Potato and Corn Soup

On Sunday we  FINALLY cooked something (instead of eating meals we've frozen, frozen pizza, or fast food). We decided to make steaks, and I knew there had to be a side with it. I was thinking about making a loaded mashed potato casserole, but decided that making a soup would be a little healthier. Because this soup doesn't have any cream in it, except for the amount of sodium, its really healthy (the sour cream we added was even fat free which has like 0 calories, and tastes great too)

I was inspired to make this recipe through reading at least 2 or 3 other recipes and figuring it out myself. I even had this for dinner last night as leftovers and it was just as good.

3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
1/2 fresh jalapeño, seeded and finely diced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
5-6 medium potatoes
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
2 cups frozen corn
1 TBS lemon juice
1 1/2 TBS chives

1. In a large stock pot, heat oil over medium heat.
2. Add chopped onion, diced jalapeno and salt and pepper.
3. Cook about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Meanwhile, peel potatoes.
5. Cut potatoes into 1 inch sized pieces.
6. Add broth, water, and potatoes to onion mixture.
7. Bring to a boil.
8. Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.
9. Coarsely mash potatoes using a potato masher, or fork.
10. Add corn and cook for 5 more minutes.
11. Stir in lemon juice, chives and addition salt or pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Pearsauce

Asian Pears (peeled, cored and cut into quarters or halves)
1 1/2 cup sugar


We have an Asian Pear tree, it gives us delicious pears every year.  This year was no different but they were small, really small.  They still were tasty to eat, but I didn't want to just bite into one because of a worry about worms.  I wondered what can I do with all these pears cluttering up my counter space.  In case you did not know you pick pears early and let them ripen off the tree.  If they ripen on the tree they become very mushy and lose their flavor.

Craig suggested drying them, but I thought that was a lot of work besides just cutting, coring and peeling them; you have to cut them into very thin slices.  So I decided to try and make pearsauce just like applesauce.  We still had to peel, core and cut but the small pieces were quarters and Craig even just left them as halves.

Since this took a little bit of time, probably about 1 hour, I let the cut pieces soak in cold water to prevent browning.  Once we were finished with this, I drained the water off, placed the pears in a stock pot and covered with water.  I brought them to a boil and let them cook about 10 minutes, until soft.  Then I drained this water off, let the pears cool just slightly about 5 minutes, placed half in my blender and blended until there were no chunks left.  I did the same to the other half.  By this time I had about 6 cups of blended pears.  Place the pears back into the stock pot, add 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar and let simmer for about 5 minutes to dissolve the sugar. 

I suppose you could bottle this afterwards but it was already 10:45 on a Saturday night and I did not want to stay up any later.  I choose to place the sauce into 3 -  2 cup size freezer containers and freeze the sauce.

I keep 1 for eating and the other 2 are in the freezer for later eating in the season.  I really am not sure how well these will be unthawed but I think it is quite tasty right now.

I am sorry I don't know exactly how many pears we used about 3 times this bowl worth.

If your pears are normal size it might not take as long to prepare.  I don't think I would buy pears to do this and I believe you probably could use any pear such as Bartlett, not just Asian.

Creamy Garlic Shrimp Pasta

I’m obviously not very good at sticking to our healthy meal plan. But on Monday when deciding what to make for dinner I actually decided to make something that was healthy! Although pasta is not usually considered healthy, I figure since I wasn’t loading it with butter and was topping it with lots of vegetables that it was at least a little better than the other pasta alternatives.

And of course, since I don’t eat shrimp I had a vegetarian meal for the day, but the shrimp could easily be substituted for chicken or you could enjoy the pasta veggie style like I did.

1 TBS chopped garlic

2 TBS fresh parsley

1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp olive oil

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1 cup plain yogurt, lowfat

½ red pepper, cut into inch long slices

1 squash, sliced

1 ½ cup asparagus, chopped into about 1 inch pieces

about 20 small shrimp

4 oz spaghetti noodles


1. Bring a pot of water to boil.
2. Add spaghetti noodles and cook according to package directions, (about 8-10 minutes)
3. Four minutes before noodles would be done, add shrimp, asparagus, bell pepper and squash.
4. Cook until pasta is tender and veggies are crisp tender.
5. Drain.

6. Mash garlic and salt together in a medium sized bowl.
7. Add yogurt, parsley, lemon juice, oil, pepper and garlic salt.
8. Mix well.
9. Combine the pasta mixture with the sauce and toss to coat.

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Baked Southwestern Rolls

Do any of you use pinterest? Do you remember when I wrote here about the lists of recipes I want to some day try. Well nowadays I'm not as much adding recipes to my list as I am adding them to my pinboard. (If you want an invite let me know, I'll hook you up) I love being able to store these amazing looking recipes, and being able to see their pictures quickly too (totally my favorite part). Also, I love being able to see the recipes that look good to my family and friends too. So, one day I saw this recipe on somebody's board, and it looked delicious and I wanted to make it. So this is my version with a few alterations.

 

Baked Southwestern Rolls

2 chicken breasts

1 (10 oz) can corn, drained

1 (10 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup spinach, chopped

 1 (7oz) can diced green chilies 

4 green onions, chopped

1/2 red pepper, chopped

1 TBS cumin

1/2 TBS chili powder

1 TBS salt

1/2 TBS pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 package egg rolls

1. Boil chicken until thoroughly cooked

2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees

3. Shred chicken with 2 forks

4. Combine everything in a large mixing bowl.

5. Mix well.

6. Lay an egg roll wrapper out with a corner facing you.

7. Place about 1/4 cup of the filling in the middle lower half.

8. Fold the 2 outward points and fold them in.

9. Take the tip closest to you and roll over the mixture until mixture is covered.

10. Dip your finger in water (or beaten egg) and wipe over the free corner of the egg roll.

11. Press to seal closed.

12. Repeat with the remaining egg rolls.

13. Grease a baking sheet with cooking spray.

14. Place the egg rolls on the pan seam side down.

15. Bake for 15 minutes, flipping halfway through baking.

16. Serve with salsa and sour cream.

This meal was a little time consuming, only because we had to thaw the chicken, boil water, and cook the chicken before we could really get started. But you could totally use leftover chicken or a rotisserie chicken to make this a little easier. Although the chicken took a little while to cook, this meal was totally worth it. It was absolutely delicious and really healthy too!

We actually chose to only cook up about 10 rolls, and we decided to freeze the rest of the mixture, but I'm way excited to come upon it in the near future and use it for this same recipe, taco salad, quesadillas or something else yummy.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did!

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Salsa #2

Can you believe that until this week I had actually never made my own salsa. Shocking right? I love chips and salsa for a snack, or for a side to any good Mexican meal.  But I have always just bought salsa at the store. One of our favorites is Chachie's mango peach salsa, which has just the right amount of sweetness. I also really love Pace's medium salsa with just the right amount of kick. And although this salsa recipe is not really like either of those recipes, I'm not too picky. Plus this tastes a little more authentic to me, like something you would find at a yummy Mexican restaurant. 

Inspired from this recipe, this salsa was so easy to make, and with all fresh vegetables its really good for you too. I will definitely be making this recipe again and again, and now that I know how easy salsa is I may even be brave enough to try additional recipes.

2 large tomatoes

1/3 yellow sweet onion

1/2 red pepper

1 jalapeno

1 tsp chopped garlic

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/3 cup cilantro **

1 lime

**I love cilantro and would have added more if the hubby loved it as much as I do. This was still a decent enough amount that I could taste it almost as much as I liked.

1. Chop up tomatoes, onion, pepper, and jalapeno into small (maybe dime sized) pieces.

2. Put tomatoes and onion into the food processor. 

3. Pule about 15 times. Set aside. *

4. Juice lime and add to mixture.

5. Put red pepper, jalapeno and seasonings into food processor.

6. Pulse about 15 times. Combine with tomatoes and onions in bowl. 

7. Stir together. 

8. Put mixture back into food processor (I did this in 2 sets)

9. Pulse until it has the desired consistency.

10. Pour into a bowl and stir everything together.

11. Enjoy on top of some tasty Mexican food or with chips and salsa.

* If you have a large food processor you could probably do steps 3-9 together, mine didn't fit everything at once so I had to do it in sets.

 

This was so good we ate all the salsa within 2 days. A few of the bites were a little spicy, so you could probably choose to use less of the jalapeno if you want.

What is your favorite salsa recipe?

Fresh Salsa and Chips

You have to love tomatoes, to enjoy this salsa.  It is best within 1/2 hour after making. 

1/4 sweet yellow onion - chopped into little pieces
2 large (homegrown - if possible) tomatoes - chopped into little pieces
1/2 sweet yellow pepper -chopped into little pieces
1 garlic clove - minced
4 tiny dashes sriracha chili sauce
1 Tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. chili powder or to taste
cilantro - torn into small pieces (to taste - I but in 3 stalks)
salt and pepper to taste

Put everything together in a bowl, stir together gently. 
Eat with Kirtland Tortilla Chips

I love to eat this, but I really love fresh tomatoes .

Sorry, we already ate most of it before thinking to take a picture.  I told you it was good.

Grilled Portobello Mushrooms

Aimee and I have been trying to eat healthier lately and last night I decided to try something new- grilled portobello mushrooms. Aimee is not a big fan of mushrooms but I love them. They are a great substitute for too much of that heart-UNhealthy red meat and super low on calories and fat. I just threw this recipe together last minute and it turned out really delicious. The only adjustment I made to this recipe on here from what I made is that I halved the white pepper amount to taste (it had a little bit too much kick for my personal liking).

Here we go!

Start out by picking up as many portobello mushrooms from the grocery store as you want. They are BIG mushrooms- usually each person will only need one to be full. I had two because I was starving! They are located where you would expect them to be- in the vegetable area usually near bell peppers.

For each mushroom use the following ingredients:

Dry Ingredients
1/4 Tsp ground curry
1/8 Tsp ground white pepper
1/8 Tsp garlic salt
1/8 Tsp onion salt
1/8 Tsp seasoning salt (I used season all)

Remaining Ingredients
1 Tbsp diced green pepper
1 Tbsp diced yellow onion
1/2 Tbsp diced garlic
1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce

Wash the mushrooms thoroughly with cool water first. Mix the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Place the diced pepper, onion and garlic onto the mushroom. Sprinkle the dry ingredients on top of the diced vegetables. Top with the worcestershire sauce.


If you are using a grill (preferably charcoal) cook on medium-high heat for 10-13 minutes. If you are baking in the oven set your oven to 350 and cook for the same duration. These mushrooms are safe to eat completely uncooked so don't worry about them being "raw" in the middle. This amount of time is sufficient to get the mushroom flesh just perfectly cooked and the peppers, onions and garlic will have enough time to get soft as well. Don't sweat it if some of the worcestershire sauce drips over the side of the mushroom- the flavor will still be there. The mushroom acts as a boiling pot and the flavors mix themselves in this boiling action.





Enjoy! This is a super simple recipe and it is incredible healthy as well- I calculated each mushroom with ingredients and cooked to be around 100 calories each. If you enjoy mushrooms this is a great recipe to try out.

Chicken Parmigiana

The past couple weeks Nate and I have tried to be extra healthy. We are back to a regular routine of exercising a few times a week, and we both feel really good about it (in the past 12 days I have ran 8 - I feel awesome.) And along with exercising we decided it helps to eat healthy too. (But eating healthy is really hard for me, as in, I love sweets way too much). But, we can at least try to eat a healthy dinner right?

So this week we decided to cut out most of our carbs, and throughout the week we had garlic sirloin, fish tacos (baked, not fried), and last night we had chicken parmigiana. Although chicken parmigiana would normally be great over noodles, we decided to have it alone, with a side of steamed broccoli instead.

And let me tell you, this was so delicious that our stomachs were not left wanting. Except for maybe wanting more chicken because it was really that good.

To save ourselves from some extra fat, we again baked the meat instead of frying it. Which is what I have always done when making a chicken parmigiana. But this one was just perfect. I don't know if it was the extras I added in the sauce, or the moist chicken, or the hunger in my stomach, but this was AMAZING.

 1 tsp chopped garlic

1 small sweet pepper, diced

1/4 white onion, diced

1 TBS olive oil

1 can tomato sauce

1/2 tsp parsley

1/4 tsp basil

1/4 tsp oregano

**We made this with 2 chicken breasts, cause there's 2 of us, BUT we had sauce left over, so this part of the recipe could be doubled or tripled or whatever, if you need to feed more people.

2 chicken breast

1 egg

1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs

1/8 cup Parmesan cheese

2 oz mozzarella cheese 

For the sauce:

1. Saute pepper, onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat. (The pepper was from our land lord's garden - yum!)

2. Once vegetables are a little browned, add tomato sauce and spices. (we used our homegrown basil and parsley too)

3. Simmer for a few minutes, or for a while, until you're ready to eat.

For the chicken:

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Cut each chicken breast in half (hamburger style, as in how you would fold a piece of paper, hamburger or hotdog)

3. Whip egg in a bowl.

4. Combine bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese in another bowl.

5. Dip chicken in egg and then in bread crumb mixture

6. Spray cooking pan with Pam, so it won't stick.

7. Cook chicken for about 25 minutes.

8. Top chicken with shredded or sliced mozzarella and bake for about 5 more minutes. (This is approximately how long we baked it, but we used our meat thermometer to make sure the chicken was thoroughly cooked, and added the mozzarella when the chicken had about 10 degrees to go - this ensured that our chicken was extra moist)

9. Top chicken with sauce and a couple sprinkles of Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy.  

Like I said before, this is great over noodles, or would be good with a side salad to keep it a little lighter. Yum yum.

This is definitely one of my favorite Italian dishes. When I go to Italian restaurants I often order chicken parmigiana, but this was so good, I can make it at home now, and save some money. 

What is your favorite Italian dish?

Chicken Noodle Soup

1 medium sized onion

3 celery sticks

5 carrots

6 cups chicken broth (More if you like it really liquidy)

1/4 tsp pepper

1/8 tsp salt (I added a couple sprinkles but its probably not necessary)

2 bay leaves

1/8 tsp basil (was just a couple of sprinkles of basil, oregano, and parsley too)

1/8 tsp oregano

1/8 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp thyme

2 large chicken breasts

8 oz noodles (we didn't have enough of one kind, so we used half egg noodles half rigatoni)

1. Cut vegetables into 1/2inch to 1 inch sized pieces.

2. Put vegetables, broth, pepper, salt, bay leaves, basil, oregano, parsley and chicken breasts in a large pot.

3. Bring to a boil.

4. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 25 minutes.

5. Remove chicken and shred using fingers or two forks.

6. Remove bay leaves and discard.

7. Add noodles and thyme.

8. Add (now) shredded chicken.

9. Cook for 10-12 minutes.

 

We enjoyed ours in a bread bowl. Although this meant that all the liquid sunk into the bread and there was none really to eat as soup. But it still tasted wonderfully delicious. 

This is definitely a recipe I'll be making again. Especially with how healthy it is for you. I added a few things to a recipe I found on woman's day, but according to their recipe this makes 6 servings, each about 190 calories. Not bad at all I say. Yum Yum.