Making Use Of Leftovers

So I grilled some chicken breasts on Sunday and slathered them with my somewhat “famous” BBQ sauce and we had a boatload of them leftover.  Well, I’m a cheap heifer and can’t stand the thought of losing the money I paid for those chicken breasts should they go to waste. 

So while I was at work Monday, I pondered the recycling of said BBQ Chicken breasts.  And here’s what I came up with………..Salad.

Salad, you ask?  Because many of you know that I am the anti-lettuce due to it causing me to need to die should I consume it.  But it seems that spinach does NOT cause the same evil effect.  And I had a large bag of baby spinach just hanging around in my fridge.  So I started dreaming up nifty things to put in the salad. 

Since it was BBQ Chicken and I had a teeny bowl of whole kernel corn left from the same dinner, I decided it was going in the salad too.  And I absolutely can NOT have salad of any type without onion, so red onion went in as well.  Then a whole bunch of other goodies ended up in the bowl!

Here’s what I ended up with for this salad:

BBQ Chicken  & Spinach Salad

*  Baby Spinach (or your green of choice)

*  Leftover BBQ chicken breasts, sliced

*  1/2 can black beans, drained and rinsed

*  1/2 can whole kernel corn, drained

*  1/2 red bell pepper, sliced

*  1/2 English cucumber, sliced

*  1/2 red onion, sliced

*  1 tomato, cut in wedges

*  1 handful bleu cheese crumbles

*  8 slices bacon, chopped

*  3 slices leftover grilled pineapple, cut in chunks

*  dressing of choice (suggestions:  bleu cheese, ranch, poppyseed, catalina)

Crazy combinations for the most part, but they worked.  My SIL proclaimed the salad the best ever.  She practically licked the bowl clean after dinner!  LOL 

Since it was such a thrown-together leftover meal, I didn’t think to take any pictures of it.  :(  Sorry!  It really WAS a great salad! 

I made mine on the healthier side.  It had no bacon or bleu cheese.  And I doubled up on the cucumber, onion and red bell pepper for mine since I love those things so much.  I’m back in the Weight Watchers saddle trying desperately to re-lose what I had already lost.  And I’m happy to report that the scale, who has been my nemesis for the last year, FINALLY decided to go in the right direction!  I am down 9 pounds.  Only 8,432 more to go to get back down to my lowest Weight Watchers weight!  Not that any of that has anything whatsoever to do with using up leftovers…………

Sorry for chasing that little rabbit!  I hope you enjoy my “invention” from our BBQ Chicken leftovers.  Have a great day!

Steak

So over the weekend we grilled steaks.  I love steak!  Steak is GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! 

However, we have a difference of opinion between the Tall Skinny Man and me and my brother and SIL.  TSM and I think that a sirloin or strip steak are the way to go.  Unk and Aunt Dee think a ribeye is better. 

So when we grilled on Sunday, we did some sirloins AND some ribeyes.  Either way, they were delicious!

I assembled a few things before getting started: 

I LOVE ME SOME DALE’S!  LOVE it!  But that’s some salty stuff!  So I always get the reduced-sodium.  If you can take the “real” stuff, more power to you.  My blood pressure hates me if I consume the “real” stuff.  But I digress.  Dale’s is absolutely imperative for steak grilling!  Trust me on this!  It’s way awesome stuff!  I also had some spice-grinders to us.  I like to use a LOT of fresh-cracked pepper.  The more coarse, the better I like it!  I like to bite down on little chunks of peppercorn!  If you don’t, use a finer grind for yours.  I also have that wonderful Chicago Steakhouse grinder.  I LOVE the mix in that little grinder.  It came from Sam’s and it was fairly inexpensive.  I used my little grinders to make a large amount of spice to put on the steaks.  Don’t be afraid of spice!  Spice is GOOOOOOOOOOOOD!  Then there’s the steak, of course.  You can’t really grill steak without steak, now can you? 

That’s it, friends!  Steak doesn’t have to be smothered in a million things to make it taste good!  If it does, you didn’t have good beef to begin with!  Look for good beef!  And if you don’t see any in the case, ask the butcher to cut you some fresh!  That’s why he gets paid!

So let’s do this little process shall we?

You will need a large dish to spread your steak out in for marinating.  I used my “lasagna pan.”  It’s about a 10″X15″ glass baking dish.  Then pour a little Dale’s in a small bowl and have all your fresh-ground spices in another small bowl.  You’ll also need a basting brush.  TSM put a set of those little silicon brushes in my stocking at Christmas.  I don’t know how I ever basted without them.  Go get yourself some!  You’ll throw out those funky little bristle ones!  And if you’re still using the paintbrush you got at the hardware store 8 years ago, quit NOW!  Go buy thyself a silicon brush!  I promise, it’s wonderful for this process! 

Now sprinkle a good bit of your fresh-ground spices in the bottom of your dish, as much or as little as you like.  As you can see, I like a LOT!  And if my arm hadn’t been about to fall off from grinding, I would’ve put MORE!

Then use your little silicon brush to paint the steaks with Dale’s.  Place the steaks, wet-side down into the ground spices.  This will help the seasoning adhere to them.  Then really press them into the spices! 

Would you lookee there?  We’ve got a whole lotta happy steak!  Unfortunately, it was about right here where the Ankle Biters and Tall Skinny Man deserted me to go do Ankle Biter/Tall Skinny Man things.  And needless to say, my hands were way too funky to be doing any photo-taking.  So you’re out of luck for photos of this process after this!  Sorry!

Top each steak with a very generous amount of your fresh-ground spices.  Really massage it in!  Don’t be afraid to really get in there and work those spices in!  Cover and refrigerate until you’re ready to grill.

HINT:  Set the meat out of the fridge when you go outside to light your grill.  It will cook more evenly if the meat isn’t cold when it hits the hot grill. 

Now there’s also a difference of opinion as to how a steak is to be cooked.  TSM just wants the nose and butt of his cow wiped and it warmed up on the grill, basically.  Now me?  I’m not a fan of chasing my food around my plate.  So I want mine a bit more “done” than that.  But I do want it on the reddish side of pink.  My brother and I eat ours much the same, which is funny since we grew up eating steak that was dead.  Dead, dead, DEAD I tell you.  Our Daddy knew no other way to grill than to make the steak into a hockey puck.  God rest his soul.  So that’s all we knew.  Now we know better!  If steak is cooked to brown or gray, it’s hockey puck.  Throw it OUT!  Start over!  It ain’t worth eating!  Unfortunately, my SIL still subscribes to the “hockey puck steak” train of thought.  Poor thang!  Then she drowns it in ketchup.  But I guess I’d have to too if I was eating hockey puck.  But I digress again.

I grilled TSM’s to a rarish-medium rare.  I grilled mine, Unk’s and the Ankle Biters’ to a nice medium.  And Aunt Dee got hers hockey puck-style.

Here’s where I REALLY made these steaks pop.  And I was a goober and forgot to take any pictures while I was doing it.  SORRY!  I roasted about 10-12 cloves of garlic with some olive oil and a little Jane’s Krazy Mixed Up Salt until they were caramelized.  Then I whizzed them in the mini food processor with a stick of real butter.  I went outside and clipped a bunch of my garlic chives that are growing buck-wild right now and snipped them into the mixture.  I divided the butter mixture in half and kept half of it for those of us who don’t do bleu cheese.  For TSM and Aunt Dee, I added half a small container of bleu cheese to their butter.  Refrigerate it all! 

When the steaks came off the grill, I added a little scoopful of butter to the top of each steak letting it melt under the heat of the steak. 

Then we each had to say 100 hail Marys even though we’re not Catholic because there’s no doubt we sinned against God eating those things!  Gluttony IS a sin, after all!  And Lord have mercy on our wicked souls, we sure committed it eating those steaks!

Now run right out to your friendly neighborhood market and fetch the best-looking steaks you can find and whip these bad boys out for dinner tonight.  Then get right with God when you’re done!  Enjoy!

Let’s Talk Food Again

Y’all, my sincerest apologies for leaving you high and dry.  I can’t even begin to tell you how busy life has been with work!  It’s been absolutely insane!  Then add baseball on top of that and it seems like I haven’t had a second to even take a deep breath! 

But I’m off this week……the product of all that work lately.  I’m off taking “flex” time because I’ve worked overtime so much lately that I had enough time to take 4 full days off (with a few hours leftover even!!!!)  So I’m home this week, just relaxing!  Ahhhhhhhhh!  Can you hear the relief in me????  It feels good to not have to travel and to think so hard this week!

So now that I’ve got a few minutes, let’s talk about some food again.  I’ve missed that so much! 

Yesterday, I told you a little bit about Evie, my dear, precious sister-friend.  And I told you that the first time we met in person, I was very newly pregnant with Ankle Biter #2.  What I DIDN’T tell you is that I was so exhausted in those first few weeks of pregnancy, what with being pregnant AND chasing around a profoundly ADHD 2.5 year old, that I didn’t feel much like cooking.  So one night while Evie was visiting, I “invented” some potatoes.  I didn’t feel like peeling potatoes, so I seriously doctored some instant potato flakes and made what would become affectionately known as “Springs Smashed Spuds.”

I was almost ashamed to serve them because………POTATO FLAKES!  Come on!  ME?  But Evie had an absolute FIT over them!  She honestly took what was left home on the plane with her!  No joke!  Carried them on the plane, with her carry-on luggage, back to Colorado!  She did that with some home-made chicken and dumplins too! 

Anyway, I have revised those initial “potatoes,” if we can loosely call them potatoes!  LOL  Now that I’m no longer pregnant and no longer chasing around a 2.5 year old profoundly ADHD child, they’re made with REAL potatoes!

In honor of Evie, I thought I would share the “real” Springs Smashed Spuds with you.  The reason they’re called “Springs Smashed Spuds” is because Evie lived in Colorado Springs and “Springs” just fit so well with smashed spuds.  Somehow “Evie’s Evil-icious Eeek-Evoking Excellent Tubers” just didn’t have the same ring to it.  So Springs Smashed Spuds were born!

And here they are:

Springs Smashed Spuds

*  6-10 potatoes, peeled and cubed for boiling

*  3 cloves of garlic, minced

*  1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

*  salt and pepper to taste

*  1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley or 1 Tbsp. dried parsley

*  1 stick butter (real butter, not margarine)

*  1 cup sour cream

*  1 can French Fried Onions (you choose which size depending on how much crunch you want)

*  2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

*  8 slices bacon, chopped

*  1 bunch green onions, chopped

Boil potatoes until tender.  Roughly smash them with the butter and sour cream while potatoes are still VERY hot.  Add salt, pepper, ranch dressing mix, garlic and parsley to potatoes.  Stir until well blended.  Generously spray a deep baking bowl with non-stick cooking spray.  Spread half the potato mixture in the bottom.  Top with half the cheese, chopped bacon, green onions and French fried onions.  Add remaining potatoes and top with remaining cheese, bacon, green onions and French fried onions.  Bake in a preheated 350° oven until cheese is melted and potatoes are bubbly.  Dig in!

I hope you enjoy these as much as Evie did.  While she was sick, I flew out to Colorado a few times.  I made them for her every time I went.  She could eat very little, but she always had a little saucer full of these ‘taters.  It blessed my heart beyond measure to be able to feed her even a few bites of “comfort” food. 

Have a great day!  Go hug someone you love and make sure they know how deeply you love them!  Family and cherished friends can’t be replaced.  They need to know how much they are loved!  So don’t let the sun set on this day without telling the folks you love how much they mean to you.  They can be gone in an instant and the opportunity is gone with them.  So with that said, I love you people!  Many of you reading have been with me through thick and thin!  Literally AND figuratively!  I love you from the very bottom of my heart.  Know that! 

In Honor and Memory

Today is a gloomy, foul little rainy day here in Tennessee.  And it fits my mood, frankly.  Thirty-eight years ago today was a glorious day.  I was about 6 months old at the time.  So I had no idea at the time that it was a glorious day.  I wouldn’t know about it until I was an adult.

I’ve mentioned the former Moms Online forum here numerous times.  And I’ve mentioned that the site brought me many amazing friends.  I discovered Moms Online around Thanksgiving 1997.  I was entirely new to the web and scared to death of it because of all the bad things you heard back then about all the freaks and weirdos who were online.  But I discovered this wonderfully safe site for Moms.  I was still a fairly new mom.  My oldest ankle biter wasn’t yet 2 and a second ankle biter was just barely being considered at that point.  There was a Christian Moms forum within Moms Online.  It was there that I met a number of ladies who have been my rocks through so many of life’s trials over the past 10 years.  It was there I met Evie. 

We all have friends who come and go in our lives.  We all have friends who make different impacts on our lives.  I can’t even begin to explain the kind of impact meeting Evie and then calling her “friend” made on my life!  But I’m going to try.

Evie and I started talking on this Christian Moms board around Thanksgiving that year.  I learned that Evie had grown up here in TN, the daughter of a pastor.  I learned we were fairly close in age.  I learned that we both loved the Lord and loved to sing for His glory.  I learned that we had boy-babies born about the same distance apart that we, ourselves, had been.  I learned she had a daughter whose birthday was the very special day we finally got to bring ankle biter #1 home from the hospital.  We became fast friends.  I didn’t realize at the time just what a gift God had given me in this new friendship.

Evie came to visit me for the first time in July 1998.  She and her ankle-biter boy baby who had just turned 2 came and spent a week with me.  That was such a stretch back then.  People thought I was NUTS to invite someone from the INTERNET to come spend time with my family.  “Don’t you know that all people on the internet are axe-murderers!?!!?”  Well, Evie wasn’t an axe-murderer at all.  Far from it!

I was very newly pregnant with ankle-biter #2 that summer.  We spent a fabulous week just doing “chick” stuff all week long.  And we talked and talked and talked til all hours of the day and night! 

That weeklong visit was just the first of many over the years.  It’s hard to believe people can bond “from the wrist down” via the computer.  But we did and our friendship grew over the years to become a beautiful sisterhood.  Neither Evie or I had a sister.  We both had brothers named David.  Wonderful brothers, but no sisters for either of us.  We became sisters of the heart.

Shortly after my second ankle-biter was born, Evie found out she was pregnant with baby #4.  It was a surprise baby for her.  A miracle baby, it turned out.  Baby R was born just shortly before my AB2’s 1st birthday.  When Evie went back for her 6 week check-up after Baby R was born, they told her she had cancer.  She fought and won that battle with the evil disease.  Had Baby R not come along, she might not have ever known she had cancer in time to conquer it then. 

In October 2006, Evie called me.  She was calm when she called.  Evie wasn’t calm.  She was vibrant and energetic.  Calm meant something was wrong.  She asked me to pray because she’d discovered a lump in her lower abdomen.  Out of nowhere……….

An ultrasound said it was the cancer back after 7 years.  Evie had begged me for years to come out and visit her in her beloved Colorado, but circumstances had never allowed.  I hung up the phone and started making plans to fly to Colorado as soon as I could.  I spent a glorious few days at Evie’s house, seeing her amazingly gorgeous Colorado.  Those days will eternally be counted as some of the most wonderful I’ve ever had.  We made memories on that trip…..beautiful, amazing memories!

Evie went into surgery a couple weeks before Thanksgiving.  The cancer was not just back.  It was back with a vengeance.  She had told me before I left Colorado that God had already given her a peace about the cancer.  She said she knew she wouldn’t make it through it this time, but God had given her sweet peace.  We stood in her church on Sunday before I left and sang “It Is Well With My Soul.”  It was absolutely well with Evie’s soul.  But it wasn’t with mine.

Evie battled that cancer.  She fought it with everything she had in her tiny little body.  She fought with the spirit of a warrior!  She was determined, driven even. 

So what does all this have to do with today?  Well, 38 years ago today, Almighty God, in His infinite wisdom, gave life to the beautiful Evie.  Hers was a life that He fashioned Himself.  A child He truly created in His own image.  She mirrored His love and mercy and grace to all she met.  Today, Evie should be celebrating her 38th birthday. 

On October 2 last year, Evie’s long battle with cancer was over.  The war was ended, but not lost!  Evie won.  She drew her last breath listening to her precious mom saying, “good job, Evie” and took her next one hearing her beloved Savior say, “well done, my good and faithful servant.”  Evie’s long, horrific battle with cancer was over.

Today, Evie’s celebrating her birthday in Heaven.  Today, she’s celebrating in a place where there’s no such word as “cancer.”  Today, she’s perfect and whole and healthy again!  Today, she will have NO trouble walking through the streets of gold, celebrating with her Savior!  Today, the rest of us who loved her grieve for our own loss and our own inability to celebrate another birthday with her. 

Today, let’s celebrate Evie……………..

 

This is Evie with the Tall Skinny Man.  This is when Evie was still vibrant and energetic.  She’d brought her girls to me to spend a week going through “Amy’s Cooking Camp.”  We never dreamed that in 3 short years, she would be gone.

Happy birthday, Evie!  My life is eternally blessed for having you in it!  My life will never be the same for having known and loved you as my sister!  Keep singing, my friend!  I love you and miss you every single day!  Have an amazing first birthday in Glory! 

In loving memory of Evie……………..

 

A Little Help From The Store…..

If y’all know anything about me, it’s that I love to cook and like to make it all myself as a general rule.  Well, you know what?  Life gets in the way sometimes!  And when it does, it’s awfully nice to have something in the freezer that will let you slap dinner on the table in a matter of minutes.

A month or so ago, I was traveling.  Imagine that!  When I travel for work and have any downtime, I explore grocery stores.  It’s a sickness really.  But I usually find some nifty treasure I’ve never found before in my local Podunk grocery stores.  So about a month ago, I wandered into a Publix and sauntered around for a bit.  I can’t even begin to tell you all the wonderful treasures I packed my cooler with!  I ALWAYS carry a cooler with me because you never know when you might find a tasty morsel that MUST go home with you.  It begs really! 

I found THIS in the freezer section:

And it begged to come home with me.  It knew it would have a much better life in MY freezer than that wicked cold, unloving home it had in the freezer section of Publix.  So brought it home, I did!  And it thanked me profusely!

I’ve spent the last couple of days driving back and forth to Paris, TN.  That’s no short haul, let me tell you.  I made it home Monday night about 7:45.  My sweet SIL had dinner ready when I rolled in.  But yesterday, I managed to make it to my house by “quitting time” around 4:30.  I had a Tequila Lime Turkey Tenderloin that I slapped on the grill.  I threw together some Cilantro Lime Rice, although last night, it was actually more like, um, Lime Rice because I had no fresh cilantro.  But I digress.

Then I remembered my haul from Publix in the freezer.  And I yanked it out and nuked it.  It smelled insanely delish!  Now, could I have MADE the Corn and Black Beans instead of opening a bag?  Sure I could’ve.  I had corn in the cabinet.  I had black beans in the cabinet.  I had onions and I had tomatoes.  I *could* have made it myself.  But I had one ankle-biter going to church for an event and one ankle-biter who had a ballgame to play in.  We were about to have to split in a zillion different directions to make the rest of the evening happen.  I didn’t have time to open cans, peel and chop onions, peel, seed and chop tomatoes, dig spices out of the cabinet, etc.  I needed quick and I needed easy!  So the Corn and Black Beans jumped straight out of the freezer and straight into a microwave dish. 

AB1 made it to church on time for his event.  AB2 made it to the ballfield for batting practice before the game.  And all was well with the world!  AB2 WON, by the way!  GO RONNIE SMITH CHEVROLET!!!!  Not that that has a THING to do with this post.

Here’s what this post is about…….sometimes help from the store is a good thing!  And that little bag of mixed corn and black beans was WONDERFUL!  I actually opened 2 bags.  There was probably only 2 little spoonfuls left in the dish.  That’s it!  And only 5 of us ate.  AB1 ate pizza at church.  So if he’d been here, we would’ve knocked out 2 whole bags of that stuff in one meal!  It was amazing!  Go buy some NOW!  :o)

Alright, that’s my tip for the day!  Sometimes we need a little help from the freezer section.  And this was great help to have!  Have a great day!

Pepper Steak and Rice

Merciful Lord, I love me some Pepper Steak!  I used to make it all the time, but just sorta quit I guess.  I hadn’t made it in what seemed like forever.  But I decided that was going to be our Sunday night dinner over the weekend.  OH MY, was it ever good!

I fully inteded to take pictures as I went along making it and then post the whole process here.  But I got started and forgot to do any picture-taking along the way.  WHOOPS!  So no photos this time. 

First, you have to understand that I absolutely adore peppers and onions!  I could eat them every meal and LOTS of them!  So to me, Pepper Steak is more about the peppers than the steak.  I love the flavor they impart to the whole dish.  It makes me downright giddy!

Want to make some Pepper Steak and Rice?  Let’s cook, shall we?

Pepper Steak & Rice

*  1-2 pounds sirloin tip steak, cut into thin strips

*  1 1/2 large sweet onions, cut into slivers

*  2 green bell peppers, cut into slivers

*  1 red bell pepper, cut into slivers

*  2″ fresh ginger, grated

*  4-6 cloves garlic, minced

*  1/2 cup soy sauce

*  1/4 cup olive oil

*  1/4-1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

*  1 Tbsp. cornstarch

Mix soy sauce, oil, fresh ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes in a mixing cup.  Pour over meat and marinate at least 30 minutes, but longer is better.  When ready to cook, heat a little more olive oil in a wok or non-stick skillet.  Add meat to VERY hot pan.  Stir-fry until meat is nearly done.  If any juice renders out, drain that off completely before adding peppers and onions to pan.  Reserve juice.  Cook until peppers and onions are crisp tender.  Mix cornstarch with a couple tablespoons COLD water then add to reserved juice.  Return all to the pan and allow to thicken.  If additional water is needed, add a few tablespoons at a time until sauce is desired thickness.

Rice

*  Brown Rice

*  1″ fresh grated ginger

*  2 cloves garlic, minced

*  3-4 green onions, sliced, including green tops

*  1/4 cup soy sauce

*  salt to taste

Cook brown rice according to package directions with ginger and garlic in the cooking liquid.  When rice is cooked, add soy sauce and green onion slices.  Taste before salting because the soy sauce is EXTREMELY salty! 

Serve the hot steak and peppers over rice.  ENJOY!

This is one of the meals I remember my Moma making and gorging myself on it!  Hers was SOOOOOOO good!  She didn’t know about fresh ginger back then.  Shoot, I didn’t know about it until the last few years.  I’d never seen it or bought it until probably 4 years ago.  But it’s essential in making the pepper steak taste just right!

I hope you and your family enjoy this dish.  It could easily be made into a Beef Stir-Fry by adding all your favorite stir-fry veggies into the pan.  I made stir-fried veggies to go alongside it this weekend.  But it would be just as good with broccoli, carrots, snow peas, mushrooms, water chestnuts, baby corn, etc. dumped right in!

Now go cook something fabu-licious for your family!  And report back to me what you made!  I may need to make it too!

MAJOR YUM!

Good morning friends and neighbors!  It’s been a while!  Life has been crazy around these parts!  I finally did a little cooking yesterday.  We’ve been so busy with ballgames, work, LIFE lately that I haven’t done a lot of cooking.

But yesterday, I did!  And I made something I haven’t made in a while and had forgotten just how much I love it and how tasty it is!

I LOVE hot Spinach Dip!  So a couple years ago, after watching Rachael Ray make this spinach/bacon/potato concoction, I decided to try putting some chunky potatoes into my hot Spinach Dip and serving it as a side dish.  Lo and behold, it was insanely delish!  So I made some last night for dinner as a side dish.  And I seriously could’ve eaten the WHOLE pan!  They’re THAT good!

So you wanna make ‘em?  Let’s!

Florentine Bacon Smashed Potatoes

*  4 large potatoes

*  2-10 oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained well

*  4 cloves garlic, minced

*  2 cups shredded mixed cheeses (Parmesan, Romano and Asiago)

*  8 strips bacon, cooked and roughly chopped

*  10-12 oz. heavy cream

*  1 stick butter

*  1 medium onion, diced

*  salt to taste

*  freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cook bacon to desired doneness.  Reserve bacon grease.  Peel and cut potatoes into chunks.  Boil.  In a medium-large non-stick skillet, add some reserved bacon grease and saute diced onions and minced garlic until onions are caramelized.  Add heavy cream and spinach to skillet.  Heat through.  Drain and roughly mash the potatoes.  Add butter to potatoes while mashing.  Add smashed potatoes to spinach mixture in skillet.  Stir until well-blended.  Add shredded cheeses.  Serve hot……if you make it out of the kitchen with the pan!  You may be standing at the stove with a shovel over this dish!

Now something to keep in mind is this is NOT rocket science!  You can add whatever YOU like to this!  I’ve added pimientos to it for color at Christmastime.  Sun-dried tomatoes would be rock-your-face-off good in it, especially if you added some mozzarella to the mix.  If you wanted to serve this alongside a steak, some bleu cheese would be fabulous as a substitute.  You can tailor it anyway you would like it.  I’ve used small red potatoes and left the peel on them.  If you have shallots, try those instead of a regular onion.  You just can’t go wrong! 

These potatoes/spinach will make you wish you’d never heard the word “Weight Watchers!”  LOL  They are certainly not diet-friendly.  But they are fabulously tasty!  They would make a terrific accompaniment to SO many dishes.  I already mentioned a big, juicy grilled steak.  They’d be wonderful beside a stuffed chicken breast or a thick-cut pork chop!  Shoot, I think they’re wonderful by themselves!  There’s bacon in there!  Make it a complete meal!  LOL

I must warn you……this is not the *prettiest* dish you’ll ever make.  In fact, my brother’s comment when I put them on the table last night…..”What happened here?”  ROFL  But once you taste, you’ll be hooked and won’t care how they look.  You can always add more cheese on top so folks don’t see how it looks until they’ve already dug in!  A little more cheese never hurt anything……well, except maybe clogging an extra artery or two. 

Anyhoo, enjoy!  These are SO flippin’ good!  I’d eat some for breakfast, but I vowed last night to eat my “last supper” and hit Weight Watchers with a vengeance this morning.  So I’ll pass………but you go make some, you skinny thang, you!  And eat the whole bucket by yourself! 

Hope to see y’all again soon!  I’ve missed you terribly!!!!! 

Anybody Still Here?

YOO HOO!  Anybody still around?  Sorry to leave y’all high and dry!  It’s been wild and crazy around my place the past week or so!  WOW!  We’ve had TCAP testing at school.  We’ve rocked off the start of the baseball season.  The Tall Skinny Man has worked umpteen thousand hours of overtime (or it seems like it!)  And I’ve been up to my armpits in work!  That has left little time for blogging and little time for any cooking either!

I’ve made nothing fabulous in the last couple weeks and have no plans to make anything fabulous either.  I do have to make some cake for a retirement party the end of the week.  But it’s same old-same old!  Nothing new and fun to share with y’all.  So that won’t even be going up here.

I just wanted to touch base with you this morning and tell you I’m still alive and hope you are too!  :o)  I’ll be back to cooking soon!  I miss it!  And I miss y’all!  I’ll see if I can’t come up with SOMETHING to share around here soon!

Much love! 

What’s That Saying?

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions…….yeah, well, I had good intentions for making real meals this week.  Sure did………

Turns out we had to go different directions yesterday evening.  The oldest ankle biter had to go to the orthodontist so I ran in, boiled the spaghetti and tossed it with the sauce I made on Sunday afternoon.  I left that on the stove and then headed out.  The youngest ankle biter had baseball practice.  So the minute we walked back in the door from the orthodontist, I reheated the spaghetti and we  scarfed it down so fast it would make your head spin.  Just spaghetti.  Only spaghetti……nothing else.  Not even a piece of bread.  ***sigh*** 

So I had intentions of making the pork chops today.  Well, 12 roadblocks laters, it’s looking like we’re going to be re-running spaghetti tonight for dinner.  Just spaghetti…….only spaghetti……nothing else because the local grocery store that had pork loins on sale couldn’t be bothered to order enough pork loins to accomodate customers hoping to avail themselves of the sale price.  Empty case, you see.  So first of all, I have no pork chops.  I’d have to make yet ANOTHER run to the grocery store to even get them.  Then there’s the thing with me having to work out of town again today.  So I won’t get home in time to go buy a loin, cut it into chops and finally get it panko’d in time to eat dinner at a reasonable hour.  Moving right aloing, we have the fact that the youngest ankle biter’s coach decided they were going scrimmage with another team this afternoon from 4-6.  And finally, that I have a class reunion meeting starting at 7.  So there you go.  No pork chops for us tonight.  We’ll be lucky if we have 2 seconds to choke down some more spaghetti!  ACK!

 Along with those good intentions to make pork chops, I was planning to make a knock-off (read:  healthier version) of my SIL’s fabulous Napa Cabbage Salad.  Here’s the thing about it……it’s one of my favorite things in the whole world.  But it has like 8,432 calories per bite or something close to that anyway.  So I attempted to make it a bit healthier……….and that’s what we were going to have with our pork chops tonight.  And what we WILL have with them if I ever get to make them.

So since I’M not going to get to have it, I thought y’all might.  So I’m going to share both versions with you today and you can choose whether you want the 8, 432 calorie-per-bite version (which really IS the best!!!!) or my healthier version, which is good, but it ain’t Aunt Dee’s! 

Aunt Dee’s Napa Cabbage Salad

*  1 head Napa cabbage, chopped into thick shreds

*  1 bunch green onions, sliced

*  2 pkg. Ramen noodles, crushed

*  2 1/4 oz. slivered almonds

*  2 Tbsp. sesame seeds

*  2/3 stick butter

*  1/2 cup white vinegar

*  3/4 cup vegetable or canola oil

*  1 Tbsp. soy sauce

Mix cabbage and green onions together in a bowl.  Set aside.  Melt butter in a skillet.  Toast Ramen noodles, almonds and sesame seeds in the butter.  Set aside until cool.  Mix oil, vinegar and soy sauce in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Set aside until cool.  Combine all ingredients right before serving.  Eat the whole lot of it by yourself and stab anybody coming near your bowl with your fork!  Hard!  So they don’t try to come back!  Trust me!

Now, here’s the Amy-ized version:

*  1 head Napa cabbage, chopped into thick shreds

*  2 bunched green onions, sliced

*  1 English cucumber, sliced

*  2 Tbsp. sesame seeds

*  2 Tbsp. slivered almonds

*  Newman’s Own Light Asian Dressing

Toss all ingredients together except dressing.  Add as much or as little dressing as you like.  It’s a low-cal, low-fat dressing and it’s WONDERFUL!  This salad turns out great.  But it just doesn’t have all the crunch of Aunt Dee’s, which is what I really love about hers.  But hey, if you’re trying to behave and mind your Weight Watchers points, this one works out nicely because it has so few almonds that point-wise, they’re negligible.  So the only points you’d have to count is the dressing and again, depending on how much you use for the entire salad, that might even be negligible too.

Well, y’all go have some salad today and think about me!  Cuz I’ll be eating spaghetti, only spaghetti, just spaghetti and nothing else, so help me, God.  But that doesn’t mean you all can’t eat for me!  :o)  Enjoy something for me, would ya?  And I hope you enjoy these salads.  If you’re afraid of a few calories, by all means, please, please, PLEASE try Aunt Dee’s Napa Cabbage Salad.  But again, just a reminder, the rest of the world will want your bowl so go far, far away until you’re finished so you don’t have to share. 

See y’all tomorrow!

Monday Q & A: April 7, 2008

Well, it’s Monday again, so let’s dish the questions from this past week.

Marlene wanted to know if I have a favorite flour.  Marlene, you’re just not going to believe this, but the best dang flour I’ve found is from Save-A-Lot.  I’ve tried all kinds of flour, as you can well imagine.  But I bought a bag of their cheap-o, non-name brand flour around the holidays.  The muffins I made with that self-rising flour rose up higher than any muffins I’ve ever made before.  So I highly recommend it. 

Marlene also wanted to know if my cousins bake my Aunt Jane’s cakes.  You know, I have no idea if they do or not.  But whether they do or not, I sure do!  I guess my favorite cake Aunt Jane made was her carrot cake or maybe her pound cake.  But I never had one of her cakes that I didn’t love.  So it’s really hard to pick just one!  She was a phenomenal baker! 

And that’s pretty much all of last week’s Q’s!  So let’s move on, shall we?

I.NEED.HOME.COOKING!  Everytime I travel for work, I come home absolutely starving!  So one of my first orders of business once I got home was to start making a menu for the week.

Ankle Biter 1 requested pork chops.  He didn’t say how he wanted them.  So I decided to do panko-crusted ones.  Ankle Biter 2 asked for spaghetti…..AGAIN!  His Aunt Dee just made it for him Saturday evening for dinner because he whined so much wanting it.  And I bought a couple groovy tequila-lime marinated turkey breast tenderloins at Sam’s, so those are on the menu too.  Tall Skinny Man didn’t make any requests, so I guess he goes hungry this week!  LOL

So here’s what’s cookin’ at my house, good lookin’:

*  Panko-Crusted Pork Chops

*  Steamed Sugar Snap Peas with fresh ginger

*  Apple, Pear and Cranberry Compote

*  Stuffing

*  Napa Cabbage Salad

 

*  Grilled Tequila Lime Turkey Breast Tenderloin

*  RoTel Potatoes

*  Southwestern Layered Salad

 

*  Spaghetti

*  Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

*  Green Beans

*  Fried Okra

*  Cornbread Sticks

Yes, I know that’s only three meals, but the spaghetti will feed us two meals.  So no need to plan another night’s menu when we can do leftovers one night.  And with baseball practice in full-swing, we have to have a couple nights of quicky-quick dinners in order to be there by 5:45.  So spaghetti and leftover spaghetti will be just the ticket this week. 

So what’s on the menu at your houses this week?