Baked Potato Soup

Baked Potato Soup

4 baking potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds)
2/3 cup all-purpose flour (about 3 ounces)
6 cups 2% reduced-fat or fat free milk
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup chopped green onions
6 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
More cheese for garnish
Cracked black pepper (optional)

Preheat oven 400 degrees. Pierce the potatoes with a fork, bake for an hour or until tender. Cool and peel the potatoes. Coarsely mash. Place flour in a large Dutch oven; gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly (about 8 minutes). Add potatoes, 1 cup cheese, salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, stirring until cheese melts. Remove from heat.
Stir in sour cream. Cook over low heat 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated (do not boil). Sprinkle additional cheese, onions, and bacon over individual servings. Garnish with cracked pepper, if desired.
Yields 8 Servings (Serving Size: about 1 ½ cups soup)

I had to add extra milk because it was too thick.

Spicy Honey Chicken

I got this recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, Our Best Bites. I love this recipe because it is so quick to prepare and my family likes it. My favorite way to have it is on a salad. The salad I always have with it is really easy. I usually just do lettuce, avocado and bacon. Cody isn't exactly excited about salads when I make them for a main dish so I always have to add bacon to make it more appealing to him.

Side note about bacon: I really dislike cooking bacon and smelling up my house so I usually buy the precooked bacon from Costco and then freeze it. However, if I don't have any precooked I usually bake all the bacon and then use what I want and freeze the rest. I like having frozen bacon because you can pull out a few slices to give something great flavor but you don't have to go to the effort to cook it.

At Our Best Bites they recommend using boneless skinless chicken thighs and grilling the chicken on a grill. I usually just do chicken tenders and either broil them or pan fry them. In the summer I might get back to grilling the chicken if the wasps will relinquish our grill. Enough chit-chat here is the recipe!

Spicy Honey Chicken

Rub:
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. ground red pepper (sometimes I omit this because I don't like things too spicy)

Combine spices in a bowl and mix well. Put rub on chicken. Cook chicken using desired method (grill, broil, pan fry) until cooked through.

Glaze:
6 Tbsp. honey
2 tsp. cider vinegar

Combine honey and vinegar in a small bowl, stirring well until combined. Brush mixture on chicken (both sides) in the final moments of cooking. Let it cook for a few minutes to caramelize.

In order to make this a really fast recipe for me I make a bunch of rub and store it with my spices. Then when I want to cook it, the preparation is half done.

Last night when I made this meal, we got home a little after 6:00 p.m. and I had dinner on the table by 6:35 p.m. It really can be a fast meal!

Dinner was "gouda"...

I love cooking dinner on Sundays. It seems so much more relaxing. Tonights dinner was a request from Ryan. We made Pork Chops stuffed with Gouda and Bacon. The smoked gouda and bacon filling gives such a great flavor to the pork. Since I had to cook bacon anyways, I thought I'd serve the smashed potatoes. They are by no means healthy, but they are very good! Josh's opinion of potatoes - "tatoes kuka", but he ate them all tonight. It must be all the extra goodness in them.

Pork Chops Stuffed with Gouda and Bacon

¼ lb smoked Gouda cheese, grated
8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
½ cup fresh parsley, chopped
¼ tsp ground pepper
4 (2 ½” thick) pork chops
2 tsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to season

Preheat grill to medium heat.
Combine cheese, bacon, parsley and 1/8 tsp black pepper.
Lay the chop flat on the cutting board and with sharp knife, cut pocket into pork. Stuff cheese mixture into pocket and close with toothpick. Brush meat with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Lightly oil grill grates. Grill over medium heat for 5-8 minutes on each side or until pork is done.

Cheddar Bacon Smashed Potatoes

5 lbs potatoes, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced.
1 pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 cube butter, melted
1 cup sour cream
1 lb crisp bacon, crumbled – reserve some to sprinkle on top
2 cups cheddar cheese, grated – reserve some to sprinkle on top
1 bunch green onions, chopped – reserve some to sprinkle on top

Boil together potatoes and garlic until tender. Mash. Add remaining ingredients. Put into casserole dish. Sprinkle top with bacon, cheese, and onions. Bake at 350˚ for 30 minutes. Serve.

I will even pre-make this dish and bake before serving.

Pumpkin Soup

My favorite Aunt Rosie sent me this recipe for pumpkin soup. I LOVE Pumpkin soup! The recipe comes from the Gallery Golf Club in Tuscon, Arizona. I haven't tried it yet, but am looking forward to it. If you try it before I do, let me know how it is!


Pumpkin Soup
(Chef Brian Steiner's)

1 1/2 c canned pumpkin
1 1/2 c peeled, seeded, roasted butternut squash
1 qt heavy whipping cream
1 qt half and half
1/2 tbsp minced shallot
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 c brown sugar
Salt and White Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in soup pot. Bring to boil and simmer 30 minutes. Puree with hand blender (or transfer to regular blender). Season to taste with salt and white pepper.

Soup for a cold snowy day...

As I sit here blogging, the snow continues to come down - Yuck! I hate the snow! But, it does give me an excuse for making soup. Ryan's not a big fan of soup, so I'll take any chance that I can get. Since it's also cleaning day, I needed a quick and easy soup. Taco Soup was the winner. Instead of cooking it on the stove, I stuck it in my crock pot on low for four hours. Now the house has a yummy smell for the afternoon. I'm serving it with Fritos, grated cheese, sour cream and green onions.

Taco Soup
(Lacie Brunson)

1 lb. ground beef
½ med. onion, diced
1 (16 oz.) can stewed tomatoes
1 (16 oz.) can kidney beans
1 (16 oz.) can corn
8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 packet taco seasoning

Brown beef and onion. Drain fat. Add remaining ingredients with liquid. Top with lots of cheese and sour cream. Serve with chips.

It seems that all I make is sweets...

Yesterday we were craving something sweet (OK, I was, but I'm sure that Josh & Ryan wanted something sweet as well). If you could see my fridge or my panty, you would weep with me. It is bare! What was I going to do? I came across a recipe for Easy Fudge Brownies. Surprisingly, I had all of the ingredients. They actually turned out pretty good. I have to agree with Ry, they would taste even better with a scoop of Breyer's Natural Vanilla Ice Cream and hot fudge sauce.

And since all I've done lately is sweets, I'm throwing in the recipe that we had for dinner last night. Sorry no pics, my camera didn't make it to the dinner table!

Easy Fudge Brownies

½ cup butter
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
¾ cup flour

Grease an 8 x 8 baking pan; set aside. In a medium saucepan melt butter and chocolate over low heat. Remove from heat. Stir in sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Using a wooden spoon, lightly beat the mixture until combined (don’t overbeat or brownies will rise too high then fall). Stir in flour. Spread in prepared pan. Bake at 350˚ for 30 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

***I sprinkled chocolate chips and/or chopped nuts on top of batter before baking.

***I didn't have any unsweetened chocolate bars, so I did a quick substitution found on the Hershey's Cocoa Powder can. I used 6 TBSP cocoa powder and 2 TBSP oil.

Maple Mustard-Glazed Chicken
(Cuisine at Home Dec. 2008)

3 TBSP Dijon mustard
2 TBSP maple syrup
1 TBSP whole grain mustard
1 TBSP brown sugar
¼ tsp dried thyme
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350˚; line a baking sheet with foil.

Stir Dijon, maple syrup, whole grain mustard, brown sugar and thyme together in small bowl. Season chicken with salt and pepper; place on baking sheet, then brush with mustard mixture. Roast 30 minutes, then baste with mustard mixture again. Return to oven and roast until chicken is done, 15-20 minutes longer.

Served with green beans and wild rice. Delicious!

Germ coated Peanut Butter Cookies

Time for more cookies I guess. Today we made peanut butter cookies. My plan was to take them over to a neighbor, but alas my sick child kept coughing into the batter. I thought to myself "Baking them kills the germs right?" If it does, it didn't matter, because he then coughed all over the baked cookies. We'll have to try again when we're not sick at our house...Don't worry we kept the germ coated cookies to ourselves.

Peanut Butter Cookies

½ cup butter, softened
½ cup peanut butter
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla
1 ¼ cups flour
Granulated sugar

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and peanut butter. Add sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and baking powder. Beat until combined; scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined. Add flour.

Shape dough into 1” balls. Roll in additional granulated sugar to coat. Place balls 2” apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten by making crisscross marks with the tines of a fork.

Bake in a 375˚ oven for 7-9 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Transger cookies to a wire rack and let cool.