Comfort food week

One of the things I love about moving up here is the fact that I feel like a "semi" normal wife. When Jon travels so much I rarely cook b/c it's just Tay and I. It's such an awful excuse b/c I need to be cooking for the both of us. I blame myself for Tay being such a picky eater. I'm praying to break the pickiness with lots of home cooked meals! Now that Jon is home for dinner every night I've been cooking a lot more. At the beginning of the week, since it was kind of chilly, I cooked a White Chicken Chili from a low-fat cookbook called "Body for God". Good thing I've been trying to cook low fat b/c the meal I made today is nothing but fat....but boy is it delicious!!! (isn't everything fattening delicious!!!) This was a Shrimp Pasta...or "cheesy noodles" as Meredith calls them....that came from Mandi's family of WONDERFUL cooks. You can put shrimp, crawfish or chicken in it so I put chicken. WOW...it's good!!!!

So here are my two new recipes of the week....

White Bean Chili

1 lb dried large white beans soaked overnight in water, drained
6 cups chicken broth (you'll need more to add while beans are cooking)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 medium onions, chopped (divided)
1 TBSP olive oil
2 cans (4 oz) chopped green chilies
2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
4 cups chicken breast, cooked and shredded
3 cups low fat cheese (cheddar or Monterrey jack)

Combine beans, chicken broth, garlic and 1/2 the onion in a large soup pot; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until beans are very soft, 3 hours or more. Add more chicken broth if necessary. In a skillet, saute remaining onion in oil until tender/ Add chilies, cumin, oregano and cayenne pepper. Mix thoroughly. Add to bean mixture. Add chicken and continue simmering 1 hour. Serve topped with grated cheese.

For buffet, serve with these condiments: chopped tomatoes, chopped parsley, chopped scallions, fat free sour cream, salsa.

Serves 8-10


Shrimp Pasta

3 lbs shrimp (peeled)
1 lb tri-color spiral noodles (cooked)
16 oz Velveeta
1 cup Margarine (yes, I said 1 cup!)
1 TBSP Worcestershire
1 TBSP lemon juice
1 tsp parsley flakes
1 tsp BBQ sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp basil
1 TBSP salt & pepper

Melt margarine and mix in all herbs, Worcestershire, lemon juice & BBQ sauce. Pour over the shrimp in casserole dish. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Melt the cheese with a little milk. Mix melted cheese, cooked pasta with the shrimp and bake an additional 10 minutes.

Pumpkin Fluff Dip

A friend of mine from my playgroup made this dip this week and it's delicious! It'll help you get into the pumpkin season!!! I'm not going to lie....I'm not a huge pumpkin fan but this was actually really good.

1 (16 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

In a large bowl, mix together instant vanilla pudding mix, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. Fold in the thawed frozen whipped topping. Chill in the refrigerator until serving. Serve with apples or graham crackers.

Broccoli/Potato Soup....A Rockstar recipe!

Since our Rockstar annual soup exchange is coming up I decided to get a head start and make a pot of soup. I never made this soup before so I thought I'd make it to try it first before handing over nasty soup to my friends. I went to my always faithful church cookbook that my mother in law gave me a couple of years ago to find my recipe. You know all church cookbooks have the best recipes and this one wasn't an exception. Its easy, cheap, and delish!!!!

It's two recipes in one.....Potato Soup and Broccoli Soup. I chose the broccoli soup but I'll post both just like it's written in the cookbook b/c I'm sure the plain potato soup is just as good.

1 stick butter
3 bunches green onions, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
5 lbs red potatoes, peeled and sliced
3 to 4 (I used 4) cans chicken broth
Half & half (as needed)

Saute' onions in butter until soft. Add red potatoes and cover with chicken broth. Simmer until done but not mushy. Chop with a potato masher until thick but very lumpy. Add half & half and heat. Do not boil.
Option for broccoli soup: Substitute half & half for 3 cups steamed broccoli and 1 pound Velveeta. Heat until cheese melts. Salt and pepper to taste.

A warm soup for a cool night

Now that it's starting to get fall-like here in Texas (it'll be in the mid 70's tomorrow....LOL), I'd like to share one of the best soups I've ever eaten! Every year at this time my playgroup (notice I say my playgroup and not Taylor's playgroup) get together and have a soup exchange. It is awesome. We each make a different type of soup and make enough so each family could have a meal. At the soup exchange we each exchange our soups. So we'll end up w/ 8 different soups in our freezer. It's a pain to cook all that soup but in the end it's well worth it b/c it's a good quick meal!

So I want to share a recipe that Mama Colby makes. It's delish!!!! I'm serious....if you are looking for a good soup this is it. It calls for cabbage and if you don't like cabbage don't worry b/c you can't taste it. TRY IT!!!!

Cheese-Cabbage Soup

1 small head of cabbage, chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrots
3-4 cans (or 1 1/2 to 2 qts) chicken broth
2 potatoes, cubed
14 t. Tabasco
1 t. Accent like Tony Chacheres
1 lb Velveeta Cheese, cute into chunks

In a big soup pot, saute the celery, onion, carrots in one stick of butter. When the veggies start to turn soft but not completely cooked, add the chopped cabbage. Add almost one whole can of broth at this point or a little earlier if needed. Just eyeball it. Once the cabbage cooks down a bit, add the remaining ingredients, EXCEPT FOR THE VELVEETA CHEESE. Simmer 45 minutes. Add the Velveeta cheese in the last 5 minutes or until melted. Be careful not to overcook once the cheese is added. Turn stove off or to the lowest setting to avoid burning. Serve with hot buttered sour dough rolls.

Banana Chocolate-Chip Mini Muffins

Tomorrow is Taylor's turn to be the "Shining Star" at school so that means she brings the snack and will be the line leader all day. Normally the teachers tell you specifically what to bring but all my instructions from them were to bring a "fall snack". I decided to make these muffins from Family Fun so I thought I'd pass it along. At first I wasn't sure if I liked them but the more I eat them (haha) the more I like them. Taylor, on the other hand, spit it out right away. Not a good sign for the kids tomorrow. LOL It's not a super sweet muffin so I think that's why I wasn't sure about them at first. I also don't think my bananas were ripe enough. As Gabba Gabba would say..."Try 'em, you'll like 'em".

Banana Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (about 2 large or 3 medium)
1 large egg
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1/4 cup fat free or light sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup low-fat milk
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

1. Heat the oven to 350
2. Line a mini muffin pan with bake cups or lightly coat the muffin cups with cooking spray.
3. In a medium size bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt and stir with a fork to blend.
4. In a mixing bowl, combine the mashed bananas, egg, melted butter, sour cream, vanilla extract, and milk. Beat on medium until well blended. Reduce the speed to low and blend in the dry ingredients (do not over mix). Stir in the mini chocolate chips.
5. Fill each muffin cup with 1 level tablespoon of batter. Bake the muffins for about 20 minutes or until the tops are golden and toothpick comes out with some melted chocolate but no crumbs.
6. Transfer the muffins to a rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining batter. Makes 36 mini muffins. (mine made 48)

Cookies

I have to share the cookie recipe we made yesterday from the Wilton cookie cutter box. For the longest time Jon and I have been looking for a good sugar cookie recipe but always end up with the "old fashion" sugar cookies which aren't the same. This one is a cross b/w short bread and sugar cookie and are soooo good. Beware b/c they are addicting! You know how I knew they would be good....the dough was delish!!! I love me some cookie dough!!!!

Roll-Out Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract (I used the regular dark one and it was fine)
1/2 teaspoon no-color almond extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 F. In mixing bowl, cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Mix flour, baking powder and salt; add to butter mixture 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Do not chill dough. Divide dough into 2 balls. On a floured surface, roll each ball into a circle approx 12 in. wide and 1/8 in. thick. Dip cookie cutter in flour before each use. Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet 6-7 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. Makes about 3 dozen cookies. Recipe may be doubled.

Lobster Dip

*** READ THIS POST......DON'T MAKE UNTIL I GET THE RECIPE CORRECT!!!***

Last night we went to a friend's house for a 4th celebration and there was the best dip EVER there! Her cousin made it and I had to immediatly get it from him. It's a lobster dip but I can just imagine some nice crab in there from those crabs we are getting in two weeks when I'm down the bayou. Right mom!!!! :-) No pressure.....

12 oz lobster
8 oz cream cheese
1 cup mayo (or miracle whip)
dash of garlic (2 TBS ranch dressing mix)
Paprika

1. Chop lobster
2. Mix together
3. Sprinkle Paprika on top
4. Bake at 300 for 30 minutes

As Racheal Ray would say.........YUMMO!!!!!!!!!!!