Cheese, Ham & Potato Soup

Digging through my fridge and imagination I found inspiration with a block of Velveeta Cheese and leftover ham.

Christmas ham means plenty of leftovers in my house. It's the one time of year I get to enjoy the deliciously succulent taste of spiral ham, something I look forward to every year.

So with Thanksgiving turkey leftovers still lingering in the fridge I wanted to do something different. Not just the typical sandwich lunch or dinner piled high with leftover meat.

While my family loved the soup I had some critiques who despised the taste and asked me to try again. However, they never explained exactly why they didn't like the soup. But that's what this is all about, trying to learn what works and what doesn't.

Recipe

Pre-time: 20 minutes

Servings: 6-10

Ingredients

2 cups of chopped ham

1/2 cup of chopped sweet onion

1/2 cup of peas

1/2 sliced carrots

2 cut potatoes

1 block of Velveeta cheese

1 TBSP of salt

1/2 TBSP of ground pepper

2 cups of water

Instructions

Heat the crock pot to medium high, place all ingredients into the crock pot for approximately 3-4 hours. Set on low for an additional hour, add salt and pepper for flavoring and serve. It's that easy! 

I put everything into the crock pot & went out for the day. I returned to a delicious tasting meal served with toast. 

Surf n' Turf

I'm an attempted perfectionist. I fall short most times on my attempts, but at least I'm trying. So when it comes to food it's either hit or miss for me. Even in restaurants I either love it or hate it. The summer I graduated college I spent time in Italy studying abroad. Before leaving everyone told me, I would love the food so much I wouldn't want to come home. But when I found little to enjoy everyone started to complain. Honestly it was annoying, I can't help that I know what I like and what I don't. I don't stop myself from trying new food, but I don't give it raving reviews either unless I love it. Or in the trending terms it has to be "food orgasmic". So what I put on my blog is something I truly loved in my cooking. 

Tonight I was lost on what to cook. I was tired of the normal holiday food that's been floating around for the last few weeks and wanted something different. I scoured the cabinets for inspiration, looking for something to inspire me and while I was just about to settle for a box of Rice-A-Roni, I found a few items ready to expire. With near ready to expire products in hand my imagination kicked in as I was not about to let money go to waste. 

I love bruschetta and pesto. These are two items that normally hit my plate at any restaurant I experience. However, a few of my family members aren't so excited about them as me. So I try to avoid making it when cooking for the bunch. However, tonight all I had were a few items I loved ready to expire and a bunch of hungry family members waiting patiently for my brain to make a masterpiece. 

I had a pack of gnocchi, bruschetta chicken spices, and pesto sauce all ready to expire in the next week waiting to be devoured. I decided chicken and gnocchi would be the best concept to a quick dinner for the masses. But I didn't stop there when I found a package of frozen shrimp hanging out in the freezer. Therefore, my chicken and gnocchi quickly turned into surf n' turf with gnocchi. With all the items family members dislike I worried that my meal would be a disaster. But it turned out to be one that required a referee to dividing the last helping. 

Recipe

Pre-time: 30 -45 minutes

Servings: 3-5

Ingredients

10-20 Frozen Shrimp

3 Chicken breast

1 cup of pesto oil

1 TBSP of Salt

1 package of Gnocchi

1 package of McCormick Chicken Bruschetta Mix

1/4 cup of Olive Oil

3/4 cup Heavy Cream

1/4 cup of water

3 TBSP of Butter

1/2 cup of Parmesan Cheese

1 handful of Mozerella Cheese

Instructions

Place pot of water on stove and bring to boil. Place Gnocchi in water and let cook for 10 minutes.

Place shrimp in saucepan and add in 4 TBSP of Pesto Oil. Let shrimp cook until pink. 

Put McCormick Mix, in bowl and mix in 3 TBSP of olive oil. Take defrosted chicken breast and rub the olive oil mix onto chicken. Place chicken in a saucepan with a bit of olive oil in the pan. Let the chicken cook for 8-10 minutes on medium-high, turning to cook evenly.

Drain Gnocchi from water and let sit.

Remove the chicken from pan, making sure it's cooked all the way through. In the same saucepan, you just cooked the chicken remove any leftover spices that may have been left in the pan. Add heavy cream, water and butter together until it starts to slightly boil, whisk in the rest of the pesto oil until it's an even mixture. Remove from heat and add in cheese. Mix the cheese in until fully melted. Add the shrimp into sauce and let sit.

Place chicken, shrimp and gnocchi on a plate, serve and enjoy!

Stuffed Peppers

Some of you are wondering why is she still writing about cooking for a single gal when I'm in a relationship. Well here it is, we don't live together and honestly I'm still trying to learn his favorite foods.

This one was a complete surprise to me since my amazing boy friend is Russian.

I was looking for something quick one day on a shopping trip to satisfy the growling stomach. Somehow I threw in ready to cook stuffed peppers, but not the ones you microwave.

I found myself falling in love with the savory taste that these provided and was determined to make them myself. I know plenty of people out there have posted recipes for stuffed peppers, but this was my first attempt and despite the angle of cutting the pepper, the BF & family devoured these suckers!

 Recipe

Pre-time: 30 mins

Servings: 3-6

Ingredients

2 lbs of ground beef

2 cups of brown rice

1/4 green pepper, chopped

1/4 white onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of pepper

16 oz of original tomato sauce

1/2 of cheese (I choose mozzarella)

3 large peppers (Orange, Red and Yellow are the best)

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.

Cook rice until done. Core out peppers (removing all the seeds) and cut in half (or keep whole). 

Place in simmering water for 2 minutes, flipping once until pepper is slightly soft. Move peppers aside into a baking tray.

Brown the ground beef in skillet, add chopped green pepper, onion and garlic to skillet. Let onion and pepper soften. Add rice and tomato sauce and let simmer until liquid is almost gone.

Scoop beef and rice mixture into peppers and top with a sprinkle of cheese.

Place in oven for 20 minutes, let cool and enjoy!

I didn't serve this with anything, it was a dish in itself, but you can serve it with mashed potatoes or even a helping of extra rice. 

Let me know how this turned out for you in the comments below!