Fall/Winter squash...

To keep some veggies on hand that won't go bad. If you have a fruit cellar or cool place to store them butternut, acorn and spaghetti squash will keep. These are good to have on hand for a side dish or something different to have.

Butternut Squash

Many people make soup with the sweet and tasty squash. Lately I have been cutting it in half, coating the inside with butter spray and then baking at about 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes. Until the inside is soft when pierced with a fork.


Spaghetti Squash

This large yellow melon is a great veggie alternative to having spaghetti but has the benefits of vitamins A and K along with others.

Pierce with a fork a few times. Put in microwave for about 15 minutes and steam it. Cut in half and scrape out the spaghetti like meat. Top with spaghetti sauce or butter or whatever you like.


Acorn Squash

This squash is often stuffed with various rice mixtures. However it is also good roasted with olive oil and rosemary. I am going to try that next time I have one.


So stock up on these economical veggies this fall to have all winter.

Mixture Mania!

In these times where food costs are needed to be controlled at home, here are a few mixtures I have made up to use up lots of veggies that are not really fit for raw eating anymore.

Pasta with veggies

Olive oil
Fresh tomatoes chopped (chunky)
Mushrooms chopped (chunky)
red bell pepper chopped
yellow bell pepper chopped
onion chopped
Vegetable no salt mixture (like Mrs. Dash)
Salt and Pepper
Saute all until it's soft and flavorful

Then sprinkle some parmesan cheese on and stir.

Cook some whole grain or your favorite penne pasta.
Drain pasta
Then pour drained pasta into cooking mixture and stir until coated.

Serve in pasta bowls with parmesan cheese.


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Zucchini mixture

Olive oil
Chop a medium-large sized zucchini
1 fresh tomato chopped
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
fresh mushrooms, chopped
1 yellow pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
salt and pepper
salt free seasoning like Mrs. Dash

Saute all in pan with olive oil until soft. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Serve with pasta or on it's own. We had it with some jalapeno and cheddar brats.

Stuffed Zucchini

It's the end of the squash season soon... but I had a big ol' zucchini on the counter so I made stuffed zucchini Sunday for dinner.

1 large zucchini
1 pound of ground turkey
2 large roma tomatoes, chopped
1 medium onion chopped
3 T minced garlic
Italian herb seasoning
Kraft type Parmesan cheese
No meat added spaghetti sauce (your favorite)

Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. If really long, cut each into 2 pieces. Scoop out the seeds and carve a well in each piece. Chop up any zucchini cut out for the well to use in the mixture.

Spray Pam or use olive oil in pan. Cook ground turkey until almost brown. Then add onion, zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, and sprinkle herb seasoning to taste. Saute all until soft and turkey is cooked. Then sprinkle some Parmesan cheese to taste and stir.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cover the bottom of a 9 x 13 glass baking dish with water.
Place welled out zucchini pieces in the pan and fill with cooked mixture.
Once filled, spoon your favorite vegetarian (no meat added) spaghetti sauce on top and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Bake for about 35-45 minutes until cheese melts and zucchini is cooked. [Use fork to pierce zucchini]


I served with size of thin whole grain spaghetti with some of the sauce I used and garlic bread.

What's for dinner?

Stuffed Green Peppers

2 large green peppers
1 pound lean ground beef
1 small onion chopped
1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes
1/4-1/2 cup brown rice, cooked

Brown ground beef and add other ingredients and stir until cooked through.
Core green peppers and stuff with meat mixture.

Top with about 1-2T of tomato sauce and sprinkle with cheese.

Bake in oven about 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

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Smashed red potatoes

red potatoes, boiled
fat free milk
butter spray
Tasetefully Simple tomato pesto mix

Mash potatoes with masher and add milk and butter spray as needed. Sprinkle with seasoning.

What's for dinner?

Sunday night I made quite a lovely dinner with items from the Farmer's Market.

Norwegian salmon on the grill, Farm Green Beans, and tomato salad
The wine was a bargain wine, a basic Pinot Noir from Turning Leaf.

FARM GREEN BEANS

About 1 pound of fresh green beans, steam until tender in steamer.
1 medium fresh tomato, chopped (seeds and all)
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1T olive oil
1/4 cup fat free sour cream
Fresh basil leaves
salt and pepper

Saute onion in olive oil, when tender add green pepper and tomato. Saute all until blended and soft. Add some fresh basil, about 5 leaves chopped up. Stir.
When beans are ready, put into mixture in the pan. Stir until beans are coated with onion, tomato, pepper mixture.
Add the sour cream and stir it all together, keep on low and/or cover to keep warm until ready to serve.

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TOMATO SALAD

1 roma tomato
1 red tomato
1 yellow tomato
1 zebra tomato
1 other varietal or heirloom of your choice
6-8 fresh mozzarella fresca balls
olive oil
red wine vinegar
italian seasoning
fresh basil if you have it
salt and pepper

Cut tomatoes up in bite size pieces and place in bowl.
Add mozzarella with seasoning from fresca marinade and oil.
Stir.
Drizzle red wine vinegar, about 2T and then sprinkle with chopped fresh basil and italian seasoning and salt and pepper. Add olive oil to taste if needed.
Toss and chill until ready or serve immediately.

No cooking for a week!

My husband is working a Noon to 9pm shift Mon - Thu this week and we have dinner plans Friday and Saturday night. I won't need to cook until next Sunday!

Hopefully that gives me time to inventory and regroup to start doing some more new recipes.

Stay Tuned!

Chicken with Wine and Artichokes

Modified by me!

4 chicken breast, pounded thin or you can use Market Day Chiknsteaks
1T of flour
salt and pepper
2T of margarine
1 1/2-2T Canola oil
1/2 cup wine
1-11/2 T flour
1-14 oz can water packed artichoke hearts
8oz sliced mushrooms

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and dredge/sprinkle with flour

Melt 1T of margarine and about 1-1 1/2 T of canola oil in pan.
When butter starts to foam, add chicken.
Cook about 3 minutes per side until cooked through.

Put chicken on plate and keep warm.

Add about 1/4 cup of white wine to pan and stir up bits of chicken and bottom of pan.
Add more wine as needed to make a sauce.

Add 1 14 oz can of plain artichoke hearts (in water), drained.
Stir artichokes in sauce.
Add sliced baby portabello mushrooms, about 8 oz.
Add second Tablespoon of butter and stir.

Saute artichokes and mushrooms until soft.

Place chicken back in pan and toss mixture over.
Put lid on pan and on low and keep until ready to eat.

Recipe from All You magazine

Burger toppings

Last night we grilled GFS sirloin burgers, yum!

I made 2 toppings:

Grilled cubanella peppers.
Cut peppers in half and lay halves flat, brush both sides with olive oil and then grill.

Saute'd on the grill baby portabello mushrooms
1 package of sliced baby portabello mushrooms
Spray piece of foil with Pam
Place mushrooms in foil
Drizzle with olive oil
Drizzle with worcestshire sauce
Enough oil and sauce to pool at the bottom and create a sauce
Close up and shake to distribute sauce
Place on grill before burgers and take off when burgers are done


Everything turned out delish and needless to say I ate ALL the mushrooms.

Stuffed Chicken

I got this recipe from Market Day catalog.

2 boneless/skinless chicken breasts or chik n steaks (Market Day brand)
2-4 roasted red peppers
2 oz goat cheese (place in freezer for a few minutes to slice easier)
fresh basil

butterfly the chicken breasts
place peppers, slices of goat cheese and fresh basil leaves on one side of the butterflied chicken breast.
Fold chicken closed.
Use toothpicks to keep chicken closed.

Grill about 4-5 minutes until chicken is done.

Delicious, cheese melts and yummy flavors of basil and peppers.

Been awhile...

We have been eating pretty run of the mill foods.

Last night we had a nice steak salad.

Leftover flank steak (was marinated in olive oil, soy sauce, salt and ground pepper and sugar)
Bag of American salad mix
Added -- grape tomatoes, roasted pumpkin seeds, shredded cheddar cheese

Very tasty with the dressing of your choice - we had balsamic vinegarette or italian.

What's for dinner?

Flank Steak (marinated many hours or overnight with olive oil, soy sauce and salt and pepper)
Then grill to your liking, we like medium rare

Grilled veggies
Grilled eggplant (slice and brush with olive oil on boths ides and throw right on the grill!)

Salad -- dole fresh express 5 lettuce mix, dried cranberries, grape tomatoes, roasted pumpkin seeds, part- skim mozzarella cheese (Kraft Deli Selects). Dress with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

A nice red wine.

What's for Dinner?

Last night it was another quick meal but delicious!

Wild Salmon burgers on the grill (we get these in the freezer section at BJs)

Near East brand Garlic and Parmesan couscous

Salad -- fresh spinach, dried cranberries, roasted pumpkin seeds, goat cheese (not feta), green pepper, and grape tomatoes. Dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Tasty too with a Cote du Rhone red wine.

A Good Salad...in a pinch

Dole 5 lettuce mix in a bag

1/4 cup of dried cranberries
crumbled goat cheese (not feta)
halved grape tomatoes
olive oil
red wine vinegar
salt and fresh ground pepper

A tasty quick fix... the lettuce was on sale buy one get one free!

What's for Dinner?

Last night we had...

Morningstar farms Spicy Black Bean burgers on the grill with buns and all the fixin's.

Chips, Salsa and Queso dip.

A lovely Cabernet called John B to finish it all off.

For dessert we had fresh strawberries, green grapes, some provence herbed goat cheese, smoked braided mozzarella cheese, and some danish creamy cheese.. the name escapes me.

What's for Dinner?

Tonight we had....

Wild Orange Roughy steamed in foil on the grill with italian diced tomatoes, minced garlic and olive oil.

A Sweet potato chunked and sprayed with butter spray and then put in foil on the grill.

Crab cakes from Market Day.

Finished off with a nice Francis Ford Coppola Pinot Grigio we purchased today.

Easter Dinner

This year it was a potluck of goodness!

Jennifer's leg of lamb with braised garlic sauce
Jennifer's grilled asparagus
Jennifer's new spinach salad

Dad's ham
Mom's sweet rolls

Aunt Susie's roasted potatoes and carrots
Aunt Susie's almond flourless cake with strawberries and bananas

Wine wine and wine!

and for later....

ham sandwiches
chips and dip
corn chips and Mom's homemade salsa
Mom's macaroni salad


Next installment.... what to do with the leftovers

Coming Soon! What did we have for our Easter meal

Since this is our first year in a new home and near family our Easter meal will be a bit different.

We are keeping our traditional leg of lamb and ham but there are a few changes since it's the potluck (bring a dish) meal this year.

We are having 8 adults and 2 children for early dinner and 10 adults and 4 children for leftovers/sandwiches in the evening when we have the Easter egg hunt, etc. with the kids.

Asparagus

I made some asparagus for the first time this season, yummy!

Snap off the ends where they break naturally.

Spray a piece of foil with non-stick cooking spray
Lay the asparagus on the foil.
Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste.

Close up the foil pouch and put on the grill on the top rack for about 20-30 minutes about as long as it takes to cook fish...

It was delicious and tender and yummy!

Another delicious salad combo!

Fresh baby spinach
Fresh strawberries cut up
A few mozzarella fresca balls
crumbled blue cheese
Plain pumkin seeds
Tastefully Simple Tomato Pesto seasoning
salt and pepper
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil

Quick homemade chicken noodle soup

I made this soup Sunday, on a rainy day and it turned out delicious!

3 large "boxes" of chicken broth
1/2 breast of roasted chicken (kind you buy already cooked in the store)
carrots
celery
small onion
noodles
Salt Free Galic and Herb seasoning
salt and pepper

Pour all 3 boxes of chicken broth in a large pot.
Shred pieces of the chicken and some bits of skin into the pot. (For rich flavor I poured the drippings from the pan into the broth)

Cut up about 2 large carrots
Cut up about 2 stalks of celery
Chop 1 small yellow onion
Put all into broth mixture

Turn stove onto med-high to get it heating through.
Sprinkle seasoning and salt and pepper in.

Cook on med-high until it starts to boil, then turn to med Low for about an hour (so the veggies are not too hard).

Then add 1/2 package of no-yolk noodles and turn heat up a bit.

When noodles are done it's ready to eat!

In a hurry... some easy, healthy ideas

Lately, we seem to always be in a rush during the week, long commutes, late days at work, etc...

So I have a pantry/freezer with many quick to cook healthy items. Here are a few of my quick fixes.

** Market Day (available through school fundraising) has some great easy quick filling meals.
- Amazing Meals are made in a LaPapilliote bag in the oven. We often enjoy Rosemary Chicken and Eggplant lasagna. They helpings are hearty, about 10oz each and have plenty of food and flavor. I keep these on hand for those nights when I forget to take something out or cook. They do take about 45 minutes to cook so leave plenty of time for that.
- Stuffed Chicken, the variety of stuffed chicken available are tasty, the portion is small so you may want to include a salad or quick side with your meal. Again these are easy to just pop from freezer to oven.

** Quick proteins from freezer to grill (don't need to thaw)
- Salmon burgers
- GFS sirloin burgers (already made, individually wrapped patties)
- steaks

** Whole wheat or buckwheat soba spaghetti noodles with a jar of meat sauce. Add some New York Texas Toast garlic bread and a salad and ta da, filling dinner.

** Make aheads that are frozen to pull out easily for a meal
- All varieties of Weight Watchers Zero point soup
- Lasagna
- Market Day turkey breast roast (there's enough left for sandwiches or another meal)


I hope this gives you some new ideas for quick, easy, and healthy meals!

The Paczi!

Singular Noun is Paczek (pohn-check)Plural Noun is Paczki (punch-key)

Paczki (punch-key) Day is the feast of plenty before the Lenten fast begins. It is the last day of gaiety in Karnawal time, the period between Christmas and Lent. This is the time for sleigh parties called Kulig. To mark the last moments of excess before the austerity of Lenten sacrifice, Polish Roman Catholics celebrate Paczki Day.

On this day the traditional deep fried pastries (something like jelly doughnuts) are enjoyed throughout the world's Polonias. This joyous activity precedes the Gorzkie Zale (lamentation services) of Lent in Polonian churches. In Poland, Paczki Day takes place the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, called Tlusty Czwartek (Fat Thursday). Long lines form in front of the bakeries in Polonia, and millions of Paczki are sold.

In United States Polonia, Paczki Day takes place the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, traditionally called Fat Tuesday in Carnival. Polish American bakeries also supply Paczki in the hundreds of thousands that day. Often in American Polonia, Paczki Day is celebrated with polka dances. In Roman Catholic grammar schools throughout American Polonia, children enjoy Paczki at school on that day."

Valentine's Day Dinner

A great Valentine's Day Dinner at home for a fraction of the cost to eat out.


Market Day crab cakes (2 each)

Beef tenderloin steaks, about 8 oz each

My Spinach Salad

W. W. twice baked potatoes with scallions and bacon

Saute'd mushrooms in olive oil and worcestshire sauce

A delicious ZAM wine from Kaz Winery

Split a piece of leftover Dairy Queen ice cream cake for dessert

It was gut splitting good! YUMMO!

What to have for dinner?

Well, we are on a budget AND need to get some things done tonight so....

I threw 2 frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the crock pot and poured about 3/4 of a bottle of Red Wine Vinegarette dressing on it.

Set the crockpot to turn on at 3pm on Low so the chicken gets cooked but not so much it shreds.

Box of Whole Grain Brown rice pilaf and some frozen peas and you got dinner!

Ad Hoc Chili

Just threw this together in my crockpot and it was delicious!

1.25 pounds of lean ground beef
1 medium onion chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 can red kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 can white kidney beans
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes
salt and pepper and chili powder to taste

Just dump it all in the crockpot and stir. Cook on low about 8 hours.

We topped with Mexican shredded cheese and light sour cream.

YUMMO! on a cold night.

Walleye and leftover pasta

So... what to do!

Drege walleye in flour seasoned with salt and pepper.
Add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a pan and heat.
Pan fry the walleye until it's done.
Remove walleye from pan.

Deglaze the pan with white wine and add some minced garlic.
Toss cooked pasta in the sauce and add some seasoning of choice, I used Tastefully Simple's Tomato and garlic pesto seasoning.
Drizzle with more olive oil, add wine as needed for sauce.
Sprinkle parmesan cheeese and toss all together until sauce thickens.

It was very good.

Salad

I made this VERY delicious salad last night.

It was on a whim so I don't have any good measurements but here is the list of ingredients.

Baby spinach
Crumbled blue cheese with cranberries
Mozzarella Fresca balls along with seasoned oil drizzled on salad
Grape tomatoes, halved
Dried cranberries
Balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Toss everything, This had the best sweet, dry, peppery flavor!

Easy Appetizer

Quick Spread

1-8oz cream cheese block
1 jar of Dickinson's Sweet hot pepper & onion relish

Open package of cream cheese and place on plate.
Open relish and pour on top of cream cheese.

Serve with crackers and spread on crackers. YUM!