Chicken Corn Chowder

As we get farther into fall, I'm wanting to make more soups. It just seems like soup is perfect for dinner on a fall evening, when it's cold outside and you want to feel all toasty inside.

This soup has a somewhat creamy broth, and for some reason, that just equals yummy comfort food soup to me. Chowder seems to be a little hardier than a lot of soups. Perfect for making soup a meal! I think it turned out pretty well, and I hope you do too. :)

Ingredients:
-4 cups chicken broth
-2 cups water
-2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
-1 or 2 russet potatoes, scrubbed and cubed, depending on how much you like potatoes in your soup
-1 can whole kernel corn, drained
-1 can cream-style corn
-1 tablespoon onion powder
-1.5 cup heavy cream, 1/2 cup reserved
-4 tablespoons corn starch

Directions:
In a large pot over high heat, bring the chicken broth and water to a boil.

Add the chicken pieces and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the potatoes and cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the two cans of corn and stir. Add in the onion powder and stir to incorporate.

Continue cooking another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to medium high.

In a small bowl, whisk together the corn starch and 1/2 cup reserved heavy cream. Slowly add to the soup while stirring. This will help thicken the soup. Slowly add in the rest of the cream while stirring.

Let the soup cook for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, then reduce the heat to low and let it simmer until it's thickened up a bit, about 10-15 minutes. Stir it occasionally to keep things from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Serve the soup hot and enjoy!

We had some toasty bread to go with ours. Yum!

Cheater Shepherd's Pie

I made this the other day, kind of out of the leftover food I had at my house. I wanted something hearty but not overly dramatic. This fit the bill. I've made Shepherd's Pie before, but this was just slightly easier in method, so it worked for me. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:
-1 lb ground beef
-3 tablespoons flour
-3/4 cup heavy cream
-1/2 cup milk
-1.5 teaspoons onion powder
-1/2 cup veggies (I used peas and carrots), chopped small
-2 russet potatoes, for mashing
-2 tablespoons butter
-1/4 cup milk

Directions:
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Scrub the potatoes, leaving the skin on, then cube them and add them to the boiling water. Cook the potatoes until fork-tender, then drain the water. Use a potato masher to mash the potatoes. Add the butter and milk to smooth it out just a bit.

You can also season it with a little salt and pepper if you want. Set the potatoes aside.

While the potatoes are cooking, cook the ground beef over medium high heat in a skillet until no longer pink.

Drain the meat, reserving the fat from cooking (the "grease"). Set the meat aside for later. Return the grease to the skillet and reduce the heat to medium/medium low. Whisk in the flour to make a roux.

Cook the roux for a few minutes, stirring frequently. Add the cream and whisk to combine. The sauce should begin to thicken up a bit.

Add the milk to thin it out slightly, and whisk to incorporate. Add the onion powder and stir to combine. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes or so, stirring frequently.

It will thicken up a little bit again. Add the veggies to the sauce

and stir to combine. Add the meat to the sauce and stir to coat.

Serve the mashed potatoes on the plate, and top with the beef mixture.

Enjoy the yummy goodness!

Breakfast Casserole

Sometimes you need a hardy breakfast. Or breakfast for dinner. :)

This is a very filling breakfast casserole, full of eggs, cheese, hashbrowns, and sausage. It's a whole big breakfast in casserole form. Yesssssss. Super easy to put together, this is a wonderful option for breakfast. It does take a little time to bake, so keep that in mind, but it's still awesome. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
-12 eggs
-1 package (approximately 6 cups) hashbrown potatoes
-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
-1 lb of breakfast sausage
-1 cup heavy cream
-salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Cook the sausage in a skillet over medium/high heat until cooked through.

Drain and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk (like you would for scrambled eggs).

Whisk in the cream.

Add salt and pepper and stir to incorporate. Set aside.

In a large glass baking dish (13 by 9 or so), pour the sausage,

hashbrowns,

and cheese,

reserving about 1/2 cup of the cheese to sprinkle over the top later. Mix together so ingredients are evenly distributed.

Pour the egg mixture over the hashbrowns, sausage, and cheese. If the eggs aren't evenly distributed, you can mix everything together in the baking dish.

Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the entire dish. Cook in a preheated 400 degree oven for 30-45 minutes, until the eggs have set up and a knife inserted at the center comes out clean. Serve immediately.

Herb Seasoned Pork Loin, Parmesan Mashed Potatoes, and Green Bean casserole

Every once in a while, I try to shake things up. We don't eat a whole lot of pork, but it's nice to have occasionally. This time, I decided on a pork loin. I seasoned it with herbs typically used with pork. Since I don't make it too terribly often, I decided to play it safe. :) This actually turned out really well, so I'm happy with it. I paired the pork with Parmesan mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:
For pork loin:
-1 two lb pork loin
-olive oil for drizzling (about 1/4 cup or so)
-1 teaspoon marjoram
-1 teaspoon rosemary
-1 teaspoon dried parsley

For potatoes:
-2 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
-3 tablespoons butter
-1/4-1/2 cup cream or milk
-1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

For Green Bean Casserole:
-1 can French cut green beans, drained
-3 tablespoons butter
-1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon flour
-1 teaspoon onion powder
-1/4 cup bread crumbs

Directions:
Pork Loin-
Place the pork loin in a baking dish. Drizzle the pork loin with half the olive oil. Sprinkle on the herbs, then drizzle with remaining olive oil.

Cover with foil and bake at 450 for about 35 minutes, or until the juices run clear when pierced.

Let it rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Potatoes-
Boil the cubed potatoes in a large pot of water until fork tender. Use a potato masher to mash butter into the potatoes.

Add the cream/milk and parmesan and continue mashing. Use a large spoon to stir and incorporate anything not already well incorporated.

Voila!

Green Bean Casserole-
In a medium sauce pan, combine the green beans, butter, and flour and heat over medium heat. Add in the cream and onion powder.

Pour into a small baking dish or a couple ramekins.

Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top in a thin-ish layer.

You can use more or fewer bread crumbs than listed...whatever you prefer. Bake at 450 for about 10 minutes, until everything is hot and the bread crumbs are slightly browned.

When everything is ready, serve it all together and enjoy! Yum!

Pot Roast with Potatoes and Carrots

This is probably one of the easiest recipes of all time. No lie.

My mom used to make this occasionally for Sunday dinner. I have fond memories of coming home from church Sunday morning and having pot roast for lunch. I'm sure my mom loved it because it was so easy. Haha. I appreciated that aspect as well. :)

You will need a crock pot for this version of pot roast. You can do it in the oven, but that's not how I do it so I can't really direct you in that regard. Have fun!

Ingredients:
-Beef roast (I think mine was a pound or so, to feed two...adjust to feed your family)
-new potatoes, enough to feed everyone
-carrots (I used baby carrots...if you use regular ones, just chop them into large pieces)
-1 cup water
-any seasonings you'd like (I would at least add some salt and pepper)

Directions:
Place the roast in the crock pot. If you're adding seasoning, mix it with the water, then pour into the crock pot. Otherwise, just pour the water in. Intersperse the potatoes and carrots all around the crock pot. Cover with the lid.

Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. When the time's up, make sure the roast is cooked through, and the veggies are tender.

Serve and enjoy! I make brown gravy to go with mine, but the "juice" in the crock pot is good too.

Yum! See, easiest recipe of all time. :)

Make-Do Sliders

Have you heard of sliders? They're pretty popular these days, it seems. Little tiny burgers are just too fun to pass up, I suppose. Haha. I admit, I enjoy them on occasion too. So when I looked in my freezer and saw I had some frozen dinner rolls, the gears started turning. I decided to try to make my own sliders, just for fun. I also had some leftover frozen french fries from the last time we made burgers, so it was perfect. So I "made-do" with what I had and ended up with sliders. Hence the title of this post. :)

These were easy, and although the rolls took a little while to bake, that was pretty much the longest part of the process. The fries also took a little while, but it was still easy. I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:
-frozen dinner rolls
-1 lb ground beef
-cheese slices (I used one slice for 4 sliders)
-Worcestershire sauce, to taste (I probably used just under a teaspoon)
-onion powder to taste (I used probably half a teaspoon)
-desired condiments

Directions:
Bake the rolls according to package directions.

When done, set aside.

Start the french fries. This was the second longest part of the meal, so I started them early. Bake according to package directions.

In a small bowl, mix together the beef, Worcestershire sauce, and onion powder. Shape into small patties.

Place on a grill.

Grill the patties until no longer pink.

I used my little countertop grill, so this took basically no time. When cooked through and still hot, add the cheese slices so they'll melt just slightly.

Slice the rolls in half to make a little hamburger bun. Place the meat onto the "bun" and add any desired condiments.

Serve with the hot fries and enjoy! Yum!

Shepherd's Pie

More about-to-move food. This was actually really good. I’ll probably make it again when we get settled in our new house. I looked in my fridge and found a few carrots, then in my freezer I have a ton of frozen peas. I didn’t really have anything to go with those two things, unless I just did some grilled chicken or something…which is possible. But I wanted something different. I was looking online to see what I could find, and I ran across several recipes for shepherd’s pie. It’s the perfect get-rid-of-the-stuff-in-your-fridge meal. You can kinda use whatever you have, which is ideal when you’re about to move, but still want something tasty. So I decided to give it a try.

The main components in almost all the recipes I saw were ground beef, some veggies of some sort, a creamy base for the “sauce,” and mashed potatoes on top. The different ingredients varied a bit from recipe to recipe, but that was the basic outline. So…I made up my own version. I think it turned out well, so I hope you like it to. Have fun! This made enough for about 4 people.

Ingredients:
-1 lb ground beef
-3-4 medium carrots, peeled and chopped into small pieces
-1/2 cup frozen peas
-2 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
-1/2 c heavy cream
-1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)
-2 tablespoons flour
-salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
In a large skillet, cook the ground beef over medium high heat until no longer pink.

Remove the beef from the skillet, leaving the “grease” behind in the skillet.

I basically just scooped the beef out with a slotted spoon and left the grease behind. Return the skillet to the heat and reduce to medium. Whisk in the flour to make a roux.

Let it cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently. Add in the cream and whisk to incorporate. Let that cook for a couple minutes, stirring frequently. It will start to thicken a good bit. Add the milk and whisk to combine.

This will thin out the “sauce” a little, but it will thicken up a bit again. Add salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to low. Continue stirring occasionally while everything comes together.

While the sauce is cooking, boil a small pot of water and a medium pot of water. Add the carrots and peas to the small one and cook until heated through and the carrots are slightly tender. Drain and set aside. In the medium pot, add the potatoes and cook until tender. Mash them with a little butter and milk and set aside.

Combine the beef, sauce, and veggies in a baking dish.

Stir to combine.

Top with the mashed potatoes

and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the potatoes have firmed up a bit and are slightly golden brown.

Serve immediately and enjoy!