Creamy Tomato Soup

There is a comfort element to tomato soup. This recipe will taste like you slaved away in the kitchen for the day but really only takes 45 minutes to simmer on the stove. I throw this together frequently as a quick lunch and serve it with slabs of homemade bread. Yesterday, my husband got solitude time in the woods to cut some fallen trees into rounds and this was a hearty lunch when he came back. My father in law and I also needed a hearty lunch because we had spent the morning with the 17 month old who was unfortunately ill. She took comfort in the dog.

Creamy Tomato Soup (roughly $3.02/batch)

(serves 6-8)

1 inch of ginger

2 cloves of garlic

2 TBS olive oil

4 TBS chopped fresh basil or 2 TBS dried basil

1 lg can crushed tomatoes (1 lb) 1.09

1 lg can tomato puree (1 lb) .95

2 cups broth (I used chicken but you can use veggie for a vegetarian version of this soup.)

1 cup cream (I used light cream but have used whipping cream in the past.) .70

3 TBS butter (.75/stick=8 TBS) .28

salt & pepper to taste

1. In a stockpot, heat up 2 TBS olive oil. Add the minced ginger & garlic and stir for about 2 minutes with a rubber spatula until light brown. For a ginger mincing trick check out my ginger post. Add the basil & give it a quick stir. 

2. Add the two cans of tomatoes. I've found the key to getting a great texture in the soup is to use both puree and crushed. Stir in the two cups of broth. Let it simmer on medium low for 20 minutes. I cover it in case it splatters a little. (The blocks in my picture are the frozen chopped basil I used.)

3. Add the cream and the butter (cut into TBS's). Stir gently to melt the butter. Let simmer for 20 more minutes so that the flavors marry. This is a good time to season with salt & pepper to your taste. 

Dish out and enjoy! 

Healthy & Delicious Bran Muffins

I like bran muffins. Bran used to be a dirty word- it meant you needed some help in the poop department. I just think they taste great and most folks don't get enough fiber in their regular diet. One of my favorite things to do is to go to City Market and browse their bulk section for items under 75 cents a pound. Then I create cheap recipes around them. Their wheat bran is frequently on special for .59/pound and you need to get a lot to make a pound. Since it is so light and fluffy the muffins come out moist and with a great texture.

A pound of wheat bran is roughly the size of a medium pumpkin. 

This recipe contains no eggs, no oil, and can be made vegan if you use soy milk instead of dairy. They freeze fantastically and taste great popped into the microwave for a minute. The recipe makes 2 dozen but I frequently make a double recipe, all the pictures below are from a double recipe. I split the double batch into 4 so that I could make different flavors- Plain, Date & Raisin, Banana Blueberry, and Strawberry.

Stump Bran Muffins - Total Recipe Cost 2.65 or .11/muffin (plus cost of add-ins)
(makes 24)

3  cups wheat bran (was on special for .59/lb- 1 cup=1.6 oz, 4 cents/oz) .20
2 cups nonfat milk (see hint below about powdered milk) .50
1 1/2 cups applesauce (I used homemade but am estimating cost to buy here.) 1.25
1 tsp salt (kosher- if using table salt halve it)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
3 TBS maple syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar .20
2 cups rye flour (You can use whole wheat or white. I prefer the rye because it gives the muffins a great hearty flavor.) (I buy in bulk for .99/lb. There are roughly 4 cups per pound.) .50

Pre-recipe hint: I buy nonfat dried milk packets. A box costs $9.99 and contains 8 packets. Each packet makes roughly 5 cups of nonfat milk. This comes to a cost of 25 cents a cup. It stores dry and since I try to only go shopping every 3 weeks it makes it easy to keep on hand for baking. To make it I put 4 cups of water in my large Pyrex then remove 1/4 cup with a quarter cup measure. Add the packet and whisk. Store leftover in a glass jar in your fridge.

1. Preheat oven to 375. Put wheat bran in mixing bowl and add milk. Mix until it starts looking a little spongy. Let it sit for 5 minutes and the wheat bran will absorb all of the milk. 

2. Add applesauce and other ingredients and mix well. We did a $50 truckload apple picking in the fall so we used one of the many jars of applesauce/apple butter we had on hand. I use cinnamon in my applesauce so if using plain applesauce I recommend adding some cinnamon. 

That's a lot of apples! And we picked twice this many, splitting them between several families. 

3. At this point in time I dosed out 12 plain muffins. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 375. 

Each muffin cup holds one large spoonful of batter. While each batch is cooking I prep the next batch. I spoon 12 spoonfuls of batter into my large pyrex and add mix-ins. Some ideas are raisins, walnuts, dates, strawberries, blueberries, coconut, bananas, or chocolate chips. I tend to add in 1 cup of mix-ins. 

Strawberry Bran 

Date & Raisin Bran

4. Let cool on racks and put into Ziploc baggies to freeze or enjoy immediately!

Ricotta Gnocchi with Fresh Tomato Basil Sauce

It's no secret that I love all foods coming out of Italy. I frequently cook Italian foods including gnocchi for a simple reason. I'm allergic to pine nuts so eating in Italian restaurants can be a challenge. I love pesto and basil though so making them at home allows me to control their pine-nut-free-ness.

Gnocchi is a magical food, when made from ricotta. I've made potato gnocchi before and can tell you I will never go back. The texture and ease of the ricotta and quick timeline to make it easily place it as my favorite.

And my 17 month old? She demolished more than any of the adults did. Gnocchi is one of those super filling foods and I'm not sure where she fit all of it in her tiny tummy. 

My father in law is up visiting from Florida which means three things. I cook some good meals and don't have to watch the toddler while I do so, he takes us out to eat, and we all gain 5 pounds. He brought up some really great looking tomatoes which prompted me to make this meal. Let's just say that the tomatoes available in Vermont grocery stores in February aren't usually inspirational. 

Ricotta Gnocchi

(serves 4-6)

12 oz ricotta cheese (use the whole milk variety- the end taste is way better) 

2.5 oz of grated parmigiano cheese

2 eggs & 1 additional yolk

1 1/4 cups flour (make sure you have at least 1 more cup on hand for the rolling and dusting parts)

2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 TBS olive oil & 2 TBS butter for the last step

Tomato Basil Sauce

3 large tomatoes

2 TBS of chopped fresh basil (I have frozen cubes left over from our CSA last summer so that's what you'll see in my pictures) - feel free to use more, you can never have too much basil

1/2 cup of white wine

2 TBS oil

1 clove garlic

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Making the gnocchi:

Measure out 12 oz of ricotta on a food scale. Try to avoid any liquid pooled in the container. 

In a large mixing bowl, combine ricotta, eggs, parmesan, salt, thyme & pepper. Whisk together until well mixed. 

Add in 1 1/4 cups flour and blend just until it forms a dough. I switched to a spatula so that I could use a folding motion right after taking the picture below.

Once a dough is formed plop it onto a prepared flour surface on your counter. Don't worry if you don't have tons of counter space. I worked on a clear area a little over a foot wide and all was well. I did however, realize part of the way thru that I needed a photography assistant so that my camera didn't end up covered in flour.

Shape the dough into a log. Cut into several smaller pieces so that they will be manageable. One by one you will roll out the pieces until they are roughly the diameter of a carrot. If the part you are rolling out gets too long just cut it in half and work one section at a time. 

Once you have rolled out the logs thinly you want to cut them into bite-size pieces. Keep in mind that when you cook them they puff a little so lean towards smaller bite-size pieces. Put the cut pieces onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper or wax paper and flour. 

Once you've cut all the gnocchi up we will pause our gnocchi creation process. Put the cookie sheet in the fridge and we'll start the sauce. The ricotta gnocchi will cook better if they have the chance to chill for about 15 minutes. You could also freeze the gnocchi if you wanted to. In order to freeze spread the gnocchi in a single layer on the cookie sheet and once frozen put them into a ziploc bag. 

Start a large stockpot of salted water on the stove so that it will be boiling by the time you're done with the sauce. 

To Make the Sauce:

Dice all of the tomatoes. I despise tomato guts so I removed them all. 

Now that the tomatoes are diced put your basil, oil, and wine into a saucepan over medium.

Add the diced tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper. 

Cook down the tomato sauce for a few minutes.

At this point in time I put the sauce into a bowl and cover it with a plate. This is so I can rinse and use the pan for the gnocchi because I don't want to use a third pan.

Cooking the gnocchi:

Your pot of salted water should be boiling by now. Drop in the gnocchi quickly. They will cook in about 2-3 minutes so you do not want to take your sweet time putting them in one by one! Discard the parchment paper and put down a double layer of paper towels on the cookie sheet. When the gnocchi float to the surface take them out with a slotted spoon shaking off as much water as possible and lay them on the paper towel covered cookie sheet.

In a saucepan, melt 2 TBS butter & 2 TBS olive oil and dump in the drained gnocchi. Gently move them around with a spatula so that each piece is coated. Serve immediately topped with the tomato sauce. Enjoy!

Baked Basil Eggs with Cheesy Garlic Bread

When the days turn cold and snowy (or this winter- drizzly) here in Vermont, one of the best comfort foods around is baked eggs. Add some cheesy garlic bread into the mix and you have a meal. Or if you're my husband two slices of cheesy garlic bread and 2 baked eggs become a "slammin'" sandwich.

Baked Basil Eggs (recipe cost- 1.84 or .46/serving)
(serves 4)

2 TBS chopped fresh basil or 1 TBS dried basil (you could also use a pesto basil here as well)
6 TBS milk (for richer eggs use cream) ($3.34/gallon - 192 oz, .02/oz) .06 cents
1 oz parmesan cheese (3.99/8oz, .50/oz) .50
8 eggs (2.95/18 pk, .16 per egg) 1.28
salt & pepper to taste

Cheesy Garlic Bread (cost per recipe-  1.16 or .15/piece)
(makes 8 slices)

3/4 loaf of thick cut bread, 8 slices (I used a Rosemary Thyme homemade bread that costs me .53 cents a loaf to make) .39 cents
2 TBS butter (.75 per 8 TBS stick) .38
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 oz grated cheddar cheese (I buy a giant block for 8.49/48 oz - .17/oz) .39 cents

Total Cost for Meal is $3 even. We only eat four of the slices of garlic bread and I freeze the rest for a later meal.

1. Preheat oven to 375. Spray 4 ramekins with cooking spray. Chop basil. We belong to a CSA during the summer so I froze cubes of chopped basil in the freezer & then microwaved it for a minute with the milk so that I could mix it in. If you're using fresh or dried just stir it into the milk to mix.

My frozen basil cubes. I used 2 TBS chopped basil in each  with very little water.

2. Dose 1 1/2 TBS of basil milk into each ramekin. Sprinkle the shredded parmesan evenly between the 4 ramekins. Start toast going in toaster for garlic bread.

3. Crack 2 eggs into each ramekin. Sprinkle top with some salt & pepper. Put ramekins on cookie sheet & put into oven. You want to cook for 10 minutes if you like the yolks a little runny. I cook for 14 minutes to get the yolks harder since we feed them to our toddler and I'm pregnant.

4. In the microwave, soften the 2 TBS of butter. It will take about 45-60 seconds. Mix in the 1/2 tsp of garlic powder.

5. Spread each slice of toasted bread with a schmear of garlic butter. The amount you've made will cover all 8 slices with a generous dose. Split the 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar evenly over all of the slices, a couple TBS on each. This process will only take a few minutes. I then put 4 slices in a tinfoil lined pan and put them in the oven with the eggs since they also cook at 375. They'll need to cook for 7 minutes depending on how crisp you like them.

6. I freeze the last 4 slices of garlic bread. Just lay them flat in tupperware and gently place in the freezer. Since the butter is still gooey the cheese will stick to it and you can use them at a later meal. Frozen garlic bread can be baked directly out of the freezer in a 375 oven for roughly 10 minutes.

7. Enjoy! This meal is exceptionally filling and the price is right at $3 for the whole deal including frozen garlic bread for later!