Currently Browsing: potluck
Jan 10, 2012
Posted by Jennifer on Jan 10, 2012 in a day in the life of me!, chicken, Dinner Idea, eggs, general ideas, kid friendly, pasta, potluck, sauces | 0 comments
In our Christmas box from my brother’s family – I received some deluxe food items – almost all of which we’ve already eaten. I got this:
This pesto is AWESOME!
This pesto is made with almonds and peppers and is delish. A little goes a long way, so you don’t have to use that much to add flavor to what you are making. Last week I made lunch with it a few times.
I used a cooked potato, mixed veggies, green onions, peppers, a scrambled egg and added some of the pesto and a leftover Target Chicken sausage – cut up. It was super filling and yummy!
Filling lunch!
But onto the RIck Bayless sauces! You can now buy in the grocery store some of his signature sauces. To be honest I wasn’t quite sure how it would taste – but was pleasantly surprised that these tasted so good! Definitely worth it to check out. I got the taco sauce and the enchilada sauce.
With the enchilada sauce I cut up some chicken, added a bag of frozen peppers from Trader Joe’s and cooked that until it was done. In a separate pot, I cooked up some orzo and drained that. I added the orzo to the chicken and peppers and used 1 packet of the enchilada sauce. Dinner was done in less than 30 minutes and there was no leftovers – so I consider that a hit!
Orzo, peppers, chicken and enchilada sauce
So thanks to my brother Charlie and his family for giving us such great gifts in our Christmas basket this year – we really loved everything!
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And on the Team in Training front, my husband and I went to the kick-off at Eduardo’s pizza in Skokie, IL on Saturday. Basically it’s a getting to know you, meet the coaches, go for a short 30 minute run, come back, eat pizza (nice!) and then we had a clinic about what to wear when it’s cold outside and layering from 2 men from Fleet Feet running store in Chicago. Although who needs that advice now since today is going to be in the 50′s again! Winter hasn’t really come yet this year – which is fine with me! 
We got some stuff too – 2 new Team in Training shirts, the white one is for being alumni since this is my 4th event with the Team. We got water bottles and reps from FRS which is a company that has sports drinks for athletes, so we got to take some samples of that too.
The loot we got at the kick off!
It was a great time – we saw some team members from when we did our last event back in 2007 – and met Doug a patient honoree who is battling lymphoma – but also raising money and running events with Team in Training – I always get choked up meeting people like that.
So, our fundraising page is open for donations – no donation is too small – it all adds up!
Have a great day everyone!
Sep 3, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Sep 3, 2011 in a day in the life of me!, general ideas, pasta, potluck, sauces, vegetables | 7 comments
Hi everyone! It’s been a super busy week and I haven’t had time to post new stuff! The first few weeks of school are always hectic, keeping track of 3 kids at 3 different schools – making sure what things they have going on, it’s crazy!
But, one highlight this week – my baby is in 4th grade and do you know what that means?? She gets to decide if she wants to play an instrument.
They had an assembly at school, she came home and declared she wanted to play the saxophone!
We went to the open house and she tried some instruments…
She tried the cello:
And in the end….she went with the CELLO! Great job Claire!
So now on to my fire roasted tomato sauce. I make pasta every week, because its cheap and feeds a big family. Having 2 teenage boys I count them as 2 servings, and my husband will most likely have 2 servings, so even though I have a family of 5, I cook for a family of 8!
I do the majority of my shopping at Aldi .
When I was there over the weekend, I noticed they had fire roasted tomatoes for only .89 cents a can!
So I decided my sauce this week would be with that.
Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce
1 28 oz. can of tomato sauce
2 cans fire roasted tomatoes
1/2 green pepper
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 baby orange peppers
1/2 large white onion
5 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon oregano
splash of Worcestershire sauce
2 links Italian sausage, casing removed
I almost always add just a little meat to my sauce. Not a ton. 1/2 pound of ground beef, or ground chicken, or a few links of Italian sausage.
Directions:
In a cast iron skillet, add a little olive oil and add the Italian sausage. Break it up and cook until browned on all sides.
Meanwhile in a large blender. I add everything else. All the veggies, the cans of fire roasted tomatoes, the tomato sauce and spices. Blend until its all smooth.
By the way, this is a great sauce to make towards the end of the week, just throw in veggies left over in your fridge, no one will know what you put in there! I’ve even been known to add fresh spinach into the mix, but make sure you don’t put too much or else the sauce will be green and then the jig is up – your family will know you crammed healthy stuff in the sauce!
Add the pureed sauce into the skillet with the Italian sausage and cook for about 20 minutes on low/medium heat.
That night I made bow tie pasta. The sauce was delicious, kind of smokey from the fire roasted potatoes. Everyone had seconds.
And lastly – what do you think of the new layout for Slim-Shoppin??? After almost 4 years of the same look, it was time for a FRESH look!
There are a lot of things I am still learning about this template, it’s got a lot of bells and whistles, so I will be tweaking things here and there. The one thing I did notice is it takes a few seconds for the page to upload everything, so please be patient with that
OK, time to enjoy the weekend. My niece is getting married tomorrow so we’ll be seeing lots of family we haven’t seen in a while, so I am looking forward to that.
Have a great weekend!
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!!
Jul 27, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Jul 27, 2011 in chicken, Dinner Idea, potluck, vegetables | 6 comments
Holy cow, I can’t believe this is my 800th post – that’s crazy! Time goes by so fast, it’s hard to believe I had that much to talk about
So, my dinner last night was inspired by Taste of Home magazine. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve inherited about 100 cooking magazines from people who were giving them away, so I’ve got dozens of Bon Appetit, Taste of Home, Cooks Illustrated, Rachel Ray, Food TV network, etc.. so I should never have an excuse to not know what to make.
When I read the recipe for this, I thought – I have all that stuff!
I will definitely make this again, everyone in my family loved it.
Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
2 baby red peppers, diced
2 baby orange peppers, diced
1 small can Mexicorn
1 jalapeno – you can leave the seeds in or take them out
2 cups cooked brown rice*
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 jar Paul Newman’s medium salsa
green onions as garnish
(can add shredded cheddar cheese on top too or sour cream would be good too!)
*I cooked the brown rice the night before since it takes 45 minutes, that way it was already done when I got home form work.
In a big skillet, add the peppers with a little olive oil and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the chicken – when you cut it into small pieces, it only takes a few minutes for it to cook through. Add the cooked brown rice, the black beans, the mexicorn and salsa and stir together and cook for another few minutes until the rice is warmed up. Sprinkle with green onions.
So, you could either use tortilla chips as a spoon and eat it that way, or you could do what I did, which was tear off a little tortilla, fill it with the mixture, wrap it up and eat it! Delish!
This is a great way to get rid of leftovers in your fridge too.
What is your favorite store bought salsa??
Jul 21, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Jul 21, 2011 in chicken, potluck | 7 comments
I don’t know about you, but when there is a heat wave the last thing I want to do is turn on the oven! So, I’ve been making dinners that can be made on the stove with minimal pots and pans. This dinner used a skillet and a pot, that’s it!
Since my twin sister and I talk about food a lot, usually at some point during our many conversations we will ask each other “what are you making for dinner?”
Yesterday she asked me what my dinner plans were and I said “something with chicken” any maybe egg noodles on the side.
Her suggestion was why not make a white sauce to go with it? It’s kind of similar to my mac and cheese sauce. Her white sauce is a little different than mine.
She said 2 + 2 + 2
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
2 cups skim milk
So, to start, I took a package of these – your basic egg noodles – you can use your favorite brand
Cook the noodles according to package directions and drain. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
In a large skillet cook 1-2 boneless chicken breasts that have been cut into chunks. Brown on all sides but don’t cook all the way through, take the chicken out of the skillet and set it to the side.
In the same large skillet add the butter, let it melt then add the flour and using a whisk, break up the flour.
Add the skim milk, salt and pepper and a squirt of Dijon mustard and about 1/4 cup parmesan cheese and whisk until the sauce starts to thicken. Add the partially cooked chicken into the sauce and continue to cook the chicken until no longer pink in the middle. Add the noodles and stir to coat all the noodles. If it’s too thick, add a little of the reserved pasta liquid to thin it out.
You can definitely bake this, just add some bread crumbs and more cheese on top and bake at 375 for about 15 minutes. Otherwise, it’s just fine cooking on the stove top!
Thanks for the recipe idea Biz. If I had some frozen peas, I would have added those too!
Hope everyone is surviving the heat! My exercise plan is still going strong. I’ve even been riding my bike to work. This morning at 8:15 a.m. it was already 85 degrees! That’s so crazy!
