixture to the soup, to thicken it (do not make it too thick!), stir, cook for about two minutes. If it happens that the soup gets too thick, add some more cold water.
3. Remove from heat and chill.
4. Cook the pasta according to the instructions provided by its manufacturer.
5. Serve the chilled soup with pasta.

I had not eaten this kind of soup for about four years, so I was quite happy when I made it. It was sooooooooo good! Next time I will make blueberry soup - soon!

Cold Winter Front Ideas

Are you enjoying the winter? Maybe you do some winter sports or maybe you prefer watching them on TV only? Whatever you like, you can always enjoy a bowl of nice, hot soup and some sweet dessert.

Our ways to scare the winter away:

good soup

chicken soup & great beef stew

and sweet cinnamon donuts

Olympic donuts experiment results