Creamy Broccoli Cheese Soup

Creamy Broccoli Cheese Soup
1 Tbsp butter
1/4c onion, chopped
1 32 oz Box chicken broth
1 pound broccoli florets
1 tsp Pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 C Milk
2 T. Corn Starch (thickener)
8oz. Velveeta cheese

In 3 qt sauce pan, saute onion in butter over low heat until softened but
not brown, about 3 minutes.
Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add broccoli, pepper, garlic powder and
reduce heat to low and cook covered til soft, about 15 minutes.
Add milk and Velveeta and heat through; do not boil. Slowly sprinkle in corn starch (or mix with a small amount of water and pour in to lessen your chance of getting lumps and bumps in your soup)
and stir until thick. Serve hot!


I know, I know.....I haven't posted in FOREVER. Well it turns out that you are only allowed so many pictures on your blog. I had reached my limit, so I had to go back and remove some pics before I could post anything. UGH!! So I guess I will cut my pictures per post to one or none.....sadness!! So here is a little soup recipe to warm you up in this chilly weather!! Enjoy.

-Jessica

Guilt Free, Gluten Free, Zucchini, Pasta Substitute

 

    I was sitting around trying to figure out what I was going to make for supper tonight. Ok, let me rephrase that......trying to decide on something semi-healthy for supper. When out of nowhere, it was like Dr. Oz heard my thoughts.....he had a person on his show talking about using zucchini for pasta.

     I absolutely LOVE spaghetti squash in place of pasta, so I had to try the zucchini. It is soooooo easy to do and it tasted very good. I can't wait to try it out with some meat sauce sometime soon.

     Ok, so here is what you need to do. Wash and dry your zucchini. Use your vegetable peeler to slice the zucchini into long thin strips. Saute the strips in a little olive oil for about 5 minutes. Add your sauce and toss to coat. Ta-Da....you are done! Dinner is served in less than 10 minutes. 

For my pasta fake out, I used zucchini and yellow squash. Use your veggie peeler to cut the zucchini into long strips. Saute for 5 minutes and add your sauce.

Toss the "pasta" with the sauce and serve.

Ta-Da!!! You can feel a little better about that Alfredo sauce when you are putting it on top of veggie pasta.

 

Enjoy!

 

-Jessica

 

 

 

 

Banana Coconut Muffins...........mmm mmm mmm

 

   I had 4 bananas sitting in my fruit bowl staring at me for a couple of days now. Each day they looked a little more brown. Each day I said to myself.....I really need to do something with those. Finally yesterday I found the perfect inspiration on Pinterest (yes still checking into that 12 step pinterest rehab program). I saw a recipe for Banana Coconut Muffins. It wasn't the typical banana bread so I figured I would give it a shot. 

     I was super happy with the outcome of the new recipe. It was a yummy new twist to banana bread. You can find the original recipe here: Banana Coconut Muffins The lady with the original recipe said that the muffins were sort of dry. I am not a fan of dry muffins so I did a little recipe revamp to make them more moist and healthy. Here is what I came up with.

Banana Coconut Muffins

1-1/4 cups GF Flour Mix (I use Annalise Roberts' Mix )
1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Salt
3/4 cup Mashed Banana ( 2 bananas)
1/2 cup Applesauce
2/3 cup Sugar
1 Large Egg
1/4 tsp. Vanilla
1/4 tsp. Almond Extract
3/4 cup shredded sweetened Coconut
Granulated sugar to top muffins before baking

Preheat oven to 375 deg. Line muffin tin with liners. Spray the inside of each liner with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, peel (discard the peel) and smash the bananas. Whisk together the banana's, applesauce, sugar, egg, extracts and coconut. Mix until thoroughly combined. Add in the dry ingredients. Mix until combined.

Divide the batter among the muffin liners. Sprinkle granulated sugar over the top of the batter (1/2 tsp-1tsp per muffin). Bake for 25-30 min. or until puffed and golden.

This recipe makes 8 muffins. I double the recipe to make 16 muffins.

Enjoy the muffins!!

-Jessica

Healthy Fudgy Brownies...........isn't that an oxymoron?

Sometimes craving chocolate is serious business. Today was one of those days. I decided that I would make brownies. I also decided to give a new recipe a whirl. I did a google search for gluten free brownies and came up with a recipe that sounded "healthy". It included two different kinds of fruit!!!
      I am not sure fruit belongs in brownies, but I thought I would give it a try. I have been trying to eat more fruit and if you can get it in a brownie then I'm all for it!!
     Of course I had to tweak their recipe........I'm not one for following the recipe ha
Here is the link to the original recipe that I found in my google search: Emeril's Gluten Free- Dairy Free Brownies and now on to the recipe that it morphed into. (mine is not dairy free though, sorry folks)

"Healthy" Fudgy Brownies

 cooking spray
1 ¼ cups applesauce
1 cup cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 mashed banana
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup Gluten Free Flour Mix
1/2 tsp xantham gum
2 cups Milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 deg.  Generously spray a 8x8 pan with cooking spray. In a large mixing bowl peel and mash banana (if it doesn't mash easily you can microwave it for about 30 seconds to get it smooshey). Combine all of the remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Pour the mixture into the 8x8 pan. Bake for 45-50 min. or until toothpick in the middle comes out mostly clean (remember these are fudgy brownies).

__________________________________________________________

Ok, so this was a new recipe for me. It wasn't too bad. It was moist and gooey. I could taste the banana just a little. I think that next time I would leave the banana out of the recipe. I don't think it really serves a purpose. I like cooking with applesauce instead of lots of oil so I would leave that in. I think that applesauce also adds moisture to our sometimes very dry baked goods.

Overall this is a pretty good recipe, would be better minus the banana. So I would give it another shot sometime. It cured my chocolate craving for sure!!