Bacon Cheeseburger Soup

Hey everyone…

Man, do I have a GREAT dish for you today. My family aren’t avid soup eaters but when I put together a nice solid, creamy, cheesy, hearty soup, they give it a try and usually end up loving it and this one, they absolutely LOVED it. Give it a try. You might be in the same boat and love it too!

Bacon Cheeseburger Soup

Ingerdients:

1 lb ground meat, browned

1 lb bacon, cook to your desired doneness and crumbled

4 cups potatoes, peeled and diced

1 ~ 32 oz. container of chicken broth

4 Tbs Butter

3/4 cups each of chopped celery, carrots, and onions

1/4 cup flour

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup sour cream

2 cups of shredded colby jack cheese

3/4 tsp. Kosher salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 tsp Garlic Garlic

Let’s start by browning the ground meat. Once done, set aside.

Cook your bacon and set aside (not pictured) once cooled, crumble.

To a soup pot, add 1 Tbs of butter and the carrots, celery, garlic garlic, and onion.

Cook for 5 – 7 minutes (until tender)

Peel and dice your potatoes.

in a separate pot, boil those potatoes for 10 – 15 minutes. (fork tender)

Back to your main pot… Add the broth and ground meat.

Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer.

Once potatoes are done, drain and add to soup base.

In a small pot, add 3 Tbs of Butter and 1/4 cup of flour. Cook for 4 – 5 minutes over medium heat. Stir constantly. This cooks off the flour taste.

Then add to the soup base. (not pictured) Bring base to a boil and boil for 2 minutes then reduce heat. Stir constantly.

Add cheese, milk, and heavy cream.

Stir up.

Fold in your bacon, salt and pepper, and sour cream.

Once everything is incorporated, remove from heat and Bowl Up!

This is a simple delicious soup. Great flavor. Try it. I hope you like it. No, I know you will LOVE it!

For more great recipes, go to http://www.johnbokin.com

To earn free Tastefully Simple products and to save 20 – 30% on future Tastefully Simple purchases, go under the join tab for more info.

As always, email me with any questions johnbokin2@hotmail.com

Talk with you all soon!

To your abundance.

John

The Tastefully Simple guy

 

 

 

 

 

Beer Bread with Roasted Garlic Spread

Hello everyone!

I hope your Tuesday is going along just fine. Mine is kinda middle of the road. Nice and low key. I love those days. It allows me to soak in all the little things that are happening. Like this morning. my son have me a super duper big hug and wouldn’t let go. I’ll cherish all of that. 🙂

Today, I wanted to share a basic Tastefully Simple recipe. It’s one of my solid go to appetizer dishes. It’s our Beer Bread with our Roasted Garlic and Herb cheese ball. I’m going to show you how I traditionally make it and share a couple of variations that show you how flexible the line is. So, here we go…

Beer Bread Ingredients:

Beer Bread mix

12 ounce can of beer (although, my favorite prep is with ginger ale which is what I am using in this recipe)

3 Tbs Butter

We are going to start with the beer bread.

Preheat your oven to 375

 

Put it in a mixing bowl.

Then add 12 ounces of beer or ginger ale. You could use any side you wish as well.

Mix with a spoon. I swirl it around 20 or 30 times. DO NOT OVER MIX. it’s ok that it’s a little lumpy. It adds to the texture.

Place in a loaf pan.

Melt 3 Tbs butter and pour on top.

Remove from the oven once golden. About 50 minutes.

Let cool.

Now onto the Roasted Garlic and herb cheese ball.

Two ingredients is all that you will need. The Roasted Garlic seasoning and a block of cream cheese set out to room temperature to soften. Add both to a bowl.

Mix and put in a serving bowl. Chilling for 2 hours will be optimal to reset the cream cheese and let the flavors marry. I like when they get happy. 🙂

I tend to cut the bread down the middle and then slice. Either way, serve and enjoy!

Now for our variations… These products can be used in many different ways which is why I love the products themselves.

Beer Bread Variations:

Add 2 Tbs of our Italian Garlic Seasoning and 1/2 cup of Parm cheese to make an Italian Garlic bread.

Prepare a serving of our Dried tomato and garlic pesto and a cup of shredded cheddar cheese and add to the beer bread mixture to make out cheese pesto bread. ~ This one is so yummy!

And a great breakfast or sweet tooth breakfast bread: Butterscotch Breakfast Bread

1 pack of beer bread mix

12 ounce cream soda

1 cup butterscotch chips

3 Tbs butter

3 Tbs sugar

Combine first 3 ingredients. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Drizzle with melted butter. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 375 for 50 – 55 minutes. Enjoy!

Roasted Garlic and Herb variations:

For a creamy pasta sauce: prepare cheese ball as directed, add to saucepan over low heat. Add 1 and 1/4 cups of milk and cook until combined.

Baked potato topper: add Roasted Garlic mix with 1/2 cup each mayo and sour cream. FABULOUS ON POTATOES!

And finally…

Roasted Garlic Smashed Potatoes

2.5 lbs small red potatoes with skins, cubed

1 packet Roasted Garlic and Herb cheese ball mix

1/2 cup milk

8 ounce cream cheese

Boil potatoes (about 15 minutes) until fork tender.

Add potatoes to a bowl, then add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well. I use a hand masher but an electric mixer will work as well. Let sit for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper as desired. You will LOVE this one!

I hope you like today’s recipes and the variations that go along with them. For more recipes, go to http://www.johnbokin.com.

While you are there, check out the “join” tab and discover how you can get your products paid for and save 20 – 30% on future orders.

Talk with you soon!

To your abundance.

John

The Tastefully Simple guy

 

 

 

Beef Enchiladas

Hey everyone… How’s everyones monday going? I hope it’s going well. We here in Pittsburgh had a bout with some snow this weekend but not nearly as bad as some of our friends in the D.C. area or others that got hit worse. I hope you all made it through. 🙂

Today, I have an easy South of the Border recipe: Beef Enchiladas. This won’t be a spicy recipe as my family doesn’t like spicy. For shame, right?!?! I love the heat in food kicked up a notch but I have to do that on my on time. Lol. But you will find that this recipe will please most palates.

Now there wasn’t much in the way of spices because one, my family doesn’t like it spicy and two, you get nice flavor, for those that like it mild, from the chili beans, the corn and pepper, and the corn and black bean salsa. When you are preparing a dish with semi-prepared ingredients, you don’t want to go crazy with the spices and over-spice a dish.

Here we go…

Ingredients

1.5 lbs ground meat

1 bag of frozen corn with peppers

1 can chili beans, 15 ounce

2 cans enhilada sauce, 15 ounce

2 Tbs Onion Onion

1/2 cup Corn and Black bean salsa

2 cups mexican styled cheese

1 – 10 pack of tortillas, fajita sized

Let’s start by putting the ground meat in a skillet and browning it.

Once browned, drain off most of the grease then add the Onion Onion, Corn and Black Bean Salsa, 1 cup of cheese, and corn with peppers. Now I cooked the corn and peppers before putting them in this pot as I didn’t want excess water in the mix.

Mix it up.

Let’s get our pan together. Cover the bottom of a baking dish with enchilada sauce.

Once that’s done, we are ready to start adding in our enchiladas. Grab a tortilla and put a good scoop to a scoop and a half of the beef mixture in the tortilla.

Fold the sides over and place the overlapped part of the tortilla shells facing down in the pan. Continue until the pan is full.

Cover with enchilada sauce.

Now, cover with the rest of the cheese (not pictured) and place in that preheated oven and cook for 25  – 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and there you go…

Plate up with your favorite sides. I made an impromptu guac and rice.

I hope you enjoy this as it was DEVOURED at our house. 🙂

For more great recipes, go to http://www.johnbokin.com

Feel free to share on FB and RT on twitter and I always love the feedback, please share a comment! 🙂

To your abundance, my friends.

John

The Tastefully Simple guy

 

 

Balsamic Beef Short Ribs

Hello everybody… Thursday is in full swing and I’ve got a great recipe for you all today. Beef short ribs. Now I must confess, I’ve never made beef short ribs and have only had these a few times before and they were made Korean style. I will tell you that these turned out wonderful! They had a deep, rich beef flavor. Kinda like roast but richer in flavor.

Let’s get started.

Your ingredients:

3 lbs of beef short ribs

1 Tbs Ultimate Steak Seasoning

2 tsp Garlic Pepper Seasoning

2 Tbs Rustic Herb Seasoning

8 oz. mushrooms, sliced

1 med. onion, chopped

14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes

1 cup of beef broth

1/4 cup Aged Balsamic Vinegar of Modena

First, combine the Ultimate Steak, Garlic Pepper, and Rustic Herb Seasonings.

Coat the short ribs with the seasonings and place in a crockpot.

Slice your mushrooms or you can buy them that way.

Chop your onion.

Now, add the mushrooms, onion, and diced tomatoes to the crock.

Next, combine your beef broth and balsamic vinegar.

Pour over the mixture in the crock. Cook on low for 8 hrs.

Once done, plate up and enjoy!

The beef was fall off the bone and ever so flavorful! Deep, rich flavor is the only way I can describe this dish. It will be in the meal rotation going forward. 🙂 I hope you all give this recipe a try and enjoy it as much as my family did.

For more great recipes, check out http://www.johnbokin.com and let’s connect on FB at http://www.facebook.com/foodiejohnnyb. Talk with you guys soon.

To your abundance!

John

The Tastefully Simple guy

Creamy Chicken Stew

Hey everyone… I’ve got a great one for you today. Keeping with the “stick to your ribs” comfort food, I’m throwing out a creamy chicken stew. It’s more like a chicken alfredo soup with potatoes but nevertheless…

Our Ingredients:

1.5 lbs chicken breast

16 ounce jar alfredo sauce

1 cup of water

2 tsp Garlic Garlic

1 Tbs Onion Onion

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 cups frozen mixed veggies

1 lbs baby red potatoes

To start, cut your chicken into bite sized pieces

Add to crock pot and then add your Onion Onion and Garlic Garlic.

Next, add your 2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables.

Then your potatoes…

Add your water and Alfredo sauce.

Mix up and cook in the crock for 6 – 8 hours on low.

Once done, bowl up and enjoy with a nice ciabatta bread.

My barometer for food deliciousness is my wife because she is a little persnickety when it comes to food. But she is willing to indulge me and try each dish at least once.  Yesterday, she said this was FABULOUS! So a thumbs up from her means the world. So, I hope you all give this a try and enjoy!

For more fabulous recipes, check out http://www.johnbokin.com and feel free to join me on FB at http://www.facebook.com/foodiejohnnyb

To your abundance, my friends!

John

The Tastefully Simple guy

 

Yummy Pot Roast

BRRRRR!!!! It’s cold outside, isn’t it? I don’t know where all of you are but here in Pittsburgh, Pa, we are in the negatives when you factor in wind chill. It’s good just to stay inside. 🙂

On the cold winter days and nights, I love making something that sticks to your ribs. Good old comfort food. There is something about a good hearty meal on a cold day that just makes sense. You will love this one because it’s quick and simple to prepare and it’s done in the crock pot so easy on the cleanup as well.

Here we go…

Ingredients:

3 – 4 lbs chuck roast

15 ounces of beef broth

1/2 cup of Tastefully Simple’s Mushroom and Merlot sauce

1 packet of Tastefully Simple’s Roasted Garlic and herb mix

That’s it! And you will have a great tasting sauce for your roast meat to get funky with. Lol.

I don’t have pics of the meat at the beginning of the process but rest assured meat was used. Lol.

Mix a 1/2 cup of the mushroom and merlot sauce, 15 ounces of beef broth , and 1 packet of the roasted garlic and herb mix.

Put your beef in a crock pot and pour this mixture over the top. Cook on low for 8 – 10 hours and you get this deliciousness…

And trust me when I say this, it is melt in your mouth roast beef. I used the sauce as a dipper for my beef. Outstanding!

Now you can take the sauce after the beef is done and make a gravy.

To do that, you will need to take 2 Tbs of butter and 2 Tbs of flour and cook for about 2 minutes. Then add the broth/juice from the crockpot. cook until it thickens. It should take just a few minutes. You can pour this over the top of the beef. SCRUMPTIOUS!

I hope you all enjoy this quick and easy recipe!

If you would like more dinnertime solutions just like this, go to http://www.johnbokin.com

Talk with you soon.

To your abundance!

John

The Tastefully Simple guy

Bacon Wrapped Vidalia Chicken

HAPPY, HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!!! Who loves the weekend??? I do too… It’s a time to relax a little and enjoy our family unit on a deeper level. I hope the same goes for you!

I’ve got a GREAT chicken dish for you all today. Chicken is such a staple in our house that variety is a necessity. That’s one thing that I love about Tastefully Simple’s 10 and 30 meal plans. It brings variety to the dinner table and NO STRESS involved as everything is planned out.

So here we go with this wonderfully delicious chicken dish: Bacon Wrapped Vidalia Chicken.

Ingredients:

3 – 4 chicken breasts (my package has 3 and weighed 2 lbs)

1 lb bacon (i prefer thick but use whatever you like)

3/4 cup Tastefully Simple’s Vidalia Onion dressing

1 tsp Tastefully Simple’s Garlic Garlic

To start, preheat your oven to 350

Let’s get the marinade together. It’s our own Garlic Garlic and Vidalia Onion dressing.

Combine 3/4 cup of the vidalia dressing and 1 tsp of the garlic garlic. I used a measuring cup, eye balled it, and set aside.

A little prep on the bacon. I loved bacon wrapped anything but what I don’t like is (most of the time) you get bacon wrapped, the bacon is cooked on one side and not crispy on the inside. To correct that, we are partially cooking the bacon. Fry up one side to your level of doneness. I did a partial browning as I knew that it would cook further in the oven.

The cooked side will be touching the chicken when I wrap them.

My chicken breasts were pretty thick out of the package.

I cut them in half and made 6 breasts out of them.

Now is the time to wrap them with bacon and brush on the marinade. The thick bacon limits the amount of breast that is covered but doesn’t take away from the deliciousness. If you use normal thickness bacon, you will wrap 2 slices of bacon on each. I secured the bacon with tooth picks. I coated the top of the breasts with the vidalia onion mix and halfway through, I turned them and did a second coat.

Bake for 45 minutes. I served it with Mashed potatoes and peas.

Not gonna lie… This was delicious. I hope that you have enjoyed this recipe and give it a try. Feel free to comment below. And please share on FB or Twitter if you found this useful. 🙂

For more delicious recipes and great tasting products, checkout my website http://www.johnbokin.com and feel free to join me on FB at http://www.facebook.com/foodiejohnnyb

Talk with you guys on Monday!

To your abundance,

John

The Tastefully Simple guy