Italian "Honeymoon is Over" Soup

Thanks to my hubby for this awesome recipe title!

Italian Honeymoon is Over Soup

This is a lazy version of Italian Wedding Soup. It is so easy and so yummy!

Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground beef
1 envelope mushroom gravy mix
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 package of egg noodles (2 cups)
1/2 package of frozen spinach (2 cups)
1 Tbs garlic powder or 1 clove fresh garlic
1 cup of water (more if you want it more soup-like)
Parmesan Cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

Brown and drain ground beef.
Mix together cream of mushroom soup, gravy mix and water.
Combine ground beef and gravy mixture
Add cooked egg noodles, spinach, spices.
Mix well and simmer for approximately 20 minutes.

Serve with shredded Parmesan cheese.

Crowder Pea Chilli

I bought some fresh crowder peas from our local farmers' market on Saturday. I needed to do something with them. So, I created something. It is really good. Even the kids loved it.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef (I used Ground Chuck from EarthFare)
1 can diced tomatoes
3 slices of dried tomatoes (chopped)that I bought at the farmers' market as well. You could use sun-dried tomatoes
2 tsp dried oregano
1 pint of crowder peas (of course, you could use frozen)
1.5 cups frozen corn
3-4 cloves of garlic (peeled and chopped)
Chili powder to taste (I used probably around 4 Tbsp)
1/2 cup water
Salt to taste
1 Tbsp Zattarans Cajun Seasoning (optional)

Brown ground beef with chopped garlic until done.
If using fresh crowder peas, cook ahead of time for about 30 minutes.
Add chili powder and cajun spices.
Add the chopped dried tomatoes and oregano.
Add the can of tomatoes and 1/2 cup of water.
Add frozen corn
Mix well.
Cook on low (low boil) for about 30 minutes.
Serve hot with Mexican cheese blend sprinkled on top.

Chicken Carbonara

I needed to make dinner tonight...what to make...what do I have to work with? I had one large chicken breast, 6 strips of turkey bacon, onions, mozarella cheese, cream of chicken soup, garlic, butter, and a can of peas. There is a little more than that in the house, but not much. So, I created chicken carbonara. And, it is GOOD!!!!! The kids didn't like it too much....They did like the peas, but they always like the peas. :)


Here is what I did:
Cooked the chicken breast
browned the bacon, onion and garlic in a little butter
Added a can of cream of chicken soup and about 3/4 can of evaporated milk to the mixture.
Mixed in about 1 1/2 cup of mozarella cheese
Cut the chicken into small bite size pieces.
Mixed in the chicken
Added some black pepper
Warmed up a can of peas and added some carrots for the kids.

So easy and so yummy! Not exactly health food. You could make it pretty healthy though....organic cream of chicken soup, local chicken, organic peas, low-fat mozarella, etc.

I'll post pictures soon!