Fall 2014 Health & Beauty Cooking Bootcamp Week Three - SOUPS

Our Third week for our Fall 2014 Bootcamp is all about cutting down on the calories by making some delicious and hearty soups. We got inspired by our favorite soup from local French restaurant and bakery La Madeleine. Their tomato basil soup is always delish.

The best thing is to make your own. You can toast some bread with a topping of your favorite cheese to add some more depth if you're really hungry.

Tried a couple of cool recipes esp loved the ones with cream cheese. Check them out.

First Look Then Cook

What A Girl Eats

Fall 2014 Health & Beauty Cooking Bootcamp Week Two - CASSEROLES

Photo of Broccoli, Rice Chicken Casserole recipe by Table For Two. It features Ritz Crackers.

Casseroles are a wonderful addition to a weekly or monthly menu. Great comfort food. It's all about putting together ingredients with great flavors and sticking them all in the oven. Nice time-savers. Casseroles are great for left-overs and next-day for lunch. You can also make two or three at a time, put them in the freezer for a later time or a couple of weeks and you have your own frozen dinners.

For Week Two of our Fall Health & Beauty Bootcamp, try your hand at making a couple of casseroles.

1. Broccoli, Rice and Chicken Casserole

There are many variations of this recipe, but here are a few of our favorites.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/broccoli-rice-cheese-and-chicken-casserole/

http://www.tablefortwoblog.com/broccoli-rice-and-chicken-casserole/

2. Dorito Casserole

http://www.cooks.com/recipe/yd6006uk/dorito-casserole.html

This is super easy and simple. We changed up the recipe a bit and sauteed our ground beef with onions and green peppers. It's a super easy recipe to experiment with.

Moroccan Beef Tagine With Apples, Sesame Seeds and Raisins

Well...if you can't tell we love Moroccan dishes. Moroccan dishes are the epitome of slow cooking, where once you mix your spices and your ingredients together, it's all about letting the food simmer and let time do it's wonders. Discovered this blog "Susan Eats London." 

The recipe is amazing and uses very simple ingredients. Skipped out on adding the sesame seeds. And didn't have honey on hand so used maple syrup. The caramelized apples were wonderful. Paired it with roasted red potatoes with just a little olive oil and green snap peas. The photo above is from her blog.

Find the recipe here!

Moroccan Spices Chicken Recipe

We're always looking for easy but healthy recipes. This has been a hit dish several times. It's from May I have That Recipe. Great site! Celestial our beauty editor is a Pinterest addict where she found the original recipe.

I changed it up a bit. Instead of frying the chicken, soaked the chicken in the spices for 30 minutes. Cut up some potatoes and drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled rosemary. Cut up some carrots (DO NOT GET BABY CARROTS - they are soaked in bleach). Get the long, old-fashioned carrots.
And added it to my potatoes. Put all the ingredients in an oven casserole dish. Topped the potatoes and carrots with the chicken and baked for an hour.

It's a versatile dish and delicious!

Check it out! You can add salad or any other kind of mixed vegetables. You could even grill more vegetables when you bake it. The roasted potatoes, carrots and the chicken were just wonderful. I'm getting hungry!

http://mayihavethatrecipe.com/2012/03/12/sweet-and-savory-moroccan-couscous-chicken-with-moroccan-spices/

-Denise