Umami Cream of Mushroom Soup {Low Fat}

Today I'm sharing another soup recipe.  This has become a favourite in our home and I've probably made it 4 times in the last two weeks.  The last two times, I doubled the recipe!  I've called this Umami because I've used umami seasoning that I had picked up at Trader Joe's when I was in America during the winter break.  I didn't need to add any salt as the umami seasoning and vegetable broth had enough.  This soup will be great even without the umami seasoning.  I've made this a low fat recipe, by using sour cream instead of heavy or table cream.  When I first made the soup, there was a lot of clumping of the flour.  To solve this, I added one cup of broth at a time and whisked thoroughly.  This reduced the clumps of flour to a minimum.  The last two times I've made this soup, I was not able to find dried porcini mushrooms in the grocery store and it still turned out delicious.  I hope you enjoy this soup as much as we do!

My Ninja Naan Baby Shower - Cream Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

SURPRISE HENNA!

Vegetarian Pot Stickers

I had bought some wonton wrappers thinking I would make some perogies.  I looked up a few recipes and realized there was a lot of cheese in them and I didn't want to make something so fatty.  I decide I would give Pot Stickers a try.  They were pretty easy to make...just takes some time to make them all.  I wasn't able to get the pretty folding on the top that you usually see on pot stickers.

Black Bean and Vegetable Chili

My husband is always wanting me to make more vegetarian meals and I've been wanting to make chili for awhile now so I decided to make this recipe this week.  It's been years since I made this.  When I had made it before I didn't know the difference between chili powder and the red chilli powder we use in Indian cooking.  I thought they were the same thing.  The recipe called for 1 tbsp chili powder.  That seemed an insane amount to me and I thought it would be way too spicy.  I reduced it but it was still pretty spicy.  Now I understand that the recipe was not calling for what is labelled in the Indian grocery stores as Red Chilli Powder.

Mushroom Risotto

We really enjoyed the Spring Green Risotto I made a little while ago.  I had some arborio rice left and thought I would try to make a mushroom risotto.  I used the Porcini and Cremini Mushroom Orzo "Risotto" as a guideline.  It turned out really well and my 1 year old son loved it!  The next day it held up much better than the Spring Green Risotto.  I didn't put any cream cheese in it which helped it to not turn into a big pile of mush the next day.  I'm looking forward to trying more risotto recipes but it is something I wouldn't make regularly since it has a lot of starch.

Portobello Mushroom Burgers

We went to CostCo recently and I picked up a big pack of Portobello Mushrooms without thinking.  Now I have a huge pack and no clue what I'm going to do with them.  I was searching online and came across this recipe.  I had some shallots in the fridge that I needed to use up so this was the perfect!  As I started writing this post I saw there was garlic in the recipe...I didn't use any garlic.  This would taste great with some but me being forgetful or just not paying attention didn't add them...but it still tasted really good.  I also realized the recipe said to broil them..I grilled mine...oops!  I used a thin bun instead of a big hamburger bun.

Porcini and Cremini Mushroom Orzo "Risotto"

I have always wanted to try to make risotto but have always been so scared too.  It seemed like way too much work.  The first time I had it was at 3 Guys and a Stove in Collingwood, ON.  I had the mushroom risotto and it was amazing.  I loved that restaurant.  Everything I had there was so good and can't wait to go there again.  The second time I had risotto was at a big fancy restaurant and it was horrible.  So bland...it reminded me of gulati and it made gulati taste amazing.  (Gulati is something my mom would make if someone had diarrhea.  You cook basmati rice in a bunch of water and keep cooking until it's mush and then add some butter, salt and pepper).  After having that bland risotto I thought  I could cook better than this.  I found this recipe at Cookin' Canuck.  It looked so simple.  It wasn't traditional risotto but I wanted to give it a try.  The first time I made it it was a little bland for us so the next time I increased the onions, garlic and porcini mushrooms.  I only like to use whole wheat pasta so it took some searching to find whole wheat orzo and luckily at the same store I found porcini mushrooms.  Next time I would like to try it with arborio rice.  My four year old made a face as soon as he tried it since he doesn't like mushrooms but my 1 year old gobbled it up!

Veal Roulade with a Pepper and Mushroom Stuffing

I still have to finish off that huge packet of mushrooms I got from Costco so I thought I would make veal roulades.

I've been wanting to make this for a while but every time I would tell the butcher I want paper thin pasanday they didn't seem to understand. When we switched butchers they actually understood.  I adapted this from a recipe I saw in Canadian Living magazine.  I usually use one of those packet gravies to serve with this. When I was done cooking the roulades I had a lot of pan juices left over so I decided to try to make a gravy using a Joy Of Cooking recipe as a guideline.  But my gravy had lumps in it.  I didn't do a good job when making the roux.

Mushroom Crepe Cake

On the weekend we went to CostCo and I bought a 1.5 lb pack of sliced mini bella mushrooms.  After I bought it I kept thinking what am I gonna do with all these mushrooms!!!!  I remember seeing a Mushroom Crepe Cake recipe on Smitten Kitchen that looked amazing.  My main changes were to substitute some of the butter with olive oil and reduce the cheese.  I went to Wal-Mart this morning to pick up flour and chives.  The chives were not looking very fresh so I skipped it in the recipe.  I was so tempted to add some garlic but by the time I decided to the onions were done and it was too late.  I doubled the amount of black pepper because I knew we would not even taste 1/4 tsp of black pepper.  I think it could have used even more.  This tasted absolutely amazing.....

Beef Stroganoff

I bought some Dijon mustard to try a tuna casserole dish that didn't turn out too good.  Now I have a jar of Dijon mustard sitting in my fridge.  I hate wasting food so I want to finish this jar.  I searched in my Joy of Cooking cookbook and I found a recipe for Beef Stroganoff.  I made half this recipe.  My biggest change was how I cooked the beef.  We like our meat well done and we don't get halal fillet or sirloin.  So I used boneless stewing veal.  (Next time I think I will try using pasanday Note: Tried with pasanday and prefer this cut of meat much more) I first seared the meat with salt and pepper and then boiled it till it was tender.  I used the broth in a later step calling for beef stock.  I didn't use the Cognac or the dill (I don't have dill and am not very fond of it).  Beef Stroganoff is traditionally eaten with egg noodles.  I tried that and I found that rice was better option because it soaks up the sauce better.  It turned out good and was a nice change from the Indian food we eat everyday.