Clean your fridge soup aka "Weight Watchers Cabbage Soup"

I've heard of Weight Watcher's cabbage soup for a long time (I used to work in a weight loss place though not with weight watchers) but I've never ever thought of cooking it for the fear that it will not taste good. It's been pretty cold lately and I've been looking for some really simple and quick soup to make for dinner. My baby is not a big fan of meat at all and he much prefers vegetables and soupy food so I thought this would be the perfect dish for me to make.

I love this recipe so much because it is so versatile and you can adapt it with what ever vegetables etc you have at home.  My recipe is actually ball park on what I had at home and is not specific.

Ingredients - Original recipe from here

3 cups of broth- Chicken, beef or vegetable

2-4 cloves of garlic minced

1/2 chopped onions

2 cups chopped cabbage

4 tomatoes-skinned, deseeded and diced

1/2 cup of pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce (one of the recipe asked for 1tbsp tomato paste)

2 cups chopped carrots

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp oregano

Salt and Pepper

Method

1. Pour broth, garlic, onions, carrots and green pepper into your pot (I used my dutch oven pot) until it boils for about 30 minutes (My homemade broth was still slightly frozen)

2. Put the rest of the ingredients in and let it simmer for about 30-44 minutes or until desired tenderness.

This soup is so very simple yet so very sweet and yummy!!I was very surprise that it actually tasted so good. My little baby ate 3/4 bowl of it and nibble from my bowl too. He absolutely loved it. Even my hesitant hubby was surprised that it actually tasted good! His only complain was that it does not have any meat. He even requested I made more and add meat so he can take it to work next week!!

You can add all sorts of vegetables like celery, bak choy, egg plant, zucchini, etc. I chose to use pizza sauce because I have a huge bottle at home. Hubby wanted to make some pizza and we were at Sam's club and we actually bought a huge can of it. I froze half of it and half of it actually went moldy. Since I  didn't want to open a can of tomato paste because I had a bunch of pizza sauce in my freezer I decided to use it. I also have a few container of chicken broth that I pre cook when I've accumulated a bunch of bones so I have home made broth when ever I need them. 

If you are looking for an easy soup recipe this is would be a recipe you should definitely try! Also if you are looking to lose weight and need to jump start your diet this soup would be ideal!

Curry Laksa/Curry Noodles

The weather has been really crazy lately..Not only there are snow storms everywhere but the temperature is dropping drastically even where even here in the South. Ever since the temperature dropped I've been craving for warm soupy stuff.  On Sunday I made hubby take me to the store so that we can get ingredients to make Chili. When we got home we cut everything up and dump it in the crock pot and had a warm bowl of chili the next day.


I was really craving for some Curry Laksa since is so cold but I had to work on Monday and didn't have time to go get the ingredients for it so I had to postpone the idea of cooking some to another day. That day I made the hubs take me to one of the Chinese Buffet that I like to patronize hoping that it will help my craving for Curry Laksa. It didn't help that much and I knew that the next day I would go to the store to buy the ingredients since is my day off.


I was really lazy to go out the next day as it was really cold out and I could hear the wind howling from my house. I knew that it would be a cold walk from my front door to my house but I decided to brave it and go get the ingredients I needed.

Bak Kut Teh (Pork Bone Tea Soup)

When I was living in Malaysia I rarely eat Bak Kut Teh. If I'm lucky I would probably eat that about once a year. My last trip home I ate Bak Kut Teh once that's also because my relatives from Australia was there so I think that's the reason why we actually ate that (my parents don't really like to eat a lot of meaty dish).
For some reason I've been wanting to eat Bak Kut Teh for quite sometime now. I had cereal for breakfast today and I just decided that I'll take the stuff out from the freezer to make myself a wholesome pot of Bak Kut Teh since it was cool and rainy all day.

Bak Kut Teh

Ingredients:
1 pack of pre-packed Bak Kut Teh herbs
Handful of Goji Berries (Kei Chi)
6 bowls of water
2 garlic bulbs (skin peeled)
12 dried Shitake mushrooms (soaked and cut into halves)
A handful of tofu puffs

Seasoning:

2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
A few dashes of white pepper powder
Salt to taste

Condiment:

A handful (5-6) bird's eyes chilies
Soy Sauce
ABC dark Sweet Soy Sauce
Two Tablespoon of chopped fresh garlic

Method

Add in the water, garlic bulbs, pre-packed Bak Kut Teh herbs, pork ribs, mushrooms, tofu puffs and boils in low heat for about 1 - 2 hours. Add in the seasoning and boil for another 5 minutes. Serve hot.

Honestly my picture does no justice. It was steaming and I was starving so I was rushing to eat :P. I was surprise it tasted so good. I was leary about using my pre-pack Bak Kut Teh herbs because this one was really old. It was given to me by one of my friend before she left to go home. I've had it for more than 5 years and god knows how long she had it before but I am happy to say that it still taste so very good.

Oily Vegetables

Ingredients

Lettuce

Fried Onions (Shallots)/ chopped garlic

Method

Boil a pot of water and blanch lettuce. Pour fried shallots/garlic on top of the vegetable with about one tablespoon of oil.

P/s: I pour about half a bowl of oil in a bowl. I put chopped shallots/garlic in the bowl. Put in the bowl in microwave for about 4 minutes (depending on how many volt your microwave). Keep a close watch on your onions/garlic. Shallot takes a longer time to get crispy while garlic browns much quicker so after the 4 minutes nuke it 30-45 seconds each time but watch it closely so it doesn't burn. My shallot burned because I was not watching it.

I was preparing dinner so I didn't watch the onions so mine got burned a little. The next day I fried some chopped garlic in the microwave again so I used fried garlic on my vegetable the next day. I purposely fried extra garlic so that I could sprinkle some on my rice. I guess vampires was afraid of me since I was consuming all the garlic!LOL

I had Bak Kut Teh for dinner, brunch and dinner the next day and brunch again the follow day after. My Bak Kut Teh is all gone now..slurrppp....Hubby likes the soup but he didn't like the ribs.He suggested that I use pork roast next time when I make this!I'm just dumb-founded with his suggestions sometimes.I wonder whether will pork roast actually works?

Vegetable Chowder Soup

I love soups! I can drink soup anytime of the year where as for hubby and some people apparently soup is great for winter months to warm our bodies and is too hot for summer because is already hot in summer. I'm from Malaysia and we drink soup all the time therefore it doesn't really bother me whether it is summer or winter when I feel like having soupy food. I am starting to not like to drink soup in the middle of scorching summer though (maybe I'm with hubby too much :P) but I'm don't mind it actually and since hubs doesn't care for soup in summer I just don't make it because I don't want to finish leftovers myself.
Anyway the weather has cooled down a wee bit nothing major is still about low 90's F and hubby is still coughing plus so tired and drained from working so much that he didn't have much appetite to eat. I don't know what to make for dinner and I've been cooking rice for the past few days so I knew he doesn't really want to eat rice again last night although he said he don't care.
I came across a soup recipe and I knew I had to try it but I also know that it is still summer so I wasn't sure whether hubs would reject to the idea. I asked hub what he wanted for dinner and he didn't care and was too tired to think about it. So I told him that we were having soup and garlic bread and did not complain what so ever.

I knew I had most of the ingredients needed hence I didn't need to go out to buy any thing else even if I didn't have it I thought I would make do with what I had. In the evening, I started getting my ingredients ready. I also made sure the hubs called me when he was on his way back so I that it'll be just in time for the soup to be ready when he gets home.

Recipe adapted from here
Ingredients
1/2 chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup butter
1 cup each diced potato, celery, cau­li­flower, carrot and broc­coli(I didn't have cauliflower so I omitted that)
3 cups water
3 chicken bouil­lon cubes (or just 3 cups of chicken broth to replace water and bouil­lon)
1 tea­spoon salt(omitted)
3 garlic cloves or 1-2 tsp of garlic powder
1/4 tea­spoon pepper
1/2 cup flour or arrowroot powder
2 cups milk (I used about 3 cups)
1 Tbls minced fresh pars­ley
1/8-1/4 tsp of each the following spices: paprika, coriander, ground mustard (increase as desired)
2-3 cups shred­ded ched­dar cheese (can be adjusted as desired, as I rarely use more than 2 cups of cheese)
*optional-1 cup of meat (sausage/deli meat/ground beef or pork or chicken-anything you have)

Method

In a Dutch oven or large pot, saute green pepper, garlic, onion and butter until tender. Add vegetables, meat, water, bouil­lon, salt and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 min­utes or until the veg­eta­bles are tender. Com­bine flour and milk until smooth; stir into pan. Allow to thicken at a low temperature. Add the pars­ley and other spices. Just before serv­ing, stir in the cheese until melted. Yield: 6-8 servings. This chowder freezes very well also! Just allow room for expansion.

p/s: I had no time to take my own picture because we gobbled down the soup so fast that I only have about a scoop of soup left!

It took a little longer to soften the vegetables than I thought. Since I had a huge pot and didn't want any left overs I called Uncle Richie and Aunt L to see if they wanted soup and bread for dinner which they said yes. Hubby said that it sounds so french when I told him we were having soup and bread lol.

Everyone loves this soup I for one because I love chowder soup and this one actually taste like the one you can get at the restaurant. I am so happy with this recipe and most of the ingredients I actually have in my refrigerator or freezer. I added the cup of meat since we were going to only have soup for dinner and nothing else so I figured so meat in the soup would be a nice. I used deli meat because when hubby buys them and he don't finish them that week I'll put it in the freezer before it goes bad. I will use them in omelet or I'll toss some in western soup that I make.

I will definitely make this soup again especially in winter because the soup is so nice and warming. You can always modify the recipe to adapt to ingredients you have available.

Chicken Noodle Soup and Oatmeal Dinner Rolls

Since its cold and I had some chicken bones in the freezer I decided to make my own chicken broth so I can make some soup to warm up. I placed the chicken bones in a large stock pot and boiled it for about 12 hours. Add some salt and some chicken seasoning. Then by noon I started preparing and making my Chicken noodle soup.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients

2.5 cups of chopped celery

2.5 cups of chopped carrots

1 big onion chopped

2.5 cups of shredded chicken

Chicken Broth

2.5 cups of egg noodles

Salt to taste

Method

1. Put vegetables in the pot with the chicken broth. Boil for about 2-3 hours.

2. Add shredded chicken. Boil for another hour

3. Taste the broth to see if it's tasty enough if not add salt or more chicken seasoning

4. Add egg noodles and turn off stove. Let it sit till noodles are cooked

I wanted to have dinner rolls like you get at the restaurant while waiting for your food. I wasn't sure if people ate their chicken noodle soup with dinner rolls. I asked hubby and he said make what I want. I didn't know whether it would go with the soup and I was contemplating for a little bit but I figure what the heck if it doesn't pair it doesn't but I wanted to eat some so I took my trusty bread maker and started dumping the ingredients inside to make the dough.

Oatmeal Dinner Rolls

Ingredients

2.5 cups warm milk

1 cup of quick- cooking oats

3 tbsp butter

2tbsp yeast

1tbsp sugar

4 cups of all purpose flour (I mixed it with bread flour)

1.5 tsp salt

1/3 c packed brown sugar

Method

1. Put everything in your bread maker according to your manufacturer's direction. Press dough mode/button.

2. When it's done take it out of the bread maker and knead it a little.

3. Grease the pan with butter. Roll your dough into balls (I wanted mine a little different I took my rolling pin out and rolled my dough and cut it square/strips).

4. Cover and let it rise in a warm place/free from drafts for about 30 minutes or double in size.

5. Baked for 15-20 minutes of until done. When done spread some butter on top.

At first I thought I messed up the recipe because the original recipe was to actually knead the dough by hand etc but I didn't want to deal with it so I alter it. The dough didn't look like it was rising and after I put it in the over for it to rise the second time it didn't really rise and it was not double in size. I thought I messed up the roll and was getting disappointed so I figured I will just bake it. No harm done if it's already messed up I cannot imagine I'm able to mess it up more. I baked it and after 10 minutes it didn't look like anything was happening. I was starting to swear silently but decided to leave it in the over for another 5 minutes. It looked like it rose a little and the bottom was getting brown so I decided to spread some butter on top then take it out. I spread butter on a piece tried it while waiting for hubby to come out just in case it was horrible and I had time to discard it but to find out it tasted really good just like the once at the restaurant. I was then beaming with pride. Hubby then tried it and really liked it..*phew* it's important to me that he likes it because he will eat most of it and the reason why I make stuff from scratch it mostly because of him..A grandma once tell me a key to a man's heart is home cook food *wink*..