Monday, June 24, 2013

June 16-22, 2013

Sunday:  Chicken & Veggie Quesadillas

·          I don’t have much motivation to cook on Sunday nights, so pulling something out of the freezer is always a nice treat!  I had some ground chicken with veggies from the last time we had tacos.  I thawed it, and I made some delicious quesadillas!  Yummy & easy!


Monday:  Crispy Parmesan Tilapia, Roasted Zucchini Sticks, Sweet Potato Fries, & Bread

·          We had my mom over to celebrate her birthday!  I saw this recipe for tilapia on Pinterest and thought it looked pretty tasty.  It was!  I must say, mine did not look as uniform and beautiful as the picture from the blog, but we all really enjoyed it.  Tilapia can be a pretty bland fish, but this recipe makes is quite delicious!  (http://www.spendwithpennies.com/)

Roasted Zucchini Sticks & Sweet Potato Fries
·          Cut up zucchini and sweet potatoes into small “sticks.”  Toss the zucchini with a little olive oil and season salt.  Use quite a bit more oil for the potatoes, making sure they are mostly covered.  I used Season All seasoning.  Roast at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.  The zucchini will be soft, but the sweet potatoes usually (every potato is a little different) crisp up quite nicely, and are a great healthy “French fry” for the kids!


Tuesday:  Chad was at the Rangers’ game, so we went and had dinner with Mom!


Wednesday:  One Pot Wonder Tomato Basil Pasta with Chicken, Roasted Parmesan Green Beans, & Warm, Whole Grain Garlic Bread

·          I had pinned this recipe on Pinterest several weeks ago, and I was looking forward to giving it a shot.  Since I discovered the greatness of one pot cooking with One Pot Spaghetti, I had a feeling that this recipe would be just as delicious.  It was!  It is ridiculously easy, and the flavor is wonderful.  I added shredded chicken from one rotisserie chicken…pretty much my favorite way to add flavorful chicken to any recipe.  We had a friend over for dinner, and there was more than enough for everyone.  Chad & I had the leftovers for lunch the next day.  Yum!  (http://www.apronstringsblog.com/)

Roasted Parmesan Green Beans
·          Lay green beans in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet.  Toss with olive oil (not too much!), salt, & pepper.  Sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan.  Roast at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your green beans.  We like ours to be just turning brown along the edges!


Thursday:  Taco Pizza with Green Salad

·          I saw this on Pinterest, and it’s not like you really need a recipe for pizza, but it’s good to see a recipe like this to help me remember that pizza can be pretty much anything!  This was good, but I was a little disappointed in my store-bought wheat pizza crust.  After eating this dinner, I resolved to make pizza crust from scratch the next time we have pizza.  We’ll see how it works out!  The store-bought crust tasted so “processed,” that it took away from the goodness of the other ingredients.  So, stay tuned for my future pizza experiments!  (http://www.life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.ca/)


Friday:  Burger Sliders & Oven-Baked French Fries

Burger Sliders
·          Cheeseburgers are always a hit in this house, and mini cheeseburgers are even better! 

·         Here’s a repost from last week!!   I’ve made these in the past, but I’m not sure why I don’t make them more often!  They are a wonderful alternative to frozen French fries…much healthier and tastier!  We all loved them.  I think I should have pulled them out of the oven about 4 minutes sooner, as some of the really thin fries were quite brown.  But, it didn’t stop us from eating all of them!  (http://outoftheboxfood.com/)

I remembered reading somewhere to soak your cut potatoes in salted water before cooking them because it helps take some of the moisture out of the potato.  I love any chance to prep food early, so I cut our potatoes into thin strips and put them in cold, salted water in the fridge for a few hours.  When I was ready to cook them, I drained and rinsed them, then I dried them off with a towel.  I seasoned ours with olive oil and Season All. 


Saturday:  Grilled Pork Chops with Roasted Parmesan Cauliflower & Sautéed Chard

Chad grilled some delicious pork chops on this night.  He also picked some chard from our garden and sautéed it in a pan on the grill with olive oil & garlic.  While he did that, I roasted cauliflower in our absolute FAVORITE way!

Parmesan & Yogurt Roasted Cauliflower
*  My mom made cauliflower like this several months ago, and we have loved it ever since.  She found the recipe on Pinterest, but hasn't been able to find it since.  It's so easy though, we've been able to repeat it.

- cauliflower cut up into bite-size pieces
- olive oil
- salt & pepper
- plain Greek yogurt
- freshly-grated Parmesan
- Italian bread crumbs


Roast the cauliflower with olive oil, salt, & pepper on a foil-lined baking sheet at 400 for 15 minutes.  Take the cauliflower out of the oven and mix with Greek yogurt and Parmesan cheese (Add as much as you like.  I've never really measured it...I just eye it and add enough until the cauliflower is creamy without being drenched.)  Top with Italian bread crumbs and put back on the baking sheet in the oven.  Bake for 20 minutes more.  It's so, so yummy!  It's very much like macaroni and cheese!

1 comment:

  1. Yum! I can't wait to try some of these recipes! I just wanted to say, I have had good luck with the Pioneer Woman's pizza crust recipe, so I'd highly recommend it. :)

    ReplyDelete