We got fed

Spaghetti Pie

Posted on February 6, 2012 by erin

Date: 1/26/2012

Recipe: http://weelicious.com/2010/08/31/spaghetti-pie/

Modifications: We used ground beef, and added chopped spinach to the sauce mixture. I also baked this in a cake pan instead of a pie pan and it was FULL.

Time to table: 30 minutes prep, 30 minutes bake time

Servings: 6 adults

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: Our neighbors are big fans of this meal so I’ve wanted to try it out – I think it could have just used more sauce because the noodles got a bit dry. We made quite a big batch of the tomato sauce recipe linked in the post, so we had extra.

Examining the mess on her hands

Posted in cheese, eggs, ground beef, one dish meal, onion, parmesan, ricotta cheese, spinach, tomatoes | Comments Off

Meatloaf with broccoli and mashed potatoes

Posted on January 27, 2012 by ben

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.

Posted in bacon, broccoli, carrot, garlic, jalapeno, onion, potato, triple love, turkey | 1 Comment

Crockpot chicken and veggies

Posted on January 26, 2012 by ben

Date: 1/18/2012

Recipe: http://mamaandbabylove.com/2011/04/05/freezer-cooking-with-slow-cooker-recipes/

Modifications: We halved the amount of chicken from 2lbs to 1lb, just because it seemed like a lot of chicken.

Time to table: 30 minutes prep, 8 hours crockpot

Servings: 2 adults, 1 toddler

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Dislike

Notes: This dish was meh. The original recipe calls it “barbecue” chicken, but I hesitate to use that word because it doesn’t taste like barbecue at all. We found this recipe to be oddly bland, and when we make it again we’ll for sure add more spices and salt to it. We have another bag of this in the freezer that we’ll most likely use when Erin is on maternity leave in a couple months. I DO like this method of prepping dishes though, as all you need to do is chop your vegetables, mix everything together, and freeze it – no cooking at all. We’re going to try this method with chili and see how it goes.

Annie was in a MOOD tonight and had none of this.

Posted in chicken, crockpot, ginger, green pepper, one dish meal, onion, red pepper, sweet potato, tomatoes, zucchini | 1 Comment

Tortilla and Black Bean Pie

Posted on January 18, 2012 by erin

Date: 1/17/2012

Recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/336692/tortilla-and-black-bean-pie (I also made this before WAY back in the day right after I’d started my blog)

Modifications: Used whole wheat tortillas – and the ones we got (Mission 100% whole wheat “soft taco”) were EXACTLY the perfect size for my 9” springform pan so that was awesome. I used water instead of beer – I’m sure the alcohol cooks off, but it feels weird cooking with any alcohol for a pregnant woman and a toddler… so yeah, just water. I added some additional seasoning – Penzey’s Adobo seasoning. Also added a chopped green pepper to the onion/garlic/jalapeno mix to up the veggie content.

Time to table: 30 minutes active, 20 minutes baking

Servings: 6 adults

Ben: Love (with the addition of a fried egg for him)

Erin: Love

Annie: Love

Notes: We are on a ROLL with the triple love meals over here! I knew this one would be a hit – we have loved it all the other times we’ve made it and this was no exception. I forgot to add sour cream and salsa to mine but it was still quite good even without that. We even had this on a weeknight and Annie devoured it – proving that it’s a keeper!

Ben’s serving topped with fried egg

After I took a photo of my dish, Annie held hers out for similar treatment 🙂

Posted in beer, black beans, cheese, corn, garlic, green onions, green pepper, jalapeno, Mexican, one dish meal, triple love, vegetarian | Comments Off

Chicken wild rice soup and honey yeast rolls

Posted on January 17, 2012 by erin

Date: 1/15/2012

Recipe:

Soup: Ingredients:

Approximately 7 cups water, 2 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)
2 carrots, shredded
1 onion, chopped
0.5 T dried parsley flakes
1 T garlic powder
0.5 T 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, add everything up to the butter. 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!

Posted in bread, carrot, celery, chicken, eggs, onion, soup, triple love, wild rice | 1 Comment

Muffaletta sandwiches

Posted on January 16, 2012 by ben

Date: 1/16/2012

Recipe: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/09/dinner-tonight-muffaletta-sandwich.html

Modifications: I didn’t use olives in the “olive salad”, which probably makes this not authentic but I don’t really care. Neither Erin nor I like olives. I also did not use the mortadella, because that is always the stuff that looks so gross at the deli case.

Time to table: 15 minutes prep, 3 hours waiting time.

Servings: 3 adults

Ben: Love

Erin: Love

Annie: Like

Notes: I came by this recipe when Bill posted about their muffaletta experience a few months ago. I drooled over his picture for a long time before finally getting around to trying it ourselves and this was a fantastic sandwich. I wish I would have used more oil in our olive salad so that more would have soaked into the bread. Annie promptly took hers apart and ate just the meat and cheese first before going after the bread.

Posted in bread, celery, cheese, ham, red pepper, salami, shallot | 3 Comments

Classic Pizza

Posted on January 15, 2012 by erin

Date: 1/13/2012

Recipe: Pizza sauce: http://lizscookingblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/prosciutto-and-arugula-pizza.html

Pizza dough: http://annies-eats.com/2010/04/29/perfect-homemade-pizza-crust-tips-and-tricks/

Toppings: sauteed onions, green peppers (I sauteed them because I prefer them that way and it’s easier for Annie to eat but some prefer them raw and crunchier), mozzarella cheese and pepperoni

Modifications: No modifications from either recipe linked – we have used both before several times – this is my go-to pizza dough and sauce recipe and you can modify the toppings to your heart’s content. I probably should have added a bit more cheese to this version.

Time to table: Since the dough and sauce were prepped beforehand, about 15 minutes of actual prep. The pizza dough takes 1.5 hours to rise whenever you make it, and it’s cooked at 500 so however long your oven takes to preheat to that temperature.

Servings: 3 adults, 1 toddler

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: The past few months, we’ve had takeout or delivery pizza far too much (partially because we left our pizza stone at a rental cabin and needed to replace it – thanks Mom & Dad for the Christmas present!), and I’ve gotten used to that – sadly, my own versions just don’t quite cut it for some reason. I do love this pizza and will certainly make it again, but it’s just not the same as delivery. Not enough grease I guess 🙂

Half cut in squares for Ben and Annie, half in triangles for me 🙂

Posted in cheese, one dish meal, onion, pizza, tomatoes | 2 Comments

Crock pot jambalaya

Posted on January 12, 2012 by ben

Date: 1/9/2012

Recipe: From Delicious & Dependable Slow Cooker Recipes, Judith Finlayson

1 lb Italian sausage

2 onions, finely chopped

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped

2 tsp Cajun seasoning

1 tsp dried chopped oregano

1/ tsp cracked black peppercorns

1 cup pearl barely, thoroughly rinsed under cold running water

1 28 oz can coarsely chopped tomatoes, including liquid

3 cups chicken stock

8 oz medium shrimp, cooked, peeled and deveined

1 roasted red pepper, finely chopped

In a nonstick skillet, cook sausage over medium-high heat, breaking up with a spoon until no longer pink. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to slow cooker stoneware. Drain all but 1 Tbsp of fat from pan. Reduce hear to medium.

Add onions to pan and cook, stirring, until softened. Add garlic, chili pepper, Cajun seasoning, oregano, salt, and peppercorns, stirring for one minute. Add barely and stir well. Add tomatoes and chicken stock and bring to a boil.

Pour mixture over sausage and stir. Cover and cook on LOW 6-8 hours or HIG 3-4 hours. Add shrimp and roasted red pepper. Cover and cook on HIGH for 20 minutes, until shrimp is heated through.

Time to table: 45 minutes prep, 8 hours cook time

Servings: 6 adults

Ben: Love

Erin: Love

Annie: Love

Notes: We made this recipe a couple years ago, but it seemed different and I think we both liked it way more this time for some reason. Annie very much enjoyed this, unless a piece of shrimp got anywhere near her mouth. That went right back in the bowl. She also enjoyed the pear she had for dessert.

Posted in barley, crockpot, garlic, italian sausage, jalapeno, one dish meal, onion, red pepper, shrimp, tomatoes, triple love | Comments Off

Curried lentil and sweet potato soup

Posted on January 11, 2012 by ben

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.

Posted in carrot, cilantro, coconut milk, garlic, ginger, jalapeno, lentils, lime, one dish meal, onion, soup, sweet potato, vegetarian | Comments Off

Sloppy Joes

Posted on January 6, 2012 by ben

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.

Posted in bread, carrot, celery, garlic, ground beef, onion, pork | 1 Comment

Spaghetti Pie

Meatloaf with broccoli and mashed potatoes

Crockpot chicken and veggies

Tortilla and Black Bean Pie

Chicken wild rice soup and honey yeast rolls

Muffaletta sandwiches

Classic Pizza

Crock pot jambalaya

Curried lentil and sweet potato soup

Sloppy Joes

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