The Best Ever Vegetable Beef Soup (or Turkey)

Okay, I know you hear me say all the time that something is the best I’ve ever tasted, but seriously! For reals This IS the best (okay, one of) soups I’ve ever tasted! It is full of so much yumminess. The combination of beef broth and tomato paste creates the best soup ever! This is my new favorite flavor combination. I’m going to seek out this flavor combination. Thank you to one of my dear friends, Ree Drummond (aka the Pioneer Woman) for showing me this recipe. I was browsing her site for another recipe and found this one. The picture caught my eye, and now I know why.....it’s the best soup EVER! I made some delicious cheesy biscuits to go along with it and that was the perfect combination. I recommend you made this soon. Let’s get down to it.

 

Ingredients:

• 2-1/2 pounds Ground Chuck or Turkey (I used turkey)
• 1 whole Large Onion, Diced
• 2 stalks Celery, Diced
• 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 1 large can (24 Ounce) Can Whole Tomatoes
• 4 cups Beef Stock Or Beef Broth, Plus More As Needed
• 1 whole Red or Yellow Bell Pepper, Seeded And Diced small
• 4 whole Carrots, Peeled And diced
• 5 whole Red Potatoes, Cut Into Chunks
• 3 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt (more To Taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper, (more To Taste)
• 2 teaspoons Dried Parsley Flakes
• 1 teaspoon Ground Oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper (more To Taste)

Directions:

First let's get all the veggies diced. Be sure they are all about the same size (except potatoes).

In a large pot over medium-high heat, brown the meat with the onion, celery, pepper, and garlic. Remove the pot from the heat and drain off as much fat as you can.

Return the pot to the heat and add the rest of the ingredients. When adding whole tomatoes, squish in your hand one at a time to to break up. This makes the pieces perfect for the soup. You don’t want whole tomatoes in your bowl.

Stir to combine, then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, then cover the pot and simmer the soup for 20-30 more minutes, until potatoes are tender but not overly mushy. I probably cooked mine about 45 minutes to an hour. The carrots seemed to be stubborn and wouldn’t soften. The longer you cook, the better.

Soup should be somewhat thick, but if you'd like it to be more "soupy," add 1 to 2 cups more broth OR hot water and heat through. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding more salt if needed.

Serve this soup up with some delicious bread and you’ll want to thank me later! You have to admit, that is some good looking soup! Enjoy!

Sour Cream Apple Crumb Cake

Yes, it's another apple recipe, but way better than anything I've told you about before.  Forget all of the other apple cobblers, pies, cakes you’ve seen online or baked. THIS is the one you want to make! OMG, this is the best apple dessert I’ve ever tasted. Seriously! It’s so easy, but sooooooo delicious! I mean how bad could it be when the crust is made out of butter and cake mix?? I think that’s a nice start to any recipe. The cake mix and butter blend beautifully to make the best crust ever. Make your grocery list now and add this to your Thanksgiving desserts.....or just make it on a random Saturday afternoon like I did.

 

Someone that I worked with at Delta in the late 90’s brought this dessert to work once and I begged him to ask his wife for the recipe. I have no idea where it has been, but I found it during our move back to Atlanta. I haven’t made this in about 20 years. I think God wanted me to find this recipe so I could make it today and be on a dessert high! David and I were both moaning with delight as we ate this for an afternoon treat. I’m not kidding you, it is so delicious! You need to make this now for a trial run and then again for Thanksgiving. Okay, let’s get down to the details:

 

Ingredients:

 

1 egg

1 package yellow cake mix

1 stick butter

1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

4 apples, peeled and thinly sliced

1 cup sour cream

 

Directions:

 

Peel and slice apples

 

Combine dry cake mix and butter, mix until crumbly. I like to grate the cold butter and then combine with dry ingredients with a pasty cutter. It gets evenly distributed that way.

 

Reserve 2/3 cup of cake mixture for topping. To the 2/3 cup of topping, add brown sugar and cinnamon and combine.

 

Press remaining cake mixture on the bottom of an ungreased 13x9” pan. This will be the most delicious crust you've ever tasted!

 

Spread apples over crust

 

Blend sour cream and egg and spread over apples.

 

Sprinkle reserved topping mixture over apples evenly.

 

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes

 

Serve it up and enjoy after it’s cooled for a few minutes. Enjoy with some ice cream or whipped cream as well. I’ll take mine straight out of the oven please. You can thank me for this one later!

 

One Bowl Apple Cake

The picture doesn't do it justice. I'm a bad photographer!

It’s that time of year and I love it!  Welcome Fall! It’s time to go apple picking, eating apple cider donuts along the way and possibly stumbling upon the best apple fritter you’ve ever tasted. Luckily we actually experienced all of those things a couple of weeks ago and brought home a lot of a few too many apples. I love it though because then I get to make lots of yummy apple treats. I saw this recipe somewhere on Facebook and it reminded me of the Tastefully Simple recipe for Nana’s Apple Cake. That cake is da bomb! I love a quick and easy cake recipe. I especially love it when my husband peels the apples for me. That really makes it worth while! Don’t get jealous, it doesn’t happen all the time but I sure do love it when it does. This is a one bowl cake, the title might have given that away though.

 

Let’s get started on this super simple and moist apple cake! Did I mention you just dump everything in one bowl???

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 heaping teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup oil
6 medium Gala or Fuji or Honey Crisp apples (I used a mixture of several apples I had on hand from our picking trip)
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, cinnamon and oil. Peel and slice the apples thinly and add to mixture in bowl (coating as you go to keep apples from turning brown.)
 

Mix together the baking soda and flour and add to the ingredients in the bowl. Mix well until all of the flour is absorbed by the wet ingredients. 

Pour mixture into a greased one 9x13. I used my trusty large, round Pampered Chef stone dish.


Bake for approximately 55 minutes.

Spaghetti Squash

Trying to eat a little healthier? Well, aren’t we all. I like to eat healthier, but I don’t like to really know I’m eating healthy. Surprise me! I want the food to still taste delicious and feel like I haven’t missed a thing. That’s probably what we all want. Well look no further, this little hidden gem, spaghetti squash is just the trick. We’ve been using it for years instead of pasta. It’s great as your main dish covered with a meat sauce, or great as a side tossed with some olive oil, parmesan cheese or even pesto. So many great things you can do with spaghetti squash. Since I was very excited when I discovered this little treasure, I hope you will be too. I’m just going to help you cook it correctly, and then you can get crazy with your toppings. All you need is a spaghetti squash to get started. Below is a picture of one in case you have no idea what to look for in the grocery store.

 

Can you tell how I knew this was a spaghetti squash???

Now the easy method for cooking spaghetti squash is to steam it, which is my preferred method. You can also bake it for about 45 minutes, but I prefer to microwave it for about 7 minutes. Take your spaghetti squash and cut it down the middle. They are thick, so get a big knife and be careful!

 

 

Now that you have it cut open, let’s clean the seeds out. The easies way is to just get a spoon and scoop out all the seeds and guts that are in the center. If you have a grapefruit spoon, that’s the perfect tool for this.

 

Voila!

 

Okay, it’s all clean and we are ready to steam it. My microwave steamer isn’t large enough to accommodate a squash this size so I just used a corning ware dish and covered with the glass lid. You don’t need an actual steamer to get this done. So many easy work arounds. Now, put about 1/2 inch of water in the pot you are using as a steamer, place the squash cut side down, cover and microwave for about 7 minutes. A squash this size is about 7 minutes, adjust the cook time for one larger or smaller. When you take the squash out, flip it over and test with a fork to see if it is soft. If it still feels hard, put it back in for another minute.

 

Once you are certain it’s done, let’s start making spaghetti! It’s magical! You just need a fork and your best scraping skills. The squash will be hot so you might want to use a hot pad to hold it. Grip the squash and start scraping with the fork. Little strands will come loose and you’ll be making spaghetti. Wasn’t the fun and easy?

 

I served mine with a little marinara sauce topped with basil. Like I said, there are so many ways to serve this. Next time, I’m serving with a little pesto. Let me know your creative ways of serving spaghetti squash.  Enjoy!

Easy Fettuccini Alfredo

I’m so excited! I made Fettuccini Alfredo! Yep, you heard me right! Are you proud too?  You really should be. You have to remember, I wasn’t always a good cook. This is all still fairly new to me so I get really excited when I make something yummy. Forgive me while I brag. What’s even more exciting is that this is such a quick and easy recipe. I had no idea Alfredo sauce could be so easy. My husband loves Fettuccini Alfredo but doesn’t order it often because it’s a pretty decadent dish. What’s so great about this recipe is that it’s a lower calorie version but no flavor is lost here. The sauce was creamy and bursting with flavor. I chopped up a grilled chicken breast and added it to the sauce to make a full meal. It would be great with shrimp too. Give it a try and let me know what you think. Here’s what you need to get started:

Ingredients:

·         1 tablespoon butter

·         2 garlic cloves, minced

·         1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

·         1⅓ cups 1 percent low-fat milk

·         1¼ cups (5 ounces) grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, divided

·         2 tablespoons ⅓-less-fat cream cheese (easy measure is about 1 inch of cube)

·         ½ teaspoon salt

·         4 cups hot cooked fettuccine (8 ounces uncooked pasta). I used whole wheat pasta.

·         2 teaspoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

·         cracked black pepper 

Directions:
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Stir in flour. Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk. Cook 6 minutes or until mixture thickens, stirring constantly.

Add 1 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, cream cheese, and salt, stirring with a whisk until cheeses melt.

Toss sauce with hot pasta. This is when I also added my chopped grilled chicken.


Sprinkle with remaining ¼ cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and chopped parsley. As you can see, I was running low on fresh parsley. The plant is dying away for the winter, but  I had a little to garnish with. Add fresh black pepper, if desired. Serve immediately.

Roasted Chicken w/Garlic & Tomatoes

O-M-G! This is officially my new favorite chicken dish! I REALLY mean it this time. It was so delicious! I love dishes cooked with fresh tomatoes and thyme. It gives all of the other veggies such great flavor. One of my new girlfriends, Jess Seinfeld, taught me this recipe. I follow her on Twitter and Instagram so we’re friends, right? Shhhhh.....don’t tell me any differently. In my head we are friends and she tweets recipes to me. I did tweet her to tell her I made this dish. I’m sure she and Jerry will be coming over for dinner soon. I’ll blog about it when it happens. Until then.....back to this recipe.....I came home from worked, chopped up the veggies, threw the chicken on and popped it in the oven all in one pan. I love meals like that. It’s quick for a week night and it has all the food groups covered. No side dish needed. Check and check!!

 

Here’s what you need to get started.

Ingredients:

 

1 1/2 pounds red potatoes or Yukon gold – peeled or not, however you prefer

4-6 carrots

1 medium yellow onion

6 cloves garlic

1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes or 3 tomatoes diced

10 sprigs fresh thyme

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

6-8 pieces cut up chicken. I only had 4 chicken thighs so that’s what I used. You can really use any combination you like.

 

Directions:

Heat oven to 425 degrees

Dice potatoes and carrots into 2 inch cubes. Throw in a baking dish, pan that can go in the oven or rimmed pan. Love the flexibility!

Chop onion into large chunks and add to pan. Smash garlic, peel and throw in with potatoes and carrots.  If you are using whole tomatoes, dice about same size as potatoes and add to pan. If using cherry tomatoes, just rinse and add to pan.

 

Come on, how beautiful is that??

Drizzle all veggies with olive oil. Add springs of thyme, half of the salt and pepper and red pepper flakes and toss the veggies to coat. Spread out into a single layer.

 

Once chicken is washed, season both sides with remaining salt and pepper and nestle in with all the veggies. Give the chicken and veggies a final drizzle of olive oil.

 

Place pan on middle rack in oven and cook for 50-60 minutes or until veggies are soft and chicken is fully cooked.

 

While is was cooking our house smelled divine!! This was so beautiful going in the oven I couldn’t wait to see it come out.....voila! It was just as pretty coming out! And let me tell you, this is just as good as I thought it was going to be. It was easy, one pan, veggies included, it met all my requirements. Oh, and delicious! Seriously, trust me on this one, give it a try. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did, and my girlfriend Jess.  Enjoy...we did!

Shrimp and Grits

 

My friends that dine with me often know how much I love shrimp and grits and how often I order it when we’re out. You would think since I’ve developed my love of cooking that I would have tried out this recipe, but I hadn’t…..until now! I have another confession to make. This is a tough one to admit since I’m a southern girl. Hi, my name is Dawn and I’ve never cooked grits. I know! I’m ashamed. I’ve only made instant grits. You know, the kind where you open a single serving package, add hot water and eat? Yeah, embarrassing, right? My father would be embarrassed. He always made us real grits. Well, now I’ve made grits on the stovetop and I must admit, they were pretty tasty. Must have been that cream cheese I added in at the end!

 

I wanted my first venture into the shrimp and grit world to be simple and quick. Luckily I was home during lunch one day and caught one of my friends, Sandra Lee, making this recipe on the Food Network. I altered her recipe a bit to make it more yummy, in my opinion. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind my enhancements. I’m  happy to share my recipe with you so let’s get started!

 

Ingredients:

 

Salt & pepper

1 cup quick grits

¼ cube cream cheese

3 strips bacon, coarsely chopped

½ Vidalia onion

1 small red bell pepper

1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (or frozen)

1 clove minced garlic

1 Tablespoon butter

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons hot sauce

¼ cup white wine

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

 

Directions:

 

Cook grits according to package. Once grits are ready, remove from heat and stir in cream cheese until melted. The cream cheese makes the creamy, really bright white, and delicious!

 

In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the bacon until crispy, about 5 minutes. 

Turn the heat to med-high, add the onions and pepper and cook until they begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Then stir in garlic. 

Deglaze pan with the white wine…..which means, pour the wine in the pan and scrape all the yummy bits off the bottom of the pan. You don’t want all that flavor to go to waste.  Cook for a couple of minutes, until the wine reduces. Add the shrimp, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook until shrimp turns pink, about 3-4 minutes. Or you can use frozen shrimp like I did. I thawed it out first, then added to pan just to heat.

Stir in butter, lemon juice and hot sauce. Toss around in the pan to coat the shrimp. Remove from heat, stir in parsley. Divide the grits among 4 bowls and spoon shrimp mixture on top of each. Now that is quick, easy and delicious!

 Now all you have to do is enjoy the fact that you made shrimp and grits….I did this by saying over and over “this is really good”, “I made shrimp and grits”. I will say that my husband was pretty pleased and went back to scrape any remnants out of the pan. I like a happy customer!

Grilled Flank Steak

Excuse the greasy cutting board but I was so excited I started snapping pics!

Flank steak is a delicious yet underrated cut of meat. It's pretty inexpensive too, and when cooked right, it is full of flavor! You really can't beat the flavor of grilled meat anytime, but grilled flank is really delicious! I also like to keep it simple and not get crazy with my marinade. I start with a simple marinade of Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and minced garlic.  I'll give you the details, it's so simple.


Marinade:


About 3 Tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper
2 cloves minced garlic

Place flank steak in an air tight container. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, drizzle with Worcestershire sauce and add minced garlic. If you have time to leave in the refrigerator overnight, that is great, if not, try leaving it for at least an hour. I put mine in the fridge before I headed to work and the husband was in charge of lighting the grill when I got home.

Already starting to drool....

Once you are ready to get this party started, place steak on grill and cook for about 3 minutes on each side. Yes,  I know that sounds fast, but this is a really thin steak and you do NOT want it overcooked! Set your timer! Don't mess around with this.


Remove from grill and immediately cover in foil and let it rest for 5-10 minutes.

Now we are ready to carve! Doesn't it already look delicious? David was in charge of carving. Don't worry about his grubby hands touching the meat, we weren't having anyone for dinner. Just us two little piggy's ate all this meat!

The key to slicing flank is to carve against the grain and at an angle. Doesn't it look pretty? Finish carving up and you are ready to chow down. It's as simple as that!

This was one of the best steak dinners we have had in a long time. I served it with some rosemary potatoes and creamed spinach. Now that's a good meal!