Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Lightened Up Version of Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Source: Allrecipes.com

1/4 cup butter

1 onion, diced

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

1 package frozen broccoli florets

1 quart chicken broth, I used reduced sodium

1/2 cup all-purpouse flour

1 1/2 cups of skim milk

salt to taste

8 ounces of reduced fat shredded sharp Cheddar Cheese

1. Melt butter over medium heat in a stockpot. Cook onion in butter until softened. Add garlic and pepper; cook for 1 minute then stir in broccoli, and stir in chicken broth. Bring to a boil and simmer until broccoli is tender, 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile whisk flour into milk until dissolved. Stir into soup stirring frequently until thickened. Reduce heat, and stir in cheese until melted and heated through.

3. Season with salt to taste. I run my immersion blender through the soup to make smooth, you don't have to if you like a chunkier soup.

Beef Taco Bake

Beef Taco Bake

Source: Campbell's

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef

1 can Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup

1 jar salsa

1/2 milk

6 flour tortillas, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Cook the beef in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until well browned, stirring often. Pour off any fat.

Stir the soup, salsa, milk, tortillas and half the cheese in the skillet, I had to do this in a separate bowl because it just wasn't happening in the frying pan. Spoon the beef mixture into a 2 quart shallow baking dish. Cover the baking dish.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until the beef mixture is hot and bubbling. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

This was a recipe my husband found and wanted me to make and I thought it was going to be a serious miss but it was really tasty and hit the spot.

Farfalle with Creamy Wild Mushroom Sauce

Source: Cooking Light, December 2006

Serving Size: 1 1/4 cup

Calories: 336

1 pound uncooked farfalle

1 tablespoon butter

12 ounces presliced exotic mushrooms (I am cheap so I used the cheap salad mushroom that were on sale)

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/3 cup finely chopped shallots (I omitted because I couldn't find any)

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup dry white wine

2/3 cup whipping cream

1/2 cup grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Cook past according to package directions, omitting salt and fat drain.

Melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms, onion, shallots, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper; cook 12 minutes or until liquid evaporates and mushrooms are tender, stirring occasionally. Add wine; cook 2 minutes or until liquid evaporates, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.

Add the cooked pasta, whipping cream, cheese and 2 tablespoons parsley, tossing gently to coat, I had to do this in a separate mixing bowl because my frying pan just wasn't large enough.

This recipe was okay, it definitely needs some spicing up and I would have enjoyed it a bit, it was filling for a lighter meal and it didn't taste overly like diet food. I did a lot more pepper than the recipe called for.

Shamelessly showing off my cat

Basket Weave Throw

Source: Lion Brand Pattern

Finished Size: 40" by 50"

Materials

8 skeins of Loin rand Homespun Yarn in the color of your choice

Lion Brand Speed Stix (size 50)

Large-eyed blunt needle

9" square of cardboard

Gauge

4 stitches and 5 1/4 rows = 4", with 4 strands held together.

Throw

With 4 strands of Homespun held together, cast on 40 stitches.

Rows 1-5: Knit 5, perl 5, repeat across

Rows 6-10: Perl 5, Knit 5, repeat across

Repeat rows 1-10 5 more times, Repeat rows 1-5 once. Bind off in pattern.

(I just kept going because I did put the tassels on, I got 2 extra rows of 1-10)

Tassels (make 4)

Wrap yarn around cardboard square 100 times. Cut a 9" length of yarn and thread into large-eyed blunt needle. Insert needle under all strands at upper edge of cardboard. Pull tightly and knot securely near strands. Cut yarn loops at lower edge of cardboard. Cut a 24" length of yarn and wrap tightly around loops 1" below top knot to form tassel neck. Knot securely; thread ends into needle and weave ends to center of tassel. Trim tassel ends evenly. Weave in ed.

Finishing

Attach a tassel to each corner of throw. Weave in ends.

This pattern took me about 6 hours, I'm not the most experienced knitter, I can make a couple different hats, both harry potter scarves and regular scarves.

I made another one for JT's Mimi for Christmas in shades of blue, white, green, purple, she loved it so much she cried when she opened it.

Butterfinger Vanilla Ice Cream

I'll leave you with a dessert tonight, I have about a dozen pictures of things I've cooked for the past few months to update and a few dozen more "winner" recipes I need to share with the world.

Ice cream is another thing I do not buy in the grocery store, homemade tastes so much butter and you know what went into it.

I started with a vanilla bean ice cream from The Perfect Scoop.

2 cups heavy or whipping cream

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pour 1 cup of cream into a medium saucepan and add sugar and salt. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the saucepan and add the pod to the pot. Warm over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved.

Remove from heat and the remaining cup of cream, milk and vanilla extract. Chill the mixture completely in the fridge.

While the cream and milk mixture is cooling, freeze 2 king size Butter-finger bars, it makes it easier to chop/crush them. Then churn according to your ice cream maker's directions. While the ice cream is churning, crush/chop the butterfingers the best you can. About 2 minutes before the ice cream has set I add the crushed Butterfingers to the mixture.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator. When ready to churn, remove the vanilla bean, and then freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Pulled Pork

This is one of the many reasons that I LOVE my Crock Pot, this recipe is simple and delicious.

I use a Boston Butt, just large enough to fit in your Crock, I've made the mistake of buying a hunk of meat too big for my Crock pot and no one enjoys cleaving meat at 6:30 AM before they leave for work.

I cover the roast in garlic powder, salt and pepper and place in the the Crock, then I cover the meat with a can of root beer, you can use coke or whatever you have on hand. I cook on low for 10 hours. When I get home from work I turn the Crock up to high drain and shred the meat and pour in BBQ sauce to your taste. We prefer Sweet Baby Ray's but I will be trying to make my own even if my husband disapproves. Serve over hamburger buns or however you like.

Buffalo Stuffed Chicken with Twice Baked Potatoes

My husband picked what we had for dinner tonight, we had buffalo stuffed chicken, with leftover twice baked potatoes and French style green beans.

Buffalo Stuffed Chicken

I did get this recipe from someone's blog but its been so long I've forgotten who (is that credit?)

2 chicken breasts, butterflied

1/2 cup shredded jack cheese

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

3/4 cup ranch dressing

1/2 cup hot sauce

1/3 cup shredded jack cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Spray baking dish with Pam. Mix ranch dressing and hot sauce together, marinate chicken for 30 minutes.

Stuff chicken with cheese, I used a jack cheese but the original recipe called for bleu cheese and we're just not bleu cheese people. Dip chicken into dressing mixture and then coat with bread crumbs.

Bake for 35 minutes. Turn oven up to 400 and top w/shredded cheese. Bake until cooked through.

Twice Baked Potatoes

Our New Year's Eve plans got foiled by snow, we were going to get Chinese and watch movies, instead I went to the store and spent the night in the kitchen making a roast beef and twice baked potatoes. My husband's mother makes great twice baked potatoes and I didn't want to step on any toes so I went in search of a different recipe, because I am a smart woman. The potatoes reheat very well, for tonight's dinner I put in the toaster oven for 15 minutes.

Source: Allrecipes.com

5 medium baking potatoes

8 slices bacon

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup milk

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided, I used a Mexican blend I had on hand

8 green onions, sliced, divided, I omitted these because I didn't have any on hand

Preheat oven to 350 and bake potatoes in oven for 1 hour, in the mean time cook the bacon, allow to drain and cool and crumble.

Let potatoes cool for 10 minutes, slice in half lengthwise and scoop flesh into the bowl of your mixer, reserving skins. Add sour cream, milk, butter, salt, pepper and 1/2 cup cheese. Mix until well blended and creamy. Spoon mixture into the potato skins, top each with cheese and bacon. Bake for another 15 minutes.

White Bread

My awesome parents bought me a bread machine for Christmas, I'm very excited about not having to buy bread anymore, its highway robbery for the good bread. I've used it three times in the week since I got it! I've made this King Arthur flour recipe twice now and yesterday for dinner we had BLTs, which I make way too much for dinner but how can you go wrong with a good BLT? This one may just have been the best BLT I've ever had.

Toast & Sandwich Bread

Source: King Arthur Flour

2 teaspoons instant yeast

2 tablespoons sugar

1 cup lukewarm milk

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Place all ingredients in the pan of your bread machine, I have a Cuisinart bread machine, I set it to white regular, 1.5 lb loaf and choose light crust and pressed start.

Happy 2010, let's hope you're a better year!

It has been a very long time between my blogs, I haven't been in the best place the last few months. Most of my summer was spent working on the house my brother and I inherited and it was very time consuming and costly and we haven't seen any reward for our hard work and let's me honest my brother is difficult at best to work with and he's lazy. It's time like that, that make me wonder how we were raised by the same parents. We did get an offer on the house this fall, we accepted went through the inspection and a month before the closing date, our buyer backed out due to her personal financial situation. I turned 27 in October, I am now the age where my mom had me, so I really started to thinking about starting to conceive a baby especially with the house sale pending and when that fell through I was heart broken.

With the decade and year ending, I started to think about all the things that happened to me over the past decade. In the past ten years, I have graduated from high school, lost all three of my grandparents, lost my aunt, graduated from college, gotten married, paid off my car, and gotten a big girl job. It's definitely been a rocky decade but there were definitely some shining moments in there. It gets hard to focus on the positive when you are surrounded my difficulty and struggle.

So that brings me to a new decade and a new year. Here's a list of things I plan to focus on in the year...

1. Be healthy, get in shape and get to my goal weight.

2. Make more things myself, this was on my list last year and I was pretty successful at it but I would like to add a few more things to that list.

3. Be greener, also a on my list last year and I was successful at buying more organic, making my own things, using reusable grocery bags, filtering our water and being mindful of our electricity use. This year I want to be more mindful of my water usage in the kitchen and switch to green cleaning products and not using those prepackaged ones, making my own.

4. Make a budget, make better weekly menu plans, cut

out the excessive spending on useless crap that we don't need whether it be shoes, food, clothes, etc.

5. Save money, we don't even have a savings account and that's just pathetic, setting a budget will definitely make saving easier. I do try to look at the positive, we do pay extra on student loans every month and we always buy things in cash and we have barely any credit card debt to speak of, and we both put money in retirement savings with every paycheck, so its not all bad. We just need to get in the habit even if its a little bit.

6. Quit drinking soda again, I do so good with this and then I fall off the wagon.

7. Organize our man room, purge a lot of the junk we do not need and get a spare bed in this room.

8. Go meatless one night a week, my husband isn't going to like this one but he's going to just have to deal with it.

9. Blog a lot more.

10. Finally, try to be more positive, focus on the good, try to not get jealous of other people's station in life and focus on improving my own, and let shit go.

If I was depressing I apologize buy I'm feeling good about my plans and I hope I can stick to them! I leave with two of my furbabies, Juno and Cayden who were watching me cook, there will be many upcoming foodie updates, I have a ton of pictures and recipes to upload and many more I've tried but did not post.