This is a sponsored post by Challenge butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible! First and foremost, let me come out and say pumpkin is a winter squash.
It has come to my attention that many people don’t realize this, and they think pumpkin is just for pies and lattes. But actually, pumpkin is one of my favorite ingredients for savory dishes this time of year.
The smooth texture is great for sauces and soups, not to mention, it's packed full of nutrients like potassium, Vitamin C, and fiber.
It pairs very well with sage, smoked paprika, ginger, and cayenne, among other spices.
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil over high heat. Add gnocchi, stirring gently so they don’t all stick together. Cook gnocchi for about 2 minutes, or until they start to rise to the surface.
Drain gnocchi. Drizzle with a little olive oil to prevent them from sticking together and set aside.
Brown sausage in skillet; drain fat and set aside.
Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of saucepan and heat at medium heat. Sauté garlic and sage in saucepan for about 1 minute.
Add cream cheese and heat until melted.
Add pumpkin puree, half-and-half, parmesan cheese, smoked paprika and chili powder. Stir until thoroughly combined and simmer on low for several minutes.
Gently fold gnocchi and sausage into sauce until combined.
Serve warm and garnish with toasted walnuts and more parmesan cheese if desired.
Pumpkin Hummus
Ingredients
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup tahini
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
1 (15-ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Directions
Pulse lemon juice, tahini, garlic, and salt together in a food processor or blender until smooth.
Add garbanzo beans and olive oil and pulse until smooth.
Add pumpkin, smoked paprika, cumin, and cayenne pepper; pulse until well blended. Transfer hummus to bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.
When ready to serve, drizzle olive oil and sprinkle additional smoked paprika on top.
This is a sponsored post by Challenge Butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!
If you're looking for a topic everyone can unite behind for the greater good of humans across the globe, I regret to inform you that grilled cheese is not that topic. When I posted my deluxe grilled cheese recipe last year for National Grilled Cheese Day, I quickly learned that many people have very different opinions about whether a sandwich with ingredients other than cheese can even be called a grilled cheese.
So this year as I prepared my segment for National Grilled Cheese Month, I decided to take out the debate completely by only using cheese in my sandwich filling. But of course, I had to make it unique. And this Pretzel Beer Grilled Cheese Sandwich was born!
If I'm being honest, the idea evolved from a lobster roll I had over the weekend from one of my favorite fish places in Indianapolis, Caplinger's Fresh Catch. They use a pretzel roll with their lobster roll which I really appreciate because I feel like pretzel rolls are very underused. Once I decided to use a pretzel roll for my recipe, beer cheese dip was just a natural addition.
But actually, the beer cheese dip which consists of cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and mozzarella cheese works really well in a grilled cheese recipe because it's creamy and it melts well. Also, the shredded cheeses in the dip melt quickly as well.
I sandwiched the beer cheese dip in between two slices of gouda. Gouda will always be one of my favorite cheese to use for grilled cheese because it's extremely flavorful, and it melts really well.
TIP: Avoid "sharp" and "smoked" when picking out your cheeses. Sharp cheddar is aged longer than mild cheddar cheese and does not melt well at all. Avoid it entirely. Also, when you smoke a cheese, it messes with its ability to melt. So avoid smoked gouda, and stick with regular gouda.
Now that we've discussed the best cheeses to use, I'd like to share one more tip: You can make grilled cheese sandwiches for a crowd by cooking them in the oven. Cue gasps! Yes, I said it, it's true. That's why I saved this one for last because I know it would be a bit controversial.
Here's the deal, I hate it when you're trying to make grilled cheese for multiple people on the stove, and no one gets served at the same time. So the first person gets their grilled cheese, and they finish it before the second person is even served. Or their sandwich gets cold while they wait around for everyone else to get served. Cooking grilled cheese sandwiches in the oven solves that problem because you can cook about six to eight sandwiches at the same time. The best way to get the sandwiches to taste like their grilled cheese and not just baked sandwiches is by placing a pan on top while they're baking so the outside of the bread gets crispy just like it would on the stove.
Pretzel Beer Grilled Cheese Sandwiches Yield: Makes about 8 sandwiches Ingredients
Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit; place two baking pans in oven
Beat together cream cheese, cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, beer, dijon mustard, and garlic powder. Set aside.
Brush melted butter onto bottom half of pretzel buns; remove one baking pan from oven and place the bottoms of the rolls in the pan.
Add a slice of gouda to each sandwich. Top with 3 Tablespoons of beer cheese dip mixture. Add another slice of gouda and top with other half of bun.
Brush melted butter on top of sandwiches.
Remove other baking pan from the oven and stick on top of sandwiches. Add heavy objects to top pan to ensure it is weighted down on top of buns, and stick it into the oven.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until everything is melted through.
So, let’s discuss slow cookers. Everyone knows slow cookers are wonderful. You can use them to make extremely simple or gourmet dishes. My first solo experience with a slow cooker was my freshman year in college. I would make sweet potatoes in the slow cooker all of the time. Pretty much that’s all I ate ever. I realize this sounds peculiar, but have you ever made a sweet potato in a slow cooker. It is really delicious.
Oftentimes, I think people associate slow cookers with casseroles and soups. It’s true, those are great ways to use them, but you can use them for a whole lot more. And that’s what I wanted to showcase in this recipe. But first, let me share some slow cooker tips.
The flavor is in the brown
Do yourself a flavor (I hate that joke but I couldn’t resist) and spend 4 minutes of your day browning your meat before putting it in the slow cooker. You’ll be rewarded with an incredible depth of flavor in the finished dish.
Don’t peek!
Keep that lid closed! I know it’s tempting to get a sneak peek and a quick whiff, but the heat will escape from the inside and it will take a while for the temperature inside the slow cooker to return to what it was.
Don’t overfill it
Slow cooking works when the heat can properly circulate inside the slow cooker. If it’s too crowded, your ingredients will cook unevenly.
Put your vegetables on the bottom
Vegetables require more time to cook than meat, so placing them at the bottom will ensure they cook quicker.
Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken and Vegetables
Ingredients
6 to 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 cloves garlic, minced
16 ounces baby carrots
1 sweet onion, quartered
16 ounces red potatoes, quartered
Rosemary
Thyme
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
1 head broccoli
Directions
Brown chicken thighs on stove 2 to 3 minutes per side, set aside
Drizzle a little olive oil in your 5-6 quart slow cooker and spread garlic on bottom
Add layers of the onion, carrots, red potatoes, and chicken thighs
Sprinkle rosemary and thyme on top
In small bowl, combine brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, and red pepper flakes and pour on top of chicken thighs
Cover slow cooker and cook on low for 5 hours or high for 3 hours
Add broccoli on top of chicken thighs, and cook for another hour
Garnish with more fresh herbs and slivers of almonds if desired
A lot of times the content I produce for this blog and my segments is food that I don’t eat as a meal. Let’s face it, you’ve seen a lot of cookies and cupcakes around here. And contrary to popular belief, I don’t just go and eat those treats for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That’s why it’s extra special when my recipe becomes my meals for the week, as was the case this week for this flu-fighting soup.
To be completely honest, I was shocked by how wonderful this soup tasted. I expected it to be good, but I couldn’t believe how much the individual flavor profiles within the soup stood out. You can really taste the ginger and the lime and the cilantro, but it all blends so well together.
I’ve eaten this every single day for the past week now, and I haven’t gotten tired of it.
What really makes this soup so special is the fact that I created it using ingredients known to fight off flu and colds. Those ingredients include ginger, garlic, onion, turmeric, and mushrooms. If you google search “What to eat to get rid of flu,” those are the ingredients that repeatedly appear, so I really recommend making this soup at the first sign of a cold.
Flu-Fighting Soup Yield: Makes about 10 servings Ingredients
2 large carrots, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms (I used canned, whole mushrooms, but it’s your preference)
6 scallions (or about 1/2 bunch), chopped
2 cloves garlic (about 2 teaspoons), minced
3 Tablespoons red curry paste
1 1/2 Tablespoons ginger, minced
2 teaspoons turmeric
6 cups chicken broth
1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk
2 Tablespoons lime juice
1 1/2 pounds chicken, cooked and shredded
1 (8 ounce) box brown rice noodles
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
Optional: Avocado, limes, or more cilantro for serving
Directions
Heat large soup pot to medium heat with a little bit of oil; add carrots and sauté until soft, or about 5 minutes
Add red pepper and mushrooms, and sauté for another two minutes
Add scallions, garlic, and ginger, and sauté for one minute
Add red curry paste and turmeric and sauté for 30 more seconds
Pour in chicken broth, coconut milk, and lime juice; bring to boil then reduce to simmer
Add chicken and noodles and let simmer for about 5 minutes, or until noodles are al dente
Right before serving, stir in cilantro
Serve soup with sliced avocado, lime wedges, or more cilantro
Slow Cooker Version
If you want to adapt this recipe for a slow cooker, simply dump all ingredients except chicken, noodles, and cilantro in slow cooker and cook on low for about 6 hours. You may want to microwave your carrots for about a minute first just to make sure they're soft enough.
Once the 6 hours is up, add chicken and noodles and cook for an additional 5 to 10 minutes in the slow cooker, or until the noodles are al dente. Right before serving, stir in the cilantro.
Cooking pasta is one of the most basic tasks for anyone who is new in the kitchen. How difficult can it be — all you do is add noodles to boiling water, right? Well, actually there’s a little more to it than that in order to ensure you get the tastiest pasta possible. Here are a few of the tips I follow:
Heavily salt the pasta water once it starts boiling. Emphasis on the word “heavily.” Like 2 Tablespoons per pound of pasta. Why? The pasta is absorbing the water while it cooks. So if the water is heavily seasoned, the pasta will absorb it and taste better. Add the salt after the water starts boiling so it doesn’t evaporate ahead of time.
Bring your water to a rolling boil, not a simmer. The force of the boiling water will ensure that your noodles don’t stick together. Previous generations believed adding olive oil to the pasta was the answer to this “impastable” problem. But actually, the olive oil creates an oily film on your noodles, and as a result, the sauce doesn’t stick to the pasta as well. You should already be cooking your pasta in a big enough pot to generate a rolling boil without the water spilling over. Bit if you don’t have a big enough pot, just cook the noodles in smaller batches.
Do not walk away from your pasta while it’s cooking! Stir the pasta every minute or so to prevent the pasts from sticking together. Or if you want a workout, go ahead and gently stir the noodles the entire time.
Drain your pasta, but dot not rinse it with cold water. Your pasta comes out of the pot coated with a starchy film. This film helps sauces adhere to the pasta. The film will rinse off if you rinse the pasta in cold water. The only time you should ever rinse your pasta is if your are making a cold pasta salad.
That being said, I absolutely did not rinse the spaghetti for this recipe. It’s very important that all of the ingredients stick well to the pasta to help keep it in a nest shape.
Spaghetti and Meatball Bites
Yield: Makes about 24 pasta bites
Ingredients
1/2 pound spaghetti noodles
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups marinara sauce, divided
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons garlic powder
24 meatballs
Basil, if desired
Directions
Cook spaghetti to al dente, about 7 minutes; drain and let cool
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
Combine cooled spaghetti with beaten eggs, 1 cup marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, and garlic powder
Spray muffin cups with nonstick spray
Twist spaghetti on fork and set in cavity in cupcake pan
Spoon 1 tablespoon marinara sauce over each spaghetti “nest” and place meatball on top
Sprinkle more parmesan cheese over the top of each meatball
Bake for 20 minutes or until meatballs are heated through and cheese is melted
Sprinkle basil on top and serve with more marinara sauce if desired
This is a sponsored post by Challenge butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!
As much as I love to cook, I don’t necessarily like to spend every night in the kitchen preparing dinner. When I’m hungry, I want to eat now. If you feel the same way, one of the best ways to make sure you have food available is by meal prepping. There are different forms of meal-prepping, but one of my favorite ways is making “double-duty dinners.”
The idea behind double-duty dinners is to prepare one big meal with plenty of food so you can transform the leftovers into an entirely new meal the following night. This is great for picky eaters who don’t like to eat the same thing for dinner every single night.
The Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese featured on this blog post is a great recipe to transform into a double-duty meal. Normally, if I was preparing this meal for just one night, I would only use about one pound of chicken. But since I plan to use the leftovers for another day, I should double the protein and add about two pounds of chicken (or more) to the slow cooker. When the chicken is done, I remove all of it, shred it, and return just half of it to the slow cooker.
I store the other half in the refrigerator for my dinner the following day, which I can use to make salad, pasta, or pizza (as you’ll see below)!
I chose to make pizza as the other half of this double-duty meal because it used a lot of the same ingredients as the Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese. The only new additions were pizza dough, tomato sauce, and butter. So not only did I save time, but I also saved money. Now I don't need to go out and buy ingredients for an entirely new meal!
Some other ideas for double-duty dinners that I featured in the segment on FOX59 are: Pulled pork used to make sandwiches the first night and pork quesadillas on the second night. Fish, specifically tilapia, use to make a rice dinner on night one and fish tacos on night two.
One thing I need to point out — it’s important to always use the best ingredients available. That’s why I used Challenge cream cheese in the macaroni and cheese and Challenge butter in the pizza. I choose Challenge over every other brand because I know there are no hormones, additives, or fillers in their products.The taste is also superior to other brands because they use real cream.
NOTE: In the recipes below, I’m posting the regular version, not the double-duty version, in case some people saw the picture of the pasta and scrolled straight to the recipe. But if you want to make the double-duty version, just double the amount of chicken as discussed earlier.
Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese Yield: Makes about 8, 1-cup servings Ingredients
Green onions and blue cheese for garnish, if desired
Directions
Add chicken, chicken broth, buffalo sauce, garlic powder, paprika, pepper, and salt to slow cooker. Stir until combined and cook on high for 2 to 3 hours. (Could be more or less time depending on your slow cooker. My chicken was done right at 2 hours)
Remove cooked chicken from slow cooker, shred, and return to slow cooker.
Add pasta, cheddar cheese, evaporated milk, milk, and cream cheese to slow cooker.
Mix and cook on high for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until pasta is cooked
Garnish with blue cheese crumbles and green onions if desired and serve
Buffalo Chicken Pizza Yield: Makes 1 pizza Ingredients
Pizza dough
1/4 to 1/2 cup tomato sauce (depending on whether you like a lot of sauce or not)
This is a sponsored post by Challenge butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!
My first experience with cooking hot dogs began when I was a babysitter in middle school for a family with four children. It can be hard to get young kids to all agree on one thing to eat for dinner, but fortunately, all these kids ever wanted was hot dogs and sauerkraut (yes indeed, they were German).
But as you can imagine, plain hot dogs get a little boring after a while, so I had to spice things up. Sometimes I made “octopus” hot dogs. I just cut the bottom of the hot dog into eight parts soit looked like tentacles.
Then the kids started requesting all kind of animals, like “giraffe” hot dogs and “zebra” hot dogs, but those were a little too complicated. So that’s when my famous hot dog casserole was born!
What’s that you ask? You bake hot dogs in a dish with sauerkraut and cheese. Sound disgusting? That’s because it probably was (I never tried it). But the kids loved it!
I was thinking about that hot dog casserole recently when it occurred to me I could use the same concept to make chili dogs for a crowd.
One of my favorite tricks, especially when you’re cooking for a group of people, is to transform your favorite dish into a casserole because it’s easier to serve multiple people at once. Remember that chicken and waffles casserole I made a few weeks ago? So much easier than making individual servings of chicken and waffles!
I decided not to use regular hot dog buns because I was afraid they would get soggy. Instead I cut a piece of puff pastry into eight strips and I wrapped each hot dog in the puff pastry strip. I chose puff pastry over crescent roll dough because it doesn’t expand as much, and I hate it when you take a bite and get a little meat with a lot of bread.
I baked the hot dogs for about 15 minutes in order to cook the dough before I covered everything in chili, onions, and cheese and baked it again. You’ll notice that I combined Challenge cream cheese with the chili. I did this because I wanted to make the chili a little thicker and creamier so it wouldn’t slide off the hot dogs completely. And I always use Challenge cream cheese because it’s hormone free and they use real cream. You can really tell the difference between Challenge and other generic brands.
As far as the chili goes, you can use store-bought chili, canned chili, or your favorite homemade chili! I’m going to share my favorite, easy chili recipe below. If you like planning ahead, you could make a big batch of the chili ahead of time and freeze it so it’s always available.
Heat large sauce pan over medium high heat. Add olive oil and ground beef, breaking it up with a spatula. Cook until it’s no longer pink or about 10 minutes.
Drain beef and return to pan.
Stir in onion, garlic, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, cumin, salt, and pepper. Simmer for 15 minutes or until thickened.
Stir in cream cheese.
For the hot dogs
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
Cut the puff pastry sheet into 8 equal strips and wrap each hot dog in a strip.
Place the hot dogs in a prepared baking dish and bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven.
Pour chili over hot dogs and add cheese on top (Optional: you can add more onions between the chili and cheese layer)
Stick baking pan back in oven and cook for an additional 10 minutes and serve.
This is a sponsored post by Challenge butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!
I was at the grocery store with my mom recently to pick up ingredients for this amazing foil packet dinner when I noticed the shrimp was from Indiana.
Luckily for my mom (wink wink), I know a lot about Indiana shrimp, so of course, I was very eager to share that knowledge with her!
Did you know that Indiana produces some of the best shrimp in the world? I realize that sounds like a crazy claim to make about our landlocked state, but it’s true! Just like soybeans and corn, shrimp is produced in indoor shrimp farms throughout the state. The shrimp grow and develop in large above ground pools.
There are about a dozen shrimp farms in the state, and RDM Aquaculture is the largest. They sell about 250,000 shrimp each month! Farm-raised shrimp is supposed to be a good alternative to wild ocean shrimp because of the growing concern of water pollution.
I was feeling pretty proud about this spiel until I realized the sign said the shrimp was actually from India, not Indiana. Oh well. Onto the recipe!
These foil packet dinners with shrimp, sausage, corn and potatoes are so tasty! And there are minimal ingredients – the flavor comes from just a little creole seasoning and butter.
I have a few tips before you try out this great recipe!
First of all, I recommend sticking each ear of corn in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Otherwise, the cob will be very hard to cut through.
Also, I recommend microwaving the potatoes for about 1 minute before you cut them and put them in the foil packets. This is because the potatoes will take longer to cook on the grill than everything else.
Also, my dad brought to my attention that apparently a new study shows cooking with aluminum foil can cause health issues. I’m not sure if there’s any merit to this, and it’s predominantly with acidic foods. But if you’re uncomfortable cooking your food straight on the aluminum foil, just lay a piece of parchment paper in the foil packet before adding your ingredients.
Also, just to clarify, everything goes into the foil packet raw and it cooks on the grill!
Cajun Shrimp and Sausage Foil Packets
Yield: Makes about 4 foil packets
Ingredients
4 ears of corn on the cob, shucked and cut into thirds
1 pound red potatoes, cut into fourths
1 pound uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 pound Andouille sausage, cut into 1-inch chunks (turkey sausage works well too)
3 Tablespoons Cajun / creole seasoning (I use TonyChacheres Creole Seasoning)
Parsley for garnish, if desired
4 teaspoons minced garlic
Directions
Preheat grill to 400 degrees
Cut 4 sheets of 12-inch aluminum foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray
Evenly distribute corn, potatoes, shrimp and sausage into the center of each foil packet
Sprinkle 2 teaspoons creole seasoning evenly over ingredients in each foil packet and add 1 Tablespoon of butter and 1 teaspoon of minced garlic to each center
Seal foil packets by folding up the sides over the ingredients and sealing edges, allowing some room for heat circulation
Place foil packets on the grill and cook for about 12 to 15 minutes or until shrimp are no longer pink and veggies are cooked
This is a sponsored post by Challenge butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible! I’m a sucker for a good sandwich. In my opinion, texture, flavor and color are key. And even though grilled cheese sandwiches can be as basic as you want them to be (think Kraft Singles and Wonder Bread), I think they deserve the same love that every other sandwich receives.
Bread
So let’s first discuss the bread. It should be thick enough to securely hold all of your toppings, but it shouldn’t taste like you’re just eating a mouthful of bread.
My favorite bread to use for grilled cheese is sourdough. It’s just the right thickness and it doesn’t have a very strong taste, which is great because we want the flavor of the cheese to stand out.
Butter or Mayonnaise?
In the past week I’ve learned that some people prefer to spread mayonnaise instead of butter on the outside of the bread before cooking it in the pan. Apparently, it’s supposed to make the outside of the bread crispier.
I tried it, and I don’t like it. I say butter all the way! I always use Challenge butter in the pan beforehand in addition to spreading it on the bread. Challenge butter is 100% real cream butter without any hormones, additives, or fillers, and I think it makes a big difference in the taste.
Cheese
Cheese is obviously the most important part of the grilled cheese sandwich. I don’t recommend using more than two types of cheese at once because you don’t want the flavors to overpower one another. If you do use more than one type of cheese, make sure they complement each other and pair well before you stick them on a sandwich.
If you’re stuck in a rut and you’re looking to try something new, Kareen Stephens, Brand Manager at Schuman Cheese, shared some advice on her favorite cheeses for grilled cheese sandwiches.
She says soft cheeses work really well and offer a fabulous melt.
“Our Cello Fontal has a smooth, creamy texture with a mild flavor that offers an amazingly gooey melt. Asiago is also great for melting and has a nice sweet and balanced flavor. One cheese that is sure to upgrade any grilled cheese recipe is Tallegio, which has a strong pungent exterior that reveals a delicious buttery soft cheese inside,” Stephens said.
I don’t think you should go “over-the-top” with toppings because like I said earlier, you want the cheese to be the main focus.
Bacon and prosciutto are always good choices. I also love adding fried egg with a nice runny yolk to dip it in. And I love the texture of avocado on a sandwich.
Add 1 Tablespoon butter to a skillet on medium heat. Once melted, add an egg and cook for two minutes on one side before flipping it to cook on the other side. Cook one minute longer, and remove from pan and set aside.
Add another Tablespoon of butter to skillet and let melt. Use 1 Tablespoon to butter one side of a single slice of bread and stick butter side down in skillet.
Add 2 slices of cheddar cheese, bacon, avocado, fried egg, and 2 slices of gouda cheese.
Spread 1 Tablespoon of butter on second slice of bread and add it to top of sandwich, butter side up.
Cook sandwich for about 4 minutes on medium heat and then use a spatula to flip it to the other side. Cook an additional 3 minutes on the other side and serve immediately.
