Chocolate Studded Marshmallows

Ok so here is a snack I made for a bonfire with friends and family coming up this weekend. When I heard smores I wanted to make home made marshmallows and graham crackers. I started with the marshmallows. I must admit this is not a very healthy snack but all things in moderation and a girls got to have fun sometimes right?

I used the recipe from Smitten Kitchen because I have always had good luck every time I have made something from this amazing blog. The only thing I changed, I wanted to put the chocolate for the smore into the marshmallow. Because how amazing does it sound to have a roasted marshmallow with warm, gooey, oozy chocolate in it? Just squish it between two graham crackers and that's all you need!

What I did was make a double recipe poured half of the marshmallow goo into the pan, sprinkled 3/4 of a bag of semi sweet chocolate chips on top, added the other half of marshmallow goo, and then sprinkled the remaining 1/4 bag of chips then took a knife and swirled it through the goo to mix the chips in a bit.

Now I haven't had the chance to roast one of these bad boys yet. I am slightly concerned that some of the chips on the side or surface will melt and just drip off, but even if that does happen, there will be more inside getting melty and warm. I can't wait to try this!!! I'll post pictures and tell you how they were roasted over a fire when we try it this Saturday night.

I must say that even un-roasted these are AWESOME! I love how soft they are yet they hold their shape well and are still gooey, chewy sweet goodness. Also I love the vanilla flavor of them, it is stronger than the ones you buy from the store in such a lovely way! Plus crunchy bits of chocolate throughout... yuuuuuum. Enough said ;)


Edited to add... I couldn't wait for the bonfire so I stove roasted one the next day. The chocolate didn't drip, but my only complaint is that the marshmallow got a bit droopy as it roasted. I wish it had stayed a bit firmer because it wanted to slide off the fork. Wonder if adding more gelatin would help with that or not? The taste though... hands down the best roasted marshmallow I have EVER eaten!!!!

Chicken enchilada soup

This is my all time favorite soup recipe. I adapted it from a soup I saw Rachel Ray make a few years ago. My version takes longer than her 30 minute version of Tex Mex soup but I would venture to say the extra time is well worth the effort. This is also one of my all time favorite comfort foods and this was a good week to eat comfort food.

I started with a fresh chicken. Cleaned out the innards, gave it a rinse and then set it into a big pot. Then I added 4 chopped up carrots, 3 stalks of celery and 1 onion purred (instead of chunks because someone who I was feeding is onion phobic). Then I added about 1/4 cup chicken seasoning, 2-3 TBSP smoked paprika, 1/4 cup chili powder, 2 tsp cumin, 2 tsp coriander, and 1 tsp of Mexican oregano. then I added water to cover about 1 inch above the chicken (I added a few more cups of water after this picture) Then gave the liquid a stir and brought the pot up to a boil. Then reduce to a simmer put the pot lid on and let it simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

While the chicken was poaching I got some of the other ingredients out and ready. I shredded some reduced fat cheddar, chopped up one green pepper, 2 jalapenos, 1 bunch of cilantro, and juiced 2 limes.

After the 1 1/2 hours were up I took the whole chicken out of the broth with two spatulas and set it onto a pan, then I used the spatula to open it up a bit so it could cool down. When it had cooled enough to touch, I picked all the meat off the bones and shredded it into bite sized pieces. I added the shredded chicken to my roasting pan. The rest of this soup is made in here because my pot isn't big enough.

While the chicken was cooling I took 6 california peppers and cleaned them (took off the stem, took out the ribs and seeds and gave them a rinse) Then I dropped them to boil with the chicken broth while I was cleaning the meat off the chicken bones. When I had finished with the chicken (about 15 minutes later) I fished them out of the broth with a spatula and put them into my blender with a little bit of water and buzzed that up to make a sauce.

So into the roasting pot on top of the chicken I added the California pepper sauce, two cans of drained black beans, one bag of corn, the green pepper, jalapenos, cilantro and lime juice, 2 cans of fire roasted tomatoes and one box of Uncle Ben's wild rice including the seasoning packet. Then I pored the broth that was left after boiling the chicken right on top and gave the whole thing a stir. I also add a few TBSP of honey to give it a bit of sweetness. In the end I added another 3-4 cups of water so that it would be a bit more brothy, but if you like less broth you could just leave it. I also had to add more of all the spices just to make sure it was perfect. Then just bring the whole thing back up to a simmer for another 20 minutes or so and your done.

Even though you will be eating a big bowl of soup packed with vitamins, nutrients, and healthy protein your tongue will not know that it's eating something good for you. As my son's favorite show Yo Gabba Gabba says it will be a party in your tummy! This soup has a LOT of depth of flavor. It is so amazingly comforting, warm and wonderful. I like to eat this soup with shredded cheddar cheese, a dollop of light sour cream and a side of baked Doritos. I won't change anything with this recipe next time I make it because it has already been perfected in the last few years that I've been making it.

** This soup is not spicy, if you want more heat you can add more jalapenos, any other hot pepper you like, chipolte in adobo sauce, or even hot sauce.

Spaghetti and Chicken Meatballs

I wanted some comfort food this week. Can't get any better than spaghetti and meatballs can it? noooooooope :P

I've never really attempted to make own sauce for spaghetti but have always felt that jarred sauce was VERY inadequate. I always add spices and veggies and a gazillion other things to canned sauce to make it taste more up to my standards. So I wondered what would happen if I started with canned tomatoes as a base? Maybe it would taste even better than my jazzed up jar sauce because it could be all my own!

 Sorry about the picture I forgot to take one before I started cooking so the cans are already opened!

I got the fire roasted tomatoes because I love the smokey flavor they have. I just dumped in 4 cans, and 2 small cans of tomato paste. About 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce, half a tube of herb paste (cause it's all I had), and salt and pepper. I put this on the stove at about noon, brought it to a boil then turned it down to low and let it simmer for a few hours. I checked it and gave it a stir at around 2pm. I also tasted it and decided that it needed more flavor so I added about 1 TBSP dried thyme, 1 TBSP dried oregano, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese and some more salt and pepper. It's amazing how much the flavor had changed just from simmering for 2 hours! after my addition of the few extra seasonings it was already tasting great.

You also might be wondering why I added Worcestershire sauce to my tomatoes. Well my mom tried it first just on a whim one day when we felt our sauce needed an indefinable "something" and it really added something amazing. The way it interacted with the tomato flavor was great. I also learned it is an ingredient in a bloody Mary and heard from Alton Brown on the show Good eats that combining tomato and Worcestershire sauce creates umami (your fifth basic taste from the Japanese word meaning pleasant savoriness). Basically it makes it YUMMY! :P

I ground my own chicken from a bag of defrosted frozen chicken breasts. For more info on how I did that check out the chicken burgers I made a few weeks ago. To the ground chicken I added 1 egg and 2 egg whites, about 1 cup of bread crumbs, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, 2 tsp dried thyme and oregano, then mixed them up and formed balls. Put them on cookie sheets and baked them at 350 for about 15 minutes.

Then I used an immersion blender on my sauce. I wanted to leave it with some texture but not as chunky as the canned tomatoes. Then I added in my meatballs, put the lid back on the pot and let that continue to simmer till dinner time.

I made whole wheat noodles because hey, they're healthy and they taste good.

Our veggie was fresh brussel sprouts. Basically I just peeled off the outer couple of leafs till it looked nice and clean. Cut off the bottom and then quarter them. Then I put them in the pan with about 1 cup of water with the lid on and brought to a boil, let them simmer for a few minutes and then took the lid off to let the water evaporate. After the pan was dry I added 1 tsp of butter (you only need a little bit to add flavor and help the salt ect stick) 1 tsp of garlic powder, and salt and pepper.

This meal was great. It was warm, comforting, filling, savory goodness! And my homemade sauce was WAY better than any can sauce has ever been so this is the new way I'll be doing it for sure :)

What I would do differently next time: I think I might not bake the meatballs because they were a little bit dry. I think I would put them into the sauce in batches to cook. I have a feeling this would make them more tender and help the tomato flavor get soaked up into them even more. Other than that, this meal was great!

Honey sesame glazed salmon and green beans

We bought salmon fillets. I did not have a plan for them other than knowing that they would eventually end up in our tummies. So when I decided to cook them I started looking at recipes online and I saw one that was honey glazed salmon made with honey and soy sauce. It got my mind spinning because that sounded like a good start but not quite enough for me. I was also out of soy sauce because I used it all when I made chicken and vegetable fried rice last week. I decided to do an Asian themed honey glaze for my salmon so I went on a hunt in my fridge and cupboards and this is what I came up with.

I started with about 1/4 cup each of the honey and Lawry's sesame ginger sauce. to that I added the juice of half a lime, 1 TBSP of whole grain mustard, 2 tsp hoisin sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil (awesome flavor, do not skip this step!), 1/2-1 tsp of chili garlic paste (add more or less or even none depending on how much spice you like in your food), and 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce. I just mixed all of this together to form my glaze.

I covered the salmon in a light coating of the glaze and let it marinate for about 20 minutes while I was getting my other side dishes ready.

I bought some beautiful green beans at my favorite farmers market so they were the perfect veggie to go with this meal. I just snapped off both ends and washed them and then put them in my pan with about 1 cup of water. I brought it to a boil and left the lid off so the water could evaporate. When all the water was gone I added 1 tsp of butter, 1 tsp of garlic powder, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Then I sauteed them a few more minutes and they were ready to go.

My other side dish was this herb and butter rice a roni. I only added 1 tsp of butter instead of the 2 TBSP they called for and it was still just fine. It was a good neutral but still savory flavor to go with the fish.

I put the fish on my George Foremen grill for about 3 1/2 minutes and it was done in a snap. Then I plated everything and drizzled another couple TBSP of the glaze over the fish. To finish it off I gave it a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds.

This was one of those meals that is soooooo good it almost curls your toes ;) The glaze I made for the fish was out of this world. It turned out almost like a sweet and sour sauce but with so much more depth of flavor than your average sweet and sour. The green beans were totally yummy (my husband LOVED them). This absolutely made me HAPPY!

My dear son Griffin (1 year old) wanted nothing to do with the fish or green beans :( but ate the rice. We need to work on getting him a more refined palate! ;)


What I would do differently next time: NOTHING, it was perfect!

Chicken salad and baked onion rings

I went to a baby shower 2 Sundays ago where they served chicken salad with grapes and walnuts and it was such an interesting mixture with the savory chicken the sweet grapes and the crunchy walnuts, so I had to try it. This is where the second chicken I roasted Monday ended up :)

First I cut up all the leftover chicken into small pieces.

Next I mixed up the sauce. I combined 1 cup mayo, the juice of half a lemon, salt and pepper to taste (about a tsp of each), 1 TBSP of Worcestershire sauce, 2 TBSP whole grain mustard, 1 tsp of garlic powder. I mixed all the ingredients together is a separate bowl first and then added to the chicken.

Next I cut my grapes into 4ths. You can also cut them in half if you like bigger chunks. I mixed in the grapes and walnut peices I bought from my local grocery store and it was ready to go.

I was also craving onion rings and just knew there had to be a way to make them low fat, so I looked it up and found a wonderful looking recipe here. The onions were breaded with baked potato chips, how could that not be good? I tweaked her recipe just a tiny bit but basically did the same thing. I also wanted onion ring sauce and found a recipe I liked here so that was added to the menu as well. First thing I did was crush my potato chips into crumbs. I used my magic bullet, but a food processor would work well too. I got the Parmesan and Tuscan herb because the extra flavor couldn't hurt could it?

Then cut my onions into 1/2 inch rounds and threw them into a ziplock bag with enough flour to coat them. Next I dipped them into a mixture of 1 cup low fat butter milk, 2 TBSP flour, salt and pepper. And lastly covered them with the potato chip crumbs.

 

Then I put them in the oven at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes. They came out SOOOOOO great. Even better than I thought. Totally satisfied my craving and I will absolutely make them again. Great on their own but paired with the sauce they were to die for! Honestly just as good as regular onion rings and I would even say better for the lack of greasiness.

I made the onion ring sauce with (I honestly didn't measure but this is the recipe I used as a template) I definitely added more horseradish sauce to mine than they did and I also added about 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika to add some smokiness.

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 teaspoons ketchup

2 tablespoons cream-style horseradish

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon dried oregano

Dash ground black pepper

a few dashes of sriracha

This sauce was AWESOME sooooooo sooooo good! I loved it :)

A very satisfying meal! The chicken salad was beautiful and creamy with a nice kick from the lemon and mustard. It was balanced very nicely with the sweetness from the grapes and the walnut crunch was just the added texture it needed. The onion rings were divine and the onion ring sauce was so good I could've eaten it plain!


What I would do differently next time: For the amount of chicken I had I would've made a double batch of sauce. It tasted perfect right after I made it but because I made it about 3 hours before dinner, by the time we ate the chicken had absorbed most of the dressing and it wasn't quite as saucy as I would've liked it to be. I would also have made more onion rings sauce I ran out of sauce before onion rings!