Italian Wedding Soup

Here is another warm, satisfying soup for these cold and snowy days (at least, they are cold and snowy around here). This is perfect to make on a Sunday afternoon. It’s not hard, but it takes a little time to get everything ready. It’s all worth it, though. It makes about three whole meals for us, so we can eat it another two times during the week, really cutting back on the amount of cooking I have to do.

Plus, the kiddo loved it. Anytime he scarfs down my cooking is sweet success in my book.

Italian Wedding Soup

⅔ lb lean ground beef
½ cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp parmesan cheese
1 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp italian seasoning (combo of oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary)
¼ tsp salt
bit of black pepper
¼ tsp onion powder
½ tsp parsley
1 egg

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, with your hands, until fully combined.

Form into miniature meatballs. I like to do them pretty small, so they cook fully. Put them in a coated (Pam) dish, whatever you might have (I happened to have a pie pan on the counter), and cover them. Refrigerate until ready for use. I often do this earlier in the day, ie. when my child is sleeping, since this is what takes the longest.

3 cups carrots, chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
2 cloves minced garlic
½ tsp basil
½ tsp oregano
8 cups chicken broth
2 ½ cups uncooked shell pasta (try to use whole-wheat, it’s just better)
2 cups fresh spinach, chopped
½ tbsp parsley

If you use bouillon, make the chicken broth while you are chopping the vegetables. I just boil the water in a covered saucepan, add the cubes, and let it sit, covered, until I am ready to add it. The cubes will dissolve in time.

Have everything ready to go on your counter

Heat the oil in a large soup pot. Saute the carrots and onions until the onions are tender, stirring occasionally. It may take a bit, since there are a lot of them. When that is done, add garlic, basil, oregano, and salt and pepper, and saute until fragrant. Add the chicken broth. Cover, and bring to a slow boil. Drop in the meatballs, carefully, one at a time. Then add the pasta and spinach.

Return to a simmer, and cook, covered, for 25 minutes. Remove from the heat, and stir in parsley.

Serve with a little parmesan sprinkled on top (if you want), and some warm bread. So warm and filling for a cold winter day. Yum.

Since I should really cite my sources, I got this recipe from one of the blog links on the right - Cinnamon, Spice, and Everything Nice - but I did change it to my own tastes. I think it’s a bit better, but I still can’t take all the credit for it =) There are also many different variations of this out there, though. I like this one best, however, if I do say so myself =)

Like I said, this makes at least three whole meals of us. Each of the big containers is a meal for all three of us. I am going to freeze the smaller one to see how it works. If it freezes well, I will report back. Enjoy!

Chocolate Pecan Pie!!!

We had Thanksgiving with my hubby’s dad’s family this year, and we were all supposed to bring either a pie or a side dish. And this was mine! Pecan pie is my absolute favorite kind of pie, and this just looked too yummy to pass up. It’s from Tyler Florence, on Food Network, who I usually don’t like that much, but this is soooo good!

It’s very rich, and very bad for you, but oh so yummy! And the way I see it, we have Thanksgiving once a year, and I’m going to make and enjoy something fancy, dang it! That’s what I always loved about Thanksgiving.

Chocolate Pecan Pie

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup finely ground pecans
1 tablespoon sugar
Pinch salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small chunks
2 tablespoons ice water, plus more if needed

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the butter chunks.

Using a pastry blender, or your hands, incorporate the butter into the dry ingredients. I
prefer to use my hands, just make sure that your hands are completely dry before 
you start. This is about halfway through.

The mixture should look like coarse crumbs without any solid pieces of butter left. 

Add the ice water, 1 tbsp at a time. Combine with your hands until the mixture binds
together, but isn’t too wet or sticky. 1 tbsp of water was plenty for me. Make into a ball,
cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes (no longer).

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough. I’m not going to go any more in
depth with this process. It didn’t exactly go well. All you have to know is that I got the
crust into the pie pan. Doesn’t matter how =) (by the way, you could easily use your own crust recipe for this, and it would probably turn out much better)



Arrange 2 cups of pecans on the bottom of the pie crust.

While the dough is chilling, get the rest of the ingredients ready to go.

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark corn syrup
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Melt the butter and chocolate slowly over the stove, just until melted. Let it cool. While
it’s cooling, beat the eggs in a bowl until frothy. Beat in the sugar. Then beat in the rest
of ingredients, adding the chocolate/butter mixture last, and only when it’s cool enough.

Carefully pour the filling, slowly, over the pecans. Try to use all of it, but if your pie pan is rather shallow, you may not use it all.

Carefully transfer the pie to a preheated 350 degree oven (the filling will slosh around,
so be careful!) Bake for 45 min. Turn off the oven, but leave the pie in
there for another fifteen minutes. Remove the pie, and let it sit for at least at least an hour before serving. Best if it sits overnight, so the filling can completely solidify.

SOOOO delicious! If this is too fancy for the regular Thanksgiving spread, it would work
great for a special Christmas party or dinner party during the holidays. With a dollop of
whipped cream (the real kind), you are good to go!

Any ideas on how to lighten it up???

Homemade Applesauce

So, I was asked to show how I made my homemade applesauce, from when we made Applesauce Pancakes, and here it is! There are a lot of people that make their own applesauce. It’s sooooo easy, and while it may not be cheaper than buying it, it’s not much more expensive, and I like it a whole lot better.

I’ve taken a few different applesauce recipes and combined and tweaked them. The first couple of times I made this, it was good, but we didn’t really care for the flavors as much. This one is right on, in our opinion.

Homemade Applesauce

10 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
6 tbsp lemon juice
¼ cup sugar (½ white and ½ brown)
1 tbsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
3 cinnamon sticks
½ tsp nutmeg
1 cup apple juice
½ water

Combine all ingredients in a pot. Stir to combine the sugar thoroughly. It seems like a lot of liquid, but it’s okay. Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Keep the pot covered.

Simmer for about 50 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once done, remove from the heat and uncover.

Let it cool for a few minutes. Using a potato masher, carefully mash the apples. I usually mash it for a bit, let it sit for a bit, mash again, let it sit, mash, etc. That way I can get as smooth a consistency as possible. Keep in mind that it won’t be quite the same consistency as store-bought applesauce.

Be sure to taste it for the seasonings. You can add just a little bit more cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, sugar, etc., according to your tastes.

This is perfect for eating, baking, cooking, anything! Next summer, I really want to try making combination applesauces, like strawberry applesauce, blueberry applesauce, peach applesauce, etc. Yummy!

Honey-Lime Enchiladas

I’m not a huge enchilada fan. At least I wasn’t until I made these. I LOVE these, and so does my hubby. The kiddo isn’t a huge fan, and I think that’s because they use green chili enchilada sauce, instead of red (it’s a little spicier, but I like it SO much more than red), and I still don’t know how to calm it down a bit. Any ideas?

These aren’t that difficult to make, and really, really yummy. You can also space out the prep a little bit, so it goes a little more smoothly when you actually assemble them. I cook and shred the chicken the day before, if I can, and then start the marinade the following morning.

Honey-Lime Enchiladas

1 lb chicken breast, cooked and shredded (about 1 ½ large chicken breasts)
⅔ cup lime juice
⅔ cup honey
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin (optional)
bit of salt
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn, rinsed and drained
1 ½ cups monterey jack/colby cheese blend, divided
1 can green chili enchilada sauce (19 oz)
½ cup half and half
flour tortillas - this batch used about 14 tortillas (not the huge ones)

Place cooked, shredded chicken in a large, resealable plastic bag. Combine the rest of ingredients (through salt) thoroughly in a bowl, until honey is completely dissolved.

Pour over chicken, squeeze out excess air, and let marinate for at least a half hour. I like to do this in the morning and let it marinate all day. The chicken gets nice and moist and soaks up a lot of the flavor. 

When ready to start the enchiladas, drain the marinade from the chicken into a bowl. You have a to be a little creative to get it out of the bag without the chicken falling out. Try to get most of the marinade out, but it’s okay to leave some of it with the chicken (I usually add some back to it, anyways). Place the chicken in a large bowl.

Add the black beans, corn, and cheese to the chicken and mix thoroughly. If desired, add a couple spoonfuls each of the leftover marinade and the enchilada sauce.

Grease two casserole pans. Add ½ cup or so of enchilada sauce to the bottom of each pan and spread around evenly. Warm up the tortillas. Add a few spoonfuls of the chicken mixture to each tortilla and wrap up like a burrito. Place seamside down in the pans.

Combine the leftover marinade with the rest of the enchilada sauce and the half and half. Spoon evenly over the pans, trying to coat each enchilada completely. Sprinkle with remaining ½ cup cheese.

Place in preheated 375 degree oven for 25-30 minutes. Let sit for five minutes before eating, and then ENJOY! The two pans together make about three meals for us.

The original recipe didn’t even call for any vegetables, just chicken and cheese. Any ideas for what else could be added to the filling?

Applesauce Pancakes

I love Saturdays! It’s the only day of the week that my hubby gets to be with us all day long (usually). And in the autumn, they are even better. One of my favorite things is making pancakes, waffles, or french toast on Saturday mornings, with my family around the table and the sunshine streaming in the window. And this recipe made this morning one of the best.

My favorite pancake recipe isn’t the best for you, so I did some quick research before I started, and I found this other recipe that uses any dry pancake mix, and the key ingredient of applesauce! I combined the dry ingredients from my original recipe, and the wet ingredients from the applesauce one, and voila! Perfect pancakes for a perfect Saturday morning.

Applesauce Pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
3 ½ tsp baking powder (yes, it really uses that much)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. I usually only use ½ cup of whole-wheat, because with the original recipe, the whole-wheat makes the pancakes fall apart a bit once you soak them in syrup. But this recipe created wonderful pancakes that held together nicely, even with the whole wheat, so I think next time I might try using a little more wheat and little less white.

2 eggs
1 cup applesauce (I used homemade, but you could use any)
1 tsp lemon juice
½-⅔ cup skim milk

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and combine just until fully incorporated. I put in ½ cup of milk at first, but it was a little thick, so I just added more bit by bit, until it was the consistency I wanted.

Cook on a griddle over medium heat, using cooking spray (please ignore the dirty stove). I used a ¼ cup measure to ladle out the batter. Makes about 8

You don’t have to, but we used some homemade syrup that we had leftover in the fridge. With just a tad of butter and a cup of milk - perfect!

My favorite thing to see on a Saturday morning =)

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

I didn’t fall off the face of the earth! We’ve just had a lot of pretty basic meals lately, things that just about everyone else has made and already knows. I planned on blogging some muffins I made last week, but they didn’t really work out. However….

I made some muffins on Wednesday that were awesome! I found a basic chocolate chip muffins recipe here that I thought looked yummy, but it just seemed too plain for me. I also have a recipe for some double chocolate chip cookies that may be the best cookies I’ve ever made. So, I took a chance and tried to combine the two. To my surprise (my baking experiments don’t usually work, ie. last week…), they were wonderful! Probably not the most healthy, but really really really yummy.

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 ⅓ cups all purpose flour
⅓ cup cocoa powder
¼ cup white sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.

⅓ cup butter, melted
1 cup whole milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Add wet ingredients and combine just until fully incorporated.

½ cup milk chocolate chips
¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
¼ cup white chocolate chips

I like to place the all chocolate chips on cutting board and chop with big knife. I leave the tip on the board as much as possible and rock the knife back and forth. I wouldn’t do this for cookies, but in muffins it creates a little more chocolatey muffin, without huge chunks, since the small pieces and shavings bake into the batter a little more evenly.
I used up the ends of a few bags of leftover chocolate chips, that’s why I have all three of these, but you could easily just pick one. But I do recommend having at least some white chocolate chips in there….

Divide batter evenly in a greased muffin pan (or use muffin liners). Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

These are really great straight out of the oven, and they were still really moist the next day. I would recommend putting them into a big container, though. I just kept them on the counter with a towel over them, and they had dried out a bit.

I really want to get a mini muffin pan for muffins or cupcakes like this. I think it might be a good way to trick myself into not eating five of these a day.