See, my husband isn't starving:)

It's been almost a month, I can't believe it!  Just a quick post for all you worrying that the husband may be starving - he's not;)  Hopefully I'll be back soon with some good updates:)

Ahh Sunday:) What's on tap for the week ahead??

Happy Sunday, everyone!  Our taco/brownie dinner last night was amazing, unlike the Red Sox;)  Now as I'm sitting here writing this I can smell the crockpot a-going (Orange chicken, anyone!?)...poor husband can't smell it though, as he is down and out with a horrible cold/flu thing:(  Get better soon, babe!

Here's our lovely menu for the week - you'll see some are links as I've made some before - it is hard to be creative/make new dishes when you're in the middle of house stuff, but hopefully that will be over and done with soon so I can get back to new dishes every night!

Sunday - crockpot orange chicken with white rice and steamed broccoli...and more coconut brownies;)
Monday - chicken caesar wraps with fries - easy Monday meal after a long workday:)
Tuesday - sox game = no cooking for me:)
Wednesday - teriyaki pork tenderloin with onion soup roasted potatoes and veg - new one!
Thursday - beef with broccoli and white rice - I've made it before, but never blogged about it:)
Friday - gross, but Cheeseburger Hamburger Helper, salad, and rolls - the husband loves it!

So besides a couple new recipes, I'll be writing about the Asian Dumpling cooking class Melissa and I went to last week!!  Hope you enjoy the rest of your Sunday and look forward to my posts this week:)  Anyone else enjoying this fab/crazy Lifetime movie right now??  ;)  Hey, I've earned it, I cleaned a lot yesterday and today;)  Also hope your house smells as good as mine right now:)

Wicked Cheap Wednesday - Mediterranean Style Chicken, Pasta, and Veg!

Seriously, how good does this look?  Just enough sauce to mesh everything together, and just enough summer veggies to remind us of what's coming!  How did I make this WCW meal?  Well, it took an hour, but it was worth it!

You will need:

• 2 cups pasta, cooked and covered to keep warm
• olive oil for cooking
• 2 small green zucchini and 1 yellow squash, cut in half lengthwise, and cut into bite sized pieces
• 2 cups (or more if you'd like) of cooked chicken, seasoned with salt and pepper - this was about 1 lb of small chicken pieces, cut up after cooked
• 1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes with chiles, undrained
• 1 8 oz can tomato sauce
• pitted olives
• crumbled feta cheese - we used feta cheese that incorporated tomato and basil

Cook and drain pasta as directed; cover to keep warm.  Easy enough right?  Cook chicken in olive oil or Pam and cut into bite sized pieces - set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large fry pan over medium heat.  Cook zucchini and squash for 2 minutes in the oil.  Add the chicken, tomatoes, and tomato sauce and cook until veggies are tender (it was about 15 minutes), stirring occasionally.

Serve chicken mixture over the pasta and top with olives if you so desire (not me!) and feta cheese - yum yum yum!  The chiles gave it a kick, the sauce a good taste, the veggies some texture, and the feta - oooh the best part!  Why did it take so long?  Cooking the chicken took time, cutting up the veggies took time, you get it right?  I don't prefer to eat dinner at 7pm...I think it just means I'm working too late:)

I like it enough I'm even bringing it for lunch tomorrow.  You know me, I am NOT a fan of leftovers, but I could eat this over and over!  Served with a side salad, it was a great meal!  Cost, even better!

Chicken - $4.00
pasta - .88
zucchini and yellow squash - $2.00
canned tomatoes with chiles - $1.00
tomato sauce - .33
olives - $1.00
feta cheese - OOPS!  $5.00 - worth it though, it made the dish!

Okay so about $15, not that cheap, but not too bad?  Better than the cost of 2 meals and salads at a restaurant!  But trust me, I enjoy my Sat night-no-cooking-restaurant-meals!! 

So, Easter is right around the corner!  Do you have ham?  What is your favorite way to make it and what are your faves sides to serve with it?  CCC, yes me, has never made a ham, but I do plan to buy one since they'll be on sale and make it another time an I need your suggestions:)

Have a great night - I'm off to enjoy my funny shows and wii!

Wicked Cheap Wednesday...kinda - Salmon cakes with broc mac & cheese!

Happy Wednesday, all!  How are you all doing?  I'm alright - I feel like I'm getting better, as I felt I could eat a little bit more today, but it's still all funny in there!  GRR!  I have to go back to work tomorrow so I'm hoping it won't be too bad - no fun to be running to the bathroom all day!  And I'm sure not that appreciated:)

Tonight I made a new recipe from my latest Kraft Magazine.  I have to say this issue looks full of promise and I can't wait to try a bunch of these recipes!  To me, tonight's was a little time consuming and at times frustrating, but worth it in the end:)  Paired with simple and mac and cheese and steamed broccoli, I felt it was a balanced meal, somehow;)

Salmon cakes - you will need:

• 1 can, or 14.7 oz salmon, drained, and with no skins or bones ***I used 3 cans, 6 oz each, of the salmon***
• 1 6oz pkg of stuffing mix for chicken
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 green onions or half a red onion, chopped
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Mix all ingredients:

Yes, it has mayonnaise, and I had to touch it!

Form into patties - I was able to get 11 patties out of this much mixture, but more egg shaped than circular - place on a plate, and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Heat a large, nonstick skillet over medium high heat.  Spray with Pam.  Once the 10 minutes are up, cook the patties until browned on both sides.  It took me about 20 minutes, and 2 batches, to make all 11.  

So, they don't look as they did in the magazine, of course, and they fell apart a bit, but they were easy to patty-back together once cooked.  From the little I ate, they tasted great, like from a restaurant!  I would make them a little more golden all around next time (it's tough, b/c the stuffing is what seems to brown, and how do you spread that out evenly??), and try to think of a dipping sauce to go with them - what kind of sauce are you thinking to go with them??  Husband loved them, so I'm happy:)

The cost wasn't the best WCW I've ever done, but it was $7.50 for the 3 cans of salmon, $1.50 for the stuffing, and I had the rest, so not bad, because I had the other ingredients already.  It's not something I'd make every Wednesday, though:)

How was your Wednesday?  Anything exciting happen?  Hope you'll give these salmon cakes a try and/or suggest a dipping sauce!  Fingers crossed I feel better and better each day! 

Slow cooker Sunday! Kielbasa!

Happy Sunday, everyone!  My stomach is finally feeling pretty much back to normal, now I'm just in the tired zone - hopefully with resting today (besides a Wii workout and some cleaning!) and a good night's sleep tonight, I'll be back to fully "normal" tomorrow:)

So what's cooking over here you're wondering?  Slow cooker kielbasa!  Kielbasa was on sale this past week buy one, get one free, love those!  So last night, while we watched Pride and Prejudice, I defrosted a pound of kielbasa.  I think we both could've eaten it, once defrosted, and since it's bought pre-cooked, just like that but we held ourselves back:)

I read soooo many different recipes online about how to make it - with beer, with soda, with different jellies, different sauces, etc etc etc.  So I first decided to make it with these ingredients:

Yup, a jar of grape jelly, a cup of brown sugar, and a jar/12 oz of chili sauce.  Once I put these ingredients into the slow cooker, I wasn't fully satisfied, it needed something more, but what!  So I added these:

A tablespoon or so of horseradish mustard and about 1/4 cup bbq sauce.  After mixing up all of this, I added the cut up kielbasa, crossed my fingers, and said see ya in 5 hours (on low) and I hope mixing these tastes/textures together works out!

Well, it worked!  About 4 hours in I added a 1/2 cup more brown sugar to try to give it a gristly texture, and in the end it was amazing - flavorful, nice to look at it, and different!

I hope everyone has a great rest of their weekend!  I'm off to read for a bit before, hopefully, a great night's sleep to start the week off on the right foot!  

Also, hopefully  you'll share your own kielbasa recipes with me - I'd love to hear about them!

Yes, I'm still cooking from the freezer/cabinet leftovers:)

Happy Friday, everyone!  We made it thru another week!  The freezer is looking great, and next week will be the week I really tackle the cabinet with the canned items and boxed items!  Woohoo, how exciting;) 

Last night I made Baked Pork and Shrimp Wontons with leftover ground pork and shrimp.  As I suspected Wednesday night, it was time consuming, and since I grocery shopped, had to put that stuff away, etc, we ate dinner at 8pm.  I am not a fan of this.  I like to eat around 6:30.  I felt like I ate and it was time for bed!

Nonetheless, they were pretty tasty - I say pretty tasty because I felt they needed something more...maybe once you read the ingredients you can suggest something - a veggie, a sauce, a seasoning, something was just missing.  Husband gave them a 9.5 - I need a 10!

What you'll need:

• 1 package of wonton wrappers - I used about 25 of them and had plenty of mixture left with l lb ground pork - I was sick of folding them, though!
• 1/2 lb - 1 lb ground pork
• 1/2 lb small shrimp, uncooked, but de-shelled, and minced
• 8 water chestnuts, finely chopped
• 2 scallions finely chopped
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 lg egg, beaten
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 375.  Combine all ingredients and let sit for 10 minutes.  Lightly spray a baking sheet with Pam.  Put 1 tsp of the mixture on each wonton wrapper and fold into somewhat of a pocket; seal with a small amount of water.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crispy and cooked thru.

Sounds easy right?  Well spooning that mixture onto each (about 20) wonton wrappers and folding them up takes a lot of time, too much for when you're starting to make dinner at 6:50! 

Did I forget to mention I have a steamer, which would be great for these things, but I'm scared to use it!?!

The best part of the meal to me was the Beef Rice-A-Roni.  All stuff from the freezer/cabinet makes me very happy though:)

Tonight was frozen flounder with crab stuffing that I did buy fresh last week and froze.  Easy, and nothing fancy because it's Friday night, and you know what, I am t-i-r-e-d!! 

I'm going back to watching the Bourne Identity with the husband hopefully followed by Up in the Air:)  See you all later this weekend AND please give me suggestions for those wontons - I'll post a picture of them later.

Last but not least - it's a Friday night, what's your drink of choice?  Mine you ask?

credit

Kinda Wicked Cheap Wednesday while cleaning out the freezer!

Happy Wednesday!  Another gorgeous day up here, but I'm ready for the rain to come so I can lay around, at least for a little bit this weekend, and watch movies in comfy clothes!!  AND sleep in!!!

Tonight was a meal I haven't made in a very long time - Spicy Peanut Bake Chicken with Jasmine Rice and green beans.  Easy easy, and yummy yummy!  And again I got to use things from the freezer, cabinets, and leftovers:)

What you'll need for the chicken:

• 1-2 lbs boneless chicken breast - I had about 1.5 lbs, or 3 breasts, each cut in half
• one package, which has 2 envelopes, of A Taste of Thai Spicy Peanut Bake mix

Yup, that's it!  Preheat oven to 350.  Place chicken pieces into a baking dish and coat with both envelopes of the mix, turning chicken to coat both sides.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until chicken pieces are fully cooked thru (it was about 27 minutes for mine).

While this is baking, I prepared a cup of A Taste of Thai Jasmine Rice as directed on the package.  Once cooked, I added a can of pineapple chunks (from pineapple juice, not syrup, as learned at the Univ of Lissy) and some honey roasted peanuts - yum!  Paired these with green beans and wallah - dinner!   Oh yes, and leftover cornbread from last night;)

I love this meal and I don't know why I don't make it more often!  The spice mix is the pefect blend of sweet and spicy!  

I know a lot of you make your own seasonings (taco, chili, etc) at home, but do you have a favorite packaged seasoning you use, or what is your favorite seasoning to make at home?   Does anyone else out there like A Taste of Thai at home items?

Tomorrow night is NOT well planned - grocery shopping after work and then making a new, scary to me, meal...this could be dinner at 8pm, or Wendy's at 8:30pm;)  

Have a great night everyone - I'm off to eat some more Purely Decadent Coconut IC!  Oh, and my cookies were a hit at work today...as usual;)

Night 3 of Olympic meals - Russia!

Sorry Melissa, you guessed wrong tonight:( but keep trying!

So, as kind of a prelude, I'm not really sure if this is Russian.  I googled "Russian food for crockpots" and this is one of the recipes that came up.  Could it be "Russian" because of one ingredient - possible, and that one ingredient probably isn't very Russian at all.  Read this thru and let me know what you think:)

So tonight, I made Russian Dump - yes, that is what it's called.  Let me tell you, it smelled nothing like a dump; there was actually a wonderful aroma in our house starting at 11am today:)  I was very scared of this one because I don't like salad dressing, but it's another crockpot chicken winner!

You will need:

• boneless chicken thighs - I had about 3 lbs
• 1 bottle Russian salad dressing 
• 1 jar of apricot jam or preserves (I used the smallest jar in the grocery store)
• 1 envelope of onion soup mix

That's it.  Doesn't seem very Russian, huh?  But with Russian in the name, I went with it:)  Place the chicken in the crockpot and cover with all ingredients. 

Cook on low for 6-8 hours (I cooked it for 7) or high 3-4 hours.  Serve with rice and enjoy!

Pretty easy huh?  Uh huh!  But so tasty - it tasted smoky with a sweet flavor, and was so tender - chicken, like I always say, cooks the best in the crockpot no doubt. 

I'm off to enjoy more Olympic coverage - go Shen and Zhao!!  Gotta love fantasy skating;)  Is everyone else enjoying the Olympics?  What is your favorite event?  Oh and I think I'll have some more nanaimo bars;)  Have a great night everyone, and don't forget to guess what country I'll cook for tomorrow night!

Did someone say sausage?

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Tomorrow is my Friday (I think...right now I'm taking the day off Friday, but now I'm thinking maybe I won't...but then I think of all the things I could get done...it's appealing;)  But then oh the work Monday that will be waiting...what to do, what to do!

Anyways, sausage!  Over the weekend when I was perusing recipes I came across this good lookin' recipe http://fruitychicken.com/?p=222.  I had to try it!  It was alittle vague for me, and I had to convert of course, but I was up to the challenge of figuring this out, and also being able to pick out the flaws at the end so the next time could be even better!

You will need:

• macaroni and cheese, made as the box says
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 cup milk
• 4 tbsp flour
• salt, pepper, and nutmeg, all just a little shake
  
• 1-2 lbs of any kind of sausage you like, uncooked - I used hot italian links, and cut them into bite-sized pieces
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup frozen carrots
• any shredded cheese you would like, about 2 cups total

Okay, so I was very scared to make this!  Kim's photo on her website of this looks exactly how I would like mine to look - a little browned/blackened, but still soft, runny, and warm!  I kinda just went with what I felt I should be doing.

Preheat oven to 425.  In a small pot, melt the stick of butter,  When melted and boiling a bit, add 4 tbsp of flour and stir; then add cup of milk and stir.  This is going to be a sauce inside the Sausage Bake, so make the sauce as thick or runny as you like - more flour for thickening, less flour/more milk for runny:)

While I was making the sauce I also prepared the mac and cheese box and cut up the sausage into bite sized pieces.  Once the sauce had a consistency that I was happy with, I add the shakes of salt, pepper, and nutmeg...and of course I added good ole CRP :)  I let this sit off to the side.

When the mac and cheese was done, and the sausage cut up, I combined those in a large bowl, added the frozen peas and carrots, and then added the butter/flour/milk/seasonings sauce.  I mixed it all up then poured it into a 9x13 baking pan.  I then poured a mixture of mozzarella, monterey jack, and sharp cheddar shredded cheese over the combined casserole.

 

Kim's recipe called for baking this 20-30 minutes.  Mine was closer to 50 minutes.  I have to admit, I started to get alittle annoyed, not at Kim of course, but at me....Kim had used pre-cooked sausage, but I decided to use uncooked sausage so everything would cook together, minus the mac and cheese.  When you get home from work at 6, and start dinner at 6:30, eating at 7:52 is not optimal. 

It tasted awesome, and I would definitely make it again for sure!  My fave part was definitely the sauce, and actually the taste of the peas with the spicyness of the sausage, mixed with the big cheese flavor, worked better than I thought they would together! 

 

I think I may try different versions, for example this recipe but with hotdogs, or chicken with the mac and cheese, with broccoli and rice pilaf.  Endless possibilities!

Cheycancook is quite sleepy tonight so I am out:)  I hope you all have a great evening, and maybe some of you also enjoyed the same shows I did tonight - The Middle, Modern Family, and Cougartown;)

Tomorrow - another new recipe that I came across last weekend that has me shaking in my booties!  Let me know what you think of the above recipe and any other versions you can think of that would work:)  Talk to you tomorrow bloggies!