Below is the list of things I have made for dinner lately (except the roast & white chili, I'm making those later this week). My list is still growing, so I'll keep you all updated as I get new and approved dinners! We are definitely finding out though that with just the two of us and Tommy eating, we need to account for more leftover meals, or share with others!
Meals for Dinner:
1.) Chicken Fajitas & chips and salsa
2.) Pancakes/Waffles
3.) Homemade Pizza
4.) Soup (vegetable, potato, white chili, etc) & grilled cheese
5.) General Tso chicken and fried rice (lo mein)
6.) Baked Ziti & Garlic Bread
7.) BLT’s & chips/fries
8.) Chicken Tenders/Chicken wings & fries
9.) Chicken Parm, Garlic Bread, Salad
10.) BBQ & Mac’n’cheese
11.) Mom’s Sloppy Joes & Mac’n’cheese/corn
12.) Pot Roast & crescent rolls
13.) Italian Chicken, potatoes, carrots
1.) Chicken Fajitas!
This is one of our absolute favorites! Very inexpensive and fairly easy.
Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts (we get the frozen Tyson chicken, I usually take out one large chicken breast, and one small, they differ so much in size, but that's the perfect amount for the veggies)
1 Package of Fajita Seasoning
1 bag of frozen Pepper and onion mix from Kroger ($1.29, no chopping or wasting of unused veggies)
1 bag of Mission brand Whole Grain tortillas (they don't taste weird, we usually don't get whole grain but can't tell the difference and it's healthier, that is until I fry mine :) )
1 bag of Rice Sides Taco Rice
Sour Cream
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Tortilla Chips
Salsa
Preparing: Thaw chicken, cut off fat, cut chicken into small slivers or chunks (I just use my kitchen scissors). I fry my tortillas in a small amount of oil, I think they are better that way, Kyle eats them the healthy way, nonfried. I do that first to get them out of the way and to skip cleaning the skillet in between items. Add a small amount of oil to the frying pan and cook your frozen veggies, once they are tender add in your chicken. Let your chicken cook through, then there should be enough liquid from the thawing of the vegetables to just add your fajita seasoning. (If it looks dry add some water to mix the seasoning). Let everything bubble, then let it simmer so it can thicken up. Make your rice in the microwave in between time. Then build your fajitas! DELICIOUS! Leftovers are pretty good but definitely better fresh!
2.) Pancakes and Waffles - we do the instant mix, Kyle LOVES chocolate chip pancakes and waffles
3.)Homemade Pizza (from Kelley Sisson)
This pizza dough is easy to make and so very cheap! I had tried other recipes and failed horribly and I didn't want a recipe where I had to wait hours to make the pizza. Thanks again Kelley! I cut her recipe in 1/2 and actually we even like to cut it in 1/4 b/c we like really thin crust. I'll post the 1/2 recipe (we use the 1/2 recipe to make 2 large pizzas, she uses the regular recipe to make 2 large)
Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon yeast (1 of the small packages of yeast from Kroger, they come in a pack of 3)
1 Cup warm water
2 1/2 Cups flour (I would use a little less flour b/c I sprinkle the cutting board with it when I'm rolling out the dough, maybe do 2 1/4 cups)
1/8 Cup oil
1 Teaspoon sugar
1 Teaspoon salt
Mix ingredients, kneed until firm. Press and roll into pizza pan. Prick dough with a fork. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Brush edges with oil, top with sauce, cheese, and toppings. Bake for 15 more minutes.
*Be sure to spray your pan good so you can get the pizza off easily, for some reason I never spray it quite enough*
4.) White Chili (we also like veggie soup, taco soup, or regular chili) and Pepperjack Grilled Cheese (recipe from Sarah Lewis aka Critter!)
This is the full recipe which apparently even halfing this recipe makes a ton, but I plan to freeze leftovers. I will be halfing this, I just copied and pasted this recipe from an email she sent me. I will also be trying a few shortcuts: using canned chicken, minced garlic from a jar, frozen chopped onion, and I'll be adding some Fiesta Corn.
Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (boil for at least 20 mins)
1 clove garlic minced
1 cup chopped onion
4 cans ckn broth
5 cans Bush's Great Northern Beans (not drained) (also, I bought the store brand and they were just fine)
1 16oz jar salsa verde (in international food aisle)
1 can chopped green chilies
1 tsp parsley flakes
1 tsp oregano flakes
1 T ground cumin
juice of 1 lime (1/2 before cooking and 1/2 before serving)
1 1/2 cups uncooked white rice
In the biggest pot you got (seriously, i had to use my two biggest), brown the chicken breast in olive oil. (Or just boil and skip this step). Let chicken cool. Add chopped onion and minced garlic to pot with olive oil. Cook until onions are translucent (and smell really really yummy). Shred chicken (with hands is the easiest way) and return to pan with onion and garlic. Add next 8 ingredients to chicken mixture. Simmer for 1.5-2 hours if you have that much patience. (It will be find if it simmers for 45mins-1hr). Add rice and other half of lime juice. Cook until rice is tender. Another can of chicken broth can be added if soup is too thick. Serve with shredded pepperjack cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips. YUM.
5.) General Tso Chicken and Fried Rice (I'm trying to find Lo Mein)
We made this once and it was actually really good. Not quite restaurant quality but we're going to tweek it as people commented on the website. I'll post the link. The suggestion from them were to use less cornstarch in the sauce (I agree it got super thick), use brown sugar instead of regular (we also think this makes sense it may help make it a little sweeter). Some of our own tweeks will be to just bake the chicken instead of frying it (Kyle thought the fried taste was overwhelming and it took forever and was messy) and we didn't use the pepper they said we just put red pepper flakes in the sauce and it worked out great. For rice I just bought a microwave rice but next time I'll try something a little tastier.
http://www.food.com/recipe/general-tsos-chicken-164706
6.) Baked Ziti and Garlic Bread (used to use Chelsea's recipe but I lost it, this is similar if not the same)
This is also from a website. We cut this in half, unless we need to take a family dinner from church, b/c it makes a whole lot! We like to mix some Garlic Parmesan sauce with the marinara for the middle mixture - it makes it a little richer and the marinara sauce isn't overwhelming. Kyle prefers to have some chicken or ground beef on his portion but I like mine without it. Then we just make frozen garlic bread to go with it. So good!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/baked-ziti-ii/detail.aspx
7.) BLT's and chips or fries (we use frozen fries) - pretty self explanatory
8.)Chicken Tenders/Chicken Wings and fries (all frozen foods, easy dinner)
9.)Chicken Parmesan on Garlic Bread with Salad (from Sarah Lewis)
Super easy recipe and it was tasty.
Ingredients:
Frozen chicken tenders
Frozen Garlic Bread
Marinara Sauce
Mozerella Cheese
Salad
Cook your chicken tenders, set aside. Cook your garlic bread (I topped our's with cheese). Put the tenders on the garlic bread, pour a little sauce over each one, and add cheese, bake for a couple more minutes (I took the bread out a little early b/c I wanted to melt the cheese on top and knew I would be putting it back in). Serve along side with a salad.
10.) BBQ and mac'n'cheese
Crockpot!
Ingredients:
3 thawed chicken breasts
BBQ sauce (our favorite is Kraft Hot BBQ Sauce)
Can of soda
Some onion if you have it
We add red pepper flakes (we like our food spicy)
Buns
Mac'n'cheese
Put your chicken, bbq sauce (I eyeball it, we usually use a whole bottle b/c we like it to marinate in it and the bottle is only $1), 1/2 can soda, onion, pepper flakes into the crockpot. I stir the sauce mixture. Turn your crockpot on high and cook for 3 hours or so. Once your chicken falls apart with the fork it's ready. Shred your chicken, you can use some of your sauce in the crockpot or if you have leftovers in the bottle (sometimes the sauce in the crockpot is really thin, that's why I say 1/2 can soda). It's delicious BBQ! Serve with Mac'n'cheese.
11.)Mom's Sloppy Joes! (from my wonderful mom!)
1lb Ground Beef (brown it first and drain fat)
Sauce:
1 1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon mustard
1 onion (chopped, I have found that buying frozen prechopped veggies at Kroger really cuts down on prep time, I also get the green pepper this way)
1 green bell pepper
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon Worcester sauce
2 shakes of hot sauce
2 shakes of chili powder
And 1/2 stick of butter melted mixed with 3/4 cup brown sugar packed
What I do is melt the butter and brown sugar together in the microwave and then add all the other ingredients, mix them together, and pour it over the ground beef. Add your onion and pepper, and let it cook on the stove top until everything gets bubbly, then let it simmer for 20 minutes or so to let it thicken up. You don't have to let it simmer that long, but it's better if you do. We eat it on buns, usually with mac and cheese. SOOOOO good! And the left overs are amazing too!
12.) Pot Roast, veggies, and crescent rolls (from Sarah Lewis)
I will be using baby carrots instead of big ones & I got a 2 1/2 pound roast, b/c roast is expensive, so it probably won't need to cook quite as long! So excited to try this!
Ingredients:
1 can (10 3/4oz.) Campbells Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 pouch (2oz.) dry onion soup & recipe mix
6 small red potatoes, halved
6 medium carrots, cut into 2" pieces
3-3.5-lb boneless beef bottom round roast or chuck pot roast
Stir soup, onion soup mix, potatoes and carrots in slow cooker. Add beef and turn to coat. Cover and cook on LOW for 8-9hrs (4-5hrs on high if you must, but it will turn out better on low). Super easy. Super yum.
13.) Italian chicken, veggies, and bread
I would recommend making this recipe on a different week then the Pot Roast #12, the vegetables are pretty much the same. So we're freezing our roast b/c we just had the chicken last night. But it's a cheaper alternative to the roast! I got this from a website as well and we were very pleased with it. I read the reviewers comments and used a can of chicken broth, cut my potatos small, added carrots, onions, and by choice only did 3 chicken breasts (and I just realized I forgot to add cheese, oops!). I'm guessing that my crockpot cooks hot, b/c it did not need as long as the recipe said. I think it took about 4 hours on low.
http://southernfood.about.com/od/crockpotchicken/r/bl111c7.htm
LONGEST BLOG POST EVER! haha! Hope it gives you all some good ideas! I'll let you know when I find another! If you know of any good ones, please share!! And a picture of the minivan will be coming soon! I LOVE driving it!
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