25 Rice Recipes

Rice. I love rice. It's a simple, affordable, and versatile grain product that's very familiar to most Americans. You can fry it, and come up with fried rice or even pan-fried rice cakes. You can bake it inside stuffed peppers, or casseroles loaded with veggies. You can serve it with a saucy stir fry with the sole intention of using it to soak up that sauce. One of my favorite ways to eat rice? In a bowl with a little soy sauce drizzled over it. Simple. Yet delicious. I credit rice with helping our budget when we first moved to Kentucky. Due to its low price, I added rice to a ton of dishes and served it often in our first years in the bluegrass state. We still eat a lot of it, even though things are much different these days. I wish I could get the hubby to enjoy brown rice, but you can't win all the battles :-)

Enchilada Stacks

-with chicken, black beans, spinach, and pepper jack cheese

Just call me "The Globetrotting Eater"!

I'm doing pretty good this month. An Asian recipe, a Greek recipe, a cupcake recipe (you gotta throw one of those in every now and then), and now a Mexican recipe. I'm spanning the world over here! 

Variety is good, yes? I think so. I know lots of people who eat the same foods, day after day, year after year, for their entire lives. Never getting outside the box. While it's true, I could and do eat certain foods everyday (hello turkey sandwiches!), I need diversity. There's something amazing and life-changing about discovering a new food that you've never tried before. It's almost like falling in love.

Top 15 Recipes of 2015

Happy New Year's Eve!

Unbelievable that it's the last day of the year. I feel like I have been on vacation this week (much needed after Christmas Cookies) with my slacker posts. Indeed, it's much easier to post round-up's and articles about reading and summing the year up. I was going to post this yesterday, but alas, it was my birthday friends! Yep, this ol' girl turned 29 again... Or maybe a little more than that. Haha.

Chicken Fajita Casserole

Chicken Fajitas? In casserole form?

You mean, no screaming hot plate of peppers and chicken to burn my hands on? No constructing-every-portion-as-you-go? And, if you aren't constructing fajitas along the way, does that mean no extraneous plates of toppings lying around that you will eventually have to wash later that night?

If all that hasn't convinced you, how about this? Layers of tortilla, Spanish rice, smoky chicken, and sautéed peppers and onions, all tied together with a super-cheesy queso sauce?

Yep. You had me at queso :-)

Chicken Guacamole Taquitos

I have a confession:

I've been hitting the guacamole hard this summer. Hard. It's been a serious craving for a good 2 months, and a couple times a week I find myself picking up yet another 2 avocados. 2 avocados makes a perfect amount of guacamole for me to eat in about 3 days (I know I've uttered that sentence before!). I've been snacking on the guac with tortilla chips, stuffing it into burritos, and baking it into these tasty little taquitos. 

Sour Cream and Chicken Enchiladas

I am a friggin' mess today. For whatever reason (I suspect because the little bro left, sad) I've woken up out of sorts. You know, just one of those days where you drag your butt from bed only to start blubbering over your cup of coffee? And then have 3 dogs looking at you like they might be preparing to commit you as you sit there looking like a hot mess in your pajamas, glasses askew, scrunchie bun on top of your head? 

Yeah, today is one of those days. Girls, I know we all have em'. 

Chicken Mole Tacos

Hola! Time for a Mexican-inspired meal!

I know, what's new right? I'm on a major Mexican kick. It's all I want to eat right now. Seriously, I can almost smell enchiladas right now and the only object near me is a cup of coffee. The heart wants what it wants. The hubby has been doing his juice fast for the past week, which leaves me with meal planning for one person- me. And what am I going to eat when I'm feeding just me?

I suspect this is a circular discussion.

Chicken and Avocado Tostadas

Sooooooo... I'm home alone this week.

Yes indeed, the hubby is away on a business trip in New Orleans. And what does the wife do when the hubby is away?

She eats Mexican food. Lots and lots of Mexican food. 

Simple Fish Tacos with Lime Crema

Hey-o! Happy Wednesday!

Guess what friends? I got my car back! Yippee! I'm very excited to have my car back. We picked it up from the evil dealership yesterday morning, and it drove like a champ all the way home. Can't say I'd ever recommend these people, nor will I ever buy a car from them. But the car is retrieved. Hopefully, we can now put this whole ordeal behind us. 

Cheese Enchiladas with Chili Gravy

I believe I've finally done it.

I've been playing around with chili gravy for years. My battles are detailed here:

The Year of The Entomada

Shredded Beef Entomadas

Enchilada Trouble Shooting

25 Winter Soup Recipes

Hap, hap, happy Friday folks!

I know, I know, I told you I was either bringing you a pumpkin recipe or DIY gift idea today. Well, guess what? I lied! Both posts need more work, so I'm here with another round-up. I think I'm going to be doing round-up's once a month from now on, they have been going over really well. People seem to like them, and I'm going to keep giving the people what they want. And as we march further and further into winter, soup becomes a very popular menu item. I can't count how many times the hubby has come home from a very cold day, and been utterly delighted to find cozy soup and crusty french bread for dinner. Indeed, I think we have soup and bread at least once a week in the winter. I end up making tons of soups to freeze, and then I pretty much just pull a meal from the freezer once a week. I love it. 

Soup is one of those things that pretty much anyone can make. You don't need to be a gourmet chef. It doesn't take much technique. In fact, I've found almost every soup has a similar preparation process. For most soups, you heat a little bit of oil or butter to sauté your mirepoix. Mirepoix is French for "onions, carrots, and celery". Not every soup has that exact combination, but almost every soup starts out by sautéing some vegetables. It could be onions and peppers. Onions, carrots, celery, and shallot. Garlic. You name it. After sautéing the mirepoix, it seems everything else goes. Except if it's dairy based. I'm talking wine, broth, vegetables that aren't as hard as onions and carrots, beans, meat, spices. After you throw everything else in, you simmer for any given amount of time. Next would come the aforementioned dairy, if you are making a creamy soup. And last, but certainly not least, you would throw in any fresh parsley, basil, or cilantro you would be using. Again, if any. It's really pretty simple. Never fear the soup recipe, my friends. 

Another benefit of soup--It can be prepared early, or even a day in advance. Soup always seems to come together the day after it's made to make extraordinary flavors. 

One more thing before I go... Most of you know I link my weekly recipes at the end of the week to several different "linky" parties. All in the hopes of driving traffic. I have a near-constant goal of getting featured on said parties, and sometimes, I reach my goal. Today is one of those days! My General Tso's Chicken was the most viewed recipe of the week over on The Country Cook's Weekly Potluck! This is huge honor, as the last time this happened (for my Pecan Pie Cake) I ended up with a ton of new readers, followers on Pinterest, and FaceBook likes. For the smallest of small blogs, this is  super-exciting and keeps me in a tizzy all weekend. I'll have a smile on my face for the next couple of days for sure! :)

There you have it folks. I'll leave you with 25 scrumptious soup recipes to try. Have a great weekend!

1. Roasted Fennel, Chickpea, and Tomato Soup

2. Winter Minestrone

3. Vegetable Beef

4. Creamy Broccoli and Cheese Soup

5. Creamy Chicken, White Bean, and Green Chile Soup

6. Semi-Homemade Chicken and Dumplins'

7. Chickpea Minestrone

8. Caprese Soup

9. Chicken Soup with Egg Noodles

10. New England Clam Chowder

11. Chicken Soup with Shells and Kale

12. Chicken Taco Soup

13. Eggplant and Orzo Casserole Soup

14. Loaded Baked Potato Soup

15. Lentil Soup with Spicy Sausage and Kale

16. Oktoberfest Stew

17. Pasta Fagoli

18. Skinny Potato Soup

19. Roasted Cauliflower Soup

20. Smoky Black Bean Soup

21. Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili

22. Spanish Rice Soup

23. Turkey Pumpkin Chili

24. Tortilla Soup

25. White Bean and Spinach Soup

Linked to: Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party, Snickerdoodle Sunday, Treasure Box Tuesday

25 Meatless Meal Ideas

Yay! It's Friday!

My 25 Easy Mexican-Inspired Recipes post went over so well, I thought I'd do another 25-recipe roundup. The Mexican-Inspired post was one of my most viewed posts of last month, so I think, I think, you guys like them. It's unusual that my most viewed post of the month is posted on the last day of said month. Plus, I have another reason I'm doing a roundup. Occasionally I get into a mood where none of photographs look good to me. I've got 3 posts in the pipeline and I couldn't bring myself to post any of them because none of them were "good enough". These moods come and go, so I'm guessing I'll end posting all of these recipes at some point. I suspect all photographers are like that at some point.

Meatless meals. While the hubby and I are by no means vegetarians (as evidenced by the 2 large New York strips we devoured early in the week!), we do try to eat a balance between lean meats and meatless meals. We mostly eat chicken, which we have 3-4 times a week while the rest of the week we eat meatless. Once or twice a month, we eat steak or ground hamburger. Some weeks, we have a couple of turkey meals. Some weeks, we have a couple of seafood meals. We rarely eat pork anymore. The most pork we eat is bacon a couple of times a month. I know a lot of people don't consider a meal a real meal unless it has meat. However, in the last 2-3 years that the hubby and I have been experimenting with meatless meals, we've found meatless doesn't have to be light or un-filling. Meatless meals can be just as satisfying, sometimes more so. I've found you can eat a lot more when you are eating more vegetables than meat. I've also found my weight is easier to maintain with the hubby and I's current grubbing. Plus, the best part- meatless meals tend to be cheaper. Meat is expensive, and only seems to be getting more so these days. I'd highly recommend trying a meatless meal once or twice a week, just to try it out and see if it's something that would work for you. 

Well, the weekend is here and the hubby has to work all weekend. Boo. I've got a busy day on tap that includes a trip to the big box store, the dreaded Walmart, prepping the hubby's lunches for a stint of day shifts, a photography session, and making a large batch of soup. Whew. It's going to be a busy day. Tomorrow, I'm starting up workouts again (feeling lots better!) and cleaning house, and Sunday shall be reserved for football and reading. So that's my weekend, hopefully yours is going to be a tad more exciting than mine :)

Have a great weekend bloggy friends!

1. Creamy Broccoli and Cheese Soup

2. Spinach Artichoke Pizza

3. Cheesy Eggplant and Orzo Casserole

4. Grilled Heirloom Tomato Caprese Sandwiches

5. Mediterranean Falafel Salad

6. Garlicky Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta

7. Greek Salad Sandwiches with Hummus

8. Oven Baked Eggplant with Alfredo Sauce

9. Orecchiette with Roasted Peppers and Spinach

10. Chickpea Minestrone

11. Pasta e Fagioli

12. Pizza Margherita

13. Porcini Mushroom Risotto

14. Parsley Pesto Pasta

15. Roasted Fennel, Chickpea, and Tomato Soup

16. Rotini with Salsa di Limone

17. Roasted Vegetable Pizza

18. Spanish Rice Soup

19. SW Chopped Salad with Creamy Cilantro Dressing

20. Traditional Greek Salad

21. Winter Minestrone

22. Whole Wheat Tortellini with Corn and Tomato Relish

23. Zucchini and Brown Rice Casserole

24. Eggplant and Orzo Casserole Soup

25. Black Bean Flautas with Avocado Dipping Sauce

Linked to: Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Treasure Box Tuesday