1 cup dry Couscous
1 cup Chicken broth or stock
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen sweet corn kernels, thawed
1 medium red pepper, diced
6 green onions, sliced
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
2 Tbsp plus 1 tsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Lime Juice
1 1/2 tsp Red Wine Vinegar
1/2 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Black Pepper

In a large saucepan, bring broth to a boil. Stir in couscous. Remove from the heat.  Cover and let stand for 5-10 minutes or until broth is absorbed. Fluff with a fork.

Into the cooked couscous, stir the beans, red pepper, onions and cilantro. In a small bowl, whisk the oil, lime juice, vinegar, cumin, salt and pepper. Drizzle over salad and toss to coat.

Number of Servings: 6

I don’t guess I’ve ever eaten Thai food, but I was really wanting to use this chicken in the fridge and I saw some Ramen in the pantry and not much else.  Through the power of the Interweb, I created dinner…and it was GOOD.  I’m putting the recipe here so I won’t lose it.

Thai Ramen Chicken
2 Tablespoons of Peanut Butter
2 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon of Garlic Powder
1 Teaspoon of Chili Powder
3-4 Green Onions
1 lb of cooked chicken breast, cubed

Chop up the green onions into a rough dice.  Combine the PB, Soy Sauce, Garlic Powder, and Chili Powder.  Cook the Ramen noodles in water and drain (don’t use the nasty little packet of spices that comes with it).  Put the noodles back in the pot and add in the chicken, onion, and sauce.  Heat it through.  EAT!

Our friend Anna has inspired us to post recipes again.  I came across this one through Slashfood, a really cool food blog.  I guess I was in a really garlicky mood that day so I ran home and made one of the recipes and then the next week, I made one of the others.  It is really a combination of the two recipes, but it’s mainly based on this one.  Knoblauchremesuppe means Garlic Cream Soup in German and this stuff is AWESOME.  I added the onion and parmesan cheese to recipe because I lubs me some onion and we had some parmesan on hand.  I also used the stick blender because we just got one and I wanted to try it out.  The first soup I made didn’t get its benefit, and I think it really made a nice texture.  Anyway, here’s the recipe:

1 medium onion chopped
3 tbs unsalted butter
8-10 cloves garlic
1/4 cup sifted flour
3/4 cup milk (or heavy cream)
1 1/2 cup chicken (or vegetable) stock
2 tbs chopped parsley, plus additional for garnish
2 slices crusty bread
1/4 cup of shredded parmesan cheese

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan, and then saute the chopped onion until it is soft and translucent (a few minutes).  Keep the onion on low heat and add the
garlic, finely minced or squeezed through a garlic press. Saute
gradually, on low heat, making sure the garlic does not brown.

When the garlic has softened (5-10 minutes), begin whisking in the
flour so that it forms a thick paste. Add the milk (or cream), in a slow stream,
whisking constantly (standard roux technique). When the milk has been
fully incorporated, begin whisking in the chicken stock. If you want to smooth it out, use a stick blender on it until all the big chunks are gone.  Allow the soup
to bubble and thicken, and add more stock if needed.

Chop the parsley and stir into the soup. Cut the bread into croutons and toast.  Serve the soup topped with some chopped parsley, croutons, and a bit of shredded parmesan cheese.

Makes about 4 servings.

–UPDATE–
I finally took a picture of this recipe.  Here it is:

(Taste of Home April & May 2008 -
submitted by Pat Coffee of Kingston Washington)

Prep Time:
30min … Bake Time: 35min

Ingredients:

1 package (8oz)
cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons onion
powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4
teaspoon pepper
5 cups diced cooked chicken
20 flour tortillas
(6 inches), room temperature
2 cans (10-3/4oz each) condensed
cream of chicken soup, undiluted
2 cups (16oz) sour cream
1 cup
milk
2 cans (4oz each) chopped green chilies
2 cups (8oz)
shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

In a large mixing
bowl, beat the cream cheese, water, onion powder, cumin, salt and
pepper until smooth.  Stir in chicken.  Place 1/4 cup of
mixture down the center of each tortilla.  Roll up and place
seam side down in two greased 13in x 9in x 2in baking dishes. 
In a bowl, combine the soup, sour cream, milk and chilies; pour over
enchiladas.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes
or until heated through.  Sprinkle with cheddar cheese; bake 5
minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

Yield: 10
servings

NOTE: Not knowing how the kids would react to this
new dish, I only made a “half recipe”.  The whole
family loved it.  Myra had seconds and Noah had THIRDS and then
leftovers later!  I’ll probably continue to do half recipes
unless we have guests to help eat it.

It’s time to bring everyone’s favorite category back!  The family has been trying to eat better lately and, as a result, has tried many new recipes*.  The ones we end up liking, we’ll happily share with you.  Now don’t you feel special?  Hopefully, you’ll try them and like them as much as we did.

*No, not all the recipes will be “healthy” but they won’t be that bad for you either.  You can always make your own adjustments like we do … sometimes.  Low fat whatever here … low sodium whatever there.

We took some suggestions from my sister Angie and our friend Anna and made some AMAZING homemade pizza tonight. Thanks to the suggestion from Angie, we skipped the hand mixing and kneading and went with a lazier method. We made the crust in the bread machine using this recipe which is one we modified from recipezaar. Here is our version:
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup bread flour
1 3/8 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon of onion powder
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon of oregano
Place ingredients, in order listed, in bread pan fitted with kneading paddle. Select Dough/Pizza Dough cycle. When completed, deflate dough and use to make your favorite pizza.
Then we took Anna’s advice and made it a stuffed crust by rolling pieces of string cheese up in the crust. It turned out GREAT. Next time, I’m putting mushrooms on it!

Once upon a time, there was a little boy. He was very big for his age and seemed to like it that way. How was he to stay a head above the rest? By eating his vegetables of course!
Myra has never been a big veggie girl … “Mashed potatoes and corn are the ONLY vegetables I like.” Imagine our surprise when Noah started munching on Papa’s salad not so way back when. Since then, Noah’s enjoyed corn, green beans, broccoli and, his most recent discovery, asparagus! Josh and I are floored by this. It’s GREAT!
I guess Noah just wants to make sure he reaches that estimated full grown height of 6 foot 3-4 inches tall. The way he’s going, he’ll get there by age 6.
I’ve decided that I would post the secret recipe for the asparagus that Noah likes. It’s SUPER simple …
Ingredients: Fresh Asparagus and Lemon Pepper Seasoning
Directions: Snap ends of asparagus by holding each end and bending. Steam asparagus (we use a steaming basket – all of about $5 – inserted into a regular pot with about a half inch of water) until just tender. Season to taste.
Told you it was SUPER simple.

This is one of our low carb recipes. I was going to make this dish as my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner. However, as Josh has already mentioned, things changed.
Ingredients:
1 small onion, sliced very thin (2.5 oz)
1/4 cup celery, finely diced
2 tablespoons butter
2-14 oz cans French-cut green beans, drained well
4 oz can mushrooms, drained well
12 oz ham, diced
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
8 oz pepper-jack, cheddar or Swiss cheese, shredded (I use the pepper-jack for some spice)
Directions:
Saute onion and celery in butter until very tender and a little browned. In 2-qt greased casserole dish, mix green beans, mushrooms, ham, mayonnaise and seasonings. Stir in onion mixture, then cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until browned and bubbly.
You can assemble and chill ahead of time. If you do so, add an additional 10-15 minutes to baking time.
Makes 6-8 servings. WHAT’S THAT SMELL IS BACK!

Shawn has been working on a family recipe book. One of the moms in one of my SAHMs group mentioned doing a recipe swap. It’s all got me thinking that I need to bring back everyone’s favorite category …
WHAT’S THAT SMELL?
Be looking for new recipes in the near future.
(I’m also hoping that this will get me cooking more … and healthier meals so I can get my new fancy Food Network cookware for Christmas.)

I got this recipe out of the Variety Pack Favorite Recipes cookbook put together by members of St Louis Catholic Church in Stroud, OK. This particular recipe was submitted by Sherry Hayes (Thank you). This beer bread is very quick and extremely easy to prepare. It takes about 5-10 minutes to put everything together and it comes out fluffy. There’s no waiting for the dough to rise or kneeding involved. Anybody can make it and I highly recomend that you try. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
3 C Self-Rising Flour
3 Tbsp Sugar
1 (12 oz) can warm beer
1/2 C Melted Butter
Directions:
Mix first three ingredients well. Place in greased loaf pan and top with melted butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.
Personal Touch:
I used beer from a bottle instead of a can. I’m not sure what kind of a differnce it makes. It was good bread! Also, try the bread warm with some honey (Ricky’s great idea). Yum!