The Vested Fox

Tortilla Soup

The other day my girlfriend and I were sitting around the house after a hard day of work–I had to teach a class of 50 kids, which can get out of control sometimes. It was the perfect time to call it quits and go out to eat. I’m proud to say that we got a second wind and cooked one of our favorite soups. Very tasty, it has a nice southwestern Texas flavor to it. Click on the photo to get the recipe! It’s healthy, too. For everyone on weight watchers (Alexis is on it, so I guess I am unofficially on it as well) the soup is 3 points per cup.

Now there is nothing wrong about eating out, but if you are constantly doing it isn’t fun anymore. Not to mention, it can also start to get pretty expensive. Work and your personal life tend to get in the way of cooking at home. You have to remember to have fun, try new meals, and keep a list of staples (like this recipe) for those tough days. Remember the more you cook at home, the better eating out will be. It should be something of an adventure or treating yourself to a must-have dish at your favorite restaurant.

Orzo Chicken Stuffed Pepper

Agh! I went to start dinner tonight and when I opened my fridge, to my surprise I was low on food. Lucky I was able to find:

A large Red Pepper

Orzo Pasta

1 Frozen Chicken Breast

Black Olives

Leftover Artichoke Hearts

Garlic (I always have this)

Green Onions

Tomato Sauce

Capers

Cooked the chicken with the tomato sauce, olives, garlic, green onions, capers, and artichoke hearts. Mixed in the cooked orzo, stuffed the pepper and threw it into the oven. It came out very well and we had a great dinner. It seems to be pretty healthy as well (always a plus). Too bad I didn’t write the recipe down. Looks like I heading to the grocery store.

Black Rice with Sweet Potatoes

Click on the photo to get the full recipe for this side dish. My girlfriend and I took a trip to Granbury, TX to visit with her grandma and unfortunately ran into an ex…eh, not too bad. The guy doesn’t shower that often and plays video games all day. Not hard competition at all.

Grandma is a pretty good cook, I think that is where my girlfriend got her knack for cooking. She made this delicious side dish for us. It’s best with pork tenderloin (maybe a future post).

FUN FACT: Back hundreds of years ago, black rice was exclusively grown for the emperor of China. Apparently, he liked it a lot! Now you can pick up a bottle of this at any Whole Foods.