Roast with Carrots and Potatoes (meal 4; week 5)

Here's another duplicate! I found a great piece of Chuck Roast on sale at Meijer today. This was a great one-dish meal - and it was even better because since I had to put it in the oven in the middle of the afternoon, when my son decided to come down with the flu at 5pm, supper was already in the works and I didn't have to worry about the meal on top of his illness.

Here is the link to the roast I made earlier!

Pork Barbeque Ribs (meal 3; week 5)

Hi all. I'm finding that I'm starting to repeat recipes!! Don't you find that you have several 'comfort' recipes that are easy for you to prepare, your family loves, and you always have the ingredients on hand?

The meal for Monday was Pork Barbeque ribs. I made these for my very first blog post - so click on the link to see how I prepared them!

We've had some illness in our family over the past day, so my posts have not been as frequent as I would like for them to be.

Chicken Casserole (meal 2; week 5)

I spent the last 2 days at a continuing education conference in Indianapolis. I had lots of fun catching up with old friends and seeing old co-workers. I still wanted to make a good meal for my boys, and since I had just made up several frozen meals for my cousin, I used our half of one of those meals for them.

I have already made Chicken Casserole the second week of my blog. It is such an easy recipe and freezes very well.

Here is the recipe again for those of you who missed it the first time:

2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

2 cans of chicken noodle soup

2 eggs

1 1/4 cup of chicken broth

2-3 cups of diced, cooked chicken

12 slices of white bread, torn in bite sized pieces

2 teaspoons of parsley

Crushed cracker crumbs

Mix everything together and top with cracker crumbs. Pour into a 9x13 baking dish. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes.

Spinach Stuffed Shells (meal 1; week 5)

My cousin, Erica, gave birth to a baby girl last week. Some of the family members have offered to bring the family some meals to help them out. I thought this would be a great opportunity to not only help my cousin out, but to help us out as well! I prepared 3 different meals and divided each one into 2 pans and froze them. This way Erica will have a few different meals in her freezer and so will we!

Tonight's dish is Spinach Stuffed Shells. I took it from this recipe, and then added spinach.

I actually made this yesterday and kept it in the refrigerator until tonight. Being cold added about 15 minutes to the cooking time. We had breadsticks as well and our son thought that was the neatest thing ever.

The stuffed shells were really good and it wasn't hard to make. It sounds like it would be very tedious, stuffing the individual shells, but it really wasn't hard. Once the shells are boiled, they are very pliable and I just used a large spoon to stuff in the filling. I'd compare it to making lasagna. It tastes like lasagna too, which is yummy!

This has been fun preparing the meals in 2 days. I have continuing education classes tomorrow and Friday, and so knowing that there is a meal all ready for my husband to pop in the oven is fantastic! I may actually try doing this more often (and keep the 2nd portion in the freezer for future use - or to pass out to a friend who may need a meal.)

Holiday weekend

Holiday weekends are tough to plan meals around! My husband and I both come from large families, and we spend most every holiday with all of them! We had wonderful meals both Saturday and Sunday, so it was nice to not have to plan and cook too much! I did bring food to our gatherings - macaroni and cheese to my side of the family and sweet corn from my Dad's fields (that had been frozen) to Matt's side.

I did want to post my meal that I made last Friday. I didn't get a chance to post it.

I made chicken and rice packets in the oven. This is something that I tried a while back with salmon, and it was so good and easy that I use it with chicken too! Here is the recipe that I used as my guideline.

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts

uncooked rice

marinade (I use the Lowry's Marinades - Sesame Ginger is our favorite)

frozen mixed veggies - (I like the stir-fry kind)

pineapple tidbits

water (or the juice from the pineapple)

My chicken was pretty large and thick, so I pounded them and then sliced the breasts into 'tender' sized pieces. Combine the rice (amount varies depending on how many packets you are making - for 4 packets I used about a cup of rice. Add enough marinade to make it soupy and then add the pineapple and the frozen veggies. If it appears you need more liquid, use some of the fruit juice or water. (remember, your veggies are frozen, so they will provide some extra moisture)

On a large piece of foil, spoon some of the rice mixture in the center of the foil. (don't forget, the rice will expand and absorb the liquid as it cooks - so use less than you think!) Lay the chicken on top of the rice mixture (however much chicken you want for one serving) Fold up the foil into a packet, leaving a bit of room for the steam to circulate. Make the rest of your packets. Lay all the packets on a jelly roll pan (a cookie sheet with raised edges). Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30-45 minutes - or until the chicken is done and the rice is cooked.

This is also great leftover (since I had it for lunch today!).

I hope to get back on my cooking game tomorrow. See you then.