Spinach, Chicken & Rice Soup

We all love this soup, especially topped with sour cream & crackers.

2T olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1-10 oz pkg. frozen, chopped spinach

1 cup cooked chicken- chopped or shredded

1 1/2 cup cooked rice (white, basmati or brown)

1/2 t. crushed red pepper

1/2 t. oregano

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. black pepper

6 cups chicken broth

Saute onion in oil for 5 min in large soup pan.  Thaw spinach.

Add spinach, chicken, rice & spices to soup pan & cook for 1 minute, stirring.  Add broth & heat to low boil- simmer for 10 minutes.

Mac & Cheese

My little pasta piggie eats a lot of this every week.  Lately I've been steaming cauliflower while I cook the mac & cheese, puree it in the food processor with a little bit of water & just mix it in.  Normally it's about 1/4 cup of cauliflower.  He doesn't notice & I think it actually tastes better.  Since broccoli is the only fruit or veggie he'll eat, I take any opportunity I can to get him a little more nutrition!

Pizza Quesadillas

Last night I made Pizza Quesadillas for dinner. Yummy, quick & easy. I topped whole wheat tortillas with a cheese mix, sauteed mushrooms & pepperoni. Then we dipped them in warm pizza sauce. It was a hit all around & I didn't have to make a trip to the grocery store!

Soup time!

It's really freakin' cold outside. What's your favorite soup to make?

Deceptively Delicious!

I got the Jessica Seinfeld cookbook Deceptively Delicious for Christmas & have been cooking with it for the past week. I spent 4 hours in the kitchen the other day steaming, pureeing & freezing vegetables to sneak into my dinners. It's made me really excited about cooking because I feel like I'm doing something good for Jack, who doesn't eat any fruit at all & will only eat a little broccoli. And, once I started cooking her recipes it's been easy to see how I can adapt the purees for other foods I normally cook.

Here's what I've tried so far:
Pancakes w/ sweet potato puree- I make some pretty good pancakes & the sweet potatoes made them 10 times better. Yum.
Grilled cheese w/ sweet potato puree- Yum again. I add goat cheese crumbles to my grilled cheese. You couldn't even tell something was different about these.
Spaghetti Pie- The sauce had pureed carrots & the meatballs pureed broccoli. This was so tasty. Even better the 2nd day after I baked it again like all pasta.
Mac & Cheese w/ cauliflower puree- This was okay- a little creamy, but not terrible. It was reminiscent of cafeteria mac & cheese.
Sloppy Joes w/ sweet potato & butternut squash purees- John & I both liked this a lot. Yum, yum.