Category: Recipes

Menu Plan Monday ~ 18 October

Fall is really here now. The air is crisp and cool and it doesn’t warm up too much during the day – just enough to make it comfortable to be outside. I LOVE weather like this.

It makes me want hearty, filling foods.  Things that “stick to your ribs” and make you want to go snuggle in front of a fire after you eat.

I’m planning some baking this week, too. Hoping to make homemade whole wheat cinnamon raisin bread and maybe some plain whole wheat bread.  I’m also baking a cake for my ladies’ Bible study on Wednesday morning (thinking it’ll be the Brown Sugar Walnut cake)

Dinner tonight is easy – we cooked a chicken in the crock pot yesterday, so that will be dinner along with some rice and gravy and vegs.Thanksgiving

Here’s what else I have planned to cook this week. A few items are familiar from previous weeks that I didn’t get to cook but am still in the mood to eat.

Join us over at Menu Plan Monday on orgjunkie.com and share your menu plan for the week – and get some great ideas if you don’t have a menu plan!

A recipe for you

Happy Friday to you all!

I haven’t shared any new recipes this week, so I thought I’d give you a treat today and post a new one. It’s not new to me, it’s a well-loved family favorite, but I don’t think I’ve ever shared it on the blog before.

This came to me through some of my past Weight Watchers friends.  It can be WW friendly very easily by using ground turkey and low-fat cheese in the recipe. I’ve tried making it low carb before by substituting sweet potato for the baking potato but that wasn’t very well received by the family. Sweet potato is too mushy when baked and the sweet flavor didn’t meld very well with the spiciness of the cumin and chili powder. Oh well. Lesson learned.

This is a great make-ahead recipe and it also freezes well and doubles well. So if you are a fan of making 2 while you’re making one, this is a great candidate. You could serve one for dinner tonight and freeze the other one for dinner on another night.  I’ve also doubled it before to serve to a large crowd.

I usually serve with salsa and sour cream to top the casserole. Other than that, I don’t think it really needs much else. It’s just yummy all by itself.

I hope you enjoy.

You can access the recipe for printing from here.

Mexican Potato Casserole 

Hearty and delicious recipe that is sure to be a crowd pleaser.
Yields: 8 Servings   

Ingredients

1 teaspoon Olive oil
1 pound Ground beef or ground turkey
2 medium Bell pepper diced
1 medium Onion diced
1 can Diced tomatoes (I use mild Rotel or Del Monte Diced Tomatoes with Chilies)
2 cups Mexican blend cheese shredded 
1 can black beans
Chili powder 
Cumin 
1 tablespoon Minced garlic 
Salt/pepper to taste 
2 large Baking potatoes

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350.
Using a mandolin, slice potatoes on the bias (diagonal) into thin slices (about 1/8" thick). Set aside.
Brown meat in skillet with olive oil, seasoning with Houston House Seasoning, chili powder and cumin.
Add onion & bell pepper and cook until vegetables begin to soften.
Mix in tomatoes and season to taste.
Cook 5-6 minutes.
In a greased 13×9 casserole dish, layer potatoes and meat mixture, adding cheese between layers.
Top final layer with cheese.
Bake 40-50 minutes, covered. Bake additional 10 minutes uncovered to brown cheese if desired.
Serve with salsa & sour cream for topping.

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Sprouting Feathers

My family loves chicken.  So much so that I think I could cook it for them every day and they would be happy.  Well, except for BigGirl (the Meatasauraus) who needs her steak and “pork butt” to be happy.

I seem to cook an awful lot of chicken recipes.  Do you?

This past weekend (as you know if you are a regular blog reader) I cooked 2 5-lb chickens on the grill. I used my beer can chicken recipe and they turned out super good. 

We ate some chicken on Sunday with our spaghetti and then I deboned the rest and saved it for recipes this week.

Last night I made chicken and dumplings (and a mess in my kitchen) and chicken salad with those leftovers.

I thought I’d share the recipes with you today.

But first, I must confess one thing.  When I cook, I’m one of those “dab of this, pinch of that, sprinkle a little of this” kind of cooks.  So, when you read my recipes, especially these two, remember that fact and feel free to get creative as you cook them.  I approximated in the recipes what I did last night while I prepared these two things, but other than the dumplings, the rest was just eyeballing it and flying by the seat of my pants (how is that for mixing my metaphors?)

Anyway, thought it was important to get those disclaimers out of the way.

If you don’t think of yourself as a good cook, I know it is a little intimidating to try to follow someone’s recipe when they don’t give you actual, definite amounts to go by.

But one thing to remember.  Cooking is more about the blending of flavors and seasonings and less about science.  Baking, well, that’s a whole ‘nother blog post.  Baking IS science. And I have the disaster stories from my experiments to prove it.  Baking is more precise.

Cooking, on the other hand is more like art.  Just go with the flow and see where it takes you. Usually to something good.

Ok, enough of my ramblings. I know you really just came here for the recipes anyway. 😉

Here’s a link to the chicken & dumplings recipe. I changed it only in that I used the leftover chicken and I substituted half whole wheat flour for my dumplings.  BigGirl said it was the best chicken and dumplings I’ve ever made. She ate two helpings.

Here’s the chicken salad recipe.  It is an approximation of the chicken salad my friend Donna makes. It’s got some non-traditional ingredients, but I love it. I eat it all by itself, unadulterated with bread or crackers (although it is good that way, too)

I hope you enjoy.

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You should bake this

I have it on good authority (my mom) that this is one of the best cakes you will ever bake.  She has just baked it and called me to tell me to bake it right away.  I have one in the oven, because, as we all know, I’m a very obedient daughter.  Of course I hung up the phone and started mixing! Mama said to!

I’m baking 2 small loaf cakes because I’m taking one to a friend who just had surgery. Everyone knows cake is the best medicine when you are recovering from surgery.  That, and my great-grandma’s sausage-rice casserole.  That’ll cure anything that’s wrong with you.

Brown sugar cake

Now that I've baked the cake and had a teensy-tiny sample, I can tell you it is soooo good. There's a rich, buttery taste to it.  I am thinking it would be great served on a cool fall morning with some tea or coffee.

Next time I make it I may add some diced apple and/or cinnamon.

But it is definitely worth a try.

Brown Sugar Cake

  • 1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
  • 1 pkg.  (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
  • 4 Eggs
  • 2/3 cup  BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream
  • 2/3 cup Water
  • 1/2 cup  Oil
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 cup  chopped PLANTERS Pecans
  • 2 tsp. Powdered sugar
  1.  HEAT oven to 350ºF.
  2. BEAT first 6 ingredients with mixer 3 min. or until well blended. Add brown sugar and nuts; mix well.
  3. POUR into 12-cup fluted tube pan or 10-inch tube pan sprayed with cooking spray.
  4. BAKE 1 hour or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan 15 min. Loosen cake from sides of pan; invert onto wire rack. Remove pan; cool cake completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar just before serving.

I also added about 2-3 tablespoons of cinnamon sugar to the cake pan after I’d sprayed it with non-stick spray and before I poured the cake in. Next time, I may get crazy and add some to the cake, too.

*Click on the cake name to get a printable copy of the recipe. 🙂

Oh, and I'll be sitting over there in the corner in a diabetic coma after my little taste. If you need me, just nudge me.

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Menu Plan Monday ~ 13 September

Hi, gang!mealplanmonday_v2

Have you missed me?

I took a little mini vacation this past weekend.  Mommies on the loose in the North Georgia mountains… It was very restful and lots of fun.

I wanted to wish a very special welcome to you ladies who are visiting my blog from the retreat! I was so flattered to hear this weekend how much you enjoy reading my blog! And I thought I was just talking to myself all this time. 🙂

But today, I’m back to the real world of school lunches, carpools, after-school activities and planning my family’s meals for the week.

I don’t not want to do this, but it sure was nice to have a break for a couple days and only worry about whether or not I would rather nap, read, or scrapbook. 🙂

This week is SuperMan’s birthday week. I have asked him a few times if he has any special requests, but he keeps telling me no.  SO, the menu may change if he thinks of something, but at this point, here’s what I have planned:

I’m also cooking for a friend and her family this weekend. She is having surgery on Friday so a few of us are going to provide the family with meals so they don’t have to worry about what to eat or cooking – they can focus on taking care of their Mama while she recovers.  I’m thinking I will either cook my great-grandma’s Sausage Rice Casserole recipe or the chicken w/ rotel casserole I made for my family (and it was such a great hit) a few weeks ago.  And, of course, there will be a cake of some sort involved. 🙂

What are you cooking for your family this week? Join us over at orgjunkie.com with your Menu Plan Monday.

Flying by the seat of my pants

My menu plan was out the window this week. Between travel over the weekend and the Labor Day holiday AND a raging cold, thinking about what to eat/cook this week was just beyond my capacity on Sunday or Monday.

So, I’ve been winging it.  Which is a little stressful, a lot more expensive, but is also blossoming my creativity. What can I cook with what I have on hand and without a trip to the fast-food takeout joints?Weight Watchers Chicken Parmesan Recipe

Tonight’s dinner?

Chicken Parmesan.

YUM.

I love Chicken Parm. It brings back memories from my (Italian) childhood. Lots of cheese, garlic, tomato sauce, and of course, chicken.

Today I tried a crock-pot recipe for Chicken Parmesan recipe. I checked out several “traditional” recipes and a few crock-style recipes and invented my own version.

One thing I did differently was that I did not bread my chicken. My grandmother may be watching from up above thinking this is a sacrilege but I was trying to eliminate the extra carbohydrates and I figured that was an easy way to do it. Besides, in the crock pot, the breading would’ve just turned to mush. And I don’t need bready mush – ever. 

I also didn’t make my traditional tomato sauce that I use for spaghetti and most anything else Italian I make.  (Grandma may decide to disown me now.)

I figured I was going to try the super-easy, super-simple method and see how it turned out. So, I just used an extra-large can of crushed tomatoes and seasoned them with some garlic, Italian seasoning and my Houston House Seasoning.

And, I used high-protein pasta.  I like Barilla Plus. They have an angel hair pasta, so that made the decision easy for me.  I like the fact that I’m feeding my family the extra protein and vitamins without the white flour and fillers in regular pasta.

The verdict?

Major yumminess.  And major easiness, too. A win-win as far as I’m concerned.

The kids loved it, too.

I served it with garlic bread and SuperMan will probably get a salad with his (when he gets home from work, that is)

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

  • Olive Oil
  • 4-6 Chicken Breasts (boneless, skinless)
  • Houston House Seasoning
  • Italian seasoning
  • Garlic (I use diced garlic in the jar but you can press 2-3 cloves fresh garlic)
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • pinch of celery seed
  • 1 large can of crushed tomatoes
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 pound of angel hair pasta
  • Garlic Bread (you can’t eat this without it!)

Preparation:

  1. Season chicken breasts with Houston House Seasoning.
  2. In a large skillet, brown chicken breasts in olive oil.
  3. In a large bowl, mix the crushed tomatoes, sugar, celery seed, about 2 Tbsp of Italian seasoning and 2 Tbsp of minced garlic.
  4. Add your chicken to the slow cooker.
  5. Pour tomato mixture on top.
  6. Set your slow cooker on low and let the chicken cook for 6-8 hrs.
  7. When you are ready to serve, boil your pasta water and preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
  8. While the pasta is cooking, place the chicken breasts in an oven safe dish and top with about 1/2 cup of the tomato mixture on each breast. 
  9. Sprinkle some of the cheese on top of the chicken.
  10. Bake in the oven just long enough to melt the cheese.
  11. Serve the chicken on a bed of pasta that has been topped with about 1/4 cup of the tomato sauce that is left over in your slow cooker.

And here’s a link where you can print your own copy.

 

And, as my grandpa would say… mangi!

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Menu Plan Monday ~ 30 August

Happy Monday, everyone!

This week will be an interesting one for us. SuperMan is going on a new work schedule and won’t be home until after 7 each night (boo!) which means that the girls and I will be on our own for supper most nights. This will be a challenge for me. What to cook that the girls will enjoy/eat and will still be appetizing for SuperMan when he gets home…

Here’s what I have planned for the week:mpm-1

  • Twice-baked potatoes with a salad
  • Chicken Parmesan
    This will be a new one to try on the kids. I don’t know if they will like it or not.
  • Steaks cooked on the grill with fresh veggies and buttered potatoes
    This is usually a SuperMan-cooked dinner. It will be interesting to see how I do cooking steaks.
  • Pizza Braid
    I saw this recipe last week when I was perusing other Menu Plan Monday posts. Have to try it.
  • Sloppy Joes with homemade french fries & fresh fruit
    Kid-friendly & fast – good for one of those nights we have dance classes.
  • Chicken Pomodoro
    I have had this on my list for two weeks and haven’t made it yet. Maybe this week?

 

What are you cooking this week?

Join us over at orgjunkie.com and share your menu plan!

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Menu Plan Monday ~ 23 Aug

mealplanmonday_v2 Got lots going on this week.

So glad I have planned out my menus. We have dance classes on Monday/Wednesday and Friday this week, plus curriculum night/PTO on Wednesday night and a knitting session for me on Thursday evening.

Without the plan, I think we would devolve into eating a lot of junk and fast food. This way, I know my family is getting healthy food and I can control fat, protein, and portion sizes.  Not to mention we have great leftovers for lunches.

As you can see we’re back into the chicken routine.  I’ve been finding chicken thighs on sale at the grocery and substituting them for the breasts in menus where I can. They are juicier than breasts and easier for my tummy to digest. The rest of the family doesn't seem to mind, either.

Here’s what I have planned for the week:

I’ve included links to all the recipes since so many of you have asked me for them.  Most are mine, a few other folks’.  All are posted on AllRecipes.com so it should be easy for you to access and print.

Join us over at Menu Plan Monday on orgjunkie’s blog – you can get some great ideas for your own dinners and share what you’ve got planned as well!  There are some great recipes over there – I was picking up a few ideas myself this morning that may show up in my own menus in the next few weeks.

 

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What’s for Dinner?

Here’s one of my favorite go-to recipes for the nights that SuperMan is working late and it’s just me and the girls for dinner.

Sesame Chicken BitesSesame Chicken Bites

Yum.

My girls love them just like they are straight out of the oven. No sauces, ketchup or anything needed.

I make them with two gallon sized zip top bags.

I use one for the mayo base coat mixture.  The second is used to hold the breading coating.  Easy cleanup and easy prep. Love that.

I use flash-frozen chicken tenders and cut them into bite-sized pieces.  This makes the dinner such a snap to make!

Here’s the recipe.  I think it would also be great to serve at a cocktail party with a little honey mixed with horseradish for a dipping sauce.

Sesame Chicken Bites

1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup (apprx) sesame seeds
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp dry mustard
2 tsp Houston House Seasoning
3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (Cut in bite-sized pieces)
(you can also use chicken tenders cut into pieces)

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. In a large gallon zip top bag, mix the bread crumbs and sesame seeds. Add a dash of Houston House Seasoning
  3. In a small bowl, mix mayonnaise, mustard & house seasoning.  Pour into a second gallon zip bag.
  4. Drop chicken pieces into the mayo bag and toss to coat.  I usually let the pieces sit in the bag in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes.
  5. Drop the mayo-coated chicken into the bread crumb/sesame seed mixture and toss to coat.
  6. Place chicken nuggets on sheet pan that has been sprayed with oil.
  7. Bake at 425 for approximately 15-20 minutes (or until chicken is done and coating is lightly browned)

I serve them with homemade french fries, a little fruit and sometimes some yogurt. Quick and easy – and healthy!

You can print the recipe here.

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Quick and Easy Dessert

I wanted to share a super-quick and super-yummy dessert idea with you.

My friend Cindy is quickly becoming famous amongst our newest circle of friends for her amazing recipes – all of which are so simple and easy to make that it is amazing how good they are. Something that easy can’t be that good!

But, Cindy is the master of quick, easy and yummy recipes. I think it is because she is a mom to three big, strapping boys and has had to be very creative with her food budget and cooking to feed those growing boys. (and they are BIG boys… football, weight-lifters, etc.)

Cindy prepared this for us for dessert one night when she hosted dinner at her house. It was gobbled up quickly and we were all begging for more – and the recipe!

I haven’t tried to make this sugar-free or WLS friendly, but I think I am going to try this weekend. Maybe substitute the “real” ingredients for sugar-free varieties. I will let you know how it turns out. 

This version, though, is to die for.

Oreo Cookie Ice Cream

  • 1 (large) tub of Cool Whip whipped topping
  • 1 1/2 gallon container of vanilla ice cream (slightly melted)
  • 1 package Oreo cookies

  1. Crush Oreos in a food processor (or put them in a ziplock bag and let your kids whack them with a mallet to crush them)
  2. In a LARGE bowl, mix the crushed Oreos, ice cream, and cool whip.
  3. Freeze 4-5 hours
  4. Serve

Print the recipe

This is a great treat to share with friends – and if you do there won’t be any left!

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