Easy Creamy Potato Soup

We are quite fond of the creamy potato soup to be found in restaurants. Panera Bread has one that we particularly enjoy.

I have a recipe that uses a nice roux, but one child is not so fond of it.

So...we did some internet searching. We tried one that tasted more like carrots than potatoes. Then we saw three that might be almost what we were looking for.

An hour later we had combined recipes and tweaked ingredients and came up with our own truly yummy Easy Creamy Potato Soup. Maybe you'll like it, too.

Easy Creamy Potato Soup

1 tbl olive oil
1 tbl butter
1/2 cup diced onions
8 cups chicken broth
8 cups peeled and diced raw potatoes
1 tbl minced garlic
8 ounces cream cheese, in chunks
salt, pepper, spices to taste (we use about 1-2 tsps Montreal Steak Seasoning)

Crispy bacon bits, shredded cheese, sour cream (optional but tastes great as a toppings)

In a medium pot boil the potatoes, garlic and your choice of seasoning in the chicken broth
In a small pan saute onion in oil and butter until the onion is slightly browned
Add sauteed onions to the cooking potatoes
Continue cooking until the potatoes are tender.
We opted to put about 2/3 of the potatoes through the food processor, then added them back to the pot.
If you want it chunkier, just smash the potatoes with a potato masher instead of pureeing them.

Turn the heat down to low and add the chunks of cream cheese and whisk to combine. DO NOT BOIL as it makes the cream cheese separate and it's not good.

Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Dish up and garnish with crispy bacon bits and shredded cheese. A dollop of sour cream can be nice, too.

This is very similar to what we've eaten in restaurants. And it was really so easy.

Hubs called it "white gold" when he tasted it.

This gets a FIVE FAMILY RATING for sure.

Creamy Salsa Chicken

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Creamy Salsa Chicken

This is a really easy crockpot recipe. And incredibly tasty! Amanda got it off a share on Facebook. We added the pineapple because we like that sweet element.

Lots of ways to tweak this one for your own family, too. If you like it spicier, there are lots of ways to fire it up.

Ingredients:

Chicken (we used a 40 oz bag of frozen chicken tenderloins)
1 24 ounce jar of Salsa (we used a mild variety)
1 small can chopped mild chiles
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can of pineapple, crushed or chunks, with the juice


Place your chicken in the crock pot. We didn't even thaw the tenderloins.
Pour the ingredients over the chicken.
Let it cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6.
Stir occasionally after the first two hours.

Shred the meat before serving.

Serve over rice.

Easy! And so good.

A Five out of Five from the Family:

You can use whatever chicken chunks your family prefers. You can use any heat rating of salsa and chiles. Yep, lots of ways to tweak this one!

Pork Chops and Beans

This is one of my husband's favorite meals.

This is also one of those recipes that I've tweaked practically every time I've made it. You can tweak it to suit your family, too. For instance, if you aren't fond of pork chops, you can use chicken (legs, thighs, tenders, etc.). If you don't like kidney beans, then just use all Ranch Style Pintos. Totally up to you.

Pork Chops and Beans


Splash olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onions
6 pork chops
3 cans Ranch Style Pinto Beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 small can mild chopped green chilies
1 can chicken broth
1 cup barbecue sauce (I use whatever kind happens to be open in the fridge)
1/4 cup prepared mustard
1-2 tablespoons minced garlic (why yes, I do buy the large economy sized jars!)
salt and pepper to taste (we use Montreal Steak Seasoning)

I use a large electric skillet to prepare this meal

Heat oil in skillet
Brown onions and pork chops
Mix the mustard, barbecue sauce, broth, minced garlic, and chiles with two cans of the beans and pour over the chops in the skillet
Add the remaining cans of beans and stir to mix
Let simmer until the pork is tender and done, about 45 minutes
Stir occasionally to avoid sticking
Serve with a nice green salad

You can mix and match beans, but I'd use at least two cans of the Ranch Style Pintos.
Omit the chiles if the family doesn't like them.

I'm going to give it a rating of FIVE, but have to confess that two of the children will only eat the beans and one will only eat the pork! So that evens out to FIVE, right?

Creamy Shrimp Stir Fry

A couple years ago I was handed a really good coupon for a Philadelphia Cream Cheese cooking sauce. I made a shrimp dish with it. It was yummy. BUT, the prepared sauce base is kind of pricey. So, of course, I tweaked around and came up with my own version of it. As always, if there are some ingredients that you or your family won't eat, substitution is allowed...and encouraged!

 

Bethany helped me make this today.

Creamy Shrimp Stir Fry

splash of olive oil
4 tablespoons Smart Start or Butter
2-3 small fresh yellow squash (sliced) or one package frozen (thawed)
2-3 smallish zucchini (sliced)
2-3 red or orange bell peppers, chopped
12 ounce bag frozen shrimp (thawed)
8 ounce Philadelphia Cream cheese (we use the LIGHT)
1-2 tablespoons minced garlic to taste
salt and pepper to taste
1 package egg noodles cooked according to package

Heat a good splash of olive oil in a deep frying pan. Mine sort of looks like a Wok.
Saute your zucchini, squash, garlic and chopped peppers in the oil.
Add the butter and let it continue cooking until the veggies are done enough for your family.
Turn the heat down to medium and add the shrimp and cream cheese.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Stir to combine.
DO NOT LET THIS BOIL. Boiling cheese products tends to make them separate and it is very unappetizing.

Serve over egg noodles or rice.

Options:

Use all squash or all zucchini (today's picture is all squash)
Use assorted colors of bell peppers
Use chicken (cooked) instead of shrimp
All of your veggies can be fresh, or they can be frozen

My family loves this.

It is a FIVE out of FIVE from us:

Chicken Enchiladas

We quite often get one of those rotisserie chickens from the commissary. In fact, we sometimes get two. One to eat right away and one to pick the meat off to go into a family favorite, chicken enchiladas.

I've made this recipe so many times, I don't even have to hunt the printed copy down. All of the girls know how to make it, too. If you don't want to use the rotisserie chicken, you can just cook some breasts, boneless thighs, or tenders and shred them. I find that if you are going to cook the chicken yourself, boiling the meat with the bones and just a bit of skin gives the meat a better flavor.

Chicken Enchiladas

Heat oven to 350
Grease a 9x13 baking pan

2 cans cream of chicken soup
8 ounces sour cream (we use the light)
2-3 cups shredded cooked chicken meat
1 small can mild chopped chilies
1 cup shredded cheese, separated
10 soft flour tortillas (we use the plate sized ones)

In a small bowl mix the soup, sour cream and 1/2 cup shredded cheese.
Put about 3/4 of that mixture in a larger bowl and set the smaller bowl aside.
Add the chicken to the mixture in the larger bowl and combine

Place a thick line of the mixture on the tortilla, roll it up, and place it in the greased pan. You can make them fit pretty tightly.

Once all the tortillas are filled and rolled, take the small bowl of filling and cover the tortillas. Make sure you get the filling clear to the edges.

Sprinkle with the rest of the cheese. I didn't specify what kind of cheese to use. Just use whatever kind you like best. When I made this today for my husband's birthday, we used a mix of four different kinds.

If your family likes things more cheesy, use more!

Bake for about 30 minutes. The edges should be a bit bubbly and the cheese should be nice and melty. This doesn't really need to be cooked; it just needs to be heated all the way through.

You can adjust how much filling goes in each tortilla. You can choose to make them a bit leaner...or a bit plumper. Totally up to you.

Sorry, forgot to get a picture when it was done. Will add one the next time we make it!

This one gets a FIVE from the whole family:

Crock Pot Orange Pineapple Chicken

We all love Orange Chicken, be it from Panda Express or from the deli counter at Walmart. When I saw several recipes for it on Pinterest recently, I knew that we had to try it. Those glazed chicken pictures just called to me. They all look like Panda Express Orange Chicken. While reading the recipes, I realized that without battering and deep frying, the recipes won't turn out like the pictures, not if made in a crock pot! I was intrigued by the idea of using concentrated orange juice as the base of the sauce, as directed by many of those recipes.

Now, this is BIG...This recipe doesn't make that kind of Panda Express Orange Chicken. This is WET chicken, not deep fried or battered, and it doesn't end up glazed. So, while it isn't Panda Express Orange Chicken, it IS good and tasty.




CROCK POT ORANGE PINEAPPLE CHICKEN

Ingredients:
 

4 thighs with skin and bones (You could use all thighs, all tenderloins, or breasts)

8-10 chicken tenderloins

3/4 cup baby carrots

3 stalks celery, sliced thin

2 large red, orange or green bell peppers (I didn't have any when I first made it, dang it!)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 can Mandarin oranges, with the juice

1 cup pineapple chunks

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp pepper or to taste

8 ounces orange juice concentrate, thawed

**You could even add a splash of soy sauce for a more Oriental taste, maybe even a dash of Sesame Oil

 

Place the chicken chunks in the bottom of the crock pot and then put the fruit and veggies on top

Mix the orange juice concentrate with the spices and pour over the fruit and chicken

Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4

 

We served it with Jasmine rice.

 

This gets a FOUR out of FIVE on the Family Rating

as one child was not fond of it: