Cauliflour soup

I really need to take more pictures of this delicious food for you to see but we just gobble it up to quick!
I'd be wanting to make some cauliflower soup for a long time because a guy I used to work with talked about how excited he was to go back to Wisconsin for Christmas to have it. Apparently it's another thing Wisconsin is famous for....and here I thought it was all about cheese, beer and Green Bay.
Anyway here's the recipe. It was smooth and creamy and delicious. We ate it with whole wheat salteens (which taste the same as regular salteens by the way) but it would be even better with a loaf of sour dough or french bread to dip it in. Yumm...

1 head cauliflower

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 quart low-sodium chicken stock

1 Tbsp parsley

1/3 cup milk

Salt (1tsp?) and Pepper (2tsp?)

Optional additions 3-4 sticks of celery (i didnt have any in the fridge so i left this out), water to help with softening the veggies and thining the soup (if you use too much water just add some cornstarch mixed in cold water to thicken it back up), and 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese (not my favorite kind of cheese so i dont keep it in the house either)

Remove the leaves and thick core from the cauliflower the chop coarsely.
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan or soup pot over medium heat and add the onion and garlic. Cook until softened, but not browned, about 5 minutes.
Add the cauliflower and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook until the cauliflower is very soft and falling apart, about 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and, using whatever blender you have (immersion or standard), puree the soup and return it to the pot.
Season, to taste, with salt and black pepper and parsley Add  milk (and cheese) Keep warm until ready to serve.

Green Beans with biscuits and gravy

I hate canned green beans. Seriously we got like 12 cans from the hubby's grandma years ago and every time he would open a can i literally had to CHOKE them down UGH :P So when we got like a gallon size bag of them from Bountiful Baskets I was NOT looking forward to eating them. But hubby sauteed them with olive oil and salt and they were nice and edible so long as they were still hot. Then I made a casserole with them and can I just tell you that green beans have never tasted so good! I was surprised! Plus it was super easy.


Here's what you need :

1 can cream of mushroom
a splash of milk (maybe 1/4 cup)
three big handful of great big green beans
Onion powder (maybe 1 Tbsp)
1 batch of buttermilk biscuit dough (or a tube of refrigerator stuff if you have to)

First trim grab your kitchen sheers and trim the ends off and cut into 1 inch strips and put in a 8inch square dish
sprinkle with onion powder (i sauteed mine for a minute or two but it was probably unnecessary)
then add the cream of mushroom and milk and mix it all together
 Bake at 425 for 15 minutes to get it all heated up (you could even microwave it for like 7 or 8 minutes instead of baking it for this part)
Top the heated mixture with biscuit dough and bake for another 15-18 minutes. Just till the biscuits are nice and golden brown on top.

scoop it out and enjoy!

PS this reheated really well also.

Mongolian Chicken (or beef)

I've been loving making stir-fry type things as a way to eat lots of veggies at dinner. This works well with rice, fettuccine, undon, or Ramon noodles (just don't use the flavor packet that comes with the Ramon noodles).

Mongolian sauce

1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
1/2 to 1 tsp ginger
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp cornstarch mixed with 2 Tbsp COLD water

in a pot over medium heat fry the garlic for about 20 seconds (helps bring out the flavor) then add the soy sauce, water, ginger, and brown sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar and boil for a few minutes. Add the cornstarch mixture and continue stirring for a few minutes to thicken the sauce. Remove from heat and pour into a bottle so you can pour some over the chicken and over your noodles/rice. Store the rest in the fridge.

Cut one large chicken breast into 1" chunks and sprinkle 2 Tbsp of cornstarch over them to coat just as you start cooking them. When the chicken is all browned and cooked through set a side and stir a little of the sauce into it to soak up the flavors.

Stir-fry your veggies and rice. Mix it all together and serve. Don't forget to garnish with a lot of diced green onions!

(PS keeping green onions fresh on hand is kind of a hassle so what I do is buy one bunch for when i need it and chop up the whole thing into the little tiny rounds. Use what i need that day and freeze the rest. They keep really well in the freezer and then you just have to add them in for the last minute of cooking or sprinkle them on your enchiladas right before you put them in the oven or whatever you want to use them on)

BBQ chicken pizza

YUM! I love bbq chicken pizza. Since I had time, I made my own crust today and boy was it tasty. I'm so sad that Papa Johns doesn't do the whole wheat crust anymore, it was so good. :(

I cooked a chicken breast in a small pot on the stove with bbq sauce 1tsp garlic and 1 Tbsp thyme over low heat (3 on my stove) for like 30 minutes while I was waiting for my dough to rise. Since it was such low heat i didn't even have to watch it, just put a lid on and came back to rip it into small chunks. I only used about 1/2 the breast on the pizza too so now i have leftovers for a sandwich or more pizza later in the week.

Roll out your dough to about 1/4 in thick put it on your cookie sheet and stab it with a fork all over (this way when it cooks it wont bubble up) then bake it at 400' for 3-5 minutes.
Do this with either homemade dough or use a package of Jiffy pizza dough, it tastes good, it's less than 50cents, it's easy and takes 5 minutes, I usually add just a couple tablespoons of wheat flour when I use the Jiffy kind because it just seems too sticky otherwise

Take it out of the oven and top with
1/3 cup (more or less) bbq sauce, I use sweet baby rays
1/2 of a chicken breast, in small chunks
some diced red onion
slices of peppers red, green, yellow, whatever you have/like. i just thawed some pepper stir fry
1/8 cups finely shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (or whatever cheeses you want)

Put it back in the oven to bake for 15-20 minutes, til the edges brown nicely.




Here is the recipe I used for the pizza dough. I've also used this to make bread sticks, just brush some butter mixed with garlic and a sprinkle of salt and finely shredded cheese.

Delicious Dough

1-1/2 cup warm water (like 110' don't do super hot water, over 125' will kill your yeast)
1 Tbsp sugar
2-1/2 tsp (or one envelope) yeast.

I use dry active yeast that i keep in the fridge so you have to let the yeast sit out for a minute or two in the bowl before you sprinkle the sugar and water on top. Then use a fork to mix it together and let it poof (foam up) for about 10 minutes. Then add

3-1/2 cup flour (I use half whole wheat half all purpose but you can use what ever you want)
1 tsp salt
Use the fork to mix it all together for a minute then when switch to you hand. You want to kneed the dough for at least a few minutes so that it all comes together smoothly and helps the yeast do it's job. Kneading the dough is important for the gluten to develop properly, you don't want the dough to rip, just use your palms to stretch the dough and fold it over and stretch it some more. This way your bread/rolls/crust will be sturdy and chewy.

Using a firm hand roll the dough into a nice tight ball, place it into a bowl that has a light spray of cooking oil and cover with plastic wrap.

Allow it to rise to double in size, like 2 hours or so. If your house is cold it wont rise properly. what you can do to help it rise on a cold day is turn on your oven just to 200 and as soon as it heats up turn it off, place the bowl with the dough in the oven and leave the oven slightly cracked.

Pepperoni Pinwheels

So when I made the bbq chicken pizza I had double the dough i needed. Instead of making two pizzas i decided to make these pizza pinwheels so that i could either eat/put them in the fridge or freeze some of them.

Roll out the dough into one big rectangle.
in a blender put 1/4 cup pizza sauce, 1/2 c shredded mozzarella, and 20 or so pepperoni slices,
pulse a couple times and then spread it onto your dough (you can also skip the blender and just layer it on but the pepperoni makes it hard to roll up)
Make sure you don't over fill or it will spread apart in the oven.
roll the dough up like you would cinnamon rolls and freeze it for 30 minutes (so that it slices easier)
Slice into 1 inch rounds and place on a sprayed cookie sheet.
Bake for 18-20 minutes at 400'

Enjoy for dinner or lunch :)