Tasty Tuesdays: Corn Chowder

This is good stuff.  And it's easy.  Ready?  You will need:

1. 6 ears fresh corn or 3 cups frozen whole kernel corn (I used frozen)
2. Medium chopped onion
3. Medium chopped green sweet pepper
4. 1tbsp cooking oil
5. 14 oz can chicken broth
6. Medium cubed and peeled potato
7. 2 tbsp flour
8. 1/2 tsp salt
9. 1/2 tsp black pepper
10. 1 1/2 c milk
11. 4 slices bacon
12. snipped parsley for garnish (I didn't have any)

This recipe is adapted from a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (just like the last Tasty Tuesday soup).  

• Chop the bacon and fry it until it is crispy.  I suppose you could also just buy bacon bits if you are in a time crunch.  They would still be delicious.
• In large saucepan, cook onion, sweet pepper, salt, and pepper in oil until onion is tender.  Stir in corn, broth, and potato.  Bring to boiling; reduce heat.  Simmer, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes.
• In small bowl, stir flour and milk until blended.  Add this to the corn mixture in the saucepan.  Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.  Cook and stir 1 minute more.  Add bacon, heat through.  If desired, garnish with parsley.

My bowl

Josh's bowl

We both agreed that this is soup we will make again.  We also both agreed it was not super exciting.  The flavors were good, though.  It does mention in the cookbook that you can make it a "corn and crab chowder" but just eliminating the bacon and in step 3, after cooking for 1 minute, stir in a 6 oz can of crab meat.  I seriously considered this but couldn't find a can of crab meat less than 16 ounces... and none of them were on sale.  But now that I know we like the soup, I will probably wait for the crab to go on sale and double or triple the soup recipe so we can freeze some and pull it out on a busy day in the winter.  It would also be super delicious to use fresh corn, but it simply wasn't the right time of year.  Maybe next summer.

Tasty Tuesdays: White Chicken Chili

Fall is my favorite season.  I love to cook soup in the fall.  This is my favorite soup to cook and it's SO easy.  I originally got this recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, but I have made some changes since.

This is by far one of the easiest dinners I have ever made.  This is what you need:

• 3 15 oz cans of cannellini (white kidney beans)
• about 2 1/2 c chopped cooked chicken (I always have frozen chopped cooked chicken because I buy it in bulk when its on super sale, then boil and chop it for later.  So I just pulled out 2 sandwich-bags-worth)
• large onion, chopped
• green, red, yellow, and orange peppers; chopped
• 3 jalapenos, chopped (sometimes I seed them, sometimes not)
• 2 serrano peppers (sometimes I seed them, sometimes not)
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon salt
• a lot of chicken broth (this time I used about 46 oz)
• shredded cheese for topping

I typically make this as a slow cooker recipe and let it cook on low all day.  Since I don't feel like chopping tons of peppers and onions at 6am, I do that the night before and put them in the fridge.

In the tupperware are the chopped yellow, red, green, and orange peppers.  I love using tons of colorful peppers in recipes, as you probably know by now.  In two of the sandwich bags: chopped, cooked chicken.  In another: a large chopped onion.  In the last: the chopped jalapeno and serrano peppers.  This time I didn't seed any of them and it was SPICY!  But we loved it.  If we do seed the peppers, then we typically top the chili with hot sauce.  

Next, I got the rest of the stuff ready for the morning.

The crock pot is ready, the cookbook is opened to the right page, I have all of the ingredients set out and even the can opener, garlic press, and measuring spoons.  Can you tell I'm not a morning person?

The next morning, I drained the beans, added them, the broth, the spices, and everything else EXCEPT the green, yellow, red, and orange peppers.  We don't like soft peppers.  We like them to still have a bit of a crunch to them.  On this particular day, I wasn't going to be home until about 7:45pm.  So I added everything else and turned in on low.  When Josh got home around 5pm, he added the peppers.  So they only cooked for about 3 hours in there, leaving them fresh.

And that's what I smelled when I got home. mmmmmmm......

I love how it's so colorful.  And spicy.  And healthy.  And it reminds me of my favorite season.

We added some shredded cheese on top, gave it a minute to melt a little, and dug in.  We have also been known to crush up some tortilla chips and sprinkle those on, too.  Yeah, sooooo good.

Tasty Tuesdays: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

a la Rachael Ray.  So easy.  And frikin' delicious.  I just HAD to share.  You will need:

• 1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, 1 stick melted, 1/2 stick softened
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
• 1 cup canned pure pumpkin puree
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon plus 2 pinches salt
• 1-2/3 cups flour
• 4 ounces cream cheese, chilled
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 
  
• 1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter and brown sugar until smooth. Whisk in the eggs, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, 1 teaspoon vanilla, the baking powder, the baking soda and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour.
  3. Using an ice cream scoop or tablespoon, drop 12 generous mounds of batter, spaced evenly, onto each baking sheet. Bake until springy to the touch, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.
     
     

     
  4. Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, cream the softened butter with the cream cheese. Add the confectioners' sugar and the remaining 2 pinches salt and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla; mix on low speed until blended, then beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
  5. Spread the flat side of 12 cakes with the cream cheese frosting. Top each with another cake.
     
     

     

     
     

     I was worried because I have never made any kind of whoopie pies before.  I was afraid that they wouldn't be fluffy.  But they are!  And I will be the first person to admit that I am not much of a baker.  And I rarely make desserts, so I don't have much experience.  But these turned out lovely and I will be making them again.

     
     

     

     
     

     And Josh informed me that it is imperative to eat a warm one.  So put that in your books.

     
     

     

     
     

Tasty Tuesdays: Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

***Tasty Tuesdays is for sharing a meal/dessert/snack recipe that you made this week.  It doesn't have to be gourmet!  It just has to taste good! If you want to link up, let me know and I will link you to my Tuesday posts.  Use this^ button to link back to my page!  

First of all, let me say that fall is my favorite season.  Soup and pasta are my favorite foods.  Soup and pasta are perfect in fall.  Therefore, I will probably be sharing lots of fall-ish recipes.  I found this one in a Family Circle magazine, ripped it out, and forgot about it.  I found it and decided to give it a go.  We ended up really liking it!

1. Gather ingredients:

3 cans chicken broth 

4 cups water

2 boxes of Rice-A-Roni wild rice (should have used wild rice, not rice a roni, but I didn't have any)

1 med onion

some celery

some carrots (we LOVE carrots, so I used a lot)

about 2 chicken breasts cooked and shredded (when I buy chicken breast in bulk, I cook and shred it all, then freeze it for later)

poultry seasoning

salt and pepper

 

2. Sprinkle about 1 c of wild rice into pot.  Add the medium onion, chopped.  Add carrots, peeled and chopped. Add celery, chopped. (I used about two ribs of celery--Josh doesn't really like it)

3. Add chicken, chicken broth, and water.

4.  Add 2 tsp poultry seasoning, 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.

5.  Simmer until rice is cooked.  

I missed a crucial ingredient: the water.  DOH!  It was not soupy at all, but still really good.  Next time, I will use the water :-)  You could also add mushrooms or any other vegetable that you like in your soup.  I usually cut up some celery leaves to put on top, too!

Tasty Tuesdays: New Orleans Style Shrimp

***Tasty Tuesdays is for sharing a meal/dessert/snack recipe that you made this week.  It doesn't have to be gourmet!  It just has to taste good! If you want to link up, let me know and I will link you to my Tuesday posts.  Use this^ button to link back to my page!  

The week before our friends' wedding, we had them over for dinner every night!  And I tried new recipes each time.  Most were great, some were good.  We really liked this take on "New Orleans Shrimp".  I found this recipe from the May 2011 issue of the Food Network Magazine.

 

You will need:

24 lg shrimp in the shell

1 tbsp Creole seasoning (I used Zatarain's)

6 tbsp butter

2 bunches scallions, chopped

1/4 c Worcestershire sauce

1 c frozen corn kernels ( I used a can)

2 plum tomatoes

French Bread

 

1. Peel the shrimp, leaving tails on.  Reserve the shells.  Rinse the shrimp in a colander; drain and pat dry.  Sprinkle with the creole seasoning.  I have found something that I truly hate.  That is peeling raw shrimp.  EWW.

Shells---also gross.

2. Heat 2 tbsp butter in lg skillet over high heat.  Add shrimp shells and half of scallions.  Cook until the shells turn pink (1-2 min).  Add Worcestershire sauce and 1 1/2 c water and cook until reduced by half, about 5 min.

 3. Strain the shrimp broth through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl, discard the solids.  I didn't have a fine-mesh strainer, but I used a paper towel and squeezed the liquid through it.

4. Melt remaining 4 tbsp butter in skillet over high heat.  Add shrimp and remaining scallions.  Cook until the shrimp turn pink, about 1 minute.  Add reserved shrimp broth and simmer about 3 more min.

 

4. Meanwhile, put corn in bowl and microwave until hot.  Cut tomato into chunks.  Divide corn and tomato among bowls.  Add shrimp and ladle in the broth.  Serve with bread.  I used toasted french bread.

Tasty Tuesdays: Beef Stir Fry

***Tasty Tuesdays is for sharing a meal/dessert/snack recipe that you made this week.  It doesn't have to be gourmet!  It just has to taste good! If you want to link up, let me know and I will link you to my Tuesday posts.  Use this^ button to link back to my page!  

This is one of my go-to dinners.  Except one problem: I couldn't find my recipe!  I haven't made this since before we moved so I am guessing that it got lost in the move.  Well, I still made it because I had the stuff and I generally remembered the recipe.  Plus, I have always appreciated cooks who make up recipes and don't use exact measurements.  I think cooking is much more like an art form that way.

So, I gathered the ingredients that I had:

I typically go with the regular generic frozen "stir fry medley" veggies, but that includes pepper and onion, which I already had (as you can see).  So I got this one instead:

And I am really glad I did because the broccoli, snap peas, and carrots were very tasty, fresh, and crunchy!  Josh and I are not huge fans of water chestnuts, so we were glad when there were only a few of them.  I also typically get some real thin slices of some kind of beef and then cut them into strips, but a few weeks ago, Josh and I had ribeyes for dinner and we didn't finish them.  So we cut them up and froze them for later.  I whipped those out and had free beef!

So, first I made the marinade.  I chopped half of a vidalia onion, added 1/2c soy sauce, 1/2c water, 3 tbsp sugar, and about 2 cloves of garlic, pressed.  Then I added the beef and let that sit while I started on everything else.

Ewww.  It looks gross.

I started the rice.  When it comes to having rice in my house, I don't go cheap.  I full-heartedly believe that couponing and buying generic brands are important for a family on a budget.  However, everyone has a few things that they simply need to have a brand name for.  For instance, Josh needs brand name cereal and Jif peanut butter.  I have even tried to sneak in generic cereal by purchasing the ones that most visibly resemble the name brand, pouring the cereal into a Tupperware thing (which we do anyway), and getting rid of the box.  He takes one bite and he knows.  He will not eat it. And my things are: Mahatma Basmati rice, Saran Wrap brand plastic wrap, and Sabra hummus.

Anyway, I have tried making rice in my steamer and it never really seemed to work.  I like it dry and sticky, like Chinese food rice, for this dish, so I went with the old stove top method.  I made a cup of rice.  It's quite a lot for two people, but I usually overdo this dish because we both like to take leftovers to school for lunch.

Rice simmering.

I have found that it works best when you simmer it on the lowest possible setting.  I do not touch it at all until the time is up (I definitely use a timer for this one--just whatever the recommendation is on the package), and then I fluff it with a fork just before serving it.

While the rice is simmering, I added the frozen veggies to a pan with some olive oil to warm those up a bit while I cut the other vegetables.

I sliced red pepper, orange pepper, the other half of my onion, and some leftover asparagus from another dish.  I actually just realized that I have been sharing Tasty Tuesdays for 3 weeks now and in every recipe I use peppers.  Yeah, I like 'em.  I also used to just use half of an onion in this dish, but I specifically remember Josh requesting more onion last time, so I did that.

Then I added the fresh veggies to the warmed frozen ones, added a bit more olive oil, some salt and pepper, and sauteed them up!

oooohhh... how pretty and colorful!

While they were all getting cooked, I put the marinade and beef into a pot and brought it to a boil, then combined it all together.  We love that the vegetables are still crunchy...

And the best part: leftovers!!!

***On a side note, if I had not had the leftover cooked steak and would have started with raw beef, I would have done it a little different.  I would have marinaded the raw beef, then added the beef to a pan and browned it, then added the sauce back in and boiled it for quite some time before adding the vegetables.  I usually boil it for a while it the sauce/marinade is soaking raw meat so that I kill all of the bacteria.  I am pretty paranoid about this, so I have been known to have it at a rolling boil for at least 8-10 minutes.  Obviously, that's not necessary.  But it doesn't hurt anything, right?

Tasty Tuesdays: Pasta Primavera

***Tasty Tuesdays is for sharing a meal/dessert/snack recipe that you made this week.  It doesn't have to be gourmet!  It just has to taste good! If you want to link up, let me know and I will link you to my Tuesday posts.  Use this^ button to link back to my page!  

Last night I made a version of pasta primavera.  I usually find recipes that look good and then alter them a bit.  This time it was completely inspired by all of the colorful veggies I had in the fridge.  I gathered my ingredients.

I decided on an onion, left over red pepper, orange pepper, zucchini, and asparagas.  I used thin spaghetti (usually the only kind I buy).  I always feel bad eating regular pasta, but don't like wheat as much, so I buy one box of each and mix them together.  I feel a bit healthier that way.  I also didn't have any garlic (BOO!) so I used garlic powder.  Not the same.  If I make this again, I will definitely make sure I have a clove of garlic.  Actually, I usually do.  Just not today.

I also think that peas, corn, carrots, mushrooms, or broccoli would go good in this meal, too.  

I started the boiling water. I usually add a TON of salt (I might die from that later, but it's soooo good!)  I also added a bit of olive oil.  It's not something I typically do when boiling pasta, but since I knew the sauce tonight was basically just oil anyway, I figured it couldn't hurt.  

I sliced the onion really thin and sauteed that with butter, salt, pepper, and a bit of olive oil for a few minutes.  Then I added very thin sliced peppers for a few minutes and then added the zuchinni and asparagus and garlic powder.  The only reason for this order is that we like soft onion, kind-of-soft cooked peppers with a little bit of crunch, and kind-of-crunchy fresh asparagus and zucchini.  (Who likes squishy zucchini? eww).  But you could definitely add them in whatever order suits you.

ooohhh how colorful and healthy!

At exactly the same time (yeah for great in-the-kitchen timing!), the pasta was ready.  I strained it in my tiny plastic baby strainer and mixed it all up in the big pan with some more olive oil and a bit more butter.  

baby strainer.

I also served it with a new wine we found that is actually very good for a $10 bottle of wine.  Red Rock Pinot Noir:

I added a bit of grated Parmesan and was happy with the flavor combination.  But Josh wanted a bit more, so he put a little Italian dressing on his.  We are so different.

I loved that it was pretty healthy and I loved all of the colorful veggies mixed up in there.  This is a go-to meal when you have lots of vegetables in the refrigerator that you don't want to go bad.  And I always have pasta, olive oil, onions, and Parmesan on hand.  And it was super easy and only took about 20 minutes.

Happy Tuesday!

Tasty Tuesdays Premiere: Lazy Man's Stuffed Peppers

Well, Lizz, here it is!

***Tasty Tuesdays is for sharing a meal/dessert/snack recipe that you made this week.  It doesn't have to be gourmet!  It just has to taste good! If you want to link up, let me know and I will link you to my Tuesday posts.  Use this^ button to link back to my page!  

The first Tasty Tuesday post I will do is super simple.  Actually, most of the meals that I make us (me and hubby) are pretty simple.  I am not one for spending the whole day in the kitchen.  Although occasionally I do get the urge to make a more complex dinner.  This dinner was inspired by a recipe I found in Better Homes and Gardens.  Josh typically does not like stuffed peppers. I'm not exactly sure why he doesn't.  The worst part about cooking for us is that we have completely different tastes.  Most people would say that Josh is not a picky eater, but compared to me, he is.  I literally like everything and will try everything (except raw oysters).  But everything else, yep.  I have tried it and I like it.  It's probably one of the only aspects of my everyday life where I am diverse and risky.  

Anyway, I found the article in Better Homes and Gardens and the "stuffing" inside the pepper was made of ground chicken, herb stuffing, tomatoes, and celery, which was instead of the usual ground beef or sausage, rice, tomatoes, etc.  So I got thinking... hmmmm.  Josh likes peppers, he likes stuffing, he likes chicken.  I've got it!

Instead of herb stuffing, I bought chicken.  I used the leftover fried chicken from our The Red Roost dinner.  I just cut that up into chunks.  Josh doesn't like tomatoes or celery, so I didn't use those.  Here are my ingredients:

First, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees.  We decided on one yellow pepper and one green pepper.  I diced up half an onion and sauteed that.  I microwaved one tbsp of butter and 1 cup of water for one minute.  Then I added one cup of chicken stuffing mix and microwaved that for another minute.  Then I added the leftover sauteed onion.  Last, I cut the tops off the peppers and cored them:

I didn't want any of the chicken, so I added half of the stuffing mixture into my pepper, mixed the chicken in, then added that into Josh's pepper.  I replaced the tops of the peppers and put them inside a loaf pan so they wouldn't be wobbling around.

I placed them in the oven just like that for 50 minutes.  Then I took them out, added some shredded cheese (who doesn't like cheese?!) and put them back in on broil for about 5 minutes, uncovered.  They came out like this:

I also reheated some of the leftover broccoli from Josh's mom's dinner at The Red Roost and added that.  

It turned out pretty good and I can honestly say that Josh liked the stuffed peppers.  I know he was dreading it, but it wasn't so bad and it was a piece of cake to make.  Not to mention, it was a cheap-o dinner.  I bought the peppers for around $1.50, the cheese was only a few sprinkles from a large $2 bag, leftover chicken and broccoli ($0), the stuffing was about $1.50, but I only used a third of it and half an onion was probably around $.30.  So all in all, I would say that this dinner cost us around $3 tops.  Not bad, huh? 

Have a beautiful Tasty Tuesday!