Starpulp

(This meal is from the week of March 18)

Knowing we were going to be out of town the upcoming weekend, I put a little more effort and planning into my weekly meals and actually came up with three meals for the next week and a half. Plus someone (eh hem, Adam) was getting a wee bit bored with just one option to eat the entire week. Do you blame him?

I also want to incorporate more vegetables into our meals, so I made two sides as well. Yeah, I was an overachiever for once. It’s amazing what you can accomplish with a good nights rest. I know when we get back next weekend, I’ll be grateful I don’t have to cook, and that’ll make it all worth it.

Chocolate Chili Tacos

I saw these posted on Meals and Miles, and then realized it pointed to the blog Running to the kitchen. The looked like a tasty spin on regular ol’ tacos so I thought I’d try them. Regular tacos are a really easy meal to make in bulk and save (at least the meat is). Mine actually ended up as burritos instead of just tacos because the taco shells were so huge. I put some plain chobani, shredded cheddar cheese, salsa (from the produce section.. so good), and avocado inside each one.

Creamy Garlic Shells

I saw this on the blog Iowa Girl Eats. I don’t typically make pasta anything at home, but this recipe just called to me. I thought it might be a nice side dish with chicken sometime during the week. I also made her kale to add some veggies to the week which I think could also be paired with the Chocolate Chili Tacos above. The pasta was evilly delicious when it was fresh, but wasn’t something I would make in bulk. The oils separated and it just wasn’t as good later.  Definitely would be a good side dish to bring to a potluck (the same day) though. The kale turned out well too.

Cheesy Shepherds Pie

I’d been wanting to try and make a Shepherds Pie recipe but hadn’t really found anything that really called out to me. This creation really just came to me.

I peeled, cut, and boiled some regular baking potatoes.

While those were boiling, I sauteed a package of ground beef with a tablespoon of Worcester sauce.

We had some extra carrots from the Coconut Curry Dish, so while the ground beef was cooking, we peeled and diced the carrots and sauteed them with olive oil to soften them a bit then mixed them in with the ground beef.

When the ground beef/carrots were done, I layered the mixture in the bottom of a casserole dish.

On top of the ground beef mixture, I layered a package of frozen peas.

Then I blended the potatoes with some Kerrygold butter and half a can of Coconut Milk and layered that on top of the peas.

I sprinkled some shredded cheese on top. (ok I was a bit generous here…)

Baked the dish 400′ for 25 minutes. *Whalah*  This was SOOOO surprisingly good and simple.

We will definitely make it again.

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If you have a suggestion for something I should try, please email me! 

(This meal is from the week of March 10)

Publix Aprons Pork Verde

You can view the original recipe online at the Publix Aprons website.

This was Adam’s selection for the week (since this was an even week).

Since it involved jalapeno’s, I was really hesitant that it would be too spicy. Boy was I wrong. This was more of a sweet taste than anything spicy.

It was also fun because we got to work with Tomatillo’s which are totally new to both of us. Neither one of us had ever used them before, though I had noticed the ‘green papery tomatoes’ at the store. I also was missing the garlic, because when I pulled my fresh peeled garlic out of the fridge, it was already molding. Booo! I also substituted Olive Oil for the Canola Oil because I think Canola oil is evil. I also used white rice instead of brown because that’s what I already had on hand.

Regardless, the dish turned out great.

We made this in advance, then made a batch of white rice to last a few days.

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If you have a suggestion for something I should try, please email me! 

(This meal is from the week of March 3)

Crockpot Coconut Chicken Curry

After my friend, Tee’s wedding in January, I’ve been wanting to try to make something simple with an Indian flare like Chicken Curry at home. I just happened to be reading through local friend’s blogs, came across this recipe and decided to try it. Here’s the recipe for Crockpot Coconut Chicken Curry.

This turned out ok. I really liked the addition of the coconut. Plus, it was incredibly easy to make. It was a little bland, but maybe that’s just Chicken Curry naturally? What was great was it was completely different from anything I typically make. Change is good.

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(This meal is from the week of February 17)

Spicy Dr. Pepper Shredded Pork

Of course, my obsession with the Pioneer Woman had to include one of her recipes. We had some pork in the freezer and Adam bought me a cast iron skillet for Christmas, so when I saw the recipe for Spicy Dr. Pepper Shredded Pork that involved using a cast iron skillet, I knew I had to give it a shot.

Uh, this recipe was de-lish-ous. I preferred to put it on a corn tortilla with some plain Chobani, shredded cheese and guacamole. Seriously, we will be making this again!

FYI, the picture above is pre-shred. For some reason, I forgot to take a picture of it after it was shredded and prepped as a taco. Use your imagination.

View more  Once A Week Cooking attempts.

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(This meal is from the week of February 4)

Chicken Rollatini with Spinach alla Parmigiana

This week I made a batch of Chicken Rollatini with Spinach alla Parmigiana from Skinny Taste which turned out great. It was a bit dry towards the end of the week, but if I’d had more pasta sauce, it would have been fine.

We enjoyed this enough that the following week we made her Chicken Rollatini with Prosciutto and Cheese as well. This was cheezy, but I missed the having a sauce on top.

View more  Once A Week Cooking attempts.

If you have a suggestion for something I should try, please email me! 

Feel free to check out my other Once A Week Cooking attempts on the page I’ve setup. 

Breakfast

Breakfast Scramble (aka. How it all began…)

The first thing I really started making in bulk was a breakfast scramble. When starting something “new”, I try to start with one small thing, get that under control, then slowly add more. Doing this, I seem better able to accept changes and adopt them into my lifestyle more easily.

Initially every morning I would cook up three scrambled eggs, a bit of sausage and some diced peppers every day. Knowing I can make a breakfast bake which lasts a few days, I figured I would try to make the breakfast scramble a few days in advance. Success!

As you can see from the picture above, I make enough for Adam and I to eat for a week (around 3 eggs/day/person), plus a tube of breakfast sausage and a publix container of fresh diced peppers.  FYI, READ THE INGREDIENTS ON THAT SAUSAGE. I’ve frustratingly found many brands contain MSG. We are a low sodium household, so we definitely keep an eye out for that.

Once all cooked, I portion it out into plastic containers for an easy grab-and-go breakfast meal.

Check out my other Once A Week Cooking attempts on the page I’ve setup. 

I’m always late to the trend when it comes to food. Probably because I’m always buried deep in a bowl of queso. I’ve recently become fascinated with The Pioneer Woman. She seems to easily describe dishes that I once thought might be impossible. Plus, who can’t admire a blogger turned TV star?

I decided to try and attempt to create some of her recipes over the next year a la “Julie and Julia” style…only I can’t pull off a recipe every day like she did.  I’m going to stick to 52 in a year. That’s only one per week which is still pretty ambitious. Maybe I should change it to 26? Well, regardless, we’ll see what I get to. Maybe I”ll only complete 4.

Meal #1 – Macaroni & Cheese

(source)

The recipe can be found here:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/04/macaroni-cheese/

I made this in a pinch for a holiday gathering (so yes, technically this is from 2012). It turned out great. I forgot to take a picture of it, so I borrowed her picture. You’ll have to take my word that the final product looked exactly like hers did above. It also helped clean out a ton of pasta from my pantry that had just been sitting there. It was incredibly easy to make, and I would make it again for another gathering.

Meal #2 – Tuscan Bean Soup with Shrimp

The recipe can be found here:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/04/macaroni-cheese/

I got a hankering for some soup the other day. I actually bought all the ingredients and then they sat in the fridge.. and sat.. and sat. Finally I got off my butt and put them all together. This was another really easy recipe. We used some easy-peel frozen Seabest shrimp with this recipe which made it really fast. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, and it still managed to turn out ok. I was out of garlic (it was spoiled) and didn’t have any fresh basil. Regardless, it was tasty and very filling. We enjoyed this for 4 meals in our house. That’s 8 servings! We did make the shrimp portion twice since we’d run out. This is definitely a recipe you could freeze in portions, make shrimp while it thaws and easily add it. Another one we’ll definitely be making again.

Meal #3 – Leftover Turkey Pot Pie

The recipe can be found here:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/11/quick-recipe-leftover-turkey-pot-pie/

Needed something for all those holiday leftovers so I made this. It turned out really great so I decided to make it again only.. I didn’t have any leftovers. Instead, I baked two chicken breasts, cut them into chunks, and used that for the recipe. I made this on Sunday so that we’d have it for leftovers throughout the week. It’s nice to know I won’t have to worry about cooking during the week!

Meal #4 – Spicy Dr. Pepper Shredded Pork

Ooops. This pic is pre-shred. I was looking for a reason to use my cast iron skillet AND the pork in the freezer. When I came across this recipe, I knew it’d be perfect! The hardest part about this recipe? Finding the “Chipotle Peppers In Adobo Sauce”! I walked up and down the ethnic aisle at the grocery store without luck. Finally my 243 time through, the can practically tripped me. It’s weird how I couldn’t find it, and then suddenly there it was right in front of my face. Regardess, this was super easy and turned out great. Adam ate it solo a few times and enjoyed it. I took it a step further mashing up an avocado, warming up some corn tortillas, and shredding cheddar cheese all to make tacos! Yum! Avocado goes GREAT with these flavors. I’d definitely make this dish again.

I’m really trying to clean up my eating habits.  I’ve done really well over the past few years with making major changes (Hello, greek yogurt!), and now it’s time to push things a bit further.  I have several friends that enjoy the Paleo diet (and are possibly harrassing me about it..eh, hem.. Mike.. Kevin..), and the research is pretty interesting.  I’m just beginning to tinker around with Paleo and see if I could incorporate some of it (maybe an 80/20 philosophy?) into my world. We’ll see.  Maybe I’ll do this for 2 weeks and be onto something else. Regardless, the science behind it is pretty interesting, so it’s at least worth understanding, in my humble opinion. (I still love Queso more than any of you!)

The Paleo Diet is often referred to as the Caveman Diet.  In general, this involves eating “like the caveman did”.  Paleo eaters enjoy a high protein diet centered around things that were around “back then” but primarily meat & veggies.  In my eyes this is MORE than just Atkins because Paleo strongly focuses on getting carbs.. just insists we get our carbs through veggies rather than pastas, grains, and legumes (beans). Paleo also does believe we don’t need as many carbs as we’re currently consuming  I’m not going to go into a whole spiel of Paleo in this post (another post, another day!), but if you want to read up on Paleo, I would browse Marks Daily Apple as that seems to be a fairly good resource.

As I’ve incorporated higher intensity workouts including Timed Exercise, Running, Swimming, Biking etc. I have personally realized that I benefit from a high protein breakfast.  As a result, I’ve been enjoying a hard boiled egg with a whole wheat English muffin with peanut butter.  Since my recent interest in Paleo, I’ve kicked the whole wheat English muffin to the curb and substituted my Western Omelet Muffins.

So..let’s get started, shall we?

First thing is to cook up a package (tube) of breakfast sausage.

We also sauteed up some diced onions and peppers with a tab of butter.

In a bowl, we cracked 8 eggs and whisked them together with a 1/2 cup of half and half and a 1/2 cup of shredded cheese.  I shredded the cheese myself with our food processor rather than buying store bought because of the extra ingredients involved with store bought shredded cheese (which often include extra flour and gluten to prevent clumping)

I think poured equal amounts of the egg mixture into a muffin tin.  Next I dropped some sausage and veggie mixture into each cup. (I wanted each cup to have equal amounts of cheese, sausage and veggies.  If I’d just combined the egg mixture and the ingredients together and then portioned them out, the sausage, egg, and cheese would have sunk to the bottom of the bowl.  It would have been a little more work to scoop everything out, and I may have ended up with very sausagy muffins and muffins with hardly any sausage.) Once everything was all portioned out, I put them into the oven for 20 minutes at 350′.

Took them out and they smelled heavenly!

Paleo Western Omelet Muffins 

Ingredients:

I’m also still counting calories to ensure I stay within reason.

So far this week these have kept me fairly full.  I typically eat these around 8 or 9am and it keeps me full until 11:30 or noon.

And so the Paleo journey begins…

What’s your favorite breakfast item?

I’m rushed to get a healthy dinner on the table every day. Some days I even lack inspiration on what to cook as well. When this happens, I turn to a few good sources for good information. Everyone is familiar with the Publix Apron program that offers in-store recipes and sampling, but now there’s a new online option for inspiration as well.

Publix knows that the best meals happen at home, so they are excited to help you enjoy family mealtime without having to stress about what to prepare or spending hours in the kitchen. Stop by Publix during their “Best Meals Happen at Home” event to find great savings on some of your favorite products. Be sure to visit BestMealsatHome.com to find fantastic recipes, which can be cooked in 30 minutes or less, and your family is sure to love. Plus, they have coupons available that can help you save over $200 this year.

And from June 21st through June 27th, you can get great savings on participating brands during the ”Best Meals Happen at Home” event at Publix, and while your shopping look for money saving coupons that will be valid through July 11th, 2012.

Here’s one of the recipes featured on the BestMealsatHome.com website that I’m looking forward to making this week.

Buffalo Chicken Crescents:

Prep time: 10 Min
Start to Finish: 30 Min
Makes: 4 sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 2 cans (4 oz) Pillsbury^® refrigerated crescent rolls
• 1 cup shredded cooked chicken
• 2 tablespoons chopped celery
• 1/4 cup Buffalo wing sauce
• 3 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese

Directions:

• Separate or cut dough into 4 long rectangles, press perforations to seal. Place rectangles on ungreased cookie sheet.
• In bowl, mix chicken, celery and sauce. Spoon mixture on half of each rectangle; sprinkle with blue cheese. Fold dough over filling; press edges with fork to seal.
• Bake at 375°F 13 to 16 minutes.

And now for the giveaway! One lucky reader will win a $25.00 Publix Gift Card!

To enter, visit the BestMealsAtHome.com website and comment below with which recipe you’re planning to make soon! One reader will win a $25 Publix Gift Card. I will end this giveaway on 6/29 at 5 pm EST.

Disclosure: All opinions are my own. The Publix gift card, information, and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

When I was a kid, my parents, brother and I wouldn’t really go out to eat very often. I believe we would go out about once a week.  My mom worked hard at making delicious meals every night, which I’m sure after a long loooooong day at work, she sometimes just wanted dinner to magically appear. Regardless, she consistently put dinner on the table and it was good stuff.  Often when I call home, I can’t resist asking what she’s making for dinner that night and drooling.

Typically when we would go out, we would head to one of my parents usual favorite restaurants. I didn’t mind because I could sleep in the booth and no one cared, or I would color, color, color, color like it was going out of style.  Sometimes they’d even spoil me with a schooner the size of my head filled with mouse. I’m sure I was obnoxious after all that sugar. Either that or I’m guessing I passed out in the car.

Once or twice, I remember actually going out to get pizza at a restaurant located inside an old fire station. To make it even more bizarre, we would order taco pizza. To an eight year old, that was magical.

I’ve never noticed another pizza place with taco pizza on their menu.  I’ve always been curious about it.  Since then, that pizza place has closed. A burger join has moved in. (Burger Joint + Fire Station = Not Quite As Magical)  I’ve long forgotten the name of the pizza place in the fire station as has my Dad who I’ve pestered for the name on several occasions. (Sorry, Dad!)

I vaguely remember the pizza with taco seasoned ground beef, cheese, tomatoes, strips of lettuce and veggies, but honestly my memory is vague. I just remember always wanting to go there, so I decided to try and recreate this pizza at home. I did a little googling until I came up with several recipes that were remotely close to what I vaguely remember though details are fuzzy. I used those recipes to put together my base.

When I’m starting a new recipe, I like to make things as easy as possible.  If it’s good from there, then I’ll step it up a notch the next time I make it.  For that same reason, I decided to start with Publix pre-made pizza dough. If you’ve never cooked with this before, it’s found in a little cooler in the bakery section.  Sometimes they have other variations from traditional Italian like 5 grain (which I’ve learned is just their Italian with a bunch of grains and seeds mixed in), but lately all I can seem to find when I go is their Italian which was fine.

I first clean off a section of counter with wet wipes, and then I lay down some flour.  I halfway unroll the bag and flip it over. The dough plops out with a “splat” onto the counter.

I let it hang out there for about an hour.

In the meantime, I got my ingredients ready.  Recently I’ve started shredding my own cheese with my food processor.  I’ve learned that the pre-shredded cheese has added chemicals tossed in with it to prevent caking such as wood pulp. Uhh, gross?  Think I’m crazy pants? Check out this Wall Street Journal article. Apparently, even organic products contain this junk. Oh and I know I’m not perfect, and don’t know everything about food additives, but I gotta start somewhere.

Next I browned up the ground beef and tossed in some taco seasoning.  I’m hopefully going to learn how to season the meat properly on my own in the near future. If anyone has a recipe for this, send it my way!

Now that the dough had time to rise, we rolled it out. To keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin, I always brush a little flour on the rolling pin first.

I have to admit. I really suck at this step. I try, get frustrated, give up, and Adam steps in to save the (dough) day. He rolls some mean dough.

…and into the oven it goes. Without any toppings. I like to let the dough cook for about 8 minutes on its own.  This helps the dough cook all the way through so I don’t end up with a slightly gooey uncooked center.

Next I begin to prep the layers. First layer? Refried beans.

I’m lazy so the diced peppers and tomatos came from Publix. I love these little tubs of pre-diced veggies. Honestly, it’s not all that much more costly either as long as you’re going to use up the whole container.

Splat!

Next, add a layer of ground beef.

Diced veggies.

Cheese!!! That’s actually Sharp Cheddar, but not yellow like you traditionally see.

Lastly some green onions.

This pizza was thick of ingredients. I had two slices and was done. Super delicious.

Only thing missing is the old fire station.

Taco Pizza

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 package Publix Italian dough
• 1 container refried beans
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 package taco seasoning
• 1 package Tomato Trinity, diced tomato, pepper, and onion mix
• 1 package sliced green onions
• 1 package cheddar cheese
• Flour
• Water

Directions:

1. Clean a space on the counter. Sprinkle about 1/3 cup flour on the counter and spread out. Unwrap the package of dough and set on the counter to rise.
2. Brown the ground beef in a non-stick sprayed skillet over medium heat until no longer pink.  Add seasoning packet as well as the required amount of water according to package directions.
3. Shred the cheddar cheese in a food processor.
4. Roll out the dough into a circle shape and place on pizza stone.
5. Cook dough in oven for 8 minutes and remove.
6. Layer ingredients on top of the dough in the following order: refried beans, ground beef, tomato trinity, cheddar cheese, and a sprinkle of green onions.
7. Cook pizza in oven until cheese is melted and crust starts to brown. This should take approximately 20 minutes.

Mmmm this pizza really was sooo good.  It would have paired excellently with a simple side salad too.

~~~~~~~

Do you like unique pizza combinations? What is your favorite?