Day #13

I got my groove back tonight and made one of my favorite comfort meals for dinner; chicken and broccoli casserole. Yum! This is so easy to make and so easy to eat. I love making a big batch and eating the leftovers for a few days. It is really probably not very healthy, but it is good. Here is how I make it...

I thaw about 8 chicken tenderloins (pretty much the only type of chicken I use) and then throw them in the skillet with olive oil, spices and salt and pepper. At the same time I boil a box of pasta of choice (tonight was shells). In yet another bowl I combine two jars of chicken gravy with about a cup of heavy cream (told you this was unhealthy). I toss the chicken, pasta and a bag of frozen broccoli in with the sauce and then add a handful of cheese and mix it all up. Next you dump it all into the casserole dish and top with more cheese or breadcrumbs, put it in the oven at 375 for 20 minutes. So good, so very good.

Day #12

Yeah, so I was the lazy mom who fed her kids a can of Chef Boyardee mini ravioli. I hear it now has a full serving of veggies in each can. sigh. mom fail.

Day #11

We had a late lunch today and were still very stuffed when dinner time rolled around so we opted for cereal tonight. I don't have a picture of lunch but I will tell you all about it. We attended the baptism of our dear sweet "niece", Nora. Nora is the daughter of my best friend and has been Phoebe's best friend since her mommy and I found out we were pregnant and then had our girls 12 days apart. We were honored to be a part of her special day.

After the baptism there was a private luncheon at a local italian restaurant and it was delicious!! We had bruschetta, caesar salad a choice of 4 different entrees and a yellow cake with pineapple filling. YUM! Our entree choices were shrimp linguine, lasagna, beef tip marsala and a signature bowtie pasta. We went with the bowtie pasta which had a cream sauce base, spinach, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes and chicken. It was so good! No wonder we just had cereal, hu?

Day #10

Tonight we had chicken and yellow rice leftovers. Still just as good!

Day #9

I made dinner early tonight since we were heading to the bowling alley, but forgot to post it. Oh well! Tonight was a Mitchell family favorite; chicken and yellow rice with peas. Mmmm! Super easy, fast and super yummy! We eat this meal once a week usually and we are never sick of it.

I cut my chicken into small pieces and throw it into the skillet with olive oil, salt and pepper and creole seasoning . We use Vigo yellow rice and canned peas. Like I said, this is a once a week meal in our house because we love it so much. Give it a try!

Day #8

Today is my 10th wedding anniversary and I thought about closing the kitchen, but then I remembered that we spent the last 10 years growing a family and they like to be fed. Matt and I headed out for a celebratory dinner and the kids had broiled ham and cheese on french bread at home with Nanna.

This was a quick meal and I didn't serve a veggie tonight. Bad mom, I know! Matt and I enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Longhorn where I had the filet and salmon. Oh my YUM! I only had a few bites of the salmon and saved the rest for tomorrows lunch. Makes me feel almost bad that the kids only had sandwiches...almost.

Day #7

Tonight we had the missionaries from church over for dinner, so we decided to have a family favorite with an added twist. We had mini burritos with homemade refried beans and for a new twist we had pulled pork with Pat's "ho-made" sauce as well.

The secret is in the beans, in my opinion. Here is how we make them...

2 large cans of Pinto beans
1 small can of white beans
1 packet of taco seasoning
cumin seasoning to taste
salt and pepper to taste
creole spice (or as Piper calls it, the spice with the little fat man on the picture)

We put everything in the crock pot in the morning and let them cook all day. The house smells great and we know we are in for a good dinner that night. Once the beans are done we use our hand mixer to blend them for a nice smooth consistency.

In the past we (we meaning Matt) have made our own shells, but we have recently found some shells at Costco that aren't bad and much easier! We put those in a hot skillet for about 30 seconds on each side for a nice crisp taste.  The table is set with fresh diced tomatoes, shredded cheese, salsa, homemade guacamole, sour cream and on occasion rice and chicken. Tonight we tried pulled pork topped off with "Pat's ho-made BBQ sauce" (that's right Pat has a ho make all his sauce!), sour cream and cheese. Not bad and everyone seemed to like them.

                                                                         bean burrito

pork BBQ burritos

Pat's sauce

Day #6

Tonight we had grilled chicken and cheese stuffed ravioli with homemade white sauce. The pasta was okay, we bought it at Costco on a whim. It wasn't awful, but I don't think we will buy it again. We added steamed broccoli and Chicago bread from Publix. Overall a good meal and easy.

Here is the white sauce recipe:

1/2 stick of butter
1/2 block of cream cheese
1/4 pint of heavy whipping cream
1/4 pint milk
salt and pepper to taste

Day #5

Tonight we have a guest chef. Nanna, aka my mother-in-law, was over this afternoon and when dinner rolled around and I briefly considered McDonalds she offered to make dinner. She made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and rosemary potatoes. Piper helped with the potatoes and they were fantastic. She cut up some red potatoes and tossed them with olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper and then cooked them in the skillet. We will definitely have these again. No veggie tonight, but considering I was willing to just have Ronald feed us tonight I think what we had instead still wins. 

*Dax had soup for dinner. He is feeling much better and even rode his bike today for bit while I had a nervous breakdown. Thanks for all the suggestions!*

Day #4

Tonight we had chicken crescent rolls, pasta with butter and parmesan cheese and green beans. It was a new recipe for us, but we all liked it. Here is how I made it...

melted one stick of butter and added that to a block of cream cheese

blended the cream cheese and then added diced chicken (this was left over from last night that I reserved and didn't add to the tomato sauce)

I spooned the mixture into the center of the crescent roll dough and then rolled it up and sealed all the sides.

These went into the oven at 375 for 13 minutes and cooked up to a beautiful golden brown.

For sides I made bowtie pasta and added leftover melted butter and parmesan cheese. We needed a veggie so we had green beans. All in all it was a great meal. Easy, yummy and balanced.

*Dax had a major bike accident on Friday evening and we ended up spending last night in the ER thinking he had a broken jaw. The good news is that his jaw is not broken, but he is on a soft diet for the next several weeks. So if you have any good recipes for soft foods send them this way. Tonight he managed a few green beans and some pasta. Poor guy!*

Day #3

Today has been a lazy Saturday. Before I knew it the clock read 6:00 pm and we were all still lazing about in our pajamas. Yikes! I briefly considered cereal, but I didn't want to let down my 6 loyal readers :)

So we had Sarah Surprise. You've never had that? We have never had it either...lol. Sarah Surprise is what I call dinner when I just start cooking without knowing what the end result will be. It's hit or miss.

Tonight I started by cooking some seashell pasta and then diced up chicken tenderloins and cooked them in the skillet with a bit of vegetable oil, season salt, taco seasoning and creole spice. It was looking good but a bit plain. Once the chicken was cooked I added a small can of Goya tomato sauce and white and yellow corn and let it simmer together.

I put the pasta on the plate and then added the chicken mixture and topped it off with shredded cheddar and a dollop of sour cream. YUM!

Day #2

It's Friday night! Tonight Dax is having his first sleepover here at the house and Matt is out at the movies with Piper, so it is an easy dinner night. The boys requested hot dogs and mac and cheese.

The hot dogs are Nathan's (the only kind of hot dog!) boiled. The mac and cheese is from the blue Kraft box, but I added a handful of colby jack cheese for extra cheesiness and flavor. The boys opted to have their hot dogs cut up and mixed into their mac and cheese. Even though it was a "fun dinner" we still had to have veggies. I just made a veggie blend and added a bit of butter and season salt. YUM!
            

Day #1

So I have noticed that a few people have been photographing their dinners in an effort to eat better. I thought it sounded like a fun and challenging thing to do, so I am joining the bandwagon.

Last night was a bit rushed since Matt and I were heading out to see a concert. We made tuna melts and served them with veggie straws and fresh tomato slices. YUM and super easy!

The bread we use is amazing and as close to authentic french bread as Matt has gotten since coming home from his mission. The tuna mixture is starkist tuna, mayo, diced clausen pickels and salt and pepper. We topped the tuna with shredded colby jack ad baked it in the oven at 400 for 10 minutes. This is always a crowd pleaser at our house.