Comforting Potato Soup

I didn't get an appetizing picture of this meal...  It really looks like mush to be honest with you, but it tastes so good!  I used this potato soup recipe as my base and came up with this:

First, cook this stuff:
4 baked potatoes (baked for an hour at 400°, cooled, peeled and very coarsley mashed)
1/2 pkg mushrooms, sauteed (in copious amounts of butter and salt...  I have the hubby do it)
1/4 lb ground turkey
1 Cup chicken stock (I use the organic stuff from Costco)

1. Get the potatoes scrubbed, poked with a fork and into the oven.  They do take about an hour (until they're tender), so once you have them cooling go ahead with the rest of the instructions.
2. Like I said, I have the hubby cook the mushrooms because I can't stand to put that much salt on anything, but he cooks them to taste, so however you cook them will be just fine.  Fry them up in a sauce pan, add butter, salt, garlic, whatever.  Once they are cooked to your liking, put them in a bowl and set aside.
3. Using the pan you cooked your mushrooms in, cook up your ground turkey.  Once it's browned (from the left over butter that was in there from the mushrooms) return the mushrooms and add the chicken stock to soak up any remaining yummy-ness from the pan.  Let simmer on low, or if you decided to cook this ahead... stick it in the fridge until you're ready for it.  I am only guessing with my measurements because I was dealing with leftovers.
4. Without burning your fingers...  Peel those potatoes and mash them coarsely.  They should be in bite size pieces, but not unrecognizable...  Cube them if you must.

In a large pot/stock pot/dutch oven:

2 tablespoons flour 

6 cups Milk

1. BEFORE turning on the heat, dump your flour into the pot, and stir in the milk a few tablespoons at a time while using a whisk to mix well.  You don't want it all lumpy and bumpy.  
2. Once all the flour/milk mixture is a nice paste, turn on the heat to medium low and continue adding the milk while stirring.
3. Go ahead and turn up the heat to medium high and continue stirring until thickened.  Let it boil a little, but make sure to scrape the bottoms and sides to keep those lumps away.  When desired thickness is reached, turn it down to a simmer.

Now for the good stuff!

1 tsp pepper

2 dashes cayenne pepper
1 chive sliced
3 small stalks celery with leaves, chopped
1 large carrot sliced
3 1/2 inch slices fresh mozzarella

1. Add your potatoes, and your mushroom/meat mix to the milk/flour mix and stir.
2. Add  the rest of the ingredients (pepper, cayenne, chive, celery, carrot & mozzarella).
3. Stir well and let simmer for about 10 minutes or until the celery and carrots are no longer super crunchy.

We like to eat this soup with a nice warm piece of garlic bread.

Refreshing Cucumber, How I Love You So!

It's that time of year again when I start acting like a health conscious food critic.  You know the type, I put away the chocolate cake recipes (somewhere not too secret so that I can find them again in about a week), and I start looking for those healthy alternatives for my residual holiday cravings!

This may not be the healthiest item on the menu, but it got me to eat carrots.  I got the idea for this cucumber dip from a magazine, and I don't remember which one!

Ingredients:
1/2 Cucumber, peeled
1 package (8 ounces) Neufchatel Cheese (or cream cheese if you don't want the "lite" version)
1/4 onion, grated using the small holes of the grater
1 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. In my "special blender" I stuck the cucumber in & pulsed it to a puree.
2. I poured the cucumber puree into a fine mesh strainer and got as much liquid out as possible.  (I reserved the liquid for something else, you'll see).
3. I put the cucumber puree, cheese, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper into the blender & spun it until it was all creamy & dip-like.

Pretty simple, huh?  It tastes great with carrots, and I'm not a huge carrot fan.  I used the leftover liquid to make a tasty cucumber-lemon-water.  I juiced one lemon, and poured the lemon juice and cucumber liquid into a two-liter pitcher.  I added ice and filled the pitcher with water.  It's a little tart, but very refreshing!