Recipe Facelift

I am pretty excited for the recipes this week because not only are they delicious, but they are posted on my new recipe website, hosted by Recipefy.  I've been using a Google website that I created to store my recipes, but after only 10 weeks of posting I had reached my photo upload limit (really??).  That was going to be a problem.  It took some digging but I came across this site which is basically like Facebook for recipes.  Most people would not be that excited about it, however, I am over the moon.  Yes, it does mean that I have some serious work to do, moving all my recipes over there and updating all the links in the blog, however, it will be worth it in the end to have such a professional looking, user friendly collection.  Onto the food...

Most of the meals for this week were "indoor cooking" meals but there are some real favorites in this set (does it seem like I am always saying that?  I love good food).  Pork Chops with Country Gravy is a nod to the southern style sausage and gravy that is fun to indulge in for brunch every now and again.  It is a white gravy and is so delicious you would be hard pressed to believe it is "healthy".  We serve these chops with mashed potatoes.  We have not tried it yet but if you like sausage and gravy, you could definitely use this gravy to make a nice hearty breakfast.

We followed up this heavier meal with Garlic and Herb Oven Fried Halibut.  We really liked the crunch of the panko on these fish filets.  You can use any mild, white fish - just adjust your cooking times depending on the thickness of the filets.

The grill dish that we enjoyed this week was London Broil with Tomato Corn Relish.  London Broil can be a tough cut of meat so let it hang out in this marinade for awhile and resist the urge to over-cook it.  The relish is the perfect compliment (and a good way to work some veggies in!).

Honey Cashew Chicken with Rice was one of our "new to us" recipes this week.  Cashews are the number one nut in my book.  I do not pick them out of the mixed nuts (anymore) but I do give myself a mental fist pump when I end up with a solid handful that includes a lot of cashews.  Fun fact - cashews grow on trees and the nut itself grows off the end of a "false fruit" - the cashew apple:

Long story short, the richness of the cashews really round out this dish for me.

Finally, we are featuring another Mark Bittman creation - Sweet Potato Chile Mac.  I'll be honest, I was pretty skeptical about this dish and probably would have passed over the recipe if it had not come from his collection.  That is the power of good branding for you!  The dish went over very well and Flick actually declared "the guy who came up with this is genius!".  Enough said - give it a try for yourself and see what you think!  We used a pressed sausage (more along the lines of a kielbasa) as opposed to a crumbly sausage and it came out great.

Just throw some cheese on it...

Ellie had her 9 month wellness visit this week.  I know, 9 months already!  She is no small fry either - 75th percentile for both height and weight.  Love it - nothing better than her cute little belly and strong "skiers" legs (no pressure Ellie, I swear).  As we were reviewing her milestones, Dr. B asked how she was doing on solids - "Is she eating all of her vegetables?".  I replied with an enthusiastic "Oh yes, she loves everything she has tried so far - especially if you put a little cheese in it".  Back it up - really Michelle?  Ellie will eat her vegetables as long as they are laced with delicious, creamy, clog-your-arteries, cheese?  I am reminded of a commercial for Flick's favorite salad dressing that has always driven me nuts:

I wonder why the kids in "Hidden Valley" can't get enough of their vegetables (and yes, I do enjoy Ranch dressing)?  Needless to say, Ellie's mashed potatoes and peas did NOT have cheese on them at lunch that day.  She ate them, but gave me the stink eye the whole time.

The urge to add cheese to everything is something that we are very aware of in the Flickinger household.  Many so-so recipes have been miraculously "saved" by shreds of mozzarella or a few shakes of parmesan.  Even meals that taste great sometimes get the "What kind of cheese do we put on this?" question.  Did I mention that we both have high cholesterol?  These days I am really trying to draw out the flavors in recipes that need a little something, rather than just ensuring everything tastes like the cheese of our choice.  The 3 meals for this week that include cheese are supposed to - so if you feel the need, add a little more, but remember that cheese is only 1 of the ingredients.

Since we are fresh on the topic, lets start with the Pizza Margherita.  This was a good one - we used a fresh dough ball from the grocery store and pre-baked it a bit before adding the toppings.  The balsamic finale is the perfect touch and really took this pizza to the next level.

We fired up the grill and broke out the skewers for some Chicken Kabobs on one of our 90 degree days.  You really cannot go wrong with kabobs - there are a plethora of combinations of meats, fruits, veggies, and fish that you can make work.  For this concoction, a little fresh pineapple is great on the skewer with the onions and peppers.    

When it came to fish this week, I went to the grocery store without a specific fish recipe in mind.  I bought what was on sale (Cod) and came home to find a recipe.  Since we have a pretty robust collection of "staple" ingredients, I figured we would be able to come up with something.  We ended up with "Fillets and Spinach with Balsamic Vinaigrette" from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.  I should probably use this and the Betty Crocker cookbook more frequently; we always get good results with their recipes.

Turkey Meatball Ruben Subs is a whole new way to use ground turkey in a meal.  I felt as though the meatballs in the original recipe were on the dry side (there were no breadcrumbs, eggs, or milk in them).  One of the reasons I sometimes shy away from turkey burgers/meatballs, is that they tend to be on the drier side, given the lower amounts of fat in the meat.  A dry meatball is not a happy meatball.  There is no reason they cannot be just as good as their beef counterparts, so I tweaked this recipe and they came out a whole lot better - they even stood up well to the microwave when re-heating for leftovers!

We'll round out with Parmesan Polenta with Spicy Sausage.  Make only as much polenta as you will eat in the one sitting; it is much better when made fresh and only takes 5 or so minutes to whip up a batch for the leftover sausage sauce.  Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!!

The All American Blueberry Muffin - Bonus Recipe

Once summer was in full swing back in Connecticut, my mom used to pack us girls up into the car to go strawberry and blueberry picking with my Memere and Pepere.  Needless to say we LOVED everything about these trips - from hanging out at our Grandparent's house to sneaking pounds of freshly picked berries as payment for our efforts.  I am serious about "pounds" and use the term "sneaking" very loosely...if you have ever eaten dessert with me, you know what I'm talking about:

Mom, I am pretty sure Christa ate that chocolate cake...

My mom used to say that they were going to need to weigh us on the way in and the way out of the fields to account for all the fruit we ate while picking.  I can think of worse things to be loading up on!

I have yet to come across a "pick your own berry" farm out here in Colorado.  These days we settle for expensive quarts and pints of berries at the supermarket which definitely do the trick - but nothing beats fruit fresh from the fields.  I guess I better get on planning that garden for next year!

On a recent trip to the grocery store I bought an enormous bag of frozen blueberries (for about 1 million dollars).  On my first Mother's day all I really wanted were blueberry pancakes.  My body knows no limit when it comes to blueberry pancakes - like pizza, cereal, and ice cream, I could eat them all day long and that "you are full" filter would never kick in.  It is a problem.  The great thing about an extra large bag of blueberries is that once the pancake batter runs out, you can whip up a batch of blueberry muffins.  I made these muffins for dessert one night when we realized we were deficient in the sweets department.  They are really quick to pull together and they make the house smell amazing as they come out of the oven.  Fresh is always best, but once they are completely cool, if you wrap them individually in wax paper and put them in freezer bags, you can enjoy them a few weeks later and they are just as good!  We have pulled out frozen muffins for quick snacks in the morning before heading up skiing or off to work and it is always nice to know you have something good on hand.  I didn't get the greatest picture of them (it was kind of late and our kitchen lighting leaves a lot to be desired), but they certainly disappeared quickly in our house!

Hot Pockets

The weather was a little cooler the week that we made these recipes so it was not too bad to have the oven going in the house at night (these recipes queued up the week before we left on our trip).  Our kitchen gets HOT in the summer.  Between the inefficient light fixture that is like a heating lamp over the sink and the non-venting oven...we keep it toasty in that 1970's kitchen.  When we moved in last year it was a warmer than average summer and I was pregnant.  Normally my thermostat runs on the cooler side, however, last year I was a hot mess from the time we started cooking until I went to bed at night (with the windows open and ceiling fan on).  I never drink ice water but our ice trays couldn't keep up with Dozer and I.  Fortunately we had a lot of help with the meals right after we moved in thanks to our amazing families and the time they spent settling us into our new home.  After that we used the grill as much as possible and ate outside every night - meal planning was a little less formal at that point!

Speaking of hot, our first meal, Savory Sausage, Spinach, and Onion Turnovers, flash me back to those microwaveable Hot Pockets we used to enjoy growing up.  My sisters and I really didn't have any problem with chowing down on Hot Pockets (though I always burned my mouth on them...). 

These are pretty straightforward to make and there is no need to get hung up on the shape of the turnover.  Our turnovers never come out looking like turnovers so just shoot for getting the dough sealed up - circle, square, half-moon - they all taste the same and you won't be disappointed!

One recipe that we are enjoying for the second summer in a row is Grilled Zucchini Caprese Sandwiches.   All the cooking is done on the grill and it takes very little time to pull together these veggie filled sandwiches.  I recommend getting some good bread for these as it adds a lot to the meal.

This week we welcomed back Mac n' Cheese alongside a Baked Cod Filet.  For a quick grammatical interlude - as I was typing this entry I went back and forth between "Filet" and "Fillet" before resorting to my old friend, Google, to ensure that I was not misrepresenting the spirit of the meal.  I came across a blog that indicated the terms can be used interchangeably (both mean "a boneless cut of meat") and that Americans and Canadians are the most inconsistent in their usage.  I also happened upon this article published in the Boston Globe regarding the AP's guidance on food related words.  I found it to be pretty amusing and if I ever go pro with my food writing I am going to have some serious studying to do - in the meantime, stash a few of these nuances away for trivia night!

Back to the food: the crumb on the fish is made from Ritz crackers (or Zips if you are like us and buying generic) and lends a nice buttery flavor to the fish.  I cannot wait until Ellie can have Mac n' Cheese so we have a good reason to keep a few (more) boxes on hand.

The summer squashes are starting to pop up in the grocery store at "in season" prices, so we made Baked Ziti with Summer Vegetables.  For the pasta connoisseurs out there, you will notice that those are penne in the picture - any short pasta will do for this recipe (we always seem to have 1/2 boxes of pasta hanging around).  Dishes like this don't need a specific shape so cook up whatever short pasta you are looking to get rid of. 

Finally, Chicken with Lemon Leek Linguine.  I was skeptical at first about leeks and linguine coming together.  It seemed too stringy to work, but the flavors are great and we both really enjoy the mild onion-y taste of the leeks with the pasta and chicken - it is a great summer-time meal.  Keep it cool out there and if you are hanging out with a pregnant woman this summer, by all means, bring her a glass of ice water!


 

Well worth the wait

These days, the week prior to leaving on a trip is somewhere between circus and total chaos in our house.  Hence - the blog post just did not happen last week.  With a baby in tow it takes a minimum of 3 days to prepare for a vacation and when you throw in that baby being sick, work, school, mani/pedi (we were in a wedding - gotta have nice nails!)...time just really gets away from you!  Congrats to Mark and Tara on their beautiful wedding weekend and I hope that they are both relaxing on a peaceful beach in Hawaii....ahhhh.

When can we go?

I assure you that these meals were worth waiting for and you won't be disappointed if any end up on your table this week!

Let's start off with Italian Meatball Sliders.  We really loved these - this was a new recipe to us and it made enough for lunches during the week.  I couldn't find slider buns at the store so we just used smaller hamburger buns and they turned out just fine (we made the patties a little bigger as well).

Our meatless meal was Vegetable and Rice Burritos with Cheese.  These were nice and hearty for a veggie only burrito and we both agreed that this was a "keeper".  I was very careful not to over-stuff mine (for the sake of taking a picture) but Flick got a little aggressive with the fillings on his:

I'm way to full...

His required a fork and knife - mine came out well but doesn't stand out much against our burrito-wrap colored plates...a better photographer would have anticipated this and had an array of beautiful bright colored plates to display these tasty morsels on...we are a one-type-of-plate family:

Camouflaged

Antipasto Style Penne made for some delicious leftovers at lunch one day during the week.  I have made this both with the prosciutto crisped up and with it plain.  Both are fine but I definitely prefer it to be broiled a bit.  It is less stringy...I am a person who loves my bacon just to the edible side of "burnt to a crisp".  Limp bacon doesn't do it for me and I think prosciutto falls into that same category.

We tried Coconut Curried Pork, Snow Pea, and Mango Stir Fry this week.  This was a big hit with both of us - it is becoming apparent that we both really love curry dishes with a coconut milk base.  Mangoes are in season now so it is the perfect time to try this meal (so get after it!).  We have had this recipe in our book for ages and for whatever reason,  I have always passed over it.  I am so glad it is part of the rotation because it made for a delicious meal!  We served this over a sticky, long grain rice (I made a big batch and we used the leftovers in the aforementioned burritos later in the week).

Onto our fish meal: Cornmeal Crusted Catfish.  I never really had catfish until living out in Colorado but have come to include it as a regular player in our fish dinner category.  We design this meal to fully embrace the southern-style preparation for this fish (served with baked beans, slaw, and corn on the cob).  On a night with more time, we have cornbread too and it is just divine.  If you are a little unsure of catfish - use another mild, white fish (orange roughy would work really well too).

Hopefully you find these meals to be well worth the week delay in posting them!  It was great to catch up with everyone at the wedding and thanks to all who are following the blog.  I loved hearing from you about it and it means a lot to me to know that you are enjoying the posts.  Can't wait to see you all again soon!  Enjoy!

Double Duty Meals

One of our vegetarian meals this week did double duty for us - both as a pot-luck lunch and then as leftovers for dinner the following night.  I love meals that you can multipurpose.  Leftovers do not freak me out at all - they are essential in our house for those nights where unexpected things crop up making it tough to pull together a dinner.  It happens.

So one of our double duty meals was Curried Couscous with Broccoli and Feta.  This comes together very quickly and makes a pretty substantial amount of food so you can count on getting a few lunches or maybe another dinner out of this meal.

Another meal that we stretched to two nights was Cheesy Potato Soup with Ham Sandwiches.  The ham sandwiches are entirely optional so you can make this a straight up vegetarian meal if you decide to forgo them.  The fancy mayo that goes with the sandwiches is quite delicious so don't be afraid to make a little extra and use it on sandwiches for lunch!

Thai Chicken with Sugar Snap Peas is an old staple of ours.  It is actually hand written into my first recipe book - if you have ever been to our house while we are cooking, most recipes are cut out of our Cooking Light magazines and put into sticky-back-page photo albums.  Only our oldie-but-goodies and some family recipes make it into the hand written books.  I think we first made this when we lived back in Boston - it was probably one of the first (and only) entrees I ever made that involved peanut butter :)

For fish we went with Pecan Crusted Tilapia.  We had this on a business school class night so I made everything up (grits and corn on the cob) and cooked my fish and left some of the "crust" for Flick to use to make his once he was out of class.  I know I just got done talking about how much I like leftovers...but leftover fish is not my favorite so I wanted Flick's to be freshly made rather than reheated.

Finally...another pizza :)  This is Roasted Veggie and Ricotta Pizza.  A really great vegetarian pie.  The good news is that Ellie had cheese for the first time and seems to love it so we can count on her to help us polish off a pizza in the near-ish future...not that we have any problems doing that now on our own.

Colorful Plates

I am going to start right off the bat with one of our all time favorite (and SO simple) meals: Cilantro Lime Chicken with Avocado Salsa.  This continues my theme of summery meals since, although this can be made year-round, I swear it tastes even better eaten out on the back deck with a glass of wine and some corn-on-the-cob.  This makes a great meal to serve to company too because you don't have to spend tons of time slaving over it.  The salsa can be made hours in advance because the lime juice keeps the avocado from getting really brown (by the way, I just read that it is a myth that the pit of the avocado keeps it green...).  I actually had the salsa in a wrap with some deli chicken the next day for lunch and it still was looking pretty tasty.  Saffron rice is the side we always have with this and I HIGHLY recommend it.  It comes in a yellow bag in the rice section and is super inexpensive (unlike when you try to buy it in spice-jar format).

Moving right along - for the beef eaters out there, we made Enchilada Casserole with Spicy Black Beans.  This would be a good way to mix up taco night if you are feeling a little stale.  It is very straightforward to put together and makes for good leftovers.  I would imagine kids would like the Enchilada Casserole part as well - ours is just easing into peas so we'll have to wait a bit before we try it out on her.

Shrimp Cobb Salad is just as pretty to look at as it is to eat.  Flick did a stellar job of arranging the shrimp in an artistic manner for the photo.  We'll get a good look at what a "normal" plate of our food looks like in one of the recipes below since we generally don't work at presentation when we are just feeding ourselves.  This is a salad that eats like a meal - we had some sourdough bread on the side and thoroughly enjoyed every last bite of this dinner.

I made up some Cajun Red Beans and Rice on a night when Flick was just getting back from traveling so I was cooking for myself.  Depending on what kind of rice you are using, this comes together really quickly.  I used brown rice (not the instant kind) so that was definitely the time limiting factor in the creation of this dish.  Historically we have used the white rice in-a-bag which cooks up in about 10 minutes and seems to always come out good no matter what.  Love that.

We popped back out onto the grill for some Maple Mustard Chicken Thighs with broccoli and a baked potato.  You use part of the marinade for marinading and serve up the extra as a glaze for the chicken when it is time to plate up.  I have a new found appreciation for chicken thighs these days.  We try and buy our meat organic as often as we can and the chicken thighs are about 2 million times less expensive than the boneless skinless chicken breasts.  So, thighs it is!  Not to mention the fact that they taste really good...

Things are not always that neat and pretty come dinner-time at the Flickinger household - as promised, here is the "non-photo" plate - still tastes just as good:

BONUS: You'll notice that there are no vegetarian meals in the photo recipes this week.  Well, Flick was out of town at his brother's bachelor party and had the camera with him so I didn't get to take a picture of the Curry Spiced Noodles that I made while he was gone.  I'll include the recipe though as a 6th meal for the week.  As a heads up - there is a fair amount of chopping/prepping and I recommend doing it before you start cooking.  The cook times are short (2 minutes) before needing to add more ingredients and I had to pull the pan off the heat more than once since I wasn't done prepping when it was time for something to be added.  Also, the sauce was pretty thin for me when I put everything together.  Once the noodles are mixed in, try and let it sit for a few and then give it another mix - the sauce coats everything a little better once it has cooled a bit.  Enjoy!