Cabbage Roll Soup

Cabbage Roll Soup
Adapted from: Hey That Tastes Good (I added some things)

1 pound ground beef (you could mix beef & pork)

salt and pepper

2 teaspoons paprika

1 onion, diced

2 carrots, cut into half moons

2 stalks of celery, diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes

1 quart chicken stock

1/2 head of cabbage, core removed and the rest sliced into thin strips

1/2 cup long grain rice

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 teaspoon celery salt

 

We are moving to a clean eating household... but aren't there quite yet, so to make this as a true clean eating recipe - you might make your own stock, can your own tomatoes, and use brown rice instead of white.

 

I put the onion, carrots, celery, celery salt, and garlic in a large stock pot with the salt & pepper and let them start cooking for about 5 minutes... I then added the meat and let it brown while the vegetables continued to get soft. After the meat is browned, add the tomatoes, chicken stock, and cabbage. Let the soup come to a boil for about 5-10 minutes then add the rice. Let everything cook together for 20-30 minutes. At the very end, we added the vinegar.

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Pasta Fagoli Soup

 

Pasta Fagoli Soup
My version

1 lb ground sirloin -- the original recipe called for ground Italian sausage
4 large carrots, sliced or chopped
1 small/medium onion, chopped
1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 can cannellini beans, drained
1 cup ditalini pasta or small pasta (like a small elbow noodle)
6 cups chicken stock
salt & pepper
2-3 tsp garlic powder (I didn't measure this -- I just added a liberal amount so I'm guessing)
1 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
Parmesan for the topping

I made this up to the last step during naptime, and then all I needed to do was add the pasta to finish it when it was dinner time. I love meals that can be prepped ahead and finished quickly. 

I started off browning my meat in a stock pot with a liberal coating of salt & pepper. Add in the carrots and onion - cook until they start to get soft. If there isn't enough grease in the pan from your meat, you may need to add a small amount of olive oil to keep the veggies from burning.

Stir in the diced tomatoes, drained cannellini beans, garlic powder, thyme, bay leaf, and 4 cups of the chicken stock. Bring to a simmer, and let it sit in the pot covered until you're ready to finish it off.

Add in the remaining 2 cups of stock and the pasta, boil until the pasta is ready about 10 minutes or so. Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on the soup as you are serving it. I served ours with bread, but a good homemade Cesar salad would go nicely too. Pin It Now!

Prune Cake

Let me start off by saying that I know this sounds weird, but it's a childhood favorite of my mother's. You could easily leave the prunes out and have a nice spice cake... which is what I'd do if I made it for myself.

Prune Cake
Courtesy of: Meme

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups flour
3 beaten eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp allspice
1 cup chopped prunes
1 cup chopped pecans

Icing:
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup prune juice (you could sub in orange juice or something else in lieu of the prunes)
2 tbsp flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup pecans

Cream the butter and sugar together with a mixer, I used my stand mixer for this because the batter is a tad bit thick. Add the buttermilk and eggs and mix until smooth.

In another mixing bowl - combine the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder, and allspice. Begin slowly mixing the dry ingredients in small amounts into the wet ingredients. Mix until combined. Add in the chopped prunes and pecans at the end.

You can bake this as a round cake, but for this time around my Mom was traveling with it to visit my Grandmother - so I baked it in a 13x9 pan so that it was easier to travel with and we didn't have to worry about the layers shifting.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour. There wasn't a baking time on the original recipe, so I wanted to make sure it wasn't overdone. Always easier to check on it and put it back in for a little longer than to over bake it.

Once it is done let it cool. It is a warm icing, so it doesn't have to be completely cooled before you finish it.

When you are ready to frost it -- mix all the icing ingredients together and boil on the stove until it thickens. It is pretty thick when it is done. I start mine slow and add more heat gradually to make sure that the eggs don't scramble.

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