Qdoba Loaded Tortilla Soup

I don't often get many packages on my front porch, but when I do, they are boxes full of awesome from Qdoba.

One of my fiance's little ladies brought in a large box from the front stoop and I was baffled as to what could be inside. To my very happy surprise, it was a promo box from Qdoba all about their new Loaded Tortilla Soup. The box contained a flyer, jump drive, canteen, hat, and Qdoba card loaded with two soups and drinks.

My guy found a perfectly chilly night to go try this out. I am always a fan of deep fried tortilla taco shells and it seems that every place has their own way of doing it.

Basically you build this just like any other item on their menu and customize it with what ingredients you want inside. The only difference is the broth that they add to all your ingredients.

My guy and I had our made identically with chicken and all sorts of yummy veggies, etc added.

Of course top it with cheese and sour cream and we were ready to enjoy.

Because the shells are holding liquid, I would recommend this is something you eat right away. I started by breaking off pieces of the shell and scooping up some of the thicker soup with it. It definitely had a kick, but I could manage.

I really didn't think at first that there was much food in the shell, but by the time I made it half way through, I was feeling quite full. It was very delicious and I would order it again but with more sour cream for my sensitive buds!

I really enjoy that Qdoba is branching out in many different directions from their original burrito menu. Their chips and cheese is still my fave in town and you can see me once every other week leaving Qdoba with a three cheese nachos on my lunch. 

If you don't want soup, definitely try the nachos or the girls' favorite, the quesadilla. And the chips, you must get their chips. The lime salt blend on them makes them irresistible for me.

However, with our lack of "late Spring temps" lately, this soup would be a perfect warm up meal to get you thinking of summer heat!  Or have it for Cinco de Mayo next week!

Thank you Qdoba for supplying me with this opportunity to learn more about your latest menu creation and be able to try it. I can't wait to see what you have in store next!

Pasta Sarah

A few weeks ago, my creative juices were flowing and I decided to make a pasta dish for dinner. I didn't really know what I wanted to make, so I just grabbed some ingredients out of the fridge and let the magic happen. 

I had some Italian sausages from Sorgs Quality Meats and Sausages so I chopped them up and decided to pan fry them. browned them and made sure they were cooked through and then removed them from the heat and set them on the side.

 I boiled up some Fettuccine noodles in salted water.

 Then I grabbed some zucchini, gold and red cherry tomatoes and chopped them up.

I put them in a pan with a little EVOO and sauteed them for a few minutes. The spinach wilted really nicely.

Then it was time to put it all together. I chose to cut up the sausage a bit more to 1) make more pieces in the dish and 2) make the pieces more bite size. I received a small tasting of Tomato & Basil cheese from World Market and decided to shred it up and add it to the dish.

I added just a bit of the leftover pasta water to keep it from gluing together and then added some grated Parmesan to complete the dish. In a matter of 10 minutes, this meal was done.

This came together really quickly and smoothly and I think the cheese is what made the meal have such great flavor. I'm sure I won't be able to make this meal taste the same again, but I'm really proud of my creativity. I shall call this Pasta Sarah.

Grilled Cheese - Butter Vs. Miracle Whip

I love a good grilled cheese sandwich. In high school, I used to get a grilled cheese and chocolate chip cookies for lunch almost daily. The school's convection oven would toast up the bread but leave it buttery and the cheese was always perfectly melted. And the cookies were barely cooked and more like cookie dough than cookies. They were a hit with everyone and sold out daily!

Grilled cheese is a simple sandwich but oh so delicious. Recently I read that people use mayo on the bread instead of butter. This made me really curious and I decided to try it. My guy was on board for this taste test as well so we cooked them up one night at his out. We like Miracle Whip over mayo so we used that for the sandwiches.

 I buttered and Miracle Whipped the breads with equal amounts and waited for the pan to heat up.

 We made the butter version first so as to not have the mayo affect the flavor of our control sandwich.

 It grilled up nicely with two pieces of American cheese inside - all melty and gooey.

 Then it was Miracle Whips turn to show us what its got.

 It grilled up differently and left the bread softer, making it harder to flip. I kept mushing the bread.

 I had to flip it multiple times to get it to brown up and get crisp on the outside.

 Finally it was done.

We cut each sandwich in half and began the taste test. The sandwich with butter was crisp on the outside with melty cheese in the middle - just as I like it. The Miracle Whip sandwich was softer on the outside and was harder to cut without tearing the bread. However, the Miracle Whip added a unique tang to the sandwich that I quite enjoyed. I wish the bread would crisp up more. Possibly a "firmer" bread could help to not have the sandwich be as soft. These were made with Sara Lee Old Fashioned bread. It is a softer bread and one of my guy's favorites. 

I picked up some seafood bisque from Key Westconsin for us to have with the sandwiches. This was excellent - a tad spicy, but dunking the sandwiches in it brought the spice down to my level. I felt so grown up with my fancy tomato soup (bisque) and unique grilled cheese.

I recently got a Cuisinart Griddler and love making Panini sandwiches on it. I haven't tried Miracle Whip on it yet, but I think the pressing of the bread would definitely help it crisp up.

Here is a ham and white American cheese sandwich that I made recently to test out the press. I used Extra Virgin Olive Oil on the bread instead of butter (per the instruction book's suggestion). And I used Brownberry Country Sourdough - a firmer bread.

Once your sandwich is made, you press the lid down lightly for 30 seconds and then let the sandwich cook for about 5 minutes. I checked on it a few times when I heard sizzling and it was browning nicely.

Voila! The final product. It had cheese oozing out of the side of the sandwich, so I now know that one piece of cheese will be plenty for a Panini.

 The sandwich was very crisp on the outside and warm and melty on the inside. I love Paninis!

I can't wait to experiment with it more and show you other sandwiches that I have created on it.

Cafe de Arts has some excellent Panini sandwiches. Let me just hint at a roast beef Panini I made for my guy based off of a sandwich from Cafe, that he told me was the best thing I have ever made for him! That will be on the blog soon!

Simply Irresistible Catering: Italian Sausage Lasagna

A few weeks ago, I told you about Simply Irresistible Catering and their Take 'n Bake meals. I finally had time to make the Italian Sausage Lasagna and it did not disappoint.

The lasagna is very tall in the pan and could easily feed 4 people if not more. This is the half portion that feeds 2 - 3 typically. I didn't have anything on the side with my first piece and was pretty full after. It's loaded with food.

It did take a bit longer in my oven than the required time, but it had been in my freezer for quite some time, so it could have been super frozen. I still took the cover off at the hour mark and then saw the edges browning up nicely in 45 minutes.

It started to get a bit dark around the edges when the middle still wasn't changing, so I did cover it with foil for the last 15 minutes I cooked it for. I left it in for another 10 minutes and pulled it out piping hot.

The top gets nice and crispy with a cheese and herb crust. This was fabulous and probably my favorite layer of the lasagna. I want to know her combination :)

There was plenty of Italian sausage, cheese and sauce in the layers, but not overwhelming and it held it's form. Sometimes lasagnas end up a little runny from too much sauce or cheese (too much cheese, I know - it's a sin I said that). But this lasagna was excellent.

Great flavors in the Italian Sausage too - not too spicy, just the right amount of spice.

I would recommend some garlic bread or steamed vegetable on the side if you wanted to make the pan stretch farther. And it warms up just great in the microwave and satisfies those late night cravings after a night of dancing and drinking at your friends' wedding!

For just $10 for the half pan, this is a steal! I got some Blue Apron meals sent to me in the last week and although the flavors are great, $20 a dinner (10 per person) is a bit much for my wallet. And I don't know where the products are from or who makes them. Using Simply Irresistible, I have met the owner and had a great conversation with her and know that her meals are made right here in her downtown Waukesha shop and made with love!

I highly recommend you check her out and try a meal. I only have the carrots left and have a pork tenderloin with those carrot's name on it for later this week. And then I'm going to have to restock from her selections :)

What a perfect, easy meal to make for your family now that kids are going back to school. Or you just want to have something delicious and not tear apart your kitchen to make it. Her meals are worth it folks!

Healthy Living Week 4

This week was a lot better for me. Though I did have one quite indulgent meal, I really was very well behaved for the rest of the week. I really watched my portion sizes and made sure that I knew exactly what I was putting in my body.

Friday night, my guy and I attempted to check out Tubby's outside of Whitewater. We pulled into the lot and already realized we were going to be waiting. We got inside and it was very crowded and we just decided to go somewhere else as we were starving. 

He suggested the Duck Inn and not being familiar with the area, I agreed. He used to be a bus boy back in the day, so I figured he knew what he was talking about. The place is a really cute old supper club style place with a very warm and inviting atmosphere. I'll do a full review next week, but we did enjoy ourselves.

Relish trays scream supper club in Wisconsin! Veggies with house made buttermilk ranch and two types of cold press cheeses for the cracker and breadstick basket. I sampled but didn't indulge.

Cashew Crusted Duck and T-Bone steak - Both were DEEEEE-lisious. Highly recommend ordering either. Full review to come. I only ate one piece of duck and that was plenty after filling up on the salad.

Saturday was Grill Day for me - I was so excited to get the grill and so thankful for my handy guy to put it together with a little help from the directions interpreter. Seriously Brinkman, I understand you provided multiple languages, but one of them written clearly would have sufficed.

Side note: Make sure the grill is going to fit in the vehicle before purchase. We had to take it out of the box to fit it in his Passat, which I would call an average size car. How to people buy larger things without owning a truck?

Anyways, She (I will have to name my grill soon -suggestions?) lit up just fine and grilled up some awesome bacon wrapped fillets, cheddar brats and pineapple. See the pineapple chunk under the grate - first fail by the operator of the tongs (yep that was me!)

Grilled veggies also accompanied the meal and I tried to fill up on those. They were spectacular. I am so excited to make many more meals on the grill.

Monday, I tried to copycat the Pairdd  meal. The salad turned out fantastic and my guy liked it too - he was skeptical at first but I got him to eat more than I thought he would. The salmon I made on the grill and I overcooked it just a little bit. It was still really tasty, but I think the Pairdd salmon was of higher quality and I will take that into account the next time I cook on the grill.

Do you like my new plate to display food on? That is compliments of my mother and my trip to IKEA on Sunday after my cousin's bridal shower. I think it makes my food stand out much better than my burgundy plates.

And now I'm back on my flat bread kick. This was an asparagus, onion, kale, spinach, pub cheese and mozzarella flat bread. I was trying really hard to get the flavor from the duck confit flat bread at Bernie's. This was my closest attempt yet, but still not quite there. And I didn't get the middle of the crust to crisp, even on "holy aluminum foil" Regardless, the flavors worked really well and I like the combo of kale and spinach a lot.

Yesterday I checked out my neighborhood and bit and found this nice trail to walk to get to Pick N Save.

When I got home, I was starving and realized a flat bread was again in my future after going down the frozen pizza aisle at the store and seeing some yummy DiGiorno crispy thin crust pesto pizzas. I had some pesto in my fridge, so I put a thin, very thin layer of pesto on the crust. Then I loaded it up with tomatoes, onion, spinach, mushrooms, Parmesan and mozzarella cheese. I put the flat bread right on the rack this time and guess what....success! A deliciously crispy, crunchy flatbread in just 7 minutes!

So now that I have found the walking path and have found my love for veggies again (I haven't had meat in two days and I don't miss it!) I'm thinking week 5 is going to show some great progress. I just have to not eat the whole flatbread (whoops!). Probably would help if I only cook half the crust at a time.

So cheers to a new month being here already and warmer weather is coming, it just has to right? Let's keep up the good work together and Happy Eating!