Something New Sunday - Slurpin' Up Some Soup

I was in the mood for soup and since I've never made a soup before what better than to give it a try on 'Something New Sunday'.  It has been a while since I've tried something new and was wanting to cook a meal in my crock-pot (I love cooking with my crock-pot).  After searching Pinterest (my 'go-to' for new meal ideas), I came across this yummy sounding recipe. 

 

 

Bacon Cheeseburger Soup - Crockpot Style

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef
1 small onions, diced
1/2 cup of bacon, crumbled (approx. 7 strips)

1 1/2 cups carrots, chopped
2 cups potatoes, cubed
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
8 oz cream cheese, cubed
2 cans of chicken broth

4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp pepper

2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk

Directions:

Cook the first three ingredients (ground beef, bacon & onions) in a skillet before putting into crock-pot.  <Make sure meats are fully cooked and onions are opaque in color>

Combine all the veggies, cream cheese and broth together and combine into crock-pot, with the meats.

Add seasonings.

Cook for 7 hours on LOW.

When you are almost ready to serve, dissolve flour into milk and pour into the soup to thicken.  Mix in the cheese and serve when cheese is melted.

ENJOY!!

My Thoughts:
  I'm not going to lie, at first I thought this recipe was going to be a complete FAIL!  When you first put all the ingredients together in the crockpot, it looks like a hot mess of food.  The veggies look odd and really don't have much to do with "cheeseburger" taste and the chicken broth almost watered everything down.  You honestly have let this dish cook for the full 7 hours to get it to look appetizing and for the potatoes to get soft enough to eat.  When I was almost ready to serve the dish, I was debating if it needed to be thicken but Aaron said he thought it still looked 'runny' so I went ahead and did it.  He was right, it most certainly helped make the soup look more like a chowder and the cheese is always an important ingredient in our house.

When it was time to eat, this soup taste just like it's name and boy, was it DELICOUS!  Full of flavor (which I say in almost all my food post), and very, very filling.  We invited my parents over to join us, because it does make a lot of soup.  My dad only had to take one bite and was already raving about it.  My mom had request a small bowl, but had gone back for seconds.  The only change I might make for next time (cause Aaron has already said, I will be making this again), is try it with beef broth. 

Pair it with a pickle spear and you'll feel like your really eating a cheeseburger! :)

~Kellie Anne

Onion Tot Casserole

Nope, you didn't read that wrong.  This is a recipe for Onion Tot Casserole (which is similar to the ever so popular Tater Tot Casserole), but with a different twist!

I found a recipe from a blog where the author had purchased the wrong product and had to make some changes to her original recipe.  I kind of adapted her recipe by adding meat and changing a few ingredients.

Onion Tot Casserole

Ingredients:
1 lb Ground Beef
1 small Onion; chopped

2 lb bag of Onion Tots (I used Ore-Ida brand)
2 cups of Cheddar Cheese
1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup
1 can of Cream of Mushroom


Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350*. 

Spray your cooking dish; I used a 8x11

Brown the ground beef and onion together until beef is no longer pink inside and onions are cooked.

Combine the soups, cheese and tots in a large bowl.

Pour the meat & onions into the dish and top with the tot mixture.

Bake for 50 minutes, uncovered.

Now, the easiest step.... EAT IT!! :)


Reviews:
This dish is full of flavor and a perfect fall dish!  Aaron was all excited when he got home and saw "Tater Tot Casserole" and went at it like he hadn't ate in days.  I let him have a second helping before I explained to him about the onion tots.  He was confused but intrigued that it was onions (which he rarely lets me put in anything) and actually said that he like them over the traditional potatoes.

Hope you like it too!

~Kellie Anne

DORITOS® Taco Bake

Well lately Aaron and I have been super busy lately and after long work days, neither one of us want to make anything new or real challenging.  But today is Wednesday (my day off) and I felt like making something new for myself and Aaron.  We haven't had anything spicy lately, so I thought I'd "spice" it up a little for supper! ;)  So, I give you DORITOS® Taco Bake:

Ingredients:
 1# - ground beef
 1 - small yellow onion; chopped
 1 - can Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
 1 - jar of Tostitos Monetery Jack Queso dip
 1 - 10 oz can of enchilada sauce
 1 1/2 cups - shredded cheddar cheese
 3/4 bag - DORITOS® chips

**You can also add any other toppings of your liking; black olives, peppers, tomatoes, etc.**
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large skillet, brown ground beef and cook onions; drain off fat.

Stir in enchilada sauce, simmer 5 minutes.

Press crescent rolls on the bottom of a 9x13 lightly sprayed pan; press seams to seal.

Top crescent rolls with meat mixtures.

Top with cheeses and crushed DORITOS®.

Bake for 30 minutes.  Covered for 20 minutes and uncovered for the last 10.

Enjoy! :)

After crushing all the DORITOS®.
*You know how after you have a few chips, you can't resist licking your fingers... imagine your whole hand covered in the orange dust :) YUMMMMMM

Have a great night! I'm off to play with my nieces who are visiting from Colorado :)
~Kellie Anne


(Recipe adapted from Plain Chicken's Blog:  http://www.plainchicken.com/2012/02/doritos-taco-bake.html)

My First Roast

I am a meat & potato kind of girl. 

Growing up, we would have roast for Sunday dinner at least once a month and my mom always did a fabulous job preparing the roast.  And she always made it seem so effortless too! Just pop it in the oven and a few hours late, we would be eating the fall-off-the-bone beef dish.  So, I decided for tonight's supper, I would cook my first roast.  Normally I wouldn't be to worried about it, but Aaron's parents are coming over to join us.  I know that they will enjoy the meal, but there is still something about making a new dish for guest that always gets me worked up. 

Ingredients:
3# Rump Roast
1# - Baby Carrots
2 - Yellow Onion
1 cup - A1 Steak Sauce
1 Tbs. - Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 cup - Water
1 packet - Kraft Ranch Dry Mix



Directions:
I started off with a 3 pound rump roast that had been slightly thawed out over night in the fridge.  I put the roast in the crock-pot for an hour by itself on LOW; then drained out all the juices that had filled the pot during that time.  I then mixed the sauces, water and ranch mix together and poured over top of the roast.  Continue to let it cook on LOW for the next two hours.  I then added the carrots and onions; letting them cook on LOW & HIGH settings for five hours, alternating the heat every other hour.  I did this cause when I checked it every hour I didn't think that the meat was getting cooked properly but didn't want it to over cook (hence why I alternated that temperature). 

Total time - roast was in crock-pot = 8 hours.
Total time - vegetables were in crock-pot = 5 hours. 

Reviews:
Zesty! That was exactly what Aaron's parents thought after the first bite (which is always a good review, right!?).  The roast and veggies had a lot of flavor and I kept nibbling and sneaking carrots out of the pot but I will be honest, it wasn't nearly as tender as my mom's roast.  No one complained about having to cut the roast with a knife but I still wasn't happy.  I think next time I will add the sauce as soon as I start the roast and I think I will let the roast cook for at least 10 hours.  I hope that it will help make the roast more melt-in-your-mouth.  But I not realize how easy it is to cook a roast and though my first try wasn't the best, I'm not giving up on this meal.

~ Kellie Anne

Something New Sunday - Mexican Pot Pie

Today's 'Something New Sunday' truly is something new; in fact, I kind of just made it as I went.  It's a rainy, miserable day here in north central Iowa, so I got busy cleaning and one of the place I cleaned was my pantry & fridge.  As I'm cleaning I notice that I've got some Mexican infused ingredients that were tucked all the way to the back.  I instantly got hungry for tacos but while I kept digging/cleaning, I couldn't find any so I had to think of something else to make. So I decided to just go with the flow and add ingredients as I felt necessary. I had given my boyfriend, Aaron, a  heads up while I was cooking that this was just going to be a hodge-podge of foods thrown together.  Luckily, he's not picky and is always willing to try a new recipe.

Mexican Pot Pie
(an original by Kellie Anne)

Ingredients:
  1# - ground beef
  1 - small yellow onion; chopped
  2 - cans of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
  1 - jar of Tostitos Monetery Jack Queso dip
  1 - 10 oz can of enchilada sauce
  1/2 - cup of taco sauce (optional)
  2 - cups shredded cheddar cheese
  1 - tablespoon black pepper
  1 - teaspoon crushed red pepper
  jalapeno chili peppers (optional)

Directions:
  Brown ground beef and chopped onion until meat is no longer pink and onions are tender; drain off fat.  Add the taco sauce, enchilada sauce and peppers to meat & onions and simmer for 10 minutes (depending on how spicy you like your food, the taco sauce can be omitted since the enchilada sauce is pretty hot on it's own). 
  Grease a 9x13 baking dish and spread one can of the rolls to cover the bottom of the dish.  Cover the dough with the shredded cheese and then the meat sauce mixture.  Take the queso cheese dip and lightly cover the meat sauce mix.  I'm not a fan of jalapeno chili peppers, but Aaron is; so on half of the pan I coated the queso with the sliced peppers to give it a little more kick.  Carefully roll out the second can of crescent rolls and place over everything.  If you still have some queso cheese dip, spread a light layer on the top of the crescents.
  Cover pan with tin foil and place into preheated oven at 350.  Cook for 15 minutes covered and then another 15 minutes uncovered (or until crescents are lightly browned).  Slice and serve!

Review:
   I need to make-up new recipes more often! This recipe has a variety of flavors and textures with ever bite and as you see from the photo above, screams yumminess.  The crescents on both the top and the bottom of the dish, add a nice crunch and almost 'sandwich' in everything. The queso not only adds creamy-ness but lots of spicy kick.  We like our food spicy, but even for me I thought that meat sauce could have been tamed down so I think I'll opt out the taco sauce next time. I had used both the taco sauce and enchilada sauce, cause I didn't think the can of enchilada would be enough.  I didn't eat the half with the chili peppers, but Aaron loved the added goodness; he said they added a hint of sweet before the spice kicked in (you can see I added some more on top so I knew which side was his).  
 
  I hope you enjoy this dish that I came up with all on the fly. I can see this being made with shredded chicken and when red & green peppers get in season, I'll slice some up and add that too it. If you're not a fan of the queso dip, you could probably substitute more shredded cheese.

  We did have a fun time trying to name this dish; we came up with everything from Taco Mix-up to Spicy Mexican Sandwich.  When Aaron said that the corner piece was the best cause you got the buttery-flakiness of the crescents, Mexican Pot Pie just had to be the name of this new dish.  He loved it so much that he even broke his New Years Resolution of not taking any seconds with this dish.  That's when I know I have made a good dish! :)

Well, I'm super full from eating and blogging all about my creation, so I'm off to bed!

Enjoy!
~ Kellie Anne

Something New Sunday - Lasagna w/ White Sauce

 "The trouble with eating Italian food is that 5 or 6 days later you're hungry again." George Miller, British writer

 

This is EXACTLY how I felt after I got done eating this new crock-pot recipe and the breadsticks I made to go with it were the perfect "Italian" touch.

Lasagna with White Sauce

Ingredients:
 1 - 8 oz box of lasagna noodles; cooked & drained
 1 - pound ground beef
 1 - chopped onion
 1 - 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
 1 - can of tomato sauce
 1 - beef bouillon cube (I used beef bouillon granules since I didn't have cubes)
 1 1/2 teaspoons - Italian seasoning
 1 1/2 teaspoons - black pepper
 1 teaspoon - salt
 1/2 teaspoons - red pepper
White Sauce:
 2 tablespoons - melted butter or margarine
 3 tablespoons - all purpose flour
 2 cups - milk
 1 cup - mozzarella cheese
 1 teaspoon - black pepper
 1 teaspoon - garlic powder

Directions:
   Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 5 minutes; drain. (I used the non-boiling, ready to use lasagna noodles and it still turned out yummy).  Brown ground beef and onion together, until onion is tender and beef is no longer pink in center; drain.  Mix in tomatoes, tomato sauce, bouillon and seasonings (I opted out the salt, since I'm trying to cut back salt in all my cooking recipes). Pour in bottom of crock-pot and layer lasagna noodles on top (I had to break the noodles to cover the meat).
   Meanwhile, in a small bowl mix together melted butter, flour, milk, cheese, pepper and garlic powder.  Cover the white sauce over top the noodles.
   Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 6 hours or on HIGH for 2 to 3 hours.  In the last 30 minutes, turn crock-pot to HIGH (if cooking on LOW) and top with more mozzarella cheese.  Serve when cheese is melted.  Serves 10 to 12

Well, I just finished up cleaning up the dishes and let me tell you, this meal was delicious! The meat sauce was delicious (and a lot healthier then using processed spaghetti sauce) and surprisingly the white sauce was really great (and might be seen in more recipes).  I was worried during the whole time the dish was cooking that the noodles wouldn't cook properly, but I was so wrong; they were soft but crunchy on the edges like my mom's lasagna was growing up.  Mine was cooked on LOW for about 4 hours and then on KEEP WARM mode for about 45 minutes, cause the edges were starting to brown.  30 minutes before serving, I turned it back to LOW and topped it with cheese; so total cooking time for me was little less then 5.5 hours.  My parents joined my boyfriend and I for the meal and they both agreed it was superb and my dad even went back for 'thirds'.  This will definitely be a repeat dish.

Today was actually a two recipe Something New Sunday, as I made Pesto Breadsticks (seen in picture above), but it's getting late so I will try post that recipe tomorrow. 

Goodnight Folks and Enjoy!!

~Kellie Anne