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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Don’s Broccoli Bake

18 Jul

A great twist for a simple veggie.

Broccoli is a vegetable our whole family enjoys. I buy it both fresh and frozen. I use it in my main entrees as well as on the side.

Recently, Don came up with a new way to make it and it was delicious. Everyone devoured it, especially me!

Don’s recipes come from in his head, so I don’t have specific measurements for you or a step-by-step recipe, but I’ll do my best to tell you how he made it.

DON’S BROCCOLI BAKE

Place cooked broccoli in the bottom of an oven-safe baking dish.

Sprinkle with bread crumbs, bacon bits, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, garlic powder.

Drizzle with melted butter.

Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Top with shredded mozzarella cheese and broil until all the cheese has melted.

Enjoy!

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Recital Chicken

27 Jun

Recital Chicken!

My girls are dancers. Since they were toddlers they’ve each taken dance class, and this year is their 10th, 8th, and 5th year of dance, each.

This means that each year we are treated to their summer dance recital, a culmination of all their hard work and dedication that year. It’s usually a busy day when we have the recital with a small crowd for dinner and we’re always hurrying to get them to the show on time, so I need a really quick meal.

Hence, my Recital Chicken.

This is the chicken recipe I make every single year for the recital lunch or dinner either before or after the recital, depending on what time of day they dance. Its original name was Hellman’s Parmesan Chicken, and it’s courtesy of my mom, of course!

Since I only make it for the recital and I make it every time, I’ve changed the name to Recital Chicken. It’s quick, easy, few ingredients and can be prepped the day before. It cooks fast and we can sit down and eat relatively quickly, whether we are eating before or after the recital. I serve this with Grandma Grello’s Marinated Green Beans on the side, which can be made ahead of time also.

INGREDIENTS

*I usually have to double this because I’m cooking for a large group.*

1/2 cup Hellman’s Mayo (can use light, I never do though.)
1/4 cup grated Parm Cheese
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I thaw out the chicken tenders that are boneless and skinless.)
4 tsp Italian Seasoned dry bread crumbs (I use plain.)

Recital Chicken can be prepped ahead of time so you don’t have to do anything but cook it when you’re ready.

DIRECTIONS
Combine mayo and cheese.

Spread on chicken, then sprinkle with bread crumbs.

Bake at 425 for 20 minutes. For that nice golden brown color, we do a quick broil at the end for a few minutes.

I serve with rice pilaf which coincidentally takes about 20 minutes so they cook at the same time.
Happy Recital!

My three dancers

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What’s for dinner Wednesday: Maple Glazed Pork Chops

20 Jun

Pork chops with maple and brown sugar glaze. Who wouldn’t love that?

Did you ever hear it said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?

I think I’m well on my way down that insanity path.

My family doesn’t love pork chops. I’d almost venture to say some of them are close to saying they hate pork chops.

However, I really like “the other white meat” and I’m determined to find a recipe for pork chops that they like.

So every so often, I try a new recipe. I wait for the results, everyone says they don’t like them, and we move on until I find the next one.

Nine times out of ten, I personally like the recipe.

A cookbook from Grandma Grello’s house. Lots of yummy looking recipes in here!

Today’s recipe is one of my attempts at tricking my family into liking pork chops. I got it out of a cookbook from Grandma Grello and I liked seeing her little notes and recipes stuck in amongst the pages as I went through it.

I figured that if they were smothered in maple syrup in brown sugar 1) I’d like them a lot and 2) they’d think they were pancakes. Or waffles. And like them.

I liked them a lot, they did not.

Shocker.

Back to the drawing board.

If you are someone who does enjoy pork chops and you also enjoy recipes of the “sweet” variety, you’ll be in luck with this one.

Try it out and see what you think.

I doubled the recipe for the glaze because I had a lot of pork chops, but I did not double the amount of brown sugar. That would have been too much.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup all purpose flour

Salt and pepper to taste

4 bone in pork chops (I used eight)

2 tablespoons butter or margarine (I doubled this recipe)

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 tablespoon cornstarch

3 tablespoons water

2/3 cup packed brown sugar (no need to double)

I sprinkled very generously with brown sugar!

DIRECTIONS

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine flour, salt and pepper.

Add pork chops and shake to coat (I could not do more than 2 at a time or they wouldn’t get fully coated.)

In a skillet, brown the chops on both sides in butter.

Place in an ungreased 13x9x2″ baking dish.

Bake, uncovered, at 450 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until juices run clear.

Meanwhile, in a skillet, (I used the same skillet)  bring the vinegar to a boil.

Reduce heat; add maple syrup. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.

Combine cornstarch and water until smooth; add to the maple mixture.

Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Place chops on a broiler pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Broil 4″ from the heat for 2-3 minutes or until sugar is melted.

Drizzle with maple glaze.

See? Doesn’t that look good? I served ours over brown rice.

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A few of his favorite things

18 Jun

Don’s a great dad to his three daughters!

Happy Father’s Day to the best husband and father in the world! I know…I’m biased. I also know everyone thinks their husband is the best husband in the world! (And good for all of us who do!)

Don is a great teammate in the parenthood game. He’s my partner in every sense of the word, doing more than his share of whatever we need him to do.

One of his favorite things to do though, is cook. He loves to take requests and to cook the things we love.

The kids love coming home on Friday nights (his night to cook while we’re at Dance) to find out what surprises Daddy has cooked up (literally) for us all.

Their top favorite meal is nachos, followed by a close second of pizza and calzones.

Every once in a while, Don will get a craving of his own, and we’ll get an extra special meal from him.

So, I thought today, in honor of Father’s Day , which was just yesterday, I’d do a little photo spread of some of Don’s Favorite Things that he’s cooked up for us this past year.

Happy Father’s Day Don, and thanks for all you do!

Don’s calzones are the best around!

Nachos….a Friday night favorite!

Chicken parm, pasta and salad, thanks to Don’s craving one weekend!

Another Friday night dinner, and a special craving he had: Fish and Chips (homemade on both accounts) and a tomato/cucumber/olive salad. MMMMMMM….

My personal favorite Dinner By Don: Chicken Marsala!

And one of his own top favorite Don Meals: his chili

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What’s For Dinner Wednesday: Chicken, Grapes and a Dash of Karma

13 Jun

I made this recipe for the first time in January 2003 and I marked it as being “Excellent” at that time. it was just as good this time, as it was then. At least I thought so.

It’s hard to find one meal to feed five people and have all five people like it. It almost never happens. Very rarely anyway. My goal is basically to find one meal that everyone at least likes one part of.

Last week though, I thought I had a winner. I was shooting for at least four out of five “likes” on this one. It was a recipe I’d first made years ago, out of the “Better Homes and Gardens New Dieter’s Cookbook” in 2003, and we loved it. I’m sure I’ve made it since then, but not recently and not since we’ve had all three of the girls. None of them remembered ever having it before.

Liz I was pretty sure on, and Caroline I was pretty sure wouldn’t like it. She hates apple juice, but I was hoping maybe the rest of it would win her over.

(I’ll give away the ending: It didn’t.)

Alex though, was a sure thing. I had considered the ingredients as always, when planning the meal: chicken, pasta, grapes and apple juice. She likes the pasta, the apple juice and the grapes. All those things, a lot.

I served the meal. I sat back. I waited.

“So?????”  I asked them.

Don liked it, I liked it, Liz was fine with it, but I couldn’t wait to get Alex’s review. I was expecting two thumbs up.

She hated it.

And this is where the dash of karma comes in.

Chicken, grapes, pasta….karma.

I said to her, “Alex, you love everything in this! You love grapes, you love apple juice and you love pasta! How could you not love this meal?”

She said, “Mommy, I do like all those things by themselves, I do. I just don’t like all of those things touching each other.”

BAM.

I hate when my food touches. If you look back at all my recipe posts, you can always tell when the dish being photographed is mine because the food is all spread waaayyyyy apart on the plate.

She’s already a mini-me. This just seals the deal. Her food can’t touch. I’m so doomed.

In any case, the dish is really yummy, as unusual as it sounds. You can use any color grapes or a mix of more than one color. I had green so that’s what I used. Here is the recipe. Give it a try.

CHICKEN WITH GRAPES

INGREDIENTS

4 small skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (12 oz. total) *I used chicken tenders.

Nonstick Spray Coating

1/2 cup white grape juice, apple juice or apple cider (this time I used apple juice, the last time I used apple cider.)

1 tsp. instant chicken bouillon granules

1 tsp. cornstarch

1 cup seedless green and/or red grapes, halved

Hot cooked linguine (optional)

Fresh herb, such as oregano or thyme (optional) *I opted out.
DIRECTIONS

1. Rinse chicken; pat dry with paper towels. Spray an unheated large skillet with nonstick coating.

2. Preheat skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Add chicken. Cook for 8-10 minutes or until tender and no longer pink, turning to brown evenly. Remove from skillet, keep warm.

3. Meanwhile, combine grape or apple juice or cider, bouillon granules, and cornstarch. Add to skillet. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.

4. Cook and stir two minutes more. Stir in grapes; heat through. Serve over chicken.

If desired, serve with linguine and garnish with herb. (I used wide egg noodles instead of linguine this time. No herbs.)

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Balsamic & Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower

7 Jun

Besides the new recipe for cauliflower, this was also the first time I’d used Panko bread crumbs.

Veggies are great side dishes to your main meal, but finding new ways to cook them is always a challenge. A while back, I came across this recipe for Balsamic & Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower from the EatingWell website. Since I love both those ingredients, I thought I’d try out the recipe. I liked it, Don liked it, but the kids didn’t love it. They thought the balsamic was too strong, but did I mention that I liked it?? I’d make it again, but provide an alternate vegetable for the kids.

Additionally, Panko Bread Crumbs: am I the only person on the planet who had never used them before?? I love them!! They have so much more crunch to them than regular bread crumbs do.

This meal was a meal of chicken thighs, which I don’t buy often because they’re fattier than some of the other kinds of chicken parts I buy, but every once in a while I just want a change so I buy them.

Anyway….here is the recipe for the cauliflower. If you try it, let me know what you think!

INGREDIENTS

  • 8 cups 1-inch-thick slices cauliflower florets, (about 1 large head; see Tip)
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • Freshly ground pepper to taste
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
  2. Toss cauliflower, oil, marjoram, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Spread on a large rimmed baking sheet and roast until starting to soften and brown on the bottom, 15 to 20 minutes. Toss the cauliflower with vinegar and sprinkle with cheese. Return to the oven and roast until the cheese is melted and any moisture has evaporated, 5 to 10 minutes more.

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What’s for dinner Wednesday: Garlic Chicken and Shrimp

6 Jun

An internet search provided me with this recipe. We all enjoyed it!

A lot of times when I post a recipe, it’s not something I’ve just made this week. Sometimes it’s something I had a while back, took a photo of and waited to post it. This is one of those recipes. We had it in November and I’ve been waiting to post it ever since!

Way back in November I was sitting one afternoon trying to think of something different to make for dinner. We had pasta, shrimp and chicken on hand so I did an internet search for recipes using chicken and shrimp, and on About.com, under the “Southern Food” category, this recipe for Garlic Chicken and Shrimp came up. It can be served over rice or over pasta.

It was delicious and got a thumbs up from everyone all around, which is rare.

Here is the recipe so that you can try it out too!

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 to 3 boneless chicken breast halves or tenders, about 1 pound
  • 1 pound large shrimp
  • 6 tablespoons butter
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 4 medium cloves garlic, smashed and minced
  • 1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil, or 1 teaspoon dried leaf basil  (In my opinion there was too much basil, I’d use slightly less next time.)
  • 1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley, or 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon Creole seasoning or seasoned salt blend

If Alex gives a recipe a thumbs up, you know it’s got to be good. She’s a tough customer. She hates chicken but loves “strimp” and pasta, so this was a winner in her book.

DIRECTIONS

Lightly pound chicken between sheets of plastic wrap to an even thickness. Cut in strips about 1-inch wide.

In a large skillet, melt the butter with olive oil. Add garlic, basil, parsley, salt, and seasoning. Heat over medium low heat and add the chicken and shrimp. Cook the shrimp and chicken mixture, stirring, for about 10 to 15 minutes, until cooked through. If shrimp are small, add a few minutes after adding chicken. Serve with hot cooked pasta. Sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley, if desired.
Serves 4 to 6.

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The Big Salad

31 May

You can load almost anything into a salad.

Anyone out there a Seinfeld fan?

Anyone remember the episode with “The Big Salad?” According to The Big Salad’s very own Wikapedia page, “”The Big Salad” is the 88th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the second episode for the sixth season. It aired on September 29, 1994.”

So there you go. More information than we needed to know about that episode, and there’s even more if you click on the link to the page itself if you so desire, but that’s not crucial today’s post.

I recently got one of those AllRecipe.com emails for a Wonderful Berry Salad and when I clicked on it to see, it was a Raspberry Walnut Dinner Salad which looked so good and reminded me of my Strawberry Salad from a few weeks back. But it also reminded me of The Big Salad episode on Seinfeld and the fact that we often will make a Big Salad ourselves either as the dinner or to go alongside the dinner.

The one shown here is one we made a few weeks back. The thing I like about salads is 1) you can put just about anything you want in them and 2) people can eat what they want to and skip the rest that they don’t like, so basically it’s something everyone likes. I often get tired of the traditional lettuce/tomato/cucumber salad, and throwing in random “stuff” makes it more fun to serve and eat. I like hearing my family say that the love this part or that part of the salad. The salad above has lettuce, olives, craisins, cheddar cheese, strawberries and grape tomatoes.

So the next time you’re at a loss for what to make, consider The Big Salad. See what you have in your house and throw it all in there!

Enjoy!

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What’s For Dinner Wednesday: Chicken and Veggies with Rice

30 May

This may not have been on Alex’s Like List, but it sure was on mine!

If you’re a regular reader, you know I’ve been going through my friend Karen’s cookbook from college almost page by page, making all my old favorites again. Last week I made one that was a big hit with everyone, except Alex, who took one look and said, “THIS is NOT on the Like List.”

But for the rest of us it was. Don even had it leftover a day or so later for dinner and said it was just as good leftover as the first day.

Like List or not, I’d make it again. According to Karen, she still makes this at her house too, and she sometimes adds shrimp, which does happen to be on Alex’s Like List, so maybe next time I’d throw some in. It’s the kind of thing you can put in whatever you want, as you’ll see from the recipe.

Super easy, super delicious, super good.

CHICKEN AND VEGGIES WITH RICE

I put all my fresh cut veggies into one bowl and threw the whole thing in at once when it was time. Saves on cleanup.

INGREDIENTS

1 lb. chicken (I used tenders)

2 cups fresh veggies, cubed (she suggested broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, peppers, squash etc. I used broccoli, peppers, mushrooms and carrots. I almost did onion too, but quit while I was ahead.)

1pkg. rice pilaf (I might double it next time, I felt like we needed more rice for all the other stuff we had in there.)

1/4 cup parm. cheese

Italian Dressing

DIRECTIONS

Marinate chicken in the dressing.

Cube and cook in large skillet on stove.

Remove.

Prepare rice according to stove top directions in the same skillet.

Halfway through the cooking, add veggies. Cover and cook until rice is done. (This steams the veggies right in the rice.)

Add chicken and parm cheese, toss and simmer 5 more minutes and serve.

Quick, easy and delicious!

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Top 10 Worst Foods for Kids to Eat

29 May

Do we cut them out altogether or just keep eating them once in a while?

It’s been a while since I’ve seen one of these lists and shared it with you, but since we’re just coming off a holiday weekend, I thought it’d be a good time to post this.

The list came from the Livestrong website. I see several foods we eat on this list. Do you?

I wonder to myself: do I stop feeding my kids these foods or do I continue to do so in moderation?

What do you think? No more hot dogs and mac & cheese???

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TOP TEN WORST FOODS FOR KIDS TO EAT

Hot Dogs

Soda

Sticky Candy

Doughnuts

Prepacked lunch kits

Sugary breakfast cereals

Microwavable prepackaged dinners

Juice Drinks

French Fries

Toaster Pastries

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