Three Bean Chicken Chili

April 3, 2012 in Chicken, Main Dishes, Soups | 2 comments

My husband is a college grad! I am so proud of him. The week of his finals, I took the girls down to visit family while my sister was visiting from Texas. These girls love their Auntie Linds!

It’s better for Matt when we’re gone so that he can live at the library and not worry about coming home. In past finals weeks, he’d always call around dinner time and ask what I’d made. It was sad. So, I took the girls down south, let him get some uninterrupted sleep, and left him a big pot of chili to live off while we were gone.

I made this recipe up unintentionally. I thought I had all of the ingredients on hand for this chili, but I was wrong. And, on a rainy evening before leaving town, there was no way I was dragging two little girls and myself to the grocery store. So I winged it! The result was this hearty, satisfying, husband & toddler approved dish.

Three Bean Chicken Chili Recipe

3 large chicken breasts, cooked and sliced or shredded

1 Tablespoon dried, minced onion

1 package taco seasoning

1 package Ranch dressing mix

1 (15 oz.) can pinto beans

1 (15 oz.) white kidney beans

2 (16 oz.) cans dark red kidney beans

1 (14.5 oz.) can sliced stewed tomatoes

2 (14.5 oz.) cans diced peeled tomatoes

1 (15 oz.) can whole kernel corn, drained

Throw all ingredients into a pot. Stir to combine ingredients. Cover with lid and let simmer over medium-high heat for an hour.

Serve with ranch dressing or sour cream, and grated cheese. Enjoy!

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

March 22, 2012 in Beverages, Breakfast | No comments

We had a week of rain here in Santa Cruz. Welcome, Spring! After three days, I decided to pretend like it wasn’t freezing cold and make smoothies. It definitely helped with the cabin fever…and now the sun has returned!

Ada loves smoothies and declared this one, “So nummy, Mommy!”

Strawberry Banana Smoothie Recipe

1 frozen banana

4 ice cubes

1 cup orange-pineapple juice (or juice of your choice)

7 large strawberries, rinsed with stems removed

 

Put banana, ice cubes, and juice in blender. Blend until no large chunks remain. Add fresh strawberries and blend until combined. Makes one full blender. Stick a straw in, pretend like you’re somewhere warm, & enjoy!

Stuffed Blue Cheese Potatoes

March 17, 2012 in Appetizers, Main Dishes, Pork | No comments

I received four glorious cookbooks for Christmas and have been having the best time poring over them and making food from them. This twice-baked tater recipe comes from Our Best Bites, a blog I love (see here and here) I was so excited to receive their cookbook from my sister-in-law! Thanks Liss!

I’ve made these twice now, and have adjusted them to my tastes. More cheese, basically!

Look at that piece of bacon falling off the edge…makes you want to grab it and eat it! Which I did, promptly after taking this picture.

The potatoes freeze beautifully and taste so good after just a minute in the microwave. A perfect side dish for weeknight meals, or a meal in and of itself! I won’t tell you how many days in a row I had one for lunch.

Stuffed Blue Cheese Potatoes Recipe - adapted from Our Best Bites

4 medium russet potatoes

1-2 Tablespoons vegetable oil, for rubbing on the potatoes

1/4 cup butter, cut into chunks

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

1/2 cup milk or buttermilk

3/4 teaspoon salt

Dash of pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

8 pieces bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled

Shredded gouda cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scrub potatoes clean and dry them, then rub with vegetable oil (this makes the skin nice and crispy). Place potatoes in oven, directly on the rack, and bake for one hour or until fork-tender.

When potatoes are fully cooked, remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes (leave oven on). They will still be hot, so using a towel or potholder, cut each potato in half. Hollow out each side, emptying contents into a large bowl. Add butter, sour cream, blue cheese, milk, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Beat with an electric mixer until fluffy. Then spoon whipped potato mixture back into the potato skin shells.

Arrange filled potato halves in a 9×13 baking dish and bake in oven for 12-15 minutes. Remove, top with shredded gouda and bacon, then return to oven until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 5 minutes. Enjoy!!

Plum District Gobble Deal!

March 13, 2012 in Blogging | No comments

Plum District, a lovely company that has daily offers geared towards moms, has an awesome local deal running right now!

It is for a company called Gobble that delivers healthy, homemade dinners to your home. I love cooking and being in the kitchen, but some nights you need a break! If you live in Atherton, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Portola Valley, or Stanford, you can take advantage of this.

Check out the details here: $20 for $35 Worth of Healthy Homemade Dinners from Local Chefs (Delivered to your Door!)

There is also a 10% off code ‘visa10‘ that can be used on this offer, so you will really be getting $35 worth of food for $18!

Crêpes

March 6, 2012 in Breakfast, Desserts | 5 comments

Matt served a mission for our church in the Belgium Brussels/Netherlands mission. He spent most of his time in northern France and fell in love with fresh baguettes, good cheese, and crêpes. When I ask him to say it in French, it sounds like, “day crehp” and makes me laugh. He cut this recipe out of a magazine when he was in the city of Arras, France, a two-hour train ride north of Paris. We have loved making these over the years and hope you love them too!

Crêpe Recipe

1 cup flour, sifted

2 eggs

3 Tablespoons sugar

2 pinches salt

1 1/2 cups milk

2 Tablespoons melted butter or canola oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Put the flour, eggs, sugar, salt, and milk in a bowl and mix well with a wire whisk. The mixture should be liquid, but still a little doughy. Add melted butter or canola oil, vanilla, and beat well. Let batter rest. (You can make this the night before and let it sit in the fridge until breakfast. I usually make the batter and cook them right away and they are fine.)

Before cooking, mix well with whisk. Oil the pan with a paper towel and place over high heat. Coat the pan with a thin layer of batter and swirl to cover pan. Don’t worry if your first few don’t turn out picture perfect. After a few crêpes you get the hang of it and it becomes fun! Let cook until the crêpe is browned at the corners and starts to pull back and release easily from the pan. Then, faite-la sauter (make it jump)! Or – flip over with a spatula. Let other side cook until browned.

I like folding them into triangles like you get from the street vendors. Fold in half, then fold both outer sides into the middle in thirds. Put filling of choice in and enjoy! My precious Nutella is pictured below. Mmm!

Other favorite fillings include:

- Cinnamon sugar

- Nutella & strawberries

- Nutella & bananas

- Powdered sugar

- Brown sugar

Savory fillings (don’t add sugar into batter for these)

- Brie cheese

- Chicken & broccoli

Broccoli, Carrot, & Cheese Orzo

March 1, 2012 in Main Dishes, Pasta | 2 comments

I saw this recipe on Weelicious and thought it sounded healthy & fast, so I made it. It didn’t disappoint! Ada ate a whole bowl and Matt & I ate the rest. I doubled the broccoli because we love it, and it had a broccoli soupishness to it. I just made that a word, it’s official. Soup-ish-ness! I also let everything go in the food processor longer so that the vegetables were smaller and added more cheese. More cheese is always a good thing in my book! This would be a perfect meal to serve on St. Patrick’s Day because of the green color! That is, if you’re not making corned beef & cabbage.

Apologies for the iPhone photos, but my nice camera was downstairs. When you have a hungry toddler and a baby on your hip, you just want to sit down and eat what you can while it’s hot!

Broccoli, Carrot, and Cheese Orzo Recipe – adapted from Catherine at Weelicious

1 clove garlic
1/4 of a large yellow onion
2 medium carrots
2 cups broccoli
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 cup orzo (small, rice-like pasta)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Put onion and garlic in a food processor and pulse until chopped. Add broccoli and carrots to the bowl and pulse, scraping down the sides as needed. Continue pulsing until the vegetables are finely chopped.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the vegetable mixture, raw orzo and salt and cook for about 4 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add the water and chicken broth to the pot and continue to cook over medium heat. Let it cook uncovered for about 10 minutes, or until some of the liquid evaporates and the pasta thickens up.

At this point, stir in the parmesan cheese and mix in until melted. Spoon into individual serving bowls, top with salt and pepper to taste, and sprinkle with more cheese. A good thing :) Enjoy!

German Apple Pancake

February 27, 2012 in Breakfast | 4 comments

My mom and I saw a Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives episode where Guy Fieri visited a place and they made something like this. Sorry I don’t have an episode number or a restaurant name! Did anyone happen to see it? The apple pancake looked so good that I searched online for a recipe. I found a blog called Dandelion Mama where she had a recipe that looked similar to what I saw on the show. I made it one time according to her instructions, then altered it to my tastes the second time around. This is my thicker version.

German Apple Pancake Recipe

adapted from Dandelion Mama

1/2 stick butter
2 large firm apples peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
1/2 cup milk
1 cup flour
4 large eggs
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 450 degrees, with rack in the center position.

Melt butter in cast-iron skillet over medium heat, setting aside 2 Tbsp in a medium bowl.

Add apples to melted butter in skillet and saute until softened and browned.

While the apples are cooking in the skillet, add the milk, flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt to butter in bowl and beat until smooth. (This can also be done in a blender, but I stay away from mine because it’s possessed.)

When apples are browned and softened, sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Stir the apples to coat in the syrupy goodness.

Then, pour the batter over the top of the apples. Your house will smell amazing at this point!

Put cast iron skillet in the oven and bake until pancake is puffy and golden, 12-15 minutes.

Dust with powdered sugar and enjoy!

You could also put syrup or jam on it, but I like it plain.

Giveaway Winner & Homemade Kettle Corn

February 7, 2012 in Blogging, Cookies, Giveaway | No comments

And the winner of the OXO spatula is…

comment #5, Lindsay Johnson!

She just happens to be my lovely sister. I promise you all it was completely random! Here’s the proof:

She just moved into a new apartment and needs a spatula, so it’s on its way!

Thank you for all of your entries, I loved hearing all of your favorite cookies. I was surprised by the amount of snickerdoodle lovers out there! For me, nothing beats a chocolate chip cookie. Mmm.

Here is another one of my favorite things: kettle corn. I love the smell of it being cooked at Farmers Markets and can’t help myself when Costco has Popcorn, Indiana’s kettle corn in stock (their brand is my favorite to date…they have more sweet & sugary kernels than Trader Joes and other brands). It’s highly addictive! Matt & I ate a whole bag while watching The Bachelor last week. Oops! (Don’t tell him I told you he watches it. We laugh so hard together!)

I love homemade popcorn, it reminds me of Sundays at my grandparents’ house. Bobba makes it the best with lots of melted butter on top! I also use my popper to make caramel corn. So I thought I should try making kettle corn in it! Rule #1, DO NOT put corn syrup in your stir crazy popcorn maker! You’ll end up with a scary burning mess that will take tons of elbow grease to clean off.

This is how it’s done right.

Stir-Crazy Kettle Corn Recipe

1/3 c. canola oil

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/2 c. popcorn kernels

Pour canola oil into bottom of popcorn maker. Sprinkle sugar on top, followed by popcorn kernels. Move little hands out of the way, place bowl on top, and plug in Stir-Crazy. Watch the kernels pop and then flip over and remove base when pops are 3 seconds apart. Sprinkle with salt to your liking, toss, and enjoy!

If you want to get really crazy, melt 1/4 c. chocolate chips and 1/4 c. white chocolate chips and drizzle on top! Place in a small bowl and microwave chips separately in 10 second increments, stirring until completely melted. Be careful not to over-heat them! Lay your beautiful kettle corn in a single layer on waxed paper.

Drizzle to your heart’s content!

I make this and store it in gallon-sized Ziploc freezer bags. It’s the perfect snack when you want salty & sweet!

Endive & Spinach Salad with a Creamy Mustard Vinaigrette

January 30, 2012 in Blogging, Salad | No comments

My friend Damaris asked me to be a part of her blog, Kitchen Corners series: 31 days of salad. Go check it out, there are some delicious options ranging from cabbage to tri-tip salads! Yum. This was my first guest post ever and I was so honored to be a part of such a great group of posts! I hope you all enjoy this salad, it is my own re-creation and combination of two salads that I love.

Let’s start off with the correct pronunciation of endive. It’s on-DEEV, not en-DIVE. My French-speaking husband says so. Plus, doesn’t it make you feel refined? “I’ll have the ondeeeev salad, please.” So fancy.

Endive & Spinach Salad Recipe:

2 endives

2 handfuls baby spinach

1 apple or pear, thinly sliced (optional)

1 oz. walnuts, chopped

1/4 c. Craisins

1/4 c. blue cheese crumbles

In a medium bowl, toss endives, spinach, and apple. Sprinkle with walnuts, Craisins, and blue cheese crumbles.

For the Creamy Mustard Vinaigrette:

1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon stone ground mustard

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

Combine ingredients and puree using an immersion blender, food processor, or blender. Serve atop salad and enjoy!

Peanut Butter Blossoms (& a giveaway!)

January 28, 2012 in Blogging, Cookies, Desserts | 13 comments

You guys! This is so exciting…I am doing my very first giveaway! Thanks to the lovely people at OXO, one of my lucky readers will win an adorable new green spatula, with the reminder to be a good cookie on it. How cute is that?! 

It’s the perfect size for removing yummy treats from your cookie sheet.

The best thing about this spatula, though, is that the message to be a good cookie is to remind you to give. Cookies for Kids Cancer was started by two OXO employees who were inspired by their son’s battle with cancer. You can go to their site, www.cookiesforkidscancer.org, and send cookies or sign up to host a bake sale to raise money. 100% of the proceeds go towards finding new ways to treat pediatric cancer.

Such a wonderful cause bake for! Now, I don’t think there is a better combination than peanut butter and chocolate anywhere in the world. But I am a peanut butter M&M, Reese’s peanut butter cup-loving fool.

These are fun to make with husbands and children, but just make sure you keep an eye on your Hershey kisses. After the time it takes to unwrap them you’ll want to guard them! Husbands just love naked chocolate lying around.

Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe

1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 (6 1/2 ounce) packages chocolate kisses, unwrapped
additional sugar, for rolling

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream sugar, brown sugar, butter and peanut butter. Beat in egg, milk and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Stir into egg mixture. Shape into balls and roll in additional granulated sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet for 10 to 12 minutes. Immediately press 1 kiss into each cookie (they will melt enough to make the chocolate shiny, but still keep their shape). Allow to cool and enjoy!

You have many ways to enter the giveaway:

1. Leave a comment telling me your favorite kind of cookie.

2. Become a follower via Google Friend connect (on right sidebar) and leave a separate comment telling me you did so.

3. Become a fan of Kara in the Kitchen on Facebook and leave a separate comment telling me you did so.

(If you already do these things, THANK YOU & leave a comment saying so!)

Winner will be chosen at random and announced next week!

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