Roasted Veggies Shells and Cheese

Okay. I don't typically buy prepackaged foods. They're usually made with preservatives and artifcial ingredients, none of which are good for you. However, I was browsing the banged up packaging, very well concealed isle at the store, and found this box of organic, all natural shells and cheese! Then I looked at the price and decided to get it for a day I'm tired of leftovers but don't feel like going all out with cooking. Tonight was the night! To prove this was really all natural, I'm going to show you the box!

I paid a dollar for this!!! I had to get it when I looked at the price! The only defect was a slightly smashed top!! Look at the ingredients, kindergarteners could pronounce the words, and I know what each of them are!!! Annatto, by the way, is a natural ingredient. It is made from the pulp that surrounds the seeds of the achiote trees in the tropical areas of the Americas. It's used as a coloring agent in cheeses and makeup, and is used as a spice in Latin America, Spain, and the Carribean.

I served this with the leftover chicken from the White Girl Chicken and Waffles!

To put this delicious cheesy pasta love in your belly;

This recipe takes about 25 minutes to prep and cook.

1/2 cup frozen corn

1/2 cup frozen peas

1/2 cup frozen french cut green beans

1 carrot, diced small

2 red potatoes, diced small

cajun seasoning

cooking spray

1 box organic, natural shells and cheese

3 tablespoons fat free milk

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese plus extra for garnish

salt

pepper

basil, cut into a chiffonade

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place all frozen vegetables in a collander and set under running water, tossing often, until thawed, about 2 or 3 minutes. Meanwhile dice the carrots and potatoes so everything is roughly the same size. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Spread the thawed vegetables out onto a paper towel and blot until dry. Add all vegetables to the baking sheet, sprinkle with cajun seasoning and pepper, toss, and spread out in an even layer. Spray more cooking spray on top and roast for 10 minutes, stir, and roast for another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add pasta and cook until Al dente, about 9 minutes. Drain and add cheese packet, milk and butter. Stir until cheese has reconstituted in the milk. Stir in mozzarella and parmesan cheese until melted, then stir in roasted vegetables. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Plate and top with additional parmesan cheese and basil! Enjoy, it's fantastic!!

This recipe serves 6 as a side dish.

Waffled PBPSB!!

For a snack for myself and my son, I made a Waffled Peanut Butter and Preserves with Strawberries and Banana sandwich! We shared it, and it was super yummy!!

This is super super cinchy to make!

This takes about 5 minutes to prep and cook.

2 slices whole wheat bread

1 tablespoon all natural peanut butter (For the same price as the other, choose the one without hydrogenated oils!!)

1 tablespoon apricot preserves

2 strawberries, hulled and sliced

1 banana, sliced

butter flavored cooking spray

Heat up your waffle iron (Or you could use a panini press if you don't have one, or just toast the bread!). Spread one slice of bread with peanut butter, and the other with preserves. Layer strawberries and banana slices over peanut butter and top with the other slice of bread. Grill in your waffle maker until toasty! Yummm!!

This recipe makes 1 sandwich.

Mexican Tortilla Soup with Cumin-Lime Black Bean Quesadillas

I love tortilla soup! Any time I go to a Mexican restauraunt that offers it on their menu, I tend to get at least a cup of it! Boston Market used to have a great one, then the one by my parents closed down. I haven't been to one since, because there are so few, I haven't seen another one recently!! I can never just have a bowl of soup for dinner, it just doesn't fill me up. Unless that soup is Pho. Then all I need is an enormous bowl and I'm set!! For tummy filling purposes, I had to make some sort of sandwich, so this time I marinated some black beans in cumin and lime juice and made it into a quesadilla! Yumm!!

I was a little indecisive and couldn't settle on one picture!!

For that yummy yummy soup:

This recipe takes 25 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes to prep and cook, depending on simmer time.

4 corn tortillas

cooking spray

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 jalapeno, minced (If you like it spicy, leave in the seeds, if not, take them out. I leave them in!)

2 onions, finely chopped

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (1 pound), cut into bite sized strips

2 carrots, finely chopped

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

4 cups fat free, low sodium chicken stock (If you're going to simmer it for a long time, you can use all or partial water if you want, save some money! However, if you're going to quick simmer it, you need the flavor of the stock.)

1 14-1/2 oz can diced tomatoes

hot sauce

lime wedges

low fat yogurt

shredded pepper jack cheese

1/2 avocado, diced

1 medium tomato, diced

cilantro, chopped

pickled jalapeno slices or 1 fresh jalapeno, sliced into rounds

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a large pot sprayed with cooking spray, cook onions and garlic over medium heat until they start to soften, about 2 minutes. Add the chicken, carrots, bay leaves, cumin, chili powder, cayenne, salt and pepper, and cook until chicken begins to brown and carrots start to soften. Add the chicken stock or water and tomatoes, bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for 10 minutes to an hour (I like long simmered soups, and have the time, so I simmered mine for an hour.).

Meanwhile, cut the tortillas into 1/2 inch strips, and cut the long ones in half. Lay out on a baking sheet in a single layer, and bake for 20 minutes, until crisp.

Remove and discard the bay leaves. Ladel soup into bowls and top with cheese, a dollop of yogurt, tomato, avocado, cilantro, and tortilla chips. Serve with lime wedges to squeeze into soup, hot sauce, and pickled or sliced fresh jalapenos (The only reason you see no pickled jalapeno on mine is because I had none, and used my last jalapeno in the soup, but if I had some, you know they would be in there!)

This recipe serves 6.

For the highly tasty Cumin-Lime Black Bean Quesadillas;

This recipe takes about 10 minutes to prep and make.

juice from 1 lime and 1 teaspoon zest

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
salt
pepper
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 red bell pepper, funely chopped

1 medium tomato, finely chopped

4 scallions, thinly sliced

4 whole wheat fajita sized tortillas

pepper jack cheese, shredded (How cheesy do you like it? Use that much!)

1 avocado, sliced

1 medium tomato, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

chopped fresh cilantro

In a large bowl, whisk together lime juice, zest and olive oil. Stir in parsley, cilantro, cumin, salt and pepper. Add beans, bell pepper, tomato, and scallions, and toss to distribute dressing evenly.

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat.

Sprinkle some cheese on one half of each tortilla. Top with the marinated beans, avocado, tomato, bell pepper, and more cheese. Fold the opposite side over to cover the filling. Spray the skillet with cooking spray and grill the quesadillas until the tortilla is crisp and the cheese is melted, flipping once. Cut the quesadilla in whichever way you prefer, and sprinkle with cilantro.

This recipe serves 4.

Enjoy everyone! This was awesome!!

You can also serve this with cornbread! I have a couple of really good cornbread recipes on previous posts!!

White Girl Chicken and Waffles

I finally used up all the buttermilk!! Yayy!! Oh my God, though, this was AWESOME!!! I am definitely making this for dinner when Husband comes home! I was bored of making sweet waffles, so I thought I'd make them savory for dinner, and the first protein that came to mind was chicken! This whole recipe came from me tossing stuff together as I went, I didn't make myself any kind of plan, I just tossed things in as I felt like it! It was really really good!!

I made Maple Bacon Waffles, using my normal waffle recipe and adding to it, seared oven fried chicken, and Smashed Roasted Potatoes and Green Beans! Yummm!!

Here's how to get this in your belly tonight, because you know you want it!

For the Maple Bacon Waffles;

This recipe takes about 10 minutes to prep, cooking time depends on your waffle iron.

4 slices meaty bacon, diced (Check the back when you're buying bacon so you can see if it's all fat or mostly meat. Meaty is yummier than fatty!!

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons Splenda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup apple sauce
3 tablespoons 100% pure maple syrup (Don't use the kind made of high fructose corn syrup and maple flavoring. That's just not good for you, nor nearly as tasty as the real stuff!)

In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium-low to medium heat until the fat has rendered and the bacon becomes crispy, about 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the setting. Make sure you cook it low and slow. If you use too high heat, the fat won't render off, and your bacon will go from fatty to burnt. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Blot the top with another paper towel to remove the excess fat. You want the bacon nice and dry.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, Splenda, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the center and set aside.

In another medium bowl, beat together the eggs and buttermilk. Stir in the applesauce and maple syrup. Add all at once to the flour and stir until moistened. The batter will still be lumpy. Gently stir in the bacon, reserving 1 tablespoon for garnish, so you don't break it up.

Pour 1 to 1 1/4 cups batter onto the grids of a waffle iron coated with cooking spray. For this recipe, I only needed to add 1 cup, as opposed to the 1 1/4 I needed before. Make sure to add the batter to the middle of each grid, not the middle of the iron. Close lid quickly and keep closed until done. Bake according to the directions for your iron, as each different one takes a different amount of time to cook. When done, lift off the grid with a fork and repeat with the remaining batter.

If you want to freeze them for a later use, pull them out just before they are completely done. Place the waffles in a Ziplock bag, press out all the air, and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, pop the bag(s) into the freezer. Refrigerating them before freezing brings down the temperature slowly, decreasing the size of the ice crystals that will form. Big ice crystals will lead to mushy waffles, and no one wants that!!

When ready to serve, drizzle with a little more maple syrup and enjoy!

This recipe makes 10 to 12 waffles.

To pair these waffles with the amazing oven fried chicken;
This recipe taked about 15 minutes to prep and cook.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved diagonally through the middle
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 cup low fat milk
1/2 cup panko bread crunbs
1 teaspoon cornstarch
salt
pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
cooking spray
100% pure maple syrup

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. In a small bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Pour milk into a second small bowl. On a large plate, combine panko, cornstarch, salt and pepper to taste, and cayenne pepper. Dredge each piece of chicken in flour, then milk, then breadcrumbs. Set on a wire rack to dry slightly while you bread the remaining chicken and heat the pan.

Heat a large skillet coated with cooking oil over medium-high heat. Sear the chicken on both sides for two minutes, until golden brown. Before flipping, spray the top with more cooking spray so that side browns as well. If the handle of  your pan isn't oven safe, wrap in a couple of layers of foil. Place the skillet in the oven, and bake for 8 minutes, until cooked through.

Plate over waffles, if desired, and drizzle with maple syrup.

This recipe serves 4.

Care for a little veg with your chicken and waffles? Make my Roasted Potato and Green Bean Mash! Here's how;
This recipe takes about 30 minutes to prep and cook.

6 red potatoes, diced (You're leaving those delicious, nutrient-packed skins on, right??)
1 cup french cut green beans, thawed and patted dry
salt
pepper
cooking spray
1/2 to 1 cup fat free milk
freshly grated parmesan cheese
fresh basil, cut into a chiffonade

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Toss potatoes with salt and pepper and lay on the baking sheet in an even layer, and spray the top with additional cooking spray. Toss the green beans with salt and pepper and lay in a single layer on a sprayed baking sheet, spray the tops with additional spray. Roast for 10 minutes, stir, and roast an additional 10 minutes, until golden brown.

Puree the green beans with a little milk until smooth. In a large bowl, add potatoes and pureed beans, and mash with a masher (Or with a ladel, in my case!), or whip to desired consistancy. I like mine rather chunky, so I just work them with the bottom of a ladel. Season with salt and pepper and add in milk as needed. Spoon onto plates and top with cheese and basil.

This recipe serves 4.

Enjoy! This was a really taty meal!!

Tuscan-Style Florentine Soup

As with every soup I make, my son LOVED to help me make this "Shoup"! Soup is one of the easiest meals for him to help me for, since it's mostly adding things to a pot and stirring, which are easy tasks for a two year old to do.



This soup is super delicious! I managed to resist the urge to be super corny and spell it "souper", by the way! I hope you appreciate the effort that took! Haha!

So, now, the moment you've been waiting for, how to make it!!
This recipe takes about 1 hour to 1 hour 50 minutes to cook, depending on how long you let the soup simmer.

1 pound pork loin (You could also use tenderloin.)
lemon pepper seasoning
olive oil cooking spray
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes with liquid
1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
5 cups chicken stock (1 box plus 1 cup)
1 can or bag Great Northern Beans (Remember, cook and divide a pound of beans for money savings and lower sodium.)
1/2 cup Orzo pasta (Whole wheat is best if you can find it, but I can't always find it.)
1/3 cup chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained
fresh basil, cut into a chiffonade
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line a baking sheat with foil and spray with cooking spray. Rub the lemon pepper seasoning all over the meat. If there is a skinny end, tuck it under so it is all the same thickness. Roast for 40 minutes. The meat may still be a little pink. That's fine, it will continue to cook in the soup. Let the pork cool and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

In a large pot or dutch oven sprayed with cooking spray, saute onion and garlic over medium heat until beginning to soften, about 2 minutes. Carefully stir in tomatoes (They tend to splatter.), dried herbs and chicken stock. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes to an hour (I simmered mine for an hour. The longer you let it simmer, the more flavorful the soup will be,). Increase heat to high and add in the beans, with liquid if you're using beans you made yourself (If you are using canned beans, drain and rinse the beans first, then add a half cup of water or chicken stock to the soup.) and Orzo pasta. Cook according to the box directions on the pasta for Al dente doneness. In the final two minutes of cooking time, stir in the spinach and let heat through.

Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with fresh basil and freshly grated parmesan cheese. Serve with Roasted Garlic and Grilled Scallion Biscuits! Enjoy!!

This recipe serves 6-8.

Roasted Garlic and Grilled Scallion Biscuits

So, a half gallon of buttermilk really goes a long way! So far I have made one recipe of ranch, two cornbread recipes, waffles, and now my biscuit tally is up to two! I'm going to be obsessed with making breads before I use it all! I have been wanting to buy a loaf pan and make my own loafs of bread, maybe I'll do that sometime soon. I love the smell of baking bread! I STILL have about a cup of it left. Hopefully they have the smaller container of buttermilk next time I need some! I made these to go with the Tuscan-style Florentine Soup I was making for dinner, and thought roasted garlic and grilled scallions would be a good accompanyment.

To make these super yummy biscuits, all you need to do is;
This recipe takes about 55 minutes to prep and bake.

1 head garlic
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
6 scallions
1 2/3 cups plus 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced and chilled
3/4 cup buttermilk
butter flavored cooking spray
black pepper
garlic powder
parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Slice 1/2 inch off the top of the garlic, sprinkle the cut side with olive oil and wrap in foil. Roast for 30 to 40 minutes, until soft and golden. Squeeze the cloves from the head and chop.

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet or grill pan over medium high heat. Cut the scallions in half, if necessary, and cook until softened and charred on all sides. Remove from the pan and chop finely.

While the scallions cook, sift together the flour, bakind powder, baking soda, and salt. With your hands, combine the flour with butter until no pieces larger than the size of small peas remain. Stir in buttermilk until moistened. Work in garlic and scallions until evenly distributed.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead a couple of times. Press out to a thickness of 1/2 inch. With a 2 1/2 inch cutter, or a glass, cut out as many biscuits as you can and lay on an ungreased foil lined baking sheet. Roll the dough into a ball, press back out, and continue cut out more biscuits. Continue gathering up dough and cutting until there is not enough dough to make any more biscuits. Roll up the remaining scraps to make a biscuit ball, if you'd like! Spray the tops of the biscuits with butter flavored cooking spray and sprinkle with garlic powder and plack pepper.

Bake for 12 minutes, until the biscuits have risen and have turned golden brown. Remove from oven and sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan cheese. Serve warm or at room temperature. Enjoy!

This recipe makes 12-16 biscuits.

If you want to freeze these biscuits, allow to cool to room temperature. Place in a Ziplock bag and squeeze out as much air as you can. Refrigerate overnight and freeze in the morning. To reheat, simply microwave for 30 seconds for steaming hot biscuits!

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Waffles

Again, trying to use up buttermilk that was close to the date, I decided to make some waffles! I slightly undercooked the waffles so I could freeze them and toast when I the mood for waffles strikes, that way they won't overcook in my toaster! I made them without adding nuts or fruit like I usually do, because I made them to eat later, so this way I can top them in any which way and not have to worry about the topping not complementing the flavors inside. That said, I make awesome banana nut waffles and sweet potato waffles!!

As I serve them with different toppings, I will add the pictures and recipes for how I top them!

Here's how I made them;

This recipe takes 10 minutes to prep, cooking time will differ depending on your waffle iron.

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons Splenda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup Canola oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (Don't buy the imitation. It's cheaper, but it's not as good as the real stuff.)

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, Splenda, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the center and set aside.

In another medium bowl, beat together the eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Add all at once to the flour and stir until moistened. The batter will still be lumpy.

Pour 1 to 1 1/4 cups batter onto the grids of a waffle iron coated with cooking spray. For a regular iron, 1 cup should be fine. I use a Belgian Waffle maker, so I use 1 1/4 cups. Close lid quickly and keep closed until done. Bake according to the directions for your iron, as each different one takes a different amount of time to cook. When done, lift off the grif with a fork and repeat with the remaining batter.

If you want to freeze them for a later use, pull them out just before they are completely done. Place the waffles in a Ziplock bag, press out all the air, and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, pop the bag(s) into the freezer. Refrigerating them before freezing brings down the temperature slowly, decreasing the size of the ice crystals that will form. Big ice crystals will lead to mushy waffles, and no one wants that!!

This recipe makes 12 to 16 waffles. (Remember, one 4 inch square counts as one, not the whole big grid! Sorry!!)

The next morning, I toasted some up for me and the little man. I slathered them with Nutella and topped with walnuts! For the man, I made sandwiches which are, at times, slightly less messy! I served them with sliced up apples. Yummy!!









Handsome's Waffle Sandwich and my waffles!!

The other day, I topped them with an apricot and yogurt sauce. It was very delicious!!

This is how I made the Apricot Yogurt:

2 tablespoons plain lowfat yogurt

1 tablespoon sugar-free apricot preserves

1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

With a fork, mix all of the ingerdients together! This makes a great spread, as well as a tasty dip for fruit!

For this one, I topped it with some fat free yogurt I mixed with basil, salt and pepper, and used that as a bed for sliced cucumber, roma tomato, and quartered artichoke hearts seasoned with more S&P! Yummy!! Tiny Man gobbled his up!!