Taste Test Tuesday - Ravioli Soup

Taste Test Tuesday - Ravioli Soup

Ingredients:
1lb. ground beef or italian sausage (I opted for the ground beef)
1/2 cup diced onion
2 stalks celery, diced
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 cup diced zucchini
28 oz. can crushed tomatoes, undrained
4 cups chicken broth
9-12oz small cheese ravioli, cooked
grated parmesan

In a large soup pan, brown the ground beef with the celery and onion.  Season with the garlic salt, basil, and oregano.  Cook until the meat is crumbly and no longer pink.  Add olive oil and saute zucchini for a minute or two.  Add the chicken broth and canned tomatoes.  Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer for a few minutes.  Add the ravioli.  Serve with parmesan on top.

I tried this soup a while back and it was delicious!  I bought the precooked ravioli so I didn't need to do any prep before hand with that and it made this soup very easy to make.  I love meals that are one pot, quick, easy, and taste good!

Taste Test Tuesday - Fruit Salsa

Taste Test Tuesday - Fruit Salsa
Source: Kimberly Clark Health Services

Ingredients:
8 oz. can of crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup strawberries, chopped
2-3 kiwis, chopped
1 large orange, chopped
multi grain chips
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1-2 tsp sugar

Chop all the fruit up in to salsa size pieces and mix together.  Add the lemon juice and sugar, as needed.  Serve cold with multi grain chips or any tortilla chip.

I recently took a health class through the health center at my work and they talked quite a bit about healthier snack options.  They had this very recipe there for us to try and it was so good that I made it for our next cookout.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it.  It was a nice alternative to the typical salsa and is really great for this hot weather we have been having.  And on a great note, it's healthy for you!  I think you could add just about any fruit you wanted to this recipe too.

Taste Test Tuesday - Pesto Chicken Paninis

Pesto Chicken Paninis
Source: me!

Ingredients:
4 oz. chicken breast - one per sandwich
Bread - 2 slices per sandwich, any bread will do really, I chose a hearty italian
Pesto sauce
Fresh mozzarella


I used our George Foreman grill to make these paninis and I have to admit, this is the first time I have ever used that little machine, and we've had it for about 5 years!  It has now turned into my panini grill!  Cook your chicken on the grill until done, when there is no more pink inside.  Place the cooked chicken in a bowl, covering it with the pesto sauce.  I just chose to buy the dry pesto sauce that you mix with water and olive oil.  It is so simple!  Let the chicken marinate in the pesto sauce for about 5 minutes.  Now build your panini.  Butter one side of each piece of bread.  Place one slice, butter down on the grill.  Layer on a piece of pesto chicken and a few slices of the fresh mozzarella.  Top with the second piece of bread, butter up this time.  Close the grill and cook.  I just kept checking to see when the bread looked about done and the cheese was starting to melt.  It's kind of like making a grilled cheese sandwich.

The results on this panini.....DELICIOUS!  I wasn't so sure if Adam would care for the pesto sauce but he said these were really good too.  This is definitely going to be a regular meal in our house.  I can't wait to try out some other panini ideas I have as well.

Taste Test Tuesday - Chocolate Eclair Dessert

Taste Test Tuesday - Chocolate Eclair Dessert
Source: Mom

Ingredients:
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
4 eggs
1 large and 1 small package instant vanilla pudding
4 cups milk
2 - 8oz cream cheese
12 oz cool whip
chocolate syrup
maraschino cherries

Boil water and butter.  Remove from the heat and mix in flour, with a mixer.  Beat eggs in one at a time. Spread this in a greased 11x17 jelly roll pan.  Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.  Let crust cool.

Beat 1 cup milk with softened cream cheese.  Add the rest of the milk and pudding, mix until smooth.  Spread onto of cooled crust.  Spread the cool whip on top of pudding filling.  Drizzle with chocolate syrup and garnish with cherries (about one on each piece that will be cut).
Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of this ridiculously yummy dessert.  Next time I make it I will and update this listing.  Not only is this dessert delicious but it's also so pretty!  It makes a very large batch so it works out great for taking as a dish to pass.  I also love that this dessert is very light and doesn't make you feel so guilty after eating it.

Taste Test Tuesday - Chicken Stuffed Shells

Chicken Stuffed Shells
Source: modified from

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground chicken, cooked
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 box jumbo shell noodles
1/2 can of artichokes, chopped
1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce (we choose Tomato and Basil Prego)
8 oz. cream cheese

Preheat your oven to 350.  Mix the cream cheese with the ground chicken and add seasonings as you desire.  I added a little garlic powder and seasoning salt.  I also chose to mix in some chopped artichokes and half of my shredded mozzarella cheese.  These weren't in the original recipe I found but I thought they would pair well with the chicken and cream cheese.

In a large pot cook the jumbo noodles according to their package instructions.  Once shells are cooked and cooled, fill with the chicken cream cheese mixture.  Place these in a 9x13 baking dish.  Cover the noodles with your spaghetti sauce and then top with the remaining mozzarella cheese.  Bake for 25 minutes or until the cheese has melted.

This is what happens when I have no meal planned and I simply look in the cupboards and freezer for ingredients I have.  I then searched online for recipes using those ingredients and modify as necessary.  I would say this was a good pasta dish, very creamy, very NOT healthy!!

Taste Test Tuesday - Peanut Butterscoth Chocolate Crispy Bars

Peanut Butterscoth Chocolate Crispy Bars (aka Scotcharoos)
Source: Annie's Eats

Ingredients:
6 cups puffed rice cereal (buy generic store brand!)
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup honey
1 cup sugar
12 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips
12 oz. butterscotch chips

In a large bowl add the puffed rice cereal and peanut butter, but do not mix together.  Spray a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray.  Set both aside.

In a medium saucepan heat the honey and sugar.  Stir this occasionally until it starts to boil.  Remove from the heat and pour over the rice cereal and peanut butter.  Spray a spatula with cooking spray (this really helps!!!) and mix the mixture until the peanut butter has completely melted and the cereal is coated.

Press this into the baking pan evenly.  Either with a doubler boiler or in the microwave in a glass bowl (I choose for the microwave option) melt the chips together until they are shiny and smooth.  Stir together and pour over the cereal layer.  Spread this evenly.  Cover and chill until the top layer of chocolate is set, which is usually about an hour or less if you put in the fridge.

We love scotcharoos in our house but I've only ever made them with karo syrup before.  I always seem to boil it too long and I end up with very hard to cut and hard to eat scotcharoos.  So when I saw this recipe that instead of syrup combines honey with the sugar I thought I'd give it a try.  They were a bit tough to cut at first because I had them cooling in the fridge but I was pleasantly surprised when I bit into one, not hard at all!  This recipe will be replacing my karo syrup one!

Taste Test Tuesday Remix

Not quite a Taste Test Tuesday but wanted to share a recipe I recently tried.  I hate how sometimes the dog smell seems to take over our house and I don't want that to be the first thing people smell when they come in the door.  We were having a cookout last weekend so I thought I'd try a recipe I found here about making your house smell yummy.  All you do is take a sauce pan about half full of water.  Take three average size oranges and peel it.  To save time I just sliced the rinds off.  Throw those in the pot along with 1/2 tsp of cinnamon.  Bring it to a boil and then let simmer on the stove for as long as you want.  It makes the house smell heavenly!!!

Taste Test Tuesday - Butterfinger Blondies

While I have been somewhat decent at updating this on our lives and mostly Aubrey, I have not been so good on posting recipes I have tried out.  So I'm introducing Taste Test Tuesdays!  Every Tuesday I will try my hardest to post a new recipe within the week that I have tried.  And I will give a little review on it as well.  So here goes.

Butterfinger Blondies
source: Six Sisters' Stuff

Ingredients
1 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp coarse sea salt
2 cups coarsely chopped Butterfinger Bars (approx 16 “Fun Size” bars) 

Preheat oven to 350°
Cream butter and sugars in mixing bowl.  Add the vanilla and eggs and mix.  On low add your dry ingredients until just combined.  Stir in your chopped Butterfinger.  Spread in a greased 9×13 baking dish and bake for 25 minutes until center is just set.  Remove from oven and cool completely.

Buttercream Frosting Ingredients

1/2 cup room temp butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
2 1/2 – 3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup chopped Butterfinger Bars (approx 4 “Fun Size” bars)

Cream the butter and shortening together until smooth.  Add in you powdered sugar on low speed. Turn speed up to medium and mix until smooth and spread on your cooled blondies.  Sprinkle the chopped Butterfinger on top of the frosting.

Adam is a huge fan of butterfinger candy bars so when I saw this recipe I knew I had to try it.  I made it for a cookout we had with friends and I think just about everyone agreed....these blondies are heavenly!  We all tried to not think about the amount of calories in each bar as we chowed down.  My favorite candy bar is Heath and I think this recipe would be awesome with those.  Definitely going to put that on the recipe to do list!!!