Creamy Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Soup

This soup is one of our favorite things to eat when it gets cold outside... and its cold outside now so its time to share the recipe...
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes (about 3 cups total)
1 pound butternut squash, peeled and diced into 1-inch cubes (about 31/2 cups total)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 can (14 oz) chicken broth, divided
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cubed
1 can (13 oz) coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons salt or more to taste
3-4 green onions finely chooped (optional-tyler hates these so we don't use them... but I think they are a nice garnish)
Combine sweet potatoes, squash, onion, half the chicken broth and butter in a 41/2 quart crock pot.  Cover and cook on high 4 hours or until vegetables are tender.
Puree until smooth in blender 1 cup at a time, returning batches to crock pot.  Stir in remaining broth, coconut, milk, ground cumin, ground red pepper and salt.  Cook on high15 min or until heated through.  Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with chopped green onions.  (Makes 4-6 servings)

* I like to make homemade bread with it too... I'll put that recipe on another day... its my moms french bread recipe and I use it to make a loaf or even pizza dough... its delish.

Eliza's incredible, never go flat chocolate chip cookies

These cookies are so simple but yet sooo wonderful... they NEVER go flat!  I was so sick of my cookies going flat and ugly on me and so I went on a quest to find the perfect cookie recipe...and I found it! I got the recipe out of the Betty Crocker Cook Book and then I tweaked it a bit and I think they are pretty darn good.  So I thought I'd share the recipe with the great Bradshaw family...
INGREDIENTS/DIRECTIONS
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees
In a bowl combine and then set aside:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda

In another mixing bowl cream together:
1/2 c. butter (softened... DON'T melt)
1/2 butter flavored shortening
1 Tbsp water
3/4 c. white sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
Then beat in...
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
Then add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture until well blended... it might seem a little dry.
Then add a bag of whatever type of chocolate chips you like... I'm a milk chocolate kinda girl.
Bake for 8 or 9 minutes... until they look done to you.  And eat 'em up... people love these, they really do... and they look good too :)

No Sugar Peanut Butter Popcorn

Pop popcorn any way you like. Set aside. In a small sauce pan, squirt in “Agave” so it just barely covers the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil. Be careful, it can boil over easily. After one or two minutes add a tablespoon of butter, a little salt and about one cup of peanut butter, (I like chunky). Stir until smooth. Pour over popcorn and stir until it's evenly spread throughout the popcorn. To modify the thickness of the hot mixture you might need to change the quantity of peanut butter you add to the boiled mix. Although Agave has carbs it doesn’t seem to raise a person’s blood sugars.

Sweet and Sour Meatloaf

This meatloaf is Tyler's favorite thing I make.  My mom has made it for as long as I can remember and the Toronto kids (and now Tyler) have been requesting it for their birthday dinners for years. Its just so zingy and tasty.  Anyway... give it whirl, I know you'll love it too...
INGREDIENTS:
1 (12 oz) jar red currant jelly
1 (12 oz) jar chili sauce

1 lb ground beef
1 cup plain bread crumbs
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 egg
1/2 cup ketchup

INSTRUCTIONS:
To prepare sauce, combine red currant jelly and chili sauce in a saucepan.  Heat until jelly is melted and well-blended.
For meatloaf, combine ground beef, bread crumbs, chopped onions, salt, pepper, egg and ketchup in a bowl and then mold into a 5 by 9in. loaf pan.  Pour half of the sauce over meatloaf and bake for 1 hour at 400 degrees.  Heat remaining sauce and serve with meatloaf (or I just put ketchup on top because I love ketchup).


Seriously... your men will love it :)

Energy Balls

Ray and I have started working out every morning and we always need a little something to eat before the workouts. I found this recipe on Dr. Oz's website and was so excited. Now Ray and I both have one before our workouts. They are really good and they are about 100 calories per ball.

Ingredients
1/2 cup 100% natural peanut butter made with ONLY peanuts (I just use regualr pb)
1 tbsp honey or agave nectar (I normally add a little more)
11/2 cups oats
1/2 cup raisins or 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
I also add ground flasxseed, about 1/4 cup

Directions
Roll up into bite-sized balls and refrigerate for at least an hour before eating. Important to remember that you should be eating no more than 1 or 2 energy balls per day (and only before your workout.)

Cottage Cheese Enchiladas

I got this recipe from All Recipes and we all LOVE it. By far the best enchiladas I've ever had. They are naturally gluten free (yippee) but if you are making it for a celiac, watch the ingredients on the enchilada sauce - make sure there isn't any modified food starch (wheat) in it... This recipe feeds our family and 2 missionaries with 1 enchilada left over :)

I'll make this for ya'll when we come for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - boiled and shredded
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 (7 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
• 1 (1 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 cups cottage cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch ground black pepper
• 12 (6 inch) corn tortillas
• 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1 (10 ounce) can red enchilada sauce
• Maybe some olives tossed on top
  

Directions

1. To Make Meat Mixture: Heat oil in medium skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken, onion and green chile peppers and saute until browned, then add taco seasoning and prepare meat mixture according to package directions.
2. To Make Cheese Mixture: In a medium bowl mix sour cream with cottage cheese and season with salt and pepper; stir until well blended.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
4. To Assemble Enchiladas: Heat tortillas until soft. In each tortilla place a spoonful of meat mixture, a spoonful of cheese mixture and a bit of shredded cheese. Roll tortillas and place in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Top with any remaining meat and cheese mixture, enchilada sauce and remaining shredded cheese.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Coleslaw

In my quest to eat more "raw" food, we've been eating more coleslaw. I started with this basic recipe:

Low-fat Tangy Creamy Coleslaw
1/4 c. light mayo.
1 Tb. white vinegar
1 Tb. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 med. head cabbage, shredded
1 carrot, shredded
Mix dressing ingr. together and then toss with cabbage & carrot

Then I found this recipe which I like even more.

Green Apple Slaw
1 c. mayo
1/4 c. cider vinegar
2 Tb. sugar (I use honey)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
dash of cayenne
6 c. coleslaw mix (I just shred my own cabbage and grated carrot)
2 Granny Smith apples, cut into matchstick size (peeling opt.)
1 c. pecans, toasted
1 c. raisins
Mix dressing ingr. together first.

Rice

Everybody needs to buy a rice cooker. I got mine for $13. Mom gave me a 50 lb bucket of rice and I have eaten all of it in a year. I eat rice with everything. One of my favourites is teriyaki chicken. What you do is you buy skinless boneless chicken thighs from winco and you simmer them in Mr. Yoshidas sweet and savory sauce(from costco) mixed with brown sugar for about 90 minutes. About 60 minutes in you need to break the chicken into smaller pieces and if it's soft enough you can even do it with a spoon. Serve over white rice. If you want your white rice to taste good you gotta mix in some salt and oil with the water, trust me. Also, don't double the water. 1 cup of rice needs somewhere between 1.5-1.75 cups of water.

Another favourite is chili. If you go to 'el matador' in downtown boise during happy hour you can get a bowl of delicious spicy chili for $4. The trick is to take it home and eat it with rice because all of a sudden it turns into two meals that taste better than the original chili.

Hamburgers- Juicy and Delicious!

There is no need to go out for a hamburger when you can make one as good as this. Ray and I have been making these hamburgers for years and we LOVE them. During the summer we grill them almost every Saturday. As a matter of fact, they are on the menu for next week. Since it is cold out I am going to try them on the Geroge Foreman. Grilling is probably the best way to cook them but I am sure they will be great on the George Foreman too.  It is just a classic burger but the meat is so juicy and delicious. We don't have an actual recipe for it, we just do it by eye, but I will try my best to put it in recipe form.

Ingredient:
2 lb ground beef (I have heard 80% is best for burgers, we use 85%)
1 slice of bread
milk
1 egg
 steak sauce, about 1 TBSP (we use Heinz 57)
salt
pepper

Directions:
Tear a slice of bread into small pieces and place in a bowl. Add a little milk to the bread, just till all the bread is moist (about 1 tsp), mix.
Put ground beef in a bowl. Add the milky bread, 1 egg, about 1 TBSP of steak sauce (maybe less), and a dash of salt and pepper. Mix (using hands is easiest). Form into patties and grill. We normally get about 3 patties per lb of beef.
We like our buns toasted. Sometime we toast them on the grill but normally we spread a tiny bit of butter on them and broil them in the oven. Our favorite buns are Franz Coutry Potato buns. They are delicious!
Add your favorite topping and ENJOY!

Hints:
* if you use less meat make sure you use less egg
*if you add too much egg and steak sauce the meat will become too juicy and fall apart
*you can add garlic, if you like

Ginger

Welcome

Hello Bradshaw Family! I am so excited to present the Bradshaw Food Network. This is for everyone in the family to use, and I hope you use it often. I thought it would be fun to have a blog where we can all keep in touch and share recipes with eachother. I am always looking for new recipes to try but I like making recipes that others have made and like. Don't be shy, share all your delicious recipes. You can share recipes for main dishes, side dishes, snacks, etc, or even money and time saving tips. Share anything that you think would be useful to others in the family.
We want to keep this organized and easy to find recipes. When you make a posting label it in a category. I think how you do this is when you are writing a post at the right bottom corner there is a spot that says 'Labels:'. I think you put the category right there. I think you can put a recipe in more than 1 category if you need to. We can start with these categories:
Main dish- Chicken
Main dish- Beef
Main dish- Pork
Dessert
Side dish
Appetizer
Soups
Snacks
Breakfast
Gluten Free
Feel free to add more as needed!

If you have any questions or concerns just let me know. Hopfeully you are all as excited about this as me and Eliza are. It should be fun and it's a good way to keep in touch!

Ginger