Blueberry Cobbler

Original Recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-batter-fruit-cobbler/detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 cups of sliced fresh peaches or nectarines, or whole blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries or a combination of fruits (or a 12-ounce package of frozen berries)
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Directions

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position, and heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put butter in an 8-inch square or 9-inch round pan; set in oven to melt. When butter has melted, remove pan from oven.
3. Whisk flour, 3/4 cup of sugar, baking powder and salt in small bowl. Add milk; whisk to form a smooth batter. Pour batter into pan, then scatter fruit over batter. Sprinkle with remaining 1 Tb. of sugar.
4. Bake until batter browns and fruit bubbles, 50 to 60 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with a dollop of whipped cream or a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, if desired.

Hot Mama's Note:

This recipe was good, but not fantastic.  It was very sugary.  However, it was super easy to make, which was nice.  I think I prefer more of a pie crust to this recipe's breadliness.

Original Recipe from: http://iowagirleats.com/2012/01/04/my-top-secret-diet-weapon/


Below recipe and photo are from the above link.

Green Monster Spinach Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 frozen sliced banana
1 Tablespoon peanut butter
1/2 cup 0% Vanilla Chobani Greek yogurt
1 cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze (or other kind of milk)
4 cups baby spinach (or more, or less)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  First add 1 sliced frozen banana, and 1 Tablespoon peanut butter in a blender. Tip: PEEL and SLICE your bananas before you freeze them, or you’ll be sorry! Next add bulking agents for staying power, like protein-packed vanilla Greek yogurt, and creamy unsweetened vanilla almond milk. You could use any kind of milk you want – cow’s, rice, soy, etc.  Fill the blender the rest of the way up with baby spinach.  Start the blender on “high blend” until everything’s mixed up, then switch it over to “liquify” to get the Green Monster velvety smooth.

Nutritional stats:

350 calories, 10g fiber, 21g protein



Hot Mama's Notes:

I had been wanting to try a green smoothie, and well, it was green.  I like spinach.  This smoothie doesn't really taste like spinach.  When blended all together, you really only taste the banana and peanut butter.  When making this smoothie, a different brand of greek yogurt was used, with no adverse effects, I would say.  Also, I used the Smoothie button on my BlendTech TotalBlender.  My spinach was fresh from my garden that day - yum!  :)

Cheesy Vegetable Chowder

Original Recipe from:  http://luluthebaker.blogspot.com/2011/09/cheesy-vegetable-chowder.html


The below recipe & picture are from the above link.

Cheesy Vegetable Chowder

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped carrot

1 stalk celery, finely chopped (feel free to add more celery if you like celery; I don't, so I don't add much)

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

4 cups chicken broth (I usually use a mixture of low-sodium chicken broth and broth made with chicken soup base because it gives it such nice flavor)

2 large baking potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 Tablespoon flour

1/2 cup water

2/3 cup milk

2 cups chopped broccoli

2 heaping cups shredded cheddar cheese

Melt the butter in a large soup pot.  Add onions, carrots, and celery and saute over medium heat until tender.  Add garlic and cook 1 or 2 additional minutes.  Add chicken broth and potatoes, bring to a boil, and cook until potatoes are tender.  Mix flour with water, add, and simmer until soup is slightly thickened.  Add milk and broccoli and cook until broccoli is just tender and soup is heated through.  Stir in cheese, allow to melt, and serve.

Hot Mama's Notes:

I made this recipe in my (Costco brand) dutch oven, and it turned out marvelously!  :)  I used fresh carrots and broccoli harvested from my garden the same day - double yum.  And as an added bonus... even the Husband liked this soup!  This may not sound amazing, but it is.  Generally, H does not like soups with broccoli in them.  

The only changes:

- I used two stalks celery, as I do like it.

- I didn't have any "large baking potatoes", so I used 5 regular potatoes.

- I used two 14-ounce cans of reduced sodium chicken broth, and the soup still turned out wonderful.

- I probably used more garlic (2 large cloves), as well as more broccoli and carrots.
- A better name for this soup would be Broccoli Cheese Soup with Vegetables.

Grade: A+!  Will definitely make this soup again! :)