Ramen Salad

Whenever we're invited to a potluck or party, this is my go-to recipe for what to bring!  If my family was bigger, I'd make it more often, but it makes so darn much that we never finish it before it gets mushy.  It's the one dish where when I bring it out, everyone goes "Oh, I LOVE that salad and I'm so glad you brought it!"  It's another easy recipe and is easy enough to make up either a day ahead of time, or a couple hours beforehand.
Here's a tip...I've found it's way cheaper to go to the bulk section in the grocery store for the slivered almonds and sesame seeds than to go to the spice section.
Here you go!

Ramen Salad

1 head cabbage
1 cans white meat chicken
2 pkg chicken ramen
1/4 c. sesame seeds
1/2 c. slivered almonds

For dressing:
1/2 c. oil
1 tsp seasoning salt
2 or 3 tsp sugar (to taste)
3 tbsp. vinegar
seasoning packets from ramen noodles

1. Shred cabbage
2. Brown almonds, sesame seeds and crushed ramen noodles (~250 to 300 degrees in the oven (keep an eye on them and mix them occasionally.  Once they start to brown, they brown fast.  It normally takes around half an hour to 45 minutes in my oven))

3. Drain and add chicken to cabbage

4. Mix oil, vinegar, sesasoning salt, sugar and ramen seasoning packets in a separate, small bowl for dressing
5. Toss in almonds/sesame seeds/noodles and dressing just before serving  (the noodles start to get soggy after a while, but it's still delicious the next day if there's any left!)

Porcupine Meatballs

Time for another recipe!
This one is a staple and the ultimate comfort food for our family.  The recipe comes from hubby's grandma, and she says that I'm the meatball maker in the family now because she likes how I make them even better than how she does.
I always double the recipe so that we have leftovers to eat the next day.  They make a great lunch!  I'm all for simple recipes with few ingredients!

For one batch:
1 lbs ground beef
1 egg
1 box beef-flavored rice-a-roni

In a bowl, mix the beef, egg, and rice from the rice-a-roni.  In a largeish pot, mix the amount of water needed for the rice-a-roni (2 1/2 cups) and the seasoning packet.

Form the meat mixture into balls, about a small handful per meatball

  I always double the recipe, so this is 2lbs meat, 2 eggs, and 2 boxes of rice a roni

Start bringing the water/seasoning mixture in the pot up to a boil
Very lightly brown the meatballs in a skillet with enough oil to keep them from sticking to the pan

Put the browned meatballs into the pot with the water/seasoning, and bring to a boil.

I know this picture looks absolutely gross, but they turn out delicious!

Cover and boil the meatballs for 45 minutes to an hour (or until the rice is cooked through).  This finishes cooking the meat as well, so don't worry about putting raw meat in the pot.

While the meatballs are cooking, whip up a batch of mashed potatoes for a side.  I sometimes heat up some green beans as well for a full meal.

Use the liquid left in the pot as gravy over the mashed potatoes and enjoy!

This isn't exactly a quick meal, but it's easy enough and works for weeknight dinners as well as weekends!

Checkerboard Cake

When I discovered this checkerboard cake pan set, I knew that I had to pick it up!  It looked like so much fun!  I happened to have a coupon at the time I found it at Joann's so I grabbed it.  The cake pan sat there in the kitchen, mocking me for about a month until I finally had some free time to actually pull it out and use it!
When the day finally came to make the cake, I decided to let the boy help me out too.  He had a great time mixing up the cake batter and helping me pour it into each of the pans.  I let him pick the colors to do for the cake.  He picked one of the color combos that was shown on the box...yellow, pink and purple.  He wanted an easter cake!  I think it turned out pretty well for the first attempt at using it.  I definitely see it getting used quite a bit in the future.
It takes 3 boxes of cake mix, so it makes quite a bit.  I did each box in a separate bowl, so that I didn't need to divide it out for each of the colors after the fact.  One of these days, I'm going to find a recipe so I can make cakes from scratch.  Until then, boxed mixes work just fine for me!  To make each color, I used my icing colors...just a little bit goes a long way!  Food coloring will work in a pinch too, but that has a tendency to make the cake batter a lot thinner consistency.  In order to keep the batter from seeping under the ring divider, you want to keep it fairly thick.  The most challenging part was putting the batter in each section of the divider while it was in the pan.  I'd read reviews of people putting the batter in bags and piping it in, but pouring it slowly from the bowl worked pretty well for me too.  There was enough batter left to make a dozen cupcakes as well.  We certainly had our fill of cake in our house for a week or so!
I made a double batch of icing in order to have enough to put between each layer and cover the cake.  I've discovered that I prefer to make my own icing over buying the cans from the store.  It just tastes so much better!
For an experiment to see how to use the cake pan, I was pretty pleased with the end result.  I can't wait to make it again sometime (and for someone other than just my family to eat) and see the expressions on people's faces when they cut into the cake!  It's a lot of fun!

Sloppy Joe Biscuits

The inspiration for this recipe comes from a TV commercial.  I saw a commercial for sloppy joes, and they showed putting the mix in refrigerator biscuits.  My first thoughts were "I've got to try that" and "Why the heck didn't I think of that?!".  We enjoy sloppy joes for dinner, but they're just so messy to eat!  I told hubby that I was going to make it for dinner one night and he thought it sounded good too.  The only thing I didn't have on hand were the biscuits, but that was an easy fix after going to the store.  A simple, 4-ingredient meal...perfect for a busy weeknight!

Make the sloppy joe stuff using the directions on the can (brown/drain 1lb ground beef), mix in sauce and warm through.

Flatten out the biscuits so they'll hold a couple spoonfuls of the sloppy joe mix.  Fill the biscuits with the sloppy joe mixture, and fold them over into a pocket.  Cook in the oven for the recommended time on the biscuit can.  I put cheese on top of the biscuits too (if I would have remembered to put cheese inside, there would have been cheese inside as well).

Enjoy a less-messy version of sloppy joes!

Ginger sesame chicken

Ok, so food photographer, I am not!  The problem is, it's hard to take pictures while I'm cooking!  My energy is more focused on making sure that I'm reading the recipe (when I read recipes), or that I'm not burning the food.  Generally I have my phone in the kitchen next to me and can grab a quick crappy cell phone pic, that does the food no justice at all, but a picture of something is better than a picture of nothing! 

Anyway...Ginger Sesame Chicken...another favorite in our house!  One that is pretty easy to make, but at the same time, one that I don't make nearly often enough.  When I do make it, it's gobbled up pretty quickly.  I found the recipe in a cooking magazine a few years ago.  I can't remember which one it was, but the recipe is as follows:

1 tbsp. cornstarch
3/4 c. chicken broth
2 tbsp. sesame seeds
2 tbsp. maple syrup
4 tsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1" cubes
2 tbsp. olive oil, divided
1 c. chopped green pepper (Doesn't have to be green pepper.  I often will use orange or yellow peppers)
1/2 c. chopped onion
Hot cooked rice

In a small bowl, combine the first seven ingredients until blended; set aside
In a large sillet or wok, stir-fry chicken in 1 tbsp. oil for 4-6 minutes or until no longer pink. Remove and keep warm
Stir-fry green pepper and onion in remaining oil for 2 minutes.  Stir cornstarch mixture and add to the pan.  Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1 minute or until thickened.  Add chicken; heat through
Serve with rice
Makes 4 servings

Stir Fry

I'm not going to take any credit for this recipe.  This was taught to me by a good friend of ours who had come out to visit from Chicago a couple of years ago.  We picked him up from the airport, and then hubby had to go to work, so I drove him around and did some sightseeing around the area.  He decided that he wanted to treat us to dinner the first night that he was out.  Hubby is still kicking himself that he had to work late that night and missed it!  I've made it many, many times since then, and I've been able to get the flavor pretty darn close to what was made for us.  Never again will I go back to using frozen veggies for stir fry...ever!
I know that using fresh ingredients makes a huge difference when cooking.  I had just been using a frozen mix for so long, that I didn't know any better.  We love a good stir fry, and I make this often for dinner.  Lately, I've been mixing it up a bit and adding different ingredients just to see if I can improve on it even more.

Mmmm...heaven in a skillet!

Anyway, this is real easy to make.  I don't measure anything in this one.  I know I've got the seasonings right by what it looks like and by what it smells like (yes, I am known to cook by smell!).  I wish that I could upload what it smells like!  You will need the following ingredients:

1-2 chicken breasts (can also use shrimp, which I would if hubby were a shrimp fan!)

1-2 broccoli crowns

1 bulb (yes, bulb) of garlic

1 sweet onion (I use half, depending on the size)

1 red onion (I use half, depending on the size)

Peppers (I use a combination of red, orange and yellow to give the dish color)

Sunflower seeds

Cumin

Red Pepper Flakes

Olive Oil

Soy Sauce

Chop up chicken and all veggies into bite size pieces and put in a skillet.  Add olive oil and soy sauce; enough to give everything some liquid to cook in and have some sauce for the rice.  Toss in some sunflower seeds to your liking.  Add cumin and red pepper flakes to taste (the more you add, the hotter it gets).  Stir fry until the chicken is cooked through.  Serve over rice.  Enjoy!

The last couple of times I've made this, I added a can of water chestnuts to give it a little bit more crunch, and it was amazing!  If I knew what a fresh water chestnut looked like and how to prepare it I'd use fresh, but canned worked for me here.  Next time I'm thinking of adding some green beans and/or some baby corn.  Stir fry is an easy dish to experiment with.  There's not much, other than over-cooking, that can be done to ruin stir fry!

Birthday Cake

I don't claim to be a good cake decorator by any stretch of the imagination, but I do enjoy dabbling in it.  Something about being creative is such a release for me.  When the boy requested to have another Thomas the train themed birthday party this past year (he's a bit obsessed), I jumped at the chance to try my hand at making another cake for him.  Imagine my annoyance surprise afterword when I discovered that there is actually a legitimate Thomas the train cake pan!  Regardless, I still enjoyed making the cake and I was pretty happy with how it turned out.  Being a novice cake baker, I had no clue how many cups of batter one box of cake mix made, so I mixed up two.  There was extra batter left, so I used what was left to make cupcakes.  We were eating cake for a while after the birthday party!  One of these days I'll do cake batter from scratch, but when time is a premium, I don't feel bad using a mix.  The cake was baked 2 days before the party because that was when I had a chance to do so!  Decorating was done the morning of the party, which included mixing up the frosting.  After finding a good recipe for buttercream frosting, I won't buy the stuff in a can anymore...it just doesn't taste as good!  Not only that, but I can control the consistency of it better from scratch as well.

After the birthday party, I found and bought the actual Thomas cake pan.  I'm (not so) secretly hoping that the boy's obsession lasts another year so I can get some use out of it!

Pizza Rollups

One of the first pinterest projects I tried was pizza rollups.  I saw the pin one day and couldn't believe firstly how easy this was, and secondly that I had never thought to do it before!  We do pigs in blankets a lot for dinner...why not mix it up and do pizza ingredients instead?!  If you're looking for a super quick and easy weeknight dinner, this one is it!  All you need is a tube of crescent rolls and some string cheese.  If you want to get fancy and add extra pizza toppings, the sky is the limit!  I usually add some pepperoni and some pizza sauce.  A few times we've added in some pineapple as well.  Roll everything up inside the crescent rolls and throw it in the oven for a few minutes, as directed on the package!

Menu Planning

Gracious, how do I blog about this without having it turn into a long, boring novel?!  I try to be organized...really, I do!  Being out of the house 10+ hours a day means that things need to be organized in order to run smoothly.  Almost 2 years ago, when hubby took a different job, I had to make more of an effort to get my act together when it came to dinner.  For the longest time, he worked somewhat of a swing shift so I always had a few hours after getting home to figure out what to make, clean house, craft, go for walks, grocery shop, and do whatever else needed to be done.  Now however, we both get home at close to the same time.  It was an adjustment for me to get used to not being able to have dinner ready for him when he'd get home.  After a month or two of floundering around, not really getting my act together, I decided that I needed to get better at menu planning.  I came up with a plan, and just needed some time to execute it.
First thing I did was to go through my recipe box, cookbooks, cooking magazines, allrecipes.com, and anywhere else I got recipes from and wrote down a list of what all I actually had on a somewhat regular rotation.  It was a surprise to me to see how many different dishes I actually make!  I easily came up with enough to fill up a whole month, with nothing repeated.  I also wrote down side dishes, but then scrapped that plan because a) I ran out of room on the calendar and b) sides are easy to figure out once the main dish is chosen!  I had an idea of what I wanted my calendar to look like and then took a day to get it done.  I bought a magnetized calendar white board and a roll of magnet tape to make pieces for all the main dishes.  Using my scrapbook supplies, I made some tags with each dish listed on them.  I color coded them as well...blue was for chicken dishes, red was for beef, and yellow was for everything else.  I cut up the magnet tape and stuck a tag on each one.  Over time, I've added in more recipes, but been too lazy to make more magnets.  I suppose I really should get on that!

At the beginning of the month, I sit down with the calendar and plan out the meals for the month. There's really no rhyme or reason to how I plan things out.  I think about what I think I'm going to feel like cooking for the first week, and then randomly put the meals for the rest of the month on the calendar.  I also try not to have a week where we have chicken 3 nights in a row, and have a couple of eat out nights built in to the month as well.  Side dishes are usually green beans, rice, potatoes, or whatever else I find in the pantry.  Lets face it, I enjoy cooking, but it's nice to have a night off here and there too!  Momma needs a break every once in a while!
In addition to my magnet calendar, I also have a google calendar set up that I can look at if I'm at work and can't remember what I had planned for dinner.  This is also handy if I need to go grocery shopping, so I need to know what to get for the week.  The nice thing about having a magnetic board and the google calendar is that it is real easy to switch things up if we get to a day where I see what I've planned and don't really feel like eating it that day.  Life happens, so we just roll with it!  As long as I've got the necessary ingredients, it's not a problem to change things up.  I'm flexible like that.
After all this, I have a confession to make!  The last few months, I've been absolutely HORRIBLE at keeping up with my menu planning!  2012 was quite the year for us, and we all ended up putting things on the back burner just to survive the year.  My goal for this year is to get back into being organized, and have our house running smoothly.  This is going to mean buckling down and working hard at first, but soon it will become like second nature again.

Caper Chicken

The boy, 9 times out of 10 will ask me to make this recipe when I ask what he wants to eat for dinner.  He loves it that much!  This comes somewhat as a shock to me because he's such a picky eater.  Something about caper chicken though, he just can't get enough of.  We knew he loved it when I made it one time and gave it to him and not only did he eat all that I gave him, but he kept asking for more!  I think he had nearly polished off a whole chicken breast by the time he was finally full!  If he can polish off a whole chicken breast at 4, I fear for how much food he's going to be putting away as a teenager!
In any case, I originally found the recipe at allrecipes.com.  I love that site too!  If I'm trying a new recipe out, it's either something I've found there or on pinterest.  The recipe is listed here, and I don't have a picture of the final outcome of this one because we finish it off faster than I can take a picture!
I don't measure out the spices, and I always double the sauce because there just isn't enough if you follow the recipe exactly.  Serve over some rice, and with a side of green beans, and you've got yourself a meal!


Caper Chicken:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (I usually use 3...one for each of us, but have done as many as 5)
1 tsp lemon pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried dill weed
3 tbsp butter
1/2 c. whipping cream (I just buy the small 1 pint container of heavy cream and use the whole thing...doubles the sauce)
2 tbsp capers, drained and rinsed

Make sure your chicken is thawed completely before starting.  It makes the cooking process MUCH easier (trust me on this one...I somehow end up with chicken still raw in the middle for some reason and end up having to finish it for a couple minutes in the microwave and it just doesn't taste as good!).
Season (one side of) the chicken breasts with lemon pepper, salt, dill weed and garlic powder
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Place breasts in skillet, (seasoned side down, and season the other side...the extra seasonings in the skillet give the sauce more flavor) and increase heat to medium-high.  Turn chicken every few minutes, until brown, then cook a bit longer until they're cooked through.  Remove chicken to a warm serving platter, and cover with foil (or if you're like me, put them on the plate WITHOUT foil and into the microwave for a couple minutes)
Increase heat on stove to high, and whisk in heavy cream (in the skillet), stirring constantly so it doesn't burn. Stir until it is reduced to sauce consistency (it will bubble up a lot, and then settle down).  Remove from heat, and stir in capers.
Pour sauce over chicken and enjoy!

I make this with rice, and a little sauce goes a long way.  I've read that this is also pretty good served with pasta as well, but we prefer rice.

Mashed potatoes and chili

AKA...what I make for dinner when I don't feel like cooking. Tonight was one of those nights. I developed a raging ear infection when we got back from all of our Christmas festivities. :( Why is it that illness always comes when I get a "bonus" day off work? Oh well. At least I don't have to take a sick day or vacation day for it. After debating for a few hours yesterday, I took a trip to the doctor and am now on antibiotics. The only problem is that I'm still not feeling great, and therefore not in the mood to cook anything that takes a while lot of effort.
Enter the quickest dinner in our meal rotation. Hubby introduced me to this while we were still dating. I thought it was weird at first, but quickly became a fan when he first made it for me. Seriously...easiest.meal.ever. It can totally be made more gourmet with mashed potatoes from scratch, and chili from scratch however, when energy is lacking, open a can of chili, mix up some instant potatoes and dinner is served! Top it with some cheese, or any other toppings you desire, and you've got a quick and filling meal when you have a busy weeknight, or a night when you don't feel like cooking!

Homemade Chili

My mom used to make chili all the time when I was a kid (still does, actually), and I've always loved her recipe.  When I got married, I decided that I was going to impress my hubby with my mom's chili.  He'd had it several times when she had made it already, so he knew what he was in for.  My only problem with my chili-making endeavor, was that I had no clue really what I was doing!  Sure, I had watched her make it many times, but I never really paid attention to what went in the pot!  So began a series of phone calls that I would make to her (and at 31 years old, still do!) that when she answers the phone, the first words out of my mouth are "Stupid question from your daughter!".  We both get a good laugh out of it, and then I proceed to ask my question.
I digress...this particular question of how to make her chili recipe sort of left me baffled. I couldn't believe that it was that haphazard, and that easy!  The recipe I was given..."Go down the bean aisle at the grocery store and grab a can or two of each type of bean, a can of diced tomatoes, some pork chorizo, and a pound of ground beef.  Brown up the ground beef with some onion and garlic, then throw it in a pot with all the beans, tomatoes, chorizo, and whatever spices you want, bring it to a boil and serve."  I was shocked...it couldn't really be that easy, and what the heck was chorizo?!  I've since learned a lot more about cooking, and have discovered that sometimes the best meals happen when you grab a whole bunch of things and just throw them into a pot!  That being said, the first time I make something, I'll follow the recipe pretty exact and then when I make it again, I'll change things up to make it better.
Since it was cold and slushing out this weekend, and I had a pantry full of beans, I figured that chili would be the perfect comfort food!  I didn't have everything that I needed for it, but it turned out pretty good anyway.  I like to refer to this chili as a good way to make space in the pantry.  I think I used at least 10 cans by the time I was done!

Homemade Chili

-1 or 2 cans of whatever types of beans you want (don't drain the juices):

  I typically use:

Chili beans (2 cans)

Kidney beans (2 cans)

Pinto beans (2 cans)

White beans

   There's usually a couple more types of beans that I throw in (black, great northern, garbanzo, etc.), but this was what I had in the pantry

-Diced tomatoes

-Tomato sauce

-Green Chilies (this was not part of my mom's recipe, but we like the extra kick that it gives)

-1lb ground beef

-Onion

-Garlic

-Random seasonings (I use chili powder, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, cumin) to taste

-Pork chorizo

Brown ground beef with onion and garlic.  Drain (I usually rinse also because I don't cook with a ton of grease) and add to a stock pot with the beans, chorizo, tomatoes, tomato sauce, chilies, and seasonings.  Stir occasionally so stuff doesn't stick to the bottom and bring just to a boil.  Serve and enjoy!