Recipes for the week

With Chris working lots last week and only being home for dinner 1 day.  We ate pizza, left overs, and Chinese take-out.  YUM!  Boy is it funny how my boys love Chinese food.  However, I was able to make a few things, some new recipes as well.

The Double-Chocolate Layer Cake recipe I used for Connor's dinosaur cake was delicious!  It was light and moist.  I think I have finally found my go-to chocolate cake recipe.  And I don't normally like cake.  But I do now.

My new favorite pizza dough recipe is from Pioneer Woman Cookbook.  (I love homeade pizzas!)  If you haven't noticed, this is a wonderful cookbook & her website is full of great recipes too.  The one thing I have realized about her recipes is that they do take a bit of time.  But they are completely worth it.  You just have to plan ahead a little.

I saw this recipe for Cauliflower Soup and after my sister-in-law raved about it, I decided to give it a try.  Chris was wreary from the begining.  I thought it sounded good, since there is not a vegetable that I don't like (besides lima beans, but then again, aren't those a bean?  Hmmm..not sure, but they are gross!).The soup wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either.  We ate it, but will likely not make it again.  Connor didn't like it.  Chris said it was 'okay'.  Dylan thought it was tasty.  I just thought it was lacking something.  I thought it might be good made into clam chowder or some other seafoood soup-but then I would be the only one eating it.  I think the problem I had with it was that I don't like my veggies soft.  I like them crisp/hard, even when they are cooked.  But give the recipe a try, I am sure it was just us.  We are kind of wierd!

Then again, we may have been having the high expectations of this wonderful, delicious, tasty, flavorful, perfect soup we had just days before....

French Onion Soup.  It was pretty easy to make, it just took awhile.  But it was worth every minute!  Yum!  If you get a chance, make this soup, you will not be disappointed.

Side note...I had to try all those soups last week while it was still a bit chilly out because this week it is in the 70's.  I like Texas!  Happy January!!!

And after talking to a good friend Cheryl, she said they made Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos Poppers.  I was shocked that Cheryl liked them, since they are not normally fans of "hot & spicy" things.  So, I knew we must try them!This is a version of the recipe, but in her cookbook, she added 1 green onion sliced, 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese, and brush bacon with BBQ sauce before putting in the oven.    And we LOVED them.  However, I did leave quite a bit of seeds and membranes intact (we like em' hot).  They were SO good.  In fact, I still have some stuff left and will be making them again tonight :) 

I do have a little trick for filling them, instead of using a spoon...

Put mixture into a ziploc bag, then cut a small edge off and squeeze to fill.  So much easier!

And while I am at at it, mine as well share my latest disaster...

My poor Sweets! 

Sweet potato fries that is.  I guess I left them in a bit too long.  Or the oven was too hot.  Or both.  Too bad too, because they sounded so good.  Good thing I bought a box of them at Costco, I still have plenty to try again.

Last night we had chicken nuggets.  It is something I used to make all the time, but haven't in a long time.  The recipe is based on a recipe in Deceptively Delicious Cookbook.  I used 2 chicken breast and cut them into 'nugget' sizes.  Dipped them in flour, then coated them in the sweet potato puree mixture ( 2 pureed sweet potato mixed with 1 egg).  Then into the bread crumb mix, which is a couple cups of bread crumbs, a little paprika, and a few tablespoons of flax meal.  Then into the oven for about 20-25 minutes at 275 degrees.  They were just as tasty as we remembered them.  I need to do some more recipes from this cookbook again...stay tuned.  I do like the sneak in some veggies whenever possible.  Like putting kale and spinach into our smoothies---can't even taste it.  Gotta love that!