Spring has sprung!

Well, spring has sprung in our neck of the wood! I didn't cook today--spring fever! Instead I got out the camera for a little creative spree.

We had a doozy of a spring storm this morning, thunder, pouring rain, hail, the works. When it all blew over, I couldn't resist taking some pictures of the flowers that survived the storm.



My husband's favorite flower.



Azaleas are the flower du jour right now. They really are a spectacular sight in their full glory.





I loved the water dripping off the leaves of our sago palm.



Our silver leaf bushes that screen my bedroom window.





A fern on the front porch.



Our loquat tree isn't producing as much as last year, but we're stil getting some nice fruit.

Dinner in 20: Spinach-Alfredo Fettucini

At our local pizza buffet place, my kids absolute favorite pizza is, believe it or not, the Spinach-Alfredo pizza. The pizza is green--white sauce, spinach and cheese. And somehow it manages to cover up the strong taste of the spinach and the kids wolf it down.

So, I experimented at home and discovered I could make a very similar sauce for pasta at home. It is a simple fix and a nice change from spaghetti and tomato sauce.

Spinach Alfredo Sauce

Put your water for the pasta on to boil.

[I do this in a 4 C pyrex measuring cup, but you can use a 1 quart microwave safe dish. ] Measure in a liquid measuring cup, 2 C of frozen spinach. Add milk on top of spinach to make the liquid level up to 2 cups. Pour into dish if not using 4 measuring cup. Add 2 envelopes of powdered alfredo sauce, the margarine called for by the mix and garlic acccording to your tastes.** Mix.

Pop in the microwave and heat 1 minute at a time. Mix after each minute. Stop when the sauce is hot and thick. How lon it will take overall depends on the power of your microwave. Don't try to heat all at once because it will boil over and make an awful mess in the microwave. Guess how I KNOW that...

Cook your pasta while all this is happening.

Serve your sauce over your pasta of choice. We like fetuccini, but anthing you like will work. It looks like a whole lot more work than it actually is.

**If you use an alfredo mix that requires 1 1/2C of milk, increase everything above to 3 C.

Out of the Frying Pan....

This week oone of the local grocery stores had a really really good sale on boneless chicken breast tenders. Usually I don't buy these puppies because they are way to expensive, but they were a great buy, so I had 5 lbs of them sitting in the kitchen! And we weren't about to eat 5 lbs in one week either. So here's what I did with them: (You can use childen breast tender, boneless breasts sliced into tenders or boneless thighs sliced into tenders. You could also use slivers of turkey breast or thighs if you like.)

First, divide the meat into one lb. increments. Then pull out two skillets (with lids if possible) and put them on the stove. (Doing more than 2 at a time is more than I can keep up with! But you can do three or four skillets at once if they'll fit on your stove.) Add a little oil to the skillet and turn the heat up to medium high.

When the pan is hot, add in a pound of chicken. Stir frequently and cook the meat until it begins to brown. Then turn off the heat(if using electric heat, turn it to low if using gas heat) and add one of the following to the pan:

• BBQ sauce
• Sweet and Sour Sauce
• Cream of Mushroom soup, condensed
• Cream of Chicken Soup, condensed
• Sesame-Ginger marinade/sauce
• Honey Dijon salad dressing
• Raspberry Vinegrette Salad dressing
• Lime-garlic marinade/sauce
• Enchillada sauce
• Tomatillo (green enchillada) sauce
• Spaghetti Sauce
• Your favorite sauce, avoid alfredo sauces though, they don't freeze very well
  

Cover the pan and let set 3-5 minutes, the sauce should come to a simmer.

Then, transfer the cooked chicken into a freezer container or a dish for further cooling. Give the skillet a quick rinse and wipe down and put it back on the stove for another round.

I got all five meals done in about half an hour.

When you reheat the chicken, you can add some frozen veggies that fit the sauce if you want. You could also add the veggies into the freezer bag before you put it in the freezer. If you do that though, make sure the chicken is cooled before you add the veggies. Otherwise, the veggies will thaw completely before you freeze the meal and , well, it just makes them yucky on reheating.

These are all good served over your favorite carbs--rice, noodles, tortillas, biscuits, potatoes, what ever you like.

Snack Atttack: Creamy Spinach Garlic Dip

I was 'making it up as I went' in the kitchen the other day. My kids absolute quiver with excitement when I tell them that. They hover around and insist on helping out in the creative process. This was no exception.

I had a hankering for that warm creamy spinach garlic dip you can get as an appetizer at some resturants, but no desire to go out and find some.

So, I hit the fridge and come up with something remarkably like the resturant stuff for a small fraction of the price!

Creamy Spinach Garlic Dip

Start with a 10 oz. bag of fresh, washed spinach. Stuff it into the food processor, a about 1/3 at a time. Pulse the processor to mince the spinach. Add more as what is in the processor gets minced.

When all the spinach is minced add 2 blocks of cream cheese (low fat is fine, but not fat free), as much minced garlic as you like (we like A LOT!, like 1/4C!), 2T of red wine vineagar, onion powder and a generous does of parmesean cheese.

Whirl it all around in the processor until it is all well blended. You may need to scrape down the sides a couple of times. This makes a very generous portion of dip.

You can gently warm this on the stove, over very low heat, stirring frequently, in the microwave or in the oven.

I actually spread this on ciabatta bread, topped it with pepperoni and toasted it all in the oven. The kids fought over the last piece!

Sidelines: Quick Tomato Salad

This is a quick and easy side dish to pull together when you need another veggie on the plate. The kiddos love it and even my hubby who doesn't love tomatoes likes this one!

Quick Tomato Salad
Dice 4 or 5 Roma (plum) tomatoes.
Dice or crumble 4-8 oz of your favorite white cheese (we like queso fresco, a very mild mexican white cheese). Add to tomatoes
Add a generous squirt of your favorite vineagrette salad dressing. (We like raspberry-vineagrette best).

Toss it all well and serve. Or chill then serve. It is pretty and colorful on the plate and mades a refreshing change from green salads.

You can add a couple of slices of finely chopped onions as well if you like. Or some fresh basil, but you don't have to. Toasted almonds would be good too come to think of it.

The Daily Grind

My kids love meatloaf, end of statement. Running out of meatloaf in the freezer is a sort of national emergency around here. The nice things about it is that meatloaf is really easy to make in large quantities and pop into the freezer to stave off such emergencies!

So here’s a set of a variety of meatloaf recipes. None are glazed, that doesn’t freeze well. If you want to glaze them, pour the glaze after they are thawed and you are heating them up for dinner.

Start with 9 lbs of ground beef. I have found that the leaner beef does better in the freezer. Place meat in 1 1/2 lbs increments into mixing bowls. To each bowl add 3/4C of your favoring binder (bread crumbs, cracker crumbs, rolled oats…) and 2 eggs

Then add:

Traditional Meat Loaf
1/4C milk
dollop ketchup
1 can drained mushrooms (4 oz.)
1 envelope onion soup mix

Taco Meat Loaf
1 envelope of taco seasoning
1 can (1 C) corn kernels, drained
1 can diced tomatoes, drained

Ranch Meat Loaf
1 envelope ranch dressing mix
Handful shredded parmesan cheese
Handful dry minced onions

Asian Meat Loaf
Handful of dry minced onions
And either:
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
Or 1/2C sesame ginger salad dressing or marinade

Italian Meat Loaf
1/4 cup ketchup
1 table spoon Italian-style seasoning
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

BBQ Flavor Meat Loaf

1/2C BBQ sauce of your choice
Handful of dry minced onions
A couple of handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese

Mix well. Turn each into a baking dish and bake 30-40 minutes at 350. Do not over load the oven, but usually 4-6 of these will fit comfortably at a time. If you are short on baking dishes, get disposible foil loaf pans while you are at the store. They are worth the investment for the time savings alone. You can wash them out and reuse them a couple of times if you want to boot.

Let the loaves cool, bag or wrap, label and freeze.

Dinner in 20:Honey Dijon Pork Chops

Ever have one of those weeks when you feel like you've just hit a wall? This was one of those for me. I got to a point where the thought of cooking one more meal was more than I could tolerate! So KISS (keep it simple stupid!) has been the ordder of the week.

Tonight for dinner we had: Honey Dijon Pork Chops, Parsleyed Pasta, corn (frozen) and apple sauce. And it came togeher in just 20 minutes.

The corn and applesauce are obvious. The pasta and chops cook at the same time.

Start the water boiling and set out a large skillet for the chops. When the water starts to boil, put the chops in the skillet on medium high heat. Add the pasta to the water. While it cooks, brown both sides of the chops and heat up the corn on the stove or in the microwave.

When the pasta is done, drain it. While it drains, top the chops with a good dollop of Honey-Dijon salad dressing. Turn down the heat to medium low and put a lid on the skillet.

Return the pasta to the pot. Add the butter, parsley and salt to the pasta and toss well. By the time you get everything else to the table, the chops will be done. Give the pan juices and dressing a little stir and you're done.

Start serving and you should have a minute left from your 20!

The nice thing about this meal is that my kids really really like it. My youngest actually had 5 servings of pasta and they all but fought over the extra pork chop. That all makes it a little easier to face dinner again tomorrow night.