Applebee's Cheese Chicken Tortilla Soup

Note: Since I found Applebee's tortilla soup recipe, I can have it as often as I like. Yahoo! It is wonderful to keep in the refrigerator now that the weather is cooling off. A bowl of this topped with tortillas and a little dollop of sour cream is perfect for lunch.

Applebee's Cheese Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 teaspoons fresh garlic, minced
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
4 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup chopped green pepper (optional)
15 ounces can tomato puree
1 teaspoon finely minced jalapeño pepper (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper (optional)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon chili powder (optional)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce (optional)
4 teaspoons flour
1/2 cup water
1 pound cooked chicken, cubed or pulled
1 cup cream
1/4 cup non-fat sour cream
8 ounces processed cheese, 1-inch cubes
10 (6-inch) colored or yellow corn tortillas, 1/4-inch strips, fried
Fresh cilantro, roughly chopped (optional)

Directions:
Sauté oil, garlic and onions in large pan or Dutch oven until soft. Add ingredients 4 through 13. Bring to low boil, then reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Cut tortillas into 1/4-inch strips and fry in oil or spray with oil and bake at 400ºF (while soup is cooking). Sprinkle with salt if desired. Thoroughly mix flour and water, then whisk into soup. Bring to a low boil, then simmer 5 minutes.
Add chicken and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in sour cream and cheese (more or less of each, depending on taste). Ensure 165ºF serving temperature.

After serving soup, pile tortilla strips into a "haystack" shape on top of the soup.

Grab your best tummy warming recipe and join us over at Lisa's for more Tempt My Tummy Tuesday!

Crunchy Snickerdoodle French Toast

Note: Have you noticed we like warm breakfast foods? I especially like things that are easy to make the night before and pop in the oven in the mornings. Little Guy leaves for school at 7 in the morning and doesn't have lunch until 12:20. I want to know that he has a good breakfast before he leaves.

Crunchy Snickerdoodle French Toast

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups Fat Free Half & Half
3 eggs, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 cups cinnamon and sugar crispy sweetened whole wheat and rice cereal, crushed*
12 (3/4-inch thick) slices French bread
Butter
Syrup

Directions:
Grease 15x10x1-inch jelly-roll pan. Combine half & half, eggs, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla in shallow bowl; mix well.

Place crushed cereal in another shallow bowl. Dip bread slices in egg mixture then into cereal crumbs. Place into prepared pan. Cover; freeze until firm (1 to 2 hours or overnight).

Heat oven to 425°F. Bake uncovered, turning once, for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with butter and syrup.

*We like Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Recipe Tip
The amount of egg mixture absorbed when making French toast depends upon the bread being used. Soft bread with an open, porous texture will absorb more liquid and absorb it more quickly than drier bread with a fine texture. Once you’ve dipped the first one or two slices, you can determine how long to keep the bread in the egg mixture, so you don't run out of the egg mixture.

Source: I found this recipe at the Land O Lakes Butter website.

Crunchy French Toast

Note: The boys are O.K. with french toast, but like this crunchy version better. I am not sure if it is because it is crunchy or because the can make it themselves. Hmmmm...

Crunchy French Toast

Ingredients
2 or 3 slices of bread, cut into quarters
1 cup cornflake cereal (we use a Corn Flake like cereal with blueberries in it)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon all-purpose flour
2 drops of vanilla
Butter and pancake syrup

Directions
Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Put the bread pieces on a lined baking sheet into the warming oven (it does not need to be at full temperature) to toast lightly for 5 minutes. Cool the bread completely. Seal the cornflakes in a heavy plastic bag. Crush them with a rolling pin to the size of rolled oats. Pour into a pie pan or a shallow dish. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk to mix the eggs, milk, flour and vanilla until blended. Be sure there are no lumps of unmixed flour. Pour into a pie pan or shallow dish. In batches, lay the bread pieces in the egg mix. Soak about 1 minute on each side in the egg mixture. Be careful not to rip the bread. Place the bread pieces in the cornflake crumbs. Coat both sides with the crumbs. Place on the lined baking sheet. Bake at 400°F for 10 minutes on one side. Then flip over with tongs or a spatula and bake another 5 to 10 minutes, until the crumbs begin to turn brown. Eat warm with butter and pancake syrup. Makes 2 or 3 servings.

New Year New Gadgets

Little Guy asked for kitchen gadgets for Christmas. No matter who asked him what he was getting for Christmas he always said, "Cooking supplies!" My Little Guy loves to cook.

So, there we have lots of new kitchen gadgets. Yay! I cleared him out a drawer to keep all his gadgets in, but he has promised that I can use them whenever I want.

There are several that I bought for him that I have decided that any kitchen with kids might really enjoy!

No more accidentally burning your fingers or hands on the oven rack!    We are in love with this push 'n' pull oven hook.     (So much so that I went back and bought another one for myself!)

I'll admit it.    I hate spoon rests.     So finding this little pot clip was genius.     Love it!!

Little Guy used the lettuce knife when he attended The Viking Cooking School.   Of course that meant that he needed one.   

There are soooo many more gadgets and tools that he received, but those are just a few of my favorites.     I can't wait to see what he cooks up in the kitchen this year!

Southern Sweet Tea

I was born and raised in the South. My husband was raised in the South by two Yankee-raised parents. It was inevitable that there were going to be some kinks that we were going to have to work out.

One of those things was sweet tea. When we married I realized that no one had ever taught my husband the fine art of making sweet tea. Making sweet tea is definitely an art that is best cultivated in the south. If you have never been given the secrets to making sweet tea, let me share them with you, because no one should live deprived of a glass of delicious sweet tea.

First, always boil your tea in the same pot. My Mama always used a "whistler" kettle to boil her tea. You should definitely wash your pot, but it will retain some of it's "tea-ness" for the next boil. We use Lipton tea bags. We let the tea come to a boil or "whistle" and then turn off and let steep for about five minutes.

Second, before the tea is cooled you add your sugar. We pour our desired amount of sugar into the bottom of our gallon pitcher and then pour the hot tea over the sugar. Stir thoroughly to let dissolve. Squeeze out tea bags. Add cool water to finish filling gallon pitcher.

Last, put in refrigerator to let cool.

It sounds so simple doesn't it, but apparently it isn't because so many people get it so wrong. My sweetie makes the best tea now and when the tea pitcher is empty we all look to him to refill it.

The only thing we disagree on is where that empty tea pitcher should go. Any true Southerner knows that tea pitcher stays in the refrigerator. He wants to leave it out on the counter, but as he discovers... the results can be UGLY!

So for now I blame his forgetting this minor detail on his Yankee genes.

New Year's Day Menu

Our New Year's Day Menu:

BBQ Pork Sandwiches
Cheesy French Fries
Quick & Easy Hopping John
Cabbage
Corn on the Cob
Strawberry Pretzel Salad
SweetTea

and

Lots and Lots of Football!

Crockpot BBQ Pork

Note: This is the easiest way I know to make BBQ pork for sandwiches. It makes a lot which means you can have it for a crowd or put some up for later meals.

Crockpot BBQ Pork

Ingredients:
1 boston butt pork roast (whatever size you need for your family)
1 leftover cup of coffee
3 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
salt
pepper
BBQ sauce

Directions:
Put the pork roast in your crockpot. Pour coffee and Worcestershire sauce over the roast. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook on low for 8 hours until it falls apart. Take out of crock pot and remove all fat and bone. Shred and put back in crockpot and cover with desired amount of BBQ sauce. Cook on low for 1 hour.

Serve!