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 stuffing “lives” in my family for decades. I remember my grandmother cooking it since I was a little child.

Preparation time: 5 minutes.

Cooking tome: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

4 apples (peeled and cored)

1/2 of white onion

1 carrot

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of pepper

1 pinch of cumin

1 pinch of oregano

8 prunes

1 tablespoon of olive oil

2 tablespoons of prepared honey mustard

Step 1. Peel carrot, apples and onion.

Step 2. Cut the apples in quarters and cut the core with seeds.

Step 3. Shred the carrot and  Finely chop the onions.

Step 4. Wash the prunes.

Step 5. preheat the frying pan at max heat. Then turn it to medium, add the olive oil, put the apple quarters, cover with shredded carrots and onion. Braise for 5 minutes at medium heat.

Step 5. in 5 minutes add the salt, peppel and spices. mix everything, add the mustard and braise for another 3 minutes.

Step 6. 2 minutes before turning the heat off add your prunes, mix everything and braise for another 2 minutes.

Done!

This stuffing may be used for any bird. It will be good with duck and chicken and with turkey. It may be cooked overnight or the day when you plan to roast your bird. Just  remember to not use too much stuffing in your bird!

Have a great holiday and  a great time with your family!

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

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. 

Cooking time: 1 h

Preparation time: 15 min

Inactive time: 30 min 

1 cup of peas

3-4 qt. of water

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of black fresh ground pepper

3 tablespoons of sour cream

1 tablespoon of cooking oil (vegetable better)

1 medium white onion

1 carrot

3 medium potatoes

1 red bell pepper

2 bay leaves (or 1 teaspoon of crushed bay leaves)

Pre-soak 1 cup of peas for 30 minutes. (Use hot water and twice bigger bowl, in order for you to keep the beans in the bowl not outside of it:-).

Peel and wash the veggies: onion, carrot, potatoes and pepper. Shred the carrot and finely chop the onion and pepper. Cut potato in medium sized pieces. Put the half of the chopped onion aside.

Set a 3 quart saucepan with water and add the veggies plus couple of bay leaves, add salt and black pepper.

Simmer for 10 minutes and then add the peas. Boil the soup for 30-40 minutes at the low heat.

Set a frying pan and add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and the chopped onion. Fry on medium heat, until golden brown and then add 3 tablespoons of sour cream or cooking cream. Braise for 5 minutes and then pour the sauce into the soup and stir very well.

Simmer the soup for another 20 minutes or until the peas dissolve in the soup, truning it into the rich creme-soup.

Serve this soup warm, you may add some sour cream in each plate separately.

I fry the fine italian bread cut in medium squares with salt and pepperand add it to the soup when eating.

You can choose to do the same if you’d like.

This is one of my favorite things to eat for breakfast! because it is fast and nutritinal.

You will need :

1 egg

2-3 slices of cheese

2-3 slices of ham or Canadian bacon

pinch of salt

pinch of pepper

1 bagel

2-3 slices of tomato

pickles (optional)

1 teaspoon of cooking oil

Beat up an egg and pur into the frying pan. Fry until golden brown on both sides (3 minutes). when fried on both sides put the ham and cheese slices on top and let the cheese melt a little.

Take the bagel put the egg with ham and cheese on one side , cover it with tomato and pickles and top it with another side of bagel.

ENJOY!

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