We got fed

Chicken and broccoli bake

Posted on November 29, 2011 by ben

Date: 11/21/2011

Recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/cheesy-chicken-and-broccoli-bake-recipe/index.html

Time to table: 30 minutes, 40 minutes cook time

Modifications: I used fresh broccoli instead of frozen broccoli. We absolutely did not use the disgusting product that is Velveeta, I used shredded cheddar instead.

Servings: 6 adult servings

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: Erin had wanted a dish with rice, but luckily this was still pretty good. I should have steamed the broccoli because the stuff in the middle of the pan wasn’t quite done all the way. The mixture also didn’t seem creamy enough when I first mixed it, but while cooking, enough moisture came out of the ingredients to make it more like a casserole. I’d make this again.

Posted in broccoli, cheese, chicken, stuffing | Comments Off

Slow cooker chicken tikka masala

Posted on November 17, 2011 by ben

Date: 11/15/2011

Recipe: http://smells-like-home.com/2011/11/slow-cooker-chicken-tikka-masala/

Time to table: 45 minutes, 6 hours cook time

Modifications: I didn’t use the jalapeno and we used half and half instead of heavy cream.

Servings: 6 adult servings

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: As mentioned earlier, Annie has been a picky eater lately, so her “like” is a relative measure. Erin and I both agreed that while we liked this dish, especially the flavor of the chicken and how tender it got, we probably wouldn’t make it again, just because it wasn’t THAT good. We’ve made chicken tikka masala before and we both liked that version better, though it was much more labor intensive.

If I WAS going to make this again, I would make much less sauce as it seemed almost like an Italian dish with all the red sauce.

Posted in chicken, cream, crockpot, garlic, ginger, onion, tomatoes, yogurt | Comments Off

White chicken chili

Posted on November 16, 2011 by ben

Date: 11/14/2011

Recipe: http://annies-eats.net/2008/09/25/white-bean-chicken-chili/

Time to table: 45 minutes

Modifications: I had some diced up bell pepper in the fridge that we added in with the onions, and and I also added a few cloves of garlic.

Servings: 4 adult meals, 1 toddler

Ben: Love

Erin: Love

Annie: Like

Notes: We made this for Annie’s 1st birthday party earlier this year and I’m SO glad that Erin reminded me of it, because it’s awesome. I was a little sad that there weren’t more leftovers, Erin and I both took it for lunch the next day and that was the end of it. Annie has not been eating well lately, so while I say “like”, take that with a grain of salt 🙂 It really just means she ate something, as opposed to nothing at all. She had a few good bites and picked out a lot of the chicken and beans.

This was probably right before she spilled this all over herself by messing around with the spoon and hitting her milk. Fun!

Posted in chicken, cilantro, cream, green chilies, onion, soup, sour cream, white beans | Comments Off

Smoked meatloaf with roasted sweet potatoes

Posted on November 15, 2011 by ben

Date: 11/9/2011

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

Sweet potato recipe: Source: Cook’s Illustrated

3	pounds sweet potatoes (about 6 medium), ends trimmed, peeled, rinsed, and cut into 3/4-inch thick rounds (see note)
1/4	cup packed light brown sugar
2	tablespoons apple juice
2	tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4	teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4	teaspoon ground ginger
1/8	teaspoon ground nutmeg
2	tablespoons vegetable oil
1	teaspoon table salt
	Ground black pepper

Instructions

Heat packed light brown sugar, apple juice, butter, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until butter has melted and sugar is dissolved, 2 to 4 minutes. Tosspotatoes in large bowl with oil, salt, and pepper to taste until evenly coated. Line 18- by 13-inch heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange potatoes in single layer on baking sheet and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Adjust oven rack to middle position and placepotatoes in cold oven. Turn oven to 425 degrees and cook potatoes 30 minutes.
Remove baking sheet from oven and carefully remove top layer of foil. Return potatoes to oven and cook until bottom edges of potatoes are golden brown, 15 to 25 minutes.
Remove baking sheet from oven and brush potatoes with half of glaze, flip slices over with thin metal spatula, and brush with remaining glaze. Continue to roast until bottom edges of potatoes are golden brown, 18 to 22 minutes longer. Remove from oven; let potatoes cool 5 to 10 minutes; transfer to platter and serve.

Time to table: 1.5 hours prep time, 5-6 hours cooking time

Modifications: I added 6 cloves of garlic to the meatloaf. Instead of hamburger we used 1lb ground turkey thigh and 1lb mild pork sausage. I used the pork rub that I used in the pulled pork we’ve made several times.

A note about the sweet potato recipe is that, in our case, it didn’t take nearly as long as they said to cook the potatoes. After the first 25 minutes they were done, but we had to cook them longer to cook the glaze, so you might be able to make the initial cook time shorter to save time.

Servings: 7 adult dinners

Ben: Love Love Love

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: My dad made this meatloaf over the summer when Annie and I were down at their place for dinner one day, and I knew I had to make it. I never really liked meatloaf growing up, but I’d never had meatloaf like this before. The smoky flavor combined with the pork rub and bbq sauce is amazing. I took the leftovers to work and made meatloaf sandwiches with cheese and sriracha and it was heavenly all over again.

We’ve had the sweet potatoes a couple times at Thanksgiving, from my brother-in-law Joe, so Erin whipped those up as a side dish. We had the neighbors over for dinner and there were still 4 slices for me to bring in for lunches.

I put the meatloaf on the smoker at 12:15 and by 5pm I still had 25 degrees to go, so I moved it to the oven to finish it off. The garlic still had a bit of a kick to it 🙂

Posted in bacon, celery, eggs, jalapeno, onion, pork, sweet potato, turkey | 1 Comment

Lentil Stew with Butternut Squash

Posted on November 11, 2011 by ben

Date: 11/8/2011

Recipe: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/lentil-stew-butternut-squash-recipes

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

Modifications: We used some sort of orange squash from our CSA, not sure what kind it was, but it was nearly identical to butternut squash inside. Looking over the recipe now I see that we forgot to add the parsley, whoops. Didn’t have any rosemary (and I wasn’t buying any for one recipe) so we used dried thyme and sage, like the song says.

Servings: 6 adult dinners

Ben: Like (surprisingly)

Erin: Like

Annie: Dislike, but had a few bites (turns out she likes it, but ONLY if she sees fresh grated parmesan on top before eating it)

Notes: I haven’t been a big fan of the lentil recipes we’ve tried in the past, so I wasn’t really looking forward to this, other than it used the squash we’ve had sitting around for a couple weeks. To my surprise and delight, this was actually pretty damn good! We topped it with copious amounts of parmesan cheese and I used sriracha in mine, and it was great. Ours turned out very thick, which is how we like soups anyways, so that worked out well.

Edited to add (from Erin): We gave this soup to Annie for leftovers last night – she took one look at it and got PISSED – saying “nooo” and pushing it away, then saying “cheese? cheese?” pointing at the kitchen (where she’d seen the cheese out earlier). I informed her that there was, in fact, cheese IN the soup, but that wasn’t good enough. She took a little break to have a meltdown about this fact in her room, then she came out and asked for cheese again. In the interest of her eating SOMETHING, we grated fresh parmesan on her soup so she could see it and didn’t mix it in. She then proceeded to eat the entire bowl and ask for more. TODDLERS!!!

Posted in celery, crockpot, lentils, one dish meal, onion, parsley, soup, squash, vegetarian | Comments Off

Corn & cheese chowder

Posted on November 10, 2011 by ben

Doesn’t look like much, but it’s fantastic.

Date: 11/7/2011

Recipe: http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/soups/corn-cheese-chowder/?print=1/#sizeFP

Time to table: 1 hour

Modifications: I added a couple stalks of diced celery because we had some for other meals this week.

Servings: 5 adult dinners

Ben: Love

Erin: Like/Love

Annie: Love

Notes: This was an awesome soup that I’ll definitely make again, ~~I can’t wait for the leftovers tomorrow for lunch~~ (We saved the leftovers for dinner tonight). We didn’t use bread bowls, but I can imagine that would be delicious. We had this for leftovers tonight and I made the mistake of crushing up some crackers in Annie’s bowl. She recognized the crackers and proceeded to pick the cracker pieces out and just eat those. Ugh.

Posted in bacon, celery, cheese, corn, cream, green onions, one dish meal, onion, red pepper, soup, triple love | 2 Comments

Stovetop macaroni and cheese

Posted on November 9, 2011 by erin

Date: 11/3/2011

Recipe: http://annies-eats.net/2011/10/27/creamy-stovetop-mac-and-cheese/

Time to table: 20 minutes

Modifications: Used whole wheat macaroni noodles. No other modifications.

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

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: We served this with roasted broccoli. This is quite rich, and we all liked it. I really liked the raw garlic and shallot – I thought it gave it a nice bite. I loved the gouda – I’m glad we splurged and got that instead of a cheaper cheese because I think it made a big difference in flavor. The broccoli was necessary for all of us to cut the richness a bit. As Annie mentions in her post, this reheats very well and was delicious for lunches.

Posted in cheese, garlic, milk, shallot, yogurt | Comments Off

Italian Spinach and Egg Soup

Posted on November 8, 2011 by ben

Date: 11/2/2011

Recipe: http://www.acouplecooks.com/2011/10/italian-spinach-and-egg-stracciatella-soup/

Time to table: 30 minutes

Modifications: I left the garlic in the soup, cause why not? 🙂

Servings: 2 adult dinners, 2 adult lunches

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: I actually liked this a lot better as leftovers when I was ~~hungover~~ under the weather, with some sriracha. I had this on both weekend days for lunch and it was delicious. We were surprised that Annie even got any of this in her mouth, but she seemed to enjoy it, and picked out the beans to eat specifically. This may have been because we showed her a cracker and put it in the soup… but whatever works.

Posted in cheese, eggs, garlic, one dish meal, soup, spinach, white beans | Comments Off

White bean soup with andouille and collards

Posted on October 30, 2011 by ben

Date: 10/28/2011

Recipe: http://www.erinsfoodfiles.com/2011/10/slow-cooker-white-bean-soup-with-andouille-and-collards.html

Time to table: 40 minutes prep, 6 hours cook time

Modifications: We used ground andouille sausage instead of links because that’s all we could get at the grocery store. Not a big difference. We also topped ours with parmesan and added some garlic. Looking at the recipe now, I also realize that I forgot to use the red wine vinegar, whoops.

Servings: 8 adult meals

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like/Dislike (didn’t eat it at dinner, but then ate some for lunch next day)

Notes: If we make this again I would saute the collard greens as the slow cooker doesn’t seem to soften them up enough. Other than that this was a tasty meal that gave us tons of leftovers for work lunches next week. It was a little spicy for Annie I think, when I gave it to her for lunch the next day I added some yogurt and that seemed to help.

Posted in andouille, celery, collard greens, garlic, one dish meal, onion, soup, white beans | 1 Comment

Winter Squash Stew with Indian Spices

Posted on October 28, 2011 by erin

Date: 10/24/2011

Recipe: http://www.erinsfoodfiles.com/2010/12/winter-squash-chicken-stew-with-indian-spices.html

Time to table: 20 minutes prep, 30 minutes simmering

Modifications: I don’t think I modified anything, except we never peel sweet potatoes. We added a dollop of plain greek yogurt at the end.

Servings: 6 adult meals

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like/Dislike (ate fine for one meal, did not eat one single bite the next night)

Notes: We had a few sweet potatoes we needed to use up, and a squash, so this worked perfectly. It seemed to take longer for the sweet potatoes to be done after the first simmer than indicated on the recipe – maybe 20 minutes. This is the first meal that I’ve made in awhile, and I was surprised that I was okay with making an Indian spiced dish given that was a major aversion of mine during my first pregnancy. This was quite good, but I wished we had some kind of carb to go with it – garlic naan would have been perfect.

Out of focus, but still cute.

Posted in chicken, cilantro, garlic, indian, one dish meal, squash, sweet potato, tomatoes | 1 Comment

Chicken and broccoli bake

Slow cooker chicken tikka masala

White chicken chili

Smoked meatloaf with roasted sweet potatoes

Lentil Stew with Butternut Squash

Corn & cheese chowder

Stovetop macaroni and cheese

Italian Spinach and Egg Soup

White bean soup with andouille and collards

Winter Squash Stew with Indian Spices

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