Olive Garden Chicken and Gnocchi Soup

I really like this soup at Olive Garden and this is pretty darn close.  I found gnocchi in the frozen pasta section, like next to the ravioli and tortellini. Make some breadsticks to go with it or you'll regret it. I used whipping cream and didn't do the cornstarch thing.

Ingredients

• 3 -4 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 carrots, shredded
• 1/2 onions, diced
• 1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• salt and pepper
• 16 ounces potato gnocchi
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch (optional)

Directions

1. Saute the onion, celery, garlic, carrot in oil over medium heat until onion is translucent.
2. Add chicken, chicken stock, half and half, salt and pepper, thyme. Heat to boiling, then add gnocchi. Gently boil for 4 minutes, then turn down to a simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Add spinach and cook for another 1-2 minutes until spinach is wilted.
4. (Heat to boiling and add cornstarch dissolved in 1-2 Tbsp water at this point if you want a thicker soup.).
5. Ladle into bowls and serve!

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 bag chocolate chips

Cream together butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla. In separate bowl sift together flour, salt and baking soda.. Add to creamed mixture and beat well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop onto cookie sheet by heaping tablespoons. Bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes.

Cafe' Rio's Sweet Pork Burrito

These are a bit time consuming to prepare, but totally worth it. So if you have time to plan ahead, try these! They are super good!!

(I didn't make the ranch dressing, but I did make the pork, rice and beans)

Sweet Pork
Ingredients:
2 pounds pork roast (boneless ribs can be used as well)
3 cans Coke (NOT diet), buying the 2 ltr. is cheaper
1/4 cup brown sugar
dash garlic salt
1/4 cup water
1 can sliced green chilies
3/4 can enchilada sauce (I use Old El Paso brand, mild spiciness but any will work)
1+ cup brown sugar

Directions:
1. Put the pork in a heavy duty ziploc bag to marinade. Add about a can and a half of coke and about 1/4 c. of brown sugar. Marinate overnight.
2. Drain marinade and put pork, 1/2 can of coke, water, and garlic salt in crock pot on low for 6- 8 hours.
3. Remove pork from crock pot and drain any liquid left in the pot. Shred pork. (for those of you who have a Bosch mixer, place meat in mixer with wire whisks and mix on speed 1 for 15-20 seconds, it will be perfectly shredded!)
4. In a food processor or blender, blend 1/2 can Coke, chilies, enchilada sauce and remaining brown sugar (about a cup, you can add a little more or less to taste..). If it looks too thick, add more Coke little by little.
5. Put shredded pork and sauce in crockpot and cook on low for 2 hours.

Cilantro-Lime Rice
Ingredients:
1 c. uncooked white rice
1 tsp. butter or margarine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
1 can (15 oz) chicken broth
1 cup water
1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro


Directions:
In a saucepan combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 tsp. lime, chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low 15-20 minutes, until rice is tender. Remove from heat. In a small bowl combine lime juice, sugar and cilantro. Pour over hot cooked rice and mix in as you fluff the rice

Cilantro Ranch Dressing
Ingredients:
1 packet TRADITIONAL Hidden Valley Ranch mix
1 c. mayonnaise
1 c. buttermilk
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro
1 clove garlic
juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeno

Mix all ingredients together in the blender. That's it!

Black Beans
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/3 c. tomato juice
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro

Directions:
In a nonstick skillet, cook garlic and cumin in olive oil over medium heat until you can smell it. Add beans, tomato juice, and salt. Continually stir until heated through. Just before serving stir in the cilantro.

Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken BBQ (Or Pork)

This is my modified version of a recipe from Maceys. My modifications are in blue.
3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts I used country style pork ribs. I think a beef or pork roast would work too. Why not?
1 18 oz bottle BBQ sauce
1/2 cup Italian dressing or 1/2 packet Italian seasoning mix plus 1/8 c. vinegar. (Dry seasoning is like 20 cents and makes 1 cup of dressing.  There's plenty of fat in the meat so I omitted the oil from the packet directions and used half the vinegar required).
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbs Worchestershire sauce

Place meat in crockpot.  In a bowl, mix BBQ sauce, Italian seasoning and vinegar or 1/2 cup Italian dressing, brown sugar and Worchestershire sauce.  Pour over chicken.
Cover and  cook 3-4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low. (I cooked my ribs on high for 6 hours)
Shred meat with 2 forks.  While you're shredding the meat, pour the liquid from the crockpot to a saucepan and bring to a boil to reduce. This will make a nice, thicker sauce. Return meat and sauce to crockpot.

Serve on toasted buns.

Sweet Lime Enchiladas

I stole this recipe from my friend Kirsta's food blog, Tastes like Silveys.  (And in the spirit of full disclosure, I also stole the idea of a family food blog from her as well.)  Everything I've made from her blog is delicious and are the type of things that people that like food but don't like complicated cooking actually make. Check out their other recipes and let me know if you find anything else tasty.

I especially liked this.

Sweet Lime Enchiladas

4 chicken breasts, cooked & shredded
1 12-15 oz. bottle salsa verde
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup lime juice
1 TBSP chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup heavy whipping cream
8-10 flour tortillas
5 cups shredded monterey jack cheese

In a large bowl; whisk together honey, lime juice, chili powder, garlic powder and salt. Add shredded chicken to the lime mixture. Let sit 10 minutes.

In a 9×13 pan pour 3/4 of the salsa verde bottle to cover the bottom of the pan. Set aside the remainder sauce.

Take a flour tortilla and fill with a couple tablespoons of chicken and cheese. Roll up and place seam side down in to the salsa verde pan. Repeat process until all tortillas are filled. After you have removed all of the chicken, there will be remaining lime sauce in the bowl. Add the remaining salsa verde and heavy whipping cream to the lime sauce and mix. Pour mixture over the filled enchilada and cover with remaining cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until cheese is brown & bubbly.

Recipe From: Krazy Coupon Lady

Banana Bread

2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 very rupe bananas, mashed well
1/4 cup plain yogurt (I've used milk when I didn't have yogurt)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped coarse (I left those out for obvious reasons)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9x5-inch loaf pan; set aside. Whisk flour, suagar, baking soda, and salt toegther in large bowl; set aside. Mix the mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter and vanilla together with wooden spoon in a medium bowl. Lightly fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just combined and the batter looks thick and chunky. Fold in the walnuts. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the surface with a rubber spatula.  Bake until loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

From America's Test Kitchen

Mexican Quiche

Easy. Cheap. Marginally healthy.  Need I say more?
5 eggs
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup butter melted (I used oil)
1 (7 ounce) can of green chilies (I just used a 4 ounce can)
1 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup chopped onion (I would use less)
1 tbsp butter
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Beat eggs lightly in large bowl. Stir in flour and baking powder. Add the 1/4 c melted butter, chilies, and cottage cheese. Saute onion in the 1 tbsp butter; add to mixture, along with cheese.  Combine just until blended.  Pour mixture into a greased 9x9-inch baking dish or pie plate and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking about 30 minutes. Cut into small squares or wedges and serve hot. Makes 6 servings.  (We ate this with corn tortillas.)

From The Essential Mormon Cookbook

Pancakes

I love anything you can put maple syrup on.  And I especially love these.  Justin and I were on a quest for the perfect pancake recipe.  I've always been partial to Bisquik but after doing a little cost comparison (I just thought about it for a second really), homemade pancakes are practically free and Bisquik is a little pricey per pancake.

Back to the quest. We tried 2 recipes out of our cookbooks and one I had in my recipe box from who knows where since who knows when.  Yesterday I went to the web and typed in "pancake recipe".  This is the very first one that came up from allrecipes.com.  We loved it.  It helped they were cooked in the fat from the bacon we just fried.  So it was a short quest but nontheless triumphant.

This makes about 8 pancakes so those of you with larger families, I'd double it. Or if you like leftovers for the freezer.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted (I used oil)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter; mix until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Kale Smoothie

Created by Melanie

2 Cups Kale

1 Medium Banana

1 Cup Kefir or Plain Yogurt

2 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed or 2 Tbsp Chia Seed

1/4-1/2 Cup Orange or Apple Juice

1 Tsp Coconut Oil

Soft Sugar Cookies

3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. karo Syrup
1/2 c. shortning
1/4 c. butter

1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c. milk

1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder (really 4 tsp)
1/2 tsp soda
3 1/4 c. flour

1. Mix first 4 ingredients.
2. Add egg, vanilla and milk and mix.
3. Add dry ingredients.

Don't over mix. Refriderate atleast 1 hour before rolling and cutting into desired shapes.

Bake at 350 degrees / time varies on size and thickness of cookies, approx 8 minutes.

Cool and frost. I prefer canned vanilla frosting for these.

Just a really tasty cake

Because sometimes you want cake without the frosting. This is tasty and you can tell yourself it's not so bad, cause it's got a lot of sugar free stuff...except the cake mix.

1 box of Duncan Hines Devil Food cake mix.

1 can of Diet Pepsi (I used Pepsi Max)

A bit of water

Mix cake mix and can of diet soda. Add water as needed until you get to the right cake batter consistency. Pour into baking pan. Bake as directed. Let cool.

1 small box of sugar free Jell-o cheesecake pudding

Make as directed (skim milk) and as soon as it starts to thicken, but not set, spread over cake.

Then top the cake with sugar free cool whip.

Refrigerate until nice and chilled!

Heavenly.

Lemon Cream Cheese Poundcake

Doesn't the name of it sound so tempting?  "Would you like some lemon cream cheese poundcake?" Who would say no to that? I stole this from some blog and made it.  It was delicious. Mine looked better than the one pictured here (picture also stolen from blog) but I was too busy eating it to take a picture.


Lemon Cream Cheese Poundcake

2 sticks butter, softened (1 cup)
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
zest of two lemons
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups flour

With your mixer, combine butter, cream cheese, and sugar until nicely whipped.  Add in eggs one at a time, mixing to incorporate.  Continue mixing, while adding the zest, juice, vanilla, baking powder and salt.  Slowly add in your flour until everything is mixed.

In two greased bread pans (or four small bread pans) divide your batter evenly.  Bake at 325 for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the size of your loaves.  When a fork or toothpick inserted, comes out clean, your bread is done.

Immediately, brush tops of bread with extra lemon juice.  Then, make a glaze.

Lemon Glaze
3/4 cup powdered sugar
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla

Once mixed together, pour over your bread loaves.  It will be absorbed quickly.  When cool, slice and serve.