I'm still cooking!

Just wanted to let you know that I'm still cooking....however, our computer crashed and I've been too lazy to figure out how to download pictures to our laptop. Perhaps this weekend.....sigh!

I've been doing some cooking and baking, so I'll have lots to share once I get this all figured out.

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup

Here's another crockpot winner, chicken dinner! I threw this together in the morning before leaving for work. It took me all of 5 minutes...the hardest part was rinising all the cans before putting them in the recycling bin!

When I got home, I shredded the chicken while Brian made some cheese quesadilas to serve as a side. Ole!

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup

Ingredients
1 onion, chopped
1 (16 ounce) can chili beans
1 (15 ounce) can black beans
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer
2 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning
3 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts (Mine were still frozen and came out perfectly!)
shredded Cheddar cheese (optional)
sour cream (optional)
crushed tortilla chips (optional)

Directions
Place the onion, chili beans, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, beer, and diced tomatoes in a slow cooker. Add taco seasoning, and stir to blend. Lay chicken breasts on top of the mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered by the other ingredients. Set slow cooker for low heat, cover, and cook for 6 hours.
Remove chicken breasts from the soup, and allow to cool long enough to be handled. Stir the shredded chicken back into the soup, and continue cooking for 2 hours. Serve topped with shredded Cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips, if desired.

Source: AllRecipes

Salmon Burgers

I had seen Paula Deen make this recipe a while back and thought that it would be one I'd actually try. It was one of her recipes that wasn't actually dripping in butter!

We make burgers all the time in the spring and summer, but never out of salmon. I had some salmon fillets in the freezer that needed to be used, so I decided to whip these burgers up for dinner this past week. They were a breeze to throw together and a nice change from our typical "winter fare". The original recipe serves 8, so I cut the recipe in half. The changes are reflected below.

Salmon Burgers

Ingredients
1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup green onions, diced
8 T panko bread crumbs
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound salmon fillets, skinned and finely chopped
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
Mayonnaise
4 kaiser rolls
lettuce leaves
tomato slices

red onion slices

Directions
In a medium bowl, combine peppers, panko, garlic, and salmon.
In a small bowl, combine egg, soy sauce, lemon juice, and salt; add to pepper mixture, tossing gently to combine. Form mixture into 4 patties.
Lightly coat a grill pan or skillet with cooking spray. Heat over medium-high heat until hot. Grill or cook patties, 5 minutes per side, or until desired degree of doneness. Spread Mayonnaise evenly over toasted buns. Top each with a lettuce leaf, tomato slice, onion slice and salmon patty. Cover with tops of buns.

Source: burgers adapted from Paula Deen via Food Network

Herb Crusted Rib Eye Roast

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not very good at cooking chunks of meat. Give me chicken, ground turkey, or fish and I'm good. Give me a chunk on beef, and I'm instantly intimidated. Since discovering Little One is devouring all my red blood cells, leaving me anemic, I've been trying to eat red meat a bit more. Rib Eye Roasts were on sale last week, so I knew I had to try this recipe. I love all the ingredients separately, so why not as a crust on a roast?!?!

This roast was easy to throw together and came out perfectly. I was impressed with my roast fearing self. I served this with a spinach salad and a loaded baked potato. We had a lot of leftovers, so we sliced the meat up the next night and made fajitas, which were equally as good!

Herb Crusted Rib Eye Roast

Ingredients:

2 lbs boneless rib eye roast, all fat trimmed off
2 tbsp fat free sour cream
3 tsp prepared horseradish
kosher salt and fresh pepper
1/2 cup whole wheat seasoned bread crumbs
1 tbsp herbs de provence (rosemary, thyme, marjoram and savory)
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400.

In a small bowl combine sour cream, salt, pepper and horseradish.

In another bowl combine breadcrumbs, herbs, garlic and oil.

Season meat with salt and pepper.

Sear roast in a large skillet on high heat for about 10 minutes total on all sides.

Place in roasting pan and cover with sour cream and breadcrumbs on top of roast.

Place in the oven and cook until thermometer reads 140°, about 35 to 40 minutes.
Remove and let it rest for 15 minutes before slicing. Serves 8.

Source: Everyday Food

Buffalo Chicken Dip

There are 1,001 versions of this recipe floating around the cooking blogs and message boards. Everyone seems to love it. They seem to love it so much, in fact, some call it "Crack Dip". Whatever you want to call it, no one can dispute the fact that it is darn good and super easy. A lot of the recipes out there call for canned chicken. I just couldn't bring myself to spend $4 on a can of shredded "mystery meat". So, I just poached a boneless, skinless chicken breast and shredded it. I served with celery sticks, carrots and french bread. But, it's compatible to just about anything dippable.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Ingredients

1 cup sour cream
1 8 oz brick cream cheese
1 packet ranch dressing mix
1 can chicken breast, drained
1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 c. Frank’s Red Hot Sauce

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a microwave-safe dish. Microwave on high heat until cream cheese is melted, and stir well. Serve with carrot sticks, celery sticks, tortilla chips, or any other dippable item.

Carrot Cream Cheese Muffins

Are these a muffin or a cupcake? This is the question posed by several food blogs I have seen this recipe posted on. A good piece of carrot cake is worth it's weight in gold, in my opinion. So, I decided to try and answer the question for myself. I loved these muffins.....that's right, I'm calling them muffins, since I choose to eat the mainly for breakfast. But, they are sweet enough, thanks to the cream cheese filling, to feel like a dessert. So, throw caution to the wind, and enjoy these muffins....cupcakes....whatever you choose to call them!

Carrot Cream Cheese Muffins

Ingredients:

Carrot Muffins:

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

2/3 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cup shredded carrots (about 8oz of baby carrots)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted)

1/2 cup raisins, soaked in hot water or rum for 10 minutes (I omitted)

Cream Cheese Filling:

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare your muffin tins by greasing with cooking spray or using paper liners.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar; set aside.

In separate bowl, beat the eggs and oil together until lightened. Stir in the carrots, walnuts and raisins.

In another bowl, cream together the cream cheese filling ingredients; set aside.

Fold the dry muffin ingredients into the wet egg/oil mixture and stir until just combined.

Fill each muffin cup about ¾ full.
Top each filled muffin cup with a generous teaspoon of the cream cheese filling.

Bake about 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake part comes out clean.

Source: The Delicious Life

Spinach Salad

I love this salad! It's easy to throw together and is super versatile. I have made this salad a meal by simply adding chicken or shrimp. I made it for a side. I've made this salad so much that I rarely measure the ingredients and add whatever I have on-hand. This particular day, I have some red bell pepper that needed to be used up, so I added it. I thought it added a nice contrast of colors.

Spinach Salad

Ingredients:

1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar or cider vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon finely chopped green pepper
1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley
1 teaspoon ketchup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground mustard (I used a squirt of Dijon mustard)
1/4 teaspoon paprika
2 cups torn fresh spinach (I use organic baby spinach)
1 hard-cooked egg, sliced
3 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

Directions
1. In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine the first 10 ingredients; shake well. I have used my Cuisinart mini-prep and tossed in all the ingredients to avoid having to pre-chop everything.

2. Divide spinach between two serving bowls or plates; top with egg and bacon.

3. Drizzle with dressing. Serve immediately.