Beef Taco Skillet

At the end of a long and tiring day, who in the heck wants to make dinner? I sure don't. But I can't exactly afford to eat out every night for dinner either. Consequently, I love it when I can make a dinner that is not only delicious, but requires as little time possible to prepare.

Most evenings, as it nears my son's bedtime hour, my son does not like my attention being diverted away from him. Too often I find myself shuffling around the kitchen with a very opinionated little guy prancing around at my feet, unpacking my entire kitchen as I go. Needless to say, a quick dinner is the only thing that can keep my family fed without completely destroying my kitchen or my sanity.

Now for my commercial bit...

When it comes to a quick dinner, I find that Campbell's condensed soups often work wonders as a base for a meal. Cream of Chicken and Cream of Mushroom were my two all time favorites for making gravies, sauces, you name it. But now I have a new one to add to the group: tomato soup. Of course you don't have to use Campbell's brand soups. But I have found that, out of other condensed soup brands I have tried, it's one that I favor over others.

So yes, today's recipe was brought to you by Campbell's tomato soup. The original Campbell's recipe for this dish was alright, however, it was seriously lacking in flavor. It kind of tasted like a watered down version of sloppy joes or like Chef Boyardee which is...yuck...we don't even need to go there. But after a little alteration here and there, I was able to create a flavor packed dinner that was, above all else, super easy and quick to make. In fact, reading this post will probably take you longer than it will to make the dish. So I'm going to shut up now and let you go enjoy this quick delicious meal.

Beef Taco Skillet

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. ground beef
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed tomato soup
1/2  cup chunky salsa
1/2 cup water
5 large flour tortillas cut into 1" pieces
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1-2 Tbs spicy taco seasoning (I actually used a spicy chipotle dip mix that worked great!)

Cook beef in skillet over medium-high heat until well browned, stirring often to separate meat. Pour off fat.

Stir in soup, salsa, water, taco seasoning, and tortillas in skillet and heat to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cook 5 minutes. Stir. Top with cheese.

Vegan Lemon Bundt Cake

Sugar. My sweet, sweet, oh-so unhealthy but sinfully delicious friend. When I am stressed, you offer me a moist warm cookie to get lost in. When I feel moody and frumpy, there you are with rich chocolate kisses. When I have suffered a heart ache, you serve me up a pint of creamy cold ice cream. When my friends and family are over, you entertain their taste buds with dazzling cakes and pies. For every birthday, holiday, winning little league team, broken heart, romantic date, and countless other memorable times in our lives; sugar has been there.

For years, I must admit, chocolate was my go-to sweet treat. But as I have ran into my adult years, I find myself gravitating more and more towards desserts that feature lemon, lime, and other tart flavors as their main attraction. Key-lime pie, lemon meringue pie, lemon cookies, lemon drops, lime sorbet, and lemon cake. With the tangy, mouth-watering citrus to balance out the sweet sugar base of the dessert, it is a flavor that brings my taste buds to life.

The recipe I am posting today is one for vegan lemon bundt cake. When I first came across the recipe in the book "The Joy of Vegan Baking" I found that the cake seriously lacked enough lemon flavor and, because of it's use of maple syrup in the recipe, made it taste oddly of lemon pancakes. So I altered the recipe to my liking and the recipe below is what I came up with. I found it to be moist, dense, and yet surprisingly light in flavor. I hope you enjoy!

Lemon Sauce

Ingredients:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup boiling water
zest and juice from 2 lemons

In a large saucepan, stir together the sugar and cornstarch. Gradually stir in the boiling water, and simmer over low heat until thick, stirring occasionally. Stir in the lemon zest and juice, and remove from the heat. Serve warm or at room temperature over cake.

Vegan Lemon Bundt Cake

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
zest of 2 lemons
6 teaspoons Ener-G Egg replacer (equivalent of 4 eggs)
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup lemon sauce*
1/2 cup canola (or vegetable) oil
1/2 cup nondairy milk
1 tablespoon lemon extract
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 recipe lemon sauce*

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a Bundt pan.

In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, making soda, salt, and lemon zest until well combined.

In a medium bowl mix the egg replacement powder with the water until frothy (about 2 minutes). Add the lemon juice, lemon sauce, canola (or vegetable) oil, milk, and lemon and vanilla extracts, and blend again for another minute.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and pulls away from the edges of the pan. Let cool completely before unmolding. Serve with lemon sauce.

Holiday Rewind: Pumpkin Dip

This is the last post of the holiday rewind! I have to admit, this recipe was a Pintrest find. It was extremely easy to make (seriously, less than ten minutes), and it basically tasted like softened pumpkin pie ice cream. It's great for parties, and it's dangerously snackable. I made this as part of some pre-Thanksgiving dinner snacks and the family seemed to really enjoy it, especially my son. Since the holidays are packed with tons of sweet treats as it is, it was nice to have a lighter alternative dessert for my son. He still got a sweet treat without the major sugar crash so it was a win win for all of us!

Pumpkin Dip

Ingredients:
1 can of pumpkin (15oz)
1 box of instant vanilla pudding (5oz. Just the powder. Don't make the pudding!)
1 container of cool whip (16oz)
1/2 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

Mix pumpkin, pudding mix, cool whip, and pumpkin pie spice together in a large bowl.

Chill for 2-3 hours before serving.

Sprinkle with cinnamon just before serving. Serve with fresh fruit slices, vanilla wafers, and/or ginger snaps.

Holiday Rewind: Pumpkin Pie

The last two recipes I have to post for the holiday rewind are both pumpkin based desserts: pumpkin pie and pumpkin dip. I know it seems a bit funny to do a post on pumpkin pie considering that nearly every can of pumpkin comes with a printed recipe for pie on its label. But the recipe I am posting today has a very minor but noteworthy alteration.

Every year I have followed the recipe for pumpkin pie off of the can label and I never had any complaints. The pie was good and tasted like classic store-bought pumpkin pie. But this year, since I was hosting Thanksgiving for the first time, I wanted to give my pie that little extra sparkle. So I went on a recipe hunt, looking through dozens of variations of pumpkin pie to find any tips that could give my classic recipe a small face-lift. I didn't want anything to be drastically different since I still wanted it to taste like a traditional pumpkin pie. But I was hoping to find a way to give the flavor more depth. Finally, I came across a suggestion for creating a more rich-tasting custard. And you know what the grand old secret for a better tasting pumpkin pie was? Adding more eggs. With the addition of a couple extra eggs, the pumpkin pie filling was noticeably more rich in flavor and it gave it a moist, thick custard texture that really did make a difference. I honestly wasn't expecting that the addition of a couple more eggs would make any difference at all. But it really did. And the best part was, it didn't change the overall classic taste or look of pumpkin pie.

This recipe yields two pies.

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:
two 9 inch pie crusts
6 eggs
1 can (29 oz) solid-packed pumpkin
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 cups evaporated milk

Beat eggs in a mixing bowl. Add pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, salt, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger; beat just until smooth. Gradually stir in milk. Pour into pastry shells.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees; bake 40-45 minutes longer or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Cool on wire racks.

Holiday Rewind: Sweet and Spicy Cranberry Sauce

Okay. Post two of the holiday rewind. Today's post is about cranberry sauce. It's sad that, more often than not, cranberry sauce is depicted by this can-shaped gelatinous blob that you cut into slices and mash onto a piece of turkey during Thanksgiving dinner. There is nothing saucy about it. So this year, I was set on making an actual cranberry SAUCE that could reinvent the expectation of this holiday classic.

The great twist to this sauce is that it has a bit of a spicy kick to it. But of course, if you're not a spicy fan, you can follow the recipe the same way but omit the cayenne pepper. I made both versions (spicy and non) for Thanksgiving and they were both a hit!

Since the holidays are long gone, please don't feel like you have to use this sauce in the traditional Thanksgiving way. You can also use this sauce as a glaze for chicken or a pork roast. Or you can use it like jelly in a sandwich. Really, the possibilities are endless! After the holiday, I mixed some of the cranberry sauce with some cream cheese and plain yogurt to make a sweet and tart crepe filling. It was delicious! So please, don't restrict this recipe to your holiday dinners only. Enjoy this recipe for the whole season.

Sweet and Spicy Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:
3/4 pound fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 whole cloves
1/3 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons lemon juice
a dash of salt

In a medium saucepan, bring cranberries, brown sugar, cloves, and water to a rapid simmer over medium heat. Cook until berries burst and mixture becomes syrupy--about 10 minutes. Stir in cayenne pepper and lemon juice. Season with salt. Serve at room temperature.

Holiday Rewind: Sausage Pecan Turkey Stuffing

Even though the holidays are over, I still want to post a few of the recipes I found particularly delicious this holiday season. As I mentioned in the last post, I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time ever. And as if hosting for the first time wasn't pressure enough, I decided to be crazy and try all new recipes and make it all completely from scratch. Because of this, I wasn't just cooking on Thanksgiving day, I was cooking my pretty little head off for nearly two weeks leading up to the holiday. Yup. You read that right. Two weeks. Why? Simply because, if I could make it ahead of time and freeze it, I did. Pumpkin pie? I made two and froze them a week ahead of time. Homemade sourdough bread for stuffing? You bet! Baked, cubed, and stored in the freezer. In retrospect I sound insane. But the end result was completely worth it! Not only did the food taste amazing (given that it was all home-made and from scratch which makes anything taste better in my opinion), but I had enough leftovers to feed my family for the whole week after. And trust me; after cooking so much the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, I was happy to have a break from the kitchen.

The recipe I am posting today is one for Sausage Pecan Turkey Stuffing. Every year come Thanksgiving, my husband and I would have our annual debate about stuffing. I always thought stuffing was moist, flavorful, and rather enjoyable. My husband on the other hand found stuffing to be, as he would put it, "meh." So this year it was my challenge to make a stuffing my husband would actually enjoy. And if you knew my husband, you would know that the mere fact that this recipe contains sausage instantly upgraded his opinion on the matter. I wasn't sure if sausage was going to make the stuffing too heavy in texture and flavor but I was pleasantly surprised. With the addition of apples and pecans in this dish, it helped to balance out the weight of it all creating an overall blend of sumptuous flavors. Even my husband was won over, altering his opinion on stuffing from a "meh" to a "hmm...that's good!"

Although Thanksgiving is long gone, the winter season is still in full swing. So if you're looking for a hot dish to serve up with dinner, I highly recommend giving this recipe a try.

Sausage Pecan Turkey Stuffing

Ingredients:
9 cups soft bread crumbs
1 pound bulk pork sausage
2 cups chopped onion
1/4 cup butter
3 unpeeled tart apples, coarsely chopped
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
1-1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon ground sage
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup apple juice
chicken broth

Place the bread crumbs in a large bowl. In a large skillet, cook sausage and onion in butter over medium heat until meat is no longer pink and onion is tender; do not drain. Add to bread crumbs. Stir in apples, pecans, parsley, thyme, sage, salt and pepper; stir in apple juice and enough broth to moisten. Transfer to a greased 3-qt. baking dish. Cover and bake at 325 degrees for 60 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 minutes longer or until lightly browned.

A New Start

With the start of a new year, I am forced to look back into the past before I continue forward. When I started this blog I was living in a small apartment, pregnant, and looking for some way to spend my free time. I was posting at least ten blogs a month, and baking enough to feed an army.

Then my world was swept out from under my feet.

Two weeks after giving birth to my son, we found out we could not afford to stay at our apartment anymore. Thanks to the apartment complex hiking up rent by an additional $250 a month right as I was recovering from a c-section, and our newborn son wasn't even a month old, we were faced with the mind-numbingly difficult task of packing up our entire life and moving into my parent's house. Due to my recent surgery, I had to sit there on the couch and watch as my son's nursery was packed away before he even had a chance to use it. I watched as my clothes and belongings were shoved into boxes. And yes, I even watched as my trusty kitchen, my source of inspiration and stress relief, was taped shut into a cardboard tomb.

In the year that followed, we lived in a single room together. Albeit, the room was more like a small studio apartment, but regardless; it was too small for comfort. Forced to share a room with our newborn son, my husband and I had no privacy whatsoever, nor did we get much sleep. We couldn't so much as whisper to each other without the threat of waking up the baby. Our bathroom was reduced to a single standing shower crammed next to a toilet. And the kitchen...oh the kitchen. It was originally built to be a small bar, not a working kitchen. We had a mini fridge and a bookshelf we converted into a pantry shelf. The only stove/oven I had to use was in what we called the "community kitchen." The "community kitchen" was the actual kitchen space in the house (not in our little room) but was therefore first and foremost my parent's kitchen. Graciously they shared the kitchen with us when we needed it, however; scheduling out cooking times and meal times between two different families can be harder than you think. There were often times where there really were too many cooks in the kitchen. Most of the time I tried to work wonders with my small electric skillet and a microwave. But it clearly limited my cooking options. Needless to say, the number of food blogs I was writing began to drop more and more. With a newborn to take care of, a small room to convert into a temporary home, and a house to hunt for, cooking and blogging became the lowest of my priorities.

Days, weeks, months passed and my passion for cooking began to fade. My whole life was consumed by the need to find a home. I was tired of the embarrassment of needing to live with my parents. I was heartbroken that my son didn't even have a room to call his own. And I was fed up with trying to get by. I wanted more. Pretty soon cooking in that sad excuse of a kitchen, that little bar, only drove at my every nerve. Even though our last apartment had a closet of a kitchen, it was at least a real kitchen!

But then the day came. My husband went with the realtor to look at a house. As soon as he got there he sent me a text. It was a single picture with a caption that read: "we have to put a bid on this house!" And there it was, the picture of my dreams. He had sent me a picture of just  the kitchen and with that I was won over. It was a bigger kitchen than I had ever had. A center island, cabinets and cupboards galore. Dual stacking ovens. And best of all, a skylight and a bay window for lots of natural lighting. I knew then that it was going to be our house.

It's funny how a single picture of a kitchen could offer so much excitement and hope. But that picture was a huge turning point for me. It was the first picture I saw of our soon to be home. And every day that I have worked in our new kitchen I thank God for giving me such a wonderful space. I went from a closet kitchen, to a tiny bar, to finding myself standing in a gloriously open and inviting kitchen.

Although moving and the holidays still kept me from having the time to revive my blog, I still had the great pleasure of testing out my new kitchen to its full extent. For the first time ever I hosted Thanksgiving and, despite messing up on the gravy and thus creating a very memorable gelatinous blob, the dinner turned out fabulous! The turkey was falling off the bone it was so moist, and the fact that I made nearly everything entirely from scratch left me feeling particularly proud.

But now that the holidays have come and gone and, for the first time in a long time, I have the space and time to cook again; I have strapped on my apron and I am ready to get back at it! So my fellow foodies, I thank you for so patiently waiting for me and I look forward to starting off new this year. Here's to new beginnings, great company, and good food!

Before (2011 in our apartment)

After (2012 in our home)

Before (2011 in our apartment)

After (2012 in our home)