Chicken and Pepper Pasta with a Balsamic Cream Sauce

My husband didn't want our usual chicken and peppers dish this week, but that's what I had originally planned for dinner.  He wanted pasta.  So, this was the end result and if his stomach could hold that much food, he would have eaten every last bit!  Believe it or not, if you serve 4 with this batch, it's around 725 calories per serving, but if you add a salad and serve 6, it's only about 500 calories per serving.  You'd think pasta with a cream sauce would be far worse for you, but this isn't too bad.  Enjoy!

Beef Stew from Scratch

For the past few years, my husband and I have wanted to make a good beef stew that didn't involve using a packet of seasoning mix from the store.  I know... there's lots of recipes out there for this kind of thing, but I either didn't think about looking one up or was more intrigued by creating my own version without help.  So, after much experimenting, I finally got a batch right, and it was GREAT.  I know it hasn't been that cold here, but you can't go through winter without having beef stew at least once (or so my husband says!).  So, give it a try and let me know what you think.  Maybe next post I'll get back to baking... :)

Curry Carrot Soup

To start off the new year (and because I was bored at home), I chose to try something new tonight for dinner.  I saw several bags of carrots in the fridge from the last sale at the store that were begging to be used and began thinking of a carrot soup.  Originally I was going toward a pea soup kind of idea, but wanted something healthy and still flavorful.  I found several recipes on the internet regarding carrot curry soups and carrot and ginger soups, but nothing really struck my fancy exactly.  So, I mixed up a batch using the concepts I found online and ended up with an amazingly delicious (and healthy) soup!  Well, I didn't end up using it in a soup-like way, I put the thick puree on top of quinoa (a very healthy grain that is full of protien) and as I eat, I decided it must go into the "keep" pile of recipes.  So, here it is, for those of you interested.

Split Pea Soup

With fall in full swing and temperatures dropping, I've had a few people request some of my soup recipes. I may not get them all posted, but I'll try to post at least a few over the next few weeks.  Since soup tends to make larger batches that often end up as lots of leftovers, I'll indicate which ones freeze well and which ones are best made in small batches so they don't leave too much leftovers.