Sweet Potato Soup

I must be on a soup roll.... two soup blog posts in a row!

This stuff is really good.  It reminds me of Ethiopian food or even mild Indian food.  It tastes like FALL.

I nabbed the recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sweet-Potato-Carrot-Apple-and-Red-Lentil-Soup/Detail.aspx.  I followed the original pretty closely, but used less butter and regular lentils instead of red lentils.

Here's what you will need for the first step:

2 tablespoons of butter
2 sweet potatoes (pretty big ones, peeled and chopped)
1 onion  (chopped)
3 carrots (peeled and chopped)
1 large or 2 small apples (peeled and chopped)


Cook all those lovely harvest flavors together for 10 minutes on medium heat.

Sauteing the sweet potatoes, onion, apples and carrots.

 
Next you will need:

4 cups vegetables stock
1/2 cup of lentils
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
salt
pepper

Add these ingredients to the vegetables and bring to a boil for about half an hour or until veggies are tender.

Smelled soooooooooooooo good.

Transfer to food processor in small batches and liquify!

Pour back into original pot.  Add more broth, water or olive oil until you like the texture.  I added a little more broth and a few tablespoons of olive oil to mine.

DONE!

Check out the finished product:

Pesto (sorta) Tomato Soup

My favorite herb by far is basil.  If I could make it into a perfume, I would.  So when I saw that the letter "P" won the poll (yes, I am getting desperate when it comes to motivation/ideas/polls), I was excited to make PESTO!

For some reason pesto made me think of tomatoes and tomatoes made me think of tomato soup.  It is such an awesome tummy warming food for fall.  I decided to make my own recipe of pesto tomato soup.

What I did not account for was being able to make pesto in Asheboro.  The closest grocery store is a Food Lion and they only have dried basil.  So my plan was to go to an Asian market and get fresh basil, since these places usually have it for Vietnamese or Thai food.

Royall and I drove up to the biggest Asian market around and after getting over the usual "fish-smell-hitting-you-right-in-the-face" Asian store disorientation, I realized they did not have fresh basil. 

However, we did leave with octopus flavored chips (that was Royall's pick), assorted ramen noodles and dumplings, a box of crackers, and a big bag of rice.

We then decided to go to a regular grocery store.  We got lost and took a nice drive around town until we happened upon an organic store.  They did not have fresh basil and I refused to pay 6.99 for 5 oz. of pre-made pesto sauce.  I settled for a dry pesto mix and some other ingredients and 60 bucks later, we were heading back home.

There's no pine nuts or REAL pesto sauce in this, hence the "sorta" in the title.

I was pretty amazed at how well this turned out though, especially since I made it up all on my own!

Okay, you will need the following:

2 (28 oz) cans of tomatoes
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
white bread
chicken broth (about a cup)
salt, pepper
pesto sauce mix (1/2 packet)
splash of milk
2 tablespoons of sugar


1. Chop your onion and garlic and heat on medium in a skillet with olive oil for a few minutes.
2. Add cans of tomatoes and all the liquid and bring to a boil.
3.  Add a few chunks of white bread (leave out the crust).  I got this idea from when RH made gazpacho.
4. Add pesto seasoning and let boil for 5 minutes.
5. Use a food processor to get it nice and blended.  I had to do two batches in order to fit it all.
6. Return to stove and add chicken broth until the soup is as thin as you would like.
7.  Stir in salt, pepper, sugar and a touch of milk.
8.  Do a taste test to see if you need more salt, etc.
9. Serve with crusty bread or dare I say....GRILLED CHEESE! mmmmhmmm.

Enjoy!

Here's the photo play-by-play:

Ingredients

Adding the bread!

My old school can opener.  Gets the job done!

That's not mold!- it's the pesto powder.

Letting it all stew together

Before

After

Final product

I wish I had made grilled cheese to go with this! Oh well, keeping it low-cal.

PS: This would be awesome with a dollop of sour cream.

Healthy Chicken Packets

These chicken packets pack a lot of flavor, but not a lot of fat! My favorite part: no dishes to clean when you are done! Simply throw out the foil.

You'll need:

boneless, skinless chicken breasts
olives (I used chopped, sliced or whole would be fine too)
diced tomatoes
fresh basil (mine was stolen from the local pho restaurant)
salt, pepper, and garlic if you please
I also think this would be awesome with fresh mozzarella cheese, but that would up the calories and fat

Put the chicken on a piece of foil.  Layer with basil, olives, and tomatoes.

Gorgeous healthy colors!

Fold foil into packet and place on baking sheet.

Cook at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

STEAMY!!!

The final product.

Eat up!

Popcorn cake

This is SO good and only takes about 10 minutes to make.

It is a similar recipe to rice krispie treats- carb, butter, marshmallow= YUMMY

Here's exactly what you will need:

1/2 cup popcorn (as measured before popping)
1 bag miniature marshmallows
6 tablespoons butter
teaspoon salt
handful of chocolate chips or other sweet bits (Reese's pieces, M&M's, etc.)

You will also need a bundt pan or 9x13 pan, sprayed with cooking spray.

First, pop your popcorn.  I used an air popper, but you could also use some canola oil and popcorn heated in a large pot.

Then, melt the butter and marshmallows together.

Let the mixture cool for a little bit before adding popcorn in order to avoid deflating it.

Stir it all together and add some candy bits!

Pour and press into bundt pan with greased hands.

Let cool before removing from pan.

Close-up

ENJOY!

spaghetti pie

I remember my mom making this when I was a kid.  I loved the dry crunchy pasta crust edges.  Mmmm.  Nothing like taking decent Italian food and making it totally waspy.  I LOVE IT!

Here's my rendition of spaghetti pie.  It's super-easy and possibly less messy than traditional spaghetti.  Royall loved it because he said it had the great taste of spaghetti, but in a more convenient way to eat it.

Here's what you will need:

box of spaghetti
jar of spaghetti sauce
mozzarella cheese (just a sprinkle)
ricotta cheese (1/2 to 3/4 cup)
2 eggs
cooking spray
oregano

First things first:
Boil some water and cook a whole box of spaghetti.  Also, preheat the oven to 350.

Once the spaghetti has cooked, rinse it off with cool water and spray it lightly with cooking spray or olive oil.

In a bowl, combine the spaghetti, 2 well beaten eggs, a dollop of sauce (maybe more like a 1/2 cup), and some ricotta and mozzarella.  I didn't measure the cheese very well, just used what I thought looked good.  Sprinkle some oregano in there too!

Pour the spaghetti mixture into a pie pan.  Press it down so it is even and if you can, press some spaghetti up on the sides to form a pie crust.  Leave a shallow well in the middle and add more ricotta and mozzarella in the middle.

Pour spaghetti sauce on top and press/rub it into the pie.  Try and use the whole jar or else you risk a dry pie.  If you don't like dry crusty pasta on the edges, cover well with sauce.

Bake for 25 minutes and then add mozzarella on top.

Let it cool a little bit before cutting into the pie.


Here's the photo play-by-play:

YUM!!!

PS: You can spice this up by adding the following: veggies, ground beef, olives, or different cheeses!

Maple Pumpkin Pie

This pie has two great fall flavors- pumpkin and REAL maple syrup.  Plus, it is sugar-free!  (plain white granulated sugar-free, that is) Check it out.

Maple Pumpkin Pie:

pie crust
can of pumpkin (small)
1 1/4 cup half and half
2/3 cup of real maple syrup (none of that Aunt Jemima or Eggo BS)
3 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
splash, big dash, or mini-bam of flour (I guess 1 teaspoon-ish)
all those spices that smell like Thanksgiving:
     1 tsp each of: cinnamon, nutmeg
     1/2 tsp each of: ginger, salt
     itsy-bitsy pinch of: cloves

Mix all the ingredients well.  I added cream cheese, just because I had it.  It was cold, fat-free cream cheese which did not dissolve into the batter and left chunks of white goo in the pie.  It wasn't bad, but it didn't look pretty.  RH asked if it was marshmallow pieces..... which has got me thinking about a follow up pie recipe.

Anyway, bake at 350 for an hour.  I did not pre-bake the pie crust or anything fancy.

Here's how it looked:

Piping hot outta the oven!

The maple syrup gave the top a sugar syrup sheen.

Got a piece on a plate while it was still hot (hence the melting whipped cream).  It smelled too good to wait.

And next thing I know, about 24 hours later there is a 1/2 inch slice left.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

This was an attempt to make chicken wings healthier.  I'm guessing that it is healthier because: 1. I used white meat chicken instead of dark meat, 2. nothing is fried, 3. cream cheese was fat free, 4. it tastes great with celery!

Here's the ingredient list:

two cooked chicken breasts, shredded
1 package fat free cream cheese
1/2 cup of reduced fat ranch dressing
1/2 cup of Frank's Red Hot or similar hot sauce
dollop of mayonnaise
a couple sprinkles of low-fat mozzerella

 Step by step photos:

Two shredded chicken breasts

Liquid ingredients

Combine chicken with liquid ingredients until it looks like vomit.

Cook at 350 for about 20-30 minutes or until nice and bubbly.

Serve with celery and crackers.

YUM!

PS: Tastes really good as a cold chicken salad if you add chopped celery!

Green Tomato Spice Cake

Got the idea for this from a lady at the farmer's market in Willamstown.  I had forgotten about it until I saw green tomatoes here in Asheboro.  I decided to go out on a limb and try it.  It was SO good.  It has a similar flavor to a carrot cake or spice cake.  Very moist and super tasty!

Here we go:

1. Dice green tomatoes.  You will need 4 cups.  Place the tomatoes in bowl with 1 tablespoon of salt.  Let sit for 10 minutes and then rinse and drain.

Tomatoes- I might chop them into smaller pieces next time.

2. Cream together 1 stick of softened butter and 2 cups of sugar (you could probably reduce the sugar if you want).

3. In separate bowl, combine 2 cups of flour with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of nutmeg, and 1 teaspoon baking soda.  Stir in 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup of walnuts.

4. Add dry ingredients to the creamed butter/sugar.

5. Stir in tomatoes.

6.  Pour into greased and floured 9 by 13 pan.  The batter will be very thick.

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Serve plain or with cream cheese icing.  

Jessie's Naner Loaf

This is my first attempt at a 100 PERCENT FROM SCRATCH CREATION.  It went something like this: too lazy to research a recipe, so I made it up along the way.

Here's my inspiration: I bought bananas with the good intention of eating them in a healthy way.  A week later, they are soft and covered in brown spots.  The only solution: bake them into a more unhealthy form: banana bread!

Ingredients:

stick of butter
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
3 almost rotten bananas
about a teaspoon each of cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and nutmeg
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon each of baking soda and baking powder (I didn't know which to choose, so I used both!)
handful and a half of pecans

Cream butter and sugar together.  Add eggs and bananas.  Add spices and then other dry ingredients.  Bake for an hour at 325 degrees.

This came out pretty good!  I really like the cardamom in it.

Zucchini Casserole

Zucchini Casserole

Ingredients: zucchini, onion, garlic, can diced tomatoes, shredded mozzarella.

Got a little too brown on the top for my liking.  I think our oven runs too hot.

Didn't even get to take other pics because it was gobbled up pretty quick!

Here's how to make it:

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a pretty dish with oil.

2. Slice up two medium/large zucchini (about 1 to 1 1/2 pounds), put aside for later.

3. Saute about a half a cup of chopped onion and 1 clove garlic in olive oil.

4. Add a can diced tomatoes, drained very well.  I used the kind with Italian seasonings in it.  Cook for about 5 minutes.

5. Create a layer of zucchini coins on the bottom of pan.

6. Add layer of tomato mixture.

7. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

8. Repeat until all ingredients are gone.  Don't put cheese on top yet- it will burn.

9.  Bake for 20 minutes.

10.  Reduce heat to 350 and add top layer of cheese.  Bake for 10 minutes.

DONE!

Not-Pumpkin Pie

I wish I had taken pictures of this while in progress, but it was an experiment.

This pie is made with butternut squash instead of pumpkin.  You first have to cook the squash.  I used a pressure cooker to make the squash for dinner the night before and had some leftovers.  After the squash is cooked, it needs to be pureed in a food processor.  Use enough to make 1 cup of puree.  This was about 2 small butternut squashes (probably 1 large). 

Make a pie crust or be lazy and use store bought, like I did.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

For the pie filling: combine 1 cup of squash puree, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup evaporated milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and a pinch of salt in food processor.  Pour into pie shell and bake for 10 minutes or until crust is browned.  You may need to use a pie crust shield or some foil to protect the crust from burning.

After 10 minutes, reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.  Bake for 50 minutes or until set.  Cool and serve.

This was much better the next day after it had cooled overnight in the fridge.  Very similar to pumpkin pie, very custardy and very delicious.  Enjoy!

Bonus picture of our new place: