Spinach, Bacon, Swiss Salad

Stacy's Spinach Salad
Salad
2 bunches spinach
2 bunches romaine
1 lb bacon
1 lb shredded swiss cheese
15-20 sliced mushrooms

Dressing
1/4 red onion
1 1/2 Tbsp poppy seeds
3/4 cup vinegar
1 1/2 cups oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp dry mustard
Blend in blender. Pour over clean red onion. Refrigerate overnight.
Remove red onion before serving.


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Taco Cupcakes

I found these on Pinterest and we quite like them. They are called taco cupcakes and are from emilybites.com. If you click on that link it'll take you to her actual recipe.

Here's the general idea.

You'll need:
Wonton wrappers (atleast 24)
About a pound of ground beef or turkey
Taco seasoning
Beans
Queso dip
Salsa
Olives
Shredded cheese
Sour cream
Guacamole

Start by putting a wonton wrapper in each cup of a muffin tin. Spread a spoonful of the queso dip in the bottom of the wonton wrapper. Next you drop in a spoonful of meat and beans. The recipe recommends mixing the meat with black beans. Tonight I kept the meat and beans separate because I used refried beans. So, basically I'm just gonna make this quick and simple, wonton wrapper, queso, meat, beans, salsa (or diced tomatoes, whatever you're using), olives, shredded cheese, then do a second layer exactly the same as the first. 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes in the oven. Let sit for 5 minutes before removing from the muffin tin. Top with guacamole and or sour cream. Enjoy! Tonight Avery ate half of one, Gavin ate 1.5, I ate 2 and Jeremy ate 3.

The other great part of these is that she apparently does weight watchers because her recipes all have weight watchers points and nutrition info. And she has other "cupcake" recipes. Like lasagna cupcakes. Yum


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Green Bean Casserole

Mom sent me the following link today and said that this is the recipe Tyler used for his green bean casserole last year at Thanksgiving. She asked me to post it here for everyone. I for one say Yay!! I copied and pasted the recipe here as well.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-maynard/green-bean-casserole_b_2166197.html

So, are you ready to cast aside the canned soup and the store-bought french fried onions. Are you ready throw a little blood, sweat and tears into your green bean casserole this Thanksgiving? Good. Here's the recipe!

Green Bean Casserole from Scratch
From Jane Maynard, This Week for Dinner
- 1 1/2 pounds green beans, trimmed and cut into 2″-3″ pieces
- 1 cup water and a large bowl of ice water
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 3 Tbsp. butter
- 1 small onion or 1/2 regular-sized onion, chopped
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1 1/2 cups chicken or veggie stock/broth
- 1 cup cream
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 3 shallots, sliced very thin
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/8 tsp. pepper
- 1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large skillet with a lid, heat one cup water to boiling over medium-high to high heat. Add green beans. Put on the lid and cook for three minutes. Remove beans and place in ice water. Set beans aside.

Pour water off of the skillet. Reduce heat to medium and melt butter. Add mushroom and cook for about five minutes. Add chopped onion and cook an additional 5+ minutes, until onions are soft and translucent. Sprinkle 1/3 cup flour over the mushrooms and onions and stir well, cooking for a minute or so. Slowly stir in the chicken broth. Slowly stir in the cream. Mix well. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Stir well then mix in green beans. Transfer to 9×13 casserole dish and place in oven. Bake for 30 minutes (you will put fried shallot rings on top for the last five minutes of baking... see below).

While casserole is baking, heat 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Mix flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a medium to large bowl. Mix shallot rings in the flour, coating well. Use your hands to mix the shallots in the flour so you can break the rings up and get them coated really well. Transfer floured shallots with tongs to the skillet. Cook, stirring frequently, until shallots are crisp and golden.

Sprinkle fried shallots over the top of the casserole at the 25 minute baking point. Bake five more minutes. Serve hot!

If you want to make this ahead of time, I would do everything except the fried shallot rings and put the casserole in the fridge before baking. Bake five to 10 minutes longer since the casserole will be going into the oven cold and make the fried shallot rings while the casserole is baking.




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Holy Guacamole!

Don't faint, guys. I know. MISSY is posting something about cooking? But you can ask mom. I made this last night and it was actually really really good.

1 ripe avocado
1 small lemon
1 thingy of garlic (the littlest unit of garlic. I dont know what its called haha. a clove maybe?)
1/4 of a small white onion
1 splash or two of Black Bean And Corn salsa
1 palmful of grated cheese
Salt to taste

Peel and mash the avocado in a small bowl. Chop the onion and the garlic and add to the mashed avocado. Squeeze both halves of the lemon into the bowl. Add as much or as little of the black bean and corn salsa as you'd like. I used maybe 1/3 cup and I liked it. I used Mexican Blend grated cheese, but I presume it would be tasty no matter what. Open up a bag of tortilla chips, and enjoy!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I'm feeling a little lazy today. Don't feel like typing all this out. Even though its really not much. So, I really hope you can see the picture well. Kira, I think you'd like this.
I got this recipe in something in the mail once years ago. I think before I got married. However last night was the first time I've made it. I quite liked it. The spice of the soup kind of depends on the spice of your salsa. I didn't have onion so I used green onion. Yup. That's all for today. :)


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Zuppa Toscana

If you like Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana then boy are you gonna be happy about this post. I've only had it from Olive Garden once but i say this soup is just as good as what you get in the restaurant. I made this the other night and we all enjoyed it. Gavin will eat anything but I don't think that diminishes how much he enjoyed this. Jer doesn't love Olive Garden but loves this soup. I love this soup. Avery ate it. Which, if you know her, is an accomplishment. She's not necessarily picky, she just doesn't eat much. Anyway, on the the recipe.

Zuppa Toscana

6 c water
6 chicken bouillon cubes (I suspect that 6 c chicken broth would work)
2 large potatoes sliced, or diced
1 lb Italian sausage
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
6 slices bacon
2 c chopped kale
1 c heavy cream

Chop veggies first in preparation to make everything easier as you go. Boil potatoes in water and bouillon until tender, about 10 minutes. Brown Italian sausage, onion and garlic. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels.
Brown bacon. Mix into the broth with the sausage.
Add chopped kale and heavy cream. Warm through but don't boil. Enjoy.

I have made this twice with ground turkey in place of the Italian sausage in an effort to make it a little healthier and because I felt like the Italian sausage was just a bit spicy. Not necessarily too spicy, just a little on the spicy side for me. Jer says, though, that he feels its a little bland without the sausage. Though its got good flavor from the chicken broth and garlic. Next time I might try half ground turkey, half Italian sausage to make us both happy. The kale adds really nicely as far as texture goes. It's one of my favorite parts of this soup.

That's about all I've got for this one. I love this soup. Let me know if anyone decides to try it out.

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Chicken Cacciatore

Here is another recipe I got from my sister in law, Kim, 5 years ago.

Chicken Cacciatore

4 frozen chicken thighs
1/2 onion chopped
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/8 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbsp water
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 green pepper sliced
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
Cooked spaghetti

Combine all ingredients except pasta in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours. Serve over pasta.

I like to use the full green pepper. It turns out kinda watery, you could probably skip the water but whatever, it's not much water.

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