I had some time today while waiting for another store to open and decided to browse Whole Foods. While thus engaged with my browsing I came across the pasta isle and decided I should try a new dish for dinner tonight. I picked out a pasta, rigatoni, since we have never used this before and then called the master recipe finder, my awesome husband. He found a recipe, Baked Rigatoni with Italian Sausage and this vegetable:



Have you cooked with this? This is fennel, our new favorite, fun vegetable. I started cutting into it and it smells so yummy, like black licorice candy. I've heard of fennel before, but have not experienced it. I also picked up some fresh sausage from the butcher, fresh basil and a pomegranate for my hubby(the latter wasn't going into our rigatoni dish). At the dinner table all I heard was "yum", "mmmmmmmm", "can I have some more?" and "I ate these things without the pasta or sausage!" (this was the fennel and other veggies). I feel like I have finally succeeded in getting all of my kids to eat the same dish! We would have paid money for this dish at Olive Garden or Macaroni Grill it was that good. If you too want to have a great experience with food, you can click here to get the recipe. The 2 things I changed was I bought mild sausage instead of spicy as I knew my kids wouldn't eat it if it had a kick and if you want to make it a little lower in fat, leave out the mozzarella. I did and it was still delicious!

Happy eating.

Apple Pie

I am not a big pie fan. In fact, I didn't even attempt to make pies because I didn't care for them that much. When my husband started asking for pies, I put it off for, oh about 10 years!, and this year I decided I had better make some attempt at filling my husbands cravings.

Creamy blueberry pie. My first pie attempt and it was a winner. We have made this pie several times since. It is now award winning thanks to my sister-in-law Sara who made this pie after trying it at Thanksgiving.



The recipe can be found here. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Creamy-Blueberry-Pie/Detail.aspx

Grandma Ople's apple pie:

 

I wasn't going for beauty here, just taste. However when I realized I had added too much butter (I won't say how much) I thought the pie was done for. If you don't think about the calorie count in here, the pie turned out great! Since this pie had almost 2000 reviews, how could you go wrong?!

Here is the recipe link: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Apple-Pie-by-Grandma-Ople/Detail.aspx?prop31=3

Here are a few other recipes we have really enjoyed if you'd like to give them a try!

Mediterranean Chicken

Salsa Quesadillas

Cheesy Vegetable Pasta

Food even Mason will eat!

I have been checking out recipe books from the library and trying new recipes each week for fun. We have found many recipes that we really like. I will post our favorites when I have time. Here is our latest one that Mason loved, which really surprised me. What he liked best was being able to scoop up the soup with the "scoop chips" that Tostitos makes. I was a very happy mother!

South-of-the-Border Bean and Tortilla Soup

Hands-on time: 10 minutes | total time: 25 minutes | makes 4 servings

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 medium-size onion - choppe
1 can (15 oz) red beans or white beans
1 can (15 oz) black beans
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes seasoned with garlic and onion
1 clove fresh garlic, minced, or 1 t bottled minced garlic
¾ C frozen corn or 1 can corn
1 t chili powder
½ t ground cumin
1 can (14 oz) vegetable broth or 2 cups
½ t sugar
Juice of ½ lime
4 oz baked or regular tortilla chips (for 2 ½ C crushed) or to taste
1/3 C shredded Mexican-blend cheese (optional)

1. Heat the oil in a 4 ½ -quart soup pot over medium heat. Peel and coarsely chop the onion, adding it to the pot as you chop. Raise the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring from time to time.

2. While the onion cooks, rinse and drain the red beans and add them to the skillet. Add the black beans with their juice and the tomatoes with their juice. Add the garlic, corn, chili powder, and cumin to the pot. Stir to blend well. Add the broth, sugar and the lime juice. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, 7 to 10 minutes to blend the flavors, then serve.

3. When you are ready to serve, crush the chips lightly and divide them among four soup bowls. To serve, ladle the soup over the chips and sprinkle with the cheese, if desired. (Or buy Tortilla scoops and scoop up the soup with the chips. This is more fun!)

***Note: Fat-free chicken broth or homemade chicken stock can be substituted for the vegetable broth.

To print and try yourself, click here:

South-of-the-border Bean and Tortilla Soup