Spicy Smoked Sausage Pasta

I have a lot of catching up to do on recipes!! This recipe I pulled from Kevin and Amanda's blog who got this recipe from the cookbook, The Best Simple Recipes! Smoked sausage is one of those things I love to eat, but often forget exists when I'm at the grocery store! This is an absolutely delightful, hearty dish that we had no problems polishing off in just a couple of days! Let's get started...

Ingredients

1 TB olive oil

1 lb. smoked sausage

1.5 c diced onion

2 cloves garlic-minced

2 c chicken broth

1 (10 oz) can Rotel

1/2 c heavy cream

8 oz. Penne Pasta

1/2 tsp. salt & pepper 

1 c Mont Jack shredded cheese

1/3 c thin sliced green onion

To begin, you're going to want to add your olive oil to your pan over medium/high heat! You're going to want the oil to get hot enough it's smoking before you add the sliced smoked sausage and diced onion. 

Cook these two together until slightly browned, which should take about 4-6 minutes! Add in the 2 garlic cloves, and saute about 30 seconds, or until fragrant! 

Add the chicken broth, tomatoes, heavy cream, pasta, salt and pepper and stir together!

Bring this all to boil and cover leaving the heat on medium/low and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the pasta is tender!

Stir in 1/2 of a cup of the shredded cheese and mix together well! Top it off with the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese and sliced green onion, and place under the broiler for a just a few minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and getting brown!

Ready for the broiler

Out of the broiler!

All finished and ready to eat :)

This recipe was absolutely wonderful since it's been so cold outside, it helped warm us up! I did sprinkle a little dash or two of red pepper flakes in there to spice it up a little more! 

Stay tuned for another recipe from a friend of mine!

Until then...

 

Fried Honey and Cinnamon Bananas

Okay, so this isn't exactly a "fried" banana more of a heated through banana! It's delicious and healthy! I pinned this awhile back, and couldn't wait to try it, so today was the day! You can see the health information on this snack at The Crohn's Journey Foundation's website! They break down each ingredient with all the nutritional facts about each one! It's worth the read even if you don't make this yummy snack! Let's get started...

Ingredients

One organic banana

Coconut Oil Cooking Spray

1 TB Organic honey

1/2 TB water

Cinnamon

Cut your banana into small rounds and set aside. In your skillet spray your coconut oil spray, and heat the skillet over medium/high heat. Add the banana rounds and brown on one side. Once they are browned, flip the over (carefully) and start browning the other side. Turn the stove off at this point and add your PRE-MIXED honey and water. At this point it's going to start getting very bubbly, and once that dies down you can sprinkle on the cinnamon. If you LOVE the taste of cinnamon be generous, if you are just adding for a touch of flavor, a light dusting will do! Remove them from the pan and let them cool, then enjoy! 

Honey and water mix

I didn't have the cooking spray, so I added a little bit of coconut oil to the pan! I use this for SOOOO many things including, toothpaste, hair conditioner, lotion, sunscreen, etc etc! It's awesome!

Here is the banana in the skillet getting browned! 

I LOVE cinnamon! If you'll take my advice and read up on the website where this recipe was pulled, you'll find that you might start adding cinnamon to recipes when you can :) I've added it to sloppy joe mix before and it was awesome! If you like Coney Island, did you know they add cinnamon to their chili!? (Not that that will make their coney's healthy lol but they are delish!)

Here it is just finishing up! I can still smell ALL of the ingredients in the house! 

Stay tuned for a new recipe...Shrimp & Grits! 

Until then...

Roasted Chickpeas

So, I'm trying this on my phone today because our computer is up at the office! I cannot get enough of these sweet and salty chickpeas!! They are easy to make, and a great idea for a snack at home or you could double/triple the recipe to take to a party! Lets get started!

Ingredients:
I can of chickpeas
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt

To start out you're going to drain the can of chickpeas and then scatter them out on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes. The last can I made I had to bake for about 32-35 (the chickpeas around the edges might get burned, just remove them and pop the sheet back in.) You are looking for them to have a crunch! Once they have roasted let them cool and put them in a small bowl. Add the olive oil, cinnamon, brown sugar, and salt and stir together. Serve and enjoy!! I about took down a whole can by myself the first time I made these! I originally came across this recipe at cupcakeproject.com! If you check out her recipes you will quickly find she puts together things that might seem out of the ordinary, but end up being satisfying and delicious! Stay tuned for more great recipes this week!! Until then...

Happy Eating

Tortellini Soup

Well this is by far one of the easiest recipes I have put together in a LONG time! I couldn't find the original source link, but whoever it is out there, we loved it! Here are the ingredients...

Ingredients

One bag of frozen tortellini (we used 5 cheese)

1 small bag of spinach

2 can of Italian style diced tomatoes

1 box (4 c) Vegetable Broth

1 block of cream cheese

Are you ready for the crazy part! There is no dicing, chopping or mincing in this recipe! All you do is put all the ingredients in your crock pot. Set the temperature to low, and cook 5-6 hours! I did pull apart the cream cheese block as I tossed it in there, so that it would be easier to cook down, but that is truly all I did! Five hours later we were chowing down on some delicious soup! 

This is the recipe from Pinterest that says "BEST CROCK POT MEAL EVER"...now I don't know about "ever" but I love how easy it is, which makes it top notch in my book! 

DJ added last night, that next time he wants me to try to add cottage cheese instead of all the cream cheese (to try and lower the calories (370/serving)) and maybe a little more spinach! I'll have to experiment around and see what I come up with! I can't believe today is the last day of February, which means GREAT fishing weather very soon (we're talking 2-3 weeks TOPS)! Tomorrow, I will finish up the photo challenge for this month, and another recipe will be coming very soon!

Until then...

Coffee-Cocoa Crusted Venison On A Bed Of Spinach

We are absolutely loving finding recipes from the Game and Garden lady, and trying them out in our kitchen! For Valentine's Day, they enjoyed this recipe which we made last night! When you put all of this together and finally sit down to eat, the smell in the house alone is a give-away to the delightful dish you're getting ready to enjoy! The entire house smells like chocolate coffee, with a fabulous sweet berry topping! Not to mention there are no onions or garlic to chop, so the delicious smell lasts on your hands as well (it's like having a chocolate lotion-YUM)!  Now, we did ours a tiny bit different than her's because we had slightly different ingredients in our pantry. So let's get started!

Ingredients

1/3 c coffee grounds

(I didn't realize until it was too late that I make vanilla coffee...didn't matter! Still tasted wonderful)

1/4 c cocoa

(We used dark chocolate cocoa powder)

1 TB brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/2 loin

(I didn't have a venison loin. I did however have butterflied back straps. Which worked great!)

If you don't have venison, don't fret...I would use a pork loin!

Olive oil for browning

Mix together all the ingredients to make your dry rub. I sprinkled the rub over the meat, and pushed down to make sure it was thoroughly coated! Make sure all sides of the meat are covered in the dry rub mix. 

Once you have each piece (or loin) covered in the dry rub, get a skillet out and add some olive oil to the pan for browning the meat. You are going to want to get your pan "smoking hot"! Once our skillet was smoking, we placed the meat in one piece at a time to brown on both sides! (I think since we used dark chocolate and coffee-It looked completely seared or charred! It wasn't. Just make sure you keep an eye on it!) Once you have your meat browned, you're going to want to put it in a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes! 

Meanwhile let's talk about the berry sauce! Here are the ingredients...

Ingredients

1 1/2 c blackberries

1/2 c blueberries

1/2 c red wine

1/4 c sugar

1 lemon-juiced

salt to taste

Place all your ingredients in a small sauce pot on the stove, and bring to a boil! Reduce the heat and reduce the sauce by half! 

At some point during the sauce making, your venison will be done in the oven. Carefully remove the pan, and let it cool for a couple of minutes. I sliced mine into small strips, if you have a loin like the recipe link above (or right here) you can cut it into small rounds. Make a bed of spinach (or arugula) to add everything to on a plate! 

Once your sauce is finished and removed from the heat, here are my step-by-step instructions as to how I put this all together:

1) Add bed of spinach to my plate

2) Take the strips of meat and dip each one in a Raspberry Chipotle sauce.

3) Add meat to top of spinach

4) Spoon berry sauce over the top like a delicious salad dressing

5) ENJOY!

I think this is one of my new favorite dishes! If you've been unsure about trying venison, I would recommend starting with something like this! There was no "game" flavor whatsoever, and the meat was so tender it practically falls apart in the first bite! The chocolate and coffee flavors are wonderful together! Then when you pair it with the tiny bit of a spicy kick you get from the dipping sauce, and then pair that with the sweet berry sauce, it's a completely unbelievable, melt-in your mouth kind of taste! This is why we love cooking from the Game and Garden site, because she has so many recipes to choose from, and they are ALL so tasty! 

Until Next Time...

Chicken, Cheddar, Bacon & Rice Bake

I came upon yet another fun food blog titled, What's cooking in the burbs! She has some serious great looking recipes that I can't wait to try! I'm no where near going through them but I did however find this little gem on Pinterest which is what got me to her blog in the first place. She adapted this recipe from AllRecipes and we LOVED it! I really struggled with putting the bacon in or leaving it out (healthy eating...remember?)! However, I still had a ways to go before I reached my goal for the day, so in went the bacon! Just FYI in case you're interested, this recipe, as is, runs about 445 calories per serving. If you leave out the bacon you can subtract 135 calories and come up with 310 calories per serving! If bacon is involved, I will typically favor the bacon IN instead of the bacon OUT! So let's get started, because once you make it, you're not going to want to stop eating it! This recipe serves about 6 people, so for 2 of us we had plenty of leftovers!

Ingredients

4 TB butter

1 medium onion, chopped (about one cup)

4 garlic cloves-minced (I used 3 because they were pretty big)

1 tsp seasoning salt

1 tsp Kosher salt (I forgot this when I made it-tasted just fine)

1/2 tsp black pepper

4 TB flour

3 1/2 c chicken stock

3 1/2 c milk

1 1/2 c long grain rice

3 c cooked chicken

1 1/2 c cheddar cheese-shredded

1/2 c cooked-crumbled bacon

To start it out you're going to melt the butter in a pan and add the onions. Cook the onions until they are tender, then add the garlic, seasoning salt and pepper. Stir this all together and add in the flour. Mix well! It's going to start to "clump" together so make sure you don't leave it alone for too long! Stir in the milk and chicken stock and turn the heat on the stove up to medium-high. Add in ONE CUP of cheese! (NOTE: This is not all the cheese for the recipe! I ALWAYS mess up and see "stir in cheese and add the whole cup and half and then realize later I was only supposed to put in a portion of the ingredient.) 

Continue to whisk until everything comes to a simmer. Add in the rice and lower the heat to medium-low and cook about 20 minutes or until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid! 

While this mixture was cooking, Dee Jay was working on getting the bacon cooked and crumbled!

Once your rice mixture is finished on the stove, add in the chicken and bacon to the rice/sauce mix! Pour all this into a 9x13 pan and sprinkle the remaining 1/2 c of cheese on top! Place it in the oven for 20-25 (we did 22 minutes) and bake until the cheese is bubbly! 

This is everything in the pan EXCEPT for the cheese topping!

I cannot express to you how much we enjoyed this recipe! It's not to heavy or loaded down, it's just...dare I say...perfectly delicious! Stay tuned for some more yummy recipes! 

Until then...

Chicken Pot Pie

What could be better than a double-crust chicken pot pie with a side of mashed potatoes?! (Not a lot is the answer you're looking for if you were raised in Ok!) Thanks to MyRecipes for sharing Southern Living's double-crust chicken pot pie! I'm sad that we devoured it and I can't have one more slice for lunch, but I guess that just means I'm on to the next recipe! Okay, so since it is Valentine's Day and I'm sure many of you are fixing up a great meal to surprise your loved one, or maybe going out tonight, I'm going to share one of my new favorite melodies with you, so you can crank it up while you're cooking to put you in the romantic mood! DJ and I were just talking about how artists must feel when they hear their music through the sounds of another artist! Well, if I were Bruno Mars, I probably would have closed my eyes, and took a deep breath and let the beauty of this version of, Just the Way You Are, course through my veins! This is an absolutely stunning version of his song!

Let's get started!

Ingredients

1/2 c of butter

2 medium leeks, sliced

1/2 c of flour

1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth

3 c cooked chicken

1 1/2 c frozen hash-browns with onion and pepper 

(I couldn't find any like that so I added my own onion and pepper...easy enough)

1 c of matchstick carrots

1/3 c of parsley

1/2 tsp. slat

1/2 tsp pepper

1 (17.3 oz) pkg. of frozen pastry sheets 

(They come in a box of two in the frozen section)

1 large egg

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees. 

In a large skillet, melt the 1/2 cup of butter (one stick) and add the leeks. 

Saute the leeks in the butter for 3 minutes. Sprinkle in the flour and cook, STIRRING CONSTANTLY! Whisk in the chicken broth, and bring to a boil! All the while CONTINUE WHISKING! Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the chicken, hash-browns, carrots, parsley, salt and pepper. 

Roll out each pastry sheet into a 12x10 rectangle on a lightly floured surface! 

Fit 1 sheet into a 9 inch deep pie plate. Spoon chicken mix into pastry, and place the remaining pastry sheet over the filling in the opposite direction. Fold the edges under and press with a fork to seal the bottom sheet to the top! 

Whisk together the egg and 1 TB of water and brush over the pie. Bake in the oven at 375 degrees on the lower rack for 55-60 minutes or until the crust is browned! Let stand for 15 minutes before serving! 

You really can't go wrong with this dinner! Absolutely wonderful! 

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Stay tuned for great new recipes! Until then...

~Happy Eating~

Fantastic Chicken Lo Mein

I did it again! Another Asian dish served up at home, and taken down by the two of us like there was no tomorrow! When I see ingredients like sesame oil and rice wine vinegar something in my brain goes haywire and I immediately have to try it! You can find the original recipe at Prevention.com which includes the nutritional information. If you're not sure about all the health benefits from sesame oil, you can check out this information on Livestrong.com. It's full of anti-oxidants and antibacterial properties that you won't want to pass up! There are other uses as well, including skin benefits among other medicinal health benefits, if you want to do some looking around on their site! So without further ado...let's get started!

Ingredients
8 oz lo mein or thin spaghetti (you could even use a little more, I only had 6 oz and it didn't go very far)
2 TB sesame oil (you can also use olive oil)
1 lb. boneless, skinless, chicken breasts cut into thin strips
1 onion-chopped
1 lg. red bell pepper-chopped
2 lg. garlic cloves-minced
1/2 c chicken broth
3 TB rice wine vinegar
3 TB soy sauce
1 TB fresh grated ginger

Start out by cooking your noodles according to the package.

While you've got your pasta going, heat 1 TB of the oil in a large skillet over medium/high heat. Add the chicken strips and cook the chicken until no longer pink. Remove the chicken from the skillet and cover to keep warm!

Heat the remaining 1 TB of oil in the skillet, and add your red pepper, onion and garlic. Cook for about 8 minutes or until the ingredients are tender. Stir in the broth, ginger, vinegar and soy sauce and cook for another 2 minutes  Add the cooked chicken and the noodles, stir to incorporate everything together and heat through. 

Serve on a plate (or in a bowl) and enjoy!! 

We absolutely loved this and will be eating it again! Very quick and easy and would even taste great if you let the noodles marinade in the mixture over-night, add the chicken, heat up and enjoy!! Stay tuned for a fantastic snack idea! Until then...

~Happy Eating~