Chicken Quinoa Soup With Onions, Carrots And Celery

The New Year started out a bit cold so I thought I would warm us up with some chicken soup. I pulled some chicken and a quart of homemade chicken stock out of the freezer. While the stock was thawing, I cooked up some Christopher Ranch Chopped garlic and some onion in EVOO. After that was cooked up a bit, I added chopped carrots and then onions.

Once all the veggies were properly cooked, I added the stock, quinoa and chopped chicken.  Seasoning the soup was pretty easy, I just added a nice amount of freshly ground black pepper (from Costco) and some Herbs de Provence.  A few minutes of simmering and I was done.

Adding the quinoa instead of noodles made this more nutritious and higher in fiber than adding noodles. (It also made it gluten free).  But this was still good old-fashioned comfort food that fit in perfectly for a cold winter's night in Michigan.

Delicious, easy, quick and nutritious, it was a great Sunday night supper and it will be wonderful leftovers this week for lunch.

Pasta Prima Butternut Squash Ravioli In A Garlic Butter Sauce

I do realize it has been a long time between posts and I hope to get back into the saddle again in terms of posting more frequently.  While we have been cooking and eating lots of Costco foods, I just haven't been putting those efforts online.  In any case, here is a dish I made for myself and my wife that she described as "lovely". She also described it as "savory" and "comfort food".

Previously, we have enjoyed Giovanni Rana Butternut Squash Ravioli from Costco but now they are carrying the Pasta Prima brand of this type of pasta. These are both excellent products, although the Pasta Prima ravioli is somewhat more subtle in its flavor profile.  In any case, it is a great product that is easy to use and very affordable at Costco.  We definitely try to keep some on hand and while we use it fresh, it also freezes very well.

The recipe was pretty simple, it had only the following ingredients:

Butter-from Costco
Extra Virgin Olive Oil-from Costco
Christopher Ranch Chopped Garlic-from Costco
Dried Oregano
McCormick Parsley Flakes-from Costco
Kirkland Signature Shredded Parmigiano Reggiano
Freshly Ground Pepper-from Costco
Pasta Prima Butternut Squash Ravioli

The preparation was very simple.  I melted a stick of butter in the pan with some olive oil and then added a healthy portion of the garlic. I browned the garlic until it was nicely sweet and caramelized.  Then I added the pepper, the dried herbs and the shredded cheese.  After a few moments, I added the ravioli and we were set.

After serving, we garnished it with a bit more cheese.  The carmelized and sweet garlic went well with the butternut squash ravioli.  Also, it was a simple sauce with a few prominent flavors that complemented each other.  This was a satisfying and easy dish and it came together in minutes. This is definitely something we will make again and if you served it with something else, you might even entertain with it.

And the price was right too.  I checked out the local grocery store and they were asking $4.19 for eight ounces of this ravioli, while Costco charges less than $10 for 36 ounces, which is quite a savings. So once again, Costco is an affordable source of delicious food.

Breakfast, Lunch And Dinner With La Brea Bakery Torta Sandwich Rolls-On Sale this Month

We have enjoyed the La Brea Torta Rolls before and with them on sale this month, we had to buy a package. They are versatile and we had no problem going through the whole package. We had breakfast, lunch and dinner using them and all of the meals were  tasty, easy and affordable.

For breakfast, I scrambled some eggs from Costco, put the eggs on one half of the roll and topped the eggs with Jarlsberg cheese. After a few moments in the toaster oven, I topped it with the second half of the torta roll. The cost of two rolls was $1 and I used four eggs.  Even with the price of the cheese, the total cost for both sandwiches was less than $2 and it took less time then running out to a fast food restaurant. Plus, the flavor was simply excellent.

It has been a while since I have had sloppy joes, so I thought that would be a fun idea. We had ground beef in the freezer from Costco ready to go, so I was part of the way through the dish already. I sauteed some onions with some Christopher Ranch garlic and then I added some chopped tomatoes and a small can of tomato sauce. My wife seasoned it with some dry horseradish and some other spices and we were good to go.

These were pretty darn good sloppy joes.  Using fresh tomatoes certainly made this a fresher, healthier and tastier dish than anything you will get out of a can.  Also, my wife's ideas on seasoning it worked well too.  Plus, we had some leftovers for dinner. 

Speaking of fresh tomatoes, we love them with the Belgioiso Fresh Mozzarella.  So why not make a sandwich with them?  First, we started with a torta roll and put some Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto and some fresh mozzeralla on it.

Then we added some freshly cut meat from a rotisserie chicken.

Next came the tomato.

Then we assembled it and we were ready to go.

Again, another home run of a sandwich that came together in moments and was absolutely delicious. Plus, it was pretty also.

We weren't done with the idea for these rolls though. My wife made a chicken salad sandwich using many of the same ingredients as above, plus some onion.

As you can see, we got some great use out of these torta rolls and they made making  a total of five different meals ( since we got two out of the sloppy joes) easy, affordable and delicious.

Baked Omelet With Feta And Olives And Why You Should Always Have Extra Batteries For Your Camera

Recently, I was looking through the fridge and I found some leftover feta from Costco that looked like it needed a purpose.  Being that it was Sunday morning, I thought an upscale egg breakfast was a great idea.

I started with some of the Christopher Ranch Chopped Garlic we get from Costco and I browned it gently in some EVOO. Then I added three eggs and scrambled them with a little soy milk. However, I did not completely cook the eggs, for I had additional plans for them!

I took some foil and lined the little pan that is in our toaster oven.  I then sprayed the pan with some EVOO and poured the egg mixture in.

Finally, I topped the egg mixture with some of the feta and some chopped Tassos Mediterranean Gourmet Stuffed and Double Stuffed Olives.

I then put the omelet in the toaster oven and cooked it until the eggs were finished and the cheese was melted just a bit.

The results were fantastic and I am sure I will do something like this again.  And aside from the dish being tasty, using the foil lined pan made for easy serving and cleanup.

I was going to show a photo of the finished, baked omelet, but alas, my camera battery died on me in the middle of this and I had forgotten to have another one charged.

I learned two lessons on this day: baked omelets in the toaster oven are a wonderful thing and always have a second camera battery on hand.

A Chicken Soup With Quinoa: Grandma's Home Cooking Meets A Bolivian Staple

My wife had a couple of long nights in a row with concert rehearsals and she told me in advance for her night off she wanted comfort food.

Few foods are as comforting as chicken soup so I quickly settled on that for dinner. Since she gave me warning, I pulled some of our frozen chicken from Costco out of the freezer the night before and put it in the fridge to thaw.

When I got home from work, I pulled out our big soup pot and drizzled in some EVOO. I then added a generous helping of Christopher Ranch Chopped Garlic we get from Costco and a small palmful of rosemary I crumbled in my hand.  Meanwhile, my wonderful wife chopped:

• 1 small yellow onion
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1 cup of baby carrots

These were added to the pot and I sauteed them until the onions were tender. While this was going on my wife thawed out a couple of quarts of homemade chicken stock and added that to the pot while I tossed in the somewhat thawed chicken.

She then rinsed a half cup Nature's Earthly Choice Quinoa  and threw that in the pot with about a cup of boiling water.  We brought everything to a boil then turned it to a simmer for about 15 minutes to cook the quinoa.

This dish was absolutely a home run!  It was a delicious, healthy, hearty chicken soup with lots of comfort but it also had a distinct character.

Rosemary and chicken are a natural combination and while parsley is a great seasoning for chicken soup, the rosemary gave it a bit of panache.  Also, the garlic helped give it a more varied and hearty flavor profile.

And finally, the use of quinoa instead of noodles gave it a twist without making it so out of the ordinary it was no longer comfort food.

And by using all the foods we had in a cupboard, fridge and freezer, this went together in very little time with minimal effort.

In every way this dish was a success:

• Taste
• Ease
• Cost
• Comfort

I am positive we will do something like this again and it only reaffirms our strategy for rotisserie chickens.