Jacki and Leslee’s Meals

Well we have been cooking over here but have gotten a little behind in posting about the recipes we have been making.  My mom was here for a while in December and we made all these together.

First up are the sugar cookies.  Summer and my mom made these one day while I was out of town.  My mom said they turned out great and made a delicious sugar cookie although maybe there was a bit too much flour in them. 

Next was the Spinach and Feta Pasta.  I made a few little changes with this, leaving out the mushrooms and substituting parmesan for the feta.  It was really tasty and easy to cook up.  I also added some chicken to bulk it up a bit.  We thought it tasted a lot like Chicken Catactori.

The Pineapple Bacon Burgers with Sweet Potato fries was another really good meal.  This wasn’t something super new but everyone enjoyed it.  We cooked both the burgers and the pineapple on the grill and also added some pepper jack cheese.  We cooked the sweet potato fries in the microwave for a few minutes to start the cooking process before putting them in the oven. 

The last meal we made was the Pineapple-Ginger Steak with Stuffed Blue Cheese Potatoes.  We used Skirt Steak instead of flank and only marinated it for a few hours but it was nice and flavorful! The potatoes with pretty easy to make and were a big hit! We didn’t have any blue cheese so we substituted some feta cheese, which worked just fine. We liked these so much we decided to make them again for Christmas Dinner! Another delicious meal!!

New Recipes

Pineapple bacon burgers p. 130
Baked sweet potato fries p. 180
Easy Pretzel Turtles p. 255

I have a ton of pictures I need to post! Hopefully I will get around to that SOON.

New Recipes for the week of 12/11.

Sorry for my tardiness on getting these up!

Pineapple-Ginger Flank Steak - pg 136
Stuffed Blue Cheese Potatoes - pg 183

Leslee’s Chicken and Dumplings and Green Beans

I made these recipes a few weeks ago.  I made the chicken and dumplings using the stovetop method.  I only ended up using 4 cups of liquid instead of the 6 so it ended up a little thicker but that was okay.  I was excited to have a reason to try out the new Gluten Free Bisquick mix to make the dumplings with.  Sean and I both really liked this dish and it is perfect for winter.  I wanted to make the Caramelized Green Beans that night too even though I didn’t have the bacon.  Even without the bacon they were really good! My kids both surprisingly loved them! We will have to make these again.

 

New recipes for week of 11/4

I chose a quick and healthy meal and a not so healthy dessert ;)
Spinach and Feta Pasta pg. 172
Sugar Cookies pg. 208
With a busy holiday month, this recipe is a one dish meal and I like to make sugar cookies at Christmas time :)
Hope both recipes taste great!!

Review of the Green Beans and Chicken Dumplings

 

We had both the chicken and dumplings and the green beans this week. Both of them were well liked by our family. For the chicken and dumplings I used some homemade chicken broth I had in the freezer and also used canned chicken so it was easy. I did it all in the crockpot, even the dumpling part so it was pretty easy. The green beans were so good. My husband actually made most of it and did a very good job. He doesn't cook much but he did a great job of following the directions (with a few pointers). These were so delicious. We used frozen green beans and boiled them for a few minutes first. I think he cooked it to perfection because everything was just carmelized without being burnt. I was impressed since there were so many ingredients in there are burn easily. Suprisingly, even he said that you could use about half of the bacon the recipe calls for and still have it taste good. We ate it all and forgot to take a picture.

Jacki’s Chicken & Dumplings, Caramelized Green Beans

On Tuesday night I fixed the Chicken and Dumplings and then last night I fixed the caramelized green beans hence the separate pictures below.  We were not big fans of the Chicken and Dumplings.  The flavor was very good but I prefer a thicker, creamier sauce part.  The dumplings were good.  I added a bit more of the vegetables than what was called for.    I cooked it in a crockpot but I think it would be better to cook it on the stove. 

The Caramelized Green Beans were quite tasty but a lot of work for green beans – easier just to steam them.  I used fresh green beans and cooked them in the boiling water for one minute as called for but then I ended up needing to cook them a lot longer in the pan with the onions etc.  I would recommend cooking them a little longer in the water – my onions and garlic ended up quite done as a result.  It was fun to try something different with a vegetable.

I have not had a chance to try the gingerbread cookies yet but they are a perfect choice for this time of year. 

Jacki’s Chicken Cacciatore

I finally made this on Monday night when we had some dinner guests and everyone liked it.  It definitely needed some salt even though I added what was called for (I used regular salt not Kosher so I added just a bit less than what was listed).  I think I must have accidentally grabbed some No Salt Tomato Paste at the store and used it.  I followed the recipe as directed except I left the chicken pieces bigger than bite sized.  I cooked it in the crockpot and the chicken was tender and flavorful.  Excellent leftovers.  I forgot to take a picture on the first night we had it and then I forgot again when I had it for lunch on Tuesday but I finally remembered to take a picture yesterday!

New Recipes: Week of 11/27

I had a hard time choosing the recipes this week. So many good looking things. I am not sure if these have been chosen yet but I will take a chance.

page 104- Chicken and dumplings

page 188- Carmelized green beans

page 210- Gingerbread cookies

Leslee’s Catch Up

I am a little late in saying this…but CONGRATULATIONS to two of our cooks who had their babies this month.

Kim had her sweet little girl Norah on Nov 2nd and Tarin had the adorable little Weston on Nov 16th! I am sure they are both pretty busy (and tired)!

I have a few recipes I need to catch up on.  A few weeks ago I made the Banana Cream Pie. I used vanilla pudding mix and graham cracker crusts for both pies.  I set aside some filling for myself and that was some tasty stuff! It was pretty rich with the sweetened condensed milk but everyone loved it!

I also made the Smokey Bean Soup that week.  It tasted great but I probably needed to add a little more liquid because it was a little thick.  It wasn’t the most photogenic thing so no picture on that.

I had made the Chicken Cacciatore a month or so ago.  I cooked it in the crockpot and served it over rice.  It was very delicious so I made it again last week.  This time I didn’t cook it in the crock pot and served it over noodles.  I took a few shortcuts by not blending up all the ingredients as directed but it turned out very tasty still!

Heidi's catch up post

Okie dokie... it has been a LONG time since I have pulled my pics off my phone so here an my fabulous photos :)

I believe that this was the chicken tortilla soup.  It was pretty good.  A little spicy for my little family; but I loved the flavor.

 Greek Couscous Salad - I really liked it.  Kenton isn't a fan of "cold salads" other than regular salad so he didn't really care for it.  The kids picked out all the veggies and ate those.  I would fix it again, maybe to take to a potluck function.

 Puffed French Toast:  Very good although very sweet.  I also fixed the Buttermilk syrup too and that was good.  I actually preferred the flavor of the home-made syrup on the french toast too the regular syrup.

 Smoky Bean Soup with Ham and Bacon:  Not really a fan of this one, the flavor was just too strong for us. 

 White Chicken Chili:  If I remember correctly, this had really good flavor.  Lots of chicken pieces though!  I think I fixed this in the crockpot which really made it easy.

 Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Chop Chocolate Cookies:  these very VERY good!  I was a bit skeptical because I thought it would be "too chocolatey" but they were really good.

That's all the pics that I could find so hopefully that gets me all caught up!

Recipe for the week

Sorry I completely spaced it on picking out a recipe. I just picked one since we are already a couple of days into the new week.

Let's try the Chicken Cacciatore on pages 168-169.

French Toast with Buttermilk Syrup

Last week I made the french toast with buttermilk syrup. It was so yummy! And very sweet! It was like eating donuts. But it was definitely good french toast. My family loved it too.

I actually ate it without the syrup to begin with and I thought it was great. It's already sweet enough. But the syrup is good too. The syrup gave me a little grief, but it was my fault. I started cooking it in a pot that was too small. All of a sudden it boiled out everywhere. It was a mess! So I transferred it to a bigger pot and things went much better. I think I might have cooked it a little too long...but it was still tasty.

I froze half of the french toast like the book said. We pulled it out yesterday and it tasted really good. So it is good to know that that is an option.

Jacki’s Review of Double Chocolate Waffles.

These were absolutely delicious!  Nothing better than dessert for breakfast:)  Actually, I made these for dinner and served them with an egg and some sausage but just the waffles and some milk would have been plenty because they are so rich.  At first I was a little disappointed because they came out of the waffle iron soggy but they crisped right up after just a minute or two.  I like a crispy waffle.  I made the berry sauce to go with it and it was good but I think next time I would just use cut up berries and skip the whole jam and hot water part.  Of course I also added some fresh whipped cream – divine!

Jacki’s Smoky Bean Soup and Banana Cream Pie.

I made both of the recipes a few nights ago for dinner and they didn’t disappoint.  I followed the Bean soup as directed but added just a little bit less broth than called for.   I also used white potatoes and peeled them.   I thought it had a really good flavor and it made good leftovers.  I served it with corn muffins and sliced pears. 

The store I went to didn’t have the Nilla Wafer pie crust so I just bought some Nilla Wafers and made my own.  The filling was very good but quite sweet so I think the next time I will just use a regular pie crust to counter the filling sweetness since the cookie based crust was quite sweet also.  It was still really tasty though.  One of the best banana cream fillings I have had.  I would also add more bananas next time.  I used the vanilla flavor pudding.   Also, I made the recipe as directed and used a 9 inch Pyrex glass pie plate and all of the filling fit into it.  So if you want to get two pies out of the recipe I would use the 8 inch pie plates.    I would make both of these recipes again. 

Puffed French Toast

From 2011-11-02 (by Eye-Fi)

This was really yummy (Jake loved it so much I thought he was going to cry). I served it with bananas on top and that was so good! Somehow I missed that we were suppose to make it with the syrup recipe :( which sounds really good. I probably will only make this on special occasions from now on though since there isn't a ton of nutritional value. But definitely a keeper!

Jenny's Sort Of Catch-up

This is my sort of catch-up. I'm still behind on a few recipes! But I will make them soon.

I actually made the greek cous cous salad a few months back. I thought it was really yummy and a good salad to take to a potluck. I made it without feta, because Al doesn't like feta, but I missed it. I think next time I will just add feta to mine and keep Al's plain. I thought I had taken a picture of the salad, but I can't seem to find it...

The waffles were yummy! And the whole family liked them. I actually made the strawberry syrup that is in the book to go with them because I had a lot of strawberries, and not the berry syrup that was on the same page as the waffles. Anyway, the waffles were easy and we love to have breakfast for dinner here, so I will definitely make them again.

I thought the pumpkin shakes were delish! And again, the whole family loved them. We added mini chocolate chips to ours and left off the graham crackers. The chocolate was good, but I think I would have like it even better without. They really hit the spot and were a fun seasonal treat.

Recipes For Week Of 11/6

Smoky Bean Soup with Ham and Bacon    101

Banana Cream Pie                                                224

Puffed French Toast and Syrup

I made this breakfast this morning and it was a success.  They syrup gave me a bit of a hard time but I think I just needed to use a bigger pot. It turned out really tasty though, just like candy! For the french toast I used french bread because when I was looking for Texas Toast they only had garlic flavored and I didn’t think that would work out. The french toast worked out well though.  I didn’t have enough oil to really fry them but they turned out nice and golden brown.  Sean isn’t a big french toast fan but he thought these were really good!

 

Jacki and Nika’s Chicken Tortilla Soup and Grilled Taco Chicken

I have been traveling so I am waaaay behind on my cooking and postings.  Hope to catch up soon.  While I was visiting Nika and family we made the Grilled Taco Chicken one day for dinner and used the leftovers to make the Tortilla soup the next day.  Both recipes were excellent.  The Grilled Taco Chicken had just the right amount of spice and bite and the soup had a very good flavor.  For the grilled chicken we followed the recipe as directed except doubled it.  Served it with a lime/cilantro type rice and salad along with some pineapple.    When we made the soup we added a can of black beans to give it more substance and if we had any we would have added some corn.  I would also add less of the broth next time.    Nika fried up some corn tortilla strips to go with it which tasted really good as well.  Grated cheese, diced tomatoes and avocados were toppers.   Definitely two recipes to make again.

The Grilled Taco Chicken – delicious.

Chicken Tortilla Soup – delicious.