Broccoli Soup, Sweet Potatos and Spinach Salad

For the second time, I made broccoli cheese soup. Since it came out so good the first time, I just stuck to the same recipe. See this previous post for details. 

To go along with our soup I made these rosemary sweet potatoes and a spinach salad. So good!  

Chicken Flautas

Recently I tried this recipe for Chicken Flautas. I cooked the chicken as it said to but I just used frozen spinach (bc I didn't have any fresh on hand). Otherwise I more or less followed the recipe. These came together pretty quickly and were absolutely delicious. Like, really, really delicious! Husband and kids all devoured them. Next time I will be less more generous with the spinach, just to really pack in some nutrition! 

Pork Tenderloin w/ Apples, Quinoa and Kale

Last week I (sort of) followed this recipe for Apple Pork Tenderloin. I didn't drizzle honey and cinnamon rather I added some fennel and sage to the meat. I LOVE fennel and sage on pork. I also didn't have any red onion so I just set the roast on top of (what I like to call regular) yellow onion.  This came out really well! I made a batch if quinoa and some sautéd kale to go with it. I also threw together some whole wheat biscuits following this recipe by 100 Days. I have been making these biscuits a lot more lately simply bc my kids love them! 

Root Vegetable Lentil Soup

Using my homemade stock (see post about Whole Chicken), I threw together a root vegetable soup in the crock pot. I found this recipe on Pinterest for Crock Pot Lentil Soup so I used it as inspiration rather than following it 100%. I threw in chopped celery, carrots, sweet potato, onion, golden beats, daikon and lentils. I was going to throw in the leftover chicken bits from the night before but my husband enjoyed himself a chicken sandwich for lunch that day. So, meatless soup it was. This soup was packed full of nutrition and really delicious! The homemade stock was amazing! 

Whole Chicken

A couple of Sundays ago we had back to back birthday parties to go to and I knew by the time we would get home, we (I) would be exhausted and the not the least bit interested in cooking dinner. Enter my handy crockpot...

For the second time, I followed this recipe for roasting a whole chicken in the crockpot. This is relatively quick to throw together and then the crockpot does all the work. The chicken was delicious. The flavor is amazing and the meat was incredibly moist and tender. And the carrots were amazing after sitting in that liquid all day. I added a lot more carrots than the recipe called for bc those seem to be a favorite in this house and I knew they would all get eaten up quick. 

In addition to the chicken and carrots, I steamed some fresh broccoli and made a quick pot of plain quinoa. It was a fast, delicious feast on the first night of Sunday football!

After dinner, I salvaged every last bit of chicken meat from the carcass and packaged it up for later use. I then tossed the chicken bones, remnants, etc along with all of the liquid and veggies (onions and celery) from the crockpot into a large stockpot and filled it with water. I let this boil for a good half an hour (maybe longer) to make the best batch of homemade stock. After it's done boiling, I strain the liquid into 2 large mason jars and set them in the fridge. 

The process of making stock seems a little daunting after you've just served, eaten and cleaned up an entire dinner but it so worth it. Since I buy organic chicken and veggies (and spices for that matter), all that goodness leftover in the crockpot is just too useful to toss in the trash. The stock is so flavorful and a beautiful orange color and best of all, you know exactly what went into it. Almost all store bought chicken stock has MSG in it (hidden in the form of yeast extract). Yuck. Take the time, make the stock! 

Sticky Buns

Most of the time, I attempt to make nutritious meals or incorporate/substitute some kind of healthy ingredients in recipes. Just a warning...nothing about this recipe for Sticky Buns is healthy and I wouldn't dare change anything about it. If I were brave I would make fresh whole wheat biscuits instead of using god-awful store bought ones out of can (WORST junk ever; but Whole Foods does sell half way decent canned biscuits). These are meant to be bad and they are sooooo good at being so bad! I follow the recipe exactly and they are amazing. 

I've made these on Christmas morning a couple of times, I made them for my dad to take to a potluck at work, I've made them for breakfast day at teacher appreciation week and most recently, I made them for our family while on vacation in Palm Springs. 

They are pretty darn easy and always a huge hit! One thing I should mention though, they seem to be best when eaten fresh out of the oven. If you wait an hour or so (like the times I made them and delivered somewhere) the "sticky" part hardens and they're just not a delicious. Just out of the oven, the dough is soft and warm and the sticky part is so gooey and smooth. 

Lasagna Rolls

Last week I made a lot of repeat meals so I don't have a lot to blog about. One night I made Lasagna Rolls based on this recipe I found on Pinterest a long time ago. While slightly time consuming, these are fairly simple to assemble and really, really delicious! 

I particularly like these bc of the tomato issue we have in this house (my husband can't eat tomatoes but I LOVE them). I make one pan w/ pesto and one pan w/ tomato sauce and we both win! I've made these a few times and always with some random variation of filling. I made a batch of homemade kale pesto the night before to save some time and (gasp) I used jarred tomato sauce. Using my little mini-chop grinder thingy, I ground up some fresh spinach leaves and stirred them into the ricotta (in the interest of incorporating as many veggies as possible). I chopped up some mushrooms and zucchini and then boiled the lasagna noodles. 

I didn't take any pics of the assembly line bc my hands were messy and I was in a hurry but I just laid a noodle on a plate, casually smothered a spoonful of sauce, ricotta cheese and then a small handful of veggies and then loosely rolled it up. These all get placed into a casserole dish before being topped with more sauce, shredded mozzarella and some pine nuts. Bake them at 350 for 20 or so minutes, just until the cheese is melted. SO GOOD!