Food
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Scalloped Potatoes and Honey Mustard Grilled Chicken
I love a good side dish. Sometimes, more than the “main course”. For me, scalloped potatoes have the potential to trump any meat, any day. And while this honey mustard grilled chicken was really good, the scalloped potatoes were great. I’ve attempted these half a dozen times before, but never got it just right. All that practice paid off with these bad boys. Issues I’ve had before – not enough/the right cheese, potatoes not cooked through and overall too bland were solved with using parmesan cheese (and lots of it), cooking it at a high heat (425 degrees) and flavoring it with thyme and green onions. Viola. Awesome potatoes. Scalloped…
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Asian Pork Tenderloin with Lemon Ginger Rice and Sesame Green Beans
I’ve been cooking a lot this week, but haven’t had the time to post… so I’ll be trying to catch up this weekend. With Blake being home in the evenings now, I was able to come up with some new recipes. One of the dinners from this week was a grilled Asian pork tenderloin that I served over lemon jasmine rice with sesame green beans. It was a clean-your-plate kind of meal – delish! Asian Pork Tenderloin 1 package of 2 pork tenderloins (about 1 1/2 – 2 lbs total) 1/4 cup soy sauce 1/4 cup honey 1/4 cup olive oil 1 tbsp sesame oil 1 tbsp minced fresh ginger…
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Lemon and Herb Grilled Salmon
The beautiful weather yesterday had me dabbling into some Spring-ier recipes for dinner- Lemon and Herb Grilled Salmon, Carrot and Lentil Salad, Lemon Sautéed Spinach and some Olive Oil Herb Bread. All of these were new recipes and I’ll make all of them again… especially the salmon. All these dishes had a Mediterranean/Greek flare to them and there were a lot of shared ingredients. If I weren’t making the bread (which I rarely do, but it was so good I may do it more often), this could totally be done on a weeknight. But the bread required (according to the recipe) 4 hours of “rising” time, which I just did…
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Shepherd’s Pie
I am a meat and potatoes kind of girl, so Shepherd’s Pie is right up my alley. I grew up eating it and have made it dozens of times, but never before like this. This is the kind of Shepherd’s Pie I’ve enjoyed at authentic Irish pubs. And while I’m not knocking what I grew up on (which was ground beef, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes and cheese all served with ketchup), the Shepherd’s Pie I’ve been craving as of late is of the meat with gravy, peas and potatoes variety…. this Shepherd’s Pie. It took me about an hour to prepare (cooking time included). I served it with drop…
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Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
I’m pretty sure that spaghetti makes it on most people’s weekly dinner plan. Why? It’s easy. Even when it’s from scratch, it’s easy. I only recently started making my spaghetti sauce from scratch. I’m not against the jar – and truthfully, I keep a couple jars in the pantry in case I’m ever in a pinch – but I’ve come to like the taste of my homemade better. I timed myself tonight from start to finish and the sauce is truly a 30-minute meal. However, I forgot to get my water boiling for the pasta when I first started the sauce, so dinner was a little delayed. This recipe makes…
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(Homemade) Sloppy Joes
Sloppy Joes are just. so. good. They remind me of growing up and it’s simply one of those foods that tastes just as good as an adult. I first made these from scratch when I was having a major craving for SJ’s and didn’t have any Manwich on hand. Bummer. Or so I thought. I did a quick search online and came across a simple recipe with ingredients I had on hand (it’s been so long, I can’t remember the source). I’ve adapted it slightly over the years and am excited to share it! Sloppy Joes 1 lb ground beef 1/2 cup minced sweet onion (about 1 small onion) 1/4…
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What’s for Dinner? 4 Weeks of (different) Home-cooked Meals
What to cook for dinner… one of the most nagging questions of the day. Sometimes it’s the hardest thing about making dinner – simply figuring out what to cook. I’m one of those weird people who loves to plan out my meals, loves to go grocery shopping and then loves cooking the food. When I don’t take the time to plan, I find that I spend too much money at the grocery store and I end up wasting a lot of food throughout the week. But, when I make a plan and stick to it, I’m less stressed, I stay on budget and I find that I can actually cook (almost) every…
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Chicken Tetrazzini
I’m not sure I had ever actually had chicken tetrazzini until just recently. We had an assortment of pasta dishes at the shower I helped host this weekend, and one of the other hostesses put this dish on the menu. Ever since Saturday night I’ve had the itch to make it, and while I knew it would be ambitious for a week night meal, Blake was home tonight and so I thought what the heck. Totally worth it. This is a Giada De Laurentiis recipe. I stayed pretty true to the original, but due to some of the quantities I had on hand (and the fact that I messed up…
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Buttermilk French Toast with Strawberry Syrup
An upside to being in the midst of yet another winter storm… I’m home with my babies… and get to make them a big ole homemade breakfast. Breakfast just may be my favorite meal of the day. During the weekdays it’s a boring Greek yogurt and banana, but when I’m home, I love to do it up big! This morning, Brogan requested some strawberry syrup (just like Ihop, mommy). Okay. What to go with syrup… French Toast! Sounded good to Brogan so it was decided! As I started pulling out the ingredients, I was a little hesitant to use a lot of my milk (because we’ll likely be iced in…
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One Pot Stovetop Chicken and Yellow Rice
Ever since I started avoiding MSG in my food, yellow rice has pretty much been off limits. But my favorite variety of chicken and rice is chicken and yellow rice. So I decided to try to make it from scratch, which required me to work with a foreign ingredient – saffron. I was very proud of my small-town Publix for actually carrying it (in the ethnic section near the Spanish and Mexican foods). I made a “saffron tea” with some of the chicken stock, and it worked like a charm – yellow rice the natural way. This turned out really good and was exactly what I’ve been craving. If I…
