Snow Day Cooking
What is it about a Snow Day that I am suddenly inspired to cook and bake . . . a lot?
Last night I made the most delicious homemade creamy tomato soup. It was PERFECT for an icy, cold night.
Copycat Panera Creamy Tomato Soup. I like Panera. At one time, it was my favorite "fast food" restaurant. It still ranks up there, however it tends to be a little more expensive than it might be worth and a little too salty. All that salt makes me suspicious of them. They like to claim they use range free chickens, no hormone added meats, but . . . if it's so humane, and healthy- why do they add so much sodium? They aren't tricking me into thinking I can eat a ton- because it's range & hormone free. I see their marketing ploys.
Oh yeah, I got on a conspiracy tangent. My bad. (If I am this weird at the ripe old age of almost 39, can you imagine what a curmudgeon I'll be when I'm 69, or even 79?!!!) What I loved about this recipe is- it was AWESOME. It was so creamy and tasty, but I controlled the salt. I used reduced sodium broth, and no salt added canned tomatoes. The next time I would probably use 2 cans of crushed tomatoes, instead of using crushed and diced. The diced weren't bad, I would just prefer a more consistent texture, instead of bits of tomatoes. I also did not use fresh basil, I didn't have any. I just used dried basil. I didn't use quite enough, I think I did a bit less than 1 teaspoon. Using dried basil is tricky, because a little can go a LONG way.
Not only did I make homemade tomato soup, but I made homemade croutons to go with it, which frankly. . . put it over the top of deliciousness. The croutons were crunchy, but sort of airy, so you didn't get too much crunch with the creamy soup. The texture combination was perfect. (obviously I have texture issues.)
I woke up at 2am (Doug has a cold, which is the most dreaded occurrence in my sleep routine. I had to move to the living room, and close the bedroom door, so I couldn't hear him) and decided to check Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, in case anything exciting in the world is happening. Low and behold . . . there was! A friend posted that the man who created Nutella has passed away. Michele Ferrero Dies at 89. We LOVE Nutella. Love. It. How can you not? Then I saw she pinned several delicious looking Nutella recipes, which reminded me that I had 3 really ripe bananas on my counter and Nutella. I could make a fantastic Nutella Banana Muffin- so I did.
Doggone these were GOOD!!!!! I used the recipe from this site: Nutella Banana Swirl Muffins. Youza I recommend these. My kids PIGGED out on them. These weren't super sweet, which I liked. You should know- the Latta kids don't like just any old muffin/baked good. They're kind of picky, so the fact that they liked them . . . well that says a lot for them.
It's only 9:30am, so I have plenty of time to whip up something else, I wonder what else I'll cook today?
Last night I made the most delicious homemade creamy tomato soup. It was PERFECT for an icy, cold night.
Copycat Panera Creamy Tomato Soup. I like Panera. At one time, it was my favorite "fast food" restaurant. It still ranks up there, however it tends to be a little more expensive than it might be worth and a little too salty. All that salt makes me suspicious of them. They like to claim they use range free chickens, no hormone added meats, but . . . if it's so humane, and healthy- why do they add so much sodium? They aren't tricking me into thinking I can eat a ton- because it's range & hormone free. I see their marketing ploys.
Oh yeah, I got on a conspiracy tangent. My bad. (If I am this weird at the ripe old age of almost 39, can you imagine what a curmudgeon I'll be when I'm 69, or even 79?!!!) What I loved about this recipe is- it was AWESOME. It was so creamy and tasty, but I controlled the salt. I used reduced sodium broth, and no salt added canned tomatoes. The next time I would probably use 2 cans of crushed tomatoes, instead of using crushed and diced. The diced weren't bad, I would just prefer a more consistent texture, instead of bits of tomatoes. I also did not use fresh basil, I didn't have any. I just used dried basil. I didn't use quite enough, I think I did a bit less than 1 teaspoon. Using dried basil is tricky, because a little can go a LONG way.
Not only did I make homemade tomato soup, but I made homemade croutons to go with it, which frankly. . . put it over the top of deliciousness. The croutons were crunchy, but sort of airy, so you didn't get too much crunch with the creamy soup. The texture combination was perfect. (obviously I have texture issues.)
I woke up at 2am (Doug has a cold, which is the most dreaded occurrence in my sleep routine. I had to move to the living room, and close the bedroom door, so I couldn't hear him) and decided to check Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, in case anything exciting in the world is happening. Low and behold . . . there was! A friend posted that the man who created Nutella has passed away. Michele Ferrero Dies at 89. We LOVE Nutella. Love. It. How can you not? Then I saw she pinned several delicious looking Nutella recipes, which reminded me that I had 3 really ripe bananas on my counter and Nutella. I could make a fantastic Nutella Banana Muffin- so I did.
Doggone these were GOOD!!!!! I used the recipe from this site: Nutella Banana Swirl Muffins. Youza I recommend these. My kids PIGGED out on them. These weren't super sweet, which I liked. You should know- the Latta kids don't like just any old muffin/baked good. They're kind of picky, so the fact that they liked them . . . well that says a lot for them.
It's only 9:30am, so I have plenty of time to whip up something else, I wonder what else I'll cook today?
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