My Productive Monday

For some reason, the moment Karl left for California I turned completely domestic. That seems a little backwards. I guess I've been feeling like a very bad, no-cooking, wife lately so now I'm trying to make up for it by stocking the freezer with soupy goodness for those Fall evenings when soup sounds great but I don't want to spend forever making it. So... is 2-1/2 gallons enough? I started by turning my chicken stock from Sunday into Chicken Noodle. To be honest, I don't really know what I'm doing but it seems to turn out okay :o)

Sauteed the onions and celery...


Got my stock boiling... (had to boil it for two minutes before adding to the soup)


Added the chicken to my onions and celery... (I kept the chicken in big pieces, I thougth it looked more rustic that way)


I added the stock after that and some carrots and shell noodles... and I ended up with five quarts!


After that it was on to Olive Garden's Pasta E Fagioli with a little help from Top Secret Recipes.

Got all the stuff together...


Sauteed the onions and celery...(little bit of deja vu)


Cooked up the meat... (the recipe calls for ground beef which I find kind of boring unless it's smothered in Taco seasoning, so I usually use sausage instead, typically the Italian kind but all they had at my store was plain pork sausage which still tasts better than just ground beef in my opinion)


Added all the ingredients together...it's so pretty!


After simmering for an hour, adding the pasta, and it thickening up, it's not quite as pretty but still very tasty. And what do you know, a double batch yields five quarts.


After that my freezer was FULL but oh no, I wasn't done yet. I've been craving Black Bean Pie and I had all the stuff so I figured I could eat that this week while Karl is gone. It's so boring to fix dinner for yourself and much too tempting to just run to Carl's Jr., so I figured this was a better option. And it's super yummy as cold left overs! So I gathered all the stuff...


Sauteed the onions and green pepper... (seriously, does everything start off white and green?)


Added the beans, salsa, chilies, and spices...


Simmered for ten minutes...


Got my fake (but yummy) crust into the pie pan and added some cheese...(recipe calls for a total of two cups, but if you're like me it'll end up being closer to four cups)


Added 1/2 the bean mixture into the pie pan, another layer of cheese, the rest of the bean stuff, and a last layer of cheese...


Then put the top crust on, trimmed the extra off the edges and wrote something fun on the top with it...



Baked for about 45 minutes...


I know, it doesn't look very appetizing but it really, really is! I used mango salsa this time and it turned out good, I think I have a peach salsa in the cupboard for next time. I like to mash it up and cover it in salsa and guacamole but that looks even less appetizing so I'm sparing your eyes.


Stay tuned later in the week for more of Sarah's Kitchen Adventures. Coming up...Chicken Enchiladas! I don't have room in the freezer for them so I'll have to make them when I know Karl is coming home. I'm loving this week of vacation with nothing to do but everything I've been putting off. Although this blogging is a nice procrastination. Off to clean up my office area. If you're "lucky" I'll post before and after pictures :o)