Italian Sausage-Vegetable Soup

SLOW COOKER! That's right. Another slow cooker recipe.

The Recipe:
1/2 lb. bulk Italian pork sausage
1 cup sliced carrots
1 large baking potato, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cans ready-to-serve beef broth (141/2 oz. each)
1 can garbanzo beans or chick peas, drained (15 oz.)
1 can chunky tomatoes, undrained (141/2 oz.)
11/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
1 bay leaf
1 cup julienne-cut zucchini
grated Parmesan cheese

1. In large skillet, brown sausage; drain. In 31/2 to 4-quart Crockery Pot, combine cooked sausage and all remaining ingredients except zucchini and cheese; stir gently to mix.

2. Cover; cook on low setting for 7 to 9 hours.

3. Remove bay leaf.

4. Gently stir in zucchini. Cover and cook an additional 30 minutes or until zucchini is tender.

5. To serve, ladle soup into bowls and sprinkle with cheese

My Experience:
Easy. Yummy. Need I say more?

I would actually put more carrots next time since I love carrots.

Careful when serving, the chick peas sink to the bottom. Make sure to scoop them out.

Makes 7-8 servings

The Ratings:
Joelle's rating: 6/10
My rating: 7/10

Snack-ies

Now none of this is actually cooked by me. But it's just some suggestions for pre-meal time snacks that I know my family enjoys.



So in this picture we have:

1. Pumpernickel bread to go with some spinach dip (one of these days I'll try homemade spinach dip).

2. Bagel Chips and roasted garlic hummus (I also heard hummus is easy to make and cheap too! That will be coming soon).

3. Veggie platter with Heluva Good Dip (love this brand of dip! good with ripple chips or tostitos)

4. Tostitos and salsa! (once again, could make own salsa but I'm not a huge salsa person personally... others can enjoy!)

6. Deviled eggs (my FAVORITE!!!!)


So yea, some of this you could make homemade, which I plan on doing for some in the near future! So keep your eyes peeled for some new blogs.

Roasted Garlic and Feta Dip

Yummy. I saw the recipe on the side of my cracker box and realized I had all the ingredients in the fridge so I made some :)

The Recipe:
1 cup sour cream
1 cup feta cheese
2 tbsp roasted garlic
2 tbsp black olives, chopped
2 tbsp roasted red pepper, diced
1 tbsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste

1. To roast garlic, drizzle 1 tsp of olive oil over head of garlic and wrap in foil. Bake at 400F for approximately 1 hour or until soft

2. In a food processor, blend sour cream, crumbled feta and roasted garlic until smooth

3. Stir in black olives, red pepper and oregano

4. Season with salt and pepper to taste

5. Serve with Rosemary & Olive Oil Crispy Baguettes Omega-3 (yea yea... promoting)

My Experience:
Well it's a simple dip to make. Makes a little more dishes since there is a food processor involved but oh well. And I LOVE garlic so I added more than the recommended amounts (and I was lazy and used minced garlic... next time I will actually roast it. Don't judge me, I was hungry). But yea, good if you like feta and garlic which I do.

The Ratings:
My rating: 8/10