Meatless Wednesday - Good Old Fashioned Vegetable Soup

I have doing battle with my stomach the last couple of weeks so I really wasn't sure that I would have a post today as most of my best meatless ideas contain things that aren't always the best for my troubled stomach. Then inspiration hit how about a nice big bowl of good old fashioned vegetable soup that sounded perfectly what the Doctor ordered!

So let's start with our stock first, I used the stock recipe I previously posted except this time I added one parsnip to change it up a bit. Drain your stock and reserve the liquid into a large pot.

Good Old Fashioned Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

Previously made vegetable stock
2 cups of water
1 Tbs Epicure Pot Herbs (Again feel free to enter my consultant Deanna Osterbeck when ordering)
2 carrots, chopped
2 parsnips, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 a small onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup organic frozen green beans
1/2 cup organic frozen sweet corn
1/2 cup organic frozen peas
1 cup Tinkyada Pasta Joy Little Dreams rice pasta shapes

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients together including reserved stock and bring to a boil.
2. Turn down to a medium heat and a low simmer for 20 -30 mins or until vegetables are tender.
3. Serve with your favorite crackers or other yummy dipping treat.

Dough and Ratatouille

Well I tried working on the play dough yesterday but with no success I just made slim so I went searching for another recipe to try and found one at this Site but still had to modify it. I liked that this one you didn't have to use the stove but it took some work to mix it up! Unfortunately it still came pretty sticky but the kids are having a blast playing with and called it "Gooey Mud".

GLUTEN FREE CINNAMON SCENTED NATURAL COLORED PLAY DOUGH

Ingredients

1 cup of almond flour or rice flour

1- 2 cups of corn flour/corn starch (it adds the stickiness) keep adding while stirring till you get the right consistency.

4 tablespoons of ‘cream of tartar’

2 tablespoons of cooking oil

1 cup of salt

2 cups of boiling water

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Food coloring - I used beet dye for this and I put 2 Tbs which made it light pinkish.

Glitter, colored sand, or other bits and pieces to make the dough more fun! I used red glitter to make it fun for our Gratitude Day celebration!

Please remember that you can substitute regular flours for the equal amounts of Gluten Free.

Method

Mix all the ingredients in, then add the boiling water. Keep stirring until it form the right consistency.

Last night I made Ratatouille using a Rachael Ray recipe with some changes to make it Gluten Free. One thing we like to do in our house when having Ratatouille is to watch the Disney Ratatouille movie at the same time makes it fun for our Son!

Ratatouille with Quinoa

Start with the Vegetable Stock;

1 medium onion

3 stalks of celery, chopped

3-4 carrots, chopped

1/2 a bell pepper

2 Tbs basil

1 Tbs parsley

8-10 cups of water

Combine all ingredients together in a large pot, bring it to a boil and then let simmer for about an hour, strain the vegetables out and set the broth aside.

Ratatouille Ingredients

3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 tbs Epicure Minced Garlic (Again you can use my consultant Deanna Osterbeck)

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 medium eggplant, peeled and chopped

1 medium zucchini, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

1 Tbs freeze dried thyme

1 can 28oz diced no salt tomatoes

6 cups of the vegetable stock from above

3/4 cup Quinoa

A handful of freeze dried parsley leaves

A pinch of freeze dried basil leaves

Heat the Olive Oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, bell peppers, egg plant, and zucchini. Season the vegetables with salt, pepper, and thyme and cook until softened, about 7-8 mins, stirring occasionally. Add the tomatoes and the vegetable stock and bring the soup to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer. Stir in the quinoa and cook till vegetables and quinoa are tender. Stir in the parsley and basil, and serve.

The boys eat theirs with french bread and we do like to add some Parmesan cheese on top as well.