I love Olive Garden's Chicken Gnocchi Soup. Love, love love! In the past, I would gladly eat two bowls of it, about 5 breadsticks, and take my whole meal home! But I've had to skip it since becoming vegetarian and that sucks. So I found a copycat recipe online , and tweaked it to make it vegetarian. (I am so grateful for copycat sites!) Surprisingly enough (not), the original recipe calls for chicken ... I added boiled potatoes to take their place. You could probably cook the potatoes right in the soup - just make sure to add them early enough that they finish cooking before everything else goes soft. That might be too much potato in one soup for some people (is that even possible?). :) You could bump up the amounts of the gnocchi or other veggies in the recipe, or add corn, bell peppers, or soy "chicken" if the extra potatoes don't float your boat. Any other ideas for taking the place of the chicken? Start by chopp...
Happy Friday! I'm so ready to sleep in tomorrow :) Have anything fun planned? Mr. Giraffe and I recently had a date night and went out to dinner. My appetizer was nothing to write home about, but my salad? Amazing! Houlihan's bills it as the Asian Chicken Chop Chop Salad, so I used one of my vegetarian eating-out tricks and asked for the chicken on a separate plate. (Mr. G gave the chicken two thumbs up.) Unfortunately, at $15, it wasn't the most affordable meal, but I plan to make it at home for much cheaper. It's lettuce, cabbage, carrots, snow peas, bell pepper, jicama, peanuts, sesame seeds, and wonton strips or tortilla strips. All fairly normal (except the jicama - this was my first time trying it, tastes like a raw potato), but I never would've thought to combine them myself. (The asparagus was part of my husband's meal that he kindly gifted to me.) I didn't sample the salad dressing - see more of my weird food aversions here - but it was s...
It's been a good week. :) Robins are considered the first sign of spring around here, and guess what Mr. G spotted last week? A robin! That robin may be regretting his decision when we get another snowstorm on Tuesday, but it was nice to see him while we could. I made bread! (Well, I put the ingredients in the bread machine, and 4 hours later, took out a perfect loaf of bread.) I am sorely disappointed by the bread selection at my local grocery store, and unless I want to pay $4-5 dollars a loaf, I can't find any that are vegetarian! So I figured if I make my own loaf 2 or 3 times a month, it'll help us save a little money over store bought. Plus, there's not much better than warm, fresh bread with butter . . And there's been a whole lot of typing going on . . Getting closer to being finished every day! How're things going for you? What's the first sign of spring in your neck of the woods?
That looks so good! Happy WW!
ReplyDeleteNow regretting skipping lunch.
ReplyDeleteI could never skip lunch - my stomach is too loud and obnoxious. :)
DeleteToo yummy! Thanks for joining me in the Wordless Wednesday Bloggers.
ReplyDeleteJennifer
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