What's-in-the-pantry Meatless Taco Soup

It's one of those nights with an almost bare fridge, so I needed my creative juices to help me out for dinner.  But we have plenty of cans in the pantry (tomatoes, corn, beans), so a soup made sense to me even without beef.  I had carrots that needed to be used, so I just threw those in too.

Carrots
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can corn
1 can black beans
3 T taco seasoning
1 can beef broth
1/2 box (13.25 oz) whole wheat rotini pasta

Chop baby carrots and boil them for about 20 minutes.  Drain and return to the medium saucepan.  Add canned corn, diced tomatoes, black beans, taco seasoning and beef broth.  Stir in pasta.  Raise the heat to high until boiling (stirring occasionally).  Turn the heat down to low, cover and let cook for about 10 minutes. 

It turned out great!  The pasta really thickened it.  It's definitely a nice to-go-to soup when there isn't a lot of time to cook!  Top with your choice of flavor, any cheese, sour cream, or spicy sauce. 

"Meaty" Taco Soup
Here's the same soup, but with ground turkey, chicken broth (instead of beef broth) and without pasta.  Delish!

T's Chicken & Rice

Thomas made dinner tonight.  This isn't new-- but he came up with this idea without my input.  He combined 1 cup uncooked rice (parboiled) with 1 can cream of mushroom soup with roasted garlic, and 1 can chicken broth, Italian seasoning, dried onion and smoked paprika.  Let sit (20 minutes) while preparing 1.5 lb chicken breast tenderloins then sprinkle salt and poultry seasoning on the chicken.  Layer the 9x13 baking dish with rice mixture and chicken.  Okay, I lied, my contribution was adding the carrot sticks.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 1 hour, remove foil cover from dish 10 minutes before to let the sauce thicken. 

Chicken Divan

Chicken Divan has intimidated me for a couple of years now.  After reading the low-fat recipe from Set for Life, I decided to give it a try.  This recipe isn't intimidating at all.  But of course, with Thomas and I, we rarely follow a recipe to a T.  We mixed the rice, soup mixture and chicken together (instead of layering them separately) and just layered the asparagus.  It was pretty scrumptious!

2 (10-oz) packages frozen broccoli or asparagus spears
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup sour cream, low fat
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp curry powder (optional)
1 (10-3/4 oz) can cream of chicken soup, low fat
2 cups cooked brown rice [we used half parboil and half brown]
2 cups cooked and cubed chicken or turkey breast
2 slices whole wheat bread [we omitted]
2 T Parmesan cheese

Slightly cook broccoli [or asparagus.]*  Mix buttermilk, sour cream, lemon juice, and soup.  In large baking dish, layer half the soup mixture, rice, chicken and [vegetables].  Top with remaining soup mixture.  For bread crumbs, place bread and cheese in a blender and pulse until fine.  Sprinkle over the top.  Cover and bake for 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  Uncover and bake five more minute or until hot and bubbly.

From: Merrill, Jane P. and Karen M. Sunderland. "Chicken Divan."  Set for Life. Salt Lake City, UT: Sunrise Publishers, 1995. 164.

*{Tips: to microwave, place frozen packages of vegetables on paper towel and cook on high for 3-4 minutes.  Cook asparagus thoroughly as I only cooked them on the stove for a couple of minutes and they were still crunchy after 25 minutes in the oven.  To microwave the entire casserole, cover with plastic wrap and cook at 70% power for 12 to 15 minutes or until done.}

October 21, 2011

Chicken Divan with french beans

This time I mixed the sauce with minute rice, layered half the sauce, chicken (from rotisserie), green beans, and the remaining sauce. Top with Parmesan cheese (of course Thomas added lots more!)

Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes {au Gratin}

Have I covered all the possible potato dishes in that title?  Scalloped potatoes are good, but I'm a big sucker for cheese, so I had to cheat and add cheese.  This recipe is sort of my own-- a concoction of a couple of different recipes.  Potatoes are versatile, so just imagine the possibilities! 

First thinly cut 1 pound of potatoes.  I used red potatoes this time around.

For the sauce, melt 1-2 Tablespoon butter in a saucepan.  Mix in an onion or dried onions.  To make the roux add 2 T flour, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese (all to taste). Pour 1-1/4 cups milk all at once and whisk well.  At first I kept the heat on medium low until I figured out that turning up the heat to medium high will get the sauce thick and bubbly in no time.  I do like to keep stirring it so the milk doesn't burn on the bottom.

Layer half the sliced potatoes in a greased casserole dish (8x8), cover with half the sauce and repeat.  Cut two slices of (wheat) bread into 1-inch cubes.  Cover the top of the dish with bread cubes and 1/2-1 cup shredded cheese.

Bake for 1 hour in a 350 degree oven or until done.

Inspired by Better Homes and Gardens and Set for Life.

Strawberry Shortcake

This cake didn't turn out as I anticipated, but it was pretty good.  At the party, Thomas remarked that it will taste like a biscuit, so a couple people teased me saying that it was a tasty biscuit.  It wasn't very thick, so I didn't cut it in half, but it would probably be doable. 

For strawberries:
1/4 cup sugar
6 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
Mix together in a large bowl

Cake:
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup milk

Whipped cream:
1 cup whipping cream
beat until creamed

 Fanchy schmancy greasing- shortening and dusting of flour
Use an 8 inch round baking pan

Stir together 1/4 cup sugar, 2 cups all-purpose flour and 2 tsp baking powder

 I learned some great tips here on "cutting in butter."  First, cut the butter into cubes.

 Then cover the butter chunk with the flour mixture. Use a pastry blender to combine the butter into the flour mixture until butter is like coarse crumbs.

Whisk together 1 beaten egg and 2/3 cup milk

 Mix the dry and wet ingredients together

 All stirred and incorporated

 Bake for 15-18 minutes in a 450 degree oven.  Let cool for 10 minutes.

You can split the cake in half and spread the strawberries and whipped cream on the first layer, add the top layer and top with remaining whipped cream and strawberries.  Or just top the cake with store-bought whipped cream and strawberries. :)

{From: Better Homes and Garden Cookbook. 12th ed. Des Moines, IA: Better Homes and Gardens Books, 2002. 246-247.}

Strawberry Spinach Salad

As part of the Strawberry Party, I served this salad.  It was very sweet and got a lot of compliments! :)

For the salad dressing:
1/3 cup raspberry vinaigrette
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp prepared mustard
1/2 tsp vegetable oil
4-1/2 tsp poppy seeds (I used 2 teaspoons)

Add the dressing to:
10 oz fresh baby spinach
1 pint fresh strawberries, fresh
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans, toasted

Whisk together the raspberry vinaigrette, sugar, salt and mustard.  Stir in the oil, in a constant stream, then the poppy seeds.  Store in a container and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.  Toss together the spinach, strawberries, pecans and dressing.

From: Taste of Home Annual Recipes. "Strawberry Spinach Salad." Ed. Michelle Bretl. Greendale, WI: Taste of Home Books, 2007. 211.

Strawberry Party

I had huge ideas for Julia's birthday party.  It all started last winter when I saw Jello Poke Cake on Cook's Country from America's Test Kitchen.  That sprung forth the theme of strawberries, and it took off from there.  Eventually I decided to bake a Strawberry Shortcake instead of the poke cake. The invitations were simple, just using Microsoft Word. I also made Strawberry Spinach Salad and potato salad.  The decorations weren't over the top, but enough to connect the theme together.  I bundled light green utensils in red napkins and tied them with strawberry-patterned ribbon (idea from here.) I made my signature one-of-a-kind picture banner featuring 13 photos of the birthday girl, again using the ribbon, strawberry stickers and a download from here.  I also cut the top of small brown bags, turned over the top and glued on strawberry scrapbook paper on the sides of the bag for centerpieces.  My mom sewed the table cloth.  I also made party favor bags (using the same download mentioned before) for the two kid guests.  After all this explanation, here are the pictures!  The recipes will be up shortly.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Strawberry Shortcake

{bold edits made on 4.5.12}