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Hearty Winter Meals

Alright folks, time to get out the crock pot or Dutch oven and cook some soups and roasts. The stove warms up the house on a frosty night, the steamy soup gives the belly just what it needs, and the smells are a winter potpourri.

Soup Suggestions

There are a couple options for soup-making here. You can do it all from scratch, leave it in the crock pot overnight, and voila – hearty homemade soup.

Another option is to buy a high-end soup mix from the grocery store. Many of these mixes have around a 90-minute prep time, but it is as easy as measuring out a cup of the dry mix, adding water, bringing it all to a boil and then letting it simmer.

I recently purchased the Spicy Southwestern Soup Mix from Main Street Market, a healthy, high fiber and low sodium soup from North Bay Trading Co. in Wisconsin. You can also visit their website and have several varieties shipped to you, among other things, like Minnesota wild rice.

After the soup simmered for about an hour, I took some chicken I baked the night before out and pan-fried it in a little butter. When the soup was close to finishing, I added the chicken and a couple large scoops of wild rice I also made the evening before. I let the new mixture simmer for another 10 minutes, turned the soup off and let it cool a bit before serving.

One cup of dried soup yielded about seven cups when finished cooking. I added a big hunk of homemade wheat bread for dipping; a perfect, healthy, low maintenance meal.

Roast Recommendations

There doesn’t need to be any “art” in pot roast, which makes it a truly beautiful dinner option. It needs only preparation and time to cook, so start early or chop the veggies beforehand to make the process faster.

We used venison (we are in northern Wisconsin, aren’t we?) and cooked the roast in our Dutch oven for a thicker, heartier stew. Beef is the more the “norm” however, so that’s what I’ve outlined:

1 lb. chuck steak, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1/2 cup chopped carrots

1 cup chopped potatoes

1 12 oz. can of beer

3 cloves garlic, pressed

A splash of balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 Tbsp. oregano

1 Tbsp. basil

1 Tbsp. cumin

Salt & Pepper to taste

Preparation: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a Dutch oven or large pot, over medium heat, brown the steak cubes in olive oil. Be careful not to overcook. Add the onion, green pepper, carrots and potatoes. Add the beer, splash of balsamic, and the spices. Stir to make sure the sauce and spices are evenly distributed. We added another drizzle of olive oil for good measure.

Cook for 1.5 hours, checking on the roast periodically. After 1 hour, we found there was still quite a bit of liquid so we added a couple tablespoons of flour to help it thicken and reduce. The longer the roast is allowed to cook, the juicier and more tender the meat and vegetables. Enjoy the stew solo with a nice hunk of buttered bread, or over a bed of rice.