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Recent Recipes

Dinner of the Week 10/6-10/10

Comments (0) | Monday, October 6, 2014

Baked chicken meatballs with a light creamy tarragon sauce over rice, garlic and feta roasted asparagus.




http://www.gonnawantseconds.com/2014/04/roasted-garlic-asparagus-with-feta/

http://www.hungrycouplenyc.com/2014/08/chicken-meatballs-in-creamy-tarragon.html?m=1


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HBotW 10/6

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Canadian bacon, (mostly whites) egg patty and a squirt of spicy mustard on a whole wheat English muffin. Healthy Breakfast of the Week 10/6-10/10




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HLotW 10/6

Comments (0) | Sunday, October 5, 2014

Spinach artichoke and mushroom pasta, green beans and grapes. Healthy Lunchbox of the Week 10/6-10/10


http://www.thelocalvegan.com/blog/spinach-and-artichoke-pasta-with-mushrooms

Changes: Used regular milk, doubled the artichokes and spinach.


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HBotW 9/29

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Sliced bananas on a cinnamon raisin bagel thin with a little smear of peanut butter! Healthy Breakfast of the Week 9/29-10/3


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HLotW 9/8

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Cracked black pepper turkey, mini Babybel cheeses, black olives, cherries, carrot chips and homemade ranch dip. Healthy Lunchbox of the Week 9/8-9/12


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HLotW 9/15

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Baby ranch potatoes, garlic roasted broccoli, maple BBQ salmon! Healthy Lunchbox of the Week 9/15-9/19



http://www.averiecooks.com/2014/03/maple-barbeque-glazed-salmon.html

Changes: don't remember, this was so long ago!

http://www.spendwithpennies.com/pepper-ranch-roasted-potatoes/

Changes: none


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Southwestern Bacon Cheeseburgers and Tex-Mex Mashed Potatoes

Comments (0) | Sunday, August 21, 2011

Today I went grocery shopping!


Okay, that's not super out of the ordinary since I typically go every Sunday, but today I had a mission! I was in the mood to cook something new and yummy, and so I needed the appropriate supplies. Today's meal was Southwestern Bacon Cheeseburgers and Tex-Mex Mashed Potatoes. Sooooo original for me, right? Okay maybe I do a lot of potatoes, but THEY ARE DELICIOUS SO STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT.

Okay, anyway. The potatoes! They were really frikkin' good! They were a cool twist on a standard favorite. The burger was great too, juicy and flavorful.

Ease of Preparation: 1.5 Burgers / 1.5 Potatoes
Taste: 3 Burgers / 3.5 Potatoes
Feeds: 5 Burgers / 10 Potatoes

This meal is a cool way to incorporate southwestern/mexican food flavor into a typically very american dish. In order to turn the regular burgers from the linked recipe into super awesome southwestern burgers I topped them with Monteray Jack cheese, bacon and my delicious guacamole. I put some mayo with taco seasoning on The Parents' burgers but not mine since I have a strong distaste for mayo.

Overall very good. I think these burgers were about 500 calories total (which is pretty damn good for a bacon cheeseburger if I do say so myself).

The mashed potatoes were quite good as well. Just a little bit of crunch from the veggies in them, and very creamy and flavorful. 

Suggestions / Changes

Other than my southwestern additions to the burgers that I mentioned above, I did made several other changes - particularly to the potatoes. Instead of milk I used about 3/4 cup sour cream in the mixing of them. I find this yields a creamier mashed potato. Also, I mixed in about 1.5 teaspoons of Mexican seasoning (the kind you use to make taco meat). That gave them some really great Mexican food flavor and color. I didn't add any salt because the Mexican flavoring added enough on its own.

As for the burgers, the only change that I made to that recipe was that after 15 mins of cooking time I put the cheese on top of the burgers, then I let them cook for the last 5 mins. Nice and melty!

More pics of the yummy!
  


Awwwwwwwwww Yeaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!

Recipes property of: Food Network (http://www.foodnetwork.com) and Anonymous of cooks.com (http://www.cooks.com)


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Chicken Fettuccine and Pesto Basil Sauce

Comments (0) | Saturday, July 30, 2011

Once I was gifted my Fabulous Bag of Basil and had gotten it into my head that I was going to make Delicious Pesto this weekend, I began a hunt for a yummy pesto-based recipe.

Chicken Fettuccine and Pesto Cream Sauce was the grand winner!

This was a pretty good pasta dish. I will definitely be adding it to my base repertoire. Not my most favorite pesto dish I have ever made (see: Spinach Mushroom and Pesto Lasagna) but an absolute keeper and a great meal. Only Little Sister and I were home to try it, but she seemed to enjoy it (plus her typical tablespoon of salt) so it couldn't have been that bad! Hah.

Who dun it? http://www.handletheheat.com/2011/01/chicken-fettuccini-with-pesto-cream.html

Ease of preparation: 3
Taste: 3
Feeds: 2


How pretty does that look? I love the way herbs look on pasta (or really, food in general). The chicken was super tender and juicy and it was all very flavorful. I did end up adding juuuust a sprinkling of salt, but I think that was because I undersalted the pesto to start with. My favorite part of making this dish was pounding down the chicken! We don't have a meat tenderizer/pounder/thing so I started by trying to use a rolling pin but that was pretty unsuccessful. I ended up literally PUNCHING the chicken flat! It was actually pretty fun.


Suggestions / Changes


I pretty much followed the recipe on this. The only thing that I did differently was that I just mixed it all together in the pot as opposed to putting half the sauce on the pasta, putting some chicken on top and drizzling extra sauce over it all on the plate. Not like I'm running a restaurant or anything! Hah.


Mmmmmm Pesto Cream sauce cooking on the stove! Yummy.


Recipe property of: Tessa of Handle the Heat
(http://www.handletheheat.com)


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Fresh Basil Pesto

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I reeeeeeeeally love pesto.

Really. It's a little unhealthy, my obsession. It began last summer when I got it fresh every week at Borough Market in London. Ever since, I have wanted to make it myself, but I don't own a food processor. Cry!

This week at work, one of my AWESOME new coworkers was kind enough to bring me a big bag of fresh basil that she had growing at home. Just the smell of it got me craving pesto, so I pestered the Parentals into paying for a cheap little food processor! It only cost $7 but it works perfectly and the results of my pesto endeavor were a huge success!

Yum yum yum yum yum: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/basil-pesto-recipe2/index.html



Ease of preparation: 2
Taste: 4
Feeds: depends?


lovelovelovelovelovelovelovelovelovelovelovelovelovelove


Did I mention I like pesto?


The Parentals and I had a few bites of this, plain on toasted bread, and it was fabulous. I almost wished I hadn't planned the pesto pasta dish for dinner so that I could just keep eating it plain! I'm definitely going to make a second batch with the rest of the fresh basil tomorrow.


Suggestions / Changes


I only used 1/2 cup of olive oil, which is less than the recipe called for. It was definitely plenty. A lot of the comments on the recipe site recommend adding some lemon juice so I will try that when I make it tomorrow. Other than that, it's a pretty basic and tasty pesto recipe, a great standard that can be experimented with at one's leisure!


Recipe property of: The Food Network
(www.foodnetwork.com)


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Baked Broccoli Cheese Bites

Comments (1) |

It's been a very long time since I've been able to post anything on here.

I promise, I didn't forget about the site! I just started my new job, and Best Friend was in town for a few weeks,  so I haven't had time to experiment with any new recipes.

This weekend, though, I'm back and going strong! I'm trying THREE (four?) new recipes this weekend! Today I made Baked Broccoli Cheese Bites as an afternoon snack for the family. Then, I made my very own Pesto for the first time, since one of my awesome new coworkers brought me a big bag of fresh basil and I talked the Parentals into purchasing a small food processor. For dinner I used that Pesto to make Chicken Fettuccine with Pesto Cream Sauce. Recipes for both to come. Tomorrow I'm supposed to try a Curry Chicken dish that the Mother has picked out.

SO! Down to business. Baked Broccoli Cheese Bites! I know this is two broccoli cheese recipes in a row, but hey, it's been a month since I made the last one! Anyway, this was a great snack. Filling, moderately healthy, fun to make, and tasty!

Recipe: http://www.staceysnacksonline.com/2011/01/broccoli-bites-for-kids.html

Ease of preparation: 1.5
Taste: 1.5
Feeds: 3-5


The recipe yielded 20 patties, and my parents ate 16 between them. I would call this a success! But really, I will make these again. This is another kid friendly food because you mix it and make the patties with your hands. What can I say? I like getting my hands dirty when I cook. Plus, the bread and cheese mix ins and the fun of making them, might help get kids more interested in eating broccoli!


Suggestions / Changes


I used Panko bread crumbs instead of regular italian bread crumbs. I thought this worked out just fine, and they're better for you, too! Yum yum yum! I really didn't think that they needed anything else. One of the best things about this dish is its simplicity!


Recipe property of: Stacy Snacks
(http://www.staceysnacksonline.com)




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