Back on Track

Hey there foodies!  I'm back on track and still enjoying the heck out of it!!!  I can't believe how delicious these meals can be in the short amount of time it takes to cook them!!!  Dinner tonight was done in less than 30 minutes!!!  Today was a busy day with the gym, dropping Allie at school, breakfast with some friends, running errands and doing the laundry.  I was very glad to see that supper wasn't going to be a long process.  We had Kielbasa Bow tie Skillet.  This is a delicious concoction of smoked sausage, farfalle pasta, snap peas and cheese in a white garlic sauce.  The recipe called for mushrooms, but I left them out because Todd really does not like them.  I guess we can get over that, though I will be adding them to my half next time.  I think they would have been great.  Dessert was Raisin Sauce over golden pound cake.  Yummy!  Both these recipes are keepers for sure!!!  Kids had farfalle pasta for supper instead of what we had.  That worked out perfectly for them!  Recipes are as follows:

KIELBASA BOW TIE SKILLET

Ingredients

• 8 ounces uncooked bow tie pasta
• 1 pound smoked kielbasa or smoked Polish sausage, cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 1 jar (4-1/2 ounces) sliced mushrooms, drained
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen snow peas
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

• Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute the sausage, mushrooms and garlic in butter.
• Combine cornstarch and milk until smooth; gradually add to the skillet. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Drain pasta; add to sausage mixture. Stir in the peas and cheese; cook until cheese is melted. Yield: 4 servings.

RAISIN SAUCE FOR POUND CAKE

Ingredients

• 1 loaf (10-3/4 ounces) frozen pound cake
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Dash ground cinnamon and nutmeg
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons raisins
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon maple flavoring
• Vanilla ice cream

Directions

• With a serrated knife, cut pound cake in half widthwise; cut one half into four slices and set aside to thaw. Freeze remaining cake for another use.
• In a small saucepan, combine the brown sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; stir in water until smooth. Add raisins. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened.
• Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla and maple flavoring. Top each slice of cake with a scoop of ice cream; drizzle with raisin sauce. Yield: 4 servings.

Blessings and Good Eating!

What are these things????

Ok folks tonight was a big risk for me.  I had a plan B just in case we didn't like this dish at all.  The picture on the website looked really good, but we all know that those  pictures aren't real half the time.  All you need to do to see that is compare my pic with the one on the website.  Two totally different pictures for sure!  I even followed the recipe to the T.  Anyway, here's the dish-Sweet and Sour Scallops and Almond Rice.  Scallops you say???  Yep, scallops.  I had to try to explain to Todd what scallops were even though I have a very limited knowledge being that I've only had them once and they were wrapped in bacon.  Anything wrapped in bacon is delicious, so I'm thinking, "Hey, these are gonna be great," since that was my only experience with scallops.  Well..........they were delicious!  The sweet and sour sauce was soooo yummy.  The only thing is, half way through, I was thinking that the dish was too sweet.  If I were to prepare this again, I'd use very little of the pineapple chunks, but keep the pineapple juice in the sauce. That should do it.  The texture of the scallops was perfect for me.  Todd gave me a thumbs up on this dish so I'm assuming he enjoyed it.  Now let's talk about the rice.  May I say that I would add toasted almonds to my rice anytime!!!  OH MY GOODNESS!!!!  What genius thought of this???????  It was soooo yummy!  What a nice flavor and crunch.  I will double this recipe next time so we have leftovers of this. 

I am so glad we are trying new things or I never would have made these two delicious recipes.  I would have looked at it in the book and said, "No way, Jose!!"  I am really enjoying this cooking through the book thing.  I know that my children wish I had never seen that movie, but maybe when they are older they will appreciate it.  I would love to expand their pallette, but we have to do it in baby-steps.  In case you're wondering, and you're probably not, but the two children who were at home for supper passed on this one.  Dylan settled for a triple decker peanut butter sandwich and Allie ate a cheese and mushroom pizza.  Works for me!  Here's the recipe.....

SWEET AND SOUR SCALLOPS

Ingredients

• 2 cans (8 ounces each) pineapple chunks
• 1 pound sea scallops (about 16)
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1/3 cup julienned green pepper
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2/3 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

Directions

• Drain pineapple, reserving juice; set pineapple and juice aside. In a large skillet, saute scallops in oil until firm and opaque; drain. Remove from pan and keep warm.
• In the same pan, saute onion and green pepper in butter for 3-4 minutes or until crisp-tender.
• Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the sugar, cornstarch, ground mustard and salt. Whisk in the vinegar, soy sauce and reserved pineapple juice until smooth.
• Gradually stir into pan. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in the tomatoes, scallops and reserved pineapple; heat through. Yield: 4 servings.

ALMOND RICE

• Ingredients
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 1-1/2 cups uncooked instant rice
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

Directions

• In a large saucepan, bring the water, rice and butter to a boil. Remove from the heat. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes or until water is absorbed. Stir in the almonds, salt and pepper. Sprinkle with parsley. Yield: 4 servings.

Thanks for dishing with Di!  Blessings and good eating!

Greek!!!!!

I finally got around to making this Greek Style Supper and Sesame Pita Chips for dinner.  It was absolutely delicious!!!  The supper was like a goulash with a little twist and the pita chips were a nice tasty healthy crunch.  I must say I was very pleased with this supper.  Todd seemed to enjoy it as well since he went back for seconds.  Chance even enjoyed it, but i guess that doesn't say much since dogs usually will eat anything.  The kids passed on this meal again, no surprise!  I wish they would try new things, but I can't really push them since I did the same thing to my mom.  If it had tomato chunks in it, I found a friend's house to eat at that night.  No lying!  Of course, that didn't work out so well when my friend's mom made liver and onions.  Ouch!  I regretted that decision.  :)  Anyway, I believe you all would love this meal as it only took 30 minutes to throw together and it is very filling not to mention delicious!!!!!! 

Tomorrow there will be no blog for supper as we are attending a retirement dinner for one of Todd's marines.  I think our meal is being catered but not sure by who.  Anyway, it should be delicious.  I will be making up my new menu tonight for the next two weeks.  I know we'll be eating lots of seafood and chicken.  Stay tuned to see what I'm dishing up next!  Blessings and good eating!


Here's the recipe for tonight's supper if anyone is interested!

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) beef broth
• 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) Hunt’s® Original Diced Tomatoes, undrained
• 1-1/2 cups uncooked penne pasta
• 1-1/2 cups frozen cut green beans, thawed
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Directions

• In a large skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, bring broth and tomatoes to a boil; add pasta. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes or until pasta is tender, stirring occasionally.
• Drain beef mixture; add to pasta. Stir in the beans, tomato paste, oregano, garlic powder and cinnamon; heat through. Sprinkle with feta cheese. Yield: 4 servings.

Cranberry Pork Chops with Rice

Howdy foodies!!!!  It's good to be back!  After a busy day in the 4th grade, which was a marvelous class, I was ready to dig into some good food.  I was able to relax for about an hour before hitting the kitchen.  In that hour's time I sat outside and played with Chance and checked on my facebook. It was so beautiful outside!!!  Anyway, I got started on the cranberry pork chops around 5:00pm.  They smelled so good cooking in the pan on the stove.  They were coated with flour seasoned with salt, pepper and seasoned salt and then thrown in a hot pan with olive oil.  After browning the chops on both sides, you cover them with a whole cranberry sauce/balsamic vinegar mixture and cover with a lid.  Cook for about 10 minutes and you've got delicous pork chops!  The rice was a brown rice with dried cranberries.  Instead of boiling water you use chicken broth.  I wasn't really crazy about this dish so I didn't eat much of it.  I enjoyed the pork chops though I'd cut back on some of the balsamic vinegar next time.  Anyway, it was ok.  I'm glad I made some canned corn to go with it, because that got eaten up.  LOL  I guess this is one of those recipes that was great to try but we wouldn't make it again.  :(  Oh well!  You know we're going to get some of those.  If you like cranberries and balsamic vinegar you will love this recipe.  I suggest you try it. 

As you know by now, my children did not eat this meal.  Well, actually, Allie ate a pork chop and some rice.  The boys wouldn't even look at it much less eat it.  They are not the adventurous type that's for sure.  Jon made himself a pizza and Dylan is too busy recording his music to eat supper.  I imagine he'll crawl out of his room at some point and wolf down a bowl of cereal or some oatmeal.  Either way he'll live.  Tomorrow will be a new type of food for us as it is Greek.  Can't wait to try it!  Blessings and good eating!

MIA

Sorry peeps!!!  I have been Missing In Action since Thursday night because my hubby had knee surgery on Friday and kind of threw us all off our schedule.  Don't worry though, we've managed to toss down some grub in the meantime, but nothing too wonderful to post about.  We had bacon and eggs one night, sandwiches another night and tonight we had stuffed shells.  I will be back in full swing again tomorrow night with a wonderful meal of Cranberry Pork Chops with rice.  Stay tuned and thanks for not giving up on me!!!  I would love if you all would post about your meals.  I love to hear the variety of foods we all eat.  Blessings and good eating!  And by the way, in case you all were wondering my husband is doing fantastic!

Now that's a Sandwich!

Hello all you hungry peeps out there!!  Tonight's supper is not for the faint of stomach!  It is definitely a man-sized sandwich with a very tasty dressing.  The menu called for another spinach salad, but I just couldn't bring myself to make another one seeing as we haven't finished the last one!!  I opted for chips on the side of this mega-hero.  The name of this sandwich is the Italian Mufaletta.  I had the bread freshly made this morning at our commissary.  Thank you Miss Penny!  You carve the bread out like a bread bowl and layer it with the dressing made from chopped green olives, chopped black olives, minced garlic, shredded parmesan and Italian dressing.  Next comes the meat and cheese!!!  Oh yeah!!  Start with oven roasted turkey breast, provolone cheese, hard salami, swiss cheese and deli-fresh bologna. Spread more dressing on top and put the lid back on the bread.  Wow!!  It was almost too pretty to eat!!

I made a very light dessert to snack on after supper.  They are called Star Pastry Snacks.  They are star shaped cutouts of pie crust brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar and mini chocolate chips.  Light and yummy!  This was a very quick meal and satisfied our hunger and then some!  Make sure you are hungry before you sit down to this meal.  Of course this would be a  nice lunch or even a picnic meal.

Until I can get a new camera, please bear with the pictures.  I can't quite figure out what is wrong with the settings on my camera.  Hopefully you get the idea, but if you really want to know what it looks like......make it yourself!  And enjoy!  Have a wonderfully blessed day and keep on trying new things. Come back to dish up more tasty meals with me! Good eating!

My favorite meal

Hey there foodies!!!  I just finished eating my favorite meal in the whole wide world.  Well, ok, maybe not since I haven't finished tasting all the foods in the world, but for now this will do.  Tonight I'm dishin' up Monterey Barbecued Chicken and In-a-Flash beans.  I've had this kind of chicken at Chili's restaurant, but this one is better!  I used to call it smothered chicken, but now I know better.  In case you haven't heard of this delectable little dish, it is chicken breasts covered in bacon, green onions, tomoatoes, bbq sauce and topped with cheese.  Oh my!!!!!!  It is absolutely magnificent!!!!  Of course I had to make modifications for the kids.  Allie had bacon, bbq sauce and cheese on hers.  Jon just had the Bbq sauce and Dylan had a plain chicken breast.  Sad to say that Todd was not able to join me tonight for dinner.  He had to have an MRI done on his knee that took a while and then was supposed to go to a mess night at work, but didn't quite make it there either.  I'm sure he is noshing on the leftovers of the last two meals and enjoying himself just as much.  The beans were just canned pork and beans with bbq sauce, onion and green pepper stirred in and heated.  I added a little bit of bacon too since I had some leftover.  We are a bacon loving family as some of you already know!!! 

Again if this meal sounds good to you, you can find the recipes at tasteofhome.com.  This is a wonderfully down home bbq recipe that is just finger licking good!  I will save this recipe and make it many times in the years to come.  I hope you all have enjoyed your meal tonight or maybe I've given you an idea for supper.  Either way I wish you good cheer and many blessings!  Good eating!

Pizza anyone?

Happy Valentine's Day faithful followers!  In case you're wondering, I did not make a heart shaped pizza or any special Valentine's day treats.  I meant to, but I was just too busy today.  Here's what I did make though.  Tonight I was dishin' up Family Pleasing Pizza, Tangy Spinach Salad and Cake with Pineapple Pudding.  I'm not so sure how family pleasing the pizza was because only three of us ate it.  Jon bowed out again tonight opting to make a Hoagie instead.  Dylan only ate one piece, so again not sure what that means.  Todd had two slices and I only ate half of mine, but that was more because of my stomach than my taste buds.  I have to go easy on the gluten for the next couple days as I've been a bad girl here lately.  I did eat a slice of the angel food cake with the pineapple pudding though because it looked amazing!!  It tasted just as good as it looked too.  Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of the dessert.  The lighting was bad and then my batteries died in the camera.  Go figure!!!

Anyway, if you plan on making this pizza (the recipe is on the taste of home website), I would recommend baking the pizza about 5 minutes longer than the directions call for or making it on a pizza sheet instead of a 13x9" baking pan.  I like my crust crispy and this was not crispy.  It was more like a deep dish pan pizza.  I would also lighten up on the Italian seasoning sprinkled on top.  It was a little much.  Those would be my changes.  The salad though was awesome!!!  I will be eating more of that for lunch tomorrow!  Don't change a thing in that recipe!  It has chow mein noodles in it which was a nice little crunch of a surprise!  The tangy dressing was superb.  A real hit with me and I will be making that again in the near future.  So that's the dish for the night.  I hope you all enjoyed your special or not so special Valentine's dinners.  Sending love out to you!  Good eating!

My catfish adventure

Well, here I am and I'm alive!!!  Let me tell you first off that I DO NOT like fish or coleslaw and tonight I ate them both in the same meal.  All of my teens passed on this meal and fended for themselves.  I guess I can't blame them as I was a little hesitant to eat anything but the potatoes as well.  This afternoon I started with the coleslaw since it needed time to chill before suppertime.  I first tasted the raw cabbage and thought it wasn't too bad.  When I looked through the recipe and saw that it used white vinegar, my insides shook.  I detest vinegar and especially white vinegar!!!!!  I am committed to this adventure though and plunged ahead.  I tasted my dressing when I was finished it and was greatly surprised at how wonderful it was!!!  I quickly threw it into the cabbage and tossed it around.  I had to try this together!!!  One forkful, hmmmmmm not bad, led to three forkfuls and a quick run outside to share some with Todd.  He loved it too!!!  I almost got tears in my eyes!!!  I was eating coleslaw.........UNBELIEVABLE.

By the time I had to cook supper I was ready for this adventure.  I threw the potatoes in the microwave to steam and set about preparing my catfish fillets.  They had to be spread with mustard first (that was weird) and then coated with a cornmeal, flour mixture before throwing in the pan to fry.  What a beautiful crust was created!!!! It looked fantastic, but how would it taste to this non-seafood eater???  Well, of course, I made Todd eat some first.  I actually held my breath!  He looked up at me and smiled.  He liked it!!!!  Yippee!  Now it was my turn.  I took a very small bite and held it in my mouth for a minute.  I was so nervous!  I chewed and swallowed.  My verdict.... it was ok.  I ate half of my fillet without getting sick, so that's good.  I think I'll like fish more each time I eat it.  I was just thrilled that I didn't hate it and have to spit it out.  So I guess you could say the dinner was a success!  I topped off my meal with a square of Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate and a Bailey's and cream on the rocks.

The best part of the evening though was when my husband surprised me with an ensemble of freshwater pearls for Valentines day!!!!  A beautiful necklace, bracelet and two sets of earrings handcrafted from pearls found in Hawaii.  Simply amazing!!!  What a wonderful and surprising gift!!!  Not the usual chocolates and flowers and that makes me smile.  I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog tonight.  Tomorrow's supper is family pleasing pizza.  Stop back in tomorrow night to read about the next big adventure in my kitchen.  Good eating!

Zippy Paprika Chicken

Well day two of my little project and let me tell you how it went.  I had really been looking forward to making dinner all day just to see how it would turn out.  So here's the menu:  Zippy Paprika Chicken, Smashed Potatoes and Roasted Asparagus.  This meal took about a half hour to make and was very simple; that was a plus because I was worn out after my day of zumba, grocery shopping and laundry.  The Zippy Paprika chicken was a hit with my husband and myself.  The kids were not as excited about it.  Allie did eat it, but I'm not sure how she really felt about it; hard telling with her.  Jonathan said that the outside was a little too done for him; he's used to baked chicken not fried in a pan.  Dylan said it was too spicy for him.  The smashed potatoes were not enjoyed by either of the boys because the skins are left on when you smash them.  Total turnoff for them, but the three of us loved them!!!  That little dash of nutmeg in them was a nice little surprise!  Ah, we come to the unknown in this recipe.  I hadn't had asparagus in many, many years and couldn't remember if I liked it or not.  The children were petrified and Todd was just a little skeptical.  I can say that Allie ate all but the points and Jon said it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be but probably wouldn't be asking for it in the future.  Hahaha He's such a joker. Todd and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper in the oven and it was fabulous!!!!!

I have posted the picture as my profile pic so you can see how it looks plated.  Sorry again about not really being able to see it.  We only have white plates.  :(  Well, come back again to see how we fare with the next meal.  Good eating!

My first blog!

Hello there fellow bloggers.  I have just created my first blog!  I was inspired by the movie Julie and Julia and wanted to blog about the dishes I make for my very busy family.  My husband is a Sgt. Major in the Marine Corps and we have three teenage children.  Allie is age 17, Jonathan is 16 and Dylan is 14.  They all have very unique tastes when it comes to food, so cooking for them has become a challenge.  I usually have to modify my recipes in one way or another to suit their tastes. 

Anyway, my first endeavor tonight was making Portobello Roast Beef Hoagies, Pepperoncini Spinach Salad and Chocolate Cake with Coconut Sauce.  I must say I was a little nervous about this because some of the ingredients were unfamiliar to me.  I have never had horseradish before and was afraid of it, but when you smooth it out with sour cream it becomes a mild, spicy condiment that I really enjoyed.  I found my recipes in the Taste of Home quick cooking annual recipes book.  I am going to cook my way through this book as it seems fairly family friendly.  I hope you will try these recipes out and respond to my blogs. 

Let me know what you're cooking in your kitchen tonight!!!!  I'm really looking forward to my next meal which will be Zippy Paprika Chicken, Smashed Potatoes and Roasted Asparagus.  Stay tuned to see how this one turns out!