CHEESEBURGER SOUP - BETH'S CREATION

While watching Diners, Drive-ins and Dives last night I discovered a little something called Cheeseburger Soup. Guy sampled a bowl at Grover's in East Amherst, NY. After searching the internet today for a recipe similar to Grover's I decided to make a little version of my own. All others out there used process cheese and I wanted to stay away from that.

I made it tonight and Jacob kept saying, "It really tastes like a cheeseburger!"

INGREDIENTS

1 lb ground beef (seasoned with S&P)
3 tablespoons butter (used light margarine)
½ cup diced onion (used frozen)
¼ cup flour
2 cups chicken stock (used bouillon)
1 1/2 cups half and half (used fat free)
1 ½ cups shredded cheddar
tomato, diced
lettuce (used bagged iceburg)

DIRECTIONS

Brown beef in large pot and drain off excess grease.
Set aside meat to add to soup later.
Sauté onions in butter in the pot over medium heat until onions are translucent.
Sprinkle flour over mixture, whisk well and cook until flour mixture begins to golden.
Add chicken stock to mixture and whisk well to combine.
Let mixture come to a boil and then cook down for about five minutes.
Reduce heat and add in half and half and cheese.
Stir consistently until cheese melts.
Stir in ground beef.

Soup can be served with lettuce, fresh diced tomatoes, bacon, etc. Get creative.
My husband liked the soup with the toppings but I liked it without.

This yielded about 4 servings.

GUACAMOLE from Ashley K!

I've been meaning to add this since March. Sorry Ash!

3 ripe avacados (peel and take out pit, cut into smaller pieces if they are tough)
2 fresh cloves of garlic, minced
1 serrano pepper (take out the seeds), minced
juice from 1 lime

Mix/Mash together and enjoy with chips :)

My New Favorite Salad

I use the Red Butter and Baby Spinach - Chopped

Chopped

Crumbled

Quartered

Chopped

Blue Cheese - Crumbled

Balsamic Vinaigrette

MICROWAVE SHOWDOWN (and Fudge Recipe)

Last night here in the dorm my Residence Life staff hosted a little competition and demonstration called the "Microwave Showdown". It was our little version of the Food Network. We had two teams compete like "Iron Chef" using basics you might find in a dorm room or college cafeteria. It was great! After that my RAs demonstrated 9 different recipes. Some of them really hammed it up. We might even have the next Food Network Star in our midst!

One of my new favorite quick dessert recipes is...

MICROWAVE FUDGE

Ingredients:
12 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

Directions:
Combine ingredients in a microwave safe bowl.
Microwave on medium for 2 to 3 minutes
(stirring at 1 minute intervals)
until chips are melted and mixture is smooth and thick.
Pour into greased 8" sqaure dish and cool.

We also made...
Late-Night Asian Noodles
Mexican Chicken
Pizza Mac n Cheese
Microwave Veggies in Parmesan Sauce
Cheesy Mexi Rice Casserole
Cake in Coffee Cup (Delish!)
and Scrambled Eggs

(For those of you counting...the 9th was a cobbler but it didn't turn out well. Succesful on 8 out of 9, not too bad!)

Let me know if you guys want me to post any of the other recipes.

CROCK POT STEAK BURRITOS from Erin

Ingredients:

2-1lb flank steaks cut in half
2 pkg taco seasoning
1 onion, chopped
1 can Rotel
2 tbsp white vinegar
2 can chopped green chilies


Directions:

Place chopped onion in bottom of crock pot.
Shake steaks in a plastic bag with taco seasoning to coat.
Place in crock pot (She adds the extra taco seasoning as well).
Pour rotel and chilies over meat and add white vinegar.
Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Shred meat and assemeble burritos as desired.

CHICKEN ENCHILADA CASSEROLE from Erin

Ingredients:

1 chopped onion
2 tbsp oil
1 can red enchilada sauce
1 can black beans, drained
1 can diced Rotel
1 can mexicorn, drained
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
corn tortillas (about 10)
3 cups cooked chicken, shredded
3 cups mexicheese


Directions:

Saute onion in oil until tender.
Add next 6 ingrediants and cook until warm (this is the sauce).
In a 9x13 pan, layer half of sauce, tortillas, chicken, cheese, chicken, tortillas, remaining sauce, top with cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly.

This meal also devides easily into two smaller pan and freezes well.
If freezing, assemble then freeze. Thaw then bake.

MEXICAN CORN DIP from Beth

I made this for the kids in Slovakia and they loved it. It's been a hit with friends and family as well.

Ingredients:
3 (11 ounce) cans mexicorn whole kernel corn, drained
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 (7 ounce) can diced green chilies
2/3 cup green onion, chopped
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream

Directions:
Combine sour cream,mayonnaise and cumin and stir well.
Add corn,cheese,chiles,black pepper,and onions to the sour cream mixture.
Stir with a wooden spoon till all is combined.
Cover and chill for 2 hours or overnight to bring flavors out.
Serve with warm tortilla chips or corn chips.