healthy soup – Maegan Blinka

One of my challengers shared this recipe for Slow Cooker Jambalaya and immediately thought to myself I HAVE TO MAKE THIS.

I read the ingredients, put in a grocery order, and then at 4:00 the next day sat down to make it.
One problem: I missed the fact that it was a “slow cooker” recipe AND I had about 2 hours before it was dinner time.
I allowed that recipe to inspire me and I made a few twists and alterations.

At the end I realized that this would have been a great way to test out my new InstaPot but I guess we’ll save that for round 2.

WHAT YOU NEED:

- 1 package andouille sausage
- 1 pound uncooked shrimp (peeled and de-veined)
- 1 cup shredded chicken (or large boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded)
- 3 red peppers diced
- 1 white diced
- 2-3 jalapeños (see note), seeds and stems removed (I used can and they worked great!)
- 3 cups riced cauliflower (frozen works fine!)
- 1 cup low sodium chicken broth
- 1 30-ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 3 gloves minced garlic
- 3 tablespoons store-bought or homemade cajun seasoning
- ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper, or to taste
- cilantro or parsley, for topping (optional)

NOTE: If you want to use brown rice instead of the riced cauliflower add one more cup of chicken broth and follow the recipe at Creme de la Crumb.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO?

Slice sausage into sections (about ¼ inch thick slices). Remove tails from shrimp if they are still on. Shred and/or Chop chicken into 1-inch pieces.
Add sausage, chicken, bell peppers, jalapeños, chicken broth, tomatoes, minced garlic, cajun seasoning, and salt and pepper to a pot. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Stir in riced cauliflower and cook another 10/15 minutes.
Stir in shrimp, re-cover and cook for another 15-20 minutes.
Sprinkle with chopped cilantro or parsley if desired, and serve hot.

Enjoy!

And if you give a try drop me a comment and let me know what you think!

I was making good use of naptime on Sunday and while the gluten free brownies were baking I started prepping for my first ever attempt on Butternut Squash Soup! I think its the idea of knowing how darn hard those things are to cut up but I bought the squash a week ago and had yet to cut them open. And this isn’t the first time I ran into “needing” to use them up! I got a recipe for some delicious soup from my brother in law and made a few tweaks to create a delicious, healthy, butternut squash soup!

WHAT YOU NEED:

1 medium onion, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
4 gloves of garlic
1 butternut squash, cleaned, skinned, and sliced
1/2 Granny Smith Apple, skin removed, chopped
25-30 oz low sodium chicken or vegetable stock
1 tsp olive oil
Pumpkin or sunflower seeds (optional)

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

Sautee onion, carrots and garlic in olive oil, until soft.
Add butternut squash and apples
Add chicken/vegetable stock until just covered and bring to a boil. Then simmer until soft.
Put all ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. You may have to do this in two batches.
Pour back into pan and season as desired***
Serve topped with pumpkin or sunflower seeds for a little added crunch!

***I’ll be honest – I didn’t add anything else!!! Some things to consider would be salt, pepper and ground nutmeg! You could also add heavy cream depending on the consistency you like – but I was trying to keep it low cal! Plus it was DELICIOUS just the way I made it so I saw no need in adding anything else!

This batch made about 10 cups – enough for two dinners and a few lunches!!! You could also freeze some into individual containers for a quick easy weeknight meal! I think its safe to say it was also toddler approved!!!