Chicken Tortellini Soup

I got this recipe from a family cookbook. Loved it! In fact, I was so preoccupied with eating the soup that I forgot to take a pictures of it! This makes a huge amount, so you are more than welcome to cut it in half. I would say the full recipe would feed 10 people. I did a little tweaking, but here is the recipe and I hope you like it as much as I did!

You'll Need:
-5 c. water
-3 cans chicken broth
-2 cans cream of chicken soup
-2 c. cooked chicken, cubed
-1 c. onion, chopped
-1 c. carrots, sliced
-2 cloves garlic, minced (I grate mine with a hand held grater, works great!)
-1/2 tsp. oregano
-1/2 tsp. basil
-1 pkg. tortellini (dry works best)
-1 pkg. frozen broccoli

Directions:
-In a large pot, combine, water, broth, soup, onions, carrots, garlic, chicken and spices.
-Bring to a boil.
-Simmer for 30 min.
-Add tortellini and broccoli.
-Simmer for 15 min. or until cooked!
-Devour!

Cheesy Potato Soup

Found a great recipe on Our Best Bites today for a Baked Potato Soup recipe and I adapted it a little. Holy crap I can't wait til dinner! Of course I sample the dishes I make and lets just say my lunch comprised of this new soup and so will my dinner and I don't mind at ALL! Yum! You have to try this out. It's got an unexpected kick to it and is so smooth, creamy and comforting. I'm also making bread bowls to go along with this. Can't wait to sop up this delectable soup with some fresh bread. mmmm....my mouth is watering just thinking about it. I made a ginormous batch because I knew I would want to freeze this goodness and have it again at a later frosty date. So this recipe is for a huge batch. If you don't feel like doing a big batch, just cut everything in half.


You'll need:
-6 medium baked potatoes (I cooked mine in the microwave real quick and easy like)
-3 cloves of garlic, grated(use a small handheld grater, it makes it into a paste so you don't bite down on garlic bits.)
-6 tbs. butter
-5-6 medium carrots, shredded
-4 c. sharp cheddar cheese (I used a combo of what I had, med. cheddar and monterey jack)
-3 tsp. salt
-3 tsp. pepper
-9 c. milk (I used 6 c. of low fat milk and 3 c. of heavy whipping cream, cuz that's what I had and ran out of milk-tastes great!)
-1 large onion,chopped up small/minced
-1 c. flour
-2 cans of chicken stock/veggie stock (whichever one you have)
-1 1/2 c. sour cream
-8 strips of bacon, cooked and chopped up.
-chives


Directions:
-First put butter in a large stock pot. Melt and add your shredded carrots, minced onion and grated garlic. Let it saute till their all soft.
-Add half of your milk. Then slowly add your flour a little bit at a time, while constantly whisking so you have a smooth mixture and get all the lumps out. (If you can't get all the lumps out, put the soup in your blender and blend it up then put back into stock pot) Then add your cream and the rest of your milk & chicken stock.
-Let it simmer until it thickens.
-Cut your potatoes length wise and scrape out the flesh. Put the chunks of potato in a large bowl and mash up with a wooden spoon breaking up any large chunks. Then add it to the soup.
-Add your cheese and salt and pepper. Then stir till your cheese is melted.
-Take off heat and add sour cream and most of the bacon.
-Serve in bowls and garnish with bacon, sour cream and chives.
-Optional: this is great with bread of some sort.
It will knock your socks off!

Healthy & Delicious Fries

Now no fry is exactly healthy for you, but these are "healthier" for you. You honestly can't go wrong with parmesan herb crusted homemade fries. Makes your mouth water huh? Just wait till you taste them. They are something I have to fight my kids over. And possibly may have stolen a few off their plates? oops! They're that good. Seriously give them a try, you won't leave the pan til their gone.

You'll need:
-6 medium potatoes, sliced into 8 wedges.
-1/4 c. low fat parmesan cheese
-1 tbs. season salt
-1 tsp. pepper
-1 tbs. oregano
-3 tbs. olive oil
-1 gallon ziplock bag

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350.
-Cut potatoes into wedges. I usually get 8 wedges out of each potato.
-In a gallon zip lock baggie, put your parmesan and spices. Zip it and shake them around to mix them.
-Put the potato wedges in the baggie. Then drizzle the olive oil over it.
-Close the baggie and hand it to your kids. They can shake it around to coat the wedges with the seasonings.
-Dump the coated potato wedges onto a cookie sheet lined with foil.
-Bake them for 15-20 min. Until golden brown and you can stick a fork in them and can tell they're soft on the inside, with a nice crust on the outside.
-Gobble them up as fast as you can!

Parmesan Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats

These were by FAR one of my all time favorite recipes! My kids licked-yes licked- their plates clean and my hubby ate 4 of them! I on the other won't tell you how many I ate. :) Remember I'm on a diet and I need to watch my portions? Well that flew out the window once I tasted these. Holy moly these were delish! And super simple to make which made it even more one of my favs. Okay seriously you have to try them. Plus it serves 8. Or if you're like my family, we ate them all and we were only 4. Ooops. :)

Here's what you need:
-4 med. zucchini
-1 lb. sausage (mine was sage flavored)
-1 small onion, chopped
-1 clove garlic, minced
-1 c. bread crumbs, seasoned (mine were italian)
-1/2 c. + 2 tbs. parmesan cheese
-1 egg, beaten
-1/4 tsp. salt
-1/2 c. water

Directions:
-Cut zucchini lengthwise, and scoop the pulp out. Like so.


- Chop the pulp up.
-Brown the sausage, add the onion, garlic & the pulp. Saute it for 5 min. Then remove from the heat.
-Add the bread crumbs & 1/2 c. parmesan & the egg. Mix it well.
It should look like this at this point.


-Fill the zucchini boat shells. Then sprinkle the 2 tbs. of parmesan cheese over the filled zucchini boats. Put the shells in a baking sheet. And pour the 1/2 c. water into the bottom of the baking sheet. Like so.


-Bake it at 350 for 15 min. Uncover them and bake them another 15 min.
-Scarf them up as fast as possible before anyone else can get their hands on them! :)

Easy Chicken & Cheese Enchiladas

This was a snappy meal to fix and the kids loved how creamy it was and it had just enough kick for me and the hubs. I love it when the recipes don't call for that many ingredients! I also took the pic, before I topped it with the ingredients. My kids were starving so I had to hurry and snap the picture quick. Hopefully next time the picture will be much better!

You'll need:
-1 can cream of chicken soup $.88 (on sale at case lot)
-1/2 c. sour cream $.56
-1 c. pace picante salsa (I used my own bottled salsa) $free
-2 tsp. chili powder $.10
-2 c. cooked chicken, chopped (about 2 chicken breasts) $1.50
-1/2 c. monterey jack cheese $.50 (bought on sale for $1)
-6 flour tortillas, warmed $.60 (again bought on sale when pkgs were $1)
-1 tomato, chopped $free from garden
-1 green onion, chopped $free from garden
Total: $4.14

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350.
-Stir the soup, sour cream, picante & chili pwd. in a bowl with the cooked chicken. Spoon it into the tortillas, then top the mix with some cheese.
-Roll tortilla up and put in a 9x9 pan.
-Spoon remaining mixture on top of the rolled up tortillas. Then top that with cheese.
-Cover pan with tin foil.
-Bake for 40 min. Top with the chopped tomato and onion.
*I served this with fresh corn on the cob from the garden and some steamed squash and zucchini from the garden. We were stuffed!
*This should serve about 6 very hungry people.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

This recipe is sinfully yummy and deceptively easy. I didn't have the choc. crust at home with me, so I had to improvise and make my own graham cracker crust. Still turned out great. And I can't wait to try it with the choc. crust! My kids gobbled this up and I may have had 2 pieces (okay 1/2 the pie-don't tell.) This is fun to take to a gathering with friends or maybe when you're craving choc. which is basically every min. of every day for me. ha!

You'll need:
-1 tub cool whip
-1/2 bag of reese's pb cups, or more if you choose.
-1 pudding mix
-1 c. milk
-1 choc. crust

Directions:
-Make pudding mix, but only with 1 c. milk instead of 2 c.
-Let it thicken for a few min. While pudding is thickening, cut up your reese's into chunks. Leave about 4 to cut up and decorate your top.
-Gently fold in the cool whip into the pudding mixture.
-Gently fold in the reese's to the mixture.
-Decorate the top.
-chill for 15 min. And chow down baby!

Easy Quiche

Biscuits were on sale for $.99 this week at our grocery store. I thought this would make a really quick and yummy breakfast. My kids devoured them and so did me and the hubs. I can eat two of these and be full clear past lunch. These stuff you! And they are so tasty.

You'll need:
-1 can of biscuits (usually contains 8)
-4 eggs
-1/2 c. cheese (I liked the mozarella, but anything works)
-4 slices of deli meat (I used smoked turkey cuz that's what I had)
-1 tsp. basil
-Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350.
-Get a muffin tin and spray it with non stick spray.
-Take biscuits out of can and press flat. (about 1/8" thick)
-Form flattened biscuit to the muffin tin cup.
-In a separate bowl, combine eggs, cheese, meat, basil & S&P. Mix well.
-Pour mixture into biscuits. Fill about 1/2-2/3 full. They will fluff up and run over so don't fill too full. (I filled the muffin cups closest to the center so if they did over flow, they just went into another muffin cup instead of on my oven.)
-Bake for 16-18 min.
-Serve hot. So delish!
*these would be great to bring to a brunch or something.