Hearty Pork Soup

I initially found this on allrecipes.com and adjusted it a bit to fit our tastes. It's not every day that you can find a good soup recipe that uses pork. I went searching for this recipe because I had leftover kidney beans but I will also use this recipe when I have left over pork chops or pork roast. After one try, it's a new favorite at our house!

Ingredients
3 pork chops, cooked and shredded
4 carrots, sliced
4 celery ribs, chopped
1 cup canned whole tomatoes, chopped ( I made w/o tomatoes because I forgot!)
1 onion, chopped
1 can kidney beans
3 potatoes, cubed
2 cubes beef bouillon cube
A little bit of garlic (optional)
salt to taste

1. Place meat, carrots, celery, and tomatoes in a large pot over medium heat. Fill with water, almost to the top of the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer while doing step 2.
2. In a frying pan, fry chopped onions with 1 tsp garlic until browned; put aside.
3. To the soup pot, add kidney beans, potatoes and fried onions; cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Add the beef bouillon cubes, and cook for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Easy Winter Side Dish

This is a cold weather staple for us. This dish is easy easy -no measuring required! It's really hearty, it's inexpensive, it's colorful, it's healthy, and it goes with almost any type of meat. We like to serve it with pork chops or marinated chicken.
You will need to chop:
potatoes
carrots
celery
onion
pepper (red, green, or whatever color you like)

Start by boiling the potatoes, carrots and celery until soft.

Then melt some butter (or use olive oil) in a frying pan and saute the onion and pepper.
Drain the other ingredients and add them to the frying pan. Cook until all ingredients are soft. Be careful not to overcook or the potatoes will start getting mushy! Add salt and pepper and enjoy!

Philly Cheese Steak Pizza

This recipe is so easy and we all lived it. We ate the entire 9x13 pan in one sitting!

1 tube (8 ounces) refrigerated crescent rolls
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon beef bouillon granules
1/2 pound thinly sliced deli roast beef
1 tablespoon prepared Italian salad dressing
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella

Unroll crescent roll dough into one long rectangle; seal perforations. Press onto bottom and up the sides of an ungreased 9x13 baking dish. Bake at 375° for 7-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute the green pepper and onion in oil and bouillon until tender.

Arrange beef over crust. Brush with salad dressing and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Bake 4-5 minutes longer until cheese is melted. Top with peppers and onions. Cut into squares.

Creamy Tuskegee Soup

This is a very different kind of soup. It's a semi-spicy peanut soup (it can be as bland or as spicy as you want it to be), and it's hard to explain the taste, but it has become a favorite over the past 3 years. We eat it a lot during the winter; it's a great meatless and one-pot recipe if you're willing to try it out.

4 Tbsp butter
1 onion, minced
2 celery ribs, minced
1 1/2 Tbsp flour
3 cups chicken broth
2/3 cup peanut butter
Ground cayenne pepper
Chili powder
Pepper
3/4 cup cream
Peanuts

1) Melt butter in big pot; add onion and celery and cook 5 minutes.

2) Add flour, broth, and peanut butter. Stir until smooth.

3) Turn the heat to "low," add spices to taste***, and cook 20 minutes.

4) Add cream and cook 2 more minutes.

Serve in bowls and sprinkle peanuts within.

***NOTE: I just sprinkle the peppers in to taste, so I really don't know how much to put in; I would probably start with a teaspoon of each and work from there. If you want more spice, add more Cayenne pepper.

One last thing: to make it healthier, you can also add minced carrots and/or leeks, or any other vegetable you'd like to try.

Chicken and Rice

I've been meaning to post these for awhile, so you're getting a bunch from me at once. We eat a lot of chicken, so here's another easy one from John's mom. This one's not quite so healthy. :)

2 c minute rice
8 chicken strips or tenders (unbreaded)
Ranch packet
1 c water
2 c milk
1 stick (1/2 c) butter, melted

Spray 9x13" pan. Put in rice, water, and milk. Lay chicken strips on top. Sprinkle ranch powder over everything (do not mix in). Drizzle melted butter over the chicken strips. Bake 45 minutes at 350.

Crockpot Salsa Chicken

I love crockpot recipes, at least since I'm at home most of the time now and don't have to plan everything out the night before. Here's a really simple one my sister sent me. It sounded weird (mushroom soup?!?), but it tasted great! (Also, it was made for people watching sodium and fat intake, so take that for what it's worth. It still tastes yummy.)

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Reduced sodium taco seasoning (I use about half a packet)
1 cup salsa
1 can reduced sodium cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream

Add chicken to crockpot and sprinkle taco seasoning over chicken. Pour salsa and soup over chicken. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream. Serve over rice.

Blueberry Banana Smoothie

Ahh, smoothies! I'm amazed I haven't made more of them in the horribly hot weather we've been having. I'm sure you all have your go-to smoothie recipes, but I always have issues with mine being too icy and not flavorful enough. This one hit the nail on the head for me. Savor it, but not too slowly- it gets thin as the ice melts.



1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
1 banana
1 cup (8 oz) vanilla yogurt
1/2 to 3/4 c milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp sugar (optional)
1 Tbsp flax seed (optional)
2 handfuls of ice cubes

Throw it all in a blender, mix it up, enjoy!