Menus 5/24/10 - 6/5ish/10

 No real menu posts last week or this week, but here’s some things we’ve been making and eating:

•    Mustard grilled chicken with fettuccine picante
•    Left-over mustard grilled chicken with pesto linguine and easy make-ahead garlic bread
•    Teriyaki-marinated and grilled London broil with roasted red & sweet potatoes (recipe to come)
•    Left-over London broil made into French dip sandwiches with crispy Parmesan potatoes
•    Spaghetti (organic whole wheat) with slow cooker Bolognese sauce
•    Tangy chicken with couscous
•    Cheesy pasta and vegetable casserole
•    BBQ sloppy turkey joes (recipe to come) on homemade wheat buns
•    Fresh spinach lasagna
•    Bean and cheese tostadas
•    Lime chicken tacos
•    Hot corn dip
•    SuperFood Smoothies (I add about 1/8 cup ground flax seed meal to these)

[Remember, we also have a big green salad almost nightly as well.]

There'll be some other stuff, too... with GrandmaT and the kids gone, we're being slightly more casual about planning. On the other hand, they'll be back on the 4th, AND MyDarlingSam will be visiting for a few days (more on that later!), so we'll be gearing up again with more yummy recipes and dinner plans. Stay tuned!

Fettuccine Picante

I got this recipe from the newspaper quite some time ago. I don't know it's source beyond that. This had a nice, low warmth that went nicely with the spicy grilled mustard chicken that it accompanied. Add a green salad and you have a perfect dinner!

Fettuccini Picante

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup picante sauce (we used Costco's Kirkland organic salsa)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 pound fettuccine, cooked and drained (we used Barilla whole wheat linguine)
• 2 tablespoons whopped fresh cilantro leaves (ours came straight from our garden!)

Directions:

1. Heat picante sauce, sour cream and Parmesan cheese in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat until hot and bubbling.
2. In a large serving bowl, mix fettuccine and sauce until pasta is thoroughly coated. Top with cilantro and additional Parmesan and picante sauce if desired.

Crazy easy, super yummy lunch!

Bean and Cheese Tostadas

Crazy easy, super yummy, and made with stuff we always have on hand!

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Lightly grease (or spray with non-stick stuff) a cookie sheet.
3. In a medium bowl, stir together one can of refried beans (we like Amy's Organics with mild green chilies) with one can of Ro-Tel diced tomatoes (drained).
4. Lay corn tortillas on cookie sheet.
5. Spread a couple of spoonfuls of bean/tomato mix on the tortillas, then top with shredded cheese.
6. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.
7. Top tostadas with whatever is handy - salsa, more cheese, shredded lettuce, sour cream, sliced green onions, chopped cilantro, baby spinach - anything that sounds good! But don't overload them.
8. EAT and be happy! These are great for lunch, dinner, breakfast snack... any time!

(Sorry, despite having fixed these twice in the last three days, we were too bust snarfling them up to get a photo.)

Hmmmmm, tough decision!

Here's the question of vital importance I asked Mr. Mamie today:

Where would you rather continue your education?

S

Starfleet Academy

or... 

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

????????

Starfleet image credit

Hogwarts image credit

Ack!

This is me.

OK, not really. But represents by general outlook right at the moment... kinda overwhelmed. Lots to do as this school year wraps up, with one month left on my contract as Program Director, and no replacement in sight.  I'm also moving into teacher-mode, with trainings and "meet your new teacher" day, etc.

So, blogging might be thin for a few days. But fear not, I'll be back!

Image credit.

Six Word Saturday 5/22/10

Got my class list - so excited!

Just wondering...

Hank is a propane salesman. Dale is an exterminator. Bill is an Army barber.

What the heck does Boomhauer do???

Happy Feet Friday 5/21/10

Another pair of Teva flip-flops - these are brown, with thick soles. The straps are metallic green print with brown flowers. I sure do love me some flip-flops... yay, warm weather!

Dinner Tonight - 5/20/10

Dinner tonight was  Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas with Arroz Mexicano  - another delicious vegetarian meal! We used Westbrae organic black beans, an organic frozen mixed veggie combo from Costco, Lundberg organic brown rice, Costco's organic salsa, and green peppers from Bountiful Baskets (along with some "conventional" ingredients).  The quesadillas along with the rice makes for a very satisfying and filling combo.

Since Nephew was gone to Boy Scouts and not here inhaling large quantities of dinner (he ate two bananas, two pieces of left-over homemade pizza, a bunch of baby carrots, a hard-boiled egg, a snack-sized bag of Fritos, and who knows what else before leaving!), there's plenty left over for tomorrow. We'll do it as tacos in grilled corn tortillas with lettuce and tomatoes - YUM!

In case you're wondering what happened to last night's dinner post, we didn't cook. Mr. Mamie and I had a number of errands to run in town, so we ate dinner out at Appl*b**'s before he went to his class and I went to Barnsie for some book browsing. Dinner was totally over-priced and blah.... we have reached the conclusion that we pretty much are becoming incapable of eating out, because nothing is as good as what we fix at home!

I won!

Remember the Bagnesia give-away from Retro Green Housewife that I mentioned earlier this week? Would you believe that I actually WON? I never win stuff... of course, I only ever try when it's something I actually want. But, I do love me some good reusable bags and accessories, so I'm a little excited about this. "Wheeeeeeeee!" as my friend BonBon would say!

Nearly Wordless Wednesday 5/19/10

Cousins

Dinner Tonight - 5/18/10

Tonight's dinner was Anti-Oxidant burgers with CrockPot mac and cheese and corn on the cob (from our Bountiful Basket).

The concept of the burgers is that the meat is mixed with specific spices that act as anti-oxidants. The flavor that the spices imparted was good, but what was even BETTER was the quality of the Dakota Beef organic ground beef we used - excellent! We are able to purchase this at our local Costco. According to the company's website, their cattle:

    •      are born and raised on certified organic pasture
    •      never receive antibiotics
    •      never receive growth-promoting hormones
    •      are fed only certified organic grains and grasses
    •      have unrestricted outdoor access
    •      receive humane treatment

Not only are these good production and life principles, but they create conditions in which the meat is more tender, juicy, and flavorful than "factory farmed" beef.

Mr. Mamie and I put some slices of the Gruyere cheese we got at the farmers' market on our burgers - decadent!

The bun in the above photo is homemade, from this recipe. Sooooo much more "real" tasting than store-bought buns! Also, easy to make the night before you want to use them. They freeze well, too.

The CrockPot macaroni and cheese was VERY cheesy! It cooked well in the CrockPot, though I think next time I will either up the macaroni or decrease the cheese a bit. This was NOT health food!

No greens on my plate... good thing I took lots of salad in my lunch!

Ten Things Tuesday 5/18/10

10 ways we are changing our eating habits:

1.    I no longer keep pop/soda at home (for my own consumption). That is, no more 12 packs or 2 liter bottles of Diet Coke in the house. I DO still but fountain drinks regularly when out of the house.
2.    Everyone is drinking WAY more water!
3.    The water being consumed in #2 is NOT coming from single-serve plastic bottles. We’re all about the cups/glasses, BPA-free reusable plastic, and stainless steel.
4.    ALL chicken we buy is now organic/free-range/humanely raised. After watching “Food, Inc.” about how chickens are raised in CAFOs (concentrating animal feeding operations), we HAD to make this change (CAFO procedures are well-documented in other sources, lest you think one movie caused this shift for us).
5.    All ground beef and ground turkey we now buy are organic/free-range/humanely raised. See #4 for why.
6.    We try to buy as much organic produce as possible, and certainly make sure that we buy ONLY organic if the item is on the “Dirty Dozen” list. Click here for some info on this topic.
7.    I make from scratch almost all of the bread we eat, including hamburger buns.
8.    We cook dinner almost nightly, never order D*min*’s pizza, and rarely eat out unless for a special reason.
9.    We participate weekly in a produce co-op, and now that the farmers’ market is open for the season, also shop there weekly.
10.    We pay MUCH more ATTENTION to food – what is is, how it was grown/prepared, what the impact of eating it is, and WHY we’re choosing to eat it.

Image credit

Dinner Tonight - 5/17/10

Tonight's dinner was excellent!  We started with anitbiotic-free, hormone-free, never-fed-animal-by-products pork chops from Maverick Ranch.

Maverick Ranch Pork Chops

We turned the chops into delicious Cajun Pork Chops, done on the grill. Sooooooo tender, juicy, and tasty! Cooking meat on the grill is a snap with the nifty wireless remote thermometer that GolfDad gave Mr. Mamie on his birthday.

I tried another new side tonight (undeterred by last night's Lentil Pilaf FAIL) - Stuffed Acorn Squash. I altered it slightly by mixing up all the stuffing ingredients (including liquid), spooning it into the squash halves, and piling the remaining stuffing around the squash in the baking dish. Then I covered the whole shebang with foil (rather than each squash half individually). It came out very good, and we will have it again (the next time an acorn sqush comes in our Bountiful Basket).

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Along with the pork chops and squash we had corn on the cob (from this week's Bountiful Basket haul) and leftover Cheddar Cheese Biscuits from last night. A great dinner, and I'll enjoy leftover pork chop and squash/stuffing in my lunch tomorrow!

My plate before adding squash. Yes, we put our corn on the cob in hot dog boats - then it in can bathe in butter! Mrs. Igor, The Wombat, and I came up with this idea several years ago.

President's Cancer Panel Report

Go read The Good Human on this topic.  THIS is why we are eating and living differently... because cancer will NOT steal me, like it did my mom.