Chop Salad-Cumin Vinaigrette

Meal 2 from the pork chops is this yummy salad. You can really make any kind of salad you want with whatever it is you put in salad, the best part of this is the delicious dressing. This has a wonderful variety of flavors that is a fun ride for your palette! YUM!

Salad ingredients:

Leftover P90X pork chops

Spinach leaves

cabbage or regular lettuce

orange pieces

red pepper

tomatoes

Calls for raisins but I did not use them because Dennis is not a fan, you could also use craisins maybe?

Directions:

Chop, peel, dice and toss into a salad.

Cumin Vinaigrette (taken from P90X recipe book):

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. lime juice

1/2 Tbs. orange juice

1/2 Tbs. Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp. cumin powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

1 Tbs. olive oil

Directions:

Whisk all ingredients together until emulsified.

p90x Pork Chops

(Maybe this looks greasy, but it's the glaze you put on it)

A few months ago Dennis and I tried to do the diet and full P90X workout. We didn't make it the full 90 days but we did find a couple of really good recipes from the experience. This is one of them:

Ingredients:
16 oz. pork chops (the little medalion ones)
1/2 tsp. salt
14 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. olive oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 Tbsp. fresh garlic minced
1/2 tsp. Tabasco sauce

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Stir together salt through cinnamon spices to make a rub, coat chops on both sides with the rub. Heat oil in skillet over mod. high heat and brown tenderloins, turning about 4 minutes.
Stir together brown sugar, garlic, and Tabasco. Place chops in oven pan pat sugar mixture onto chops. Cook about 20 minutes.

Serve with rice or mashed potatoes.

This is SUPER flavorful and really tasty with the combo of spicey and sweet.

(You'll like this one mom!)

Poor Man's Macaroni

This recipe is again from my friend Amity who got it from her mother in-law that had 12 children!!! So I call this Poor Man's Macaroni because with 12 kids there is no way they could have been anything else!!! Plus the ingredients in this recipe are perfect for the poor man's budget. This recipe may sound wierd to some, I questioned if it would be good or not but I was desperate for something super fast and super easy so of course I called my friend and this is what she suggested, in my desperation I gave it a try and was pleasantly surpised how yummy it was.
I also don't have a picture because I didn't make this this week, but thought I would put it on here if anyone was in need of something fast easy and out of the pantry!!!

(Mom, I know you wouldn't like this but maybe you will have a good suggestion to spice this one up!!!)

Ingredients:
1 box elbow macaroni
1 can tomato sauce (the small can)
cheddar cheese (as much as you like, I use about a cup to a cup and a half)

Directions:
Cook macaroni as directed, add sauce, add cheese stir and serve.

Again, it may sound yuck to some, but Dennis and I both really liked it and Ian and Cadey both will eat this. I keep some noodles sauce and cheese free for Will, so he will eat and Viv almost never eats dinner any way so most of us are happy for this meal. I am also picky about leftovers and this one does reheat pretty well.

Next time I make it I will add a photo!

On the Menu 3/29-4/4

Monday: P90x Pork Chops (freezer)
Tuesday: Pork chop salad (double meal, leftover new meal)
Wednesday: Taco Soup (fast, easy pantry dinner)
Thursday: IT'S MY BIRTHDAY, so hopefully OUT to dinner!!!
Friday: Breakfast (fast, easy)
Saturday:Chicken Cordon Blue (freezer)

I am hoping this will be an easy week. One of my favorite and best time savers is to use leftovers for a whole new meal. I am using this idea this week with the pork chops and using leftovers to make a salad with it the next night. Another idea for this is to make a pot roast and use left overs to make tacos or enchiladas. It makes leftovers a little more fun and appetizing!!

Taco Tidbits

We had tacos last night and I think most people know how to make tacos. Two things I do that may be a little different is that
1: I always use morning star farms veggie meat crumbles. I usually don't tell people until they have eaten and praised the food to tell them. It is funny to watch their faces and then see them finish enjoying their meal. It really is good. I only use it for mexican and chili dishes though and find it gross in spaghetti sauce.
2: While on Guam my friend Nicole introduced me to adding diced cucumbers as one of my taco fillings. It is really tasty and now we always have that with our tacos.

Does anyone have any other fun taco tidbits?

Super Food Super YUMMY!

Awhile back our friends came over for dinner. They offered to bring a side dish to contribute to the meal. When they came over my friend had a big bowl of what looked like big green beans. She said they were called Edamame (ed-a-mom-may). Quickly she added that you don't eat the shells, you pod them and eat the beans inside. They were so good, they have since become a favorite food at our house. Cadey and Ian LOVE these. Ian thinks they are fun and enjoys popping them from the shell. He won't eat them if we do it for him!! Funny.

I get mine in bulk in the frozen section at Costco. They come in little individual steam bags. You steam for a few minutes then sprinkle with salt (I use sea salt). You can also steam them with salted water. I go for ease though and just pop the little bag in my microwave and voila a healthy side dish!

The other day one of my moms gave me a Flexitarian (post to come) cook book that many of the recipes call for and use edamame. I found it funny how just until recently I had never even heard of it and now it was popping up all over the place. The reason why it is so prevalent in this particular cook book is because Edamame is a soy bean and packed full of protien super power! This is great for those of us that don't eat a lot of meat!

A general look at edamame can be found at this sight.

Nutritional information can be found here if you are interested.

Manicotti

Dennis made this dish during our freezer cooking day and it turned out really well. We just got the recipe online from allrecipes.com. I was surprised to find out you don't cook the noodles. It made sense because stuffing these shells would be super hard once cooked!!
One thing we changed in this recipe was we did not add water to the sauce and added a can of petite diced tomatoes with juices instead.

To cook from frozen:
Pop in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about an hour and a half. Our's got just slightly over cooked on the top, next time I might cover with foil the last 15 minutes or so.

We also divided this recipe into two smaller freezer containers and it was perfect because we still have enough left for about 3-4 more servings even in the smaller pan. (NOT ONE KID EVEN TOUCHED THIS!!! Seriously, I think the food I provide is quite tasty and they just are not interested. Is this normal??)

Side note:
One thing I have found with freezer cooking is you need a bit longer cook time. So you save time in prep., but you do need to be home to put it in the oven.

On the Menu 3/22-3/29

This week I am embarrassed to admit I have spent most of our grocery money!! We will have to be frugal with our eating out (I have been taking the kids to Burger King A LOT for lunch, I know I am so LAZY!) as well as with my couponing and grocery spending. Luckily we have a ton of freezer food left and a good stock of pantry food, so that will be determining much of my menu this week and next. Here it is for now:

Monday: Manicotti (frozen)

Tuesday: Tacos

Wednesday: P90X Porkchops (frozen)

Thursday: Freezer Sandwiches

Friday: Breakfast

Saturday: Spaghetti

Desserts:

Brownies (from a box, I don't do Brownies from scratch)

Freezer cookies

Any one have a great recipe from pantry ingredients for my next week menu??

Not Scotchies, How about Deluxe Rice Krispy Treats?

My friend Krista made these for me what seems like a million years ago on Guam and they were super tasty. I had never had anything but the marshmallow version and these are definitely no marshmallow treat! These are a peanutty chocolate delight! YUM!

Deluxe Rice Krispies or Peanut butter Rice Krispy treats

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Karo syrup

1 cup sugar

1 cup peanut butter

6 cups Rice Krispies

12 oz. chocolate chips

6 oz. butterscotch chips

DIRECTIONS:

Bring Karo syrup and sugar to boil. Cook until sugar is dissolved (happens pretty fast). Take off heat and add peanut butter. Mix well. Add Rice Krispies. Press into greased 9x13 pan. Melt chocolate chips and butterscotch chips on LOW heat stirring continuously. Pour and spread over Krispies. Let cool before cutting and serving.

Problem:

One issue I did have was my butterscotch chips did not melt as easy as my chocolate chips did. Any suggestions?

Handy tip for the day:

One thing my grandma taught me was to get out all of your ingredients before starting to prepare your recipe. It ensures you have everything before you start (It would not be fun to get started and realize you forgot to buy the Rice Krispies!). This is also handy for a recipe like this. The ingredients cook quickly and it makes it easier to having everything out and ready and even measured before you start. That way nothing burns and makes the recipe go smoother and stress free.

Breakfast for Dinner: Pancakes!

Very often we have a breakfast style dinner. Breakfast is just so yummy and there are lots of fast and easy breakfast meals so that fits perfect with my schedule and way of cooking. Last night we had our breakfast dinner and made pancakes. I use a buttermilk pancake recipe from my trusty 12th Edition Better Homes and Gardens cook book. The one thing I change is that I mix my regular flour with wheat flour. I find especially with pancakes it makes them taste a little bit more hearty and I feel like I am being a little more healthy as well. Here is the recipe I use:

(by the way this only makes about 10 pancakes, my kids actually eat these so I usually make a double batch)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 beaten egg

1 cup buttermilk or sour milk

2 Tablespoon cooking oil

Combine dry ingredients and make a well in the center, set aside. Combine eggs, buttermilk and oil in small bowl. Add egg mixture to flour mixture. Stir until moistened.

Pour 1/4 cup batter onto greased, heated griddle pan.

** If you don't have buttermilk, add 1 Tablespoon lemon juice to milk and let curdle while you combine other ingredients. The rule is 1 Tablespoon lemon juice per 1 cup milk.

Alfredo Sauce

So, I had planned to do spinach fettuchini Alfredo in honor of St. Patty's day, but I could not find spinach fettuchini at the commissary. SO, I went with tri-color rotini to get a little green in there. I had also considered making my own rolls and adding food coloring to make them green, but forgot and ended up using Pillsbury french bread loaf. So much for festivity, but at least we ate a nice meal!!

I used a recipe for the Alfredo from cooks.com it turned out surprisingly tasty. I didn't want to make a real fatty dinner so I thought I would see if I could make it with milk rather than heavy cream. I found this little recipe and at first I thought it would be too runny, but I let it bubble and then sit for a few minutes and it thickened right up.

I also used the dry Parmesan cheese rather than the fresh which did make it a little grainy. Next time, I want to try it with fresh Parmesan and see how that works. Really though, I thought it tasted way yummy and ate the kids left overs minus Cadey's who ate hers and minus Will's who just ate his with butter and Parmesan.

On the Menu 3/15-3/21

This week we are eating all of our left overs!!! We have so many I don't know what to do! I know if my kids actually ate, I would complain that we didn't have enough to eat. Still, I would rather them eat than not eat, I don't know how they are growing!! Anyway, nothing too new or exciting this week but if your curious here is our menu!

Monday: Lasagna
Tuesday: Chicken Turmeric
Wednesday: Happy St. Patty's Day: Spinach Fettuchini Alfredo
Thursday: Pork Salad
Friday: Pizza (frozen)
Saturday: Breakfast

Desserts: Cookies, left over bday ice-cream (cake is already gone!!) and scotchies!!

Barbie Princess Cake

For Cadey's birthday I decided to make a Barbie Princess Cake. It turned out really well and I was very happy. Cadey really could have cared less, but I think most people were pretty impressed with my skills. What's funny is that it was super easy, really anyone could do it. I went online and found a YouTube video of how to do this. I knew I was going to use my Pampered Chef large batter bowl but that was the extent of my knowledge. This video was awesome, I would have just jammed the Barbie down the center of the cake and it would have most likely turned out a mess! Luckily, I found out a few helpful hints and the cake turned out great!

I used two Pillsbury cake mixes and bought cake decorating frosting and those were big time savers and helped out a lot. I don't think I would attempt this cake again without the decorator frosting it was a lot easier to work with than my usual cream cheese version. I also bought the sugar flowers already made and that added a fun touch I thought.

For the rest of my how to's to make this cake, really just watch the video it is pretty much exactly what I did. And really, anyone can do this!!!

Amity's Pork Salad

My friend Amity has a radar or something because every time I am about to feed my family cereal for dinner she calls and says, "I have extra dinner do you want some?" One of these meals she brought over was her Pork Salad. Dennis, Cadey (my one child that eats!) and I ate it and thought it was one of the best things we had ever put in our mouths!!! SOOO YUMMY! We served it last night for Cadey's birthday dinner.

Ingredients:

1 3-4 lb. pork loin

1 cup brown sugar

I cup salsa

Tortillas

Lettuce

1 can black beans

Rice (about 2 1/2 servings)

chopped tomatoes (3-4)

chopped onion (about 1/2)

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

Dressing:

1 1/3 cup sour cream

1 1/3 cup mayonnaise

1 packet ranch dressing

1 bunch cilantro

lime juice

4 Tbs. Salsa Verde

1/8 tsp. Tabasco sauce

Directions:

We sered our pork loin on the stove with salt and pepper and then put in the crock pot on low for about 6-8 hours. However, you can just put it directly into your crock pot and it still cooks up nice.

When pork is cooked thoroughly, shred and add salsa and brown sugar.

While that is cooking make your toppings.

Pico de gallo: combine your chopped tomatoes, chopped onions and cilantro.

Dressing: Combine all dressing ingredients in a blender and blend.

Rice: In your water add lime juice and some cilantro, cook as directed. After cooked, mix in your black beans.

Salad is assembled on your tortilla and can be eaten as a burrito.

Stuffed Potatoes

So I didn't quite meet my goal. Wednesday night I gave in and we ordered Pizza. Brandi's Chicken will have to wait until next week. I also didn't post a recipe for spaghetti because I figure not many people need a basic spaghetti recipe. I just make mine from a can!
Tonight we had stuffed potatoes and I forgot to take a picture before we ate, oops! We have two more in the freezer so when we cook those I will add a photo. For now here is the recipe. I got this one from a cookbook from the library that I photocopied some pages from. I liked this book because it had recipes for "2 fer meals" (make one night and use left overs for something yummy the next night), freezer meals and easy meals. However, I don't have the title of the book! I will try to find it at the library again and add it to the post. Anyway, short recipe long, here it is:

Stuffed Potatoes:

Ingredients:
6 medium sized baking potatoes
Oil
kosher salt
1/2 cup softened cream cheese
1/4 cup softened butter
1/3 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
6 cooked bacon slices cooled and crumbled
2 green onions chopped
salt and pepper to taste.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Poke potatoes for baking. Coat potatoes with oil. (I just use my hands and rub it all over). In a large zip lock bag add salt and one potato at a time and get a good flavoring of salt on the potatoes. (This makes the skin taste super good and is something I do now with regular baked potatoes).
Bake un-covered for 1 hour or until tender. Let cool.

Cut a wide strip of skin off top of potatoes and throw away the skin. Scoop out inside into a large bowl leaving shells in tact. Mash pulp, cream cheese, butter and milk with a masher, stir in cheese and other ingredients. Spoon mixture into shells.

Wrap with foil; freeze in large zip lock bag up to 1 month.

To cook from frozen:
preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove desired amount of potatoes from bag bake for about 1 hour.

To cook from fresh:
Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.


I normally served these at the main dish with a salad but could be used as a tasty side dish with a steak or other meat if your into the carnivore thing.

Chicken Turmeric

I put this on the menu this week because I had left over coconut milk from my cake last week. This recipe is also from my Guamanian Recipe cook book. This is a very savory dish and is neon yellow from the turmeric. Dennis is a fan of spice so he really enjoys this one. I served it with stuffed zucchini, which was the first time I had tried that and they turned out pretty yummy as well. Enjoy.




Ingredients:

1 Tbs. cooking oil
3-4 breasts of chicken cut into small pieces (I always cook mine ahead of time in the oven and then cut it up)
1 onion, chopped
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. lemon juice
3 tsp. turmeric powder
1 cup coconut milk

Directions:

Saute onion and chicken in oil over medium heat. Add seasonings. Simmer over low heat until chicken is cooked through (if you didn't cook ahead of time). Add milk and remove from heat to serve. Serve over rice.

Stuffed Zucchini
(Taken from 12th Edition Better Homes and Gardens)


Ingredients:
6 zuchinni
1 slightly beaten egg
1 1/2 cups soft bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely shredded cheddar cheese or Parmesean cheese (2 oz.)
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 Tbs. parsely
salt and pepper to taste


Cut ends of zucchini and then cut them lengthwise in half. Steam for about 10 minutes (until tender). Allow a few minutes to cool. Scoop out pulp leaving a zucchini shell. Chop 2 cups worth of pulp, stir in all other ingredients minus 1/4 cup of the cheese. Fill shells with mixture. Place in shallow baking pan.


Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with reaming cheese. Bake for 5 to 10 minutes or until heated through.

Chicken Enchiladas

I had planned on making chicken turmeric tonight but even an easy meal seemed too much for me today, so pulled out a freezer meal. I am loving that I have that option! If I just don't feel like cooking, I don't have to, I just go to my freezer!!

I had been worried about how these would turn out because the recipe contains sour cream and a cream soup and I didn't know how well it would freeze and re-heat. But they turned out as tasty as ever! This is really the best enchilada recipe I have used. Super GOOD! I just served with rice, because I haven't been to the store yet this week and well like I said before I was feeling lazy.

This recipe is taken from allrecipes.com called Angela's Awesome Enchiladas. I don't know who Angela is, but these are for sure awesome!! I just changed a few minor things like I use canned chicken instead of cooking mine and shredding it myself, but you could easily do that in the crock pot with some mexically type seasonings.

Ingredients:
2 cans chunk chicken

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 1/4 cups sour cream

1/4 tsp. chili powder

1 Tbs. butter

1 small onion chopped

1 4 oz. can green chilies

1 package taco seasoning

1 bunch green onions (divided)

1 tsp. lime juice

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

5 tortillas (I only use the uncooked Costco kind)

3 cups (or more if you like) shredded cheddar cheese (divided)

1 can enchilada sauce

1 can sliced black olives

DIRECTIONS:

In a saucepan combine soup, sour cream and chili powder. Simmer over low heat and stir occasionally. Turn off and cover to keep warm.

Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion and saute until onions are translucent. Add chicken and break it apart to be shredded, add green chilies, taco seasoning, half the green onions and water. Simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in lime juice, onion and garlic powder and simmer 10 more minutes.

Meanwhile cook up tortillas if you are using the uncooked type.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir in 1 cup of the soup mixture with the chicken. Spread remaining soup on bottom of large baking dish.

Fill tortillas with chicken mixture, top with cheddar cheese and fold tortillas. Place seam-side down in prepared pan. When all tortillas are filled, top with enchilada sauce, remaining cheese, remaining green onions and some olives.

Bake until heated through and is bubbly; about 25 minutes.

*Bake about an hour if you made this a frozen meal.

*I always have a lot of filling left over (enough for about another 1/2 pan) but you will need more soup mixture, more cheese and more enchilada sauce. When we made this on freezer day we had this left over and so I made the small 1/2 pan size for dinner that night however I didn't have any more soup to make more for the bottom layer so I just omitted that and used extra enchilada sauce. This was also very good.

On the Menu: 3/8-3/14

This week will be busy. I have two appointments, Dennis has two scouting activities, we are having a new couch delivered, I have a 19 mile run and it's Cadey's birthday!

We'll see how it goes. I have great hopes I will be able to create healthy and yummy meals and not succumb to ordering out or picking up a pizza this week!

Monday: Turmeric Chicken (easy)
Tuesday: Chicken Enchiladas (freezer)
Wednesday: Cafe Rio/Brandi's Chicken (easy)
Thursday: Spaghetti (easy)
Friday: Stuffed Potatoes (freezer)
Saturday: Amity's pork salad (easy)

Dessert: Birthday Cake (not easy but necessary/I am making the "Barbie Doll" cake!)
Dessert: Cookies (freezer)

This week I am going to try seperate posts for each recipe. Let me know which way you all like best. Right now I am just experimenting with how to do this.

Banana Bread

We always have bananas in our house and I for one am pretty picky about the ripeness of my bananas, unripe bananas leave a weird bitter feeling in your mouth and over ripe bananas are too mushy and become in my opinion plain nasty. Often we do not eat a full bunch before they get too mushy for me (I need to remember my kids don't eat and only buy enough for Dennis and myself, but still I keep hoping. . . Cadey does eat bananas and Ian and Viv will eat a bite or two, Will absolutely will not. So it is hard for me to know how many to buy). I feel bad throwing them out all the time so I try to use them for baking. One of the most obvious uses is to make banana bread. This is considered a quick bread, but for me it has taken awhile (and I even mess up still) to figure out the best cooking method. Banana bread is really dense and if you are shy the littlest bit on your cooking time many times you will cut in and the center will not be cooked. Don't be shy about leaving in your bread the correct amount of time. If it looks like the top is getting too done, cover with foil (dull side up) the last little bit of cooking. The recipe I use is from the 12th edition Better Homes and Gardens Cook book. I think most people have a recipe for banana bread so unless someone wants me to post mine, it's really just an idea for what to do with your over ripe bananas!!

Brandi's Chicken

Several months ago we went to dinner at Dennis' brother and sister-in-law's house for dinner. My sister-in-law Brandi made the best dinner ever. It is a version of a meal from Cafe Rio if you are familiar and it is so yummy. Whenever I make it I call it Brandi's chicken. She has posted that recipe along with the dressing for it (you make a salad/burrito) on her blog, so I thought I would direct you all there so you can enjoy this delectable dinner as well. It has a super star rating for great taste and super easy!!! My kind of meal!!