Yum!

Pinterest, where have you been all my life? I don't know what I would do without you. Below are two tasty favorites that we've had this week that came from you!

First, are these Sweet Potato Pancakes. My friend, Hayley, whipped these up last month at Bunko and they were divine...both the pancakes and the cinnamon honey butter! Yum-o!!! We had them for dinner tonight with some turkey sausage, since I never do breakfast for breakfast, and they are melt-in-your-mouth awesome. Please try!

And last night we tried this Pinterest find, Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup. It doesn't get any easier than this folks. You don't have to cook a thing .You just dump it all in the crock pot and let it cook all day. Even the chopped onions go in raw. My kind of recipe! And it was so so so delish! Our new favorite soup for this winter (sort-of) season!

Time for a Recipe: Beef Stroganoff

It's been awhile since I've posted a recipe. I thought it was about time. Especially since I've been doing a lot more cooking lately, being at home with the kids and all. I've always loved to cook, but when I worked full-time, I mostly cooked on the weekends and we would eat leftovers during the week or get take out. Now I find myself doing all of my cooking during the week and none on the weekends! Weekends are now mostly reserved for grilling or take out!

Anyway, on the menu last week was a new recipe from Everyday Food. Beef and Tomato Stroganoff. Now, I've never made stroganoff, nor can I ever even recall eating stroganoff before, so this was a whole new experience for me. This recipe is super easy and delicious. We will certainly be having it again and again. Enjoy!

Beef and Tomato Stroganoff:

3/4 lb. Wide Egg Noodles
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb. Sirloin Steak, chopped or cut in strips
1/2 lb. button mushrooms, sliced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
3/4 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup sour cream (I may have tossed in a bit more)
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Parmesan, for serving

Cook noodles according to package directions, set aside. (I boiled mine during the 35 min. simmer time for the sauce) Add oil to pot and heat over high. Add steak and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Add mushrooms, onion and garlic and cook until mushrooms are browned and onions are tender, about 5 minutes. Add steak, diced tomatoes with juice, tomato sauce and broth. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, partially cover and simmer until steak is very tender, 35-40 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream, then add pasta, tossing to coat with sauce. Sprinkle and serve with Parmesan.

Chicken Taco Mac

Chicken Taco Mac. This one is a winner, people! I mean it's really delicious. I made it exactly as the recipes calls for (lime chips on top and all) and I believe it will be a Nowlin household staple dish for years to come. This is yet another Family Circle recipe that I tore out of James' grandmother's magazines while visiting a few weeks ago. Definitely worth a try! Yum!

Happy Valentine's Day! Eat Up!

Happy Valentine's Day to all my bloggie friends and to my two special Valentines! The holiday is kind of silly, but I must admit that I do love it! James and I don't do anything big. We usually exchange cards and enjoy a nice dinner out, but this year, we decided to just stay in and I cooked up a new recipe that turned out quite delicious, so I thought I'd share...


Tomato-Basil Rigatoni (From Family Circle Magazine)

• ½ cup dry-packed sun-dried tomatoes (about 3 ounces)
• 1 16-ounce box rigatoni pasta
• 1½ cups milk
• ¼ cup tomato-basil- flavored cream cheese (such as Philadelphia)
• 4 ounces (4 to 6 slices) provolone cheese, chopped
• 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon water
• ½ cup fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Pinch of salt
• Shredded Parmesan
  

1. Heat a large pot of lightly salted water to boiling. Carefully scoop out 1 cup and pour over sun-dried tomatoes in a small heatproof bowl. Let stand 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, cook rigatoni as per package directions, 14 minutes. Drain.
3. While pasta cooks, heat milk over medium heat until bubbly. Remove from heat and whisk in cream cheese, provolone and mozzarella until melted (mixture will be a little stringy). Stir in cornstarch-water mixture and return pan to heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring until smooth.
4. Drain and finely chop sun-dried tomatoes. Stir into pasta, along with sauce and basil. Top with a little freshly ground black pepper, a pinch of salt, and Parmesan, if desired.

Makes: 6 servings

And I also have one more recent find to share...Balsamic Pork Cutlets with Orzo...

Balsamic Pork Cutlets Recipe (also from Family Circle Magazine). This one I made on Saturday and it did NOT disappoint. I made the chops and the orzo but paired with my own green beans instead of what was in the magazine. If you get the chance, try this one. It was quite tasty and made the house smell incredible!

Happy Valentine's Day! Enjoy!

Taco Soup

You know I only do easy and this one takes the cake in that department. And it's so yummy and quite healthy. So needless to say people, this one is a MUST try. You won't regret it! I got this recipe from my friend Leslie. She made it for Bunko a year or two ago and I've been meaning to get her recipe since. It must be good if I was still thinking about it a year or two later, right?

• 1 lb. ground beef or ground turkey (I went with turkey since I'm trying to be healthier and it was delish)
  
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 can dark red kidney beans (didn't drain - added in juices and all)
  
• 1 can black beans (I did drain and rinse these before adding into soup mixture)
  
• 1 can garbanzo beans (didn't drain - added in juices and all)
  
• 1 can white corn (I did drain before adding)
  
• 1 can Rotel (didn't drain)
  
• 1 pkg. dry taco seasoning mix
• 1 pkg. dry Ranch dressing mix
• 8-16 oz. of water
  
• 8 oz. can tomato sauce
• cheese, chips and sour cream for serving

Brown ground beef or turkey and onion until cooked. Drain well. Add tomato sauce in large soup pot with corn, Rotel, dry seasonings, meat mixture, and beans (see above for what I drained and what I dumped in juice and all). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Serve hot with chips, grated cheese and a dollop of sour cream.

Some Recent Favorites

I've been doing a lot of cooking lately and I get a lot of my recipes from my friend Kendall's blog and I just must share some of my recent favorites...

Tomato-Basil Soup. This is of course, super easy and so delicious! And there's nothing better when it's 30 degrees outside than a warm bowl of soup!


Easy Creole Shrimp. It must be "easy" if "easy" is in the title, right? And this one takes no time at all! I usually serve mine with couscous instead of rice and it's delicious! We've had this one multiple times over the past few months.


Maple Chipotle Pork Chops. I've saved the best for last on this post. This is one of my all time favorites that I've tried. It will become a regular in the Nowlin house for sure. We only have a charcoal grill and it's too cold outside for that kind of grilling, so I just used my skillet to cook my pork and it was fantastic and super easy. And I've never been able to make grits that tasted good, and these were perfect! We had green beans instead of asparagus, but Kendall's pic with the asparagus is lovely!

Thank you Kendall for the great recipes and for inspiring me to get in the kitchen and cook!

Shrimp Chowder - A Must Try

Okay, bloggie friends, this one is a must-try. Believe me. I found this recipe in Southern Living magazine about five years ago and tore it out. I don't know why. I don't typically find recipes that way and I've never really cared for traditional clam chowder before, so who knows why I decided to try it, but I did, and it's been a regular in the Nowlin house every winter since! Of course if I make it, you know it's super easy and this one really doesn't get any easier. And it's so so so delicious. Like I said, even if you don't consider yourself a chowder lover, try it anyway. I don't think you'll be disappointed one bit. Enjoy!

Prep/Cook Time: 15-20 minutes - Yes, it's true - start to finish...that's it! Perfect to make after a long day at the office!
Yield: Makes 12 cups (usually enough for James and I to eat twice)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 (10 3/4-ounce) cans cream of potato soup, undiluted
• 3 1/2 cups milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds medium-size shrimp, peeled (I buy one package of the medium or large frozen shrimp at my Kroger - which is about 10-12 oz, and it's enough for us.)
  
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• Garnish: chopped fresh parsley

Preparation

Melt butter in a Dutch oven (I just use a large sauce pan) over medium heat; add onion, and sauté 8 minutes or until tender. Stir in cream of potato soup, milk, and pepper; bring to a boil. Add shrimp; reduce heat, and simmer, stirring often, 5 minutes or just until shrimp turn pink. Stir in cheese until melted. Garnish, if desired. Serve immediately.

To view and print recipe on SL website, click here.

Chicken Tamale Casserole

Last night I made a new recipe that I got from Cooking Light via Twitter last week, Chicken Tamale Casserole. It was so super easy and quite tasty. For any readers out there that "don't cook," this one is for you. It's so so so easy and fast, especially if you boil your chicken and pull it a day ahead of time like I did. I whipped this up after work and we were sitting down to eat by 6:15 PM. Please check it on on the Cooking Light website and give it a try. If you have a taste for spicy foods, add some jalapenos to your batter with the first seven ingredients. It would add a good kick! This was just too easy and delicious not to share. And it's not that bad for you!

Fall Food. Makes. Me. Happy.

Fall. It's my favorite of all seasons for many reasons. One of which is the food that I break out as soon as the weather turns a bit chilly and the time has come. I actually love to cook. I've been feeling so sick these past few weeks I haven't done much cooking but the cool weather this weekend really got me in the mood and I whipped up our first batch of chicken and dumplings of the season and they really hit the spot. I got this recipe from a co-worker of mine several years ago. Thank you, Casey! It's nothing gourmet, you know me. It's simple, yet quite delicious.


What you'll need:

• 1 chicken
• 1 family sized can cream of chicken soup
• 1 package frozen dumplings (In my Kroger, these are with the frozen rolls - they look like big sticks of gum)
• salt
• pepper

Yep, that's it.

• So boil your chicken for about an hour until done and then remove from pot to cool off.
• I pour off about 2 cups of the broth that's left in the pot and set it aside in case I need it later.
• Then add the can of cream of chicken soup to the broth and stir. Bring to boil.
• Add in your dumplings. I usually break each one in half before throwing in.
• From there I just follow the dumpling package instructions - reduce heat, cover pot and let simmer for 45 minutes. Stirring occasionally to keep the dumps from sticking to the bottom.
• By the time it's been 45 minutes, the chicken should be cool enough to pull and add in.
• Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.
• If you want soupier dumplings, you can add some of the broth you set aside back in, but I usually don't need it.
  

Like I said, simple, yet delicious and very comforting on a crisp fall night.

What Blogs Have Done for Recipe Sharing

So, some of you may not know this about me, but I actually really like to cook. Baking, not so much...too much trouble and makes too big of a mess, but cooking, I like. Now, don't be confused. Just because I like to cook doesn't mean that it's anything complicated. I always have and always will refuse to cook anything that requires too many steps or requires ingredients that I've never heard of, or that I don't know where to find in the store. So I guess I could rephrase my opening sentence to say that I actually like to cook...things that are EASY and DELICIOUS!

The blog-o world has opened up an entire new resource for me to find and try new recipes. What's better than a recommendation from a friend you already trust, instead of just picking a recipe from a website that may or may not actually be as delicious as it sounds? I love it! We've tried all kinds of new recipes at the Nowlin house over the past year and it's been fun. Below are some links to some recipes that we've tried out and have now officially become staples in our house that I've put into our regular rotations:

Really Good Salad - From the blog of Leslie Jerkins
Best salad I've ever had (even better than from any restaurant) and so super duper easy!

Yogurt Pie - Also from the blog of Leslie Jerkins
Just can't get any easier than this - you can freeze it too which is even better on a hot summer evening!

Breakfast Pizza - From the blog of Kendall Jones
This one isn't easy, but worth the trouble and is hearty enough for dinner!

Chicken Tortilla Soup - Also from the blog of Kendall Jones
So unhealthy, but so worth it and makes enough for an army, so it's a great choice when having dinner guests.

And these are just a few of my favorites. I'll be sure and pass along more as I try them out and confirm their deliciousness and easiness. I've also got a few recipes of my own to share with the blog-o world one day.