{Baked Potato Soup}

This one is a family favorite.  I got the original recipe years ago from a church cookbook that our church produced, so I can't take full credit for it.  I have adapted it a bit over the years, but the main recipe is the same, courtesy of my friend Kevin Overbeck..

Creamy, delightful goodness.  We can't wait for dinner when it is Potato Soup night.

Here's the lowdown:

Potatoes (I usually use 10 medium size russets, but roughly 2 per person)
Water to cover potatoes and a couple of cubes of bullion; I adjust a bit based on how many I'm feeding
~OR~
Chicken broth, enough to cover the potatoes
1 small onion, finely chopped
Generous sprinklings of garlic salt and white pepper
1 pkg bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
1 C milk
1 C sour cream
1/2 C butter
1/2 flour
Green onions
Cheddar cheese

Bring potatoes, onion, garlic salt, white pepper and water or broth to a boil.  Boil until potatoes are tender.  While boiling, melt butter and add flour to make a roux.  When potatoes are finished, reduce heat and add milk and sour cream.  When the sour cream has blended, add roux and stir until thickened.  Ladle into bowls and serve with green onions and cheddar cheese as garnish. 

{October Meal Plan}

Wow, time sometimes gets away from me.  The start to this school year has been very busy, with new schedules and lots of cross-country meets.  When I have weeks like last week and this week, my menu planning saves the day!

Here is my October plan! (Links provided where I have them, if you'd like recipe that's not linked, comment or shoot me an email, and I'll get it to you!)

October 1: Leftover day, usually, but we had guests, so I did a pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, and corn on the cob!
October 2:  Leftover day for reals.
October 3: Cheap Chicken Monday (our local Safeway has deals on fried chicken, and Jon was "cooking").
October 4:  Baked Potato Soup
October 5:  Leftover soup
October 6:  Irish Pastie Pot Pie
October 7: Pizza Nite!
October 8: Leftovers
October 9: Thai Peanut Chicken Quinoa Bowls
October 10: Chicken Tikka Masala
October 11:  Homemade Gyros *Here is how I season the meat, but I cook it differently than their directions.  I make the meat into large patties and we grill it, then cut the patties into strips for our gyros. I also just use lean ground beef, but you could do ground turkey, lamb, or a mixture of your preference.
October 12: Chicken Fried Rice
October 13: Crispy Chicken Tortilla Rollups
October 14:  Homemade Pizza
October 15:  Leftovers
October 16:  Lasagna
October 17:  Moroccan Chicken Stew
October 18: Beef Stroganoff
October 19:  Creamy Chicken Picatta
October 20:  Leftovers
October 21:  Taco Bar
October 22:  Chicken with rice pilaf and roasted asparagus
October 23: Roast with Mashed Potatoes
October 24: Slow Cooker Indian Chicken Stew
October 25:  Leftovers
October 26:  Shepherd's Pie
October 27:  Baked Potato Soup
October 28: Leftovers
October 29: Pizza night
October 30: Paninis
October 31: Halloween... who knows?

{Panini Perfection}

As usual, when I decide to reenter the world of blogging, I am doing the shotgun approach, wherein you, the reader, is blasted with a smattering of posts over the course of a few days.  Today's post is brought to you by the letter {P}, as in Panini.

For Christmas, Jon and I received a panini press, and we have been having a grand old time scouring the internet for panini recipes (and then eating them), or creating our own panini recipes (and then eating them), or just turning plain old grilled cheese sandwiches into paninis (and then...you get the picture).  What a joyous road it has been!  One day, after a particularly good panini lunch, I posted this Facebook status:

Just had a smashed avacado and brie panini on cracked wheat sourdough for lunch. I'm beginning to think that I missed my calling and I should go be a panini chef. Anybody think a cute little panini bar would be fun? :)

And while, no, I'm not planning on quitting my day job anytime soon to pursue the panini chef idea, I am LOVING my panini press.  I have a whole board on Pinterest dedicated to panini recipes or panini possibilities (I love that... Panini Possibilities, because, seriously, you can take ANYTHING and make it a panini.)  Yum.

Today's creation?  Yum.  I want another one.  No fancy bread today, just white sandwich bread, but I smashed a quarter of an avacado to use as my spread, two thin slices of cheddar cheese, and then some sauteed mushrooms and carmelized onions for the filling....  Panini grill heated, ready, set go... 3 minutes to Panini Perfection.  (Ooh, I like that one too.  Panini Perfection...  Hence, the title of this post). 

 I wish I had taken a picture to show you, but alas, it was already in my tummy before I thought of it.  You'll just have to take my word for it.  Or, go make one.  (And then eat it!!!)

More soon...
Becca 

{Menu} Week of 9/24/12

As I mentioned in my previous post, the weekend was a super busy one.  So busy, in fact, that by the time we made it home Sunday night, I didn't even want to look at my menu plan for Monday, even though it was planned a long time ago.  So come Monday morning, I improvised.

Here's the plan for the week:
Monday:  Party Pizzas
Tuesday:  Tilapia with rice
Wednesday:  Chicken Divan in the crock pot
Thursday:  Unplanned right now, probably leftovers  BBQ at Micci's school (just remembered)
Friday:  Discipleship group potluck--Chili feed
Saturday:  Leftovers--> eat whatever you can find
Sunday:  Ham and potatoes  (I have soup plans for the leftovers that I'm uber excited for!!)

So there you have it.  Makes me hungry just thinking about it.  (The fish cooking on the stove probably isn't helping either).  What's on your menu this week?  I'm always in need of fresh ideas.

{Recipe} Curry Fried Rice

This recipe used to be a major player at our dinner table when the kids were all little... It's quick, it's easy, toddlers can eat rice with their fingers and sweeps up easily after they drop half of it on the floor... 

Then, at some point, all the stores in Zootown stopped carrying one of the most important ingredients.  At least, all the stores I frequented did.  The kids were getting older, I had some new and more exciting recipes in my toolbelt, and it just wasn't a priority to try to track it down.  Now that we live in the big city, I decided to try again, and lo and behold, I found it at my ever faithful WinCo!!  Happy, happy day.  Curry fried rice has once again been making it's appearance at my table, much to the delight of all involved.

Here's what you need:
1 T Taste of Thai Red Curry Paste (THIS IS IMPORTANT!! This is the ingredient that went missing for so many years.)
2 T olive oil
2 C cooked rice
3 eggs, beaten

That is it for the basic, meatless recipe.  I make things a little more interesting by adding some cooked chicken, and whatever leftover veggies that are lying around that need to be used up (frequently it's frozen green beans, fresh summer squash, and sliced cabbage).

Heat your oil over medium heat until you can begin to smell it, then add your curry paste and mix it in well with the oil. 

(If I am adding chicken, I often add it at this point, uncooked, and cook it up in the oil mixture.) Or, use cooked chicken and just let it simmer with the rest...

Once that's nice and bubbly, add any veggies...  If you are cooking chicken, don't add your veggies until the chicken is THOROUGHLY cooked.

A great example of using whatcha got...  These squashes needed to be used and I had some leftover cabbage, too.

  Let your veggies cook down a bit, then add your rice.

 I love my rice cooker.  It has saved my bacon on more than one occasion!

 
Mix it all together until your rice is pretty well coated with the oil mixture...  You'll be able to tell because it's not all white anymore.
  Once you've done that, add your eggs and stir well.

 I like to put a lid on it at this point and walk away.

 

Don't ya just love how the handle on my frying pan lid looks like it's been digitized in there? 

      I come back occasionally to give it a good stir, and I like a bit of crunchiness on the bottom, so I let it fry away.  Once your eggs are cooked, though, it's done and ready to eat. 

We like to squeeze fresh lime juice over the rice, or add some plum or hoisin sauce.  Top it off with some green onions and you're all set!

Yum, yum!!

{Recipe} Creamy Roast Beef

Creamy Roast Beef
1 2-3lb Beef Roast (I always use chuck!)
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 packet Lipton Beefy Onion Soup
Fresh crimini or button mushrooms, optional

Place roast in crock pot.  Mix Mushroom and Beefy Onion Soup together, pour over roast.  Cook on low until roast is done.  Remove roast beef from gravy and slice.  Stir gravy and return meat to crock pot.  Stir in sliced fresh mushrooms if desired and cook another 15-20 minutes (long enough to heat the mushrooms).  Serve over rice or mashed potatoes, with your favorite fresh green veggie as a side.

Yum!  I hope you enjoy it!

This is the recipe I have in the crock pot for dinner tonight, sans fresh mushrooms.  I also layered my potatoes at the bottom of the crock pot so that dinner is basically ready when I get home.  So easy and tasty!!

{Recipe} Glazed Almonds with Lavender

Back in April, some friends of ours took us to a winery where we tasted wines and ate tasty glazed nuts with lavender.  They were amazing, but Jon is allergic to most tree nuts.  After returning home, I embarked on a quest to find a recipe for glaze that I could make with almonds, since they are one of few nuts that Jon is not allergic to.  I found this glaze recipe originally at cooks.com.  I just added dried lavender to it to get the similarity to the nuts we had at the winery.  It's not quite the same...this recipe comes out more like a nut brittle than a glaze, but it is tasty, just the same! 

Here's the scoop:
2 TBSP butter or margarine
1/2 C Sugar
1 C raw almonds
1/2 tsp vanilla
Food grade dried lavender flowers, to taste (I maybe used as much as a tablespoon... you don't want too much or they taste too perfume-y).

Combine butter, sugar, almonds and vanilla in a heavy skillet over medium low heat.  Stir constantly until sugar mixture becomes a liquid.  Add lavender flowers and spread mixture onto prepared surface (I used parchment paper, but you could use foil over a cookie sheet).  At this point, I sprinkled some of my remaining lavender flowers over the top.  When cool, break into pieces and enjoy!  (Try not to eat them all at once).

Delish!