Recipes

September 14, 2012 By Kayla Aimee

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Scotts Miracle-Gro. All opinions are 100% mine.

One of my pins that gets repinned on Pinterest frequently is the recipe for Zuppa Toscana Soup. A friend of ours made this for us and it's the perfect hearty soup for when the weather turns chilly.

Scott's Miracle-Gro® asked me to take a look at their Fall gardening tips and to share some projects or recipes that I am planning on making this autumn. I am still new to this whole "gardening"thing so I searched by region to see what edible plants I can grow in the fall in the southeast. I found out that I can plant kale in the fall and so I added that to my to-do list because it's a staple in our household.

They recommened Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Garden Soil for planting fall edibles such as kale, spinach and purple cauliflower. I mean, I'm sure you can just plant regular old cauliflower too but who wants white cauliflower when you can have purple?

Anyhow, since kale is one of the main ingredients in our favorite winter soup, I thought I'd share that recipe here. I'm really excited to be able to pluck fresh kale out of our backyard this year, it's never any fun to crave soup and find that you're fresh out of, well, fresh kale.

This recipe is adapted from allrecipes.com and tuscanrecipes.com- I add a few different things in

1lb mild italian sausage
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
6 slices of bacon, crumbled
1 large onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
About 14 ounces of chicken broth
4 large russet potatos (I leave the skin on and chop them up in bite sizes)
1 cup of heavy cream
1 1/2 cups of kale leaves
salt and pepper

First, cook the italian sausage and crushed red pepper in the olive oil, then drain and set aside. At the same time, cook the bacon (typically I use leftover bacon that I set aside for this meal. You could also use bacon bits in a pinch but it won't be nearly as yummy.) Then saute the onions with garlic in the bottom of whatever pot you are using. People mention this thing called a "dutch oven" a lot but I have no idea what that is. I am a terrible cook and this meal always comes out great, that is how good this recipe is.

Pour in the chicken broth, bring to a boil and add the potatos. Add salt and pepper to taste. I don't add a lot of salt because, hello bacon! Let boil until the potatos are tender and then turn the heat down and add in the heavy cream, sausage and bacon and simmer until heated through. Stir in the kale about five minutes before you serve it.

The bacon/sausage does make it have a slightly greasy layer to the top of it. I make sure to drain the sausage/bacon really well so that it isn't hugely overwhelming. But seriously? It's totally delicious. And I think it's probably my favorite re-heated soup. If I make a batch, I eat it for lunch for the next few days.

(Hint: Soup is messy for toddlers but when I give it to Scarlette, I just cool it down and then put it in her Sili Squeeze so she can drink it straight from that )

Scott's Miracle-Gro® wants to help you Find beauty in the Fall! Click here to visit the Miracle-Gro Facebook page and chat with other fellow gardeners for more tips and tricks!

No Bake Cookies & Cream Surprise

June 15, 2012 By Kayla Aimee

Thank you COOL WHIP for sponsoring this post. Join us on Facebook for inspiration and recipes for everyday treats. What you add makes it. #coolwhipmoms

My freshman year of college found Tiffani and I rooming together in a dorm that had no kitchen. All of the other dorms had kitchens but turns out, we were placed into the oldest dormitory on campus and the only without a place to cook food. Also, apparently our dorm was haunted. It was really a great way to start your college experience.

So our RA, in an attempt to distract us from the fact that the communal bathrooms had no shower curtains, decided to have a little party to teach us all how to cook without a stove. Which basically was “Run this Cup O’ Ramen Noodle Soup under the hot water.” And also this recipe for No Bake Cookies And Cream Surprise” which is pretty much what we ate all of freshman year. I like to call that “comfort food”

Whenever we have an event one of us usually shows up with Cookies & Cream Surprise, not just because it’s delicious but because it’s inexpensive and takes about five minutes to whip together.

So today I’m going to share the recipe with you. Please disregard my terrible attempt at food photography as the Pioneer Woman I am not. Which is too bad, really, because it’d be way more fun if I was all “and then add a cup of milk WAIT! A WILD HORSE IS GALLOPING STRAIGHT TOWARDS MY KITCHEN! I MUST GO LASSO IT AND RETURN IT SAFELY TO IT’S HERD! and then two tablespoons of butter…”

But alas, my life is not nearly as exciting and my kitchen sorely lacking in windows to provide good light.

Anyhow, first gather up your ingredients. You’ll need a dish (I use a 9×9 pan) some milk, a package of chocolate cookies with cream filling, two boxes of vanilla pudding and a carton of COOL WHIP Whipped Topping. I use the extra creamy but any COOL WHIP will do.

Mix the vanilla pudding according to the instructions on the package. Then add the entire container of COOL WHIP. I mean, unless you want to save a dollop or two or four for your morning coffee. I totally won’t judge you for that. Mix until smooth. You can just mix this altogether by hand with a fork like I did in my pre-mixer college days if you like.

Then put a scoop of the pudding/COOL WHIP mix on the high chair tray for your baby to smear everywhere like a little Picasso while you try to photograph this tutorial. Oh wait no, that’s just what’s happening in MY kitchen.

In your kitchen, you should take a cookie and dunk it in milk. Like, fully submerge it. Don’t even skimp here. Reserve a few cookies to crumble on top later. Also, some versions of this recipe tell you to just crumble up all of the cookies and throw them in the pan. But those versions are wrong. The milk dunked cookie is what makes this extra delicious. And that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I crack myself up.

Line the bottom of the dish with the milk-dunked cookies. Then add a layer of the pudding/COOL WHIP mixture. And then another layer of cookies. Then another layer of pudding/COOL WHIP mixture.

Top the whole thing off with some of the crumbled up cookies and stick it in the refrigerator for about an hour.

There’s not really any sort of surprise here. It’s a bit of a misnomer. Although it IS surprising to my husband that I announced I had dessert ready and nothing was on fire. And I suppose you could switch up your pudding flavors if you wanted. Like “SURPRISE! IT’S CHOCOLATE PUDDING!” but I wouldn’t get all crazy with that if I were you. No one wants to eat Lemon Cookies & Cream Surprise, that’s what I’m saying.

The great thing about this dessert is that you can keep all of the ingredients on hand and then always have something quick and easy to take along to your church picnic or dinner party or book club or whatever. This dish seems to be a fan favorite, there’s never any left at the end of a party.

Do you have a special dessert you’d like to share? Enter COOL WHIP’s Fan Dessert of the Month Contest for a chance to win $500! Simply make a COOL WHIP dessert, take a photo, and upload it here. Enter now!