Week #21 - Chicken Noodle Soup and Corn Casserole

This was supposed to be Turkey Noodle Soup, but I could not find turkey meat for soup without buying a whole turkey. I made this for my family's Thanksgiving lunch but I used chicken instead. I used this recipe from myrecipes.com.

Ingredients

• Cooking spray 
• 1 cup (1/4-inch-thick) slices carrot 
• 3/4 cup chopped onion 
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup (1/4-inch-thick) slices celery 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 
• 6 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth 
• 2 cups (3 ounces) uncooked egg noodles
• 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cups shredded turkey (about 8 ounces)
• Coarsely ground black pepper (optional) 

Preparation

• Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add carrot, onion, and garlic; sauté 5 minutes or until onion is lightly browned. Add celery, salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; sauté 3 minutes. Add broth and next 3 ingredients (through bay leaf); bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Add shredded turkey; cook 3 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Sprinkle with coarsely ground black pepper, if desired.

It turned out really good, and everyone was impressed by my cooking.

Rating: 4.5/5


I also made corn casserole. I originally got the recipe from my friend, but I lost it, so I looked up another one online. I found this one on cooks.com.

  1 can whole kernel yellow corn, undrained

1 can cream style yellow corn
1 (8 oz.) carton sour cream
2 eggs, beaten
1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix
1 stick butter, melted

Mix all together and pour into large, lightly oiled casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes.

 

It's on the plate in the back.

At first I thought it turned out not sweet enough, but once I had some more it was really good.

Pumpkin Bread

Today is a day for cooking and baking! I am on fall break so I made swamp soup today, and I also had a craving for pumpkin bread. I found this recipe at Allrecipes.com.

Ingredients

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. 

Yummy! Perfect for a cold, rainy day!

Cinnamon Sugar Crescent Rolls

Tonight I wanted something for desert, but I didn't have any ice cream in the freezer. But I did have a roll of crescent rolls, so I decided to make cinnamon sugar crescent rolls. All you do is open up each crescent roll, coat it in cinnamon and sugar, roll it up, and bake it according to the directions. Yum!

Beef Stroganoff

Beef stroganoff is one of my favorite recipes to make. It's really easy and tastes great. I'm not sure where I learned how to make this but I have been making it for years. I approximated amounts, but I just throw stuff in.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onions
2-3 cups egg noodles
1-1.5 cups reduced fat sour cream (depends how creamy you want it)
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tbsp mustard
2 small cans mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Prepare egg noodles according to package directions.
2. Saute onions and brown ground beef together.
3. When beef is done, add sour cream, ketchup, mustard, and mushrooms. Mix it up and let heat through.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve over noodles or mix together with noodles.

Rating: 4/5

Creamy Italian Chicken and Rice

Tonight for dinner I wanted to use a container of Philadelphia Italian Cheese and Herb Cooking Creme that I bought on sale and with a coupon. So I looked up recipes for it on the Philly website. I found this recipe, and Ken mentioned wanting risotto, so I modified a bit and used rice instead of orzo pasta.

Ingredients

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

1 small zucchini, chopped

1 tub (10 oz.)PHILADELPHIA Italian Cheese and Herb Cooking Creme

1/2 cup chopped tomatoes

2 cups hot cooked orzo pasta (I subbed basmati rice)

I also added mushrooms.

 

Directions

1. Cook chicken and zucchini in large nonstick skillet on medium heat 6 to 7 min. or until chicken is done.
2. Add cooking creme and tomatoes; cook and stir 2 min.
3. Serve over pasta. 

I cooked my rice in my rice cooker, and I chopped my veggies with my new Pampered Chef manual food processor. The rice came out a little dry, but maybe I didn't use enough water. I never use it and I just looked up how much water to use online. I also mixed the rice into the sauce at the end so it would be more like risotto.

This was ok, it didn't thrill me. But it was pretty easy and did not require a lot of ingredients. I would use less rice next time, and maybe add more veggies.

Rating:  2/5


P.S.  Look for my next soup post written by a surprise guest blogger. :)

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

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

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!