Six Dinner Pile-Up (Freezer Cooking with LG)

No, LG does not refer to the cell phone manufacturer (who I guess makes other things, like washers and dryers and such).  LG is Laura G., one of a handful of lucky dames to have made it to my inner circle.  Please note: being a member of the inner circle guarantees that you will see me without a bra on, and I may or may not brush my teeth for the occasion.

Laura is one of several highly motivated friends of mine.  These are very important people in the delicate ecosystem that is my life.  I am plagued by laziness and procrastination, so it is a blessing to have folks that kick my ass into getting up and DOING (and sometimes just making decisions for me when there are too many choices for my indecisive little self to handle).

Laura suggested we craft over the weekend, but I ixnayed that suggestion in favor of freezer cooking, in hopes that having a freezer filled with healthy meals would make it easier to work out.  Lo and behold, I have worked out 4 days in a row, and tonight I was rewarded with a delicious meal that took me as much time to make as pulling it from the freezer, adding chicken stock, and setting my crock pot light timer before I went to work.  The recipe for tonight's dinner will be posted shortly.

We took a trip to Costco Saturday (awful), got a ton of ingredients (I summarized them below, some might be missing) and made a plan.  I knew I wanted to make My Favorite Lasagna, a variation of Slow Cooker Beef & Barley Stew using quinoa instead of barley, and Laura wanted Slow Cooker Chicken & Dumplings.  Along with these we decided on White Chicken Enchilada Slow Cooker Casserole, Slow Cooker Chicken Alfredo, and a variation of this Slow Cooker Chicken Tortellini Soup.  And to top it all off, we got 2 pot roasts and Laura transformed hers into a moist roast, while I decided to reserve mine for French dips in the near future.  We had a plan.  Now we had to get crackin'.  And crack we did.

I had several frozen chicken breasts, and Laura did as well, so the only chicken I purchased at Costco was thighs (which were called for in the enchilada casserole).  I also had a couple bags of mozzarella, so we split those.  The rest of the ingredients we got at Costco consisted of:

Potatoes

Carrots

Celery

Onions

Mushrooms

Shredded Parmesan cheese

Tortillas

Chicken thighs

2 chuck roasts

We also each made individual trips to Walmart, mostly for items we couldn't get at Costco or didn't remember to buy (like ricotta cheese).  A couple of the items we had to get outside of Costco were:

Fresh Italian parsley

Ricotta cheese

Cream of chicken soup

Cream cheese

Black olives

Spaghetti Sauce

Shredded Monterey Colby cheese

Lasagna noodles (oven ready)

And pantry items we already had:

Diced tomatoes

Frozen spinach 

DIY Bisquick (for the dumplings)

We spent about 4 hours prepping and bagging all of the meals, and ended up with the sight you see before you.  We had wine to celebrate, and went to sleep satisfied with the knowledge that our families would not go hungry for quite a while.

Up next: Slow Cooker Tortellini Soup!  Super delicious!

New Year, New Recipe (Not Yo Mama's Tuna Casserole)

Thursday night I came home from work with no dinner plans, but knew I had everything to make a tuna casserole.  But then I realized that I was looking at a can of sweet peas in the midst of my ingredients when I had some broccoli and cauliflower resting (nay, languishing) in the crisper and decided to get creative.

Not Yo Mama's Tuna Casserole
3 cups egg noodles, cooked in salted water and drained
3 cups steamed broccoli and cauliflower florets (I steamed in the microwave while the noodles cooked)
1 can tuna, preferably packed in olive oil
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c sour cream
1/4 c white wine
1 small can evaporated milk
1 tbsp dried minced onion
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp celery salt
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 cup shredded cheddar
crushed potato chips for topping

1. Combine noodles, veggies, and tuna in a large bowl.
2. Combine soup, sour cream, wine, milk, onion, salt, pepper, and celery salt and mix until creamy and blended.
3. Mix noodle mixture and cream mixture together until everything is coated.  Place in a greased baking dish and top with shredded cheeses and potato chips. Bake for 20-30 minutes, uncovered, until cheeses are melty and delicious.
Enjoy!

This is how little was left by the end of the pan.  And I ate that last bit, oh yes I did.  Should have saved it for leftovers but it was too good to resist.  The white wine really kicked up the cream mixture a notch, and I really loved that there were as many veggies as their were egg noodles.

The kids even ate theirs, which is always my barometer for how delicious a meal was.  Elora cleaned her plate, which is good because I don't know when she'll be eating again after losing both her front teeth in the last 7 days.

Ewwwww.  Still love her little face, just can't wait for the spaces to fill in with chompers :)

Back to the Grind (Eggnog Baked Pancakes)

So we are back in the non-holiday swing of things, and I am both saddened and thrilled that the holidays are over.  Sad because Christmas carols are no longer in season.  Thrilled because every other part of Christmas is no longer in season.  I'm not really one to make my resolutions public knowledge (because then I'm accountable to see them through), but if I did have resolutions I was willing to share at least one of them would include homemade breakfast for my kids all year long.

I've shared the baked pancakes recipe previously (see HERE for a gorgeous reminder).  If you haven't already tried it I strongly encourage that you do so.  They are so quick, so easy, and so delicious you will wonder why you haven't been making your pancakes like this for years.

The flavor combinations are endless.  I've been known to mix up two batches of batter at once and bake two pans in one day so I can freeze the extras and eat them all week long.  This weekend my batches were pumpkin chocolate chip (my kids are in love with this combo) and EGGNOG.  I needed to get that delicious elixir out of my fridge before it went bad, and this was just the ticket.

I used the standard Baked Pancake recipe from Six Sisters' Stuff and replaced the milk with eggnog and a little milk (I only had a little over a cup of nog, so the milk was just to measure it out to 1.5 cups the recipe calls for).  I also added a little cinnamon, and WOW.  These were divine.  As you can see in the picture they are cut into nice size rectangles, and I love that they puff up nice and thick, so it's like you've got a little stack of flapjacks to call your own.

Baked pancakes have really been the most versatile breakfast recipe I've found in a while.  It is such an easy recipe to follow (so much so I've pretty much got it memorized) and with the endless variations of delicious add-ins, plus the ability to freeze the leftovers to enjoy all week long.  If you haven't tried these out yet I STRONGLY urge you to do it today.

This post is in memory of a dear lady, Ms. Lisa Frank, who passed away peacefully on Monday night.  She loved the pumpkin baked pancake, which thrilled me to no end.  She was as funny as she was shy and kind, and my thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends who are hurting right now.  Wish we would have had a chance to say goodbye, L2F, but in lieu of goodbye I'll just say "see ya later".  You will be missed.

Happy New Year!!! (Bahn Mi and Goop's Vietnamese Salad)

Happy first birthday to this crazy little blog!  I only had 16 posts in 2013, so my goal this year is to double that number by 12/31/14.  Technically two recipes in one post should count as 2 posts, but whatevs.  I have a 2nd and 3rd blog post for 2014 right up my little sleeve, don't you worry.

This year was a very low-key New Year's in our neck of the proverbial woods.  It feels like the older we get the more appealing it is to be in bed by 12:30 (if not earlier), which allows one to wake up early on New Years Day and plan a sumptuous early afternoon soiree.

Our New Years crew over the years has evolved, as well.  In our 20s the folks we hung out with were the folks we went to bars with.  We drank, we smoked, we puked, and usually we spent the night at a beautiful cabin on Rock Creek, just outside of Red Lodge.  There are probably pictures hidden on an external hard drive of our first New Years at the cabin, back in like 2001 or 2002, that include me wearing some type of pelt like a New York socialite whilst Thad played dj and had the whole place bumping to Tha Dogg Pound.  Aw, the good old days.

Now, in our 30s, we hang with a crowd that prefers to celebrate New Years on 1/1, rather than trying to make it to the ball dropping.  I've never been good with the pressure for holidays to be awesome, so I like to celebrate them a day or two late, then the pressure to perform is lowered considerably.

I made pho a couple years ago for NYE, and it turned out surprisingly good for my first attempt at a rather long and involved international recipe.  This year I decided to spare myself the hours of preparation making my own stock and go with another Vietnamese staple: bahn mi.  I was first introduced to this dish by a dear friend who made a wonderful home version for me on a trip back to my hometown.  Tis a glorious concoction of meat and mayo, cilantro and slaw, crunch and chew.

I decided to try the Bon Appetit variation of the sandwich using meatballs and, on the suggestion of the same dear friend I mentioned above, saved myself the trouble of rolling a crap load of meatballs by turning the meat mixture into an Asian inspired meatloaf.  Once cooked I laid slices of meat in the sandwich  and it was just as delicious, if not more so, than the balls.  I made two full sandwiches, one with ground turkey and one with ground pork... both were delicious.

Since I was buying a crap-load of fresh herbs for the sandwiches I decided to make a slightly bastardized version of Goop's Vietnamese salad (no watercress, no shallots, no fresh ginger.... replaced with green onions and a tiny amount of ground ginger).  Whoa nelly, the flavor explosion from all the fresh herbs in this dish was just dynamite.

All in all New Years Day was a rousing success.  We played some games, ate up all the food, had some uh-mazing desserts, and everyone was home by 6!  A perfect way to spend New Years Day!