Jalepeno Corn Chowder

Brrr... baby it's cold outside! What's better than warming up with some hot (both temperature and spicy) soup?! Besides, I needed an excuse to get the blender out and play :)

Ingredients:

• 2 packages of frozen corn
• 1 can reduced sodium chicken broth
• 2/3 cup small pasta (I used tiny shells)
• 1 cup skim milk
• Roasted red peppers, I used about 1/3 of a small bottle
• Handful of jalepenos, chopped
• 

Directions:

• Put 1 package of corn and chicken broth in the blender. Cover and blend until almost smooth
• In a saucepan combine the broth mixture, the remaining corn and bring to a boil.
• Add in the pasta and reduce heat. Simmer uncovered until pasta is tender
• Roughly chop up your red peppers and jalepenos
• Stir in the rest of your ingredients (milk, red peppers, and jalepenos)
• Stir until heated through
• Garnish with peppers, cheese or even tortilla chips!

This really hit the spot. It was just the right about of heat with the peppers and the temperature took the edge off on a cold, windy night!

French Onion Soup

I love french onion soup. But only sometimes. It seems to be one of those items that varies from restaurant to restaurant. Well, I know how I like it so I set out to make it. But I wanted to make it easy... so I busted out the crockpot.



Ingredients:

• Beef broth (I used 1 can beef broth and 4 bouillon cubes (and 4 cups water)... vary this as needed to taste and amount)


• 2 small white onions, chopped thin


• 1 pack onion soup mix


• 2 tsp salt


• 1 tsp pepper


• 1 TBSP onion powder


• Cheese (I used shredded mozz because that's what I had but a lovely piece of provolone would have been perfect!)


• Bread (I used hamburger buns, but whatever bread is going to work)

Directions:

• Combine onions, broth, soup mix, salt, pepper and onion powder in a slow cooker. Heat on low for 8 hours.


• To make the croutons, I took the top part of a hamburger bun and through it under the 'toast' function in my toaster oven for a few minutes.


• Toast until desired crunch is reached :)


• Add soup into an oven safe bowl or crock. Put crouton on top and add cheese.


• Set oven (or in my case, toaster oven) to broil and cook until cheese is melted.

SO GOOD.

In fact, I'm going to use the leftovers as the ingredients for THIS.

Enjoy!

Source: Food Network

My Husband's Chili!

Perhaps I'm biased, but my husband makes the most awesome chili I've ever had! Unfortunately this entry is just a teaser because I'm not sure what he puts it in. I know it has a combination of ground beef, sirloin steak, various beans, and more than 7 spices!

So good!

I'll try to get the recipe out of him and update! Mmmm, this picture just makes me hungry: