Monday: Guatemalan Juliana Soup

As I survey my kitchen counters, there area few stainless steel, sleek-looking appliances -- all very modern and attractive.  Then, there's this.

Isn't she a beauty?  It occurs to me as I note its interesting ivy vining around the white base, that perhaps love truly is blind.  Or perhaps this is just a case of function trumping form. 

So, for the first slow cooker meal of the week, I'd like to introduce you to Guatemalan Juliana Soup.  It's basically a vegetable soup in chicken broth.  Don't confuse Guatemalan food with Mexican food; this is not a spicy recipe.  Guatemalan food is rarely spicy.  Besides, my kiddos are not likely to eat something too spicy. 

We actually began the night before.  I took one look at all the veggies that needed to be chopped and decided this would be a good time to provide the girls a lesson in kitchen knife safety.  So, together we chopped the following veggies into small pieces:

1 turnip
4 medium carrots
2 small zucchini
1/4 head cabbage
6 red potatoes
1 onion (I actually already had chopped onion in the freezer, so the girls were spared from their first onion chopping experience for now.)





We threw all this into a giant bowl to await the next morning (and fed all our scrap veggie cuttings to the chickens and Cocoa Puff, of course). 



In the morning, we put our veggies into the CrockPot and added the following:
1 c. frozen corn (could be canned instead)
2 T. olive oil
Some freshly ground pepper
Pinch of turmeric
2  32 oz. boxes of chicken broth
1 c. diced chicken pieces (we actually opted to keep it vegetarian; the veggies are filling enough)



We allowed this to cook on high for a couple hours, then low for the rest of the day.  About an hour before dinner, I sampled the broth and added salt to taste. 

Cost analysis?  Well, the soup cost us $9.80 to make, but it made so much that I was able to freeze enough for 2 more dinners!  I served grilled cheesy fingers (which is just grilled cheese cut into strips, which somehow makes them more appealing to my kids) and a dinner salad alongside the soup.  When I consider that I'll get to serve the soup two more times, it brought the total spent on this meal to $8.40 or $1.68 per person. 

How did we like it?  The adults and Girl 1 gobbled it up.  Boy needed some prodding but eventually drained his bowl.  Girl 2, ironically, wouldn't touch it.  She took the mandatory bite, then called it quits.

During this week devoted to the beloved CrockPot, I'd love for you to comment and share with me your favorite slow cooker recipe.  Please. 

Also, check back again tomorrow for CrockPot meal #2!