Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage

My kitchen has the worst lighting, so I had a hard time trying to take a good picture of it.  I couldn't.  All my pictures make it look horrible, you would never want to eat it, if you saw my pictures.


They have a picture posted up here along with the recipe you can print off.


I remember hating this as a kid, now I love it.  I followed the recipe and found it actually tasted better the next day as leftovers.

Roasted Tomato Soup

This soup tastes nothing like the store bought canned tomato soup.  This one tastes like real tomatoes, so if you're making this expecting to taste like Campbell's you might be disappointed.  I, however, love the taste of homemade tomato soup.




1. Layer a baking sheet with foil and arrange quartered tomatoes and garlic cloves.  Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

2. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  I would actually do mine longer next time.

3. When the tomatoes are cool enough to touch, removed the skins and peel the garlic.  This step is very messy.

4. Cook onion in butter until softened.

5. Add peeled tomatoes and garlic, honey and stock.

6. Puree the soup in batches in a blender or use a stick blender. Stir in cream and salt and pepper and simmer. (The recipe on the webpage does not list cream in the ingredients so I just poured some skim milk in...eyeball it...I think I added a little too much)

7. Serve.  I made grilled turkey and roasted red pepper panini's for our side.

You can print the recipe from here.


Let me know if you try it.

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

These are my new favorite cookies.  They are soft and chewy and you can change the recipe to your favorite cheesecake flavour...(ex: chocolate orange, turtle, choc mint, etc).


I stored mine in the fridge for the first couple of days and then moved them to the freezer.  They are even soft when you pull them out of the freezer....seriously...just like cheescake.


You can print the recipe from here.


These are the changes I made...


1. The first time I made these, I wrote out the recipe from the computer very quickly.  In my haste, I did not notice that it said 3oz of cream cheese and I added the whole block (8oz) of cream cheese.  When it came to the part where you are suppose to roll out the cookie dough, I noticed mine was too runny to roll.  I went to the computer to see where I messed up and I noticed that I more than doubled the cream cheese.  So.....I doubled up the rest of everything else.  I love how my cookies turned out, so I might do that again next time on purpose.  If you follow the recipe exactly, please let me know how your cookies turned out.

2. I did not use the Oreo cookie crumbs that you buy in the store.  I used whole oreos and put them in my food processor until they were crumbs.  I liked the idea of having the creamy center flavour in there too.

3. I would skip the white chocolate drizzle...they are sweet enough.  I started with it, but then decided to leave it off the rest.

4.  These are a cookie that actually don't taste fresh out of the oven.  They taste better when they have cooled.  I tried a warm one and thought it was way too sweet and didn't know what I was going to do with all these cookies, since Ben and I didn't like them....and for me to say they are too sweet....that's HUGE!  I tried them once they had cooled and from that day on I ate about 4 or 5 a day....worth every pound!!


If you love cheesecake you will LOVE LOVE these!

French Onion Soup

I love French Onion soup and I've never really thought to make it at home.


I think the recipe landed in my inbox or I must have stumbled across when browsing through allrecipes.


Anyways...I loved it.  I mean, it has cheese and bread in it...how could I not like it?


You can print the recipe from here.


These are the changes I would suggest...

1. Even though the recipe does says "do not brown the onions" you want to make sure you caramelize them.  This is where the flavour comes from.  If you read the comments, you will see a lot of people say this.  If you decide to caramelize the onions, it will add on to the cooking time by quite a bit.  You don't want to fry the onions crispy, you want to slow saute them until they are soft and a beautiful caramel colour.

2. I skipped the sherry as I didn't have it and wasn't going to buy it just for this.

3. I don't have oven safe bowls, so I did not put the soup in the bowls and then broil the bread.  I baked the bread in the oven so it was crispy, then broiled it so the cheese bubbled nice and brown.  I used romano, mozza and parmesan since this is what I had already.  If you just broil the bread or put the bread right in the bowl and broil it, expect soggy bread where it sits in the soup.


Enjoy!

November 15 - 19

I had a hard time planning our meals this week.  I don't really feel like eating anything.  I've been like that the past few days.  I just want someone to tell me what to eat and I'll do. 



Anyways...this is what I came up with...


Monday - ham and asparagus frittata

Tuesday - sloppy joes

Wednesday - spinach and mushroom crepes

Thursday - lemon ginger chicken with rice

Friday - up in the air due to plans

Meatball Heroes and Oven Roasted Potatoes

I've never had or made meatball subs, but the picture on the webpage where this was posted made it look so good so I gave it a shot.


I'm glad I did...it was delicious....and filling.  I barely at mine.


I got the recipe from Real Simple.  You can find a printable version there.


I did some make some changes.  First of all, I used fresh homemade meatballs.  They are so easy to make and taste way better.  I baked mine in the oven, then I heated up the sauce in a skillet and added the meatballs to that.


I did, however, buy store made pasta sauce.  I have yet to find a good recipe and master a good red sauce from scratch that I love.


If you don't follow my other changes, at least do this one.  I thought that if I followed their way for heating up the bun, I probably would have a soggy sandwich by the time I added the meatballs and sauce.  I also didn't think the cheese would melt like their picture from just adding it after the meatballs.  So I cut the buns in half, added the cheese and baked them in the oven until everything was toasty and melted...then I added the meatballs.


Now onto the oven roasted potatoes!  I love oven roasted potatoes.  I've never really ever had a recipe for them, I just kinda make it up each time.  I like to try a variety of ways.  One of my favorites is tossing the potatoe cubes in olive oil then adding onion soup mix and roasting...so good.  I also like to just sprinkle them with "vegetable" seasoning sometimes.  Garlic powder and dry dill are also a fav.


I saw this recipe on another blog and she raved on and on about it so I figured I would try it.  They were good!  I did find they took a bit longer to get that crispy outside I love.


Anyways...you can get the recipe here.


Let me know if you try either of these!

Lime Chicken Soft Tacos

Yes, I have them in a pasta bowl.  Yes, it is sitting on a desk.  The pictures I took at home the night I made it looked horrible due to dark lighting (my kitchen really needs some better lighting).  Since I always have my camera in my bag and I made these at work for lunch one day, I decided to use that picture.  We have great lighting at work.  I have them in a bowl because "someone" in our office never cleans his plates, so I'm stuck using the dishes he doesn't....which means...bowls.


Anyways...that kind of complaining and what not is for my other blog.


I love Mexican food, however, I get tired of the old standby typical food, so when I find a new way to try out some tacos or something, I'm all for it.


I got this one from allrecipes.  You can go there to print it off.


I follow don't alter the recipe too much.