Veg, Meat & Cheese Platter

On Saturday we had my husband's work Christmas party for the children, so it was long, busy, snack filled day.  Both my husband and I just wanted to do nothing but relax once we got home........well so did the kids!!  So we made a platter for dinner that contained......marble cheese, cucumbers with ranch dip, grape tomatoes,  green grapes, polish sausage,  whole wheat melba toast and cantaloupe.  For a mix match supper it was good and healthy and we ate it in front of the TV just so we could watch Rio!!
It was a fun dinner and movie twist and I like that it was good and healthy for the kids (and the hubby and myself too)

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Dinner at a Friends

So Friday we were invited to our friends house for dinner.  This is a pretty common thing for us, we try to switch back and forth, but we enjoy doing dinner with these guys.  So we packed up the kids and headed on over.......there was a large group of us there (7 Adults and 6 kids).  It was a good night we all just hung out and had dinner and than played some cards after.........good food, good friends, good fun!!

We ate chicken burgers with fries (regular and sweet potato) and a salad too.

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Sloppy Joes

So on Thursday night we had Sloppy Joes.  I have never made this for my family before.......EVER!!  I have always wanted to but, to be honest, I was kinda scared of making it......the whole idea of putting that much ketchup into anything just grossed me out.  So I put on my big girl apron and sucked it up 'hunny, we are cooking with ketchup tonight'.  So I got to looking for some recipes and found one that seemed easy and I could put a twist on it.......BBQ sauce, and that is a little less scary to me. This recipe did turn out great, I was very pleased with it, i put it on some warmed hamburger style bun and served it with a caesar salad!!

1 pound lean ground beef 
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
3/4 cup ketchup
3 teaspoons brown sugar
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste


Directions



1. In a medium skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef, onion, and green pepper; drain off liquids.
2. Stir in the garlic powder, mustard, ketchup, and brown sugar; mix thoroughly. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

**So like always I doubled my recipe, and used 1/2 half of an onion and 3/4 of a green pepper, about 2-3 tspn of mustard, and did not use brown sugar at all, i used about 1c of ketchup and about 3/4c of thick and spicy BBQ sauce**

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Take out Pizza

Today was a busy day!!  We had friends over this afternoon, and than my husband had come home from work at 3 to eat lunch/supper and the 2 youngest kids had not napped by that point in the day.  Sooo we ate out!!!   By the time that the kiddies had woken up it was after 5 and supper still had not been started ( i was wiped out) so i thought lets just order pizza!!
There is this great little place here in town that we LOVE, its a privately owned place and the pizza there is legendary!!  So i got a Med Canadian (pep, bacon and mush) and a small Hawaiian (ham, bacon and pineapple) it was a good supper.  A nice end to a busy day.

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Shrimp Carbonara

So Tuesday's dinner was good!!!
I made shrimp carbonara and it turned out very good, and was pretty easy to make........I like easy dinners!!  I make something very similar to this, but that is for another day....lol

So here is the recipe
220g Spaghetti  (i used 400g)
4 Slices of bacon, chopped
1-lb (450g) of uncooked deveined peeled large shrimp
1 cup frozen peas
1 tub (250g) herb and garlic cream cheese
1/2 c milk
1/4 c Parmesan cheese

Start cooking your spaghetti (no salt) while that cooks fry your bacon in a pan until crisp. Remove bacon from pan when cooked, drain all but about 1tbsp of drippings from pan and than add your shrimp. Cook and stir until its pink (about 5 mins) than stir in your peas and cook for about 1 min or so.  Add your cream cheese and milk, cook and stir until cream cheese is mealted and  sauce is thickened, do not let it boil.
Drain your noodles and mix everything together, Top with parmesan!!

*TIPS*
I used the extra thick cut bacon for mine as i found it held together better.  And you could just use regular Alfredo sauce instead of the cream cheese

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Cajun Catfish/Sausage and Rice and Broccoli

So Monday night was a bit of a crazy dinner.  We had cajun catfish that needed to be cooked before it went bad but the kids are not huge fans of fish, well neither am I, hence why I added some sausage to the mix.  It was just a basic dinner, nothing special, but a regular around this house!!

Picture to be uploaded later

I just pan friend the pre-seasoned catfish in some EVOO for about 5-6 mins a side on med.

For the sausage I let it fry for a minute on each side to get some marks on them and than I added water to my pan and covered it with a lid and let it cook like that until cooked through.

For my rice I used long grain white rice and added chicken broth until it was about 1/2 inch above the rice in the pot and than went around the pot twice with soya sauce (no water at all) I than cooked my broccoli in a pot with about half an inch in the bottom with a lid on........it kinda steams it.  And that is it, its was a pretty easy dinner tonight, but still tasty!!

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Pork Roast with Potatoes and Carrots

So Sunday night we had friends over for supper and I thought I would make a pork roast for supper, a nice easy way to feed 4 adults and 5 children.  So pork roasts are pretty easy to make and I enjoy eating them.
So I started out by using a pork loin roast and than chopped some potatoes and put everything in the pan and added some baby carrots and than added some spices (sage, thyme, rosemary,oregano and marjoram) and than put a small amount of chicken broth in the bottom of the pan (its what i had in the house) and let it cook from 1:30-3 at 250 and than turned it up 300 at 3:00 and let it cook like that till about 4:30 and than turned the over off and let it sit in the pan for 30 mins while the oven was off.  I made club house gravy and used the pan drippings but I mixed mushroom gravy and brown gravy since I only had 1 of each and needed more than 1 packet.  And served it with a caesar salad on the side

Sorry its kinda dark..........my camera was dying

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Crock Pot Balsamic Chicken

So I had to work on Saturday night, so supper was up to the hubby.  So I thought I would be nice and make a crock pot dinner and I had one that I had gotten off my mom forum and gave it a try.
Well hubby loved that he didn't have to cook supper and I liked that it stuck to my challenge.
Well this turned out AMAZING......I loved it (and I ate it cold when I got home from work) but the hubby said that the sauce was abit over powering but what does he know about good food.....lol.  So the nice thing about this meal is you can cook it in 3 hours (on high) and the chicken was falling apart.......Love it!!!

So this is what everything looked like in the crock pot once it was mixed, but not cooking yet.  I also added mushrooms into the mix.

Crock Pot Balsamic Chicken

4-6 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts

2 14.5 oz can diced or crushed tomatoes (I think 1 would work as well)
1 onion thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tblsp olive oil (i just went around the crock pot twice)
1 tsp each: dried oregano, basil, and rosemary
1/2 tsp thyme
ground black pepper and salt to taste

Another add in idea - mushrooms

Directions

Pour the olive oil on bottom of a 3 - 5 quart crock pot
Place the chicken breasts in crock pot, salt and pepper each breast
Put sliced onion on top of chicken
Then put in all the dried herbs and garlic cloves
Pour in vinegar and top with tomatoes
Cook on high 3 hours or low for 4 - 6 hours.

Serve over angel hair pasta and garnish with fresh parsley or basil.

Prep was very quick and easy, and Very taste in the end

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Nacho Dip "AKA" Fun Supper

So nacho dip is a favorite around our house.  We love it, the kids love it, heck even the dog loves it.  Its such a loved dinner cause who doesn't want to eat chips for supper paired with cheese and lots of other yummy stuff.  Its even good for serving the boys while they watch sports.......football, hockey, baseball, tennis, whatever your sports drug of choice is.
So tonight I thought I would try something different and take picture of the steps and just wanted to add tonight's is not really a recipe its more a guide line (you can't mess this up, I PROMISE)

So i start out by browning ground beef and than i add a few spices, whatever you got on hand, or you can leave it plain if you want.  Once the beef is browned I add 1 can of brown beans with molasses and mix than around while the pan is still on the heat.  I than add my GB and bean mixture to any kind of baking dish......tonight i used my 9x9 pan.  I press the mix down and than add my sour cream and cream cheese mix.

Than over that I spread a thin layer of salsa.  And than top it all off with shredded cheese (I use marble)

Put it in the oven on broil low for about 10mins or so until the cheese is nice and melted.
Remove from the oven and let cool for 5mins and than serve with you favourite tortilla chips (I love the multi grain) and a salad (tonight it was a spinach salad with chopped pecans and honey dijon dressing)

I know its not pretty looking but it sure is yummy

So the best part of this is you can make it anyway you want, you can omit any ingredient, or add anything you want (my sister mixes half ground chicken and half ground beef) you could even make it vegetarian by not adding GB.  When i first started making it I did not put the SC &CC layer in the middle we would just add a dollop of sour cream once it was plated up.  You could even not bake it and leave the cheese cold.....yummy, that way is good to.
I have changed this dinner so many times that is tastes different every time.........so try it your way and have fun with it.

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Chicken in Creamy Pan Sauce

Sorry about not posting last night, we went out after dinner and by the time we got home I did not feel like doing anything.

So  it has been a while since we had chicken (even before the blog) so I thought what a good night for it.  So I got  to looking for a good chicken recipe and I came across a fabulous one that was not only quick and easy to make but sooo yummy as well.  The kids were loving the pan sauce and kept asking for more to "dip" in, lol.

So here is the recipe:
4 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (I used 6 for my family size)

2 Tbsp. flour---I just eye balled this

1 Tbsp.oil

3/4 cup fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth

4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) plain cream cheese, cubed---I didn't cube mine

1 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Coat your chicken breast in the flour and than fry in a hot pan with EVOO, when your chicken is cooked, about 6 mins a side, remove them from the pan and add your broth and give the pan a scrape (de-glaze it) let it simmer for a min and than add your cream cheese. Whisk that until the sauce becomes creamy and the CC is no longer chunky.  ( at this point I added some rosemary and some thyme to my sauce)  Now put your chicken back into your pan, turn it to coat and let it simmer for 2-3 mins.  Remove you chicken from the pan, plate it and pour your sauce from the pan over the chicken--I just put mine in a gravy bowl to pour once served.
I forgot to add the parsley
I Served mine with rice and a veg mix (corn and peas)

**TIPS**
I would add some salt and pepper to your flour to season the chicken a bit, but other than that it was wonderful

Spaghetti Bolognese

So tonight was a busy night between homework, washing diapers and just the kids being kids, so it was a fast supper but who doesn't love Spaghetti bolognese. :)
Its the kids favorite and anything that the kids like is good on my list.
There doesn't seem to be much to write about spaghetti so I will just get right to the recipe......lol!!

Recipe--
So I started with about 1lb of ground beef and browned that with a bit of pepper, club house veg spice and a small amount of garlic salt.  Once the meat was done I added 1 jar of the country style pasta sauce and turned it all the way down and let it simmer for a bit.
While that was browning I boiled my water and once it came to a boil I added 1 full 450g package of spaghetti.
Once everything was done I drained my noodles and mixed the sauce and noodles together. When I had plated everything up I added some shredded mozzarella and some chopped green onion.  Enjoy

Check back tomorrow for a new recipe

Sweet and Sour Pork chops

So tonight i made Sweet and Sour Pork chops.........they were amazing.

They were very quick and easy to make, i perfect weeknight dinner.  i paired it with white rice and a caesar salad and it was a hit with the kids (anyone with kids knows how hard that can be).  There was quite a bit of sauce that had dripped off the chops that left over in the pan and we poured that over the rice........YUMMY!!

Here is the recipe:

-4 thick cut chops  (i used 6 for our family size)

-1large onion- cut in half and sliced thin

-1 red pepper thinly sliced

-1/2 c of Kraft chicken and rib BBQ sauce--i used 3/4 c to make up for the extra pork chops

-1/4 c of Catalina dressing- i used 1/3 to make up for the extra

Preheat oven to 375

Place chops in a baking dish

Mix the remaining ingredients together and cover chops with it

bake for about 30mins or until pork chops are cooked through

Tips

**I would marinate the pork chops in the mixture for a little bit first, i found them to be a bit bland unless they were smothered in the sauce.  and maybe sear them in a pan to get some nice makings in them (i also find that adds flavour)**

Check back tomorrow and i will have a new recipe posted

The challenage

So this all started with being sick of the "same old" thing every night.  So i decided to challenge myself to making a different meal everyday for 1 year.....i know crazy eh?!?
Things might be a variation, and I'm going to be honest......we will eat out I'm sure, but most of my meals are cooked at home anyways.
I have 3 children and a husband who are all pretty good eaters, the are not that picky.......So here's to hoping that all goes well.

I will take pictures and post recipes of everything i make.  that way you can see it to......they may not be fancy meals but I will try to pick good recipes.

So here goes nothing!!