RECIPES!

Rustic Potato Soup with Cheddar and Green Onions

Prep time: 35 min 

Start to Finish: 35 min

2 servings

1-1/2 cups water

1 lb unpeeled russet potatoes

1 cup fat-free milk

1 tsp butter

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

4 medium green onions, chopped

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar

1. In 2 qt sauce pan, heat water to boiling. Meanwhile cut potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes; add to boiling water. Return to boiling; reduce heat. Cover; simmer 5-7 minutes.

2. Drain potatoes well; reserve 1 cup potatoes. Place remaining potatoes (about 1-1/2 cup) in blender. Add 1/2 cup milk. Cover; blend until smooth, adding additional milk if needed. Return blended mixture to saucepan.

3. Add reserved 1 cup potatoes, remaining 1/2 cup milk, the butter, salt, pepper, 1/3 cup onions and 1/3 cup cheese to sauce pan. Cook over medium heat 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently, until soup is hot and cheddar is melted.

4. Serve in two bowls, topping with remaining onions and cheese.

Shrimp, Pepper and Rice Soup

Prep time: 35 minutes

Start to Finish: 50 minutes

2 servings

1/2 cup uncooked brown rice

1 Tbs butter (do not use margarine)

1 cup water

1/4 tsp seafood seasoning

2 Tbs apple juice

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1-1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth

1/2 tsp thyme

3/4 lb cooked deveined peeled large shrimp, thaw if frozen, tail shells removed

1 medium red bell pepper, cut into strips

1. In 10 inch skillet, cook rice in butter over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until rice is golden. Stir in water and seafood seasoning. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover; simmer 30-35 minutes or until rice is almost tender and mixture is creamy.

2. Meanwhile, in 2 qt sauce pan, cook apple juice, onion and garlic over medium-high head 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until hot. 

3. Stir cooked rice into seafood mixture. Cook about 5 minutes stirring occasionally, until rice is tender.

Southwest Herb Flank Steak

Prep time: 10 minutes

Start to Finish: 40 minutes

2 servings

1/2 lb beef flank steak

1/2 cup chopped Roma tomatoes

2 Tbs lime juice

1 Tbs cilantro

2 tsp fresh oregano

1/8 tsp salt

1. Make cuts abut 1/2 inch apart ad 1/4 inch deep into diamond pattern in both sides of beef; place in large resealable bag. 

2. In small bowl, mix remaining ingredients; spoon over beef. Seal bag. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes. 

3. Set oven to broil. Spray broiler pan rack with cooking spray. Place beef on rack in broiler pan; brush with liquid from bag. Reserve tomatoes. Broil with top of beef 4-6 inches from heat for 8-12 minutes, turning once. 

4. With slotted spoon, spoon tomatoes onto beef; discard remaining liquid. Broil 3-5 minutes longer until tomatoes are lightly browned. Cut beef diagonally across grain into thin slices.

*This recipe goes great with a side of fresh green beans and red bell pepper strips sauteed in oil. 

No-Bake Cheesecake Pie

**By the time we did our Christmas Eve shopping, some of the ingredients for this recipe were no longer available...so I improvised. I will put my improvisation in parenthesis. 

1 cup vanilla or white chips (1 - 4 oz - toll-house white chocolate baking bar)

2 packages - 8 oz each - cream cheese, cubed

1 carton - 8 oz - whipped topping, thawed

1 graham cracker crust

1/3 cup English toffee bits or almond brickle chips (1 package of caramel chips)

In a heavy saucepan, melt chips over medium-low heat; stir until smooth (mix white chocolate bar with 1/2 cup caramel chips, it will not become smooth, but melt down the caramel until as smooth as you can). Remove from heat; stir in cream cheese until smooth (this will cause caramel to harden, so break it up into small pieces as you mix in the cream cheese). Fold in whipped topping. Pour into crust. Cover and refrigerate over night or until set. Just before serving, sprinkle with toffee bits (caramel chips).

Four-cheese Baked Ziti

Yields: 12 servings, but will be gone in two sittings!!

1 package (16 oz) ziti or small tube pasta

2 cartons (10 oz each) refrigerated Alfredo sauce (we found it with the cheeses)

1 cup (8 oz) sour cream

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 carton (15 oz) ricotta cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

1/4 cup grated Romano cheese

1/4 cup parsley

1-3/4 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1. Cook pasta according to package; drain and return to the pan. Stir in Alfredo sauce and sour cream. Spoon half into a lightly greased 3 qt baking dish.

2. Combine the eggs, ricotta cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan, Romano and parsley; spread over pasta. Top with remaining pasta mixture; sprinkle with mozzarella and remaining Parmesan.

3. Cover and back at 350 for 25 minutes. Uncover; bake 5-10 minutes longer or until bubbly.

Hashbrown Casserole

1 bag Southern Homestyle hashbrowns, thawed 2-3 hours

2 can cream of chicken soup

16 oz sour cream

2 cups cheddar cheese

2 cups saltine cracker crumbs (one bag)

1 stick butter

salt/pepper

Mix cream of chicken, sour cream, cheddar cheese and salt/pepper, in a large mixing bowl. Add hashbrowns, mix and stir. Put in 9X13 baking dish, and cover with cracker crumbs. Melt butter and pour over cracker crumbs. Bake 350 for 45 minutes. 

Bingo Bars

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup corn syrup

4 cup special K cereal

1 Tbs vanilla extract

1-1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

12 oz butterscotch bits

6 oz chocolate chips

Combine sugar, corn syrup in sauce pan, bring to boil and remove from heat. Add cereal, vanilla, and peanut butter. Stirring well, put mix into 10X15 in jelly roll pan. Melt chocolate chips and butterscotch. Spread over bars. Cut when cool. 

Peanut Butter Pie9 

9 inch frozen pie crust

1 package vanilla pudding

8 ounces whipped topping (thawed)

4 Tbs peanut butter

4 Tbs powdered sugar (more if needed)

- Bake pie crust, fork sides and bottom first, then bake as directed. Let cool.

- Mix pudding, follow directions on package. 

- Mix peanut butter and powdered sugar with a fork until little balls form and all peanut butter is covered.

- Put peanut butter mix in the bottom of pie crust, cover with vanilla pudding. Add whipped topping to the top and sprinkle with a little peanut butter mix. 

- Refrigerate for 4 hours or over night. 

January, how art thou...

January brought fun times, even if Haiden and I were in Texas for New Years and didn't see Zach for a few days...

We celebrated my dad's birthday, played with Tiny and May, got to see Shibby, wore tons of cute and new outfits from Christmas, took a family friend out to dinner, I hung out with Volvo, celebrated New Years, and learned tons of new things.

After the two weeks we spent in Texas, Zach was amazed at how much Haiden learned...

- Haiden can now say 'blue' and 'yellow' and most of the time distinguish between the two

- He is now standing up and sitting down when asked to

- He grapples around from one piece of furniture to another

- He blinks when asked

- He can make legit kisses, if not that frequently

- He says 'fish'

- He knows the sounds of numerous animals

- He plays peek-a-boo on his own, you just have to know that's what he's doing in order to play along

- He plays an 'up-down' game, where you say 'up' 'down' and he will stand up and sit down as many times as you say

- He helps you get himself dressed, by pushing his arms and legs into clothes, as well as sitting very still with his arms up for you to remove his shirts 

- He will eat pretty much anything set in front of him, as well as beg by standing next to you while you eat saying 'ma-ma-ma' meaning 'more more more'

- He will sign a few things here and there, but knows the meaning of most signs we sign to him

- He finally crawls on his hands and knees

That was seriously everything he just picked up in those two short weeks. He mimics people so easily, I've never seen a baby do that. Once you show him something maybe three times, he will do his best to imitate it. 

Haiden has also FINALLY sprouted a tooth!! One glorious tooth, that by the looks of it, is very crooked...but it is there and we couldn't be happier! He loved finger foods now, and will put anything small enough in his mouth to eat. 

I can't believe that he will be ONE by the end of the month...we have so much to do to get ready for it, I hardly know where to begin. 

So here's to 2013!!!! May it all be glorious to you, as it is already proving to be glorious for us! <3

December 2012, you were gone in a flash!

Last year, we were horrible at getting anything done for the holidays. This year (2012) we vowed to make the most of each holiday, and Christmas/December was no exception. 

We decided to make some traditions, one being after the Thanksgiving break, that first weekend in December was decoration day. We had already helped my parents put up their decorations the traditional day after Thanksgiving in the Leopold house, and I couldn't wait for us to get home and get cracking at our own decorations and traditions. 

So here is a list of our new yearly December traditions:
1. put up decorations
2. get a tree and decorate it (this was the only thing we did last year for Christmas, and we only had a handful of store bought ornaments, this year we had all my ornaments from growing up to add to the tree!)
3. go to a park and walk around and see all the lights (here we have City Park, in TX there's Central Park, and hopefully our next duty station will have a fun lit up park for us to go to)
4. watch holiday movies on the weekends
5. after putting up the tree and decorating it listening to Christmas music, we will watch some of the old school Rudolph and friends movies and drink hot cocoa
6. have a wonderful feast Christmas eve
7. bake cookies as a family and set out cookies and milk for Santa (we forgot to put the cookies out for Santa the night before, so we put them out that morning)
8. read the night before Christmas, the night before Christmas (which this year we forgot and had to wake Haiden up to read it with him)
9. go to some of the Christmas events they have on base
10. get pictures with Santa and Haiden
11. and the whole month of December listen/play Christmas music when ever possible

1. We had all of three decorations to put up, and put up lights outside.
2. Decorated the tree a few days later than we had planned, because the Trees for Troops trees hadn't come in yet.

Haiden screamed and cried the whole time we were decorating the tree, but as soon as we finished he was as happy as can be. So we started watching Rudolph and Friends movies (5).

3. We went to City Park and walked around looking at lights for about 3 hours! This place is huge to begin with, but they seriously had lights up for miles!

We had so much fun! There were lights everywhere and a section with trains!! There were probably about 10 trains running all at once around a mini village that was about the size of a street block.

6. We had some boys over from the barracks who weren't going home for Christmas and I cooked up a wonderful Christmas Eve feast! 

          

I slaved over the stove for hours, but in the end it was worth it...even if our AC didn't work and it was 75 degrees outside, and all the cooking left the house a swampy mess...it was worth it. Haiden played dragon while the boys played video games and took naps. Then after the feast we made a fire, remembered that we were supposed to read The Night Before Christmas and woke Haiden up to do so. All in all, Christmas Eve turned out just like we had hoped. 

7. I made snickerdoodles, bingo bars and Christmas themed cut-out cookies. And of course, being that we had such an eventful Christmas Eve, completely forgot to set them out for Santa...so the morning of Christmas we set them out and had Haiden in on the eating of cookies...poor Santa left our house hungry and thirsty, but he still left presents for Haiden :)

Then it was time to see what Santa brought and open gifts! We skyped my family and opened their gifts to us, and then skyped Zach's mom. Then we rested, and cleaned up a bit for my cousins who were coming to visit later in the afternoon. 

After we finished opening presents, and chatting with our families back in Texas, Haiden was pooped!

Then my cousins got here, and we exchanged gifts...

Josh and Vanessa got Haiden an awesome ball mountain that took all three guys to put together! We got them homemade paintings for their house and a blank one for their little one on the way!!! They also got us an awesomely hilarious game called Quelf that had us all laughing for hours!

The day after Christmas I left with Haiden to go to Texas, where we opened even more presents and hung out with family and friends!