Paradise Bakery Fire Roasted Tomato Soup

Girls, you know how much I love that Fire Roasted Tomato Soup from Paradise Bakery and this did not disappoint. It was very easy too. Here is what you need:

2 medium onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
28 oz can San Marzano whole tomatoes (I couldn't find this brand, but the generic worked fine)
14 oz can Muir Glen fire roasted diced tomatoes (I found this at Wal-Mart)
8 oz can tomato sauce
6 oz can tomato paste
4 cups water (chicken stock) (Jen, the woman I stole this from, said she might try chicken stock to make a deeper flavor, I did about 1/2 water 1/2 chicken stock which was great, but I think all water would be just fine too.)
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cups milk

1. Start by sauteing the onions in olive oil until they are translucent then add in the garlic.
2. Stir in the tomatoes and water and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 30 min.
3. Use an immersion blender, food processor, etc. to puree this mixture. Make it as chunky or smooth as you like.
4. Put your puree back in the pot and add the milk and seasonings. Um, um good!

Mine did not end up as smooth as Paradise Bakery's, but it was still so delicious. It makes a lot, but we had no problem finishing the whole pot after a few days.

Chicken Parmesean Bundles

I got this recipe from the Kraft website and it was quite delicious.
I promise, it's much better than my crappy pic makes it out to be.

What you need:

4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, well drained

1-1/4 cups KRAFT Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese, divided

6 Tbsp. KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese, divided

6 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1-1/2 lb.), pounded to 1/4-inch thickness

1 egg

10 RITZ Crackers, crushed (about 1/2 cup)

1-1/2 cups spaghetti sauce, heated

Directions:

HEAT oven to 375ºF.

MIX cream cheese, spinach, 1 cup mozzarella and 3 Tbsp. Parmesan until well blended; spread onto chicken breasts. Starting at one short end of each breast, roll up chicken tightly. Secure with wooden toothpicks, if desired.

BEAT egg in shallow dish. Mix remaining Parmesan and cracker crumbs in separate shallow dish. Dip chicken in egg, then roll in crumb mixture. Place, seam-sides down, in 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.

BAKE 30 min. or until chicken is done (165ºF). Remove and discard toothpicks, if using. Serve topped with spaghetti sauce and remaining mozzarella.

A few things:

1. When I first made this recipe I cut it in half because this is supposed to make six. I ended up only using one large chicken breast because it was so huge after pounding it out I was able to make three bundles with it, so you may not need all six chicken breasts like the recipe calls for.

2. I used frozen spinach, but if you have fresh talk to mom. She used fresh but had to cook it a certain way first.

3. If you're scared of green things, don't be. You can barely taste the spinach, but if you must it will still be good without it.

Enjoy!

P.S. There is a tutorial video here.

Sesame Chicken

Emily gave me this recipe and I have it written on a stained piece of paper I have to hunt for every time I want to make it. High time to get it typed up and easy to access since we like this dish every so often. (As you can see, not my photo, but now you get a better idea of the end result).

Sesame Chicken

4 small or 2 large chicken breast
1/2 c. cornstarch
canola oil

Cut chicken in bite size pieces and put in a Ziploc bag with the cornstarch. Toss until well-coated. Add enough oil to the bottom of a skillet and fry chicken to medium brown.

Sauce:
1 1/3 c. water
1/4 c. sugar
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. oyster sauce (I've yet to buy this so it gets left out)
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2 Tbsp. cornstarch

Prepare sauce by mixing the ingredients above in a saucepan. (You need to babysit this and not multitask like I tend to do). Stir over medium heat until thickened. Pour over chicken and simmer three minutes. Add steamed broccoli and sesame seeds. We like to serve over rice, but noodles would be fine too.

Breakfast Casserole

I got this recipe from a ward cookbook and thought it was easy and delicious. Sorry, no photo--use your imagination! I don't usually do anything big for breakfast unless it's a holiday or we do breakfast for dinner--either way, I thought it was very good.

Breakfast Casserole

2 lbs. shredded hash browns
6 eggs
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. hot pepper cheese, grated
3 c. cheddar cheese, grated (I didn't use this much and reserved some for near the end of baking time to melt on top)
1 1/4 lb. Canadian bacon (you could also use ham--and once again I didn't use quite this much)

Beat eggs with milk, add cheese and Canadian bacon and mix. Pour over hash browns and mix. Place in greased 9x13" baking dish and refrigerate overnight. Bake 1 hour at 350. Serve topped with salsa and sour cream if you like.

Raspberry Pretzel Jello Salad

photo from Tasty Kitchen

We had Christmas dinner with my husband's side of the family and my food assignment was Pretzel Jello Salad. I had never heard of it, let alone make it so I looked online and found a good recipe to use. After making this, I think I have had something very similar before but I assumed it was a graham cracker crust instead of pretzels. While this side dish is tasty and not hard to make, give yourself plenty of time to let it set in the refrigerator and allow each layer to cool. I was pushing it by starting five hours before our dinner was planned, but next time I'll have it down (thanks to saving my recipe and notes here--thank you food blog)!

Raspberry Pretzel Jello Salad (from Tasty Kitchen)

1-½ cup crushed pretzels
½ cup sugar
1 cube butter, melted
1 cube Cream Cheese, softened
½ cup sugar
1 tub Cool Whip (8 oz.)
1 large box (6 oz.) Raspberry Jello
2 cups boiling water
1 bag unsweetened raspberries

Pretzel crust:
1 1/2 cups crushed pretzels (I used my blender to crush)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cube (1/2 cup) butter, melted

Mix and press into a 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Let cool.

Cream:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
8 oz. Cool Whip

Blend together. Spread on top of pretzel crust. Refrigerate until cool.

Jello:
6 oz. raspberry jello
2 cups boiling water
1 bag unsweetened raspberries

Dissolve jello in water. Add raspberries, stir. Pour over cream mixture. Refrigerate until set.

You could also use different Jello flavors or fruit options--I love raspberries though!

Rib Tips

This is one DE-licious and easy dinner.

1. Buy a package of meat at the store. The label will say rib-tips. They're pork.(sorry if that sounds dumb, but I need dummy directions, esp. when it comes to meat.)
2. Pull our your broiler pan (mine came with the oven)
3. Lay out your meat and season it with salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Season both sides.
4. Pop it in the oven, low broiler setting for about 8-10 min.
5. Turn it over and cook the other side for 8-10 more min.Easy right? (It's done when the meat kind of curls away from the bone.)
6. Now pull out your heavy-duty kitchen shears. This is the fun part. Chop up your little rib strips into bite-size pieces.
7. Throw them in an oven-safe dish and cover them with your favorite BBQ sauce.
8. Cover them up and throw them under the broiler for 20 or so minutes.

Enjoy!

So easy and so tasty. Shaw boys can't get enough of these puppies.

Beef and Broccoli

What a sad food blog that never gets updated... Even though I don't have time to post a lot of the recipes I try, I use this site often to find a recipe for something I've made in the past or to search the links of food blogs I love to check out for new ideas. It's a way to help me organize recipes as well so they don't sit forever in a folder in my kitchen. I don't think anyone even reads this blog so I'm talking to myself, but there's an explanation just in case!

I love Chinese food and have a few standard dishes I usually make like ham fried rice or sweet and sour pork. My husband loves beef and broccoli so I found this recipe on Tasty Kitchen which is a huge community of recipe sharing and a good place to try if you need ideas! I made a couple changes because I didn't have oyster sauce and I don't like mushrooms. It was easy and delicious and worthy of adding here since I'll make it again.

Beef and Broccoli

• 1 pound Top Round Steak (I used Sirloin)
  
• 1 tsp Cornstarch
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce, divided
• ⅛ tsp Pepper
• ¾ cup Chicken Broth, divided
• ¼ cup Oyster Sauce (optional)
  
• 2 Tbsp Cornstarch
• 2 Tbsp Oil, divided
• 1 clove Garlic, minced
• ½ tsp Fresh Ginger Root, grated (I used dried)
  
• 1-½ cup Fresh Mushrooms, sliced (no thank you)
  
• 1 slice Onion, sliced
• 3 cups Broccoli Florets

Cut beef lengthwise with the grain into 2″ strips. Slice beef strips across the grain into thin slices. Toss beef with 1 teaspoon cornstarch, sugar, 1 tablespoon soy sauce and pepper, cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Combine 1/2 cup chicken broth, oyster sauce, remaining soy sauce and cornstarch, set aside. Heat wok, add 1 tablespoon oil and rotate to coat inside. Add beef, garlic and ginger and stir fry until beef is brown, about 3 minutes. Remove from wok. Add 1 tablespoon oil to wok, add mushrooms, onions and broccoli, stir fry 3-4 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup chicken broth and beef and heat to boiling. Stir in cornstarch mixture, cook and stir until thickened, about 1 minute. Serve with steamed rice.

Asian Chicken Salad

I saw this salad on a cooking show the other day and thought it looked really good. I never order salads like this in a restaurant, but thought it would be good to try and easy to make since I did a more scaled back version than the original.

Asian Chicken Salad

1 large carrot, peeled
3 cups shredded napa cabbage
3 cups shredded romaine lettuce
2 cups thinly sliced store-bought rotisserie chicken (about 2 small chicken breasts)
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

1/2 cup chow mein noodles, for garnish

You can totally make the dressing yourself or I used Kraft Asian Toasted Sesame dressing.

For the salad: Using a vegetable peeler, shave the carrot and add to a large salad bowl. Stir in the cabbage, lettuce, chicken and sesame seeds. Pour the dressing and toss well, adding the chow mein noodles right before you serve. It was a nice change to the regular salads we usually have for summer dinners.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

I love blueberry muffins--even the ones made from a mix in a box. Fresh blueberries make all the difference though and these were plenty easy to make.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp lemon zest
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
*Optional struesel topping & lemon glaze

In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir until well blended. Make a well in center of mixture. Place egg, butter and milk in center and stir just until blended. Carefully stir in lemon zest and blueberries. Fill 6 jumbo muffin cups or 12 regular muffin cups. Sprinkle with struesel topping if you like. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and drizzle with lemon glaze.

The original recipe added both the struesel topping and glaze, but I opted to do just the glaze (1/2 c powdered sugar mixed with 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice).

Salsa

This year we grew five tomato plants (one Roma) in our garden and we've never had better success. In the past we've had problems with the deer, then big disgusting caterpillars, and now we're finally able to pick several tomatoes a week. JP has made salsa a few times now using a recipe from his aunt and he finally has it perfected.


Salsa

Tomatoes, diced--about 2 cups
2 bunches green onions (using just the onion, not the green stems)
1 can diced green chilies
1 Tbsp. garlic powder
cilantro, to taste
salt, to taste
1 jalapeno, diced (optional, if you like heat, add more)

The first time JP made this, he put everything in the food processor and mixed it all at once, but now he has a scientific process of adding the tomatoes in batches to get just the right consistency. It's easy to adjust the heat by adding more (or less) jalapeno and it will get a little more kick after storing in the refrigerator. I'm not looking forward to going back to the store-bought stuff after our tomatoes run out.

Cordon Bleu Wraps

I can't remember where I found this recipe in the many food sites I've come across, but I printed it out and made it the other week and it was a big hit. These would be perfect for an appetizer or a meal which is what we did.

Cordon Bleu Wraps

1 Rotisserie chicken from the deli
1 pkg. refrigerated biscuits (8 count)
2 Tbsp. honey Dijon mustard
Italian seasoning
4 slices Swiss cheese, cut into 4 smaller pieces
4 slices of deli ham, cut into 4 smaller pieces
16 fresh asparagus spears, trimmed and steamed (being the vegetable lover I am, I left these out but it was because they didn't look good at the grocery store...I'll include them next time...probably)

Remove all the white meat from the chicken and break off in medium size chunks. You will need about 16 pieces or so depending on the size. Remove biscuits from packaging; cut each one in half. Place on floured work surface. Using a rolling pin, flatten each piece into thin rectangles. Divide mustard evenly among 16 pieces of biscuit dough and spread on each piece. Sprinkle Italian seasoning to taste on top of each layer of mustard. Top each with one piece of ham, cheese, chunk of chicken and one steamed asparagus spear. Wrap dough around the filling and press edges together where dough overlaps. Place on a baking sheet and bake 10-12 minutes at 400 degrees or until dough is golden brown and cheese is melted. Serve hot and prepare to eat a lot of them, they're addicting!

Cool 'n Easy Strawberry Pie

Found this repice at Kraft Foods. I love easy desserts, especially when they involve fruit so this one's a keeper.

Cool 'n Easy Strawberry Pie

2 cups fresh strawberries

2/3 cup boiling water

1 pkg. (3 oz.) JELL-O Strawberry Flavor Gelatin
ice cubes

1/2 cup cold water

1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP, thawed

1 ready-to-use graham cracker crumb crust (6 oz.)

SLICE strawberries; set side. Add boiling water to gelatin mix; stir 2 min. until completely dissolved. Add enough ice to cold water to make 1 cup. Add to gelatin; stir until slightly thickened. Remove any unmelted ice.

WHISK in COOL WHIP. Stir in chopped berries. Refrigerate 20 to 30 min. or until mixture is very thick and will mound. Spoon into crust.

REFRIGERATE 6 hours or until firm.

The recipe calls for half the strawberries to go in the pie and the rest to go on top. We thought the more in the pie the better so that's all I did differently.