3.31.2010

Happy Easter

Whether you celebrate Easter or not, if you are a ham eater, this is the time of year to buy ham. You can pick them up at Marsh right now for as low as $.77/lb. Slice it, cube it, and freeze it in meal sized portions. Then, when you want a ham omelet or quiche, scalloped potatoes, or spaghetti carbonara, you will have cubed ham without paying the premium for pre-diced ham at the grocery. You might also take advantage of tossing any unusually shaped scraps in the food processor and making up some ham salad to change up lunch this week. If you buy ham with a bone, let it simmer and pull off any remaining tid bits and make ham and beans with the broth. Hurry, before it's too hot to bake cornbread 'cause you can't have ham and beans without cornbread!

Not interested in Ham? Other Marsh deal this week are:

- boneless rump roast $1.98/lb (I try to keep most of my meat purchases under $2/lb)
- boneless center cut pork loin $1.77/lb (This usually comes in a large 8-10 lb loin. Slice it into chops; cube it for stir-fry, casseroles, or stew; or cut it into 1-2 lb roasts. Package it up and freeze it. It only takes a few minutes and is well worth the savings.)
- Green Giant veggies 5/$5 (Coupons for these are pretty common both in the paper and online.)
- Dole canned fruit 5/$5 (There were coupons in the paper a couple weekends ago making these about $.66 each)
- sweet potatoes $.88/lb

3.12.2010

Creamy Italian Chicken Spaghetti

I put extra chicken breasts in the slow cooker for supper Tuesday night. They were marinated in Italian salad dressing- yum! I loved watching Robin Miller on Food Network when we had cable and still love to check her out on their website. Seriously, check her out. One of my favorite things, learned from her, is to cook extra and use it later. So, if you are gilling steak, grill extra, slice it up, and make it into fajitas later in the week. If you are roasting BBQ chicken breasts in the oven, make extra and chop them up for empanadas. It takes only a few extra seconds and will save you so much time later in the week!

So, I made Creamy Italian Chicken Spaghetti. It was wonderful. Bear loved it too. Then we went for a walk around the neighborhood for about an hour- we still had calories to burn, but it was getting too dark. I had such a good feeling about this meal, that I measured things as I put them in! I rarely do that, but wanted to be able to accurately share. If you try it, you'll thank me.

You can cook up several chicken breasts, marinated in Italian salad dressing, or you can take my advice and use some leftovers. I had four chicken breasts. I used three in the recipe. Daddy ate the other one, microwaved with marinara sauce and cheese (he wanted no part in my experiment- his loss).
Shred her up! But not too small. It will continue to break up in the sauce, so leave it pretty chunky. (Meanwhile, boil up some spaghetti. I didn't take pictures, so I hope you know how to cook spaghetti. If not, look for directions on the box. I used whole wheat and recommend you do too, but if you haven't gone to the dark side of grains yet, the recipe will still work.)
Heat 2 T butter and 2 T olive oil in a large skillet. You are welcome to mix and match, but that's the combo I chose. Add 1 T crushed garlic.
Stir in 2 T flour. This is called a rue, now don't you feel fancy?
Let it bubble away for about a minute to cook the flour, so you don't have a raw taste in your sauce.
Next add 3/4 c dry white wine, 1/2 c Italian salad dressing, and 3/4 c heavy cream (or half and half, etc). Any dry white wine will work, but my preference is Gewurtzraminer- love it. I used 2% milk because that's all we had- and this was an experiment, but I'm telling you, at least use half and half!
Add the shredded chicken and 1/2 tsp dry rosemary. Let it bubble away for 3-5 min and get thick.
It's not rich enough- add 1 cup parmesan cheese. Stir in well.
I served this over spaghetti with a blend of veggies from the freezer. Fabulous, and it didn't take long to throw together when I got home from work.

3.07.2010

Spring/Summer Meals

The sun is out, the tulips are sprouting, and a cardinal was at our window feeder this morning. Spring is on the way. There are dozens of reasons I like about Spring. Along with the fresh new life sprouting up around us, it is a good time to freshen things up in the kitchen. Clean out those cabinets/pantries/freezers and look for things that are about to expire- then find ways to use 'em before they do. Late spring brings the start of a bounty of summer produce. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Eat in season!

Check out what's in season for you:
http://www.nrdc.org/health/foodmiles/default.asp
or here:
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/seasonalcooking/farmtotable/seasonalingredientmap

I typically rotate meals by season. While we're freshening everything else up, find a few extra minutes to freshen up your meal plans. I find a great start to menu planning is a listing of what you make. Some great summer changes are to add meals that require no cooking, or ones that have slow cooker/grilling out options.


pizza pasta salad
tuna macaroni salad
chef salad
taco salad

fajitas (grill out)
tacos
quesadillas
taco skillet

spaghetti
spaghetti carbonara
chili mac
cheese burger macaroni
macaroni and cheese
pasta primavera
Italian chicken (slow cooker) (grill out)

low mein
fried rice
stir-fry
terryaki chicken (grill out)
terryaki salmon (grill out)
Thai pork stew (slow cooker)
beef and broccoli (slow cooker)
orange chicken (slow cooker)

apricot pork (slow cooker)
Coq Au Vin (slow cooker)
mini meatloaf
meatloaf patties
smoked sausage (grill out)
ham
BBQ meatballs (slow cooker)
tuna and rice
creamy beef and rice
jambalaya
red beans and rice
salmon patties

steaks (grill out)
hamburgers (grill out)
chicken or beef kabobs (grill out)
BBQ ribs (slow cooker) (grill out)
BBQ pork chops (slow cooker) (grill out)
Italian pork chops (slow cooker) (grill out)
BBQ chicken (slow cooker) (grill out)
lemon pepper salmon (grill out)

sloppy joes (slow cooker)
meatball subs
BLTs
monte cristos
club sandwhiches
black bean burgers
shredded BBQ beef (slow cooker)
BBQ pork (slow cooker)
BBQ chicken (slow cooker)