Olive Garden's Chicken Gnocchi CopyCat Soup

Have you ever been to The Olive Garden? 

 Whenever I go there, I have always gotten their Chicken Gnocchi Soup, I LOVE that soup!

Since I don't live that close to their restaurant, however, I decided to try to make their soup using a copycat recipe.  And guess what?  It tastes exactly the same!  Just as good, AND I had leftovers! 

It was very easy to make.  I bought a rotisserie chicken, a small bag of shredded carrots, a bag of already made gnocchi, and some fresh spinach. 

 

Here is the recipe I used from

http://www.copycat.com/

Ingredients

1 tablespoons extra virgin oil
4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

1 quart half and half

1/2 cup celery, finely diced
1 cup onion, finely diced
2 minced garlic cloves
2 -14 ounce cans of chicken broth if you enjoy thick soup, use one can
1 cup carrots, finely shredded
1 cup chicken breasts, cooked and diced (you can use a rotisserie chicken)
1 package gnocchi, cooked  (you can find these in gourmet/pasta section of the grocery store - you may want to cut the gnocchi in half if it is large, or purchase the mini size if available)
1 cup of fresh spinach coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon parsley
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)

Instructions

Saute the onion, celery, and garlic in the butter and olive oil over medium heat until the onion becomes translucent. Add the flour and make a roux. Let the butter and flour mixture cook for about a minute before adding 1 quart of half and half.
Cook gnocchi according to package directions.
Into the roux, add in the carrots and chicken. Once the mixture becomes thick, add the chicken broth. Once the mixture thickens again, add the cooked gnocchi, spinach, and seasoning; simmer until soup is heated through.  Before serving season to taste by adding additional salt.

I would definitely suggest using the sprinkle of nutmeg on top before serving, it adds that little special something to make it even more delicious!!

I served this with some homemade garlic bread, and chunky salad!!

YUMMY!!

Enjoy Ü

Happy Easter!!

Vegetarian Hamburger Substitute

Wether you are a vegetarian, or just enjoy some meatless meals, here is a recipe you might enjoy!  It uses whole grain foods, and is so much healthier than real ground beef.

If you are used to buying the vege meat that looks like ground beef, here is a substitute for you to try.  I will use it the same as hamburger and possible even mixing it with hamburger to make my real meat stretch.

You will only need 6 ingredients. 

What you need:

2 Cups brown rice

2 Cups lentils

2 Tbsp. steak seasoning (I used Montreal Steak)

1/4 Cup olive oil

1/2 Cup vital wheat gluten*

1 Cup rolled oats

What to do:

In a large pot, add 8 Cups of water and your rice, lentils and steak seasoning.

Cook until these are soft.  I let mine come to a boil, then covered and simmered for over an hour.  Make sure the rice is done, the lentils will be done before the rice.

Add the oil, wheat gluten and rolled oats.  I found it easier to mix these in a very large bowl.

Mix well.

  Pour into 2 - 13x9" pans. 

Bake at 300* for an hour.  You want the mixture to be more dry than wet.  Think "crumbles".  After I cooked mine for an hour, I turned my oven down to 225* and left them in there for another hour.  Keep checking and stirring mixture to evenly cook and "dehydrate" it.

Now, knowing that 1 pound of cooked ground hamburger usually gives me about 2 Cups, I measured out my cooled "meat" into 2 Cup portions and put into freezer bags.

As I make up some recipes using this beef substitute, I'll show you and give you the recipes!  Let me know if you try this out and what recipes you used it in!

  

*I get my vital wheat gluten at my local Amish store, they carry many bulk items and I always buy from them!  You can also find this at a health food store, whole food store or online.

Last 2 Weeks

So...

the last 2 weeks

have gone like this:

work

school

sick

work

school

sick

work

school

sick x all of us

I guess this gives an idea of where I've been.

Here is hoping this sick stuff ends soon.

Fabulous Fibers

So many Fibers!!

What can you do with them?

Tie around a card

Use on a scrapbook layout



Make cute little bowties for a little girls hair

Wrap around a strip of cardstock to make an interesting border

Use to hang embellishments

Use to tie your handmade books together

Attach to tags instead of string

Wrap around a package instead of ribbon

Use as a stem on a flower on a craft project

Tie many different fibers around a pail handle, decorate the outside of the pail,  and fill with goodies for a friend!

I've had some time to spend in my craft room this last week, and I've decided that some of my fibers and ribbons need to be thinned out!  I really like using them in my projects, and my quantity shows my obsession  love for them.  Since I'm condensing my supplies, I've halved my fibers, and my ribbons will be next. 

Right now, I have a lot of "cards" of fibers for sale in my supply shop!  I've filled each "card" with a fun selection of different fibers I have, so you can get one set and end up with many kinds of fibers for your projects! 

What kinds of ideas do you use your fibers for?

Whats For Dinner Wednesday / Homemade Chocolate Cake

It seems like the best cakes are the homemade ones, and this year for my husbands birthday, I decided to make his favorite! 

If you're like me, you love Pepperidge Farm Chocolate Cake.  You know...the kind you buy frozen in the box?  Yes, I love those!  All those lovely layers of chocolatey goodness and fluffy frosting, yum! 

This cake:

is better than the PF one!  Yes, 10 times better!  And it's so easy to make, that you probably have all the ingredients in your cupboard to make it, too!

The only item you may not have, is buttermilk...BUT...you can use plain yogurt in place of it!  I buy powdered Buttermilk, and you'd never notice the difference in the cake when it's done!  Seriously!  I have made this cake many times, using fresh buttermilk or powdered, and I taste no difference.  We don't drink buttermilk, so to buy it and only use 1/2 cup of it would be a waste.  The powdered mix is so easy to just add to 1/2 cup of water and then there's no waste, and the rest of the mix goes right back in the cupboard.

The frosting...oh, the frosting.  It takes like chocolate mousse.  No. Kidding.  It's good enough to eat with a spoon.  A big one.  Now, the thing with this homemade frosting, is that you have to make it ahead of time.  It needs time to chill!

Frosting:

What you need:

12 ounce bag of chocolate chips (I used the Ghiradelli milk chocolate)

2 cups heavy whipping cream

What to do:

Melt the chips over a double broiler.  Slowly add the whipping cream.  Now, refridgerate for 6 hours. 

When you take it out, it may still be liquidy.  That's fine.  This is whipping cream, afterall, right?  So, take out your mixer and whip that chocolaty mixture into a delicious bowl of fluffy frosting!  This is great, because when you're done, well....the beaters DO need to be licked before washing them for you cake mixing, right?  Right.

Now, onto the cake.

What you need:

2 C. flour

2 C. sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 C. water

1/4 C. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 C. (2 sticks) butter

1/2 C. buttermilk (or yogurt)

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

What to do:

1) Preheat oven to 350*.

Grease and flour pans.  This makes a great 2 or 3 layer cake.

2)  Mix flour, sugar and baking soda in a large bowl.

3)  Put water and butter in a small saucepan and heat til butter melts.  Add cocoa powder and mix.  Pour over flour mixture and beat with a whisk or a mixer until blended.  Beat in buttermilk, eggs and vanilla until blended (batter will be thin).

4)  Pour into prepared pans and place evenly on racks in oven.  If making 3 layers, then switch pans half way through to ensure even baking. 

Bake 25-35 minutes.  Keep checking until pick or knife comes out clean.

5)  Cool on racks 10 minutes and invert.

Now, frost and enjoy!!

It helps to keep your layers together, if you place some toothpicks randomly between the first 2 layers, then again between the 2nd and 3rd layer.  I use 8" pans, and use 2 toothpicks in each layer. 

Don't be fooled by the size of this cake when it's done.  It may look a bit on the small side, but it's rich, and you really don't need a huge piece to be very satisfied!



Survival For A Day

This year in school, our kids got to go on a Survival Day at a nature center.  It's a full day of outdoor activities and fun, life learning skills.  I got to go and spend the whole day with them, it was so much fun!  First, they read the book "Hatchet" by Gary Paulson, and then this outing goes along with the book!

We learned how to:

Build our own shelters from found items.

We were taught which direction your opening should face (the sun), where on a hill you should build your shelter (not on the bottom or side).

How you should try to use something already there to build off of (like a dead tree).

We used donated used Christmas trees, pine boughs, dead tree limbs on the ground and leaves.

After assuring our shelter situation in a survival time of need, we moved onto:

Fire.  Which isn't as easy to start as they show on tv.  And we had a flint and whetstone.  5 attempts and we had it though, thanks to one young fellow who had found some milkweed to start us off, and a piece of lint we acquired.  Whew. 

Also, we learned of the many different ways to start a fire, how to preserve firestarter and different places you can find fire starter.  Pretty cool stuff to know.

Here are 3 different ways of laying out your wood to form a fire:

Ours, of course, was the triangle shaped one (but then, I'm sure you could tell that right away!).

After a huge lunch, we went onto our 3rd survival activity.  And no, thank goodness we didn't have to catch and eat our own food.  Thank you wonderful lunch ladies who packed our lunches!

This is me.  In my Mama Bear snowshoes.  Or so the guy in charge called them.  They were a step up from the Goldilocks shoes and below the Big Bear shoes.

We learned about different styles of shoes for different areas of the country, what they are made out of, and how to walk/run in them.



During our 18,000 mile hike, we stopped to see a porcupine den, which was a big hollowed out tree.  The critter had scat all over in front of the entrance and underneath.  This, of course, was the talk of the walk for all the kids. 

Someone said they saw the porcupine up in the big tree next to the den, which gave everyone something to do for the next 15 minutes.  Here is the tree....can you spot it?

One of the thrills of the walk....the spotting of a fairy hole in a tree!:

We weren't finished yet!  I left my camera in the vehicle accidently, but we did have another fun activity that nothing to do with survival....except it would provide you with a very fast way down a hill if a bear was chasing you.....can you guess what it was?