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!

Monday

OK - last week was a bit of a failure because we all got sick.. So I will try to do better this week. However, today's meal was what I like to call a "busy day" meal. Kate has dance so we don't get home until late. Needless to say - Taco Bell became our best friend this evening. On a positive note - we were able to feed our family of 5 fast food for about $10.00 Not too bad!

Teriyaki Chicken Bowl

Today's meal was a crock pot dinner. I like to do these a couple days a week because it really frees up time. I found this recipe in my Fix It and Forget cookbook. For working moms - this book is by far my most used book! Great recipes and they are all easy prep and pretty tasty.

8 chicken thighs (skinned)
1/2 C. Soy Sauce
3 Tbs Brown Sugar
2 tsp minced garlic (from a jar of course! - or 2 cloves)
1 tsp ginger

Place chicken in crock pot. Combine remaining ingredients and poor over chicken. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. When you get home, debone chicken (should fall right off the bone) and place back in sauce. Let simmer while you cook your rice ( I use a steamer for this).

Serve chicken over rice and with steamed broccoli.

The Verdict: I really liked this - though I think next time I will try and find a different recipe for the Teriyaki Sauce. The kids really liked this as well and my husband said it was good but not his most favorite. He tends to prefer white meat - which I think would be good as well, I just didn't have any.

Happy Monday!!

Today was a holiday for us - so I was able to spend a little more time preparing our dinner - however, we still spent less than an hour getting everything put together. We made dinner at my mom's house and enjoyed an evening of House!! I know some of you will wonder why we don't use canned spaghetti sauce, however for spaghetti, once you make this VERY EASY SAUCE, you will not go back - I promise!!

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
1lb hamburger
1/2 green pepper chopped
1 small onion chopped
mushrooms sliced (optional)
2 tsp pre minced garlic
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
salt/pepper
season salt
Brown hamburger with above ingredients until no longer pink. DrainAdd the following to meat mixture:
1 can diced tomatoes
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 can condensed tomato soup (sounds strange - but trust me!)
1/4 c ketchup (another trust me!)
1/4c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 c. water
Let all ingredients simmer until you get your noodles cooked (about 20 min.)

We served this with a nice green salad.

The Verdict: My family loves this meal - in fact we rarely have leftovers. My son, who does not like mushrooms or green pepper, eats this and doesn't complain. I know some of the ingredients seem a little weird, but it makes for a very nice sauce. I hope you all enjoy!

Sausage and torellini soup

Friday will be my official soup days - at least through winter. In spring I may change it to my official salad day or something else like that. Today's dinner was super easy to make - it took me less than 30 minutes from start to finish. Hope you enjoy!

1 lb sausage (spicy is very good in this)
28oz can Italian crushed tomatoes
14 oz can Italian diced tomatoes
1 box spinach
9oz tortellini (you can use the fresh or frozen - I used the frozen)
4 c water with 4 bullion cubes added (I like my soup more "soupy" so I added one more can of beef broth

Brown sausage in large pot and drain. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes.

I served this with some garlic bread and it made a very tasty meal.

The Verdict: My husband and I loved this as well as my 6 year old. My other two were not that pleased with the outcome - but they did eat some. My husband even added Parmesan cheese which added a nice taste as well. I needed to add a little more salt to mine - but overall this was a very filling and tasty soup.

One of my most favorite meals...

I like this meal because it is SO EASY!! Hehe - this is what I like to call a cheater meal.

1 Rotisserie Chicken from Costco (biggest and cheapest place to find these)
Rice pilaf mix by Uncle Ben's
Frozen green beans

Make your rice, cook your beans and enjoy!! It can't get any easier than that.

The Verdict: Never get any complaints about this meal except from the hubby who is not a great fan of chicken with bones - oh well, he still eats!! I think us working moms deserve a break from the kitchen every now and than!!

Tasty Manicotti

I found this recipe on the back of the Barilla Manicotti box. I changed it just a bit (which I included) and definitely liked the results.

Total time: 50min.

1 box of Manicotti shells
1 10oz frozen spinach, thawed and well drained
1 15oz ricotta cheese
1 package mushrooms diced (optional)
1 clove of garlic minced (I used 1 tsp already mince garlic)
3 eggs well beaten
salt
pepper
1tsp Italian Seasoning (I really like Pampered Chef)
Olive Oil
Pasta Sauce (I used Wal-mart brand with the green lid - we like this one the best)
8oz shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil shells for 7 min in salted water - drain. Meanwhile heat olive oil and saute mushrooms and garlic until garlic is golden brown. Add spinach and combine and cook for 1 min. In a separate bowl combine eggs, Ricotta, and seasonings. Add spinach mixture. Place 1/2 c of sauce in bottom of 9X13 pan. Grab a Ziploc bag and place cheese and spinach mixture inside. Cut the corner and use to fill shells. Cover with remaining sauce and shredded cheese. Cover and bake for 30min. Take cover off and bake additional 10.

We served this with garlic bread from Albertsons and a nice green salad.

The Verdict: Everyone loved this - including my 1 year old. My son who hates to eat, ate two helpings. It does make a lot - so, we were also able to use this for lunches the next day which helped in the time saving category. We all agreed that this would be used again!

Some more...

I decided in order to get things going for this website - I would add my recipes for last week. All of them were created in less than an hour and most all got rave reviews. After today - I will only post do one post a day.

Bacon Penne

1lb box of Penne pasta
150z Ricotta Cheese
1 lb bacon
1/2 onion
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp herbs (basil, oregano, etc - I like Pampered Chef Italian Seasoning the best!)
Mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook pasta according to directions - drain and save 1C. pasta water. Cook bacon until crisp and cut up. Saute onion in small amount of bacon grease. Combine remaining ingredients except Mozzarella. Combine pasta, water, and cheese mixture and place into 2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle with mozzarella and bake for 20min.

The Verdict: My family liked this one a lot. I served it with fresh steamed broccoli. In my opinion it was good - but not my favoritea However, due to families request we will keep this one around and use again!

Glazed pork roast

I found this recipe on a meal planning website. I was a little scared to make it at first (pork scares me a little - don't ask!), but in the end I was glad I did!

2 - 3 lb Pork loin
1 18oz jar apricot preserves
1 packet of onion soup mix
1/4 c. Mayo

Place pork roast in 9x13 pan and season with salt and pepper.
Mix remaining ingredients and poor over roast.
Bake for 1hr at 350. Make sure to test the internal temp to see it reaches 165.

Serve over rice with fresh broccoli.

Verdict: My family loved this! Which really surprised me. I thought the flavors would be a little too much for them to handle -but my picky son asked for seconds. To make that 5:00 hour be less rushed, put everything in your slow cooker(except rice and broccoli of course) and cook all day on low - I think that is how I will make it next time. This one is definitely a keeper for us!

Hi there!

I thought I would try something new. I love to try new recipes on one condition - they must be easy and they must be fast! As a working mom of 3 -when I get home, I have only an hour to get dinner ready and on the table before the kids start going nuts! I have to find meals that are easy (because my husband doesn't get home until late) so I can still take care of my kids to prevent any major catastrophes! These meals won't require a lot of prep time which is essential during this hour of life! So...I hope you enjoy what I post and maybe I can help your crazy dinner hour go a bit more smoothly as well! Thanks Everyone!