Cheeseburger Soup... who knew?

Cheeseburger Soup

Hey Foodie Friends,
I know it's been a while since my last post. But in the aftermath of the holidays I have been sticking to the old favorites and haven't been trying out anything new. That is until tonight. In an effort to get out of my recipie rutt but still make something easy and delicious I yet again turned to Pinterest and found a recipie for cheeseburger soup. I was slightly skeptical but I figured what the heck. It was so awesome!!!

I found the recipe here







Cheeseburger Soup Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound ground beef or ground venison
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 3/4 cup shredded carrots
• 3/4 cup diced celery
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• 3 cups beef broth
• 4 cups diced peeled potatoes (1-3/4 pounds)
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups (8 ounces) American or Cheddar cheese
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 cup Daisy Brand Sour Cream

Directions

In a 3-qt. saucepan, brown beef; drain and set aside. In the same saucepan, saute the onion, carrots, celery, basil and parsley in 1 tablespoon butter until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Add the broth, potatoes and beef; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, melt remaining butter. Add flour; cook and stir for 3-5 minutes or until bubbly. Add to soup; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Stir in the cheese, milk, salt and pepper; cook and stir until cheese melts. Remove from the heat; blend in sour cream. Yield: 8 servings (2-1/4 quarts).

Mangia!!

Yum!

Braised Italian Beef

Here is the recipe for braised Italian beef. I actually saw this recipe one night on Symon's Suppers and thought "I have to make that!". It came out AMAZING. The recipe is here. But as always I tweaked it a little.

Ingredients

• 2.5- 3 pounds rump roast
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 carrot, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 2 -3 stalks of celery cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped

• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 cup red wine
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 1 cup beef stock/broth
• 2 bay leaves, preferably fresh
• 1 1/2 pounds dried rigatoni, for serving

 

Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven (or roasting pan) over medium-high heat. When the oil is on the verge of smoking, sear the meat for about 2 minutes per side. Move the meat to the side (or remove it from the pot altogether if necessary), and add the carrots, celery root and onions. Brown the vegetables for about 3 minutes, and then add the garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes longer.

Pour in the wine and deglaze the pot, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom. Add the tomato sauce, beef broth,1 cup water and the bay leaves (and the pot roast if you removed it). Bring the liquid to a simmer and taste for seasoning. Add more salt if necessary. Cover the pot, or pan, and place it in the oven for 3 hours, basting the meat occasionally during cooking time.

When almost ready to serve, make the rigatoni, if using. Boil in salted water according to package directions until al dente.

Discard the bay leaves before serving. Transfer the meat to a cutting board and slice into bite-size pieces, or shred with 2 forks. Return the meat to the pot of sauce along with the drained rigatoni. Toss to coat, and serve. 

 

The recipie for my tomato sauce can be found here 

Crock Pot Roast Chicken

This is a recipe I found on Pinterest and it is amazing. I have tried a few recipes off of the site and had some hit and miss results... this one is definitely a hit! I found the recipe here, and to be honest I didn't change a thing.

Spice Rub

• 3 tsp salt
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

Clean your chicken and remove giblets and neck.  Rub spice mixture all over the chicken, if you have the time you can let the chicken marinate over night but you don't have to.  Dice up1 onion and put at the bottom of the crock pot.  Place spiced chicken on top of onions.  There is no need to add any liquid.  As your chicken slow cooks you will be amazed on how much juice you will end up with.

Slow cook on low for about 8 hrs.  You can use a thermometer to check to see if your chicken is done.  It should read 180 deg.  Or even simpler, wiggle a leg and if it’s loose, it’s done!

This chicken was moist and had amazing flavor! We served it with mashed potatoes and corn :)

Mangia!

Beef Stew

When I make beef stew I am immediately transported back to my parents kitchen, watching my mom on a cold Saturday make this and thinking "I hope I can be that good one day". <3 My mom is really the reason I love to cook, because watching her you could tell she loved to feed people. So beef stew is one of those recipes I actually don't have written down, so dear blog readers this is a first :)

Ingredients

• 1-2lbs stew meat
• 2 tbs flour
• 1-2 tsp black pepper (you can add more or less depending on your taste)
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 large carrots chopped
• 2-3 potatoes peeled and chopped
• 4-6 cups beef stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp thyme

Directions

Put roughly a tbs of oil in a pan, when warm put in strew meat. Sprinkle with flour and pepper. Saute until brown. De-glaze with beef stock, make sure to scrap the bottom of the pan. Simmer for an hour and a half to 2 hours. Add in veggies and remaining spices. Simmer for another 30-40 minutes. Serve with pasta, rice or biscuits.



Mangia!

Soup!

I love soup! I don't know where this love came from but even as a kid I had a strong love affair with soup. I remember the first thing I ever cooked when I got an apartment was soup. As I got older I leared that homemade soup is SO MUCH better then the stuff out of a can. Since Fall has set in here in Southern NY and Winter is not far behind I  have broken out the big soup pot and started looking for new recipies. Recently I make Minestone soup, it came out great and it was so simple. I found the recipe here. The only think I changed was I added sausage (because Josh won't eat a meal with no meat) and a subsituted kale for the spinach as I think it holds up better in a soup. Oh and I did it on the stove and not in a slow cooker.

Ingredients

• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (15-ounce) can white (cannellini or navy) beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon sage
• 2 bay leaves
• Salt and ground black pepper
• 1 medium zucchini, chopped
• 1 small bunch of kale chopped
• 1lb sausage (or ground beef)

Directions

 Saute sausage or ground beef til brown. Add in carrots and onion and saute til slightly soft. Add in tomatoes, broth and spices. Bring to a boil and then simmer about an hour or so. 30 minutes before you want to serve chop zucchini and kale and add to the pot along with beans. Serve with any noodles you like or rice.

My best customer <3

Mangia!

Mason Jar Oatmeal

Good Morning!

I found this recipe on Pinterest and it is amazing! It took me all of 20 minutes to set up and made for quick and easy breakfast for the whole family this morning. :)


I found the recipe here, I didn't do all the flavor options but I did try the blueberry, apple, chocolate banana and peanut butter banana. Yum!

Pasta a la Mama

Pasta a la Mama

 Today I took on the dreeded task of cleaning out the fridge, thanks to this hated chore I realized I had a lot of great summer produce that I needed to use up. So that's what I did :)

This whole pot came together in 30 minutes and it tasted pretty good!



Pasta a la Mama

• 1-2 medium zuchini
• 1-2 medium yellow squash
• 1 package of mushrooms
• 2 vine tomoatoes
• 1/2-3/4 of a box of pasta

1. Heat oil oil and a little butter in a pan over medium high heat
2. Slice the squash and zuchini on a mandelin
3. Quarter mushooms
4. Add veggies to pan
5. Sprinkle salt, pepper and a little onion powder to taste
6. Saute of slightly soft
7. Chop tomatoes and add to pan
8. Cook pasta according to box directions, drain and add to pot with vegatables
9. stir to combine

This recipie is great because you can really use whatever you have.

Mangia!