Baked Potato Soup

This is a weight watchers hack that I'm not sure where is from originally. I had screen capped it on my phone months ago in order to pick up the ingredients at the grocery store. The original called for hash browns, which I switched for fresh red potatoes. It was also meant to be made in a crock pot, but as I don't have one, I cooked it in my good old Le Crueset Dutch Oven in the oven.

6 small/medium red potatoes

1 small onion

1 quart low sodium chicken stock

1 10 oz can of low fat cream of chicken soup

large pinch of black pepper

1 block of low fat or fat free cream cheese

1 cup of skim milk

Preheat oven to 325

Chop up onion, peel and cube potatoes

add the first five ingredients to a dutch oven

cook for one hour, stir, increase oven temp to 350 and return to oven for one hour

add cream cheese and cook for 30 minutes, remove from oven and stir to combine cream cheese into soup

add milk and cook for 15 minutes. 

1 cup = 2 points

can add bacon or green onions for garnish, add one point per garnish.

Deliciously Moist Chocolate Cake - No eggs!

Chocolate cake is one of my family's go to comfort foods. I love this recipe because it's easy to whip up and it is so delicious. It's the perfect amount of chocolate to curb any craving and is great either with an icing, powdered sugar or just on its own.

INGREDIENTS

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup cold water

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8 inch square pan. Now I am so not one of those people who does the whole, make a well for the wet ingredients thing. I simply throw it all in a bowl and turn on my mixer until it's combined. Expect the batter to be on the thinner side, but what is nice about that is that it spreads evenly in the pan. Pour the mixture into the greased pan and cook for 30-40 minutes or until a knife or tooth pick comes clean. It makes about 9 servings depending how big you cut your slices.

Super Easy and Basic Vanilla Icing

I'm a sucker for chocolate cake with vanilla icing, it's my go to when I'm having a sweet craving. I will throw a chocolate cake together and then slather it with icing after it's cool, and it took me a long time to perfect an icing. I find too many icing recipes to be too sweet, sorry but 5 cups of confectioners sugar is a lot of sugar.....hellllllooooooo Diabetes Below is my go to vanilla recipe, it makes enough for a small cake and can be easily doubled.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup confectioners sugar (icing sugar)
2 Tbsp butter softened
2 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla (I like to over pour my vanilla a bit)

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix on medium/high until smooth (about 3-4 minutes depending on how soft your butter is).

Gordon Ramsay inspired Smoky Bacon with potato and sweet corn soup

A couple weeks ago before starting work, I caught one of Gordon Ramsay's TV shows on Food Network where he was making what looked like the most delish soup ever. I managed to catch a rerun to get the ingredients and had to do a little guess work since he didn't mention any of the measurements. Luckily I managed to guess the approximate measurements and I must say, it made one hell of a soup. It was surprising how good it was considering the lack of spices other then the Bay Leaves and salt. This is definitely one I'll play around with in the future.

Olive Oil
1/2 onion
6 strips thick cut bacon
2 bay leaves
2 large New Potatoes
1 large or 2 small Leeks
Pinch of salt
1 large can of creamed corn
1 large can of Kernel corn
1 Quart (750 ml) Chicken stock
2 cups 2% Milk

Heat olive oil in bottom of a stock pot or dutch oven (I personally love my Le Crueset Dutch Oven for making soups and stews) over medium-low heat. Chop onion into desired size and add to pot, allowing to sweat while preparing bacon. Cube bacon and add to the onions, increasing heat to medium or medium high to allow the bacon to crisp a bit, stiring occasionally. Add bay leaves. Cube potatoes
into bite size pieces and add to pot. Stir and allow them to sweat with the onions (you will not believe how soft they get). Split leeks into four and chop, add to pot along with a large pinch of salt, remove bay leaves. Add both cans of corn and slowly add chicken stock. You may not need to use the full quart depending on how much liquid you prefer, followed by the milk. Stir for several minutes to combine flavors. Cover, turn to low and allow to simmer for 12-15 minutes.

Mom's Favorite Biscuits

For my first official recipe post I figured I'd post the one I make the most and is my mom's favorite thing to request.

I found these baking powder biscuits online one night. It took forever to find one that didn't list Bisquik as one of it's ingredients. Now, don't get me wrong, there is nothing horrible about Bisquik, but it isn't something in my pantry. I was a little nervous trying this recipe given that I had NEVER made anything like them before, so needless to say I followed it to a T and then began to experiment after the fact. These can literally go with anything, but I personally love them with Stews and Soups. They are fluffy enough that they absorb the broth, but dense enough that they hold together.

The original recipe can be found here. And my minor variation is listed below. Note that my recipe is double the amounts of the original. The cutter that I use (which is really just a fancy Beer glass that I have) is roughly the width of a soda can and that tends to yield roughly a dozen biscuits depending how thick I make the dough itself.

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups all-purpose flour
5 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of butter (I usually use the measure on the wrapper of my butter and add about a                                                          1/4 inch)
1.5 cups of 2% milk

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2. In a stand mixer (with a dough hook) mix flour, baking powder and salt. I like to melt my butter down a bit in order to make it nice and soft, don't worry if it becomes liquid (I find it mixes better if it does). Add melted butter and mix until just blended. Finally add milk in small batches, scraping down the sides as you go. Continue mixing until a ball is formed. Dough should come clean off sides, if I find it is still too sticky I add flour about 1/8th of a cup at a time.
3. Turn out onto a sheet of parchment paper and roll to your desired thickness. I can never get mine even but it makes them all that more interesting. I prefer parchment to cut down on the mess and also the flour getting added to it. I also use parchment on my baking sheet and space them out to give some room to grow.
Optional step: Brush a little melted butter on them, but the will brown nicely without.
4. Bake 12-15 minutes, I personally find that 13 minutes is the perfect time for my biscuits.

Et Viola!

Allow myself to introduce....myself

Howdy Ho Neighbourino,

Welcome to my virtual recipe box!

I've been cooking off and on for several years, and over the past 4 or 5 years have developed my own skills and love to experiment. Most times it works out, sometimes it doesn't. My family and friends are my guinea pigs...poor buggers.

Over the years I have collected, altered, perfected (to a point) any number of recipes. Some I remember where I got them from, others I don't. I believe in giving credit where credit is due and will try my best to provide the original recipes but will post my little changes as they come up. I'm always trying something new with my tried and true recipes so there may be revisions as I test them.

Sit back, relax and I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.