Cheddar Potato Soup

Creamy, cheesy deliciousness for any time of year!
Thanks to my friend Yvonne for the recipe (I changed a few little things, but the basic recipe came from her!).

Ingredients:

• 1.5 TBS butter or light butter spread
• 1 onion, diced
• 7-8 potatoes, cubed (skin on or off, your preference)
• 4 carrots, sliced or diced
• 1 pkg light cream cheese
• 1/2 cup light sour cream
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
• 4 slices turkey bacon
• 1 cup milk
• 2 TBS cornstarch
• 1 can of corn, optional

In a skillet saute the diced onion with the butter until onion is translucent.  Put that mixture, the potatoes, carrots, cream cheese, sour cream, shredded cheddar, and salt, pepper, garlic powder into crock pot and add 3 cups water on top.  Cook on low for 8-10 hours.

About a half hour before you want to eat the soup, cook your bacon until crispy and let cool.  Mix cornstarch into 1 cup of milk until dissolved, then pour into soup to thicken.  Add more salt, pepper, garlic powder if needed.  Allow to cook an additional 20-30 minutes.  

Crumble bacon into bits with your hands (or at least this is the easiest method I found!).  Use a potato masher to mash some of the potatoes up in the soup.

Add corn in for the last 5 minutes if desired.  My hubby didn't want corn in his so I just added it to my bowl when I served it.

Don't forget the bacon on top!

Now you may be wondering why halfway through my pictures, my soup is suddenly in a dutch oven instead of my crock pot.  Well I underestimated the amount of time the soup would need to cook in the crock pot to begin with, and thought I could just let it cook on high a few hours and it would be perfect.  Not so much.  After about 4 hours on high the potatoes were still hard and the cheese wasn't even melting completely.  So I transferred to my dutch oven for an hour on medium high heat, then added the milk and cornstarch, and cooked about a 1/2 hour more.  If you have time to babysit your dutch oven for a few hours you could definitely skip the crock pot method.  Otherwise plan on letting it cook for the entire day!

Peanut Butter Party Cookies

A party in your mouth!!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup smart balance or brummel & brown butter spread
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup peanut butter (or Jif whipped pb- mixes easier!)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 box instant vanilla or white chocolate pudding mix (smaller box)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 c mini m&ms
• 1/2 cup reece's pieces
• 1/2 mini chocolate chips (any combo of candies or chocolate chips works!)

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars until smooth & creamy.  

Add the peanut butter, vanilla and eggs and beat again.  

Sift together the pudding mix, salt, baking soda, and flour in a smaller bowl.

Slowly add dry mixture to wet mixture and combine.  

Stir in the candies and chocolate chips. 

Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes.  Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes.  

And I must say these were at hit at the party I took them to!!

Sam's Chicken Enchiladas

My friend Samantha gets requests for these from all her friends who have tasted them before, they are SO GOOD!  I had to have the recipe to make them myself!  I personally like these because unlike the ones you get at a Mexican restaurant, they only have a white creamy sauce on them, not the red enchilada sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups light sour cream
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 small can of diced green chilies, drained
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 can black beans (drained), or refried or pinto if you prefer
• 2 cups cheddar or taco cheese
• 2-3 good sized boneless chicken breasts or 6-7 boneless tenderloins
• 7-8 large flour tortillas, or any tortillas you prefer

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and put chicken in to cook for 20 minutes.  When cooked, use a fork to shred the chicken.

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, mix together the cream soup and 1 cup sour cream.  Spread a few spoonfuls of that mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 dish as your base.  

Into your bowl of the sour cream and soup mixture, pour your chilies, diced onion, black beans, shredded chicken and 1 cup of the cheese.

Mix all together.

Start filling tortillas with the mixture, rolling each up and placing seam side down in dish. 

 Top the enchiladas with remaining mixture (plus leftover 1/2 cup sour cream) and bake for 30 minutes.  

Top with the remaining 1 cup cheese and put back in oven for 5 minutes to melt.

Variations:  You can add corn, diced tomatoes, or avocado to the mixture.  Another thing I want to try next time is the kraft queso shredded cheese in these, I think that would be the ultimate cheesiness!

The Hub gets super duper excited when I make these!!!