HotDog heaven at our house tonight!

Today was a super fast and easy dinner night - we had Hot Dogs... not even grilled, just cooked on the stove and paired with a yummy pasta salad and watermelon. I have decided that we may have reached that point of moving to a two package hot dog family because there is almost not enough for everyone... scary thought - not sure what we are going to do when they are teenagers! Anyway, I can't post something without leaving you with some sort of recipe. Below is my pasta salad recipe that is a big hit with the family. We found it by accident one time on the back of an Albertson's package of salad pasta and it has quickly become our favorite.

Dill Pasta Salad

8oz of your favorite small pasta cooked

6 oz cheese cubed

1/2 C. finely chopped dill pickle (very important!)

1/4 C. finely chopped onion

1 C. frozen peas, thawed

1 C Mayonnaise

1 T lemon juice

1T Dijon Mustard

1/4 tsp Tabasco (trust me - very important!)

1/4 tsp salt

pepper to taste

Mix it all together and enjoy. This salad gets better when it sits in the fridge for awhile but it is good whenever you have it. My favorite part with this salad is that I can make it really quickly which is most important on busy family nights.

Yummy Grilled Chicken

Summer is by far my most favorite time of year when it comes to food because I love grilling. My husband is the master griller at our house, however, I have improved my skills immensely this last season because of his crazy work schedule. Anyway, we had some left over Coke that I wanted to get rid of and thought there has to be a recipe out there somewhere that uses it as a marinade - and shockingly enough, there are Several... who knew?? Anyway, Coke makes a nice carmelization on the chicken when it's cooked that made this dish mighty tasty.

Coke Chicken

2C. Coke

1/3 C. Soy Sauce

1T minced Garlic

1/2 C Brown Sugar

1T Balsamic Vinegar

1T Lime Juice

Chicken of your choice

I put all the ingredients in a Ziploc bag and put in fridge before I left for work. We did both a mix of boneless skinless chicken breasts and thighs because we have mix of preferences at my house. Anyway, Take chicken out of fridge about 45 min before you want to grill. Place on preheated grill and cook until done. We served this with cheesy cauliflower and rice pilaf. Nice meal and everyone cleaned their plate!

Goulash (or however you spell it??)

Since my honey has had quite the busy and crazy week - I decided to make him one of his favorite dishes - Goulash... it is comfort food at it's finest and he definitely needed some comfort.
When I make this dish, I usually just serve it with nothing else because that's how he prefers it. I think it is tasty with a salad and maybe some shredded cheese on top - but that truly is your call!

• 1lb ground beef


• 1/2 onion chopped


• 2 C. dry macaroni


• 4 14oz cans stewed tomatoes


• chili powder


• nutmeg (trust me on this one!)


• other seasoning to taste

Cook macaroni to al dente. Saute hamburger with onion. Drain. Combine macaroni, meat, and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and chili powder and a dash of nutmeg. Heat until hot and enjoy!!

My kids love this as well by the way. Both Thomas and Kate ask for seconds when we have this. Thomas, who does not like tomatoes, will eat this without complaint.

Ok - I will try this again...

This is definitely one of our families favorite dishes. If you have a pressure cooker - it takes only a few minutes to cook... if not, you can cook this on the stove top and it works just as well. Also, we like this made with ground turkey instead of ground beef because turkey tends to be a bit more moist. When I make this for our family of 6, I usually double the recipe because it goes rather quickly... you can make adjustments to the recipe as you see fit - it definitely doesn't need to be exact.

• Porcupine Meatballs


• 1 lb meat


• 1/2c. Long grain rice


• 1/2 tsp Salt 1/4 tsp Pepper


• 2 TB finally minced onion


• 1 can condensed tomato soup (approx 10oz can)


• 1/2 Cup water


• 1-2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce (makes all the difference)

Combine the first 5 ingredients well and form into meatballs. Combine the last three ingredients and place in pressure cooker. Place meet balls in with the sauce. Put lid on and heat until it's pressurized - cook for 10 min under pressure. Let pan cool down at least five minutes before releasing pressure. For stove top: Brown meatballs in large skillet. Put sauce mixture over meatballs and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 35-40 min - stirring very gently every so often. If you do it this way, you may need to add some kind of binder to the meat so they don't break - like egg...) Anyway, we usually serve these with green beans and that's it. Very tasty and very quick!! Definitely my kind of meal!

I'm Back...

I've decided that it is time to start this blog again... I realized it has been almost two years since I have posted anything and I really have missed it. My life is still busy... probably even more so now than ever before having added to our family since, so the need for quick and easy dinners still readily exists. So... here it goes.

Monday's dinner. We had homemade Macaroni and cheese, green beans, and chicken patties. Total time to make was 30 min. I found the Macaroni recipe on one of my favorite blogs: http://www.realmomkitchen.com/ . It was very easy and most importantly my kids and honey loved it.
I liked this recipe much better than oven macaroni because it wasn't dry like the oven type can get.

Stovetop Mac and Cheese

• 3Tbs Butter
• 1/4 C Finely chopped onion (optional but recommended)
• 1/3 c all-purpose flour
• coarse salt
• 4 cups milk
• 1/8tsp cayenne pepper
• 16oz small pasta (I used elbow macaroni) uncooked
• 5 c grated sharp yellow cheese
• 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
• 1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

1. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium; add onion and cook until softened. add flour and 1/2tsp salt; cook stirring frequently, until mixture is pale golden, has a slightly nutty aroma, and is the texture of cooked oatmeal - about 5 min.
2. Whisking constantly, pour in 2 c milk; add 2 more cups milk and cayenne and whisk until smooth. cook mixture, stirring constantly along bottom of pan, until boiling, 6-7 min. Reduce heat to low. Simmer gently, stirring occasionally until sauce thickens and does not feel grainy when a small amount is rubbed between two fingers, about 10 min.
3. Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente; drain thoroughly and return to pot. remove sauce from heat and let cool 10 min. quickly whisk in cheese, mustard and Worcestershire. Pour cheese sauce over pasta and stir to coat.

Wednesday

Can we say pizza. I had a church meeting so dinner had to be quick!! I usually don't do fast food during the week - but this is a very unusual week. Anyway - we found our new favorite pizza - at Dominos. They have these new legend pizza's and their Pacific Veggie is fantastic. Just a little FYI.

Tuesday

I found this recipe from my e-mealz.com account. I was a little nervous to try this because the ingredient combo seemed a bit weird - but...I was pleasantly surprised with the results. This took longer than an hour to bake -but it is worth the extra time.

Chicken Rice Bake

6 - 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I used 4 of these and cooked 2 boneless breasts because my husband doesn't like thighs.)
1.5 c minute rice
1.5 c water
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 packet of Lipton onion soup

Place chicken in 9x13 dish. In a bowl combine remaining ingredients saving half the onion soup mix. Poor mixture over chicken and sprinkle remaining soup mix on top. Cover with foil and bake in 350 degree oven for 90 min.

I served this with green beans

The Verdict: Yummy!! Everyone really liked this - especially the kids. It made a lot of food so I was hoping to have some left overs - but the kids ate the remaining for their snack at bedtime. We will definitely make this again!