Chicken Pot Pie Soup (10 Days of Family Friendly Soups)

This series: I've made a lot of soup in the past few years.  I've come to know what my family will eat and what they won't.  Why don't you put my experience to work for you?!  Hope you find something tasty!  (I think you will!)

10 Days of Family Friendly Soups :: Day 2

We first had this soup when it was given to us by the lovely Mary through one of my annual frozen meal exchanges.  My children would have licked the soup pot clean had I not restrained them.  I don't usually care for traditional chicken pot pie, and even I loved this soup.  This year, there was no chicken pot pie soup at the exchange, so I made several batches myself.  No one complained :)  

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

(original recipe from Chocolate Moosey - I have made made a very few changes to "beef" it up a little bit)

Ingredients

(the recipe written here is doubled, suitable for a large family dinner)

4 c. shredded cooked chicken

4 T. butter

1 c. chopped onion

2 -3 c. carrots, peeled and sliced into coins

1/2 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. garlic powder

6 c. chicken broth

2 c. heavy cream or whole milk

1 1/2 - 2 c. potatoes, peeled and diced into cubes

1 1/2 c. frozen peas

Instructions

In a large pot, melt the butter.  

Add onion and carrots.  Cook over medium heat until the onions are soft.

Stir in flour, salt, and garlic powder, stirring continuously to form a roux.

Gradually stir in the broth and milk.  

Bring to a boil and add potatoes.

Reduce heat and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes or until potatoes are soft.

Add the peace and chicken.

Heat through.

Notes

Carla, from Chocolate Moosey, includes a recipe for cheddar biscuits with the soup recipe.  I encourage you to go check it out, as I'm sure homemade biscuits are delicious!

I, however, have not made them yet, and have taken it easy on myself by serving this soup with Bisquick biscuits.  I made their standard biscuit recipe and just added lots of cheddar cheese and chives, and a little bit of garlic.

This soup freezes well.  Just thaw, reheat, and eat!

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* Note: when the 10 Days Series is over, all soup recipes will be available on 

The Soup Savvy Page at the top.  So please feel free to Pin them now, or come back and visit the soup page another time!  You won't miss out on anything! 

Tortellini Vegetable Soup (10 Days of Family-Friendly Soups)

This series: I've made a lot of soup in the past few years.  I've come to know what my family will eat and what they won't.  Why don't you put my experience to work for you?!  Hope you find something tasty!  (I think you will!)

10 Days of Family Friendly Soups :: Day 1

This is a soup that I adapted from a recipe I originally found via Family Fun Magazine, but I'm unable to find the original link.  I tried.  Sorry.  I've made enough changes to it to not feel too bad...  It was my idea to "health" it up by adding the spinach and garbanzo beans. I don't know why anyone would eat this soup without those ingredients in the first place... Family Fun kind of missed the boat on that one.

(I love all the soups in this 10 days of soup series, but this is one of my absolute favorites!  And so I'm kicking off the series with this recipe :) )  

Tortellini Vegetable Soup

Ingredients
(note: this recipe makes a double batch, suitable for a large family dinner)

3 T. olive oil

1 lg. onion, chopped

1 lg. zucchini (or two small), chopped (I usually slice it into discs, then quarter them)

2 lg. carrots, peeled and cut into coins

11 c. chicken stock

2 tsp. dried basil

2 bay leaves

1 c. canned crushed tomatoes

1 tsp. salt

can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

approx. 8 ounces frozen spinach

approx. 10 ounces frozen tortellini (I've always used cheese filled, to keep this a meatless meal)

5 - 6 T. chopped fresh parsley (a great way to use some of your prolific herb garden parsley!)

black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot.  Add the onion and carrot.  Saute over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring often.  Add the zucchini.  Continue stirring for another 5 - 6 minutes, or until the onion is soft and translucent.

Add the stock, basil, bay leaves, tomatoes, and salt to the pot.  Increase the heat and bring the mixture to a boil.  Add the garbanzo beans, frozen spinach, and tortellini and bring it back to a low boil.  Cook for 2 minutes, then reduce heat and it simmer for 5 - 10 minutes.  

Stir in the parsley.

Notes

It's tasty topped with shredded Parmesan or mozzarella cheese.

  

Serve with buttery garlic bread or garlic and cheese bread sticks (pictured below - I just used a dinner roll recipe in my bread machine, added a little garlic and Parmesan cheese to the dough, and then baked the bread twists according to the dinner roll instructions - halfway through baking, I brushed them with melted butter and topped with Parmesan cheese and oregano.)

This soup freezes well.   However, don't add the tortellini before you freeze it.  Save the pasta to add after the soup is defrosted and you are heating it on the stove.

If the soup is too thick once defrosted or when you serve it as leftovers a day later, add a bit of stock, crushed tomatoes, or tomato/vegetable juice to thin it.

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* Note: when the 10 Days Series is over, all soup recipes will be available on 

The Soup Savvy Page at the top.  So please feel free to Pin them now, or come back and visit the soup page another time!  You won't miss out on anything! 

Linking up with Barb at CatholicMom.com who's hosting a meatless Lenten meal planning linkup!  Lots of great ideas for your Lenten abstinence there :)

10 Days of Family Friendly Soups (Sharing the Best of the Best from my Recipe Box)

This is it.  It's finally here - the series my fans have been begging for!*  For the next ten days, I'll be posting nothing but recipes (and then I'll switch back to my regularly varied and unpredictable content ;) )    

I am not a professional chef or even a hobby foodie, I just have seven mouths to feed and I like to make and eat soup.  I've made so many different soups in the past several years that I think I've developed an appreciation for "a good soup." Trying out new recipes is always a but risky, and we've certainly choked down some duds, but I've been making soup long enough now to know which ones my family really loves.

These 10 recipes are the ones we come back to again and again and again.  I feel so confident that these are objectively delicious and are even suitable for families with a picky eater in the bunch, I am putting my personal!) guarantee on these dinners.  Your family and friends will love them.**

Several friends have confided in me before that they don't think their kids will eat soup.  I posit that kids will eat soup if you give them a chance.  Smile and say "it's soup night" without apology (and serve lots of bread and cheese to go with it ;)  )  I actually stand by my story that I got my kids to eat soup by hosting our first "soup party" four years ago. It was a party.  Of course they were going to eat the party food!  Now, we have a yearly Fall Soup Party and eat soups all winter long. 

There are still several weeks of winter to go - plenty of time for you to try one or two  or ten new recipes!  I hope you do and I hope you like them as much as we do!  

Please feel free to share and Pin recipes for future reference.  After this 10-day recipe extravaganza, all soup recipes and other soup-related items (like how to host a soup party and serving tips) will be available on the all new Ordinary Lovely Soup Savvy Page!  Check back periodically for new links, recipes, and ideas!  

(first recipe to post later today - I have to leave some breathing room in between posts, you know!)

** Have a wonderful family-friendly soup recipe that you'd like to share??  Great!!

Head over to my facebook page, "like" Ordinary Lovely, and leave a link! 

Soup lovers everywhere will thank you! **

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* um, not really.  I just like soup and thought I'd write about it and hopefully someone out there will appreciate these great recipes and mediocre food pics ;)

** actually, I make no real guarantees.  But I'm pretty certain you, your husband, your kids, your kids' friends, your in-laws, the neighborhood Sunday school teacher, the UPS guy, and the YMCA aerobics instructor will all love these.   All my kids do, so I feel like that's the real stamp of approval!!

Happy Handmade Christmas (vol 3)

I love giving handmade gifts at Christmas and at any time of year.  So I've started keeping track of what we've made and gifted here on ye olde blog.  Here are the 2013 and 2012 lists if you're interested...)

As for 2014... Better Late Than Never???

So... Christmas was a month ago now, but it's taken me this long to finish some last minute gifts and pull this stuff all together for a post.  Here's the yearly show and tell of the handmade gifts we gave for Christmas.  I always try to include links back to original ideas and patterns for your reference and for giving credit where credit is due.  If you have any questions about anything here, let me know!

I didn't do a lot of sewing for this Christmas, and that made me a little sad.  But for all the time I didn't spend up in the sewing room, I spent crocheting...  it was a very crochet-intensive Christmas.

All the adult guys got a Brain Waves Beanie, which I crocheted with the super soft Lion Brand Heartland Yarn  (I blabbed about it here) 

(here's the free Ravelry pattern from Playin' Hooky Designs)  

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One of my sisters recently moved back to Western New York from Florida, so I treated her to a couple things to keep her warm while her blood is thickening back up :)

  

The slippers were based on this tutorial and the hat is the In Bloom Beret (free Ravelry pattern)  I also made one of the In Bloom hats - picture below.  I really like these patterns and the finished products!

(dishcloth "pattern" here)

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A couple of cotton hot pads.  I used a free pattern for this, but for the life of me, I can't find it again.  Sorry :(

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This cupcake hat was so fun to make and looked super cute.  I looked around at a lot of patterns for this one, but ended up just doing my own thing to get the look I wanted. 

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And a few non-crochet items...  The first of which was scented, rice-filled heating pads.  These things are so wonderful on a sore back or over your toes on a cold morning :) I made several a few years ago and the ones I kept for myself were my dear companions through my last two pregnancies :)

(I used this tutorial)

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My nephew turned 1 in November, so he didn't mind that it took me until the end of January to make him a Birthday gift and Christmas gift :)

He received  a color-sorting clothespin activity ...

(these pics are from the tutorial I wrote a while back)

...and a set of soft flannel bean bags (and a dollar store bin for storing and bean bag toss game!)

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And, just yesterday, I finished an ornament for Russ that I had hoped to include in his stocking as a way of saying "thanks for putting up with all my craftiness!"  He'll have to wait till next year to hang it... unless he travels through time...

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And here are the things the kids made...

(we started back in October!)

Button Flower Wall Hangings (by Ruth)

(tutorial here!)

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NFL Team Logo Embroidery Wall Hangings (by Aaron and Dominic)

(tutorial here!)

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Melty Pearler Bean Ornaments (by Ruth and Clare)

(tutorial here)

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Holly Berry Wall Hangings (by Aaron and Dominic)

(adapted from this idea here)

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Pine Cone Christmas Tress (by Aaron and Dominic)

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Washi Tape Vases and Tea Light Holders (by Ruth and Clare)

("instructions" here)

kind of a lame photo, but it's the only one I got - they were drying on the deck after a coat of
spray Modge-Podge

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Scrappy Yarn Sun Catchers (by Ruth and Clare)

(tutorial here!)

Embrace the Ordinary :: vol 20

Once a season, my parents host our four oldest kids at their house for a sleepover.  Last night was the "winter" sleepover :)  

The wonderfulness of the sleepover is two-fold - our children get special alone time with Papa and Grandma, and Russ and I get a much-appreciated break from our children (whom we love totally and unconditionally, but from whom we also appreciate a break once in a while :)  )

Though we're home with James, Russ and I manage to make the most of our nights "alone"!  Last night was no exception...  

I had planned a surprise dinner and dessert.  I had hoped Russ would grill out, but after I spring the plan on him, he informed me we were out of charcoal (the downside to planning a surprise and assuming your in-the-dark partner is prepared for it ;) ).  Instead we had oven-roasted veggies and beef fillets with wild rice.  So tasty!  And then we had s'mores by the fireside!  It was delightful!

You know what they say...  When the children are away, the parents will play.... and work.  Yes, this morning we woke up early to get stuff done around the house - the things we never seem to get to while the kids are around. 

Never underestimate date nights at home!  For us, they're just as rejuvenating for our marriage and mood as when we get to go out and do something out of the ordinary.  After all, home is where most of this crazy and blessed life happens, so it's fitting to reconnect and refresh here!

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“…there is something holy, something divine hidden in 

the most ordinary situations, 

and it is up to each one of you to discover it.”  

St. Josemaria Escriva, Passionately Loving the World

Head over to Someday (hopefully) They'll be Saints to visit with Gina and to read more stories (or to share your own!) about embracing the incredibly ordinary, sublimely beautiful moments of everyday life. 

My Glorious Spectrum of New Crochet Dishcloths! (and a not-a-pattern)

My old kitchen dishcloths were literally falling to pieces.  (I believe you can view the photo evidence here.)  So as soon as my Christmas crocheting was done, I set to work and made a lovely array of dishcloths for myself (using mostly cotton I already had on hand...)  For me, it feels do different making something for myself, as opposed to a gift.  It doesn't feel rushed and I don't pressure myself to make it "perfect."   

I love having useful homemade things around the house.  And I smile at the idea of seeing spilled milk on the table, or a little face covered in pasta sauce, and reaching for something pretty I made to tend to it :)  I'm looking forward to putting these cheerful cloths to use!  

I mentioned earlier that when I'm making things for my own use, I don't pressure myself to make them perfect.  These dishcloths are perfect, though...  

As a special treat, I have for you a guest!  - an average housewife whom I've selected at random* to try out these dishcloths and give you her honest opinion.  (never mind that we might have the same maiden name and may occasionally be seen together in facebook photos or at local restaurants...)  I gave this average housewife whom I selected a random, Sarah, three dishcloths to use in her home for an unspecified amount of time (since her last birthday...)  Here's what Sarah has to say about these cloths:

"These washcloths are the only kitchen cloths you’ll ever need.  First of all, I believe anything hand/homemade very well, is far better than store bought. But the main reason I swear by these washcloths is because they’re made with a wide stitch. When you wet them, they expand a bit so little bits of food don’t get smooshed (an average housewife term, no?) into the fabric. After the first use, rinse, ring, and dry. I typically use a washcloth every 3 days before it ends up in the laundry bin.  Just remember to rinse with hot water and allow for drying time. Lastly, I love these little guys because the patterns and colors Theresa uses are so cute and colorful. I realize we’re talking about a washcloth here, but it can really brighten up your kitchen and mood!" ** 

And there you have it.  Thank you, Sarah!  

* Mega major bonus points to you, dear reader, if you get this reference!  I believe we may have a "Love" in common :)  

** Sarah was not payed for this review.  (Just because you may have seen her leaving my house after dinnertime doesn't mean she's received culinary favors in exchange for this glowing review either...)

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If you're interested, I've included a quick recap of how I made these dishcloths.  I can't bring myself to call it a pattern.  It's more of a conversational "here's how I did it" and if you want to follow along and make your own, you're more than welcome to!  

So, want to make some and brighten up your kitchen and your mood?!?!?

You'll need... 

cotton yarn (main color, border/contrast color)

H hook (5.0 mm)

J hook (6.0 mm)

tapestry needle

abbreviations:

ss - slip stitch
sc - single crochet
hdc - half double crochet

Here's what I did...

Row 1: Using main color yarn and the J hook, chain 35.

top side of the starting chain (as opposed to the underside shown below)

Row 2:  Switch to the H hook.

            Turn.  Flip the chain over so that the "bumps" on the  underside are facing up. 

here are the "bumps" on the underside

      1 hdc in the second "bump" from the end (shown by the needle...)

 1 ss in the next "bump." (shown by the needle...)

photo shows the first half double crochet and them "bump" where you'll slip stitch

            Continue working in the "bumps" repeating (1 hdc, 1 ss) to the end.  (you should end on a slip stitch)

Row 3 - ?? Ch 1 and turn.

  Repeat (1 hdc, 1 ss) to the end. 

Each row should begin with a half double crochet and end on a slip stitch.  

Continue with as many rows as it takes to form a perfect square.  

One you have achieved a square, Chain 2, then sc around the entire outside of the dishcloth (except for 3 sc at each corner)  Join to the first sc with a slip stitch.  Finish off and weave in the ends.

Attach contrast color with a knot any place it is convenient.  

Chain 2, hdc around the entire cloth again (3 hdc at each corner.)  Join to the first hdc with a slip stitch.

Ch. 1, sc around the entire cloth (3 sc at each corner).  Join to the first sc with a slip stitch.  Finish off and weave in the ends. 

If I was making these for a gift, I would have blocked them.  
But since they were just for me and I was impatient to get them into my kitchen to brighten things up, I skipped blocking :)

 That's it!  So simple!   Let me know if you have any questions.

It's such a great dishcloth!  Enjoy :)

   

I *Might* Be Sheenazing! (but I already have the greatest readers, so it hardly matters!)

* New here from A Knotted Life?  WELCOME!!! *

 ~have a look around ~ I hope you stay awhile :)

It's official.  I might be Sheenazing.  Some of you obviously think I have it in me!  Thank you so very much for reading here and enjoying it enough that you nominated Ordinary Lovely for two Sheenazing Awards!  

For a third year, Bonnie, who blogs at A Knotted Life, is hosting the Sheenazing Awards - to spread the word about great Catholic bloggers and about Venerable Fulton Sheen, who totally would have a blog were he alive today :)

It was a total surprise to me when a friend emailed me last year and told me that I had been nominated!  (hi, Maranda!)  I was in the hospital with my brand new James at the time, so I was too drunk on new baby sweetness to give a second thought to the awards.

But this year I have the mental alertness and wherewithal to do enough self-promoting to feel alternately brazen and awkward ;)   

It would be a thrill to win a virtual pat on the back from Bonnie and to post it in flashing lights on my site!  (I can dream, can't I??)  But after I got Bonnie's email about the nomination, my thoughts were less like "I hope I win!" and more along the lines of: "I'm so excited at the prospect of new readers heading this way... I hope they find something valuable, lovely, amusing, clever, encouraging here... will they stay, and chat, and share...?"  

If anything, I hope that new readers become new friends and that each first "click" here will be the first of many!  It's super fun to be nominated for, and win, just-for-fun awards (well, I've only heard about the winning part...!) but I'm in this blogging thing to share some of my life with you, to invite you into my space, and to have delightful conversations with the friends that I get to know here (and to have a place to write about my crochet projects, because my husband can only stand so much ;) )  

If you're a regular reader here, and think it's deserved, I'd love your vote over at Bonnie's! And while you're at it, invite a new friend to hang out here too!  For me, that would be the best "vote" of all!  

Click here to vote - look for Ordinary Lovely in "Best Lifestyle Blog" category and "Best Under-Appreciated Blog" category.  (To tell you the truth, I don't feel so unappreciated.  You nominated me, right!)

Love to all my readers.  Thanks again, friends!

love, Theresa

PS - here's a  picture of James today.  He'll be 1 on Friday!!