Chicken Gnocchi Soup

Picture & Recipe from  http://jamiecooksitup.net/2012/03/chicken-gnocchi-soup/

Chicken Gnocchi Soup
This was for dinner this week, it was really yummy.  The only changes I made were, delete the Thyme or use WAY less, 1 tsp was overpowering for me.  And instead of half/half I used evaporated milk, less fat and same creamy texture.  Had plenty of leftovers which I ate for lunch.  It was great!

Dinner Tonight was yummy Bok Choy Salad
Try it for something different! I added mandarin oranges and I think crasins would be good too!

 

http://www.food.com/recipe/bok-choy-salad-184840

And Black Bean Soup From Here
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/01/black-bean-soup/
 
 
Topped with FRESH Cilantro (a must I think), Sour Cream, Cheese, Chips.  Everyone ate it, except Tyler only 2 bites, but he was having that kind of day!  I'll make it again!

And I'm making Chicken Bacon Noodle Casserole tomorrow with my "cream of something soup mix"  I'll let you know how it goes.  But I got a rosterrie chicken on Monday grocery shopping, put it in the crockpot on warm when I got home.  We had it for dinner with wild rice and veggies, then I got all the leftover meat off the chicken, which was plenty and I'm using it tomorrow for the casserole.  I also got the nitrate free bacon and cooked it in the oven for 17 mins, did you know you could do that?  Easiest way to cook bacon, I drained the fat 1/2 way through.  It turned out perfect and no mess because I lined the baking sheet with parchament paper.  Anyway thought I would share that tip!  And a easy way to get some yummy cooked chicken and I don't think you can beat that price for how much meat you get!

Rachel

Sweet and sour Chicken

I pinned this recipe from Jennie, and made it the other night.  It was SO GOOD.  I highly recommend it.  This was so good I will be adding it to our regular rotation of chicken dinners.  This is the picture from the website:

The link to the recipe and her directions is HERE.

Homemade Nut Butter

I really like almonds, so I wanted to try some almond butter, until I saw how expensive it was in the store.  So I decided to try and make my own.  This ended up being almond/cashew/peanut butter.  It is SO GOOD.  I started with just almonds in my food processors, and then I added cashews because I got bored.  It takes a long time for it to get creamy.  It's really dry at first, so I got inpatient and threw in some of the Skippy Natural Creamy PB.  That seemed to help a lot.  I keep it in the fridge, but I'm not sure if I have to or not.  Anyway, Kyle really likes it.  The nut blend ended up being really good, and it was kind of fun to try!

So in a response to your help request.  I have to first say that I HATE menu planning.  It is so hard to sit and rack my brain of what to make, don't mind the cooking just coming up with WHAT to cook drives me nuts.   However experimenting with/without this for 11+ years of marriage, I've learned that having a PLAN is much easier for my family and the flow of my week, so I HAVE to do one.   I make my plan on Saturday mostly.  As far as go to meals, I don't know we have lots of Mexican and Italian.  But I wanted to share this, got the idea from Food Nanny which I like, I don't do exactly what she says but I like the idea of "themes" and that that make me "remember" my recipes under that theme and helps with the planning.

So choose 1 night a week from the following themes: (right now I'm doing soup at least 1 day a week)
-Chicken
-Beef
-Meatless/Breakfast for Dinner
- Pizza
-Soup
-crockpot

-grill

Here is my plan this week
S- Beef-Hamburgers
M-Soup- Wild Rice Soup
T- Crockpot -turkey roast
W-Meatless- Alfredo pasta
R-Chicken-chicken Tacos
F-Pizza Night
S-Don't usually plan for Saturday we go out or have dinner with friends or leftovers or super simple

If I'm having a hard time with the above themes I also might try to plan by carb because that sparks new ideas. As follows:
potato
rice
noodles
tortilla
pizza crust

Anyway hopefully that might help or maybe not but I would like you to post your 5 meals you keep making over and over as you say, so I can see what they are!

Love,
Rachel

HELP

I need help with dinner idea peeps, I'm sick of making the same 5 things.  What are your go-to meals right now?

Poof

I found a tutorial for this poof  seat HERE and was surprised at how easy it was to make!  Will loves it, I still need to make one for him, but in the mean time he enjoys Abbie's.

My Lastest Kitchen Things

So I thought I would post finally so you know what I've been up to at least in the kitchen and since mom isn't on pinterest she can get the recipes from here.   I've been trying to eliminate some processed foods in our house by making my own mixes, inspired by a thing on saw on 20/20, healthy and SKINNY Carrie and pinterest of course!    Here is my next project to make with organic/healthy chicken bullion that I found on amazon, hope to find it at Harmons or Costco here in town.  So this will replace cream of chicken soup, mushroom soup, lipton onion packet and beef bullion, they have healthy versions of those bullion at amazon. 

http://1orangegiraffe.blogspot.com/2011/07/anything-you-wanna-call-it-casserole.html?showComment=1310864846151#c3489139395376988271

This is what I've made so far

Homemade Refried Beans in Crockpot
http://neartonothing.blogspot.com/2010/09/homemade-refried-beans.html 

So easy and made a yummy bean burrito dinner with cafe rio lime rice and lettuce, salsa, sour cream.  Everyone ate it.  Good one for a meatless dinner which I'm trying to do once a week.

And since we are Ranch Snots and go through a bacth a week, I thought I would love finding one that I can make without the packet.  After some failed attempts the one I think   WON with me, glen and the kid is : make sure to scroll down to the BYU one at the end of the post.  It is yummy and tastes really good.  I made a  mix, in my pantry now and all I have to do is grab it and NO PACKETS,  I halved the recipe at the bottom to use the mix because I only wanted  a smaller batch.  It was perfect!  The only thing is that you use 1 cup milk with 1 tsp on vinegar to make your own buttermilk and make sure you add the lemon juice too  http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2011/07/ode-to-homemade-ranch-dressing.html

I also made these 12 at the begining of the week and then put them in the fridge for quick eggs in the morings or egg sandwiches too.  We Loved them.  Trick for us was putting 1 TBS of water before cracking egg to keep it soft boiled and no crusty edges.  Bake at 350 for about 18 mins.  perfect!  I don't think I'll ever make boiled eggs again!

I also felt like little Susie homemaker this week by doing 7 quarts of frozen peaches.  I got them from bountiful baskets for 75 cents a pound and got 24 pounds.  They were so good, I ate 3 while doing them, which is saying something cause I don't really like peaches, but I'm changing my mind.  Peaches also remind me of Carrie???  I think because she LOVED them when we were little right??  or am I remembering wrong?  Never done them before so I was nervous but they turned out I think, we will see when I eat them.   Anyway with the leftovers I blended them and made these muffins.
http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2012/08/09/peach-pie-muffins-with-brown-butter-glaze/
 Emma said they were my best muffins ever, my second are the blueberry ones from Jamie Cooks it up.  So nice not having to buy the mixes from the store and the kids loved them as after school snack and in the lunch boxs or for breakfast.  

I also want to make this.  Looks easy and yummy, let you know when I do.  
http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/healthy-recipes/10-healthy-peanut-butter-recipes?page=2

Okay love you all!

Rachel

"Healthy" Chocolate Zucchini bread

So as I was finishing up the large loaf of chocolate zucchini bread that I made, yes- LAST NIGHT, I decided to post the recipe. I wanted to try and make a slightly healthier version of chocolate zucchini bread so when I ate a whole loaf in less than 24 hours I would feel 3 degrees less guilty. This is super duper moist and chocolatey! It looks a little less pretty than regular zucchini bread (the top cooks different) but it is still presentable and I think it tastes better. Really, I will never do the regular recipe again because I loved this one so much.

3 Eggs
1/4 Cup oil
3/4 Cup apple sauce
1 Cup sugar (you could go up to 2 cups if you want a sweeter bread)
1 Tablespoon vanilla
3 cups Whole wheet flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1 Cup dark cocoa powder
chocolate chips (you can decide how much you desire )

Mix together eggs, oil, apple sauce, and vanilla. Stir in sugar. In another bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and cocoa. Combine with wet ingrediants. Fold in zucchini and then the chocolate chips. Fill into greased loaf pans (I made 3, but you could do 2). Cook at 325 for 45-60 minutes.

Holy Goodness

I just made the most amazing, and EASY cinnamon rolls ever.  They seriously took only a little over an hour.  They were delicious too.  The recipe is from Our Best Bites.

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/06/everyday-cinnamon-rolls/

They have pretty pictures of theirs.  Mine got eaten too fast.

Lemon Cream Pie

K so I am the only one bored enough to keep posting on this but oh well! My sister made this a few days ago and it is super duper yummy. I am not a lemon fan. Seriously I cant think of one thing involving lemon that I like- except now this. It isn't too lemony so maybe that is why. The strawberries on top is optional but trust me... so very good! I think you could make your own crust and put it in a 9x13 pan and cut easy squares!

Lemon cream pie

2 graham cracker pie crusts
2 small boxes of INSTANT lemon pudding
1 c. powdered sugar
1 c. cool whip
4 oz. cream cheese
3 c. milk
strawberries and/or/ nuts for toppings

Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, and cool whip and put in bottom of two pie crusts.  Then mix lemaon pudding ixes and milk in a separate bowl and pour on top of crusts.  Let it set in the refridgerator until firm.  I put the remaining cool whip on top of the pies and top with strawberries and/or nuts. 

Plum and Peach Crisp/Cobbler

Kathy gave Danny and I a bag a plums from the tree out back and there was no way we could eat them all. I had never tried plum crisp before but I decided to try out a recipe for fun. We had a couple peaches too so I decided to do a plum and peach crisp/cobbler. Luckily, I found a healthier recipe and decided to try it since I would be loading ice cream on top of the crisp anyway. We brought it over to Kathy and Karl's when we had a "Hunger Games" movie night. Everyone really liked it! So I am making it again today or tomorrow because it was GONE by the end of the night! We even said we could eat it plain for breakfast because it is pretty healthy and delish. You could do this with a wide variety of fruits if you have them on hand- or even canned?

Fruit:
1 pound ripe peaches (I just cut up just one)
1 pound ripe plums  (I used about 10-12... just enough to fill the pan)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Crisp:
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
big pinch of salt
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup yogurt (you could leave out if you dont have any)
1/3 cup apple sauce

Preheat the oven to 400F degrees.

For the fruit layer: Mix together the sugar and cornstarch. Cut the peaches and plums into bite-sized, 1-inch pieces. I peeled the skins off so it was less tart in the end due to the low sugar content, however if you want to leave them on go for it.  Place the chopped fruit into the bowl with sugar and cornstarch and gently toss together. Place the fruit mix into an 8x8 baking dish.

To make the topping: Combine the oats, flour, sugar, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl. Stir in the butter until combined. Then mix in the yogurt and apple sauce until everything comes together in a "dough-like texture"  Mine ended up being pretty runny, like in between a brownie batter and cookie dough. Who knows what it should be like. Sprinkle the crumble evenly over the plum and peach mixture.

Place the baking dish in the oven, middle rack, and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the topping is golden. (The recipe said 20-25 mins, but mine took about 30-35) Sprinkle a bit more sugar on top as it comes out of the oven, or even some cinnamon sugar!

I highly reccomend eating it warm with vanilla ice cream. However, Kathy and Karl ate it chilled and with whipped cream and said it was good. So do what you feel is right.

Danny's Favorite Cookie

 I volunteered to make a bunch of cookies for a family party so I got to try a few new recipes! I tried the brownie batter cookies from pinterest- I like them a lot! But that is probably because brownies are my favorite thing on earth. I also made... wait for it... Oreo pudding cookies. Danny liked those ones the most and pleaded with me to make more. You have to like soft cookies to like them (I know some crazy people like crunchy cookies.. cringe). Below is the recipe, I didnt have any Cookies n Creme bars so I added a few more chocolate chips.

Oreo Pudding Cookies

Source: Sweet Treats And More

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 (4.2 ounce) package instant Oreo Pudding mix (see Note)
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Hershey's Cookies N Cream Candy Bars broken into small pieces (I used 2.6 ounce King Sized bars)
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Cream together butter and sugars. Beat in pudding mix until blended. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour mixture and mix to combine. Stir in cookies n' cream pieces and chocolate chips. Batter will be thick.

Using a cookie dough scooper, place golf ball sized dough balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. You do not want to overbake these! Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet before moving to a cooking rack. Store in air-tight container. Makes two dozen.

Hey Slackers!  No one ever posts anymore, but I seem to be oblivious to this and keep going.  Post something.  I'm bored.  Here is my latest project.  It's a little busy for my tatse, but it was fun.

Before: 

After:

Yummy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. 100 calories each. :)

These cookies are so good.  I made some and gave them to our neighbors and they both asked for the recipe.  They could just be nice, or the cookies could be that good.  I'll let you decide......

I got the original recipe at recipegirl.com.  I added my variations and came up with this:

Ingredients:

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed (I usually only use 1/2 cup)
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oatmeal
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate chips (I don't measure I just throw in however many I feel like)
I also dump in some flax seed meal. Between 1/4 and 1/2 cup.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease baking sheets (or line w/ parchment or silpat mats).

2. Place butter in a medium, microwave-safe bowl. Melt in microwave, just until completely melted. Remove from microwave and add brown sugar. Stir until smooth.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together oats, flours, baking soda & salt. Stir into butter sugar mixture along with egg, vanilla and dates. Fold in chopped chocolate and mix well.

4. Drop Tablespoonfuls of the cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until they appear to be set and not gooey in the middles.

Nutritional Information per serving:
Serving size: 1 cookie
Calories per serving: 99
Fat per serving: 2g
Fiber per serving: 1.25g
Protein per serving: 1.5g
Cholesterol per serving: 13mg
Carbohydrates per serving: 16.5g

WW POINTS per serving:
Points Plus Program: 2 Old Points Program: 2.5

Quinoa

I have been able to suppress my hippy side fairly well since I have been in PA.  But, I must confess, it's been raging lately.  I guess it's not really hippy so much as granola?  I don't know.  Anyway, I have been cooking with Quinoa a lot lately and I had to share it with you guys.  It's super easy to cook and it's really healthy.  It's a complete protien by itself so I try and use it on our "meatless" night meals.  Lately I have been adding it our beans when we make tacos or burritos and it's been really good.  It doesn't have much flavor and I use it like I would rice.  I even just cook it in my rice cooker.  I don't have a picture, so I got one from the internet because I like pictures.  Anyway, I will post some recipes that I've used it for soon.

So Simple. So Delish. PB Banana Bites.

So again, I got this idea from Pinterest. The other night Danny and I were talking about how much we were craving peanut butter and I remembered seeing this on Pinterest. I didn't follow the method on Pinterest, I just winged it.

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Banana Bites

Cut banana into bit size pieces. Spread peanut butter over top of each piece and set in freezer for 10 minutes. Melt chocolate in microwave. Use a knife or spatula to spread melted chocolate over frozen bites. You can dip them if you want but when I did the peanut butter melted. Let chocolate cool and enjoy!

Philly-Cheese Sandwiches

Super yummy and delicious

Ingredients:

1 Aju gravy packet

Roast beef (thin sliced)

Chopped onion (however much you like with your sandwich)

Chopped green pepper (also however much you like with your sandwich)

Cream Cheese

Swiss cheese

Deli Rolls

*flour

Turn oven to 350 degrees

Slice deli rolls, spread with cream cheese on the inside top, and bottom if you like, lay swiss cheese on top of the cream cheese, and set aside for a minute.

Mix Aju gravy directions on back of packet and add Sliced roast beef, let simmer on the stove top for a least 5 minutes.

While the gravy and meat are simmering, get the chopped green pepper and onion sweating in the fry pan, until onions are clear.

Spoon out the roast beef and a little bit of gravy into the skillet with the green peppers and onion, mix it all together on medium heat for 3-5 minutes. Place the rest of the gravy in little saucers for dipping sandwiches in.

 Spoon the mixture onto the non swiss cheese side of the roll and place in the oven for about 3-5 minutes, all you really need to do is melt the cheese and make the roll warm. Take out and enjoy!

*You can add flour in the skillet step with everything in it to make help the ingredients stick together a little better if you want, I usually don't add it though, and it turns out just fine.

Also, add a little bit more meat than you think you'll need, because it shrinks when your boil it, hence the not so much meat on the picture above.

Cake Batter Bars

Have I mentioned that I am addicted to Pinterest? Mostly because I find so many delicious recipes on there that I want to try. I saw a few different recipes for something called "Cake Batter Bars" and I finally decided to try the one that looked the most promising. They were very good for a dessert that did not incorporate any chocolate! They have a dense, brownie-like texture but taste like you are eating cake batter! So if you have an extra cake mix box around I recommend trying this! It says to use a funfetti cake mix, but I just used a yellow cake mix I had. Also, it says to do it in an 8x8 pan and I will definately be trying a 9x13 pan next time. They are very sweet and rich so I think a thinner bar would work better. This recipe doesn't say to using icing on the top, but all of the others I saw did, so I frosted them and I would recommend trying them that way too. Anyway, enjoy!

Cake Batter Bars

• 1 1/4 cup funfetti cake mix  (or yellow, or white)
• 3/4 cup AP flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 5 heaping tablespoons sprinkles of your choice (I used stars)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8 x 8 inch pan. (or bigger... your call)
2. Cream both sugars, butter, vanilla, egg, and egg yolk. 
3. Gradually mix in flour, cake mix, and baking soda until just mixed. Stir in sprinkles.
4. Spread batter evenly into greased pan.
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes until top is lightly browned and middle still jiggles slightly. Cool completely before cutting.

Navajo Fry Bread

Here comes a super healthy post....get ready.

These are SO delicious.  It's a little bit dangerous, because they are also super easy and quick to make.  So nights that I don't feel like making dinner, or I am short on time, these always come to mind.  I really do try to space out the time that we eat them though.

I got this recipe from http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/NavajoFryBread.htm

Navajo Fry Bread Recipe - Indian Fry Bread Recipeby Cynthia Detterick-Pineda

Fry bread is wonderfully lumpy (puffed here and there). It can be served as a dessert or used as a main dish bread. Our family will often take them and stuff them, much like one might use bread or tortilla to dip into their food. 

Recipe Type: Quick Bread, Native American
Yields: 4 servings 
Prep time: 15 min 
Cook time: 8 min 
 

Ingredients:

1 cup unbleached flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon powdered milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup water
Vegetable oil for frying
Extra flour to flour your hands

Preparation:

Sift together the flour, salt, powdered milk, and baking powder into a large bowl. Pour the water over the flour mixture all at once and stir the dough with a fork until it starts to form one big clump. 

Flour your hands well. Using your hands, begin to mix the dough, trying to get all the flour into the mixture to form a ball. You want to mix this well, but you do NOT want to knead it. Kneading it will make for a heavy Fry Bread when cooked. The inside of the dough ball should still be sticky after it is formed, while the outside will be well floured.

Cut the dough into four (4) pieces. Using your floured hands, shape, stretch, pat, and form a disk of about 5 to 7 inches in diameter. Don’t worry about it being round. As Grandma Felipa would say “it doesn’t roll into your mouth.” 

In a deep heavy pot, heat the vegetable oil to about 350 degrees F. You can check if you oil is hot enough by either dropping a small piece of dough in the hot oil and seeing if it begins to fry, or by dipping the end of a wooden spoon in and seeing if that bubbles. Your oil should be about 1-inch deep in a large cast-iron skilletor other large heavy pot. 

Take the formed dough and gently place it into the oil, being careful not to splatter the hot oil. Press down on the dough as it fries so the top is submersed into the hot oil. Fry until brown, and then flip to fry the other side. Each side will take approximately 3 to 4 minutes to cook.  Place the cooked Fry Bread on a paper towel to absorb excess oil.

Indian Fry Bread can be kept warm in a 200 degree F. oven for up to 1 hour. They refrigerate well and can be reheated in a 350 degree F. oven for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

***I don't have powdered milk, so I just add 1tsp. of real milk and add some extra flour.  I also don't follow the directions exactly, I just slop it all together until I can handle it pretty easily.  Ohhh, so good!

If I'm really on the ball we actually make navajo tacos out of these, but most the time we just put pb, or honey, or cinnamon and sugar, raspberry jam,  etc...... you get the idea. 

Stir-Fry

Chicken Stir-Fry

This was way easy and so delicious.

Ingredients:

1 Stir Fry Packet we got the sunbird kind cause it was the cheapest (which usually has you add 2Tbs of Soy sauce and 2tsp of sugar and a little water)

Cut veggies that you think your family will like

We did chicken, summer squash, carrots, green beans, and a tiny cut up red and green pepper. We used all fresh veggies, which is saying something for Jed. He does not like summer squash at all and I got him to eat this. 

Anyways

All you have to do is follow directions on the back of the packet. I messed up on one step though and added the sauce and veggies at the same time and it still worked out fine. (I also covered it with tin foil on a low simmer for a while to help stem the veggies.) I was just proud of myself that I made a good semi healthy meal for a change and wanted to share. It has a bunch of different ideas of the back of the packet as well.

Enjoy!

Homemade Broccoli Cheese Soup

After trying several different recipes this is the keeper, so yummy! Try it!

Homemade Broccoli Cheese Soup

1 large pot

1 cup chopped onion

1 large chopped carrot

1 stalk celery chopped

2 large stalks broccoli- stems cut separate from flowerets

3 cans of chicken broth

1 can of evaporated milk (or half & half)

1 large cube velveta (I use 2% milk one) or 2 cups of grated cheddar cheese

1 Tbs butter

1 Tbs flour

Spray pot with cooking spray and sauté onion, celery, carrots and broccoli stalks for 10 mins or so until they start to caramelize. Then add chicken broth and broccoli flowerets. Let it all boil until veggies are soft. In a frying pan, melt butter and add flour to make a roux, cook until it just starts to turn brown then add 1 cup broth from the soup pot, cook until thick stirring constantly and then repeat with 1 cup more broth, then dump all into soup pot. Add, cheese, cubed and one can evaporated milk to soup pot. Stir until cheese melts, bring to low boil so soup can thicken. (use the velveta, even though it sounds gross, but it works so much better and melts better and we’ve made it both ways and everyone loved the velveta one better!) Serve with rolls and salad! YUM!