Portobello Mushroom Pizza

I made this up on a whim and, lo and behold, it actually ended up being pretty tasty. These portobello mushroom pizzas are a nice, easy, and healthy alternative to using a regular pizza crust. They took about 35 minutes to make, including prep. Recipe serves 2.

 What you need:

• 4 portobello mushroom caps (washed clean, with stem and black gills removed)
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup canned tomato sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
• 1/2 cup red onion, diced
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese
• 2 roma tomatoes, sliced and halved
• 1 cup spinach leaves

What you do:

• Drizzle some of the olive oil onto the portobello mushroom caps, then broil them for about 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile, mince the garlic, dice the onion, and slice and halve the tomatoes.
• After you take the mushrooms out of the broiler, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the mushrooms. Add the sauce, garlic, and basil. Sprinkle the cheese over the caps and finish them off with the red onion, tomatoes, and spinach.

• Place them in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until cheese has melted and toppings begin to crisp to your liking.
• Remove, let cool, and enjoy!!

Baked Mac & Cheese with Bacon

It's a proven fact that bacon makes everything better. It's also a proven fact that baked macaroni and cheese is one of the most delicious, go-to home-cooked meals ever. Combine these two - and you get home-cooked comfort food with delicious bacon goodness. I had a dinner date with my sister last night and baked mac and cheese with bacon was just what the doctor ordered!

I got the recipe for this meal here and followed it nearly exactly.

What you need:

• 1 (8 ounce) package macaroni (I used elbow macaroni, but penne would work as well)
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup cream
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded good quality
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, buttered

**I used 3/4 cup cream and 1 1/4 cup milk simply because I didn't have enough cream. Still had a great consistency!

**I added 5 slices of bacon, which I cooked as usual and then crumbled into bite size pieces.

This recipe calls for you to cook the macaroni as directed; while the water for the macaroni was heating up, I began to cook the bacon, then crumbled and set to the side. I melted the butter and added the flour as directed, then mixed in the cream and milk (which you unfortunately do need to stir constantly). As the recipe calls for, you then bring the mixture to a boil, continue to stir for 1 minutes, then lower the heat and stir constantly for 10 minutes (I will confess I only stirred constantly for 6 minutes - I was hungry! It still came out great, so 6 minutes is fine). Then I added in the cheese a little bit at a time (I may have used slightly more than 2 cups - I love cheese) until it melted. To complete the pre-baking process, I stirred in the macaroni and bacon until it became one nice cheesy, macaroni mixture. I poured it all into a buttered up deep casserole dish, sprinkled breadcrumbs on top, and tossed it in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees F. Keep an eye on it while it's in the oven so you can get it to be the perfect golden brown. Voila! All finished!

I'm very happy with my decision to include bacon - bacon makes everything better. Next time I may add peas as well to change it up a little. This meal took about 45 minutes to make, including prep.

Turkey Chili with Cornbread Topping

Today was a perfect lazy Sunday, complete with football, beers, and turkey chili with cornbread topping! This is a fairly easy crock pot recipe and tasted absolutely delicious.

Ingredients (chili):

• One package ground turkey
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 packet chili seasoning
• 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 15 oz can of corn
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup chunky salsa

Ingredients (cornbread topping):

• 1 stick butter
• 1-1/2 cups buttermilk
• 2 medium eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (to be used between the chili and cornbread)

What to do:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and brown the ground turkey.
2. Once the meat is thoroughly browned, place that and all chili ingredients into crock pot. Cook on low heat for 4-5 hours.

3. When the chili is nearing its end in the crock pot, preheat the oven to 400° and make the mix for the cornbread topping. I got the recipe for the cornbread here. Follow it exactly until you have completed the mix. Do not turn the batter into the pan - stop after you have smoothed the batter.

4. Pour the turkey chili into a 9-inch pan. Then add a layer of cheddar cheese. Pour the cornbread batter over the cheese (you may not need to use all of the batter - stop pouring before it overflows!).

5. Cook in oven for 20-25 minutes, or until cornbread topping has turned a nice golden brown.

There you have it! This was so incredibly delicious and really hits the spot on a cold evening. Things got a little messy while the chili was cooking because our crock pot is miniature sized, but those who own a regular sized crock pot (aka everyone else in the universe) shouldn't have any issues with the chili spilling over. It's hard to fit it all into a 9-inch pan, so if you have anything larger, I would suggest using that (a square pan would be fine, too).  Enjoy!

Old-Fashioned Bread Pudding and Vanilla Sauce

While Jon and I were tearing apart Pinterest last night trying to find a suitable dinner recipe (see my Beer and Cheese Soup post), I came across this dessert recipe for bread pudding and knew I just had to make it. Wow, am I glad I did!

I started prepping while working on dinner, and the timing worked out nicely so that by the time we had finished with dinner, dessert was warm and ready for us. It took about an hour and fifteen minutes in total to make, but was very easy. The recipe said it would take about 40-50 minutes in the oven, which proved accurate - I kept mine in the oven for 50 minutes exactly.

Bread pudding in the oven

Next time I may try swap out the raisins in favor of craisins just for the added flavor. But other than that, there's absolutely nothing I would change about this recipe! The bread was divine and the vanilla sauce was perfect. Yum!

Vanilla sauce brewing on the stove

Beer and Cheese Soup

Last night Jon and I were struggling to decide what to make for dinner, when he remembered he has been dying to make beer and cheese soup. Unfortunately, by the time he figured this out, it was getting a little late and our hunger was becoming undeniable. We quickly scoured the internet for a beer and cheese soup recipe that would satiate our hunger with the least amount of total cook time possible, yet still provide the tasty flavor Jon was searching for. Jon was doubtful that we would ever find anything suitable. I, however, have far more faith in the world wide web - and it did not disappoint me. Thanks to Rachel Ray, we were able to concoct a beer and cheese soup that met all our demands.

We were hoping to make our own croutons, but time and the measly selection of ingredients at our small town grocery store were not on our side. Instead, we picked up some pre-made garlic and butter croutons and they certainly got the job done.  We also added some grated cheddar cheese to the soup after serving.

We changed a few things from Rachel's recipe - we opted not to use leeks and we added onion and celery. We also decided to use Guinness beer instead of the suggested Dos Equis - a fantastic swap, if I do say so myself... so flavorful!

All in all, this was a pretty great recipe! Rachel states the recipe takes about 20 minutes to make, but it took Jon and I around 40 minutes or so (perhaps because I was simultaneously prepping our dessert - also to be blogged about!). Definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a flavorful and creamy soup.

Tomato Basil Penne Pasta

This is an easy and quick go to recipe for those rushed evenings when you get home from a long day of work and you feel like you couldn't possibly have time to make dinner on top of all your other responsibilities (aka watching the intense fall primetime TV lineup). All the ingredients for this recipe are regularly stocked in my cabinets and it requires very little culinary skill, yet is tasty and hits the spot. Recipe serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup red onion, chopped
• 1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
• 1 lb whole wheat penne pasta

What to do:

1. Heat olive oil on medium low heat in large saucepan, then sauté garlic until fragrant, approximately 1-2 minutes. 
2. Add red onion, tomatoes, and basil and cook on medium low for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

    3. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to box directions.

    4. When one minute remains on cook time for pasta, drain pasta and cook in tomato basil mixture for remaining minute. This will allow the pasta to really absorb the flavors of the sauce.

   5. Transfer to a serving bowl and enjoy!

Mussels Fra Diavolo with Shrimp and Linguine

Long time no blog! I have no excuses - I have simply been lazy about blogging and every time I thought about penning a new one, I decided I had to clean my bathroom instead. But I'm back and ready to rumble! Today's blog: Mussels Fra Diavolo with Shrimp and Linguine. I made this the other night and props for the recipe go to the Food Network's infamous Emeril Lagasse.

I followed the recipe almost exactly, though I decided not to use clams or calamari (I was full enough with just mussels and shrimp, didn't want to overdo it on a Sunday night!). In lieu of making Emeril's "Essence" (a Creole seasoning), I used season salt, which was readily available in my spice rack. That decision made my prep time much shorter and really packed an amazing flavor (the season salt I used contained salt, paprika, celery, turmeric, and black pepper).

Otherwise, I found Emeril's recipe to be fabulous and followed the remainder of it every step of the way! The jalapenos and red pepper flakes packed a nice punch of spicy-ness. And the best part: such an easy recipe and took less than an hour to make!

Mussels simmering in the spicy red sauce - yum!