15 Bean Soup – Keeping it Lean and Low Sodium

Tags

15 Bean Soup, heart healthy, low sodium, low-fat, pork, slow cooker, Slow Cooking

Lately I have taken up the challenge of cooking low sodium meals. My mother-in-law, who has congestive heart failure, just had open heart surgery. She’s not yet well enough to cook for herself, so I’ve been trying to help out. She is supposed to eat less that 2000mg of sodium a day; that’s one teaspoon!!! Eating out or even pre-made food from the store is basically out of the question if you’re going to meet this goal. Making meals that help her meet this goal has definitely been a learning experience! This 15 bean soup has been one of my favorite meals thus far. While keeping the salt level low, it still had lots of flavor, was packed with fiber, was lowfat and was also easy to make. Of course, you can always add more salt, if that is not an issue for you, but in case you are also looking for low sodium, great tasting foods I’ll give the recipe as I made it.

I wanted to add some meat to add to the heartiness of the soup. I looked to see if I could find a low sodium sausage. I was not successful! Even the sausages that said they contained “30% Less Salt”, less than what??? A salt lick??? So I kept scouring the meat section. Ham hocks? Nope! And then I found some unseasoned pork tenderloin that was cut into small pieces, like stew meat. This did the trick! If you can’t find this in your store, you could always buy a tenderloin and cut it up into bite size pieces yourself.

15 Bean Soup

1 pound unseasoned pork tenderloin, cut into bite size pieces

1/2 large onion, diced

1 20 oz bag 15 bean soup mix, found in bean section of grocery store

1/2 of seasoning packet included in bean soup mix (Even with the whole packet the sodium level in the whole recipe was only 70 mg, but I decided to only use half and add some other seasonings)

8 cups water

1 – 14.5 oz can of reduced salt diced tomatoes (luckily most tomato products come in reduced salt versions)

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp garlic and herb Mrs. Dash

Juice of 1 lemon or 3 tbsp of bottled juice

2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

Pepper to taste

Spray a frying pan with non-stick spray and brown pork over medium high heat. When almost browned add the onions and saute until tender and meat is browned. Add meat, onions and all other ingredients to a slow cooker, give a stir and cover. Cook over low heat for 8 hours.

As mentioned above, if you’re not watching your sodium some added salt would be a good add.

Enjoy!

Corned Beef and Cabbage – Better Late Than Never!!!

Tags

Carrots, Cooking, Corned Beef and Cabbage, Food, potatoes, recipe, Slow Cooking, St. Patrick's Day

  
My youngest daughter’s birthday is on St. Patrick’s Day and she wanted to go out that day, so our traditional dinner of corned beef and cabbage was put on hold. But that’s OK!!! Corned beef can be kind of pricey and I was happy to get it on sale after the holiday. It tasted just as good a few days after the holiday! Better actually! Since it was Sunday, not Thursday, I had all day to pamper this meal. This particular version was the best version I’ve ever made. Tons of fantastic flavor and beautiful colors!

One difference you’ll notice, is that I choose to use red cabbage. Our German family, loves pickled red cabbage, so I kind of go that route with this dish. As I’ve mentioned in numerous posts, I’m not a huge fan of cooked carrots, so I opted to cook my carrots separate from my corned beef and cabbage. I did use some of the liquid from the corned beef, so I got the same fantastic flavor, but everything else did not take on the flavor of the carrots. I just simmered these in a separate pot. They took on the great flavors of the liquid!

I also chose to serve mashed potatoes. I had a large group, so the corned beef and cabbage filled my slow cooker. This is why I opted to go with mashed that I could cook in a separate pot. I actually included a couple of turnips too. I just boiled those right along with the potatoes and the mashed them all together with some fat free sour cream, fat free milk, fresh garlic, salt and pepper.

You’ll also notice the wedge of Irish soda bread. I blogged that recipe yesterday. It was incredibly good and so easy to make!!!

Slow Cooked Corned Beef and Cabbage

4 pound corned beef brisket with seasoning packet

3 1/2 cups beef broth

3 bay leaves

3 garlic cloves,pressed or diced

1/2 yellow onion, sliced

1 1/2 heads red cabbage, shredded

3 cups fat free chicken broth 

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp pepper

In slow cooker, add corned beef, garlic, onion and beef broth. Put seasoning packet from corned beef and bay leaves in cheese cloth packet or herb infused and submerge in broth in slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours. Add red cabbage and chicken broth. Continues to cook for 2 hours.

After 2 hours, uses a slotted spoon to transfer cabbage to another pot. Spoon in about 1 1/2 cups of liquid from the slow cooker. Add vinegar, sugar and pepper to cabbage and simmer for a few minutes. 

While cabbage simmers, remove corned beef from slow cooker and slice against the grain. We like to serve our corned beef with various types of mustard. I really liked mine with a Hawaiian Honey mustard we had on hand. Dijon is really good too!

Enjoy!

Brewers Pot Roast – Beware! Your House is Going to Smell Fabulous!!!

Tags

beer, Cooking, Cream of Mushroom Soup, Food, onion, Pepsi, Pot Roast, recipe, Slow Cooking

  
Beware! This yummy pot roast will fill your house with a fabulous aroma as it slow cooks! You’ll be so ready to chow down and luckily it tastes as good as it smells! The meat will be fall apart tender and the gravy is so incredibly savory. You won’t be able to get enough of it! Another great thing, is this is super easy to make and pretty low in fat for the amount of flavor it delivers.

This pot roast recipe was originally called Pepsi Pot Roast, but I was looking to reduce the calories, so I decided to use a light beer instead of the soda. The carbonation is a great meat tenderizer. The Pepsi makes for a much sweeter gravy, but the beer didn’t disappoint. The gravy was just as delicious. We had a Bud Light lurking around, so that’s what I used.

You probably noticed the bright purple potatoes on the plate. LOL! We all decided these would be perfect for Easter dinner. I had a large, purple sweet potato, so I used that and added 3 russet potatoes to make the mash you see here. My standard mashed potato combo can be used with white potatoes, sweet potatoes or any combination. I mix in milk, fat free sour cream, fresh garlic and salt and pepper. Then I rounded out the dinner by cooking some frozen peas.

This was great hearty dinner for a winter’s night!

Brewers Pot Roast

2-3 pound beef roast

1 bottle of beer or one can of Pepsi

1 can lowfat cream of mushroom soup

1 packet of onion soup mix

Put roast in slow cooker. Pour in beer, then mushroom soup and then sprinkle with onion soup mix. Cover and cook on low for 6 -8 hours.

To make the gravy: Towards the end of cooking time, ladle out 2-3 cups of liquid from slow cooker into a sauce pan. Make a slurry of 1 tbsp cornstarch and 1 tbsp water. Stir until smooth and then pour into gravy  and stir while simmering over medium heat.

Gumbo – Super Bowl Food Success!!!

Tags

Andouille, cajun, Cooking, Food, gumbo, recipe, Slow Cooking

   
This will be my last gumbo related post for a while! I promise! I just had to share that my first attempt at making gumbo was a success. It turned out thick, hearty and delicious! It had great bold flavor with just the right amount of spice and the okra didn’t get slimy. Score!!!

So a few days ago I shared the link to another bloggers post with instructions on how to make gumbo. I used their post as my guide and things turned out perfect! Their instructions were so easy to follow and left room to experiment, which I did. You know I had to get creative and put my own spin on it! That’s just how I roll! You’ll find the link to their blog below.

So in their instructions you’ll notice they suggest various liquids you can use. You want to have a total of 8 cups. I used my large 8 cup measuring bowl. I poured in a 12 oz bottle of a Gordon Biersh Marzen beer, one 28 oz can of diced tomatoes in puree and then poured in enough chicken broth to bring it 8 cups. It ended up being 2-3 cups of broth.

I also opted to use red bell pepper in my holy trinity. I just don’t like green bell peppers. I did include 1 stalk of celery too.

I did want some spice in my gumbo, so I chose to add 2 tsp of Cajun seasoning and 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper. Of course, I added salt and black pepper too.

Anyway, it turned out great and made a nice sized batch. I highly recommend giving it a try. It does require your undivided attention when making your roux, but once you get all the initial work done, you can just let it simmer for several hours. Mine simmered on the stove in my Dutch oven for a good 5 hours. I did crack the lid, so liquid could cook off and it could thicken up.

Here is the link to the original instructions that I used: https://houseblendfamily.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/gumbo-for-beginners/ 

Thanks to the folks at House Blend for the great gumbo recipe! Your instructions were so easy to follow!
My lovely brown roux:

  

The holy trinity:

  

The chicken and andouille sausage:
 

Mom’s Savoury Beef

Tags

Beef, Cooking, Food, recipe, savoury beef, Slow Cooking

Thank goodness for mom’s, eh? My mommabear spent 5weeks with us while I was on maternity leave with Little Miss and not only did she provide much-needed support, love and help… but she also shared some wonderful recipes with me! This Savoury beef dish has been a firm favourite from my childhood and although I had […]

https://whyiamnotskinny.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/moms-savoury-beef/