Monday and Tuesday's dinners

It's Tuesday and I didn't post last night's dinner. It was an ok dinner. It's not one that I will plan on making agian, but if I happen across it again and forget that I'd made it, I won't be sad. Tonight's dinner was a hit with everyone. They were both really easy to make and pretty quick. Let's get on with the show.

Creamy Bow Tie Pasta with Chicken and Broccoli
(Kraft magazine 2007 Pg. 17)

8 oz. farfalle (bow tie) pasta, uncooked
4 cups broccoli florets (I used a head of broccoli and cut off the florets)
3 Tbs. Kraft Roasted Red Pepper Italian with Parmesan Dressing
6 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (I just used 3 since that's all we were eating)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups tomato-basil spaghetti sauce
4 oz. Neufchatel cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta as directed on package, adding broccoli to the cooking water for the last 3 minutes of the past cooking time. Meanwhile, heat dressing in large nonstick skillet on medium heat. Add chicken and garlic, cook 5 minutes. Turn chicken over, continue cooking 4 to 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
Drain pasta mitxure in colander, return to pan and set aside. Add pasta sauce and cream cheese to chicken in skillet, cook on medium-low heat 2 to 3 minutes or until crea mcheese is completely melted, mixture is well blended and chicken is coated with sauce, stirring occasionally. Remove chicken from skillet and keep warm. Add sauce mixture to pasta mixture, mix well. Transfer to bowls.
Cut chicken crosswise into thick slices, fan out chicken over pasta mixture in each bowl. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. EnJoY!
PS. I did not get a picture, we were too hungry and in too much of a hurry to eat.

Burrito Skillet
(Kraft magazine 2007 pg. 25)

1 lb. ground beef
1 pkg. taco seasoning mix
1 can (19 oz)  kidney beans, drained, rinsed
1 cup salsa
1 cup water
4 flour tortillas, cut into 1 1/2 inch squares
1 cup Mexican style shredded four cheese
1/3 cup Sour cream
1/3 cup chopped green onion (about 1 large)

Brown meat in a large skillet on medium-high heat, drain.
Add seasoning mix, bean, salsa, and water, stir. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, simmer 5 minutes.
Stir in tortillas, top with cheese. Cover, let stand 5 min. or until cheese is melted. Top with sour cream and onions.
This was a good dinner. We enjoyed it and it was done is 30 minutes or just less AND it was all in one skillet. Easy Peasy! For dessert, I cut up 3 tortillas, into strips. Then sprayed them with butter spray and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar (on both sides). I then baked them in a 350 degree oven for 20 min or so, until they are crispy.
EnJoY!

Taco Salad

Tuesday night we had taco salad for dinner. This is one of our family favorites and I love when spring and summer roll around so we can have it more often. That may sound weird, but to me taco salad is a spring and summer dinner. Not a fall and winter dinner. It's quick and easy and yummy. This is my husband's family recipe that I have tweaked a bit. You can add on to or take away from if you don't like something in it. Here goes.....

Taco Salad

1 lb. hamburger meat
1 package taco seasoning
lettuce
tomatoes
onion
shredded colby jack cheese
1 can of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can of corn, drained
Catalina salad dressing
Dorito's

Brown the hamburger meat and drain. Follow the directions on the seasoning packet and make the taco meat. Cut the lettuce, tomatoes, and onion. I like to put out all of the ingredients into seperate bowls so that everyone can make their own salad the way that they like it. I drain and rinse the kidney beans in a small collander, then drain the corn right on top and mix together. Next, I get a large food keeper with a lid. I make the kids salads first since they dislike the most in the salad. I put lettuce in, cheese, the kidney beans and corn, dressing and crushed Dorito's. Put the lid on and give it a big shimmy shake. Next, I make my hubby's salad since I can use the left-over kids salad but add some onions and make it bigger for him. Shake it up. Whatever is left, I add tomatoes to, and make my salad. This usually makes a large salad and gives us more than we can eat, so I don't do anyother sides or desserts with this dinner. I don't like to make it ahead of time or make it all at once, becuase we won't eat it all and it'll go bad if I mix it all up at one time. This way, I can make it really easy for a later meal.
EnJoY!

Thursday night tacos

Tonight we had a baseball game again. Since they fall right in the middle of dinner time, it's very important to make quick dinners. I had made tacos a few weeks ago and I always make extra meat and then freeze the extra. I had frozen the extra meat, so I pulled it out this morning and we had quick and easy tacos for dinner. I warmed the meat up in a pan, shredded the lettuce, and cut up the onion. All I had to do was warm up the tortilla shells and vola...dinner!

I make my taco meat with with a taco seasoning mix. I'm not brand pickey, just whatever is fairly cheap, but not the store brand. We like soft taco shells, lettuce, sour cream, shredded cheese, onion, salsa, and taco sauce on our tacos. With a side of tortilla chips. Yummy. EnJoY!

St. Patty's Day dishes

It's Friday and I didn't post yesterday and I'm late posting today. Sorry! It's been a busy couple of days.
Thursday was St. Patty's day. We started off the day with green eggs, toast, and green milk. They tried the green milk and decided that since it still tasted the same, it was ok to drink. The green eggs on the other had did not go over at all. It did not matter what color the eggs were, they were not going to be eaten...with out a fight. They eventually got eaten, but I think next year, we'll just have cereal with green milk. To make the green eggs, I just cracked 5 eggs into a bowl and added a few squirts of green food coloring, added some shredded cheddar cheese and scrambled them up in the skillet. Same with the green milk, I put 2 drops of green food coloring into the cups and added the milk. Easy peasey.

(I have tried and tried to get my pic here, but I can't get it to work, sorry you can't see our lovely green eggs and green milk)

After breakfast, we decided to head over to have lunch with daddy. I wanted to make a special St. Patty's Day treat to take with me. I had found some mint Hershey's kisses at Target that had a recipe on it that I wanted to try. So I whipped up a batch of cookie brownie cupcakes. They were super easy and quick. Once they are cool, you put the kiss on top. I learned the hard way that you have to wait until they cool or else the kiss melts. So even if you want to hury them along, WAIT!

We were going to do Pistachio pudding for snack, but didn't get back in time. So, we'll have to do it another time and just enjoy the green.

For dinner we had Beef and Noodels in thai peanut sauce. It was good and we'd had it before (but I'd forgotten that we had). It's not full of flavor, but it's good.

Beef and Noodles in Thai Peanut sauce
(Robin Miller Quick Fix Meals pg. 88)

8 oz. somen or soba noodles or whole wheat spaghetti (I used rice noodles b/c I had some that I wanted to use up)

Thai Peanut Sauce:
3 cups reduced-sodium beef broth
2 Tbs. reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 Tbs. creamy peanut butter (I used Jiff...because I'm a choosy mom)
2 tea. toasted seasme oil
1 tea. hot sauce (I did not put this in and whished I had for a little extra flavor)

Pad Thai:
1 Tbs. peanut oil (I didn't have this, so I just used olive oil and it was just fine)
1 tea. peeled & minced fresh ginger (I used a tube of refridgerated ginger)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded & diced
1 1/4 lbs lean beef steak (such as sirloin or flank), cut crosswise in 1/4 inch strips
1/4 cup chopped dry-roasted peanuts
1/4 cup chopped scallions (white and green parts)

Cook the noodles according to the package directions. Drain, transfer to a large bowl, and cover with aluminum foil or plastic wrap to keep warm.
Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, whisk together the sauce ingredients until well blende and set the pan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and let simmer for 10 minutes.
Heat the peanut oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ginger and garlic and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the beef and cook, stirring, for 2 mintues. Add 1 cup of the peanut sauce and simmer until the beef is cooked through, about 5 minutes.
Transfer the beef mixture to the noodles and toss to combine, then serve on individual plates topped with the peanuts and scallions.

EnJoY!

Like I said this was good, just not FULL of flavor. It makes a lot of peanut sauce so you can either make this a couple of times, make less sauce, or make something else like stirfry with the extra.