Roasted Vegetable Meatloaf with Balsamic Glaze

Another one of my quests lately is to find yummy meatloaf recipes. I never really liked meatloaf much until I tried this recipe. It made me realize that it can be pretty good with the right ingredients and flavors. This is a recipe I found from Bobby Flay and it was so worth the time I spent reading recipes and looking for the right one. It calls for the traditional mixture of ground beef, pork, and veal. First of all, our store never has ground veal and ground pork is pretty hard to find. I substituted a pound of pork sausage for the pork and veal. It worked perfectly. I think the key to good meatloaf is having vegetables in it to give it moisture. The kids scarfed this one up and, even though mine aren't too picky about their veggies, it's a good way to sneak them in there. Also, I don't think you can ever go wrong with a little balsamic. We had this with mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli. Definitely satisfying!

Chicken Tacos and Mexican Rice

I've been missing Mexican food like crazy lately. Everything about it, the spicy, the beans, seems to make my baby unhappy. It is my husband's favorite cuisine and I've felt really bad it so I tried to make a milder Mexican dinner and left out the beans. Success! It was yummy: happy Mommy and happy baby! Anyway, I did the chicken in the slow cooker and it came out really good. I did the shells my self by frying corn tortillas in a little oil in a skillet. I like to fry them just a little so they're kind of in between the soft tortillas and the really hard tacos. Then I made my own little version of Mexican rice. Easy and delicious.

Recipe (serves 4 plus leftovers)

Chicken for tacos (would be great in burritos or for nachos, etc)

2 - 2.5 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
16 oz container of fresh salsa
1 T chili powder

Note: the salsa is where you can really alter the spiciness.

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on high for 4-6 hours or low for 8 hours. Shred meat with 2 forks and serve.

Mexican Rice

1 T olive oil
1 c long-grain rice
1 cube (or 1 T) of tomato chicken bouillon (see below)
2 c water
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 t cumin

In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add rice and cook, stirring, until brown (but not dark brown/black). When almost brown add the garlic. Next, add the bouillon and water (WATCH OUT: It will steam!!!) and the remaining ingredients. Stir well and cover, leaving a small air escape. Reduce heat to medium low. Cook UNDISTURBED for 20 minutes. When ready, the rice should be fluffy and the grains split open and dry, not saucy.

*The bouillon can be found in the Mexican food section of the grocery store. If for some reason you cannot find it you can substitute chicken bouillon (or just use chicken stock instead of the water) and add a tablespoon of tomato paste or a few tablespoons of tomato sauce.

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Chicken Picatta

This is definitely a go-to meal when I don't know what to cook. It contains ingredients that I pretty much always have in the house (with the exception of capers, which I feel are optional in this recipe anyway.) It is one of my favorite Italian dishes and is delicious with pasta or rice. I like to make a simple white rice or pilaf with chicken stock and we had some roasted green beans. Yum!

Spaghetti & Meatballs

There is nothing better than being able to have a yummy, satisfying home-cooked meal without having to do much cooking. Don't get me wrong, I love to cook. It really helps me relax and de-stress (that is, when I don't have children hanging on my leg.) But, there are some days when it's just no that easy, whether it be sickness, errands, or just a long weekend. This is why I love meals that freeze well. Spaghetti sauce is one of those things that just taste better the second time. I've found most people agree on this one. I will also freeze meatballs, BUT I do not cook them first. I do not like the taste of frozen pre-cooked meatballs. To freeze them, put them on a baking sheet and freeze until firm and then you can place them in a Ziploc bag. I also portion my sauce into Ziplocs and they can be laid flat in the freezer. So, here's my take on the classic family spaghetti dinner.

Chicken Korma

My husband LOVES Indian Food! My experience with it has not been so great. I like spicy food, but every time I've tried Indian food it was so spicy I couldn't taste anything. The fact that I don't really like curry probably doesn't help either. So one day I was looking in my Food Network magazine and I saw this recipe for Chicken Korma. I had never heard of it but it looked really good. I asked my husband if he'd hear of it and he said "yeah, it's Indian." So I decided to try it seeing as it does not have curry and I could adjust the spice to my liking. It was really good. I think it will definitely become part of our regular rotation. The recipe calls for ground chicken so I just took some boneless skinless chicken breasts that I had and pulsed them in the Cuisinart. I served the Chicken Korma with some fresh toasted whole-wheat pitas. I think next time I will try to make some homemade naan bread. For sides I served roasted garlic couscous and roasted broccoli (I was going to do an Indian cauliflower dish but the market was out of cauliflower!) All in all, this dinner was easy, healthy, the kids loved it, and it was better than most take-out. Score!

Green Eggs and Ham

I'm back! It's been a crazy week with colds and cranky babies and what not. But, I think things are looking up. Anyway, there is always food to be cooked and blogged about.

I wanted to do something clever for April Fool's Day. At first I thought of making a "surreal" kind of dish - something that looks like something else. I looked for recipes on the Internet, found a lot of meatloaf cakes, and nothing seemed really appetizing to me. This led me to think of coloring food to make it look different and then it hit me. Green Eggs and Ham! I could always dye some fried eggs but that didn't seem exciting enough. I've had eggs with pesto before that I loved so I decided to go that route. They were yummy! I made a pesto with spinach and also sauteed some spinach and ham with the eggs. Served them along side some home fries and homemade biscuits (my son and I decided make them spring themed by using a butterfly cookie cutter.) In my opinion, you can have a meal like this anytime of day because it's just so good.

Italian Mac-n-Cheese

The next in my series of mac and cheese recipes, I've yet to find someone who doesn't love this when they try it. It is sooo yummy! It satisfies so many cravings: cravings for mac and cheese, comfort food, Italian food. The best part - it's a 30 minute meal! Everything is cooked before hand and all you need to do is pop it under the broiler to brown it. Another great thing about this recipe is that it freezes very well. You should definitely make a double batch and pop one in the freezer. This was one of the recipes I froze during my last pregnancy so that we had home cooked meals when the baby came home. It was delicious and might taste even better than the first day. I have to thank Rachael Ray for yet another yummy but quick and easy meal.

Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's Pie has always been a favorite in my family. I loved it growing up and now we love it in our family. I think it's a great family recipe because you can put what your family likes in it. I've made a lot of versions of this dish. The original dish is made with lamb but we often use ground beef. I've also made it with ground turkey and topped it with mashed sweet potatoes. This dish is also a great way to use leftover meat. Some of our favorite shepherd's pie has been made with leftover roast pork loin. This recipe is the basic one I use when we have shepherd's pie, but feel free to change it up. Use whatever veggies your family likes. This time I added some carrot and it was yummy!

Fried Rice and Stir-Fry

One of my recent issues of Food Network Magazine had this really cool article on Stir Fries. It's a mix and match type thing where you pick your protein, veggies, and sauce. I chose to do Sweet and Sour Chicken. It was pretty good but not amazing. Maybe my family thinks different but I don't remember too many "mmm" sounds at the table that night. I personally think I've made better stir-fries. I just feel like something was missing. Anyway I also made fried rice which is always a hit around here. It's actually quite easy and you can't put pretty much anything you want in it.

Spring Shells and Cheese

As promised here is another macaroni and cheese recipe. This was one of five recipes included in an article about mac and cheese in Food Network Magazine. It's also where I got the recipe for Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese. I like dishes like this one with the veggies in it. It's one less thing to worry about when making dinner. This was pretty yummy and pretty easy. The flavor reminded me of a vegetable lasagna. The only problem for me was when I shredded the zucchini in my Cuisinart and then couldn't get the lid off. My zucchini was stuck until my husband could get home and work his handyman magic on it. We ended up having to wait till the next day for our mac and cheese. Anyway, it was worth the wait and it went great with some grilled pork chops that I had marinated (for over a day at that point) in McCormick Grill Mates Garlic Herb & Wine marinade. The whole family loved it and, even though my kids are pretty good with their veggies, this was a great way to get some in them.