Experimenting in the kitchen

As I have mentioned in the past since my FUNemployment began I have a long to do list of things, including getting healthy.
And one of the many ways I am working on getting back to healthy (and hopefully lose a few pounds in the process) is by experimenting with recipes and cooking.
I will be out of town next week and the amount of blogging (and cooking for sure) will be minimal if at all.
So I thought this week I would share three recipes I have been experimenting with lately.
My friend and GFG! reader who suggested the Recipes tab told me about a soup she easily makes in the blender.
Recipe 1:

I experimented with her idea and came up with this:

• 3 medium raw tomatoes
  
• garlic
  
• ¹⁄₄ onion
  
• jalapeño
  
• fresh basil
  
  

Throw all the ingredients into a blender. Apparently some blenders, such as the Vitamix, have a heat function. My Ninja doesn’t. If your blender has the heat function you can blend and warm your soup at the same time. I had to pour my cold soup into a pot and heat up. I guess you could also put in the microwave.
The soup was easy to make and healthy. If you have a high powered blender you don’t have to chop your veggies up too much before putting in the blender.
If you want the soup more liquidy you could always add water or broth as well, which I didn’t do.
This soup was good for a light lunch. I don’t remember now what else I had with it. But I likely paired it with a salad or something with some protein.
Recipe 2:

One night for dinner I made Hungry Girl’s healthy beef empanada recipe. Curt and I both enjoyed the empanadas. I used fresh homemade salsa as a topping and had refried beans as a side.
One of the ingredients in the recipe called for Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations Seamless Dough Sheet. I had trouble finding this. I found what seemed like all the rest of Pillsbury’s creations.
So I decided to try pie crusts instead. They worked. They just weren’t shaped as pretty as they could be.
I had no idea what broccoli cole slaw (another ingredient for the recipe) was or that something like that even existed. But I found it with the bagged salads.
The empanadas were easy to make and were quite tasty. My recipe made 12 small empanadas.
Because the recipe made 12 empanadas there were plenty of leftovers. The night after I made them Curt had friends over to watch baseball. (I was gone teaching a yoga class and attending a 5-hour yoga workshop.) I encouraged him to share the empanadas since there were so many.
As I was coming home from the workshop I was hungry and looking forward to an empanada or two. I got home and they were all GONE!
I am pleased the gang liked them. And apparently they really liked the pie crust used in the recipe. I had thought I would try to find the right dough next time I make these. But maybe I will just try to reshape the pie crusts.
Recipe 3:

During my first week off from work I asked Curt what his mom made when he was a kid that he really enjoyed.
He said pot roast and “you make a really good apple crisp.”
At that point I am not sure if I had ever even had pot roast before and I wasn’t exactly sure what it was.
Of course, Hungry Girl to the rescue with a recipe with her Crock-pot roast.
Her recipe is loaded with a lot of vegetables. You throw everything in the Crock Pot and cook all day long. The house smelled so good while the beef and veggies cooked away.
And it made for some good leftovers.
I also made an apple crisp, a recipe of Curt’s mom. You use a whole stick of butter for it so I am gonna go thinking it is not so healthy. But I did notice Hungry Girl has a similar recipe on her site and it calls for a lot less butter. I may try that one at some point. Stay tuned.
Make sure to check out the Recipes tab for information on these three recipes and others as well.