Food Archives - Page 2 of 5

Supper Suggestion: Ground Beef and Macaroni Tomato Soup

April 22, 2018

Was anyone else raised eating Hamburger Helper? That was a certain staple around our house growing up and even in my home in the earlier years of our marriage. It’s yummy, easy, and unfortunately completely processed. Once we took our journey towards clean eating, that meant no more Hamburger Helper for us! I’ve tried a couple homemade versions, and they’ve luckily been really delicious!

This recipe doesn’t at all claim to be like Hamburger Helper, but it really reminded me of it, and I wasn’t sad about it. At all. It was actually FAR more flavorful and delicious, and a BIG WIN for our family! The Six Sisters always come through with family-friendly, yummy recipes.

They call this a soup, but it was much thicker and heartier than what I typically refer to as a soup. My husband and I ate it out of a bowl, but I actually served it to my boys on plates, and it worked out just fine!

It calls for macaroni noodles (I recommend always using 100% whole wheat pasta when you can!), but I used the whole wheat shells I had on hand, and of course, it was a perfect substitution. VIEW POST

Supper Suggestion: Honey Herb Pork Tenderloin

April 15, 2018

I started cooking pork tenderloin a couple years ago when I found a super easy (and delicious) recipe in Lisa Leake’s 100 Days of Real Food: Fast and Fabulous cookbook. It’s been a regular in our dinner rotation ever since!

I was excited to find a new twist on pork tenderloin to add into the rotation, and this recipe by the Cookie Rookie did NOT disappoint! Honey, garlic, herbs…need I say more? Just a simple mixture poured over the pork tenderloin and roasted for 30 minutes brought us a delicious, savory, sweet, juicy pork dinner.

I served this with baked potatoes and roasted broccoli. I tossed broccoli in olive oil, garlic salt, and freshly grated parmesan, and roasted it in the oven at the same time as the pork!

VERDICT:

Me: Yep yep! I love the mixture of sweet and savory flavors. There was even enough liquid from the honey garlic mixture to spoon over the individual servings. (Lazy girl hack: The recipe called for chicken stock and lemon juice. I skipped this step because I was in a hurry. I’m sure it would have only made it more delicious, but if you’re short on time, don’t hesitate to cut that out!)

Hubs: Definite approval. He enjoyed having pork tenderloin in a new way.

11 & 7-Year-Olds: They love it! My 7-year-old calls almost everything chicken, including this. They both ate it up!

2-year-old: He’s just not a meat-eater yet. He’ll come around. I serve him everything we eat anyway, and wait for the day he’ll actually dig in!

Leftovers: We do have leftovers and I can’t wait to eat them! As juicy as this is, I believe it will reheat nicely!

Supper Suggestion: Sizzlin’ Taco Soup

April 8, 2018

Once again, North Texas betrayed us this week and regressed back to winter temps. Booooo. Just when I break out the self-tanner and sundresses, BOOM! It’s 30 degrees again. But, you know what they say about Texas: if you don’t like the weather, stick around a few days and it will change completely! #truestory

This week’s Supper Suggestion was born out of the desire to warm our insides with a hot meal. We LOVE taco soup, chili, etc. around here, so we don’t always wait to have a good excuse to make it, but when we do, it. is. on. This taco soup is my own recipe, thrown together in different variations each time based on what I have on hand. This way is pretty spicy (which we like)! If you need to tone it down for kids you can omit the spicier ingredients and use less taco seasoning.

Here’s the recipe I (mostly) stick to:

SIZZLIN’ TACO SOUP Print Version

Ingredients (double to have extra for leftovers and to freeze for a later date!)

1 lb ground beef

Taco Seasoning to taste (I make my own – recipe found here)

1 tsp red pepper flakes for extra spice

28 oz can diced tomatoes

Small can diced green chilies

1 red bell pepper, finely chopped

1 green bell pepper, finely chopped

1/2 large onion or 1 small onion, finely chopped

Fritos and shredded cheddar for serving

Instructions

In a large pot, brown the ground beef and season it with taco seasoning. Use however much you’d like. More for spicier and less for milder! (Don’t add salt if you’re using a lot of taco seasoning, because it will turn out too salty!)

Add the diced tomatoes, green chilies, red pepper, green pepper, and onion. (I slice the peppers and onion and put those in a food chopper to make them verrrry fine. Like almost puree. I love to have the flavor of them in the soup without having large chunks of peppers and onion. YUM.)

**NOTE: You can add more or less peppers, red pepper flakes, etc to get the desired flavor!

Let this mixture get nice and bubbly, then let it simmer on low for as long as you’d like. The longer, the better! I usually let ours simmer 2-3 hours (unless we’re starving to death). Serve hot with plenty of shredded cheddar and Fritos!

VERDICT:

Me: Ohhh yeah. This is one of my absolute favorite things to eat. The leftovers are even better! AND it’s perfect for freezing! All the wins.

Hubs: LOVES IT. He loves when I make this and wants there to be tons of leftovers so he can have it multiple times.

11 & 7-Year-Olds: My 11-year-old is totally down with the spice and he loves this. My 7-year-old, not so much. He does like taco soup when I make it on the less spicy side.

2-year-old: No, I would never try to feed him a spicy taco soup. 😉

Leftovers: I LOVE to double (or triple) this recipe to have plenty of leftovers for the next day(s) and freeze some for another time!