Twice Baked Potatoes!

From scratch! (well, as "from scratch" as you get with potatoes) Ooohhh Ahhhh

Tonight's dinner was Quorn Chik'n Breasts, Green Beans and Twice Baked Potatoes. (From Scratch! OOohhhh AAAhhhhh)
















I kinda overdid the Chik'n but it was still yummy. I'm not sure if I talked about the Quorn products on here before so I will now. They rock. They aren't soy, they are some kind of mushroom protein thing. They really do freaking rock, and I'm in mourning that they don't carry the Quorn hotdogs in the USA anymore; because, they are the only vegetarian hotdog that doesn't taste like eating playdough and, as such, are the only vegetarian hotdog that doesn't make me gag.

Onto the potatoes....

Twice Baked Potatoes (From Scratch! Oooooh Aaahhhh)

You will need:
3-4 potatoes
sour cream
cream cheese
cheddar cheese shreds
milk
salt/pepper

The problem with this recipe is that I don't measure the ingredients so you'll have to play with it to find out how you enjoy it the best.

Now, you can be all 1950's about it and bake the potatoes at 400F for an hour like my mom does OR you can come up to speed and nuke them in the microwave for about 9-10minutes. Let them cool before you move on.

Preheat oven to 375F.

Slice the nuked (or baked) potates and scoop the insides into a bowl but leave about half an inch of insides there so that it doesn't lose structure. I always sacrifice one potato to be strictly for inside stuff, you might want to do that too.

In the same bowl, toss in about oh, I dunno, 2 tablespoons of cream cheese, 1/4 cup of sour cream, a handful of cheese shreds and a splash of milk. Use a hand mixer to mix until creamy. Toss in a pinch of salt and pepper and mix again just to make sure there are no lumps.

Scoop the potato mixture back into the hollowed out potatoes, put on a cookie sheet that was lightly greased with olive oil... toss in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the tops are golden-brown.

Serve and get all the "ooohs and aaahhs" that you did this by yourself instead of using some lame ass frozen version.

Meat Loaf (Veggie of course!)

I won't promise that I'll update more than once a week. I can't even seem to get myself motivated to update my regular blog more than about once a month; however, I'll do my best. I got really burnt out updating this every day so don't expect that.

So tonight we had Vegetarian Meatloaf, Green Beans and Mashed Potatoes.

















That's kind of a crappy picture... I should have used a smaller plate, so here's a "close-up" on the meat loaf.


















Vegetarian Meat Loaf

2 Eggs (or 2x Egg Replacer for the Vegans)
1 box firm silken tofu
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 packet onion soup mix
1 medium chopped onion
3 stalks celery chopped (chop them small)
8oz chopped baby portobello mushrooms
1.5 teaspoon of basil
1.5 teaspoon of oregano
0.5 teaspoon sage
1.5 cups plain bread crumbs

Preheat Oven to 350F

In food processor (or blender) mix eggs, tofu, soup mix, walnuts and blend until smooth.
In pan with a bit of olive oil, saute veggies until soft mix in the herbs and stir well.
In a bowl mix blended tofu mixture and sauted veggies. Add bread crumbs and mix well. Pour into a greased bread pan and bake at 350F for 1 hour 30 minutes. Let it sit on the counter and cool for about 15 minutes before slicing.

I supposed you could do the traditional ketchup on the top of the meatloaf but... ick.

Enjoy!

Trying This Again

So I'm still fixing my kids about the same quick and easy fare as I was five months ago but I've got a new camera.



So at least it looks a little prettier now, right?

Dinner tonight was Nathan's hot dogs (all beef), cherry tomatoes, steamed broccoli, and sliced apples. One big change I've made is going more organic on many things and cutting out high fructose corn syrup from our diets.

My husband works long hours so we were dining alone and I didn't feel like fixing a big meal just for the three of us.

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. ;)