October 11, 2013

We are a family of runners.  I can say that now...my daughter is running for her middle school team and just this week they won the conference and are off to sectionals tomorrow.  My son joined the running club at his elementary school and is registered to run a 5k with the group in November.  My youngest wears Saucony as his primary shoes and thinks they help him run very fast.  I ran my first marathon on Sunday.  But now, I am so excited to say - my husband has joined the team!!!  He bought his first pair of running shoes, and we are entered to run a Thanksgiving 5k together!  Our youngest will cheer from the sidewalk, but 4 of us will be running together.  Needless to say, I am pumped!

In addition to all the running going on in our house this week there was some cooking.  Only one dish earned keeper status, but better one than none in my book.  We eat a lot of chicken, and so I did some experimenting this week with what was in my fridge.  Green onions, mushrooms, homemade chicken stock.  I saw a recipe with similar ingredients, but it also had cheese and lightly breaded the chicken.  I modified the original recipe quite a bit but what ended up on the table one evening this week was really tasty!  Of course the real hit of dinner that night was the roasted cauliflower.  Made one and a half heads for us, and it was still all gone in a blink of an eye!

Not sure what recipes will be tested this week but hopefully we'll find a few keepers.    Happy cooking!

New Recipes
Chicken with Mushrooms and Green Onions

Chicken with Mushrooms and Green Onions

Ingredients
* 1 lb chicken breasts, sliced or pounded thin
* 2 tbs butter, divided
* 1 tbs olive oil
* 2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
* 1 cup chicken broth
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1/2 cup sliced green onions

Directions
1. In a large skillet brown the chicken on both sides in 1 tbs butter and the olive oil over medium high heat.  Transfer the chicken to a greased 11 x 17 baking dish.
2. In the same skillet, add the remaining butter and saute the mushrooms until tender.  Add the chicken broth, green onions, and salt & pepper.  Bring to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes. Spoon the sauce over the chicken.
3. Cook the chicken in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes or until cooked through.  Serve and enjoy!

Notes
We had this with salad and roasted cauliflower, but you could serve it with rice or noodles because the sauce would be very good over a side dish.  The chicken took on the flavor of the mushrooms and green onions, and we thought it was very tasty!

October 4, 2013

I suppose we should just get this out of the way...no new keepers this week.  But to be honest, there was only one new recipe we tried this week.  It was a cookie recipe, and the kids liked them, but they didn't stay soft very long so I don't plan on making them again.  As a result, they didn't earn keeper status.

My classes  were busy this week, and we had lots of sporting events and practices.  As I sat down to create the meal plan on Sunday I found my pen writing down easy dinners like tacos, hurry up ham, spaghetti and meatballs, salmon.  I knew we had a lot going on during the week, but also the marathon is on Sunday!  With a hectic week, and an epic run planned for Sunday I clearly didn't have the heart to waiver too much from food I knew and was easy to get on the table.  We will see what next week holds for our household - hopefully there will be a few new recipes.

Cheers for a good weekend, and happy cooking!

September 27, 2013

You will notice a trend this week in those recipes that earned the title keeper.  All three (yes, three this week!) have a similar flavor profile, and in addition all were time savers when it came to putting dinner together.  2 of the keepers are slow cooker dishes, and the other is a quick stove top skillet meal. Between school classes, soccer practices, cross country meets, and everything else, having dinner either going in the crock pot or easy to toss together was a life saver in the evenings.  Looks like this pace is going to keep up well into October, so don't be surprised if there are more slow cooker meals coming your way!

New Recipes
Slow Cooker Lime Chicken Tacos
Weeknight Beef Skillet
Slow Cooker Fiesta Cheese Chicken

Slow Cooker Lime Chicken Tacos

Ingredients
* 1 - 1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken
* juice of 2 limes (about 1/3 cup)
* 1 tbso chili powder
* 1 cup frozen corn
* 1 cup chunky salsa
* flour tortillas, lettuce, shredded cheese, tomatoes, sour cream - typical taco fixins'

Directions
1. Place the chicken in a 3 qt slow cooker. Combine the lime juice and chili powder, and pour over the chicken.  Cover and cook on low 5-6 hours.
2. Remove the chicken and shred.  Return shredded chicken to the slow cooker.  Stir in salsa and corn.  Set slow cooker on low for 30 additional minutes.  Once everything is heated through serve with tortillas and taco toppings!

Notes
I had strips of chicken, so I only needed about 3.5-4 hours.  But the chicken didn't shred quite as easily so next time I will leave use whole pieces.  I don't have a 3 qt slow cooker, so I put a round Corningware bowl inside the slow cooker, and used that as the cooking vessel.  It worked out great!!!

Weeknight Beef Skillet

Ingredients
* 3 cups uncooked egg noodles
* 1 lb ground beef
* 1 medium pepper, diced (your choice of color)
* 8 oz frozen peas, thawed and drained
* 8 oz frozen corn, thawed and drained
* (2) 8z cans tomato sauce
* 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
* 1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
* 2 tsp sugar
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

Directions
1. Cook the noodles according to the package directions.
2. While the noodles cook, cook the meat and peppers in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until the meat is cooked through.  Drain if needed.
3. Stir in the veggies and everything else except the parsley.  Cook and stir until well combined and hot.
4. Drain the noodles and combine with the meat sauce. Stir in the parsley and serve.

Notes
Gotta love a quick one pot meal!  A step above "hamburger helper" but the same sort of idea.  This is very easy to toss together.  You can substitute one 15 oz can of tomato sauce if you had that on hand, and feel free to add 2 cups of frozen mixed veggies if you don't want to do separate corn and peas.  Everyone loved this, and we had a little bit of leftovers which heated up well later in the week.

Slow Cooker Fiesta Cheese Chicken

Ingredients
* 1 lb of boneless skinless chicken cut into chunks
* 3 medium peppers, diced (your choice of colors)
* 1 can condensed Fiesta Cheese soup, undiluted
* 1/2 cup chunky salsa
* 1 tbs chili powder
* hot cooked rice

Directions
1. In a 3 qt slow cooker, combine all the ingredients.  Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours.
2. Stir, and serve with rice.

Notes
My slow cooker was too big, but I put all the ingredients in a smaller Corningware dish that fit into my slow cooker so that I could make this dinner.  That worked like a charm.  We all really enjoyed this and will definitely be making it again.  It isn't an all day-long cooking crock pot meal, but if in the late morning you are home and have lots going on in the afternoon this just might fit your needs!  I put it on at noon and we ate around 5:45.  We served it with brown rice and it was a hit.