Using Pureed Vegetables

I really need to go shopping! I am so bad about keeping vegetables in the house lately because as soon as I have some I make it into baby food.  I am still working on shopping for 3 people since the baby started eating real food a few months ago. Luckily I have found a few recipes that work great with pureed veggies!

Our favorite is Rachel Ray's butternut squash mac n cheese recipe which you can find here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/butternut-squash-mac-and-cheese-recipe.html

Another one I have used is mashed potatoes. Now that may seem like a cop out, but they aren't plain mashed potatoes.  I make as I normally would and then add a few cubes of thawed parsnip puree which gives the potatoes a peppery kick.

A few weeks ago I made potato & leek soup and added a few cubes of pureed broccoli instead of the fresh broccoli I would normally use.

I also recently found a recipe for and made a delicious butternut squash risotto, but of course now I can't find it!!  I will continue to search and will post it as soon as I find the one I made.  Until then you will have to search for one that sounds good to you!

Quick Enchilada Soup

Yesterday I was in need of an easy to make dinner.  I looked in the pantry and saw a can of pork and a can of chicken.  I remembered a soup I had made before using a can of green enchilada sauce and thought that would go perfect with the canned meat because it really improves the flavor.  (Lets face it - canned meat is a little weird tasting if you don't season the heck out of it. I have it as part of my food storage.) I used a crockpot just to allow the maximum amount of time for the meat to take on the flavor of the enchilada sauce, but you definitely don't have to.  It works just as well in a pot on the stove. I would have used 2 can of the same meat if I had it, but I only had one of each and it turned out just fine. Because there is salt added to canned meat I did not add salt to my soup.

Easy Enchilada Soup

2 cans cooked chicken or pork, drained
1 can green enchilada sauce
2 tablespoons dried onions
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 red potatoes, cubed

Put all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil for 15 min or until potatoes are tender.

I topped with cheese and ate with tortilla chips.  It would also be delicious with some fresh cilantro and dollop of sour cream. My preference is a little thicker soup.  If you want a thinner soup you can add chicken stock or water.

Printable Recipe

Flat cookies

Sometimes I don't make sure I have all the ingredients together before I start making something. That was the case today! I started making chocolate chip cookies and realized I did not have enough AP flour or even bread flour. The recipe calls for ground oats so I just increased that a little and hoped for the best. It didn't work. Somehow I got the idea to try a smaller scoop and to my surprise I ended up with beautiful cookies! They are more the size of chippers from Paradise Bakery, but who cares about the size as long as they taste good?

****Cookie Tip****

If your cookies are too flat for your liking try scooping them smaller!

For the cookie on the left I used a cookie scoop about 1 5/8 inches in diameter. For the cookie on the right I used a cookie scoop about 1 1/4 inches in diameter. These came from the same batter.

Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

For the past few years I have been using Alton Brown's chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/the-chewy-recipe.html) because it was our favorite. For some reason I decided to try a different recipe and with a few tweaks (thanks to Alton for teaching me how to alter cookie recipe for preferences) it has become our new favorite!

Chocolate chip cookies

1 C unsalted butter

1 ¼  C white sugar

¾ C brown sugar

2 eggs

1 Tbsp vanilla

2 ½ C bread flour

¾ c oats

⅓ C shredded unsweetened coconut, ground to coarse powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 C chocolate chips

Cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs one at a time mixing well in between. Add vanilla.

Slowly add dry ingredients until well combined.

Scoop by tablespoon full onto cookie sheet.

Bake at 325-350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Notes:

These freeze well once scooped into balls if you make a big batch like I do!

You can substitute 2 C all purpose flour plus 1 C ground oats for bread flour and oats above

You don't have to grind up the coconut. I do because I don't like it in my teeth.