Hand Held Meals

As I look through the meals for this week I realize that there are a lot of dinners that don't require much silverware (or plasticware, whatever works for you).  Happy hand held coincidence?  Who knows - I just pick whatever sounds best to me at the time I am pulling together my list.

We had 3 new dishes this week that were previously un-tested by the Flickinger clan.  I whipped up a Sausage Spinach Rice Bowl while Flick was out of town.  It was pretty good for a quick little meal.  I would say it is like a fast risotto - per the usual, I was pretty liberal with the cheese and I wouldn't recommend leaving out the red pepper since it will be lacking in flavor.  I also used regular brown rice instead of the pre-cooked kind (mostly because it is a lot cheaper but it does take longer).  I was able to get a lunch meal out of this so it is definitely good re-heated.

Sausage Spinach Rice Bowl

Also new to us was Bacon and Broccoli Mac n' Cheese.  I LOVE mac n' cheese...I don't think you understand, I mean I REALLY love mac n' cheese.  Kraft in particular - yep, that blue box with the orange powder....bring it.  I'll take it down.  This was slightly more sophisticated in that it was homemade and had some nutritional value (in the form of veggies and real cheese).  Flick was in charge of this meal and he seemed to handle it just fine - we made an extra big batch (and added more broccoli than the recipe called for) so this one is easy to multiply.

The Happy Chef

Bacon Broccoli Mac n' Cheese

Our vegetarian meal for the week was Grilled Veggie and Hummus Wraps.  Yum!  I consider our meatless meals to be a victory if Flick is really diggin them and he thoroughly enjoyed this one.  This is also the first of our 3 hand held meals.  It came together really quickly and is great on a nice night when you want to fire up the grill since the veggies all get some time on the coals.  We use our grill year round though so this will make an appearance no matter the season.  I neglected to take a picture of this one so you will have to use your imagination.

Easing back into the meat thing, our next meal is Almost Meatless Sloppy Joes.  This is a personal favorite of mine.  The recipe comes from a collection of recipes put together for Cooking Light by Mark Bittman - his piece in the magazine is called Less Meat More Flavor - we have gotten some very solid recipes c/o Mr. Bittman.  Back to the meal...Flick was the first to introduce me to sloppy joes, which finally brought the whole lunch lady scene from Billy Madison full circle:

My first sloppy joes were of the Manwich variety - and don't get me wrong, they are tasty as hell but these are slightly more refined (like the aforementioned mac n' cheese).  They are also delicious as leftovers so don't be afraid to make a bigger batch and re-heat for a nice little lunch or dinner later in the week.  The recipe calls for red beans but I used kidney and pinto in my last batch and they came out just fine!  We served this up with some chips and a salad but usually also have some cottage cheese on the side.

Almost Meatless Sloppy Joes

Finally, one of our all time favorite recipes - Cheddar Burgers with Red Onion Jam (aka: Michelle's Birthday Burgers).  Though it meant I could never bring cupcakes to school on my birthday during grade school, one of the benefits to a summer birthday is that it is conducive to grilling and hanging out on the patio - things which I find to be highly enjoyable.  A few years back, we had a couple of friends over for dinner on my birthday and Flick pulled together a batch of these burgers with mac n' cheese (the Kraft kind - see, told ya I love that stuff).  They were a hit - and continue to be one of our go-to summer meals.  I am so happy to have them back in the rotation for the season!  As I mentioned, usually we have these with mac n' cheese but since my sweet hubby divided a pound of ground beef between the two of us - we settled for some nice green beans with our 1/2 lb burgers.  Oddly, we were not overly stuffed when we were done...and apparently I was so excited for mine that I forgot to get a good picture before a bite was taken out of my burger.  The post-bite photo just doesn't do it justice so I am going to pass on posting it.  If you make them and take a good photo - pass it along!