Chicken Spaghetti

I cleaned out my cabinet last week and discovered I had several boxes of spaghetti. I wanted to use my spaghetti but we were tired of pasta with tomato sauce. I also had left over chicken from my chicken noodle soup. So what I found was chicken spaghetti, the perfect solution. I found a couple of recipes, but this one from allrecipes.com seemed to have the best reviews.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces uncooked spaghetti
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
• 2 celery ribs, chopped
• 4 tablespoons butter or margarine, divided
• 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
• 1 (4 ounce) can mushroom stems and pieces, drained
• 2 1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
• 5 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

I had all the ingredients except the soup, mushrooms, cheese, and bread crumbs. I thought I had bacon, but my husband ate the rest of it for lunch, so I just omitted it. I forgot to buy shredded cheese when I went to the store, so I ended up chopping up about 6 slices of cheese.

Directions

1. Cook spaghetti according to package directions; drain. In a small skillet, saute the onion, green pepper and celery in 2 tablespoons butter until tender. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the soup, mushrooms, spaghetti, chicken and cheese; toss to coat. 
2. Transfer to a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and bacon; dot with remaining butter. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until heated through. 

This recipe was pretty easy to make and turned out well, although fairly plain. It was also easy to modify. I will definitely make this recipe again, and maybe try the bacon crumbles on top.

Rating: 3.5/5

Bean $ Bacon Soup - Next Day

I had the rest of my bean and bacon soup for lunch today. Unfortunately, it only made enough for three large bowls, which is not much compared to other soups I have made. This soup tasted about the same the second time around, still very good.

Week #3 - Bean & Bacon Soup with Corn Bread

So, why am I turning on my stove and oven when it's 79 degrees in my house with air conditioning? I guess I'm just crazy. But I had to make my soup for the week, and I haven't been brave enough to consider cold soups, so I had to make do with the heat. This week, my husband requested bean and bacon soup. I looked online, and most soups want you to use dry beans which you have to soak. I decided I was too impatient for that, so I googled "fast bean and bacon soup." I came up with this recipe from RealSimple.com:

Ingredients

• 4 strips bacon
• 1 large carrot, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 2 stalks celery, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 15 1/2-ounce cans great Northern beans, drained
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• kosher salt and black pepper

Directions

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Let cool, then break into pieces.
2. Return the saucepan to medium heat, add the carrot to the pan drippings, and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add the celery, onion, and garlic, stirring well and cooking for 3 minutes more.
4. Add the beans and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Let simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Uncover and, with a potato masher or large slotted spoon, partially mash the bean mixture until it thickens slightly.
6. Stir in the parsley, 1 ¼ teaspoons salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, and bacon

 

 I had all the ingredients already except carrots, bacon, and beans. I decided extra bacon is always good, so I added 2 more strips. I also added an extra carrot. I didn't drain the beans, in fact I used the cans to add the water so all the bean-y liquid would get into the soup. I also added an extra cup of water and a chicken bullion cube.

 I think this soup came out great. It didn't need any extra salt or pepper. In fact, some of the reviews said that it was too salty, but I thought it was just right. I'm glad I added the extra bacon. I think next time I would double this recipe because it didn't yield as much as other soups I have made.

Rating: 4.5/5


As you can see in the picture, I decided to try my hand at homemade corn bread because I thought it would go well with the soup. I had all the ingredients for the recipe I found on allrecipes.com:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). In a small bowl, combine cornmeal and milk; let stand for 5 minutes. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix in the cornmeal mixture, eggs and oil until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cornbread comes out clean.

I made this pretty much exactly the way the recipe said to. It took 30 minutes to bake perfectly. I was impressed with the way it stayed together and wasn't too crumbly, and it was pleasantly moist for corn bread. It was a tad bland; I wish there was either a little more sugar or a little more salt, but it was right in between. I would make this again and probably try a bit more sugar. That could ruin the baking chemistry, but I would try it anyway.

Rating: 4/5

Rocky Road Fudge

So, this is not a soup, nor is it a food that particularly goes with soup. So what's it doing on this blog? I am going to start blogging about other new and exciting foods that I (try to) make at home.  I found the recipe for Rocky Road Fudge on Budget Bytes, a blog about making good, low cost food. Here is the recipe from Budget Bytes:

Total Recipe cost: $7.28
Servings Per Recipe: 16
Cost per serving: $0.46
Prep time: 5 min. Cook time: 5 min. Cool Time: 1-3 hrs Total: 10 min. plus cooling

INGREDIENTS		COST
3 cups (18 oz.)	chocolate chips	$4.02
1 (14 oz.) can	sweetened condensed milk	$1.77
1/4 tsp	salt	$0.02
1 cup	unsalted peanuts	$0.84
1.5 cups	mini marshmallows	$0.63
TOTAL		$7.28

STEP 1: Prepare an 8x8 baking dish by lining with foil or parchment paper. If you have a hard time lining the sides with parchment, just cut a piece to fit the bottom and then coat the sides with non-stick spray.

STEP 2: In a large pot, combine the chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and salt. Turn the heat on to the lowest setting and melt the ingredients together while continuously stirring. Use a heavy bottomed pot and stir constantly to prevent scorching. Heat and stir until the mixture is completely smooth.

STEP 3: Stir in the peanuts and marshmallows. The peanuts and marshmallows will make the temperature of the fudge drop quickly so it may look slightly gritty. Just continue to stir over low heat until it smoothes out again.

STEP 4: Spread the mixture out into the prepared baking dish and refrigerate until it is completely cold. Remove the fudge from the dish and cut into 16 squares with a sharp knife. Enjoy!

This dessert was super easy to make and came out great. It tastes really good, and it's pretty rich, which means I will only eat a little at a time. I used lightly salted peanuts instead of unsalted because I thought the salt would be a nice contrast to the chocolate, and I was right. Definitely give this one a try.

Rating: 4.5/5

Chicken Noodle Soup - Next Day

So, I had my chicken noodle soup again for lunch, and it is even better the next day! I have to improve my rating to a 4/5 for next day consumption.

Week #2 - Chicken Noodle Soup

Well, it's only the second week into my soup foray, but I felt confident enough in myself to kind of make up my own recipe. A bit ambitious for a beginner cook? Maybe a little, but it turned out very nicely I think. I don't normally go for chicken noodle soup because I think it's kind of boring. However, it is a good basic to know how to make, and I had a bunch of egg noodles left over, so I decided that I would try it.

I looked at several recipes online for this, but I ended up basing my soup on Jean's Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup from allrecipes.com. I also went to a local farmers market to look for ingredients, and figured I would just add whatever veggies they had that looked good (for those of you in Indy, I went to the Trader Point Creamery Farmers Market). The ingredients I got from the farmers market were:

Pic courtesy Traders Point Creamery

carrots
onions
shitake mushrooms
kale
dried ginger root powder






I talked to my mother-in-law, who is a great cook, and she suggested that I boil a whole chicken instead of just chicken breasts like I had planned to get a better flavor, so I tried that. What I found was that my chicken cutting skills are sub-par. The chicken looked pretty mutilated, but I got the meat off, so that's what counts, right? I saved about half the chicken to freeze, shredded the rest with a fork, and added it back to the strained water that I boiled it in (about 10 cups of water I think?). I also added about 5 chicken bullion cubes.

I cut up my veggies, excluding the kale, and including some celery I had left over. All cut up together, it ended up being about a cup and a half of veggies. I added some spices that I had. The online recipe suggested ginger, which is why I got the ginger powder. I also added some rosemary, salt, pepper, a little bit of chili powder, and some Chef Paul's Poultry Magic seasoning. How much? I don't know, I just kept adding stuff until it tasted good. I then added about 2/3 bag of egg noodles. After the noodles cooked, I added the kale, and let it simmer for a little while.

Pic courtesy of My Dining Room :)

I think my soup turned out great for as much messing with it as I did. It's still a bit boring to me, but I think that's just the nature of chicken noodle soup. I was pretty happy with my seasoning, and only had to add a little salt after I started eating it. I was also happy with my random farmers market additions, and that my cooking intuition is getting better with things like that. I don't know that I would make this soup very often, just because it's not my favorite kind, but I'll keep it in mind next time my husband or I get sick.  :)

Rating: 3/5

Homemade Pretzels

I made some homemade pretzels from a mix I got at an Amish store near French Lick, IN. The company is Dutch Country Soft Pretzels. They are so yummy with my left-over red potato soup!

Week #1 - Red Potato Soup

Hey everybody! Thanks for visiting my new blog. Like it says above, I love soup, all different kinds of soup. However, I rarely make soup because the few times I have tried it has not gone too well. Either I don't season well, or I burn it. But today I was making a soup recipe that I found on allrecipes.com because I had some leftover red potatoes, and decided that I needed to start trying to cook more soups. And thus, this blog was born! Hopefully I can really keep it up.

So this week's soup was Red Potato Soup. Like I said, I had some red potatoes left over that I wanted to use, so I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. I had all the ingredients for this soup except for chicken broth and seasoning salt.

Ingredients:

8 red potatoes, cubed 1 onion, chopped 1 (49.5 fluid ounce) can chicken broth 1/2 cup margarine 2 tablespoons celery seed

1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 1/2 teaspoons seasoning salt 8 cups milk

I bought chicken broth, but I forgot seasoning salt, and since I am not a great cook, I looked up what I could substitute for it on garvick.com. I ended up throwing in some paprika, dry mustard, and oregano instead.  Directions: 1. In a large saucepan over high heat combine the potatoes, onion, broth, butter or margarine, celery seed, garlic powder, ground black pepper, onion powder and seasoning salt. 2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low. Simmer for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Add the milk, heat through and serve. This soup was easy to make, and pretty fast. I learned that I should have taken some of the reviewers advice and made a roux because the soup was waterier than I would have liked. I did decrease the milk, as was suggested in the reviews. I also added some celery since I had some left over, and I figured what soup couldn't use celery? I thought it tasted really good even though it was a bit watery. I added some shredded cheddar cheese on top, and had some French bread to go with it. I would definitely make this soup again with some of the above changes.  Rating: 4/5 stars