Broccoli Potato Soup

Hi All, Beth here, I haven't posted in a while, but I made some delicious soup tonight that I though I would share. We were out of town this weekend and I didn't feel like going to the grocery store today, so I started looking to see what I could come up with using what I already had in the house and decided on soup.

I just kind of made it up as I went along which is pretty common practice for me and I thought it turned out well enough that I would share. Pinkerton and my hubby loved it as well and it was only about 6 WW points plus for a cup for anyone who is interested.

Ingredients:

2 cans (28oz) of chicken broth

1 cup chopped potatoes

1 1/2 cups chopped broccoli

3/4 cup of milk

2 Tbs. butter

2 Tbs. flour

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

salt and pepper

Instructions:

Chop potatoes into bite size pieces, put in a pot with the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Let these cook about 10 minutes or until they start to get tender. While the potatoes are cooking, chop the broccoli into small pieces and make sure you keep all the little scraps that fall off while you are cutting. Put the broccoli in with the potatoes and cook another 10 minutes.

In a small sauce pan make a roux with the butter and flour and then slowly whisk in the milk and cook over low heat until thick whisking often. Mix the thickened milk mixture into the pot with the chicken broth, potatoes and broccoli and bring it all to a simmer. Then add the cheese and stir. Let simmer for another 10 minutes or until thick. Salt and pepper to taste. I served it with corn bread.

Like I said, Pinkerton gobbled it up! Hope you enjoy!

Great Blog for Great Recipes

Good Evening All!

As you may have noticed, I tend to post about sewing projects rather than recipes like my other fellow Mamas. I seem to always struggle when it comes to coming up with ideas for dinner. I recently discovered a fantastic blog full of fantastic recipes! Believe it or not, I stumbled upon the blog from a craft blog, - you may remember me mentioning my slight obsession with Jess' Craftiness is Not Optional blog - she and a friend have a recipe blog: C & J's Good Grub.

I've tried two recipes so far from their site: The Sweet and Sour Chicken and the Cowboy Quesadillas. Both recipes turned out deliciously!

The Sweet & Sour Chicken, was pretty easy as stated in the recipe. The only thing was that it was a bit messy dipping the chicken into the cornstarch and egg. But it wasn't that big of a deal. I took her suggestion to add pineapple at the end, because I had it on hand, and Cupcake is a fan of pineapple. I liked the addition, but I think it would have been totally fine without the pineapple. My husband thoroughly enjoyed it even saying it tasted almost as good as chinese take out!

The Cowboy Quesidillas were just as successful! They were super easy. I used the pre-cooked fajita chicken strips which made the process that much easier! I just threw everything together, mixed it up and put it in the tortillas. My husband enjoyed this one as well and so did little Cupcake. I was a little weary because I'm not the biggest fan of barbeque sauce, but it worked out fine. The taste wasn't too overwhelming and mixed well with everything else. It has a great mixture of tasty foods like corn, beans, and tomatoes that Cupcake sometimes doesn't eat on their own but gobbled up inside the cowboy quesidillas - yee haw!!

I can't wait to try out more recipes from their blog.

EASIER lasagna

I'm all about the Italian food...especially lasagna! That said, I've never been too skilled when it came to cooking the lasagna noodles and keeping them in tact!

So I loved it when I found this great recipe (pampered chef) for Inside Out Lasagna. Same ingredients practically, just easier. And just like all the recipes I seem to fall in love with, it's modification friendly in case you don't have something in your pantry :)

1 12 oz. box of your favorite pasta (tonight I had on hand whole wheat shells)

1/2 medium onion chopped

1lb of lean ground beef

1 26 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce

1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes, in juice

2 cloves minced garlic

4 eggs

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

2 cups Mozzarella cheese

32 oz Ricotta Cheese (I only had a 15 oz. tub on hand and it still came out terrific)

1 TBS dried parsley

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

• Preheat oven 350
• Cook Pasta according to box
• Chop onion and put it and ground beef in skillet to brown over medium heat (8-10min)
• Press garlic into beef mix
• Stir in pasta sauce and tomatoes, remove from heat
• In a mixing bowl, lightly beat eggs. Add cheeses, parsley, salt, and pepper. Mix well.
• Assemble lasagna. Cooked pasta, meat mixture, then spoon ricotta mix over sauce. Spread evenly.
• Bake uncovered, 1 hour or until ricotta mix is set and lightly browned.

Yields 15 servings (ha! yeah right if you're a mini-person)

~Amanda

Easy Veggie Mac & Cheese

Step aside Rachel Ray...I did this in 20 min. Beth here and this is my first post! This is an easy recipe that tastes great and incorporates some veggies for kids that don't love them normally. I got the idea from a food network show (can't remember which one) but I figure she isn't going to be looking at my blog so she won't mind not getting credit.

Ingredients:

3/4 pound of whole grain pasta

1 package of broccoli with cheese sauce (can be frozen)

3 wedges of soft cheese

6-7 large mushrooms (large chopped)

2 Tbs. olive oil

salt, pepper, and garlic powder

1. Saute mushrooms in olive oil and add salt, pepper and garlic powder about half way through cooking. Cook till browned but still a little firm.

2. While mushrooms are cooking prepare pasta and broccoli using directions on packages.

3. Mix everything together till combined and serve!

This is a super easy recipe and makes 4 servings with only about 450 calories per serving.

Homeade Icecream...ONE INGREDIENT!

This is so ridiculously EASY and equally delicious! It's one ingredient...FROZEN bananas!

Take some bananas that are pretty ripe, peel them, and cut them up into chunks and freeze. Once frozen, put into a food processor and process. You'll do a lot of scraping down the edges, but eventually (a minute or two) it begins to get this awesomely creamy texture. And this is where I decided to add a bonus ingredient...Peanut Butter. Options are endless of what you could mix in.

So I feel like I'm eating ice cream, when I'm just eating a fruit! Here's one of the sites where I've found this idea.

Enjoy.

Amanda

A Vegetarian meal for even a meat-loving girl!

I'm no chef by any means. Typically, it's like 5 o'clock and I find a recipe. Then have to modify it b/c I only have 2/3 of the ingredients in the house! This recipe is perfectly my style and is easy to substitute what you like and hard to mess up.

Until I made this recipe, I don't believe I had ever intentionally planned a vegetarian meal, let alone one I REALLY enjoyed. You know, it's one thing to make a meatless salad, but come on, that's not filling.

Its official name is Spanish-Style Stuffed Peppers.

Here are the basics you'll need to make this work:

• 2 bell peppers (I like to mix it up and make it colorful)
• 1 pkg of Yellow Saffron Rice
• Garlic
• Diced tomatoes (fresh or canned, used tonight the diced ones with chilies)
• Olive oil
• Mexican Cheese
• Cilantro (or parsley)

Optional Ingredients you could mix and match to your liking:

• Small Poblano pepper (I've actually never used this, just chopped up some of one of the bell peppers I have...in addition to the two used)
• 1 Green onion (Another one I've never used but sometimes use a white onion or a few shakes of dried minced onion)
• Black Beans
• Ground Beef

Directions:

Prepare rice according to package.

Wash and cut in half (so you have a right and left side, not a top and bottom) the two bell peppers. Remove and discard seeds. Put in microwave safe dish for 3-4 minutes until tender.

Use paper towel to pat dry.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat for 1 to 3 minutes until it shimmers. Add about 2 cloves of garlic (I use minced garlic you keep in fridge). You can add more if you like garlic. Add tomatoes, onions, poblano (or bell) pepper. Cook a few minutes until tender and heated through. This is where you'll add things like beans if you wish.

Stir veggie mix into rice. Mix in 1/2 cup of cheese (or more if you LOVE cheese like me) and cilantro (again, as much or little as you'd like).

Take bell peppers and put them in the saute pan used for veggies. Add a few tablespoons of water in the pan. Stuff them with the rice mixture and sprinkle top with cheese. Cover and cook another 3 minutes or so until the cheese melts. Garnish with some more cilantro (if you don't run out, like I did this evening!)

YUM! Enjoy.

Amanda