Chicken Noodle Soup to the Rescue!

Posted in What's Cookin' by Selections By Sisters

Oh how I love cold and flu season. Unless you keep your kids locked in the house all winter it’s pretty much a given that they will get sick at some point. The germs, runny noses and coughs are everywhere you turn. This week the biggest baby in our family got sick…my husband! Why is it that men can’t function when they are sick? Just a sniffle and their world comes to a halt. Homemade soup was at the top of his list of requests. A big warm bowl of it truly is the best medicine!

I’ve tried many chicken noodle soup recipes but I always come back to the one by Tyler Florence. I never have the time, or patience, to make my own stock so I just buy store bought and I think it comes out just as tasty. Here is my twist on the recipe!

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil

6-8 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices

4 stalks celery, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices

2 medium onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

2 fresh thyme sprigs

3 quarts chicken stock/broth

10 ounces dried wide egg noodles

1 Rotisserie chicken, chopped or shredded

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1 handful fresh parsley, finely chopped

Directions

1. Place a large pot or Dutch oven on stove over medium heat. Cover with olive oil and add in carrots, celery, onion, garlic, bay leaf and thyme. Cook and stir until vegetables are softened but not browned.

2. Pour in the chicken stock and bring to a boil.

3. Add the noodles and simmer for about five minutes or until tender.

4. Stir in the chicken and continue to simmer until heated through. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Sprinkle with a handful of parsley and serve with a crunchy grilled cheese sandwich. Guaranteed to make everyone feel better!

6Dec2013

Sweet Potato and Sausage Enchiladas

Posted in What's Cookin' by Selections By Sisters

I adapted Budget Bytes Sweet Potato and Chorizo Enchiladas, which are amazingly delicious, to accommodate what I had on hand in my kitchen.

Ingredients
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 medium sweet potato
1 medium red bell pepper
2 Tbsp hot sauce
2 cloves garlic
1 lbs. Italian sausage
5 large tortillas ( more if making smaller enchiladas)
2 (15 oz.) can enchilada sauce
1½ cups shredded cheese (I used a taco cheese shredded blend)

Directions

Heat oven to 375.
Peel the sweet potato and cut into a half inch cubes. Remove the stem and seeds from the pepper and also dice into half inch pieces.

In a large skillet, cook the sweet potato, pepper and garlic in vegetable oil, over medium heat until they begin to soften (about 10 minutes). Add the meat to a separate skillet. Break up the meat and cook until thoroughly browned (about 5 minutes).

Add cooked meat, 1 can enchilada sauce and 2 Tbsp of hot sauce in a bowl- stir to combine.

Spray a large casserole dish with non-stick spray. Scoop the desired amount of the sausage and sweet potato filling into each tortilla. I wanted larger enchiladas, so I added larger scoops. Fold in the ends and then roll the tortilla up around the filling. Place the filled and rolled tortillas in the baking dish. They should fill the dish and fit tightly against each other to prevent unrolling.

Pour can of enchilada sauce evenly over enchiladas. Sprinkle the shredded cheese over top and place it in a preheated 375 degree oven. Bake until the sauce begins to bubble around the edges (about 20 minutes).

Serve plain or with sour cream. Super Yummy!!!

5Nov2013

Low Fat Chicken Chili

Posted in What's Cookin' by Selections By Sisters

The picture of this Chicken Chili on Wicked Yummy was enough to make me stop at the grocery for the ingredients that I needed and make, what I hoped to be, a yummy dinner for my family.

My husband loves HOT, so I was pretty sure that this recipe, with its cup of Franks Red Hot, would be a hit! The recipe calls for an optional topping of crumble blue cheese, since I didn’t have any other recipes for the week that needed the crumble blue and the serving size that is offered for sale being quite large, I skipped buying the cheese and put out sour cream as an optional topping. The sour cream was a delicious substitute!

directions

Boil chicken on stove top or cook in a small amount of water in a crock pot on high. My crock pot is finicky with its heat and the amount of time that it takes to cook things. This being said, I can’t give an exact crockpot temp or cooking time. My chicken cooked on high in the crockpot for one hour. When chicken is done cooking, shred using two forks.

Heat on high the canola oil in a large pot. Once hot, add garlic and onion. Cook stirring occasionally until tender- about 3 minutes.

Add to the pot the peppers, carrots, and celery. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add in paprika, cumin, oregano, drained and rinsed black bean along with drained and rinsed cannelloni beans. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add in shredded chicken, diced and crushed tomatoes, hot sauce and chicken broth. Stir to combine. Simmer chili until veggies are at desired tenderness. Add salt and pepper to taste.

The chili was a hit with the hubby and I, but a bit too spicy for the kiddo.
Thanks Wicked Yummy for a delicious recipe!

4Sep2013

Peanut Butter Cookies

Posted in Kid's Corner, What's Cookin' by Selections By Sisters

These super simple Peanut Butter Cookies, that I found on Pinterest , are absolutely delicious! I’m definitely not the baker in the family and rarely attempt to make much more than a boxed cake for my husbands birthday. However, the cookie jar that sits atop our microwave has been almost begging to be filled- or maybe it’s just me that constantly looks at it and craves a super soft delicious treat. Either way, it was time to find a recipe that I could pull off from prep to clean-up without taking over Reagan’s entire nap time.
If you like peanut butter, have minimal time to spare and are in need of a delicious treat, then this is the recipe for you! According to the site that I found this on, the calculated calories per cookie are around 80. But honestly, who really knows and if your yielding two dozen that will be sitting in a jar in your kitchen, begging to be eaten…who’s really counting????

Ingredients

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix 1 cup peanut butter and 1 cup sugar

Add into mixture 1 egg, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon baking soda and mix until combine.

Roll dough into balls. The size of the ball depends on the size of cookie that you want- the bigger the ball, the larger the cookie. Bake on a cookie sheet for 11 minutes.

Make good use of your time and boil sippy cup parts while your cookies are baking!

Super easy and delicious!

My cookie jar is no longer lonely…

Recipe yields Two Dozen Cookies

3Aug2013

Summertime blueberry crisp

Posted in What's Cookin' by Selections By Sisters

As Meg mentioned earlier in the week, we took the kids out to G&S Orchards to go blueberry picking. I will admit that I am not the biggest blueberry fan but even I couldn’t resist eating the big and juicy berries right off the bushes. They were just begging for me to make them even sweeter so I whipped up a blueberry crisp for dinner!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups blueberries
2 Tblsp. white sugar
1 cup flour
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, gently toss
together blueberries and white
sugar; set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, combine flour,
oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and
nutmeg.

4. Cut in butter until crumbly. I find it
easiest to use my hands.

5. Press half of mixture into a 8×8 inch
pan.

6. Cover with blueberries.

7. Sprinkle remaining crumble mixture
over the berries.

8. Bake in the preheated oven for
30-40 minutes or until fruit is
bubbly and topping is golden
brown.

You can easily double the recipe and use a 9×13 inch pan and using blackberries or raspberries would be delish too! It was the perfect summertime treat and a big hit with the hubby :)

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