The Atkinsons

Soups, Socks, and Sewing. (Part I- The Soups)

    I've been telling my sister Melissa that I would give her some recipes for a while. So here goes! Here are 4 hearty, healthy, but most of all DELICIOUS soups. It's been BONE cold here, so I've been making soups non-stop over the past month! I find a lot on pintrist. Some work out, and some don't. Here are some that did (at least for my flavor palette.) 

Hearty Butternut Squash Stew

This is supposed to be a chicken stew, but I have never been one for a lot of meat -especially chicken. So, I'll leave the recipe on here and you can decide for yourself what to do. (Bonus of leaving out chicken is a significant cut in cooking time.) In the summer I'd use my heirloom tomatoes in all these recipes that call for canned tomatoes. You just drop them in boiling water until you see the skin split, pull off the skins, and chop them up. It depresses me to talk about those heirlooms since I don't have them anymore. They ruined me for life, they are so delish. Next year I think I will can them so I can enjoy them all year long! Anyhow, I've made this soup a bunch and it's super easy (unless you are Callie Tybur) haha jk... and it's really good! Enjoy.

Smashed Pea and Barley Soup

Let me start by saying, I am aware that this does not look so appetizing in the photo. I'm not really that great of a photographer, let alone a food photographer. (these photos might look better if little ol' Annie Hancock didn't skip town) *sigh* And after making these soups I just want to EAT them and not take pictures of them haha ---guess I'm not so great of a blogger Anyhow, this soup is supposed to be a replica of the smashed pea and barley soup from CPK. I had it there and I just loved it, I really like barley- especially in soups. I didn't think this was quite as good as the one I had at the restaurant, so I would try adding a lot more of the spices and carrot and pepper. I always think that spruces up a soup. It was really good though none the less, and healthy!

  

This is my minestrone soup. I got the basic recipe from my sister-in-law  Angie, who graciously brought dinner for KC and I after we had our baby. (Both my sister-in-laws did, they are awesome.) Ok, let me just start by saying I used to HATE it when people would just tell me rough recipes like oh just put a little of this and a little of that (namely my mom) and in my head I was screaming TELL ME EXACTLY HOW MUCH! Cause cooking can be scary you know? And things can go from bad to worse real fast. And I've had my fair share of those, and I'm sure there will be plenty more in the future. Now that I can cook a little better I can handle it when people give me recipes this way, but if YOU can't, then skip this- because it's a whole lot of that going on. I won't feel bad.

Minestrone Soup 

Every time I make this soup I put something different in it, and it always turns out good! So you can make mistakes, or change the veggies, or throw whatever in there, or even leave things out- and as long as you dont forget the spices, you are good to go. Here is the rough recipe.

(You can reduce or increase this recipe based on how much soup you want, I normally just add things till my crockpot is full.)

Base of 4 of 5 cups of water with equivalent chicken bouillon cubes 

1 onion

2 or 3 small zucchini (or squash)

1 or 2 cans of kidney beans (if I am doing a big pot I do two, if not than one, also it just depends on how much bean you like)

2 or 3 carrots

a big handful of green beans

a big can of tomato sause

4-5 tomatoes flash boiled with the skins removed or a big can of chopped tomatoes

2 or 3 cloves of garlic

You can add fresh basil and rosemary or dried, I normally do dried- but you have to have fresh thyme. It makes the whole soup. I buy those little containers and then I slide them off the sprigs with my fingers. Lots and lots. No need to chop them up. Add as much pepper as you want, I add a lot sometimes because I like the warmth of it. 

Chop and dump all these ingredients into a crockpot for about 5 hours, or until all the veggies are soft. Or you can put it in a big pot on the stove for half an hour to an hour. Enjoy. This really is the best hearty and warming soup. I've had so many people say they love it so I wish you success with it.

(You can also add chicken or noodles. I prefer just the veggies, but I think it would be easy and good to add those as well.)

Brazilian Shrimp Soup

This last soup is from pintrist and it's a shrimp and rice stew of sorts. I loved it so I thought I would share it with you. I eat it with a big splice of bread as my fork. SO GOOD. (anytime you add carbs to something it makes it better.) Hope you guys enjoy these soups! Love all your guts-es!