Broccoli Cheddar Soup

I was off work for a snow day and really felt like making some soup. I found this recipe on http://www.allrecipes.com/ and made a few changes based on reviewer's suggestions. I didn't have any cornstarch so I used a cup of heavy cream as one of the cups of milk to thicken it up a bit. It came out delicious!

Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Source: Allrecipes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 onion, chopped
2 (14-16 oz) packages frozen chopped broccoli
3 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
1 (2 pound) loaf processed cheese, cubed
2 cups milk
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2/3 cup cornstarch (omitted)
1 cup water (omitted)

Directions:


1. In a stockpot, melt butter over medium heat. Cook onion in butter until softened. Stir in broccoli, and cover with chicken broth. Simmer until broccoli is tender, 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Reduce heat, and stir in cheese cubes until melted. Mix in milk and garlic powder.

3. In a small bowl, stir cornstarch into water until dissolved. Stir into soup; cook, stirring frequently, until thick. I added a pinch of shredded cheddar cheese before serving.

The best cornbread you will ever eat.

It could be the two full sticks of butter that makes the cornbread so good. This recipe won't be found on Cooking Light anytime soon but it is worth the calories.

Cornbread

Print this Recipe

Ingredients:

Mix:

2 sticks melted butter (you can go with less, but I tend to stay with 1 ½ to 2 sticks)

2 eggs slightly beaten

1 ¼ cup of milk

Mix:

2 cups Bisquick

¾ cup sugar

¾ cup cornmeal

½ teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

Combine everything and mix for a couple minutes. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

Quick Apple Crisp

I first came across this recipe when I was hosting a Pampered Chef show at my home. The host had given me this recipe to get all the ingredients, then she would prepare it during the show. She demonstrated the Pampered Chef Apple Peeler/ Slicer which reduced the apple preparing time down to less than a minute per apple. It doesn't contain oats like other apple crisp recipes but it turns out better in my opinion. You can use other types of apples but the granny smith apples give it the best flavor.



Quick Apple Crisp

Source: Pampered Chef

Ingredients:

5 Granny Smith apples
1 package (9 ounces) yellow cake mix
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
Vanilla ice cream or thawed, frozen whipped topping (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Peel, core and slice apples Cut apples in half. Place apples in 9 x 13 ungreased dish.

2. Pour cake mix over apples. (I only use 3/4 of package)

3. Mix cinnamon and sugar and pour evenly over top of apple mixture.

4. Melt butter and pour evenly on top.

5. Bake 35-40 minutes or until apples are tender. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped topping, if desired.

Chicken Piccata

This is one of my favorite chicken recipes. The chicken comes out light, lemony, and juicy!

Chicken Piccata

Source: Allrecipes.com

Ingredients-

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 egg
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup butter
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon powder
1/2 cup boiling water

Directions-

1. In a small bowl, beat the egg together with 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice. Set aside.
In a shallow bowl or dish mix together the flour, garlic powder and paprika. Dip the chicken in the egg/lemon mixture, then in the seasoned flour.

2. In a large skillet, melt butter/margarine and brown the coated chicken pieces.

3. Dissolve the bouillon in the boiling water, then add the remaining 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Pour liquid into skillet. Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes, turning chicken pieces after 10 minutes, until chicken is tender. Garnish as desired and serve.

Crockpot French Onion Soup

My husband love, love, loves Applebee's French Onion Soup! So I found a copycat recipe online and combined it with a crockpot recipe I found on Living Insanity's Blog . It turned out very good! I used low sodium beef broth (thats all I had) but then added salt.

Crockpot French Onion Soup

Ingredients:

4 cans beef broth (low sodium)

4 small white onions

1 pack onion soup mix (recommended: Lipton's)

2 t. salt

1 t. pepper

2 t. onion powder

6 slices provolone cheese

3 hamburger buns

parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Combine onions, broth, soup mix, salt, pepper, and onion powder in a slow cooker. Cook on HIGH setting for 4 hours, or LOW setting for 8 hours.

2. To make the croutons, cut off the top part of each top of the hamburger bun so that the bread is the same thickness as the bottom half of each bun. Now you should have 6 round pieces of bread--3 bottoms and 3 tops with the tops cut off.

3. Place the bread directly on the oven racks and bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 325 degrees, or until each pieces is dark brown and crispy. When the soup is done, spoon about 1 cup into an oven safe bowl. Put a crouton on top, and put the provolone cheese on top of the crouton. If you want, sprinkle 1/2 tsp of the shredded parmesan over the provolone.

4. Set oven to high broil and put the bowl into your oven. Broil soup for 5 or 6 minutes, or until cheese is melted and is starting to brown. Before serving add another teaspoon or so of grated parmesan, if desired.