24 Aug 2015

This Week in the Charming South Kitchen

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Pear Salad

Welcome to the end of another month.  Where I clean out my fridge and freezer and dig way deep in the pantry.  Going to try to make ends meet another month – but do so in a tasty way!

My mister only asked for one meal this week so he is getting what he asked for – steak (ribeye) and potatoes).

Making this quiche (without the crust and adding in some veggies)

Making some healthy chocolate zucchini bread for my misters’ breakfast.  They can down some bread and muffins in the morning, so I might as well make it at healthy as possible.

I’m thawing some chicken.  This soup is calling my name.  Avocados and lime in a bowl – yes please, especially with my guacamole recipe coming out on Wednesday!

Since I’m trying to stick to paleo this week, this is a perfect easy crockpot meal that will be perfect by itself with greens or on a salad.  It will also be good for burritos or enchiladas for my misters who love flour tortillas!

What are you guys cooking this week?  How do you survive the last week of the month?  And how do you eat well but not make your family eat exactly like you do?

21 Aug 2015

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

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Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

I don’t know what it is but the moment anyone in my family says they are sick, I immediately jump on the orange juice and chicken soup bandwagon.  Well, last weekend, my husband came down something for the millionth time this year.  I said I would go to the store that night.

I’m not a huge fan of broth noodle soup because after reheating it several times you don’t have any broth left.  And it usually lacks flavor. However, I wanted something creamy and thick and comforting.  This was it!

My boys and my mister have loved it – and my mister is all better. So, was it the chicken noodle soup, who knows? But, I know it didn’t hurt!

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Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
Author: 
Recipe type: soup
Cuisine: chicken
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 8-10
 
Thick and creamy chicken noodle soup
Ingredients
  • 7-8 cups homemade chicken broth
  • 2-3 cups rotisserie chicken, cubed or shredded
  • ½ white onion, finely chopped
  • 1 bag frozen peas and carrots (do not thaw)
  • 2 T unsalted butter
  • 3 cups of medium egg noodles, (measure out 3 cups dry before cooking)
  • ¼ cup unsalted butter
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream (or half and half, or more milk)
  • generous amounts of salt and pepper (remember you can always add but you can't take away)
Instructions
  1. In a dutch oven, saute onion and frozen peas and carrots over medium heat with the 2 T of butter for about 5 minutes.
  2. Add in liquid and bring to a boil.
  3. Add in noodles. Cook until al dente.
  4. In a small sauce pan, heat butter and flour, whisking vigorously until all the flour is mixed in and the butter is melted. Add in milk and cream.
  5. It will thicken as it stands.
  6. When the noodles are done, add in chicken and cream mixture.
  7. Let sit for a few minutes off heat. Serve with bread or a side salad.
  8. This soup does get thicker as it sits in the fridge a while. Leftovers are more like a casserole. So yummy.
 

17 Aug 2015

This Week in the Charming South Kitchen

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Banana Pudding Cheesecake

Two things are driving my menu this week:

1.  My mister is working long hours and needs foods that he can eat at his desk, probably 2 meals each day.  That means I get to eat a lot of my salads alone – but I need to make meals that can keep him full for those long 12 hours days.

2.  I’m trying to do better about making a meal plan and sticking with it so my boys don’t eat so many chicken nuggets and french fries.  If I have quick dinners already prepared for when I walk in the door with them then I will be less tempted to eat fast food because it is quick.

Homemade take on Panera’s kale caesar salad (I love this!)

PW’s Panzanella salad with roasted salmon on it

Vanilla Almond Cupcakes for a photo shoot tomorrow

Thai Chicken Curry

Fish Tacos (featuring TJ’s fish nuggets and homemade lime crema and broccoli slaw)

 

12 Aug 2015

Chicken and Dressing Casserole

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Comfort food is the name of the game in the south.  There is high class comfort food – then there is just down home casserole type comfort food.  This is it.  My mister has a great church cookbook from the church he attended when he was growing up.

Chicken and Stuffing Casserole

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Chicken and Dressing Casserole
Author: 
Recipe type: Casserole
Cuisine: Southern
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4-6
 
Easy casserole comfort food for dinner any night of the week
Ingredients
  • 3 chicken breasts
  • 1 can cream of mushroom soup
  • 1 can cream of chicken soup
  • 2 cups reserved chicken stock (from cooking chicken)
  • 1½ cup frozen corn
  • 1 5 oz box of chicken herb stuffing mix
  • 1 stick butter
Instructions
  1. Boil chicken until done. You will want to have well-seasoned water because you will be using the water for the rest of the recipe.
  2. Shred or cut up chicken in bite size pieces.
  3. Pour in the bottom of a 2-3 qt casserole dish.
  4. Mix together 1 cup chicken water, and both cans of soup, and corn.
  5. Pour over chicken.
  6. Mix together stuffing mix, melted butter, and 1 cup chicken water.
  7. Pour over chicken mixture.
  8. Bake for 25 minutes at 375.
  9. Enjoy!
 

To make this a complete meal, just add something green and maybe some bread.  You can always have dessert too – and sweet tea!

10 Aug 2015

This Week in the Charming South Kitchen

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French Silk Pie

This week I’m trying to stick more closely to a low carb, high protein, high fat diet at least through Sunday.  I’ve been slacking in the french fry and dessert and sandwich department so I am starting to feel fluffy.  No one should ever like to feel fluffy.

My hubs has his comfort food this week: Chicken herb casserole (complete with two cans of cream of something soup – best convenience food ever invented)

I’m going to also be making some nutty and citrusy muffins for the misters breakfasts this week.

I love beets and had a friend deliver some to me a few weeks ago.  I’m going to be making this detox bake

Plenty of salads for me this week.

And we are going to be having a homemade taco salad with homemade guac tomorrow night for an in house date night.  I’ve got a blog post to do for a skincare line and why not avocados?  So, the mister and I are going to be working on lots of food photos tomorrow night!

And I’m working on a downloadable menu that can be used weekly or reused.  I’ll let you know when its avail!

What are you cooking this week?

22 Jul 2015

Easiest Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

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Easiest Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

I’ve mentioned already this month that we are on a very tight grocery budget so I’m making the most of it by using what I already have.  So, I was rummaging through my freezer – and for this meal I only needed to be 1 can of cream of chicken soup.  How effecient is that?

I love comfort food.  My mister finds that strange.  Do you love comfort food?  I’m talking about mostly foods that you can eat with a spoon: my Granny’s chicken and rice, pie, ice cream, macaroni and cheese, cereal, mashed potatoes, guacamole.  The list could go on.  My mister knows that I have a relationship with food because I’ll sit down on the couch with a big bowl in my hand and sometimes sigh as I dig into my favorite dessert or pasta goodness (I don’t do that as often but the relationship still exists.

The biscuits I used were leftover from a 4th of July cookout I went to.  I just saved some of the biscuits in the freezer and used them here.

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Easiest Homemade Chicken Pot Pie
Author: 
Recipe type: Main Dish
Cuisine: Southern
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6
 
A homemade comfort food staple in short time
Ingredients
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 T unsalted butter
  • ½ bag of frozen mixed vegetables (no need to thaw)
  • 3 cups shredded chicken (I had some in the freezer)
  • 1 can cream of chicken soup
  • ½ cup whole milk
  • ½ cup sharp cheddar cheese
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 6 Leftover Joy the Baker biscuits
Instructions
  1. Saute your onions in the butter.
  2. Add the mixed vegetables and cook until thawed.
  3. Add everything else (not the biscuits) and stir until combined
  4. Pour into a shallow baking dish.
  5. Top with thawed biscuits.
  6. Bake for 15 minutes or until biscuits are warmed.
So, if you need a quick comfort food meal to put on the table in less than 30 minutes, here is one for you.

20 Jul 2015

This Week in the Charming South Kitchen

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Sebastian, Donuts, and Inflation

Let’s talk about the price of inflation.  Not really – but I know if I even mentioned that to my Papa, who turned 92 last month, that I would get to sit near him and listen to his rant on the government and it would take the same amount of time as it would for me to let bread rise!  But seriously, when did food get so expensive?

This whole living on a grocery budget is really hard when you like to cook.  We are tighter but when you have two growing toddler boys and a mister who needs three meals a day and you are trying to eat healthy – it is hard.  Fresh produce is expensive and we don’t want to live entirely off of chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, and peanut butter sandwiches.  Couponing is something I don’t have a lot of time for, don’t want to do, and most of the items we buy don’t come with coupons.

So, we will get through this month because God is good and my boys won’t starve and I’m not going to gain 5 lbs.

Spaghetti (because I already have some sauce in the freezer from when I doubled a recipe before)

The Forest Feast’s butternut squash caprese salad

Leftover fig and balsamic pork tenderloin

Chickpea and spinach curry (also leftover from last week)

I’m making PW’s French silk pie for a Sunday meal we are having with friends – but I love the way my friend Jenny talks about it over on her blog.

 

8 Jun 2015

This Week in the Charming South Kitchen

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My parents are here this week so we are both eating out and cooking more than normal.

This is going in the crockpot for my Dad’s Father’s Day meal – with some southern greens cooked with bacon.

Going to make banana pudding cheesecake for this dessert.

Making a quinoa detox salad.  This looks so yummy and fresh and full of variety.

When people come in town to visit – what do you like to make?  How also do you encourage people to an overall way of eating that is healthy?

 

 

4 May 2015

This Week in the Charming South Kitchen

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Chocolate Buttercream Cake

This week I’m still cooking normal for my misters, but I’m still trying to go without breads or pastas or sweets, so we eat a little differently then we normally do.  My mister’s metabolism is such that he still needs carbs, so I make some things just for him!

Zucchini Muffins

Pioneer Woman’s Chicken Spaghetti.  This was probably the first PW recipe I remember making back in 2008 when I made it for a friend’s meal after she had her baby.  She loved it.  My boys thought it was ok.  My husband thinks he will love it.

Roasted zucchini and beets

Green Berry Smoothies and Strawberry Beet Smoothie

For Cinco de Mayo we are doing buffalo chicken tacos (but I’m making my own buffalo sauce) and guacamole.  Later in the week I’m doing some salsa verda chicken.

Individual egg quiches are always a winner with my family.

Granola bars and almond coconut butter.

How are you eating this week in your home?

29 Apr 2015

Low-Carb Ham and Cheese Quiche

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Low Carb Ham and Cheese Quiche

I always feel better when I eat low-carb, but it is such a difficult lifestyle to maintain.  When I eat too many carbs I always feel bloated and gain weight (mainly because I eat too much of the yummy bread of baked cheesy noodles – or cookies, cakes, brownies, etc).

These low-carb quiche are perfect for this lifestyle, but also are really quick to cook up one day and have for the rest of the week.  My kids were downing the ham as I was assembling them so they would most likely be kid friendly too.  And you can just pop them in the microwave as you head to school, work, or to the gym.

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Low Carb Ham and Cheese Quiche
Author: 
Recipe type: Brunch
Cuisine: Eggs
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 11 Quiches
 
Ham is your quiche crust and a veggie filled scrambled egg center. These are low carb and very tasty.
Ingredients
  • 22 thin style deli ham (get a saltier ham, not a sweeter ham)
  • 5 eggs
  • ¼ cup shredded sharp cheddar (jack cheese would be good too)
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • ½ cup finely diced veggies (I used carrots and orange bell pepper)
  • salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Spray muffin pans (I made 11 muffins)
  3. Lay out your ham slices as a "cupcake liner" in your muffin tins. I put two per tin.
  4. Mix up your egg filling mixture.
  5. Pour in each muffin tin about ¾ of the way full.
  6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until egg mixture is set.
  7. Enjoy!