FeedMy Broccoli Cheese Soup.

This is one of my "Go to" soups. I've made it many times and it is always a hit!

Do you live in NE Ohio? have you ever been to The Barn? If you are lucky enough to have answered yes, then you should know this soup. If you know this soup, then you love it already. To eat this, is to love it. It's just the rule.

This recipe is from the same cookbook in which I found the fish and potato casserole.
It will serve at least 12 people.
I make it when friends or family come for dinner, I have made it for friends who have recently given birth, and I have made it and then frozen half of it to use weeks/months later.
Here is the obligatory picture of ingredients:

and I forgot the soup and accidentally added the broth (which can be used if you do not use bullion.

I do not like cooked broccoli. I do love this soup.
this Broccoli Cheese Soup is creamy, not overly cheesy, and really good with lots of crackers! =)

Here is a photo of broccoli. I was on a forgetful roll.

Here is my version of the recipe.
Ingredients:
2 boxes frozen chopped broccoli (or about 1lb of chopped broccoli of your choice)
about 2/3 cup of diced onion
2 Tbsp. of butter
1lb American cheese
6 cups of milk
8 chicken bullion cubed (or 8 cups chicken broth)
6 cups of water (omit this if you are using chicken broth instead of bullion)
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
8 ounces of very fine egg noodles

Directions:
In your 8 qt soup pot melt the butter and saute the onion. it is done when it turns translucent.
Add the water, bullion and bring to a boil.
Add the broccoli and let it cook on medium heat.

In a separate smaller (4 qt is sufficient) soup pot heat the milk over medium low to medium heat. do not let your milk boil or get too hot or it will scorch or curdle. you can eat curdled soup (I've done it before), but it's ugly.

---cheese side bar---
You may have noticed my giant 3lb package of American Cheese.

 I buy it from Marcs. I use it for this soup, and grilled cheese sandwiches and when I want melted cheese on tortilla chips and it gets used up before it goes bad. You could try freezing it... or just go to your local deli and ask for just 1lb, cut it up and use it. This is just the way I buy this particular cheese. You can make a better more sensical decision! hah!
---end cheese side bar---

When your milk gets warm, start adding the cheese a little at a time, stirring frequently until the whole pound is incorporated in the milk. It will look like this when your whisk goes through it.

Add the can of mushroom soup to your broth/broccoli soup pot and stir until it is incorporated. If you don't like "cream of soup" cans, go ahead and use your alternative. I don't mind using "cream of" soups. though I'm sure if i really looked into the amount of preservatives I would have more hesitation.... ANYWAY,

Slowly pour your melty cheese milk into your large stock pot and stir.
Add the garlic salt and pepper and stir some more!
Add your very fine noodles and.... stir!
Let the soup simmer for 30 minutes over medium low heat

I don't think I had added noodles yet... =)

serve and eat!

FeedMyBroccoliCheeseSoup, and you won't regret it.

Thanks!
Momma



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ReviewMyFood: Crock Pot Potato Soup (Pinterest)

My Daughter is allergic to dairy and corn.
I Love to make soup.
Those two statements do not mix well.

When THIS recipe for Potato Soup from MamaLovesFood showed up on my Pinterest feed, two things piqued my curiosity: CROCK POT and NO HEAVY CREAM. YAY! there is 8 ounces of cream cheese in this soup. but it makes a large crock pot FULL of soup, so it works out to be very little dairy.

I have made it twice. A couple things stand out in my mind about it, both positive and negative.

Negatives first, because that's how I roll:
Dicing 5 lbs of potatoes is NOT FUN. at ALLLLLLLLL. boo. It takes a while. I like crock pot cooking to be quick, and easy. This is easy, but kinda tedious. I had used 4 potatoes from my 5lb for my Fish and Potato Casserole so I substituted those missing potatoes with some hashbrowns I had in the freezer. I figured 1 potato would be 1 cup equivalent shredded potato, so I used 4 cups of hashbrowns. Don't quote me on those measurements. =)

Mincing 10 cloves of garlic. Really? Yummy, but annoying! A garlic press is a must. Please don't use garlic from a jar. Dried minces garlic is better than garlic in a jar. It can be found at any bulk food store.

I want an Immersion Blender. Evidently, I am a messy ladle-er. If you do not have an immersion blender you must ladle 1/2 or more of this soup into your food processor or blender to blend with the cream cheese and make the soup creamy so you have more than just chunks of potatoes and onions in broth. so yeah... soup everywhere. Perhaps you are a clean ladle-er and you will not have this problem. =)

Positives:
well, after you dice a truckload of potatoes and get everything going, you walk away for 6 to 8 hours, YAY!

Things I did differently (mostly out of laziness):
It was early morning when I put this recipe together, I was not in a mincing garlic mood, so I had some dried minced garlic in the pantry. I just sprinkled a bunch of it over the top.
 My Sister in Law and her Husband were coming for dinner. She is a Vegetarian. At first, before I remembered her Vegetarian-ness, I was going to substitute the chicken broth with 8 of these.

One chicken boullion cube makes one cup of chicken broth. As I was peeling the paper off the first cube, it struck me, "What am I doing!". So I re-wrapped it and stuck this back in the pantry. Thankfully I had vegetable broth frozen from a month ago when I had the urge to make some. I thawed it quickly, in the freezer bag, in a sink full of hot water and poured it over the onions, potatoes, garlic and seasoning.

I strongly believe that anybody can make good food. Think about what flavors complement each other and you can change up any recipe you have!


This recipe makes a LOT of soup, feel free to halve it. It makes enough to feed 12 people, easily.

You don't need many ingredients, just:
5lbs of Potatoes,
1 large Onion,
1 Tbsp Seasoned Salt,
10 cloves of Garlic, minced.
8 cups, (64 ounces) of Chicken Broth, or Vegetable Broth, if you are Vegetarian.
and 8 ounces of Cream Cheese.
Then some shredded Cheddar, chopped Bacon, or Chives and whatever else you like to top your soup with.

Directions:
Wash your potatoes and dice into 1 inch (or so) cubes. Do not peel the potatoes. Put diced potatoes in your large crock pot.
Dice your onion. (HERE is an AWESOME tutorial on how to dice an onion. It just might change your life.) Add it to the potatoes.
Sprinkle your 1Tbsp seasoned salt over top.
Pour 8 cups of chicken broth, (or vegetable broth) over top.

Cook on High for 6 hours or Low for between 8 and 10 hours. Mine was done in 8 hours, and looked like this.

Blend Half or a bit more of the mixture in your food processor, or with your immersion blender with the cream cheese. Mix soup all together and serve when you're ready!

This soup freezes well. It also makes a great, "Hey, you just had a baby!" meal, or a meal for someone who has lost a loved one.

This is delicious. Make it my way or MamaLovesFood's way. A big "Thank You!" to the person who first posted this on Pinterest. It may not be as easy as we like slow cooker recipe's to be, but it is for sure worth making for your family and friends.

Thanks! FeedMyFood!

Momma.

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FeedMyFish

This post is a Fish and Potato Casserole. It turned out really mild and filling.

This recipe is from a local Christian Schools' fund raiser cookbook that my Mother In Law gave me years ago.

The recipe left room for a lot of wiggling. Of course I couldn't leave it alone, so here is the original recipe, and then we'll jump right into what changes I made and why I made those choices.

Here are the Ingredients I chose:

Cod. I love the mild density of this fish. I have never used Haddock.

I only grabbed 1 bag which equaled 4 pieces of fish. this was not enough for my family and i could have easily double the amount of fish while keeping the other ingredient measurements the same.

Sprinkles of Ancho Chili Pepper Powder, Fresh Ground Pepper, Kosher Salt, Ground Cumin, and Parsley Flakes (because I didn't have fresh parsley at the time). 4 medium potatoes, minced fresh garlic, and      1 large sweet onion

I chose the ancho powder because it has a smoky flavor while adding a bit of heat that the kids can also eat without burning their wee mouths. "Hot Pepper" can be interpreted so many ways, so I figured i shouldn't even attempt it. I made a good choice.

Do you have a Vegetable Mandoline? It would come in very handy with this recipe. I used to sell Pampered Chef, so while I hardly ever use the thing (I prefer knives) I do indeed own this kitchen tool.

Grease your 9x13 casserole dish and turn your oven on to 375 (or 425 if you don't give yourself an hour to cook this. =))

Wash your potatoes and slice them thinly on your mandoline or as thin as you can get them with a knife.
Cover the bottom of your casserole dish with half of the potatoes.
Slice your onion in the same manner as the potatoes and spread half of them on the potatoes in your dish.
Sprinkle with your various herbs and seasonings.

After seasoning, add your pieces of fish, after you have checked for bones, and cover with the remaining potatoes, onions and some more seasoning. sprinkle with the minced garlic and splash around maybe 3 Tsp of olive oil over the top (I kinda drowned mine).

Bake at 375 (or thereabouts) for 40 minutes to 1 hour.

Here was my result:

It looks very Amish/Mennonite, doesn't it?

I let it rest for about 5 minutes before serving. The kids ate it up, even the onions. This recipe makes the Fish the star, it doesn't smother the flavor or focus on any fancy ingredients. It would be good to make when your parents come over, or if you are unsure of your guests flavor profile preferences, but know they like fish. This meal, however is not "fishy" and did not leave any lingering smells in the house.

Complete Ingredient List:
4 Medium Potatoes, or the equivalent of, sliced thinly.
1 large White or Sweet Onion, sliced thinly
6 or 8 Fillets of Cod.
1 or 2 cloves of Garlic, minced.
chili powder
cumin
salt
pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Layer 1/2 of the Potatoes in your greased 9x13 casserole dish
Layer 1/2 the Onions on top of the potatoes.
Sprinkle with some Salt, Pepper, Chili Powder, and Cumin
Even lay your Fish pieces on top
Layer the remaining Potato slices on the fish
Layer the remaining Onions on top of the potatoes
Sprinkle with more seasonings and the minced Garlic
Evenly sprinkle/drizzle  with about 3 Tbs. Olive Oil.

Bake at 375 for 1 hour, or 425 for 40 minutes. =)
Enjoy!


Go! FeedMy Fish and Potato Casserole!

Momma


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ReviewMyFood- Pepperoni Cheese Stick Crescents

Have you seen the Pepperoni Crescent Rolls floating around Pinterest? Of course you have. there are a Bazillion different pins of them. Evidenced Below:

With entirely too many recipes to look at, I narrowed down the type of recipe to try. the one using cheese sticks. I thought it would be cheesier and gooey-er than making them with shredded cheese.

Here we go.

String Cheese Sticks, about 1 cup plus a bit of chopped pepperoni, 1 tube of crescents and Italian Seasoning.

~First, when I was glancing through other blogger's "recipes", I didn't notice that they only used 1/2 a cheese stick per crescent roll. oooops! All the cheesier for my belly though, so no regrets.
~Second, for some reason, a while ago I thought it would be a good idea to buy a pepperoni LOG instead of slices of pepperoni in a little bag. BAD CHOICE. buy sliced pepperoni. It's just easier.

So, ya know... I just assembled them, like this:

You could only use 1/2 a cheese stick if you like, also you could used slices of pepperoni. I would use 4 or 5, wrapped around the cheese stick.

You should not need to spray your cookie sheet. Crescent Rolls are by nature, oily.
but you may lightly spray with cooking spray oil if you have fears of food sticking. My Mother is of that type of person.

I meant to sprinkle the Italian Seasoning inside the crescent before rolling it up. I forgot. So, onto the top of them goes the seasoning!

Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes and they will be gooey and baked cheesy and smell like pizza.

I was looking forward to eating one, so first I took the above crooked photo.


And then I took the below blurry photo.

And then I ate one (or 2) and saved the rest for the kids afternoon snack.

My Daughter should not eat things like this because she is allergic to dairy. We sometimes splurge. We always pay for it though. With intestinal distress or with bad dreams and disrupted sleep. Its hard to deprive a 3 year old of yumminess. She IS normally following a dairy free/corn free diet.

When I make these for snack again, I might actually make them the same way. With a full cheese stick and the chopped pepperoni. I would probably just chop up pepperoni slices though, instead of buying another log.

They are good. In no way healthful, but a fun snack for your kids. I wouldn't make them as a meal. As will all things "dough in a tube" its pretty hard to mess up. This is something that would be good "Game Day" finger food. Easy and most people have the ingredients laying around already.

Momma


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FeedMy Grandmother's Cinnamon Applesauce Jello

My Grandmother makes Jello. Shocker, right!?! Hahah!

But really. It's so good. I know this for certain because I hate Jello. and I love this recipe. Didn't I just say that about bananas? Well maybe that is why these recipes speak to me. Begging to be made. I don't like an ingredient in the recipe, but I LOVE the recipe. seems like a metaphor for life.

This Jello has a softer, less clean texture that is really nice on the palate. My Children LOVE this recipe, and I bet the children in your life will as well!

Here is your cast of characters:

Ingredients are:
~1/3 cup Red Hots Candy, or any hard cinnamon candy.
~ 1 1/2 cups Applesauce.
~ Large (6 ounce) box Cherry Jello
~ 12 ounces of lemon-lime pop of your choice.

Directions:

Dissolve Red Hots in enough boiling water to cover them (I do this in a glass bowl in the microwave).

When the candy is dissolved, the cinnamon water can be set aside.

Next in a medium sized pot on your stove top, heat 1 1/2 cups applesauce to boiling.
Mix the Jello packet into the boiling applesauce until it is smooth.
Remove from heat.

Pretty! Pardon the dirty stove. =(

Add 1/4 cup of the Cinnamon water.
Also add the 12 ounces of Lemon Lime Pop/Soda.

 Stir it up!

Pour it into a lightly oiled, fun Jello mold or into a (not oiled) pretty bowl.

Chill until set, and serve!

 

That green schmear is avocado! sorry!

Cinnamon Applesauce Jello makes a great side dish. My Grandmother always brought it to Holiday Meals. She doubled the recipe. 

FeedMyGrandmothersJello!

Thanks!

Momma

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FeedMy Banana Nut Bread (Muffins!)

Please, do not be afraid of this recipe. I barely changed it at all, and it sounds kinda difficult, but the steps are explained smartly, and I didn't get confused at all.... thats rare for me. =)

I have tried quite a few Banana Bread recipes. I am done. This will be my recipe from now on.

Original recipe found here at Foodnetwork.com

Our Ingredient List is the same. make sure you think ahead so your egg and butter is at room temperature when you begin.

My Changes:

I used Pecans (pronounced Peh-cahns, not Pea-cans or Pea-cahns... weird Northerners), because that is what I had in my pantry! Turned out delicious. I'm sure walnuts would also be great. If you are not a fan of nuts, of course they can be omitted all together.

FeedMyMuffins. I made Muffins and Mini-Muffins. who wants to wait 1 hour for a loaf of bread? Not THIS Momma!

Ingredient List (copied from here):

• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for preparing the pan/ or use spray oil for bread pan/ muffin tins
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 very ripe bananas, peeled, and mashed with a fork (about 1 cup)
• 1/2 cup toasted walnut pieces. (toast on stove top in a pan over medium heat for 5-10 minutes. you'll smell that they are nice and toasty.)

Directions:

~Get our your wire mesh sifter and sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium sized bowl, then set aside. 

~Mash bananas, and set them aside.

~Give the nuts a rough chop and (you guessed it), set them aside.

~Whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a liquid measuring cup with a spout, then set aside. 

~Lightly brush a 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan with butter. If you are making Muffins, it is easiest just to oil spray the muffin tins. this amount of batter will make 18 muffins or 12 muffins and 20 mini muffins (like i did, for the kids).

~Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

~In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or with an electric hand-held mixer, cream the butter and sugar at a medium speed until light and fluffy.
~Gradually pour the egg mixture into the butter while mixing until incorporated. Add the mashed bananas (the mixture will appear to be curdled, so don't worry), and remove the bowl from the mixer.
~With a rubber spatula, mix in the flour mixture gently, until just incorporated. Fold in the nuts and transfer the batter to the prepared pan or muffin tins.

For Bread:
Bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Turn the bread out of the pan and let cool completely on the rack. Wrap in plastic wrap. The banana bread is best if served the next day.

For Muffins:
Bake for 25 minutes, checking on them at 20 minutes to make sure they don't get too brown. Let cool for a couple minutes, then the muffins should easily twist out and cool further on a wire rack. These muffins will keep in a gallon ziplock bag for at least a week!

 

These Banana Nut Muffins turned out even and perfectly flavored. no need to add spices. They were dense and delicious. Banana Nut Bread makes a nice gift because it "keeps" for so long, even out of the refrigerator.

My future recipes will have more "as we cook" photos! and Dinner! last night we went to chic fila. sorry! Thanks for looking at my food!

Now, please, go FeedMyBananNutMuffins!

Momma

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FeedMy Rainbow Cake!

One day I made a rainbow cake. Duncan Hines Helped. Food coloring was in abundance. As were bowls.

You could make this cake. I promise! Its easy!

Here we go.

break out two 8in. rounded cake pans

Buy two boxes of Duncan Hines White Cake Mix
Follow the directions on the box.  You can combine the boxes, just make sure you double your ingredients since you have 2 boxes of cake mix!

Use Gel food coloring if you can find it. Gel coloring makes the colors more vibrant and shiny looking when the cake is baked.

I copied another blogger for dividing the batter and adding the coloring. Her very clear, precise blog post is found here. Omnomicon's cake is diet though. Don't make diet cake. It's just wrong.
You can just scroll down to her "The Rainbowing" section to find directions on measuring the colors correctly.... or you can keep reading here and I shall tell you.

If you plan to follow the colors of the rainbow in order, you should try to follow
ROY G BIV. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, (Indigo) and Violet.

You will need slightly more batter to be Violet (purple), because it is your outer color and covers more surface area. I measured the batter into 12 bowls (unless you plan to make Blue and Indigo separate colors.... let's just use Blue).  I had a hodgepodge of colors, so I just did the best I could. I used more batter for the first colors i put in the pans, red and neon green. YAY! If you plan for 6 colors the rest of the colored batter should measure out to be 1 cup each.

Mix your colors with their own spoons. plop into the center of your cake pans in layers. Bake your cakes according to the directions.

After they have baked and cooled, trim the tops off of both cakes so your layers are flat and stack nicely on top of each other. Oooo and Ahhhh over your creation.

I "glued" the layers together with canned icing. For the entire cake I only needed two regular size Duncan Hines jars of strawberry icing.

My young Daughter was thrilled with this cake. It was SO pretty, even if I could only find the neon gel colorings!

Baking/cooking is about doing your best with what you have, right!?

I made a cake.

Go FeedMyRainbowCake to people!

You need:
~Two 8 inch round cake pans
~Spray oil to spray the pans
~Two boxes of white cake mix (and ingredients listed on the boxes)
~Your choice food coloring (preferably gel type)
~Frosting of choice (2 jars of bought icing)
~Lots of bowls and spoons!

Duncan Hines is not in any way sponsoring this post. They just happen to have my favorite cake mix and canned frosting. =)


*** There are SO MANY fun ways to make rainbow cakes. please go explore, change and combine recipes. That's what I LOVE to do!

The Momma.


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FeedMy Food

I'm a Momma who cooks. I am always tweaking recipes. I can NOT wait to start adding posts! Tomorrows post will be what we do for dinner tonight.

The Momma. Pin It