Sunday, March 7, 2010

Sunday Ten Spot: Mmm Mmm Good

Top Ten Things I LOVE To Cook For Dinner


10. Chili Pie
Make some cornbread. Make some chili (out of a can, I won't tell!). Pour chili over the corn bread, top with cheese and sour cream, and enjoy. This is a meal you can make in under 20 minutes and goes well (in my opinion) with a nice Caesar salad to lighten it up (and make your overall meal a little healthier).

9. Nacho Beef Dinner
This is a super simple DELICIOUS Mexican dish and it's a go-to staple in the House of M. All you have to do is brown a 1/2lb of hamburger and dry Mexican Rice a Roni rice, add in one can of corn, one can of black beans, 1 1/2 cans of water, and the seasoning packet and bring everything to a boil. Once it's boiling, turn low and cover. Simmer for 15-17 minutes or until all water is absorbed, top with cheese, sour cream, and tomatoes. Eat with chips or rolled up in a tortilla.

8. Breakfast for Dinner
Every couple of weeks we'll have a night where we have breakfast for dinner-usually scrambled eggs with fruit salad and toast. It's a lot of fun, and it keeps dinner simple and light (so it works well if we had a really heavy/really late lunch).

7. Grilled Chicken Salad
Marinate chicken in lemon pepper marinade for about two hours (or poke holes in the chicken breast with a fork and marinate for an hour). Grill, slice into strips, and put chicken on top of spinach with some cheese (feta, mozzarella, Parmesan) and thin apple slices (we like red delicious), put a little bit of lime juice and some walnuts on top. Fruity and healthy and quick (after the marinating part).


6. Pot Roast
My pot roast LITERALLY falls apart-it's the perfect meal for a colder rainy day (which happens a lot in the Pacific NW). All I do is rub the roast (I use chuck roast because the fat makes it tasty) with salt and pepper and sear it on both sides, Then I put it in the roast pan and stick a little bit of garlic down in between the fat and the meat. Then I pour 12 ounces of soda over the roast (I use Diet Pepsi, most people I know use coke or even beer-just something carbonated and a little syrupy will do). I cook it in the oven at 250 for two hours. After two hours, I pull it out and put about 2 cups of water in it. Then I cook it for another hour. After the hour is over I pull it out and add baby carrots, diced potatoes, and onions, turn up the heat to 375 and let it cook for another hour-then viola! Yummy (simple) pot roast!

5. Quiche Florentine
I have the recipe for Quiche Florentine here because we have used it often as a homeschooling too. It's delicious, it makes a great learning tool, and it makes the kids love spinach. 'Nuff said.

4. Vegetarian Gyros
This dish is so simple (are you noticing the pattern here?) and yet SO good for you and probably the yummiest thing ever. All you have to do is spread some hummus and tzatziki sauce on a pita, layer some spinach, feta, and tomatoes on the top and enjoy. Grown ups can eat it rolled up and the kidlets can eat it cut into quarters (like PIZZA!).

3. Home Made Chicken Noodle Soup
This is always a hit with everybody, especially when we're sick (Monkey calls it "sick soup" but really it tastes great) and doesn't take much to make. Boil some egg noodles, drain them and set them aside. Saute some celery, baby carrots, and garlic (good for you when your sick!) in butter with a little bit of salt until just cooked. Add in chopped up pieces of chicken breast and continue sauteing until chicken is lightly browned on both sides. Add chicken and vegetables to noodles, add one can of chicken broth and half a can of water and stir until heated-then enjoy!

2. Cheese Tortellini in Pesto
I will not even TRY to get you to believe that I make home made tortellini. I'm a busy woman, and I have no desire to try to spoon feed you an image of Suzy Home Maker that is, let's face it, not me (or anybody really). I buy a five cheese blend of tortellini that has both white and spinach pasta, boil it until cooked, add some pesto and stir it. I top it with shredded Parmesan and usually serve it with garlic bread and a salad. This dinner takes roughly 10 minutes to make and is SOOOOO good. Seriously so good.

1. Take Out/Order In
It's my favorite because it's the simplest and in case you haven't noticed yet, simple means a lot to me.

3 comments:

Vodka Logic said...

Some of these even I could do..thanks

btw what is tzatziki

Unknown said...

OH wow all of them sound wonderful.. and things I can get my kids involved in helping make...

Bossy Betty said...

Thanks for these suggestions! I tend to get in a rut when ti comes to cooking. These will shake me out of it!

Love that last one....