Menu Jan 14

This week I actually started out in some cookbooks - and old ones I never use too. I guess I just had them before I became more adventurous. I started this whole eating lots of different food with recipe magazines that had pictures of everything I was trying. Only recently have I started to just go through cookbooks without pictures and try recipes.

Tossed Macaroni - My kitchenaid mixer recipe book - I never use this. Hope it's good. peas
Chicken Noodle Amandine - also from the kitchenaid mixer book both are page 74 green beans
Hamburger corn bake - Betty Crocker cookbook -never use this either- page 245
Sausage and corn Bread - Betty Crocker cookbook page 260
Mongolian beef from your homebased mom's website (supposed to be like PF Changs) broccoli
Oven-fried chicken Monterey -Betty Crocker cookbook page 297 salad

I was going to be done, but in looking for a fish meal, I found this that I will just add on for next week. OK, maybe there will be more than one.
layered enchilada casserole (beef)- saving dinner p 92 corn or green beans)
Turkey with apples and cheddar-saving dinner p. 93 (sweet potato)
Apricot fish - saving dinner p. 91 (zucchini)





When I pulled out my Lakes ward cookbook to look at dinner recipes I changed my mind, but in closing the book I accidentally saw a recipe for Chocolate Waffle cookies - page 80 - They sound too interesting not to try.

Confetti Chili

Here I am posting while dinner cooks again so I can remember what I did to change it up. This recipe came from recipe girl, but I didn't want to use a chipolte because the ones I had were super spicy for some reason, so no one would want dinner tonight. Since I'd like my kids to eat, I cut out the chipolte, upped the cumin, added chili powder... I also didn't want this to take over an hour, so I adapted it to take only 30 minutes. I did totally forget to take a picture, and I forgot to add the corn at the end. Oops. It looked like any number of things. In fact, it looked like the previous post so much in pictures that I didn't make it for a few days not wanting to repeat myself. It tasted plenty different though. I was really pleased with the flavor considering all of the flavor changes I made. I really liked it. I served it with some corn bread, but it didn't get done until after we were done eating.


Ingredients

• ½ Tbs olive oil
• 1 small onion, diced (1 cup) (I used 1/2 a medium)
• 1 medium red bell pepper, seeded & diced (1 cup)
• 1 medium carrot, diced (½ cup)- I used 2 rather small
• 1 Tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 lb lean ground beef (I usually use sirloin because it is lean and has a good flavor.)
  
• One 28oz. can crushed tomatoes, with their juices
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 15.5oz. can black beans
• 1 15.5oz. can kidney beans
• 1½ cups frozen corn kernels
• salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. I diced all my veggies in the food processor, so they were tiny pieces. Heat oil in large pot over Saute onion, bell pepper and carrot for 5 minutes. Add cumin and coriander and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Add ground beef - I used pre-cooked, so defrosted it while veggies were sauteing, then added it and went right on. If not using pre-cooked, you would cook it now. Stir in tomatoes, chili powder, oregano and beans; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.

2.Stir in the corn and cook until heated through. Season with salt & pepper and serve.

You can see the original recipe at: http://www.recipegirl.com/2007/02/23/confetti-chili/#ixzz0cXThhemi

Vegetable-beef-barley soup

This recipe is from an old magazine - pillsbury I think, but the cover is now missing. I doubled the recipe, added more veggies, and used regular barley (original called for quick cook.) I didn't mind cooking it for 3 times as long because I wanted the veggies to be more tender anyway. I was afraid it would need more flavor - almost added some spices, but it was fine without them. DH added Hot pepper sauce, but he regularly does that to soup. This is the way I made it.



Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef (I used pre-cooked)
• 2 14.5 oz cans stewed tomatoes
• 2 14 oz. beef broth
• 2 8 oz cans tomato sauce
• 1 bag (1 lb) frozen mixed vegetables
• 2/3 cup barley

Directions

1. cook and drain ground beef unless using pre-cooked - then thaw for 2 minutes and put in saucepan.
2. Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat to medium; cover and cook 40-50 minutes, stirring occasionally, until veggies and barley are tender.
   

Fish tacos, Lime Rice, and Tomatillo ranch dressing

These are all recipes ideas from The Food Nanny Rescues dinner, but we changed things up like we usually do. We had these a while back. I'm really slow in posting this. It was good, but I think I would have liked a little bit more flavor on the fish. I'm used to tacos made with taco seasoning. Once I added taco sauce to my second taco it was much better.



Fish Tacos

This is just a super general recipe. I'll list what we did - it is nothing like what the book did. We used different fish, and broiled it rather than pan fried it.

Ingredients

• 1 -1 1/2 lbs Orange Roughy
• Tortillas - I'd like to have used corn, but sent DH to the store and we had the premade dough that you cook. It was good.
• Whatever you want to put on top. We had avacado, shredded cabbage, diced tomatoes, tomatillo ranch, taco or hot sauce (depending on who you were)

Directions
Broil orange roughy for 6 minutes. Shred. Top tortillas with desired toppings.

Lime Rice

Ingredients

• 2 cups long-grain white rice
• 4 cups chicken stock
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin

Directions

Combine ingredients in a rice cooker and cook.
This recipe is similar to the recipe in the book. I just doubled it, used chicken stock rather than broth, and cut out the salt since I felt there was plenty in the stock. It was ok, but I prefer the lime rice we make for Karley's pork.

Tomatillo Ranch

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 Tablespoon lime juice
• 1 Tablespoon cilantro
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon minced onion
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tomatillos

Directions
Mix all the ingredients in a blender.

This was basically the recipe for homemade ranch dressing, but we added the tomatillos. I wanted to see how it tasted without the tomatillos because I had never made my own dressing, so I tried it before adding the tomatillos. It was very thick like that. (tasted fine, just reminded me more of a ranch dip than a dressing.) When I added the tomatillo, it made it more of a consistency that I wanted. It was good, but I probably also prefer the tomatillo ranch with Karley's pork.

Baked sweet potatoes and pork chops

This recipe came from the saving dinner book. It was meant to be a freezer meal, but I didn't make it as a freezer meal. It wasn't my favorite. The flavor was good, I liked the pineapple with the syrup and cinnamon, and sweet potatoes, but I wasn't a fan of the sweet potatoes being mashed. I think it may be better with diced sweet potatoes on top. The potatoes on top were not to watery, but the stuff on the bottom were way to watery, and that is where the flavor was. I wouldn't try it again unless I did something different like dice the sweet potatoes.



Ingredients:

• 2 cups mashed sweet potatoes (I used more like 3 - 2 didn't cover it, and I had made more than that.)
• 6 boneless loin pork chops
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 8 ounce can crushed pineapple
• 3 Tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions.

1. Preheat oven to 350. Place all ingredients except sweet potatoes in a zip-top bag and mix. Place in the bottom of a 9 X 13 pan. Top with sweet potatoes. Bake for 30 minutes or until pork chops are cooked through.
   

Slow cooked sweet and sour pork

This is a recipe I found in the Taste of Home Slow cooker recipe book. The first day we ate it I thought the Paprika was a little strong, but when I had it for left overs, I thought it was great. I wish I would have written down what I did the day I made it because I 1 1/3 - 1 2/3 timesed the recipe. Hopefully I'll remember ok. I'll just write the originally recipe amounts, then put what I think or know I used next to it. The recipe was quite good. The pork was nice and tender.


Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika (I used 3 Tablespoons)
• 1 1/2 pounds pork loin cut into 1 inch cubes. (I used about 2 1/2)
• 1 Tablespoon canola oil. (I just poured some - maybe a Tablespoon, maybe a tiny bit more.)
• 1 20 oz can pineapple chunks (I used a 20 oz and an 8 oz can)
• 1 medium onion - I used 2 small
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar (I used 1/3)
• 3 Tablespoons brown sugar (I used 1/4 cup)
• 3 Tablespoons soy sauce (I used 1/4 cup)
• 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (I used 1 Tablespoon and 1 teaspoon)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I left this out - the recipe called for reduced sodium soy sauce. I had regular and figured it was salty enough from the soy sauce.)
• 2 Tablespoons corn starch (I used 3 Tablespoons)
• 1/4 cup water (I used 1/3 cup)

Directions:

1. Place paprika in a large resealable plastic bag. Add pork a few pieces at a time and shake to coat. (I added most of the pork because it seemed like with just a few pieces they were getting way too much paprika. If you only used the amount listed, I think that you could put it all in the pork in the bag at once.) In a nonstick skillet, brown pork in oil in batches over medium-high heat. (I also only did 2 batches with the extra meat that I used.) Transfer to slow cooker.
2. Drain pineapple juice into the slow cooker. Refrigerate the pineapple. Add onion, green pepper, vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and salt to slow cooker. Mix well Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until meat is tender.
3. Combine cornstarch and water until smooth. Stir into pork mixture. Add pineapple. Cover and cook 30 minutes longer or until sauce is thickened.
   
4. Serve over rice.

Cabbage Casserole

I stayed at home with Aaron today from Church and decided to make a casserole using a left over cabbage we had in the fridge. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and had to do some modifications because I did not have corn flakes. (Unfortunately I didn't get a picture until I had dished it and it had been eaten again. Everyone liked it so well, and it was so full of veggies that I had Brandon add it to the blog.)

The original recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups coarsley crushed cornflakes
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 4 1/2 cups shredded cabbage
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup, undiluted
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise*
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Toss the cornflakes and butter; sprinkle half into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Layer with the cabbage, onion, salt and pepper. In a bowl, combine the soup, milk and mayonnaise until smooth. Spoon over top; sprinkle with cheese and remaining cornflake mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown.

I substituted rice chex's for corn flakes, garlic salt for salt, and buttermilk for milk. I only used 1/4 cup of butter, and I added chopped carrots and chopped chicken . It turned out really tangy and delicious. Both Tavio and Benjamin ate the casserole and both of them are not really big on eating vegetables. Next time I will substitute sausage instead of chicken.