Tonight we had some asparagus cheese soup with fresh tomato biscuits… or in Veggietales terms, Junior Asparagus soup and Bob the Tomato biscuits.

Here are a couple of recipes for you to enjoy:

Asparagus Cheese Soup
ie: how to get your family to eat 3/4lb of asparagus in one sitting

2 cu chicken broth
1/4 tsp seasoned salt
1/4 tsp lemon pepper seasoning
1/4 tsp pepper
3/4 lb. asparagus, trimmed and cut into small pieces (Aldi has great frozen asparagus conveniently in 3/4lb packages!) :)
4 slices of processed cheese (but I usually just stir in some shredded cheddar I have on hand)

Combine 1 cu broth and seasoning in medium saucepan. Add asparagus and bring to boil.
Reduce heat, cover and simmer 8-10 minutes until asparagus is tender. Cool slightly.
Pour into blender and puree until smooth.
Return to saucepan, add remaining water and heat through.
Stir in cheese until melted.

Garnish with crumbled cooked bacon, shredded cheddar, and/or diced tomatoes.

Fresh Tomato Biscuits
1/4 cu mayo
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp basil (or 1/4 cu shredded fresh basil)
1 16oz can refrigerated biscuits
2 medium size tomatoes, thinly sliced

Combine first four ingredients and set aside.
Place biscuits on lightly greased baking sheet. Press into 4″ circles.
Bake at 400° for 6 minutes (or half of time specified on biscuit package)
Spread each biscuit evenly with approximately 2 tsp of mayonnaise mixture.
Top with tomato slices.
Bake at 400° for 6-8 minutes or until mayo mixture is bubbly and biscuits are browned.
Serve immediately.

If you have read my blog long or know me in “real life,” I’m sure that you’ve picked up on the fact that I love Aldi!

I love their cereal, but probably our favorite product of all is:

The Sweet Onion fresh salsa. Oh, man. This stuff is GOOD!!! [I lived in San Antonio, Texas for quite a few of my "formative years," so I appreciate a good salsa!] I’ve heard the other flavors of fresh salsa they have are really good, too, but we just can’t branch out – we love this stuff too much. (And by the way, it’s only $2.00!)

I could live on it. And, I figure it’s ok – it’s all vegetables, after all! :)

You can even eat it for breakfast if you make breakfast tacos! I posted something on facebook a couple of weeks ago that I made bacon and egg breakfast tacos, and some of my Yankee friends had never heard of this delectable Texas staple. Here’s how I make them (although I’m sure this is not “authentic”… but since there are more Amish bulk stores than Mexican groceries where we live, cut me some slack.)

1. Cook 1-2 strips of bacon per taco.

2. Meanwhile, make some scrambled eggs. 1.5-2 eggs per taco is quite sufficient. When the eggs are set but not completely dry and cooked, add in a handful of shredded cheddar. Scrape the eggs and cheese to one side of the skillet, and put a few spoonfuls of salsa on the other side to warm through (try to squeeze out as much of the liquid from the salsa as you can so the eggs don’t get too watery.) Stir the warmed salsa into the eggs.

3. Spoon the egg/ cheese/ salsa mixture into warm tortillas. Top with whole strip(s) of bacon and additional salsa if desired. (I do, thank you. More is better!)

Ole!

Ya’ll should turn on some loud Tejano music and dance yourself over to thediaperdiaries.net for more Things I Love Thursday posts. ;)

I love hot breakfasts – they make mornings much more appealing to me! If you have kids heading back to school this week or are simply looking for an easy and tasty weekday breakfast for your family, these are delicious!

Our friend Nick made a bacon and egg version of these for our ABF on Sunday. I asked him for the recipe and he told me, “First I added what looked like… enough eggs. Then I added what looked like… enough cheese.” A cook after my own heart.

I made some sausage biscuits this morning following his recipe carefully. :)

Make the drop biscuit recipe on your baking mix box. (Mine called for 2 1/4 cu baking mix and 2/3 cup milk)
Mix in three cooked scrambled eggs, approximately 1/2 cup browned bulk sausage, and 1/4 to 1/2 cup shredded cheddar.
I added in a little more milk at this point because the mixture looked a bit dry.

Bake as the drop biscuit recipe instructs – mine was 450° for 10 minutes – I added a couple of minutes on until they looked appropriately browned.

We enjoyed our biscuits with some cut grapefruit. :)

I do love my coffee. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be that great of coffee, as long as I have some good flavored creamer. This morning I actually heated up some leftover coffee from yesterday in the microwave. I know… all of you coffee purists are falling off your seats in shock right now.

I have heard it said that we drink coffee because it is socially unacceptable to drink creamer straight out of the bottle.

Needless to say, we go through a lot of creamer. That stuff isn’t cheap! I found a recipe this week to make your own vanilla creamer, and although it isn’t quite the same, I find it enjoyable both because it is tasty and because it is much less expensive!

1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups milk (I used whole to make it creamier)
1 Tbsp vanilla

Pour all that stuff into a recycled creamer bottle, shake well, and enjoy!

For more Things I Love Thursday fun, hop over to thediaperdiaries.net – and she has a giveaway going! :)