Orange BBQ Chicken, Crockpot style

I love being able to throw a couple ingredients in the crockpot and let it cook for a while. And just like that, dinner is created with little effort on my part. Could this apply to other areas of my life?! Kidding.

Found a recipe on Pinterest and decided to make it. I've made it a few times now and it is a hit. Hubby loves some BBQ so it is an instant  hit in this house.

About 4-6 good size chicken breasts, left whole

1/2 a jar of Orange Marmalade (18 oz jar)

1/2 bottle Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce (18 oz bottle ) {I'm sure any other brand will do}

2-4 tablespoons soy sauce

Some seasoning to taste (I used an all purpose seasoning)

Spray the crockpot pan generously with non-stick spray. I've found it helps so much with clean up the more you spray! (Tip: Coconut oil works well with no coconut taste) Place chicken in and cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-7 hours. Remove any excess liquid that is produced. Make sauce mix in another bowl and to chicken, while shredding chicken. Allow to cook on low for another 30-45 minutes. Add more sauce mix if you like a more saucy meal.

After making this nearly half a dozen times already in the past 2 months, it is a hit and super easy. 

Crescent Roll Pan Pizza {recipe}

What to do when you want pizza but just can't find time to wait around for a yeast crust to rise? Use refrigerated Crescent rolls!

A last minute decision to make pizza meant I had to use what I had on hand. This worked perfectly! In the can of 8 rolls, I used 6 here as the crust forming as solid a crust as possible with very few 'holes'. The other 2 rolls of dough? I put strawberry jelly in and rolled and baked. Desert!

What's it take?

1 can crescent rolls, only 6 needed here 
1 round cake pan
pizza/spaghetti sauce
shredded mozzarella cheese
chopped bell peppers
chopped zucchini
sliced, grilled chicken
cooked Italian sausage

I used some left over grilled chicken and left over Italian sausage. Great way to use left overs! I had some chopped peppers and zucchini and threw those on. Preheat the oven to 350. Spray pan with non-stick spray. Cover bottom as best as you can with crescent rolls. Layer pizza sauce, cheese, sausage, chicken, veggies, more cheese. Bake for 15-17 min (or what the crescent roll package says). Perfect crust!

What an easy dinner!

Not Lasagna Stuffed Shells {Recipe}

I made a last minute roster change-up and didn't make lasagna last night. Instead, stuffed shells. I don't think anyone was disappointed. I know I certainly wasn't!

So how did I make this?

What ya need:

1lb ground meat (I used hot italian sausage, highly recommend!)
1/2 - full jar of marinara sauce of choice
Garlic salt to taste
Italian seasonings to taste
About 20 large shells, cooked.
8-10 oz ricotta cheese
1/4 - 1/2 cup frozen spinach (or fresh)

I cooked the meat the night before, thinking I was going to make lasagna. Last minute change of plans! You can add more spaghetti sauce if you like, and change the amount of spinach depending on how much you like or don't like spinach. I used close to 1/2 cup I'd guess and it wasn't a huge "spinach" flavor, but I like spinach.

Cook shells and rinse in cold water. Spray large casserole dish with non-stick spray. Pre-heat oven to 350°F. Mix ricotta and spinach in a bowl. Mix meat and spaghetti sauce in another bowl. Fill each shell with about 1 tablespoon of ricotta-spinach mix and then about 1 tablespoon of meat-sauce mix. You can overfill or under fill, however you want your shells! I used too much ricotta mix so a few shells only had meat-sauce. Still just as yummy. I layered some marinara in the bottom of the casserole dish and set all the filled shells in the dish, then layered some more sauce on top. Just to keep things..saucy! Put dish in oven for about 25-30 minutes. I don't like my stuffed shells 'crispy' so I lean towards the shorter bake time. This was a pretty easy dish and took maybe 15 min prep time, not counting cooking the noodles/shells. Most of this can be done ahead of time.

Give it a try! Essentially the same ingredients in lasagna, minus the cheese. Cheese could easily be added to this, that is more cheese aside from the ricotta. I used the garlic salt and italian seasonings for the meat.

Garlic bread goes with everything. Just so ya know...

If you  make this, let me know how it turns out! What did you do differently?

Pizza Bites

After making turkey chili last night for dinner, decided I wasn't full enough. I mean, I did run more than 3 miles on saturday, so it was ok, right?

Came up with these little pizza bite things, as I was envisioning pizza rolls back in my high school days. Man were those good!

Pizza Bites from IG

I had some chocolate milk to go along with it. Made sense, right?

Pizza Bites

1 can biscuits (8 count)

Pepperoni slices (used 16, would use more like 32)

Shredded Pepper Jack Cheese (all I had, about 1/2 cup)

Spaghetti Sauce (about 1/2 cup)

Garlic salt to taste

In a muffin pan, spray 8 openings. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take out each biscuit, and roll flat, until it is about 3-4 inches in diameter. The bigger, the more room you have to stuff it! Place rolled out biscuits in muffin tin, sprayed with non-stick. The order I added the ingredients: Pepperoni slices (2 each roll), cheese (about 1 tablespoon per roll), sauce (about 1-2 tablespoons per roll). The dough will puff up so next time I'd double the amount of pepperoni. 

The sauce was fine, even burst out a little while cooking but still was enough to be moist. Add more or less of what you want. Pineapple or black olives would be good! I sprinkled garlic salt on top so it was a "garlic-bread" type. After you fill the rolls, pinch to close and flip over so the opening is on the bottom of the muffin tin. Sprinkle garlic salt on top. Bake for 13-15 minutes. 

These were perfect for a post-dinner snack. Ha!

Happy Monday!

Get your vegetable on!

Gotta get those veggies in somehow. I am pretty easy to eat my veggies. Now having a little one around, I'm doing everything I can to instill healthy eating and exploring new foods. So far, he's done great. 

Another great recipe that I found here and tried and the boys loved it! So much that I have no idea how many I made because they were eating them straight out of the oven. Luckily, I was able to grab a few for myself. These are great and a great finger food for toddlers. Woah, I have a toddler now.

Baked Zucchini Sticks (Original recipe here from SkinnyTaste) 

3 medium zucchini, sliced into sticks (3"x1/2". Mine were too skinny!)
1 large egg white
1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs (I used basil, oregano, garlic powder)
2 tablespoon parmesan cheese (I added more)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
cooking spray
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put egg white in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. In another bowl, or zip lock bag, place breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. Dip sticks into egg whites then into breadcrumbs and place on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Lightly spray sticks while on the cookie sheet. Cook in oven for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Serve with marinara sauce to dip in. WOW! These are great and a great way to get your veggies in!

Kid-Friendly, Dad-Approved Dinner

In an effort to be prepared for dinner time ahead of time with these two boys that I live with, I've come up with and found various recipes that help me do just that.

Thanks to various blogs, websites and cookbooks I can continue to find new and exciting things to eat and feed these hungry guys. I never realized how simple Chicken Nuggets were. I find myself saying while making these "Chickens don't have nuggets".

Easy Chicken Nuggets (Original recipe here from Weelicious)

1 lb chicken breast, cut into chunks (I've also used ground turkey too)
1/4 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs 
1 tablespoon parmesan cheese grated
**2 tablespoons Wheat Germ (my own addition)

I have sub'd in ground turkey for the chicken and it did not taste any different. I've made these both ways before. I tend to add a little more parmesan cheese and I also added in some dried basil and oregano, about the same measurements as the parsley, to taste.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a food processor, combine chicken (or turkey), oats, parsley, garlic and onion powder and salt. Mix until meat is chopped and everything is mixed. 

Place bread crumbs and parmesan in a shallow bowl or dish, add in wheat germ. There is no taste difference. Keeps the nuggets crisp and just adds to crumb texture. Healthy addition! Form meat into small nuggets, about the size of your palm, but really as big or small as you wish. I would recommend keeping all nuggets about the same size, they will cook more evenly. Place nuggets in bread crumb mixture to coat.

Place nuggets on a cooling rack, on top of foil covered cookie sheet. Lightly spray nuggets with cooking spray (I use olive oil spray). Cook in oven for 15-18 minutes, and serve! These are also great as left overs in the fridge and warmed up the next night. Yum!

Huh, still blurry. Bummer.

These also work well if you want to freeze them. Just stop before cooking them. Freeze them on a pan and then transfer to a zip lock bag. When ready to cook, just pop them out of the freezer and onto a baking sheet with the cooling rack and spray with cooking spray. Cook for 18-20 minutes

Chicken Pesto Pizza

Did you think I forgot how to cook or how to post food & recipes? Nope! I just don't post often. I'm still cooking.

While looking through The Pioneer Woman's cookbook for dinner ideas I came across her Pesto recipe and Pizza dough. I absolutely love Pesto but never have basil and always want to make my own. This meant a trip to the grocery store!

Chicken Pesto Pizza

Pesto sauce (recipe below)
Chicken, about 1 lb, grilled & shredded
Cheddar cheese, about 1-1 1/2 cups shredded
Pizza dough (recipe below)
Oregano (to taste)
Basil (to taste)
Garlic salt (to taste)

Pesto Sauce (taken from The Pioneer Woman's cookbook: Food From My Frontier)

3/4 cup fresh basil
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons pine nuts
2 garlic cloves, peeled
salt & pepper
1/3 cup EVOO (olive oil)

Place basil, parmesan, pine nuts, whole garlic cloves and salt and pepper to food processor. Put lit on and begin to blend. Adding EVOO as you go. Add enough so the pesto is a sauce and not so thick. Set aside or put in the fridge for a day or so. Can also be frozen in cubes to be used later!


Next, make the pizza dough...which can also be stored in the fridge for a few days.

Pizza Dough (Also taken from The Pioneer Woman's cookbook: Food From My Frontier)

1 scant teaspoon active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil

First combine yeast and warm water in a small bowl. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Add flour to the bowl of a mixer, using paddle attachment. Sprinkle in the salt. Turn the mixer on and add olive oil. Finally, pour in the yeast water mix. Stop mixing when it becomes sticky. Allow dough to rise for about an hour before using. If storing in fridge, take out and allow to rise for about an hour before using

Before cooking

And after cooking

Once you have the dough and the pesto, and the chicken is cooked and the cheese is shredded, heat oven to 350 degrees. I lined a cookie sheet with foil so it wouldn't stick. Roll out pizza dough and lay on the cookie sheet. Cover with pesto sauce. Next, sprinkle cheese around. Then, add chicken. I sprinkled with oregano, basil and garlic salt. Baked in the oven for 15-18 minutes. If you want a crispier crust, bake a little longer.

This was delish! I made the pesto and dough a day ahead of time, so that saved time. All I had to do was grill the chicken and shred the cheese while the dough was rising. Good to make a head of time! There were no leftovers :)

Bacon with a side of Salad

Another food post, lucky you! Trying to take more pictures of what I've been cooking. I'll get there slowly but surely.


This recipe is part idea from a friend and part made-it-up with what sounded good and what I had. Very easy, light, cool, salad (read good for you) and bacon (ok, not that great for you)


Bacon with a side of Salad


half a head of romain lettuce, rough chopped (or lettuce of your liking)
about 1 1/2 cups miracle whip mayonnaise
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 a cucumber, sliced 
2 packages raw ramen noodles, broken up
about half a pound of bacon, cooked and chopped

Put chopped lettuce in a bowl. In a side bowl, mix miracle whip and sugar. Taste, if you want, and see if it needs more sugar. It shouldn't be super sweet, but you should be able to taste a subtle difference rather than just the normal miracle whip. Add broken up ramen noodles to lettuce, and sliced cucumber. Next, when you are ready to serve, add miracle whip dressing on salad, turn lettuce mixture over trying to coat everything. Don't "toss" too much. Add bacon at last. You can add onion if you want, I think that was in the recipe I found but I'm not a raw onion kind of person. 

This is pretty good the next day, though the crunchy ramen noodles are no longer crunchy, but still good. 

Turkey Burger & 50 Miles (day 22 & 23)

Daily progress on the Juneathon challenge. If you want to know more about the challenge, check out the Juneathon page.


Day 22:


Type: Run (outside!!)
Duration: 12 min
Distance: 0.92 miles
Calories: 112
Juneathon total: 49.36 miles


Day 23: 


Type: Run (outside!!)
Duration: 17 min
Distance: 1.22 miles
Calories: 120
Juneathon total: 50.58 miles


Slowly getting there, at least I've reached the 50 mile mark! 


Running outside is pretty difficult. For me especially since I work inside an office all day so I'm not exactly used to being outside in this heat so much, but I'm trying. 

Not too shabby progress since the end of May. Mileage keeps going up each week. I really enjoy mixing up my workouts. Running, Elliptical, Biking. And I always do crunches, push ups and lunges each day, even though I don't always log it/talk about it. I always try to make time for those and am finding ways to squeeze them in, even during making dinner! I'll do lunges in the kitchen while waiting for water to boil, or something else that's cool.

Another healthy thing, here's what we had for dinner last night. Food & exercise in one post!

Homemade Turkey Chipotle Burgers

2 lbs ground turkey

about 10 saltine crackers, smashed up good

3 chipotle peppers, diced w/adobo sauce

about 1 teaspoon garlic salt

about 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

3 green onions, diced

Mix all ingredients in a bowl & grill. I used our George Foreman grill inside. Perfect! Took about 5-8 min each side. I left the seeds in the chipotle peppers and found it had a slight spice/flavor to it but by no means was it spicy. Topped my burger with Chipotle Mayo and spinach. Light, healthy, easy dinner. The 2 lbs came out to 6 patties.

I've never made turkey burgers before so this was an on-the-fly recipe. Turned out great! Love that chipotle flavor!

Enjoy your weekend!

Mexican Food is Back

As promised from this post, I'm giving you some food to stare at and recipes to go try out yourself. 


Pork Fajitas


It's been too long since we've had any Mexican food in this house, so I saw we bring some in! And, I don't make fajitas nearly enough, but come on, this is the simplest meal there is! I never know what else is in fajitas, so its pretty simple here.

Ingredients:


3/4 lb thin sliced pork chops, sliced into strips
taco seasoning (or if you're weird like me make your own, below)
3 bell peppers, your choice of color (2 red, 1 green for me)
tortillas (or leave these out if you're going no carb)


Slice up, julienne style, bell peppers and set aside. Season meat and let sit in the fridge for at least an hour, longer is better. I let mine sit for about 2 hours, overnight would work too. When ready, cook meat until 90% cooked through and add bell peppers. Finish cooking, so peppers are soft but not soggy, or cook to your liking.


Super easy, and easy to get things prepped ahead of time. This made enough for 2 people, or 1 person for lunch & dinner. 


Taco Seasoning (make do with what ya got)


Chili Powder
Cumin
Garlic salt
Salt & Pepper


Season to taste. The main ingredients are Cumin and Chili Powder, at least that I taste/can think of. 

Staple Food--Fried Rice

I'll take one order of this please. 

That's Pork Fried Rice, as promised from this post talking about a bunch of good food. Remember?

Fried Rice has become a staple for us. It has been a while since I've made some, but it is so easy and when you love rice like we do, its a great go-to meal. I personally love steamed white or brown rice, but fried rice is also good too.

Pork Fried Rice

2 cups steamed white or brown rice, cooled

1/2 to 1 cup frozen peas (or veggie of your choice)

1/2 lb pork, sliced into strips (think stir fry)

2 eggs

Soy Sauce

Hot sauce (I use Siracha)

Marinade pork in soy sauce (about 3 tablespoons, or whatever "looks" like enough) for at least 1 hour. I did mine overnight. Steam rice and set aside to cool. I let mine cool overnight in the fridge. Easier this way! Cook pork in a pan until cooked through. Add eggs and scramble. Next, add in rice while heat is still on medium high. Poor soy sauce over, covering rice until most of the top is covered. It really is up to you how much you like soy sauce or how strongly flavored you want. I go for a medium flavor. Toss rice in the pan and cook for a few minutes to get the flavor and things mixed up. Next, add in some frozen peas. Cook for another few minutes to "thaw" out peas and get them warm. 

This is great warmed up the next day for lunch. Add in hot sauce to your liking. This works as a side dish or a whole meal itself. This made enough for a good size bowl for both of us with left overs for each of us for lunch the next day. This can be halved too. 

World Traveler via The Kitchen

I was able to get in the kitchen this weekend and crank out some meals for this week, especially helpful since I will be working overnights. Welcome zombie shifts!


Here is what you have to look forward to for recipes to come:


Pork Fajitas
Sloppy Joe's
Pork Fried Rice
Greek-Jamaican Chicken
BBQ Chicken


Sense a bit of world travel there? I covered almost all the basic continents! Prepping things ahead of time can help so much and make it that much easier to cook a meal in little time. I'm all about time management  since my work and family life schedule are pretty crazy at times.

So here's to a week of great food! Still working the Juneathon and going strong!

Potstickers Return

As I sit here with a cat on my lap who wants to cuddle, and its pre-6am on a day off, I must write. Gotta get this out and send it off. Not that I didn't try to go back to bed. But it seems that little Bean sleeps better while I'm awake??? At least this morning he is. Poor guy is teething and is doing so well. The last couple nights have been a bit rough though. Good thing I have today off. I hear a nap calling my name in the VERY near future.

Something came over me to make these. I hadn't made them in a while and it sounded good. While easy to prepare and cook/bake, it takes a while and thus as soon as they come out of the oven someone is bound to grab a few. 

Instead of steaming these like I have in the past, I baked them at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes each. Just to make sure the meat inside is cooked through.

Ingredients:

1 package wonton wrappers (or egg roll wrappers if you want bigger ones)

1 1/2 lbs ground meat (I used half turkey, half pork sausage)

1-2 tablespoons Soy Sauce to taste

Hot sauce, to taste if preferred

green onions, optional

Mix all ingredients in a bowl (except the won ton wrappers of course). Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with foil. Makes for easier clean up! Won ton wrappers: You will need a small bowl of water, this is your glue. Lay out a wrapper and put meat filling in the middle. You will see how little it takes to fill these. About an over sized spoon full. Of course, fill it fuller if you wish to have it bursting at the seams. Dip your finger in the water and run along edge of wrapper. Bring sides up to meet together and it will form a "peak" of sorts when closed. Really, all you need is to close the thing, so however you want to "design" it, go for it.

Bake for about 15 minutes and take out. Wa-la! I like to dip mine in a soy sauce - hot sauce dip. Siracha hot sauce to be exact.

Enjoy!

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Whipped these up the other night to use up the bell peppers before they went bad. Wow!!
Ingredients:
3 bell peppers--I used green and 3, but had enough stuffing for more
1 lb ground meat--I used spicy pork sausage, and I recommend it!
1 box of stuffing--I used chicken flavored
Slice tops off bell peppers and de-seed. Cook meat until brown and make stuffing according to the package. Pre-heat oven to 350°. Place peppers in casserole dish and stuff with sausage and stuffing. Cook in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until peppers are soft/cooked.
A pretty quick meal and such great flavor! Since I only had 3 bell peppers I had a lot of filling left over, which was great by itself!
And by the way, publishing tthis from my phone to give it a try.

Back in the kitchen

Yes, you read that right. I've been trying to cook some more here and there, when I can. Multi-tasking is a whole new thing when you have a little person to take care of. Hoping my scatter-brained-ness calms down a bit and I can come up with some things to cook up. Definitely planning meals ahead will be key to being able to manage multiple things at once.

Here's last night's dinner:

Taco Salad (or a version of one)

1 lb ground meat (I used beef)
Cumin
Chili Powder
Salt & Pepper
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 can corn, drained
1 can Rotel
1 small can green chilies
chopped lettuce
chips (tortilla, fritos, etc)
shredded cheese (optional)

Brown meat until cooked. Add in black beans, corn, Rotel and green chilies. Season meat to liking. I used enough to my taste, but didn't measure it, oops! Put the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl and serve. Yum! Kind of a quick & easy meal. Just threw together what I had available. Would also be good with tortillas, or made up like a burrito.

{Homemade} Chicken-Broccoli Bake

I've had broccoli for a while (or been eating it off and on for a while) and wanted to make something with it. So I came up with this dish by what I had in the kitchen. Man was this good! I made a side of cornbread which went great with this! I must say that EVERYTHING that I made was homemade from scratch. That is right, nothing was out of a box. Except the noodles in the chicken bake dish.

Chicken Broccoli Bake with Cornbread

6 chicken tenders (or chicken breasts, however much you want or have)
2 cans cream of chicken soup (small)
2 cans of water (from the soup can)
1 head of broccoli, chopped
1 medium can diced green chilies
1/2 box or pound of elbow noodles, whole wheat (you can use whatever noodles you want)
salt and pepper to taste
garlic salt to taste

Preheat oven to 375 F. The chicken tenders I used were frozen, so I took those out at the very end and topped them on the rest just before putting in the oven. First, open the cans of soup and empty in a 9x13 inch casserole dish. I used just under 2 cans of water, mix this in. Next, add green chilies. These were not spicy at all, but gave it a great flavor! Mix in the chopped broccoli. Again, add more if you want/have it. Next, I added the noodles, uncooked. The added water will help cook these through. Last, add chicken, raw. I suppose you could pre-cook the chicken and it would be fine. But this worked out just fine for me, and I checked to make sure the chicken was cooked through. Salt, pepper and garlic salt to season the chicken to taste. I didn't use much of any seasoning. I mixed the noodles down just under the surface of the liquids to help cook the noodles, and pushed down the chicken so it would help cook them too. Put in the oven for 50-60 minutes. I checked at 45 minutes and turned the chicken over to make sure it cooked thurough.

This turned out perfect! Seriously, the broccoli with the green chilies and soup mixture had such a great flavor, and the added noodles gave it some more filling. Of course the chicken was good too!

On to the Cornbread.

1 cup flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter
**bonus: 2 tablespoons honey

Preheat oven to 400 F. Combine all the dry ingredients. Combine the egg, sour cream, milk and butter and stir into the dry ingredients. I didn't use an electric mixer, it was pretty simple to mix with very little effort. Add in honey at last, and by all means add a bit more if you like. I noticed that the 2  tablespoons I added didn't quite give it the "honey" flavor once baked, but you could tell it was there. Pour batter into a greased 8x8 inch baking dish. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Ta-da!

This whole meal was GREAT. While it took a little time to make, a little longer than some of the dishes I've made, it was worth it. Really tasted like a great home cooked meal. And the left overs? Won't last long...as we're having this for lunch today as I speak.

Happy Weekend!

Tuna Noodle Casserole...with a twist!

With some inspiration to make this dish more than just tuna and noodles, comes this version of Tuna Noodle Casserole. This was great and added so much more flavor to the dish than just tuna with noodles. Give it a try and add your own "stuff" to make it your own!

Tuna Noodle Casserole

1 lb of rotini noodles (or whatever your noodle of choice is)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 stalks of celery diced up
2 quarter inch thick slices of onion diced up (add more onion if you like, I am not a huge fan)
2 cans tuna, drained
1/3 -1/2 cup bread crumbs for topping

Cook noodles, and drain of water. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour noodles into a large bowl. Add both soups, diced celery, onion and tuna and mix together. Pour into large casserole dish. I used two round pans since I didn't have a large casserole dish clean. Put in oven for 10-20 minutes or until bread crumbs on top are crispy to your liking.

Optional: add cheese to top to let melt/crisp up in oven, add in peas or other vegetable.

This was great and added so much more to the meal than just tuna with noodles. Definitely a good combo!

Dinner @ Dewey's Italian Bistro

I know it's been a while since I've posted a cooking/food post. I've been busy with work and being pregnant has kind of taken my motivation for taking pictures of my cooking and creating new dishes away. I still have been cooking and making some pretty good dishes, I might add, but just haven't had the motivation to post about them. My bad!

Anyway, here's to last Tuesday night's dinner (again, evey intention of posting this LAST week, geez). Ah-may-zing. First off, we all know how much I love pasta. That's a given. I decided to make meatballs. From scratch. I remember watching an episode of Giada at Home on Foodnetwork where she added Parmesan to her noodles and Rachael Ray where she made meatballs and added mozzarella cheese to the middle, so I took that inspiration to make these meatballs with Parmesan cheese. YUM!!

I used fettuccine noodles, a bottled creamy tomato vodka sauce and sage pork sausage for the base. 

I used 1 lb of pork sage sausage for the meatballs. Added about a cup of dried bread crumbs (any kind will do, I used italian seasoned), and about 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese, and a good sprinkle of garlic salt. I was able to make 18 meatballs out of just 1 lb, though the breadcrumbs do help to add consistency. I baked them on a cookie sheet, covered with EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) at 400 F degrees for about 15 minutes. I cut one open to check doneness.

Next, I just cooked the noodles regular and simmered a creamy tomato vodka sauce, out of the bottle. I know, not very creative there, but the meatballs were really my main focus for the meal. Hang with me a second.

After the meatballs were done, I added them to the sauce and let simmer a few more minutes. While this wasn't a difficult dish to make, it had been a long time since we'd had meatballs with spaghetii. Overall, a great and mostly simple dish to make.

Happy Pasta Eating!

On the Menu: What's for dinner?

Ok everyone I need some advice, suggestions and ideas. Please send all of them my way. I'm looking to make a bunch of food to have in the freezer so when its 115 degrees out this summer and I'm as big as a cow (pregnant) and don't feel like cooking I can pop something out of the freezer and into the oven/microwave to eat. This will also help once baby comes and I don't have the time to cook up something amazing.

{Image found here}

I've only come up with a few, very few, ideas and want to know what others think or like. What goes good being frozen and then heated back up?

In the meantime, I'll be back in the kitchen cooking up some yummy food ideas. One bonus to being pregnant, because there are quite a few bonuses, is being hungry ALL THE TIME and almost EVERYTHING sounds good to eat. Nothing too weird over here for me.

Any suggestions or challenges anyone has for me to cook will also be gladly taken into consideration (meaning if I can do it or not!).


Happy Eating and thank you for your ideas!

And since I found this over on my friend Amy's blog, I thought I'd join in since it's Friday and all :)

Quinoa pronounced {Keen-Wah}

Another great dish that was SUPER easy. This could easily be made for 1 or 2 people, and was GREAT as a left over for lunch the next day.

2 cups quinoa
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained
1/2 can garbanzo beans (add more if you like)
about 1/4 cucumber diced
1 1/2 cups beef broth (can use water instead but the beef broth gives the quinoa a great flavor)
Italian sausage (optional, if you want a side of meat)

What I'd add next time:
More garbanzo beans
Broccoli
Bell Pepper
Diced Tomato

Cook the quinoa according to box, basically just like rice, but using beef broth instead of water. I use my rice cooker and it's easy. Get the rest of the ingredients ready. I decided to throw in some cooked, sliced italian sausage because I know Josh likes to have meat with most meals and it was a great flavor addition to the veggie quinoa. This is an easy dish to make and like I said great as a leftover.

This would be a great side dish if you're having a larger meal too.