Bison and Venison Meatballs with a Roasted Beet Salad Dressed with a Yuzu Poppy Agave Dressing

One of my new years resolutions was to be more aware of where ALL of my food comes from. Over the past few years I have really begun to notice little things here and there that are just not quite right with the food that’s out there on grocery shelves. I have always been a label reader and have made conscious decisions about what I purchase but even then I find myself surprised in the results of companies that are clearly being deceitful. For instance the other day I decided I would boil some eggs to have as a snack for last week with lunch… When boiling them, my “brown” (supposedly cage free) eggs starting peeling off this brown paint like film- it was then apparent that these eggs have been bleached and then dyed brown to look more natural… REALLY?!? Is that what the consumer is paying about $1.50-$2.00 extra for? WOW…

There are so many mis-labled food items out there whether it be “Organic” (theres are so many variations of ‘Organic’), “All Vegetarian Diet” (Lot’s of GMO corn counts), “Free-Range” (free to roam in there 5×5 pen with other chickens), “Fat Free” (may as well replace that term with 50+ ingredients, 40 of which you cannot even give a definition for), and my all time favorite “All Natural” this is the biggest crock of shit term ever coined whether it’s on human food or animal food! I recently bought some “All Natural” dog  jerky treats that I come to find out were made in China and are killing dogs due to the way the process the chicken… I could go on and on. The best thing you can do is educate yourself and make educated purchases when it comes to you and your families food.

So I have decided the best way to be aware of what I eat is by shopping local as much as possible and staying away from processed food items when at all possible. In Austin we are lucky to have so many great Farmer’s Markets at our dispense selling everything under the sun. I used to do workshare for Johnson’s Backyard Farm last year where I’d work for 5 hours and then get a large share of veggies. I really liked being a part of where the food I eat comes from! So now that I’ve moved to Lago Vista I just went ahead and became a member of the farm so I can pick up my produce on weekends! It’s really good to eat seasonally and locally – it tastes better, you know where your food was grown, and you support your community.

Click here to join the Johnson’s Backyard Farm

I’m going to share a recipe with you that uses nothing but fresh organic food and humanely processed meats. I hope you enjoy!

Prep: 20

Cook Time: 1 hr 30 min

Serves: 4

Meatball Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb venison sausage, ground (Thanks Liz and Kyle, I love you and your love for good food).
• 1/2 lb bison, ground
• 2 C. whole wheat bread crumbs ( I made my own bread, served the rest with dinner and took the neighbors a loaf).
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 TBS. fresh parsley
• 5 large spinach leaves, chiffonade
• 1 green onion, chopped (the whole the green and scallion).
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 farm fresh egg
• 1 TBS butter

As a side note….Fennel would go great in these meatballs as well, I always do sausage and fennel so I wanted to do something different this time.

Instructions:

1. Pre-Heat Oven to 350 F.
2. Mix everything from above together minus the butter. Form into 10-12 balls.
3. Heat large skillet with butter on medium high, cook for 2 min on each side, browning the balls on most sides. 5-8 min
4. Transfer to oven for 10-15 min or until cooked through.

Roasted Beet Salad with Poppy Yuzu Agave Dressing Ingredients:

• 3 Large beets with leaves on top, cleaned and peeled and chopped into medium bite sized pieces.
• Beet leaves, washed and vein trimmed out. (Don’t throw these out, these are so good, they taste like a denser, sweeter spinach!)
• 1 Large shallot, sliced.
• 4 Garlic cloves, leave whole

Dressing

• 2 TBS Yuzu juice (this is one of my newest cooking “MUST HAVES”).
• 1 TBS clementine juice
• 1 TBS lemon juice
• 1 TBS agave nectar
• 1 TBS shallot, minced
• 2 TBS apple cider vinegar
• 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp poppy seeds
• Mix all of the above and chill while beets cook.

Instructions:

1. Preheat Oven to 375 F.
2. Place beets, shallots, and garlic into a glass baking dish. Drizzle lightly with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Just until coated evenly. Bake for 40-50 min or until soft and starting to turn golden.
3. Cool for 30 min or so.
4. Place beets on greens and toss with dressing.

Serve with warm bread and butter.

Coming soon: My BEST pizza to date:  Brussel Spout, Bacon, and Shallot Pizza with homemade dough!

Bacon Wrapped Quail Stuffed with La Marechal Emmi Cheese and Jalapeno : Pan Seared in Duck Fat Served with Grilled Brussel Sprouts

This is one of my FAVORITE dishes to make for dinner guests. It’s so incredibly good and is sure to please!  La Marechal Emmi Cheese is so amazing with this dish, it really ties it all together. I served this with grilled brussel sprouts, a potato gratin, and homemade bread. The plates were cleaned (except for the bones of course). This is a great special occasion dinner as well. The quail can be hard to find and are a bit on the pricey side, I pay about $ 3-4 per quail and like to serve 2-3 per person. You can always ask your hunter friends

Prep: 30 min

Cook Time: 20-30 min

Serves: 4 with 2 quail per person

Ingredients:

• 8 semi-boneless quail, washed and pat dry.
• 8 slices of bacon, nitrate free please
• 1 block of  La Marechal Emmi Cheese, about 8 oz or so.
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and sliced into 8 long slices
• 2 TBS rendered duck fat, you can buy it here via Marx Foods
• Sea Salt and fresh ground pepper
• 1lb of brussel sprouts, halved
• 1 clove of garlic, minced for brussel sprouts
• 1 TBS butter for brussel sprouts
• 1 lemon, zest on top of sprouts

Instructions:

1. Clean quail and stuff with one piece of jalapeno, one chunk of cheese, and wrap with bacon. Repeat until done with all 8.
2. Preheat oven to 375 F.
3. Gather 2 large skillets. One for quail and one for sprouts, use a griddle if you have one for the sprouts to “grill” them. Bring skillets to medium high then add 2 TBS of duck fat to the quail skillet and 1 TBS of butter and garlic to the sprouts skillet.
4. Add quail and sprouts to respective skillets: Cook quail for about 3-4 min on each side and season with salt and pepper lightly. Then transfer to the oven in a shallow baking pan for 5 more min. Do not over cook. Cook sprouts until nice and browned (tossing occasionally), season lightly with salt and pepper. Keep warm in a covered dish.
5. Once quail are done in the oven plate your food and serve with a big red like Chocolate Block

Enjoy! Cheers!

It’sa Parma Pizza! My Rendition of a Favorite from Mandola’s Italian Market

Ever since I got my Kitchen Aid mixer I’ve been experimenting with tons of new things (new to me)! I love bread so I’ve made a few batches of that lately. I’ve also been doing pizza crusts which are FAR better than anything you can buy frozen or pre-made We recently moved far away from any “real” pizza (all that’s out here is Domino’s). So one night I decided I would create one of our favorites at home. This is my rendition of the Parma Pizza at Mandola’s Italian Market. It was very similar, it had crispy crust, it looked the same,  and it was tasty! The only thing I would have done differently was get the dough thinner (we prefer cracker like crust), this was a bit thicker but still good. I still miss our usual Thursday Mandola’s night out… but this helps!

Prep: 1.5 hrs

Cook Time: 15-20

Serves: 2-3

Dough

Ingredients:

• 1 (1/4 ounce) Package active dry yeast
• 1 C. Warm water
• 1/2 tsp. Sea salt
• 2 tsp Olive oil
• 2 1/2-3 1/2 cups All-purpose flour
• 1/4 C. Cornmeal

Directions:

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed bowl.
2. Add sea salt, olive oil, and 2 1/2 cup flour.
3. Attach bowl and dough hook, turn to speed 2 and mix 1 minute.
4. Continuing on speed 2, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until dough clings to dough hook and cleans sides of bowl. Knead on speed 2 for 2 minutes.
5. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top.
6. Cover, let rise in warmest place in house away from draft until doubled in bulk (about 1 hour).
7. Punch dough down.
8. Brush 14 inch pizza pan with oil and sprinkle cornmeal to cover pan.
9. Press dough across bottom of pan forming collar around edge to hold filling Top with fillings and bake at 425°F for 15-20 minutes.

 Toppings

• 7-9 Slices of Parma ham aka Prosciutto
• 1/4 C. Parmigiano Reggiano , shredded
• 1/2 C. Mozzarella, shredded
• 4 C. Fresh arugula
• Olive oil, 2 TBS
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning blend
• 1/4 tsp. Thyme
• 1/2 tsp. Red pepper
• 1/4 tsp. Sea salt
• 10-15 Pieces of shaved Parmigiano Reggiano
• Lemon juice from 2 lemons and a tsp of olive oil mixed together.

Instructions:

1. Prepare dough and make pie.
2. In a small bowl mix olive oil and spices.
3. Spread oil mixture onto pie evenly.
4. Distribute 1/2 C. Mozzarella on to pie.
5. Distribute Parma ham on top of the cheese.
6. Sprinkle the Parmigiano Reggiano lightly on top of the Parma ham.
7. Bake for about 15 min-20 min until crust is crispy.
8. Top with arugula and shaved Parmigiano Reggiano.
9. Drizzle lemon juice and oil on top!

Polish Party Time!

For my Mom’s 56th Birthday I wanted to do something really special. My Mom and I didn’t always get along wonderfully when I was younger and it seems like the older I get the more I really have started to connect with her. I’m sure many of you can relate… So I had been thinking and thinking about what I could do and it hit me… Over the Christmas break my Mom mentioned to me how her Dad used to cook the best Polish sausage but no one could ever get the recipe right when they tried (he took the recipe to the grave).  So I decide I was going to make polish sausage from scratch, REAL polish sausage! I sought out relatives, Google, books, etc… and went with my gut instinct on the recipe from my research. So for my Mom’s birthday I surprised her with a full blown polish celebration: Sausage, Perogies, Polish Mistakes, and Polkas – the whole nine yards!  The day before the party my Mom and I made the sausage together and I got to hear stories about my Grandpa and her childhood (I never met him since he passed before I was born). It occurred to me at this point that there was a lot of this (stories and memories) missing from our relationship so it was really nice to experience this and hear her accounts. I think my Mom was a little emotional by realizing this as well.

For the festivities we had a handful of friends over and made the perogies, Polish Mistakes, and of course drank FAR TOO much wine and beer! I felt terrible the next morning but very proud that everything turned out amazingly good! There’s just something so gratifying about making/eating 100% homemade unprocessed food (minus those Polish Mistakes haha)!

I’d like to share the Perogie and Polish Mistake recipes with you all. However the sausage will indeed remain a secret between my Mom and I. Oh and if you’ve never made sausage from scratch it’s a huge PAIN IN THE ASS, but sooo very good and different from what you get in the stores.

Pierogies

Prep time: 1 hr

Cook Time: 20-45 min depending on fillings (potato takes longer).

Serves: 8

• 5 C. All purpose Flour
• 3 Eggs
• 3/4 tsp Kosher sea salt
• 1 TBS Sour cream
• 1 TBS Oil
• 1 C. Water
• 2 Onions, sliced.
• 2-4 TBS Butter

Instructions:

1. Mix dry ingredients in mixer on low, then add wet, mix on low until dough like consistency. Add more flour or water until it’s right.
2. Divide dough into medium sized balls and roll out through a pasta roller. Cut flattened dough into circles with a cup or cookie cutter. Should be about 4″ in diameter.
3. Fill with your choice of stuffing. We did potato and onion, potato onion and cheese, kraut and bacon, and Ricotta and parsley.
4. Seal pierogies with an egg wash or water. Par boil for 2 min then pan cook in butter with onions until browned.

Polish Mistakes

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 25 min

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients:

• 1lb Beef, 85/15
• 1lb Country Pan Sausage
• 1/2 Block of Velveeta Cheese (this is about the ONLY thing I would ever put Velveeta in).
• 1 TBS Garlic powder
• 2 TBS Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Loaf of small Party Rye slices

Instructions:

1. Pre-Heat oven to 350 F.
2. Brown meats, add cheese and spices.
3. Mix well and spoon mixture onto little rye slices.
4. Bake for 10-15 min.

These look very strange but trust me they are good!

It was such a fun time with good friends and good food!!! Time consuming for sure but well worth it!

Happy New Year from Zestybeandog and Co! Yard Birds with Agave Garlic Citrus Jalapeno Glaze, Black Eyed Peas, and Sun Dried Tomato Bread

Happy 2012 to Everyone! It’s been a crazy couple of weeks but all is well in Zestybeandog Land! We have successfully had Christmas with both families, packed a 1,700 sqft house into a 10×20 storage unit, moved to Lago Vista from Austin to stay at Evan’s  parents home for the next 1-2 years while they’re in Singapore, unpacked some kitchen stuff, had a low key NYE celebration playing poker and enjoying drinks, and of course cooked up a great New Year’s Day meal for everyone. We are so grateful for our families for all of the amazing help we had… or we’d probably still be packing boxes! Here’s to new adventures and good times in 2012. I wish you all the best of everything not only for 2012 but for all the years to come. Cheers!

I’d also like to give a personal shout out to my fellow foodie bloggers: Five Reflections, Rufus’s Food and Spirits Guide, Simple Speedy Snacks, Twistedvines, Talinorfali, Bam’s Kitchen, Saffron and Honey, The Kale Chronicles, The Complete Cook Book, Coffee with Caroline,Pure and Complex, Sports Glutton, Charles with Five Euro Food, Tandy with Lavender and Lime, Sweet Caroline’s Cooking,Hotly Spiced, Edible Substance, Food Diary of a Picky Eater, Adesinsa’s Kitchen AND to all I may have missed, I’m still in a food coma

Yard Birds with Glaze

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 3-4 hours

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

• 2 Whole chickens 4-4.5 lbs each
• 1 C. Amber agave nectar
• 2 TBS Butter
• 1 Jalapeno, minced
• 1 Garlic clove, minced
• 1 Clementine, juiced
• 2 TBS Sugar
• 1 tsp Sea Salt, kosher
• 1 tsp Green peppercorn, finely ground
• Charcoal
• Mesquite wood chips, soaked in water for 20 min
• Salt and Pepper

Instructions:

1. Prep smoker, with about 10-12 lbs of charcoal and wood chips.
2. Make glaze in small sauce pot. Mix all ingredients besides the chicken, and last 3 items on the list. Bring to a simmer and then cook on low for 5 min, stirring occasionally.
3. Salt and pepper washed chickens, place on smoker and glaze every 30 min until chicken reached an internal temp of 165 F.

We paired this with a Brooklyn Lager 2, it was great!

Black Eyed Peas

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 3 hrs

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients:

• 22 oz Black eyed peas,  like Melissa’s
• 5 Thick slices of bacon, cut up into chunks
• 2 Tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 Jalapeno, diced
• 1 Garlic clove, minced
• 1.5 TBS Better than Bullion Paste
• 5 C. Water
• 2 tsp. Cumin
• 1 TBS. Pepper
• 1 tsp. Paprika
• 1 tsp. Garlic powder
• 1 tsp. chili powder

Instructions:

Add all ingredients to crock pot and cook for 3 hrs on high.

Bread Recipes coming soon

Snowballs for Santa… Friends and Family in Texas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my foodie friends! I hope you all have tons of great food and drinks with your families! We are packing up the house as I speak, but still finding time for good food and family time. Tonight I’m making quail,  risotto, and brussel sprouts. My Dad’s making shrimp cocktail to start off the meal Of course we will be having these little snowball cookies for dessert, if Santa is lucky there may be a few left for him…

These are great and easy little cookies that are great for Christmas time!

Prep: 10 min

Cook: 20-25 min

Servings: 45-50 cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 C. Butter
• 2/3 C. Sugar, granulated
• 4 tsp. Vanilla extract
• 4 tsp. Water
• 4 C. Flour
• 2/3 C. Powdered sugar
• 1.5 C. Pecan pieces

Instructions:

1. Pre-Heat oven to 325 F.
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy with hand mixer.
3. Add vanilla and water and cream again.
4. Add Four and pecans and mix well with a spoon or hands.
5. Roll into little balls with hands and keeps as balls.
6. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 min or until done.
7. Let cool for 15 -20 min and roll in powdered sugar.

Enjoy! Cheers!

Crawfish Étouffée with Jalapeno Cheese Cornbread

Hey fellow foodies! I was out over the weekend with my husband for our first wedding anniversary! We had a blast, maybe even too much fun It started Saturday with some Christmas shopping for our family. Then we went to the lake (where Evan’s parents live and we soon will be living in 8 days… more on that in a moment).

I made us (Evan’s parents and us) a delightful dinner: Quail wrapped in bacon, stuffed with La Marechal Emmi Cheese, Jalapenos, and seared in duck fat. They offered to dog sit for our big day/night out on the town the following day. On Sunday we got up took the dog out for a quick walk and then made our way to downtown. We stayed at the Driskill, one of my favorite places in Austin (we came here after our wedding a year ago on that day). For dinner we went to Uchi and drank and ate far too much, it was incredible as usual! It was the perfect way to celebrate one year of marriage and many more to come!

Back to the whole moving thing… in 8 days (oh my I cannot believe how close it is), we are moving to Lago Vista for at least a year possibly 2. Evan’s parents will be going to Singapore for work and then when they return they will be retiring! We are lucky enough to be staying in their beautiful home while they are away! I would imagine this may be my last blog post until the new year since I will be waist deep in packing the house up. So if you don’t hear from me for about a week, that’s why

This Crawfish Étouffée is simple to make and not very time intensive! For all of you cajun purist out there, beware I have made some modifications so don’t hate

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 20-25 min

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 1lb Crawfish- thawed tails, cooked ( I buy the frozen bag already peeled and cooked, just tails when they are not in season).
• 1/2 Stick of salted butter
• 2 TBS Rendered duck fat (if you do not have this you can get some at Marx Foods or you can add more butter (2 TBS). I know what you’re thinking… but there’s nothing healthy about this dish so why not add some duck fat!!!
• 1 Green bell, chopped
• 1 Red bell, chopped
• 1 Sweet yellow onion, chopped
• 1/4 Poblano pepper, chopped
• 1 C. Chopped celery
• 1/4 C. Shallots, minced
• 2 Cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. Green peppercorns, finely ground.
• 1 tsp. Sea salt, kosher
• 1 TBS of your fav. cajun spice mix
• 1 Pinch of cayenne pepper if desired, the poblanos to contain some heat.
• 2 Whole bay leaves
• 1/2 C. Chicken Stock,  1/2 C. Water 2 TBS flour, dissolve flour in it.
• 2 C. Uncooked rice long grain white rice (there will be left over rice).
• 4 C. Chicken stock for rice and a TBS of olive oil.

Instructions:

1. Get rice going with broth and oil. cook accordingly to package.
2. In a large skillet or dutch oven heat butter and duck fat on high (don’t burn it though), add all of the veggies, garlic, and shallots. Cook for about 10-12 min or until onions are translucent.
3. Add crawfish and spices cook for 5 min.
4. Add water/broth and flour mixture and let thicken for about 4-5 min.
5. Taste and add salt or cajun spice if needed (depending on your broth and cajun seasoning you may need to add something).
6. Remove bay leaves and serve Crawfish Étouffée over rice with a side of corn bread (recipe coming soon).

Enjoy and Cheers!

Versatile Blogger Award :)

I am so excited to have been nominated this week for the versatile blogger award.

Thank you so much to :

http://ediblesubstance.wordpress.com/

for nominating me. I’m so grateful. I really enjoy blogging and its great to know that other people enjoy reading and creating the recipes in my blog too.

The rules for the award are:
1) Thank the person who nominated me and link back to them in my post.

2) Share 7 things about myself

3) Pass the award on to 10 (it said 15 but I only did 10, make it your call) more bloggers that I enjoy

4) Contact the bloggers I have chosen to let them know that they have been selected!

Seven things about me:

1. In college I majored in Sculpture and graduated with a BFA, Bachelor of Fine Arts. So I did a lot if welding and wood work

2. My Dad taught me how to cook when I was younger and got me interested in creating new things.

3. A year ago I married my best friend Evan! We had known each other since Jr. High and were great friends all through high school. We ended up going to the same college and started dating our Jr. year of college. (Yes this picture is from then…)

4. I rarely use recipes anymore, I have been doing a lot of experimenting this past year

5. I love to compete (especially in cooking challenges). So far I have 3 wins under my belt: 3rd place in The Food Experiments : Pork Experiment with my cuban sliders, 2nd Place in a Chili cook off with my Bison Chili, and Reader’s Poll Pick for the Fregola Dessert Contest, with Bacon and Vanilla Fregola Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. I can’t wait to compete in some more!

6. While I love to cook and blog, I keep busy with a plethora of odd (but mostly fun) jobs…to pay the bills. I’m a certified personal trainer so I have a handful of clients that I love training, I dog walk, I do social media marketing for a small local business, and I do some personal assisting for a good friend of mine that’s handicapped. I’m also going to night school once a week at Yoga Yoga to become a yoga teacher, I’ll be certified in June and cannot wait!

7. My dream is to one day live out in the country on a small farm with a nice sized garden. I’d like to produce all of the food I consume and just maybe…. have a very small restaurant. Nothing fancy, just a set menu each day with a handful of options that are all farm fresh and grown/raised by me and maybe some friends.

10 Bloggers I enjoy and find most versatile are :

http://tandysinclair.com/

FiveEuroFood.com

http://sports-glutton.com/

thecompletecookbook.wordpress.com

http://thekalechronicles.com/

http://muchomuchobuenobueno.blogspot.com/

rufusguide.wordpress.com

http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/

http://lonelygourmet.com/

http://coffeewithcaroline.wordpress.com/author/chicagolawfirmmarketing/

Cheesy Bison and Shallot Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms Topped with Zucchini and Parmesan

I was recently inspired to make these Stuffed Mushrooms when reading a fellow foodies blog post last week from Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide. I had been thinking about stuffing some for about a month and when I saw his post, it sealed the deal. I served them with some saffron and tomato rice and some sauteed Swiss Chard. It was a great meal, I’m sure Evan will be asking for this one again…

Also I’d like to thank you all for voting for me in the Marx Foods Fregola Dessert Challenge, I won! Now for the hard part… picking out $100 worth of Marx foods, Aye!!! All the amazing choices!!! To say thank you I’d like to share with you a way to get your own free samples, Marx Foods is freakin’ AWESOME!

If you are interested, email Katie: kwallace at marxfoods dot com.   Include in your email your address, full name and blog URL.

Supplies are limited, so first come first served.  And, you don’t really have to be a blogger … if you promise to put the ingredients to good use and take your culinary game to the next level, then they will send some to you anyway.

Prep: 20 min

Cook Time: 2o min

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb Fresh bison, ground.
• 1/8 C. Minced Shallots
• 1 Clove of garlic, minced
• 2 Large portabella mushrooms
• 3/4 C. Cheese blend, I used provolone, swiss, asiago, and white cheddar.
• 1/2 C. Light sour cream
• 2 TBS. Parmesan Reggiano , (the good kind please).
• 1 Small Zucchini, sliced in thin circles.
• 1/2 TBS. Butter
• 1/2 tsp. Sea Salt
• 1/2 tsp. Pepper
• 1 tsp. Zestybeandog Fine Herb Blend

Instructions:

1. Pre-Heat Oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium skillet, brown bison, shallots, and garlic until cooked.
3. Add in sour cream, most of the cheese blend (save a couple pinches to top the meat on you place in mushroom), and spices, mix well.
4. Wash off mushrooms if need be. Transfer meat mixture into mushrooms. Put remaining blend cheese on top.
5. Heat same skillet back up to high (should still be hot) and add butter, and brown zucchini rounds and flip and repeat.
6. Top mushrooms with zucchini’s (about 5-6 per mushroom). Then sprinkle a TBS of parm on top of each.
7. Bake for about 20 min.

Enjoy and cheers!

Brrrr…. It’s Cold! Have Some Chicken Noodle Soup :)

I love chicken noodle soup! Evan and I rarely get sick (knock on wood) so I cannot just wait until one of us gets sick to make it It’s good when you’re 100% I promise! Also If you haven’t already…please vote for my last blog of Bacon and Vanilla Fregola Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting that’s in the Marx Foods Dessert Challenge, voting ends today at 12 PST, it’s easy no email or registration needed to vote! Thanks for all of your support.

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 2 hrs

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:

• 32 oz Chicken Stock (use homemade or something like Kitchen Basics).
• 1 C. Water
• 2 Chicken breasts, raw and cubed into bite sized pieces
• 2 C. Sliced or cubed carrots
• 2 C. Sliced celery
• 1/2 Large sweet yellow onion, diced
• 2 TBS Fresh thyme
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 TBS Zestybeandog Fine Herb Blend
• 1/2 TBS fresh black pepper
• 10 oz Homemade egg noodles

Instructions:

1. Transfer stock to a large pot and turn heat to high, bring to a boil.
2. Add vegetables and spices Set timer and cook for 20 min then reduce to low heat.
3. Add chicken when it has been an hour and fifteen minutes and cover.
4. During the last 20 min add pasta and cook until al dente.
5. Salt to taste. (This will vary depending on your stock you used)

Serve with cornbread, crackers, or toast….maybe even a grilled cheese.

Cheers!