Rigatoni & Meatballs

Winter is the time for hearty foods. Conversely, January is the month of healthy eating.  How does one rectify these two very different ideals?

You make chicken meatballs!

Then pile them high on pasta!

Filling, but not full of calories. Unless you make a tube of crescent rolls to go along with this dinner...  Which you should... Crescent rolls are awesome.

One Year Ago: Wilde Chocolate Chip Cookies
Two Years Ago: Cavatappi Pasta with Sausage and Butternut Squash
Three Years Ago: Country Sausage Pasta
Four Years Ago: Mini Zucchini Breads

Cream of Tomato Soup with Rice

I can't say enough about this soup. I have made it in the past and never posted about it before. The flavor is so rich and the soup is super filling. I made this soup on a Monday and happily ate it for the rest of the week. With or without the sprinkling of basil, this soup is a winner. It's also made of ingredients that I commonly have sitting around in my pantry.

My only warning? Don't start this soup at 9:30pm! I neglected to read the original recipe and didn't notice that it had to simmer for an hour. We wound up eating something else for Monday night dinner, because this soup wasn't ready until almost 11:00 pm. The house smelled amazing, but there was no way I was going to be able to wait until then to eat. I was already in my PJs by the time I ladled this soup into storage containers.

Stay warm this winter and eat lots of soup! Start with this recipe, you'll absolutely love it!

One Year Ago: Deep Dish Chicken Pot Pie
Two Years Ago: Almond Cut-out cookies
Three Years Ago: Vegetable Stock, Chicken Stock & Cheesy Potato Soup
Four Years Ago: Lentil Chili

Junk @ Home 2015 - Wheat Thins

Welcome to the first installment of my 2015 - Junk @ Home Challenge! I decided to start off this something simple and easy to make. Sadly, it turned out to be a little more tricky than I originally expected. I had to experiment with a few different recipes, roll out the dough in a variety of thicknesses and determine the optimal time to bake the crackers.

In the end, I was successful in making Wheat Thin-like crackers but they weren't the shining star of this particular experiment. If anything, I should re-name this post - Homemade parmesan cheese powder. Years ago, Wheat Thins came in a parmesan flavor. The boyfriend loved this particular flavor and was so sad when it disappeared from the shelves. I thought that I would try to recreate them and set about trying to figure out how to make a chemical-free parmesan powder.

After a little internet searching, I found that you can create your own cheese powder by dehydrating a low-moisture cheese. Since I don't own a dehydrator and don't have the space in my kitchen to put sone, I decided to go with the low-fuss, oven-drying method. I left Shredded parmesan in the oven, with the light on, for twenty hours. At the end of that period, I was left with a crumbly, low-oil parmesan cheese. A quick whir in the food processor with some freshly cracked black pepper and I had a flavorful parmesan cheese powder. The crackers were tasty, but it was this cheese powder that will be topping my pastas for the next few weeks!

One Year Ago: Slow Cooker Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
Two Years Ago: No-Bake Granola Bars
Three Years Ago: Cherry Stripper Cookies
Four Years Ago: Pineapple Chutney & Chicken