Slow Cooker Potato Soup

8 Oct

Sorry for the short hiatus in posting, it’s been a weird week, so I haven’t gotten as much cooking in and haven’t been in our normal routine.  Anyway, it really cooled off here today (finally), so it was a soup for dinner kind of night.  My husband loves potato soup, I had potatoes I needed to get used up, so potato soup is was.  I originally was going along with this recipe, but forgot to get cream cheese while I was out, plus, my husband isn’t big on bacon in his soup, so I ended up with something a little different.

Slow Cooker Potato Soup

8 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup diced onion
6 cups water and 6 chicken bouillon cubes (or use 6 cups chicken broth)
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1/2 tsp dried dill weed

Mix water and soup in the slow cooker.  Add in bouillon cubes, potatoes, onion, and dill weed and stir.  Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-5 hours.  If you want a thicker soup, slightly mash the potatoes before serving.

I mashed the potatoes just a little to make it still chunky.  One time I completely mashed the potatoes and it was more like mashed potatoes than soup, so to keep it more soup-like, I like the potatoes less mashed.

*As an alternative to the can of cream of chicken soup, you can use 2 Tbsp melted butter, 2 Tbsp flour, 1/4 tsp salt, and 2 cups of milk, half and half, or light cream.  Be sure to stir that well with the water/broth before adding the other ingredients.

**If you want to keep the chicken out completely, use the above substitute for the cream of chicken soup and use vegetable bouillon instead of chicken bouillon, or six cups of vegetable broth instead of the bouillon and water.

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Lemon Herb Chicken

4 Oct

When I got lemons this week, I knew I would make Lemon Herb Chicken.  It’s nothing real fancy, but it’s easy and the chicken is so moist, we love it.  Here is how to do it.

Lemon Herb Chicken

1-2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 lemons, cut into fourths
Italian blend seasoning

Spray a 9 x 13 dish with cooking spray.  Arrange chicken breasts in dish.  Squeeze lemon quarters over the chicken, then added the lemon quarters in around the chicken breasts.  Sprinkle chicken breasts with Italian blend seasoning.  Bake at 450 F for 30-40 minutes, or until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 F.

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Pear Cake

3 Oct

The pears that came with Bountiful Baskets this week were very ripe and almost mushy.  So, I knew they would be best used in baking instead of eating them.  And honestly, my household doesn’t really eat fresh pears, so baking was probably going to be what I did with them anyway.  So, I found a recipe for Pear Cake, and with a couple of modifications, I got started.

Pear Cake

What you need:

  • 4 cups peeled, cored and chopped pears
  • 1 1/2 cups white sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
How to make it:
In a medium bowl, combine the pears and the sugar and let stand for one hour.  After one hour, it will look like this:
Preheat your oven to 325 F. Spray a 10 inch bundt pan or 2 9 in round pans with non-stick cooking spray  Stir the eggs and oil into the pear mixture.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. Slowly add to the pear mixture.  Stir well.  Pour batter into prepared pan(s).Bake at 325 F for 50-60 minutes if using a bundt pan, 30-35 minutes if using 2 9 in round pans, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan.
I have to say, I was very pleased with the results.  I was worried how it would be with larger pieces of pear, but the cake is so moist and the pear is so soft, I didn’t even notice the pear pieces, and neither did my kids or my friend’s kids that the second cake went to.  I do think a little bit of the pear taste gets lost with the spices, but it’s still really good.

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Bountiful Baskets – 10/1/2011

2 Oct

Here is a picture of what I got in this week’s basket.

I weighed everything, although I know a few things are priced individually and not by the pound.

Red seedless grapes – 2.21 lbs
Cantaloupe (it’s not part of any recalls, don’t worry) – 3.18 lbs
Nectarines – 1.96 lbs
Bartlett pears – 1.73 lbs
Lemons – 1.39 lbs
Kiwi – 1.27 lbs
Bananas – 3.10 lbs
Celery -2.77 lbs
Corn – 4.33 lbs
Red peppers – 1.29 lbs
Tomatoes -1.86 lbs
Iceberg lettuce – 1.81 lbs

I am hoping to get to the store in the next couple days to get the prices to compare again this week.

Note: I volunteered this week and did get 1 extra item, which was 1 bunch of celery.  The weight of food may vary from another basket because of volunteering and because of variances in how the ends of produce cases are distributed after everything has been distributed evenly.

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Pepperoni Bread

2 Oct

I haven’t made pepperoni bread in quite a while, so when K asked for spaghetti for dinner, I knew I wanted to make this instead of garlic bread to go with it.

Pepperoni Bread

What you need:

  • Bread dough or pizza crust dough.  For this time, I used two 6.5 oz pouches of pizza crust mix, but I have also used the Pillsbury french loaf and pizza crust from the refrigerated section.
  • Olive oil
  • Italian seasoning
  • Grated Parmesan cheese
  • Shredded mozzarella cheese
  • Pepperoni

How to make it:

Spray a baking sheet with olive oil or cooking spray.  Spread dough into a rectangle on baking sheet.  Brush with olive oil, then sprinkle with Italian seasoning, Parmesan cheese, and mozzarella cheese, leaving an inch border around the outside.

Lay out the pepperoni.  If you like a lot of pepperoni, use more pepperoni.  If you like less pepperoni, use less pepperoni.

Then, roll up the dough lengthwise.  Place seam side down on the baking sheet and seal the ends.

Again, brush with olive oil, then sprinkle with Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese.  Bake at 450 for 10-15, or according to the directions for the dough that you bought, until golden brown.  Serve with marinara sauce for dipping.

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Pan Fried Daikon Cakes

1 Oct

In my quest to figure out what to do with all the daikon I got, I came across this recipe for Pan Fried Daikon Cakes.  Since I had oil hot for frying my egg rolls the other night, I decided to make these as well.  I left them in a little too long, I was trying to do too much at the same time.  However, they actually turned out pretty tasty, a little hot for my taste buds with the Sriracha sauce, but good enough to make some more to use up the daikon, which I still have a LOT left.

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Egg Rolls!

30 Sep

I have been working all week on a way to use the daikon radish I received in the Asian themed veggie pack that I bought with my Bountiful Baskets this week.  I decided I would try egg rolls, which I love, but have never made.  For the filling, I julienne cut some daikon and some carrots.  Then, I chopped 1 bunch of green onions and some leaves of bok choy.  I had bought a rotisserie chicken at Fry’s since I had a $2 eCoupon, so I removed the chicken from the bones and shredded it.  I added some vegetable oil to my wok, and put the daikon, carrots, and green onion in first.  Once they started to get tender, I added in the bok choy and chicken.  Once the bok choy started to wilt, I grated fresh ginger into the wok and poured in about 2 Tbsp of soy sauce.  It looked like this.

Next comes the egg roll wrappers.  I found mine in the produce section of the grocery store, they may also be in your freezer section.  You take a wrapper and lay it out, then add some filling.  For this size wrapper, it was about 2 Tbsp of filling.

To fold the egg rolls, my previous experience as an employee at Subway wrapping sandwiches in paper came in handy.  It’s also how I roll my stuffed grape leaves (that recipe will be coming hopefully in the next week).  Notice in the picture above how I placed the filling closer to one corner.  The first fold is to bring that corner up over the filling.

Next, you fold over both sides.

Then, you roll it and brush the tip with a little water to make it hold shut.

Then, you deep fry or add about 1/2″ of oil to a pan.  If your oil doesn’t completely cover the rolls, then you need to flip them when one side is golden.

Remove rolls from oil to a baking sheet lined with paper towels.

This made 11 egg rolls.  I still had wrappers in that package, so I made more filling. The second filling was all veggies, bok choy leaves and stems, julienne cut carrots, julienne cut daikon, and chopped yellow onion, then grated ginger and soy sauce.  This made 7 more egg rolls.  They turned out great, both my girls ate 2 each!

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Toddler School – Week 3

30 Sep

For this week, we started with coloring a Letter C worksheet I had created.  I didn’t have time to get items together that started with the letter C this week, so we just talked about the things on the worksheet.

Next, we worked on shapes.  I had come up with idea to create a sheet with shapes, then have cut out shapes to match them, maybe using double sided tape.  But, then I ordered a lamniator over the weekend, I decided to use it for the sheets and cut out shapes, then put velcro circles on the back so that they could be re-used.  So, I printed 2 copies of the shape worksheet and colored one of them with crayons.  Then, I laminated both of them.

Next, I cut out the colored shapes, and added the velcro circles.

It went over very well with the kids!

Next, they wanted to do the color match activity again.  I laminated a piece of paper in each color this time so they would be re-usable too.  I also added the color name to each one.  I know they aren’t anywhere near reading, but at least it’s exposure to the words.  We also got out the water beads again.

That was about all the attention we got out of them for the afternoon, so we went for a walk.

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My new laminator is here!

29 Sep

With doing more learning activities with K, and doing “Toddler School” with S and her friends, I had been debating on buying a laminator.  I had a few projects in mind, but wasn’t sure it would be worth the cost.  So, when the Amazon Deal of the Day was a Scotch Thermal Laminator, I had some thinking to do. I went back and forth on it, then finally decided to go ahead and buy it.  Since it only comes with 2 laminating pouches and I had a few things in mind to do, I also ordered a 100 count package of pouches.  I was a little nervous about buying that many pouches without knowing how it all would go, but it was the best value, so I went for it.

Thank goodness for my Amazon Prime so I didn’t have to wait long to get it!  It came 2 days after I ordered, but of course, my UPS deliveries don’t come until after dinner, so I had to wait until the next morning to give it a try.

First thing I did was laminate construction paper for the color matching activity we’ve done with Toddler School.  Turned out pretty well.  I don’t think the pouches I got work perfect, but for what I’m using it for, it’s great.  Next, I made a handwriting practice sheet for K.  I had gotten a tablet of lined paper at the dollar store, so I put her name on the first line, then uppercase A, lowercase a, uppercase B, and lowercase b on the remaining lines. We have dry erase markers, so I had her write with that to practice the motions of writing the letters for now.  The markers just wipe right off.  Since I used a permanent marker to write her name and the first letters on each line, it is visible on the back since the paper is so thin.  And of course, I thought about doing it double-sided after I made this one.  For the rest of the letters, I will use 2 sheets of the paper to make it double-sided so I only have to use up 1 laminating pouch.

Next, I laminated some sheets I made for a shape activity for toddler school.  I left 1 uncolored and then colored the other one before laminating.  I colored with crayons to save on color ink, which is so expensive!  I’ll give a preview of it now, but will explain the activity in a post later this week.

This was only using the pouches from the 100 pack, I have not used the 2 pouches that came with it.  I had read that the Scotch pouches are a higher quality, but that comparison will have to wait for another time when I decide what will be good to laminate for comparison.  For now, I’m please with the pouches I got and the laminator as well!

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Sausage, Zucchini, and Tomatoes over Rice

29 Sep

I had been intending to make egg rolls, but still hadn’t had a chance to get everything I needed.  So, I needed a quick dinner using something else I had on hand.  I had bought Italian sausage and some zucchini that was on sale over the weekend, so I decided to make a dinner I haven’t made in a long time, sausage, zucchini, and tomatoes over rice.  My good friend and former neighbor introduced me to this dinner and we love it!  Plus, it really is quite easy.

Note: This is 2 packages of sausage since I have 3 adults and 2 kids in the house to feed.

What you need:

1 package of Italian sausage, mild or hot, depending on your taste
1-2 zucchini, diced
1 can flavored tomatoes, I use basil, garlic, and oregano diced tomatoes
Cooked rice

Remove the casings from sausage and break up.  Cook until all the sausage is browned.  Add in zucchini, cook about 5 minutes, or until it becomes tender.  Add in the can of diced tomatoes, and let simmer for 5-10 minutes.  Serve over cooked rice.

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