Chicken Paprikas

Wednesday Study Lunch with the Girls.
Have I mentioned before how much I love my corningwear? It is so convenient on the go!!
I sometimes find during the semester that it can become increasingly difficult to eat well and study well at the same time. To do one in general takes away time I feel I could be spending on the other. Luckily I have a few hearty go to meals that I have reinvented to accommodate our busy schedule and I have been trying to incorporate them into our weekly meal plan to prevent us from eating too much junk food.

Chicken Paprikas according to the Joy of Cooking should take 1.5 hrs.
My version of this family favorite...30 min.

1 pkg boneless skinless chicken breasts or tenders cut into bite size pieces
1/2 yellow onion chopped
1 clove garlic minced
3 pads butter
1 turn of olive oil
S&P to taste
3 tbl paprika
1 tbl flour
2 + cups chicken stock
1 + cup sour cream
1 pkg pasta cooked per box

Add butter, olive oil an chicken to preheated pan on stove top and allow to simmer until chicken is half cooked thru. (Throw water on to boil at this point so noodles can be cooked when chicken is completed). Add onions and simmer until chicken is cooked through. Add garlic, S&P, and paprika to pan and stir to combine. Push chicken etc to the edge of the pan and add the flour to the center. combine with butter and onion juices and allow to cook for a minute before adding chicken stock. Mix in stock, recombine all ingredients and allow to thicken slightly. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly until pasta is finished. Add in sour cream and pasta, stir and bring back up to temp. Serve hot with chunks of crusty bread.

***If pasta is done early, do not add sour cream directly to hot chicken mixture. In this case place sour cream in a separate bowl and add a little of the stock from the pot to the sour cream and combine to bring the sour cream up to temp before adding all contents to the pan. This will prevent the sour cream from curdling in the pan.

Now That's a Sandwich!

Tuesday Night Dinner Post from Colorado

Tonight I came home and actually worked-out! I was so excited that I didn't want to spoil it by making a really heavy meal for dinner, and Jeff being so understanding suggested one of my favorites ... veggie sandwiches.

I usually make ours with croissants, but target was out and it's the closest store to us, so I substituted with mini focaccia rounds that I cut in half to make the sandwiches. I also added turkey and provolone to Jeff's to make it a big enough meal for him (his is pictured above). With both upgrades (focaccia and deli meat/cheese) I was still able to keep this dinner under $10 and we had enough to make sandwiches for 4-6 people.

Other ingredients:

Cream cheese

Avocado

Sprouts

Cucumbers

Carrots

To make it really kid-friendly you could cut up and lay out all ingred buffet style and let the kids pile on their favorites. Healthy, fun and delicious!!

Go Italian!

Julie - Here is one of our favorites! We have it for both lunch and dinner.
Prep time 5 min
cook time 10 min
serve hot!!

Baggett or Hoagie (They have great day old specials on these)
Mozarella Cheese
1 tomato
(optional - pesto, make it or pick it up pr- made at the store)

To make your own pesto (combine all in the food processor or blender)
bunch basil
parmesan cheese
smashed garlic clove
pinch salt
dash red pepper flakes
lemon juice (1 lemon)
stream in olive oil until smooth

Slice bread in half, spread on pesto, layer slices of mozarella and slices of tomato. Place on cookie sheet and bake in oven until bread is crispy and cheese is melted. Cut into individual portions. Serve along side tomato cheese soup to make it a full meal.

HELP!!!

I recently added a new member to my family and am now a mother of 4. Life is going pretty well, except I find that my afternoon and evenings are a nightmare. Picking up kids and then trying to soothe a hungry baby who is having his fussy period of the day, on top of managing homework and normal day to day meltdowns of the younger set leave dinner time a bit hectic.
Although I like to think that I typically "have it all together" mentally... lately "new mommy brain" has settled in and I can't seem to think clearly when I need to, namely at dinner time. Dinner needs to be quick, tasty, and kid-friendly. (extra emphasis on the quick!) DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY RECIPES TO SHARE? PLEASE?

Food Storage Stroganoff

1 can beef chunks
1 can cream of mushroom
dollop of sour cream
1/2 cup of beef broth
dash Worcestershire sauce (optional)

Stir into cooked egg noodles

Chicken 'n Dumplings

I forgot to take pictures in dishes, so here are
the leftovers in Tupperware.

I don't normally measure anything for this, but here's the best recipe I can put together.

2-4 Chicken breasts cut up, or 1-2 cans chicken chunks
3 cans chicken broth
2 cans Cream of Chicken
2 cut up celery stocks
3 cut up carrots

~Bring to a boil and add~

2-3 cups cooked egg noodles
pepper
Bisquick dumplings (follow directions on Bisquick box.)


Takes about 20 min total. Great leftovers!

Crockpot roast

Okay, so I found this picture online. It is identical to the one I am now using at Grandpa's house. I'm trying to consider it "cooking retro." LOL The funny thing? It works better than the new ones!

Sunday we had roast...

Crockpot
~Beef or Pork Roast
~onion or Golden onion soup mix
~Cut up potatoes and carrots
~Water up to 1/2 of the roast

Frozen meat--on low overnight
Thawed-- low 8 hours high 4-6 hours

LEFTOVERS!!! Re-heat or make a stew or sandwiches

Chili night

Ah the first cold and rainy day. Perfect night for Chili.

Wednesday Dinner Post from Denver

Today I made Campbell's Nacho Chicken and Rice Wraps for dinner. I recently copied the recipe out of a slow-cooker cook book at the library. It turned out well although a bit thick (I left it cooking a bit too long). Here's the recipe just in case it sounds good to anyone else :-)

Makes 10 servings, Prep time 10min, Cook 4-5 hrs

2 cans campbells chedder cheese soup

1 cup water

2 cups pace chunky salsa or picante sauce

1 1/4 cups uncooked regular long grain white rice

2 lbs bonless chicken breasts cubed

10 flour tortillas

Combine all but tortillas in the slow-cooker and let her rip! Serve hot.

Next time I make this I am going to cut the recipe in half, and possibly use cooked chicken (possibly left overs) to cut down the cooking time and prevent the mixture from getting to thick. (Just a thought)

Saturday's food report

My camera battery died, but I went easy tonight.

We had Progresso soups out of food storage with Rosemary/olive oil artisan bread and a green salad.

Another Name that kitchen tool...

Ok, I know the grapefruit spoon.
What's with the fork???
Looks painful.

Er... Pizza strips?

I think this one is a pitter, but its so tiny!

Food Report: Spaghetti

My little helper
Thank heavens for the Bumbo. I'd never get anything
done in the kitchen with out it.

1 Jar home canned spaghetti sauce
Oregano, garlic powder, basil and thyme
Egg noodles and Garlic bread

Getting creative with the food storage....

We recently moved in with my husband's grandfather. Since his wife's passing he has no idea what to do or how to use his food storage. Most of it needs to be used this year and he has charged me with this feat. So my friends, I am braving the world of canned and dry packed everything. Wish me luck!

Tonight's menu? Easy peasy. Spaghetti. I'll post pics.

Catch up on the Reports

Saturday and labor day we were invited over to other people's dinner tables. Tuesday I made food-storage Stroganoff (I didn't have my camera charged) and Wednesday Richard took us out to Costa Vida. Mmmmm.....

Let the real cooking commence!

Food Report #3

Um, yeah. So I found out it we were down from 5 for dinner to myself and the little girls. I chose a Hormel dinner and added rice and veggies on the side. It was okay but not great. The kids loved it though.

Its time for a game kids! Name That Kitchen Tool

What are these things called and what do they do? I'm finding all sorts of fun stuff here and haven't the foggiest what to do with them.

Food report #2

I should title these things "Wow, I'm glad this actually turned out ok." or "Cooking improv: whose dish is it anyway?"

I originally had planned enchiladas. We are living with my DH's grandpa who LOVES enchiladas. The tortillas we had in the fridge were too big so he went to the store for me. He brought back super small ones instead. I thought I'd make due, but the darn things kept falling apart every time I rolled them up! So, I ended up ripping them apart and making a sort of Enchilada Casserole. I also found out, much to my dismay, that he has no sour cream. I decided to try cream cheese instead.... you know, it was really good! Who knew?

Soups and Chili

Fall is almost officially here! What are your favorite cool weather dishes in a bowl?

Food report #1

Tonight we were going to have Bowtie Salad but with a different kitchen and not really any knowledge of what's in it, I improvised. Instead of bowties we had regular spaghetti noodles buttered and topped with parmesan. The kids LOVED it! :)

For dessert, we had watermelon.

Just for the heck of it...

I'm going to try to document our dinners for the next few weeks. I'm in hopes that this will inspire me to have healthier meals and eat in more than we have. Feel free to join me in reporting! I'll be starting tomorrow....