Our Best Bites: Creamy Corn Chowder

Do you remember my favorite Christmas present? Did you run out and purchase it yet? I'm telling ya, its the best cook book ever.

I made Our Best Bite's Creamy Corn Chowder. And let me tell you, as far as soups go, this is probably one of the best I've ever had. I really really enjoyed this easy soup, and it didn't take much time or extra special ingredients to make. I had everything I needed to make it on a whim one night! Here is the recipe:

Creamy Corn Chowder
Recipe by Our Best Bites

2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. water
2 1/2 c. milk (skim or 1% work just fine and lighten it up considerably)
2 regular-sized chicken bouillon cubes, 1 Knorr chicken bouillon cube, or 2 tsp. chicken base
1/2 lb. bacon (optional)
1 small onion, minced
2 red potatoes, diced into small cubes
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can corn, drained or about 1 1/2 C frozen fresh corn
Salt and pepper to taste
A few dashes of hot sauce (like Tabasco or Cholula)

Fry bacon until crisp. In the meantime, melt butter over low heat in a soup pot. When melted, add flour to make a roux and whisk until it comes together in a little ball. Add water and whisk until completely combined and there are no lumps. Add milk and chicken base or bouillon and bring to a simmer. Add potatoes, onions, and garlic, and simmer (but don’t boil!), stirring very frequently, for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add crumbled bacon and corn and heat through. Add a few drops of hot sauce and then salt to taste. The reason why I don’t have an exact measurement is that while the soup REALLY needs salt, bacon also really differs in its saltiness, so it can be super easy to make this soup waaaaay too salty. Start with about 1/4 tsp., give it a few minutes, and then add more if you need it.

Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with extra bacon and/or cheese if you want. Because, you know, if there’s anything a perfectly healthy bowl of soup (it’s only 3 Weight Watchers points!) needs, it’s some extra bacon and cheese!

Serves 6-8.

I highly reccomend you try this soup, especially with the weather that has been going around. Get some crusty bread and dip chunks into it- YUM. I am actually making this soup for my parents that are visiting this weekend! Happy cooking!

My favorite Christmas Gift!

Happy New Year all you JubJub lovers! Did you have a fantastic holiday season? Are you ready for it to be over and to move on? (Me too!)

This year is going to be a great year, full of lots of new and exciting things. That also includes our shop, so keep your eye out for giveaways, free chains with purchase of pendant, coupon codes, all sorts of good stuff. We currently are in full swing of our Buy 3 Get 1 Free promotion. Its a great deal and never too early to think about Mother's Day, Birthdays, or heck, maybe even Christmas for next year! =)

Speaking of Christmas, I wanted to share what my favorite Christmas present was that I received this year. I love cook books. I am a sucker for a good recipe, and an even bigger sucker for good cook books full of good recipes! I follow a blog called Our Best Bites that posts amazing recipes that are SO good! They have all sorts of variety, and they only post things that they like, and think are easy to make. They don't work with too fancy or expensive ingredients because they are regular people/mom's just like me. 

Anyway, my mom (hi mom!) gave me their cook book this year for Christmas!

Doesn't the cover page look good enough to eat?! Imagine what's inside!

I have actually been looking at all the recipes for the last couple days, planning out what I want to cook.

This "Creamy Cilantro-Lime Ranch Dressing" is on the top of my list. I know you are thinking to yourself, "you want to make a Ranch Dressing? Woopie..." Seriously people! You have not loved life completely yet until you have made this dressing to go on top of a killer taco salad. Have you ever heard of Costa Vida or Cafe Rio, or even Bajio? They are all similar places that sport this dressing that make my life, and yours if you tried it, complete. Go HERE for the recipe to try it.

I guess the reason I am so excited about this recipe besides the fact that it is literally on my "favorite foods ever list", is because I have tried to duplicate this recipe without too much success. Mine was alright, but not the real deal.

So thanks mom for my sweet gift! And YOU out there reading this right now, go try this recipe, or find some other yummy recipes on this blog. I promise its worth it! Or pick up the cook book!

Happy cooking! (or eating!)

Pasta: With Red Sauce? Are you sure?

Here in my household we eat pasta. No. We eat a lot of pasta. You could probably say with confidence that in some variation, pasta is what we eat the most, at least once a week even!

My husband's all time favorite food happens to be spaghetti, so naturally we end up having this often. Now don't get me wrong, I love a good spaghetti too. But I'm not so much a fan of "red sauce" pastas as I am creams sauces. (Probably for obvious reasons, its cream!) Spaghetti is the only red sauce pasta that I make, and I'm OK with that.

Although, did you see my food storage? I have a million cans of red tomato spaghetti sauce. There has got to be another way to use this sauce without over exasperating the spaghetti dishes. 

So I asked a buddy at work (thanks Joe!) if he had any good recipes. He said some kind of fancy name, because he is Italian, but it basically means Red Sauce, Sausage, and Pasta. So here it is folks!

Red Sauce Sausage Pasta

6 cloves garlic, diced

1 stick butter

1 pound pork sausage (could be any kind you want, I just got some Jimmy Dean.)

1 large jar/can red spaghetti sauce

1 cup Parmesan cheese (powder stuff you shake on pizza)

1 bag, or 8 oz, (2 cups I think) grated mozzarella cheese

1 box hearty pasta, like Penna or Ziti

(These are all just approximations. When I cook I tend to not measure. So I just throw stuff in and adjust, give it a try! Its fun!)

Saute your garlic in the butter (yes the whole stick) in a large skillet. Then add the ground sausage and brown off. Add the spaghetti sauce and let it thicken up a bit. Add the Parmesan cheese and continue to cook and thicken on a lower temperature.

All the while, cook your pasta.

Then when the past is done, toss together the pasta and sauce. Then melt the Mozzarella over the top of it and ENJOY!

I really didn't think I would like it. But it was SO STINK'N GOOD! I always associate sausage with breakfast foods. So to have it in a dinner pasta sounded weird. On top of the fact that, remember, I don't care for red sauce all that much. (Same for on pizza, but that is a while other topic really.) 

This pasta has a richness and depth in its flavor. I highly recommend it, because it is not only yummy, but very easy to make. And you can make it any way you want! Put less butter in, put some mushrooms in, try a different kind of cheese, onions (don't put onions in it, bleh), whatever you want!

 No meal is complete without some good vegetables, garlic bread, and my husband's Darth Vadar cup! Happy eating!

Healthy breakfast CAN taste yummy!

Breakfast is one of my favorite meals. Well, I guess I should say its one of my favorites when you actually get "breakfast food". None of this singular item choices: cereal or oatmeal or toast or eggs... If you are going to do breakfast, then do it right! "Do you want sausage or bacon?" Always BOTH! =)

But sometimes "doing it right", having all the fixin's and such, isn't very conducive to your waist line. So I have a solution! It fits both in the real breakfast food category, and healthy category!

Breakfast Burritos

1. Scrambled eggs

2. Cherry/grape tomatoes sliced in half

3. Chopped cilantro

4. Put it all on a wheat tortilla (or regular if you wish)

5. YUM

Super easy right? You could even make it more healthy if you want by using just egg whites. The cool thing about this though is, yes its healthy and its super awesome, but we eat it mostly because it tastes so dang good. I highly recommend it.

Can you tell that Deric's is the one on the left?

Give it a try and see what you think! Happy Breakfast to ya!