Recipes

Spicy Taco Cheese Soup

~ lk529 ~ 2 Comments

Over the past year or so my husband has gotten into adventure racing. Last year the obsession was Tough Mudder, and he even got me to join in one. (To watch the epic youtube video click here!) He completed his first (another video) with friends from work Nov 2011 and proceeded to do 3 more solo runs in addition to the one I did with him!

This year the thing is adventure racing. He does these events with the same friends who did the first Tough Mudder. There’s even a blog, Team Disoriented, that narrates their training, racing, and other related activities – you should check it out!

Last weekend they did a big training day biking for 32 miles after working on their canoeing skills for an hour. I offered to have dinner for them when they returned. I’ve been given a lot of slack for not attending their races as a spectator – especially when one team at their last event had a group of supporters who made them grilled chicken!

I knew that they’d be exhausted, sore, and cold by the time they finished so I decided to serve them something warm and filling. Additionally, I was working on a baby quilt so decided to take advantage of my trusty slow cooker. I have a CrockPot® cookbook and decided to take a look through that. I found a recipe by Kimberly Taflinger that sounded good. I changed some things and made it my own – the result was a thick, warm, spicy soup. I was drawn to this recipe because it closely resembled my Award Winning Chili. The leftovers were just as good in my lunch too. I recommend adding Fritos as a complimentary crunch factor to this soup, although Tostidos work perfectly well too.

An Original Recipe

 Spicy Taco Cheese Soup

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 lb ground beef, cooked and drained
  • 1 lb processed cheese, cubed
  • 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with green chilies
  • 1 can (14.5 oz) sliced stewed tomatoes
  • 1 can (15 oz) corn, drained
  • 1 can (15 oz) dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 2 1/2 C chicken broth
  • 1 jalapeno
  • 1/4 C taco seasoning (or 1 pkt)

Steps:

  1. Place all ingredients, cut slits in the jalapeno and leave whole, in the slow cooker.
  2. Cover and cook on LOW 4-5 hours.

Taco Cheese Soup

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Slow Cooker Lemon Chicken

Aside ~ ~ lk529 ~ 2 Comments

Chicken and Hummus Pita

My mother-in-law was visiting a couple of weekends ago for a “sew-cation” so I planned the weekend menu in advance to stay organized. Knowing she loves chicken thighs, this recipe was sure to be a hit. The fact that it’s a slow cooker dish is an extra bonus when we want to maximize sewing time and minimize kitchen time.

Additionally, the recipe calls for 12 chicken thighs.  Normally I’d halve a recipe of this quantity but it provided extra chicken which I used for the best pizza ever the next night. And for lunch the next day we enjoyed pita pockets with hummus, chicken, banana peppers, olives, and cheese while sitting on the back porch in the sun.

I served the chicken with another Roland product I got from Food Blog South, Roasted Garlic Israeli Couscous. Rice or orzo would be other great side options.

Slow Cooker Lemon Chicken

Ingredients:

  • 12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 2 tbsp olive oil, divided use
  • 1 lemon, sliced
  • juice of one lemon
  • 1 C chicken broth
  • 1/4 C flour
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 3/4 C pitted green olives

Steps:

  1. Season both sides of chicken with S+P. In a large, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat sear thighs in olive oil – about three minutes per side. Unless your skillet is massive, this will need to be accomplished in two batches.
  2. Transfer chicken to slow cooker. Add lemon slices and olives.
  3. Whisk together broth, lemon juice, flour, and cumin. Pour over chicken.
  4. Cook on LOW 6 hours.

*This recipe is adapted from emeals at http://blog.emeals.com/slow-cooker-clean-eating-meal-plan-lemon-chicken-thighs-with-olives-recipe/*

Slow Cooker Lemon Chicken

Strawberry Poppy Seed Dressing

~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

It’s always fun to see what people come up with during the Crazy Ingredient Challenge. I’ve pinned a few recipes but I’ve never made someone else’s CIC recipe.

Until now.

For this month’s Mustard and Strawberries challenge I had considered doing a salad with strawberries and honey mustard dressing, but that wasn’t creative. It never occurred to me to make a dressing! Pure genius. And pure deliciousness.

 

Strawberry Poppy Seed Dressing

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 C (5-7) fresh strawberries, stems removed and cut in half
  • zest and juice of 1 clementine
  • 2-3 tbsp honey
  • 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
  • 1/3 C extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1 1/2 tsp poppy seeds

Steps:

  1. In a food processor combine strawberries, clementine juice/zest, honey, and mustard until smooth. With the machine running stream in olive oil. Season with S+P to taste, if desired.
  2. Remove the blade from the food processor and stir in poppy seeds.

*This recipe is adapted from Cindy at http://www.hunwhatsfordinner.com/2014/02/strawberry-poppy-seed-dressing-crazy.html?m=1*

Strawberry Poppy Seed Dressing

Strawberry Balsamic Pizza

~ lk529 ~ 2 Comments

Earlier this month a Publix opened up across from our neighborhood. I absolutely love Publix. Growing up in Southwest Florida it was pretty much the only grocery destination – sure we had Walmart, an Albertson’s, which I don’t even think exists anymore, and Sweet Bay. Every Sunday after church we’d go to the grocery store. (I am not looking forward to moving away from the land of the Publix.)

Grocery shopping is not my favorite thing. Despite my efforts to remain organized I always manage to miss something and have to back track throughout the store. But, now that I have a Publix within walking distance I use the Publix App on my phone. Not only can I browse the circular to find what’s on sale this week, but I can create my grocery list. Yes, Winn-Dixie and other grocery apps have the same ability, but Publix – the place “where shopping is a pleasure” – has surpassed customer service in the app alone. When you input your specific store, it’ll tell you what aisle that item is in. Not just “baking” but “aisle 9”. It might just be the best thing since sliced bread.

I apologize greatly for my Publix add, but there is a point! I used pre-made pizza dough from the Publix bakery instead of making my own. And it is delicious. Almost every grocery store does offer dough in their bakery, so don’t fret if you don’t live in the land of Publix. (Other alternatives include making your own, refrigerated pizza dough, or even the dry pizza dough usually hanging on an end cap in the store with pepperoni.)

Another benefit of living in Florida is that I can still find beautiful, ripe, Grown in Florida Strawberries at the store. I hadn’t thought strawberries to be in season, but Winter Strawberries are harvested between November and March. I swear, these are more beautiful than the ones I get in July. So, again, I apologize if you cannot find fresh strawberries in your local area – pin this recipe and save it for the summer. I promise you it’s worth it!

This pizza rivals any that you find at a gourmet pizza shop, and although you can roll your dough to your desired thickness, a thicker crust works beautiful with this masterpiece. Stuart questioned this dish – he thought strawberries on a pizza would be weird. But they complement the chicken and bacon and the cilantro provides a note of lightness. He pointed out, and I agree, that mint would also work well here (if you happened to have that instead).

Strawberry Balsamic Pizza

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 C balsamic vinegar
  • 1/4 C strawberry jam
  • 1 tsp sriracha
  • cornmeal, for pizza peal
  • 1 ball pizza dough, rolled out to approximately 14″
  • 1 C diced, cooked chicken
  • 3 strips, cooked thick-cut bacon, diced
  • 1/4 red onion, finely diced
  • 2 C shredded Italian blend cheese
  • 4 large fresh strawberries, diced
  • fresh cilantro (or mint), for garnish

Steps:

  1. Place pizza stone in oven and preheat to 475 degrees F.
  2. In a small saucepan bring balsamic vinegar to a boil, reduce to a simmer for 4 minutes. Add in jam and sriracha. Toss chicken with 2 tbsp of sauce and set the remainder aside.
  3. Sprinkle cornmeal onto a pizza peal, if you don’t have a a pizza peal an edge-less cookie sheet works well too.  Place dough on peal.
  4. Top dough with balsamic sauce, leaving a 1″ crust. Top with chicken, 3/4 of the cheese, then the bacon and onion. Top this layer with the remaining cheese.
  5. Bake for 10 minutes.
  6. Garnish with fresh strawberries and cilantro (or mint). Allow pizza to cool a few minutes before slicing.

*This recipe is adapted from Chris at http://www.thecafesucrefarine.com/2011/07/strawberry-balsamic-pizza-with-chicken.html*

Strawberry Balsamic Pizza 1 Strawberry Balsamic Pizza 2

Cilantro Lime Chicken

~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

Today’s edition of Mexican Monday requires prep on Sunday, even though it’s a slow cooker dish! But that’s also what makes it perfect for your Monday, whether you follow my Mexican Monday Menu plan or not. The chicken needs to marinate over night, but in the morning all you have to do is drop it into the slow cooker – no chopping, no measuring!

I found this recipe on a Pinterest post of Paleo Slow Cooker Recipes. Although we don’t follow the Paleo diet trend in this house, I may have some readers who do. Or maybe I’ll get new readers from it! 😉 If you’re looking for new Paleo inspired recipes, check out Jason’s blog, Paleo Pot. 

But because we don’t follow Paleo, I served this chicken with Rice and Beans! 

Cilantro Lime Chicken

Ingredients:

  • 1 5-6 lb whole chicken
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 3/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne
  • 1 tbsp chili powder
  • 1 whole lime
  • juice of 2 limes
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 bunch fresh cilantro
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

Steps:

  1. Mix together pepper, salt, cumin, cayenne, and chili powder. 
  2. Dry chicken and rub spice mixture over entire chicken.
  3. Poke holes in the whole lime and rub with spice mixture. Place in chicken cavity.
  4. In a food processor (I actually used the single serve unit for my Ninja blender, a Magic Bullet would work great too!) combine lime juice, garlic, cilantro, and olive oil.
  5. Place chicken in a large resealable plastic bag with the marinade. Marinate over night.
  6. Put chicken, breast side up, in slow cooker with the marinade. Cook on LOW 5-6 hours.

*This recipe is modified from Jason at http://paleopot.com/2013/01/chili-cilantro-lime-chicken/*

Image

CIC: Mustard & Strawberries

~ lk529 ~ 12 Comments

CIC-header

It’s that time of month for another Crazy Ingredient Challenge.  With the business of the holidays I sat out during December and January and I’m glad to be back this month.

This month we were assigned Mustard and Strawberries. The challenge is to combine sweet strawberries with vinegary mustard. I decided to be liberal with the mustard ingredient and use honey mustard. Stuart wondered if strawberries could be pickled in a way to compliment yellow mustard. But I liked my idea better.

I present to you Strawberry Pretzels with Sweetened Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce.

I chose to follow Hannah’s recipe for pretzels because I could completely connect with her blog post. The trick was adding in strawberries. I was really nervous about this part. You can’t just fold them at the end of the dough making process like you would pancakes or cookies, so I added them during the kneading process and hoped for the best. I tried researching how to add fruit to pretzels and found absolutely nothing. So I tried looking for adding chocolate chips to pretzels, again nothing. I think I’m starting a trend here!!

How to pretzel

Strawberry Pretzels with Sweetened Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

Ingredients for Pretzels:

  • 1 (1 oz) packet  active dry yeast
  • 1 tsp sugar in the raw pure cane sugar
  • 1 1/4 C warm water
  • 2 1/2 C bread flour
  • 1/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 2/3 C finely chopped strawberries
  • 3 tbsp butter, melted, divided use

Ingredients for Sweetened Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce:

  • 1/4 C honey mustard
  • 1/2 tsp white sugar
  • heaping 1/4 tsp honey

Steps:

  1. In the bottom of a stand mixer gently stir together yeast, sugar, and warm water.  Let stand 5 minutes.
  2. Add 1 1/2 C of flour to the yeast begin to stir with the dough hook attachment on low speed. Add 1/3 C of strawberries and stir. Add salt, remaining flour and strawberries. Mix until the dough comes together around the hook.
  3. Cover and let dough rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
  4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
  5. Punch dough and transfer it onto a floured surface, divide into six equal parts. (I think you could even get 8 pretzels if you wanted!) Roll dough into a long snake and shape into a pretzel – do this by making a heart and twisting the ends. (see photos above)
  6. Place pretzels on parchment lined cookie sheet. Brush with 2 tbsp melted butter and bake 10 minutes.
  7. Turn on broiler and bake another 1-5 minutes until golden brown. Keep an eye on them, the timing will depend on your oven. Brush with remaining 1 tbsp butter and sprinkle with kosher salt.
  8. Make dipping sauce by whisking all three ingredients. Serve with pretzels.

Strawberry Pretzels

To see the other bloggers who participated in this month’s Crazy Ingredient Challenge click on the link below.

Lasagna Roll Ups

~ lk529 ~ 4 Comments

Lasagna is always a crowd-pleaser. It’s perfect for family dinners and gatherings among friends.

I developed a taste for lasagna in college. My roommate and I would whip up a lasagna for dinner and have leftovers to get us through the busy week. She introduced me to no-boil noodles and they’ve changed the lasagna world for the better!

My recipe for lasagna uses spinach, turkey, onions, and bell peppers. And a combination of mozzarella and ricotta cheeses.

Lasagna Roll Ups 2If you want to elevate your lasagna to fancy presentation status, try these lasagna rolls! Instead of taking advantage of the no-boil noodles, these need to be boiled until they are pliable, a little harder than al dente so as to prevent them from breaking when you roll them.  Because the noodles still get baked they’ll be cooked through by the time you break into them.

We had friends over for dinner when I made these, and their youngest announced that it’s better than pizza. It’s his favorite thing that’s like pizza. (aka we have cheese and tomato sauce) I will take that as a very big compliment.

I took Judy’s suggestion and mixed two different pasta sauces – vodka and marinara. The result? A tastes-like-homemade pasta sauce.

Lasagna Roll Ups

Lasagna Roll Ups

Ingredients:

  • 8 lasagna noodles
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 lb ground turkey
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 (10 oz) package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
  • 1 (15 oz) container ricotta cheese
  • 1 1/2 C shredded Italian blend cheese
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 jar, 26 oz pasta sauce
  • 1/2 C shredded mozzarella

Steps:

  1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook noodles 7-8 minutes, drain and set aside.
  2. In a large, non-stick skillet over medium-high heat saute onion in olive oil. When onions are translucent add garlic, cook for 30 seconds. Add the ground turkey, season with S+P, and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, 10 minutes or until cooked through. Drain any fat and set aside
  3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  4. In a large bowl combine spinach, ricotta, Italian blend cheese. Season to taste with S+P.  Mix in ground turkey. Add the egg and mix.
  5. Pour about 1/2 of the pasta sauce in the bottom of a 9×13″ casserole dish.
  6.  Place 1/3 – 1/2 C of lasagna filling onto each noodle and roll. Place lasagna roll ups seam side down in prepared casserole dish. Top with remaining pasta sauce and mozzarella.
  7. Bake covered for 35 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. A knife should go through a roll without resistance.

*This recipe is modified from Judy at http://www.bakeatmidnite.com/2013/11/cheesy-lasagna-rolls.html*

Lasagna Roll Ups

Protein Packed Southwestern Salad

~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

I am keeping with my healthy kick of Mexican Monday (previous weeks included Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers and Turkey Lettuce Wraps) with a double duty Mexican Monday & Salad Night.

It’s been way too long since my last salad post – and unfortunately that also indicates it’s been way too long since our last salad night! Stuart has been looking for healthier meals lately, and after eating this Southwestern Salad he was completely satisfied.

The dressing for the salad is made with Greek yogurt. If you’ve paid attention, or know me, you realize that I have a great dislike for Greek yogurt. But I do try and give it another chance every now and then. I was prepared to revert to bottled salad dressing, but I’m happy to state that I loved the creamy cilantro vinaigrette!

I added chicken to the salad so we’re getting 3 sources of protein: the Greek yogurt in the dressing, chicken, and black beans! I promise this is no rabbit food.

Protein Packed Southwestern Salad

Ingredients for the chicken:

  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken tenders (you can also cut up 1 breast into strips)
  • 3/4 tsp Adobo seasoning
  • 1 tsp Ancho chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp Kosher salt
  • 1 tbsp olive oil, divided use
  • 1 head iceberg lettuce
  • 1/2 C canned corn, drained
  • 1/2 C canned black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 on-the-vine tomato, chopped and seeds removed
  • 1 avocado, chopped
  • crispy tortilla strips, for topping

Ingredients for the dressing:

  • 1/2 C Greek yogurt
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 1 C fresh cilantro
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
  • salt, to taste

Steps:

  1. In a small bowl combine adobo seasoning, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Season both sides of chicken with spice mixture (you will have some left over).
  2. In a medium skillet heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook chicken 4-5 minutes on each side, until cooked through.
  3. In a food processor combine all dressing ingredients.
  4. Assemble salad with lettuce, corn, beans, tomato, avocado, and chicken. Toss with as much dressing as you like. Top with tortilla strips.

*This recipe is adapted from Chung-Ah at http://damndelicious.net/2014/01/10/southwestern-chopped-salad-cilantro-lime-dressing/*

Protein Packed Southwestern Salad 1 Protein Packed Southwestern Salad 2 Protein Packed Southwestern Salad 3

Chocolate Chip Cookies

~ lk529 ~ 2 Comments

On Tuesday nights I partake in a bowling league. Collectively, we are not the best team, but we do know how to have fun! Our team “uniform” are Hawaiian shirts, last year we made tie-dye shirts!

If you’re at all familiar with bowling, you may have heard the term “beer frame” thrown around. A beer frame is when all members except one bowl a strike in the same frame. That singleton is then responsible for buying a pitcher of beer for the group.

Instead of beer frames, we do cookie frames. And I fell on the sword, so the next week I was charged with bringing in cookies. My evening for cookie bringing was the same evening of the ice storm so I actually got an extra week to prepare. It’s a good thing too because the cookies I tried making that Monday night were a complete fail. I was following a recipe for heart cookies out of a massive cookie cookbook. Something about this recipe was off – the “dough” ended up as more “sand”. So I scrapped the idea and made Rice Krispie Treats instead. Much to my husband’s dismay those treats never left the house.

So this week I had to try again. I opted instead to follow a supposedly fool proof recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies. This recipe actually comes from the sonographer at my doctor’s office. She has it memorized and jotted it down for me when my husband informed her of my previous cookie fail. She says she’s put many variations on the recipe using nuts, coconut, etc.

When it comes to cookies, chocolate chips are not my favorite. I lean towards thin crispy cookies, like my Busia’s oatmeal lace cookies that I haven’t even attempted and my mom has mastered. These cookies were enjoyably addicting – I think it’s the salt in the batter! By the time I got around to photographing these there were only 5 left!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

  • 2 sticks butter, room temperature
  • 1 C sugar
  • 1 C brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 C flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 bag chocolate chips

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In the bottom of a stand mixer cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until combined.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture in 3 batches.
  4. Fold in chocolate chips.
  5. Drop tablespoon-sized dollops of batter onto a greased cookie sheet. This recipe made 3 dozen cookies.
  6. Bake 10-14 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli

~ lk529 ~ 2 Comments

For my first Valentine’s Day as a blogger I bring you the first dish I ever made for Stuart.

On our 1 year anniversary back in college I made him dinner. I was living in the dorms and my roommate with a car helped me get to the grocery store and to his apartment so that I could surprise him with dinner. I made ravioli, Caesar salad, and an apple crisp for dessert.

Everything turned out great – except the apple crisp. The salad was one of the prepackaged options from the store, so I couldn’t go wrong there. The ravioli came from a book, Teens Cook: How to Cook What You Want to Eat, that I was gifted before attending college. I think the apple crisp recipe came from that book as well, but I don’t remember. Oh, everything turned out fine and Stuart and his roommates ate it. But I was “forced” to use I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter in place of real butter because apparently I was wrong to assume boys kept real butter in the fridge. Let me tell you, I could believe it wasn’t real butter and that not-real butter taste was only accented once baked in the crumble topping.

But I digress. This post is supposed to be about ravioli, not my abhorrence to fake butter.

For the blog I decided to try making heart shaped ravioli. And it worked!

Won ton wrappers are used in place of fresh pasta which makes it a super simple meal. Typically I’d use one sheet of won ton wrapper and fold it over, but when you’re cutting hearts out of it you need to use two sheets per raviolo. (I think that’s the singular to ravioli… eh, it sounds fun anyway!) The amount of filling you place inside each heart will depend on the size of your cookie cutter – you need to make sure you can seal the ravioli so the filling doesn’t escape while boiling.

Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli

Ingredients:

  • 15 oz ricotta cheese
  • 1 C julienned fresh spinach
  • 1/2 C shredded Italian blend cheese (or Parmesan)
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1 pkg (12 oz) won ton wrappers (these can be found in the refrigerated area of the produce section)*
  • your favorite pasta sauce

*You will need two packages if making heart shaped ravioli

Steps:

  1. In a bowl combine cheeses and spinach. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  2. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil while assembling the ravioli.
  3. If making heart shaped ravioli, use a cookie cutter to cut hearts out of each won ton wrapper. Place about 1/4 tsp of filling in the center of the heart. Dip your finger in water and run along the edge of the heart. Place a second heart on top and seal shut.
  4. If not making heart shaped ravioli, place about 1/2-1 tsp of filling in the center of each wrapper. Dip your finger in water and run along all four sides of the wrapper. Fold into a triangle and seal.
  5. Boil the ravioli in batches of 8-10 to avoid them breaking apart. Boil 3-4 minutes, or until they float. They will become slightly translucent.
  6. Heat your favorite pasta sauce and serve with ravioli. Garnish with freshly grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese if desired.

Hearts Ravioli 1 Heart Ravioli 2

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