Hearty Minestrone soup with Pepperoni Bread

Another fabulous dinner!  These two were the perfect pair together!  I actually made this for Tuesday night, but got a last minute call to go out to dinner with the family.  I froze one half of the soup like the recipe intended, and put the other half in the fridge for the next night.  I did end up thawing out the other half though as well and having the in-laws over for dinner Wednesday night.  DELICIOUS!  Even though it was still above average temperatures, the warm soup and fresh baked bread were perfect!


Hearty Minestrone Soup (from Taste of Home Fall Freezer Meals)    *photo from Taste of Home

• 1 pound ground pork
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
• 1 can (16 ounces) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (15 ounces) garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 cups tomato juice
• 1 can (15 ounces) tomato sauce
• 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) beef broth
• 3 medium carrots, chopped
• 1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
• 1 T. Italian Seasoning
• 1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

Additional ingredients for each batch

• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup uncooked noodles (ziti, or elbow macaroni)

1. In a stock pot, cook pork, celery and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink.  Add Garlic, cook 1 minute longer; drain.

2 Stir in tomatoes, beans, tomato juice, tomato sauce, broth, carrots, zucchini, Italian seasoning, sugar, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30-35 minutes or until carrots are tender.

3. Transfer 6 cups of the soup to a freezer container; freeze for up to 3 months.  Add water and pasta to remaining soup. bring to a boil, cover and cook until pasta is tender.

TO USE FROZEN SOUP: Thaw in the refrigerator; transfer to a large saucepan. Stir in water.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat Add pasta, cover and cook until pasta is tender.

I actually made this in the crockpot.  I did step #1 in a saute pan, drained it and added it to a crockpot.  Then added everything in step #2 and set the crock pot to low and let everything simmer for about 4 hours before the carrots were tender.  Then added up having to refrigerate due to dinner invite.  The following day, I just threw it all back in the crock pot to warm it.  Then added the additional water and pasta.  Add these about 1/2 hour before you are ready to eat it, or the pasta will get mushy.  I did add a few too many noodles to mine and it ended up being more like a chili or ghoulash.  I would recommend only 3/4 cup per batch.

You could very easily make this vegetarian by leaving out the pork, or leave out the noodles (which is how I originally taste tested it...WONDERFUL!) and it would be a little more carb friendly.  You could also use wheat pasta to add some healthy grains.

Both batches together served 4 adults, 2 kids and left one serving left for my husband to take to work for lunch the next day!

Pepperoni Bread

For those you in the New Brighton area, one of my favorite restaurants to go to ever since I was little has always been Giuseppes.  Part of the reason is there delicious bread with the pepperonis rolled into it!  So I had to try to recreate this!  Did pretty good!

I started by making a homemade pizza dough in the bread machine on the dough cycle (it does all the mixing and kneading and some of the rising for you!)  If you do not have a bead machine or just want to skip a step, you could buy pizza dough from the grocery store, or even frozen Italian bread dough.

Here is the recipe for the Homemade pizza dough; Add these ingredients to your bread machine in this order.

• 2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons sugar (make a little well in the bread machine to add the remaining ingredients)
• 2-1/4 teaspoons yeast
• 1 cup flat beer (you could slightly warm this ina saucepan to add some heat to help the dough to rise faster, but I just dumped it in straight out of the can)
• 2 Tablespoons butter, melted

Set the bread machine to dough cycle and let it do it's thing!!

1. Once the dough cycle is done you can remove the dough from the bread machine and allow to rise a little more or just proceed right away...whatever you think it needs.  If it needs to rise, you can slightly grease a bowl, put the dough in it, cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm place.  You want the dough to have doubled in size from when it was first mixed in the bread machine.

2. If the dough has risen the desired amount.  Then lightly flour a work surface and your hand and push the dough into a rectangle.  
* This is great pizza dough, so if you wanted to make a pizza, follow these same directions.  The amount of dough makes one large pizza.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

4. Lightly brush the dough with olive oil, sprinkle a little mozzarella cheese on the dough, top wit pepperonis, evenly spread over the dough.  I used about 15-20 turkey pepperoni.

5. Start from the short side and just roll the dough into a cylinder.

6. Lightly grease a cookie sheet, and place the dough seem side down on it.  Make an egg wash (one egg white and about 1/4 cup water, whisk together) and brush the top of the dough.

7. Bake in preheated oven for about 30 minutes.  Let bread cool slightly, then slice!  YUMMMY!