Dinners Recently

I've been neglecting this blog. Lack of inspiration I guess. But I have been taking pics so here's a couple of our recent dinners:

Tonight I made this tomato/cheddar/macaroni bake that I concocted along with some help from a recipe I found online.

Here's what I did:

Boil 1/2 lb. macaroni about 8 minutes. Drain and add to 1 qt stewed tomatoes (I used some my MIL canned last summer), spices to taste including celery salt, black pepper, ground mustard, a little sugar and salt. Add about a cup of cheddar cheese shredded and about two tablespoons of unsalted butter. Pour into casserole dish and top with some more cheese and buttered breadcrumbs. Bake 30 minutes at 350. It was VERY good. I also made some steamed corn but you know what that stuff looks like!

The kids and I dined in front of Nemo since my husband is working late and it's just us girls.

Last night we had baked chicken with gravy, brown rice and steamed mixed veggies. I seasoned the chicken with this rotisserie seasoning I found at the store and some sage. It was really tasty.


I guess that's all. I'll try and get back in the habit of posting daily. I've just been consumed with other things lately and I'm not really thrilled with the pictures my crappy digital camera takes. Maybe Santa will bring me a better one. ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey
Gravy
Mashed Potatoes PW Style
Green Beans PW Style
Stove Top
Cranberry Sauce

Sweet Potato Casserole

My grandmother's recipe:

2 huge red yams baked and then scooped out
mash w/ butter, cinnamon, maple syrup and some of the syrup from a can of apricots
layer 1/2 that in dish and then cover w/ apricots
top w/ other 1/2 and bake at 350 to warm if you had refrigerated the mixture
then top w/ marshmellows and bake till brown
Enjoy!

Yum!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope all the American blog readers had a great Thanksgiving. It's currently snowing here, and I hope it keeps it up. I want to see some sticking!

We had a HUGE dinner tonight and will likely eat the leftovers for the next several days.

TOFURKY! Yum Yum.

















Learn why I don't feed my kids Turkey on Thanksgiving:


Stuffing:















Green Bean Casserole with Fresh Made French Fried Onions!















"Tomato Ick" (Recipe to Follow)
















Apple-Cranberry Dumplings
















Mashed Potatoes w/butter
















Rolls















Pumpkin Pie!
















Tomato Ick
Got its name because my father hates tomatoes and my mom made this and he said "oh, it looks like tomato ick"

2 large cans stewed whole tomatoes - drained
2 small onions sliced
1/2 stick butter
8-10 pieces of dry bread chopped into "squares"

Mix tomatoes, onions and bread gently in a baking dish. Top with pats of butter. Bake at 350 for like 40-ish minutes until the top is browned.

sketee

Baby wanted SKETEE SKETEE SKETEE... so I obliged.















And of course, Salad.

Spaghetti Night

I made some spaghetti with meat sauce tonight and mixed it all together. It was so good. I used a little bit of leftover sausage from last weekend with some hamburger meat. Then I added garlic and onions and spices.

We had salad, too.

Look at this kid. She's a mess!

Veggie Frittata

Company is gone. Yay! Back to reality. ;)

Dinner tonight was a Veggie Frittata with broccoli, Avocado, spinach and topped with cheese and salsa.
















Veggie Frittata
Veggies Chopped
Eggs
Cheese

Soften up your veggies a bit by cooking them in a pan with a little butter or olive oil. Wisk eggs in a bowl and then pour into pan and cook until done. Top with some cheese and Salsa.

Bourbon Chicken (thanks Meg!)

Man, this stuff freakin' rocked! Here's the recipe: Bourbon Chicken. Meg inspired this dinner when I asked her what she was having for dinner. I, however, used REAL Jack Daniels (instead of apple juice) and you know what, that stuff ain't half bad straight. ;)

I don't know why my salad was so blurry. It was good too. I finally found an Asian Ginger dressing comparable to my favorite Japanese steakhouse house dressing.

This dinner was loved by all and will be in our WEEKLY rotation! Maybe in the summer I'll add tomato slices. Ha ha!

Meat & Potatoes

We had steak (ribeyes) on the grill and mashed red potatoes with skins on and a big salad. They all ate it but my kids were wild and crazy. I really should feed them first.

Yummy Dinner

Isn't it hilarious how I covered Diego with this macaroni and cheese?

This was a new recipe for macaroni & cheese. It was scrum-dilly-umptious! Served with steamed broccoli and a classic favorite, tomatoes. ;)

The girls ate every last bite of it. They loved it all.

Here's the recipe for the mac & cheese - I left out the onions, paprika and the bay leaf and doubled the recipe so I could take it to a potluck tomorrow. For bread crumbs, I use scraps of crust (Emma hates the crust) that I froze and put through a food processor. I have no clue what Alton Brown is referring to regarding bread crumbs but these worked just fine.

Oh, and to steam brocolli, I just chop it all up, even the stems, and add to a small amount of boiling water, butter and salt and cook till tender but not mushy.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese Recipe courtesy Alton Brown Show: Good Eats Episode: For Whom the Cheese Melts 2

1/2 pound elbow macaroni 3 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons flour 1 tablespoon powdered mustard 3 cups milk 1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced 1 bay leaf 1/2 teaspoon paprika 1 large egg 12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded 1 teaspoon kosher salt Fresh black pepper Topping: 3 tablespoons butter 1 cup panko bread crumbs Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente. While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf. Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese. Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.

Hodge Podge Veggie Pasta

Tonight's dinner was sort of a hodge-podge creation of things I had in the house that I didn't want to go bad. The boys are going out of town tomorrow, with their grandparents, so I likely won't post until they get back on Sunday. I also hope I shoved enough veggies in them tonight to counter-act all the crap food their grandparents will feed them. No matter how many times I ask, they let them eat crap like McDonalds once a day. *hurl*

This has lots of different veggies in there ... there is spinach, zucchini, portobello mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic and fresh mozzarella.
















Hodge Podge Veggie Pasta
1 medium zucchini sliced into small strips
1 bag of baby spinach
2 tomatoes, diced
2 portobello mushrooms sliced
2 cloves garlic minced
Fresh Mozzarella (I used 6 ounces) chopped into cubes
Olive Oil
Pasta of your choice

Boil pasta of your choice (we used penne). In a pan, heat some olive oil and toss in the zucchini and spinach. Cook until spinach is wilted. Add the mushrooms and garlic and warm through. Add a few pinches of salt. Place on low heat and stir in most of the tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. Let sit until pasta is done.

When the pasta is done, drain and mix well with the veggie mixture. Spoon onto a plate and top with some of the remaining tomatoes and mozzarella. Add salt/pepper as desired.

Pizza

We had pizza that I made last night. I'm not sure what's on the menu for tonight. I need to get to the store but that's going to have to wait until tomorrow or Friday.

Sorry no picture but you've seen my pizza many times. ;)

Shells with Sour Cream

I was all set to make something else when my 9 year old asked if I would make this tonight, so I did. This is something that is from my childhood -- my great grandmother used to make this and I understand that it sounds gross but it actually is really good. The only thing with this is you have to use some salt. If you don't put salt on it, it doesn't taste right.
















Shells with Sour Cream
Pasta Shells
Sour Cream
Pepper
Salt
1-2 Tbs butter

Boil pasta per box directions and drain. Melt butter and mix with pasta. Add sour cream until well coated -- I honestly have no idea how much I use. Sorry. Liberal amount of pepper and salt and mix well and enjoy.

I know it sounds bizarre but have I steered you in the wrong direction yet? ;)

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Tonight's dinner was portobello mushrooms with spinach tomato stuffing.
















Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
1 bag baby spinach
1 tomato, diced
1 cup mozzarella cheese (shredded or cubed)
2 eggs
2 cups (dry) stuffing mix (we used herb-style)
1/2 cup vegetable broth (or water)
4 Portobello Mushrooms
Olive Oil

Pre-Heat oven to 400

In a pan with some olive oil, cook the baby spinach until wilted. Add tomato, stuffing mix, and vegetable broth (or water). Remove from heat and gently stir (don't over-stir or you'll make mush out of the stuffing).

Let cool for a few minutes while you remove the stems from the mushrooms and scrape out the brown "gill" looking things. Rinse mushrooms and pat dry.

Gently beat the two eggs and mix with the stuffing mix. Mix the cheese in as well. Scoop the stuffing mix into the mushroom caps and place on a non-stick cookie sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through and the tops are brown.

Lasagna - The best ever!

I made the Pioneer Woman's recipe last night. It was so damn yummy I could almost eat it at 9:30 in the morning! LOL

I didn't take pics because mine wouldn't do it justice and she has amazing ones on her website. See here.

Friday night we went out to eat at a buffet/salad bar type place. The food was mediocre but it was fun to have someone else clean it all up for a change. The girls liked it because there were so many options. Oh, and they have a kids eat free till age 6 policy. Can't beat that. All four of us ate for around $20. What a bargain!

I still haven't got back on the meal planning wagon. I just fix whatever is here and plan most of my meals around whatever meat is on sale at the store. Like that pork roast the other day for example.

I think I'm going to start posting some of our other meals though and not just dinner. We eat a lot of the same stuff over and over so I thought maybe you'd like to see some breakfast and lunch pics for a change.

We're Back! - Cheese Steaks!

I think we're FINALLY all healthy! *knocks on wood* Three kids sick really sucks. Blech. Don't want to do that again. Considering that I got sick first and then didn't want to drag sick kids to the grocery store we hadn't been grocery shopping in like 3 weeks. It got to the point that last night was one of those "hmmm, what can I make with half a lemon, ketchup and some cheesesticks?" (Ok, not really but it was pretty bad.)

So, we went grocery shopping (370 dollars later - OUCH!) and we finally have food in the house! Yay! The baby actually let me put him down long enough to cook dinner so here we have it --

Tonight's dinner was Vegetarian Cheese Steaks!
















Vegetarian "Philly" Cheese Steaks
Morningstar Farms Philly Cheese Steak Burger Patties
Mushrooms sliced
Onions sliced
Green Bell Peppers Diced (or sliced)
Mozzarella Cheese
1 Tbs Butter
Sub Rolls

Saute the onions, mushrooms, and green peppers in some butter.
Microwave the veggie burgers for 30-45 seconds until not frozen. Slice into strips.
Add the burger strips to the veggies and warm through.
Put some Mozzarella cheese on the sub rolls and then top with the meat-vegetable mixture. Top with more cheese if desired.

Enjoy!

Pork Roast

I made a pork roast in the crockpot today. It was delicious. I used a pack of the McCormick Pot Roast seasoning and a little water and let it cook all afternoon. Then I made gravy and roasted some veggies in the oven with a little olive oil and seasoned salt.

The girls and the husband loved this dinner.