more new rachael ray recipes and its a comfort food dinner night

Tonight was a 2 RR recipe night from the new Rachael Ray cookbook:  Spring Chicken cure a cold Soup (page 90) and  Marsala Burgers (pg 190).  I didn't have all the ingredients for these recipes (of course) but used what I had and both turned out delish!  I added sauted green beans (cuz I had them) and baked some banana bread to end with a sweet note. 

I chose the soup recipe since I roasted a chicken for dinner last night, and had some chicken left over.  Didn't feel like having chicken as the entree, so soup it is!  I usually don't have burgers but I had some marsala wine in the fridge and wanted to use it up.  Saw the recipe in RR's cookbook so thought It was another way to use up the marsala wine,, besides making chicken marsala.  Never would have thought of that one but it really made the burger taste abit fancier.

a tasket a tisket, yes its a brisket

So tonight's dinner is Brisket!!  I LOVE this dinner because it is a great crockpot meal.  The crockpot does all the work and we enjoy all the pleasure.  Basically brisket is an inexpensive cut of meat, which translates it has to be hermetically sealed in a pot in order to cook properly.  And thus, I believe that is why a crock pot works so great.  Leave it in the morning and when you come home at night, your house smells amazing the brisket will fall apart and practically melt in your mouth.  I like to use a rub with it and liquid smoke so it has a bbq/smokey flavor.  Alittle on the unusual side, but delish!!  Can be served as a sandwich or as is. 

more from the new rachael ray cookbook

Last night I tried her three-bean pasta e fagioli (page 39) and didn't think it was so good.  Not a whole lot of flavor and I thought it would be enough food for dinner, but after I made it I realized it was more like a hearty soup.  So, I had to quickly see what I had on hand to add to it to make it a meal.  Luckily, I had tilapia!!  So I made my favorite tilapia dish (melt flavored garlic butter then add panko bread crumbs, salt and pepper.  Take off burner then add parmesan cheese, then pat this mixture on the fish and then bake at 400 degrees for 13 minutes) but changed it up abit: made it into wraps with a fresh salsa drizzled on it.  YUM!!!

Tonight is yet another Rachael Ray recipe.  It is actually in the morning but I made it already---I am waiting for a lame-o UPS delivery...3rd attempt...so I'm making good use of my waiting time! HA!  Anyway, I made the chinese orange-barbeque cashew chicken (page 102).  I tasted it, and while it didn't taste real bbq-ish, it did have a good taste!  But then again, it's 9:30 in the morning so I'm not sure if my taste buds are fully awake.

New Cookbook=New Dinners

So I just got the new Rachael Ray cookbook: Rachael Ray's Look and Cook and have to say it has so many recipes I want to try I can't wait for dinner!!!!  If there are a few recipes I want to make in a cookbook, I consider it a good book, but I must had earmarked at least 20 in this new cookbook!! A real winner in my eyes.  I made two this week:

--Turkey Chili Shepherd's Pie with a sweet potatoe topper (page 19

---Spinach-Artichoke stuffed shells (page 115)

Loved them both!!!



If you buy something already pre-marinated, is that cheating?

So yesterday I went to Trader Joe's.  That is my #2 happy place, right under Weggies!!!  So I decided to buy Trader Joe's herbed and marinated lamb chops.  I never tried them so I decided that now was the time!  I made them tonight and WOW they were yummy! My favorite husband (and only one at that!) commented that I should have bought two racks for the 3 of us.  I will take that as a compliment and will absolutely buy them again.  It's a very easy dinner (shhhhh,don't tell your family though) but looks very complicated.  I also made baked rice (same as stove top rice but bake in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes) and roasted cubed butternut squash with thyme and goat cheese.  Very good meal and very easy!   Everything baked in the oven while I caught up on laundry.  My kind of meal.  I would rather have the oven do all the work than me standing over the stove.

Sunday Sup

So we got back from a fabulous weekend at PSU!!!  Had a great time visiting with our favorite daughter, cheering on our favorite college football team, and tailgating with my daughters favorite friends!!!  WOW :) 

So while I was feeling alittle tired when we got home, I was craving a delish and healthy dinner.  So, here's what I came up with:  Mexican chicken soup (it was very cold and wanted some soup for tonight and also to have some for the rest of the week.  Also wanted to try out this version of chicken soup to test it to see if my favorite daughter would like it, for when she comes home over Thanksgiving break and....it's a winner!!!)  What makes it mexican????  I know I just read your mind.  haha  Well, it has a chopped up jalapeno pepper in it, tomato puree,cumin and coriander seed.  That really changes up the flavor.

Mexican chicken soup with cheese on top

I also made chicken piccato, roasted potatoes and nuked some frozen corn as a last thought.  I know,everything is light color.  tuff-o, it's still a look!

Love those Leftovers!!!

So last night, I made a turkey breast (slathered  with garlic butter..yummmm!!!!  Love those flavored butters :) )  So, I had quite abit left over.  I decided to make a pot of turkey chili.  The weather  is getting a nip in the air, which is perfect-o for chili!!!  I really liked this recipe because I'm not a fan of ground turkey.  I simply cut up, in small bite size pieces, my turkey breast that was left over from the night before.  Here's my recipe, in case you want to use your left-over turkey, perhaps from Thanksgiving!!  And incase you were wondering, no my favorite son did not eat this.  Instead I saved some of the turkey and he ate it in the slice form.

Turkey Chili

1 Tblspoon olive oil
1 bell pepper, any color, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper,seeded and chopped
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 pounds diced left over turkey meat
2 Tablespoons chili powder
1 Tablespoon cumin
2 Teaspoons cayenne pepper sauce
any other vegies you have as leftovers (I used roasted cauliflower and corn)
1 28 ounce tomatoe puree (I prefer anything with San Marzano tomatoes)
2 cups chicken stock
kosher salt to taste
----

Heat a large pot and add oil.  Add the peppers and cook for 5 minutes, until soft.  Add the bay leafand then rest of ingredients.  Bring to a boil then let it simmer for about 30 minutes.  It will thicken the longer you simmer it so you may need to add more stock.

comfort food with a healthy twist

So it's Friday night, TGIF!  We made it through another week.  Let's re-evaluate how it went, dinner-wise.  I would have to say pretty good.  Here was my basic menu:
Sunday: chicken with brocoli and twice baked potatoes
Monday: tilapia with white beans and rosemary
Tuesday: tacos
Wednesday: pot roast in the slow cooker with cous cous
Thursday: shrimp with left over cous cous from Wed. and roasted vegies
Friday: beef barley soup (with beef left over from Wed.) and salmon.
Wow, when I review, I see that Wed was a great left-over potential dinner night. 

Goals for next week: make a meal with beans (you know what they are good for!haha)
                                have another great LOP meal (left-over potential)

Flavor Flavor everywhere!

Boy do I love those flavored butters and oils!  They are packed with flavors that you don't have to do anything to achieve!  No extra chopping,cutting or anything!  Tonight"s dinner is white beans with zucchini, sauted on a flavored oil that has garlic and rosemary in it.  How good does that sound?  I decided to add beans to this dish cuz I think I should be eating more beans.  HAHA and, I had some in the cupboard, of course...since I have a well stocked cupboard!  I am also making tilapia with a garlic herbed butter!  Easy and sooo flavorful!

I would have taken a pix but my camera sucks and is more frustrating to use.  So until I figure out what's going on with that, no pix.  This meal happens to be a fav cuz it is so easy, doesn't take long (when you bake tilapia, it only takes 13 minutes at a 400 degree oven!  Whoohoo!!) and believe it or not, my favorite son, who happens to be a picky eater, will actually eat this fish.  It doesn't get any better than that!

Back in business

 I haven't posted in a very long time.  It hasn't been because I haven't been cooking!  Oh the opposite!!  In fact, I have been so busy cooking that I didn't have enough time to blog.  Well, not so much cooking but baking.

  We did a master tailgate at PSU with favorite daughter, Lauren, at PSU...THE tailgate college.  I made so many cookies and chicken wings I stopped counting. 

Tailgating

Tailgating

 Then, the next week I was invited to a party and asked to make the desserts.  (hmmm, it just occurred to me: was I invited JUST to make the desserts???)  Anyway, back to dinner.  It still comes around, everyday, regardless of other activities!  Here is a delish dinner I made that is super easy and soo good.   It's a new recipe and actually got rave reviews from my family.  It will definitely be incorporated into "the rotation"!  And I always have the ingredients: lemons, olive oil, garlic and white wine! 

lemon/garlic chicken with parmesan crusted potatoes and garlic brocolli

Chinese Chicken

So I have a decent amount of vegies, so I decided to make a stir fry.   I experimented with Roasted Red Chile Paste, which has been taking up space in my refrigerator but can't remember the last time I used it.  And I gotta say, I am going to use it again...and soon!  It's great!  Has alittle kick to it!  I just added a few Tablespoons of it, once my stir fry was done.  And then I added about a 1/2 cup of chicken stock to it and it actually tastes "professional" haha...like what you would get in a chinese restaurant.  I'm sure they wouldn't want people to know how easy it is!

chicken stir fry with roasted red chili sauce

Sunday round up

So, before I talk about what I had for dinner, let's do a review on how well I did with dinners last week.  The bad news is I didn't make enough chicken to have my left-overs later in the week.  But yaa! the dinner was so yummy we ate it all...Well the good news is: I only went to the grocery store one time this past week!  Now that deserves a round of applause!!!  How many times do you go to the grocery store a week?  I rarely only go once. 


So I think I'm gonna try a weekly plan, again.  We shall evaluate it next week.
Sunday: Sloppy Joes and soup (see pix--it was a self serve night!)
Monday: Kenny out so I'll have the soup and will make an easy kid food dinner for Sam
Tuesday: Chicken
Wed: Pasta
Thursday: Left overs
Friday: Fish

self serve: soup, sauteed garlic spinach and sloppy joe fixins

Lauren's Chicken

So I am sticking to my food plan I mapped out on Sunday!  I am very proud of  myself..haha.  So tonight I am making a chicken entree that happens to be one of my daughter's favorite dinners.  Now she is at PSU (a freshman) and I have been really really really missing her lately, so I decided to make her favorite dinner to make me feel like she is here, even tho she isn't.  A little wacky reasoning, but it helped.  Back to the food.  It is actually very easy, so shhhhh-don't tell her!  The secret is: use a crock pot, also known as a slow cooker.  Simply place boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the crock pot.  Salt and pepper them.  Then, pour your favorite marinara sauce over it, being sure to cover the chicken and having about 1/4 inch of liquid.  If you don't have enough sauce, then add some chicken stock.  Then put the lid on and slow cook on low for about 6 hours or put it on high for about 4 hours.  It is done when the chicken basically falls apart with a fork.  LOVE that soft texture.  Melts in your mouth! Then, just make pasta and serve together!  Be sure to make alot because you are going to want leftovers.

Sunday Sup

So on Sundays, I like to still keep it nice and easy for the dinner menu, but I do like to add a little more complicated dish...since I usually have alittle more time to prepare.  It is a beautiful day today so I wanted to grill outside.  Don't know how many more days I will feel like doing that.  I did look for corn on the cob in the foodstore and sadly, there wasn't any.  I guess it's good bye for the corn season.  So, tonight's meal is: grilled steak, sauted asparagus and tasty potatoes (my "complicated dish")  The potatoes came out delish!  I just boiled small yukon gold potatoes for about 40 minutes, then, on a plate, I smashed them lightly with a fork.  Then, I sauted 2 garlic cloves and 1 Tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary, in a skillet that had some olive oil in it.  Then, salt and peppered those smashed potatoes and sauted them, both sides, in the pan with the yummy flavored oil.  When it got light brown I plated it and sprinkled some parmesan cheese over it. Rosemary and potatoes are a winning combo. I need to remember that!  Picture is below. 

I also decided to kind of map out my dinners for the rest of the week.  Now keep in mind, I have done my grocery shopping and I REFUSE to go again.  So, specifics will be determined based on what I have left.  But the outline is:
Monday-whatever night...Husband at Phillies game so I will make total kid food, like mac and cheese
Tuesdsay-chicken
Wed-pasta
Thursday-leftover using the chicken in another form to fool my family into thinking it isn't a leftover
Friday-fish

Tasty Potatoes with Rosemary

Guess the Dinner

Ok, so here's the game I play every night:  I look in the pantry/fridge/freezer and see what I have and try to come up with a yummy combination for dinner.  Here's tonight's ingredients:

                   chicken,black beans, peaches, jalepeno pepper, rice, tortilla shells 

Well, I don't know about you, but that spells chicken fajitas to me!!!
So, I made the fajitas, with sauted red peppers and onions on the side.  I invented my rice dish which I will definitely make again.  Here is the recipe:

FAJITA RICE
Brown Rice
Peach, cut up in small pieces
Jalepeno Pepper,diced
Lime Juice
Kosher Salt
Black Beans (canned)
Chipotle Pepper in Adobe Sauce
--------------------------------------
Make the brown rice (I actually used Trader Joe's frozen brown rice.   You nuke it for 3 minutes and it is perfect every time!  I always have a box in my freezer) and put in large bowl.  Toss in the peach, jalepeno pepper, 1/2 cup black beans, sprinkle of salt,one lime's worth of juice, and 2 Teaspoons of the adobe sauce.  I'm telling you--very tasty!!!  Ole!

Fajita Rice

Delish Turkey

Boy did I use an amazing shortcut tonight for dinner!  And it out-delished my imagination  :)  I went to Wegggies today (my pet name for Wegman's) and bought alot of possibilities.  So tonight I thought I would make a turkey breast.   But by the time I got home, blah blah blah, I didn't feel like looking for recipes,etc.  So I took a flavored butter I had---garlic herb--and slathered (LOVE THAT WORD) it all over the turkey skin and under it too.  I salt and peppered it then roasted it in the oven at 375 degrees for, oh about 1 hour and a few minutes.  Boy oh boy was it delish!  I made a gravy with chicken stock and I put a few teaspoons of the turkey juice from the roasting pan in with it.  SOOO easy and SOOO delish.  Sorry I keep saying the delish word.  But it was kind of like getting a sweater on sale and you actually like the sweater.  Get it?  It was so easy and it was actually...yes, delicious.  Sadly, I didn't take a pix.  I was so hurried to get it on the table I didn't have time.  Well I will certainly make this again (no surprise) and will be sure to snap a photo of it!

Freezer Dinner

I haven't been blogging the last week because I have been very busy with my family.  With the holidays and all, I have been cooking way over the normal weeknight menus so I didn't include them at all.  It was like having a Sunday night meal for 3 nights in a row!  So I needed to take a little break.  But, I'm back :)  And, now, school has started and that means after school activities have also started which in turn means I need to be running around from 4-7ish.  So, when we got home at 7:15 I really pulled tonight's dinner out of my a--...so to speak!  I found all the ingredients in my freezer and within 10 minutes, I had a very filling and satisfying dinner.   the menu:

--Salad (that was just a little extra since I had the lettuce)
--Trader Joe's frozen Quinoa with vegetable melange (found in the freezer and takes 7 minutes in the microwave)
--Cut up chicken sausage mixed into the quinoa (found in the freezer, defrosted in the microwave and cooked on the stove top for 7 minutes)

Trader Joe's to the rescue!

But at least we have the Broccoli

 One of my favorite shows EVER is The Next FoodNetwork Star.  The winner, this time around seemed to cook the best food with very interesting flavors.  So, when she won and started her own show, I couldn't wait to watch it and try one of her recipes.  Well that was what was for dinner tonight.  It was Aarti Party's "I ain't chicken chicken".  Well, I ain't liking it.  I made it because 1) I had all the ingredients (duhhhh!) and 2) the flavor combinations sounded yummy.  But I felt the dish fell flat.  Sorry Aarti, but at least we have the broccoli!
                                                  Orange Infused Broccoli

1 broccoli crown,chopped in small pieces

1 clove garlic, minced

1 Tbs olive oil
1/2 orange
handful of walnuts
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 pat butter
couple of "peels" of parmesan cheese
-----
Heat pan on medium heat.   Saute garlic in the olive oil and also toast the walnuts. Add broccoli and saute until slightly soft, about 3-5 minutes. Squeeze orange juice over broccoli.  Mix up plate the broccoli.  Add the chicken stock in pan until it boils.  Put 2 orange slices in the stock.  Add the butter and stir until melted.  Press down on the orange slices so bits of it will break off and incorporate in the sauce.  Pour over the brocccoli.  Use a peeler and peel a few shards of parmesan cheese for the topping.

Orange Infused Broccoli

Tomato Soup

Foodie Beth wrote a comment yesterday, asking what to do with all her summer tomatoes.  Wanted to share my answer and a pix she sent me!  I suggested Tomato-Basil soup to eat now (serve cold) and freeze extra for the winter (served warm with all your summer memories).  Here's the recipe:

3 Lbs tomatoes, cut in half

1/4 cup Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon freshly ground pepper
6 Garlic Cloves, minced
2 Tbs. butter
1/4 Tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
28 ounces tomatoe puree
4 Cups basil leaves
1 Teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 Quart Chicken Stock (never broth!)
____
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread on baking sheet and roast (about 1/2 hour). In stockpot, saute garlic with abit of olive oil, butter and red pepper flakes. Add puree, basil, thymeand stock. Add oven-roasted tomatoes, including any liquid on sheet pan. Brin to a boil and simmer for 40 minutes. Puree in a food processor or blender. Serve cold, in the summer and hot, in the winter.

Foodie Beth's Tomato Soup

salad and sandwich nite!

I think the sandwich is under-rated for dinner! Now mind you, I am not talking about peanut butter and jelly on white bread.  I'm talking PANINI!!!  Now that is a sandwich that is dinner worthy.  The panini can be as healthy as you want, use up any left-overs, and can be "tweeked" to each family member's taste. 

Tonight's dinner:   Grilled Cheese Panini and Fridge Salad

Fridge Salad-Whatever I have in the fridge (real original, huh?).  Tonight it is red leaf lettuce, chopped up with avocado, halved cherry tomatoes, shredded parmesan cheese all sprinkled with freshly ground black pepper and my vinegrette. 

The vinegrette-2 glugs (professional cooking term) of balsalmic vinegar, 1 glug (I'm watching my fat intake) of olive oil, 1/2 dollup (another professional cooking term) of dijon mustard, all whisked together.  YUMM but any salad dressing on hand is fine.

Grilled Cheese Panini-the secret is the bread!  Crusty and chewy (I used a Tuscany bread I had bought at the store) with slices of your favorite cheese.  Grill in a panini press,george foreman grill, or my absolute fav kitchen appliance: the cuisenart griddler.  Isn't my pix funny?  It looks like a tongue is sticking out at you.   That's the cheese,oozing out, waiting to meet YOUR tongue.  hahaha

Fridge Salad

Grilled Cheese Panini

                                    

Quick and Easy

So today I was running around with my son, getting my excercise on....playing tennis with him.  We were out and about and didn't have a whole lot of time to make an elaborate dinner.  So tonight I grilled steaks, baked sweet potatoe fries, micro-waved corn on the cob and...goofed around with making garlic bread.  Here's what I did with the garlic bread:  I combined room temperature garlic butter (already made which I bought at Whole Foods) with a dollup (yes, a dollup) of tomatoe paste.  I like to have the tube of tomatoe paste in the fridge so if I only want a little, it keeps and I don't feel like I waste any.  Anyhow, I mixed those two ingredients then spread it lightly, over sliced french bread.  I "grilled" them on my Cuisenart Griddler (which I LOVE!)  They were quite delicious.  The tomatoe paste added a nice little surprise to it.  Here's a pix:

Grilled Garlic Bread

chicken and shrimp stir fry

So last night, we had some take out (hey, it was Saturday night) from the chinese restaurant.  Yummy sushi, which of course we gobbled down right away...and some stir fry green beans, and a pu pu platter.  I love that word: pu pu. HAHA.  Well, we have lots of green beans left over, so I will be making a stirfry chicken and shrimp and use the left over beans and left over rice.  Easy shmeasy!