These are a few of my favorite things

No time for blogging, no time for working out, no time to do basic things like fold my laundry. 

So instead I’m going to share with you quickly some of my favorite things to cook! And some of them are serious timesavers.

 

 

Prosciutto stuffed chicken

 

 

 

Cheesy Veggie Casserole

 

Mama’s Meatloaf

 

 

 

Pasta with Spinach and Diced Tomatoes

 

 

French Ham, Cheese, and Egg Fondue Casserole

Happy cooking!! Try something new for someone you love this weekend

How to cook a spaghetti squash

I don’t recall the first time I had spaghetti sqsash, I believe my mom made it quite a bit growing up.  And the way she cooked it was so easy.  We were at a friend’s house recently and they were making it for dinner and our friend Todd was manning the oven and checking on the spaghetti squash every 20 minutes.  I was surprised by this method of cooking it because it can be done in a much shorter time span.  I explained to him how I did it and he had no idea that it could be such an easy dinner to make.  So here is a how to, we’ll at least one way it can be done.

Cut spaghetti squash in half

Scoop out the loose seeds and flesh on the inside of the squash.  This is just like when you’re cleaning out a pumpkin, less slimy, but same principal.

Turn upside down in a pyrex dish or in some corning wear. Make sure whatever dish you use can be put in the microwave.  Put the squash in the dish and then fill with water. The squash I used was smaller than normal so I was able to fit both halves in the dish. Normally I can only fit one half in at a time.

Fill dish with about a 1/4” – 1/2" of water and then cover with cling wrap.

Put in the microwave and cook for 10 minutes.  Depending on the size of your squash this time may vary, but if you’re only cooking 1/2 of a larger squash that should be fine.

Once its finished cooking, pull your dish out of the microwave but be very careful, the dish and the steam under that cling wrap is going to be quite hot.

Take squash out of the water and let sit to cool for a few minutes.  The next step is to scrape out the ‘spaghetti’ with a fork and you don’t want the squash too hot or you would be able to handle it.

Put ‘spaghetti’ into a dish and serve!  I like mine with pasta sauce or just some olive oil and s&p. 

Also, just an FYI, my husband is never convinced he wants spaghetti squash, but as soon as he starts eating it he gobbles it right down.  So if the people in your life are hesitant at least make sure they try it because it’s not as scary as it seems.

Coming up: How to make Grandma's pasta sauce!

OMGosh how is it Tuesday?

Seriously. I think yesterday flew by and I’m sure today and tomorrow are going to do the exact same thing!  This weekend was amazing, relaxing, full of cleaning and reading.  My house is ready for guests and the first one arrives tonight!  It’s my husband’s best friend, the guy that introduced us, and I haven’t seen him in over a year.  I know my husband is super excited for his arrival.

And me, I just want to be at home. Cuddled up with the dogs and husband, waiting on the holiday to arrive! But I’m not. And I won’t be because I work full time.  But that’s OK because I’m going to take Friday off and we’re going to go to upstate New York for the weekend.

On Thanksgiving day I’m going to be a busy beaver.  We’re not having everyone over to our house, we’re going to the in-law’s, but I am helping my mother in law make quite a bit of food. 

The dishes I’m bringing are: (recipes included, clicky below)

Turkey – one of two. Mother in law is making the other one

Cheesy veggie casserole – quantity 2. They’re already made and in the freezer I’ll just need to pop em in the oven!

Mashed Potatoes – 10lbs. I actually even bought crockpot liners so that we won’t have to even clean the crockpot! I’m really making things as easy as possible for myself this year.

Stuffing – yummy my mouth is currently watering

one of the apps – brie and onion puff

And I’m certain it’s all going to be delicious!! Can’t you tell I’m a little bit of a control freak?  I mean I’m sure Mother in-law could have taken care of like the stuffing…but then I’m sure it would end up with like mandarin oranges in it. And while I’m not opposed to that, I like traditional food on thanksgiving not all mucked up with fruit.  If I’m going to eat stuffing instead of my midday apple I don’t want fruit in my stuffing. Know what I mean?

Something else I’m excited for on Thursday, a FREE workout class at 8am. And the class is 90 minutes long….for FREE!  That means I’ll wake up, throw the turkey in the oven, and get my sweat on….and then I’ll feel guilt free as I drink and eat the day away!

I hope to be back by tomorrow but If I’m not I hope everyone has a very happy holiday!

A simple Wednesday night – in pictures

Ben sitting on the sofa enjoying a book on tape…he made a fire but didn’t turn on the lights!

Simple dinner. Pasta w/ diced tomatoes, spinach, and feta

Doggy love:)

Cheesy Veggie Casserole

I think most everyone has that one thing they associate with a particular holiday.  For me that is cheesy veggie casserole at Thanksgiving.  I grew up eating it, and hoarding all the leftovers for myself:) and now I’ve made it every year we’ve been in Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving!  The first year I made it we went to my husband’s aunts house outside of DC and I wasn’t supposed to bring a dish, but I just can’t help myself sometimes….and honestly by bringing something I knew that there would be that one thing at the meal that reminded me of home.   The entire family raved about it.  The next year Ben’s mom told me that it was requested that I make it again.

And the only time I make it is at thanksgiving.  It’s not really good for you, I mean it has a pound of cheese in it! But OMG my mouth waters just thinking about it.

This year for Thanksgiving we’re staying home, er maybe going to the IL’s. the location hasn’t actually been finalized.  My mother in-law and sister in-law and I are all splitting the cooking.  I of course am making side dishes because those are really the most important part of the meal, and if left to my mother in-law everything would have mandarin oranges and cranberries in them!

So on my list is: Stuffing, cheesy veggie casserole, mashed potatoes…and I think rolls.  I need to look over my list again.

We’re going to have friends in town for Thanksgiving so in order to minimize the amount of time I’m in the kitchen I’ve started cooking already! Sounds weird, but honestly Thanksgiving is one of the easiest holidays to cook for because you can do so much ahead of time.

This past weekend I made French toast casserole and two pans of the cheesy veggie casserole and threw them in the freezer.  All I’ll need to do on Thanksgiving is throw them into the oven and do the finishing touches.

If you have been asked to bring a side dish, bring this cheesy veggie casserole. Its easy to make and honestly people will love it!  So here is my recipe. I have photos up to the last step because I put mine in the freezer.  I post pictures of the last step and of it complete after Thanksgiving.

Cheesy Veggie Casserole

2 ½ cups of chopped carrots

2 ½ cups of chopped broccoli

2 ½ cups of chopped cauliflower

1 pound of cheddar cheese

½ pint of heavy whipping cream

1 tsp. dry mustard

1 cup milk

Dash of Salt and pepper

1 stick of butter (I use unsalted)

Crushed cornflakes

This recipe is so easy. You literally cut the veggies, steam them, put them in an 9x13 pan and then mix everything else in a saucepan and dump it over the veggies!  But here are some photos that show you how I put it all together.

cut veggies, put into a pan and steam.  Only need to steam for 5-10ish minutes.  They don’t need to be super soft at this point because you’re going to cook them in the oven.  Really just steamed enough to start the softening process and get some bright color.

Please ignore my disposable pan.  #1 I’m freezing these so I can’t store them in something nice, #2 its Thanksgiving.  I thought we already established I’ll be drinking instead of cooking, so let me also ad that I’d like to be drinking instead of washing dishes too!

Next we made the sauce!  Put heavy cream, milk, dry mustard, salt and pepper into a sauce pan. make sure the dry mustard is wisked into the sauce nicely. You don’t want weird clumps.  Also, here is a photo of the whipping cream.  My mom listed it as whipping cream in my cookbook and for the longest time I couldn’t find it! I had no idea whipping cream and heavy cream were the same thing:) its OK. you can make fun of me.

Warm up on medium heat, then add the cheese to the mix.  I do a little at a time but I don’t think it really matters.  You just want all the cheese to melt.  And make sure you’re stirring so that the cheese doesn’t get burned on the bottom of the pan!  Once this is all added through pour over the veggies.

Looks yummy, right?!

The next steps I don’t have pictures of yet, as mentioned above. But you melt the butter in a sauce pan, mix in the crushed cornflakes, and put on top of the veggies.  For the crushed cornflakes you can get regular cornflakes and crush them yourself if you want, but they actually have them already crushed at the supermarket!  In my supermarket they are on the top shelf of the bread aisle next to the stuffing mixes.

Put in oven covered at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, and the last 15 minutes leave uncovered so your cornflakes get crispy!

If you want to make this dish ahead of time stop before this last step. Cover in foil, and put in the freezer. 

I also put mine in one of those huge ziplock bags…don’t know if you really need to do this but I do just to make sure nothing gets freezer burned.

Enjoy! You are going to love this dish.

 

Also, the leftovers are amazeballs.

Things enjoyed this weekend

Halloween trail mix- recipe found here

Dogs finding pockets of sun

 

Homemade pasta sauce – recipe to come soon

weekend snacking - sauce & garlic bread...lots of butter:) and halloween trail mix

Semplicita angel hair & artichokes

I love pasta. My mouth waters at the thought of pasta, but sometimes I do have to change it up.  I am ½ Italian ½ German, but my husband says I’m all Italian.  It’s in my blood, every holiday growing up it was pasta, lasagna, sausages, red sauce…..I could go on and on.  In an effort to eat from our pantry this week I took inspiration from another recipe (made it a little lighter) and came up with this goodness.

By leaving the extra cheese and milk out I felt much better about eating pasta carbs for dinner, and this dish is just as yummy. trust me!

Semplicita Angel Hair

• 3 tbsp of butter (I used Earth Balance to make it a bit healthier…don’t tell my husbandJ)
• 1 tbsp chopped Garlic
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped small
• 1 cup low sodium chicken broth (I used homemade broth) or vegetable broth
• 1 tbsp flour
• Salt & pepper
• ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
• Artichokes
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 lb. of angel hair pasta

In a small sauce pan drop 3 tablespoons of butter over medium heat.  Add 1 medium yellow onion chopped small and saute until translucent. 

At this point add the garlic and shake of salt and pepper.  In a small cup mix 1 tablespoon on flour with chicken broth. this will help the broth thicken once its on the stove and by adding the flour to the broth before its warm you won't get any weird clumps in your sauce.  stir broth into onion mix and leave on stove over low-medium heat while you work on the artichokes.

I used a can of artichokes from Trader Joes in my dish.  they're not marinated in anything, just water so they're not adding any extra flavors to the dish that you don't want. 

chop up into pieces and saute in another pan with a drizzle of olive oil.  I left mine on the stove top for maybe 5 minutes. I wanted them to soften, but not fall apart, and you're going to add them to the other sauce mix so they'll cook a bit more in there too.

Once your artichokes are cooked, and the sauce is thickening add artichokes to the onion/chicken broth sauce.  This is when I added the cayenne pepper and the parmesan cheese.

Leave dish on stove to simmer for a little while, while you cook your noodles.

Pasta Noodles - you know how to cook these right?  OK good.

Once pasta is cooked through, make yourself a plate!  add the sauce/artichokes over the pasta, top with parsley and additional parmesan and enjoy!

OPTIONAL: Top with extra parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper

And of course what is a pasta dinner without a side salad?  My grandfather always said, every dinner should include a little bit of green!

Ben loved this dish, and it just is a huge reminder to me that I need to use what we have before I buy more crap!!

Weekly Menu

I must get back into planning meals for my family.  I have been beyond terrible lately, and while nobody is eating poorly we’re eating the same food over and over again and then also as leftovers.  So I’m going to make a conscious effort to get a plan in place and keep it. 

At one point I was so good about meal planning that I would spend an entire day making freezer meals and storing them for days when I didn’t feel like actually cooking, or days that I worked or went to the gym late and my husband was at home trying to figure out what we should be eating.  I think since the weather is getting colder and I won’t be outside as much I’ll have more time to make freezer meals.

Hopefully as I get back into this routine I’ll be able to start sharing recipes and pictures with you too!

Sunday – steak, roasted potatoes, asparagus

Monday – semplicita angel hair & artichokes w/a side salad

Tuesday – Dinner at the farm (my IL’s house, family dinner)

Wednesday – pork tenderloin, with either sweet potato mash or sweet potato fries

Thursday – leftovers

Friday – meatloaf, roasted butternut squash, and a side salad

Saturday – not sure yet.

That’s it!  Week one we’re using only food that we have in the house.  I have so much beef we need to eat and why not eat from our supplies.  I am terrible about having a craving for something and buying more food for the house when we already have plenty to eat.  So this week out of all the meals above I had everything in the house except for the asparagus, score!!