dinner

Adventures in Rethinking Food Waste and Reimaging Leftovers

chicken salad

So, my husband and I have been talking a lot lately about food waste. I’m embarrassed to admit that we waste way more food in my house than is responsible or ethical, and we are trying to make some changes.

Our grocery budget is soaring and I see way too much going to waste. Part of this waste comes from poor menu planning on my part. I need to be more conscientious in planning meals with intersecting ingredients rather than selecting dinners willy-nilly. This will ensure that items get completely used up, rather than seeing those half-wilted bunches of green onions or a stray, sprouted sweet potato go into the trash (before you say it, we can’t have a compost bin in our neighborhood). I think better planning will alleviate a good bit of the issue.

However the other main culprit in our food waste comes from leftovers. Ohhhh…the fights we have about leftovers. My husband fusses at me that I throw out too many extras, and tells me to save everything. But, do you know what happens? It sits in the fridge for a week, and then I throw it out anyway and have more dishes to wash. He has good intentions but if I pack dinner’s leftovers for his lunch, he forgets to take it with him… without fail. If I have a ton of dinner leftover, it means the family probably wasn’t a fan of the meal and they are unlikely to go back willingly for a second round. If they actually loved the dinner, there’s probably not enough left over for round 2, so I’m stuck with how to get rid of it without fighting.

Honestly, however, my kids just aren’t leftover fans anyway. They have the attention spans of goldfish, and they want to come home to something different each night. I swear my pet peeve is that they ask me what’s for dinner the second they hit the car seat, and it annoys me to no end to see those crestfallen, disappointed faces when I announce leftovers. You’d think I kicked a puppy. Spoiled much, Heathens?

I started thinking about Thanksgiving, and how I have a roster of creative leftover recipes, and am always trying to reimagine cool ways to get the most out of that food. After all, after spending so much time and money on one meal, I better get a return on my investment, right? Well, that philosophy needs to bleed over into everyday meal planning if we really want to cut down the waste.

So, here’s the plan. My goal over the next few weeks is to create a weekly meal plan such that at least one meal is comprised of leftovers reinvented. While I had to wing it this week (since I had already bought groceries), we still stretched that fried chicken meal quite a bit. Our favorite re-do was to transform it into chicken salad by de-boning and chopping the chicken yet keeping that tasty/crispy skin. We then combined it with finely chopped celery and some mayo. It didn’t need any additional salt and pepper since the chicken was so well seasoned. Finally, we halved the leftover biscuits, ran them through the toaster, and built the most delicious chicken salad biscuit sandwiches. Cool, huh?

And then I got on the treadmill…but that’s a story for another day.

Tasty Tuesday–Crispy Potatoes with Leeks, Lemon & Honey

potatoes

After plowing through a gazillion loads of laundry yesterday, not to mention the who-knows-what I mopped up from the kitchen floor, I decided to make a well-earned dinner to take the sting off of Monday. After all, discovering that one of the kids left more Kleenex in his pockets, via a paper explosion upon opening the dryer, was a call for a pick-me-up. I originally saw this recipe on Food Network, and it sounded incredibly bizarre. The honey and lemon seemed just unusual enough to ensure that these would either be really tasty, or a big, fat, Nope. They ended up as an amazing combination of flavors and textures, with each element bringing a perfect balance to the dish. I have adapted the recipe since then, and it’s the perfect side dish when you want something a little different and just a bit decadent.

Crispy Potatoes with Leeks, Lemon and Honey

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Ingredients
  • Salt
  • 2  lbs  fingerling potatoes or small yellow potatoes
  • 2  Tbs butter
  • 1  leek, halved, thoroughly washed and sliced up to pale green part
  • Black pepper to taste
  • 2  Tbs  olive oil
  • 1  tsp honey
  • 1  tsp dried parsley
  • Zest of 1 lemon
Procedure
1) Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Gently poach the potatoes for 10 minutes, or until just tender when pierced with a fork. You don't want them to be completely mushy or they will fall apart when you try to pan fry them. Drain the potatoes, cut in half, and dry thoroughly.
2) Heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Melt the butter, add the leeks and season with salt and pepper. Sauté until softened, about 8 minutes. Set aside.
3)  In the same pan, heat the olive oil. Put the potatoes cut-side down in the pan and cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes; flip and repeat on the skin side. Add back the leeks, drizzle with the honey and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.
4)  Sprinkle with the parsley and lemon zest. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

School Projects Are No Fun—But Dinner Sure Is Tasty

I’ve been in school-project-hell this weekend. G-Man has a social studies project due in a couple of weeks, which any mom knows means that we all can kiss our free time goodbye until it’s done.

I really, really struggle with school projects, to the point that I truly dread when they come up. I want my kids to do them on their own, because that is the whole point, right? However, in the age of growing parent competitiveness (i.e ridiculousness), I learned early on that some parents’ idea of “helping” their kids is actually doing the project for them. I hate seeing super-slick class projects that you just know were done more by the parents than the child, if not in their entireity. Normally, I shrug it off, but I can’t help wondering if my child’s honest effort will be compared to their peers, and found lacking because I didn’t ensure all that glossy polish by practically doing the final product myself. Further, I don’t want my kids to feel substandard because their classmates’ projects look like professional advertising materials, while ours reflects the true work of a 4th grader. I am in a constant battle to figure out how to help my child be successful, without crippling him by doing too much. I wish I had the answer, but in the meantime, I still bleeping hate school project time.

In semi-related news, I tried a new recipe last night that I found in this month’s Southern Living. This King Ranch Mac and Cheese seemed like just the kid-friendly meal I needed to take the sting off our marathon report-writing session. This was dang tasty, and much faster to put together than I anticipated. The boys raved about it, so you know it’s not just the pregnancy talking.

King Ranch Mac and Cheese (From Jan/2012 Southern Living)

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  • Ingredients
  • 1/2 (16-oz.) package cellentani pasta (I couldn't find this at Wally World, so I used ¾ of a 16-oz. box of elbow macaroni)
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 green bell pepper, diced
  • 1 (10-oz.) can diced tomatoes and green chiles (I used the "mild" Rotel to make this more Heathen-friendly)
  • 1 (8-oz.) package pasteurized prepared cheese product, cubed
  • 3 cups chopped cooked chicken
  • 1 (10 3/4-oz.) can cream of chicken soup
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 1/2 cups (6 oz.) shredded Cheddar cheese
    Preparation
  1. 1. Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare pasta according to package directions.
  2. 2. Meanwhile, melt butter in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion and bell pepper, and sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in tomatoes and green chiles and prepared cheese product; cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes or until cheese melts. Stir in chicken, next 4 ingredients, and hot cooked pasta until blended. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 10-inch cast-iron skillet or 11- x 7-inch baking dish; sprinkle with shredded Cheddar cheese.
  3. 3. Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes or until bubbly.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
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By following this dinner with our first King Cake of the season, I got to relish in a little “you’re the best mom ever!” That is, until I announced that it was shower time…then I was back to being Captain Meanie-Pants.

But, I’m cool with that.

Avian Invaders and Greek Food—Yep, It’s as Completely Unrelated as You Think

When I came home from work today, this little guy had taken up residence in the base of my deck. I gave him wide berth, but he somehow managed to give me the “Whatchoo talking bout, Willis” look from every angle.

I am pretty sure that look is the “bleep off” version of bird. Hopefully, he’ll move along soon, because my boys will start thinking he’s a pet if he hangs around much longer.

In completely unrelated news, the garden continues to produce food faster than we can eat, can and freeze. I got a little desperate this weekend, and did a frantic search for eggplant recipes, with the hope of reducing the pile of vegetables that is overtaking my kitchen counter. I landed on Moussaka (which I can’t even pronounce, by the way), and decided that a little experimentation was in order.

I certainly did not have high hopes for this recipe. First, it contained a bunch of ingredients that regularly send the heathens into riot-mode. Second, I am a Louisiana girl, and my pathetically underdeveloped palate is still confounded by the spice combinations that are in a lot of Greek food. Indian food too, for that matter. Lastly, just the simple fact that eggplant is the main ingredient was enough to have my husband doing the dramatic choking/dying pantomime. *Sigh*

Well, lo and behold, we all liked this dish, and I got to rack up the cool mom points for a garden-fresh meal. It was deliciously rich and cheesy, and the eggplant was well-disguised from the heathens’ vegetable-laser-vision. I don’t know how “authentic” this recipe is, but our simpleton taste buds sure enjoyed it, and I was able to reduce my vegetable invasion for at least a day.

I served the Moussaka with a simple Greek salad (also using veggies from the garden):

And got to feel like the Saturday dinner superstar. Want to have a Moussaka adventure of your own? Here’s the recipe I used:

Moussaka

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Ingredients
  • 3 eggplants, peeled and cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch thick slices
  • salt
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 pound lean ground beef
  • salt to taste
  • ground black pepper to taste
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon fines herbs
  • 2 tablespoons dried parsley
  • 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
  • 1/2 cup red wine
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 4 cups milk
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • salt to taste
  • ground white pepper, to taste
  • 1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Directions
  1. Lay the slices of eggplant on paper towels, sprinkle lightly with salt, and set aside for 30 minutes to draw out the moisture. Then in a skillet over high heat, heat the olive oil. Quickly fry the eggplant until browned. Set aside on paper towels to drain.
  2. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and add the ground beef, salt and pepper to taste, onions, and garlic. After the beef is browned, sprinkle in the cinnamon, nutmeg, fines herbs and parsley. Pour in the tomato sauce and wine, and mix well. Simmer for 20 minutes. Allow to cool, and then stir in beaten egg.
  3. To make the béchamel sauce, begin by scalding the milk in a saucepan. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Whisk in flour until smooth. Lower heat; gradually pour in the hot milk, whisking constantly until it thickens. Season with salt, and white pepper.
  4. Arrange a layer of eggplant in a greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Cover eggplant with all of the meat mixture, and then sprinkle 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese over the meat. Cover with remaining eggplant, and sprinkle another 1/2 cup of cheese on top. Pour the béchamel sauce over the top, and sprinkle with the nutmeg. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
  5. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees F.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Big Mamou for Jeanne!

A while back, Jeanne asked me for J’s “Big Mamou over Pasta” recipe. I asked J to cough it up, and she lent me her battered copy of Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen. In true Southern Girl fashion, I didn’t need to check the index; I simply opened the book to the most stained, wrinkly page, and there it was. The recipe is somewhat long and involved, but the flavor is absolutely amazing and authentic. Here ya go Jeanne:

Big Mamou

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Ingredients
PASTA
6 qt Hot water
3 T Salt
1/4 c Vegetable oil
1 1/2 lb Fresh spaghetti (1 lb dry)
SEASONING MIX
2 t Dried thyme leaves
3/4 t Black pepper
1 1/4 t Ground cayenne pepper
1/2 t Dried sweet basil leaves
1 t White pepper
SAUCE
1 lb Unsalted butter plus
2 T Worcestershire sauce
4 T Unsalted butter
1 T Tabasco sauce + 1 teaspoon
1 c Onions, chopped very fine
2 cans Tomato sauce (16 oz)
4 Med. garlic cloves, peeled
2 T Sugar
2 t Minced garlic
2 c Green onions, chopped very fine
3 1/4 c RICH chicken stock (this is basic chicken stock simmered until its' volume is reduced by half)
CHICKEN SEASONING MIX
1 1/2 T salt
1 t Black pepper
1 1/2 t White pepper
1 t Cumin (optional)
1 1/2 t Garlic powder
1/2 t Dried sweet basil leaves
1 1/4 t Ground cayenne pepper
2 lb Boneless chicken, light and dark meat, cut into ½-inch cubes
Preparation
Bring hot water, oil and salt in a large pot to a boil. Add spaghetti to the pot, Return to boiling and cook to al dente stage. Do not
overcook. Drain spaghetti into a colander; run cold water over strands. (If you used dry spaghetti, first rinse with hot water to wash off starch.) After the pasta has cooled pour a liberal amount of vegetable oil in your hands and toss spaghetti. Set aside. Meanwhile, combine the seasoning mix ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
In a 4-quart saucepan, combine 1-1/2 sticks of the butter, onions and garlic cloves; sauté over medium heat 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the minced garlic and seasoning mix; continue cooking over medium heat until onions are dark brown, but not burned, about 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often. Add 2-1/2 cups of the stock, the Worcestershire and Tabasco; bring to a fast simmer and cook about 8 minutes, stirring often. Stir in the tomato sauce and bring mixture to a boil. Then stir in the sugar and 1 cup of the green onions; gently simmer uncovered about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Heat the serving plates in a 250F oven. Combine the ingredients of the chicken seasoning mix in a small bowl; mix well. Sprinkle over the chicken, rubbing it in with your hands. In a large skillet melt 1-1/2 sticks of the butter over medium heat. Add the remaining 1 cup green onions and sauté over high heat about 3 minutes. Add the chicken and continue cooking 10 minutes, stirring frequently. When the tomato sauce has simmered about 40 minutes, stir in the chicken
mixture and heat through.
To finish the dish, for each serving melt 2 T butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add one-sixth of the cooked spaghetti (a bit less than a 2 cup measure); heat spaghetti 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add 1-1/4 c chicken and sauce and 2 T of remaining stock; heat thoroughly, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Place spaghetti onto a heated serving plate. Repeat process for remaining servings.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Sneaky Mom Tricks Family, Overeats and Laments Margarita Shortage

In my supremely naïve effort to sneak ANY moderately healthy food into my family, I decided to try a new, yet bizarre recipe that I found on Southern Living’s website. This Hearty Tex-Mex casserole contains many ingredients that my husband actually likes, such as chicken, cheese, sour cream, salsa and tortillas. However, the recipe also sneaks in a substantial portion of squash and spinach, which I have to say, was pretty well concealed in the final product. While Mr. “I-have-X-Ray-Vision” spotted the healthy stuff right off, he eventually gave this casserole a fair try (after much melodramatic protest), and lo and behold, he liked it! The heathens ate a decent amount of this as well, and frankly, I thought it was dang tasty.

Hearty Tex-Mex Casserole

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Ingredients
  • 1  (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
  • 3  medium-size yellow squash, thinly sliced
  • 1  large red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
  • 1  yellow onion, thinly sliced
  • 2  tablespoons  peanut oil
  • 3  cups  shredded cooked chicken or turkey
  • 12  (6-inch) corn tortillas, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1  (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of celery soup, undiluted
  • 1  (8-ounce) container sour cream
  • 1  (8-ounce) jar picante sauce or salsa
  • 1  (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles, undrained
  • 1  (1.4-ounce) envelope fajita seasoning
  • 2  cups  (8 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese, divided
Preparation
Drain chopped spinach well, pressing between paper towels to remove excess moisture.
Sauté squash, bell pepper, and onion in hot oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat 6 minutes or until tender. Remove from heat. Stir in spinach, chicken, next 6 ingredients, and 1 1/2 cups cheese. Spoon into a lightly greased 13- x9-inch baking dish. At this point, I worried I screwed it up, because the mixture was VERY thick. However, as it cooked, it loosened up and the consistency was right on.
Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Sprinkle evenly with remaining 1/2 cup cheese, and bake 5 more minutes.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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While making this recipe, I also stumbled onto something awesome. I am not a fan of most store-bought salsas. They always seem to taste too sour, vinegary or overall weird. While at the Wally-world, I grabbed a jar of this stuff to use in my casserole prep:

Hands down, this was perhaps the best store-bought salsa I’ve ever had. I liked it so much, I ate the other half of the jar yesterday with a handful to tortilla chips…although I DID let my mom have a bite or two, so quit looking at me like that. All that was missing was a margarita, but I had enough wine to make up for it.

So, if you’re brave enough to sneak your own vegetables-of-doom into your family, give this recipe a try.

But if your husband has X-Ray vision too, you’re on your own, sister.

Fridays, Lent and Dinner-time Anarchy

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, and while I made it to Mass, the rest of my family was far too sick to go. On the bright side for them, they were so sick they didn’t even have to worry about that whole “day of fasting and abstinence” thing. While I got out of cooking a meatless meal yesterday, I’ll still have plenty of opportunities for family-meal anarchy this Lent.

Lenten Fridays are always a challenge for me, because I have two heathens who are not really fans of seafood (unless it’s the oh-so-not-healthy fish sticks), and a husband who acts like he is suffering the tortures of the dammed if his meal isn’t a protein-fest. Every once in a while, I throw my hands up and force them to eat grilled shrimp or salmon croquettes, but I usually try to keep the peace by making dishes that will not result in theatrical dinner-time protests, or suspicious food-autopsies in search of green onions.

French toast and cheese tortellini Alfredo are most often my Lenten Friday go-to’s, but I’ve also tried to find recipes that actually contain some semblance of nutritional value…or at least more nutritional value than French Toast. I found this recipe in Southern Living, and not only is it pretty tasty, but it also sneaks a sizeable spinach portion into my husband and kids. Even better, the spinach is well-hidden, so with careful presentation, the boogers have ingested some before they wise up to it.


Spinach-Ravioli Lasagna

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Ingredients
  • 1  (6-oz.) package fresh baby spinach, thoroughly washed
  • 1/3  cup  pesto sauce
  • 1  (15-oz.) jar Alfredo sauce
  • 1/4  cup  vegetable broth (or white wine, if you're a lush like me)
  • 1  (25-oz.) package frozen cheese-filled ravioli (do not thaw)
  • 1  cup  (4 oz.) shredded Italian six-cheese blend
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 375°. Chop spinach, and toss with pesto in a medium bowl.
2. Combine Alfredo sauce and vegetable broth. Spoon one-third of Alfredo sauce mixture (about 1/2 cup) into a lightly greased 2.2-qt. or 11- x 7-inch baking dish. Top with half of spinach mixture. Arrange half of ravioli in a single layer over spinach mixture. Repeat layers once. Top with remaining Alfredo sauce.
3. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Bake 5 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Garnish with paprika and fresh basil, if desired.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

I serve it with garlic bread and some other vegetable on the side if I am feeling particularly ambitious.

So, if you need a meatless option that has a chance of satisfying picky eaters, give this recipe a try.

Or, you could always stick with the French toast.

Bacon-Cheese Mini Meatloaves…For Weeknight Meatloaf Happiness

Though dinner continues to be a source of debate around my house, I’ve had another victory this week in making a meal that the picky heathens actually like.

As a working mom, I have limited time on a week-night to get dinner on the table. I’ve tried making meatloaf by assembling it the night before, but most meatloaf still has a cooking time of at least an hour; not a good thing when you have a kitchen full of hungry boys hounding you to death. By splitting my favorite meatloaf into smaller portions, I cut the cooking time in half. I promise this is your best bet for enticing picky eaters into the land of meatloaf and maintain your week-night sanity.

Here’s what you need:

Mini Bacon-Cheeseburger Meatloaves

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  • 4 strips of bacon
  • ¼ cup Red Bell Pepper, Finely Chopped
  • ¼ cup Onion, finely chopped
  • 3 cloves Garlic, Finely Chopped
  • 2 pounds Lean Ground Beef
  • 1-½ cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese
  • ½ cup Oats
  • ½ cup Light Brown Sugar, Divided
  • ½ cup Yellow Mustard, Divided
  • ½ cup Ketchup, Divided
First things first. I needed to cook the bacon, and use some of the bacon drippings to sauté my veggies, However, I HATE cooking bacon on the stovetop. It pops, it sizzles, it burns me and it makes a mess that is a pain in the rear to clean up. I'm lucky enough to wash the dishes on a given night; scrubbing bacon grease off my backsplash is not going to happen. I solved this problem by cooking the bacon on a foil-lined baking sheet. I just popped it under the broiler for a few minutes, turning it once. I had watch it carefully, so it wouldn't burn.
Once the bacon was cooked, I removed it to some paper towels to cool, and carefully poured the drippings into a small skillet. Because my baking sheet was covered with foil, I got to throw the mess away and save time on dishes. While the bacon was still cooking, I chopped my bell pepper:
as well as the onion and garlic:
Once the bacon was cooked and my drippings were in my skillet, I turned on the heat to med-high, and added my bell pepper, onion and garlic to the skillet:
While the vegetables were sautéing, I chopped up my cooled bacon:
And grated my cheese:
At this point, my vegetables were nice and soft, so I removed the skillet from the stove and let the vegetable mixture cool down for a bit:
Once I was fairly certain that I was not in danger of burning myself, I began the meatloaf assembly. In a large bowl, I combined the beef:
Cooled vegetable mixture:
Cheese:
Chopped bacon:
Oats:
As well as ¼ cup ketchup, ¼ cup mustard and ¼ cup brown sugar. I reserved the remaining ketchup, mustard and brown sugar to make the sauce later:
Using my (relatively clean) hands, I combined all these ingredients until the mixture looked fairly uniform:
I divided the meat mixture into 12 portions (kinda like I was making 12 big meatballs), and placed it into a muffin pan that I liberally sprayed with non-stick spray. At this point, I covered it up and tossed it in the fridge until the next day, but if you aren't making this ahead of time like I was, just carry on:
When I got home from work the next day, I popped the meatloaves into a 375 degree oven and baked them for 30 minutes. Because I wanted them to brown well, I removed the meatloaves from the oven after about 20 minutes, and VERY CAREFULLY, I tipped the muffin pan gently over the sink to drain off any excess grease. I retuned the meatloaves to the oven to bake for the remaining 10 minutes. Meanwhile, I combined the remaining ¼ cup ketchup, ¼ cup mustard and ¼ cup brown sugar in a small bowl:
After the meatloaves baked for the full 30 minutes (with that brief break to drain the grease at the 20-minute-mark), I removed them from the oven and topped them with my sauce mixture:
I then returned the meatloaves to the oven, and baked them an additional 10 minutes, or until they looked dang tasty:
I let the meatloaves cool about 5 minutes, then I plated it up and basked in a week-night meatloaf success:
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

As you can see, I served it with a double helping of vegetables to compensate for that whole bacon-cheese factor.

Because in my mind, that made perfect sense.

Spaghetti Casserole for a Faux Snow Day

Today is yet another Louisiana “snow day.” Unlike last week, when we had an actual real snow day, today was once again a day when school was cancelled under a threat of mythical snow that never materialized. I guess the real snow we had on Friday made everyone a little overly optimistic. I am not complaining, however. I’ve managed to tackle my sentient laundry pile, bake some bread and brownies from scratch, and talk to my mom for longer than five minutes at a time.

Work has been so busy lately that our meals, though homemade, have been the thrown-together variety. Yes, I am the mom who served her family French toast and sausage for dinner last night…sue me.

When I do actually have longer than thirty minutes to feed the heathens, I try and make food we all can agree on, and Spaghetti Casserole certainly fits the bill. Want to satisfy three hungry, excessively picky guys? Here’s what you need:

Spaghetti Casserole

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-1 pound lean ground beef
-1-1/2 cups of your favorite pasta/spaghetti sauce
-a small onion
-8 ounces of spaghetti noodles
-1 can cream of mushroom soup
-2 cloves garlic
-1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (yes, I cheated and used the Velveeta crumbles…I was feeling especially lazy)
-1/2 cup water
-2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
-wine of your choice
To get started, pour yourself a glass of wine…and celebrate the fact that it's Tuesday, five o-clock, sunny outside, the Mardi Gras season or whatever other reason you can think up:
While you are at it, get a large pot of water boiling to cook the spaghetti noodles in. Next, chop up the onion:
In a large skillet over med-high heat, brown the ground beef and onion together, stirring occasionally:
While the meat is browning, chop up the garlic cloves, have a sip of wine, and crank up the music:
Once the ground beef is browned, add the garlic to the skillet and cook for a minute or two:
In the meantime, cook the spaghetti noodles according to the package directions:
While the noodles are cooking, add the cream of mushroom soup, ½ cup of water and 1-1/2 cups of the pasta sauce to meat mixture:
Reduce the heat to low, stir and simmer until the beef mixture is well-combined and looks like this:
By now, the spaghetti noodles should be about done. Drain them and add them to the skillet with the beef mixture, stirring gently to combine:
Pour the spaghetti mixture into a lightly greased 9x13-inch casserole dish, and spread it around evenly. Sprinkle casserole with both the cheddar and parmesan cheeses:
Bake the casserole at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until bubbly.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
As you can see from the top picture, I just served it with green beans, garlic bread and called it a done deal. Sure, the heathens complained about the green beans, but I did get super-mom credit for the casserole.

That’s about all a girl can ask for, I guess.

Husband-Friendly Soup…I Promise

My husband has some pretty definitive ideas about what makes a meal. I often say he eats like a hobbit…lunch, elevensies, dinner, second-dinner and so on.

Well, not really, but when he does eat a meal, he wants a full, substantial meal, or he will be rummaging in the kitchen shortly thereafter. I don’t know why that annoys me, but it sure does…blame the OCD, I guess.

As a working girl, a mom and a sane person, I sometimes just don’t have it in me to dirty up every dang dish in my kitchen on a weeknight meal. That’s when my fall-back one-pot meals come in handy. This recipe is just one of those…it’s technically soup and a one-pot meal, but trust me, it’s hearty enough that even my hobbit considers it a full-on meal, and not just an appetizer to his later pantry-scavenging.

Chicken Fajita Chowder

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  • 3 T. all-purpose flour
  • 1 envelope fajita seasoning, divided
  • 3 or 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
  • 4 T. olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 15-1/4 oz. can Fiesta Corn
  • 15-oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 14-1/2 oz. can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes, undrained
  • 4-1/2 oz. can chopped green chiles
  • 3 c. chicken broth
  • 1 c. instant brown rice, uncooked
  • 10-3/4 oz. nacho cheese soup
Garnish: sour cream, shredded cheese, crushed tortilla chips, green onions
1) Combine flour and 2 tablespoons of the fajita seasoning in a large zip-loc bag:
2) Add cubed chicken, seal bag and shake to coat:
3) Heat oil in a large pot over med-high heat. Add chicken and cook about 5 minutes, stirring often, until the outside of the chicken turns golden brown. At this point, you will have all kinds of good browned bits of chicken and seasoning sticking to the bottom of your pan. Don't panic! We'll fix that in a second:
4) Toss in the onion and garlic, and sauté 4 to 5 minutes, or until onions appear to soften:
5) Add the chicken broth to the pot. Turn the heat up to high if necessary, and start scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon or spatula to loosen all those yummy browned bits. If you are fancy-schmancy, we'll call this deglazing. Once you've scraped as best you can, turn the heat back down to med-high, and it should look like this:
6) Add the remaining fajita seasoning, fiesta corn, black beans, green chiles, stewed tomatoes and brown rice. I try to cut the stewed tomatoes with the kitchen shears before adding them to the pot, because too-large tomato pieces would scare the heathens away:
7) Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat to med-low, cover and simmer 5 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile, get your toppings set up. My husband is morally opposed to green onions, so we only had some shredded pepper jack, crushed tortilla chips and sour cream:
8) Once the soup is done, it will look like this:
9) Dish it up,  top chowder as desired:
And bask in the fact that your kitchen has not been demolished in a dirty-pan siege. Besides, the troops are much more inclined to do the dishes when there are less dishes to do.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

It’s Machiavelli…Mom-style!