Helping with Dinner

This little guy is my shadow and helper.  It is usually the tiny team who help me cook and LOVE to do so.  But as the bigger guys are growing up they to like to help because now they can do more than just stir.

Enchiladas

Last night was one of those long nights up with a sick kid night.  I had planned to go grocery shopping today but obviously plans are not changed and I am staying home.  So now what to do for dinner.  I had planned on eating out but now need to look to the cupboards to find what can I whip together.  And the answer is...ENCHILADAS.  They are quick easy and you typically have everything you need for them in your fridge and pantry.  I have tried so many varieties of enchiladas and this is a combination of different recipes and different ingredients but you know, it works and taste good.





SAUCE
1 TBS vegetable oil
2 TBS all purpose flour
1 28oz can enchilada sauce I used medium  but use what you like
2 cups chicken broth
a handful of fresh cilantro*

In a large saucepan over medium heat, add oil and flour and whisk together to make a paste, cooking for one minute. Pour in the enchilada sauce, chicken broth and cilantro.  We use cilantro so frequently here we were out.  I just love the freshness of it.  It was on my list that I did not make it to the store to get so I used my back up emergency dried cilantro about to tbs.  It worked out just fine especially since it was going sauce but the fresh is better if you have it.  Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 30-45 minutes.

FILLING
1 lb ground beef
1/2 can chili with or without beans
1 4oz can diced green chilies
1/2 onion diced
4 sweet peppers diced

Brown the beef and drain off the fat.  Stir in the chili, onions, sweet peppers and green chilies.  Set aside.

TORTILLAS
1/2 cup vegetable oil
corn tortillas approximately 8 for a 9 x 9 pan or 14 for a 9 x 14

ADDITIONALS
8oz shredded colby jack cheese 
1 bunch chopped green onions
more fresh cilantro
white cheese dip


Heat up the oil and do a quick fry to each tortilla maybe 15-20 seconds a side, so it is still soft to roll.  Drain on paper towels.

Now that you already have a ton of dirty dishes it is time to put it all together. Preheat your oven to 350. 

Spoon a small amount over the bottom of the pan enough to cover the pan.  I used a 9x9 pan and this left me with enough leftover filling for nachos tomorrow and to freeze ziplock for something to be detrimened in the future.  Dip the tortillas into the sauce and remove to a plate.  Spoon  2 spoonfuls of the filling on to the tortilla and cover it with cheese.  Roll up the tortilla and place it in the pan.  Continue until the pan is full.  Pour more of the enchilada sauce over the dish and top with more cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes.  Top with the cheese dip in a cool drizzle form and then with the green onions and cilantro.


Sorry not the best picture we ate them quickly.

Trout Fillets in Grand Marnier Sauce

I can't tell you how lucky we are sometimes.  In my last post I said how we were blessed with pounds of vegetables, late last night after bible school we stopped for pizza and the owner, friends of my husband sent us home with far more delicious food than we ordered.  We have a good neighbor who is a great fisherman and always brings us back plenty of fresh fish.  More fish than we can eat at once.  I cook up some and freeze the rest.

  He brought us back a ton of trout.  And I started looking for trout recipes.  I went to an old, 10+ years, cookbook.  It is one of our favorites but really how often do you go to a cookbook anymore?  This cookbook has a lot of seafood recipes.  We used to use it all the time when we were just a couple with no kids learning how to cook.  Since our cooking skills have improved we have drifted away for no good reason.  This book still has many good recipes I found one that sounded good and tweaked it just a touch.

Ingredients:
2 trout, boned and halved
1/2 cup of butter
1/4 cup of flour
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup Grand Marnier
1/3 cup more butter
2 Tbsp. chopped parsley

Instructions:
Melt butter over medium heat in a large frying pan.

Put flour in plastic bag add trout and shake to coat.



Place skin side up in frying pan and brown for 5 minutes. Season with the lemon juice.   Turn and brown the other side for 2 minutes.



Remove and place on a platter cover to keep warm.

Pour off any butter in pan, and add Grand Marnier. Evenly coat pan over low heat.



Now I remember why we do not use these recipes to much.  They all contain alcohol and Grand Marnier is expensive.  And actually neither of us like it.  Oh well at least the fish was free and you should have all the other ingredients in your kitchen already.

Using a long lighter set it a blaze.  Allow flames to subside.



Whisk butter into pan until sauce thickens.  Pour sauce over trout, sprinkle with parsley.  Pour any remaing sauce into a bowl and serve with trout.





Volia!

It actually wasn't a 5 star winner 3.5 to 4 stars would be more accurate.  Not everything turns out perfect.  And you can take it and change it to make it perfect for you.  It certainly was a good start.

Tortilla Soup

I love tortilla soup and I came across this recipe (but made it my own) and wondered if it would be close to one of my favorite soups (form Chilies, Outback).  I had everything I needed; a huge bonus and a sign to go ahead and make it.  Gather up all your ingredients...



Ingredients

3 cups cooked chicken meat
2 10oz cans of Ro-Tel -any kind is fine but I used 1 chunky and 1 regular
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn
1 onion, chopped
3 14.5oz cans low-sodium chicken broth
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp ancho chile powder
1 Tbsp ground cumin
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro

tortilla chips
sour cream
shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese
fresh cilantro
salsa brava - if you like a little extra heat, I do!

rice and beans for a side, plus my tiny team loves it

Then combine the first group in a stockpot.



Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or till you feel it has married properly.  Let cool. 

While cooking make the rice and beans.  Simple, easy just follow the directions on the package.

When it cools to a temperature you can enjoy sprinkle with Mexican blend cheese, then crushed tortilla chips, add as much cilantro and salsa brava as you like, then a dallop of sour cream.  Enjoy!



It came out good.  I enjoyed it.  Yumm...  Jay said he would have rather had steak than chicken (I don't agree).  It was better than the restaurants but tasted nearly the same.  I will make again.

Hot chicken Salad

After quite a few pinterest misses I made Paula Deen's hot chicken salad.  Finally something good not fantastic nor the best I ever had but it was good.  And full of SO much fat!

However this was a quick and easy recipe.



Gather together all the ingredients.

2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon pepper 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1 cup diced celery 
2 cup cooked chicken breast meat, cubed 
1 cup mayonnaise 
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese 
2/3 cup crushed potato chips

Combine everything but the potato chips and put in to a baking dish.



I added a little more shredded cheese to cover the dish then I covered generously with the crushed potato chips.



Place in the oven at 350 and back for 20 minutes.  Give it a time to set so it i not runny and then enjoy!

Lots of fails

As everyone knows I love pinterest.  And I get most my recopies from there.  But since anyone can pin whatever they want not all recipes are tested by the food network kitchens, hardly any at all.  The babies and I have been having a lot of fun making new meals for lunch but not everything is turning out very good.  We have had more than are fair share off misses this past week.

We tried making Outback's potato soup and.... yuck!





It got such rave reviews I was about to make double but it would not fit in my crock pot  glad I didn't.  I even tried to make it better with diced ham and just feel I wasted a lot of money.

I made another chicken crock pot dish and it was not bad but it was not good.  It was so bland.  And it was so thick.  It was the consistency of a sloppy Joe what do you do with that?  Eat it like a soup?  Use it like a dip.  Well I froze it.  I am going to try to revamp it and use it in enchiladas which I think it will be great for but should have been labeled something like that in the beginning.



I even added green peppers in hopes that would help.  It didn't.





But like I said this was the most salvageable out of all of them.

I have made the world's best taco soup, that was far from it.

I made an old comfort favorite crock pot creamy chicken noodle soup that was thick, creamy and so filling,  You eat it then an hour later you are starving.  To starchy to eat a bowl at a time all night long but it was decent.

So now tonight I am trying another.  Another comfort food for this rainy Sunday.  However I pinned it from Paula Deen's sites.  She is never a miss.  She is perfect.  I hope to one day be a fat silver not gray
(and with my mom just starting to silver at least that part is  long ways off) old southern lady who smiles, makes the BEST food, dazzles in diamond that are worth more than my house, spends time with her kids and grand kids at her beautiful house on the water.  Fingers crossed I could use a winner.  Look forward to her hot chicken salad review this week.

Jalapeno Popper Dip

Boy was this ever good.  I saw the recipe on pinterest and it was an immediate make.  After sending Jay to the store I had everything I needed for it.  After forgetting to put the cream cheese away it had to be made the next day.  Faithy and I got to it.

First gather up all  you need.



And quickly before little hands start stealing.

6-8 slices of bacon, diced and cooked crispy

1 8-oz packages of cream cheese, soft

3/4 cup of mayonnaise

3 jalapeno's, chopped and deseeded.  The seeds will make it fiery hot.

1+ cup of cheddar cheese, shredded

1/2+ cup of mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/4 cup diced green onion

Topping:

1 cup of crushed crackers ( I used Ritz)

1/2+ cup parmesan cheese

1/2 stick of butter, melted

My version is slightly different from Simply Gourmet where I originally pinned it from.  I would suggest follow one or the other, mine was awesome just saying.

Chop bacon, jalapenos and shred cheese.  I add the plus because my family is cheezy, hahaha.  We like cheese so I would eye ball a little more, to what looked good.  Also my daughter is my very own jalapeno popper but I tone things down for her, that is why I only used 3 jalapenos.  My husbands only complaint it was not hot enough.  So pepper to your taste.

I had forgot to include the mayonnaise in the first picture, but don't forget in in the recipe. And don't cheap out and use fake stuff.  Real mayo, real calories, real good.

Transfer all delicious ingredients to an appropriate dish.  

I used a pie dish it worked fine.  No need to oil or grease it before hand.  And stop sampling!

like mother like daughter...

Then cover with the topping.

Place in the oven for 20-30 minutes, give or take, at 350 and you have the most delicious dip!

We could not stop eating it.  I nibbled with tortilla chips, Jay used the left over Ritz crackers both were great.  It is a perfect football did.  Heck it is a perfect anything did.  I will be making this one again!

Help With Dinner

Faith loves to be with me, and be just like me.  Tonight my poor little darling helped me make dinner.  This was especially fun because she got into the flour.  We were making Pioneer Woman's Steak Fingers with Gravy.  It was good and good to eat before I have the baby because I can only guess the calorie count.

Faith had a great time taking the flour mixture out of the bowl and spreading it everywhere.



What fun!  Until she decided to try it.



And found out I was cooking with Cayenne Pepper.

She started screaming and trying to wipe it out of her mouth.  She can't hang with the heat yet.



After that she was done.  No more cooking.  She thought an ice pop and poppy cat sounded better.

Sorry all camera phone pictures.

Naked dinners

Why I love warm weather.  They can eat their spaghetti naked, but diapered, and then straight in to the bath.  Yay for warm weather!!!





I don't know how much she actually ate to apparently how much she got EVERYWHERE.  Yay for being 1 also!

Where have I been???

Hanging out in...



Baltimore.

And what a wonderful time it was.

Back in March for my birthday my husband got me tickets to see Trans- Siberian Orchestra's Beethoven's Last Night tour.  What a show they put on.



This is not our first time  seeing them.  We saw the Christmas show in Seattle, WA in 2012.  I just loved it.  They have such a great performance and there Christmas music is fantastic.  He thought it would be nice to see them again.

This show was great too.  (Although my favorite was the Christmas one).  They had lights and lasers.



Lots of 70's art and pyrotechnics.



We sat on the floor and could feel the warmth of the flames.

As wonderful as the show was my favorite part about our trip to Baltimore was...



the FOOD.

This pregnant mama loves to eat and we went to Chaps!  It is a Baltimore must go to spot and the reason why?



Again the food.  It has been on Food Network many times.  Guy Ferrari ate there and featured it on triple D, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives with Baltimore's own Duff Goldman.



Even the man I want to meet Adam Richman ate there on Man vs. Food.  I often think I am up for his challenges.  There were plenty of pregnant women there I think we all could give Adam a run for his money.

It was so good.  Very good.  Yum.

It was a nice time.  A nice break.  Especially since the rest of the week I have been suffering through allergies of course all the while being soccer mom/ baseball mom/ AWANAS mom just plain supper mom.

Oh Happy Day

We had such a good time even the ice cream was smiling!  Yes that is right.  We all went out to lunch to our favorite Chinese restaurant the kids always eat well there so they can have ice cream at the end.  Even Faith for the first time ate there, she gobbled up everything on her plate.  When Evan went to open his coffee ice cream he started cracking up.  The ice cream is smiling at me!



Sure enough it was.  imprinted on the inside of the lid and on the ice cream itself was a smiley face.  We checked over the packaging and there was no drawling on the outside.  No imprinting by a pen or other device on the outside.  We are not sure how it happened, a weird thing.  But just as the ice cream it made us all smile and laugh.



He went on eating the ice cream opening up a few others too but we never found another smiley face.  Then we got to the fortune cookie which explained it all.  What a great future for my smiling, wonderful boy!

Eggs

This week Evan learned to make scrambled eggs. This week Faith ate her first scrambled eggs and loves them. He is just as happy to make them for her as she is to eat them.  A perfect match up.

Just freaking gross

I was making spaghetti for the kids tonight and asked them if they wanted special spaghetti.  Of course they cheered and jumped at the chance to pick the color of their spaghetti.  YUCK!!



I added some food coloring while it was cooking and presto we now have gross green spaghetti.  The only thing that made it worse was when I added the sauce.

From October 17, 2011

Oh my!!  I often eat after my kids.  A nibble hear and there but NO WAY!  I can barley stand to look at the pictures.  However, they ate it, and loved it.  Only boys.