Zuppa Toscana (Tuscan Soup - Sausage & Potatoes)

Zuppa Toscana

5-1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream or milk
2-3 medium russet potatoes
2-4 cups chopped kale
1-1/4 pounds mild or spicy Italian brats (usually pkg'd this way with 5 brats)
Pinch cayenne pepper
Paremesan Cheese

Combine broth and cream or milk in Dutch Oven over medium heat. Peel and chop potatoes into even pieces. Add to soup.
Chop your kale, making sure to remove the leave part from the tough vein first.

I grew my own flowering kale this year. It's so pretty!
Add to soup.
Remove casing from bratwurts and cook. Drain. Add to soup.
Simmer for up to 1/2 hour or until potatoes are tender. Serve with shredded Parmesan cheese

Broccoli Chicken

Broccoli Chicken 

1 pound chicken breast cut into strips (can also substitute finely sliced beef)
1-1/2 teaspoons diced garlic
1 T sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cornstarch
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 head broccoli

Steam broccoli until it is as soft as you like. My family likes it soft!
Mix the garlic, sugar, cornstarch together.
Marinade meat in it for up to 1/2 hour.

Cook in oil in hot wok or other non-stick pan.

Add in broccoli (you might not need whole head) and serve with fried rice .

Southwestern Chicken Soup

Southwestern Chicken Soup                                                          Printable Recipe

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast
1 T olive oil
1-1/2 t cumin
1/8 t dried red pepper (cayenne) (more as you like)
3/4 t minced garlic
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1 green pepper, diced (1c)
1/2 medium onion, diced (1c)
2 ears corn or 8 oz bag frozen corn or 1 can corn, drained
28 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
8 oz can tomato sauce
2 cups chicken broth
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can Great Northern (white) beans, drained and rinsed
tortilla strips/chips **(or white corn tortillas and canola oil, see directions below)
sour cream
shredded Cheddar, Mexi-blend cheese, or Chihuahua Cheese
avocado

Mix half of the spices and oil together and add chicken to coat. Set aside for grilling.

Dice green pepper and onion and add along with the other 1/2 of the oil and seasonings to a large pot.

Cook until soft, 10-15 minutes.

Microwave corn for 5-6 minutes or boil. Add to grill with chicken to get char marks. (Means more flavor!)

Grill chicken.

Chop chicken into chunks and remove corn kernels from cob.

Rinse beans in colander. If you don't the brown beans will make your soup dirty looking.

Add everything to the pot...chicken, corn, tomatoes, beans, etc. Simmer for 25 minutes

**For tortilla strips

Cut tortillas into strips and fry in small amount of canola oil until crispy. Drain.

Dish it up anyway you like it with the cheese, tortilla chips, sour cream, and/or avocado!

Pin it:  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/273593746082498065/

Sausage Gravy

Sausage Gravy

1 pound ground pork (or you can get ground sausage and skip the seasonings)
2 teaspoons rubbed sage
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons water

1/4 cup flour (or 1/3 cup oat flour for a GF version)
2 cups milk

Cook pork with sage, black pepper, cayenne, salt and water.  Drain some of the fat off. Add the flour, stir to incorporate and cook for about 1 minute. Add milk slowly so not to cause lumps.  Cook until thickened. Serve over biscuits, homemade or whopped*.



* Whopped means the kind from the store. After you peel off the paper from the package you then 'whop' it on the counter to break the seal.


Also great over a Breakfast Slam

and used in the Chuckwagon Breakast

Meatloaf Patties

Making meatloaf patty style does three things:  It insures everyone gets plenty of topping, your meat is always cooked through, and it saves time since it cooks faster. Bonus?  It's freezable. Zip on down to the bottom to see how to freeze them for later.

Meatloaf Patties

olive oil

1/2 cup onion, diced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1-1/2 Tablespoon chicken broth

1 teaspoon tomato paste

1 pound ground beef

2-1/2 Tablespoons bread crumbs (use quinoa flakes for GF)

1 egg

1/2 c ketchup (or more to your taste!) BBQ sauce can also be used

Chop/dice onion. I do mine pretty small  so there are never any crunchy onions in my meatloaf.Cook onions in oil with salt/pepper until completely cooked. Turn off heat. Add Worcestershire sauce, broth, and paste. Mix and cool a little. Mix eggs and bread crumbs...Add tomato/onion mixture to it. and beef. Form into 3-4 hamburger patties. Put on jelly roll pan (cookie sheet with sides) and drizzle with ketchup. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until done. 

To grill... Heat ketchup separately  mostly to get the chill off. Grill meatloaf patties on medium heat for for 5-6 minutes. Flip, add ketchup and grill for another 5-6 minutes.
You can make more than one batch at a time. TO FREEZE....Form patties and put on wax paper lined cookie sheet. Freeze and then bag. To cook, thaw and cook according to directions above.

Chicken Strips with Homemade Honey BBQ

Making your own chicken strips is easy and skip all the crazy long unpronounceable ingredients.  They are freezer friendly and re-heat easily.  Great cold for lunches too.  Want nuggets?  Cut up the chicken a little smaller and fry it up just the same.

Chicken Strips with Homemade Honey BBQ                                    Printable Recipe

Sauce:
1-1/4 cups ketchup
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon plus a dash onion powder
Dash red cayenne powder
Dash garlic powder
Dash cumin




Batter:
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
2 cups all-purpose flour (or Jovial Einkorn flour)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper


Chicken wing pieces or you can use cut up chicken/turkey breast or tenders OR bake prebreaded frozen chicken tender/wings


Canola oil for frying


Sauce...
Combine the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until ingredients are well combined and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes. It will thicken as it cool. Keep in fridge.


Heat oil to 350 degrees in a deep fryer.


Combine the beaten egg with the milk in a small bowl. In another small bowl, combine the flour, salt, and pepper.


Dip each piece of chicken first in the flour mixture...
then into the milk and egg mixture...

and back into the flour.

Arrange chicken on a plate until each one is coated with batter.

Fry the pieces for 9 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. My self cut tenders were thinner, I think I did about 5-6 minutes.

Drain on paper towels or a rack.

Drizzle or dip in the honey bbq sauce. Awesome cold out of the fridge!

Gluten free version!! *I found I didn't use as much coating with this so start off with 1 cup of GF flour.  You can always add more to your breading dish if you need to.

Also works great with Jovial Einkorn flour!!

Saltimbocca

Saltimbocca

1 oz Parmesan Cheese (shaker stuff is ok but we prefer the shredded cheese)

3 Tablespoons flour

dried parsley (I don't measure, I just shake in for color)

olive oil

thin sliced pork, turkey, or chicken (I'd say about 1/4")

proscuitto

3/4- 1 cup chicken broth

Mix flour, parmesan, and dried parsley.

This is the proscuitto, very thin and easy to tear into the right shape for your meat. Edible just like this since it's not raw, more like a thin ham but will crisp up like bacon.

Lay the proscuitto on the meat and coat with flour mixture.

Add olive oil to the pan and place meat in the pan, try not to crowd so they brown and not steam. Cook on each side until golden. 3-5 mins total since meat is thin.

You can cook this two ways. You can cook the meat in batches and do the sauce at the end or do 1 batch and sauce, then the second, third (however many you need) and do sauce for each as you go. I prefer to do sauce for each batch as I go. If you use a non stick pan there will not be as many bits in it as a stainless steel but I prefer the clean up from a nonstick, much easier!

To make the 'sauce' add a little bit of the chicken broth ... and let it simmer a little. It will combine with the flour on the meat and thicken. It's not a heavy sauce, just for some added moisture.

Tastes great served with this garlic cream sauce.