Posts Tagged ‘recipe’
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Crab sauce for steak topping
We love those bacon wrapped filets from Costco. They are always such a treat for us. I had a couple of cans of crab that have been taking up space in our pantry for ages and I decided that it was time to use one. I searched online for a recipe for a crab topping for our steaks, but didn’t like any of the recipes that I could find. I ended up combining several to make a super yummy crab sauce. This recipe made plenty- we used it for 2 steaks and on our broccoli and still had at least half of it left. We’re going to try it on eggs tomorrow but it would also be good on fish or chicken.
1 can (6oz) crab
3/4 cup light sour cream
1/4 cup white wine
3 dashes Worcestershire
1 tsp dry mustard
2 tsp crushed garlic
1 TBS cornstarchHeat all ingredients in a small saucepan until heated through and thickened. Serve over grilled steak and veggies.
yum!
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Enchilada Casserole
My favorite sister gave me this recipe a bagillion years ago. It had been buried in my recipe box for years and I just came across it and decided to try it this week. I had to make a few substitutions based on what we had in the kitchen, but it was a HUGE hit with the family- especially Kate! I put all of my substitutions and additions in parenthesis so you can make this yummy recipe either way!
1.5 pounds hamburger (we used preseasoned ground taco turkey)
1 medium onion, diced
2 15 ounce cans tomato sauce (I used 15 ounces of tom sauce, 10 ounces of mild salsa and 6 ounces of tomato paste)
1 tsp chili powder
2 tsp salt (we thought it was too salty with the other changes I made, I’ll skip the salt next time)
1 Tbs vinegar
1 clove diced garlic
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 small can black olives
(1 cup frozen corn)
1/2 cup flour
1 cup water
8-12 corn tortillas (I used 5 flour tortillas)
3/4 lb shredded cheddar cheese (I used 1.5 cups)Brown hamburger and onion, drain. Add tomato sauce, chili powder, salt, vinegar, garlic, pepper, olives, and corn. Mix well and simmer on low for 20 minutes. Mix flour and water and add to meat sauce, stir until sauce thickens. Slice tortillas into fourths. Spray a 9×13 pan with PAM, then layer tortillas, meat sauce and cheese; repeat with a second layer. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.
Serve with sour cream and tortilla chips or a salad.
I think next time I’ll add a can of black beans and decrease the meat to one pound and I’ll do a full 16 ounce jar of salsa and skip the tomato paste. I think it will balance the flavor a little better. I also debated about actually making enchiladas with this filling, I think it would be excellent that way- and a little fancier if you’re serving it to guests! This is a pretty easy recipe to alter depending on your tastes- give it a try!
yum!
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Chris’ Yummiest French Toast
Chris makes THE BEST French Toast I have ever had. Seriously. Hands down. And it turns out he has a secret ingredient. Are you ready? Coffee Mate. Yes, as in the creamer. I know it may sound funny, but you have to try it to believe it. It is so good!
1 loaf cinnamon raisin bread
6 eggs
3 TBS Vanilla or Vanilla Caramel Coffee Mate
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamonHeat electric fry pan to 350. Mix eggs with creamer, vanilla and cinnamon. Dip each slice of bread in the egg mixture to coat and then place in fry pan coated with PAM. Cook until lightly brown then flip and cook until the other side is brown. Serve warm with butter, syrup, peanut butter or powdered sugar to suit your tastes! Leftovers refrigerate and reheat well- if you have any!
yum!
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Dessert Fail
Recently I challenged my husband that instead of saying “I love you” we should try to find another way to show our love instead. It just seems too easy to throw out the words without following them up with actions sometimes. Anway, I was walking through Big Lots today and they had Peppermint Oreos for 75 cents (those things have a shelf life of about forever- they weren’t even near the expiration date!). Chris LOVES those Oreo truffles that have been making the rounds lately so I decided to make him a batch as a surprise.
At this point I should make the disclaimer that I hate making truffles. Despite the protests of the masses that “They are so simple!” and “You can whip up several batches in no time!” I have never found that to be the case. Years ago my sister and I experimented with chocolate truffles and we were miserable trying to get them to stick into a ball shape and cover them with chocolate. ”Never again!” we declared. Then for some odd reason we decided to make Bourbon balls one Christmas. Ha! Each one tasted like a shot of Bourbon. Nasty. Then I decided to make my mom’s famous Peanut Butter Bon Bons one year for a cookie exchange. I don’t know what I did wrong, but trying to shape these balls with crunchy peanut butter and rice krispies was torture! My hands hurt so badly from being poked and scraped by the krispies. No kidding. I let my mom and sister in law make these now.
Last Christmas one of Chris’ students gave him some Oreo Truffles as a gift. YUM! She gave us her recipe- and I quote- 1 package of oreos, 1 package of cream cheese. Blend in food processor. Form into balls. Dip into chocolate. Easy Peasy! I figured that if a 7th grader could do it then so could I! This Christmas I bought all of the ingredients and started making a batch, but somehow during the actual making of the truffles I got pulled away from the kitchen (hmmmm… perhaps it was my toddler or my baby?) and my sister and sister in law took over. I don’t think I made it past the crushing of the Oreos. I have no idea what transpired in that kitchen, but I do know that not too long later we had a beautiful tray of perfectly shaped truffles to enjoy and neither of them complained to me about making them.
So here I am in April and I decided to whip up a batch at 8 o’clock at night. No problem, I thought.
I mixed up the oreos and cream cheese and got a filling mixture the texture of frosting. Have you ever tried to shape frosting into a ball and then dip it into chocolate? Ya, it doesn’t work. I looked online and found suggestions- refrigerate the mixture before shaping it. Use a spoon and dip the ball into the chocolate.
Whatever people. This is what I got…
Have you ever seen anything so lovely? Hmmmm…
I’m just eating mine with that spoon.
Edited to say- Chris just came in from the other room and said “I know what the problem was! The package of peppermint Oreos was smaller than a package of regular Oreos so the ratio was wrong!” I think he’s right. But he’s still going to have to hope a 7th grader to make them for him again some day. Or maybe one of his sisters in law?
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Orange Beef
We had a yummy orange beef for dinner the other night. Seriously yummy. I adapted this from a recipe on cooks.com. When I make this again I think I’m going to substitute Splenda for the sugar, but otherwise- super yum. Can you tell we enjoyed this? I just said yum or yummy 3 times!
1.5 pounds cubed beef
Flour for dredging
2 TBS oil
Salt and pepper1 TBS oil
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cup Teriyaki sauce
1/4 cup Soy sauce
1 TBS flour or cornstarch
Juice of one orange
Zest of 1/2 orange
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 can bamboo shoots
2 cups veggies- I used green beans and carrots, but you can use what you like and have on hand!
Pepper to tasteDredge the beef in flour, season to taste and cook in oil. Remove beef from pan.
Add more oil to pan and saute garlic. Add flour and continue stirring until cooked. Stir in sauces, juice, zest and sugar. Continue stirring until sauce comes to a boil. Add veggies and continue cooking until sauce thickens and veggies are starting to soften. Return meat to the pan and heat through before serving over rice.
yummy!
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Meal Plan March 20-26
What are we having for dinner this week?
Sunday- dinner at my brother and sister in law’s
Monday- overnight date night! We’re eating out- my parents are in charge of feeding the kids.
Tuesday- meatloaf
Wednesday- chicken and rice crockpot
Thursday- crescent roll ham and spinach quiche
Friday- chicken and stuffing bake? (maybe dinner out with my parents and brother’s family)
Saturday- ? (maybe dinner out with my parents and brother’s family)
This week’s plan may change since my parents are in town and my sister in law will probably offer to cook some meals!
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Meal Plan March 13-19
What are we having for dinner this week?
Sunday- leftovers from Thursday night- I ended up making chicken enchiladas rather than mexican casserole- almost the same ingredients, just rolled up!
Monday- Chicken Pizzaiaola (new recipe for us!)
Tuesday- Tater Tot casserole
Wednesday- Tuna Noodle Casserole (I admit- this is one of my least favorite dishes in the whole wide world. And guess what? This is one of Chris’ favorite dishes in the whole wide world! So he’s making it for dinner on Wednesday. I may have some. Or maybe some leftovers. Or a sandwich. We’ll see!)
Thursday- Pork Chops with herbs
Friday- My parents arrive into town AND we have small group and dinner- I’m not sure what all is going to happen!
Saturday- Dinner out for my dad’s birthday
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Heavenly Chicken
Heavenly Chicken
10 oz pkg frozen chopped spinach
2TBS butter or margarine
2TBS flour
1 cup milk
1 cup cooked cubed ham
1 cup bread or cracker crumbs
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
8 boneless skinless chicken breastsCook spinach according to package directions- drain well
In a small saucepan melt butter, stir in flour and milk. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until bubbly. Boil and stir 1 more minute until smooth and thickened.Combine cracker crumbs and cheese- dip chicken breasts in crumbs to lightly coat. Arrange in a 13×9 pyrex. (Save remaining crumbs!) Stir spinach and ham into white sauce and spoon over chicken.
Bake covered at 350° for 60-75 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with remaining crumbs and bake 10 more minutes.
yum!
melody
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Meal Plan March 6-12
What are we having for dinner this week?
Sunday- Salmon and mashed garlic red potatoes with a green salad
Monday- Shepherd’s pie (using leftover potatoes!)
Tuesday- Heavenly Chicken and green beans
Wednesday- Crock Pot Beef Stew
Thursday- Chicken Enchilada Casserole
Friday- Cheesy Beef Stroganoff
Saturday- Dinner out TBD
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How in the world do I feed dinner to my family every single day? and other thoughts
If you’re like me (or at least the old me!) every day about dinner time you go into a panic realizing that you don’t have a plan and the natives are getting restless. Not too long ago I decided to get proactive about our meals. While I’ve always kept a go to, quick to prepare, I always have the ingredients on hand list of favorites posted inside the cupboard, that just wasn’t cutting it anymore. So I added a new calendar to my google calendar creatively titled… get this… dinner.
Once every week or two I clip the coupons that magically appear in our driveway every Sunday (I was throwing these away for years!) and purge the file of expired coupons. Then I peruse the cupboards and freezer to see what I have available or I’m tired of moving to get to something else. Then I brainstorm our dinners for the next few weeks. I usually add one or two new meals, rotate through 4 or 5 favorites, and add in 4 or 5 ones that we like but haven’t had for a while. I try to keep in mind what each day’s schedule looks like. Wednesdays are always crock pot since that’s my work day. Mondays and Thursdays are always low prep or make ahead since I am babysitting. Sometimes I’ll look back over the past few months to see what meals I’ve forgotten about. Sometimes I’ll bust out the recipe box or a cookbook to see what strikes me. I usually ask my husband for ideas, but he’s so easy to please he usually says “whatever”. Not so helpful, but at least it doesn’t leave him much room to complain about what we’re eating- and he never does. My husbands one request is that we always have left overs on hand for his lunch the next day. This means I need to plan our dinners around his lunch needs. Some meals are consumed entirely while others provide plenty of leftovers and I try to alternate these dinners throughout the week so we aren’t wasting food and so that he’s not tempted to run out to Chick-Fil-A.
Once I’ve put my plan together I pull all of the recipes that I’ll need in the coming weeks and use my super de dooper shopping list app to add any ingredients to the running shopping list. (I LOVE this app by the way- I use it to keep our list going when I use up an ingredient or realize we need something AND it syncs to Chris’ phone so if either of us is ever going to the store we can easily check the list and pick up any needed items! I can also add my “buy me” price to keep track of how much I’m willing to pay for an item or as a reminder of what a good sale price is. Plus if there is something the store is out of stock of or if I don’t like the price the item stays on the list until I remove it- no need to transfer it to the new list! LOVE! It’s called… wait for it… shopping lists. You can add several different stores too- I keep a Costco list, a dollar store list, and a Target list going as well.)
Then I’m off to the store. I know every family is different, but I greatly prefer to shop alone. I like to meander the aisles and my coupon file at my leisure. I would rather go at 8:30 on a Sunday night in the rain (like I did last night!) than take the kids. But that’s just me. I try to always compare the unit price and I check out the clearance section of the store for great deals. (I don’t know if all stores have this, but mine has a section in the back filled with day old bread, products with out of date packaging, leftovers from the holiday aisle, etc.) Sometimes I’ve found great products in the clearance section for half off or more, plus I have a coupon. Woo hoo! I also try to read all the labels for nutrition facts- particularly watching for whole grains and ingredients that I can pronounce.
Now it’s time to actually cook dinner. I usually check the calendar before bed each night (or sometimes while prepping dinner) to see what meat I need to defrost for dinner the next night. I usually cook 5 pounds or so of chicken or ground beef at a time- so most days I can just pull a pound of already cooked frozen meat out of the freezer to thaw. If it’s time to make another big batch I like to put the meat in the crock pot during breakfast so that I can separate it into one pound bags during nap time. Sometimes I’ll do the ground beef in the stock pot on the stove depending on time.
During lunch or nap time is usually when I prep most of dinner. If it’s a casserole or a meal that will sit for a few hours I try to cook and assemble as much as possible. It’s so much easier to throw an already prepared dinner into the oven at 5 o’clock than trying to cut up raw chicken and read a recipe with kids underfoot!
So there you have it. This is how I feed my family. I know that some people also meal plan breakfast and lunch, but I’m not quite there yet. Although I have been toying with the idea of improving my breakfast rotation. I think I’m going to start posting my meal plan for the week here regularly and add more recipes too. Not that I’m a chef by any means. In fact I’m the opposite- my meals are simple and tend to be hearty rather than high brow. But so are most of my friends…
melody
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