Since it apparently is already winter in Oklahoma, its perfect weather for Rachael Ray stoup recipes. If you don’t know what a stoup is, it is a soup, but thicker then normal soup. This one was very good, a lot of flavors going on. It smelled so wonderful cooking. Not only do I like stoups and soups because they are warm, there is a lot less maintenance with cooking them. So you can almost throw everything in the pot and let it go. At least a little bit, and when you’ve got a 19 month old climbing up your leg, that’s what you need!

Recipe: Chicken, Corn, and Black Bean Stoup

Chicken, Corn, and Black Bean Stoup

Cookbook: 365 Days: No Repeats

Total Time: About 20 minutes to get it together, then I let it simmer for a while, maybe another 20 minutes or so

Notes: The only thing I did different here was not use fresh corn. I used frozen, basically because I am lazy and I didn’t want to cut it off the ears. I might could’ve had 1 more pepper in mine.

I choose this Rachael Ray recipe because I thought the baby would like it. We went by the fair and he ate a corn dog about 4:30, he still ate some of this chicken. I asked him if he was hungry and he went to his chair. So I guess he was. I liked these a lot, they would be great for your next finger food party. You could make these in a variety of ways, maybe barbecue, sweet-n-sour, just a few examples. The husband came home tonight, so to make this a complete meal I served them with a Caesar salad and garlic bread sticks. I debated about some pasta to go with the sauce, but I thought we had more then what we really needed!

Recipe:Chicken Parm Bites

Chicken Parm Bites

Cookbook: Big Orange Book

Total Time: 25 minutes

Husband Says: “They were okay, I’m not a huge fan of fried chicken.” ( I guess basically not living together for 6 weeks changes things, I have never had complaints before!)

Notes: The only thing I did differently on this recipe is I heated the pesto and crushed tomatoes in the microwave. The less pans I need to put in my dishwasher the better! Other then that I did what Rachael suggested! I do want to try these barbecue style, maybe at my next party.