Plannin’ Menus & Hittin’ Goals

In addition to us (trying to) be responsible by menu planning, I also made it one of my Life List goals to learn 50 new recipes. No time line given, but just learn 50 new ones. I figure at the end of each month, I’ll let you know how many I’ve accomplished (and which ones). But first, this week on the menu planning agenda, we have:

1. Rachael Ray Pretzel Chicken (yes, this is on the menu again since we never actually got to it before)

2. Goat cheese and apple salad (of my own devising)

… and that’s it. We’re going out to dinner tomorrow night to take advantage of NYC Restaurant Week and to celebrate our engagementversary (since it’s on Feb 8), and we have a TON of leftovers from this week to finish up.

So, in January I made 7 new recipes. All were great, and were added to the sheet protectors in my binder (yes I am OCD). Here they are! (recipe linked if I could)

1. Keys-Style Citrus Chicken – from Better Homes & Garden’s Easy Everyday Cooking book.

2. Kyla Roma’s Easy French Onion Soup

3. The Pioneer Woman’s Best Lasagna. Ever.

4. CrockPot Thai Curry w/ Chicken – from A Year of Slow Cooking.

5. The Pioneer Woman’s Spaghetti w/ Artichokes & Tomatoes

6. Cheeseburger Soup – from the BHG Ultimate Slow Cooker Book.

7. S’mores Fudge – from Baking Bites.

I tweeted about making the Cheeseburger Soup and S’mores Fudge yesterday and was asked for the recipes by a few of you. You can click the link for the S’mores Fudge recipe above – oh holy crap it’s good. And so easy to make. Even if you don’t have a double boiler but fashioned one out of a sauce pan and metal bowl like me. (It works, just don’t burn yourself like I did a few times.) I brought some to my friend Anita’s house for girly crafty night, and then to my parents house today to go over wedding flowers, and everyone LOVED it.

S’mores Fudge & Cheeseburger Soup… the picture of healthy eating.
The Cheeseburger soup I made for late lunch/early dinner yesterday in the CrockPot (aka the love of my life… besides Dave.) I can’t find the recipe online, so here it is below:

Ingredients:
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups 1/2 inch pieces peeled russet potatoes (2 medium)
- 1/2 cup coarsely shredded carrot (1 medium)
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons yellow mustard (I used spicy brown – it’s what we had)
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh serrano chile pepper (we couldn’t find any, so I just used a lot of pepper flakes)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground pepper (I eyeballed both the salt and pepper)
- 2 14-oz cans beef broth
- 10.75oz can condensed cheddar cheese soup
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (approx 4 oz)
- dill pickle spears (optional)

Directions:
1. In a large skillet cook meat, onion and garlic over medium heat until meat is brown and onion is tender. Drain off fat.
2. In a 4-5 quart slow cooker (mine is 6 qts) combine meat mixture, potatoes, carrots, ketchup, mustard, serrano pepper, salt and pepper. Stir in broth and cheddar cheese soup.
3. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 10 to 11 hours, or on high-heat for 5-5 1/2 hours. (I cooked on high.)
4. Top each serving with cheddar cheese, and if desired, serve w/ pickles.

ALSO – cool the soup off before taking a bite! The potatoes will be VERY HOT and I learned this the hard way, causing a blister to form on the roof of my mouth which was DISGUSTING and I never want to experience that again. GROSS!

Other than causing damage to my mouth, this soup was super yummy, very filling and had a nice kick from the pepper flakes. It’s also not a super creamy soup, which I was kind of expecting from the condensed cheddar cheese soup. It had more of a beef stew consistency, and adding the shredded cheddar cheese on top was delicious.

Happy Cooking! (Or baking!)