Eating Dinner With My Family

This is a recipe everyone should know.  It is a perfect recipe because: it's economical, easy, doesn't make a mess and can be tailored to any diet, taste preference or ingredients on hand. (for example: I have left out mushrooms out of the boy's packet or no meat and vegetable broth for a vegetarian friend)  I have made this before with a variety if ingredients, but this is how I made it tonight.   If you click on the title and to to the original Alton Brown recipe, you will see the way I made it the first time I cooked it.  I personally really like the addition of the cabbage and would include it always.  We had a pound of shrimp and there were 7 or 8 in each packet, so we ended up with a more than the recipe calls for, but even with the extra, the meal, for 4, was less than $10.  I have made it with just veggies and its really good that way too.  I don't use the "flavor" packets that come in the ramen for the broth, but ...

The family consensus is that this is a 4 or a 5 depending on who you ask.  For me personally it is a 4.5 that could be bumped up to a five because of it ease of preparation and economical price tag.  This dish and a salad would cost about $10.  It would depend on where you are and how inexpensively you could get the ingredients.  For  example, I got the Publix goat cheese that was exactly a 1/4 lb and it was $3.99 and the most pricey ingredient in the whole thing.  I got sliced salami because I didn't really read the recipe ahead a time, but it worked fine. I do think cubes would be better texturally.  This recipe was one of those delicious yet easy ones that made my son ask to have a college cookbook file created on the computer.  DONE!  I also think it would be a great thing to give friends that are setting off to college.  The only deviation was that I had an open carton of beef stock and I used that.  I also used half ...

This recipe was easy to make.  I did feel that the "gravy" was a bit thin for what I expected when I filled the puff pastry squares.  They also looked a bit wonky when I was folding them in to turnovers. I also thought 2 teaspoons was a LOT of thyme.  (1 only used 1 tsp) What we ended up with was really good.  I boiled chicken breasts in the morning and chopped it up when I made this while the boys were at soccer.  It is from $10 Dollar Dinners , so it is inexpensive but still really good. Chicken Pot Pie Turnovers 2 T  butter 1/2    onion,chopped 1    carrot,chopped 1    stalk celery,chopped Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 2 ea garlic,minced 2 t  dried thyme 1 T  flour,plus more for dusting 1/2 c  white wine 1 c  chicken stock 1 t  Dijon mustard 1/2 c  frozen peas 1 1/2 c  cubed or shredded cooked chicken 1    sheet frozen puff past...

Tonight's recipe was the highest rated review on food.com .  I was a little skeptical.  All the sweet ingredients in it just make me think it was going to be awful.  I was also a little concerned over the 3/4 tsp of red pepper flakes.  In the end, I think it was quite good!  My 2 yr old thought it was too spicy and my 11 year old made a big show of gulping milk, but he eats lots of spicy stuff so I kind of think he was being dramatic.  I thought the heat was perfect. If your family doesn't do much spice, use a 1/2tsp or even 1/4tsp of the red pepper flakes.  It really wasn't that spicy with 3/4tsp; it just had a little bite to it with the after taste.  As an added bonus, it was super easy to make.  I think the whole thing (including the rice and the sauteed bok choy with garlic) took 30 minutes.  I started the rice in the rice cooker after I got the chicken in the pan and I prepped and cooked the bok choy while t...

 I have no idea where I got this recipe.  I'm pretty sure it came in one of my recipe of the day emails, but when I googled the recipe, none were quite like this one.  I thought the idea of whipping the whites and then nestling a yolk in them was intriguing and my whole family is a huge fan of a runny yolk! I honestly don't see how anyone can't be but I'm sure there are some out there.  The dish is pretty good and we all liked it, but it could have been a great dish with some changes.  The most important change would be a sauce.  We suggested, hollandaise, cheese, and even just a compound butter would have helped.  I also would have cooked it less than 15 minutes; the yolks were almost completely set.  The only thing that was a bit odd, and that can't be changed unless you change the whole dish, was the texture of some of the whites.  My son hated it at first, but the inside part wasn't so bad and he declared he liked it better once he got u...

I had some things I wanted to say so, if you just want the tasty recipe and my thoughts on it, skip down to the last paragraph:). I started this blog over a year ago for several reasons. These reasons, in no particular order, were to: share recipes with friends, push myself out of my comfort zone recipes, keep myself on track with a year of different dinners, and to promote eating meals together.  That last reason, while extremely important to my family and myself, seemed to be missing from the blog posts.  I found a page on facebook called the Shared Meal Revolution , and I was glad to be reminded of this vital part of the meal: the companions.  Until the last few years, our family meals were not a priority.  My husband works odd hours sometimes and not available for dinner. (I'd say 50% of the time.)  Even when he was home, we often "ate like Americans" (which was what we called it) in front of the TV.  One day, I saw a documentary fi...

I was not feeling like cooking tonight.  I usually do but I was in a bit of a funk.  I have said it before and I will say it again, I have the best husband ever.  He took over dinner and cooked everything.  The fish recipe is from $10 Dinners on the food network.  I have only tried a few of her recipes, but they have ranged from good to great.  This one was adored by my son.  I liked it too, but I have to say it was a tad too lemony for me.  I would have added a bit more butter at the end or a bit less lemon.  Not that I am complaining. If you ate it with the Bulgar, it cut it's tartness.  It was really good but if I were tyring to nit pick it for fixes, that would be it.  To  go with it, my husband made Bulgar cooked in mushroom broth with some sauteed onion and celery and a lovely salad.  We ate every bit of dinner.  Usually there is a portion of leftovers, not tonight.  I don't know what sides she put wi...

My first thought upon completing this dish was it really isn't pretty is it!  My fist bite was pronounced ok.  I decided that I really needed to add more than a dash of garlic and salt.  I also made one other change.  There was tons of the bacon fat left in the pan.  Maybe the bacon was extra fatty or thicker than the original recipe called for so I omitted the butter.  The noodles were done at the same time they were to go into the cabbage, so I didn't need to worry about them sticking to each other.  Maybe they meant salted butter and that would account for the need for a bit more salt.  (I did a dash of salt and a dash of granulated garlic.  I try to never by my seasonings mixed.  It costs less and you can easily do it yourself)  Well after the additional seasoning, (oh a splash of hot sauce as well)  I have to say I started to really like the dish.  The bites with a bit of  every component were really great! Two o...

     Before I started cooking this, which I did pick because of the leftovers I had from Friday night's meal, I figured the cost of the entire dinner.  Ham 1.65, Scallions .60, Kimchi 2.00, Rice, .51,  Eggs  .42 Total= $5.16 but kimchi and rice was leftover so they would have been wasted if not used so I almost don't want to count them.  Complete the meal with even a fancy bag of mixed salad greens $3.00 and make your own dressing. Oil, vinegar and salt and pepper are considered part of a stocked pantry.  Meal total $8.16.  I have a bit, not much mind you, of the pork left too.  I could have used it in place of the ham.  Instead I thought I would either serve as a lettuce bundle for each of us or mix it into the rice.  I decided to save it and eat it as lunch because it is just too darn good to throw in with something else.      The rice was good.  I had made it once before and didn't r...

This one was alright.  We weren't hating it but I plan on deleting it.  I thought the meat was a bit tough.  Flavors were ok, but I did add some smoked paprika at the end and some hot sauce in addition to the salsa and sour cream..  Truth be told, we haven't found many fajita recipes that really wowed us.  Generally I have found chicken to be better than the steak also. Beef Fajitas For marinade 2 T  canola oil Juice of 1 lime 1 t  chili powder 1/4 t  garlic powder 1/4 t  salt 1/4 t  pepper 3/4 lb chuck steak or top round sliced into 1/4 inch strips For fajitas 1/2    medium onion,sliced 1    medium sweet red pepper sliced into thin strips 2 T  canola oil,divided 8    flour tortilla shells,warmed Salsa Sour cream Combine marinade ingredients and add beef. Refrigerate for 30 minutes and up to overnight. Remove beef from marinade. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oi...

Another good one!  It was quick (except for the hour of simmering) and easy.  My biggest issue with this recipe is that the point of these meals is that they are inexpensive, and they are, but many of the ingredients come in much bigger packages, and what isn't used will go to waste unless there is some planning.  For example, the kale comes in a 10 cup bag, but the recipe only needs 2 cups.  I cooked off the rest and am making a kale and chorizo fritatta next week.  The kielbasa comes in 14 ounce portions but I only needed 8 for the recipe.  These are parts of the ingredients that had to have money spent on, but they have no use in the week and they are not figured in to the cost.  If they go to waste, then the cost of the meals goes up.  I suppose there are markets out there that you can by a different size, but not my grocery store and I think it's a fairly good one. Ok enough complaining.  My darling and wonderful friend who recommended t...

Yay!!!  This recipe was good!  I am so glad this one was tasty as we had friends over for dinner.  I did deviate a bit from the original recipe.  I thought it looked a bit small for the 5 of us so I used my second bag of ravioli I had but this one was beef.  I also used the really good marinara (the $8 kind I only buy when it is bogo, so that makes it about the same as the other marinara).  I "thawed" the ravioli for a few minutes in boiling water.  It was quick, easy and could be made ahead of time.  We all agreed it was the best thing we had all week. Baked Spinach And Cheese Ravioli 1 1/2 lb frozen cheese ravioli,thawed 1    Ten ounce package frozen chopped spinach,thawed and squeezed dry 1    24 ounce jar marinara sauce 1 1/2 c  shredded mozzarella 1/4 c  Parmesan Preheat oven to 350F. Use nonstick cooking spray to grease a 2 quart baking dish. In a large bowl, combine ravioli, spinach, and m...

Well of all the recipes of the week, we had the highest hopes for this one, but it was a total failure.  I even had about half a small tub of ricotta that was going to be thrown out soon and I put it in there too.  The ricotta helped but it was not good.  My family feels like they are on some kind of weird punishment detail.  There wasn't even salt or pepper in the calzone mixture.  I am determined to come up with a menu that will feed my family for a week for $70.  I would say $50, but I figured I would start with an easier goal in mind.  Not next week; I promised my family we would have a regular week, but I am going to just buy the meal stuff and not paper towels, soap etc in that trip to the store.  That way I can see how much a regular week of just dinners cost. (just for a frame of reference) I really don't think it is that much more.  I was averaging $150 but that included paper towels, cleaning supplies, breakfasts and lunches and bee...

Another underwhelming meal from the week of under $50. ( http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500172_162-6910676.html  )  Not bad really, but not a wow either.  The chicken was pretty good.  The beets never made it to the plate; Forty minutes to cook my foot!  After the 40 minutes, they were still very hard, so we kept cooking them until they were fork tender, which was an hour after we had finished eating.  I will eat them with lunch or add them to dinner tomorrow.  I added a salad instead.  I made the mistake of using a bottled dressing,  I bought a bottle in what can only be a fit of madness.  I saw green goddess dressing and thought yum and that is a bit of work to make, why not.  I will tell you why not; it will make a great salad taste flat.  We all ate the salad, but it lost something in the process of dressing rather than gaining.  I couldn't find instant polenta at the store so I made the basic polenta recipe I found ...

So I decided to try the feed a family of four dinners for a week for under $50 menu I got from a friend.  http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500172_162-6910676.html   I left my husband in charge of finishing up the dinner while I went out to the monthly wine tasting at my home away from home, The Ormond Wine Co.  I'm kinda glad I missed this one.  The boy liked the pork, my husband not so much and they both agreed that the salad was just way too lemony.  I plan on deleting it. Oh and they had some of the leftover bulgur as a starch. Pork Milanese 4  Four ounce boneless pork chops,trimmed of fat 3/4 c  dry bread crumbs 2 T  grated Parmesan 1/4 t  garlic powder 1    egg,lightly beaten 3 T  extra-virgin olive oil 4 c  baby arugula 2 T  lemon juice Preheat oven to 350F. Place each pork chop between two pieces of plastic wrap. Using a meat mallet, pound to about 1/4-inch thickness. Season each side with s...