This stew is so amazing that you won’t care that it takes awhile to make! The preparation time can be cut down considerably by doing once a week food preparation, but even if you have to chop and cook everything same day, this recipe makes a stew worth waiting for. I usually cook and simmer mine in a large stock pot, but you can brown and cook the first few ingredients in a skillet, and then dump them into a crock pot to slow cook all day.

Beef Burgundy Stew
1-1/2 lb stew beef, floured
Olive oil
1/2 t thyme
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay …read more

Ok, it’s a stretch to claim that this is Indian food, because I made it up as a way to use up some leftover sweet potatoes. But I used my own spice mix instead of “curry powder,” so I feel somewhat justified in claiming Indian inspiration
Replace the chicken broth with vegetable broth if you’d like, and you’ve got a great vegetarian meal! Serve with some good crusty bread, and it’s a filling meal too. This is easily a thirty minute meal as long as you are using pre-cooked sweet potatoes. Whenever I make …read more

Twelve delicious “classics” for you to master this year!  Food and Wine has a slide show with links to the recipes and techniques that you’ll learn in making these tempting dishes.  They’re not all quick and easy, but they all look worth the effort, especially the Beef Stew, shown above!
Image: Food & Wine

The least pleasant task in preparing this soup is coring the parsnips. I find it’s not too bad if you slice them lengthwise in quarters and then slice out the triangular shaped piece…don’t worry about getting every single woody fiber. The balsamic syrup seems like a bother to make too, but the flavor it imparts is out of this world. The soup is great without the syrup, but with it, you’ve gained a taste of heaven!
This amazing recipe is courtesy of Eating Well magazine.

Stirring in the syrup

Roasted Parsnip Soup
Makes 6 servings, generous 1 cup each
ACTIVE TIME: …read more

I know, I know: there are as many ways to make turkey soup as there are cooks who make it! Well, I thought I’d just throw my hat in the ring and tell you how I do it…
Turkey Soup
Turkey carcass
Additional turkey meat, if needed
Lots of water
Onions, celery, carrots, shallots
Salt and pepper
Fresh tarragon (optional)
2 – 3 T turkey fat
1/4 c flour
Sour cream, milk, or half-and-half (optional)
Barley, rice, small pasta (pre-cooked)
Cover the turkey carcass with water and bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer. Continue to add water as it boils for a couple of hours, …read more

This is a great Once-A-Month-Cooking recipe that you can double, triple, or quadruple very easily. For extra speed in preparation, you can use one of those 1.25 oz packages of taco seasoning and a can of prepared chili. Usually, I would prefer that these things be homemade, but sometimes for OAMC recipes, we’ll make an exception!
Even if you don’t get into OAMC, this is a great recipe to make ahead, either early in the day or even a couple of days ahead.
Taco Soup
2 – 15 oz cans chicken broth
15 oz can diced tomatoes
15 oz can black beans, drained …read more

This recipe appeared in the Nov/Dec 2008 issue of Eating Well magazine. The original recipe was written to serve 4, so I’m not sure why the online version was cut to 2. No matter, you can double this recipe and end up with the right proportions; just add a little more cornstarch.
I chose to use a leg cut instead of ground lamb, so I pre-cooked it for several hours in my crock pot. The meat fell apart and the little fat there was peeled right off by the time I was ready to assemble the stew. …read more

I love Eating Well magazine! Not only are there amazingly tasty recipes, introducing me to food combinations I never thought of before, but they have also done all the excess fat trimming for me! Now I’ll admit, that sometimes I use the full fat products anyway, so it’s not their fault at all if I end up with an expanding waistline!
Anyway, we tried this Curried Carrot Soup recently, and if you’re a fan of Indian food, you’re going to flip over it. I used my own spice mix instead of “curry powder,” so mine turned out a …read more

This is a great beef stew to have for Rosh Hashanah, when everything is to be round and/or sweet to start off the new year right. Shallots, thyme, butternut squash, and cranberries all help to make this a savory but slightly sweet stew. We like it anytime during the fall and winter.  So I thought I’d make it tonight to celebrate the first full day of Hanukkah!
Cooked in a crock pot, you’ve got a couple of alternatives for preparation: stew the squash for a long time and it will break down like tzimmes, making the broth thick and …read more

Guest author: Roslyn Franken
Website: Roslyn Franken
Roslyn Franken is a Healthy Living Counselor, Speaker, and Author of The A List: 9 Guiding Principles for Healthy Eating and Positive Living, helping people to lighten up their lives one bite at a time for a life of greater health, hope, harmony and happiness. Her Lighten Up counseling programs are done by telephone and email conveniently accessible world-wide. For more information, visit Roslyn Franken.
The following recipe is featured in Roslyn’s book!

Roslyn’s Sweet Potato Peanut Butter Soup
This soup is filling, comforting, nutritious and low in calories. It includes a number of spices that are …read more