Welcome to the Good and Good for You™ newsletter, a quick 5-minute read with ideas and info on ways to help improve your life – including a tasty and healthful recipe.
This Winter Storm Warning issue shares:
- Best Life Living Tip: How a Quarter Can Help with Food Safety in a Storm
- Self-Care Strategy: Controlling News Consumption
- Ideas and Inspiration: Zoe Bakes — Eat Dessert First
- Good and Good for You™ Recipes: There are four this week, so you can settle in for the cold weather with some easy soup recipes.
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- Quick Herb Chicken and Dumplings is Southern comfort in a bowl, made with an easy drop dumpling dough and a rotisserie chicken.
- Vegan Vegetable Soup doesn’t require hours of simmering ham bones or pots of homemade vegetable stock. It is what is ingloriously referred to as a “dump-and-stir” — but packed with flavor and a secret ingredient!
- Baked Potato Soup can be ready in less than 30 minutes. Serve with an array of toppings, such as scallions, bacon, and cheese, to allow everyone to customize.
- Cream of Mushroom Soup – is rich and creamy without cream or a red and white can in sight!
Meet Virginia
My name is Virginia Willis. I am a French-trained Southern chef and cookbook author — who lost 65# and has kept it off for over five years. It’s about health gain, not weight loss, and you can make your life better, too!
Thanks for reading – it’s awesome to see that this newsletter is making life better in some way for so many people.
Read on for more — including this quartet of healthy, wholesome soups. With so many recipe choices, you may not even have to go to the store.
Best Life Living Tip
Winter storms often bring power outages, and one hidden concern is whether your freezer stayed cold enough to keep food safe.
Try this simple trick: Freeze a cup of water, place a coin on top of the ice, and put it back in the freezer. If the power goes out and the ice melts, the coin will sink. When everything refreezes, the coin’s position tells the story.
Coin still on top? Your food stayed frozen.
Coin at the bottom? Your freezer has fully thawed — and it’s time to reassess what’s inside.
A free, low-tech tip for peace of mind during storm season.
Self-Care Strategy
Here’s one self-care strategy I use every day — controlling my news consumption. Science Daily reports, “News addiction is linked to not only poor mental well-being but physical health, too.”
Don’t get sucked in because you can’t go outside. Pick up a book, color, knit, or work a puzzle. It’s important to take breaks from watching, reading, or listening to news stories.
Remember, media companies want to keep your eyeballs on their “stuff” — their website, their stream, their broadcast. It’s all about eyeballs and ad dollars.
Just as you eat and drink things that are good and good for you, you need to consume information that is in a way that is good and good for you, too. Give the news a break, or set aside an appropriate amount of time to become informed.
Ideas and Inspiration
If you’re not already following Zoe Bakes, let this be your nudge. Zoe François has a rare gift for making baking feel both magical and doable. Her work is deeply skilled, visually stunning, and yet always inviting.
She reminds us that baking is as much about joy and play as it is about precision. Whenever I need a spark of creativity in the kitchen, Zoe is one of my first stops!
Follow her on IG at @ZoeBakes — she’s an amazing pastry chef, cookbook author, and host of Zoe Bakes.
She’s based in Minneapolis, and I love recipes and most of all, her spirit.
Check her out on IG, and you can also sign up for her Substack on her website, ZoeBakes.com
Make it Count
I had a post go viral last week, a result of a trip with my “sister from another mister” to Buford Highway. We ate at Nam Phuong, then went across the street to Talpas Supermercado. I love the richness and diversity of the area.
If you want to check it out, take a peep here for Instagram or here for Facebook.
The video is truly how I feel about what makes America great. If you don’t want to follow me after watching it and “want me to stick to cooking,” then there’s nothing I can do about that. I will continue to cook, but I will not stay silent. I never have and I never will.
By an overwhelming majority, the response has been very, very positive. I knew it would be controversial, but I had no idea it would garner such a response. I’ve had to block some rude people, but honestly, most of the trolls were bots. A few got a “Bless Your Heart,” and we all know what that means….
Thank you for reading. For more tips, inspiration, and healthy recipes, follow @virginiawillis on Instagram. If you choose what’s Good and Good for You™ most of the time, you’re headed in the right direction. You’ve got this!
Bon Appétit, Y’all!
Virginia
Quick Herb Chicken and Dumplings
Ingredients
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese about 1/2 ounce
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 cup whole milk
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 3 carrots diced
- 2 stalks celery diced
- 8 cups chicken stock or low-fat reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes or to taste
- 1 rotisserie chicken bones and skin discarded, meat pulled, shredded or chopped into bite-size pieces (about 4 cups)
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- To prepare the dumplings, in a bowl, combine the flour, cheese, baking powder, and 3/4 teaspoon of salt. In a small saucepan, bring the milk and butter to a simmer over low heat; season with black pepper. (Or zap the milk and butter in a glass measuring cup in the microwave until the butter is melted.) Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients and using a rubber spatula, stir to combine. Heads up -- the mixture will be pretty dry. Set aside.
- In a second large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery. Cook until the onions are translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 45 to 60 seconds. Add the stock and bring to a boil over high heat. Decrease the heat to low. Using a small ice cream scoop or tablespoon, drop the dough, about 1 tablespoon at a time, into the simmering stock. Cover and simmer until the dumplings are cooked through and the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.
- To assemble, add the chicken and cook just until heated through, about 5 minutes. Add the parsley. Taste and adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.
Vegan Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon pure olive oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 3 carrots cut in ½-inch pieces
- 2 stalks celery cut in ½-inch pieces
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms quartered
- 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 2 bay leaves preferably fresh
- 1 sprig of thyme
- 1 32 ounce container low sodium vegetable juice
- 2 cups water
- 1 14.5-ounce can whole or stewed tomatoes, with juices
- 1 tablespoon miso or tomato paste
- 2 cups shelled fresh butter beans about 11/2 pounds unshelled or frozen butter beans, thawed
- 2 sweet potatoes peeled and cubed (about 2 cups)
- 1/4 pound fresh okra stems trimmed, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 1 cup)
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes or to taste
- Coarse kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large heavy-duty pot over medium high heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, and mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and cook until soft and translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 45 to 60 seconds, Add the bay leaves, thyme, vegetable juice, tomatoes, and miso paste. Stir to combine. Add the butterbeans and sweet potatoes. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to simmer. Cook until the vegetables are just tender, about 15 minutes. Add the okra; cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add red pepper flakes; stir to combine. Taste and adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper. Ladle into warm bowls and serve immediately.
Baked Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 carrot chopped
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 cups chicken stock or low-fat reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 3 cups 2% milk
- 4 russet potatoes peeled and cubed (about 1 3/4 pounds)
- 1 cups grated extra sharp Cheddar cheese about 12 ounces
- Chopped green onions for serving
- Bacon bits for serving
- Sour cream for serving
- Hot sauce for serving
Instructions
- Heat the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Add the onion, carrot, and celery. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to soften, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 45 to 60 seconds. Sprinkle the flour over and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in the stock, and then the milk. Add the potatoes and bring the soup to a boil over high heat. Decrease the heat to low and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.
- Add the cheese, a little at a time, stirring until melted and smooth after each addition. Taste and adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper. To serve, ladle the soup into warmed bowls. Serve with toppings on the side.
Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 onion chopped
- 2 pounds mixed fresh mushrooms such as white button, cremini, shiitake, morel, and chanterelle, sliced
- 3 cups homemade vegetable or chicken stock class or reduced fat low sodium chicken or vegetable stock
- Bouquet Garni 5 sprigs thyme; 4 sprigs flat-leaf parsley;2 bay leaves, preferably fresh; and 10 whole black peppercorns, tied together in cheesecloth
- Heavy cream optional
- Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat and add the onion. Cook until the onion is translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the fresh mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are tender, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add the stock and bouquet garni. Bring to a boil, decrease the heat to simmer. Cook until the mushrooms are very soft, about 30 minutes.
- Remove the bouquet garni. Purée the soup with an immersion blender.Leave it coarse for a more rustic soup, or purée it until smooth for a more elegant soup. Add the cream and stir to combine. Taste and adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper. Ladle into warmed bowls and serve immediately.
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