Split Pea Soup

Watching Food Network with Andrew's stepmom Ann is always fun - we get ideas, chat about recipes we've made lately, and plan meals for the following week.  Recently we saw an episode of Sunny Anderson's show, Cooking For Real.  I had never seen it, but in this episode, Sunny made an "Easy Peasy Split Pea Soup" that looked absolutely delicious.

I went home and immediately bookmarked the recipe, but it's taken me several weeks to make the soup.  I'm so glad I got this soup onto my menu plan, because it was a rich, velvety, comforting dinner that was easy to put together on a cold weeknight.

You can click the link above for the full recipe, but I wanted to point out the differences in my version.  Instead of slab bacon, I used six slices of peppered bacon that I had leftover in the fridge.  I skipped the celery (we don't like it) and the cumin (I couldn't find it), and didn't garnish with tomato or lime as Sunny suggested (it sounded gross).  I also used my own homemade chicken stock rather than the boxed or canned variety.

This split pea soup truly was "easy peasy" - Andrew and I both enjoyed it's thick consistency and the nutritional value of the soup is sky high, a major plus for the healthy lifestyle we're trying to maintain through the holiday season.  The best part?  I had everything I needed on hand except the dried peas.  Now that I bought them for the soup, I'll have them on hand, and next time, this will truly be a meal straight out of my pantry.

Speaking of Food Network, Ann attended the Cleveland Fabulous Food Show and she got to meet our FN crush, Tyler Florence!!!  Aren't they so cute?!?