Scrumptious Sunday #21 - Features

I just love all of your recipes!  It is always so hard to choose features each week!  I enjoy all of your recipes, everyone works so hard and makes such beautiful dishes, I thank you for that! I thank you for sharing your recipes with me.  I thank you for visiting Addicted to Recipes.  THANK YOU!

If you are featured, I sure would love for you to grab a BUTTON (and help promote my blog), thank you so much!

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Congratulations to this week's features!

I love, love, LOVE peaches.  Enough said!
Peach Margarita from Fort Mill SC Living

These look like a great change for dinner!
Cheesy Cauliflower Pancakes from Dishing with Leslie

A perfect summer supper!
Lemon Shrimp with Linguine Pasta from the Sunflower Supper Club

These look to die for!  Oh.my.goodness!
Caramel Pretzel Cheesecake Brownies from Inside BruCrew Life

I can't wait for apple season!
Apple Crostata from That Skinny Chick Can Bake

All of these recipes will be pinned to my Pinterest account, posted on Twitter, and shared on Facebook!

Just a reminder, this week's Scrumptious Sunday Link Party goes live Saturday - at 8 pm PST. Can't wait to see what you bring to the party!

Scrumptious Sunday #4 - Features!

What an incredible party it was last week!  Thanks so much to everyone who came and shared recipes.  I really enjoyed reading each and every submission.  Everyone it so talented!  An amazing 85 entries last week!  WOW!

It was SO HARD to choose just three submissions to feature...I know I've said that before, but it is true!  And I couldn't choose just three this time, so I picked four features for the week.  Congratulations to everyone on your fantastic posts....if you are one of my features, please grab my "I Was Featured" button and post it on your site, please and thanks!

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Here are my four features from Scrumptious Sunday Link Party #4:

#13 - Strawberry Shortcake Appetizer from Lady Behind the Curtain

#48 - Spaghetti Squash Carbonara from The Travelling Spoon

# 56 - Royal Icing Recipe, Step-by-Step from Lizy B

#74 - Skinny Mashed Cauliflower from Serena Bakes Simply from Scratch

Scrumptious Sunday #5 Link Party opens late tonight - be sure to link up your favourite recipes from the last week!

If you have a moment, I would LOVE for you to support my blog by voting for it at the voiceBoks "Top 10 Foodie Blogs of 2012" awards - simply click this link and vote for ADDICTED TO RECIPES.  Just takes 2 little clicks...thanks so much!  Voting ends on April 13 (which happens to be my son's birthday!).

Chicken Vegetable Soup with Homemade Noodles

When I made or meal plan for this week I decided I wanted to try to make another soup from scratch.  Since my Hearty Ham & Split Pea Soup went over so well, I figured, let's try round 2 with a new one!  I've been wanting chicken noodle soup, so I thought about what I would put into it, researched how to make my own noodles, and here is what I came up with.  The egg noodle recipe I found at allrecipes.com, the rest of it, I made up as I went along.  Here is the recipe:

Chicken Vegetable Soup

Oil

2 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cut into small pieces
3 slices of bacon, cooked crispy and crumbled
1/2 onion, sliced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 stalk of celery, sliced
1/2 cup cauliflower, cut into small florettes
1/2 cup broccoli, cut into small florettes
1/2 cup green beans, cut in half (ends cut off)
4 cups chicken broth
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon parsley
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
Fresh homemade egg noodles (recipe follows)

In a frying pan, coat with a small amount of oil.  Heat, and cook chicken until cooked through.  Remove chicken from frying pan and set aside.  Add bacon to the pan and cook until crispy.  Remove from pan and set on paper towel to remove excess grease.

While the chicken is cooking, in a large pot, coat witha small amount of oil, heat over medium, and add onions, carrots, celery.  Cook until they start to soften.  Add in cauliflower, broccoli and beans.  Continue to cook, around 5 minutes.  Add in chicken broth, chicken, garlic, parsley and pepper.  Simmer at medium-low for 10 minutes.  Add bacon and continue to simmer for 5 minutes.  Add fresh pasta and simmer until pasta is cooked to your liking (approximately 5 minutes).  Serve, and enjoy!

Homemade Egg Noodles

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter

In a large bowl, stir together flour and salt.  Add the eggs, milk and butter.  Knead together until a smooth dough is formed, about 5 minutes.  Sit in bowl, covered with a tea towel, for 10 minutes.

After the dough has rested, roll it out to your desired thickness.  Cut into lengths (or shapes).

Leave the noodles to air dry after you've cut them.

*Notes 
- I made my egg noodles around 10 am and left them to sit on the counter until I started making the soup at 12:30 pm.
- I found that this recipe made enough for 3 batches of noodles, so I have packaged up the other 2 batches and will freeze them until the next time I make soup.

VERDICT:
Of course the baby decided he was hungry just as I was about to serve the soup.  So I dished up bowls for my husband and our oldest, and they ate while I fed the baby.  My husband's first reaction was "This is SO good".  He ate his bowl of soup really quickly and went back for more.  Our oldest wasn't in the taste-testing mood, he was tired after a busy day yesterday (swimming lessons, birthday party, babysitters so that Mom & Dad could go out for a grown-up only dinner) - so he didn't actually try the soup, he went for a nap instead.  Finally, I got to try the soup, and it was declicious.  I really enjoyed it.  The variety of vegetables, the fresh noodles, oh my.  It was yummy!  This is a keeper in our books!  To top it off, we have two nice sized servings leftover, already packaged for lunch tomorrow...can't wait!

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Bang Bang Cauliflower

I am really lucky that I have a family that loves vegetables.  My husband has been on a cauliflower kick lately, which works for me....now if only I could get him to eat more salad ;-) Baby steps!

I came across a recipe for Bang Bang Cauliflower online and I thought, what the heck is this?! But of course, the "bang bang" caught my eye, as well as a new way to prepare cauliflower.  Here is my version of the recipe:

1 head cauliflower, cut into florettes and washed
5 tablespoons cornstarch
3 egg whites
3 tablespoons light coconut milk
1 cup panko
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons (approx) vegetable oil
Green onions for garnish

Sauce:
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
1/8 cup thai chili sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar

In a small bowl, prepare sauce and set aside.

Put the cut cauliflower into a large bowl.  Sprinkle the cornstarch over the cauliflower, and toss to coat.

In a second (small) bowl, mix together the egg whites and coconut milk.

In a third (small) bowl, mix together panko, garlic, powder, salt and pepper.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium.

While oil is heating, start taking the pieces of cauliflower, dip them in the egg & milk bowl, and then dip in the panko bowl.  Once dipped, place cauliflower into the heated skillet.  Repeat until all the cauliflower is in the skillet.  Reduce the heat in the skillet at this point to a medium-low.

Brown all sides of the cauliflower and once the cauliflower is cooked to your liking, remove cauliflower from skillet and put back into the large bowl.  If there is still oil, you may wish to place the cauliflower on paper towls to blot out any extra oil before putting back into the large bowl.

Once all the cauliflower is back in the big bowl, pour on the sauce and and stir to coat the cauliflower.  Add green onions for garnish and stir immediately.  Note - this uses a full head of cauliflower, so there is a LOT, you may want to adjust the recipe accordingly.

VERDICT:
While out four year old was not a fan (there was too much spice for him), my husband and I were addicted.  It was hard to stop eating the cauliflower.  The subtle spice kept pulling up back in!  Needless to say, we got our veggie fill for dinner.  Because I made the recipe with the full head of cauliflower we did have lots leftover - next time I would probably half the recipe and use the other half to steam and "baby bullet" for our baby.

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