I think it is important that a mom’s arsenal of evening meals should contain some quick, easy, recipe-less options. I rely on my recipes pretty heavily, but some nights I just need to get something out and don’t have the time between a late afternoon playdate and dinner time to focus on reading about what I need to do. I normally serve these main dishes with fresh fruit or a veggie, and sometimes both, or sometime none if the meal seems pretty balanced.

1. Hot Dog Mac-n-cheese, Side: Shredded Carrots with Lemon Juice and Salt
Prepare box of mac-n-cheese according to directions. Microwave hotdogs. Slice and place on top of prepared mac-n-cheese. Squeeze lemon juice from one lemon on carrots, season with salt.

2. Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
Many ways to add variations on the grilled cheese, such as adding turkey bacon and tomato slices for extra protein.

3. Black Bean Nachos
Lots of variations exist for this one too. Tonight I chopped up an tomato and avocado, and added a dolp of sour cream. I didn’t add the avocado and tomato to the kids nachos, but they did have a side of corn for their veggie.

4. Quesadillas and Beans and Rice
Again, the grown-ups can add more veggies such as mushrooms and spinach, while the kids version would have veggies more to their liking like broccoli or cauliflower.

5. Veggie Burger Topped with Hummus, Shredded Carrots, and Sprouts, Side: French Fries, Broccoli
This is a new one I’ve started using. I really like how I can make the Veggie Burger look monstrous by adding the hummus, shredded carrots, and sprouts. Again, minimal cooking on my part, just quick easy assembly. I roast the broccoli and the fries at the same time.

6. Frozen Pizza, Fresh Fruit, Salad Greens
I was using this one almost every week, because I don’t have to do much on this one. Put the pizza in the oven, chop up a cantaloupe, make sure the greens are clean.

7. Le Pig in Low Fat Croissants, Carrot Sticks, Tater Chips
Pillsbury makes low fat crescents, and Hebrew National has a fat free hotdog. This was a great meal when I was doing Weight Watchers because each Le Pig was 2 points. It was heaven to be able to eat two hotdogs for dinner. The potato chips could be baked, also allowing for low calories.

8. Deli Turkey and Broccoli Stuffed Baked Potatoes
I like not having to tend to every turn of a meal. I could bake the potato in the oven, play with the kids, or I could do the same with the microwave. Steam some broccoli, cube thick slices of deli turkey, top the baked potato and add cheese or sour cream.

9. Easy Calzones
Using a prepared pizza dough, I can make one giant turkey pepperoni and cheese stuffed calzone. Mix together cheese and ricotta, top half of the pizza dough with mixture. Place turkey pepperoni on top of cheese mixture. Fold pizza dough over and pinch close, bake pizza dough according to directions.

10. Pasta with Veggie Mix
We recently joined a vegetable co-op in which we get a random assortment of vegetables. I make the pasta according to the directions. Steam some broccoli, saute some mushrooms in white wine, then added green beans to the mushrooms. I added all the veggies to the pasta, drizzled olive oil, grated parmasean, and added some toasted pine nuts. Pretty darn good.

***How about you, what are some almost no brainer meals you prepare for your family? I’m always on the lookout for easy meals to prepare.

(If you want to play, check out Mrs. 4444’s site.)

1. Memorable food this week:

-broccoli mashed potatoes. mash the broccoli into the potatoes. Easy and good.
-French onion dip sandwiches with carrot and broccoli coleslaw. I loved the coleslaw because it wasn’t made with mayo. I’m a mayo hater. It was instead made with olive oil and lemon. Mmm-mmm. The sandwiches were also pretty awesome. I felt like I was eating at a greasy spoon – my own!
-Carmel Coconut Fudge Brownies. While the recipes was docked some stars by others for the tough caarmel, I’m not sure what they were expecting. I’ve never met an unsticky caarmel. These brownies were fudge-y, caramel, and coconut deliciousness. I will definitely make them again.

Caramel Coconut Fudge Brownies

2. I’m running the Houston Half Marathon Sunday morning. Hoping I cross the finish line running. My leg has been bothering me because I over did it at boot-camp last week. I’ve been trying to take it easy on the leg. I also didn’t do the best at training for this marathon. Here’s to the finish line for my 2nd half marathon!

3. I am Wendy this week. Wendy from Bob the Builder that is. And I am sick of the Bob the Builder song, but it keeps Noah happy. I guess I will just continue to randomly sing Bob the Builder. Although every now and then I sing Habib the Builder. I don’t know why, maybe to add a multicultural bent to it.

4. School starts for me next week, and I will be working for free in school libraries. It’s part of my master’s program, lucky me! I haven’t worked for almost 2 years now, I’m hoping getting on a schedule will be a good transition, and it’s only for two months. Keep telling myself I can do it!!!! And then I step into a middle school and remember why I left. Ack!!!

5. Looking forward to Jamaica!!!! Going there for a wedding soon!!! So excited!!!!!!!!!! Off to go purchase our tickets. (And I’m also timing myself on the computer so that I get off and do some practical stuff like clean out the dishwasher. I’ve been slacking this morning.)

6. Sucked into American Idol. How do I let this happen???

Peace!

I was doing well keeping up with my recipes. Then, Thursday, I got distracted by by this book:

My first book of 2010 – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I tried to read this book a couple of months ago, but could not get into it. I am reading it the second time before bookclub, I was more motivated knowing it would offer me the chance to get out and go socialize.

On this second round, I stuck with, and it wasn’t until 200 hundred pages that I was officially hooked and could not put it down. It became hard to focus on anything else. It is a murder mystery, but not for the light hearted. I was quite shocked in some places. But I am eager to read the next two in the series, as I really enjoyed the characters, and their relationships with each other. I have to see what more develops. But I might wait awhile.

I’m not sure what to read next. I’ve got some young adult books I could read. Or I could start our next book club book. But I feel like I need something light.

The weekend in food:

Acorn Squash

Wickedly good, acorn squash with heavy whipping cream and maple syrup, always a good winter treat.

Begging.

This guy is developing a bad habit of coming to this counter top looking for food. Granted, I tend to feed him while I am cooking to keep him busy. We let him walk around eating too much. We are trying to get him to sit and eat in his chair.

Good little Jew.

Well this isn’t food, but he’s so cute, I want eat him up!!! But he was acting turdly during tot shabbat, he kept walking up to the front, wanting to mess with the rabbi’s stuff.

Dumplings.

Chicken and Dumplings.

MMMmmmmm!!!

Coconut Cream Pie

My contribution to our waistlines. I am a HUGE coconut fan! That topping was different, it was just heavy whipped whipping cream without sugar, much different from other coconut pies I’ve had.

Licking the plate clean.

He liked the dumplings so much he licked the plate, then proceed to rub the plate all over his face and hair.

Too busy playing in a box.

I also got to attend Mom’s night out and tried a new restaurant – Canopy.

It was a good weekend for food. Not so much for exercising.

And on to another wild week…

Chicken Tikka Masala

I’m going to start making a habit of finding at least one recipe for Kyle to make on the weekends. He’s such a great cook! This weekend he made Chicken Tikka Masala from Cook’s Illustrated Sept/Nov 2007 issue. I admire and drool over the recipes in Cook’s, I don’t often take on the challenge and try out the recipes inside. We have a subscription more for Kyle because the magazine gets pretty technical about cooking methods and can go into the science-y side. (Zzzzzz j/k)

It was a hit with the kids and should be added into the rotation or at least make cooking hits of 2010.

I learned about Chicken Tikka by going with the brother-in-laws to Masala Wok which makes a fast food chicken tikka. We were so excited when we got a home recipe to make. The article posing the question ” Why is it so rarely made at home?” I know I get intimidated by Indian recipes because I tend to think they require a lot of time and attention. I’d actually like to know if an easy Indian cookbook exists.

Now that the holiday rush is over, I’m looking forward to cooksxporations in the kitchen! I want to find a Naan recipe to try out.

Naan-y Naan-y boo boo

Big bite.

Today was a yummy day!

Mexican Chocolate Cookies

I made Mexican Chocolate Cookies from this month’s Cooking Light. They reminded me of snickerdoodles but chocolaty.

And it reminded me of this:

Mexican hot chocolate. It’s the cinnamon kick in the cookies. Abuelita looks like she has some good gossip to share.

Dinner was Kyle’s kick ass risotto. Which we are now dubbing as our “How I Caught Your Mommy and made her gain 20 pounds” meal. Okay maybe without the 20 pounds bit. This is Kyle’s dish because he takes such loving care with the whole process and it is delicious.

Eli and Noah both loved the risotto. I took this shot to show off Eli’s new love of eating with utensils (and then throwing them on the floor, tonight 3 forks and one spoon ended up on the ground). In contrast, Noah was eating with his hands. These kids are such opposites.

Utensil lover

I have 20 dinner and 4 desert recipes planned out for January. I am getting on board with this planning business. Maybe I can plan 10 blog posts for January. Start with some reachable goals.

Mexican Chocolate Cookies

5 oz bittersweet chocolate (60% cacao)
3/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
Dash of black pepper
Dash of ground red pepper (I left it out b/c of kids)
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. butter
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Place the chocolate in a small bowl; microwave at HIGH 1 minute or until almost melted, stirring until smooth. Cool to room temperature.
3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with knife. Combine the flour and next 5 ingredients (through ground red pepper); stir well with a whisk.
4. Combine sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Drop dough by level tablespoons 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until set. Cool on pans 2 minutes or until set. Remove from pans; cool completely on a wire rack. Yield: 32 cookies.

Cooking Light – Dec. 2009

Creamy Chicken and Rice Soup

Creamy Chicken and Rice Soup
2 tbls. olive oil
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs
Salt and pepper
3 carrots, sliced crosswise
1/2 cup long grain rice, rinsed
One 16-oz package frozen black-eyed, thawed
One 32-oz container (4 cups) chicken broth
One 9-oz package frozen creamed spinach, thawed
3/4 baguette, for serving

1. In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add to the pot and cook, stirring, until golden, 6-8 minutes; transfer to a plate. Add the carrots, rice, beans. Cook scrapping up any browned bits, for 1 minute, then stir in the chicken broth and 2 cups water. Bring to a simmer over high heat, then lower the heat and simmer until the rice and beans are tender, about 20 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, shred the chicken. Add to the soup along with the creamed spinach and cook for 5 minutes; season with salt and pepper. Serve with the baguette.

(Rachel Ray magazine – Oct.2009)

Thoughts: I was happy the creamed spinach tasted decent in this recipe. For some reason, I’m not a fan of frozen spinach. It has a stronger taste than fresh spinach. It also made a large quantity of food. I didn’t do the baguette but brought frozen french bread. And the rice, oh, the rice, it fell apart into so many small bits. It made the soup a bit gummy. I think that’s just our bag of rice though. I might need to consider adding it at a later stage. I’m also considering doing pasta or some other grain instead of the rice. Definitely plan to make it again, it was a warm, cozy meal.

And, I’m off schedule on my menus because my bottomless pit husband is going out to lunch almost everyday this week. His duty is to eat the leftovers. In order to keep balance, we are instead eating the leftovers 2 dinners. I’ll just have to push everything back now. (Shaking fist at the bottomless pit!!!!)

Here’s the plan for this week:

Monday  – Roast Chicken and Vegetables with Almond Pilaf (Rachel Ray – Oct. 2009)

Tuesday – Creamy Chicken-and-Rice Soup (Rachel Ray – Oct. 2009)

Wednesday – Smoky Beef Tacos (Weight Watchers Now and Later cookbook)

Thursday – Beef and Bean Sloppy Joes (WW – Now and Later cookbook)

Friday – Sandwiches and Chips

That’s the plan, and I’m gonna try to stick to it again.

Shabbat #2

I made Ina Garten’s Parmesan Chicken.

Thoughts: This one was a winner in taste. The salad greens have a nice lemon vinaigrette, and lemon is a taste I’ve grown to love in my meals, every now and then. This meal does not score so high in mess factor. It is highly messy due to having to dip the chicken in three separate steps. I don’t like to have a huge Shabbat mess.

And to make matters worse, this was the messiest Shabbat I can ever recall. First, Noah spilled his grape juice all over the floor, himself, and the table. Then, because Eli had been eating dinner for about an hour, he puked everything up and out because we overfed him. So that was all over the place, and in a large quantity. It was disgusting! So this meal was not enjoyable as it could have been because appetites were lost after the puke.

Maybe another go someday. Sans puke and all.

- Phyllis Diller

Calzones

1 can pizza dough
1 cup of ricotta
1 cup mozzerella
1 large handful of spinach, chopped
Approximately 40 turkey pepperoni slices
Olive oil to brush tops of calzone
Grated parmasean cheese

Preheat oven to 425.

Mix together ricotta, parmasean, and mozzerella. Set aside.

Unroll pizza dough. Cut in half horizontally and vertically so that you have 4 rectangles. Using hands, shape squares into circles.

Divide cheese mixture into fourths. Fill each pizza circle with mixture. Top mixture with 8 to 10 slices of turkey pepperoni. Close dough over and pinch to seal. Place on non stickpan.

Brush top of calzones with olive oil. Sprinkle grated parmesean on top. Bake for 15-18 minutes.

Thoughts: I like the convience of the canned pizza dough, I want better flavor. The dough still has hints of buiscuit. I’m going to be looking into other options for dough.

This was super kid friendly. No-Jo was able to help mix cheese and “paint” the tops of the calzones. It is a good recipe to sneak in some veggies.