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Green Bean Casserole (Gluten Free!)
Green bean casserole has always been one of my favorites on Thanksgiving. Fun fact – it was also the topic of my informative speech during public speaking class in college – how to make a green bean casserole – ha! But once I started getting funny about cream of whatever soups (trying to avoid MSG), I thought my relationship with green bean casserole was over. Until I found Alton Brown’s Best Ever Green Bean Casserole, that is. What I love most about his recipe is the homemade cream of mushroom sauce that makes the casserole. I’ve made this several times, first exactly as he wrote it, then I tweaked it…
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How to cook a weeknight meal
Hot off Jen Hatmaker’s Of Mess and Moxie, thought I’d give my own “How To” a whirl! How to cook a weeknight meal in 1 hour and 53 minutes and 36 easy steps… Meal plan while hungry and decide to make a Greek dinner – grilled chicken and your fav orzo salad will do Overlook the fact that the orzo salad requires a TON of chopping – you like chopping! When it’s time to cook, get out ALL your ingredients and your printed recipe! You’re ready to go! Stop to get child a glass of milk. Start marinating your chicken, then boiling your water and chopping your veggies. Half way…
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Mushroom Stroganoff
We’ve been trying something new in the kitchen lately – adding some vegetarian dishes to the dinner rotation. And the craziest part of this menu modification is that it was my husband’s idea [gasp!]. The meat eater of all meat eaters actually suggested that we add some vegetarian meals to the line up (thank you Netflix and the documentary Cowspiracy). While I love meat, I like to mix it up and so I saw this as an opportunity to try out some new recipes. Yay! So let me introduce you to Mushroom Stroganoff. This dish is ahh-mazing. I’ve always been a stroganoff fan, but mine had always had beef. I…
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My Thanksgiving All-Stars
I typically spend my Thanksgivings alternating between my grandma’s house and Blake’s family. And so while I haven’t hosted turkey day at my home but once or twice, I’m usually making half a dozen sides to contribute to the meal and so I’ve acquired my favs over the years. My office also has an annual Thanksgiving lunch, and so I get another opportunity to try new recipes and perfect the tried and true. Ever since I began eating cleaner and cutting out all the “cream of whatever” soups, I’ve been on a quest to find recipes that are just as flavorful, but truly made from scratch. So far so good. I’m…
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Crispy Belgium Waffles
I love waffles, but admittedly it’s more often than not the frozen variety. It’s something about the crispiness of a waffle right out of the toaster where you can spread your butter and get a little bit in every square. I just love it. And since I like to cook from scratch, I decided that I needed a waffle iron in my kitchen arsenal and I sought out to make homemade waffles. However, instead of my homemade version far surpassing the instant option, my waffles were a little lackluster – they were too sweet and worst of all, they were soggy. Such a bummer. So the other day I was home…
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Chocolate Mint Cake with Fresh Mint Buttercream Frosting
I spent the better part of my day in the kitchen today – but some really yummy things came out of it, and so it was work well worth it! I tried two new recipes – this chocolate mint cake and chicken parmesan casserole (I’ll post that next). They both turned out so, so good! This spring, I decided to grow some “easy” herbs – basil, rosemary and mint. So far, so good – it’s all still alive! Until today, I hadn’t used any of the mint and so I’ve been searching for something to do with it. My love for Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies made me naturally think of…
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Tuna Casserole
I feel like folks either love or hate tuna casserole… I love it. Turns out my little guys love it too. This is a pretty easy weeknight recipe… it took me a little over 45 minutes, but 30 minutes of that was “casserole in oven” time. It’s pretty classic comfort food, from scratch. Hope you enjoy! Tuna Casserole 12 ozs egg noodles (I used medium width) 4 tbsp butter 1 medium onion, diced 8 ozs mushrooms, sliced 1 tsp minced garlic 1 tsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper 1/4 cup flour 1/2 cup chicken stock 1 1/2 cup half and half 1/4 cup parmesan cheese 1 cup frozen peas 2 cans…
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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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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…
