Sweet Potato Black Bean Stew

One of the many free magazines I receive is called Ready Made. I'm not sure how to describe it but it's kind of a "green" magazine where they make stuff out of the stuff you already have. It's pretty interesting. Anyway I found this recipe and I had a lot of sweet potatoes from the farm co-op we're getting vegetables from so I thought I'd try it. It reminds me of tortilla soup. So this is a different way to make tortilla soup. I'll write in my changes in bold. Since we have little kids, I omitted a few things so it wouldn't be spicy. I give this recipe a 5!

Ingredients

1 Tbsp canola oil (I used cooking spray)
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1-inch cubes (I actually used 3)
1 onion, peeled and roughly diced
1 red pepper, seeds removed and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 jalapeno, diced (I didn't use this)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cayenne pepper (I didn't use this)
3 cups vegetable broth (I used chicken broth)
1 (14.5oz)can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (14.5 oz)can diced tomatoes with juices (you could use tomatoes with diced chiles)
1 cup frozen corn (I used 1 can corn)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup lime juice
shredded cheese to serve
I added some chicken as well


Directions

1. Heat canola oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Add sweet potatoes, onion, red pepper, jalapeno, and garlic, stirring to coat. Saute until onion and peppers are soft, about 4 minutes.


2. Add chili powder, cumin, and cayenne pepper and stir well. Reduce heat to medium, cover pot, and allow sweet potatoes to soften, about 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.


3. After sweet potatoes are fork tender, add broth, black beans, and tomatoes. Bring stew to a boil, stirring well and scraping the bottom of pot to incorporate all of the spices. Add corn, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook for an additional 15 minutes.


4. Before serving, stir in cilantro and lime juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve stew with cheese and additional cilantro if desired.

Tres Leches Cake

For Tim's birthday I made one of his favorites. He's always talking about this cake so when I found this easy recipe at kraftfoods.com I knew I had to make it. It turned out pretty good. However, I'm not a fan of mushy cake so this cake to me was much better after it had been refrigerated for a few hours. Tim said it tasted pretty much like some of the ones he's had in restaurants so that's good enough for me. I give this recipe a 4.5!

Ingredients


1 pkg (2 layer size) white cake mix
4 squares Baker's semi-sweet chocolate, divided
1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 can (12oz) evaporated milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup thawed cool whip


Directions


1. Prepare cake batter in 13x9 cake pan as directed on package. Cool cake
in pan 10 min. Pierce cake with large fork at 1/2 inch intervals.


2. Melt 3 chocolate squares as directed on package; set aside. Blend
milks and sour cream in blender until smooth. Add melted chocolate; blend well.
Pour over cake, repiercing cake until all liquid is absorbed. Refrigerate 1
hour.

3. Meanwhile make curls from remaining chocolate square: Warm the
square of chocolate by microwaving it unwrapped on high for a few seconds or
until you can smudge the chocolate with your thumb. Hold the square steadily and
draw a vegetable peeler over the flat bottom of the square slowly to make long
curls. Do the same over the short side of the chocolate for shorter curls.

4. Frost cake with cool whip; top with chocolate curls. Keep
refrigerated.

Ham and Asparagus Chowder

This looked so good in the book and I love asparagus so I had to try it. I found it in my Pillsbury Annual Recipes 2008 cookbook. It turned out nice and thick with great flavor. It's been awhile since I made it so I can't remember what I did differently to it. I probably sprinkled cheese on top to serve it. I give this recipe a 5!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cubed unpeeled red potatoes
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups cut asparagus
1 1/2 cups cubed cooked ham
1 (10 3/4 oz) can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup milk
pepper to taste
(cheese to top)

Directions:

In a saucepan, heat potatoes and water to boiling. Reduce heat to
medium. Cover; cook about 5 minutes or until potatoes are
crisp-tender.

Add asparagus and ham. Cover; cook 3 to 5 minutes or until thoroughly
heated. Stir in soup and milk. Heat to boiling over high heat,
stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with pepper (and cheese) before
serving.

Olive Garden Style Chicken and Gnocchi Soup

If you have ever gone to Olive Garden for lunch, you've probably ordered the soup, salad and breadsticks at some point. We always do and we were very pleased to see a new soup added to their menu as of late. The Chicken and Gnocchi soup is amazing! I knew it was a recipe I needed to find when I saw my kids eating bowl after bowl of it! Here's one I found and tried. It turned out pretty good and almost exactly tasting like the real thing. I will give it a 5 star rating!

Ingredients

3-4 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups half-and-half (evaporated milk works as well)
1 stalk celery, diced
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 carrot, shredded
1/2 onion, diced
1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil (I use pam cooking spray)
1 tsp thyme
salt and pepper
16 oz potato gnocci
1 Tbsp cornstarch (optional)

Directions

Saute the onion, celery, garlic, and carrot in oil over medium heat until onion is translucent. (I just spray the pan with pam instead of using oil)

Add chicken, chicken stock, half and half, salt and pepper, thyme. Heat to boiling, then add gnocchi. Gently boil for 4 minutes, then turn down to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Add spinach and cook for another 1-2 minutes until spinach is wilted.

Optional: Heat to boiling and add cornstarch dissolved in 1-2 Tbsp water at this point if you want a thicker soup. (I skipped this step)