The Sky is Falling!

OK...it isn't really, but it is Fall, and we have rain in the forecast (I'm terribly sorry that Cecily actually experienced snow this week..yuck!). So, that means lots of soups in my future! Let's get my newest menu plan out of the way first. Like I said, lots of soup! I love soup...there are so many different types of soup out there, and I rarely find a soup I don't like. My favorites are Zuppa Toscona and Hot & Sour, neither of which are on my menu. I've managed to duplicate the Zuppa Toscona (use kale instead of spinach), but it is not a very easy recipe, so I save it for special occasions. And the Hot & Sour...yeah...there are so many unusual ingredients (most of which are mushrooms, which I technically don't like, but I'll tolerate for a good Hot & Sour soup) that I haven't attempted to even try to make it yet. But I do know one thing...never use black pepper to spice your Hot & Sour soup. That is a big turn off to me, and if I go to a Chinese restaurant that does this, I do not go back. Always use white and red pepper to spice your Hot & Sour soup. OK...that is enough of a rant for a recipe I've never attempted myself, haha!

Sunday

Tomato Basil Soup Grilled ham & cheese sandwiches

Monday

Chicken Parmesan Bundles Salad

Tuesday

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Wednesday

Chicken Gyros Pasta salad

Thursday

Sweet & Sour Chicken Rice broccoli

Friday

Chicken noodle soup

Saturday

Baked Potato Soup

The chicken noodle soup is based off of the soup I made in my last post. My husband isn't feeling well, and it was his request. The other non-linked dish (besides basic salads or veggies) is the pasta salad. I use tri-colored spiral pasta and add diced cucumber, black olives, red bell pepper, broccoli, pepperchinies, and feta cheese. Make sure you put the bell pepper and broccoli in when the pasta is still really hot so it will soften them up a little bit. Add Italian dressing on top, and you are good to go! You should probably make it a few hours in advance because it is best served cold.

Now for some reviews. By far, Olive, garlic, and lemon chicken, lemon & herb wild rice, and salad was the biggest hit. If I had used a better camera besides my phone, you could really see how beautiful it was. The wild rice was just from the bulk bins at WinCo. The salad was a regular garden salad with romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, and feta cheese (mmmm...I love me some feta cheese!). I got a lot of recipe requests for this one on Facebook.

Other food I've made recently was Chicken tortilla soup (add corn and zucchini), Red beans and rice (the baby ate a full bowl!), Slow cooked spicy Asian beef (I wasn't home for this one, but I heard everyone liked it...I felt it was missing something, but I'm not sure what), and Chili (for a chili cookoff, but I burned it, so I didn't win any awards...). Something I made without a recipe was beef (buffalo) and barley stew. It is based off of the beef stew my mom used to always make when we were little, but improved upon. I just wish I could make rolls like her...those would have been perfect with it! I'm making Curried coconut chicken tonight, so I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh, and I can't forget to tell you about my low-carb experiments. Bacon Cheeseburger Quiche was OK. It tasted more like a breakfast food than dinner, but that was probably from all the eggs and bacon. I made my enchiladas with this idea, and while I didn't particularly care for the egg tortillas, we had company over, and he really loved them! I also made zucchini pizza bites. Basically, you make them the same way you would make pizza, but you use medallions of zucchini instead of the crust. I broiled the zucchini before I put any of the toppings on it, then loaded the toppings on (I used pizza sauce, mozzarella, red bell peppers, and these cute mini pepperoni I found), and popped them back in the oven until the cheese was melted and starting to brown. These were another big hit on Facebook.

Now onto desserts...yup, the sweet stuff! I don't usually make sweets (I'm not much of a baker...I leave that to Heather), but I did make a couple sweet things recently. The first were I <3 Cherries Cupcakes. My little girl and I were alone for an evening, and she requested heart cupcakes. I had recently seen a post on Pinterest for how to make heart-shaped cupcakes (put a marble in the tin with the liner), and she picked out a cherry chip box mix. I grabbed cherry pie filling, cream cheese frosting, and a box of cherry Jell-o. I made the cake mix as directed, mixed the Jell-o in with the frosting, and added a cherry on top! I thought they turned out great! And isn't my helper adorable?!

The other dessert is something I've been making every Halloween for the past 4 or 5 years now. There was a sushi place by us that served the most yummy caramel apples ever. I don't like sushi, but I would go with my husband and insist on getting one of these apples every time I went. I thought I would try to duplicate them. I scowered the internet trying to find a recipe, but all I could find was a picture. So, I deconstructed them on my own. They were a hit, and every year my request list grows...I had to make 4 dozen of them this year! I was told that they make these at Disneyland. They are now all over the internet (I'm claiming the trend...it is the sincerest form of flattery, really!). I usually unwrap hundreds of individually wrapped caramel squares, but this year I found a recipe on Pinterest for home-made caramel in the microwave, so I thought I would give it a try. It is very buttery and a little thinner than usual, so it was sliding off some of the apples that didn't get the white chocolate on them quick enough, but the reviews were still great, so I'm not sure if I'll use that recipe again or not. So, once you dip the apples in the caramel, you dip them in melted white chocolate, and then sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on them. There are some other tips and tricks I've learned through the years to make them better, but I won't bother posting them here...if you really want to make them, just let me know.

That's enough for now...I'm hungry!