Currently Browsing: Dinner Idea
Sep 16, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Sep 16, 2011 in Dinner Idea, kid friendly, lunch | 6 comments
One thing I have realized over the years that for me to stay on track trying to lose weight, I HAVE to bring my lunch and it has to be deluxe. If it sucks, I may be tempted to stray outside my office to find food.
Which is not good, since within walking distance from my office is a Tasty Dog, Jimmy Johns, a pizza place, 5 guys burgers, a taco place, Arepa restaurant, Chinese etc!!!
I also like to make my lunch the night before so I’m not running around crazy in the morning while getting my 3 kids out the door at 3 different times.
One day this week, I literally had about 2 minutes to put something together. I looked in the fridge… I had leftover taco meat, some leftover rice and black beans, a few slices of pepperoni, some green onions, so I threw that all in a container. I didn’t even have cheese, so I knew it was going to be kind of dry…
I heated it up in the microwave at work and stirred it around and tasted it. Ummm.. not very good. It was too dry. So I looked in my fridge at work to see if I still had some salsa in there…SCORE!! A bottle of my favorite green salsa 
. I put a few healthy tablespoons of salsa in my bowl and stirred it around. PERFECTO!
Then I wondered if I had any tortillas in my freezer at work and I did. So my first sucky lunch turned out to be one of the best lunches I’ve brought in a while!
Do you try to bring lunch to work? What’s your favorite thing to make?
Sep 12, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Sep 12, 2011 in chicken, crock pot recipes, Dinner Idea, pasta, soup | 4 comments
Earlier this week, I made a few things with soy chorizo. It was so good, but by the end of the week, I still had half a tube left and wasn’t sure if I could freeze it, so I decided to make a soup with it! I just used things I had leftover at the end of the week, and you can do the same thing.
Ingredients I used:
1/2 tube of Soy chorizo
1 chicken breast (mine was frozen)
3 large carrots. sliced
2 baby green peppers
1 jalapeno – seeds removed, and chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
2 stalks green onions (white and green part) chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed
1/2 cup uncooked macaroni
fresh cilantro
6 cups water with 6 tsp. chicken broth
Directions:
In a large pot add the chorizo and cook for several minutes, breaking up the pieces. Next I took the green pepper and jalapeno pepper and added 6 cups of water with 6 tsp. chicken stock mix into a blender and blended that altogether.
I poured that liquid mixture into the pot with the chorizo. Next I added the frozen chicken breast, it was pretty big, so I just added the one. Bring the broth to a boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes until the chicken is done. I took the chicken out of the broth, shredded it with 2 forks, then added it back to the broth.
The vegetables come next WITH the 1/2 cup of elbow macaroni, add the rest of the veggies into the pot and cook on low for another 20 minutes or so until the veggies are tender and the pasta is done.
I actually didn’t put any other seasonings into it because the seasonings from the soy chorizo gave the broth such great flavor I didn’t think it needed anything else!
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On another note, I wanted to let you know of my blogger friend Amie of The Healthy Apple. She and Silvana Nardone have launched a new online magazine called Easy Eats. If you have to follow a gluten free or restricted diet, this magazine is for you! Check it out when you get a moment.
Aug 20, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Aug 20, 2011 in a day in the life of me!, bread, chicken, Dinner Idea, general ideas | 5 comments
As I type this, its totally pouring outside right now. 
Last night the weatherman said it would rain, but only a little bit and late afternoon. The rain started around 10:30 and over an hour has gone by and its still pouring
It always bums me out when the weather is bad on the weekend, because I think of the gorgeous days during the week, when I am stuck inside at work, and then when you get a day or 2 off and the weather sucks – that is no fun.
PLUS, it’s the air and water show in Chicago this weekend! I don’t know if it will go on today or what?
And, my local farmers market was hosting a corn roast today too, but I didn’t want to go out and stand in the rain to do that.
So, I may have to get busy in my kitchen
Over the last week, I’ve helped my two sons completely over haul and deep clean their rooms in preparation for the school year starting next week. Have you ever cleaned teenage boys rooms? Its gross. My older sons way of cleaning his room is shoving as much stuff under his bed and in his closet.
So now my daughter asked if we could do the same thing to her room this weekend! I do enjoy purging stuff and becoming more minimalistic. I occasionally read a quirky and cute site called Fly Lady who has great tips on being organized.
Andrea has some great back to school tips. And Robin Sue of Big Red Kitchen always has great tips for back to school and packing lunches – her newest thing? Using small mason jars for packing her kids lunch!
So last weekend, I made another batch of artisan bread in 5 minutes. All you need is a big bowl, flour, water, salt and yeast, and a wooden spoon!
You can’t mess this bread up. So I made 2 loaves, and then I made chicken breast sandwiches for dinner. How cool is that?
For the chicken sandwiches, I just grilled some chicken, made turkey bacon, and a little bbq sauce and cheddar cheese. SO good!
And with the leftover dough, I made garlic bread pizza (just rolled out some dough into a circle), added a little olive oil and fresh garlic and garlic powder, bake at 450 for 10 minutes, and cut into squares. I served that with pasta.
OR, you can make skillet bread pizza (just cook the pizza on a skillet) cook for 5 minutes on low, flip, cook another 5 minutes, add your toppings, top with a lid and let the cheese melt.
And, if you’ve made it down this far – check out a give-a-way on my friend Sueson’s blog for a VIP coupon to Mamma Chia Juice drink for free! Leave a comment on her site, or tweet about it, or link it to Facebook for more entries
What is Mamma Chia? A new health drink, low in calories (110 calories) 10 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein, 2000 mg of Omega-3′s, 9 grams of sugar (from Agave) and Gluten-Free and Vegan. You can buy these at health food stores or at Whole Foods in the refrigerated juice section. These taste amazing!
It’s still raining out – but I’m not going to let that prevent me from having an awesome weekend!
If you have kids, when do they start?
And I BIG SHOUT OUT to my brother Charlie’s daughter Sarah is leaving for college today. GOOD LUCK SARAH – your first care package will be arriving soon!!
The post was featured on Yeastpotting
Aug 13, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Aug 13, 2011 in chicken, Dinner Idea, general ideas, party food!, pasta, potluck, Side dish | 2 comments
Last weekend I used McCormick’s chipotle marinade to make grilled potatoes. which turned out great.
I didn’t really plan my dinners that much this week, I knew I just had things on hand to put something together. One night this week as soon as I walked in the door, my kids ran up to me and said like they normally do “What’s for dinner?”
I said “something with chicken!” I took 3 chicken breasts out of the freezer, defrosted them and cut them into chunks.
In a large skillet coated with a little olive oil, I started browning the chicken. I was looking in my pantry and saw the chipotle seasoning mix and decided to add that to the chicken.
I was thinking about what to make as a side dish, when I saw I had spiral pasta and was thinking if I could make a sauce, add the chicken and cooked pasta?
Once the chicken was almost cooked through, I added 1 cup of chicken stock and 1 cup of skim milk mixed with 1/4 cup of flour to thicken the sauce. Cook for a few minutes and then add the cooked pasta – reserving some of the pasta water if you want to thin out the sauce.
The result? YUM! No leftovers of this meal, which I always consider a success! Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese if you want.
If I had green onions, I think adding some chopped green onions on top and maybe a little bit of crumbled bacon would have made this even more deluxe!
Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts, trimmed of all fat and cut into chunks
1 tb. olive oil
1 packet McCormick seasoning (chipotle)
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup skim milk
1/4 cup flour
1 box spiral pasta
cheddar cheese to sprinkle on top
salt and pepper to taste
The seasoning is spicy – but it is less spicy making the sauce. My kids liked the heat, but it wasn’t too much where they couldn’t eat it.
Who loves watermelon? It’s my favorite summer fruit. Look at how pretty this melon was when I opened it up!
Have a great weekend? What are your plans?
*I just found a new blog – meet Rachel – she’s lost 85 pounds – check out her weight loss story and before and after pics here!! Great job Rachel!!
Aug 8, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Aug 8, 2011 in appetizer, Dinner Idea, farmer's market, kid friendly, vegetables | 9 comments
Normally I don’t buy seasoning mixes out of a packet but I picked up a few of these a few weeks ago at the store and it is really good!
Last week I used it to marinate chicken breasts, and over the weekend, we grilled out burgers and I thought about putting some of the marinade together for potatoes. They turned out amazing! A little spicy but great flavor.
To make these potatoes
4 baking potatoes, skin scrubbed clean
1 tablespoon olive oil,
1 tablespoon of the marinade mix
1/4 cup hot water
After the potatoes are washed, cut them into big slices at least 1/2 inch thick. Place all the cut potatoes in a microwave safe bowl and cover with water. Cook in the microwave on the “baked potato setting” or you can put these in a pot, cover with water and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
Drain the potatoes and let cool. Add the marinade and mix together. Place the potatoes on the skewer and grill on indirect heat about 7 minutes per side, until they are nice a browned.
I will definitely make these again!
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On another note, I can’t believe I haven’t talked about Next Food Network Star! Have you been watching it?
To be honest, I am HAPPY with the final 3, and I was OK with Mary Beth being sent home. Although I thought it was crazy that Penny was purposefully going slow and that she could care less how Mary Beth did.
But in the end, to be the Next Food Network star, you have to not only be able to talk about food, but also make good food too!
I’m hoping Jeff Mauro the sandwich guy wins! He grew up in a suburb only a few miles from me so that would be very cool to have a local guy win such a great contest.
I watched a behind the scenes of the making of the show on The Cooking Channel and they received over 10,000 entries to even get on the show. So to get in the final 3 is amazing!
Who do you want to win Next Food Network Star??
