Sopa?

Growing up, my grandma made what we always called "Sopa". It was noodles (usually penne), homemade chili sauce (smooth, not with chili seeds), and cheese chunks. Simple and delicious. I can guarantee you there were NEVER leftovers. 

Meanwhile, grandma's long gone and I can't find anything similar to her recipe because everywhere I look, sopa is soup. Anyway, I took my dad's advice and tried the same idea but used enchilada sauce since we couldn't figure out the chili sauce recipe. 

My latest attempt was my best yet. It was amazing when it was fresh, not so much when it was leftovers the next day. So make sure you eat it up when you make it! 

Here's what you need: 

Noodles (I used egg noodles this time)

1 can enchilada sauce (this time around it was verde)

Cheese (choose your favorite, and quantity is your discretion)

Onion, chopped

Santa Fe seasoning

While your noodles are cooking, sautee onion in a big non-stick pan. I have a 6 qt I use and it's perfect. Once onions are done (just barely still crunchy), add sauce. Allow sauce to get hot. By now your noodles should be/could be done. Drain, add to sauce. Sprinkle with Santa Fe seasoning (or just add pepper, dash of garlic, & salt). Once noodles are fully mixed in sauce, cook just long enough for everything to be HOT! Turn off burner, add cheese and fold in. Serve immediately. 

The fun in this recipe, is that the options are endless - you can use red or green sauce, homemade or canned. Either way it's delicious. If you like really spicy, go with a medium or hot enchilada sauce. You can use any noodles you like, and you can choose your cheese. I tend to prefer Mozzarella or Sharp Cheddar for this meal, but I still have my whole life ahead of me to try different cheeses. 

Hot summer day refresh.

So I decided to make "sassy water", something I saw on Pinterest. Sassy water had cucumbers, lemon and mint in it. So I added my own twist and as the days go by, I twist it up a bit with different ingredients. I have a new favorite summer drink, it's calorie free, and it. is. delicious. 

This was my first time making it. I used sliced cucumber, lemon, strawberry, and a few spearmint leaves. The cucumber is very dominant but I can still taste the rest of the ingredients if I allow myself to savor it. Sorta like wine tasting, but better *wink*

I have also made it with: 

• cucumber, apple, mint, and cilantro
• cucumber and lime
• cucumber, apple, lemon

It's hard to taste the apple, because cucumber still so dominant, but it's there! And it's soooooo refreshing! 

Pizza.... everything!

So I had some Nasoya wonton wrappers and turkey pepperoni in the fridge.... I've been dying to make pizza wontons, so I made a special trip to town to get cheese. Mark this on the calendar, because I rarely go to town for ONE thing! Okay, so it turned out that I got more than one thing when I found Grands Crescent Rolls 2/$1!! So I figured I'd have some fun with it all while I was at it. 

I tried pinching the wrappers to 'seal' them but that didn't work, so I started using a fork to press the edges together and that worked almost too well. Upon frying them, they filled up with air and I was concerned they were going to pop at me, but they didn't.... 

I fried them in about 1/2" of EVOO in a non stick pan. The cheese melts down to almost nothing, but you can still taste it:  

Rather than putting the sauce inside the wonton and risking the sauce leaking into the frying oil and exploding on me, I served them in a bowl with marinara for dipping. Delicious! 

Now, for those Grands rolls I found on sale: 

I unrolled the dough rolls (keep in mind, the instructions say DO NOT unroll them). You kinda have to unroll them to make them even more perfect ;) 

Anyway, I placed two pepperoni and two tiny pieces of cheese on the strip of dough and rolled it back up: 

I used two cans of biscuits since I was cooking for 5 people. They looked like perfection going into the oven! Since my daughter's vegan, I made hers with soy pepperoni and Veggie Singles - the cheese melted and everything so you could hardly tell the difference by looking at it. She was super happy to be eating what everyone else was eating... *wink wink*

Finally.... I served these in the middle of the wontons. They were great dipped in the marinara, too! 

Zucchini pizza?

So, I've been busy doing this and that, and even cooking. I just haven't really had a chance to get on here and update with photos, so here goes!

Tonight I made the most amazing dinner. I think it had to do with the sauce. I don't know what brand it is, but it has a blank label that says something similar to Artichoke Walnut Marinara. O. M. G. I have GOT to find this stuff! I acquired it through a friend cleaning out their cupboards and it's been in my cupboard for a long time so I couldn't even begin to figure out where it came from originally. 

Anyway, I took a zucchini and sliced it long ways, about 1/4" thick. Also took an eggplant and sliced about 3/8" thick, and lathered both with sauce: 

Added cheese (Mozzarella and Cheddar)

Baked for about 8 mins @ 400* - or until cheese bubbles. 

I could not believe just how yummy this was. Even the eggplant was delicious! Who knew eggplant could be transformed that quickly! Katie even loved it (I gave her the zucchini/eggplant w/o cheese). 

Busy busy!

Today I got SO much accomplished! I got up with the plan to get something done, and boy did I! I had my cousin help me with Katie, and I decided to mow the lawns. Hah - funny. We have an electric mower that is about 1/2hp and bogs down super easy. I told my cousin that it shouldn't take more than an hour. Hehe... I mowed the front lawn... then moved on to the weeds in the driveway and side yard. Then I sprayed roundup on the stepping stones and pathway that was overgrown with weeds. I cleaned a bunch of trash up and made a few trips to the dumpster.... and felt great about the results of the front yard. I almost didn't even go to the back yard because I knew that would take twice as long....

Front yard: 

So rather than lose momentum, I headed off to the back jungle. This took FOREVER because not only is the grass tall, it's thick! So about 75 minutes into mowing, I finally finished the areas I'd intended to mow, then I figured I'd hit up some of the weeds against the fence and against the house. Hey look! There's a pool back there! Who knew haha. Ok, so I could have swept the patio, but I figured it's windy enough in the evenings, that'll get taken care of eventually.

Back yard...

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After the yard, I went inside and decided to eat some lunch. Earlier before I'd started mowing, I'd put some ribs in the oven (my first attempt). They turned out great! Not bad for my first try. I went a little overboard on BBQ sauce but it was worth it... 

I rubbed them with some S&P and paprika then put them in about 3/4" of water in the pan. Covered with foil then baked at 250* for about an hour and 20 mins. I flipped them and sprinkled some sugar on them, re-covered them and put them back in for another hour and 15 mins. Took the foil off and smothered with BBQ sauce and cranked the oven up to 400* where I baked them another 20 mins. Pure messy goodness. 

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Lately I've been eating a lot of corn tortillas. Since I've been counting calories, corn tortillas are a great way to get substance without too many calories. The other day, I made homemade salsa. Been craving it and decided to just DO IT! So I made my own chips by slow cooking some corn tortillas in a non-stick pan with a little non-stick olive oil spray. Another snack was pico tacos - delicious, and super low on calories! Simply pico and tortillas... 

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For the volunteers, I made egg rolls and fried rice. I don't know how well it went over with them yet, but I know that my cousin and I tried them before we sent them over, and we thought they were great! The egg rolls I made by hand using Nasoya Egg Roll Wraps. I simply put rice, leftover ham (which I could have done without, personally), green onion strip, and cilantro leaf, then rolled them up. Here's the catch though - I BAKED them! Who knew, baking them was so great, and oil free too. I tried them both ways for the sake of quality, and while pan frying them tasted better, it was not working out with the quantity of rolls I had to make. This is a photo of the baked ones we sampled:

Smoked Tuna Quesadilla

My internet got "dumbed" down to dial-up speed. I had no idea I had a usage meter! So they cut me down to super slow and seriously, it took 15 minutes to upload the following two photos. 

I found a fun way to re-use some of our favorite clothes that I can't bring myself to get rid of... Katie's got a dolly that is pretty decent size, and it fits her 12m clothes almost perfectly! 

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Smoked Tuna Quesadilla

I made a quesadilla that a friend of mine inspired. I tweaked it a little bit and figured I'd share:

Smoked Tuna Pouch (Starkist Creations) - this also works with solid white tuna in water with a little liquid smoke!
Tortillas - works with corn or flour!
2 chopped Green Onions
1 tsp Lime Juice
2tsp Mayo
Wing Sauce
1oz Cheese (I use sharp cheddar).

I only used 1oz of cheese because really, you don't need much cheese for this. Pretty much only enough cheese to hold it all together, depending on the tortilla size. I used 13" tortillas for the photo here, so I was able to make a giant quesadilla which was really like 600 calories, but if you break it into 2 meals, or share it with someone, it's guiltless! I put the cheese down spread evenly, then the tuna mixture (mixed with the rest of the ingredients). I cooked on medium with a little non-stick spray - the key (I believe) is to cook it slowly. You don't want to burn the tortilla, and you want it hot enough to melt the cheese and get the tuna hot.

Crisp both sides, enjoy! You don't even really need dipping sauce because it's so yummy just the way it is! I am not much a fan of tuna, but this just melts in your mouth. Delicious!