Tomato Soup

One more fantastic selection from my new cookbook Cooking Light - Soups and Stews Tonight (Melanie's Garden-Tomato Soup). I swear this cookbook has some of the most delicious recipes I've come across in quite a while - I highly recommend owning this one! Ok, nothing fancy behind this recipe - I just LOVE tomato soup so I thought I'd give this recipe a whirl and yet again, it's a keeper. It's super easy, super low maintenance, and only takes about a half hour from start to finish which is great at the end of a long day! Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano or basil
2 garlic cloves - minced
5 cups diced tomato
1 1/2 cups water
2 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsps sugar
1/4 tsps salt
1/4 tsps pepper
thinly sliced fresh basil
french baguette - optional, but not if you're Italian - it's required lol

Directions:
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until it starts to turn translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the oregano and stir so that it doesn't burn. Stir in the tomato, water, tomato paste, sugar, salt and pepper and stir so that nothing is sticking to the bottom of the saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil and then smash the tomatoes with a potato masher, or a food processor whichever you prefer. Cover the soup and let it simmer for a good 15 minutes. Serve it up with some warm french baguettes or with croutons - it's scrumptious!

Pictures:

 Onions, garlic, oregano...a.k.a. Italian heaven!

 Pre-simmer...

 Accompanied with fresh french baguette slices and a glass of Merlot - YES PLEASE!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies

This recipe is one that I found online at www.allrecipes.com. Wait, let me back up a second. I received an email stating that one of the moms in my 'mommy group' at the base here in Germany was in need of a hot meal. Her husband is deployed and she has two children at home and just needs a break this week. NO PROBLEM! Where do I sign up right?! So, after volunteering to make dinner for her family I realized that they had an egg allergy. Um ok, no problem for dinner but I had planned to bring over some brownies or cookies or something fun but now I felt kind of stuck. So I hopped online and found this recipe for an egg-free cookie with chocolate chips and pumpkin. It sounded festive and delicious so I went for it! Let me tell you it was so flippin good I found myself testing wayyy too much batter and possibly consuming about 3 cookies as they were supposed to be cooling on the wire rack in front of me. I just couldn't help myself, Zach came home and inhaled about 7 of them too so I didn't feel too bad. So - without anymore anecdotes - here they are...

Ingredients:

2 cups white sugar

1 cup shortening

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 F (190 C).

Cream the sugar, shortening, pumpkin and vanilla together. Mix until light and well combined.

Mix the flour, baking soda and ground cinnamon. Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture. Mix until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop by teaspoons onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake  for 12 to 15 minutes or until set. Let cookies cool on a rack.

Pictures:

This recipe literally made 80 + cookies!

French Toast Casserole

Well all you really need to know about this bad boy of a recipe is that it belongs to the fabulous Paula Deen. See, do I even need to tell you how amazing it is? NOPE you just KNOW that it is!!! It doesn't require 19 sticks of butter either so how bad can it be for you - ok well let's just not go that far - it is a Paula Deen recipe but it truly is delicious! It takes a good 12 hours to make because you have to prepare it the night before and let the bread absorb the egg mixture so just remember that! It's perfect for Christmas morning or a yummy Sunday breakfast! Ok, now I'm hungry - let's cook!

Ingredients:

1 loaf French bread (13 to 16 ounces) - I made my own but that was a lot of effort for something I could have just bought at the store - it's totally up to you

8 large eggs

2 cups half-and-half

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Dash salt

Maple syrup

Directions:

Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch each. Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9 by 13-inch flat baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a whisk until blended but not too bubbly. Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 350 F (175 C).

Bake for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. Serve with maple syrup.

Pictures:

 Before refrigeration.

 After resting in the egg-milk batter overnight.

 Smother it with maple syrup and serve it up hot! It is truly divine!

Parmesan-Corn Bread Muffins

Really - do I even need to write anything here. I read the name of these magical muffins and I didn't even need to read anything else - I KNEW I'd love them - and you know what? I DID! (Oh ps these are also from my new Cooking Light - Soups and Stews Tonight book!) Let's go...

Ingredients:
1 cup of all-purpose flour
2/3 cup of cornmeal - they said yellow, I used white, it didn't make a difference so use what you've got!
2 tbsp sugar
3 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsps salt
2/3 cup non-fat buttermilk
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 egg whites - lightly beaten
non-stick cooking spray
1/4 cup grated fresh parmesan cheese

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425 F (about 212 C). In a bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients above (flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt). Once combined, add the wet ingredients (buttermilk, oil, and egg whites). The consistency is similar to really fluffy pancake batter! Just spray the non-stick cooking spray in a muffin tin GENEROUSLY so that they don't stick and spoon a large tablespoon of batter into each muffin cup. You will have just enough to fill 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle the freshly grated parmesan cheese on top of the batter and pop it in the oven for 10 minutes - or until the muffins spring back with you touch them in the center. Remove them from the pan immediately and place them on a wire rack. Serve 'em HOT, they are fantastic!

Pictures:

White Chili

Wow! Alright so I just bought this new cookbook - Cooking Light: Soups & Stews Tonight - and I've just been drooling, I mean inspired, by practically everything in this book. It all looks fairly simple, incredibly flavorful, and HOT which is fantastic because it's about to snow any second here. Anyway so after flipping through the 200 or so pages in this book I decided that I just HAD to make this White Chili recipe for dinner Sunday. I will warn you that it definitely took me a good 2 hours to prepare so don't think this is going to be a quick dinner LOL but it IS worth the anticipation!!!

Ingredients:
2 tsps canola oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups chicken broth
2 tsps green hot pepper sauce (they recommend 5! but that's too much heat for me)
1/2 tsps kosher salt
1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts - cooked and cubed in 1" pieces (they said you can add this in raw but um, I just couldn't do it - your call!)
2 tbsp cornmeal
1 19oz can of cannellini beans
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 tbsp thinly sliced green onions (optional, to garnish with)

Directions:
In a Dutch oven, heat the oil over a medium heat. Once hot, add the onions and cook until almost translucent, then add the garlic - stirring occasionally. Add the broth, hot pepper sauce, salt, and chicken to the pan and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, cover and reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for a good 15 minutes. Add the cornmeal and beans to the mixture, stirring frequently, and let it simmer for another 15 minutes. (If you'd like a heartier chili you can mash some of the beans with a potato smasher or whatever you've got, but I left mine alone and it was perfect.) Serve it all up with a spoonful of plain yogurt and some cornbread muffins and devour!

Pictures:

 Pre-simmer...

 After simmering, ready to serve up!

YUM! With a spoonful of plain yogurt to cut the heat a bit and some delicious Parmesan Crusted Cornbread...ps go to the next post, you'll find that recipe there! ENJOY!

Country Fried Chicken

Well it's no secret that I've been cooking all kinds of warm dishes lately with the snow right around the corner and one of Zach's favorites is country fried steak and eggs. Well I am not normally in the mood for eggs and I uh, didn't have any steak, BUT it did inspire me to get creative with what I did have - which was chicken and veggies....So I decided on Country Fried Chicken with some chicken flavored gravy and some roasted vegetables and just went for it...honestly, it was freaking delightful, I practically inhaled every last bite. Oh who am I kidding...I DID inhale every last bite - it's worth making I swear!!! Let's go...

Ingredients:

Chicken:

4 tbsp olive oil

2 chicken breasts - tenderized quite thin

1 egg

1/4 cup of flour

1/4 cup of breadcrumbs

Gravy:

2 tbsp margarine

2 tbsp flour

1.5 cups of low fat milk

2 chicken bouillon cubes - crushed (or powdered)

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a frying pan heat the oil over medium high heat. While the pan is heating up, dredge the chicken in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs. Once the oil is piping hot, add the chicken breasts and cook on each side for about 3-4 minutes per side (or until golden brown). Set aside and whip up that gravy!

For the gravy, melt the butter and flour, blending the mixture until it turns a golden brown and has no lumps at all - about 5 minutes or so. Once the mixture is golden, whisk in the milk and continue to whisk until the mixture is fully blended. Bring the mixture to a low boil and add the chicken bouillon cubes (crushed - don't plop a full cube in here you'll never be able to break it all up!) Stir frequently and add salt and pepper to taste. Once the gravy is to the consistency that you like pour it generously over the breaded chicken breasts and devour!

Like I said above, my efforts to be somewhat healthy were to roast vegetables on the side but you can totally do whatever sounds good to you. If I were being completely honest, mashed potatoes sounded ideal but that's not so carb-friendly so I opted for something different but if you're not counting calories - DO IT!

Pictures:

Lesson #1, don't let your husband fool around with your camera 

because he will turn the flash off and not tell you!

It was incredibly delicious though, despite the 'grayness' of it - boo for no flash Zachary!

 

Chimichangas and Faux-Spanish Rice

Alright, so my sister made burritos and Spanish rice the other day for my parents and ever since I have been craving it! Of course I had to modify to make it somewhat healthy so that I didn't have to spend 3.5 hours on the treadmill in exchange for the caloric intake but it turned out really flavorful and quite delicious! I will tell you that the chimichanga recipe is all my mom - she used to make these when we were growing up and they were always one of my fave's - nice job mom! haha of course they quickly became one of Zach's favorites too and so it was a win-win. The Faux-Spanish rice was kind of an invention but it turned out really yummy - so yay for creativity!!! Enough talk already I know...let's cook...

Ingredients:

Faux-Spanish Rice

2 tbsp of diced onions - finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

1 cup of rice

1 1/3 cup of chicken broth

2/3 can of petite diced tomatoes (14 oz can)

Chimichanga

non-stick cooking spray

2 tbsp of diced onions - finely chopped

1 lb of ground beef

6 small low-carb wheat tortillas

1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

Low fat sour cream

Directions:

Rice: In a medium sauce pan heat the oil on medium heat and saute the onion until it's golden brown. Add the rice and lightly brown the rice, stirring frequently so that it doesn't burn. Once the rice is nicely browned, add the chicken broth and tomatoes. Reduce the heat to low and stir occasionally for approximately 20 minutes, or until the rice is cooked thoroughly. That's it - super simple!

Chimichangas: In a large frying pan, generously coat the pan with non-stick cooking spray over medium high heat. Add the onions and cook for about 3-4 minutes, or until the onions start to turn translucent. Once the onions start to cook add in the ground beef and cook until it is nicely browned. Remove the beef and onion mixture and set aside. Spray the pan again with non-stick cooking spray and let it heat up for a minute or two. On a separate dish place about 2-3 spoonfuls of the beef and onion mixture onto a tortilla, add a small handful of cheddar cheese, roll into a cute little burrito and place the open side face down in the hot pan. Cook for about 3 minutes or so and then flip the chimichanga onto the other side for about 2-3 minutes. It should be golden brown when it's ready and have a delightful crispy outside. I added a spoonful of low fat sour cream onto my dish and then devoured the two together - fantastic!!!

Pictures:

Yes, these 3 were all mine and I ate every last bite of them!