Recipes

I've been working to organize and compile the recipes I use most often. Since I'm typing most of them with my changes and notes I thought I would post them here as well. Hopefully there will be pictures to go with them one of these days. Enjoy!

Quick Mix Pizza Dough

Tomato Sauce

Black Bean Quesadillas

Potato Vegetable Soup

Baked Potato Soup

This is our favorite soup recipe.


Baked Potato Soup
Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens
Makes 6 servings

2 large baking potatoes, baked

6 T. thinly sliced green onion

⅓ C. butter

⅓ C. all-purpose flour

¼ t. each salt & pepper

4 C. milk

¾ C. cheddar cheese

4 slices bacon, crisp-cooked, drained & crumbled

Directions: Bake potatoes (see directions below) then scoop out pulp when cool enough to handle.

In a large saucepan cook 3 T. green onion in butter until tender. Stir in flour, salt & pepper. Cook for 1 minute.

Add milk all at once. Cook & stir until thickened & bubbly. Cook & stir 1 minute more.

Add the potato pulp & ½ C. shredded cheese. Stir until cheese melts.

Ladle into bowls. Garnish each serving with cheese, green onion & bacon.

Notes:
To bake potatoes: Scrub potatoes clean & pat dry. Bake in a 425° oven for 40 to 60 minutes or until tender. Or use leftover baked potatoes.

Potatoes can also be baked in the microwave. Most microwaves have a baked potato function.

Additionally you could make this recipe with leftover mashed potatoes. Use about 2 cups.

Delicious! This is one of our favorite soup recipes! Very filling and great the next day for lunch. I cook the bacon in the saucepan first, drain out most of the drippings, then continue with the recipe. It adds a little extra bacon flavor and I don’t have to dirty another pan!

For more recipes visit Tammy's Recipes

Menu Week of April 20

This week's plan is subject to adjustments. Our friend Aleathea is visiting us and I'm not sure what we will be doing each afternoon, so I've tried to choose meals that I've made ahead or are easy to put together.

Monday: Salads

Tuesday: Sloppy Joes (I'm going to try making with ground turkey. I hope it will be just as delicious.)

Wednesday: Vegetable Lasagna (from the freezer)

Thursday: Brats

Friday: Homemade Pizza or Calzones (from the freezer)

Weekend: Camping? Eat out?

Supper This Week

Sorry I didn't post my meal plan for last week. I didn't really have much of a plan - or at least I thought - but we ended up eating meals at home all week! I'm still an advocate for having a plan though, so here is mine for this week.

Monday: mac & cheese (from freezer) & steamed broccoli

Tuesday: spinach salads with soup or sandwiches

Wednesday: BBQ chicken sandwiches & broccoli salad

Thursday: pasta with sausage & spinach

Friday: sweet & sour chicken over rice (The recipe calls for meatballs, but I think I can substitute chicken with good results.)

Most of the meal ideas were taken from Kraft Food & Family Magazine Spring 2008. However, I'm using most of the recipes simply as inspiration and adjusting/substituting as I go.

Also, as you can see, I've planned meals with similar ingredients all week. This is a good way to make sure nothing goes to waste - like the baby spinach I need to buy & the fresh broccoli that's on sale.

This Week's Menu

Last week I realized that I'd already used 2/3 of my grocery budget and the month is only half over, but the good news is, my freezer is stuffed with food. Therefore, I'll be pulling things out of the freezer to eat this week and maybe putting a few things back in.

Monday: bean burritos & salad (I agree with the comments that these burritos are a little bland. Next time I think I will mix some salsa into the rice or add something else to spice them up a bit.)

Tuesday: broccoli calzones (made pizza bread last week instead, will probably freeze half the calzones)

Wednesday: spinach manicotti & garlic bread (I made a whole package of manicotti a while ago and since we can't eat that much, I froze the individual filled manicotti. To freeze the pasta, I simply put them back in their packaging, wrapped with plastic and put in a freezer bag. You can thaw the manicotti overnight in the refridgerator, but you don't have to, it will just take longer to bake. To serve, I just take out 2-3 for each of us and then bake in pasta sauce & top with cheese - 375°, 30-45 min. or until heated through.)

Thursday: simple roast chicken & potatoes

Friday: chicken noodle soup from leftover chicken (hope to have enough to freeze some)

Saturday/Sunday: baked potato bar/leftovers/eat out?

Good, Easy Food in a Hurry

On Sunday evening I did not feel like making supper, but I knew we had plenty of food in the house so I didn't want to succumb to going out to eat.

So what to make for supper? I looked through the fridge, freezer and pantry, then I remembered a list of easy meals I created several weeks ago for just such an occasion.

I thought I would share my list of go-to meals with you in case, like me, you sometimes have a hard time deciding what to make, or just don't feel like cooking or heating up leftovers from the day before.


Good, Easy Food in a Hurry

• pasta with sauce, veggies or cheese
• quesadillas (usually canned black beans, salsa & cheese)
  
• pizza - it's always nice to have a frozen one on-hand
  
• soup (from the freezer or a can)
• sandwiches
• fried rice
• frittata, scrambled eggs, omelet or similar
• baked potatoes in the microwave
• cereal

We had leftover rice in the fridge, so I decided to make fried rice by adding an egg, some frozen mixed veggies and a little bit of soy sauce.

What quick and simple meals do you like to make?

This Week's Menu

I share my weekly meal plan almost every week at This Week for Dinner, but I thought I would also post it here to inspire those of you reading my blog. I am also going to try to post recipes on this blog and I figured this would be a good first step.

Monday: Red Beans & Rice (slow cooker) - see below for recipe

Tuesday: Fiesta Salad with Black Beans (something similar to this without the chicken)

Wednesday: Salsa Rice Enchiladas and Salad - a variation on the recipe below with leftovers from Monday & Tuesday.

Thursday: Broccoli-cheese Calzones - see below for recipe

Friday: Leftovers

Saturday & Sunday: I don't usually plan meals for the weekend, because I'm never sure what we'll be doing or if we'll be home around mealtime. I also don't plan meals for the weekend, because I typically have more leftovers than I thought or we didn't eat a certain meal earlier in the week for whatever reason. However, I do try to keep simple meals from the freezer and pantry ready for if we are home and there isn't anything we haven't eaten yet this week. This weekend we might have pasta or a baked potato bar.


Red Beans & Rice
Betty Crocker Easy Everyday Vegetarian Cookbook

1lb dried kidney beans (2 cups), sorted, rinsed
1 large green bell pepper, chopped (1 ½ cups)
1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
7 cups water
1 ½ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 cups uncooked instant rice
Red pepper sauce

In 4 to 5-quart slow cooker, mix all ingredients except rice and red pepper sauce.
Cover, cook on high 4 to 5 hours or low 8 to 10 hours
Stir in rice. Cover; cook on high 15 to 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Serve with pepper sauce.

Makes 8 servings

Notes 3/10/09: We thought this recipe was good, but a little bland. However, it was super cheap and easy. If I make it again, I might add more seasonings to the slow cooker. We had leftover rice in the fridge, so I didn't add it to the crock pot. I also thought it would freeze better without the rice. I ended up freezing three 2 cup portions because we had A LOT of leftovers.


Salsa Rice Enchiladas
Betty Crocker Easy Everyday Vegetarian Cookbook

1 ½ cups chunky salsa
1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
1 cup uncooked instant rice
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained, rinsed
1 can (11 oz) whole kernel corn with red and green peppers, undrained
1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
8 flour tortillas (8 inch)
Additional salsa, if desired

In 10-inch skillet, heat 1 ½ cups salsa and the chili powder to boiling. Stir in rice. Remove from heat; cover and let stand 5 minutes. Stir in beans, corn and cheese.
Spoon about ½ cup rice mixture onto center of each tortilla. Fold up bottom of each tortilla; fold over sides. Secure with toothpick if necessary. Serve with additional salsa, if desired.

Makes 4 servings (2 enchiladas each)


Broccoli-cheese Calzones
Betty Crocker Easy Everyday Vegetarian Cookbook

1 15 oz container ricotta cheese
9 oz frozen cut broccoli, thawed (? cups)
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 egg whites (or 1 egg?)
1 teaspoon dried basil or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
1 loaf (1 lb) frozen white or wheat bread dough, thawed
1 can (8 oz) pizza sauce

Heat oven to 375. Grease 2 cookie sheets. In medium bowl, mix all ingredients except dough and pizza sauce.
Divide bread dough into 6 equal pieces. On lightly floured surface using a floured rolling pin, roll each piece into 7-inch round.
Top half of each dough round with cheese mixture to within 1-inch of edge. Carefully fold dough over filling; pinch edge or press with fork to seal securely. Place calzones on cookie sheets.
Bake about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes.
In small saucepan, heat pizza sauce over medium, stirring occasionally until hot. Serve warm sauce with calzones.

Makes 6 servings


If you're wondering why all the recipes are from the same cookbook this week, it's because I just checked it out from the library. Everything looked so good and EASY that I just had to get started trying them!