Cajun Sour Cream Dip

The Super Bowl is coming up this Sunday in New Orleans.  As a nod to the type of food you would find there, I made a dip that includes the "holy trinity" of Cajun cooking.  Those three ingredients are green pepper, celery and onions. I love sour cream and onion dip (mixing sour cream and onion soup mix together), but this goes a step above that.  Even though I have never been to New Orleans, I love the foods that are popular in Louisiana - jambalaya, shrimp creole, red beans and rice, beignets, just to name a few.  They are many more, but those are my top favorites!!  If you are hosting or going to a Super Bowl Party, think about making this. Even though I'm a Washington Redskins fan,  I'll be rooting for the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.  I kind of  have to, they're from my home state of Maryland!!!

Ingredients:

16-ounce container sour cream (any brand)
1 cup green pepper (seeds and membranes removed), chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients together in small bowl with large spoon until well combined.  Eat immediately or cover with plastic wrap and put in fridge until ready to eat. Serve with your choice of crackers.

"Unstuffed" Pepper Soup

I've had a craving lately for stuffed peppers, but it's been so busy since the kids went back to school after the holiday break, that it's taken me this long to do something about it! I think I've maybe made stuffed peppers once or twice in my entire life (and I didn't save the recipe)! Two of the grocery stores around here had good deals on peppers last week, so I stocked up.  Raw red peppers are one of my favorite veggies -  I can easily eat an entire pepper in one sitting.  Since I had so many peppers (I think I bought 7 or 8 total), I decided to use a couple of them along with some other ingredients that you would typically find in baked stuffed peppers, but made it into soup.  One word - YUMMY!  I didn't use green peppers in this soup (you can if you want). I personally like the taste of a red, yellow or orange pepper instead  in a soup - I think they taste sweeter. This soup turned out pretty thick (which I prefer), so feel free to add additional water if you like a thinner soup. If you close your eyes when you are eating this, you would think you were eating a "stuffed" pepper that just came out of the oven!!

Ingredients:

2 cups peppers (red, green, yellow or orange),
  seeds and membranes removed, chopped
1 cup onion, chopped
2 tablespoons margarine
1 1/4 pound ground chuck
2 cups cooked white rice
6 cups water
28-ounce can stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
Mozzarella cheese, shredded

In small saucepan, brown ground chuck into small pieces until no longer pink.  Drain off fat and set aside. In large stockpot, melt the two tablespoons of margarine and add the peppers and onion. Saute until the peppers and onions are just starting to get soft.  If you don't have leftover white rice, you can make it while you are browning the meat or while you are sauteing the peppers and onions.  Add the ground chuck, white rice, water, tomatoes, paprika, salt and black pepper. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Pour into soup bowls and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

Cereal Bars

These bars are made with Cheerios cereal, but you don't need a spoon (or milk) to eat them!!  I made a variation of my "breakfast cookie" recipe - a new ingredient (honey) was added and instead of semisweet chocolate chips, I used milk chocolate chips.  My original breakfast cookie recipe used crushed cereal - I just decided to put the Cheerios in whole. I also changed the measurements of some of the other ingredients.  I wanted to make them into bars instead of cookies yesterday afternoon, because I was trying to get some last minute things done before Dominic got home from school while these bars were baking.  Everybody has their favorite kind of breakfast cereal, but I thought since Cheerios are pretty popular across many age ranges, hopefully a large portion of my readers will have at least one box in their pantry!! A bit of trivia - what year did Cheerios originally come out?? Answer - 1941!! General Mills called them "Cheerioats." They changed the name to Cheerios in 1945 :)  I'm calling these "cereal bars" because they're not just for breakfast.  I had one of these shortly before Dominic came home yesterday afternoon from school and gave another one that was still warm to his bus driver.  He is my new "taste" tester! I like him because he says everything I bake is good (well, isn't it?)!?!?!?! You could even put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top when it's still warm and serve it as dessert.

Ingredients:

2 cups white flour
1 cup margarine, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups Cheerios
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oatmeal

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray a 13 x 9 x 2- inch pan with non-stick cooking spray. In large bowl, put flour, margarine, white sugar, brown sugar, honey, peanut butter, baking soda, salt, vanilla extract and eggs.  Mix well by hand with large spoon or with electric mixer until smooth and creamy.  Stir in chocolate chips, Cheerios and oatmeal by hand with large spoon until well combined.  Spread in pan evenly and bake for 30-35 minutes until lightly brown and a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack 15 minutes.

Slow Cooker Chicken Chili

When the hubby and I got married a little over 17 years ago, one of the gifts we received was this Rival Crock-Pot (slow cooker).  I think I used it a handful of times, then shoved it away and kind of forgot about it :) I recently pulled it out (dusted it off) and have been trying to use it more.  It really is the "unsung" hero of the kitchen!! I like that you can do all the prep work, usually under a 1/2 hour, and then let the crock-pot do the rest. This past Tuesday, I was at a music therapy session with Dominic until 6:45, Lauren was being dropped off by a friend from a sports practice, and the hubby was coming home from work about 7:15-7:30.  I didn't want to have to worry about what to make, so about 3:45, I started tossing the necessary ingredients into the crock-pot.  By the time we we were ready to eat at 7:30, it was done. I like to make white rice to go along with this.  I put a spoonful or two on the bottom of the bowl, add the chili and sprinkle cheddar cheese on top.  This chili can be made spicier if you want, just use chili ready or salsa style canned tomatoes (it will usually have jalapeno peppers) and hot chili seasoning mix!!! If you own a larger crock-pot than the one I used, you could easily double or even triple the ingredients to feed a larger crowd, like if you are hosting a Super Bowl Party on February 3 :)

Ingredients:

2 - 2 1/2 pounds boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup water
1.25 ounce package chili seasoning mix
15.5 ounce can white beans, undrained
  (these are also called Great Northern beans)
14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
8 ounce can tomato sauce

Rinse chicken and cut into bite-sized pieces.  Put on the bottom of the crockpot. Add all the other ingredients in the order above.  Mix together with large spoon and cover with lid.  Cook three hours on high or 6 hours on low.  Stir thoroughly before serving.  Serves 4-6.

Peanut Butter Muffins

When I was making these muffins yesterday, I had two "assistants." Dominic was helping to read the recipe and put in the ingredients and Lauren was my "taste tester."  My hubby, Lauren and Dominic are all big fans of anything involving peanut butter.  Before I put these muffins into the oven, I tossed a handful of semi-sweet chocolate morsels into three of the muffins. When they came out and were cooling, Lauren tasted one that had some of the chocolate morsels in it.  I asked her how she liked the muffins and her comment back to me was "the next time you make these, make more with chocolate chips!!"  I guess that means she liked those the best :)  Peanut butter and chocolate are a pretty good combination!!  Feel free to skip the chocolate morsels, add it to some (like I did) or add it to all.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 1/4 cup milk
1 egg, beaten


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. In large bowl, put all the ingredients in the order given.  Stir with large spoon until well combined and add 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels to batter if desired.  Pour evenly into the muffin tins. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.  Remove from oven and cool on wire rack for 15 minutes.

Ham and Bean Soup

It has snowed so much in the past week that I'm beginning to think I live at the North Pole!!

Today's weather forecast was for more snow and cold, so it seemed like a good day to make some soup!  I didn't want to have to run to the grocery store, so I used ingredients I already had in my fridge, freezer and pantry. To make it a little more interesting, I challenged myself to see if I could be like Rachel Ray and make it in 30 minutes (or less)! We still had quite a bit of leftover ham from Christmas dinner, so it seemed like the perfect meat to use. I also had bags of both onion and corn in my freezer.  I like keeping bags of different veggies in my freezer, so I can use as little or as much as I need at a time for a meal. Taking a quick peek into my pantry, I found some fire roasted tomatoes (my new favorite kind of tomatoes) and some cannellini kidney beans. Tip: you don't need to buy the fancy frozen veggies or gourmet brand of tomatoes or beans.  From my experience, I have found that the "house" or "generic" versions from the grocery store will usually taste the same (and be cheaper).  I'm happy to report that I met my challenge :) This soup was ready in 30 minutes and I had it for lunch today.  As an added bonus, it was super tasty!!
 

 Ingredients:

2 cups cooked ham, chopped
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup corn
14.5 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes, undrained
15.5 ounce can cannellini kidney beans, drained
8 cups water

In large stockpot, put all ingredients in the order given.  Stir with large spoon to mix thoroughly.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  That's it - enjoy!

Hot Chocolate Biscotti

Chocolate biscotti has become one of my favorite cookies to make around the holidays.  I didn't even know what biscotti was until about five or so years ago :)  This year I decided to try something different when I made the biscotti. I used hot cocoa mix instead of unsweetened cocoa.  The result was delicious!

I used three envelopes of the Swiss Miss brand of hot cocoa mix (each envelope was .73 ounces).  If you have a canister or jar of hot cocoa mix, measure out 1/2 cup.  I also added some chocolate chips to make it even more decadent. This morning when these biscotti were baking, it smelled really yummy. The hubby "sampled" one of these biscotti with his coffee and declared them to be "very good." This afternoon, when I came back home after a couple hours of Christmas shopping, there was still a hint of chocolate in the air.  It smelled just like a biscotti bakery when I walked back into our house :) 

Ingredients:

3 cups white flour
1/2 cup hot cocoa mix
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup white sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 large eggs (slightly beaten)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and slightly grease two cookie sheets with non-stick cooking spray.  In a small bowl, combine flour, hot cocoa mix, baking powder and baking soda.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, combine sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla extract and milk.  Beat by hand or with mixer until creamy.  Gradually add the flour mixture and mix until well combined with a large spoon.  Add semi-sweet chocolate chips if desired. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill dough in fridge at least one hour.  Divide dough in half.  Shape each half into a 12-inch long log.  Flatten slightly (about 2-3 inches across).  Place each log onto the slightly greased cookie sheets.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Pull the cookie sheets out and let cool for 5 minutes.  Cut each log into 12 equal sized slices and place cut sides down.  Return back to oven for another 20-30 minutes or until the biscotti get brown and crispy.  Remove from oven and cool on cookie sheets about 5 minutes. Place biscotti on wire rack to finish cooling.  Makes two dozen cookies.