Corn Soup

While watching the Food Network, my wife found a recipe that she and the boys just love. They call it corn soup but there is more in it than that. We love it because it can be a quick, cheap and tasty meal.

We have a fruit/vegetable stand just a few minuets from our house. Everything is always fresh and the prices are better than at our local grocery store. Unless we are in a pinch, we always buy our produce from there. Yesterday, we popped in just to pick up some collards and noticed that he had some white corn for a decent price. This time of year isn't really the corn season so it was a nice find.

Here's how we make our soup:

4 small onions
4 medium zucchinis
6 ears of corn
2 small red bell peppers
2 cans chicken broth
1/2 cup any type of milk, cream or half and half

Cut up all but the corn. Try to cut everything the same size so it cooks evenly. Then cut the corn off the cob. Put the onions in the pot first with some butter to soften. You can use however much butter you would like or skip it and use any type of oil. We like the flavor of the butter sometimes, but when we are trying to be healthy we skip the butter and use a few tablespoons of olive oil. Once the onions have started to soften slightly add 2 teaspoons of chopped garlic, the chopped zucchinis and peppers. Stir in some dried basil, pepper and salt...all to taste. Once the vegetables have started to soften add the corn. Cook for a few minuets and than add the liquids. Now, just cook until the corn softens and the flavors combine.

You can do any variation of this soup. It's great with plum tomatoes instead of red bell peppers too. In fact, when the fruit stand is out of the peppers we use tomatoes. Red bell peppers at the grocery store cost an arm and a leg! If you are looking to do a low fat version then leave out the milk. Instead, put a cup of the corn in a blender before adding it to the soup. It will help thicken it up without the extra calories.

This soup has become one of our favorites. I sure hope you like it too! Let me know how you change it to suit your tastes and family.

3-Minute Apple Cobbler

Check this out! This is the perfect kind of dessert to let you kids make. Fast and easy. Plus, most people have these ingredients on hand.

What You Need

6 NILLA Wafers

1/4 cup  applesauce

1 Tbsp. thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping

Dash  ground cinnamon

Make It

PLACE wafers in microwaveable bowl; top with applesauce.

MICROWAVE on HIGH 15 sec. or until hot. Cool 1 min.

TOP with COOL WHIP; sprinkle with cinnamon.

Kraft Kitchens Tips

Substitute

Prepare using COOL WHIP French Vanilla Whipped Topping

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Quick Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

If your week has been anything like mine, than there is no time for cooking. It has been crazy around here! Cold, illnesses, bills...ugh! Tonight, I need a fast supper but full of warmth. (It is getting into the twenty's again!)It is definitely a chicken noodle soup night. Sure, I could just open a can, add water and heat. Or, I could heat up some chicken stock and mix in my own ingredients. To me that sounds better.

This is what I did:
-defrosted one bottle of chick stock, put in pot with 2-3 cups water
-cut up a small onion, heated in a pot with butter and fresh garlic
-brought to a boil and added egg noodles
-cut up left over chicken and added to pot
-added half a bag of frozen mixed carrot and peas
-used dry basil, salt and pepper..all added to taste

All this only took about 15 minuets, from start to finish. I know exactly what ingredients are in my soup and how much salt was added. These are ingredients we almost always have on hand too. But even if I hadn't had the peas and carrots I could have added green beans and corn. Anything really.

While I was cooking it I thought I needed to come share it with you. So, if you will excuse me, it is time to eat!

Trying to duplicate

Last October when we were on our vacation we stopped in this little hole in the wall gas station. To our surprise it also had a butcher shop, local wine's and deli with this great crab dip. A few weeks ago we were thinking about it. I told my wife we had some fresh crab meat in the freezer and we could try and make it ourselves.

The best part about this recipe is you can't mess it up because, you make it to your own taste. The way we duplicated it was as follows:


2 cups of fresh crab meat
1/4 of sour cream
1 8oz container of pimento cheese
1 tbs of onion powder
1 tbs of garlic powder
1/2 tsp of ground black pepper
1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper
hot sauce to taste

Mix all ingredients together. Sample as you go to make it soot your own taste buds. I like to make it hot so I adjust the pepper to my liking. Now, just get you some of your favorite crackers or French bread and a football game and your set.

Save The Stock!

In our house it seems like we are always using stock in a recipe. Most of the time it is chicken stock. My wife used to buy the canned stock. Now, we only buy it if it is on sale. We have figured out an easy way to make our own and freeze it.

We make a lot of recipes that call for boiling the chicken. Before we would just throw out the "water" that was left over. Oh how much goodness we wasted! Now, we save EVERY drop! It is so useful. We put it in soups, beans, rice, mashed potatoes, I could go on and on. But, storing the stock can be hard. We do not want to have to buy containers just for that. So, we have started putting the stock in our water or sports drink bottles. Instead of throwing out the bottles we clean them well, make sure the stock is cooled and fill them up. (Make sure you leave enough room for the expanding process.)We put the stock in the freezer until we need it. It is so much easier to have bottles of stock in the freezer than trying to put it in freezer bags too.

If you have any tips on stock I would love to hear them!

Taco Salad Made Over

 
Our family loves taco salads. We make them at home all the time. We have never tried to make the bowl at home though because it just looks messy plus, with all the grease, it's fatty. I just found this at Kraft Foods. I can't wait to try making the bowls this way!

What You Need!

4 flour tortillas (8 inch)

3/4 lb.  extra lean ground beef

1 Tbsp. chili powder

1 cup  drained canned kidney beans, rinsed, well drained

1/2 cup TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Thick 'N Chunky Salsa

4 cups  torn mixed salad greens

1/2 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese

1 large  tomato, chopped

2 Tbsp. KRAFT Light Ranch Dressing

Make It!

HEAT oven to 425°F. Crumple 4 large sheets of foil to make 4 (3-inch) balls; place on baking sheet. Top each ball with 1 tortilla; spray with cooking spray. Bake 6 to 8 min. or until tortillas are golden brown. (Tortillas will drape over balls as they bake.)

MEANWHILE, brown meat with chili powder in large nonstick skillet. Stir in beans and salsa; cook until heated through, stirring occasionally.

FILL tortilla shells with salad greens, meat mixture, cheese and tomatoes. Drizzle with dressing.

TACO BELL® and HOME ORIGINALS® are trademarks owned and licensed by Taco Bell

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Taco Salad Made Over recipe at Kraftfoods.com

Taco Salad Made Over recipe at Kraftfoods.com

Blogged with the Flock Browser