Chicken and Salad

Pictures don't do this justice. My salad was delicious. I bought organic greens on sale today and layered it with rotisserie chicken, mandarin oranges, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, celery, Chinese noodles and some Asian sesame dressing.

Cate liked it. My other daughter is sick so she only ate the oranges.

I'm really craving the dressing at this Japanese steakhouse we love but nothing I buy at the store even comes close.

Chinese (at home)

Chinese noodles with veggies in them and egg rolls. Two nights of no meat. Easy dinner because we went to a late playdate today.

The girls had applesauce on the side.

My husband had to grill himself a burger. So we actually had two dinners going on but that's what I fed the kids (and me).

Broccoli Chicken Pasta

This is a recipe I used to make when I wasn't vegetarian and it's one of those crockpot things that is super easy. So I'll give you both versions below (the vegetarian and non-vegetarian version).

Broccoli Chicken Pasta















Vegetarian Version
Broccoli
Cream of Broccoli Soup
Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Milk
Veggie Chicken Breast (We use Quorn)
Pasta of your choice

Steam the broccoli until almost done. Add in the cans of soup and a little milk until thin enough to put over pasta. Toss the Quorn chicken breast in the oven and cook until done. Boil up the pasta until done.

Mix the pasta with the soup mixture and top with a chicken breast.

Non-Vegetarian Version
Need all the same stuff as above

Take RAW (thawed) chicken breasts and add a bit of pepper to each side. Place raw chicken breasts into a crockpot. In a bowl mix together the soups, broccoli and a bit of milk until thin. Toss it on top of the chicken breasts in the crock pot and put on medium heat all day long. This makes the most tender and moist chicken breasts I've *ever* had.

If you don't have a crockpot and are short on time, you can put the raw chicken breasts topped with the soup mixture into a baking dish and bake at 400F until the chicken is done. It's about what? 45 minutes? I have no idea since I haven't cooked meat in years.

Then when it comes out of the crockpot (or oven) just top the pasta with the chicken breasts and spoon a little extra of the soup "sauce" over the pasta.

ENJOY!

Night Out

This Thursday soccer thing is killing me because it's from 6:30 - 7:30 and I had to get gas afterwards and by the time I left the soccer field and got gas it was like 10 to 8. So we decided to eat out which I hadn't intended on doing but it was nice.

We went to Moe's Southwest Grill. It's sort of like a Subway but for Mexican food. You order it and then point to what you want on it and they hand it to you on a plastic tray. Good food, reasonable prices, overall fairly healthy.

If you have one in your area I suggest checking them out. They have lots of vegetarian options and, of course, non vegetarian ones as well.

Spaghetti

I thought I'd try this organic spaghetti sauce on sale at Krogers today. I have to say it wasn't that great.

We had some sort of vegetarian crumbles by this company called Quorn instead of ground beef. It was good. Couldn't tell the difference. However, my husband must have ESP because he wouldn't touch it and I didn't even tell him what I did. He said he "wasn't hungry". Um, ok, sure you're not.

We had these organic cheese sticks and mushrooms I got. The cheese sticks were good. The mushrooms (and I like mushrooms) were just ok.

Rising Moon Ravioli

Wednesday and Thursday are easy dinner night because of Scouts/Soccer so tonight we have Rising Moon Organic Ravioli with Bertolli Organic Olive Oil, Basil and Garlic pasta sauce.

Specifically the pasta was the Garlic and Mozzarella Ravoli with Merlot Wine Pasta and Garlic Gorgonzola Ravoli with Spinach Pasta. Topped with a little fresh Parmesan cheese and a Caesar Salad on the side.















For dessert I picked up the best looking raspberries I've ever had. They are so awesome. We are going to just sit on the couch and watch some TV and pop these like candy. I've already had two of them... shhh ... don't tell the boys.

Pizza & Salad

Well it's what we fed our kids, right? Not what we cooked!

Sent the husband back out for pizza. Man, it was yummy but I think the pizza could have used more sauce. They were so stingy with it! Salad cancels all bad calories out, right?

Pasta Creation

My pasta creation using ham, peppers, onions, sauteed in some olive oil and tossed w/ tomatoes and parmesan cheese. It was good. Cate didn't like it so much though. Emma ate the pasta and a few peppers.

Enchiladas

Cheese Enchiladas with Veggie rice. I just tossed some brown rice, in a pot, and cooked it until mostly done. Tossed in a can of diced tomatoes, and half a can of mixed veggies along with a little hot sauce.

Typical

We had some typical kid fare food. I was tired and was thinking about spaghetti but didn't have any sauce. Have I ever mentioned that we live out in BFE and it's a 15 minute drive to the nearest store? Yep, we do.

So they had hotdogs (oscar meyer beef), macaroni & cheese (Annie's organic shells), and steamed fresh broccoli (again, yes - they really love it) with some carrots.

My husband brought home some NC style pork bbq some guy he works with made over the weekend and that's what we had instead of hotdogs. Emma tried it but didn't like it.

One of these days I'm going to get back into the Grocery Game and menu planning, I swear.

Veggie Pasta

Decided to use the sun dried tomatoes and toss it in with other veggies and have pasta tonight. So dinner tonight was fettuccine with mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, spinach, garlic and feta cheese. I just warmed everything up in a little bit of olive oil and tossed with the cooked pasta. Simple, easy, and yummy.

Chicken Nuggets (oh yeah!)

I found these yummy chicken nuggets at Walmart of all places. The box swears that no hormones have been used and they are all white meat.

We had them with honey on the side. Also, broccoli and a pouch of these Lipton noodles (I think it was pasta primavera). The kids didn't eat the noodles at all. Neither did my picky husband.

Emma said, "Mmmm, Mommy, this broccoli is very good!" How many kids say that? Hope it lasts.

Pork Tenderloin

For dinner tonight we had garlic herb pork tenderloin, pasta roni noodles, steamed green beans and baby carrots. It was delicious! I got the pork loin on sale today. Plenty of leftovers for the weekend. :)

Alfredo Gnocchi

I was going to put sun dried tomatoes on dinner tonight but I forgot. So now I have to think of something to use the sun dried tomatoes on. Expect to see them next week. ;)

We also usually do challa on Friday nights but I got to the bakery too late and they were sold out. However, they did have this nifty "Notre Dame" bread that they used food coloring in to make it blue and gold... I figured my kids haven't had enough dye in their diets so why not try it once. Maybe if we pray really hard when we eat it they won't suck so much tomorrow at football but either way the baby will be pooping rainbows shortly.

Anyways, as you can see pictured below, dinner tonight was tri-colored gnocchi (spinach, tomato and potato) with alfredo and fresh basil, a Caesar salad and some bread. It was good but I'm sorta bummed I forgot the sun dried tomatoes.

Cabbage & Kielbasa

I went out tonight but cooked this in the crockpot this afternoon. I just layered kielbasa with cabbage and carrots and made some corn bread.

It tasted better than it looks.

Tacos

Tonight we had tacos made with Boca crumbles and topped with lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, avocado and sour cream.
















We also picked up a caramel apple kit and made some caramel apples! I LOVE FALL! :)
















I sliced up one for the baby to try but he wouldn't even try it with the caramel and peanuts on it. He pushed it away. So I ate it. ;) And then I handed him the leftover sliced apple still on a stick. Which he proceeded to eat to his hearts content.




















Oh yea, that's my husband and if you're curious ... what you see on the wall behind the two of them is our "word wall". We homeschool and that's where Vocab and Challenge words go (Different color for each older kid).

To see the Taco Recipe Click Here.

Leftovers

Literally didn't get home from scouts until 8:15 pm (was supposed to be home by 7 but it was a recruiting night so it ran WAY long) so I just heated up some leftovers.

"see" you all tomorrow.

Slop Sloppy Joes

I feel like the Lunch Lady - we had sloppy joes (aka Manwich) on some french bread, chips and corn.

Chicken Again

I was going out last night so I fed the kids something easy. I got one of those yummy rotisserie chickens from Kroger and just gave them that and some green beans w/ italian dressing (it's good, honest!) and some oranges. Then I left them with a sitter. AGAIN!

Anywho, there it is. No idea what I'm fixing tonight. I really need to start planning better.

Sausage Spinach Mushroom Lasagna

I'm still not feeling all that well but I couldn't bring myself to cook another boxed dinner tonight so we had sausage spinach mushroom lasagna (veggie sausage of course) with the left over Focaccia bread from the other day.
















Every other Sunday we go out to breakfast at Baker's Square and pies were on sale this past Sunday; so, I couldn't pass up a Strawberry Rhubarb pie. That was dessert tonight. Yum!
















Sausage Spinach Mushroom Lasagna
Lasagna Noodles
Veggie Sausage
Spinach (I used frozen this time around)
Mushrooms
28 oz can Crushed Tomatoes
Fresh Basil Chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
Ricotta Cheese
Mozzarella Cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Cook lasagna noodles until tender. In a pan with a small amount of water heat up the sausage and mushrooms until the mushrooms are cooked. Toss in the spinach and heat through.

In another bowl toss in can of crushed tomatoes, garlic and fresh basil. We have sort of an unnatural love of basil so I used probably half a cup of chopped basil; however, normal people would probably only want about 1/4 of a cup. ;)

Coat the bottom of a baking dish with a small amount of the tomato mixture and place lasagna noodles on top of it. Top lasagna with some ricotta cheese. Top the ricotta with half of the sausage-mushroom mixture. Top that with some more of the tomato mixture. Top that with some mozzarella cheese.

Repeat one more time.

Place one final layer of noddles down and put the rest of the tomato mixture on top of it. Place in oven for about 30 minutes. Top with Mozzarella cheese and bake an additional 10 minutes.

Let cool before serving.

Chicken Fried Rice (with a little "help")

So tonight we had chicken fried rice. It was my great aunt Ming Ming's secret recipe. Just kidding. Let's say this dinner was also from a box and was a great help. Ha ha!

It was good and we had some apple sauce on the side to cancel out all those milligrams of sodium.

Boxed Dinner *gasp*

I feel like crap. I have zero desire to cook anything so I decided to take advantage of the box of Kraft Organic Mac n Cheese we got to try.

So that was dinner tonight -- Kraft Organic Mac n Cheese with carrot sticks on the side. The baby enjoyed it, my 7 year old was sort of iffy on it and the 9 year old hated it. I guess we'll be sticking to Annie's for the occasional Mac n Cheese meals.















Notice it doesn't have the bizarre neon orange color that regular Kraft has. ;)

I'm off to lay on the couch now (well for as long as the baby will let me).

Huevos Rancheros

I have no idea why I've been craving this all day (NO, I'm NOT pregnant!) but I caved into the craving and decided to make it for dinner! Yay for breakfast for dinner!

Huevos Rancheros w/fresh Pico de Gallo:

(Please note, this is my plate with two tortillas, two eggs etc... my eyes were bigger than my stomach though cuz I only managed to eat a little more than half of it. Ooops)













Huevos Rancheros

Corn tortillas
Refried Beans
Eggs
Green Chili
Cheese
Sour Cream
Pico de Gallo
Avocado


Warm the refried beans and top the tortilla with the beans. Top with Green Chili. Fry up an egg and place it on top of the bean/tortilla. Top with cheese, sour cream, Pico and avocado.

Yum!

Stuffed Eggplant

Tonight's dinner was stuffed eggplant with a side of spinach feta focaccia bread from the local bakery.

Below is a picture of the full stuffed eggplant.













Each boy only ate half so here is a side-view of it cut in half.








Stuffed Eggplant
2 medium sized eggplants
Tomato sauce
Garlic
Spinach
Fresh Mozzarella cheese
Olive Oil
Kosher Salt

Place eggplant (not cut or anything) into the oven at 425 F. Cook until slightly soft (about 15 minutes) remove from oven and let cool enough that you can touch it without being burned. Slice the top quarter off the eggplant and hollow out the other part. You should leave about a quarter of an inch of the eggplant.

Chop up the top quarter as well as the pieces removed. Toss eggplant pieces and chopped spinach in a pan coated with olive oil and lightly salt the mixture. Cook on a medium heat until soft (about 15 minutes). Please note: Eggplant is spongey so it will soak up your olive oil. If you find the pieces start to brown add a little bit of water.

Once soft add enough tomato sauce to coat the eggplant and heat until warm. Spoon the eggplant mixture back into the hollowed eggplant "shells" and top with fresh mozzarella cheese. Place back into oven until cheese is melted (about 5 minutes).

You can eat the whole thing or just the insides.

Enchiladas & Spanish Rice

I made chicken enchiladas once again and Spanish rice from scratch, a few orange slices on the side to make it pretty and because the girls love them. Tali gave me some advice this afternoon on how to make the rice.

I'll be really honest, it was good but it wasn't spicy enough. The enchiladas were a little soggy. I think I used too much sauce. Maybe next time I won't dip the things in the sauce before I wrap them up. Everyone ate them though. The girls really loved the rice.

Steak on the Grill

This guy came knocking on my door today selling steaks. I'm such a sucker. I bought 10 filet mignons and 24 chopped sirloins for $47. Is that outrageous or a great deal? He started with $380 but eventually came down when I told him I didn't have it like that.

So we had filet mignon tonight and potatoes and a tossed salad. I didn't eat all that by the way, the girls ate some of the meat. I think my husband actually cooked them a little too long. Either that or the meat wasn't that great. It wasn't as tender as I remembered a filet. In any case, I'm really craving something other than cow for tomorrow. ;)

No Pic Today

No picture today because everyone ate something different. I don't really understand the concept of having 7 year olds have soccer from 6:30 - 7:30 because it really screws up dinner. If I feed him before he goes to practice he'll run around and get sick, but when I wait until after I don't really have time to cook and I have to do something easy. I need to get out my crock pot and start using that again on Thursdays but I'm not motivated. LOL!

So tonight everyone had something different. The baby had a cheese quesadilla. My 7 year old also had a quesadilla and some yogurt. My 9 year old had nachos. I haven't eaten yet.

"See" you tomorrow!

Spaghetti

Soccer practice + Cub Scouts = Easy Dinner. So tonight we did spaghetti. I like spaghetti because it's one of those things that I can hide veggies in without anyone caring. Not to mention that when we get home at 7:30 at night it takes all of 15 minutes to prepare.

So it's plain old boring pasta with organic jarred pasta sauce mixed with some pesto. Then, to hide some veggies -- I added some diced tomatoes and chopped fresh baby spinach and topped it off with some fresh Parmesan cheese.















To answer yesterday's comment question about our Alfredo sauce. Yes, we make it from scratch. It's rather easy to do. If you go to this post and replace the mozzarella with Parmesan you've got our version of Alfredo sauce.

Spaghetti Night

We had spaghetti with meat sauce and a tossed salad. Yummy. (There's a party in my tummy - a party a party! So yummy so yummy!)

Soup & Sandwich

Dinner tonight was canned soup (healthy request Campbells Select chicken noodle if you care - it was actually good) and a p.b. and honey sandwich non-pictured applesauce on the side.

This is what a tired mommy fed her kids.

Pasta with Asparagus

My first repeat dinner on this blog. Pasta with Asparagus and Alfredo sauce. We also had a garden salad that I forgot to take a picture of.

(Old Picture Used)

Nachos

Tonight's dinner was blue and white corn nachos with fresh made salsa, green chili, lettuce and cheese (well, duh on the cheese) topped with sour cream. The baby even loved the salsa!

Non Post

We just had leftovers - mushroom spinach meatloaf (haha!) and corn and potatoes. A carb fest!

No pics tonight. :)

Meat & Potatoes

I don't feel that we're under any obligation to post weekend dinners but we were here and I cooked so here it is.

Tonight I was so tired and uninspired but I knew I had this hamburger meat in the fridge (I loathe frozen meat) so I decided I'd make a meatloaf and use my grandmother's recipe as a guide. However, I did something pretty sneaky. (Tali gave me the idea last night!) I cut up mushrooms and spinach and hid it within the meatloaf. My husband hates both spinach and mushrooms. Ha ha! It was very sneaky.

He didn't notice and in fact, he raved about this being one of the best meals I've *ever* made.

We also had a tossed salad on the side. The girls ate most of this. My three year old isn't big on meat so she didn't eat much but she did try the potatoes and ate most of her salad.

Here's my recipe for my new and improved Mima's Meatloaf if you're interested:

1 lb ground chuck
1/2 an onion finely minced
several white mushrooms also finely minced
a clove of garlic
about 2/3 of a cup of diced baby spinach leaves
approx. 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of seasoned bread crumbs
some milk
2 eggs
salt & pepper

I use my hands to mush it all up. It works better than a spoon. Then I shape it into a loaf and bake at 350 for an hour. Oh, and I top with a few strips of bacon for flavor! *gasp*

We had smashed potatoes on the side - that's what I call 'em - boiled red potatoes with milk, light sour cream, salt, pepper, a little butter and I thought about tossing in some pressed garlic but was scared I'd ruin them but you could.

Homemade bread (hee hee) - exact measurements depend on size of loaf or breadmaker. I made a 2 lb loaf.

3 1/4 c. bread flour
11 oz. warm water
1 tsp salt
4 tsp bread machine yeast
1/2 c. oatmeal
1 1/2 tblsp. butter

The bread takes about an hour and 10 minutes to mix, knead, rise and bake. Isn't that amazing?

Fresh strawberries for dessert - organic even!

Chef Salad

I made two chef salads tonight. It was good but the girls weren't too thrilled with it. I also made some bread in my bread maker! It was REALLY good. I should have taken a picture of that but it disappeared too fast.

Chef Salad Ingredients:

(You really can't see everything that's in it.)
green leaf lettuce
baby spinach leaves
red onion
cucumber
tomatoes
mushrooms
ham
turkey
sharp cheddar
seasoned croutons (no, I didn't make them from scratch)
hard boiled eggs

I took one salad and one loaf of yummy homemade (admittedly, the breadmaker did most of the work) oatmeal bread to my friend Lindy who just had a baby girl a few day ago. She seemed happy with it.

Tofu Cutlets w/Mashed Potatoes

Evidently taking a flash picture of mashed potatoes washes out the potatoes, but without a flash it was just too dark so, yea... oh well.

Tonight's dinner was pan fried tofu "cutlets" with mushrooms and a side of mashed red potatoes with the skin left on.

















Pan Fried Tofu Cutlets
1 package of Tofu sliced
16 ounce container of mushrooms - sliced
1/2 cup chopped spinach
1 small onion diced
2 cloves garlic minced
vegetarian chicken stock
Flour
Pepper

In a pan place a few tablespoons of the chicken stock and add the onions and garlic. Cook until soft. Add mushrooms and some more stock. Cook until mushrooms are close to done. Add more stock and the spinach. Cook until most of the liquid is evaporated.

In a small container mix flour with pepper. Coat tofu in flour and pan fry (about 2-3 minutes on each side) in olive oil until browned on each side.

Top with mushroom mixture. Enjoy.

Pork Chops & Random Leftovers

So there's tonight's dinner in all it's glory! Man, it was snacky! We had pork chops and leftover mac & cheese (not Cate though because it made her constipated today, she's lactose intolerant), steamed veggies, leftover baked beans and wow, isn't that enough? I almost tossed in some tomato slices. ;)

I decided to just save them for tomorrow. My supply of garden tomatoes is quickly dissolving! I'm making a chef salad (preview!) and an extra to take to a mom in my MOMS Club who just had a baby a couple of days ago.

Stuffed Mushrooms

Tonight we had mushrooms stuffed with fake sausage. We also had some bruschetta-style bread on the side.
















To answer the question about my Asian meal. I have no idea if they are noodles with eggs in them. I just picked up some asian-style noodles. I am not a vegan so I don't really look too often at ingredients of things that I know are going to be vegetarian (ie. bread, pasta). But next time I'm at the store I'll look and report back. :)

Vegetarian Stuffed Mushrooms
Sausage Crumbles from Morningstar Farms
Large mushroom caps
Fresh Mozzarella cheese chopped into "chunks"
Spicy Pizza Sauce
1 onion diced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 egg

Toss the onion, garlic and sasuage crumbles in a pan. Cook until sausage is warm. Toss in some pizza sauce to coat the sausage. Take off the heat and let stand for about 5 minutes. Put in a mixing bowl, add the egg and mix well. Stuff the mixture into the mushrooms. Put Mushrooms in 400 degree oven. Let cook for about 20 minutes.

No Meat or Oven Required

I've misplaced the camera. I'm sure it will turn up though. It always does. In any case, you've seen it before. We had macaroni and cheese - stove top version, baked beans, and tomato slices. The husband is working late yet again and I didn't care about having meat. The kids loved it.

Oh, and I let my 3 year old help me bake a cake this afternoon, so we had chocolate cake with buttercream icing for dessert. It was delicious of course. I figure somewhere it's someone's birthday so we might as well celebrate!

Asian Something-or-another

Tonight's dinner is Asian style noodles (teriyaki dressing) with broccoli, carrots, celery, garlic and faux chicken. The "chicken" is by a company called Quron. We used their "Chik'n Tenders". Their stuff ROCKS! It's not soy, it's actually a mushroom-style fungi thing. I'm so sad that they stopped selling their hotdogs in my area because they are the only veggie hotdogs that don't make me gag!

Tomorrow is soccer and cub scouts so I may or may not post dinner tomorrow.

Meat & Gravy

For dinner we had this Tyson beef tips and gravy stuff over egg noodles with steamed peas and garden fresh tomatoes. It was delicious and easy.

I'm really tired lately and the husband is working late so there it is. The girls loved it.

Salad

For dinner we just had a simple salad with some grilled chicken in it and Asian sesame dressing. It was good, not spectacular or anything. I really like it better with mandarin oranges but we didn't have any so there you go.

I need to start menu planning again. I've even been pretty lax with the grocery game. I used to be all about stockpiling. We're talking about buying a second fridge and if we do that I'll have more room to stock up.

Fettuccine with Veggies

Tonight's dinner was regular fettuccine and basil fettuccine tossed with broccoli, tomatoes, baby portobello mushrooms, spinach (without the e. coli I hope), and garlic. The veggies were sauted for a few minutes in some butter and then deglazed with a bit of red wine. (Yellow Tail Shiraz if you care.) Topped with some Parmesan cheese.

I realize we do a lot of pasta dishes. Can you tell I grew up spending lots of time in Italy? ;)


Fettuccine w/Veggies














Obligatory Cute baby pasta pic. ;)