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Yeesh...another gap in recipes

So it's been quite awhile since I've updated...again... It's been a ridiculously busy past week or two! My BFF is in town, so we've been squeezing as much time in together as possible until she returns to Florida. We went out for drinks at Firecreek and saw Eclipse last week, then we attended our 10 year high school reunion, made a trip out to Dutch Wonderland, and had an "Under the Sea" party at her parents' house, complete with decorations and a BBQ with her family and mine. It's been a blast!

I've also been trying to use up all of our leftovers and frozen stuff, so I haven't been cooking all that much lately. I did make some Wacky Mac pasta with steamed broccoli and alfredo sauce when my friend Christy and her son Logan came to visit earlier this week, and used some maple apple sausage we had from our big freezer pack purchase to make a kick ass breakfast burrito another night.

I'm going to post the recipe I used for the burritos...they were scrumptious and the boy and Linds loved them. Luke wasn't thrilled, but he threw his hot dog off the plate, too, so I guess he wasn't too hungry?


Maple Sausage Breakfast Burritos
Ingredients
10 (10-inch) flour tortillas
1 pound maple sausage
1/2 cup diced green pepper
1/4 cup thinly sliced onion
8 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup light cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
Salsa and sour cream to taste

Directions

1. Wrap tortillas in foil and place in 300 degree F oven to warm.
2. Crumble and cook sausage, onion and peppers in skillet over medium heat until browned. Pour in beaten eggs and onion and continue to cook. (I cooked the peppers and onion separately since I knew Linds wouldn't care for them.)
3. In a separate bowl, combine cream cheese and Monterey Jack cheese.
4. On each tortilla, spread a thin layer of cheese mixture. Top with sausage and peppers mixture. Roll up and serve with salsa. 

Cinnamon Rolls

My friend, Barbara, is quite pregnant with her third boy (God bless her!) and was craving some cinnamon rolls - here's my recipe for the homemade ones I made awhile back for a Munchin' Mamas meeting. My goodness they are AMAZING! You do need a breadmaker for this recipe, although I'm sure it would be easy to adapt it.

Cinnabon Clones
Ingredients
Cinnamon Roll Dough
1 cup warm milk
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Cinnamon Mixture
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened

Icing
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
2. After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. 
3. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
4. Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. 
5. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. 
6. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. 
7. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
8. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. 
9. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving

July 19 - Pasta Primavera

My green beans finally sprouted! I was so excited to be able to pick a small handful on Sunday. Here they are:

I also had lots of veggies from Vollmecke Farms - my wonderfully generous neighbor helps them farm there and in exchange receives a share of their veggies. They were traveling a couple weeks ago, so she let me pick up her share and keep them. I had yellow squash and broccoli from the share, some peppers and carrots that I picked up at the grocery, and of course, the beans. With all these veggies, I decided to make some pasta primavera. I tossed the veggies in a little olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted them at 400 for about 20 or 25 minutes.

I knew the kiddos would want something fun to eat with their veggies, so instead of any plain old pasta, I made miniature bowtie pasta (which I got for free with some coupons a month or two ago!). I also made a light sauce with chicken stock and milk, which tasted delicious. It was a perfect light, summer pasta...too bad the kids AND my husband had no interest in the vegetables. Gah! I'm trying one of those Deceptively Delicious meals tonight so that hopefully they can get some sort of vegetable in their diet (besides corn). Here's the recipe for the sauce:

Primavera Sauce
Ingredients
3 cloves minced garlic
1 cup low-sodium chicken stock
1/2 cup milk (I used whole since it was the only type we had)
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, dissolved in 3 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. 
2. Cook garlic until soft, about 1 minute. 
3. Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute more. 
4. Add chicken stock, milk, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce to a simmer and cook until liquid has thickened slightly, about 5 minutes.

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July 14 - Leftovers

In my grand attempt to cut back on our wastefulness (started saving cardboard to recycle today...not sure why I never did that??), we decided to make today our "leftover day." There are some potatoes and pork left from Monday that the boy volunteered to eat, and I'll finish up the taco stuff tonight after Zumba probably. The kids ate waffles and oranges - they think "brinner" (breakfast dinner) is the best. It's the little things...

July 13 - Taco Salads

It was taco night on Tuesday at the Risser household! The kids ate theirs in soft taco shells and the boy and I had them in salad form. I put black beans, corn, meat, cheese, sour cream and hot salsa on mine, but the boy skipped the beans and corn, and instead added tortilla chips. They were easy to make and scrumptious! My least favorite part? Putting all of the toppings away afterwards...just annoys the crap out of me for some reason?!?

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July 12 - Pork Chops

We had some pork chops left over from when we bought our big meat freezer special a couple months ago, so I decided to make those. I was sick of BBQing them with some Cattleman's, so I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com (one of my favorite sites!). It turned out really, really well - the pork was tender and flavorful, although a little salty. Next time I'll omit the extra salt and use garlic powder instead. I also made garlic red potatoes (with farm-fresh potatoes, courtesy of Vollmecke Farms and my generous neighbor) and homemade applesauce. Luke scarfed down ALL of it and Linds enjoyed everything despite the pork being "too spicy" (this kid has an obsession with spice lately).

Here are the recipes...I forgot to take a photo of everything before we devoured it all.


Thyme & Rosemary Pork Chops
Ingredients
1 teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 center cut bone-in pork chops
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup water
2 cubes beef bouillon

Directions

1. Combine the garlic powder, thyme, rosemary and black pepper in a small bowl and rub on both sides of the chops. Melt the butter or margarine in a large skillet over medium high heat and sauté the chops for 5 minutes per side, or until well browned.
2. Meanwhile, in a separate small saucepan over high heat, combine the water and the bouillon and stir until bouillon dissolves. Add this to the chops, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer chops for 45 minutes. 

Roasted Garlic Red Potatoes
Ingredients
2 pounds red potatoes, quartered
1/4 cup butter, melted (I used low-fat)
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (175 degrees C). 
2. Place potatoes in an 8x8 inch baking dish. 
3. In a small bowl combine melted butter, garlic, salt and lemon juice; pour over potatoes and stir to coat. 
4. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over potatoes. Bake in preheated oven for at least 60 minutes (often a little longer).

 Applesauce
Ingredients
6 apples, peeled & cored
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup of water

Directions

1. Combine ingredients in a deep pan and bring to boil over medium-high heat.
2. Reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Blend in food processor to desired consistency.

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Seriously slacking here!

Okay, so I admit it - I've been slacking BIG time on my posts! Summer is just way too busy. I did a lot of stuff last week that I've posted before, so I'm starting fresh. I need to grocery shop, so I think I'll just list what I'm planning to make this week and start fresh. I'm going to try to start shopping for one week at a time (5 meals) because I've noticed I'm throwing away too much food. We need to be better at eating leftovers, using up what we have already stocked up, and getting to the produce before it spoils. Here's what's on the list:

• Garlic rosemary chicken, rice and carrots
• Aloha chicken kebabs with corn on the cob
• Taco salad (made with turkey meat)
• Pork chops, roasted red garlic potatoes and homemade applesauce
• Baked potato pizzas and salad (for Friday when our good friends come to visit from Minnesota!)

Grocery shopping is planned for tomorrow night!

July 2-4 - BBQ Weekend

We are picnicking and BBQing all weekend for the July 4th holiday, so instead of writing up separate entries, I think I'll just lump it all into one and update this as I go along. On Friday we went to my friend Shannon's and enjoyed lots of yummy pasta and potato salads, dips, hot dogs, hamburgers and desserts. Add a few beers to the mix, and we're talking about a fun party!

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July 1 - Hot dogs, Brats, BBQ Chicken

My brother and his girlfriend came for a visit today, so I decided to grill. I made some cheese sausages, beer brats and BBQ chicken, and paired it with a side of butter garlic 90-second Uncle Ben's rice. We had eaten a late lunch at Chick-fil-A, so it was just enough food to fill us up, but nothing too heavy.

June 29/30 - Junk!

The kids and I went to Dutch Wonderland on Tuesday, and by the time we finished there and got home, it was almost 7:00! I was hoping the boy would be home normal time to get dinner started, but unfortunately he had to work late. I ended up swinging through Burger King on the way home and doing a fast food dinner.

On Wednesday I had Zumba and like to eat early, so the kids and I just ate leftovers - they had hot dogs, I had a burger, and the boy just snacked all night.

June 28 - Sesame Chicken & Lo Mein

I found this recipe on Wegmans' site and it is one of my favorite make-at-home Asian dishes. It's so incredibly easy to make and doesn't take long at all. A lot of the ingredients are Wegmans brand, but I know you can easily find the same ingredients in your local grocery store. The only substitution I made from the recipe was using Purdue chicken shortcuts which made the cook time even quicker since they are precooked.

Sesame Chicken with Lo Mein & Green Beans
Ingredients
1 pkg (12 oz) Food You Feel Good About Cleaned & Cut Green Beans
1 pkg (16 oz) Asian Classics Lo Mein Noodles (Frozen Foods), thawed per pkg directions
1 lb Wegmans Seasoned Chicken Breast Strips for Stir-Fry
3 Tbsp Wegmans Vegetable Oil, divided
2 cloves Food You Feel Good About Peeled Garlic, minced
1 pkg (12 oz) Food You Feel Good About Cleaned & Cut Asian Slaw
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup Wegmans Garlic Sauce (International Foods)
1 Tbsp JFC White Roasted Sesame Seeds (International Foods)

Directions

1. Blanch green beans in large pot of boiling salted water 3-4 min. Remove beans with slotted spoon; drain and set aside. Add noodles to blanching water; blanch 2 min. Drain and set aside.
2. Drizzle 2 Tbsp oil around sides of stir-fry pan; tilt pan to distribute evenly. Heat oil in pan on HIGH until oil faintly smokes. (If oil smokes too much, pan is too hot.) Stir fry chicken 4-5 min; remove from pan and set aside.
3. Drizzle remaining Tbsp oil around sides of pan; tilt pan to distribute evenly. Heat oil in pan on HIGH until oil faintly smokes. Add garlic, Asian slaw, and green beans. Stir and toss, 2-3 min. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Add chicken, noodles, and garlic sauce to stir-fry pan. Stir briefly to heat through, 2-3 min. Garnish with sesame seeds.