Recipe #5 Sloppy Joe goes veggie

  Ok, I have a confession to make. I am trying to diet while starting this project. And it hasnt been easy. I am not a big meat eiether,or at least when it come to beef and pork. I am more of a chicken and fish kind of gal. My family loves meat dishes. They get offended if you serve them anything else, and automatically deem it off as crap. My husband is one of those who can eat whatever he wants and burns it off like ten seconds later. I am the complete opposite, I look at something and gain 2 pounds automatically. We often joke that when standing together, we look like a number 10.....lol.  So in comes this recipe. I tried to hide the fact that the bulk of it was made from portabello mushrooms from them.....lol. This was my first time to cook with fresh portabello, I didnt know when you cook them, they shrink to almost nothing. So thats what I learned today in Cooking 101.I absolutely loved this dish, and my family ate it, even though there was no meat in it(my husband made up some venison steaks afterward....lol,not sure what to make of that).It was yummy, and I will definately be making it again. Oh, and i got to "smash" the garlic, which I have never done before. If you ever watch cooking shows, they will take a large knife, press it against the garlic and pound it with their fist. Most fun Ive had all day.....lol.See my dish here, served on fancy "redneck" china (otherwise known as paper plates to you fancy people....lol).here is the recipe

  Tonight I go on another grocery adventure. I am looking forward to making wafflewiches. Five recipes down, I have never cooked soo much in one week. Its sad, i know.  I am soo proud of myself,and my family doesnt know what to think.....lol

Recipe #4 Chicken Noodle Soup 3 ways

I actually made this over the weekend, but the actual process of the chicken noodle soup making, wore me out too much to post about it.....lol. The end results were  FABULOUS but it took forever(like 2 hours) for me to prepare everything. I suck at chopping veggies,and am very slow and methodical about it. I guess you could say I am challenged in that area.By the time this whole thing is over, i will be a chopping wiz.....lol

   Anyway, this recipe featured on Rachael's Yum-o website has 3 ways to cook chicken noodle soup. I did the traditional, but plan to make them all one day(you know, when I actually have a couple of hours to kill). I have only made chicken noodle soup once before, and this one turned out soo much better(it helps to use a recipe, who'da thunk it ?). It was a big hit with my family.Another first for me:cooking with bay leaves...............THEY ADD SOO MUCH FLAVOR!!!! Oh my goodness.I could have had the broth by itself, it was that good.Big Tip: be sure to take the leaves out before you serve.....lol. I know its kindve like "duh", but if you are a graduate of the "Cooking for Dummies" school like me,its a good reminder. Im just glad it was in my bowl and no one elses.....lol.

Recipe #3 Carmelized Green Beans with Onion and Swap-bot

 In case you are wondering, Swap-bot is not a recipe....lol. I just wanted to thank my wonderful friends over there for following my blog =)
   So, today for lunch I made some carmelized green beans with some lemon pepper fish filets. I have never cooked fresh green beans, and I have never carmelized ANYTHING......lol. So, those were two more firsts for me. THey turned out ok, but the carmelizing process does take awhile, and I was in a rush, so it probably wasnt a very good idea to make these while in a hurry. They complement practically any dish. I didnt take a picture, because they werent all that pretty.....lol. Thats pretty much all i can say about that. Tonight I will be making Veggies Sloppy Joes.
here   is the recipe.
  I am planning my menu out for next week, looks like stuffed mushrooms will be in there somewhere along with a few other surprises.

Recipe #2 Ladybug pizzas

   Tomatoes. They are the greatest. I just love them. I could eat them all day. And they are even better with salt. Soo many ways to serve them....................oh, i could go on and on.
   So, what do you do when your kids scream, "Mom, Im bored"!  Well, you get them in the kitchen of course! My daughter, who happens to adore ladybugs,helped me out on this one. To my suprise, she didnt even know how to turn on the oven....lol.Im going to have to have her help more.
   Now, this recipe requires pesto, which again, I have never used. i got some the other night, and couldnt find it when it came time to make this, so i had to make my own. I am learning all kinds of new things, thats another first for me. Soo easy, a three year old can do it. I think I probably should have left it in the oven a bit longer, they werent quite crisp and pizzaey(ha new word!)enough. The tomatoes also made this recipe very soggy. This was actually my first Rachael recipe. I am going to try to make two a day, or at least every other day.......I took a picture, but cant find my camera(I do that alot.....lol)Here is the recipe. Have fun!!!! This one gets 3 out of 5 stars

Recipe #1 Chicken Taco Soup

Can you beleive I have never had green salsa before, much less cooked with it ? I had quite the adventure the other night at the grocery store. There were various brands of green salsa(or you can call it salsa verde,if you are feeling exotic), so I wasnt sure which one to get, There were several labled medium, but none labled mild, so I just closed my eyes and picked one. I got a brand called San marcos. fast forward to today. I was getting ready to fix this amazing dish, not knowing how hot this salsa would be, so I figured I would try it, with a glass of water close by. To my suprise it wasnt spicy at all. In fact, I made several trips back to the bottle.....lol. This wont be the last time, I am looking forward to cooking with it again.
The soup overall was super easy and awesome, it cost less than 10 bucks to make. It did have a little bit of a kick,but if you add sour cream to the top or even a bit of lime juice it will take care of that problem.To remove all of the salsa from the jar, I added chicken stock to the bottle , then swished it around and poured it in. This recipe makes 4-6 servings, so if you want leftovers(and you will), i suggest doubling up. gets four out of five stars from me.
Bon Appetit!
PS I need to work on my presentation.....lol.

Who said you cant live off of dessert?

Ok,so I finally decide on a book. I am going to start with Rachael ray's 30 minute meals. Why not start from the beginning? . So until I get that book, I will just do some recipes from her website.
I wanted to touch on why exactly I am doing this. Let me share with you my cooking style. I have none. I very rarely cook. Most of the stuff I do is premade,just throw it in the oven and come back in 30 minutes type of things.If I dont have to thaw it out, Im not cooking it. Its not because I am a bad cook, on the contrary. I am just a lazy cook.Cooking takes time and effort, and after a long day. I am hoping this will give me the boost that I need. I am certainly not doing it to get attention, Haha, that is funny. =)although it would be nice to have a few faithful followers and commenters.
I do however, make a mean dessert. Unfortunately my family cant live of of banana pudding,but it would be nice if they could...........
The project starts now.

So, here we go

My first blog post on my newly established cooking blog. I am excited. My goal: to cook 3-4 of her recipes a week.Until I get to 500.YOur mission, if you chose to accept it, is to follow me along on my journey and hopefully gather some tasty tips and recipes along the way.I hope to inspire others to get in their kitchen and cook, because if an idiot like me can do it, then anyone can.It all started several days ago after watching Julie and Julia( I adore Amy Adams by the way). I was soo inspired by the tenacity and the determination of this woman, that I said to my husband "Hey, maybe I should do that". And the rest is history.
Racheal currently has 17 cookbooks in publication, it is my plan to delve my way into most of them, as well as take some recipes straight off her website. I am especially looking forward to Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals for Kids: Cooking Rocks! I am still debating on which book I should explore first, so would love some suggestions. For now I am doing her 10 meals under 10 dollars(aka Budget meals) because lets face it, its January, we just got done with the Holidays,and we are budgeting for the year.
My reward for this journey, should I finish(and I plan to) is to purchase myself a new spicerack , perhaps some new pots and pans, and whatever other kitchen accesories I may decide to get.And the smiling faces of my family as they munch and nosh will be a great reward as well.
Lets see what I can cook up