BLTs - A wonder!

I don't have pictures, but I made real BLTs this week. No bread, just bacon, lettuce and tomatoes. It was amazing....I'd never had it before.

I added a bit of mayo to the romaine lettuce, right on the lettuce, topped it with tomatoes and a strip of bacon on top. I am so doing that again! Remember this dinner!

- SamiMae

Zucchini Pizzas

I made this dinner a few weeks ago and just haven't been able to blog about it yet. I've seen a lot on Pinterest about doing meals with zucchini. I managed to find a small one at Smith's and decided to give it a try.

1. Cut the zucchini in nice thicker slices maybe  1/4th to 1/2 inch. Baste in olive oil and cook for about 3 minutes on each side. 

2. Put a little pizza sauce, or tomato sauce with seasonings (which is what I do), then top with a little cheese. 

3. Broil until cheese is melted or personal preference.

I didn't think these little guys would be filling, Trevor was super sceptical at first. But I think I cooked 2 zucchinis and they filled us both up! Quite tasty. They remind me of pizza pockets - but much healthier! 

- SamiMae

BBQ Chicken Tin Foil Dinner

This was another original. Not to complex by any means though. It was quite tasty, completely healthy (other than the BBQ sauce), and I had everything on hand. It's similar to my favorite BBQ pineapple quesadillas .

Ingredients:
- Chicken tenderloins
- Pineapple
- Green or red bell pepper
- Green chilis (I used a tiny bit from a can, optional)
- BBQ sauce
- Onion (Optional)

- Tin Foil.

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Put chicken on tinfoil, top with pineapple, green chilies, about 3 slices of green pepper, a few slices of onion. Top with BBQ sauce. Wrap it up.
3. Bake for 45 min to 1 hour.

Pretty customizable. Use whatever you have at home!

In the last 10-15 minutes this had to cook, I prepared an super easy and quick stir fry. I LOVE stir frys 

Stir fry: 

I cut up 1 zucchini and 1 squash. You can add in peppers or other veggies like broccoli. I cooked them in a bit of canola oil and topped with Mrs. Dash seasoning. Quick, simple. Tasty. Healthy.

This was a favorite. Quick and easy. It was perfect for a weeknight. I love meals that I can put in the oven and continue on doing my own thing. The BBQ sauce is pretty liquidy after it comes out, but the chicken was so moist! I'm making this again. 

- SamiMae

First Time Guacamole

Earlier this week, I bought an avocado. The first one in my entire 6 month marriage! I didn't know quite what to do with it, until tonight. I made guacamole! YUM! I found a recipe on Pinterest, so I could see what it called for, because I had no idea what is in guacamole. I found this recipe. I did mine quite a bit different, because I didn't have a lot of it, but it was a start!

Ingredients:

- 1 avocado

- Lemon juice

- Garlic powder

- Diced tomatoes (leftovers from last night, yes, I got creative)

- Diced onion (I actually used frozen!) 

- Salt

Pretty simple to make. Cut up avocado and mix in all the ingredients! Use a fork. Go off of taste, but remember that after it sits for a while, the flavors will absorb and it'll taste better. I can't wait to taste mine tomorrow. :) Even the 10-15 minutes that it sat while Trevor and I finished making dinner, was enough for it to start absorbing the flavors. I was quite impressed. It was pretty good. :)

I didn't have any lime, only lemon. I had cilantro, but was to lazy to see what parts of it were good to use. (It was 9 pm when we were making dinner). I even used frozen onions, just a bit though, and they were diced, so they thawed pretty quick. 

I gotta say, for my first time, it was pretty good! I think I will SO be making this again! 

- SamiMae

Stuffed Bell Peppers

So, last night I made stuffed bell peppers. Secretly, growing up I never liked them. But I wanted to give them another try. I've learned the only way to like things, is to eat them. :) This was pretty tasty. I was able to eat about half the pepper, and then I was done, but the insides were really good! These were simple to make. They can be time consuming depending on how you choose to make them. This was another recipe I made from Pinterest. But, I made mine quite a bit different. You can view the original recipe here.

Ingredients:
- Bell Peppers
- Cumin
- Salt
- Diced tomatoes
- Black beans
- Corn
- Rice
- Meat (I used ground beef.)
- Cheese
- Green onions (optional)


1. Clean out peppers, remove seeds and veins. Let them dry
2. Start cooking rice. I used brown rice, no instant stuff. So, that took a while to cook.
3. Cook meat, add in cumin, salt, tomatoes, black beans, and corn.
4. Add rice to meat mixture after it's cooked. Season to taste if you feel it needs more.
5. Next comes the stuffing. Stuff each pepper full of the yummy meat mixture!
6. Cook peppers in the oven for about 30-45 minutes at 350, depending on your preference. Mine was about 35 minutes. Top with cheese and green onions.

I found that it was really good with ranch. That's how I was able to eat the pepper! I love peppers in dishes, but to eat one whole or raw or even cooked can be a challenge. But, nonetheless, this was a tasty dish! Trevor ate the whole thing! For being in a pepper, it was pretty mild on heat and taste. Give it a shot!

We only cooked two peppers, and had quite a bit of leftover rice stuffing mix, so we put it in the pan with the 2 peppers to cook to eat later. (We actually used the leftovers tonight for dinner. :) Along with our stuffed peppers, we had a salad and my yummy homemade bread.

- SamiMae

Chicken and Veggies

I love dinners that require little prep time. This was another dish that was delicious and took very little time. It was simple and filling with a burst of flavor. It's super simple. Are you ready for this?!

1. Wash and cut up 3 small russet potatoes
2. Pull out 3-4 chicken tenderloins
3. Drain can of green beans
4. Put in a casserole dish. Potatoes on one side, chicken in the middle, green beans on the other side.
5. Top it all with Grill Mates Montreal Chicken seasoning and a little bit of butter
6. Cook 1 hour at 375.

This was simple and perfect. It took me maybe 15 minutes to prepare, and then I could go about doing other things while it cooked! (Like cleaning the house. :)

Everything is raw in this picture. The only oil in this dish, was the little bit of butter I used. I think I had about 2-3 Tablespoons that I used. I just cut it up small. 

Here is the finished product! YUM!

- SamiMae

Chicken Enchilada Spaghetti Squash

Tonight, I made a super yummy meal. This is one that I've wanted to make for a while. I always keep enchilada stuff on hand. Beef or chicken, its one of my favorite. I got the idea from Pinterest, but did mine a bit different. Click here to see.

First, I had Trevor show off his muscles by cutting the squash in half for me. This squash came from Grandma's garden from this past summer. One of my favorite things about squashes are they last a good long time. You don't have to worry about using it within 7 days. 

So, after it got cut, I covered the flesh with vegetable oil, salt and pepper. I then popped it in the oven, with the skin side up, and let it cook on 400 for about 35-40 minutes. You'll hear some sizzling from within the oven. That's OK. :-)

After that, I began to fix my inside mixture. I don't believe in measuring  things out. I prefer to just eyeball it, makes each meal unique. In a bowl I mixed the following ingredients:

- Canned chicken
- Black beans
- Corn (about half a can, were leftovers from another night.)
- Cream cheese. (I used about 4 tablespoons. Just to help thicken.)
- Green enchilada sauce
- minced onion

- Cumin

I filled the inside of the squash with this yummy goodness. I topped it all off with cheese, green onions, and olives. I would have put cilantro on, but mine wilted and I couldn't. But, then I put it back in the oven fore about 15 minutes and then BAM dinner was ready. 

This was a super fast and forgiving meal. If I had made a mistake in the ingredients, it could have been corrected. This meal was quick to prepare. It was a little time consuming to gut the squash, but other than that, maybe 10 minutes. Within an hour I have a tasty and beautiful meal that looks like I slaved over it all day. :) 

I slaved over this meal all day.....lol

We cut it in half and the insides came gushing out. Oh YUMMY!

 - SamiMae

Bread Bowls and Potato Soup!

For a few weeks now, I've been craving homemade bread bowls and soup. So, on Thursday, I had a bit of extra time. So I decided to finally make it. Let me say now, It was AMAZING! This delicious meal was worth all the time and effort that was put into it. This isn't a meal you can just whip together in a matter of minutes, at least, it wasn't for me. It took a bit of time, but oh baby. It was worth it.

I started with the soup. (I'll admit now, I find all my recipes on Pinterest, and then tailor them to my own desires and sizing.) I have a cute little crock pot that I use. I cut up a few potatoes and poured them in. I put in a fair amount of my frozen diced onions. One can of chicken broth went in as well. I also added in about 6ish ounces of evaporated milk. I didn't quite use a whole can. Lastly, I added a bit of water, salt and pepper and then let it cook on high!

I headed back to campus for about an hour or two. Once I got back home to finish dinner, everything was cooked quite nicely. All the potatoes were soft, almost mushy. I'll admit, looking down at it, it didn't look very appetizing yet. Next, I melted about 3-4 tablespoons of butter, mixed in about 1/3 cup of flour. It got think pretty quick. Then I added in about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of the evaporated milk mixture from the crock pot. I let it cook for a minutes. It quickly thickened. At first, I didn't know if I was doing it right, but went along with it. I added the creamy butter/flour/evaporated milk mixture all back into the crock pot, added about half a can of corn and some sour cream and let it finish cooking. I stirred it up good, added some extra onions and let it sit. It started to look and smell REALLY yummy. After I mixed in everything, it was starting to look like soup. :)

While that cooked, I started working on the bread bowls. When it comes to breads, I usually follow the recipe pretty close. I love bread, I like to make bread. But I'll admit, I'm not very good at it yet. These bread bowls, are fool proof, and the flavor is amazing. This recipe could easily make flavored bread bowls, or any form of bread in general. This could have been really flavorful if I had added some rosemary, or onion or dill, or any other herb. I really like this bread recipe that I found. (I'll attach links below.)

For the bread, I mixed the sugar, water and yeast together and let it rise. (While it rose, I finished dishes. :) Then, I added the salt, oil, and flour to the mix. When I cook breads, I'd rather have it be sticky and get all over my hands, then dry and super manageable. More flour = drier bread. Less flour = moister bread. So, after I added the flour, I moved it to another dish to rise for about 45 minutes. Then I formed it into 3 bread bowls. The dough was really sticky because I had used only 3 cups of flower total. But, I got it into nice little balls, and let them rise for another hour. They got quite large and I was thrilled! I popped them in the oven and let them cook for about 20 minutes, pulled them out and TA-DA! Dinner was hot and ready. I was pretty proud!

Almost done! 

My potato soup!

HOW BEAUTIFUL! (and yummy) 

Topped with a bit of green onions....my favorite

AHH! Dream come true! 

Doesn't that look nice? I'm drooling just thinking about them. Please excuse the poor pictures. I'm working in it. We also have really poor lighting in our little apartment, and I don't know how to use my fancy camera! HA. Here is the recipes and links below! Enjoy!

Loaded Potato Soup

- 4 russet potatoes 

- 1/2 yellow onion. (I also used dried minced onion at the end to give it more flavor)

- 1 can low sodium chicken broth

- 1/2 can evaporated milk

- 3-4 tablespoons of butter

- 1/3 cup flour

- sour cream (about 1/2 cup)

- Salt and Pepper

- Cheese

- Bacon

- Green onions

We topped it with green onions. I had some bacon, but it was frost bitten, so we didn't use it. :( You can also top it with cheese, but we found it didn't need it and was perfect on it's own. This is an easy soup I'll be making again.You can find the recipe I used HERE.

Italian Bread Bowls

- 1 tbsp yeast

- 1 1/4 C warm water

- 2 tbsp sugar

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 tbsp vegetable oil

- 3 - 3 1/2 C flour

This is a great bread recipe. I'm glad I found it and will be making it again. :) Hopefully, I'll get really good at it. That'd be awesome. Anyway, You can find the recipe I used HERE.

Thanks for reading my novel of a post and I hope you enjoyed it! Maybe it'll inspire you to cook a bit more. :)

-SamiMae

Mexican Haystacks!

This is an awesome new meal I just tried tonight. :) The best part about this meal, is everything is something that I always keep on hand. I think there is a lot of flexibility with this meal. You can add spice add heat, or even another veggie/bean. Trevor and I even grabbed some chips to eat with it too.

Again, I'm not one to measure things out. I like to just throw it all in a pot and flavor it based on taste. A lot of times, I don't have everything that a recipe calls for, so I experiment. Here are the ingredients I used tonight:

Ingredients:
-1 can of corn (drained)
-1 can of black beans (drained)
-1 can of tomato sauce
-Salsa (I used a hot salsa and just poured a bit in)
-Taco seasoning (to give it some authentic flavor)
-Garlic clove
- Onions
-Water (about 1/2 cup)
-Chicken (I used leftover chicken from the can, nothing special.)
-Rice
-Cheese
- Sour Cream

I put the chicken in the pot and warmed it up. Then I put in the corn, black beans, tomato sauce, water, salsa, and water. I used dehydrated onions and mixed it in. I crushed a clove of garlic and put it in. It wasn't overpowering, very mild. I lightly sprinkled it with some taco seasoning and let is cook! I loved how fast this all warmed up. Where everything is already precooked, its just a matter of warming it up. During all this, I made 2 servings of Minute rice. I wasn't sure if I'd like it on top of rice, but it surprised me. It was perfect on the rice. By the time the beans and corn were warm, the rice was finished. We topped it with some cheese, and a little sour cream. YUM!

For this dish, I kept the sides simple. I served it with some carrots and ranch and some warm peanut butter cookies. (I spoil my husband. :)

This will be a recipe that I'll be making again! It's nice to make a meal from what I already have in my little pantry. This is also the perfect college meal, cheap, and made quite a large pot. I'm going to keep this meal in mind to make it again! 

-SamiMae

Taco in Lettuce Bowl.

This dinner was inspired by a pin on Pinterest. Instead of a taco with a hard shell, why not just skip a step and put the taco right in the lettuce head?! It was certainly interesting. Trevor was quiet and didn't know what to think at first.

We cooked up the taco meat, added the seasoning. Trevor cut the lettuce head in half and I gutted the inside of the lettuce to make it a bowl. Put a little cheese on it and viola! I would have put ranch on it, but we didn't have any. So, we put ketchup and sour cream on it. I would recommend eating it in a bowl. We had it on plates, and it took up our whole plate! In the end, we ate the meat, and most of the lettuce. With the extra lettuce, we put on some dressing and helped ourselves to a little salad. :) Kinda unique. It's a great change to tacos. We missed out on the crunchiness of the taco shell. This was a fun dish. Something new to try. but you can't beat normal tacos. I can see this dish being super good with a chicken taco. If I do it again, it'll be a chicken taco. Here are our pictures!

I served it with a side dish of squash and zucchini stir fry. I used Mrs. Dash's vegetable seasonings on it. Simple, and my favorite. :) Give it a shot!

-SamiMae

Tin Foil Dinner - Carolina Country

Earlier this week, I made tin-foil dinners. It was supper yummy and was made from everything I have on hand. The items I used are common items in my kitchen, so this is a great meal to make, just about any time. I didn't have any kind of marinade, or teriyaki sauce to put on it, so I tried something new. I'm a huge fan of the Grill Mates season packets. (My favorite is their Montreal steak) For this dinner, I used Carolina Country marinade. It was an excellent choice. :)

Ingredients: 

Potatoes

Carrots

(Frozen) sliced green and red bell peppers

Sliced (can be frozen) onion

Chicken tenderloin 

Grill Mates seasoning packet: Carolina Country

It's super easy. Put it all together in tinfoil. Pour the seasoning on it, wrap it up and cook it at 350 degrees for about 45-60 minutes. I found that the potatoes were perfectly soft and the carrots were cooked well too. We cooked ours for 60 minutes and that was just perfect. I love meals like this, because then I have about 15 minutes of prep work and then an extra hour to do whatever!

The flavor was amazing in our tinfoil dinner.. The meat was moist and fell apart easy. The veggies soaked up the seasonings. The seasoning wasn't too spicy. Trevor loved it. :) I served this with a side dish of green salad. Wa-La! Dinner is served. I can't wait to make this dinner again! 

Looks tasty huh! 

- SamiMae

Veggie Grilled Cheese!

So, one of my New Year's goals is to cook one new recipe a week. This week I cooked grilled cheese with a twist. (I found the recipe on pinterest). It was new and certainly interesting. It's a vegetable grilled cheese.

Ingredients:
Whole grain bread
Sliced cheese
Green peppers
Sliced Roma tomatoes
Spinach.

Make is just like a grilled cheese, but put 2 green pepper rings, 4 slices of tomatoes and a handful of spinach. I'd recommend cooking it on low on the stove. You want your cheese to melt, but not burn the bread. You also want it to cook all the way through, so the veggies are tender and warm.

Not bad, right? :) (Ignore everything in the background. :) I was worried about the peppers being cooked all the way, and I had never had any kind of cooked spinach. Spinach is one of those veggies that I'm really working on liking. This sandwhich, as simple as it it, was a stretch for me, but turned out to be really yummy! When I make it next, I think I'll add some bacon onto it. As Trevor and I sat, eating our sandwhiches, we craved bacon on it.

We also served this with a simple side of baby carrots and ranch. I'm all about healthy dinners, and this sure was one! I'll definitely be making this again! :)