Chicken Vermont Soup

I don’t know where this soup gets its name. My grandmother used to make it all the time and it became a staple for me while in college. It was easy and inexpensive and I always had lots of leftovers to freeze and reheat when the mood hit me.

I don’t know where you live, but where I live its damn cold right now, so when I was planning my meals for the week soup was on the top of the list!

I had a big heaping bowl of it last night when I got home from my workout and it hit the spot. I instantly fell asleep. Like for real. I ate the soup in bed while watching the Bachelor and crashed with a full belly.  You’ll notice the picture is taken from my bed, and part of Ratchet is visible.

Chicken Vermont Soup

Grandma Caperna original

1 - 46 oz can of tomato juice

2 - 46 oz cans of chicken broth (I just used bullion cubes)

1 box of frozen chopped spinach

1-2 pieces of chicken

Baby carrots

2 - 14.5oz cans of diced tomatoes – plain no spices added

Pastini noodles – about ½ box

Season with s&p

Parmesan cheese

Basically you just throw all this stuff in the pot and let it cook.  I start with the juices and then throw in the spinach. It can be frozen, it will break apart quickly.  Cut about ½ small bag of baby carrots into bit sized pieces and dump into the soup. Add 2 cans of diced tomatoes.  Let simmer on cooktop for about 30 minutes.

Cut chicken up into bit sized pieces and you can just throw them into the soup raw. They’ll boil really quickly.  Let soup simmer. Once carrots have softened (just try one!) bring soup to a boil and add about ½ box of pastini. Be careful when you do this, they’re going to get bigger so don’t think that because you’re putting small pasta in the soup you need more!  I do this all the time and wind up adding more chicken broth to the pot.  When you’re at the supermarket just look for the smallest noodles you can find! I generally like Stelline but Ben requested something a little bigger this time around so I picked up some Ditalini Rigati and it worked nicely! don’t be overwhelmed by these names, see the below chart or just buy the smallest pasta you see in aisle. season with salt and pepper as necessary.

image from barilla pasta's website

 

Once pasta is cooked, spoon yourself out a bowl and top with some parmesan cheese! Enjoy. 

Quick story: one time when I was making this at school I had mentioned to a friend that I felt like I was gaining weight (yeah right, I weighed 112lbs, ha!) and she suggested that I not add parm to the top of my soup. I told her to fuck off. For real people, cheese makes even good things better!



Buffalo Chicken Pizza

I have had a serious craving for pizza lately, but who wants to spend $15 on a cheese pizza…or have to wait for a delivery man? Not me. 

Ben and I used to make a homemade pizza every Monday night for dinner and at some point we fell out of that routine, but I’m happy to say I’m quite ready to pick it back up!  For New Year’s Eve I decided to make 2 pizzas. The first would be a more traditional pizza with red sauce, leftover taco meat, and mozzarella cheese.  The second pizza (yes, I needed 2 pizza’s!) was a buffalo chicken pizza.

I hopped on pinterest to check out my options and I’m very happy with the one I found!  The sauce isn’t a traditional sauce rather cream cheese with ranch seasoning sprinkled on top of it before all the other ingredients are loaded on. I added a decent amount more cream cheese on the crust than the recipe calls for and I was very happy with my decision to do so!  I also didn’t make my dough I just bought some in the freezer section of the supermarket.  It works just as good!

Check this yummy pizza out here, and look below for the mouth watering goodness:)

I’m kind of speechless!

When I actually make dinner, have a small bit for myself, and then wake up the next morning to see most of it gone.  Let me show you.

I made this yummy dish, recipe found on pinterest. I actually make a double serving, so 2lbs of pasta!  I wasn’t feeling well, didn’t get my 2^nd workout of the night in, and decided I needed some comfort. Which is where this yummy goodness comes into play.

 

I wanted to eat a ton but ate about this much. Just that small little section. Ignore how the lines aren’t straight at all. Gooey pasta falls all over the place anyways so the lines of my cut were blurred a little anyways.

 

 

I woke up this morning excited to have some more of the goodness for lunch and then for dinner, but when I pulled it out of the refrigerator to make my lunch there was only that small portion of the top of the dish left! So I called Ben to see if he had been grubbing on it early this morning. nope.
 

 

I think my younger sister ate all that pasta! I mean I know she did, if Ben didn’t eat it than it must have been her. I was floored. Not because I care about the food but because girl ate a ton of fucking pasta!!

 

Note to self: if you want to make this dish again, wait till Ashley moves out in a couple of weeks.

Oh and you should try this recipe. It was really good!

These are a few of my favorite things

No time for blogging, no time for working out, no time to do basic things like fold my laundry. 

So instead I’m going to share with you quickly some of my favorite things to cook! And some of them are serious timesavers.

 

 

Prosciutto stuffed chicken

 

 

 

Cheesy Veggie Casserole

 

Mama’s Meatloaf

 

 

 

Pasta with Spinach and Diced Tomatoes

 

 

French Ham, Cheese, and Egg Fondue Casserole

Happy cooking!! Try something new for someone you love this weekend

Lettuce wrapped Taco’s

 

Last night’s dinner was another home run!  I thought Ben was going to freak at this low carb change, but he really embraced it….clearly.

 

Seriously, that’s a lot of meat on a piece of lettuce!

All we did was make taco’s with our favorite fixin’s and instead of putting it in a tortilla wrap or hard taco shell we wrapped them up in a piece of boston lettuce.

Lettuce wrapped Taco’s

1lb ground beef

1 package taco seasoning
2 tbsp minced garlic
½ tsp cayenne powder
Boston lettuce

Our favorite toppings

Greek yogurt (instead of sour cream)

Shredded cheese
Onion
Tomato (not very low carb friendly though)

It’s a taco guys, just load it on. Do I really need to tell you how to make this?

I will give you one suggestion and that is to slowly good all the meat, drain the fat, and then add the taco seasonings and water. I use a base seasoning and then add to it!

 

Enjoy! Ben did:)

 

Mini Eggplant Pizza’s

In our quest to expand our low carbohydrate menu and to use up food we have coming out of our garden I did a bit of online searching and came up with my version of eggplant pizzas.

It was so easy, and I used only stuff I had in the house to make this delicious appetizer.  My sister wouldn’t touch them and Ben ate 5 before I could ask if he liked them.

He clearly did.

I don’t really have a recipe for this but I’ll give you a step by step and you can modify to your own liking.  If I was to plan on making this dish I would have had a different kind of cheese on hand, and probably actual tomato sauce…but this worked!

 

Mini Eggplant Pizza’s

Eggplant
Tomato paste
Sharp Cheddar Cheese (maybe use mozz. next time?)
Garlic powder
Cheese
EVOO spray

 

Step one, slice the eggplant thin. You want the pieces to be thick enough that you can hold them once cooked without them being too flimsy.

Place into 350 degree oven for 7 minutes and then flip and cook for another 7 minutes.

I did this in order to try and crisp up the eggplant. It didn’t really work.

Take eggplant out of the oven and cover with tomato paste, garlic powder, and shredded cheese.  As noted above I used shredded sharp cheddar because that’s what we had in the house.  If I had planned on making this I would have most likely gotten mozzarella cheese, or a pizza cheese mix.

 

 

Throw back in the oven for 15ish minutes.  I would just watch them. Honestly I forgot about mine and don’t know how long they were in there, but because the eggplant doesn’t really get too crispy you couldn’t tell at all that they had been forgotten about.  I mean don’t judge, I was cooking this and got sidetracked.

 

And so did Mabel…she was all about what was cooking in the kitchen last night!

 

Anyways, back to the eggplant.  They turned out wonderfully and I’ll certainly make them again….maybe next time with actual pizza sauce, the right cheese, and pepperoni if I have it.  but honestly even with makeshift ingredients they were fantastic!

 

 

Enjoy!

Prosciutto Stuffed Chicken

Remember I told you we’re back on the low carb bandwagon, well that means a whole new lot of recipes for us! and this recipe was a winner!

This was actually very easy to make. I’m not even going to make a list of ingredients.

Pound a piece of chicken until its quite thin. I cut my this pieces of chicken breasts into 2 pieces each so that we would have smaller portions.

Layer on the chicken a piece of provolone cheese and then 2 pieces of prosciutto.  You could also use ham or turkey, I mean fill it with what you like!  I actually had a couple pieces of genoa salami in the refrigerator so two of my pieces of stuffed chicken we also filled with that.

 

Roll the chicken and put a couple of toothpicks through it so it doesn’t all fall apart. I sprinkled the top of ours with garlic powder and some other random spice called sandwich sprinkle and called it a day. I was not really in the mood to be in the kitchen, I wanted to be finishing my book.

 

Bake in oven on a foil lined sheet at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. And voila! Dinner!

 

Crockpot Mongolian Beef (updated)

I love this recipe.  I make it frequently because it makes a lot of food and we always have gobs of leftovers, and they’re good leftovers!  Last time I made it and posted about it I forgot to take photos.  This time I remembered, even though this is a hard food to capture without it looking like a blob of food.

I modify the recipe slightly every time I make it because I’m always missing something but the end result is always just as good.  for example the recipe calls for wine, I prefer to drink my wine if I have it so I never include it in the crockpot, but instead substitute water.

Mongolian Beef

Adapted from: A year of Slow Cooking

 -1.5 lbs of steak (or any beef really I used a round last time and it was just as good)

-1/4 cup cornstarch - to dredge meat
-3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 fresh onion, diced very small
-1/2 cup gluten free soy sauce (I used Trader Joes brand)
-1/4 cup white wine (psh! Just double the white wine vinegar or water)
-1/4 cup water
-1/2 T white wine vinegar
-1 t sesame oil
-1 t molasses
-1 t ginger
-1/4 t black pepper
-1 t red chili pepper flakes
-1/2 T almond butter (or regular pb, I think either would taste great)
-3 T brown sugar

 Cut steak/beef into cubes and dredge in cornstarch.  I like to drop all the meat into a ziplock as I’m cutting it up and then I just drop the cornstarch into the bag and shake it all up. Much easier cleanup, and I hate wasting ziplocks but this is one meal that I don’t care at all because I don’t want cornstarch all over my kitchen!

 

In a mixing bowl wisk together all the other ingredients.

Put meat into the crockpot and pour all the other ingredients over the top!  Turn crockpot on and let it cook on low for 6-8 hours.

 

I serve mine over rice and it’s just delish!  Leftovers I sometimes put in a wrap with some rice, lettuce, and sour cream and its fantastic. My mouth is watering right now just thinking about it!

Pasta with Spinach and Diced tomatoes

I think this needs a better name….This is one of those meals that you can throw together in 10 minutes and it tastes like you’ve been slaving away in the kitchen.  My mom makes a version of this, but it includes feta cheese and I never have any feta in my refrigerator so I can up with a yummy modification to her recipe.

Pasta with Spinach and Diced Tomatoes

• 1 box of pasta (any kind, I used angel hair)
• 1 16oz can of diced tomatoes
• 1 box of frozen spinach or fresh if you have it.
• 1.5 cups of milk
• ¼ cup parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp herbs de Provence
• Salt & pepper

Cook Pasta per directions on the box.  My sister uses a timer to make sure that the pasta doesn’t get overcooked, I’ve never seen someone do this! But do it if you need to.

In a saucepan on medium heat combine, milk, diced tomatoes, and spinach.  Cook until warm.  Add herbs de Provence, s&p to taste and once those are mixed through add parmesan cheese.

Pour sauce over pasta and top with more parmesan cheese, if you like lots of cheese like me!

 

 enjoy

New Meal out of leftovers

Tuesday night’s Chicken and Broccoli casserole was amazing.  The chicken was covered in this yummy creamy sauce. The only issue, we had a lot of leftover yummy creamy sauce! And of course I wasn’t about to throw it away so I figured out a way to use it:)

So last night Ben and I cooked up some steaks and smothered them in the yummy creamy broccoli sauce, and it was sooo good.  You could also easily make this sauce and put it on pasta or any other meat, it doesn't have to be from leftovers

There is no reason for any food or sauces to go to waste!  I urge you to find a way to make new and interesting dinners out of the leftovers in your refrigerator.

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

Last night we had family dinner at our house.  My in-laws are out of town and someone needed to take over the big task of cooking for 13 people! And that task was left up to me.  Really I enjoyed it, I love cooking, but that is a lot to do on a Tuesday night!

I decided to make a recipe that my mom used to make for us when we were growing up, Chicken and Broccoli Casserole.  And this recipe didn’t disappoint.  My sister said that out of all the things I’ve cooked for her since she’s lived with us, this is one of her favorite dishes.  Apparently she doesn’t recall ever eating it when we were growing up.

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

4 split chicken breasts

1 small can of chicken broth

1 tbsp butter

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1 medium chopped onion

1 package of frozen broccoli

½ cup of mayo

½ tbsp. lemon juice

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

½ cup cracker crumbs (I used Ritz crackers)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place chicken in casserole pan.  sauté onion in butter until translucent, add frozen broccoli and cook until tender.  Add soup, chicken broth, mayo and lemon juice. Make sure when you go to sauté your onions that you’re using a big enough pan to add all this stuff into!

Pour over chicken

Top with cheese and cracker crumbs.

Cook for 1 hour.

I didn’t get a photo of this chicken after it was cooked because I had 13 people in my house!  But I’m certainly going to make it again soon and will take a picture of it then.

*** I’ve made this dish and frozen it before and it turns out just as yummy.  So just store it in a foil baking dish and cover once cooled with foil and store in a ziplock bag in the freezer.  I generally will take this out of the freezer before I leave for work on the day I want to make it for dinner.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

I saw this recipe two weeks ago and immediately wanted to make it.  I decided I would put it on the menu for the following week and picked up all the ingredients for it at the supermarket.  Then we went to the in-laws for Tuesday night dinner and mother in law made waaaay too much chicken for dinner and sent everyone home with enough leftovers that lasted us through the end of the week.  So I didn’t get to try this recipe! 

Last night I decided I had to make it.  Tuesday night is family dinner again and if I didn’t make it last night I wouldn’t want to make a chicken dish again until Thursday.

Let me tell you this turned out sooo yummy!

You can’t tell me that the cheese you seeing oozing out of the chicken doesn’t make your mouth water.

I didn’t make any changes to the recipe so here is the direct link – Chicken Cordon Bleu

I served this with steamed veggies and it was the perfect amount of food for both Ben and I.

French Ham Cheese and Egg Fondue Casserole

This was a Pinterest score!  I threw this together last night for dinner and my husband and I both loved it.  My sister on the other hand must not have because she fed what she didn’t eat of her dinner to the dogs.  I thought Ben was going to have a heart attack! 

But seriously, regardless of Ashley’s weird taste in food, this was amazing.  I made a couple of substitutions: soy milk, organic cage free eggs, and more parmesan cheese!!

French Ham Cheese and Egg Fondue Casserole

This could also easily be made ahead of time and thrown in the freezer

My go to chicken pot pie

I never thought this would be something I thought I could make.  But I did, with a couple substitutions, and it’s so good.  My husband and father in law think I came up with this amazing recipe but it’s really just a Pillsbury recipe:)

But you should try it.    I make several substitution.  Earth balance butter instead of real butter, low sodium chicken broth, and of course a small serving size.  This recipe says a pie feeds 6 but if you’re not careful you could eat a quarter of it yourself.

Classic Chicken Pot Pie

Pie Crust  - you’ll need a bottom and a top. Generally 2 come in a box

1/3 cup earth balance butter

1/3 cup chopped onion ( I often do more than a 1/3 cup)

1/3 cup all purpose flower

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 1/3  cup reduced sodium chicken broth

½ cup of milk

2 cups frozen veggies (I get the peas, corn, green bean mix)

1.  heat oven to 425 degrees. Make pie crusts as directed on box

2.  in saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Add onions and cook for a couple of minutes until they’re tender.  Stir in flower, salt, and pepper.  Gradually stir in broth and milk, cooking and stiring until bubby and thick.

3.  add chicken and veggies to saucepan mixture.

4. pour mixture into pie crust and top with second crust as directed on box.  Cut slits in top of pie crust to allow the steam to escape.

5. bake 30-40 minutes.  During the last 25ish minutes I cover the edges of the crust with foil so they don’t get too crispy. 

6. let stand before serving.

Also if you do directly to the Pillsbury website, ignore the nutritional info at the bottom! You deserve things like chicken pot pie every once in a while!

How to cook a spaghetti squash

I don’t recall the first time I had spaghetti sqsash, I believe my mom made it quite a bit growing up.  And the way she cooked it was so easy.  We were at a friend’s house recently and they were making it for dinner and our friend Todd was manning the oven and checking on the spaghetti squash every 20 minutes.  I was surprised by this method of cooking it because it can be done in a much shorter time span.  I explained to him how I did it and he had no idea that it could be such an easy dinner to make.  So here is a how to, we’ll at least one way it can be done.

Cut spaghetti squash in half

Scoop out the loose seeds and flesh on the inside of the squash.  This is just like when you’re cleaning out a pumpkin, less slimy, but same principal.

Turn upside down in a pyrex dish or in some corning wear. Make sure whatever dish you use can be put in the microwave.  Put the squash in the dish and then fill with water. The squash I used was smaller than normal so I was able to fit both halves in the dish. Normally I can only fit one half in at a time.

Fill dish with about a 1/4” – 1/2" of water and then cover with cling wrap.

Put in the microwave and cook for 10 minutes.  Depending on the size of your squash this time may vary, but if you’re only cooking 1/2 of a larger squash that should be fine.

Once its finished cooking, pull your dish out of the microwave but be very careful, the dish and the steam under that cling wrap is going to be quite hot.

Take squash out of the water and let sit to cool for a few minutes.  The next step is to scrape out the ‘spaghetti’ with a fork and you don’t want the squash too hot or you would be able to handle it.

Put ‘spaghetti’ into a dish and serve!  I like mine with pasta sauce or just some olive oil and s&p. 

Also, just an FYI, my husband is never convinced he wants spaghetti squash, but as soon as he starts eating it he gobbles it right down.  So if the people in your life are hesitant at least make sure they try it because it’s not as scary as it seems.