Baked Potato Soup

Because it's freezing and raining outside when it's supposed to be SPRING, I made a last minute decision that I had to make Baked Potato Soup for dinner.  I didn't have every necessary ingredient to have the Southern Living Baked Potato Soup that I usually make, so I improvised with what I had.  It turned out great.  But what isn't great when served with cheese and bacon?!

1 (1 lb. 8 oz) bag of baby yukon gold potatoes
1 white onion
1/2 cup diced carrots
3 cloves chopped garlic
5 slices bacon
1 tablespoon flour
2 cups of grated cheddar cheese
salt and pepper
milk and chicken stock

"Bake" the potatoes in the microwave for 5 minutes, or until tender.  Meanwhile, cut up the bacon and cook in a dutch oven until crispy.  Remove bacon from pan and drain off some of the oil (if you want to).  Saute the onions and carrots for about 5 minutes in the bacon drippings, until soft.  Add the garlic and cook for a minute more.  Chop up the cooked potatoes and add to the pan (I didn't peel them), add salt and pepper, and stir.  Add a tablespoon of flour to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes.  Add half milk and half chicken stock to cover and bring to a boil.  Once it's all thickened up, puree in the food processor (or use an immersion blender) until smooth.  Add it all back to the dutch oven and add more milk until it's as thick as you like it.  Add a cup of cheese, let it melt, and then serve the soup with grated cheese and the bacon from earlier.   Sour cream would have been great, too, but I didn't have any..

Stir Fry Beef with Peppers

I was planning to cook something completely different for dinner, but this Pioneer Woman recipe jumped out at me as I was scanning my google reader this morning.  I had to make a special trip to the store for the beef, and had to figure out what to substitute for sherry (red wine vinegar),  but it was so worth it.  I also threw in some of those haricot verts and left out the red pepper flakes.  Anyway, make this for dinner.

I'll let you read PW's recipe, because it's perfectly detailed with pictures. 

Lemon Tilapia with Roasted Haricot Verts

Ohh la la, right?  Haricot verts.   Here's how you say it in Franch, y'all:  \ˌär-ē-kō-ˈver\. 

They're just green beans,  but they are skinnier and more flavorful than regular green beans and you don't have to trim the ends (bonus!).  Love them!

Roasted Haricot Verts
Drizzle beans with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Roast on cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes at 450.
Lemon Tilapia
Sprinkle salt and pepper on dry tilapia fillets.  Cook on high heat in nonstick skillet until brown on one side (2-3 minutes), flip, and cook for a minute or so more.  Remove fish from pan, turn off heat, add 1 tablespoon of salted butter and the juice of a lemon to the skillet.  I also added some chives from my "garden".  Pour sauce over tilapia.

By the way, my kids even ate this meal! Yes, I told Beta and the Baby that it was chicken, but the point is that they liked it!

Creamy Rotisserie Chicken Salad

John wasn't home for dinner and I'm still EXHAUSTED from our spring break trip to Disney World, so I had a no-cook dinner.   The kids ate the rotisserie chicken as well, but with carrots and ranch dip.

Creamy Rotisserie Chicken Salad

Sams rotisserie chicken
Homemade Ranch Dressing (thinned with buttermilk)
salad greens
salt and pepper
I probably could have added carrots, peppers, nuts, or something else to make it prettier, but I was just too darn tired. It was really good as is. 


Here's my menu for the week:
Sunday- breakfast tacos
Monday- creamy rotisserie chicken salad
Tuesday- tilapia, green beans, quinoa (maybe)
Wednesday- chicken, potatoes, green beans
Thursday-grilled mahi mahi sandwiches
Friday-Chicken Berry Salad
Saturday- out to dinner

Fruit Salad and Quick Breakfast Tacos

I got some beautiful blackberries at Sams, but they were so tart! So I made a fruit salad to sweeten them up a bit.

Fruit Salad (I can't see those words without thinking about the Wiggles.  The Blue Wiggle is my favorite. Yep, I have a favorite.)

fruit
Greek yogurt
lemon juice
honey

I used 1/2 cup of yogurt, 2 tablespoons of honey, and the juice of half a lemon.  I poured the "dressing" over the strawberries, blackberries, and pineapple.  Excellent.





Breakfast Tacos
When I want to get all complicated with breakfast burritos, I make them like Pioneer Woman.  But on a Sunday night when I have a mountain of laundry, hungry kids, and a bit of a headache, this is how I do it.  It's always a winner, and using only a little bacon it makes them slightly more healthy.  These proportions make 7 tacos in our house.

3 slices of bacon
10 eggs, sometimes I use half whites and half whole eggs
grated cheddar cheese
tortillas

Cut up the bacon (I like to use scissors for this) and cook in a nonstick pan until crispy.  Remove bacon and drain most of the oil from the pan, and scramble the eggs until done.  Toss in a handful of cheese, stir it up.  Serve eggs on warm tortillas and sprinkle with a little bacon. 

Red Beans and Rice

adapted from Southern Living

1  pound  dried red beans
3/4  pound  smoked sausage, thinly sliced
3  celery ribs, chopped
1  red bell pepper, chopped
1  onion, chopped
3  garlic cloves, minced
1-2  tablespoons Creole seasoning (gotta put some Tony's in it! Laissez les bon temps roulez, y'all!)
chicken stock and water
Hot cooked  rice

Soak the beans overnight.  Rinse beans and put them in the crock pot with everything else.  Add one box of chicken stock and water to cover.  Cook on low for 10 hours or more.  Serve over cooked rice.

I put some cheese on it for the kids and they just gobbled it up.  We barely have enough leftover for my lunch tomorrow!

Oh,  and I picked the sausage out of my bowl because, well, I don't eat sausage.  I have a mental scar from reading Upton Sinclar's The Jungle in the 11th grade. Anyway....

I actually did all the chopping after dinner the night before while the kitchen was already a mess from that night's dinner, and put the veggies in the fridge overnight.  Then in the morning, I just rinsed the beans and added the liquid and spices.   Easy.  I don't enjoy chopping onions while I'm having coffee in the morning!

Homemade Granola

This granola is not exactly low in calories, but it's so much better than store bought granola.  And you know what's in it....

I like to eat a handful over Greek yogurt and fruit for breakfast or a snack, like in this picture.  The kids like it with milk for breakfast and John just grabs handfuls. I've even made it for teacher gifts.  Everybody loves it.

Homemade Granola

4 cups oats (not quick cooking)

2 T brown sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup honey or maple syrup (not pancake syrup)

everything else is to taste

vanilla

milled flax seed*

wheat germ

salt 

cinnamon

almonds, walnuts, or other nuts 

golden raisins, craisins, other dried fruits

Combine oats, nuts, brown sugar, flax seed, wheat germ, salt (don't leave out the salt), and cinnamon. Mix canola oil and honey with vanilla and pour over dry ingredients.  Mix well and spread on cookie sheet.  Bake at 300 degrees for 20-30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so until brown.  Let cool then add dried fruits.  

*The flax and wheat germ are tasteless, but they bump up the vitamins, protein, and fiber.  I use about 1/2 cup of each per batch of granola.

Homemade Ranch Dressing

My kids love ranch dressing, and it's a condiment that will get them to eat almost any vegetable.  Aside from the general health concerns about ranch, I think it's gloppy and gross, so I make my own much tastier (and healthier) version.  I mix it up and just keep in the the fridge to eat throughout the week.  The kids like to dip carrots in it, and I really like it with raw red (or orange or yellow) bell peppers.  And radishes. I love radishes.  I'm weird like that.

3 parts fat free Greek yogurt
1 part real mayo like Hellman's (I hate mayo, btw, but it's necessary to make this taste like dressing)
1-2 cloves of garlic grated with a microplane (don't chop it or you'll bite into raw garlic)
juice of one whole lemon
salt and pepper to taste
various fresh herbs to taste (in the winter I don't add herbs, only because I don't have any)

Just mix it up with a wisk until combined.  To make the dressing thinner to use as salad dressing, add a little skim milk or better yet, skim buttermilk.

Bloggie Vacay

Man. We've been passing a little stomach bug around here. Not much dinner cooking this week.  I'm taking a blogging break next week, but I'll be re-posting the most visited posts.  Seriously, I cannot believe anybody at all is looking at this blog!  This is so fun to me! Please know that I read every comment, notice every retweet, and am excited about every LIKE.  Thank you for reading, and I'll be back to blogging after Spring Break.

I was looking at pics from last year at this time, and can you believe it was snowing?!  This is my baby Japanese Maple tree during Spring Break 2010.

Hummus

2 cloves of garlic 
1 can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans drained, liquid reserved
1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons tahini*
juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon water or liquid from the chickpeas

Add the garlic first and grind it up in a food processor.  Add the chickpeas, salt, tahini, and lemon and mix it up.  Add liquid from the chickpeas (or just water) until you get the consistency you like.

*Tahini is a sesame paste that I buy at the natural food store (Wal Mart doesn't carry it).  Hummus just doesn't taste like hummus without it, but you can leave it out to cut calories or if you can't find it.