Spaghetti Sauce November 17, 2009

I once commented to my friend, Heather, after making homemade spaghetti sauce for the first time that it wasn’t worth all the effort, and I was returning to bottle sauce. She replied that I needed her recipe!

And she was right!

This sauce is loaded with vegetables, and while it is a bit time-consuming to make, it is not at all difficult and it makes a lot, so you’ll have an extra meal or two to put away in the freezer. My kids eat this without a complaint, and I often don’t serve an additional vegetable with this because I just want them to eat the sauce!

Here is Heather’s recipe, with the couple of additions I’ve made to it:

1 lb lean ground beef (if you don’t eat beef, ground chicken or turkey will work fine in this)
1 medium-sized onion, chopped finely
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped finely or crushed
a handful of baby carrots, chopped finely (I think Heather uses whole carrots and shreds them)
1/2-1 zucchini, shredded (I use a whole zucchini or close to it)
OPTIONAL: fresh mushrooms, as many as you like, chopped finely (I know that Heather uses canned mushrooms, but I have a serious aversion to those, so I use fresh)
OPTIONAL: yellow, red or green pepper shredded (I don’t usually use this, but I think it would be good!)

Put all of this in a stock pot and cook until the beef is browned (chop the beef up while cooking so it’s in really small pieces). Drain well.

Add to the pot:
28 oz diced tomatoes (1 large or 2 regular-sized cans) – I run these through the food processor to take away the chunks, as my kids wouldn’t eat this if it was chunky
8 oz tomato sauce
12 oz tomato paste
1 cube beef boullion dissolved in 1/2 cup water or red wine (Heather uses a full cup in hers)
2 T fresh parsley (1 T should do if using dried)
1/2 T brown sugar (Heather uses a whole T; we prefers ours a little less sweet)
1 tsp Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

After you’ve added all the ingredients, simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keep the lid on because it may pop!

I freeze this into portions that our family will eat for dinner, and this time I also kept out a larger portion (probably 3-3.5 cups) and made lasagne with it and it was delicious!

Sometimes, You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs November 5, 2009

Meaning that I thought I’d be posting a recipe today for some lovely, delicious pumpkin cream cheese cupcakes.

But they were neither lovely nor delicious.

So. I’ve got nothing.

PS…Before today, I don’t know if I’ve ever baked something and immediately thrown it in the trash because it was so bad.

Vegetarian White Bean Soup with Quinoa November 2, 2009

I saw a recipe for White Bean Chili with Jalapeno Bulgur in Real Simple and thought it would be something that Matt and I would like, and I had nearly all the ingredients at home, so I decided to give it a try. When I told Matt that I’d found a recipe I thought he’d like (really, what doesn’t he like? God gave me the easiest man on the planet to cook for!) and that it was a meatless chili, he replied that he thought it would be tasteless. That sounded like a challenge to me. GAME ON.

I didn’t have bulgur wheat (I know…crazy! Who DOESN’T have bulgur wheat on hand?), so I substituted quinoa for it, since I just needed a protein-packed grain. Plus, I know we like quinoa.

Quinoa: 3/4 cup of quinoa, 1 1/2 cups water and 1 chicken bouillon cube. Put in saucepan, bring to a boil, reduce to simmering and cook approximately 15 minutes until water is absorbed.
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (er, the stuff in the bottle)
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
kosher salt and black pepper
1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped (I used 1/2 a green pepper and about a 1/4 of a red pepper since that’s what we had)
2 cloves garlic, chopped (I used Dorot frozen garlic…love this stuff for making soup! It’s found at Trader Joe’s.)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder (from my neighbor, because I was out)
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 15-ounce cans cannellini beans, rinsed (well, I didn’t have these either. But I used great Northern beans and it was fine! They said so here, which I looked up b/c I didn’t know the difference between cannellinis and great northerns.)

Stir the lemon juice, scallions, jalapeño, 1 tablespoon of the oil, and ¼ teaspoon pepper into the cooked quinoa.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a large saucepan or small stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook until tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, chili powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper and cook until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and their liquid and 1½ cups water to the onion mixture; bring to a boil. Add the beans and simmer until slightly thickened, 8 to 10 minutes. Divide the chili among bowls and top with a couple of big scoops of the quinoa.

I’d say this makes 4-5 servings. And it was really good; even Matt said he’d be happy if I made this again. It’s hearty and so healthy, but I really wouldn’t call it chili, since it’s not near as thick as regular chili. Give it a try!

Make Your Dinner More Interesting! October 27, 2009

Sorry for the lack of posting here…I’ve not cooked a thing in days due to rampant sickness in our house!

Tonight I pulled some Steak and Barley soup I’d made a few weeks ago out of the freezer for dinner. The kids don’t eat soup, so I was making them grilled cheese, and I suddenly remembered something I’d seen a while ago in a magazine.

I made an extra grilled cheese sandwich for Matt and me to split, except I used provolone cheese instead of American (really, any cheese will do, whatever you have on hand/prefer) and I seasoned the buttered part of the bread with a little garlic salt and onion salt. I cut the sandwich into little crouton-sized cubes and threw them in our soup. It was SO good!

Crockpot Chicken Parma Rosa October 15, 2009

I just tried Tiffany’s Parma Rosa chicken last week, and it was really good! I made it sans sundried tomatoes, since no one here is crazy about them (Matt and I will eat them, but the kids definitely won’t). This was the first time I’ve used the Knorr packet of Parma Rosa sauce mix, which, if you’re like me and unfamiliar with it, is just a creamy tomato sauce. When thinking back to my very early married days, I realized that Matt and I used to “make” this kind of pasta sometimes…since we ate a lot of pasta (what newly married couple doesn’t?) and usually used a jar of Alfredo sauce or a jar of Ragu to top it, I’d often mix the two together if there wasn’t enough of one to make dinner. Ta da! Parma Rosa!

Anyway.

All that to say that since even the kids ate the meal I made last week without complaint, I looked online for more recipes using the stuff. I found this one on RecipeZaar and made it today. Because my crockpot gets freakishly hot and really doesn’t so much have a low setting, this got done much quicker than I planned, thinking it’d be ready at dinnertime and it’s 3pm. But, I sampled the sauce and had a bite of chicken, and it’s good! Just making some whole-grain pasta tonight to serve this over, along with some leftover cornbread and some peas. Fingers crossed, the boys will eat this. It’s such an easy meal that even though it’s nothing earth-shatteringly good, it could become part of our regular rotation.

4 chicken breasts (I used a little over a pound)
8 ounces light sour cream
1 (10 ounce) can cream of chicken soup
1 (1 ounce) package parma rosa sauce mix (Knorr)
1/3-1/2 cup white wine (or you could use chicken broth or water, too)

Put everything except the chicken in the crockpot, and stir it together. Throw the chicken on top and cook on low for 6-8 hours (or 5 if your crock pot is anything like mine). Cut or shred the chicken, mix in with the sauce, and serve over any kind of pasta.

I read the reviews and many said they added things like sauteed onion and mushrooms to the sauce (Matt and I would like that but the kids wouldn’t), or served this over pasta and steamed broccoli, which I may do next time.

UPDATED TO ADD: we really liked it! Luke wasn’t a fan, even though he ate something very similar last week, but Bennett ate it well. I will definitely make it again, and when I do, I’ll use more white wine or broth – probably 3/4 cup. If you want it to be more like a mostaccioli consistency, leave it as is. However, after it sat for a bit in the fridge and had to be reheated for dinner, it was pretty thick when I put it on top of the pasta. I would have preferred that it actually be saucier.

Pumpkin Cookies October 3, 2009

I know, I know…more pumpkin??

These are really good, and it’s an old recipe of my mom’s. You’ve got to try these!

2 cups flour
1 cup uncooked oats (I use quick)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
1 cup softened butter or margarine (I used one stick of each the last time I made these, and they turned out great)
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup pumpkin
1 cup chocolate chips
Cream cheese frosting (you can make a really easy cream cheese frosting out of 16 oz of softened cream cheese and 2 cups of powdered sugar)

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease cookie sheets (very important…don’t forget this!)

Combine first 5 ingredients and set aside. Cream butter and sugars together, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Alternate dry ingredients and pumpkin, mixing well after each addition. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop ¼ cup* dough on greased cookie sheets. Bake 20-25 minutes until cookies are firm and are lightly browned. Cool on racks. Frost when cool.

*I make them significantly smaller than the recipe calls for, and bake them for a few minutes less. This makes 20 cookies if you make them as the recipe calls for (and they are HUGE).

Pumpkin Pie Bars September 29, 2009

Kraft does it again! I haven’t made these in a few years, but they are so, so good.

1-1/3 cups flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) cold butter or margarine
1 cup old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats, uncooked
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 pkg. (8 oz.) light cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin
1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice

Heat oven to 350°F. Line 13×9-inch pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides; grease foil. Mix flour, 1/4 granulated sugar and brown sugar in medium bowl; cut in butter with pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in oats and nuts.

Reserve 1 cup oat mixture; press remaining onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake 15 min. Beat cream cheese, remaining sugar, eggs, pumpkin and spice with mixer until well blended. Pour over crust; sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.

Bake 25 min.; cool 10 min. Use foil to transfer dessert from pan to wire rack; cool completely.

TIP: Kraft suggests this to make it easy to remove the bars from a pan:
Mold foil over bottom of pan leaving 3 inches extending over the short sides. Pop pre-formed molded foil into pan and crunch extended sides of foil to form handles. Use handles to lift baked item out of pan.

Minnesota Wild Rice Soup September 29, 2009

Soup again for supper! This time, since it wasn’t spicy, I had the kids eat it, too. They are NOT fans of soup at all, but they did at least eat some bites of chicken out of the soup, so it wasn’t a total loss. Matt and I thought this was really good; it’d be especially delicious in a soup bowl from Bread Co!

This recipe came from a Dierbergs’ (local grocer) seasonal recipe book, and I made a few changes but they were minor, but I’ll write this up the way I made it (I can’t find the original online to link to). The changes I made cut the fat by 11 grams per serving and the calories by 90 per serving. And, it makes 6 servings, by the way.

This recipe calls for cooked chicken, so I just threw it on the Foreman grill last night with some Lawry’s sprinkled on it and chopped it up into small bite-sized pieces. Also, there is bacon in this, which automatically means that it’s good. It is kind of annoying to have to cook bacon for something like this to me, so next time I’ll make this soup, I’ll menu-plan accordingly so that I’ve already cooked bacon for a meal and then just have some extra crumbled up (since we don’t eat bacon often, this is a good two-birds-one-stone kinda thing).

Minnesota Wild Rice Soup
5 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup wild rice (I used Reese brand)
1/2 cup sliced green onions (definitely use the whole amount)
6 Tbl. butter
1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp poultry seasoning (I don’t have any, and frankly, I don’t know what it is. But if you have it, use it!)
1/8 tsp (or a little more) ground black pepper
2 cups FAT FREE half-and-half
2 cups cubed, cooked chicken or turkey (she also mentions that you can use ham, but we don’t like ham here, so that will never happen)
6 slices bacon, diced and cooked crisp (if you want to garnish your soup, save a couple of Tbl; if not, use it all when it’s time)
3 Tbl dry cooking sherry

In a large saucepan, combine broth, rice, and green onions. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer stirring occasionally until rice is tender, about 45 minutes.

With about 5-10 minutes to go on the rice mixture, melt butter over medium-high heat. Whisk in flour, poultry seasoning, and pepper; cook until mixture is smooth and bubbly, about 2 minutes (this only took about 45 seconds when I was making it). Whisk in half-and-half; cook stirring frequently until mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. Stir into rice mixture. Add meat and sherry; simmer until heated through. Season with freshly ground black pepper.

Ladle into bowls. If desired, drizzle additional sherry over soup (I didn’t); sprinkle reserved bacon and pimiento and fresh parsley over top (I didn’t do that either, but it would look nice if you had company or something.)

Buffalo Chicken Soup September 28, 2009

I got this over at Sandy’s blog and HAD to give it a try, since Matt and I both love spicy stuff! It was really good, and a nice change from some of the regular chicken-broth-based soups I often make. I only made one small change: instead of sauteing the celery and chicken in the soup pan with 3 Tbl. of butter, I cooked them in a non-stick pan in about 1 Tbl of butter and then just transferred everything to the soup pot.

Buffalo Chicken Soup
1 Tbl butter
2 cups boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1 cup thinly chopped celery
1 8oz can tomato sauce
2 – 3 (14 1/2 oz) cans of chicken broth (Nicole’s note: I used 2 cans)
1/2 cup or to taste…Franks Hot Sauce* (or Buffalo Sauce) (Sandy’s note: We like it hot so we use 1/2 cup or more. Nicole’s note: see below.)
2-4 oz. crumbled bleu cheese
black pepper to taste
1 cup (or more) buttermilk (you can make buttermilk by pouring 1 Tbl vinegar into a measuring cup and filling it the rest of the way up to a cup with milk; let it sit a few minutes and it’s ready to go!)

1. Melt butter in a non-stick skillet. Add chopped celery and saute on medium for a few minutes.
2. Add chicken. Saute until cooked through. (Sandy’s note: I often put a little of the broth in at this time to keep from burning). Transfer everything to a stock pot.
3. Stir in tomato sauce, buffalo sauce and broth. Add black pepper to taste (usually about 1/4 teaspoon)
4. Simmer as long as you like (we usually let it go for an hour or so)
5. Turn up to Medium. Add 2-3 oz bleu cheese and the buttermilk (the buttermilk will tone down the hotness so add as much as you like)
6. Bring it back up to a simmer again, and serve!
7. Ladle into bowls – add more crumbled bleu cheese to taste. Garnish with celery sticks. (Oh yeah, I didn’t do this either…I hate raw celery.) Making this with two cans of broth, this made four good-sized servings.

*So, I was trying to save a few cents at the grocery, and bought a different brand of buffalo wing sauce. It was fine, but it was no Frank’s Buffalo Sauce, which is my favorite. If he’ll have me back, I’m going with Frank’s next time, and I recommend you do the same! I probably used close to 2/3 cup.

It’s Fall! September 24, 2009

Finally…fall is officially here! Which to me means two things in the kitchen: soup, and pumpkin stuff. Not together. Though there probably is a really good pumpkin soup recipe somewhere.

So check back often – there will be recipes added regularly over the next couple of weeks as I try a few new things! Sonya just added White Chicken Chili, which we tried last year and loved. And I just ate a (very) leftover-from-the-freezer bowl of Chipotle Chili yesterday which was delicious, freezer burn and all. We’re trying a new soup recipe tonight for dinner, and I can’t wait to have it simmering on the stove.

What is your favorite soup to make?