Quick and Easy Meals: Bacon and Mushroom Mashed Potato Soup

Just the other day I had a huge bowl of leftover mashed potatoes in the fridge and no desire to make the usual grilled [insert meat here] with mashed potatoes and veg. So I scoured the web for left over mashed potato recipes. Of course, the majority of the recipes I came across involved ground meat in one way or another, which isn't a bad thing; it's just that I have a tendency to rely far too heavily on ground meat dishes. What can I say, it's cheap, easy and generally makes a nice meal, but one can feed their family only so many tacos, burgers, meat loaves, lasagnas, plates of spaghetti, bowls of chili, etc. Am I right?

Confessions of a reformed veggie hater

For the better part of my 30 and change years on this planet I have been an unrepentant hater of vegetables. Of course, like most veggie haters, I had a few tolerable selections -corn (actually a grain -i know), carrots, some lettuce. There may have been a couple of veggie phases that introduced a few more things, but for the most part I just didn't enjoy the veggies.

Then, a little something happened that started the change and then most recently something else pretty much turned me all the way. So here's the secret -
Doing it yourself makes it better.

I'm not sure why, but it works.

Change #1 - I think the change initially started when I began to take a more active interest in cooking. As I began experimenting and wanting to put more cohesive meals together I would of course come face to face with the need for veggie sides or the addition of veggies to soups, stews or pastas. So, I would look at all of the ingredients around the vegetables and choose recipes based upon those flavors, knowing that they would infuse the then offending veggie with tastes that I already enjoyed. Here are a couple of examples of recipes from Allrecipes.com that have helped bring me around to the leafier side of eating:

Italian Sausage Soup
Veggies involved - Carrots, zucchini, spinach, tomatoes
Helpful flavors - spicy turkey sausage and a lot of garlic

Roasted Garlic Cauliflower
Veggies involved - Cauliflower
Helpful flavors - garlic, Parmesan cheese


*Note: yes, I know many of the above are technically fruits

Change #2 -Now this was a biggy. This latest change has lead me to enjoy what I would consider to be some very "extreme veggies" like swiss chard and beet greens. It all began with a little book called Square Foot Gardening. When I started my garden, I planted a square of chard and a square of beets for my mom. Her first little harvest of chard did not interest me in the least, as she had tried for years to get me to eat the stuff. I hated it as a child, of course. However, a little something changed with the second harvest of chard and several bunches of beet greens. I think I may have felt compelled to taste it because it was a day when I was fixing dinner, with the greens as a side.

If you cook it, you have to taste it right?

So, after the application of some olive oil, garlic, a bit of onion, s&p and some judicious sauteing I brought a small forkful to my lips and ...holy moley! Delicioso! I loved it, and I have no idea why.

I can now list several veggies that I greatly enjoy. Chard, spinach, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots...the list goes on. So, I genuinely think that getting involved with veggies is key. Plant a garden. Source some recipes filled with flavors you already love and experiment. It makes a huge difference.