Chicken Gumbo

Easy and Yummy Chicken Gumbo (for the crock pot!)
1 can beans, rinsed
1 can stewed tomatoes, any kind
1 pkg (6-8) hot link sausages (optional)
3 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
1 med onion, diced
1 cup carrots, chopped
1 cup okra, chopped (I buy the frozen okra, already chopped)
4-6 cups chicken stock/ chicken bullion with water
Toni's Cajun seasoning and/or Lawry's Seasoning Salt
parsley
pepper
salt

Put everything into a crock pot or pot on the stove.  Heat until boiling over medium heat. Serve with rice, sour cream, and cheese. Yum!
Serves about 6.

Canned Soup Starter

This recipe is a pressure canned soup starter--As my sister calls it, your very own convenience food to put in your pantry.
Soup Starter
Layer in 1 quart jar

• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1 tsp. Beef bouillon (or 1 cube)
• 2 Tbs. Pearled barley
• Handful of chopped celery
• Handful of peeled, diced carrots (I just cut mine into 1/4" thick disks)
• Peeled, cubed potatoes (fill to w/in 1 inch of rim of jar)

Pour hot water over top of all ingredients to w/in 1" of rim of jar.
Remove air bubbles.
Clean lip of jar.
Adjust 2 piece lid and canning ring.

UPDATED PRESSURE TIME

Per the latest guidelines from the National Center for Home Preservation this should be Pressure canned (not hot water bath!) for 75 minutes at 11# pressure. See www.uga.edu/nchfp.

You can get 7 quart jars in a pressure canner at once. I usually do 2 batches of soup starter (14 total quarts) and this is what I buy for the veggies.

• 10# of potatoes (it all gets used up)
• 5# bag of carrots (mostly use all the bag)
• 2 bunches of celery (I use about 1 1/2)

Once canned and sitting pretty in your pantry, the only thing you need to do to eat it is warm it up. We usually add chunked stew meat (also pressure canned so I just dump that in too), but you could brown a pound of hamburger and add to it, or some cooked chicken chunks. If you like, add some diced tomatoes to it. My family loves this soup and it is great to eat with yummy homemade bread. It tastes like I've been slaving away all day long....just genius!

Santa Fe Soup with Melted Cheese

Click here for the link to this delicious taco style soup.

Potato, Corn, Cheese, & Bacon Chowder

This is super yummy and healthy- perfect for a cold day. It just BARELY fed my family of 4, so you'll probably want to at least double the recipe.

3 cups fat-free milk
1 can cream of potato OR cr. of mushroom, OR cr. of chicken soup
4 cups frozen Southern style hash brown potatoes
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
1+ shredded sharp cheddar cheese
OPTIONAL: cooked, chopped chicken
crispy, crumbled bacon
salt and pepper

Mix milk and soup in a large pot. Stir in hash browns and corn (and chicken if you want it). Bring to boil on high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 10 minutes, or until potatoes and corn are thawed and soup is hot. Stir in 1 cup cheese. Salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle into soup bowls and sprinkle with cheese and bacon. It's REALLY good with rolls or bread
sticks.

Clam Chowder

2 6 ½ ounce cans minced clams

2 cups potatoes, finely diced (frozen may be used)

1 cup celery, finely diced

1 cup onions, finely diced

water

¾ cup butter, melted

¾ cup flour

1 quart light cream

1 ½ t. salt

½ t. sugar

pepper to taste

½ to 1 T. Old Bay seasoning (optional)

Pour juice from clams over vegetables in large saucepan. Add water to barely cover. Cover and simmer 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, melt butter. Stir in flour until smooth. Blend in cream, stirring constantly. Cook until smooth and thick. Add undrained vegetables and the clams. Heat without boiling. Season with sugar, salt and pepper and Old Bay if desired.

Lowfat variation:

Reduce butter to 2-3 T.

Use lowfat milk in place of light cream

I made this the other night fully expecting to hear all my kids groan and complain but to my shock and surprise they all loved it and throughout the last couple of days they have been telling me to make it again, so I will. :)

Split Pea Soup

This is one way I can guarantee my family gets their daily dose of vegetables. We like to eat it with rolls or home-made bread bowls. It's also good with a thick slice of Italian bread. We love our carbs here! =)

5 cups water
2 cups dried split peas, rinsed
1-2 cups potatoes (I've used leftover but-up baked potatoes, frozen hash browns, and food storage dried potato dices, of which you would use 1/2 the suggested amount since they get bigger when they rehydrate. They all work well.)
1 cup carrots (I usually use frozen slices or 1/2 c. dehydrated)
salt or seasoning salt
pepper

Optional toppings:
grated cheese
cooked bacon, crumbled
cooked ham, chopped

Combine water and peas in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and add potatoes and carrots. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until all vegetables are cooked and tender. Salt and pepper to taste.

There are 2 options for the next step:
#1- Remove 1/2 of the soup, blend it in your blender, and then mix back in the pot with other 1/2.
#2- Use a hand blender to blend about 1/2 of the soup in the pot. You just want to do it enough to make it creamy, but still have some nice chunks.

Top as desired.