Potato Ham Chowder

Soup is a wonderful thing. I know a lot of people associate soups with cold weather, and while that is definitely warranted, it's not my view. Don't get me wrong, there are few things more enjoyable than coming in from the cold to a warm, delicious bowl of soup. It's fantastic, but I love to turn to soup for comfort. When I've had a long, or bad, or both day, I take comfort in the fact that I can make a big pot of something warm and creamy to enjoy. This soup was no exception.                                                                                             I got to use another new, to me, ingredient in this recipe! Ham steak! It made everything go smoothly due to being already cooked. All I had to do was dice the amount that I needed. This particular steak provided way more than I needed so I save the rest for ham sandwiches later in the week. So, let's make some soup shall we?

What you'll need:

Melting the butter.

• 4 slices bacon, diced
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1.5 cups frozen corn kernels
• 2 tsp fresh thyme
• 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 3.5 cups milk
• 2 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 7 oz ham steak, diced
• salt and pepper, to taste

Between steps 2 & 3.

What you'll do:

Ready to serve!

1. Heat a large skillet over med-high. Add bacon and cook until brown and crispy. Set aside on a paper towel lined plate.
2. Melt butter in a Dutch oven, or large pot, over medium heat. Add garlic and onion, and cook, stirring frequently, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in corn and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
3. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, only a minute or so. Gradually whisk in milk and cook, continuously whisking, until slightly thickened, and 1-2 minutes. 
4. Stir in potatoes.
5. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 12-15 minutes. Stir in ham, salt and pepper. 
6. If you feel your chowder is too thick you can slowly add milk as needed.
7. Serve immediately, garnished with the bacon!

I found this recipe on Damn Delicious, and it was definitely damn delicious. Wonderful for a cold night! I topped mine with some shredded cheddar and it was perfect! 

Bon appetit!

Lauren

Turkey Lasagna

Remember this?

Well, it's high time I show you how to use it!

We're making Lasagna!

This was super tasty and really good for you! By that I mean it's from Clean Eating Magazine so the ingredients are fresh and very minimally processed. This recipe does call for no-boil lasagna noodles, which I had never used before. Word for the wise, make sure that the entire noodle gets covered with sauce when you're doing your layering. If not there will be no moisture and the noodle will not get cooked. AKA you'll have crunchy bits of noodle. Slightly off-putting. 

Let's get started.

What you'll need:

Spinach turkey mixture.

• 9oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 1lb ground turkey breast
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 15 oz reduced-fat ricotta cheese, drained
• 1/3 cup loosely packed chopped fresh basil leaves
• 12 whole-wheat no-boil lasagna noodles
• 4 oz reduced-fat, grated Italian four cheese blend
• Homemade Marinara 

What you'll do:

Between steps 5 & 6.

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F.
2. Place spinach in a mesh strainer and press firmly to drain. Coat a large skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium-high. 
3. Add turkey and cook until no longer pink, about 4-5 minutes. Add spinach, salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
4. In a second bowl, combine ricotta and basil. 
5. Reheat marinara on medium until steaming hot. Spread 3/4 cup sauce inside a 9x13 baking dish. Top with 4 noodles, half the ricotta mix, 1/3 of cheese blend, half the turkey mix and 1 cup of sauce. 
6. Repeat once more, starting with noodles and ending with sauce. 
7. Top with remaining noodles, remaining sauce and remaining cheese blend. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.Remove foil and bake until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling, 5-10 minutes more. 
8. Allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving. 

Ready to go in the oven! 

I got this recipe straight from Clean Eating Magazine, which I LOVE!!!! If you ever want to borrow one, just ask! They have lots of recipes that not only taste great, they're great for you!

I'm gonna go write some more, overdue, blogs now! Enjoy!

Lauren

Start Something Beautiful

Wow. 

My life never seems to slow down. Seems like Monday the 3rd was yesterday and I was looking at the calendar not sure how I'd make it to my day off on the 12th. Now that's just two work days away. 

Let's talk about work shall we? So much has changed for me recently. At the farm I have moved into a secretarial role. Yay! Kinda. Now I spend most of my day up in the office doing paperwork, answering the phone, doing all the laundry and keeping the place clean. I know what you're thinking and no, it's not what I started there intending to do. But nothing has really gone the way I planned in regards to my career there. I will say this, I'm pretty happy with this change of pace. I was worried that being in the office would mean I was less active overall but my FitBit has been telling me otherwise. So hopefully that's where I'll stay until I leave for culinary school. 

As for culinary school, it's not all worked out yet. Don't worry, there'll be a blog when it is :P

In other career news, you may have seen on Facebook that I have become an Independent Beauty Consultant for Mary Kay. I cannot tell you how excited I am! I've been going through the training and new materials and I really feel like this is something I can be successful at. Which is nice because I'm going to need an income during culinary school. Please please PLEASE don't be hesitant to talk to me if you are at all curious about Mary Kay! I'm happy to share my knowledge with you and show you how wonderful Mary Kay is!

Well friends, it's bedtime. Once again I'm going to leave you with a promise to blog more. My jar needs more funds haha!

Thanks for reading, 

Lauren