Great soup, if you have turkey leftovers from Thanksgiving or if you just wish to have a rich, hearty soup for lunch. Any part of turkey will be good (I cooked mine from turkey neck and some leftovers). It takes 30-40 minutes to cook and the taste is amazing. The key to great taste are tomatoes and herbs.

Preparation time: 15 minutes.

Cooking time: 30 minutes.

Servings: 6

Ingredients:

2/3 lb of Turkey meat

1 white onion

1.5 cup of boiled pinto beans (boil separately or canned rinsed very well)

½ can of diced tomatoes

2-3 potatoes

½ of red bell pepper

½ teaspoon of cumin

½ teaspoons of basil

½ teaspoon of oregano

Pinch of black pepper

Pinch of salt.

1 carrot (optional)

3 quarts (approx.) of water;

1/3 cup dill

Prepare the vegetables: peel onion, carrot and potato. Wash everything carefully.

Shred the carrot, cut the potato in mid-sized chunks, and finely chop the onion. Set half of onion aside.

Wash and chop the red bell pepper.

Take a 4 quart pan, put the turkey meat and cover it with water (approximately 3 quarts), set on medium heat and wait until it starts boiling. Take away the scum if any. Add salt, pepper, bell pepper, carrot, potato and onion. Boil for 15-20 minutes, then, add the tomatoes(canned diced tomatoes) and spices: cumin, basil, oregano. (if you have fresh herbs basil ,oregano etc. – add them at the end). Let the soup boil for 10-15 more minutes and then, just before serving add the finely chopped dill.

Serve warm, with toasted bread or garlic bread.

This is a great warm winter soup. It takes only 30 minutes to cook, but it vanishes even faster than it took you to cook

it.

Cooking time 30 minutes.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Serves 4 people.

 These three soups are the best comfort meal for the lunch in fall: it enegrizes, keeps you warm and boosts your taste buds. You can add lots of flavors to these soups by experimenting with herbs: basil, dill, parsley and others.

Vegetarian Pea Soup 

Vegetarian pea soup is good those days when you want a rich-creamy soup without any meat component in it. It’s a comfort food perfect right for the days when it’s chilly and drizzly outside. This recipe has simple ingredients and doesn’t require to be a skillful chef to prepare it.

All in all perfect autumn soup for the family. Read more

Pumpkin crème-soup with shrimp, cream cheese and basil.

It’s autumn and it means that it’s time for a great pumpkin soup with shrimp that I just LOVE cooking.

It doesn’t require a lot of effort but it comes out perfectly smooth, bringing in the autumn flavors and colors into your kitchen.

I tasted this soup long time ago in Europe, brought it into my kitchen and my family just loves it. Hope, you will too. Read more

 Zucchini crème-soup

This is a very simple crème soup. It takes 40 minutes to cook and your family will enjoy this meal. It’s a great summer or fall soup for your to enjoy! Simple and flavorful! It takes little effort to cook and it’s a really light  dish. It gives you energy and makes you feel good. Read more

I hope you love the colors of this dish: it’s so autumn and bright! My family members call this dish “weird braised cabbage”:-)

To me the red cabbage tastes absolutely different, than the ordinary green one. It’s more flavorful, tender…. mmm, it’s more autumn!

For this recipe you will need:

1 lb of red cabbage (shredded)

1 onion

1/2  red bell pepper (or yellow one for the color)

1 chili pepper (small)

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

1 pinch of salt

Serves 4 people.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Shred the cabbage carefully, peel, wash and chop the onion, wash and chop the red bell pepper.

Chop the chili separately.(you will throw it in 3 minutes before serving).

Season the cabbage and squeeze it , so that it would be more juicy!

***Tip from Helen*** You can add 1/4 of shredded carrot if you would like to. I sometimes do.***

Start braising the cabbage with onions, then add peppers after 10 minutes of braising and 3 minutes before taking your cabbage off the stove throw in the chili.

*** Tip from Helen*** be careful with chili , wash carefully your hands and don’t touch your eyes when just worked with chili. Wash the knife and your cutting desk very well.

If you need during the cooking add some salt as well, I don’t as I don’t like too much salt in my food.

It is mushroom season, and I wrote a lot about (button) crimini mushrooms lately.

Button mushrooms have an excellent amount of selenium, zinc and manganese; all three are great antioxidant minerals. Also daily intake of crimini mushrooms for 1-2 months can reduce levels of total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and TGs. And if you are not convinced yet then you gotta know that One cup of button mushrooms provides a good, very good, or excellent source of 18 different vitamins, minerals & antioxidant phytonutrients.

So this recipe should be fast and delicious for you, same as nutritional and helpful.

For this recipe you will need:

1 lb button mushrooms

1 small chili pepper

1 medium carrot

½ red bell pepper

½ white onion

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

1 pinch of salt

Wash the button mushrooms (clean them if you normally do it).

Peel the white onion, wash the red bell pepper and chili, take away the seeds out of both of them.

Finely chop the onion, red bell pepper and chili. Peel the carrot, wash and shred it.

Now: preheat the frying pan, add the cooking oil, throw in the mushrooms, season and braise at the medium heat for 5 minutes covered with lead.

Add the chili pepper and red bell pepper with onion and fry for additional 5 minutes at the medium heat without the lead.

Serve on a leave of romaine lettuce separately or with a brown rice.

Enjoy!

***Tip from Helen*** I normally add little or no salt to my dishes, so add additional salt according to your taste if you need to.***

This recipe is really amazing and fast to cook, considering the fact that button mushrooms contain 17 different vitamins, the benefits from this dish increase dramatically.

This dish has a long history in my house, it was cooked without cheese and grapes, but I decided to add the sweet twist to it. THe bitterness of cheese and buttin mushrooms combined with sweetness ofgrapes and lemon basil make the combination very rich and the taste pallette wider.

Recipe serves: 2  

Cooking time:20 minutes

Preparation time :10 minutes

For the recipe you will need:

8 big button mushrooms

1/2 lbs of minced pork meat

1/4 of white onion peeled and finely chopped

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of black pepper

8 leaves of lemon basil

grapes

2 pieces of provolone sliced cheese.

Step 1: Take the button mushrooms stalks away. Clean the mushroom from the inside peel the skin (optional), wash carefully.

Step 2: Chop the onion, mix with minced pork and seson very well.

Step 3: Take the washedbutton mushroom caps, put them near you, form the meatball out of the meat, put the meatball inside the button mushtoom cap.

Step4: Repeat with all 8 mushroom caps, set on a baking dish and set to bake at 350F for 17 minutes.

****Helen’s cooking tip*** Don’t forget to add water into the baking dish (1/2 cup)***

Step 5: While the mushrooms are baking take the cheese slices cut them in quarters and set aside. Take the seedless grapes,  cut it in slices and set aside. Wash the lemon basil leaves.

Step 6: In 17 minutes take your button mushrooms out of the oven, sover with cheese and set to bake for 3 more minutes.

Step 7: In 3 minutes, take the mushrooms out and decorate with sliced grapes and lemon basil.

Serve warm.

Enjoy!

Tortilla is a unique ingredient: every dish you incorporate it in is simple, easy to cook , yet very delicious.

These 3 recipes are my favorites when I am on the run and the family needs to have a snack.

Fried tortillas with beef

It’s good to take with you if you decide to go camping or travel by car at the long distances.

You can also cook this dish with fruit, berries, I sometimes use bacon and cheese, whatever you want.

For this dish you will need

Meat ( in my case beef) for 4 tortillas I used ½ pound

1 small onion

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper Read full recipe 

Apple hot pockets:

Apple hot pockets are a great fall breakfast for a weekday. with Tortillas you can cook them in minutes in the evening and reheat in the morning.

For the recipe you will need:

4 medium apples;

4 tortillas;

2 tablespoons of sugar;

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil Read more 

 Burrito with sausage, cheese, tomato and basil.

Burritos should be spicy and meaty, but as my family loves burritos and doesn’t loce them too spicy I decided to invent mine.

(Honetly there’s nothing to invent) Just throw in together the delicious vinnagraitte of saucage, tomato, cheese and onion with herbs. Read more

This recipe is as easy as it can only get. I think the hardest part is to take the apples’ seeds out, so that the apples would be intact.

I am cooking these apples since the time I remember myself cooking. My Daddy cooks these apples in red wine, but, let’s not get too crazy here. I’m on a quest for a healthy, kid-friendly dessert.

You will need:

9 apples (you can take more, you can take less. 9 apples are good for 3 people)

1 cup of walnuts

1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon powder

2-3 tablespoons of honey (depends on how you like them: too sweet or not so sweet)

¼ stick of butter.

I don’t use sugar, caramel or anything unnatural in this dessert. It’s sweet, delicious healthy. Your family members will LOVE this desert because combination of the ingredients is amazingly delicious.

You will like this dessert, because it is healthy and doesn’t involve sugar.

Step 1: Wash and take the seeds out of the apple as shown in the picture.

Step 2: Crush the walnuts, add some honey, cinnamon, melted butter and honey. Mix very well.

Step 3: Preheat the oven at 350F. Put the stuffing (walnuts with honey, cinnamon and butter) inside the apples, place in a deep baking dish, add some water.

Step 4: Bake for 25-30 minutes and serve warm.

Enjoy!

***Tip from Helen*** I prefer mid-sized red apples for this dish, but green will also be fine. Just they shouldn’t be too firm. Yellow apples won’t taste as good, because they will be too sweet and soft ***

This is a great weekday breakfast. It’s very easy to cook, it’s healthy and very delicious autumn treat.

If you like the cinnamon, you can add it as well, walnuts will also taste amazing in this simple dish.

When I cook it , sometimes, they don’t “live”  till morning family members hunt for them in the evening and at night.

(please note that the pockets in the picture are made of the homemade flour tortillas, so these are a little bit different looking)

For the recipe you will need:

4 medium apples;

4 tortillas;

2 tablespoons of sugar;

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil;

Wash the apples, peel them, then chop into mid sized chunks (take out the apple seeds ptip to chopping the apples).

Mix the chopped apples with sugar( add walnuts, cinnamon at this stage if you want to).

Preheat your oven at 375 F.

Take the baking dish, grease it with 1 tablespoon of oil.

Take your tortilla, put the apple mix on one half of it, cover with the second half and press firmly (BUT DON’T SQUEEZE TOO HARD).

Put your hot pockets on a baking dish, brush tortillas with the vegetable oil (optional), and set to bake for 10 minutes.

Your dish is ready in 10 minutes. (the tortillas will be crispy and light golden).

Enjoy!

This pizza is a “sister” of my “delicious 30 minute pizza.” It’s cooked from scratch in 30-35 minutes and I just Love this combination of veggies. You can use your combination, but this one is good for me!

The dough is the same:

2.5 cups of sifted flour

1 cup of hot water

0.25 oz. dry yeast

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of sugar

Filling:

1 zucchini;

1/2 small can of mushrooms;

½ carrot (medium);

½ red bell pepper (medium);

¼ of onion (medium);

½ lb. cheese (shredded);

1 teaspoon of tomato sauce

1 teaspoon of mayo

 Pinch of salt, pepper and oregano.

Sift the flour; add sugar, salt and yeast. Pour in hot water and olive oil, Mix well.

Put in the oven for 10-15 minutes (the oven shouldn’t be turned on)

Put on the shelf below the dough a bowl with hot water.

Chop the veggies:  zucchini should be midsized, slice the mushrooms or use canned, finely chop the onion, red bell pepper and garlic. (Garlic should be very well chopped, almost in crumbs)

Take out your dough. Divide into two parts. From this amount of dough you can get 2 pizzas and 5-6 hot pockets with apples or anything you like. (Read about the hot pockets- in my next post!)

Roll out one part of the dough cut it to the size of your pizza form.

Put it in your pizza form and cover the dough with mayo and tomato sauce. Spread it evenly over the dough, season with salt, pepper and sprinkle oregano on top. Put the half of your shredded cheese on top of the tomato-mayo layer, and then add your veggies one by one.

Set to bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. (The oven should be preheated to 375F)

Before taking the pizza out cover the pie with another cheese layer.

Take out in 3-5 minutes.

Enjoy!