Sausage Soup

I'm not a soup while pregnant person. I need more food than that. But this. This is like meaty veggie pasta held together with a little bit of liquid. It had rave reviews on this recipe facebook group and I knew we had to try. Now you need to as well. It makes about 8 bowls or so - so we froze a few for quick lunches.

Super easy. We had one pot, a knife and cutting board and a 1/2 cup measuring cup to wash afterward. From cutting to table it took 20 minutes.

I replaced the kale with spinach and topped it with lots of parmesan cheese.

You can find the recipe here with all the information and pictures. But I can't get her site to load well, so I took some screenshots. 

Five on Friday

1. I finally made these sliders, and oh my gosh they were even better than they looked. I only made 6 at a time because we would have eaten the entire plate. 

There are a million recipes on pinterest, but I used the one above, and used turkey and havarti cheese instead of ham and swiss.

Now I'm hungry.

2. Our brave little girl jumped off the diving board for the first time. No fear. No hesitation. Just walked right off of it. Popped up out of the water and said "more? more please?"

3. Dinner when you are too lazy too cook.

Followed by another nightly walk. 

4. Olivia helped me open my birthday presents. It's funny because she was too young to understand unwrapping on her birthday and on Christmas. The second Dan brought this out Olivia just ripped off the paper. 

5. Speaking of birthdays, sweet friends at one of her buddy's birthday parties. Impossible to get them all looking at the camera. So, I, of course, chose the only one where Olivia was looking.

Scallop and Spinach Orzo in White Wine Butter Sauce

I did my weekly meal planning and decided on this delicious looking scallop and spinach orzo. When pulling together my grocery list, the pin went nowhere. "Website not found" after I had my heart set on this plate of deliciousness. Eff.

I decided to wing it and it turned out better than I ever imagined. Olivia destroyed it, with no idea how much spinach she was eating. And it's not that bad for you. I mean, it's pasta with butter sauce, but it's no Paula Deen.

I had to share. And write it down. I winged it and don't measure anything, so this isn't exact, but hopefully it works out for you guys.

1/2 box (8 ounces) orzo

8 medium/large scallops

3 teaspoons olive oil

2 cups of chicken broth

2 cups chopped fresh spinach

3 T butter

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 lemon

1. Mix orzo in a pot with the olive oil over medium heat. Sautee until some of the orzos (is that a thing? what's the plural of orzo?) are brown. 

2. Add in 2 cups of chicken broth. Boil 10 minutes.

3. Add spinach, boil another 5 minutes. The entire time the orzo is boiling, add a little more water as needed. You want the orzo cooked, but most all of the liquid boiled off. Wing it. It'll turn out alright.

4. While the orzo is cooking, add the butter to a pan and cook the scallops on medium/high heat - you want it pretty hot. They should be no longer clear in the middle - and get brown and crispy on the edges from the butter. They'll cook up quick. Probably no more than 5 minutes.

5. Remove the scallops from the pan, add wine to the pan (keeping in the leftover butter and the brown from the scallops) and boil it for 2 minutes, scraping the pan. 

6. Add your wine / butter sauce to the orzo. Squeeze in your lemon and stir. Plate and top with scallops.

Yum. I might make it again this week.

Lemon Martini

We took Olivia to Cowfish for drinks one night.

No lie. 

They said the wait would be 30 minutes.

After grabbing a drink at the bar and waiting 1.5 hours, we left.

They have a lemon martini that is delicious. 

Well .. it comes with sweet and sour mix, which I don't like. If you leave that out, it is delicious. Delicious and dangerous, because its mostly just alcohol. 

At $12 per martini, I was determined to make it at home. 

After four tries and our mouths numb, we figured out the recipe.

You're welcome.

3 parts Lemoncello
2 parts Lemon Vodka
0.5 parts Sprite
(most things say 'splash' of Sprite .. I like to measure)

Mix it all up in a shaker. Add a lemon slice.

I chose to pour it into a champagne glass. I do own martini glasses, but, let's be honest, that's like drinking off of a plate. 

Enjoy.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Buckeye Brownies

Oh my gosh, yall. These are soo good. 

Have you ever had Buckeye balls? They are balls of creamy peanut butter, coated in chocolate. They are creamier than Reese's - different, but just as delicious. 

Recipes are floating all over Pinterest for these buckeyes on top of brownies. I didn't quite trust any of the recipes. I wanted something hard enough that I could cut into squares, but soft enough to mesh well with the brownie. I didn't want the chocolate on top to be too hard that it cracks in random lines. But I didn't want it too soft that it slides off of the top. So I put together my own recipe.

Start with your favorite brownie recipe. I used a boxed brownie, instead of making these, to save time. I am kicking myself for it. I should have made better brownies - but these were still delicious.

Once your brownies are cooked and cooled, mix the following:

1 stick butter softened
1 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Press the mixture on top of the brownies. You can use cling wrap if it starts sticking to your hands.

Melt together:

1.5 cups chocolate chips
1/4 cup peanut butter

Spread the chocolate mixture on top and refrigerate until cool. 

Key Lime Pie

I can’t believe I am sharing this with yall. I thought about keeping it a secret so everyone would be all “Kelley makes the best key lime pie ever.” But then I think about how I use the blog to remember recipes – and if I ever lost my paper copy, I would cry. So putting it on the internet is really the best option. Plus – this way maybe yall will make it – and give me a piece – and I won’t have to squeeze 30 key limes by hand. Wishful thinking on Dan’s part – he despises helping squeeze the limes.

We have had a couple key-lime-pie-offs where we compare this recipe with those of other restaurants / bakeries and this has always won. We haven’t compared it with every restaurant ever, so don’t go all crazy on me if you think your bakery is best. It could be. You hold the key-lime-pie-off. Invite us. It’ll be delicious.

Start with a homemade graham cracker crust. You can use the store bought one, but in one of our key-lime-pie-offs, I realized that the store bought crust was really taking this pie down a notch. Only recently did I start making it with a homemade crust and that really sends it over the edge.

I took 1 wrapped package of graham crackers (there's 3 per box) - food processed into crumbs, added 1/3 cup sugar and 3/4 of a stick of butter melted. Pressed into a pie dish and baked at 350 for about 10 minutes. Let the crust cool.

Zest a few key limes to get 2 tablespoons of zest. You’ll want to do this before you start squeezing.

Squeeze enough key limes to get 6 ounces of key lime juice. I usually buy one bag, squeeze the crap out of them to get every ounce, and then top the remaining few teaspoons with juice from a real lime. Otherwise, you buy two bags and are left with quite a few key limes. Or you could sloppily squeeze two bags, but that’s a lot more effort.

Don’t use real limes, don’t use concentrate juice, it’s not the same. People will fight you on this. They are very passionate about their key lime juice concentrate. Have a pie off. They’ll see.

Mix together:

6 ounces Key lime juice

2 cans of sweetened condensed milk

½ cup sour cream

2 T key lime zest

Pour into your prepared crust and bake at 350 until you see little bubbles on the top. This takes about 30 minutes for me. But my oven is ridiculous so don’t listen to me. Just check every 10 minutes. The timing is very forgiving.

Put the pie in the fridge for a few hours until completely cool. Then, I top it with an entire small container of cool whip. You can use homemade whipped cream (which I advocate 99% of the time, but for this, for some reason, cool whip tastes better). Don’t use canned whipped cream (like reddi-whip) or you’ll have a liquid mess after about 12 hours. And you’ll hate yourself and your carpel tunnel for squeezing all of the key limes.

If you are from some weird planet and are not a cool whip lover, and think the amount is excessive: the pie is pretty sour, so it definitely needs the whipped topping to add more sweet.

You’ll never buy one at a grocery store again.

Jalapeno Cheddar Cream Cheese

I don't normally like flavored cream cheese - but this one turned out delicious. I think its because the flavors were fresh ingredients instead of chemicals or powders blended into the cream cheese. 

This was so easy, it is more of an idea than an exact recipe. 

1/3 cup of cream cheese

1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

2 T jalapenos (or to taste - esp if you bought a spicy one!)

Mash all of the ingredients together with a fork.

It'll keep in your fridge for a few days. I think this amount topped 4 bagels. 

I can't wait until later in the spring when my jalapenos are growing - to use fresh ones from the garden. 

Hearty Vegetable Soup

Sorry for the blog hiatus. I really put a lot of weight in Punxsutawney Phil and his ability to predict weather patterns. He said we would have an early spring, and every morning, when I check the weather, and it's below freezing (in the South! in March!), a little part of me gets angrier and angrier. I keep thinking 'tomorrow is the today' and am constantly let down. I really hope this gets brought up in Punxsutawney Phil's 2013 performance review. I can't be the only disgruntled customer.

Needless to say, I am ready for warmer weather! There hasn't been a whole lot happening around here, which is why I haven't been posting much. I plan to be out in the garden, taking Koda on more walks, playing some tennis, and laying by a pool as this weather gets warmer. But until then, we are mostly eating and catching up on our DVR.

I did go through my pictures today and found that I actually do have a good bit to catch up on. Most of these are recipes, which I apologize for - but what else is there to do in the winter but eat? So expect a few more posts from me - and hopefully no more longer-than-a-week breaks. 

Starting with the first one, a hearty vegetable soup to get you through these last few weeks of winter (I refuse to pretend that it is Spring ... 27 degrees is not Spring).

8 cups beef broth 

1 diced bell pepper

1 diced jalapeno

2 cloves garlic minced

2 T olive oil

1 teaspoon sugar

1 sprig of rosemary

1 potato – chopped

1 sweet potato – peeled chopped

1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup green beans (cut into 1inch pieces)

1 cup loosely chopped broccoli

1 portabello mushroom – diced

1 cup spinach
2 T half and half

First, let me explain some of the ingredients. I used 8 cups of water and 8 beef bouillon cubes to make the broth, so feel free to do the same. The sugar is used to neutralize the spiciness of the jalapeno - so don't worry about this being spicy. I don't think spicy goes well with the flavors of sweet potatoes, garlic, and rosemary - so I definitely recommend the sugar. Lastly, the half and half gives it just a hint of creamy (which works well with the potatoes) without much added fat. 

As someone who doesn't love cooked spinach (and therefore finds other ways of eating it) the spinach in this just completely melts in your mouth. I love it!

1. In a large stock pot combine the bell pepper, jalapeno, garlic and olive oil.
2. Sautee over medium heat for 5 minutes.
3. Pour in the beef broth. Add the sugar and the rosemary. Bring to a boil.
4. Add the potato, sweet potato, and carrots. Boil 10 minutes.
5. Add the green beans, broccoli, and mushrooms. Boil for 2 minutes.
6. Add the spinach and the half and half. Boil for 1 minute. 
7. Remove from heat. Carefully remove the rosemary stem. Serve and enjoy. 

A hearty, calendar-is-pretending-its-spring-but-really-its-winter soup that takes less than 20 minutes to make. 

I cut up some stale bread, baked for 8 minutes at 350 degrees. Sprayed the cubes with olive oil, baked another 2 minutes, and served on top of the soup.

Thin Mint Milkshake

Reasons to make a Thin Mint Milkshake:

A. You want to be cool and make a green drink, but you haven't been brave enough to try this yet.

B. You have leftover creme de menthe from making these.

C. St. Patrick's day is near so everything should be green and minty.

D. You are human.

That covers around 90% my readers, so let's begin.

Did you guys know that there is a Girl Scout Cookie Finder app? It takes your location and shows the closest places that the mini saleswomen stake out and what time they will be there. Best idea!

Did you also know that it isn't always correct? That when you get your husband up at 9 am to drive to Lowe's so you can have first pick of the cookie flavors (and he already thinks you're crazy), that they might not actually be there? Or that they might not be at Dollar Tree either? Or Walmart? Or said husband might start getting cranky because he doesn't want the cookies nearly as badly as you do?

I do wonder if we are on some watch list for the amount of time Saturday morning that we spent stalking the small children. That's really going to help my google ratings - put stalking and children in the same sentence. When I saw the rainbow of boxes outside a pet supplies store and screamed "Pull over! They're here!!" I had to play it cool. Like we needed pet supplies, and then, "Oh, Girl Scout cookies? I mean, I guess we can support the troops." So Koda got some raw, organic, refrigerated dog food and may never eat her normal kibbles again. 

Back to what you really want, the recipe.

Thin Mint Milkshake

4 small scoops of vanilla ice cream (your home ice cream scooper, not Baskin Robbins style, don't get too agressive)

1/4 cup of milk

4 Thin Mint cookies

2 tablespoons chocolate chips

1/2 teaspoon of creme de menthe

If your ice cream is pretty hard, microwave the scoops for about 15 seconds. Dump all ingredients in the blender and blend until you can't take it anymore, and just want the milkshake in your mouth.

Top with homemade whipped cream if you are feeling super Martha Stewart.

This is what your husband will do to his milkshake, in the amount of time it takes you to take pictures of yours in the grass. 

Stalk the children. Buy the cookies. Make the milkshake. 

My new favorite breakfast

I have a new obsession for breakfast. I have always liked smoothies - especially as a way to eat raw spinach - but this one is by far my favorite.

I saw this recipe on Pinterest that looked delicious and healthy. Then I realized it was from Paula Deen. I just couldn't handle something that seemed healthy from Paula Deen - and knew there had to be a fried stick of butter hiding somewhere in her recipe. So I spruced it up a little bit. 

This recipe makes two large smoothies - two completely full solo cups. Keep that in mind and maybe half or quarter the recipe, as needed.

Pina Colada Spinach Protein Smoothie
1 cup chopped pineapple (I use the core too)
1 cup coconut milk
1-2 cups spinach (I do 2 .. but you might want to ease into it)
1 scoop whey protein powder (about 1/4 cup)
2 tsp honey
2 T coconut oil
10 ice cubes
2 T chia seeds (optional)

Blend everything until pureed. You have protein, fiber, omega-3s, healthy fats, fruits and vegetables. 

Then, for kicks, I top the smoothie with this:

Trader Joe's coconut. Dan doesn't like the texture. But for me, its like having whipped cream on top -- something just a little sweet.

Keep in mind if you bring this to work, your coworkers will be grossed out by a green drink. Use this to your advantage.

Caprese Mini Burgers

Alright Pinterest. In typical you fashion, after spending some time together, you had me both hungry, and craving a label maker. This post is about the former. 

I see you, caprese stuffed burgers, and I am going to raise you, the much easier caprese topped mini burgers. 

Cook the burgers first, and place them on a cookie sheet. Add the toppings (mozzarella cheese, tomato and basil), and place in the broiler until the cheese just melts. 

Zach and Tricia got us hooked on using Hawaiian rolls as mini buns. 

Voila. So delicious.

Pickled Jalapenos

In the beginning of the summer I bought a jalapeno plant from the Farmer's Market. It produced a lot of spicy peppers! We used them all throughout the summer, and it was nice to always have them on hand to throw into dishes.

Closer to the end of fall, we ended up with a handful left. I wasn't sure how to use them all. Trust me, they were too hot to make poppers.

(Those little slits in the skin mean they are ready to eat!)

I wanted something that would last awhile and came across this recipe: Quick Pickled Jalapeno Rings.

You chop the jalapenos into rings and put them in jars. 

Boil the liquid and pour that on top.

The jalapenos only fill the jar about half way, but they expand as they absorb the liquid. 

We waited about 3 weeks to ensure they were fully pickled. 

Yum.

Now you just need some nachos!