Super Easy and Delicious Ham and Bean Crockpot Soup

We baked a ham the other night and had a ton of leftovers. We discussed different ways to use it up and ham and bean soup sounded like a winner.  However, I was not going to the store to buy anything new and I wasn't going to slave over a stove to make it.  To the crock pot I went. I used this recipe from simply recipes as a guide and I'm stealing their photo because their soup looked waaay prettier than mine.  But mine tasted daaaaayum good!

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Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup diced potatoes
- 2 cups cooked ham
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 can white kidney beans
- 1 can pinto beans
thyme, salt, pepper and parsley

I cooked it on low for 7 hours and it was delicious!  The only thing I would do different is probably make more!! And add more ham.  I totally could have added another cup and adjusted maybe another cup of chicken broth in.  So delicious!

What do you do with ham leftovers?

Chicken Stir Fry

Back in 2009, when I was taking a graduate class my husband always made us dinner on Tuesday nights.  For some reason, Winter 2009 was our stir fry obsession time.  We ate it A LOT. So much that earlier this month when I made this, I couldn't even begin to tell you the last time we made it for dinner.  Probably 2009. I, however, was wanting some fried rice so I decided it was time to re-visit chicken stir fry.

First, I cut up 4 chicken tenders (I bought a large bag at Meijer awhile ago), and cooked them in EVOO and soy sauce.

I then made brown rice according to the package.  I put it in a bowl and chilled it in the fridge while I got other stuff going.

I then took 2 eggs and beat them together in a bowl.  Then in a pan I cooked the egg with some red onion.  Then I put it off to the side.

Then I went back to the cooked chicken and added in some veggies from a frozen bag I had in the freezer and some fresh orange pepper.  When that was all warmed up I went back to the rice.

I got the cold rice from the fridge and warmed it up with some evoo in the bottom and added some peas into the mix.  Then I added the egg.

Then we put rice in the bowl and the chicken/veggies on top. 

Nom Nom Nom.. It was good.  I liked the rice, but the veggies from the freezer were not my style so that was a sad.

What's your favorite Chinese food?

Mine is crab rangoons!!!

Veggie Feta Pasta Salad

I've been experimenting lately on ways to use feta (LOVE) and various pasta salads since I love pasta and veggies and get bored with the typical pasta salad all the time.

This was pretty easy and tasty.

I cooked the pasta.

I chopped up everything.

I combined EVOO, garlic powder, juice of a lemon, salt and pepper.

I drained and rinsed a can of beans.

Mixed everything together.  YUMMMMMMMMMY.

Ingredients
2 cups rotini (i used a wheat kind and it was a little too thick for this in my opinion and my hubbys)
1/2 a cucumber cut quartered and diced
1 can white cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 tomato, chopped
red onion, as much as you want
orange pepper, as much as you want
feta cheese, as much as you want
3 tablespoons EVOO
1 lemon, juiced
salt and pepper and garlic powder to taste

Yumm.  I will say that my husband was not a fan because of the pasta I used and because the dressing wasn't enough in his opinion.  And I agree on the dressing, I think the pasta absorbed it and then made it a tad dry.

No worries, I pulled out creamy Italian dressing and ate it with it when I pulled it out because I made enough I could eat out of it all week.  And since my husband didn't like it, I added in green olives.  I also had pre-cooked flavored grilled chicken strips that I added.  Yummmm. 

I really loved it, but would make it with different pasta and adjust the dressing.  I think a cesearish dressing would be the best.

What is your favorite summer side salad?

Beef and Rice Enchiladas!

Last week I was on a Mexican food kick.  I had Nacho Chicken Enchilada Casserole, Nachos and Beef and Rice Enchiladas. NOM NOM NOM...

These were super easy and very delicious.

First things first... POUR THE WINE!

I started making Spanish Rice out of a packet (quick and easy and I used Meijer brand) and browning about a pound of hamburger meat and some onions.  I made sure to drain the meat afterwards so it wasn't yuck-o greasy. Oh and go ahead and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Then I poured the rice into the meat and 1 10 ounce can of enchilada sauce in with the meat and stirred. Yum.  I may have taste tested at this point.

Then I got out 8 flour soft shells (only used 7 because I suck at portioning haha) and filled each one up with about 2/3 cup mixture and topped it with a sprinkle of cheese. 

Then I layered them all nicely in a 13by9 pan.

Topped it with another 10 ounce can of enchilada sauce and some cheese and stuck it in the oven for 8 minutes. (Enough to let the cheese melt.)

Viola!

These were fabulous and delicious and perfect with some fruit!

Ingredients
- 1 pound hamburger
- 1 package spanish rice
- half a medium size onion, chopped
- 2 10 ounce cans enchilada sauce
- shredded cheese
- 8ish flour tortilla shells


Which do you prefer red sauce enchiladas or green sauce enchiladas?

Nacho Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Um yum. You just need the words nacho and enchilada to pop up and you have my attention.  Together = FABULOUS!

I was checking out Iowa Girl Eats last week when she posted this and was chomping at the bit to try it.
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First, I threw my chicken tenders into the crock pot in the morning with a can of chopped green chilies, about a cup of chicken broth and some salsa and let it go all day.

Then when it was time to make dinner I got my adorable helper ready. Whaat? The purpose of procreating wasn't so I had an audience for my cooking shows? ;)

ready to help!

I chopped up some onion and another can of green chilies because I was an idiot who did not buy the chopped green chilies.  Then I sauteed them with some EVOO. 

Preheated the oven to 350 and pulled the chicken out of the crock pot and shredded it, which was simple and it fell right apart.  Kept the juice in the crock pot.

hmmm.. where did those onions and green chilies go?

Then into the onions/green chilies I added in a can of evaporated milk, a can of red enchilada sauce, 2 ounces of cream cheese and a couple of sharp cheddar cheese. Mixed it all together and got it nice creamy.  Oh and I took Iowa Girl Eats advice and tried it as a dip? Fabulous.  And I may have used some of it for nacho covering the other day on a lunch.. yummmm

While that was getting ready, I got my pan sprayed with pam and broke apart 3 taco shells for the bottom layer.

When the cheese mix was all set I added the chicken in and then the juice that it had cooked with.

Then I measured out 2 cups of the mixture and layered it on top of the tortilla shells.  Then I laid out more tortilla cheese and 2 more cups.  Now at this point mine looked pretty full so I got some tortilla chips and crunched them up and covered it with more sharp cheddar.  I did have more mix left and could have done another layer but decided it looked good enough.

are we done yet???

Threw it in the oven for 25 minutes and DELICIOUS.

My Plate

I topped mine with tomato, black and green olives and some red onion.  YUM!

Ingredients
-3 chicken tenders
- cup of chicken broth
- 2 cans chopped green chilies
- 1 10 ounce can of red enchilada sauce
- 1 small can of evaporated milk
- 2 ounces of cream cheese
- 1 cup of sharp cheddar (plus extra for the top)
- between 6-9 hard taco shells
- crumbled tortilla chips

What is your favorite Mexican dish?

Yummy Quiche

On the 4^th, I really wanted to make a quiche for breakfast.  Buttttt.. we did not have milk and I didn’t want to go to the store.  Slight problem. So I was determined to make one the other weekend.  New problem, did not have pie crust nor desire to make pie crust.  Enter more googling.  I started googling quiche red potatoes because I had some from the farmers market and wondered if they would make a good ingredient.  And bada bing bada boom.  Enter red potatoes as the crust!!! So while glancing through many recipes at allrecipes.com and finding ingredients that I had on hand that I could throw in I found this blog,  Eat Drink Pretty is amazing! And so is therecipe I followed to make this delicious quiche!

4 red potatoes, thinly sliced
½ a yellow pepper, chopped
½ a sweet onion, chopped
½ a medium tomato chopped
½ cup feta/shredded cheddar cheese
4 eggs
½ cup milk
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
Parsley
Garlic powder

 Preheat oven to 350. Grease pan.  Wash and cut the red potatoes in to very thin slices.  Arrange them around the pie pan.  Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, parsley and garlic powder.  (Careful on the amount of olive oil. I think I used too much on mine but it stilled turned out yummy).  Cook the potatoes in the oven for 15 minutes.  Take out and let cool for about 5 minutes.

 Chop up the vegetables and in a bowl mix the eggs and milk and more salt and pepper if you want.  Put the veggies on top of the potatoes and sprinkle with the cheese.  Then pour the egg/milk mixture on top.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes and add more cheese on top (if you want, and of course I want!) Then continue baking it until its been in there about 30-35 minutes and the egg is set.

What is your favorite breakfast to make?

Best Salad Everrrrrr

So I had been googling feta and salads lately because I wanted to try making a dressing that I’d like and because I had a craving for feta.  I found a pasta feta salad recipe and kind of keeping that in mind I came up with this.  Of course measurements may be a bit off, I was just throwing stuff in!

1 Roma Tomato Chopped
Couple handfuls romaine lettuce
½ a cucumber, sliced
½ a yellow cucumber chopped
2 tbsp green olives chopped
2 tbsp chopped sweet onion
1 tbsp olive oil
Dash of balsamic vinegar
2 handful sprinkles feta cheese
Garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste

Put the romaine in a bowl.  Cut up everything and then mix it in with the lettuce.  I used my hands to get it all mixed together well (some people would use the word massage but I hate when I read the words massage and salads on blogs so I will just say I MIXED IT WELL!) Then I measured out the olive oil and poured it over the veggies and once again mixed it together.  Then I sprinkled salt, pepper and garlic pepper in and mixed it.  I tasted and decided it needed something else.. So I dribbled a little balsamic vinegar in and mixed it.  And tada! It was fabulous!!!!

My husband was even jealous of it, because I ate it all and did not share.  He had said he was full and didn’t want one but then when it was so gorgeous he got sad, so I shared a bite. ;)  This definitely could be topped with grilled chicken or add some beans in.  I think I would add some garbanzo beans next time or even some boiled eggs.

What is your favorite homemade salad dressing?

Cheesy Potato Casserole

I was looking in my cupboards last week trying to decide what sounded good as a side to make with our leftover chicken.  I found a box of scalloped potatoes and thought, hmm I should use up our real potatoes, I wonder if I can find a really good cheesy potato recipe.  The search was on.  I found this by The Pioneer Woman and immediately wanted it.  But alas, we did not have heavy cream nor whole milk and it was not worth the trip to the store.  So I scoured the internets, asked for some help with a sour cream alternative.  And with a little input and a little guess work, the most amazing potatoes came about.  (I will still say that I prefer cheesy potatoes made with hash browns but these were AWESOME!)

Ingredients

5 cubed Potatoes
½ cup butter,
1 can Cream of chicken soup
1/3 cup Onion

1/2 cup milk
1 ½ cup Grated cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups Sour cream

1 clove garlic finely chopped

sprinkle of salt

sprinkle of pepper

First, I preheated the oven to 350, I would recommend actually doing it at 400.  Our potatoes were still too firm, but edible, but I would definitely cook them higher and longer than I did so here is your warning now. I washed and scrubbed the potatoes.

 Then I chopped them up.  It was easy to cut them in slices and then chop them into 4ths.

  Use 2 tablespoons of the butter to coat the bottom of the pan.  I think there was maybe a bit too much butter so maybe instead of a full stick take away 2 tablespoons from it?

In a saucepan, melt the rest of the butter and then add in the sour cream, cream of chicken, onion, garlic, salt and pepper.  I made sure it was all stirred in and then added the milk because it seemed to thick.

 I left it in the pan basically to warm up and mix together and then I added just a handful of shredded cheese I had left in a bag from the fridge.  Next time, I would probable do twice the amount you see here.

While that is warming up, put 1/3 of the potatoes on the bottom of the pan.



 Then cover it with some sauce. 

 Then do this two more times, potatoes, sauce, potatoes sauce.. Ending with the sauce.

 Now, cover it up with tin foil and put it in the oven for 30 minutes.  Then take it out and remove the tin foil and cook it again for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are golden brown and really bubbling.  I

 may have not cooked them this long and regret it but they were still good but my husband was more patient and put them back in and it they were better. So make SURE THE POTATOES ARE HOW YOU LIKE THEM!

Then use the lovely cheddar cheese that you shredded or from the bag. I used a combo of freshly shredded and bagged.

 Then cover the dish and put it back in the oven for about 5 minutes.

 And then it will come out looking like this. And you will have to try to not burn your tongue.. whoops.

And then you put it in the bowl and eat it.  And I hate like double this amount in the end. SO FREAKING GOOD.  I ate it as my meal but my husband had the leftover chicken haha.



Verdict? AMAZING. Definitely recommend it.  NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM

What is your favorite way to eat potatoes?

Mine is a tie between cheesy potatoes and potato soup!