Spaghetti

Ok. So Spaghetti, my spaghetti really doesn't need a recipe post, but I thought I would share how I spice up the plain ole spaghetti

First off to make it healthier I always use whole wheat pasta, and I only put in 1/2 lb of hamburger. I use store bought sauce, (lazy I know, but its all good), usually the vegetable one or traditional. I add either dried onion or about a fourth of a regular onion, diced, as well as one chopped green pepper and one cup diced or shredded zucchini. I also usually add a few shakes of basil, thyme and oregano.

There you have it our simple, whole wheat, vegefied spaghetti.

Fish Tacos

Some of us love fish tacos, others tolerate fish tacos at our house. I try to make them every once in awhile to please the whole family, and it helps that they are super easy

Corn tortillas (or flour)
Breaded fish (our favorite is breaded parmasean tortilla tilapia from costco)
black beans (optional)
coleslaw type lettuce
lime
salsa (optional)
sour cream (optional)
tarter sauce (optional)

Place your fish in the oven and cook according to directions on the box. While cooking your fish you can prepare your corn tortilla's, put a little oil in a skillet and cook each tortilla on each side for 1-2 minutes. This is also when you would heat up your black beans.

Once everything in heated; assemble. Place your fish in your tortilla along with some cabbage or coleslaw and squeeze with lime juice. If you are going to use black beans, I either serve them on the side or place them first in my tortilla shell, topped with fish, cabbage, lime, etc. Now you just top it off with any other toppings you want, salsa, sour cream, or tarter sauce.

So here you are super easy and yummy too.

Happy Eating!

Weekly Menu Plan 2/21- 3/2

Okay we are back! We went to Phoenix for the Weekend so my husband could renew a certification, we got to see a few old friends and catch up with my husbands brother and family. We also got to eat at some of our favorite restaurants. Places you must try if you are in the phoenix area. We ate at restaurants in Peoria, Tempe, Mesa, and Gilbert, some are a chain or Franchise and others are locally owned. I plan on doing a post on each of them this next week. As well as a shout out to a couple of others we love but didn't get a chance to eat at.

So with out further ado, here is our weekly menu.

Monday: Fish Tacos
Tuesday: Spaghetti/Salad/Bread
Wednesday: Curried Coconut Chicken with Mango Rice
Thursday: Pork Chops, Vegetables and Mashed Potatoes
Friday: Apricot Chicken, Cous Cous, and Vegetable
Saturday: Homemade Pizza
Sunday: BBQ Chicken Sandwiches, funeral potatoes and corn
Dessert: Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes
Monday: Enchilada's, yellow rice and mexicorn
Tuesday: Ravioli, salad and bread.
Wednesday: Balsalmic Chicken, Rice and Vegetable

So there you have it and recipes to follow.

Happy Eating!

Crazy Week Ahead...

Due to our crazy week this next week, I won't post a new menu plan until Monday, we will be eating out and eating out of a box I am afraid the next few days. I do have the olive garden Alfredo recipe from last night to still post as well, I will try to do that soon. Promise.

Happy Eating, and I will see you on Monday!

Creamy Lemony Chicken

I found a new recipe to try this week, simple, easy and I had all the ingredients on hand, now that is my kind of meal! I also like any crockpot chicken meal that allows me to throw my meat in frozen; because A) I'm lazy and B) I am forgetful I can NEVER remember to thaw my chicken!

The recipe was posted by Crafting Chicks, a craft blog I follow and it looked good and was simple so I thought why not. You can go here to try it. The only thing I would do differently would be to shred the chicken before serving and then serve it over the rice. It had a WONDERFUL flavor, but I thought the chicken was a little dry, this could be due to the fact that I cooked it on high for 4 hours (remember I am lazy and forget to thaw my meat and sometimes I just plain forget to start dinner) all I had was full size chicken breasts and thought I should give them an extra hour.

So go check out this super easy yummy recipe, that your whole family will eat.

HEARTS and Calzones

For our Valentines breakfast I went super simple: heart shaped nuttella toast and strawberry milk.

For lunch: peanut butter and jelly heart shaped sandwiches with juicy red strawberries.

And for dinner I decided to make my family heart shaped calzones. They turned out to be super yummy. I didn't end up doing a dessert as NUBI frozen yogurt was having a buy one get one, so we headed over there, before dinner :)

First I made the crust:

1 C. warm water
1 T. sugar
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 t. salt
3 T. olive oil
2 1/2 C. flour.
1/2- 1 t basil
1/2- 1 t. oregano
1/2- 1 t. garlic powder
1/2- 1 t. thyme

Filling:
pizza sauce or marinara sauce
mozzarella cheese
pizza topings (pepperoni, canadian bacon, olives, pineapple, green peppers, etc.)

Combine water, sugar and yeast and mix until yeast is dissolved. Add salt and olive oil and mix. Slowly add flour and mix until well blended. Lest rest covered for 10 minutes.

Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and put a little olive oil on your fingers and press the pizza out flat making a rectangular shape. You are now going to sprinkle your basil, oregano, garlic powder and thyme over your dough until it is evenly covered. Now at this point you can either get out your cute heart shaped cookie cutter and make enough hearts as your dough allows for both top and bottom. Taking the excess from around the hearts and pressing it out again to make additional heart shapes or your can cut your dough in fourths making four larger calzones. If you are doing hearts then you will only do the following to half of the hearts, if you are doing larger calzones then you will only cover half of each of your rectangles. okay.

So first you spread your pizza sauce, or marinara sauce, then you place a nice layer of mozzarella cheese, followed by pizza toppings of your choice. Our toppings included turkey peperoni, canadian bacon, green peppers, and olives, Everyone built there own, so they were all different. Followed by a little more mozzarella cheese.

Now if you made heart shaped calzones you will place the hearts with nothing on them on top of your pizza layered hearts and press the edges to seal. If you made standard rectangular shaped calzones you will fold the dough in half and seal the edges.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Easy peasy and my whole family loves them. I cut my 2 year olds heart in half and she ate it just like a sandwich.

Happy Eating!

Steak quesidilla's

Another simple and easy dinner idea. I used my great steak recipe from here to give my steak some spice.

2 pound beef sirloin, cut into thin 2 inch strips
1/2 t. salt
1 t. black pepper
1 t. paprika
1 t. chili powder
1 t. onion powder
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. dried thyme
1 t. dried basil
2 T. olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
1 green pepper, sliced
burrito size tortilla shells
Mexican cheese
any desired toppings, such as sour cream or salsa.

Thinly slice your steak and place in a large bowl along with the diced onion. In separate small bowl, mix all of your spices, then sprinkle half the seasoning on meat and onions, mix and then sprinkle the rest of the seasoning and mix again.

Then place 2 T. olive oil in a frying and heat, add your meat mixture and cook until done to your likeness.

When your steak is done sprinkle Mexican cheese on half of a burrito size tortilla shell add some of the steak, and a little more cheese, you could also add a little salsa in here at this point too. Fold tortilla in half and place in microwave for 1 minute, let cool and eat. Simple and easy and delicious too.

Happy Eating!!!

Sloppy Joe's

We had sloppy Joe's on Friday night and I went the simple route. I absolutely love Pioneer Woman's Sloppy Joe recipe, but didn't want to go all out. Therefore the simple route it was, hamburger with manwich, a half of an onion chopped and a green pepper, diced, served on whole wheat buns with fresh fruit and yummy oven fries. Simple and yummy for the whole family to enjoy.

Marinated Pork Loin

We had this yummy dish earlier this week, its got a great flavor and is extremely moist. We served it with baked potatoes and green beans. This is one meal that EVERYONE enjoyed.

Marinated Pork Loin:

1/2 C. chicken broth
1/2 C. ketchup
2 T. cider vinegar
2 T. brown sugar
2 T. Worcestershire sauce
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/8 t. cayenne pepper
2 lb pork loin roast

Mix all but the pork loin in a medium sauce pan over medium high heat until it comes to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

Slice pork loin into 1 inch thick pieces. Place pork loin in a large ziplock baggie. Remove about 1/2 C. of the marinade from the pan and reserve it for later. Pour the rest of the marinade over the pork and let it marinade in the refrigerator for about 8 hours or overnight.

Place pork on a broiling pan and broil 4 inches from broiler for about 20 minutes or until juices run clear, turning half way through. While broiling, use your reserved marinade to baste the pork loin.

Happy Eating!

Menu Plan 2/9- 2/15

Wednesday 2/9: Chicken Burritos
Thursday: 2/10: Winco Pizza
Friday 2/11: Steak Quessidilla's and rice
Saturday2/12: out
Sunday 2/13: Sloppy Joe's and french fries
Monday 2/14: Heart shaped calzones with salad and chocolate salted cupcakes for dessert
Tuesday 2/15: linguini with "Olive Garden" Alfredo sauce, grilled chicken and broccoli

There you go, its our simple easy week of meals!

Happy Eating:


I will post the marinated pork loin recipe from last week tomorrow night

Chicken Burritos in the Crockpot

YUM! I love these easy burritos and so does my whole family. This is a super great meal for when I wake up and realize I didn't thaw the meat the night before, whoops! I am really good at that. We started making these about a year ago, I combined a recipe I found online called Salsa Chicken and a friends Burrito recipe. I haven't tried this with any meat other than chicken, but the chicken is fab. It makes enough to feed our family with leftovers.

3 large chicken breasts
1 packet taco seasoning ( or homemade, whatever you prefer)
1 jar salsa
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can refried beans
Mexican shredded cheese blend
large burrito shells

Put chicken in your crockpot (frozen or thawed) and sprinkle with taco seasoning, pour in salsa and cream of mushroom soup. Let cook on low 6-8 hours .

Remove chicken and shred it with fork. Now here you can go one of two ways, I will tell you the way I usually do it first. I spoon a little of the sauce from the crockpot into the bottom of a casserole dish. Next take your burrito shell and spoon some of the refried beans into it, top with chicken, Mexican cheese, and more of your salsa mixture. Roll up your burrito and place seam down and repeat with remaining burrito's you can make these as full as you like. It will just change the amount you make. Lastly spoon the rest of the salsa mixture over the top of your burritos and sprinkle with cheese.

The other way to do this would be to add the chicken back into your salsa mixture and spoon it into your burritos at the same time. And then top it with your salsa/ chicken mixture. The reason I don't usually do it this way is because I like to pour the salsa mixture alone on top, but you could also just reserve some for later too. Just do whatever floats your boat.

Bake covered at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes until completely heated through.

Top with sour cream, or more salsa and enjoy!

Happy Eating!

Pork chops

These pork chops were gobbled up by my family. They are simple to make and very yummy. We ate them with Kraft homestyle mac and cheese and corn.

I found the recipe on allrecipes and tweaked it a little for our family

Pork chops:

1 - 1 1/2 C. crushed butter cracker
1/2- 1 tsp garlic powder (depending on taste, I use 1 tsp)
black pepper
2 eggs, beaten
4 pork chops
3 T. butter

Combine crackers, garlic powder, and black pepper in a medium size bowl. Beat eggs in a small bowl. Dip pork chops in egg and then coat with garlic powder mixture. Place pork chops in a baking dish and place pats of butter on and around pork chops.

Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes, covered, turning after 20 minutes. Then cook another 5 minutes on broil, uncovered.

Chicken Nachos

Last Thursday while at Costco they had a sample recipe, we tried it, we liked it and I was debating going with my traditional 7 layer bean dip or going with something new. The something new won!

So our menu for tonight includes Lil' Smokies I posted this recipe for last years Super Bowl, Tyson BBQ wings, and quesadilla anytizers (only because I got a smoking deal), veggie tray, and chicken nachos only it will be more like a dip.

Chicken Nachos:
1 large can chicken
1 can refried beans
1 C. salsa
tortilla chips
mexican cheese, shredded

Preheat skillet, drain chicken and empty into skillet. Add refried beans, and salsa, mix together in skillet stirring constantly, until mixture is warmed through.

Serve with chips and cheese.

I am also serving with chopped roma tomato, sliced olives and green onions since I already had them on hand for my 7 layer dip.

Hope everyone has a fun Appetizer Super Bowl Sunday.

Happy Eating!

Apple Cranberry French Toast

Okay this will be my last meal from $5 dinners for awhile, promise, but oh my goodness this one is a keeper. I would not change a thing. This is a GREAT breakfast for dinner meal. The whole family enjoyed this, I will admit my oldest was not a huge fan, but she doesn't like french toast, which is a whole other story in itself. Our dinner conversation went something like do you like toast? yes. apples? yes. craisins? yes. sugar? yes. butter? yes. eggs? kind of. So why do you not like french toast? I don't know. So yes I am at a loss, but I will continue to feed it to her at least once a month anyways. So now back to the recipe.

AWESOME. You. Must. Try. It. Now.

Apple Cranberry French Toast:

Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
3 apples – peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup dried cranberries
1 French Loaf, cut into 1 inch slices
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Favorite fruit: bananas, cantaloupe, berries or Fruit Salad
6-8 slices bacon

Directions
1. In a large bowl, mix together brown sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix in melted butter or margarine. Stir in chopped apples and dried cranberries until evenly coated. Pour into prepared pan.

2.Arrange french loaf slices in an even layer over apples.

3.In same bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Pour over bread, making sure every slice is fully soaked. Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate over night.

3. Preheat over to 375 degrees. Remove dish from refrigerator while the over is heating. Bake covered for 40 minutes. Remove cover, and bake 5 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

4. Prepare your favorite fruit or turkey bacon.

I did try another french toast casserole that rocked but was really sweet for Christmas morning. I will post that recipe sometime in the near future.

Happy Eating!

Bacon Florentine Pasta:

Another recipe I got from $5 Dinners. I tweaked it a little, I honestly did not love it, but I will try it again doing things a little differently. I will post how I made it tonight and what I plan to do differently next time.

Florentine Pasta with Bacon (her recipe was for chicken and bacon I just doubled the bacon):

1 lb. pasta noodles, I used farfalle
8 slices turkey bacon, chopped
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 box frozen spinach
basil, oregano, thyme, I used about 1/2 t. each
1/2 c. sour cream thinned with milk.

1. boil pasta.
2. while pasta is boiling prepare bacon and spinach
3. Drain pasta and combine all other ingredients.

Voila, enjoy.

Now for what I would do next time. I'd either make this with 2 c. diced chicken and 4 slices REAL bacon (we usually eat turkey bacon, but I felt this needed more umph) or just 8 slices of bacon. I would double the tomatoes and lastly forgo the thinned sour cream. I think the sour cream calmed the flavors, I would probably toss it in olive oil instead as she suggests. Next time I make it I will post how I like the changes.

Mexican Mess Up (AKA taco salad)

My husband is not a lover of homemade taco's or taco salads but had no complaints about this salad. I got this recipe from $5 dollar dinners and halved it to the following. It fed my family of 3 1/2 with leftovers for my hubby to take to work and for me for lunch the next day. I grew up eating taco salads pretty much just like this minus the pinto beans and tomato sauce so I thought I'd give it a try. I liked the added tomato sauce.

Taco Salads.

1 lb ground beef
1 onion, diced
taco seasoning
1 (15 oz) can pinto beans
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
shredded lettuce
shredded cheese
tortilla chips
assorted toppings, tomatoes, olives, sour cream, salsa, ranch, etc.

1. Brown your beef and onion and taco seasoning.
2. Add drained pinto beans and tomato sauce and let simmer about 15 minutes.
3. Spoon meat mixture over chips, top with shredded lettuce and cheese and any other toppings you so desire.

Do to our menu switch up...

I did not post our menu and things have been slightly kooky with our menu .

So here is our menu plan for the week

On Tuesday 2/1: we had a super simple stir fry to simple for a recipe. Cooked chicken on the stove and let simmer in sweet and sour sauce. Cooked a bag of frozen stir fry veggies and combines with sauce and chicken and served over brown rice. Simple, easy and yummy too.

Wednesday 2/2: we had Taco Salads recipe in next post.
Thursday 2/3: Bacon Florentine Pasta (recipe to post on Friday, with the changes I will make next time).
Friday 2/4: Apple Cranberry French Toast
Saturday 2/5: out
Sunday 2/6: Super Bowl Sunday! Appetizer night! Lil' Smokies, Tyson wings (great deal with coupons), Tyson Anytizers quessidilla's (again great deal with coupons; I would normally make these), Veggie tray with dip, seven layer bean dip and chips or chicken nachos I haven't decided yet. I also have not decided on a dessert. I have linked to the Lil' Smokies recipe and the others will follow on Saturday.
Monday 2/7: Pork Chops, mac and cheese and veggies (recipe to follow)
Tuesday 2/8: Chicken Burritos
Wednesday 2/9: Marinated pork roast, mashed potatoes and green beans.

Okay. Happy Eating and I'll post all recipes the night before if they are not already linked.