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