celery

Creamy Chicken and Dumpling Soup

January 4, 2015 by Dana

This super silky milk based soup will have your family smiling ear to ear on cold winter days. Great for thermoses and leftovers!

This soup will hit your mouth like BAM! The perfect dreamy, creamy, comforting chicken soup + dumplings. Does it get any more comfort food then this? I think not. 🙂

While the Holiday cheer was wrapping up I was all like *Creamy Chicken and Dumpling Soup must happen now!* Parties are over, gatherings are over, and I don’t have to share with anyone! This soup = Not for sharing! That is, unless your trying to impress your hunky new man (or woman), or trying to prove to your kids that you are indeed the best cook ever and nobody will ever come close to Mama’s home cooking.

Speaking of Mama’s home cooking… I have an 8 year old that is determined to tell me about every single time in his life that he hated my food. Today in the car I heard something along the lines of:

“Remember that time that you made that lasagna with the broccoli and squash and you promised me that you were going to save a corner with no veggies for me, and then you didn’t, and then you actually burnt it and I hated it. Remember that time?”

Of course I remember that time honey, the time I actually tried to get you to eat broccoli and you acted like I was trying to kill you. How could I possibly forget that you don’t understand that cruciferous veggies are loaded with all the good stuff to keep your little body growing the right way? How could I possibly forget that I didn’t make enough béchamel to cover the noodles completely and ONE BITE got a little crispy on top? One….bite….!!!!! Kids, they don’t forget a thing!

Cooking Tips and Techniques

I used chicken breasts for this soup, however you could sub 2 cups of shredded chicken if you’d like.
I added 1/2 cup finely chopped kale for some extra nutrients. I added it very last so it didn’t get soggy and gross. I promise, you can’t even tell it is there! Oh Hi Kale! 🙂
I adapted this recipe for the dumplings. I used whole wheat white flour, which does yield a courser dumpling. I advise using whole wheat flour MOST of the time, but if your family isn’t used to whole grains you might want to sub 1/2 all purpose. I loved the dumplings, they had a great flavor, and the longer they sat in the broth the better they were!
The dumplings will get bigger after you drop them in your pot. Small dumplings = better dumplings because if you make them too big you will end up with a weird center.

Chicken Minestrone Soup

December 10, 2014 by Dana

Can I just puuurrrty please dive head first into this pot on a cold, sleeting/freezing rain/snowy day and hibernate there until May? PLEASE?????? Ok, maybe that’s what I’ll be asking Santa for this year!

Confession: most of this soup never even made it to leftover land. It was supposed to, that was the plan. Tomorrow is my husband’s Holiday work party and the kids need a dinner. A big pot of soup is perfect, I said. It will last until the end of the week, I said. This is totally the last bite, I said. Then I lost all self control and kept coming back for more. Where did my self control go again?

Oh that’s right, my self control flew right out the window when I realized how delicious and nutritious this soup was. One more bite because it contains veggies, and then another because Hello! Whole Grains are good for you! And then just one more for the spinach! And the tomatoes! And the ground chicken is lean! And come on, one more because it looks pretty! Ok, heck just dump the whole pot in my mouth, please.

Then all of a sudden I’m all like…honey did you eat all the soup? 🙂

This soup all started when I was at Wegman’s today and saw the organic ground chicken on sale. I kept thinking back to a few years ago when I tried to use ground chicken for tacos and it was a complete disaster. We basically just threw a TON of cheese on top and gagged it down because it had a really odd texture and was just plain awful. I used to use ground turkey quite a bit, so I thought ground chicken would be similar but in truth it really isn’t the same at all.

Today was the first time since the taco debacle that I even considered purchasing ground chicken again and I’m so glad I did! Sometimes I get so sick of using the same meats over and over again, so I thought heck, why not give it another go. I’m a much, much better cook now and I was confident I could doctor it up to make something super yummy out of it. Immediately I thought SOUP, so I went with it. I was really surprised how awesome it turned out, so I just had to share for all those ground chicken doubters out there like myself.

So what made it different then the awful tacos? Well 1) I wasn’t using a seasoning packet that contains an array of random crap added because we just don’t get down with Ortega like that anymore! Then 2) There are so many other flavors going on, and everything kind of blends together to create an overall great taste. Basically what I’m saying is that I was totally wrong for all this time and I used to be a horrible cook! 🙂

*I usually use my own chicken stock, but in a pinch today I found this organic free range Pacific stock that does not contain any added MSG/Yeast Extract. If you don’ t have any homemade stock on hand, I highly recommend checking out this product.
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Parmesan, Mushroom and Rice Soup

October 25, 2014 by Dana

Dana Carvell (3BoysUnprocessed)

Parmesan. Mushrooms. Rice. Because everything is better with cheese! 🙂

I’ve made mushroom soup a ton of times. I can easily say THIS Mushroom soup should get a big blue ribbon that says #1, and maybe even one of those little gold star stickers because it is by far my favorite mushroom soup… ever!

Not only is this soup really delicious, it is packed with nutrition and antioxidants. Yes, I just said antioxidants. I know, I know, I’m going to get all healthy-person talk right now but bear with me because you might just want to try something new at the end of this! Black Japonica rice is hands down my new favorite ingredient to use. It has a really nutty and unique flavor (without being totally overbearing) that gives this soup just a hint of earthiness that goes perfectly with the mushrooms. Not only that…. it isn’t bleached and processed or fortified with a bunch of nutrients. It doesn’t need that crap, because it is just perfect the way it is. Anything that leaks color into a soup like this rice is amazing because color=antioxidants. I love, I love I love! If you don’t have black rice on hand, check the organic section of your local grocery store, I’m sure it will be there. I used Lundberg brand. There’s a handy-dandy link at the bottom of the post so you know what it looks like! Wild rice would be a great substitute for black rice if you’d like to go that route as well.

I mean really, this color! 🙂

So what else makes this soup really amazing? Whole grain mustard. Again! I know, I know. WHY more whole grain mustard? Hasn’t every recipe I’ve recently posted contain it? To be honest, maybe. I know for sure my Sweet-Fire Chilli had a little mustard in it, and I threw it in some Mac n Cheese the other day, and well it is just awesome so please expect to see a lot more of it! It just makes everything good. That’s all.

I served this soup with grilled cheese sandwiches (Ezekiel bread, butter, cheese), and my family loved it! Nothing says *breezy fall day* like soup and grilled cheese sandwiches so this was a perfect fall dinner. Veggies + Antioxidant rich rice + Grilled Cheese = Yum!

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*This listing is for 6 bags of rice, in the grocery store it is far less expensive. 🙂

Homestyle Sweet Potato and Chicken Soup

October 8, 2014 by Dana

Sweet Potatoes. Nutritious. Delicious. Cheap. Versatile. AMAZING!

But seriously… this soup. The perfect balance of sweet and savory in a big, warm mug waiting for you on the table with a pretty fall decoration in the middle and a pumpkin spice latte on the side! In my house you can go ahead and just throw that pretty fall decoration on the floor and rip it apart because if you haven’t noticed I have 3 boys. They do that. A lot. Well, basically I should just take my pretty decorations and throw them in the trash myself because that’s where they’ll end up. That will save me the hassle of having to clean anything up, right? Boys!

One thing I LOVE about this soup is the color that comes out of the carrots and sweet potatoes to make it the perfect fall orange. Of course, being the only woman in my house nobody else cares about the beautiful color of my soup, so I have to make pictures like the following to bask in my orange glory while others cheer. Is this happening? Please… anyone… someone out there in internet-land, do you care that my soup is orange? Please say yes! 🙂 Please give me a big *nice soup* while we both glance at that pretty bowl!

Thanks, you just made my day! Now I can get over the fact that I will not be displaying any pretty fall decorations on my table until the baby is 18. That’s 17 years of decoration-less fall’s I have yet to endure. But hey, at least I have my orange soup!

And can we talk nutrition for a second because this soup ain’t no rice cake (thanks Blake Shelton for that one). Sweet potatoes = one of the most nutritious foods in the world. That’s right, it tops many other foods labeled “super foods” so I think that makes it even more acceptable to eat numerous bowls in one sitting while burning my mouth because I’m too impatient to wait for it to cool down. Totally acceptable! Until I’m old and have no taste buds left. Then I’ll have to go to restaurants and asks the cooks to heat my soup up over and over and over again until it is boiling in the microwave and my old ass is finally happy. Sound like a real life scenario? That’s because it is! I know, I know, the old people always get a bad rap but seriously I can’t even tell you how many times a day this happened while I was cooking in restaurants. So remember folks, wait until your food cools down or you’ll be THAT old person some day!

*No old people’s feelings were hurt in the making of this post. 🙂

And one more thing.. I found these crackers today. TWO ingredients! 100% whole wheat and salt. Ummm helllllooo healthy cracker I’ve been looking for forever. Thank you for coming into my life today so I could dip you in my soup and take pictures of it. Things always work themselves out perfectly, don’t they?

*I used my Homemade Chicken Stock in this recipe.