We got fed Rotating Header Image

carrot

Meatloaf with broccoli and mashed potatoes

Jan 27th, 2012
by ben.
No comments yet

Meatloaf, broccoli and potatoes

Date: 1/24/2012

Meatloaf recipe: http://kickassbbq.com/smoked_meat_loaf.html

Broccoli recipe: 1 head of broccoli tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. Roast at 425 for 20 minutes.

Mashed potatoes recipe: Quarter the potatoes and boil them until soft, mash with butter, sour cream, and cream.

Modifications: We used turkey thigh instead of beef, and added garlic, shredded carrot, and only used 4 strips of bacon.

UPDATE 4/30/12: Made this again last night and wanted to document what I thought was a winning combination of ingredients:

  • 2 lbs ground turkey thigh
  • 1/2 large onion, diced
  • 2 stalks of celery, diced
  • 1/2 carrot, shredded
  • 1 jalapeno, diced
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 egg
  • 2 T bbq rub
  • 1/4 cup bbq sauce
  • 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
  • 6 slices bacon, cooked and chopped

Time to table: 30 minutes meatloaf prep, 90 minutes meatloaf grilling time. I made the broccoli and potatoes while the meatloaf was grilling.

Servings: 2 adults, 1 toddler, and several lunchs of leftover meatloaf

Ben: LOVE

Erin: Love

Annie: Love

Notes: This was simply amazing. We made this meatloaf before using the smoker, not the grill, but this time was tremendously better. I was surprised at how tasty the turkey thighs were, and the grill cooked the garlic more than the smoker did, so it turned out better. Annie surprisingly loved the broccoli tonight and continued to ask for more off of Erin’s plate. Everything came together great in this meal, AND I timed everything perfectly so that it was all hot when we ate it. I’m pretty great, if you ask me.

Meatloaf

Chicken wild rice soup and honey yeast rolls

Jan 17th, 2012
by erin.
No comments yet

Chicken Wild Rice Soup and Honey Yeast Rolls

Date: 1/15/2012

Recipe:

Soup: Ingredients:

  • Approximately 7 cups water, 6 tablespoons of “better than bouillion” vegetable broth mix
  • 2 cups finely chopped celery (when we have extra celery, we chop and blanch and freeze in 2 cup portions to have on hand for soups – so one of those bags went in here)
  • 1 carrot, shredded
  • Half an onion, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
  • 3 cups cooked wild rice
  • 1 pound cooked chicken thighs, cubed
Directions:
  • In a large saucepan, combine the first nine ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 minutes. (We did this part while cooking the wild rice)
  • In Dutch oven, melt butter; stir in flour until smooth. Gradually whisk in broth mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Add mushroom soup, rice and chicken; heat through. 

Adapted from:  http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Chicken-Wild-Rice-Soup

Rolls: http://annies-eats.com/2008/10/29/honey-yeast-rolls/

Modifications: The soup recipe was pretty heavily modified, which is why I posted what we did. I followed all instructions on the rolls, but it didn’t take 2 hours for my dough to double.

Time to table: Soup took about an hour total, because the wild rice takes 45 minutes to cook – but since we combined that with the first step of the soup (simmering for 30 minutes) it wasn’t so bad. Rolls take about 3 hours including all rising time, maybe 30 minutes of active prep time total.

Servings: The 3 of us ate this for dinner, and then froze another dinner portion for all of us. There was enough after that still for one lunch and one toddler dinner. Probably would feed 6 adults. The rolls make 10-12.

Ben: Love

Erin: Love

Annie: Love

Notes: I feel like we need a special category for these rare (but happened twice in a week!) triple LOVE meals. So I am making one, and calling it “triple love” (some are amended from my feelings on a meal during the first trimester of pregnancy. Another note – apparently we mostly love soup). I was VERY skeptical that this would live up to restaurant quality soup, but wow, it definitely did! This soup was absolutely delicious, and paired with fresh baked rolls? Can’t get much better than that on a cold January night! When Annie even chooses to eat the soup after eating an entire roll, you know it’s good. She eats so much better on weekends it’s ridiculous – the big difference being that we don’t give her snacks in the afternoon on weekends – shockingly that results in her actually eating dinner! Anyway, this meal was definitely a winner all around. Kind of surprising for us given the lack of cheese and cream involved!

Chicken Wild Rice Soup

Honey Yeast Rolls

Annie eating soup and bread

Curried lentil and sweet potato soup

Jan 11th, 2012
by ben.
No comments yet

Curried Sweet Potato Lentil Soup

Date: 1/8/2012

Recipe: http://denueva.blogspot.com/2011/11/curried-lentil-and-sweet-potato-soup.html

Modifications: I forgot to add the diced bell pepper, whoops. Nicki forgot the carrots, so between the two of us we have a full meal :) We also used the immersion blender to thicken the soup up. It’s easier for Annie to eat and Erin and I prefer blended soups. I also didn’t put nearly as much liquid as it called for (4-5 cups was what we used) – it could have used more probably, especially after eating the leftovers which thicken up considerably, but the batch would have been HUGE if we had added the full 8 cups it called for.

Time to table: 1 hour

Servings: 6 adults

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: This was a very easy recipe to make and had enough leftovers to make a second dinner out of, which is always a win in my book. We say Annie “liked” this meal, but the threshold for her to like something has gone way down as she seems to be getting pickier about the food we serve her, which is not cool. “Like” in this case means that she ate a few (5 or so) bites voluntarily and dipped her bread it in before announcing she was all done and wanted fruit.

Curried Sweet Potato Lentil Soup

Sloppy Joes

Jan 6th, 2012
by ben.
1 comment

Sloppy Joes

Date: 12/19/2011

Recipe: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/sloppy_joes/

Modifications: Much to Erin’s chagrin I used half ground beef and half ground pork, because I like pork. She was not a fan of this mod.

Time to table: 30 minutes

Servings: 4 adults

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: A bit of a delay on this post, so I don’t really have much to say about it. I liked this and would make it again in favor of the “not so sloppy joe” mix that Erin likes. I liked that this had some vegetables in it.

Annie eating sloppy joes

Sloppy Joes

Crockpot Potato Pork Hotdish

Dec 18th, 2011
by ben.
No comments yet

Crockpot casserole

Date: 12/8/2011

Recipe:
1 lb (16 oz) ground pork
2 cupd sliced raw potatoes
1 & 1/2 cups sliced carrots
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen whole kernel corn
10 oz can tomato soup
1/2 cup water
1 tsp. dried parsley flakes
Salt and Pepper to taste

in a large skillet brown meat, onion, and celery. In a slow crockpot container – sprayed with cooking spray – combine meat mixture, potatoes, carrots, peas, and corn. Stir in tomato soup, water, parsley flakes, salt, and pepper. Mixed well. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

Time to table: 30 minutes prep, 6-8 hours cook time

Modifications: No modifications really, but I didn’t really measure out any of the vegetables, I just added what seemed like an appropriate amount.

Servings: 6 adult servings

Ben: Love

Erin: Like

Annie: Dislike

Notes: We got this recipe from our neighbor Molly. I thought this was excellent and a great dish for weeknights as its quick enough to throw together before leaving for work in the morning and is reasonably healthy. Erin liked it fine, but wanted some sort of starch or carb to go with it next time. Annie had maybe a single bite. One of those nights.

Crockpot casserole

Fried rice

Sep 29th, 2011
by ben.
No comments yet

Fried Rice

Date: 9/20/2011

Recipe:

  • 1.5 cups dry rice (cooked a day ahead and refrigerated)
  • 3 T oil
  • 1 T toasted sesame oil
  • 1 T soy sauce
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 1/3 lb shredded chicken or pork
  • 1 c. frozen carrots/peas mix
  • 3 cloves garlic, diced
Heat the oil in a skillet and dump in the cold rice. Cook the rice for a few minutes in the oil, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, peas/carrots mix, shredded meat and stir to combine. Drizzle the tablespoon of toasted sesame oil and soy sauce over the rice mixture and stir to combine. Let the rice cook for a few more minutes to cook the peas/carrots and garlic.
Meanwhile, scramble the eggs as you like them in a separate pan. When the eggs are done and the rice mix is hot, stir the eggs into the rice mix.

Time to table: 20 minutes

Servings: 2 adult dinners, 2 adult lunches, 1 toddler dinner

Ben: Love

Erin: Like

Annie: Dislike

Notes: For some reason, Annie wouldn’t even LOOK at this dish tonight. She was excited to get into her chair, as usual, took one look at the food and looked away in disgust. Ok then, kid. [Note from Erin: Ben seems to forget that the culprit of Annie not liking this MAY have been her puking the day prior and still being a bit wary around food. She's eaten this before just fine - not devouring it but she'll eat it] I like making fried rice because it’s another dish where you can use whatever you happen to have on hand, we’ve used onions, green onions, celery, and sweet potato as some examples. I also used to add some spice to give it some flavor, but since Erin doesn’t like any, I’ve just taken to doctoring mine with sriracha after the fact.

Annie does not want fried rice

Broccoli and carrot orzo

Aug 4th, 2011
by ben.
No comments yet

Orzo with chicken, broccoli and carrots

Date: August 2nd, 2011

Recipe: http://weelicious.com/2011/03/08/carrot-broccoli-cheese-orzo/

Modifications: I probably used more cheese than called for, but I wasn’t measuring. We also added some chicken pieces.

Time to table: 20 minutes with premade chicken

Servings: 3 adults, 1 toddler

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: This meal was a great way to sneak in some veggies that Annie actually seemed to like, the copious amounts of cheese doesn’t hurt :) As you make this dish, you don’t get too excited for it, but it is surprisingly flavorful and incredibly easy to make, a big win!

Annie eating orzo

Salad with smoked chicken

Jul 20th, 2011
by ben.
No comments yet

Salad

Date: July 16th, 2011

Recipe:

  • 8 large lettuce leaves, chopped
  • 0.5 lb cut up chicken
  • 2 carrots grated
  • 3 green onions, diced
  • 0.5 cup grated cheddar cheese

This one is pretty easy, just take all of the ingredients, mix them together. Add your favorite salad dressing and toss to combine.

Time to table: 15 minutes

Servings: 2 adults

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Notes: This was made with the remaining smoked chicken. The other ingredients were from our CSA box we got on Thursday, it’s always a little daunting when you unpack the CSA box and you have a fridge full of produce that needs to get used in a timely fashion; salads are a great way to use it  up.

Pasta bolognese

Jul 17th, 2011
by ben.
No comments yet

Pasta bolognese

Date: July 14th, 2011

Recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/spaghetti-bolognese-recipe/index.html

Modifications: I reversed the amounts of meat: 1 lb ground pork and 0.5 lb ground beef, just cause I like pork better. I also threw in some basil that we had and needed to use up. The directions say to simmer for 1.5 hours, but I liked the consistency after 45-50 minutes, so we went with that.

Time to table: 2 hours, over half the time is just simmering.

Servings: Probably had enough for 6 adults

Ben: Love

Erin: Like

Annie: Love

Notes: This sauce was absolutely delicious. The butter and cream at the end just make it that much richer. At no point in the directions does it say to drain the fat from the bacon, beef, or pork, so this is an extremely savory dish. Annie seemed to like the food very much, but also seemed interested in playing so she didn’t take it down like other dishes she loves. We froze the leftovers because we already have plenty of other leftovers that need to get eaten and I didn’t want this to be wasted.

Pasta bolognese

Annie digging in

Pasta bolognese

Early stages with the bacon (and bacon grease!) and veggies for our base

Pasta bolognese

Finished sauce

Chicken stir fry

Jul 8th, 2011
by ben.
No comments yet

Stir fry

Date: June 30th, 2011

Recipe:

  • 4 cups napa cabbage, chopped
  • 3 carrots, sliced on the bias
  • 2 cups snow pea pods, cut in half
  • 1 lb chicken thighs, sliced thin
  • 2 cups rice
  • stir fry sauce

Sautee the chicken in oil under nearly done and remove to a bowl. Sautee the carrots until soft, 7-10 minutes, add the snow peas and cabbage for a few minutes, until the cabbage is wilted. Add the chicken back in with enough stir fry sauce to cover everything. Cook until the chicken is hot again. Serve over the rice.

Time to table: 1 hour

Servings: 4 adults, 1 toddler

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: I should have put a ton of garlic in here, that was an oversight on my part. I think making your own stir fry sauce would be good as well, we just used the store bought stuff this time.

Stir fry

← Earlier Posts