Clean Eating; Cauliflower Soup

With the start of a New Year my family (Kelli's) decided to really focus on eating more healthy..... the best way we discovered to do this was by "Eating Clean". We follow these two rules.... one, the food we eat must come from mother nature and two, it must of had a mother.  Meaning it had to of grown out of the ground or off a tree/plant and something had to give birth to it (i.e....eggs, fish...etc.) It has started with baby steps, each day we try and make the best menu decision for our family. There are a lot of great website that have "clean" recipes to get you started. Here is a very simple soup that has great taste!

Cauliflower Soup with Sweet Potato, Beets and Radish Baked Veggies

1 tsp. Olive Oil

1/2 Yellow Onion, Minced

1-2 Slice of Canadian Bacon (or omit meat)

1 cup of chopped Baby Portabella Mushrooms

2 Cloves of Garlic, Minced

1 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Rosemary

1 Head of Fresh Cauliflower, Cut into Florets

2 cups of Reduced Sodium, Gluten Free Vegetable Broth

1 cup of Almond Milk

Heat in a large stockpot, Olive Oil, Onions, Garlic, Canadian Bacon, Mushrooms and Rosemary. Cook for 5-10 min. until onions are soft and the rosemary is fragrant. 

Add the Cauliflower, veg. broth and milk. Bring to a boil and simmer. Cover and turn heat to low, let it cook for 10-15 min. until the cauliflower is tender. Then Pour it all into a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Crumble the veg. chips on top and serve hot!! Yum!

Vegetable Baked Chips

Slice 

1 Sweet Potato

2 Beets

3 Radishes

Sea Salt

Preheat oven to 400. spread out on baking sheet. Put the veggies on the baking sheet and lightly salt. Put in oven for 25 min. Let cool and then eat!

Enjoy!

Craw Fish Bisque

This is delicious!  We are treated to it once a year.  It's thick, buttery and has a little bit of a kick to it! This recipe comes from my cousin Nathan Jacobsen.  He has made this bisque for us 2 or 3 years in a row now around Thanksgiving!  Thank you for sharing your recipe Nathan!

2 lbs. chopped craw fish

1 cup chopped yellow onion

4 sticks butter

2 cups flour

4 cups chicken broth

1 bunch finely chopped green onion

8 cups half & half

4 tsp. garlic powder

4 tsp. onion powder

2-4 tsp. cayenne pepper

In a stock pot over medium high heat saute the chopped yellow onion in all the butter till soft.  Stir in flour, keep stirring for 2 mins. so that all the flour and butter are mixed well together. Stir in broth slowly.  Add a little at a time to the flour butter mixture so that it doesn't become lumpy.  Stir and let it come together for 5 mins.  Add in chopped craw fish and green onion.  Stir and let it come together for 5 mins.  Stir in half & half, 5 mins.  Stir in seasonings.  Cook all together for 20 mins., stir occasionally.  Remove from heat.  Let it stand for 5 mins and then serve.  Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Casserole

The BEST sweet potato casserole I've ever had comes from my brother-in-law's grandma in North Carolina, Grandma Gill.  Thank you Mimi for sharing your recipe with us!  If you usually don't like sweet potato casserole, I highly recommend you try this recipe and give sweet potato casserole One Last Chance!

Casserole

2 cups mashed sweet potatoes

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 Tbsp. flour

Dash of cinnamon

Topping

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup brown sugar

 Pre heat your oven to 350 degrees.  Peel your sweet potatoes. Cut them up into big chunks.  Place sweet potato chunks in a pot with 8 cups of water on the stove and boil till soft.  Drain and mash them.  In a mixing bowl add 1/3 cup melted butter to the mashed sweet potatoes.  Stir in sugar and salt.  Beat in eggs, vanilla and flour.  Mix thoroughly.  Pour mixture into a greased 9x9 casserole dish.

For the topping mix all the ingredients together and sprinkle evenly over the sweet potato mix.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40 mins.  Enjoy!

Tuna Noodle Bake

Here is another Haynes family favorite!  In fact if you ask my brother what he wants for his birthday dinner he'll still say, "Tuna noodle bake."  I think I've been making this dish since I was 10 years old, with the help of my mom of course.  It is from my childhood cookbook, For Good Measure.  This recipe can easily be doubled and cooked in a 9x13 dish.

6 oz. wide egg noodles

1- 12oz. can of tuna, drained

1- 10oz can cream of mushroom soup

1 cup of milk

2 cups crushed ruffles classic potato chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook noodles according to package but drain noodles when done, rinse with hot water, drain again.  Pour cooked noodles into a buttered 9x9 baking dish.  Spread tuna over the cooked noodles.  Mix soup and milk together, pour over top of the tuna.  Top with crushed potato chips.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Enjoy!

Butterscotch Bars

This comes from my favorite cookbook!  My aunt Jan bought me my very first cookbook for my 7th birthday!  For Good Measure, a cookbook for children.  I love the very simple but tasty recipes that come from this book.

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp maple extract

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (you choose)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Sift flour, salt and baking powder together in a large mixing bowl.  Add sugar. Melt butter and mix in.  Beat in eggs.  Stir in vanilla, maple flavoring and nuts.  Spread in a buttered 9x9 pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 40 mins.  Let them completely cool and cut into squares.  They are so delicious!  Enjoy!

Autumn Apple & Cheddar Salad with Pecans

As the weather gets colder I find myself eating less and less salad.  Here is an easy salad using the tastes and ingredients of  Autumn. Serves 6

12 cups of leafy baby greens

1 cup seedless red grapes, halved

1 large McIntosh apple, cored and cut into 18 wedges

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted

1/3 cup of your favorite Italian salad dressing

In a large bowl combine greens, grapes and apple wedges.  Add your favorite Italian salad dressing.  You can use less dressing or more depending on how you like it. Toss gently to coat.  Arrange salad on individual plates sprinkle each serving with cheese and pecans.

Enjoy!

Pimento Cheese.... It's a Southern Thing.

For most of you, you already know that my husband was born and raised in the South, North Carolina to be exact. For him Pimento Cheese was a staple in his house. When we lived there for two and half years his grandmother would serve pimento cheese at least once a week and if it wasn't on the dinner table for a meal it was in the refrigerator for a "any time of day" snack.

To be honest, at first I didn't touch the stuff....cheese, mayo and pimento's....bla! But as time passed and it was obvious that it was always going to be apart of a meal...hahaha.... it grew on me and now I love it! 

We recently took a trip to North Carolina (hadn't been back in a year) and his grandmother, as tradition would have it, had a fresh batch of pimento cheese waiting for us :) 

Not having the recipe written down, counting on my memory of watching his grandmother put a little bit of this and a little bit of that into her pimento cheese, yesterday's pimento cheese batch was a success! (according to Chris..... and I must say he's a little bit of a pimento cheese snob)  

Pimento Cheese goes great with a bowl of soup or chili served on a cracker or slice of french bread.... Also, as a sandwich or cheese ball (for party's) No matter how you serve it or eat it, it's delicious! And yes, it may be a "Southern Thing" but in my family it's become a "Traditional Thing" Enjoy!! 

Pimento Cheese

1- 8 oz. block Cheese, shredded

1- small jar of Pimento's

1 - 2tbsp. of Mayo (just enough to bind everything together)

black pepper

Combined all the ingredients in a bowl, refrigerate until cold (20 min.) and serve.  

ps. if you live where they sell the "premade" pimento cheese in the deli section at your grocery store, don't buy it.... homemade so much better plus you can control the ingredients and quality!