Honey Caramel Popcorn

This is so tasty! My kids don't think that conference weekend is actually here until they have their caramel popcorn! Here is ONE of the recipes we love. I will try and find some of the other ones we enjoy, but Ron likes this one too :)

8 TBS of butter...coconut oil works great too!
1 cup of honey
Salt to taste
1 1/4 cup of popcorn (unpopped)

Pop the popcorn. I liked to do this right before. I used to do it simultaneously, but found that I couldn't do it by myself very well.

Bring butter, honey and salt to a boil on high heat. Let boil for 3-4 minutes.

Drizzle over popcorn while stirring. You can use two big spoons to toss and coat, but I just continually stir it until I am done drizzling, which does make for a very tired arm, but YUM YUM! Enjoy!

3 Bean Mexican Soup

16 oz jar of salsa

15 oz can of mexican stewed tomatoes (I also use crushed, whole)

3 cups of vegetable broth or chicken broth

1 Tbsp chili powder

½ tsp minced garlic

1 tsp cumin

3 15 oz cans of beans (kidney, pinto, chickpeas, black & etc.)

15 oz can of hominy (optional, I don’t use)

15 oz can of corn or frozen corn (I just throw some in)

3 cups of cooked chicken (opt.)

1 medium zucchini chopped and diced (opt.)

I put the first 6 ingredients in the blender, even the garlic whole so I don’t have to mince it. I then put it all in a big pot and add the beans, corn and sometimes zucchini if I have some. If you are serving it with chicken add it now. Warm your soup and serve.

I used to blend up the zucchini also so my kids couldn’t tell it was there but now I know they like it. I also make my own bouillon found at this website http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/homemade-bouillon-recipe.html

I add 3 Tbs of my own bouillon to 3 cups of water instead of chicken broth. It is so much cheaper than the products I was buying and so flavorful for all kinds of soups.

Cream of Corn

This recipe was inspired by the recipe found here:
http://vitamix.ahoy.com/recipe/recipe.cgi/0/287/

I made a few changes because I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand. Here is what we used:

1 1/2 cups whole kernel corn (that's what came in the can)
7-8 baby carrots (it was a few too many, I would do half)
1/2 white onion (too much for the kids, I would do 1/4 next time)
1 1/2 cups whole milk (organic and hot)
3/4 tsp dry mustard
3/4 tsp paprika
2 tsp chicken bullion (I use Better Than Bullion)
White pepper to taste (accidentally dumped in like 2 tsp...don't do that)
2 squirts of Braggs liquid aminos

Put all ingredients in blender (I have a Vita-Mix) and blend on high for 3-4 minutes.

This was okay. My kids ate it, but wished it wasn't so strongly flavored with onion. My daughter was convinced it needed more sweetener, however I don't think so, I thought it was PLENTY sweet in fact wished it was a little less sweet. I think that the carrot flavor was too much for me. It was still good and I had a second helping on which I heaped on some shredded cheese and that made it ALL better :)

Enjoy!
Miss Melanie