Southwestern Vegetable Chicken Soup

Well, after a long break, we decided to finally start adding more recipes.

Here's a southwestern chicken soup:

2 poblano peppers

1 lb chicken thighs cut into bite-size pieces

1 large onion chopped

1 large red onion

1 1/2 cups green beans cut into pieces

4 cloves garlic

1 tbs chili powder

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

6 cups broth

1 can black beans

1 chopped tomato

2 cups of spinach

1 1/2 cups corn

1/2 cup cilantro

Limes

1. Roast poblano peppers on pan with foil.  Broil for 8-12 minutes turning once.

2. Cook chicken in a frying pan. 

3. Cook onion, bell pepper, green beans, and garlic.  Stir until soft.  Stir in chili powder and cumin, broth, beans, tomatoes, poblanos chopped.

4. Add chicken, spinach, and corn.  Simmer for about 15 minutes.

5. Add cilantro and line to individual bowls and serve with tortilla chips.  Enjoy!

Peach Mango Habanero Pork Chops with Asparagus and Scalloped Potatoes

Here is a great meal idea if you want something to spice up your life a little bit, while maintaining a fairly healthy and tasty conglomeration.  Michael, Craig and I had to team up on this one to do our specialties.  Here are the recipes for the three dishes:

Pork chops:

Sauce- Start with about 2-5 tablespoons (depending on how spicy)  of habanero sauce (we like the yucateco brand), or you can use 2-5 real habanero peppers.  Place habanero sauce with about 2-4 peaches (depending on how sweet you want it), about 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar, 1/4 cup yellow mustard, and some sliced mangoes if you want.  Add them all to the blender/food processor, and blend for about 1-2 minutes.  

Place in bag with pork chops and marinate over night.  Cook in a frying pan with the sauce until it is done to taste.

Scalloped potatoes: 

Slice about 3-3.5 pounds of red potatoes.  Use about 4 tbs butter melted in a pan, and mix in 4-5 tbs to make a rue.  Then add 2.5 cups of milk, let simmer.  Add about 2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp fresh thyme, 1 sprig of rosemary, 1 tbs cayenne pepper, and about 1 cup of cheese.  Pour sauce over half the potatoes with some cheese, then put the rsst of the potatoes on too and put the rest of the sauce on with more cheese.

Asparagus: just steam and add a little butter to taste

Spinach Frittata

This is a super easy dish to make, and it's a great way to get those veggies we all need.  Each bite is full of a conglomeration of different flavors, so it's definitely enjoyable. 

* 9 large eggs

* 1/2 cup finely diced red onion

* 2 garlic cloves, minced

* 1/2 red bell pepper, diced

* 1 cup sliced baby bella mushrooms

* 4 cups baby spinach

* 1/2 cup goat cheese crumbles

* 1/4 cup parsley, roughly chopped

* 1/4 cup basil, roughy chopped

* 2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil

* 1/2 tsp coarse salt

* 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

* parmesan shavings for garnish

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, a pinch of salt, pepper, basil and parsley.

Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high. Add the onions and saute 3 minutes. Add the garlic and red bell pepper; saute 3 more minutes. Add the mushrooms and saute 3 more minutes. Add the spinach to wilt. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.

Pour the egg mixture over the sautéed veggies, until it has covered the whole skillet. Add the goat cheese and let eggs cook for a good 4 minutes, then move the skillet to the oven and let it sit under the broiler for a few more minutes, until the eggs are cooked and set.

Let cool 3 minutes, garnish with parmesan, slice and serve!

The...As much as you can put on your plate Salad.

Have you ever wanted to pack down the food but not feel like you ate an entire cow?

Do you love eating but feeling like you've got a bag of cement in your stomach afterward because you just ate too much?

So if you've got a hankering for as much as you can eat but don't want to feel bogged down by too much food there's nothing better than an, As much as you can put on your plate salad.

The great thing about salads is that you can put whatever you want on it.  Anything from bacon and eggs, to croutons and cheese, any and every fruit and vegetable, and just about any meat and cheese you'd like too!

Today we had a great As much as you can put on your plate Salad.

Of the countless pictures you could paint on on a plate we painted the following.

                                                                 With...

                                                                                    1 Mango

1 Avocado

5 Radishes

2 Carrots

2 Tomatoes

1/2 Bag of Baby Spinach

1 head Red lettuce

2 Chicken Breasts (Marinated in a white wine &              herbs marinade w/ mustard we got from the              grocery store)

Gorgonzola Crumbled cheese

Honey mustard red wine vinegar dressing (of our              own making)

                                                            

                                                                We Got...

One darn good salad.  Give what we made a try or invent something else to put in your salad.  Anything you can imagine works great.  Keep it lean with turkey or fish, or go all out with some great beef cut thinly on top or some bacon.  Strawberries, mango, raspberries, pecans, walnuts, almonds, water chestnuts, you name it!

We marinated our chicken in some marinade we got from the local grocery store and made our dressing with red wine vinegar, honey, and mustard.

All the delicious, none of the guilt!                       Enjoy!

Barbecue Parmesan Chicken

So this was just a quick invention we came up with.  It's super quick and simple, here's what you need:

4 chicken breasts

1 cup barbecue sauce

1 cup Parmesan cheese

2 cloves garlic

Green beans (frozen are better)

2 cups rice

1/4 cup butter

Salt and pepper

Basil

Oregano

Red pepper flakes

To start off, cut the chicken into bite size pieces.  Put the barbecue sauce, most of the Parmesan cheese, and the garlic in a bowl, and the mix the chicken in the sauce and place it on a cookie sheet.  Put the green beans on the pan with the chicken, and the sprinkle about a tablespoon of Parmesan, red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, basil, and oregano from high up so it can be spread evenly.  Cut the butter into slices and place on the pan as well.  Cook about 20 minutes on 350.  Cook the rice (you can add onion and peas for some extra veggies) and serve.

Blueberry cream cheese rolls to die for

This is another original recipe that we made up here at usu. It is a play off of the cinnamon roll and is a great change up in the usual dessert.

Roll dough (This is an original recipe as well)

1 3/4 cup warm water

1 T yeast

4 1/2 cups flour

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1 T salt

2 T sugar

add all of the ingredients except the flour and mix it well. Then add the flour cup by cup until you have mixed in all of the flour. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes adding flour as needed. 

Divide the dough in two equal chunks and roll it out like you would for cinnamon rolls. when it is rolled out, spread cream cheese (1 package) across the  dough. Then take blueberry pie filling and spread it on top of the cream cheese and then just roll up the dough like you were making cinnamon rolls. Cut into 1 inch slices and put them in a pyrex pan and let them rise until double. When risen, bake on 350 for about 20 minutes or until golden brown on the top and bottom. Cream cheese icing is delicious on these rolls by the way.

buen provecho!!!!

Cafe Rio burritos

SWEET PORK BURRITOS:
2 pounds pork
3 cans Coke (NOT diet)
1/4 c. brown sugar
dash garlic salt
1/4 c. water
1 can sliced green chilies
3/4 can RED enchilada sauce (I used Old El Paso brand, medium spiciness)
1 c. brown sugar

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. Marinade for a few hours or overnight. Drain marinade and put pork, 1/2 can of coke, water, and garlic salt in crock pot on high for about 3-4 hours (or until it shreds easily, but don't let it get TOO dry). Remove pork from crock pot and drain any liquid left in the pot. Shred pork.

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.

Put shredded pork and sauce in crock pot and cook on low for 2 hours. That's it!

We replaced coke with Dr. Pepper, it gives a better taste.