chicken tortilla soup and ghetto peach crumble

Ingredients

• * 12 oz uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
• * 6 oz Dole Bell Pepper, chopped
• * 5 oz onion(s), chopped
• * 2 oz celery, finely chopped
• * 14 1/2 oz Progresso Fire roasted diced tomatoes
• * 3 oz Green Giant Niblets Corn, Frozen
• * 7 clove garlic clove(s)
• * 1 Tbsp canned chipotle peppers
• * 3 oz Kraft 2% Milk Natural Cheese Sharp Cheddar Cheese, shredded
• * 1/2 tsp chili powder
• * 1/2 tsp McCormick Ground cumin
• * 1 oz cilantro
• * 2 cup water
• * 6 oz avocado, diced
• * 3 small corn tortilla(s), baked and crumpled
• * 15 oz canned black beans, drained and rinsed
• * 2 stalks of green onion, finely sliced

Directions

Begin by spraying a non-stick spray in a pot, add the onion, bell pepper, and celery and cook until soft. Add the diced chicken and cook until no longer pink. Add the black beans, fire roasted diced tomatoes, green onions, 1 cup of the water, salt and pepper to taste.

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees and pop the corn tortillas on a cookie sheet and into the oven, cook until golden. About 10 – 15 min depending on your oven. Keep a close eye on these.

In a mini food processor, add the garlic, 1 cup of the water, the chipotle pepper, and the cilantro. Process until mostly smooth.

Add that to the soup. Add the shredded cheese, avocado, and the crumbled corn tortillas.

For those doing Weight Watchers it’s 4 points a serving. This recipe makes 7 servings. 1 cup = 1 serving. This soup is more stew like, you can add more or less water to taste if you want it more soupy.

Peach Crumble

Ingredients

• * 1 medium peach(es), diced
• * 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
• * 1/2 tsp honey
• * 1/2 cup Kashi Go Lean Crunch
• * 1/4 tsp sea salt

Directions

Mix everything in a microwave safe bowl, pop it in for 3 minutes or until peaches get a bit soft. For those on Weight Watchers, this makes 1 serving at 2points.

Recipe: Moist & Fluffy Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients

• 3 3/4 C all-purpose flour
• 6 TBSP sugar
• 2 TBSP baking powder
• 1 1/2 TSP cinnamon
• 1 TSP allspice
• 1 TSP salt (I use kosher salt)
• 3 1/2 C milk
• 1 1/2 C pumpkin puree
• 6 TBSP melted butter
• 3 large eggs

Directions
Stir/whisk all the dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, and salt). In a separate bowl stir/whisk the milk, pumpkin, melted butter, and eggs. Gently pour the wet bowl into the dry, and stir JUST until there’s no obvious chunks of flour. You want lumps, lumps equal pancake perfection.

Grease a skillet or griddle (I use bacon grease yum) and heat over medium heat (approx 300 degrees on a griddle): pour in 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Cook the nummy pancakes about 3 minutes per side, I use a timer. This makes a billion pancakes which is great because they warm up easily.

Pumpkin Tortilla Soup

This soup has a hint of spicy and smokey from the chipotle pepper and a really great flavor from the corn tortillas both in the soup and as a crunchy garnish! This soup is also vegan as well. Personally we top ours with shredded sharp cheddar but that isn’t needed.

Ingredients for the Soup

• 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium onion
• 1 cup cilantro
• 1 1/2 C pumpkin puree (which is one of those regular sized cans)
• 1 28oz can of diced tomatoes (one of those BIG cans)
• 4 C vegetable or chicken stock
• 6 corn tortillas, sliced into squares
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Garnish

• 6 corn tortillas, cut into strips and fried/baked
• lime wedges
• chopped cilantro
• shredded cheese
• avocado, cubed with some lime and salt

In a food processor (or you can chop it all by hand), slap in the garlic, cumin, onion, cilantro, salt, black pepper, chipotle pepper, and blend that all until its a nice fragrant paste. In a large pot over medium heat, add some olive or vegetable oil, about a tablespoon or so and add in your paste and diced corn tortillas. Cook the paste and tortillas (stirring often) for about 2-3minutes.

Add the pumpkin puree, canned diced tomatoes, vegetable/chicken stock, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for an hour or so.

Once the soup is cooked through, ladle into bowls and top with any or all of the delicious garnishes! I bet sour cream or vegan sour cream would be a great addition too!

This is a really simple yet awesome and delicious soup!

{The Pioneer Woman Cooks} Cookbook Giveaway!

Just in time for Christmas/Yule, I went out and got TWO copies of The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl. One for myself naturally, and one copy for YOU!

The author is Ree Drummond who has a very popular blog ranging from the typical blog entry to specific sections for food, homeschooling (yay for homeschooling!), and photography (another Nikon user too!).

Ever since Keith and I started menu planning, we rarely eat out anymore (even today we originally were going to have Chipotle for a late lunch but then decided to make taco salads at home), so to find a cookbook that not only has awesome recipes, but has gorgeous photographs and awesome stories as well really helps us when it comes to finding delicious recipes to try!

All you have to do to win this awesome book is enter! I will choose the winner randomly so the more times you enter, the better chance you have of winning! You must comment to be entered initially, all the other methods are to boost your chances!

How to Enter:

Leave a comment: let me know what your favorite cookbook/food blog is and why!

Link to OSN: a text link, or you could always make me a cool button lol, leave a new comment (which also helps your chances!) if you’ve done so!

Twitter: Follow me on Twitter and send a tweet that says: I just entered to win ‘The Pioneer Woman Cooks’ cookbook, from @starrymom and you can too! Go to http://bit.ly/6kqQjQ and enter! Come back and leave a new comment that links to that twitter status!

Blog: write a blog entry about the giveaway! Make sure to come back and leave a new comment if you’ve done so!

The giveaway will end Sunday, December 13^th, 2009, at 11:59p CST.

Recipe: Southwestern Pasta

This meal is so delicious, so healthy, and technically if you eliminate the cheese, is vegan as well!

I know it’s not the best photo, but take my word for it, super delicious! Oh and you will dirty three pots/pans and one very large bowl but it’s worth it.

Ingredients

• 1 large sweet onion, large dice
• 1 large red bell pepper, large dice
• 1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained (15oz generally)
• 3 ripe avocados, diced
• 1 bag of frozen corn (1lb)
• 1 cup cilantro, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 1 TBSP cumin
• 1 can of diced tomatoes, (28oz)
• 1 box of dried penne (1lb)
• 1 block of sharp cheddar cheese (8oz, eliminate this to make the dish vegan!), cubed
• 4 limes
• 1 TBSP oil (I personally use olive but vegetable is fine)
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

Start by boiling the water for the pasta, make sure you salt your water VERY well as this is your only chance to really season the pasta. Once your water is boiling like crazy, drop your pasta in, give it a stir, and cook for 8-10min until it’s done but not mushy, still has some texture to it.

In a separate skillet, add the oil, cumin, and the frozen corn. Cook over medium-high heat for 10 minutes, until the corn is soft and slightly caramelized.

In a large pot, add the beans, bell pepper, onion, cilantro, avocado, garlic, corn/cumin mixture, and diced tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook for around 5-10minutes, just to heat through.

Dump the cooked pasta and vegetable mixture into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the cubed cheese, the juice of the 4 limes, and any additional salt/pepper that it may need.

This is super quick to make, affordable, can be made vegan by eliminating the cheese, or made more hearty by adding diced chicken breast. Very delicious and kid friendly (my oldest son loved it and said it was “delicious!”), we make this recipe often!

Recipe: Keith’s Banana Bread

This is the ultimate banana bread that my awesome boyfriend bakes often. My oldest son and I just can’t get enough! So delicious!

This recipe will make 3 loaves of fantastic banana bread.

Ingredients

• 6 C unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 C sugar
• 4 1/2 TSP baking soda
• 1 1/2 TSP kosher salt
• 14 bananas, mashed (he uses a potato masher as you want lumps)
• 3 sticks of butter (oh yes, real butter!), melted
• 3 TSP real vanilla extract
• 1 TSP rum extract (he says this is optional)
• 1/2 TSP ground cinnamon
• 9 TBSP sour cream (which is 1/2 C + 1 TBSP)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In the largest mixing bowl you have, mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt) using a whisk to aerate and combine. In the second largest mixing bowl you have, mix your wet ingredients (melted butter, bananas, vanilla extract, rum extract, and sour cream), until just barely combined. You want those tasty banana lumps!

Pour the wet ingredients into the “dry” bowl, stir to just combine, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl often. Let batter sit for ten minutes then pour into your greased loaf pans.

Bake for one hour at 350 degrees, test with a toothpick. If it comes out gooey, bake for an additional 5 minutes until the toothpick comes out 95% clean as the bread will continue to bake internally as it cools.

After bread is done, remove from the oven, and release bread from the pan onto a cooling rack. Cool for thirty minutes before slicing and topping with butter. Awesome butter.

Recipe: Steak Stirfry

I saw the steaks during our grocery shopping trip and immediately thought of stir fry!

This meal was easy to prepare, quick to cook, and affordable!

Ingredients

• 2 top round steaks, trimmed of fat
• 2 medium red bell pepper, sliced
• half of a large red onion, sliced
• 2 limes, juiced
• 2 TBSP garlic, minced
• 1 pint of grape tomatoes
• 3 TBSP fresh ginger, grated
• 1/2 C soy sauce
• 1 carrot, julienned
• 1/2 C cilantro, chopped
• 1 bunch of scallions, chopped
• 1/2 C bean sprouts
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 C water
• 3 C cooked white rice (or you can use brown if you have it!)

Directions
Have your warm cooked rice on standby, we do it in our rice cooker which is a fantastic device!

In a bowl, mix together the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and lime juice. This is your sauce for the stir fry.

Season BOTH sides of the steak very well with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, turn your pan (I used our non-stick pan sprayed with olive oil) on high heat and get the pan SUPER hot as you need to sear your meat.

Once the pan is very hot, carefully place both steaks in the pan and DO NOT touch the steaks. Cook on the first side for 4 minutes, flip the meat and cook an additional 2 minutes. Take off the heat to your cutting board and let rest while you cook the veggies.

Toss in the still hot pan your onion, bell pepper, and carrot. Season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook for about 2 minutes. Add the water and using a wooden spoon, scrape up the brown bits from the meat (FLAVOR!). Add the tomatoes, bean sprouts, and cilantro. Cook for about 5 minutes until the vegetables are still a bit crisp but no longer raw.

Add your sauce and scallions to the vegetables and cook for an additional 3 minutes. During this time slice your meat against the grain VERY thinly. A serrated edged blade works best for this.

To assemble per serving, put a few scoops (1/2 C or so) of rice into your bowl, top with the vegetable mixture (1/2 C), and 5 – 7 strips of steak.

To veganize this dish, eliminate the meat and use firm tofu marinated in some extra sauce (garlic, ginger, lime juice, and soy sauce) for about 10 minutes before cooking it.

Vegetable Penne

I love this dish because it’s so quick to make, so fresh, and I am a sucker for fresh basil (and lots of cheese)!

Ingredients

• 1 pint of grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 can of diced tomatoes (28oz)
• 3 zucchini, quartered
• 2 balls of fresh mozzarella, cubed
• 1 cup of fresh basil, chopped
• 1 TBSP garlic, finely minced
• 2 TSP olive oil
• 2 TBSP dried oregano
• 1lb dried penne
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 C grated Parmesan

Directions

Cook your pasta until al dente. Put your cubed mozzerella into the freezer (a trick so it doesn’t melt so fast in the dish).

In a large sauce pot add your oil and crank the heat up to high. Wait until the oil is really hot and add your zucchini, do not stir as you want the vegetable to get a bit golden brown. After a few minutes add some salt, pepper, and the garlic and stir. Again wait a few minutes to get the other side golden brown.

Once the zucchini is golden, add all of your tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper, and Parmesan cheese. Cook for around 10 minutes, add your basil, and cook an additional 3 minutes.

Toss with your penne, add the cubed mozzarella cheese and let sit for 2 – 5 minutes. Serve with garlic bread if you have it.

So delicious!

Pumpkin Chili

This is a really filling, affordable, delicious meal! The leftovers can be used in so many ways (if you have any leftover!) so it’s also versatile!

Ingredients

• 2 medium bell peppers, chopped
• 3 small onions, chopped
• 3 medium stalks of celery , chopped
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 Tbsp ground cumin
• 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
• 1 cup fire roasted diced tomatoes
• 15 oz canned kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 15 oz canned black beans
• 28 oz canned diced tomatoes
• 29 oz canned tomato sauce
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 cup cilantro, chopped
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Garnishes

• Avocado tossed with kosher salt and lime juice
• Corn tortillas baked in the oven until crispy
• 2% Shredded sharp cheddar
• Light sour cream
• Chopped cilantro
• Diced red onion

Directions
In a large pot on high heat, add your celery, bell pepper, onion, garlic, ground cumin, chili powder, kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper. Cook until the vegetables are softened, approx five minutes.

Then add everything else except for the cilantro. Add more kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to season the new additions. Simmer on a medium heat for around twenty minutes, stirring often. Add your cilantro, and simmer for another five minutes. Then it’s ready to serve!

Each serving is 1cup and this makes 11 servings. For those doing WeightWatchers, it’s 2pts per serving. If you omit the garnish of shredded cheese, this dish is also vegan! Hope you all enjoy!

Pasta with Italian Sausage & Caesar Salad

This is such a tasty and filling meal and super affordable, especially if you can find the sausages on sale like we did!

Ingredients

• 1 medium red bell pepper, medium dice
• 5 lean turkey Italian turkey sausages, casings removed
• 1/2C low fat ricotta
• 29oz canned tomato puree
• 1 TBSP dried oregano
• 1/2C chopped fresh basil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 6C cooked whole wheat pasta

We love this dish because it is SO fast to prepare and cook!

Directions
Heat a skillet over high heat (non-stick or sprayed with a bit of olive oil cooking spray) and add your sausages. Use the back of a wooden spoon to break up the meat. You still want it to have fairly large bits. After 8-10minutes, add your diced red bell pepper with a pinch of kosher salt and cook for an additional five minutes.

In a separate pot over medium heat, add your garlic, canned tomato puree, oregano, salt, pepper, and ricotta. Cook this mixture for five minutes. Then add in your Italian sausage and red bell pepper mixture. Stir to combine.

In a bowl place 1C of the pasta and top with 1/2C of sauce.

The sauce makes 8 servings of 1/2C each, for those doing Weight Watchers, each serving of sauce is three points.

I also thought that a homemade Caesar salad would be super tasty as well!

Dressing Ingredients

• 1oz Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2C low fat buttermilk
• 3TBSP light sour cream
• 1tsp anchovy paste
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

This makes 15 servings (1 serving = 1TBSP) which is 0 points for Weight Watchers.

Salad Ingredients

• 4 pieces of light wheat toast, cubed
• 1/2oz Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 romaine heart, cut into bite sized pieces

The salad makes three servings!

Directions
In a small bowl, combine all of the dressing ingredients and whisk until everything is combined. Let sit for at least ten minutes to develop the flavor. In a separate larger bowl, add your salad ingredients and top with 4TBSP of dressing.

I hope everyone tries these recipes out and enjoys them!