The Perfect Baked Potato

     Okay so I don't really have a recipe for this, but it's super simple so it totally doesn't need one.  First, preheat your oven to 425°.  Next, scrub your potatoes really well...nobody wants to eat dirt.  Now get all the frustration out that you may have stored up this week by stabbing the potatoes with a knife.  Make sure the holes are pretty deep.

     Get out some olive oil, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and a jelly roll pan.  Pour a *little* bit of olive oil on each potato.  Sprinkle with garlic powder, salt, and pepper.  Rub into the potato to coat the entire thing.  Hope ya don't mind getting your hands dirty ;)

     Place each of the potatoes on your jelly roll pan.  No need to grease it, you've already got plenty of olive oil on the spuds.

     Bake for 45 to 60 minutes.  No specific baking time, it depends on the size of the potatoes.  If you have ginormous ones, it'll take a little longer.  Just bake them until they are tender inside.  I always check them by poking them with a butter knife.  If it goes in easily, they're usually good!

     Yum yum yum!  They have a perfectly crisped skin and nice tender insides.  Delicious :)

Happy cooking friends!

     -Katie

Broccoli Cheese Soup

     Thanks to this weird, freakish weather we've been having in Michigan, it's been nice and chilly around here.  When I'm cold, nothing sounds better than soup.  And EVERYTHING is better with cheese, so I bring you broccoli cheese soup! :)  And boy is it yummy!

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

2 garlic cloves, minced (or if you're lazy like me, 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder)

3 cups chicken broth

1 (16oz) pkg broccoli florets

2 1/2 cups milk

1/3 cup flour

1/4 tsp black pepper

8 oz Velveeta, cubed

     First, what you want to do is chop up your onion and garlic (if you chose cloves of garlic).  I did mine pretty small, but if you don't mind chunks of onion in your soup, you can do them a little bigger.

     Now heat a large saucepan with the olive oil in it over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic (only if you used garlic cloves, if you used powder, wait).  Sauté for about 3 minutes or until onion is tender.  The onion will be see-through when it's done.

     Add chicken broth, garlic powder (only if you didn't use whole cloves) and broccoli.  I had some huge pieces of broccoli in my bag, so I chopped them a bit smaller.  Again, if you don't mind large chunks in your soup, skip the extra chopping.  Bring your mixture to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

     Combine milk and flour, stirring with a whisk until well blended.  Actually use a whisk, a spoon won't cut it!  Add milk mixture to broccoli mixture.  Cook 5 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring constantly.  Getting an arm workout in woot woot! :)

     Stir in pepper.  Remove from heat and add cheese cubes, stirring until cheese melts.  I switched stirring arms at this point, gotta work them both out!! ;)

not sure why this looks so weirdly colored, it's really not...

     Look at that cheesy goodness!! Yum :)  I love cheese, love it.  This soup is delicious. D. E. Licious.  Really.  I served mine with homemade bread, because as my great-grandma would say, "a meal's not complete unless there is bread and butter".  Mmmmm.

don't mind the squished down pieces...my 22 year old brother is a child

     I hope you enjoy!!!

Happy cooking friends!

     -Katie

Rice Krispie Chicken

     This is probably one of the easiest chicken recipes I've ever made.  Bonus: it's delicious too!

     What you need:

     Rice krispies (I don't have an exact amount, just whatever it takes to cover your chicken)

     Cooking spray

     Jelly roll pan, or cookie sheet

     A bowl of some sort to crush rice krispies in

     6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

     **serves 4-6**

yes, I did forget to take a picture before I started making dinner

     Preheat your oven to 375° and grease the jelly roll pan before you begin.  Crush the rice krispies in your bowl.  The finer the pieces, the less crispy your chicken will be.  I crushed mine so that some of the pieces were nice and small and would stick well to the chicken.  Other pieces were a little larger:

Before crushing, as you can see, all the pieces in the middle are large

After crushing. The pieces in the center are still somewhat the same size. The ones on the edge are smaller

      In the second picture, some of the pieces have sunk to the bottom because they are very fine.  After crushing the krispies, coat the chicken in them.  I didn't need to dunk the chicken in any liquid beforehand because they had thawed in my fridge overnight and were sitting in their own juice.  If your chicken is dry, dip it in some milk and then the krispies.

     Once the pieces are covered, place them on the greased jelly roll pan.  After I had all my pieces on the pan, I added a few more rice krispies to each piece just because I didn't think there was enough :)

     This is what my chicken looked like before it went in the oven.  I stuck it in the oven for 45 minutes.  When my chicken came out, it was cooked all the way through, but I think it was a bit too dry.  Next time, I'll cook it a few minutes less and just check it until it's cooked all the way through.

Mmmmm!

                                      

     I hope you enjoy!! :)



Happy cooking friends!

     -Katie