Broccoli Cheddar Soup

It's cold here. If you don't live in AZ you're probably chuckling and shaking your head saying, "Silly girl...it doesn't get cold in Phoenix." But it is. Right now according to the weather on my phone it's 34 degrees at 11:50 AM. Brrrr. Once it's cold (or even AZ cold which usually means low 60s for the high), I want to eat soup. I love soup, and I'm always looking for a tasty homemade soup recipe. I rarely eat canned soup anymore because the ingredients are mostly stuff I don't want to put in my body, and they're just too darn salty for my taste. Except Campbell's tomato soup. I'll eat that when I'm sick, HFCS be damned! I like it made with milk and crushed up saltine crackers stirred in. Yum.

Anyway, one of my online friends, Stephanie, posted this recipe on the message board website I frequent, and I was dying to try it. My kids are pretty hit or miss when it comes to soup, but they love broccoli and cheese, so I took a chance that this one would be something they'd like. Plus Stephanie is a nutrition consultant, so I knew I could trust that this was something healthy to feed my family.

Broccoli Cheese Soup
Source: The Mamasphere via Stephanie

1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 medium chopped onion
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups half-and-half cream
2 cups chicken stock (I use homemade)
1/2 lb fresh broccoli
1 cup carrots
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
8 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

1. Sauté onion in tablespoon butter. Set aside.

2. Cook melted butter and flour using a whisk over medium heat for 3-5 minutes.

3. Stir constantly and add the half & half.

4. Add the chicken stock. Simmer for 20 minutes.

5. Add the broccoli, carrots and onions. Cook over low heat 20-25 minutes.

6. Add salt/pepper/nutmeg to taste. Puree with immersion blender.

7. Return to heat and add grated cheese.

*****

I've made this twice in about the past month, and it's a big hit with my family. My boys always grumble a little when I've made it, but they both eat it all up. Actually I made it this past week and doubled the recipe to take some to an injured friend and her family. They all liked it, too. It's really hearty and filling, and it comes together pretty easily, too. I really should just double it on a regular basis so I have some to eat for lunches or stick in the freezer because one batch goes pretty quickly. This is definitely a great addition to my go-to soup repertoire! Add a salad and some crusty bread or rolls, and you have a great meal!

Bacon, Ranch, and Chicken Mac and Cheese

Ummmm...bacon and ranch in mac and cheese? Catches your eye doesn't it? It did mine when I was flipping through a Cooking Light magazine at my mom's recently. I stopped subscribing to it because I don't like the new layout. I was sad to stop taking it as I've gotten it since 2003 or 2004, but I just didn't dig it. Plus my mom gets it, so I might as well read hers and then go to the website and email myself the recipes I liked from it. I'm quite the money saver, can't you tell?

Anyway, I'm pretty much a sucker for mac and cheese to begin with, then when I saw bacon in the title it was a done deal that my family would be having this for dinner at some point. When the boy asked what we were having for dinner the night I made this, and I told him "mac and cheese" he responded with, "Oh boy! My favorite!!" What can I say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Bacon, Ranch, and Chicken Mac and Cheese

8 ounces uncooked elbow macaroni
1 slice applewood-smoked bacon
8 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups fat-free milk
1/3 cup condensed 45% reduced-sodium 98% fat-free cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded six-cheese Italian blend (such as Sargento)
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded colby-Jack cheese

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat; drain.
2. Cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving drippings in pan. Finely chop bacon; set aside. Increase heat to medium-high. Add chicken to drippings in pan; sauté 6 minutes or until done.
3. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat; sprinkle flour evenly into pan. Cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a whisk. Combine milk and soup, stirring with a whisk; gradually add milk mixture to saucepan, stirring with a whisk. Bring to a boil; cook 2 minutes or until thick. Remove from heat; let stand 4 minutes or until sauce cools to 155°. Add Italian cheese blend, onion powder, garlic powder, dill, and salt, stirring until cheese melts. Stir in pasta and chicken.
4. Preheat broiler.
5. Spoon mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with reserved bacon and colby-Jack cheese. Broil 3 minutes or until cheese melts.

Nutritional Information
Calories:497
Fat:17g (sat 9.2g,mono 4.7g,poly 1.4g)
Protein:33.3g
Carbohydrate:51.7g
Fiber:2g
Cholesterol:74mg
Iron:2.4mg
Sodium:767mg
Calcium:368mg

*****

My family loves bacon. Generations of my family have loved bacon, as have generations of my husband's family (or at least his parents do, so I'm assuming it goes back longer than that), so when I read this only called for one piece I figured that just wouldn't do. Kind of like I always add more cheese than what is called for. I figured a second slice wouldn't hurt anything, so I cooked up two. As soon as my guys smelled bacon cooking all three of them were in the kitchen. I damn near had to smack their hands. Just kidding--about the hand smacking, they did all come in asking for bacon, but I told them it was for dinner. I also didn't use the canned cream of whatever soup because I've vowed to stop buying it because it's really nasty stuff. Or at least the ingredients in it are nasty. I try to stick to a rule of "if I can't pronounce it, I shouldn't eat it" when it comes to buying food. In the Make it Fast, Cook it Slow cookbook, Stephanie O'Dea has a recipe for cream of whatever soup you can make yourself and substitute for the canned stuff that's really easy to put together. You can find the recipe on her blog here.

Because I had to make my own cream of whatever soup and needed to make a separate roux for the mac and cheese, this took a little longer than I thought it would, but it all worked out in the end. I didn't have colby jack cheese to use, so I used some shredded cheddar instead.

This was yummy!!! I ended up adding in a little too much dill (I go a little crazy with fresh dill because I heart it so), but it wasn't too overpowering. Just stick with what's listed in the recipe!! If I recall correctly (and I'm pretty sure I do in looking over what else we've eaten recently), the husband had thirds and kept going back for little bites until he had finished off the pan. So, we liked it. The boy and baby liked it, too. This is definitely something I'll make again, I'll just have to plan my time out a little better.

Jen's Chicken Pot Pie

I thought it had been a really long time since I updated, but I see it was just last Thursday. That isn't too bad I guess. The boy has become obsessed with playing games on the PBS Kids website, so if I so much as turn on the laptop downstairs he is constantly begging to play games. I haven't gotten as much blog updating done as I would have liked. We have a family blog also, and I haven't updated that one in well over a month.

Anyway, I need a quick fix dinner one night last week because the whole chicken I had gotten out wasn't even close to being defrosted. I remembered I had some frozen cooked turkey left from Thanksgiving #2 back in December, and I had frozen pie crusts. Voila...how about a pot pie?! My friend Jen B. has a really good pot pie recipe (she made it for us when the baby was born), so I found it on her blog. It sounded super easy, and I had everything on hand for it.

Jen's Chicken Pot Pie

Pastry for 2 pie crusts (I use frozen)
1/2 cup of chopped onions
6 Tablespoons of butter
1/2 cup of flour
3 cups chicken stock
3 cups cooked cubed chicken
1 10 ounce package of frozen veggies (I use peas, corn, carrot, green bean mix)
1 clove of minced garlic
paprika to taste (1/2 teaspoon or more)
garlic powder to taste (1/2 teaspoon or more)
onion powder to taste (1/2 teaspoon or more)
dried parsley flakes to taste (1 teaspoon or more)
salt and pepper to taste (1 teaspoon each or more)

Directions:
Preheat oven at 450 degrees. Cook frozen veggies according to package directions and set aside.

In large saute pan, cook onion in butter until tender (but not brown). Add garlic and cook for another minute. Blend in flour, parsley, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Add chicken stock all at once. Cook and stir until thick and bubbly. Once thick and bubbly, add cooked chicken cubes and cooked veggies.

Thaw and prepare pastry crust according to package directions. Pour filling into one pie crust. Top with second pie crust, pinch edges together to seal two pie crusts together, and cut vent slits in top. Butter top of pie. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until pie crust is done.

*****

All notes and directions above are Jens'. I used turkey for mine because it's what I had. The only frozen vegetables I had were a peas and carrot mix and about half a bag of frozen broccoli, so that's what I used. Instead of cooking the vegetables separately I just added them in with the meat and let them heat up in the sauce. I thought mine tasted a little bland so I added in some poultry seasoning and Lawry's seasoned salt to kick it up a little. And can I also add that I wish I knew how to make a pretty pie crust edge? I just can't ever seem to get it. Sigh.

I love pot pies. They're so homey and comforting and tasty and good. The husband isn't a super big fan of them, but I really like them. I thought this was fantastic. Everyone ate it really well which for me is a sign of a winning dinner. The filling made enough for two pies, so I froze the other half and will have it at a later time when I need a quick fix dinner. Oh, I forgot...I cut down on the amount of butter to make it a little healthier. I used about 2 Tbsp of butter and 1 Tbsp olive oil. I was worried my roux wasn't going to turn out okay, but it was fine. Or at least I thought it was fine. The decrease in butter may have been part of the reason mine needed a little extra flavor, too. I loved how fast this came together and was ready to eat. this will definitely be my go-to pot pie recipe!!



Hmmm...I should have taken a picture of it sliced so you could see the yummy inside!

Green Bean Casserole

When Jen and I were figuring out the menu for Thanksgiving #2 I had thought about fixing Alton Brown's real-deal-don't-use-canned-soup green bean casserole. Jen said she'd made it, and it wasn't worth the time or effort. Our friend Danielle had made this for our Halloween party, and we both liked it, so Jen got the recipe from her. Turned out it was super easy, and the best part was NO CANNED SOUP! I have no idea where Danielle got this recipe, so I can only give her credit for it. I've always loved green bean casserole, but I thought this was much better than the typical green beans, cream of mushroom soup, french fried onion casserole most people are used to. Whenever I need to make a green bean casserole--which sadly isn't that often--this is what I'm going to make!

Norma Watkin's Green Bean Casserole

1 TBS butter
2 tsp flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp grated onion
1 pint sour cream
1/2 lb swiss cheese- grated
2 (16oz) cans green beans
cracker crumbs **(this is where I use the fried onion topping)

Melt butter in saucepan and stir in flour, salt, pepper, sugar, and onion. Add sour cream. Stir until thickened. Stir in cheese until melted. Grease a 1 1/2 qt casserole. Place beans in first, top with cheese sauce, and cover with cracker crumbs. Bake at 400 for 20 min. Serves 8.

*****

Like I already said, this was awesome. Everyone really liked it. I was worried the sauce was going to be a pain to put together, like a normal roux, but it really came together fast. My sauce seemed to separate a little when they cooked, but no one really noticed, even when I mentioned it. I didn't have an entire half pound of swiss cheese, so I used six ounces of that and a handful or so of Monterey Jack. I also used fresh green beans--at the request of my brother--instead of canned. Really I wouldn't have used canned anyway, at the least I would use frozen. This was so yummy...my new go-to Green Bean Casserole!

Macaroni and Cheese with Ham and Peas

So I didn't get to go back and update recipes from my hiatus today like I had planned. I had a little breakdown last night with how completely overwhelmed I'm feeling with all the holiday stuff I need to get done and getting ready for a house guest and big event this weekend. The house guest is my brother, so it's not like my house needs to be spotless or anything, but I'd still like it presentable.

Anyway, at some point I'll go back and post at least two recipes I made while I was "gone" because I know I have pictures of what I made. There may be more but now I can only think of those two. I was trying to come up with meals that didn't require a lot of extra ingredients this week, mostly because I was feeling lazy. A couple months ago I spied "Cook's Illustrated All-Time Best Recipes" magazine at Costco. The darn thing just jumped off the rack into my cart...can you believe it?! One of the recipes is Classic Macaroni and Cheese, and there's a variation that adds in ham and peas. I had some ham in the freezer I wanted to use up, and all I needed to buy for the recipe were the two cheeses.

(The downside of Cook's Illustrated recipes are that I have to type them out becuase you have to have a subscription to the website, not just the magazine, to access the recipes on the website.)

Classic Macaroni and Cheese with Ham and Peas

Bread Crumb Topping
6 slices large white sandwich bread, torn into rough pieces
3 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces

Pasta and Cheese
1 pound elbow macaroni
Table salt
5 Tbsp unsalted butter
6 Tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp powdered mustard
1/4 tsp cayenne (optional)
5 cups milk (whole, lowfat, or skim)
8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (about 2 cups)
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 2 cups)

For the bread crumb topping: Pulse bread and butter in food processor until crumbs are about 1/8 inch, 10 to 15 1-second pulses. Set aside.

For the pasta and cheese: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat broiler. Bring 4 quarts water to a boil in a Dutch oven over high heat. Add macaroni and 1 tablespoon salt; cook until pasta is tender. Drain pasta and set aside in colander.

In now-empty Dutch oven, heat butter over medium-high heat until foaming. Add flour, mustard, and cayenne (if using) and whisk well to combine. Continue whisking until mixture becomes fragrant and deepens in color, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk; bring mixture to boil, whisking constantly (mixture must reach full boil to fully thicken). Reduce heat to medium and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened to consistency of heavy cream, about 5 minutes. Off heat, whisk in cheeses and 1 teaspoon salt until cheeses are fully melted. Add pasta, ham, and peas and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is steaming and heated through, about 6 minutes.

Transfer mixture to broiler-safe 13x9 inch baking dish and sprinkle evenly with bread crumbs. Broil until crumbs are deep golden brown, 3-5 minutes, rotating pan if necessary for even browning. Cool about 5 minutes, then serve.

*****

This definitely sounds like more work than my usual macaroni and cheese, but I'm curious to try it. I don't think Cook's Illustrated has ever done me wrong, so I have pretty high hopes for this. I always feel kind of guilty if I think about--or actually do--change around a Cook's Illustrated recipe since they go through a lot of work developing them (another reason I love the magazine--you get to read how they came up with the recipe!). I think we may have a salad on the side with this, but since there are peas mixed in, I'm not sure if we'll have another vegetable or not.

*****

Well, this was good, but I'm not sure it was good enough for all the work involved. Or maybe it just seemed like a lot of work because dinner time around here is crazy. For whatever reason both my kids feel the need to be around me, even though daddy is home and hasn't seen them all day. So it could be that it just seemed like I was in the kitchen forever because I had to keep removing my now-walking one year old from the kitchen.

I used spiral pasta because it's what I had, and the boy complained that he didn't like the shape and where were the macaronis. The husband said he'd like it better without the peas. I really didn't think it was any better than my mother-in-law's recipe that I normally make, which is much less time-consuming. I think if you have the time, make this and you'll like it, but it's definitely not something you can rush through with the roux and all that.

(Okay, somehow I never hit Publish Post...oops. Since I still need to post it I will add that the husband and I both liked the leftovers better than the first time we ate it.)

Rick Bayless Salsa Mac and Cheese

The husband is obsessed with the NCAA 2010 college football game for the Xbox, so the other night while he was playing it I decided to dig around on the Rick Bayless website and see what I could find. There were some very tasty sounding recipes I came across and emailed to myself. This was one I wanted to try as soon as I possibly could. I had wanted to make Quick and Easy Mexican Chicken because we hadn't had it in a long time, and it's so tasty and easy. I figured since this would have some of the same flavors as the chicken, it would be a decent pairing.

Chef Rick Bayless' Salsa Mac and Cheese
Recipe from Season 7 of Mexico - One Plate at a Time

2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 1/2 to 2 cups Fire-Roasted Tomato Salsa or your favorite salsa
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Salt
1 pound dried pasta (though elbow macaroni will do, I suggest you try cork-screw cavatappi or the spiral rotini or fusilli)

Pour 4 quarts of water into a large pot, cover and set over high heat.

In a medium-size saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, then stir in the flour and whisk until the mixture turns a deep golden, about 2 minutes. Add the milk and continue to whisk constantly until the mixture thickens and comes to a full boil, 4 or 5 minutes. (Whisk diligently and there will be no lumps.) Stir in the salsa, remove from the heat, then stir in cheese. Continue stirring until all the cheese has melted. Taste and season generously with salt, usually 1 1/2 teaspoons. Cover to keep warm until the pasta is done.

When the water has come to a boil, add the dried pasta. Stir well to keep the pasta from sticking together and boil until the pasta is al dente, about 10 minutes. Drain thoroughly and add the pasta to the sauce. Stir until all the pasta is covered in the salsa cheese sauce. You’re ready to dig in.

*****

I've mentioned before the difficulties I have making a roux, but I have to say a butter roux versus an oil roux is so much easier! Or maybe I'm just getting better at them. Hard to say. I didn't want to mess with making my own salsa, so I bought some fire roasted tomato salsa instead. I also cut the recipe in half. This was tasty, but I used reduced fat cheese, which I think was a mistake. It would have been better with regular cheese I think, and I think mine had a bit too much salsa. We all really liked it--especially the baby! He'd literally scream when he didn't have any left on his tray. I'll definitely make this again. Oh, Rick Bayless, how I heart you.