What's for Dinner? Day 96

I have never made meatballs before.  Homemade that is.

My kids love meatballs and spaghetti!!

So tonight we had meatballs and spaghetti from Our Best Bites

They really were delicous!

We used whole wheat pasta and sprinkled with some parmesan.

It makes a lot of meatballs and sauce. . .which was good because Joe got a lot of lunches out of it!  And we put some meatballs in the freezer for another meal ;)

What's for Dinner? Day 95

Tonight Peyton started baseball practice.

This year he is on the. .

San Francisco Giants

It should be a lot of fun!

For dinner we had Lasagna Rolls (filled with Spinach)

I knew that if I told the kids what was in the middle they would whine and complain.  So I kept quiet.  They could see there was something green, but Peyton especially really likes lasagna so he just ate it and kept saying how yummy it was!

Afterwards I had them guess what was in the roll ups.  They guessed sauce and cheese and lettuce.

After they found out it was spinach Peyton was a little surprised that he liked it but admitted that he did like it.

Joe really liked them and had them for leftovers a couple of times for lunch.

Find them here and some other yummy stuff.

Spinach Lasagna Rolls

Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes

Servings: 9 • Serving Size: 1 roll • Old Points: 4 pts • Points+: 6 ww pts

Calories: 224.9 • Fat: 5.1 g • Fiber: 3.4 g • Protein: 13.0 g • Carbs: 31.5

Ingredients:

9 lasagna noodles, cooked
10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and completely drained
15 oz fat free ricotta cheese (I like Polly-o)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
salt and fresh pepper
32 oz tomato sauce
9 tbsp (about 3 oz) part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Combine spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Ladle about 1 cup sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 12 baking dish.

Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out lasagna noodles. Make sure noodles are dry. Take 1/3 cup of ricotta mixture and spread evenly over noodle. Roll carefully and place seam side down onto the baking dish. Repeat with remaining noodles.

Ladle sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top each one with 1 tbsp mozzarella cheese. Put foil over baking dish and bake for 40 minutes, or until cheese melts. Makes 9 rolls.

To serve, ladle a little sauce on the plate and top with lasagna roll.

What's for Dinner? Day 94

We had a yummy chicken tonight.  And it was so super easy.

My kids loved it! 

Thumbs up all around!

We had the chicken with rice and corn

Crispy Cheddar Chicken

http://www.jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com/

Time: 15 minute prep + 45 minutes baking

Yield: 7 servings

Recipe from adapted from What's Cookin' Chicago via Pinterest

Chicken:

4 large chicken breasts

2 sleeves Ritz crackers

1/4 t salt

1/8 t pepper

1/2 C milk

3 C cheddar cheese, grated

1 t dried parsley

Sauce:

1 14 ounce can cream of chicken soup

2 T sour cream

2 T butter

1. Cut each chicken breast into 3 large chunks.

2. In a small food processor grind up the ritz crackers.

3. Pour the milk, cheese and cracker crumbs into 3 separate small pans. Toss the 1/4 t salt and 1/8 t pepper into the cracker crumbs and stir the mixture around to combine.

4. Dip each piece of chicken into the milk then the cheese and finally the cracker crumbs.

5. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray and lay the chicken inside the pan.

6. Sprinkle the dried parsley over the chicken.

7. Cover the pan with tin foil and bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes. Remove the tin foil, bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until the edges of the chicken are golden brown and crispy.

8. Into a medium sized sauce pan combine the cream of chicken soup, sour cream and butter with a whisk. Stir it over medium high heat until the sauce is nice and hot. Serve over the chicken.

Enjoy!

We found another house!

We signed a lease on another house today.

On our street, same side of the street, 8 houses down.

We don't have to change schools.

We don't have to change wards.

We get the keys April 1st. . .

 . . .and need to be out of our current house April 30th.

We'll have a busy April :)

For dinner we went to a friend's birthday dinner and had some yummy lasagna!

What's for Dinner? Day 92

Tonight we had company.

And lucky Carrie, she got to try one of our new recipes :)

Country Club Chicken

Find it here with lots of lovely picture and step by step instructions.

1 lb spaghetti

4 chicken breasts (I used 2 big Costco ones and cut them in half lengthwise)

1 large onion

7 oz fresh mushrooms

2 cans Campbell's cream of mushroom soup

4-5 slices bacon

1/4 cup dry white wine (I used chicken broth)

2/3 cup sharp cheddar

1 apple

butter or oil

salt and pepper

Mince the onion.  Clean and slice the mushrooms.  Peel and mince the apple (or wash it well).  Mine was a Granny Smith.  Season the chicken breasts with a generous amount of salt and pepper.

Cook the bacon and drain it on a paper towel.  Add some butter and quickly brown the chicken breasts on both sides.  Transfer them to a casserole.

Cook the onions for 3 minutes before adding the mushrooms.  Season with a pinch of salt and pepper and give it all 3 minutes, add the minced apple and cook for another 3  minutes.  Pour in the chicken broth and soup and stir in the grated cheddar.

Pour the sauce over the chicken breasts.  Put the casserole in a preheated oven at 350F for 25-30 minutes.  Until the chicken is super tender and the sauce is all hot and bubbly.

Cook the spaghetti in salted water according to the directions on your package.  Put the spaghetti in a bowl, place the chicken on top and pour the sauce all over.  Serve with extra vegetables on the side.

I thought it was good.

We got thumbs up all around--even our guest :)

But I don't think the kids really liked it that much :)

They think that they will hurt my feelings sometimes if they give less than a thumbs up.  I have been trying to let them know it is OK to not like it.

What's for Dinner? Day 91

Another Our Best Bites  meal tonight.

White Chicken Chili

Joe and I both gave it a thumbs up!

The kids did not :)

The flavor was really yummy.

Joe would have liked it a little thicker.

I call this a chili, but it’s really a soup consistency.
If you want it thicker, just reduce the amount of broth. --I pulled this recipe offline now, but used the cookbook to make it.  It did not offer this option in the cookbook so next time I will try this.  I like to follow the recipe the first time pretty closely so I know what it is supposed to be.

1 T Extra virgin Olive Oil
1 lb boneless chicken, cubed (about 3-4 boneless, skinless breasts)--I only used two big Costco ones
1 medium onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans Great Northern Beans
1 3.5 oz can green chilies
1/2 t cumin
1/2 t dried oregano leaves
1/2 t coriander
1/2 t salt
fresh cracked pepper
1 lime
1/2 C chopped cilantro
1 32oz box chicken broth


Condiments: (in addition to measurements above)

Sour cream
Chopped cilantro
Pepperjack or Jack cheese, shredded
Avocado
Tortilla Chips or make your own tortilla strips
In a large pot, heat olive oil. Add chopped onion and cook for about 2 minutes- just until it starts to become translucent. While onions are cooking, drain beans and rinse with cold water and set aside. Sprinkle chopped chicken with a little salt and pepper and add to pot. Add garlic as well. Cook until there’s no more visible pink on the chicken, probably 3-4 minutes.

At this point I just added the cooked chicken and onions with the ingredients listed below in my crockpot and turned it on low.  It was done when I returned from Addison's dance class :)

Then add green chills- along with all of the juices in the can. Add beans, cumin, oregano, coriander, salt, and a few turns of fresh cracked pepper. Stir to combine and then add chicken broth.
Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer uncovered for 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and add the juice from one lime and the 1/2 C chopped cilantro. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Ladle into bowls and top with sour cream. Serve with condiments. If you don’t have all those condiments- at least have sour cream! But honestly, it’s best with everything --We had it with tortilla chips, sour cream and avocado.
Makes about 8 cups of soup.We had plenty of leftovers for Joe's lunch with this one :)
*Oh, and this freezes well. Sometimes I make a batch and when it cools I put single servings into zip-locks and pop them in the freezer. Makes a great quick lunch.

We had it with some good old fashioned cheese nachos.

The kids are both looking happy about their soup:)
But in reality they only liked the nachos!

What's for Dinner? Day 90

So yesterday is a bit of a blur :)

I had to

 get everyone back to school

deal with the housing dilemma

Peyton had piano lessons

Peyton had karate

we went and looked at the house for rent down the street

we took an application for the house down the street

turned in the application for the house down the street

We had pizza for dinner :)

But tonight I was back on cooking.

First things first, our application was approved for the house down the street :)

8 houses down from us on the same side of the street.

The house is a bit bigger and the kids loved it when we went to look at it because:

there was a jet tub in the master bath

a playset in the back yard

and a basement

So besides moving locations we stay in the same schools and same ward.

Phew!!

Tonight for dinner we had an

Our Best Bites meal--check them out here  They have lots of yummy, easy recipes.

Creamy Corn Chowder

Recipe by Our Best Bites

2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 c. all-purpose flour

1 c. water

2 1/2 c. milk (skim or 1% work just fine and lighten it up considerably)--I used skim

2 regular-sized chicken bouillon cubes, 1 Knorr chicken bouillon cube, or 2 tsp. chicken base

1/2 lb. bacon (optional)--I'm not sure this should be optional :)

1 small onion, minced

2 red potatoes, diced into small cubes--I used Russett because that's what I had.

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 can corn, drained or about 1 1/2 C frozen fresh corn--Frozen for me, I don't like canned.

Salt and pepper to taste

A few dashes of hot sauce (like Tabasco or Cholula)

Fry bacon until crisp. In the meantime, melt butter over low heat in a soup pot. When melted, add flour to make a roux and whisk until it comes together in a little ball. Add water and whisk until completely combined and there are no lumps. Add milk and chicken base or bouillon and bring to a simmer. Add potatoes, onions, and garlic, and simmer (but don’t boil!), stirring very frequently, for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add crumbled bacon and corn and heat through. Add a few drops of hot sauce and then salt to taste. The reason why I don’t have an exact measurement is that while the soup REALLY needs salt, bacon also really differs in its saltiness, so it can be super easy to make this soup waaaaay too salty. Start with about 1/4 tsp., give it a few minutes, and then add more if you need it.

Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with extra bacon and/or cheese if you want. Because, you know, if there’s anything a perfectly healthy bowl of soup (it’s only 3 Weight Watchers points!) needs, it’s some extra bacon and cheese!

The only thing different I would have done is to double it.  There were no leftovers.  Which meant Joe had no lunch.

The kids had two thumbs up!

They get a kick now out of

Thumbs up

Thumbs down

or Thumbs to the side

they ask almost at the beginning of each meal.

How can you know at the beginning if you like it or not? :)