Weekly Meal List

I haven't done one of these in awhile even though I had intended to throw our list up here every week. Hopefully this week will get me back on track!

Monday: Beef and cheese manicotti

Tuesday: Caesar Salad Sandwiches

Wednesday: Philly Cheesesteaks

Thursday: Creamy Taco Mac

Friday: Date Night

Saturday: Grilling Out

Sunday: Breakfast for dinner

I'll be posting a few of these recipes this week so be sure to check back for them!

Have a great week :)

Enchi-ritos

Enchi-ritos is what Neil and I named one of our favorite meals. They are enchiladas but with flour tortillas instead of corn. Technically, they could be considered burritos, but we use enchilada sauce. This is an original recipe, although it wasn't that hard to create :) No picture for these because they disappear too quickly!

1 lb lean ground beef

1/2 cup onion chopped (or more whatever suits your tastes)

8 (10-inch) flour tortillas

pack of taco seasoning

shredded cheddar cheese

1 can of enchilada sauce

Optional add ins:

Mexican Rice or Yellow Rice

Refried beans

1 can of green chile peppers

1 can of sliced black olives drained

Sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a skillet over medium high heat, cook the ground beef and chopped onion until evenly browned. Add taco seasoning according to directions. Meanwhile, pour half of the enchilada sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. On each tortilla, place a small amount of ground beef mixture, cheese, and any optional add ins that you want. Tightly roll the tortillas and place them seam side down in the dish. Pour the remaining sauce over the top of enchiladas and sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 20 minutes until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly. Enjoy!

Potato Salad

Neil was planning to cook hamburgers for us so I planned a traditional summer dish that I had yet to try: potato salad. Potato salad, like pasta salad, is another seemingly easy recipe that I knew the basics for but I wasn't sure what brought it all together. The easiest and most traditional recipe I found was on www.idahopotato.com. It was very easy to prepare and delicious. Next time, I might up the vinegar just a smidge and reduce the celery. Other than that, if you are looking for a traditional potato salad, this is it!

2 lbs Idaho Potatoes, peeled and diced (about 5 cups)

1/2 cup mayonnaise or light mayonnaise

2 tbsp cider vinegar

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 cup finely diced celery

1/2 cup finely chopped onion or scallion (optional)

1/2 cup chopped hard-boiled egg (optional

2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley, chives or dill (optional)

Place potatoes in large pot and add enough water to cover potatoes. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cook 13-15 minutes or until Potatoes are tender. Drain. In a large bowl, combine mayo, vinegar, salt and pepper. Add potatoes, celery and optional add-ins. Toss to coat thoroughly.

Enjoy!

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

This week has been pretty low key on the cooking front. I was feeling a little tired from our vacation and getting ready to go back to school so our meals weren't anything fancy. This recipe was definitely my favorite though.

I love mac and cheese but the boxed kind just doesn't cut it for me. I found this recipe at brooke-cookiejar.blogspot.com and am in love with it. It was super easy and gave me a chance to use my new grater that I got for my birthday!

It does make a lot of mac and cheese though! We had this as our main meal one night, Neil has taken it to lunch twice, and we had it as a side another night! But this is a definitely a meal that tastes even better reheated the second night.

Bread Crumb Topping:
6 slices white sandwich bread (good-quality, about 6 ounces), torn into rough pieces
3 tablespoons unsalted butter (cold), cut into 6 pieces

Pasta and Cheese:
1 pound elbow macaroni
1 tablespoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 tablespoons flour1 1/2 teaspoons powdered mustard
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
5 cups milk
8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese , shredded (2 cups)
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese , shredded (2 cups)
1 teaspoon salt

For the bread crumbs: Pulse bread and butter in food processor until crumbs are no larger than 1/8 inch, ten to fifteen 1-second pulses. Set aside.

For the pasta and cheese: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat broiler. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in Dutch oven over high heat. Add macaroni and 1 tablespoon salt; cook until pasta is tender. Drain pasta and set aside in colander.

In now-empty Dutch oven, heat butter over medium-high heat until foaming. Add flour, mustard, and cayenne (if using) and whisk well to combine. Continue whisking until mixture becomes fragrant and deepens in color, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk; bring mixture to boil, whisking constantly (mixture must reach full boil to fully thicken). Reduce heat to medium and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened to consistency of heavy cream, about 5 minutes. Off heat, whisk in cheeses and 1 teaspoon salt until cheeses are fully melted. Add pasta and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is steaming and heated through, about 6 minutes.

Transfer mixture to broiler-safe 9-by 13-inch baking dish and sprinkle evenly with bread crumbs. Broil until crumbs are deep golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes, rotating pan if necessary for even browning. Cool about 5 minutes, then serve.

I'm Back :)

Our family on vacation in Daytona, Florida

Sorry for the long hiatus. Blogging has taken a backseat these past few weeks to our vacation home to Georgia. While I didn't blog, I definitely kept up with the food part. I love vacation but the amount of food you eat combined with the lack of physical activity doesn't look to good on the scale when you come home. But it's vacation so it's okay :)

I got two new cookbooks while I was home. The first one Appetizers Finger Foods Buffets andParties was an impulse buy at Borders. It was sitting right out in front of the store and when I flipped through a few pages and saw tons of thing I'd love to try I knew I had to get it. The next one was a complete surprise and I'm excited to try it. For my birthday, my Uncles girlfriend, Abby, gifted me with The Organic Dog Biscuit Cookbook Kit. She knew we had a dog, Lucy, and she knew about my food blog. So she combined the two into the book! I can't wait to try some of the recipes and I know Lucy will be excited. It even came with cute cookie cutters in the shapes of fire hydrants, bones, and a squirrel! I'll be trying these out in a post sometime soon.

Another food related thing I found fun about our vacation was that each couple took a turn in the kitchen and cooked for us, with the exception of my mom and dad who enjoyed not having to cook. My younger sister, Carrie, and her boyfriend, Robert, took the first turn and cooked up a huge meal of chicken and shrimp fettucini alfredo, chicken chowder (none of us really liked clam), and some cheddar garlic biscuits. The next night my older sister, Dana, and her fiance, TJ, delighted our senses with frozen chicken fingers and salad. FOr anyone who knows my about Dana's cooking skills, this was a delicious meal :) My husband and I treated everyone to some Mexican stuffed shells, yellow rice, and chips and queso. It's always nice to have a home-cooked meal on vacation and eating in allowed us more time on the beach instead of getting ready to go out to dinner.

I promise I'll update with new recipes this week!

Baked Ziti

We love pasta and it's on our menu at least once a week. Usually, we go with the same few meals and just alternate them every week but this week I decided to go with something different. We had a box of ziti in the closet waiting to be used with a recipe on the back waiting to be tried. Baked Ziti was very easy to make but it was incredibly satisfying. It reminded me of my moms amazing lasagna without the meat. It was rich, creamy, and super cheesy!

1 box of ziti, cooked

1 jar of spaghetti sauce

15 oz. ricotta cheese

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 Tbsp parsley

1 egg

1 Tsp oregano

1/2 Tsp garlic powder

1/2 Tsp salt

1/4 Tsp black pepper

3 Tbsp Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 375ºF. In a large bowl, stir together hot pasta, 1-1/2 cups spaghetti sauce, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, parsley, egg, oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper. In a 13x9x2- inch baking dish, spoon pasta mixture in. Top with the remaining 1-1/2 cups of sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and then cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes until hot and bubbly.

Pasta Salad

Pasta Salad is another easy recipe that I wasn't sure if I should blog or not. But then I realized that I had to go and search out a recipe for it so others might be as clueless as I was. I knew the basics: pasta, veggies, and some type of dressing. But I wasn't sure what else to add to give it a little more variety. I'm sure this is by no means an original recipe but it's what sounded good on the Fourth!

1 box of pasta

1 red pepper

1 green pepper (we used 2 since we had them on hand)

1 yellow pepper

Purple onion

Pepperoni to taste

1 cheese brick ( we used colby jack)

1 bottle of Italian Dressing

Boil pasta. Chop all veggies, pepperoni and cheese to a small size of your choosing. Throw chopped ingredients and pasta in a bowl and mix well. Next, add enough dressing to coat all and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours so the dressing can "soak" in. Add more as needed if necessary. Enjoy!