Run With The Fishes

Here’s what we plan on eating for the next couple of weeks. Menu is subject to change, purely based on whether I improvise something instead. We are throwing a birthday into the mix so I’m sure there will be another recipe for a cake sometime around… let’s just say August 5th.

Per usual, lunches are nothing fancy. Beanie Weanies, Mac & Cheese, Ramen Noodles, PB&J, and whatever leftovers we might have.

Dinners:
Ham & Cheese Frittata (Better Homes & Gardens, Best Ever Low-Cal Recipes, pg 17)
Chicken breasts w/ tomato basil and Gorgonzola & White wine sauce (as seen on Eating, Running, & Loving)
Chicken Lettuce Wraps version 2.0 (yes we liked them that much)
Tandori Chicken (Everyday Food, Feb 2005)
Spicy Three Bean Soup
Chicken Fajita Lettuce Wraps (Everyday Food, October 2004)
Sloppy Joes
Chicken Schnitzel (for the birthday dinner)
Fettuccini
Chicken Caesar Salad
Marinated Chicken & Naan Bread (I need to post this recipe, we have had it a few times now)
Chicken Enchilada Soup
Broccoli Salad
Falafel w/ Tzatziki (DK Children’s Cookbook)

If any of these sound good to you, let me know. Recipes are meant to be shared (unless they are top secret).

Here is another one for the Whip It Up weekly submission. Even without this challenge, this recipe would have made it up here. It is definitely one I will be making again.

Lettuce wraps are the perfect meal for the summer. They are light, cool, fairly easy to make, and mostly healthy. The first lettuce wraps we made were a success, and since we liked the idea of lettuce wraps, it was time to find a new one to add to our rotation. When I saw this one over at Two Fat Als, I knew I had to try it. It did not disappoint.

I (and consequently the kids) had never had fresh mango before. It’s not something that’s readily available growing up in the Midwest. When my children hear of anything that remotely resembles a word for fruit, their heads pop up, their eyes glaze over, and their mouths start watering. They act like they have never had a piece of fresh fruit in their lives. Mango, we’ve discovered, is tasty, but sticky.

Everyone really liked this wrap. Even Nathan and Allison didn’t mind the green onions with it because the mangoes gave it a sweeter flavor. Greg and I were a little leery of the honey lime vinaigrette, by itself, it just didn’t work. Once I poured it over the chicken though, everything came together with a delicious flavor. The next time I make it I will cut the amount of sesame seed oil in half (I’m not a huge fan of it to begin with) and will only make a half batch of the dipping sauce. I guess that means I will really be using 1/4 of the sesame oil.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps, by Two Fat Als
Ingredients (serves 5 or more):
(wraps)

1 cup jasmine rice, rinsed * I don’t have jasmine rice. It’s not something that is sold locally so I just used regular white rice
3 chicken breasts
2 tbsp olive oil
1 head Boston lettuce, leaves separated
1/2 cucumber, cut into matchstick-size slices
3 scallions, thinly sliced into 3-inch strips
3 carrots, shredded (in the food processor) or cut into matchstick-size slices
1 mango, peeled and cut into matchstick-sized slices
1/2 cup cilantro

(lime vinaigrette)

1/4 cup lime juice
3 tbsp oil
2 tbsp honey
pinch of salt

(soy dipping sauce)

1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
6 tbsp mayonnaise
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup ginger, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon Asian sesame oil

Bring 1 3/4 cups water to boil add rice and a pinch of salt. Cook covered until rice absorbs water, about 20 minutes.

While rice is cooking, heat olive oil in a large pan. Add chicken and cook through, about 5 minutes per side. You can also grill the chicken if you prefer. Once chicken is cooked, shred it into small pieces by pulling it apart with two forks.

Make lime vinaigrette by whisking together all ingredients. I just put them all in a lidded container and shook it, shook it up baby. Dress the shredded chicken with the lime vinaigrette.

Combine all ingredients for soy dipping sauce in a food processor and blend until smooth.

Lay out all ingredients, stuff lettuce leaves with chicken and vegetables, dip in soy dipping sauce or add it into the wraps.

Week 2′s submission for the Whip it up! Challenge. I know, I know, it’s a little late, but we seriously ate at the ball park every night last week (except for Wednesday when I made some light and healthy cucumber pasta salad). This week was supposed to be an eating healthy, mostly some kind of salad for dinner week. My problem? I lost my hand written list of meals I had planned. Next week I’ll get back to putting our menu lists online so that I don’t forget what I bought ingredients to make again.

The suggestion for week two was cheese. I thought it would have been cool to make some of our own mozerrella but couldn’t find some of the key ingredients. Instead we opted to try out the Pizza Frittata recipe from the October 2004 Everyday Food magazine. I’m not sure why I didn’t keep my subscription up, there are all kinds of great recipes in the issues that I do have.

In case you didn’t know, a frittata is basically a baked omelet. Even if it isn’t, it felt so much healthier than a regular pizza. We had it with a side salad and some garlic toast. It was so yummy. Next time we have this, and there will for sure be a next time because almost everyone loved it, we will add some pizza toppings and really add to the flavor.

Ingredients

1 tbls plus 4 tsp Olive Oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
6 large eggs plus 2 egg whites (I just used 8 eggs)
salt
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 can whole tomatoes with juices
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint or parsley (I have some wild mint that took over a portion along the fence in the back of our yard).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a 10″ oven proof non-stick skillet, heat 2 teaspoons oil over medium heat. Cook onion, stirring often, until soft, about 5 minutes. Cool completely. ** I forgot to do this step and it still tasted fine.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, egg whites, salt, and 2 tablespoons water. Stir in onions and 3/4 cup mozzarella.

In skillet, heat 1 tbls oil over medium heat. Add egg mixture; reduce heat to low and cook until beginning to set around the edges (about 3 minutes). Transfer to oven and bake until set (about 12 minutes).

Meanwhile, heat remaining 2 tsp oil in large skillet over low heat. Cook garlic until soft, 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, mint and salt; simmer, breaking up tomatoes with a spoon, 5 minutes.

Spoon sauce over frittata; sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup of cheese. Return to oven and cook until cheese melts; about 1 minute.

makes 4 servings. 296 calories per serving; 20.1 grams of fat; 19.6 grams of protein; 9.7 grams of carbohydrates; 1.9 grams of fiber.

Hey, Did I tell you about the summer contest I am trying out? Definitely RA is challenging everyone to try a new recipe a week and tell everyone about it. Since I try to do this already, it seemed perfect. They have a theme, that you can follow or not as you see fit. This week it was pasta. Yum. We love pasta at our house! Easy peasy, right?

It should have been, but, I set another challenge for myself last week. My pantry is so full of dry goods (canned foods, beans, and rice) that I want to make myself go through most of it before I have to go to the grocery store. I also want to see if we can make it with just going to the store once a week. Last week, I swear that we were there every single day. Maybe not for groceries, but once you walk into the store, you never leave with just the one thing you were after. At least you don’t if you are me. It completely blows our grocery budget to shreds.

My plan last night was to have spicy bean soup. Greg and I really like it and the kids will eat it, but with protest. Nathan had someone over to spend the night and I didn’t want to subject him to something my not-so-picky eaters only tolerate. Luckily, as all four of the children in the house said, “Everyone likes spaghetti!”. The only problem, no jarred spaghetti sauce. I did have cans of tomatoes and tomato paste coming out the wazoo. A quick search for “marinara recipe” turned up so many results.

I found one that had enough ingredients that matched what I had on hand. I’m not sure if price-wise it beats the jarred sauce but it really does taste better.

Ingredients

2 (14.5 ounce) cans stewed tomatoes
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 tablespoons dried parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon dried onion from the soup package
7 leaves of fresh basil

1. In a food processor place stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, chopped parsley, minced garlic, oregano, salt, sugar, onions, and pepper (basically everything). Make sure that you pay attention to the liquid line on your processor. I didn’t.

After cleaning up the mess, blend until smooth.

2. Pour all into a pot and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While the sauce was cooking, I cooked some spaghetti noodles (al dente) and browned some extra lean hamburger meat.

I know, onion soup. I was out of onions, so used the dehydrated onions from the soup package (but NOT the soup itself). Same goes for the garlic. I was out of fresh, so had to use some jarred minced garlic. The original recipe also calls for some white wine, but someone (ahem Greg) drank the last of the white wine without telling anyone.

I’m sure I”ll be doing some version of it again because everyone loved it. Next time, I’ll add the wine and use fresh onions. Maybe I’ll also add in some carrots, mushrooms, or bell peppers.

This is the cake that I used as the base for the Black Forrest Cake we had on Greg’s birthday. I got the recipe from Allrecipes and it had so many high ratings, I had high hopes that it would be delicious. Even though it didn’t come from a box, it was so easy to make. It was also really tasty. Based on the string of successes we have had with made-from-scratch cakes, I don’t know if I will use a boxed cake again.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups boiling water
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 3 – 9 inch round cake pans. In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa, and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Spread batter evenly between the 3 prepared pans.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool.

School is out, which means that not only do I need to plan dinners, but now lunches must be more than the salads or quesadillas that Allison and I usually eat (Greg usually heats up a hot dog or has what we’re having). I still need meals that don’t take forever because for the next few weeks, we are still in softball mode.

Since we are also trying to eat healthier, I am going to be experimenting with some new recipes. I have a new cookbook that is going to be put to the test. Ignore the numbers beside the meal. These are the page numbers for the recipes. If they are keepers, I’ll put them up here for easy access. If you see something you think sounds tasty, let me know and even if I don’t post the recipe here, I’ll send it your way.

This menu list will have both lunches and dinners.

Lunches:
cheap frozen Totino’s pizza
Corn Dogs
Beanie Weenies
Nachos
Ramen Noodles (Zoey loves these things)
Mac & Cheese
Bean Burritos
PB & J
Ham and Cheese
Chicken Salad Sandwiches (or lettuce wraps)
Leftovers

Dinners:
Chicken & Biscuits (124)
Chicken a la Marengo (97)
Meatless cheeseburgers (113)
Garlic Scampi (213) – there will also be chicken on this night for me, since I am allergic and probably Nathan who doesn’t quite like shrimp
Wild Rice & Sausage Bake (132)
Apple Stuffed Pork Tenderloin (112) I know, more of a fall dish, but it sounded so yummy)
Cheeseburgers
Fettuccine
Spaghetti
Chicken Caesar Salad
Chef Salad
Goulash
Homemade Pizzas

Desserts
Pudding
Low-Fat Brownies (We love brownies so when I this on America’s Test Kitchen Saturday I knew I would try them)

Hey! It’s been a while. Like TWO whole months. Time really goes by quickly. For Greg’s birthday on Saturday, Greg couldn’t decide between cherry pie and something else. He said to make him a cake we haven’t had before. After scouring the internet, I found this recipe for Black Forest Cake. The only thing I didn’t have was kirsh (cherry brandy) and, because it wouldn’t be cooked off. I wouldn’t have used it anyway. You know, because I would be serving it to young children and all. I also didn’t get all fancy and make chocolate curls. Oh, and we used the juice drained from the cherries as a syrup for the vanilla ice cream. Delicious.

* 1 dark chocolate cake mix (or your own from scratch) – I made my own, and will be posting the recipe. It was soooooo easy and much healthier. Right now, we are all about the healthy.
* 1/4 c. kirsch (cherry brandy)
* 1 can cherry pie filling
* 16 oz. heavy whipping cream
* 1/2 c. confectioners’ sugar
* Maraschino cherries, drained, optional, for garnish
* milk chocolate curls or shavings, for garnish

PREPARATION:
Drain cherry pie filling in a colander to remove most of the thickened juices.

Make cake, following package directions. Bake cake, as directed, in two 9-inch layer cake pans.

When cool, sprinkle kirsch over both cake layers.
Chill electric beaters and large mixing bowl; beat cream until it thickens slightly, gradually add confectioners’ sugar and beat until thick enough to hold its shape.

Using a vegetable peeler, shave chocolate; refrigerate until ready to serve.

Assemble cake; place one layer on serving plate and spread its top with 1/2-inch thick layer of whipped cream and strew the cherries over the cream leaving about 1/2 inch margin around border of cake with no cherries.

Set other layer on top of cherries and spread top and sides of cake with remaining cream, shape whipped cream into decorative swirls on top.

With fingers, gently press chocolate curls into cream on sides of cake.

Garnish top with drained maraschino cherries, if desired, or with a few remaining chocolate curls.

Last week I ate salads, soups, and cheese and crackers for dinner since the rest of the family was out of town. It’s now time to get back to cooking.

Honey Mustard Chicken (I didn’t make this last time)
Chicken A La King
Wild Rice Chicken Soup
Fettuccine – using normal old recipe but with half & half instead of heavy whipping cream.
Goulash Soup
Corned Beef with Mac & Cheese (They had this at my grandmother’s house and it was a big hit. I have never really liked it much, but if everyone else likes it, maybe it’s worth another shot.)
Fajitas
Spaghetti
Chicken Caesar Salad
Pork Chops, Potatoes, and Green Beans
French Onion Soup

Softball practice starts this week and possibly baseball. I’m going to try out many slow cooked meals and some Short Cut meals from an old Real Simple – Meals Made Easy cookbook. Like always, if we like them, I’ll post a separate entry with the recipe later. If you see something you would like to try, let me know and I will email you the recipe. A cool thing about my slow cooker recipe book is that it is made by Prevention so it has only healthy meals.

Fajitas
Honey Mustard Chicken (SC pg9)
Southwestern Chicken (SC pg 11)
BBQ Beef Sandwiches (mine)  with Baked Beans (RS 21)
Chicken A La King (SC pg 60)
Santa Fe Chicken (SC pg 62)
French Onion Soup
Chicken Cutlets in Herb Sauce (RS 61)
Chicken Pot Pie (RS131)
Last Minute Lasagna (RS 139
Baked Chimichangas
Spaghetti
Fettuccine

I skipped this rotation of posting our meal plan. Slacker. I know. Here are a few of the meals we have eaten over the past two weeks.I’m going to leave out our staple meals. You know, fettuccine, spaghetti, tacos. If we liked them, I’ll give them a separate entry with the recipe a little later.

On Valentine’s day we had pizza! Cute, Heart-shaped, stuffed crust pizza. Did you know that all you have to do to make stuffed crust is roll the edges of your pizza dough over a string cheese stick? I split them in half, then roll it. But it’s so much less expensive than Pizza Hut and since they don’t deliver in our tiny town, it’s less work to just make our own than it is to order it and drive to get it.

Let’s see. It’s much harder to remember what I fixed after the fact.

Creamy Ham and Broccoli – It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great either. It was more like a side dish than a whole meal.

Chicken enchilada soup – I need to type up my recipe for this one. It’s also a staple but I just throw a bunch of stuff together. We had this with some tasty cornbread.

Beef and Napa Cabbage Stir Fry – This was pretty tasty. Everyone liked it, so it will be getting it’s own review a little later.