Have any of you tried Olive Garden’s new Chicken & Gnocchi soup yet?  If you have your mouth is salivating already.  If not…try it!  It’s a really good creamy soup, a little different than your normal creamy soup because of the gnocchi.  Last time my husband and I went to Olive Garden he got this soup with his entree, and I did a Google search for the recipe once we got home because it was so good!  This recipe is spot on with the restaurant’s.

One word of warning though:  if you’re on a diet, this probably isn’t the recipe for you.  If’s full of milk and cream…but as you’d expect it’s delicious!  Next time I make it (and there WILL be a next time I can guarantee that!) I’m going to play around with it and try to substitute some of the milk for chicken broth or something and see how that comes out, so I’ll let you know!  But for now here is the recipe for the full-fat version in all its glory:

Copycat Olive Garden Chicken & Gnocchi Soup

1. 1/3 c. olive oil
2. 2 cloves garlic, minced
3. 1 lb. chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces**
4. 1/3 c. flour
5. 1/2 c. shredded carrots**
6. 1 stick celery, chopped
7. 1/2 c. fresh chopped spinach
8. 2 & 1/2 c. milk
9. 1 & 1/2 c. heavy cream
10. 3 chicken bullion cubes
11. salt & pepper to taste
12. 17 oz. pre-made gnocchi**

• On medium heat, cook chicken and garlic in a large pot in olive oil until cooked through.
• Stir in flour and mix well until the flour is cooked into the chicken.
• Add the rest of the ingredients except for the gnocchi.
• Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add gnocchi; cook for 3-4 more minutes till cooked through.

Recommendations:

• Chicken:  I just bought a rotisserie chicken and cut that up and used the meat from that (weeknight meal), so either that or cooking the chicken like the recipe says will work great.
• Carrots:  You can buy carrots already shredded by the bagged lettuce.
• Gnocchi:  Even though I loved the soup, I really didn’t like the pre-made gnocchi that I bought.  The gnocchi in the one we had at Olive Garden was much better…much lighter (fluffier) and had a better taste.  So next time I make this I’m going to try to make my own gnocchi with it.  I heard it’s not too hard, and I think it would be worth the extra effort because I think it would make a big difference and the rest of the soup is so good that you want each element to match!  I don’t know, it could have just been the brand of gnocchi that I bought…so I’ll play around with it and keep you posted!

Bookmark to:

Well Merry Belated Christmas and Happy Belated New Years to everyone!  Let’s get caught up…Christmas was absolutely great, much better than I expected.  I was sick on New Years…lame.  And now that my family has gone back home, I figure it’s time to start blogging again (okay, they left a week ago, and yes I could have blogged while they were here because no they didn’t actually stay with me, but hey what can I say, it was a busy holidays!).

Here’s one idea I wanted to share with everyone for the next time you want to have friends over for “dinner.” My cousin, bless her heart, provided room and board, and entertainment, etc for our family while they were in town from Canada.  So, when it came time to dinners for ALL of us, she got pretty creative a couple times.  We all got together the Sunday before Christmas and she decided to have an appetizer fest.  We all brought a yummy appetizer.  And I decided that’s the perfect thing to do for entertaining!  It was simple for each of us (less stress is always great over the holidays), we were all filled, there was great variety (something for everyone!), and most important, my cousin didn’t have to slave over the meal or spend a ton of money because we all brought something…share the load people!!  This was also great because there were a few of us coming and going that night, so it was perfect to just keep this spread out so everyone could take as they please when we arrived, in between our board games, etc.

Here’s what we had at our Appetizer Fest:

• Avocado Eggrolls (a copycat that my cousin made from one of our favorites at The Cheesecake Factory.  I’ll get it from her & post it soon cause they’re amazing!!)
• Pumpkin Pie Dip
• Orange Julius
• 7 Layer Bean Dip (I don’t have the exact recipe that my cousin used, but this one looks really good and it was rated extremely high on allrecipes.com.)
• Salsa & Cream Cheese
• Pumpernickel Dip
• I brought Italian Chicken Sticks with 2 dipping sauces: marinara sauce & homemade honey mustard sauce

Some other ideas for an Appetizer Fest:

• Artichoke Dip
• Black Bean & Corn Salsa
• Crab Dip
• Mini Bagel Pizzas
• Buffalo Chicken Dip (I haven’t made this yet, but it was rated one of Recipezaar’s top 100 recipes of 2008 (#28) so I figured that’s pretty dang impressive.  I plan on trying it, so I’ll let you know how that goes…but definitely let me know if you try it before I do!)
• P.F. Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps (Also haven’t made these but they were also one of Recipezaar’s top in 2008 (#2!) and I love the originals so I’m definitely going to try these soon).
• Awesome Bacon-Tomato Dip (Okay, so I haven’t made this one either, but it’s also rated really high on Recipezaar.  I usually don’t post recipes I haven’t tried, but I’m just trying to give you ideas here!)

The only thing I’d recommend if you’re going to throw an Appetizer Fest is to maybe find out from people beforehand and plan what you make around that.  Like if everyone is doing savory stuff maybe make brownies and cut them up small and cookies so there’s something sweet too.  Or if everyone is doing dips do chicken strips so there’s something hearty enough to make it feel like a meal.

Bookmark to:

Here’s what we had last week for dinners.  Hope this helps to give you some ideas:

• Sun:  Grilled bbq chicken, mashed potatoes, salad
• Mon:  Grilled chicken tacos w/salsa, rice a roni, salad (see this post to see how I made Sunday’s and Monday’s meal at the same time!)
• Tues: Actually Delicious Turkey Burgers, grilled zucchini, malty strawnana shakes
• Wed:  Spaghetti (last time I made spaghetti I made a double batch & froze half of it, so I just defrosted it and heated it up on the stove and there was dinner!)
• Thu: Pizza
• Fri: Orzo Primavera, salad
• Sat:  Ate out!
• Sun:  Appetizer fest at my cousin’s house!  I brought Italian Chicken Sticks with homemade Honey Mustard Sauce and Homemade Marinara sauce.

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter for more menu making ideas!

Bookmark to:

I was sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s a little while back thumbing through a magazine and I came across this recipe.  It’s a recipe from Katie Couric that she said she makes all the time, which kind of intrigued me, especially when I saw how simple the recipe and ingredients were.  It looked good so I jotted it down on a piece of paper and made it that week.  It’s really good!

Even though you’re using simple ingredients that most people always have on hand, this makes a suprisingly different tasting sauce.  Last time I made it I made a double batch of the sauce, froze it, and used it a few weeks later over tofu instead of chicken.  And we think liked that even better than over chicken!  This is a very tangy sauce so like I said it’s a good change from your everyday chicken.

Katie Couric’s Lemon Chicken

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 3 c. chicken broth
• 2 lemons, juiced
• s&p to taste

1. Pound chicken breasts with meat mallet to a uniform thickness.  Dredge lightly in flour, shaking off the excess.
2. In a large sauté pan, over medium heat, melt butter and oil until it sizzles. Add chicken breasts and sauté, turning once or twice until cooked through and juices run clear. Remove chicken and set aside.
3. Add lemon juice to the chicken stock and whisk into sauté pan.
4. Whisk in flour and cook for one minute until the mixture boils. Reduce heat to a simmer and return chicken to pan to heat through thickening sauce to desired consistency. Season to taste with salt and ground white pepper.
5. Serve the chicken over a bed of Basmati rice and spoon the sauce over the chicken.

Bookmark to:

Not much to say to explain why I haven’t posted in 5 MONTHS, except that like all of you I’m busy! (great detailed explanation I know)…anyway, I’ve gotten a full time job since I last posted, and even though I was much more busy before when I was running my business, now when I get home from work all I want to do is relax and be lazy!  So, my poor loving husband has had to deal with a lot more nights than he’s used to of microwaved meals and hamburger helper.

But hey, like I’ve said before…I DO understand how hard it can be to find time to cook a decent meal when you’re trying to balance everything else in life (living first, cooking second right?)!  But I’ve also said before that I try to be somewhat of an example to women (and men) that are as busy as I am, that cooking really can have a place in your busy life!  Cooking really can be a de-stresser (if you have simple and quick recipes to follow), and even though sometimes it’s hard to admit when I’m sitting on the couch after a long stressful day at work and all I want to do is watch tv and forget I have responsibilities…there really isn’t anything better than a homecooked meal after a long day’s work…even if you’re the one that has to cook it (unless you’re unlike me and you can afford to eat out at nice restaurants every night, and even that can get old!).

So, even though I’ve been a TOTAL slacker the past few months…I’m dedicating again to try to have this blog be a resource that you can refer to when you’ve had ONE OF THOSE DAYS…atleast you don’t have to stress about what to cook for dinner…just come check out cooking second!

First step: subscribe to my newsletter!

Next step…let’s get caught up.  I’ll post a few of the new recipes (quick and easy and yummy of course!) that I’ve found over the past few months!

Bookmark to:

Here’s last week’s meal plan for you:

• Monday: Fish tacos (the easiest fish tacos on the planet!), spanish rice (rice-a-roni)
• Tuesday: Teriyaki Salmon (just a quick dinner, I just cut up the salmon into bite-sized pieces and sauteed them in this sauce I got from costco (it tastes like teriyaki sauce, but it’s thinner, it’s called Yoshida’s, and it’s delicious to marinade or cook any type of meat in)), leftover spanish rice, salad
• Wednesday: I was at girl’s camp…we had pot roast, baked potatoes, & corn
• Thursday: Girls camp again…pizza & ice cream sandwiches
• Friday: Cashew chicken (another bagged freezer meal…yeah, it was one of those weeks!)
• Saturday: Macaroni Grill’s chicken scalloppini, salad
• Sunday: Chicken salad sandwiches

Bookmark to:

So I just looked at my newsletter subscriptions, and realized there were a few new ones in there that I hadn’t approved yet (thanks SO MUCH for signing up, by the way!!).  So, I just wanted to write a quick post (now that you’re officially subscribed) to let you know that even though I hadn’t written in a while I’m back!  And just wanted to let you know that I’ve posted some good recipes & tips since you last visited, so go back & check them out if you have some time!  Thanks!

Bookmark to:

So, a quick apology to all of you committed readers of my blog (all both of you).  As you know, this blog is written by a busy little lady, and these past few weeks have been absolutely CRAZY!  But I wanted to let you know that I am back!  I’ve been able to organize & cut down my schedule again for the summer (we’ll see, right?), so I will have some more time to BLOG!!  So, start checking back often again for all of the new delicious and exciting recipes and tips I’ll have on here for you!  And don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter!

Bookmark to:

Okay so I know that sounds like a pretty weird comparison! Here’s the scoop: anyone who knows me knows that I lack one of the most basic female traits: I do not like chocolate! I’ve even had my feminism questioned before because of it…but don’t get too worried about me, I do like makeup, and I love shopping and “beauty rest” and getting pampered and laying out at the pool. I’ve just never really loved chocolate, I don’t like chocolate ice cream, I don’t like chocolate cake, I only like chocolate milk if I’m in the mood and it’s not too chocolatey (kind of defeats the purpose though?). SO anyway, on to my random salmon analogy…

I was thinking yesterday about how much I just LOVE salmon. I think salmon is so tasty and versatile, and super healthy and good for you (read this article for more details on the health benefits of salmon). You can cook salmon a million ways, you can grill it, bake it, marinade it, make burgers out of it, make pasta dishes with it, I might have to say that salmon is more versatile than chicken? And even if that’s not true, it tastes better than chicken (and cooks faster!), so I’m over it. A few people have told me lately that they don’t like salmon, and I just couldn’t believe it and I thought they were CRAZY! More than that, I felt bad for them, because I really think they’re missing out. Which reminded me that I’m always joking that I kind of think I should feel bad for myself that I don’t like chocolate…there are so many people I know that love and crave and are comforted and instantly made happy by chocolate that I really feel that I’m missing out on something great! And that’s how I feel for people who don’t like salmon…you’re definitely missing out!

So I hope that’s not too completely random for you, but it makes sense in my little head! I hope all of you salmon lovers can atleast relate a little bit!

Bookmark to:

Welcome to my blog! If you haven’t already done this, please feel free to go to my “Why This Site??” page to find out more about the purpose of this blog. In this blog I am going to be posting quick and easy recipes, cooking and planning tips and tricks, good sites to visit, etc, etc. Please, please, PLEASE feel free to contact me (jasmine@cookingsecond.com) with any suggestions on some recipes you’d like to see, questions you might have, or ways for me to make this blog better (two (or three or twenty) minds are better than one, right?). Also, if you have a favorite recipe you’d like to share, please do that also! Having a new recipe to try is like a trip to Vegas for me (okay, maybe not SO extreme, but you get the picture!).

Thanks for visiting my blog, and I hope to see you back often!

Bookmark to: