Chicken and Rice Chowder

This is another one that Layne ended up cooking for me.  It was good...a little on the bland side, but good.  It made a TON of soup, so Layne served it the next night with some added macaroni so the kids would eat it.  Last night he used it for Hawaiin Haystacks.  It was pretty good.

Asian Orange Salmon - Must Try!

1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
3 TBS. lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, pressed
6 salmon fillets

In a large plastic, zipper-topped bag, combine first six ingredients and mix well.  Add fish and marinate in fridge for an hour, turning bag occasionally. 

Preheat broiler.
Transfer marinade to a bowl.  Place salmon on broiler pan and cook about 4-6 minutes on each side (depending on the thickness of your fish and your broiler)  Baste fish with marinade every time you check on it.  When fish flakes when tested with a fork, it's done.

***My sweet husband made this for dinner last night since I wasn't feeling up to it.  We don't have a broiler though, so he marinaded it, sprayed the pan with PAM, put the fish in skin down and fried it with about 4 TBS of marinade with lid on (low-medium heat).  This produces a fish that steamed.  Once the marinade is boiled off, the fish should be done.

I think Kennedy and Matt were too tired to eat, but Hyrum ate even more than I did!  It was resaurant-good!

Texas One Dish

    I thought this was a really yummy recipe.  However, my friend made it a few weeks ago and the rice wasn't cooked all the way.  She found a website that had corrections for the recipes and the correction was to be sure and cover it.  I did cover mine and cooked it 10 minutes longer and our rice was still crunchy.  The recipe calls for brown rice which takes quite awhile longer to cook.  I think next time I'll make it I'll either precook the brown rice or use minute rice.

Will I Make it Again?  Yes.

Stuffed Quesadillas

These were really yummy and really easy!  Here's the recipe:

1 TBS. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut in 1 inch strips (or smaller)
Salt and pepper to taste
12 flour tortillas
6 oz. low-fat Jack cheese, shredded
Salsa (your favorite)
Cilantro, chopped
Low-fat sour cream

In a skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add onion and chicken, salt and pepper to taste and saute' till chicken is thoroughly cooked.  Remove chicken and onions and set aside.

In that same skillet, heat a flour tortilla.  Spread a little cheese on the bottom, top with a portion of the chicken and onions, top with a little cheese and another tortilla.  Once it's cooked on the one side, flip it over to continue cooking.  Cut into quarters and serve with salsa, chopped cilantro and sour cream.

Will I Make it Again?  Yes!

Red Beans and Rice

   This was another really easy recipe and really good.  It had kielbasa (sausage) in it, so my kids liked it and it was very filling with brown rice.  The sausage was from turkey and chicken so it wasn't as fattening.

Will I Make it Again:  Yes!

Crock Pea Soup

     This was the best pea soup I've ever had (okay....the only pea soup I've ever had).  It was pretty good.  I stuck 7 ingredients in my crock pot and then had time to make some delicious Lion House Rolls to go with it.  It turned out to be a pretty tasty meal........however, Layne said it looked like slimy brains and then Kennedy could barely choke down a few bites. 

Will I Make it Again?  Yes, but there was an option to throw a ham bone in with it and I definitely think that would add more flavor....I've just never cooked with bones so it's a little foreign to me.

Baked Rigatoni

Wow....I REALLY liked this dish and so did my kids PLUS it is pretty easy to make.  I am going to share this recipe because I think it's so yummy and I usually have most of the ingredients on hand. 

 - 1/2 pound extra-lean ground beef
- 1 cup oats
- 1 jar spaghetti sauce (I ended up using marinara sauce)
- 1 cup non-fat cottage cheese
- 3 cups rigatoni (cooked)
- 1 cup part-skim milk mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 1/4 cup Romano cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a skillet, cook beef until browned and crumbled.  Drain rease and blot beef well with paper towels (with this step the fat grams will be lower than what shows up in the nutritional info below). Add oats to beef and stir well to incorporate. 

Add spaghetti sauce, cottage cheese, and rigatoni to the beef and mix well.  In a 11x7-inch casserole dish, add your rigatoni mixture and top with cheeses.  Bake for 20-30 minutes or until hot and cheese is melted.  (Since my casserole dish has a lid, I went ahead and covered it).

Per Serving:
372 Calories; 14g Fat, 25 g Protein; 36g Carbs; 3g Dietary Fiber; 43g Cholesterol; 488mg Sodium. Exchanges:  2 grain; 2 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 vegetable; 1 1/2 fat.

I think I just figured out how to make my crock pot lasagna NOT so runny....add oats.

I am also going to remember this recipe for when I need to take dinner to someone.

Will I Make it Again:  Umm, probably once a week.  I really liked it.

Moroccan Fish Tangine

     I don't know if I didn't like this one because I just don't like fish that much or if it's because I used tilapia.  The recipe called for whitefish fillets.  I have no knowledge of fish and other than salmon, I don't usually like it. 

Will I Make it Again:  Probably Not.

Beany Burritos

YUM.  This was made from the leftover pork (should have been beef) from a few nights ago.  It was very tasty....I couldn't even taste the pork and it still tasted good in a whole grain tortilla shell....now that is saying something.  Matthew loved it, the other kids picked at the beans, so we have LOTS of leftovers.  This was a really slick meal to make.

Will I Make It Again?   Yes!

Roast Pork Picante

Well, I think I am quickly figuring out what is so frustrating about cooking....ME.  I have this horrible habit of skimming recipes and not reading them carefully.  I can hardly believe myself after telling hundreds of students to "read the directions more carefully".  Anyway, I realized that the reason my meatloaf was super runny was because I added an entire can of diced tomatoes with liquid instead of half.  OOPS.

Tonight, I made Roast Pork Picante.  It was supposed to be Roast Beef Picante, however I hadn't looked at the recipe, only the grocery list that called for boneless sirloin roast.   The butcher said they really didn't put those cuts of beef out and asked if pork would work.  I went with the pork.

The entire day, I could smell the pork marinading in the fridge and it smelled sooo good.  However, when it came out of the oven it didn't small as good.  I thought it tasted okay, but it wasn't my favorite.  Layne said I just don't like the taste of pork.  I wish I could have made this with beef....I don't know if I would have liked it better or not. 

My favorite part of dinner was the Baked Sweet Potato Fries.  The cookbook suggested serving this meal with sweet potatoes, so I improvised....baked fries are still wholesome, right?  They were VERY good.

Will I Make This Again?   Yes.  But I think I will try it with the intended Roast BEEF.  Now, I'm all screwed up for my other meal this week because I was supposed to use the leftover beef from tonight for burritos another night.  Layne is insisting that we will use the pork, but what if that sort of ruins them too?  What to do.

The Beginning and Italian Turkey Meatloaf

     In January 2009, I made a New Year's Resolution to enjoy cooking dinner and actually make dinner every night.  I spent countless hours making up grocery lists and menus for six weeks which I would rotate.  Well, turns out I didn't really like my recipes enough to make them over and over.  I quickly stopped using my handy dandy (okay, someone has had too much of Blue's Clues lately) lists and menus and resorted to surfing the Internet for hours at a time looking for new, exciting, simple and healthy recipes.  HA. 

     Before I made my New Year's Resolution about dinner two years ago, my good friend lent me the cook book that she LOVES.  I flipped through it, didn't see any pictures to go along with the meals and gave it back to her.  (I know, really mature, right)   So, this year for my birthday, my friend went out on a limb and bought me the book for my birthday.  She was even going to try and take photos to go with each recipe so I would try it......but, upon turning 35 I have become much more grown-up and I think I can handle a cookbook without the pictures. 

     Because I think it was such a thoughtful gift AND my dinners are still seriously lacking AND these recipes are pretty healthy AND they come with a grocery list for a week of dinners, I have decided to cook each and every recipe....thus making it "My Own Julie and Julia".  One of my weaknesses is flipping through a cookbook and thinking, "No, that doesn't sound that good, don't have the ingredients for that one, that will take way too much time, that will be too much work...."   I'm hoping that by blogging about it, I will be more inspired to continue with it even after week 3 or 4 (when I usually piddle out).   I am not going to go in the exact order of the book, however it does start with Fall Recipes...yes, they are even organized into seasonal meals....how cool is that.  I will probably occasionally cook something of my own, but I am determined to try each and every recipe in this book....then I can document what I liked or didn't like about it, etc. 

     So, for those of you who also DON'T love dinner time, you are probably dying to know what the name of this cookbook is.  It is called, Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely.  You can also see more about her book(s)at SavingDinner.com   As much as I have hated cooking in the past, I am slowly realizing how important it is to feed my family something healthy and get us together as a family every night. 

     Without further adieu, let me tell you about my first dinner from her book:  "Italian Turkey Meatloaf".  This morning Hyrum and I headed to the WinCo.  I was able to get pretty much everything on my list with a little help from the butcher.  I think that is another one of my hangups, I never know which roast to buy or which cut....but this book tells you EXACTLY what to get.  I will admit I would not have normally chosen to cook this recipe just because I have some negative association with meatloaf from my childhood (no offense, Mom). 
     Around 4:15 I started preparing dinner.  Yep, wish I would have read the ENTIRE recipe and I could have seen that it has to bake for over an hour.  Luckily, I fed the kids a snack and they were able to hold out until 6:00 (an hour past our regular dinnertime).  The only other icky part of the recipe was using your hands to mix the turkey burger and the sausage.  I think I handled it pretty well.    I will admit that my meatloaf was not the prettiest sight, but it was good.  Layne said it tasted like something from Johnny Carino's (I will take that as a compliment).  My boys LOVED it and Kennedy managed to choke some down after asking if I put meat in it.  She is pretty sensitive to textures, smells and strong tastes. 

Will I Make it Again?  Yes.  However, I think that I may make it into meatballs and serve it with pasta.   I am not going to post each and every recipe, but I will post them or email them if people request them.  Now I have enough for leftovers tomorrow so I might not be trying a new recipe until Friday.  Wish me luck!