Falafel Pitas with Cucumber Dipping Sauce

I don't remember how I came across this recipe. Oh, I take that back. I think I had bookmarked a list of easy vegetarian dinners from the Cooking Light website and found it that way. I'm trying to work back in some more vegetarian meals into our dinners each week. I really like falafel, but I'd never tried making my own before. it sounded pretty easy from this recipe and most of the ingredients were things I had on hand (well, except the pita bread). Double bonus!!

Falafel Pitas with Cucumber Dipping Sauce
Source: CookingLight.com

1/4 cup minced red onion
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 (15 1/2-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
1 (1-ounce) slice whole wheat bread, torn into pieces
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 (6-inch) whole wheat pitas, split
1 cup arugula
1/2 cup Cucumber-Yogurt Dressing

Combine first 10 ingredients in a food processor; pulse 6 times or until well blended (mixture will be wet).

Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Spoon about 1/3 cup chickpea mixture per patty into pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

Line each pita half with 1/4 cup arugula, add 1 patty to each pita half, and spoon 2 tablespoons Cucumber-Yogurt Dressing into each pita half.

Cucumber-Yogurt Dressing
Source: CookingLight.com

1 cup plain fat-free yogurt
1/2 cup diced seedless cucumber
1/4 cup minced red onion
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Cover and chill.

Note: Nutritional analysis includes Cucumber-Yogurt Dressing.
Calories: 280
Calories from fat: 30%
Fat: 9.4g
Saturated fat: 1.2g
Monounsaturated fat: 5g
Polyunsaturated fat: 2.2g
Protein: 11.4g
Carbohydrate: 40.1g
Fiber: 7.3g
Cholesterol: 53mg
Iron: 3.3mg
Sodium: 592mg
Calcium: 81mg

*****

Since the nutritional info was there on the website, I figured I'd include it for the recipe. I actually used whole wheat naan instead of pita bread because pita bread and I just don't get along. We have issues...always have, always will. I find naan much easier to work with and even a little tastier.

I wasn't really sure what my kids were going to think of this, but they both ate it pretty well. Especially after I gave them ketchup to dip their falafel in. I know, I know...ketchup with falafel?! But they ate it all and there wasn't a fight at the dinner table. Sometimes we moms do what we gotta do.

This was super easy to put together and really tasty. I'd definitely make it again, especially since for the most part it was made up of things I had in my fridge or pantry already!

Falafel mixture:


Falafel patties cooking away:


Mmmm...falafel pitas...

Pioneer Woman's Spicy Roasted Chicken Legs

I know I have a ton of posts to go back and catch up on, but I figure it's better to start with the current and then move backwards, otherwise I'll get overwhelmed thinking about it and sit in the corner in the fetal position rocking back and forth. Maybe not quite that severe, but I have put off updating the ol' blog here for awhile because it overwhelmed me to think about what all I wanted to post. Sigh.

I was recently looking at the Pioneer Woman's website and saw this recipe for chicken legs. I had a package of them out in the freezer, so it seemed the stars aligned. Plus I had everything on hand to make them, which was a bonus because I was trying to use up things I had here because my freezer, pantry, and fridge all seemed to be overflowing.

If you want to see all of PW's nice pictures, here's the recipe on her website. I'm a slacker and forgot to take pictures. Oops.

Pioneer Woman's Spicy Roasted Chicken Legs

24 whole Chicken Legs
2 sticks Butter
1 Tablespoon Hot Salt (or You Favorite Seasonings)
½ cups Lemon Juice (or To Taste)

Melt 2 sticks of butter in a saucepan. Pour ½ cup of lemon juice (fresh or bottled). Now add your seasonings. In this case, 1 tablespoon of Morton’s Hot Salt. You can use whatever seasonings makes your skirt fly up, be it minced garlic, salt and Cayenne pepper … let your imagination run wild. Stir it together until combined.

Rinse and pat your chicken legs dry. With metal tongs, transfer them one by one into the butter mixture and place on a baking sheet. Once all of the chicken legs are coated and on the baking rack, take a pastry brush and give them one last coating of the butter mixture. Sprinkle them with some more of your seasonings.

Place them into a 400-degree oven for 30 minutes. If they need a bit more color, turn on the broiler for a couple minutes and watch them closely. Remove them when they are nice and golden brown.

*****

I was going to get the Hot Salt when I went grocery shopping yesterday, but I decided to stay home and hang out with the husband instead of going to the store, so I worked with what I had. I went with Tony Chachere's because everything is better with some Tony's on it. I also added in some garlic powder and Lawry's seasoning salt just for kicks. I kept the Tony's pretty minimal because the boy doesn't dig on spicy. I probably could have stepped it up a little because you couldn't really taste it at all.

This was a super easy chicken recipe, and we all really liked it. My kids love eating drumsticks...God sure got it right when he made that part of the chicken for us to eat, didn't He. It's such a perfect kid food with its built in handle and all. I didn't have 24 drumsticks, I think there were more like 15 in my package. It was quite a lot for my family of four. I only used one stick of butter, which was plenty.

This is something I'll definitely make again. In fact, chicken legs are on sale this week at my grocery, so I may just pick up another package when I'm there today.

Again, sorry there's no picture...but check out PW's website if you want to see better pictures than I take anyway. ;)

Slow Cooker Pinto Beans

I don't know why I've been slacking on posting lately. Monday was a pretty bad day at our house, and our dinner was easy, just tofu stir fry. Yesterday I don't know why I never got around to posting. Who knows. This is what we had. I'd seen a recipe for slow cooker pinto beans in a vegetarian cookbook I have and thought I'd try it. Then I saw my friend Jen B. had a recipe for them, and there is also one in my new favorite cookbook, Rick Bayless' Mexican Everyday. I decided to kind of combine all of them into one and see what I got.

Slow Cooker Pinto Beans

1 lb. dried pinto beans
1 onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 slices bacon, cut into chunks
2 bay leaves
2 Tbsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp black pepper
1 Tbsp Ancho chili powder
1 Tbsp cumin
1 Tbsp coriander
1 can beef broth
5 cups water

Sort through beans for any debris, pebbles, or sticks. Throw everything into slow cooker and cook on low 8-10 hours. When beans are done, strain liquid into a separate container and save for another use. Remove bay leaves and any other chunks you don't want in there (although I left the bacon in and thought it was yummy).

*****

I made refried beans out of some last night. For that I used two tablespoons of butter and probably two cups of the beans and a few ladlefuls of the cooking liquid and mashed it up first with a potato masher and then I switched to using my immersion blender. That worked a lot better.

Oh man...these were fantastic beans!! The flavor of them was so much better than anything I've ever had in a can. I think I'm a homemade refried beans convert now. I used them last night for tostadas, and for that I just fried some tortillas in oil to get them crispy (my oil took forever to heat up--I didn't think we were ever going to eat!) and then topped with the refried beans, cheese, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, guacamole, and salsa. They were quite tasty!! I had leftovers for lunch today and was just as pleased as I was last night!

Chili Cornbread Casserole

I feel like I'm always trying to use up things I have on hand--which must mean I either have entirely too much stuff on hand at any given moment in time or I keep buying stuff even though I don't mean to. And it seems that no matter what I do, whether I'm buying a lot or a little, my grocery shopping trips last an hour, and I spend $80. I need to evaluate my grocery receipt and see what all I got and what could have been reduced. I use coupons when I can--and match them with sales for the maximum savings--but I don't buy that many processed foods or foods for which there are coupons. If any one has any tips on really frugal healthy eating, please let me know!

Anyway, I did have everything on hand for this, which is why it got put on the menu plan for this week. We hadn't had it in a long time, and the cans of chili had been sitting in my pantry for awhile, so I was glad to use them up and clear up some space. We've had it before and liked it, including the boy. It's super cheap to make, fast to put together and bake, and tasty. What a great combination!

Chili Cornbread Casserole
2 cans chili w/beans
Cheese (shredded or sliced)
1 box Jiffy cornbread mix
1 egg
1/3 c. milk

Spread chili in a greased 8x11 dish. Top with cheese. Stir milk and egg into cornbread mix and spread on top. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until cornbread is done.

Raviolis

I'm not having much luck with dinners this week. I had planned on making sausage and peppers tonight along with my own hamburger buns, but my plans went awry. We went to my new Bible study group this morning and then spent the rest of the day with my mom and aunt and saw my dad and grandmas. By the time we got home, it was too late to make my own buns, and we didn't have any others. So that idea got scrapped. I was missing an ingredient for my back-up dinner plan, so that got tossed out the window too. I remembered I had a bag of frozen raviolis in the freezer, so I quickly threw together a pasta sauce to go with those. I loosely based it on the tomato sauce recipe I usually use but changed it up just a bit.

Tomato Sauce
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato paste (the small can)
1/2 cup tomato juice
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning

Heat some olive oil in a saucepan and add onion and garlic. Cook for a few minutes being careful not to burn the garlic. Add in remaining ingredients, let simmer for an hour or more.

*****

I'm so not good at writing out my own recipes. The usual tomato sauce I make calls for water, but I had tomato juice in the pantry for a soup I want to make, so I thought I'd pour in some of that instead. It smells good, so we'll see how it turns out.

I think the sausage and peppers will be slated for tomorrow night. I try to do a crockpot dinner on Wednesday nights, but I had planned on doing a pot roast but have yet to get it out of the freezer, so I don't think that will work. We have a busy day Thursday, so I'll plan on the pot roast then. Plus tomorrow I know I'll have time to make the buns.

*****

The sauce was good. I don't think it was too different in taste than how I usually make it. I ended up adding some sugar because it tasted too acidic and tart and mixed in a bit of water because it seemed really thick. There was quite a bit left, so I'll probably end up freezing it to use some other time. I much prefer making my own sauce instead of buying a jar. It's really inexpensive and you know there aren't a bunch of additives or preservatives.

Potato Gnocchi and Mushrooms in Gorgonzola Sauce

I had a near dinner disaster tonight. Well, not really. I had planned on having roasted chicken, but the chicken was still frozen. I thought about doing Tortilla Pie but the avocados I bought last night were still hard and need to ripen up a bit. That left me four other dinners to choose from, from what I had planned out for the week. We had a park play date this afternoon, so I figured I'd see what stuck my fancy when we got home from that.

The boy was having fun, and I was catching up with some friends I hadn't seen much of recently, so it was 5:15 by the time we were leaving the park. I decided to make what ever was going to be the fastest. Since most everything else required defrosting some form of protein, I went with this because I knew the gnocchi would cook quickly. This was one of the recipes from that vegetarian cookbook I meant to get rid of for years and am now insanely pleased that I did not. Looking through it a second time, I found even more recipes I want to make. I don't think I've ever been so excited about eating vegetarian!

Potato Gnocchi and Mushrooms in Gorgonzola Sauce
1 Tbsp olive oil
12 ounces mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 pound frozen potato gnocchi
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup milk
3 ounces gorgonzola or other blue cheese, cut into small dice
2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
1/4 tsp salt
Generous seasoning freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large stockpot of water to boil. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and saute until they render their juices, then reabsorb them and begin to get dry, about 10 minutes. Stir often.

Drop the gnocchi into the boiling water and cook until tender, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic to the mushrooms and cook 2 minutes, tossing frequently. Pour in the milk and bring to a boil. Stir in the blue cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper and toss.

Drain the gnocchi and add it to the skillet. Toss 1 minute, or just until the cheese melts. Serve immediately.

*****

I had freeze-dried gnocchi from Trader Joe's, not frozen, so I followed the package directions on that for cooking them. Let float to top and boil two minutes after that. Super easy. The hardest part of all of this was slicing the mushrooms.

I wasn't sure what the husband and boy would think of this because of the blue cheese (I used regular blue cheese because there was no gorgonzola to be had when I went to the store last night). I loved the first bite I took of it, the husband didn't look too sure of it. He said later that he did like it and would eat it again, it was just an unfamiliar texture (gnocchi) and tase (blue cheese) so it took some getting used to. The boy ate it reluctantly at first but then he ate pretty much all I had served him, except one or two gnocchi.

This is definitely something I'd make again. I'm excited to have more things to do with gnocchi because they're inexpensive and super easy to cook. I have a recipe to make my own, so maybe some day when I have a little more time (i.e. my baby isn't a newborn anymore) I'll try to make my own. Anyway, I love easy, inexpensive dinners, and it's also great to have another vegetarian dish to add into the rotation.

Macaroni and Cheese

I'm having dinner issues this week. I had planned on making a Giada roast chicken recipe tonight, but I keep forgetting to take the chicken out of the freezer for it to defrost. Have I taken it out yet? Nope. So maybe we'll have it Saturday night at the rate I'm going. This dinner was slated for tomorrow night. I could eat macaroni and cheese multiple times a week, so I have to say I'm not disappointed we're having it a night early. Plus I need to clean up my kitchen a little, and just making mac and cheese will be easier than a whole chicken.

This mac and cheese is my mother-in-law's recipe. It's so yummy. She makes it as a Thanksgiving side dish, and there are never any leftovers. The husband's family are all cheese lovers, so it's always ooey-gooey-cheesy, which is just how I like it! Mmmm...the more I think about this, the more excited I am for dinner tonight!

Aurelia's Macaroni and Cheese
(these are "unmeasured ingredients", add to your taste)
hot boiled macaroni (8 to 12 ounce bag)
1 bag of shredded cheddar cheese (~8oz)
parmesan cheese (1/4 cup)
butter or margarine (1/2 stick)
few tablespoons of milk
salt/pepper

boil macaroni, drain. mix all other ingredients into the hot macaroni. place in 350 oven for about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
(toss in other cheeses as you like. ie american is good)

*****

It's totally easy and so yummy. I usually add in two bags of shredded cheese, I think this time I bought a bag of sharp cheddar (I heart sharp cheddar) and a colby-jack blend. I kind of want to start making it now and just eat ridiculously early, it's sounding so yummy to me. I think I'll cook some carrots to go along with it so we're having something more substantial with it.

Chili Cheese Tortilla Wraps

Okay...after this post I'm all caught up! I told you I didn't cook much last week, and I wasn't lying! Plus I gotta get this done so I can fold laundry--baby clothes--and get them put away so I'm ready for this baby to get here and everything's done and put away. All I have left to do is pack my hospital bag. Oh, and potentially buy a new coming home outfit for the little buy since the temperatures here in AZ are still in the freakin' upper 80s!! Somehow I don't think a cute fleece outfit will work if it stays that warm for the next couple weeks.

Talk about digressing! Anyway, I wasn't motivated at all this morning to come up with dinner plans for the week, but I pushed on through and did it. I saw that my store had refried beans on sale, so I thought we'd have this tonight. I'm not super excited for it, but it's always good, and the husband absolutely loves it. He had me make this for his birthday dinner last year, that's how much he likes it. Plus it's easy, just throw everything in the crockpot and let it do its thing.

Chili Cheese Tortilla Wraps
1 16-oz can nonfat refried beans
1 8-oz package nonfat cream cheese, cut into cubes and softened
1 4-oz can diced green chilies, drained
3/4 cup chopped green onions
1 cup nonfat shredded cheddar cheese
4 98% fat free flour tortillas

Spray inside of slow cooker with cooking spray. Combine refried beans, cream cheese, chilies, and green onions in slow cooker and mix well. Cover and cook on low heat for 4 hours or high heat for 2 hours, stirring once or twice during cooking. If cooking on low heat, increase to high. Stir in 3/4 cup of the cheesse and sprinkle 1/4 cup cheese over top. Warm tortillas. Spoon bean mixture into tortillas; roll and serve immediately. Can be served with tortilla chips instead of tortillas.

*****

I've probably posted this at least 15 times before, so I won't go in to too much detail. I didn't have any green onions. Rather, the grocery store didn't have any. For the life of me I couldn't find them anywhere, and I walked around the produce section three times searching. There was an older woman there looking for them too and didn't have any luck. Weird, right? So we're doing without the green onions, but I don't think it should make too much difference.

There you go Jen...all caught up. ARe you happy now?!

Creamy Chicken Casserole

I just got an angry call from Jen B. wondering if I had given up on my blog. I told her no, I've just been lazy and really all I'm doing at this point is trying to come up with ways to get this kid out of me sooner rather than later. I'm so done being pregnant. Cooking and updating the blog both require energy and motivation, and those just aren't things I really have anymore these days. But, I'll try to do better these last couple weeks until baby gets here since I'll have a hiatus after that.

So, like I said in my preivous post, we had some family issues last week, so I didn't do a whole lot of dinner cooking. I did however make this casserole last Monday night I think it was (before the drama started), so I'll start with that. It was in one of my Southern Living cookbooks, and I had written a note by it at some point saying "Really good, really easy." Sweet...I'll take both of those things when it comes to dinners! That's why I love making notes in my cookbooks. Who knows when it was I made it, and it might have gone overlooked had it not been for my note to myself.

Creamy Chicken Casserole
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 can cream of chicken soup, undiluted
8 ounces sour cream
1 Tbsp poppy seeds
1-1/2 cups crushed round buttery crackers (40 crackers...I used Ritz)
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

Combine first four ingredients; spoon into a lightly greased 11x7 baking dish. Combine crushed crackers and butter, and sprinkle over chicken mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 30 minutes.

*****

Totally easy, see? Definitely somehwat of a trash-erole, but then don't all casseroles have a hint of that by their very nature? We all really liked it. I like finding casserole recipes for 11x7 pans because then you're not eating for a whole week, it's a manageable amount. This is definitely one I'll try to get in rotation since we all liked it, and it's quick and cheap to prepare. It would be a great use for leftover cooked chicken!

Tofu Lo Mein

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!! Ours was GREAT! We did nothing on Sunday except lounge by and play in the pool. It was awesome. Totally what I needed. We got home from our staycation on Monday, but we didn't have much in the house to make for dinner, and I didn't really feel like cooking anyway, so we all had grilled cheese sandwiches. Exciting.

Last night I was going to make this recipe, but I think I upset the baby and overdid it with stuff around the house yesterday because if I'd stand up for more than a minute or two, my baby belly would get awfully uncomfortable! So I resorted to laying on the couch and drinking water, and the husband stopped and got Little Caesar's pizza for us. I've told you it's our universal dinner back-up plan!

I had an OB appointment today and was up seven pounds from last month. Ouch. I need to get on the ball with some healthy dinners. I only gained 27 when I was pregnant with the boy, so I want to keep it around that. I'm up 20 pounds total with 11 weeks to go, so I need to watch it. I blame it entirely on having eaten out all weekend. Anyway, I'm extra glad we're having this for dinner tonight because I need a good healthy meal. I had planned on having it a couple weeks ago, but the tofu was past its date when I took it out of the fridge.

Tofu Lo Mein
1 (16 ounce) package extra firm tofu
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 (3 ounce) packages Oriental flavored ramen noodles
1 (16 ounce) package frozen stir-fry vegetables
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon soy sauce, or to taste

Press tofu between paper towels to remove some of the water; cut in to bite size cubes. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add tofu, and fry until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.

Meanwhile bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add noodles from ramen packages, reserving the seasoning envelopes. Boil for about 2 minutes, just until the noodles break apart. Drain.

Add the stir-fry vegetables to the pan with the tofu, and season with the ramen noodle seasoning packet. Cook, stirring occasionally until vegetables are tender, but not mushy. Add noodles, and stir to blend. Season with soy sauce to taste and serve.

*****

Totally easy and super yummy. Even the boy usually eats it, so that makes it a winner in my book. I'm sure if you have kids--especially toddlers--you know how that goes. Just make sure you start draining your tofu early enough. I let mine drain for an hour or so, sometimes more.

Chicken and Yellow Rice

The boy and I are on our own for dinner the next couple nights, so I wanted easy stuff and things that the husband doesn't necessarily like. ;) Tonight's dinner is super easy and one of my favorites. And it's relatively cheap.

Chicken and Yellow Rice
1 package saffron rice mix
1 or 2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

Cook rice mix according to package directions. Mix in chicken and black beans.

*****

See what I mean, super easy. If I don't add the black beans, I'd probably do two chicken breasts, but since the beans add some substance to the dish, I think I'll just do one chicken breast.

Chili Cornbread Casserole

I was too busy in the kitchen baking yesterday to get around to updating my blog. But, that means you get a plethora of recipes today!! I think the last time I did this much baking was at Christmas two years ago, maybe three.

I had Bunco last night but made dinner anyway because I was STARVING all day yesterday. Baby must be having a growth spurt or something because I could not get enough to eat. I did a bit of menu rearranging and moved this to last night. It's kind of a white trash dinner, but it's cheap, quick, and easy. Hard to beat that!!

Chili Cornbread Casserole
2 cans chili w/beans
Cheese (shredded or sliced)
1 box Jiffy cornbread mix
1 egg
1/3 c. milk

Spread chili in a greased 8x11 dish. Top with cheese. Stir milk and egg into cornbread mix and spread on top. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until cornbread is done.

*****

Doesn't get much easier than that! A lot of times my grocery store has Hormel chili on sale for $1 a can but there's coupons on the paper for $0.50 off, so it ends up being $0.50 a can. This is a super budget dinner! I like to use turkey chili because it's a little healthier.

We really like this dinner. I wasn't sure if the boy would eat it or not, but he gobbled it up. I was pretty surprised.

Grilled Pizzas

Back to the daily grind of cooking dinner! I have had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend. Hope you have too! Saturday it was just the boy and me as the husband spent the afternoon playing golf. The husband and my uncle installed a ceiling fan in our play room before golfing, so the boy and I hung out in there since it wasn't so blazing hot in there anymore. Yesterday we went to church, returned a ceiling fan at Lowe's and then hung out at home for the afternoon. My mom came over after the boy's nap and took him home with her so the husband and I could have a date night. Woo hoo for date night!!! We went and saw the new Indiana Jones movie (pretty decent, kind of cheesy ending, but worth seeing on the big screen) and went out for dinner. What a treat! This morning we were super productive...he did yard work and I worked on cleaning out our disaster area of a garage. I only got one wall of it done (hey, I said disaster area!) before our garbage can and recycle bin were full, but it's a vast improvement. Hopefully I can get the other two walls done before it gets ridiculously hot here. It's been so nice this weekend, I wish the weather would last!! I was supposed to get a pedicure today, but all the nail places around here were closed! So I got some Coldstone instead. ;) once the boy got home from my mom's, I got busy listing stuff on Freecycle and Craigslist that I had found in the garage. Hopefully it will earn me some extra moolah!

ANYWAY. Since it is Memorial Day, I figured we couldn't go all weekend without grilling, so we'd grill tonight. Actually I'll grill tonight because it's game #2 in the Stanley Cup finals, so the husband will be glued to the TV watching that and cheering on the Red Wings. I've been trying to use up things we have in our freezers and pantry, and we had an almost full pacakge of frozen bread dough, so I figured grilled pizzas were the way to go! And we haven't had them in quite awhile. I'll probably put them back in to rotation now that it's heating up because we like to grill in the summer so the kitchen doesn't get as hot.

Here's a nice tutorial on grilling pizzas if you haven't done it before:

Cooking Light's How To Grill Pizzas

My directions for it are below. I use the frozen bread dough you get at the grocery store, like Rhodes. Only I get the store brand because it's cheaper. You can also make them with the refrigerated dough from stores like Trader Joe's or Fresh & Easy. I don't think I've tried them with the Pillsbury refrigerated pizza dough, but I imagine it would work. Or you can make your own dough. I've done that before when we didn't have the frozen bread dough. I just like the frozen becaue it's cheap and easy. I'm all about cheap and easy. I make two pizzas from each loaf of frozen bread dough, then we can pick our own toppings.

Grilled Pizzas
Preheat grill to medium heat. Place dough on grill rack, close lid. Dough will take 5-7 minutes. Check it occasionally for bubbles. Once the bottom is golden brown (or at least not burned...ours don't always get golden brown I guess), flip the crust over. This can be tricky and may require two spatulas, depending on the size of your crust. Turn heat down to low or move pizza(s) to top rack if your grill has one. Put toppings on the side you just cooked. Close lid. Check after five minutes, cook until cheese is melted.

*****

Tonight I'm making four different pizzas. Last time we had grilled pizzas as a family, I found out that one loaf of dough wasn't really enough for the three of us, so I'm using two loaves tonight. We're having:

pepperoni

cheese

mushroom and black olive

spinach, roased red peppers, and caramelized onion

Normally I throw some feta on the red pepper pizza, but this baby growing inside me makes me think feta tastes like puke. So, no feta this time. Oh how I miss it so!! I haven't decided yet if I'll saute the spinach first or just throw the leaves on the pizza. I wanted to do a super veggie pizza, but I cheaped out when I was at the grocery store. Green peppers were $1.25 each!! Lordy mama that's expensive! They were the same price as red peppers. So, mushroom and black olive it will be. Which is fine with me...that's one of my favorites, and I rarely get to have it becaue the husband doesn't like olives.

Man alive, this was a long post! I'm off to continue my productive day and assemble a bookcase for our play room. It's only been sitting out in the garage since March.

Tofu Lo Mein

This was our other vegetarian dish for the week. The husband is getting antsy for me to finish up so we can start our shows, so no fanfare, just the recipe.

Tofu Lo Mein
1 (16 ounce) package extra firm tofu
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 (3 ounce) packages Oriental flavored ramen noodles
1 (16 ounce) package frozen stir-fry vegetables
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon soy sauce, or to taste

Press tofu between paper towels to remove some of the water; cut in to bite size cubes. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add tofu, and fry until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.

Meanwhile bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add noodles from ramen packages, reserving the seasoning envelopes. Boil for about 2 minutes, just until the noodles break apart. Drain.

Add the stir-fry vegetables to the pan with the tofu, and season with the ramen noodle seasoning packet. Cook, stirring occasionally until vegetables are tender, but not mushy. Add noodles, and stir to blend. Season with soy sauce to taste and serve.

Macaroni and Cheese

The boy and I survived our trip to CA. It was my first time flying alone with him, so I was pretty nervous, but he was great! God bless the inventor of the portable DVD player!! We had fun visiting my sis-in-law and nephew's. The boy had a great time with his cousins. He was so sad when we got home.

Now it's back to the daily grind. I wanted relatively easy stuff to make for dinner this week, so I thought we'd start of with my mother-in-law's macaroni and cheese. It's so yummy and so cheesy and so ridiculously easy to make. I'm tempted to mix it up this afternoon and stick it in the fridge, but I'm concerned it wouldn't be as gooey and yummy and cheesy if I did that. Plus I have enough to do during nap time.

Aurelia's Macaroni and Cheese
(these are "unmeasured ingredients", add to your taste)
hot boiled macaroni (8 to 12 ounce bag)
1 bag of shredded cheddar cheese (~8oz)
parmesan cheese (1/4 cup)
butter or margarine (1/2 stick)
few tablespoons of milk
salt/pepper

boil macaroni
drain
mix all other ingredients into the hot macaroni
place in 350 oven for about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted
(toss in other cheeses as you like. ie american is good)

*****

I was putting cheese away in my cheese drawer after grocery shopping today and realized I have almost a whole block of cheap grocery store brand parmesan cheese, so I'm going to try to use up quite a bit of that in this tonight. I'm going to Costco on Wednesday and want to make the transition to REAL parmigiano-reggiano cheese. I'll feel more justified in doing that if this cheap stuff is gone.

Tofu Lo Mein

The boy and I are heading out of town on Wednesday to visit my sister-in-law and nephews in CA. We're so excited to see them!! I wanted something we had everything on hand for tonight, tomorrow I'm making lasagna. I'm toying with trying a new recipe...we'll see. Anyway, we haven't had this in awhile and I really like it. I have a "stupid Claire" confession I'll post after the recipe. No scrolling down to see that first!

Tofu Lo Mein
1 (16 ounce) package extra firm tofu
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 (3 ounce) packages Oriental flavored ramen noodles
1 (16 ounce) package frozen stir-fry vegetables
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon soy sauce, or to taste

Press tofu between paper towels to remove some of the water; cut in to bite size cubes. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add tofu, and fry until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.

Meanwhile bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add noodles from ramen packages, reserving the seasoning envelopes. Boil for about 2 minutes, just until the noodles break apart. Drain.

Add the stir-fry vegetables to the pan with the tofu, and season with the ramen noodle seasoning packet. Cook, stirring occasionally until vegetables are tender, but not mushy. Add noodles, and stir to blend. Season with soy sauce to taste and serve.

*****

So, I've made this a few times and I thought the recipe called for one package of ramen noodles. You can even go back and read the reviews and I flat out say "this should have more noodles" or something along those lines. When I was copying the recipe to paste in here, I realized it DOES call for two packages. D'oh! I'm so dumb. So, if you've read this recipe in the past and thought, "What's she talking about, needing two packages of noodles?! That's what it calls for!" Now you know. I apparently don't know how to read numbers...strange since I used to work in finance and was good at my job.

My tofu is sizzling on the stove as I type this. I'm so hungry. Oooh...I need to see if I still have some egg rolls in the freezer!

Tofu Stir Fry

I had planned on making chicken stir fry for dinner on Wednesday night, but I used my last chicken breasts on Monday. I didn't want to have to come up with a whole new dinner, so I modified it and used tofu instead of chicken. I love stir fry for dinner--it's so easy! BTW, I buy Yoshida's teriyaki sauce at Costco, so I usually always have it on hand. We like things saucy, so I tend to add quite a bit of sauce.

Tofu Stir Fry
1 package extra firm tofu
1 package (one pound) frozen stir fry vegetables
Teriyaki sauce
Rice

Drain tofu. Spray large skillet or wok with non-stick spray and heat over medium-high heat. Add tofu and cook until lightly browned. Remove tofu from pan, add stir fry vegetables and cover. Cook until veggies are heated through. Return tofu to skillet, add in teriyaki sauce. Stir and let teriyaki sauce heat through. Serve over rice.

Chili Cheese Cornbread

I don't think the husband will be excited about this dinner because it's not "chili weather," but it's what I had planned for tonight, and I don't feel like switching things around at the last minute. He'll just have to deal. :) I found this recipe a few years ago when we were low on funds. The website has a bunch of frugal recipes. I turn to it a lot when we're low on funds now. Chili happened to be on sale a couple weeks ago, and I had a coupon that made it $0.50 per can. We always have shredded cheese on hand, and the cornbread mix was something like $0.35. This is one of the most economical dinners I know of!

Chili Cheese Cornbread
2 cans chili w/beans
Cheese (shredded or sliced)
1 box Jiffy cornbread mix
1 egg
1/3 c. milk

Spread chili in a greased 8x11 dish. Top with cheese. Stir milk and egg into cornbread mix and spread on top. Bake at 375 degrees or until golden brown and cornbread is done.

*****

It's a little white trash I suppose, but who doesn't like a good white trash dinner every now and then? I bought turkey chili because it's a bit healthier than regular. I'd have to check the cornbread mix box for cooking time, but I think I usually cook it for however long the cornbread is supposed to bake. I'll let you know in my review!

Macaroni and Cheese

I got the "Deceptively Delicious" cookbook for Christmas and was going to make the mac and cheese recipe in there, but then I figured I'd just make my mother-in-law's which I know is good and add in some pureed cauliflower to give it a nutritional boost. HOpefully the husband doesn't read this and find out I'm sneaking extra veggies into things, although this will be the first time I've done it.

Aurelia's Macaroni and Cheese
(these are "unmeasured ingredients", add to your taste)
hot boiled macaroni (8 to 12 ounce bag)
1 bag of shredded cheddar cheese (~8oz)
parmesan cheese (1/4 cup)
butter or margarine (1/2 stick)
few tablespoons of milk
salt/pepper

boil macaroni
drain
mix all other ingredients into the hot macaroni
place in 350 oven for about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted
(toss in other cheeses as you like. ie american is good)

*****

I, of course, add more cheese than just one bag. I'm using the 2% shredded sharp cheddar, so it will be somewhat healthy. I'm so excited for this. It's been overcast off and on all day here, so some yummy comfort food sounds so good. The water is on the stove boiling right now!

Tofu Lo Mein

Okay, getting more caught up. This was what we had for dinner last night. It's one of our favorites, and I had a package of tofu in the fridge. This is also one of my favorites because it's super cheap. Roughly $1.50 for a package of tofu, $0.15 for the ramen noodles, and $1 for the bag of frozen vegetables. Can't beat that!

Tofu Lo Mein
1 (16 ounce) package extra firm tofu
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 (3 ounce) packages Oriental flavored ramen noodles
1 (16 ounce) package frozen stir-fry vegetables
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon soy sauce, or to taste

Press tofu between paper towels to remove some of the water; cut in to bite size cubes. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add tofu, and fry until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.

Meanwhile bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add noodles from ramen packages, reserving the seasoning envelopes. Boil for about 2 minutes, just until the noodles break apart. Drain.

Add the stir-fry vegetables to the pan with the tofu, and season with the ramen noodle seasoning packet. Cook, stirring occasionally until vegetables are tender, but not mushy. Add noodles, and stir to blend. Season with soy sauce to taste and serve.

*****

I remembered too late (i.e. as I was cooking) that the last time we had this we decided it needed two packages of ramen noodles because one wasn't really enough. Oops. Hopefully I'll remember that next time. This time also I waited until I had added the vegetables to start cooking the ramen, otherwise it gets really sticky just sitting there.