White Cheddar Potato Leek Soup

I was able to leave work early today, so I decided to put on a pot of soup.  I have to say, this might be one of the best soup recipes I have come across.  Here is how to whip it up....

Ingredients

3 Tbsp butter
2 cups chopped leeks (white part only)
2 lbs of potatoes quartered
1 qt. broth
8 oz of shredded white cheddar
5 tbsp sour cream
salt, pepper, and cayenne

Directions

In pot, melt butter over medium. Add leeks 2 min. Add potatoes for 5 min. Add broth and bring to a boil.  simmer until fork-tender, 15 min approx.  Remove 3/4 the potatoes. Add the potatoes to blender with 1 cup water and puree.  Add back to rest of soup and add cheese and 3 tbsp sour cream.  Garnish soup with a dab of sour cream and cayenne. 
Note: I added cracked pepper and salt to add a bit more flava!

xo,
Heather

Want an easy recipe that is sure to be a sweet tooth winner?!  I tried these amazing cookies out on my husband tonight and he thought it was the best cookie I ever made!  I am thrilled because it is also the easiest cookie recipe I have ever made. Here it is...

1 Box of Devils Food Cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup of canola oil

2 packages of Rollo's candy

Mix the first three ingredients. Then pack mix around a Rollo candy. Bake at 350 deg. for 7-8 min. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and viola!!

They are a baked, carmaly goodness!

Pico De Gallo Con Honey Glazed Pollo!

Photo via my kitchen

So easy, so flavorful, so good!

For an easy light Summer dinner this is fab! My husband kept thanking me for marrying him after he ate this! So here are the easy breezy steps.

Ingredients
Chicken tenders or 2 chicken breasts
5 large tomatos
1 large onion
2 jalapenos
Cilantro
Honey
1 large avocado
2 limes
Garlic salt
Cumin

Directions
Chop up onion, cilantro, tomatoes,avocado, and jalapenos.  Toss them together along with 2 Tbsp of honey and a dash of garlic salt. Squeeze the juice of 1 lime over and toss. Set aside and let sit letting the juices combine.
Meanwhile, take clean chicken in a bowl and add cilantro, juice of 1 lime, 2 Tbsp of honey, cumin and toss. Let marinate in bowl over night or at least an hour. The acid from the lime will tenderize the chicken.
Grill chicken and add a generous amount of salsa on top. Violla!

I served it with warm flour tortillas. I made extra chicken and salsa to have a taco salad for lunch the next day. Saves money and beats Taco Bell!

Enjoy,
Heather

Comfort Food

{Chicken & Dumplings}

After a long week at work, this was the perfect meal for a Friday night. This recipe is so easy and full of flavor. A comfort food classic! I added carrots to the recipe to get another veggie in my husband, and instead of making my own chicken stock, I just used organic chicken broth.

1 lb chicken breasts
2 quarts chicken broth
2 cups bisquick
2/3 cups milk
2 tbsp butter
4 stalks celery
2 carrots
Bring chicken broth to a boil in a stock pot.

Meanwhile, mix together the bisquick and milk until soft dough forms. When broth comes to a boil, drop spoonfuls of dough into the chicken broth. Simmer over low heat, covered, for 10 mins, then uncovered for 10 mins.

Meanwhile, dice 2-4 stalks of celery until you have approximately 1/2 – 1 cup of diced celery. Cut or shred chicken into bit sized pieces. Saute celery in 2 tbsp of butter for a couple of mins. Add in chicken & season well with salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Add the chicken and celery to the soup broth and dumplings.

Serves 4 with left overs for lunch! Easy Breezy guys.

XO,
Heather 

Zucchini Bacon Lasagna & A Perfect Bench

I have always been super intimidated to make home made lasagna....until now!  Here is a picture of my most prized recipe thus far in life....

Might not look as good as I'm making it out to be but it is! Main ingredients are as follows; zucchini, bacon, mozzarella,bechamel sauce! What could get better than that. Click here for the recipe.

Zucchini Bacon Lasagna

I would suggest making a double batch so you can throw one in the freezer. It will save you the hassle of making it the next time you crave it.

I also have been craving this bench. To me, this is perfection!

Kelly, over at High Street Market did it again with a fabulous vintage find. My favorite is the fabric by Kelly Wearstler. I have been eyeing the print, Fern Tree for awhile now.  I think it would look great on my valance that I have to reupholster. Just if I could only fine some remnants because at over 100 bucks a yard it is about 80 % out of my budget! 

Let me know if you try the lasagna. I would love to hear your thoughts!

XO,

Heather

Cheesy Chicken, Bacon & Avacado Quesadillias

Tonight I tried a recipe I got here.  My friend Ashley told me about this great blog and I wanted to share it with you.  Yummy easy recipes are only the start of what the blog talks about.  There are also really cool free downloads for fonts and other blog gadgets.

Ok, so lets get to the recipe.  You will need....

4 medium-sized flour tortilla shells
1 lb chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
salt and pepper
1/2 cup scallions, diced
8 strips of bacon, cooked & crumbled
1 avocado, diced
mild cheddar cheese, shredded
2 tbsp butter

Arrange bacon on a cooling rack (like for cookies) and set it on top of sheet pan. If you don’t have a cooling rack, you can just put the bacon straight on the sheet pan. Or in a 9×13 baking dish. Either way will work. Place bacon in a cold oven, turn heat to 400, and cook 15 mins per side.

Add 1/2 tbsp bacon drippings to a skillet over medium heat. Add the scallions and saute about 2-3 mins until softened. Add the chicken in a single layer, season with salt and pepper, and cook for about 5 mins or until chicken is golden and cooked through, flipping just once during cooking. Remove the chicken and scallions to a plate and rinse out the skillet.

Add about 1/2 tbsp butter to the skillet over medium heat. When foamy, add a tortilla and swirl it around to get it nice and buttery. Layer one side of the tortilla with chicken, bacon, avocado, and a little cheese. Use tongs to flip the other half of the tortilla over and press down. Cook the tortilla for about 1-2 mins on each side or until golden brown and crispy.

Makes 4 quesadillas.


* My family tries to eat gluten free so I substituted the flour tortillas for corn and I think it made them even better!

XO,

Heather

Southern Style Stuffed Bell Peppers

Yumm...

This is a family fav' in my house. My family is from New Orleans, so anything I can put a little "Southern" into is good to me. This recipe only takes 30 minutes! Here it goes...

******************************

Ingredients

• Bell peppers(your fav" color)
• Cheddar Cheese
• Zaterran's Jambalaya Rice Mix
• Your favorite smoked sausage(I use Trader Joe's Chicken Andullie)

*******************************************************
Directions

• Cut the top off bell peppers and clean out the seeds
• Cut sausage of choice in small pieces and cook in pan until crispy,then put aside
• Fallow instructions on Zaterran's box for rice
• When rice is done fold in sausage
• Spoon in the sausage/rice mix into each bell pepper
• Cover bell pepper with your favorite cheese (Cheddar for me)
• Put in the oven at 350 deg. for 10 minutes or until cheese starts to bubble

That's how we do it in the South!

Night Y'all,
Heather

Texas Turkey Chili & Home galleries

I have been a bit under the weather and decided to make some comfort food. I tried a new recipe and I had to share it with ya'll.

Texas Turkey Chili

(Rachael Ray)
Ingredients

1 bell pepper finely chopped
1 onion finely chopped
1/4 cup tomato paste

Tbsp chili powder

1 Lb. ground turkey

1 14.5 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
1 bottle of beer

15.5 ounce can of kidney beans

salt & pepper to taste

2 Tbsp olive oil

Directions

Coat your dutch oven or stock pot with olive oil. Add your chopped bell pepper and onion and let cook until onion is transparent. Stir in tomato paste and chili powder. Then add your turkey. Cook until pink is gone then add can of beer,crushed tomatoes and bring to a boil. Then lower heat and let cook for about 10 min. Finally add your kidney beans until heated through and serve!

(I added corn to mine as well and served with corn bread).

I also wanted to share these pictures with you because they have been my inspiration for a project of my own in my kitchen. Pictures to come.

Can you guess what I did?

xoxo,

Heather

Pumpkin Crumb-top Loaf...YUM!

So I just made the best Pumpkin Loaf with an amazing walnut crust! It made my whole house smell delicious and scored some major points with the Hubby...xoxox

Attached is the recipe below. The only thing I added that is not on the ingredient list are raisins..yum

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
Topping:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1 teaspoon confectioners' sugar (optional)
Directions
1. Loaf: Heat oven to 350°. Coat a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, pie spice and salt in small bowl. Beat egg and sugar in large bowl. Beat in pumpkin, oil and vanilla until smooth. Make a well in center of flour mixture. Add egg mixture. Stir just until moistened and batter comes together. Fold in walnuts. Spoon batter into prepared pan.
3. Topping: Mix butter, brown sugar and flour in small bowl until crumbly. Stir in walnuts. Sprinkle over batter.
4. Bake loaf at 350° for 50 to 55 minutes, until wooden toothpick tests clean. Cool in pan on rack 10 minutes. Turn out onto rack to cool completely.