Monday Night Dinner

This is what I am making for dinner tonight... you know you're really a true vegetarian when you can't stop craving these kinds of dishes, and that is just what happens to me now, on a daily basis!


Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Sauteed Leeks, White Beans and Walnuts

Pineapple and Banana Cake

I made this recipe yesterday for dessert. We joined another family for dinner at their house, so they were tasting this for the first time right along with us. Dan, Erin, Dave, Drew and I all gave this recipe a thumbs up. Sorry I didn't get a good picture of the cake - this was taken today when Drew was enjoying a leftover piece. I don't think it is a secret how he felt about the cake. And, Hope and Brad did not sample the cake - they were too busy looking cute in their Chicago get-ups.

Little Taste of New Orleans

I had some short ribs in the freezer I bought on sale a few weeks back and was in search of the perfect recipe because they can be a tricky sort of cut to cook properly. And, along come the Neelys, with their easy recipe for short ribs.

I made a few modifications, based on what my time frame was and what I had on hand.

• 1/4 cup dry red cooking wine (instead of 2 cups)
• two fresh tomatoes, diced small (instead of a 15-ounce can of diced tomatoes)
• no thyme
• lemon zest (instead of orange zest)

1. I seasoned the meat with salt and pepper on all sides, and seared in olive oil for just a few minutes. Then I placed it in the bottom of my crockpot.


2. My chopped veggie ingredients (carrots, celery, rough chopped onion, tomatoes) were then added to the pan where I seared the meat. I then added the other ingredients and liquids as directed by the original recipe. Then I finished with a little lemon zest on top and 1/2 lemon's worth of juice.


3. All the ingredients from the veggie sauce were added over top of the meat in the crockpot. Set on low for 10 hours.


When trying to decide on a side dish, I was thinking about the wonderfully large bag of fresh cornmeal I have from Georgia and thought I would attempt to make polenta for the first time. I used Giada's Basic Polenta Recipe. After making it in the saucepan, I spread it on a cookie sheet and refrigerated it until we came home. Then I cut it in rectangles and re-heated it, adding a little color on both sides, in the pan. Served it next to the short ribs with the vegetable ragout on top. DELISH!

Fire it Up

My pregnancy hormones were kicking in the other night and it was just too hot for me to heat up my kitchen while cooking dinner, so I prepared everything in such a way that Dave could cook it outside on the grill. Perfection - he is such a grill master, and we sat down to eat in a nice, cool dining room. Here is what we made:

Spice Rubbed Grilled Chicken
5 chicken drumsticks
Olive or vegetable oil
1/4 cup Back to the Basiks Original Blend Spice Rub

Slide fingers under skin to loosen it from meat, but do not remove it. Rub chicken all over with vegetable or olive oil. Season with 1/4 to 1/3 cup spice rub both under and over skin, patting in gently. Let rest for 15 - 30 minutes.

Heat grill to medium low. Oil grates; grill chicken, covered, turning frequently to prevent charring, about 20 to 30 minutes, until internal temperature reaches 175 degrees.

Grilled Potatoes with Onions and Peppers
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 packet Lipton Recipe Secrets Onion Soup Mix
1.5 lbs. yukon gold potatoes
1/2 cup sliced mixed bell peppers
1 yellow onion, roughly chopped

Roughly chop potatoes and combine with oil and soup mix in a bowl. Mix well.

Create foil packet by folding a 4-ft. sheet of foil in half to make a double-layer sheet. Add the potatoes to the center. Add the peppers and onion, tossing gently. Form the packet, folding the foil over the vegetables and crimping the edges to seal.

Place on grill over medium heat, turning once, until potatoes are tender, about 25 minutes.

Here is the end result, and while it was a struggle for me to eat the chicken, it wasn't because of the flavoring or the grilling. I actually prefer chicken grilled to any other form of preparation; it's just hard for me to eat meat off the bone right now. David gave it rave reviews, though, and said it is definitely a staple recipe. The potatoes, onions and peppers were spot on for this pregnant girl, and I had heaping helpings of those.



I will also add that I bought the drumsticks on sale a while back, so the entire meat portion of our dinner was under $1.70 for the three of us, and we had leftovers.

New Cooking Experiences

If you read this blog, you probably know me well enough to know that I love to cook. It is one of my favorite creative outlets (the artistic expressions of painting and drawing got left somewhere in my early twenties - one day I hope to re-visit them).

Andrew is old enough now that he recognizes the joy in cooking, making things from scratch and the desire to share special time together in the kitchen. This week, we made two new things, both very easy, that we wanted to share with you. I'm a slacker and don't have cutesy photos of us doing this together, but you will have to trust me when I say Drew helped in every way and was very good at it.


This is photo is so out of focus, but it is of a Mini Beef Wellington we made, on the fly. I was digging through the pantry, the freezer and the refrigerator, and decided with some leftover chopped mushrooms, half an onion, some butter, a top round roast, a can of pizza dough and some 'saucy' ingredients, we could manage to pull off individual Wellingtons for dinner.

We pre-cooked the roast in the crockpot, in a sauce of beef broth, mixed with some Worcestershire sauce and a little Dijon mustard. I can't give you measurements, because I just eye-balled it. Once the beef was cooked, its juice mixed with these three ingredients created a lovely sauce.

While the beef was in the crockpot, we chopped the onion and mushrooms in the mini-chopper to a rough paste mixture. Then we cooked over some butter in a non-stick pan.

Then we cut the pizza dough into six pieces, flattened each piece, put a spoonful of the mushroom mixture in the middle, and wrapped like a little present. This was Drew's favorite part! We then baked in the oven for about 15 minutes to warm and cook the dough. We served with our homemade sauce that was heated and whisked over low heat.




These are called Kart Wheels. We got this recipe out of the Alpha-Bakery for Kids cookbook put out by Gold Medal Flour. My godmother gave me this book a long time ago to save for when I had children.

We mixed the dough mixture, then shaped them into little bowls and we filled with raspberry jam. Drew loved getting to make these, as prior to our getting started, he was asking to play with Play-Doh. This was way better, and we could actually eat these!

Jaime's Birthday and Cookie Cake

We celebrated Jaime's birthday as a family on Sunday. My little sister is, ahem, 28 years old! So not possible.

Drew helped me make Auntie J's chocolate chocolate-chip cookie cake. It was her special request, and after reviewing the recipe, you can imagine my elation to know it was Drew-safe. Here are some photos of him helping me with the cake and our celebration.

Turkey Sliders

This is SO easy- you only need these ingredients to add to some ground turkey meat:


2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 cup finely chopped red, green and yellow bell pepper




Mix together with 1 to 1.25 lb ground beef; form into small patties and place in pan or on grill (I didn't have time to clean the grill, so I did mine on the stove). Right before removing from pan, add a little teriyaki marinade/sauce to the top of each slider.



I served with sweet potato fries, and veggies (yellow carrots, navy beans and spinach).