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Food School: a 31 Day Course (day 19 Vegan Soup)

Accidentally Vegan Soup

I love Rick Bayless, of Frontera Grill.  When we lived near Chicago 18 years ago we went to his restaurant and I fell in love with the food.  Then Mexico:  One Plate at a time was aired on PBS, again . . . I just could not watch enough and try enough recipes . . . bought the books!  You get the idea.

Frontera has a White Bean Chili Starter that I buy by the case (to get the discount ;-) and we have soup at least once a week during the winter.  I’ve written about these meals here and here.  I wondered, was it vegan?  I read the label but as we know from other posts (here) that labels are not exactly honest information.  So I called the customer service number.  

Rick answered the phone–well, his voice was on the other end and I just about had a heart attack!  I was going to ask Rick Bayless about his jar of soup starter.  Then I realized it was an answering machine directing where my call should go!  I laughed long, loud and hard.  

So–for my friends–do not call me pretending to be Rick Bayless–and Rick if you call, I probably won’t believe it is you!  But you are more than welcome to drive north and cook with the kids and I!  

This is my second video of this dinner.  The first video was cut in half and you didn’t hear my story of me thinking I was talking to Rick Bayless!  This video includes the story and I was able to (pretty much) control my laughing at myself.  I’ll be honest–I crack myself up.  So many funny things happen in life–we all need to laugh at ourselves.

 And yes I am holding my phone while I’m cooking with one hand!  I made this video in just over 7 minutes–cooking one-handed–with all the veggies prepped.  So I would say that if you make this recipe, using two hands you could have it done in 10 minutes.  This is a great crockpot dinner!

For my meat-eating friends–I have used chicken thighs–they hold up to the crock pot cooking and offer a wonderful flavor contrast to the soup.  Even when I ate chicken–I didn’t like white meat in my soups.

Any questions?  Do you eat soup more in the winter?  or do you not eat soup at all?  

Be Blessed.

 To receive a free copy of my Blessed by Breakfast cookbook, please go to http://blessedbybreakfast.com and sign up! I send updates that include; family tested and approved recipes, video tutorials, tips and tricks on how to begin your day with the blessing of food.

cookbook coming soon

Books I suggest: The Omnivore’s Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat,

Young Readers Edition The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet

Some of my friends have also joined the 31 day challenge:  

Anastacia Maness  http://rocksolidfamily.com/31-days-building-commitment/

Racquel Narciso http://howtomakeitinsanfrancisco.com/…/

Pamela Hodges http://ipaintiwrite.com

I’m linking up to these blogs

 

Food School: a 31 day course (day 14)

Accidental Cinnamon Gnocchi

I have one kid who eats tons of fruits and veggies but doesn’t like meat–or should I say has trouble chewing meat–dislike vs. unable to chew are two different things.  Unfortunately, he was non-verbal the first 3 years of his life . . . and unable to express an opinion–other than choking!  He also doesn’t like dairy.  No meat, no dairy . . . sounds like an accidental vegan to me!  He loves bread with butter but now that I’ve switched butter for Earth Balance . . . 

One of my little guys favorite meals is gnocchi.  I discovered at Target–Pumpkin gnocchi.  How awesome, he loves pumpkin–so his favorite dinner just got better!

Go here for the original post on gnocchi with the recipe.

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To make this recipe Vegan I used:

  • brown sugar 
  • Earth Balance for the butter
  • organic cinnamon 

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The pumpkin taste didn’t come through as much as I would have liked, but he ate two helpings!  

Be Blessed.

 To receive a free copy of my Blessed by Breakfast cookbook, please go to http://blessedbybreakfast.com and sign up! I send updates that include; family tested and approved recipes, video tutorials, tips and tricks on how to begin your day with the blessing of food.

cookbook coming soon

Books I suggest: The Omnivore’s Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat,

Young Readers Edition The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet

Some of my friends have also joined the 31 day challenge:  

Anastacia Maness  http://rocksolidfamily.com/31-days-building-commitment/

Racquel Narciso http://howtomakeitinsanfrancisco.com/…/

Pamela Hodges http://ipaintiwrite.com

I’m linking up to these blogs