Corn and Crab Chowder

Since it's November and it's getting chilly out I'm starting to think about soups and stews! I tried an especially delicious recipe last night from the cook book "The complete best of bridges Cookbooks volume 1". I unfortunately forgot to buy the onion when i was making this and was really too lazy to go buy one after i had started the chowder so i imagine it would be even better with this addition but i have to say it was pretty darned good on it's own! Also since I seemed to be having a tough time getting the right ingredients I also managed to get garlic butter instead of the regular stuff. I love garlic though so I didn't mind :D

4 slices of bacon
1/4 cup butter
1 small onion, chopped
1/3 cup flour
3 cups milk
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced and set in cold water
1 small green pepper, seeded and chopped
1 stalk celery, diced
1 bay leaf
1 cup half and half cream
10 oz crab meat
1 can whole kernel corn (12 0z/341 ml)
salt and pepper to taste
1tbsp chopped parsley

fry bacon until crisp, cool and crumble. Set aside. In a large saucepan, melt butter and saute onion until soft, Add flour, stir and cook gently for 1 minute. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly until thickened. Drain potatoes and add to sauce with green pepper, celery, bay leaf and cream. Simmer 35-40 minutes. Add crab, corn and bacon; heat through, season with salt and pepper. garnish each bowl with parsley. Serves 6

I also decided to try and make some small buns to go with this (creamy soup without bread just isn't the same for me) and in the end i just ended up using the pillsbury crescent rolls dough instead. It's easy and delicious but before you know it you realize that you have eaten four crescents worth of bread. Dangerous! I think that this is a great soup for a cold winters night and with the buns it's really filling! Try it out and let me know what you think!

I originally had a different blog that was about healthy recipes for satisfying your manchild. I love to cook so I thought I might just incorporate recipes every now and again when I find one I like :)

Too Good Turkey Bacon Wrap


*I couldn't find the recipe online and I'm too lazy to write it all down from the cook book so you're going to get the watered down version*


Ingredients:

*1 slice of low fat American Cheddar Cheese for every wrap (I couldn't find this in my grocery store so i just went with marble)
*Lettuce (I say just bring a head of lettuce out of the fridge and let people take however much they want in their wrap)
*Boneless skinless turkey breast (For two people I had 2 regular sized ones of these)
*Whole wheat Tortilla wrap shells 2-4 depending on how much you want
*4 slices fat free turkey bacon (I know I know, it's no substitute for real bacon but trust me mixed with everything else it's fabulous)
*1/2 a cucumber sliced and diced
*1/2 a red pepper sliced and diced
*1 tablespoon of light mayo
*1 tablespoon sunflower oil
*1 clove of garlic, diced or put through one of those garlic presses
*5 mushrooms cut up into bite sized peices

Heat up a large wok/frying pan and put in the tablespoon of sunflower oil. Put close to full heat depending on your stove top. (I like to start on high because for one, I'm an impatient fat chick who wants her food NOW. I just make sure to keep an eye out to make sure i'm not burning anything)

While the pan is heating up chop up your boneless skinless turkey breast into small, bite sized pieces. When the sunflower oil is heated up put in your turkey and turn the heat to just above medium heat. This is a good time to get your red pepper chopped up and your garlic pressed. Once your turkey has begun turning white, add the veggies and garlic into the pan and cook for 5 minutes being careful to stir everything as you go to make sure that it all gets properly cooked.

When everything is cooked put it all into a large bowl. If you have a separate frying pan then feel free to cook the turkey bacon in that while you make your turkey and veggie mix in the other. If you don't have another pan just cook the turkey bacon in the same frying pan that you cooked the first ingredients in. When the turkey bacon has bacon has become crispy to your liking tear it into little pieces and add it to the bowl that has the skinless turkey/red pepper mix and mix them all together. This is the time to add the cucumber as well.

Once everything is in the bowl this is a good time to add that tablespoon of low fat mayo, mixing thoroughly. If you want, you can put the tortilla shells in the micro wave for 10 seconds to heat them up a bit. When they are ready put a few slices of lettuce on them and one slice of cheese* on each and then finish off with the turkey/veggie mixture. Wrap as you like and Voila! You are done and have a delicious, healthy, easy dinner!

*When I made this for the first time I made the mistake of shredding the cheese into little, hard to see pieces. Consequently my man child saw a tiny bit of cheese in my wrap and was jealous because he didn't see any in his. Cheese jealousy is the worst. The situation could have become rather out of hand if I hadn't gone to the kitchen and come back with his very own slice of cheese.

The Verdict

I really loved this dinner and thought it was very tasty. My manchild, although not quite as enthusiastic as me (even with the cheese! Sometimes manchildren are hard to please! I think I just inadvertently made a rap-no pun intended) seemed to enjoy it as well. In fact he gave it 4 out of 5 Autobots.



Anyway that's all for now. I definitely recommend trying this one out. It will make your manchild stroke his manly beard with happiness.