Turkey Soup Provencal

Well, I was looking over this blog today, and I realized that I have only posted a grand total of ONE TIME here. So in order to help remedy that, and because I have several recipes I wanted to share anyway, I will be attempting several posts in a row. We'll see if my girls keep themselves busy long enough for me to accomplish that. :-)

The recipes that I will be posting today (and most likely those in the future) are reflective of the fact that some of us have weird allergies. Or at least, so it seems to me. None of us have been officially tested, but I have seen evidence of sensitivity to dairy (the girls), a couple fruits (the girls), peanuts (possibly Sierra), and wheat / gluten (me and possibly Sierra). Most if not all of these run in either my family or Jeremy's, so it seems likely that these sensitivities are probably allergies. But although this means we have a lot more restrictions to our diet than most people, we still eat plenty of wholesome, delicious food (and a little bit of junk too, hehe). So now I will share some of the recipes that I use most often.

TURKEY SOUP
1 lb. ground turkey breast
1/2 tsp. dried herbs de Provence, crushed
1 (15 oz.) can navy or Great Northern beans
1 (14.5 oz.) can chicken broth
1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes w/ garlic and onion, undrained
4 c. chopped fresh spinach

Cook turkey in a large saucepan over med heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Add herbs, beans, broth, and tomatoes to pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 min. Stir in spinach; simmer 5 min.

Serves 4.

Now here's the part where I give you all my alterations and substitutes. :-) This recipe is great as it is, but I've found lots of ways to make it flexible and change it up. First of all, it's sometimes hard or expensive to find the herbs and the particular type of diced tomatoes. So I usually just use an Italian seasoning, and then I use regular diced tomatoes and add dried garlic and onion (about 1/2 tsp. each). You could also add fresh garlic and chopped onion to the meat while you are cooking it.

Then there are lots of ways to change up the other ingredients. Instead of turkey, I have tried Italian sausage and even ground beef one time (on accident, but I could barely tell). I have also substituted various beans for the navys, with kidney being my favorite. (I like those even better than the navy beans!) I often double the beans, partially because Lucy likes to eat them all out, and partially because I just like it better that way. :-) You can also use various greens in place of the spinach (my favorite substitute is kale), and you can use frozen rather than fresh to save yourself the trouble of chopping it all. Just don't do 4 whole cups if you use frozen... only about half that. And to make the soup a little thinner (it is rather thick in the original recipe) and stretch it to feed more people, I usually at least double the chicken broth.

This is a great recipe for me because it is SO fast and easy, not to mention cheap. It also freezes well, so it can be a time saver there too! With two little girls, I am all about saving time and money these days! :-)

More to come...