Stroganoff with Yogurt Tarragon Sauce

This dinner was AWESOME if I do say so myself. Here's what you need.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground meat (beef, chicken or turkey as you like)
1/3 C chopped shallots OR onion
1/2 pound sliced mushrooms (white button, cremini or baby bellas)
1/8 tsp of dried tarragon
salt and pepper to taste
1/8 tsp of nutmeg
1 cup of room temperature plain yogurt
1 box of pasta of your choice (we did some whole wheat penne)

Season your meat with salt and pepper and then brown it in the pan set on medium high. Break the meat up into large chunks. As it cooks pour off any fat or accumulated water so the meat can really sear and get brown. Avoid moving it around with your spoon too much, in fact use a spatula to "flip" the meat and take it out of the pan before it is cooked entirely through. Turn the heat down to medium low and cook the chopped onions in the same pan you cooked the meat in and sprinkle them with a pinch of salt. Add in the mushrooms when the onions are soft and cook them through. Season the vegetables with the tarragon and nutmeg, then stir in the meat. Take the pan off the heat and stir in one cup of yogurt.

I served this by putting the pasta in a bowl, topping the pasta with a handful of fresh chopped spinach and then topping with the stroganoff sauce. Delicious and healthy and filling.

Slow Cooker Spare Ribs

This was a SUPER EASY dinner to make. We had a long busy day so I decided first thing this morning to make a slow cooker meal. In the bowl of your slow cooker place 2/3 cup of brown sugar, pour in 1/2 C of soy sauce and 1/2 C of worcestershire sauce and 1/2 C of water plus 2 TB of prepared BBQ sauce (or ketchup). Mix this thoroughly and add in 5 whole sweet mini peppers. Place about 2 pounds of frozen pork ribs into sauce, submerging as best you can. Cook on high for the first hour and then on low for the next 7 hours (can be cooked on low for 8 hours as well) About halfway through cooking time I flipped the ribs over so the other side could baste in the sauce as well.

The ribs will come out fall off the bone tender. We served this with leftover mac and cheese, leftover baked beans and steamed Normandy style mixed vegetables.

Tonight's Menu: Sauteed Chicken breasts, Whole Wheat Penne, Tomatoes and Green Peppers

Happy First Day of March!

Here was tonight's quick simple dinner with step by step instructions.

For the pasta you will need:

* 1/2 of a box (13.25 oz) of whole wheat penne pasta (I used Barilla)
* 2 roma tomatoes, chopped
* 1 green pepper sliced into strips, strips cut in half
* 1 clove of garlic, chopped
* 1 TB of olive oil or canola oil
* 2-3 TB of fresh grated parmesan
*2 tsp of dried Italian Seasoning
* Salt

For the chicken you will need:

* 6-8 thinly sliced chicken breast pieces
* 1/4 cup of flour
* TB of butter
* TB of oil
* Salt and Pepper to taste

Start large pot of water to boil, adding salt to the water, when water boils add the half box of pasta and stir. Place oil in a skillet over medium high heat. To this add the chopped garlic and cook until fragrant, but not burnt. Add chopped green peppers and cook for 4-5 minutes. Then add chopped tomatoes and a generous pinch of kosher salt. When tomatoes begin to break down you can add the Italian seasoning. Cook the vegetables until the pasta is done about 9 minutes. Drain pasta and toss back into cooking pot with sauteed veggies and the grated parmesan. Taste and season if desired. Cover with lid and place on the back of the stove, off the heat.

While veggies are cooking, quickly salt and pepper some thinly sliced chicken breasts and dredge in a handful of flour. The chicken breasts I used tonight had been sliced in half horizontally so they cook incredibly quickly. One could also use chicken tenderloins or regular chicken breasts that had been pounded very, very flat. Cook the breasts in a mixture of oil and butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. The sliced breasts will cook in less than 5 minutes per side.

To serve place a chicken piece on a plate with a generous amount of pasta and a small green salad or sliced pears.

Wednesday: All the single parents, put ya hands up!

So I got a migraine. A nauseating, head splitting, bright light blinding migraine last night. When my husband came home from work he took one look at me and started making dinner. It was some sort of pot roast. I'd tell you more but I spent that time whimpering under the covers and chewing Tums. I didn't even eat later, just drank some more water and went to bed.

So this brings me to my real point. Do you know any single parents? Are you single parent? By nature of your partner's work schedule do you ever find yourself a part-time single parent?

If you know a single parent offer to make them dinner sometime. If you are making a meatloaf for yourself, it isn't that much trouble to double the recipe and make one for them too. Same with pasta sauce or casseroles, double it up and bring it over. Single parents never get a "night off" and lack the built in support that comes with another live-in parent.

If you are a single parent or part time single parent, I would LOVE to hear from you about your strategies for making dinner run smoothly! I rely on pawning my kids off on my husband while I finish dinner, what is your technique?

When I was a WAHM (work away from home) Mom I did have a few tricks. We ate a lot of stir-fry and fajitas, thinly sliced meats and vegetables cook very quickly. Plus I could find already washed and sliced veggies in the freezer section a lot of the time. A boil in bag side of 5 minute rice and we were good to go for dinner. When frozen pizzas went on sale, we loaded up our garage freezer; we called them Emergency Backup Pizza. We could cook one of those faster than you could call for delivery and with a bag of pre-washed salad on the side it was a fast and not nutritionally unsound dinner. Yesterday I spoke of the wonders of a grocery store rotisserie chicken, a great dinner starter for any busy parent, in fact you can even drive through KFC now and get a bucket of grilled chicken for an even faster dinner. Spaghetti and sauce, can of soup and sandwiches, eggs toast and bacon, can all be very fast meals on a busy night.

So if you have a loving partner and co-parent, give them a hug tonight, because as hard as it is being a parent it is at least twice as hard to do it on your own.

Cheese Enchiladas

This is how we make enchiladas in my family.

Corn Tortillas
Chili Powder
Water
Vegetable Oil
Shredded Cheese
Diced Onion
1 can of chili (your choice)

Take slightly stale corn tortillas and dip them briefly in a mixture of chili powder and water, the amounts are at your discretion but the water should have turned red from chili powder. Meanwhile pour an inch or two of oil into a small frying pan (just greater than the diameter of your corn tortillas. Set the oil on medium high heat. Make sure you "shake off" the tortillas a bit before you dip them in the oil and submerge them until the tortilla is fried and slightly crispy. Place the tortilla in a 9 x 13 pan and fill with cheese and onions, roll up and place seam side down in the pan. Keep adding tortillas until the pan is full. Take your canned chili (or an equal amount of homemade) and mix it with the leftover chili water and pour it over all of the enchiladas and then top that with cheese and bake at 350 degrees until it is all bubbly and hot. What works really well here (and I am not even kidding) is a small can of that cheap hot dog chili that is merely texturized vegetable protein and beef fat mixed together ("it's a beef process"). But you can ladle over some homemade chili or a can of vegetarian chili whatever you have on hand.

We generally serve this with some rice, a green salad, and some sauteed zucchini.

Grilled chicken and 3 sides

I like Mojo marinade on chicken, you basically let chicken pieces sit in your mojo marinade turning from time to time and then grill it. YAY! Simple. If you don't have mojo on hand then combine whatever citrus juices you've got, a splash of white wine vinegar and season your chicken with adobo (or salt, pepper, and garlic) and let the pieces sit in that mixture until time to grill. Never baste with marinade that the chicken was sitting in and never heat up marinade and use that for dipping sauce. You could get salmonella and die. Seriously. My uncle nearly lost his life from some tainted chicken. I should also mention that you never thaw chicken or any other meat on the countertop. Safest way to defrost is to put the meat in a bowl or baking dish in the fridge in the morning and let it defrost all day. Microwave is a safe defrost method as well, but I hate it when it starts to "cook" the food around the edges, gross!

I also steamed some frozen corn niblets, seasoned them with House Blend (Paula Deen) and added some butter. I made broccoli slaw, and I made some cheesy mac and cheese. The kids cleaned their plates and asked for seconds.

Tomorrow will be the busiest day I have had in a long time. Thankfully today we got our bags packed for our trip to Washington D.C. next week. Tomorrow we go to our neighborhood's big party at 8 a.m. We leave the party by 8:45 to get to church where I am hosting a booth at our Ministry Fair (way more fun than it sounds, trust me) then 11 a.m. mass where my Darling Girl will be reading one of the prayers of the faithful and then home for lunch (leftovers) then on to her final basketball game and award ceremony and then MAYBE go to the open house at the Dolphin Research Center to see their new "Spray-ground" one of those splash parks where there are fountains and shallow pools and squirters. Should be a HOOT! And then dinner of course. I am thinking I might put a roast in the crockpot on low and then come home and make some rice and some frozen veggies.

Next week's menus will all be on a theme of "how do we use up all the fresh food in the house" so we can leave our fridge clean and emoty for our trip. Another highlight of the week ahead, next Tuesday is Fat Tuesday! I am going to try and make some Cajun/Creole food, or failing that some beignets and then on Ash Wednesday I am going to be making a vegetarian vegetable soup for my church to share. Each year we kick off Lent with a church supper called Stone Soup. In fact I will be at the Ministry Fair tomorrow making a pitch to all the parishoners to come and join us that night.

I hope you all are having a good weekend, hug your family tight and thanks for reading.

Great Green Soup

Tonight is the Blood Drive and Parent to Kid book reading event at my daughter's school. I usually give blood and I am due to give it today, but I am on antibiotics so I think that counts me out tonight. Oh well, I will hit them up at the next event. As a reminder though, if you are healthy and able to give blood, please do! Blood levels in my community are in critically short supply and I know periodically they get low in other places. You can even make an appointment at your local blood bank. Find out where to give here as well as find out if you are eligible to donate!

Okay, so they serve pizza at Parent to Kid night and I know even though we had homemade pizza last night my little munchkins will want some when they get there, but first they are going to have a bowl of Great Green Soup, inspired by some soup I once had at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Massachusetts. The cafeteria there was wonderful, really locavore and organic and everything was so tasty! It was the coldest May I can ever remember and they had a bright green soup that tasted wonderful and was bright as green grass. I asked the lady behind the counter what was in it and she said, "Basically, any green vegetable we have in stock and in season. Frozen veggies work well in it too!" So today my great green soup is a simple affair, I sauteed chopped onions and celery in butter and salt, then I added chopped baby spinach and 6 large stalks of lightly steamed and chopped up asparagus. To this I added 2 1/2 C of organic chicken broth (could just as easily be veggie broth) and then I mixed it all up with my immersion blender. Taste and adjust seasonings; if need be add a bit of fresh ground black pepper. I serve it with a dollop of plain greek yogurt, but you can of course use sour cream or creme fraiche if you have it. I think a bit of shaved parmesan cheese in it or on it might be good too.

So there you go, bright green tasty antioxidants in a cup! This might be fun to serve for St. Patrick's day too!

Dinner redux

I had a big weekend. Family Fun Day event at the Community Park Saturday afternoon, party on Saturday night, Sunday morning church and Sunday school, Sunday afternoon cleaning out the shed and re-organizing it (after we discovered a snake in there), then calming down and stopping screaming, then the darling girl's basketball game, then back to the shed, then going to see a friend's new baby. And now dinner!

The best thing about parties is leftover party food, am I right? I took the veggies off the kabobs and started stir-frying them in a pan with olive oil and spicy sesame seed oil. I shredded a bit of red cabbage and added that to the pot and added some salt and pepper and soy sauce. When everything got nice and soft I added the bag of boil in bag rice I'd made. At the very last I added the chicken teriyaki kebab meat and stirred everything together.

You know what? Fun makes me tired! Goodnight!