Currently Browsing: sauces
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!
Jun 15, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Jun 15, 2011 in a day in the life of me!, chicken, Dinner Idea, kid friendly, sauces | 5 comments
It was a great day outside again, so I was lucky that I could ride my bike to work. Usually on Tuesdays is salad club at my office, but the other ladies in my group had other commitments, so it didn’t work out. So instead of salad club during lunch I decided to ride my bike some more! I biked for 35 minutes. When I came back to my desk, I wanted to figure out how far I had run, so I went to:
www.mapmyride.com
You can log on and put in your starting address and then it will show a street map, this is an example:
I just dragged the mouse to the streets I took and I was happy to find out that I did 4.6 miles. So with my 3.6 mile commute to and from work that’s 8.2 miles! Wahoo!!!
When I got home from work, I really didn’t know what I was going to make for dinner, but I did have boneless chicken breasts and I also had this:
If you haven’t tried this salsa it is REALLY good! And I’m not sure if its still on sale, but at Jewel Foods in Chicagoland it was only $1.00 a jar.
So I trimmed any fat from the chicken breasts, put them in my cast iron skillet, sprinkled cumin, paprika, salt and pepper on the chicken and then poured a jar of salsa on top. Once the chicken was almost cooked I took two forks and shredded the chicken.
You could have this on tortillas, serve it on a bed of rice. I still had green and red pepper and onions, so I sauteed those up if anyone wanted that. You could add black beans and spinach like I did, whatever you want
Have a great day!
May 22, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on May 22, 2011 in a day in the life of me!, breakfast, pasta, recipe make over, sauces | 4 comments
I love macaroni and cheese – and I make it at least a few times a month. It’s quick and easy and my whole family loves it – especially my daughter Claire . One morning last week when I was thinking about what to make for breakfast to bring to work, I got an idea in my head to make macaroni and cheese, but just in 1 serving portion. I had another idea instead of using elbow macaroni, I would use pearl barley and it would make like a cheesy yummy dish. I measured out 1/4 cup of the pearl barley, added the water to a small pan and started cooking that. I thought I would make that first, then start my sauce, so I continued to get ready for work. I came back in the kitchen, opened the pot and was sad that my pearl barley was burnt and stuck to the bottom of the pan. 
It was 8:05, I have to be at work at 8:30 about 1.5 miles from my house – I knew I could still make it happen! I measured out 2 oz. of elbow macaroni, put that in a microwave safe plastic bowl, filled it with water and cooked that in the microwave for 6 minutes.
In a small saucepan I added 1 tablespoon of flour with 1 cup of skim milk, salt and pepper, a dash of oregano, a squirt of brown mustard and stirred that on medium heat until it starts to thicken. I weighed out 1 oz. of cheddar cheese and added it to the sauce and stirred until the cheese melted. I took about .5 oz. of ham out of my freezer and diced that up small to add as well.
I drained the pasta and added it to the cheese sauce. By the time I got to work it was perfect. It kept me full until well after noon. Do you like to eat non-traditional things for breakfast?.
One side I had with my lunch that same day was pea pods. I love them! I took a big handful, drizzled it with a new favorite dressing Fit & Active Brand (from Aldi) poppyseed dressing. It’s only 35 calories per tablespoon. And I threw in a few sunflower seeds on top too. So good!
So, I’m concentrating again on my weight loss, I have a new weight loss buddy – someone I met through a weight loss group on Linked In. I’m not going to say who this person is, but they’ve lost 100 pounds 4 times in their life and has gained a bunch back again, so we’ve made a pact to check in with each other every Friday. Day One was this past Friday, so I’ll let you know how I do next week. Sometimes just knowing another person is doing the same thing as you helps.
Kudo’s to my twin Biz who has lost 14 pounds doing Weight Watchers, she’s in the 150′s now – so I have 30 pounds to catch up with her – so that’s my other goal. I can’t even remember the last time we weighed the same, its been many years!!
Have a great weekend!
May 2, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on May 2, 2011 in a day in the life of me!, crock pot recipes, general ideas, kid friendly, recipe make over, sauces | 8 comments
Busy weekend as usual! I actually hardly spent any time in the kitchen . We had 2 softball games for my daughter Claire, picture day for softball, dropping kids off places, grocery store and I squeezed in a little time at the Gluten Free Expo that was held this past weekend. It was cool to see all the different products and things you can make. I met a fellow blogger Brittany from Real Sustenance. She had a short cooking demo making Chicago Style Pizza that was gluten and dairy free! Here is a link to that recipe..
If you are wondering why I went to the Expo, no, I am not gluten intolerant or have any food allergies, but I am working on a project with someone who is (which I will talk about soon). So I got a VIP pass to the event. I met some great people and saw great cooking demos!
Bob’s red mill had dozens of different gluten free products like mixes and flours.
There were several local bakeries represented that offered all sorts of desserts that were gluten free.
It’s amazing how many people are affected by Gluten and how much better they feel when they adjust their diet. I saw many families with kids who were happy to let their little ones sample foods that were safe for them to eat.
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Now on to today’s recipe. It’s for meatballs, but you could use it to make a healthier metball sandwich (not to get off on a tanget, but I was glad “saucy balls” did NOT make it on Americas next restaurant!). Or you can make this ahead of time for pasta, just cook the pasta when you get home and your sauce and meatballs are all ready. If you get a meatball sandwich at a traditional Italian restaurant, it’s got tons of bread, cheese, meat, sauce on buttered garlic bread. My version is @ 450 calories, and you can make it yourself.
1 egg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped onion, (Biz, my sister, if you are reading this, you can omit the onions!)
1 pound ground sirloin
1 pound ground turkey (I have also used ground chicken too)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes (with Italian spices is even better!)
6-8 hoagie style rolls
In a large bowl, beat the egg with salt, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes and garlic. Add the chopped onion, beef, turkey bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese and mix well. Shape mixture into 1 inch balls. I have a melon baller that size that works perfect for shaping them. Brown the meatballs in a skillet, drain any fat and put the meatballs in the bottom of the crock pot. Add the crushed tomatoes and extra Italian seasoning on top and cook all day on low. Take 3-4 meatballs and add it to the hoagie roll, add some sauce and you have an awesome meal that won’t make you fat!!
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And here is my daughter Claire – playing catcher for Softball! She did great!
How was your weekend?
