October 20 - Rigatoni w/ sausage and peas

I'm actually glad that the photo uploader was down on Blogger yesterday because my review would have been a lot different! I made this dinner and *loved* it last night - it was quick and delicious (albeit high in calories); I reheated it for lunch and it did not reheat well. It lost the alfredo-ish texture of the sauce and was pretty much dripping with oil...not at all like the night before. So if you do decide to make it (and I highly recommend you do!), eat it all in one sitting.

Rigatoni w/ Sausage & Peas
Ingredients
1 16-ounce box rigatoni pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound ground sausage
2 cups frozen green peas
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. In a large skillet, heat oil and sauté garlic over medium heat. Add sausage and brown.
2. Once brown, add frozen peas and simmer for 5 minutes.

3.  In the meantime, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. 
4. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain. 

5. Slowly add heavy cream and butter to sausage skillet; bring to a slight boil. 
6. Cook for 5 minutes. 
7. Toss with cooked pasta and top with Parmesan cheese. 

The whole process should take just about half an hour. The estimated calories per serving is 611 (and this is an 8-serving dish). You can probably make some substitutions to get that number down (anything from cutting back on the amount of sausage to substituting ingredients in the sauce). The end result, however, is tasty...so try it on a splurge night (if you are food obsessed like me and count calories/fat/etc.!)

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...

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 24 - Big Storm Disaster!

We were supposed to meet my in-laws for dinner at Kildare's in King of Prussia on their trip home from the Phillies game, but some of the most severe storms this area has seen in a long time blew through and demolished our plans. Two major arteries in Philadelphia were completely shut down (I-95 and I-76), so their trip home was nearly tripled in length. It was awful! The kids and I had an errand to run, so by the time we realized dinner wasn't going to happen and we got home, it was way past dinner time. I threw together some nuggets and fries for them and the boy and I just picked at leftovers.

June 22 - La Tolteca

My good friend Katie (who has been mentioned on here several times and gave us the phenomenal cornbread chicken enchilada recipe!) and I went out to dinner last night to catch up. We haven't seen each other in ages! I gave the boy and kiddos leftovers and enjoyed some chips and salsa and a burrito. It was delicious food, and even better conversation :)

June 3 - Leftovers

The kiddos and I had a big lunch at Chick-Fil-A on Thursday afternoon, and I was treated to their FREE new spicy chicken sandwich. I have to say - it far surpasses any other spicy chicken sandwich I've ever had! It has a buffalo kick to it and stands by itself without the need for any extra hot sauce. I can't wait for this to be on the menu regularly! If you like spicy stuff, go try it next week when it's officially out. I swear, it is the BEST.

By the time dinner rolled around, though, no one was particularly hungry. I wound up serving leftover fajitas to myself and Linds, Luke ate a hot dog, and the boy had a salad topped with chicken. I need to get back into the swing of things, trying new recipes...I feel like I'm in a food rut since before vacation. after we get through what's in the fridge and freezer, it's back to introducing some new stuff!

Apr. 22 - Cheeseburgers & Potatoes

The boy traveled yesterday and today, and we had two burgers left over from the other night, so I grilled them up for Miss L and me. We also had leftover garlic red potatoes from earlier in the week, so we reheated those, too. It was a nice, quick, easy meal that didn't have much clean-up (the best for those nights where I'm solo-parenting it and want them in bed STAT!).

Mar. 25 - Black Bean Pie

A MOMS Club friend of mine (hey Barb!) is a vegetarian and made me a killer black bean pie after Luke was born. It was so delicious that I wound up eating the whole thing myself (though not in one sitting!). I've been wanting to make one for myself for awhile now, but the boy doesn't understand the whole vegetarian thing and unless there's meat, he's not too interested. We had leftovers in the fridge, so I figured he could fend for himself while I enjoyed my black bean pie.

It's simple to make, but a rather lengthy cook time. Prep work was about 5 or 10 minutes of chopping up veggies and then 15 minutes of simmering them stove top before transferring them to a pie crust and cooking for an hour. It looks like an easy one to make ahead and freeze or refrigerate, however, so you could always try that. Here's the recipe:

Black Bean Pie
Ingredients
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained
2/3 cup salsa
1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
3/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 (9 inch) unbaked 9 inch pie crusts
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Sauté onion and green pepper until tender. Sir in beans, salsa, red bell pepper, chili powder, cayenne and black pepper. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.

Spoon half of the mixture into one of the pie crusts and cover with half of the cheese.

Repeat with remaining beans and cheese. Top with remaining crust. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. I'd also let it sit for about 5 or 10 minutes before cutting into it so that it has a chance to firm up.

Next time I make it, I think I'll add in some garlic and maybe some corn. It was delicious, but it needed just a little more "oomph." Or maybe I should just have Barb make it next time ;-)

Mar. 23 - Spaghetti & Bread

We're coming dangerously close to grocery shopping time (I'm hoping to go tomorrow night), so we're eating some random stuff that we find still lurking in the almost-bare cupboards. I did up some spaghetti with jarred sauce and the leftover bread from yesterday. It's my anti-meal - I did nothing more than boil water, so I feel like it wasn't even cooking, but sometimes those effortless meals come in handy. Yesterday's bread still tasted just as delicious, too! I can't wait to make another batch.

Mar. 21 - Cobb Salad

Oh, my...there are days when all you want to do is sit down and enjoy your dinner (whether with kids, your husband, all of the above or none of the above)...and there are days when you just want to put everyone to bed and eat all by yourself. After tantrum after tantrum, today was a day when I put everyone to bed and ate alone at the kitchen table at 7:30 p.m. I was starving, but the blissfully quiet meal was worth it!

When we made the honey chicken skewers last week, I had the boy grill up two other chicken breasts to go along with them. I figured we could either make chicken salad, reheat them with some veggies and rice, or make a salad out of them. Since we didn't feel like cooking tonight, we decided to make some salads with the romaine (before it went bad) and tossed the chicken in with it.

The boy and Linds had some basic grilled chicken salads - chicken, romaine, carrots, cheese, croutons, bacon bits and dressing. I opted for a Cobb salad - chicken, avocado, romaine, carrots, bleu cheese, croutons, bacon bits (didn't have any defrosted regular bacon), hard boiled egg, and a fat-free Maple Grove Farms of Vermont balsamic vinaigrette (only 5 calories per serving!). The salads were filling and delicious. I'm excited to make a lot more of them this summer!

Mar. 20 - Good & Plenty/Venice Pizza

Today we had Scott's grandfather's 85th birthday party at Good & Plenty in Lancaster...it was a good ol' traditional Pennsylvania Dutch meal, complete with a few types of meats, starch, more starch and even more starch! Haha - in reality, we had meatloaf, ham and fried chicken (quite possibly the best piece of fried chicken I've ever had - not greasy, but moist and very tasty), and then there were sides of bread, mashed potatoes, buttered noodles, corn and green beans. For dessert, they had homemade shoofly and apple pies, homemade chocolate and vanilla ice cream, rice pudding and jello. It was a great meal, and a blast to catch up with extended family (the boy's aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, etc.). We usually only get to see all of them a couple times a year, despite everyone being geographically close, so I'm always stoked when we have an excuse.

Despite having a huge meal, we were pretty hungry by 6:30. I was planning to do grilled chicken salads, but the boy mentioned pizza and it was all downhill from there. We ordered a cheese pizza and a buffalo chicken pizza and literally had enough to feed three families. We can add all of that to the piles of leftovers sitting in the fridge! At least we'll have food enough for days - perhaps I can postpone grocery shopping another few days?!

Mar. 19 - Leftovers

We have soooo many leftovers sitting in the refrigerator that we opted for a leftover night. Linds ate some ham and sweet potato french fries, and the boy and I finished the steak. I had the asparagus a few fries, too, while he literally just ate the meat - and quite a good bit of it! I love easy meals like that.

Feb. 11 - Leftover Lasagna

I bought a 12-serving lasagna a few weeks back and made the entire thing. Since we surely weren't going to eat all of it even if we ate it as leftovers, I froze half. I need to hit the grocery store tomorrow because we're running low on stuff to make for meals and this was one of the last things we had left to eat. Nothing exciting, but it tasted okay (not as good as homemade lasagna, nor as good as I remembered frozen ones to be). A mini-trip to the grocery store is in order for tomorrow!

On another note, I think Luke is teething because he is miserable and is refusing most foods except yogurt and applesauce. He needs to get some veggies in, and I know he enjoys green beans, but he refused them when the boy tried feeding him yesterday. Since he devours the applesauce, I mixed the two, and the kid housed two full bowls - I couldn't believe it?! He was definitely hungry. I guess for the time being we'll try combining his different foods so he'll eat again...at least until whichever teeth are on their way pop up.

Feb. 2 - MM Smorgasbord

We decided not to cook since we had tons of Munchin' Mamas leftovers...I'll add the recipes for all the dishes when I get them!

Jan. 29 - Leftovers

The boy went out after work last night for some drinks and appetizers, so Linds and I were on our own for dinner. She had eaten a soft pretzel while we were at the mall, so she snacked on some grapes and cheese before going to bed. We still had some baked potato pizza left over from Thursday, so I reheated a slice of that and poured myself a glass of Fish Eye's Riesling. The wine isn't too bad for inexpensive stuff and the pizza tasted as delicious as ever!

Jan. 21 - Leftovers & Bee My Honey Fruit Dip

We have lasagna and chili leftovers to eat tonight, so no fun dinner to share. I did, however, make a fruit dip that I'm taking to a lunch with friends tomorrow...and it is deeeeelicious! I hadn't had a chance to make it before, but now that I have, I will definitely make it more often. Here's the recipe:

Bee My Honey Fruit Dip
Ingredients
8 oz. softened cream cheese (I used reduced-fat)
7 oz. marshmallow fluff
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
Assorted fruit for dipping

Directions

1. Blend first six ingredients in a small mixing bowl.
2. Serve chilled with fruit.

You can't beat this low-fat, scrumptious dip!

Jan. 16/17 - Leftovers & Date Day!

On Saturday, we were at my in-laws' to celebrate my MIL's birthday and spent the afternoon snacking on pizza, chips and pretzels. By the time we got home we weren't too hungry, so we skipped a big dinner and just ate some leftovers.

Today, the boy and I have our first "date day" in what seems like years (I'm probably exaggerating just a tad), so we won't be around for lunch or dinner. We've got a "lupper" reservation for 3 p.m. at El Vez (Restaurant Week in the city...so excited to eat here!) and then we're going to see Body Worlds 2 at the Franklin Institute. Since we're eating a large mid-day meal, I'm cooking up some scrambled eggs and hashbrowns for breakfast.

Jan. 8 - Leftovers & Wine

One of my goals this year is to lessen the amount of food we waste (we toss WAY too much stuff), so we're going to be doing a lot more leftovers than we have in the past. There is some baked potato pizza and mixed-up enchiladas we haven't finished, so we'll have that for dinner tonight.

In place of a recipe, I wanted to share my new favorite wine! We received a bottle of Funky Llama wine from Scott's uncle and it is EXCELLENT. I looked it up on the PA Wine & Spirits site and they sell it at all of the stores for only $7 for small bottle or $13 for the big one. We polished off a small bottle of the pinot noir easily last night. I'm not usually a red wine drinker (I prefer white), but my taste buds are slowly learning to enjoy a wider variety. I'll still take a glass of Blue Nun any day, but I think I could get used to some reds on an occasional basis, too.

January 3 - Leftover Monday & Update on Luke

Little man has decided to go on a nursing strike...so, that means the primary form of nutrition for this little guy he no longer wants. Luckily he'll take a bottle, but pumping and bottle feeding is a lot of work! I much prefer popping a boob in his mouth and going from there. We are about 36 hours in, so we'll see how long this lasts.

Luke did go in for a follow-up regarding his issues with solid food and they decided to draw blood for allergy testing after hearing of his continued symptoms and seeing the dozen or dozen and a half patches of eczema all over his body. Drawing blood from a baby is probably the most awful thing I've had to witness, but with any hope, it will provide some answers. On a separate note, Lindsay had her 3 year check-up, too, and passed with flying colors at 37 inches tall and 31 lbs (50th percentile for both height and weight).

With Luke's nursing strike, we slept just shy of four hours last night, so needless to say, I'm barely functioning right now. We're going to eat the leftover pork and sauerkraut tonight (at least I am). I also desperately need to grocery shop, so I'm going to try to get there Wednesday or Thursday. Far more interesting meals are to come next week!