What's Cookin'?

It's been awhile since I have featured any of our new adventures in cooking. I wish I could say it was because all of the new things we have tried have been flops, or that I just keep forgetting about it..

But the reality is that the month of Aug and Sept were nutso and it felt like we were gone every weekend so when we weren't trying to keep our refrigerator empty of perishables, we were struggling to get our 'meal planning' legs under us in a way that actually let us cook recipes beyond the very basics.

But we are back! And it was our inaugural Soup Sunday last week as the fall season is officially upon us. We made Fast Chicken Chili from Cooking light and it was a major winner. First of all, it was super super easy--could easily be a weeknight meal. Second, it had spice, which we really like.

Here is a link to the recipe: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/fast-chicken-chili-50400000122905/

We topped ours with some tortilla chips and lots and lots of cilantro. And as always, left the onion out! :)

We also made  Taco Pizza using the recipe from Food Network magazine and some Pillsbury Artisan Pizza Crust, which is a lifesaver during the work-week. Nate prefers his Alton Brown recipe for homemade crust, but that is a lot more work than unrolling a can of dough.

Here is the recipe with our modifications:

1/4 cup canned refried black beans
1/2 cup store-bought salsa
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1/4 cup of sliced pickled jalapenos
1/4 cup of sour cream (which we omitted)
Romaine lettuce for topping (which we were very generous with)
Diced tomato for topping
1/4 cup of cilantro
**We added black olives too

While this recipe was delicious in flavor, I wish we would have used a pizza stone because the crust got kind of soggy with the refried beans. I would make it again though.

Out "Stand-by Staple" this week was Kitchen Sink Pasta. It's exactly what it sounds like--pasta with whatever veg we can find in the fridge!