Pizza Minestrone

Our local elementary school does a neat program called "Farm to School". It gives the students a chance to taste fresh produce grown on local farms. Peer pressure works in a positive way to encourage the children to try the produce and I witnessed some kids - mostly boys - competing with each other to see who could eat the most samples before the end of lunch. Hey, whatever it takes!

I got a note from one of the volunteers telling me that my daughter, Bug, absolutely loved the fresh vegetable minestrone soup. She went up for seconds and possibly thirds and said that the soup was so good it should be called Pizza Minestrone and the school should sell it. So the volunteer sent me the recipe and I made it the next week, where it was again met with positive results. Any time Bug is willing to eat any vegetarian meal is a good time since Bug would like to be vegetarian, or at least a flexitarian (basically someone who is mostly vegetarian, but sometimes eats meat). I have no problems with her becoming a vegetarian, but she knows she must eat a wide variety of vegetables, paying careful attention to being sure she gets enough protein and iron from vegetables and fruits. So far she's not eating enough of a variety, but this soup is a good step toward that.

(Adapted from the MCPASD School Nutrition Services recipe)

- 1.5 quarts of broth (I used chicken, but any should work)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 cup onions
- 2-3 cups carrots, scrubbed and diced (don't bother peeling them - it's a waste of time and carrot)
- 2 cups shredded green cabbage
- 2 cups diced celery
- 2 cans diced tomatoes - fire roasted if you can get them
- 3 Tbsp tomato paste
- 2 cans cannelloni beans (these seem to be the most inoffensive beans to my kids)
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 3/4 tsp dried oregano
- 3/4 tsp dried basil or 3 Tbsp pesto
- 3/4 tsp dried parsley
- 1 1/2 tsp garlic granules or 3 cloves fresh garlic, chopped
- salt to taste
- 4 oz whole grain pasta (I like the little shells when I can find them)
- Parmesan cheese to taste



Heat olive oil in a large stock pot and saute onions, carrots, and celery until softened.

Add all remaining ingredients, except for the pasta and cheese. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes until veggies are soft.

While veggies cook, prepare pasta according to package directions.

Add cooked pasta to soup after 20-30 minutes and simmer for another 5 minutes.


*** You can use fresh herbs if you'd like, but I'm not good about using up fresh herbs in the winter when I'm most likely to make soup. Or if you have any Wildtree spaghetti sauce spice mix, you can put 2 generous tablespoons in the soup instead of the individual dried spices. I also used the bones from the previous night's rotisserie chicken to make chicken stock for the soup. I just covered the bones with about 3 quarts of water and cooked in a crock pot all night.

Pie!

March 14, for those of you who are not math nerds or who love a math nerd, is also known as "Pi Day", because the date 3.14 is the same as the number called pi, which is used to calculate the measurements of a circle. (Please don't ask me for more in depth information than that! My geometry class is merely a distant trauma.)  In order to encourage an interest in my children for math - and to eat pie - I have vowed to honor this day by making my family a pie.

I asked my girls what kind of pie they wanted. First they wanted cherry, then blueberry, then cherry-blueberry. Then I decided to only use stuff that I had at home and asked if any berry pie would be acceptable. They agreed.

Spring is a tough time of year for me for some reason. I think my body figures if the weather can't make up its mind, I should just hibernate until things smooth out. And while this is a lovely idea, it's not going to happen. So I drag my tired self all around trying to do the whole living and momming thing. But this also means that I was in no mood to fight with pie crust. The funny thing is that I can do just about any baking with yeast, do ok with meringues and biscuits, bake cookies and bars without a problem, and enjoy making cakes from scratch. But pie crust eludes me. My mother makes the most wonderful pie crust and I cannot manage to copy it. I've tried other crust recipes and I wind up frustrated. Fortunately I remembered my friend made us hazelnut chocolate tarts the other day and she used a shortbread crust. I'd never heard of such a thing, but it turns out to be a wonderful creation. You don't have to roll it, which makes me super happy. You mix it, pat it into the pan, and boom - you're done.

So I looked at my beloved Pinterest and found this recipe Easy Shortbread Pie Crust So many times something says "Easy" and it's absolutely not my definition of easy. This was. I mixed it - adding a bit of almond extract for fun - patted it and baked it for 9 minutes before putting the filling in. I don't know if I needed to prebake, but I figured better safe than sorry. And the crust didn't shrink or bubble up much at all.

Then I found this recipe for the filling. Almond Crumble Blueberry Pie I didn't want a double crust pie and I'm not sure it would be possible with a shortbread crust. But I'm a sucker for anything with a crumble, so this looked like it would work. BUT...I have major issues with making a recipe as written. I always have to mess around with it. It's a compulsion with me. Crazy, but it usually works.

I didn't have blueberries, but I did have mixed berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries). For the crumble topping, I absolutely love oatmeal, so I reduced the flour to 1/4 cup and added 1/4 of oatmeal. It worked. I also omitted the cinnamon because cinnamon has it's place, just not in every baked good under the sun. I upped the citrus and everything was just fine flavor-wise. And a useful tip I came across - you can freeze citrus fruits to use later for zest and juice. So I pulled out a lemon and an orange, ran my zester over each one several times, then popped them back into the freezer.

This is my filling and crumble based on the Pillsbury Almond Crumble Blueberry Pie:

FILLING

• 3 cups fresh or frozen mixed berries, thawed and drained
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel (or more)
• 1/2 teaspoon grated tangerine or orange peel (or more)

TOPPING

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup chopped almonds

(I apologize for the quality or lack of quality of my photo. I hadn't planned on blogging this, but I had to get the recipe written down somewhere because it turned out well enough that I want to eat this again!)