Here is a yummy recipe for a baby-friendly beef cabbage soup. I was just trying to find a use for my Kroger Frozen Vegetables, Fiesta Style (which had brocolli, chickpeas, a couple types of beans), and it turned out pretty well.
1 lb lean ground beef
1 T olive oil
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
2 cups low-sodium beef broth (I actually used homemade stock I had lying around in the freezer)
1 15-oz can of diced tomatoes
8 oz of tomato sauce
1 cup water
Mrs. Dash garlic & herb seasoning
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
1/2 head of cabbage, sliced into small pieces
1 cup of dry shell or macaroni pasta, cooked according to package directions
In a dutch oven or large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Sauté the onions until soft. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add ground beef to brown. Drain excess fat, add tomato sauce, beef stock, and water. Bring to boil, add Mrs. Dash to taste, add frozen veggies and simmer for 30 minutes. Add in the cabbage in the last 10 minutes of simmering, and stir in the cooked pasta before serving.
Pretty good, no salt!
Last week, Don’s uncle Jim came for a visit before we all went to a family reunion in West Virginia. Anyway, he brought with him a full rack of pork ribs (really 2 racks, still connected in the middle) for us to cook on the grill (took up the whole grill cooking surface!). There was a ton of leftovers…we had some for lunch but we still had a sizable amount left.
Because the smoky flavor of the yummy ribs (for some reason) brought to mind Chipotle’s carnitas burrito bowl, I thought it might be good to use the leftover ribs with the same flavors, but in soup form. It turned out great–here’s the recipe.
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
About 3 cups of leftover rib meat, chopped into small pieces
1 can (14.5 oz) RedGold petite diced tomatoes with chipotle
1 can (14.5) RedGold petite diced tomatoes
1 can black beans
1 can great northern beans
1 can golden sweet corn
4 cups of chicken broth
Saute onions and garlic in olive oil, add everything else, and simmer for about 30 minutes. Top with Fritos and cheese if desired.
It turned out great! If we weren’t making it for kiddos, we would probably have added more spice using diced jalapenos and possibly an actual chipotle pepper in adobe sauce. And added a dash of lime juice and some chopped cilantro. But these were the ingredients we had handy, and it worked pretty well 
Yummy.
Apparently, cooking cucumbers does not take away its crunchy goodness. I stuffed it with sauteed ground pork with red bell peppers, and garlic (ala stuffed green peppers), poured some diced tomatoes and tomato juice on top, some basil, oregano and red pepper flakes, and baked it at 350 for about 45 minutes, and voila, it turned out to be a pretty good dish.
It kind of has the texture of chayote squash when cooked. Which makes sense, I guess coz I think they are somewhat related.
