Homemade Tomato Soup ~ Jamie Oliver Recipe

Recently, I had a great experience with home made croutons and canned tomato soup. I figured that home made soup would have to be better than the canned version which is loaded with salt, sugar, and whatever else they put in that stuff. So, off to my cookbooks I went and this is what I found. I was surprised to see it called for a lot of veggies. This could only be delicious.

Peel one medium carrot, finely chop two stalks of celery, several garlic cloves, and one onion. Start softening them together with some oil in a nice large pot. Avoid adding salt at this point. Add lots of pepper if that is your thing.

I used my mini food processor for this.

The recipe called for two cups of chicken stock. I used these packets plus two cups of water.

Once your veggies are soft and flavourful, start adding in the liquids. One can of tomato sauce. Organic because why not.

One can of whole tomatoes and juice.

Several ripe tomatoes, quartered. 

It looks like a chunky soup right now. Let is cook the tomatoes and heat everything through.Test for seasoning at this point. Canned tomatoes, tomato sauces and the chicken stock will all have salt. Be sure not to add salt until after these are all added. Plus, I like croutons and cheese on my soup which also add salt so go easy.

Using a blender or a hand blender, completely blend the soup until it is creamy and smooth.

Top with garlic croutons and shredded Parmesan cheese.

This soup is much healthier for you than the canned version. You can completely control the salt, fat, and spices to suit you. Also, you can feed a crowd with this recipe. Don't be scared to make soup from scratch, it is totally worth it!

Homemade Corn Tortillas

Over the past few years I have seriously developed my love of Mexican food. This is a food I have always loved but never tried to make it at home aside from the boxed meals, you know the ones I mean. Chris got me started on making Mexican food from scratch. One important thing I have learned from making more authentic Mexican foods at home is that you can specialize them to your own tastes. Sure, this probably makes them less authentic but 100 times even more delicious. Of course, you might as well make your own tortillas too, why not? Everything is better homemade right?

You will need a special type of flour called Masa Harina. It is ground corn. More specifically it is a corn that has been soaked in lime, dried, then ground. You can find it in the ethnic section of your grocery store.

This dough is super simple, it is just water added to the Masa Harina until a dough forms. It will dry out easily so you need to keep the dough covered while you form your tortillas.

You will need to roll these out by hand unless you happen to have a tortilla press. Be sure to use plastic wrap to cover your press or you will have a mess. One piece each for the top and bottom.

Roll a bit of the dough into a ball and place it more toward the hinge instead of the center. You'll see how the press pushes the dough outward. If you put it right in the center it will smoosh off the end of the press and make a mess.

Now press and there you go, one flat disk of dough.

Now to cook. On pretty high heat, cook until browned slightly on both sides.

There is a nice little stack.

Now for the real reason I made tortillas, quesadillas. I used left over tangy slow cooker pork and cheese. Put that between two homemade tortillas and heat until the inside is hot and gooey.

Be sure to flip.

Top with salsa, lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado. Sour cream would be great as well. These are so tasty and really so easy.

My Staple Salad

The weather is getting warmer and I'm more and more aware of how much tighter my clothes are fitting after this long cold winter.  The more the sun shines the more I want to get outside running and then lying in the sun whenever possible.  It is officially time to smarten up on the food front and get in shape for summer.  I always end up getting itchy feet this time of year and launch into full fitness and health awareness so you can expect more of that to come.  Also, here are some pictures from my adventures yesterday.

This was taken outside of the Square One shopping center.  Cool right?  I navigate around town by the location of those towers, I swear I can't be the only one.

Then this happened, can you see the geese stopping traffic on the crosswalk? #CanadaProblems

Gather everything that is going into your salad.  This pretty much includes everything in my fridge except mushrooms.  I don't like mushrooms in my salad.  Yuk.

I keep a tub like this in my fridge with "open" veggies.  I try to use them daily so they spend only about 12-24 hours in the fridge like this between supper and lunch.

I'm also an avid fan of the trash bowl in my cooking area.  This one was a camping cooking pot and has a lid so I can just pop the lid on when I'm not using it.  We recycle and compost in our house so I do have to be careful to keep my recyclables to the side to pick them out before they hit the compost bin.

So to get started, I chopped up some lettuce, whatever I have.  I have used mixed baby greens, spinach, or as in here romaine.  I tend to have iceburg a lot but that does get boring after awhile.

Now chop up your toppings.

Toss them in on top of the lettuce.  Now some people will start tossing at this point, not me.  It goes to the table like that.  You know where the lettuce is, you can dig to it, you can see the toppings and pick according to your tastes.  I like choice.

Get your dressing.  I have often had just balsamic vinegar and olive oil but I'm sick of it and Catalina is my favourite.

I never put the cheese into the bowl with the main salad.  There is always the chance that we will have leftovers and I'm the one who will end up eating them.  I often do this with the tomato too.  Soggy cheese and water logged salad? ... No thanks.  Then I just drizzle lightly with dressing and you're are one step closer to a healthier lifestyle.  I have also added boiled eggs and/or pickled chilis to this salad other times but I skipped that today.

As I was putting this together today I remembered I have Craisins in the cupboard.  It makes me sad that I forgot to add them in here but they would be wonderful.  I have also completely adopted Greek salads and lettuce-less salads.  You don't have to have lettuce, it's Ok to skip that part.  I do feel like I get overwhelmed by some of the more inventive salads out there sometimes and just want to get back to basics, that is this salad completely.  Enjoy!