Potato and Double-Corn Chowder

Potato and Double-Corn Chowder

4  cups diced, peeled potatoes

2 cups chicken broth (from a 32-oz carton)

1 can (15.25 ounces) whole kernel corn, undrained

1 can (14.75 ounces) cream-style corn

1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)

8 slices bacon, cooked, crumbled (1/2 cup)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk

• In large pot, sauté onions in a bit of oil until tender.  Add potatoes, both kinds of corn, and chicken broth to pot and bring to a boil.  Cover, and simmer for 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.  Add salt, Worcestershire sauce, pepper and evaporated milk and heat through.  Crumble bacon on top just before serving.

Hearty Barley Bake

I have occasionally tried branching out by using grains other than the typical rice or pasta in a few dishes. This one is a favorite of mine. I really like the chewiness of barley. You can use quick barley, but I think the texture of regular barley is better (just like it is with regular rice vs. minute rice). You can also prep this all in the morning by cooking the barley and chopping vegetables, and then heat it up for dinner. If you don't want to heat up the oven in the summer, I imagine you can probably heat it all together just fine in a skillet, but you may need to add a little more broth.

Hearty Barley Bake
2 c. fresh sliced mushrooms (or 1 can)
1 c. thinly slice carrots
1/2 c. chopped onion
2 tsp. vegetable oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 pound ground beef or pork sausage
1 1/2 c. cooked barley
1 1/2 c. corn (or 1 can)
1 c. frozen chopped spinach
3 green onions, sliced
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. dried marjoram
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. beef broth (or more if needed)
1/2 c. parmesan
shredded mozzarella, optional

In a large skillet, saute the mushrooms, carrots and onion in oil until tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Transfer to a bowl.

In the same skillet, cook the beef or sausage until no longer pink; drain. Mix in the remaining ingredients, other than the mozzarella. Transfer to an 11x7 dish. Cover and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Sprinkle with mozzarella, if desired. Bake, uncovered, an additional 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

Adapted from Taste of Home

Smoothie System

I really like to make smoothies for my family because (1) they're delicious and (2) it's an easy way to get lots of good things in them.  I used to make them sporadically and that didn't work very well because I pureed fruit, but it would sit in the freezer for so long that our smoothies would sometimes end up tasting nasty.  I decided that I needed some more organization if I was going to be more consistent with my smoothie making, so here's an easy way to do smoothies on a regular basis:

1) Buy the fruit and veggies when they're super cheap and puree them.
2) Freeze the purees in ice cube trays. Silicone trays make it so much easier to get the puree out of the tray.
3) Store the puree in labeled Ziploc freezer bags.  I store all of the same type of puree together and on certain shelves in my freezer so that I can find it easily.  This prevents some of the purees from getting lost and buried and never used and it makes it easy to rotate the oldest purees out first.

 

Always have yogurt and frozen juice on hand (if you want to use those).  I started using vanilla Greek yogurt because it has way more protein than regular yogurt.  We usually use orange juice as a base, but we also like berry juices or grape juice.  I really don't like apple juice with my smoothies, but Jeremy does.

Bananas don't puree and freeze well... they taste just like extremely overripe banana in your smoothie.  Although I've heard that freezing a whole banana is good.  I haven't tried that yet - I usually just put them in fresh.

Also, I freeze fruits that you might not think to use for smoothies - like cantaloup, watermelon (don't add a lot or it will taste like a watermelon Jolly Rancher), etc.  I added about 3 cubes of cantaloup to a smoothie with pineapple, strawberry, yogurt and orange juice and it was so yummy!  I've found that if you just a little bit, it just compliments the other flavors.

You can freeze fruits that you don't necessarily like to eat on their own.  We don't usually eat mango on it's own, but we love it in smoothies.

Don't add pomegranate seeds to smoothies - you'll end up with a bunch of gross feeling hard chunks.

Be extra careful when pureeing pit fruits.  I pureed a big batch of peaches and apparently some pit made it's way in because the whole batch was ruined with unappetizing chunks of pit.

The only fruits that I buy already frozen are blueberries and raspberries.  They are usually cheaper frozen than fresh.

If you buy a bunch of fresh fruit to puree and freeze, I would just plan on doing it that day.  I let about 8 clamshells of strawberries sit for a few days too long and I only ended up being able to use half of them.  Such a bummer!  So, now I just try to get it done right away so I don't end up wasting any of it.

We have smoothies every morning and now it's quick and easy to do.  I used to think about making a smoothie, but I didn't want to dig through the freezer to find buried purees or cut up fresh fruit so I would just skip it.  This method is much simpler.

Also, a lot of people like green smoothies (they add spinach, kale, etc.) but I can't stomach it.  I feel like I'm drinking green slime.  And, yes, you can taste kale in a smoothie.  Instead, I add some cooked and pureed sweet potato or carrot to each smoothie.  It's a healthy veggie, you can't taste it (I just add one or two large cubes) and it doesn't turn it into green slime. 

Sometimes, if the smoothie is a bit tart, I add a little bit of honey and that helps a lot.  Jeremy would like it if I put honey in every smoothie. :)

I've tried a smoothie with oats added to it and it was actually pretty good.  I've been thinking of adding them to our smoothies in small quantities.  It's worth a shot. Also, you can add ground flax seed and chia seeds, but stir these in at the end.

Old Navy sells little kid smoothie cups (they go on clearance all the time for about $2.50 - Jeremy says we don't need more than one per child, but we'll see;).

Adelyn usually finishes hers and then commandeers mine.  The other day she took mine and when I asked for a drink she said I could have one, but then looked me right in the eye and, in a very serious tone, instructed, "Don't drink it all."

Cinnamon Roll Oatmeal

This is so good! My kids have even asked for it several times since we first tried it last week. Now that tells you something! I actually lowered the amount of sugar used to cook the oatmeal because the topping is sweet and rich and we didn't notice a difference with less sugar. The original also called for making a cream cheese glaze, which I'm sure would be delicious, but I didn't have any cream cheese and it was just really good this way, so I'll leave off the extra step!

Cinnamon Roll Oatmeal
4 c. milk (or 2c. milk and 2 c. water)
2 T. brown sugar
1 T. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
2 c. old fashioned oats

Topping
4 T. butter
3 T. brown sugar
1 T. cinnamon

In a large pan, combine the milk/water, sugars, vanilla and salt and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching.
Stir in oats, return to a boil, reduce heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until it reaches the desired consistency.
Meanwhile, combine the topping ingredients in a small pan. Melt and stir together over low heat. This will start to separate once it's off the heat, so keep it warm until you are done using it.
Serve the oatmeal with the cinnamon topping.

recipe altered from motherthyme.com

Chipotle Shredded Chicken Tacos

Mmmm...mmm.  I made these for dinner tonight.  I used regular taco shells, but she said she made taco salads with this chicken and they were great, so that's what I'll do next time.  Maybe for lunch tomorrow.  I didn't add any water...I don't usually need to do that when I'm slow cooking meat, but you can do what you want.  And I'm sure that you could use chicken breasts instead of thighs but I happened to have a package of thighs in the freezer so I used those.
Anyway, I doubled the recipe so that I could freeze some, and also so that I could just use the whole can of chiles.

Chipotle Shredded Chicken Tacos

Ingredients

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs 

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup salsa (I used my Winter Salsa)

2 tbsp canned Chipotle chilies in adobo sauce, sliced

1 tbsp chili powder

salt and pepper, to taste

warm tortillas or taco shells

Toppings:

shredded cheddar cheese, cotija cheese (or whatever cheese you like), lime quarters, sour cream, lettuce, homemade guacamole, tomatoes, cilantro, onion, salsa or whatever flips your skirt

Instructions

1 In a slow cooker, combine chicken, garlic, salsa, chipotle chiles, chili powder, 1/4 tsp pepper and salt to taste.  Add a 1/4 of water if the mixture looks too dry.  Cover; cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. (long and low is best).

2 Shred the chicken and serve warm with tortillas and your choice of toppings.

Read more at http://www.farmgirlgourmet.com/2011/08/angies-chipotle-shredded-chicken-taco.html#5LVbBxfLjM90zIFI.99

Tuna Casserole

Easy weeknight dinner - you could do all sorts of things with the veggies.  I think next time I'll add some mushrooms and bell peppers (sauteed first to soften them), maybe try broccoli...

Tuna Casserole

1 (16oz) pkg elbow noodles

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 C shredded cheddar cheese 

1 can tuna packed in water 

1/2 C milk

1 C frozen peas & carrots, thawed

2 Tbsp butter, softened 

1 tsp salt 

1/4 tsp black pepper 

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp onion powder

1/2 C Italian style bread crumbs

Heat oven to 350 and spray a casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. 

Cook elbow noodles according to package directions, for 6 minutes or until al dente.  Drain well.  Mix noodles and all remaining ingredients except breadcrumbs in a large bowl until combined.  Pour into casserole dish.  Sprinkle with bread crumbs.  

Cook 35-40 minutes until browned on top and heated through.

Altered a lot from a recipe on allrecipes.com

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal with Caramel Sauce

Yeah, this sounds more suitable for fall, but it's been pretty chilly here so it sounded good this morning.  : )
I thought this was really good and a great way to use up pumpkin when you have a little left over from another recipe.  And it's pretty healthy, too!  I made the buttermilk substitute w/ milk and lemon juice because I rarely just have buttermilk on hand.  : )

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal with Caramel Sauce

Yield: 1 serving

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 Tbsp light-brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• 1 pinch ginger
• 1 dash salt
• 1 - 2 Tbsp caramel sauce or caramel ice cream topping
• 1 Tbsp chopped walnuts or pecans, optional

Directions

• In a large microwave safe bowl, whisk together oats, milk, buttermilk, pumpkin puree, light-brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt. Microwave mixture on HIGH power for 3 1/2 minutes, then allow oatmeal to rest a few minutes (for a thinner consistency, if desired, pour in additional milk or you could use half and half). Drizzle oatmeal with caramel sauce and sprinkle with optional chopped nuts. Serve warm.
• Recipe Source: Cooking Classy