V-Day lunch at Marco's

Marco's is great !!!!!

This is called a "Chicken Hero". It is grilled chicken with pesto and mozzarella cheese. It is served on Herb Pizza bread. (I would not stop eating cause it was so yummy)

OMG I love this place they never disappoint and are always full of surprises for me.

Here is its web site

http://marcos-pizzeria.com/index.shtml

I stole the Pizza Salad from here.

Since 1/30/10 and left overs

 

• Pulled pork, cornballs, bake beans and coleslaw.
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• Chili with homemade Boston market corn bread.
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• Biscuits and gravy 
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• BQ Chicken again
• Oven roasted Chicken with green beans and potatoes
• Homemade Flat bread, chicken with onions and peppers toped with pineapple salsa.
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• Scallops with parm and butter sauce
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• Fajita Burrito- make with Flat steak
• Ham with fried potatoes and green beans

 

There has been more but these are the high lights if you are interested in the recipe for any of these please let me know. I will be happy to post it.

 

BQ Chicken- Saturday Nite on the grill 1/30/10 (Meredith’s nite off)

Sorry about the change in Menu, but sometimes you go with the flow of the Snow.

Now that he has had his manly meal, it is time to put him to work on the grill.

Time off for me, I hurt my foot while sledding.

We had BBQ chicken breast, Mac and cheese (blue box), and bake beans.
 I begged for a salad, which was made with simple greens and my fav Italian dressing.

If you want to see how to do the BBQ go to his Website at http://www.gityerqontheroad.com/



He should have it posted soon.

Paul’s Pork – Friday nite 1/29/10

This is a fav from Food network. Paula Deans Roast Pork




http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/herb-crusted-pork-tenderloin-recipe/index.html



She does a great job there is no reason to mess with perfection.

In my house, there is never a leftover after this meal.

The sides are simply manly, and for the lazy.

Mash potatoes made with chicken stock and canned corn.

Enjoy and I know you will.



TIP: I know the temp for the Pork starts high and may set off the fire alarms in the house but it does do it’s job by making the pork wonderful. It is worth the noise I promise

Beef Stir Fry with noodles – Thursday nite 1/28/10 and Pork on 2/1/10 Monday

Same process for both meats.

We found a flank steak marked down to ½ price and did a happy dance. This meal is so easy and yummy.

We then found a Teriyaki Pork tenderloin on mark down and went with it. Love Stir Fries.

Supplies: 

• Bag of frozen stir-fry veggies 
• splash of Olive oil 
• 1 flank steak an average size about 2 lbs- or Pork  
• ½ a box your favorite noodles (spaghetti est..) 
• “Yoshida” sauce

 Hardware:

• 1 boiling pot 
• 1 large skillet

 
Boil pasta then heat up skillet with some olive oil. When skillet is pops water cook the ingredients in the following order: Meat, veggie, then toss in pasta with the “Yoshida” sauce.

For lunch in a snow storm dress up ramen with more broth and some veg. I also tossed in some soy sauce.
Meredith

1/26/10 Tuesday nite Low cal Shepard’s Pie -1st run not so hot this one is a work in progress

I can not in good conscience post the recipe for this one yet. It has potential but needs so much more work. Please forgive me but I will come back to this one soon. I promise.

1/25/10 Monday nite Stuffed Shell and Leftover nite Wednesday

Wanted to keep this dish on the lighter side of things so I used low fat or no fat cheeses. It was a wonderful dish no matter what high fat or low fat you use, plus great leftovers

Supplies:

 

• 1 box of defrosted frozen chopped spinach 
• 2 eggs 
• 2 15oz ricotta cheese 
• 2 cups of mozzarella cheese or more to top shells with 
• 1 ½ cups of grated Parm 
• 2 Tbsp of dried parsley 
• 1 Tbsp of dried Basil 
• 1 Tsp of Salt- for Ricotta mix 
• 3 cups of your fav spaghetti Sauce- we make our own.. but can’t give it up yet 
• 12oz box of Jumbo Shells 

Hardware:

• Large boiling pot 
• Large mixing bowl
• Wooden spoon
• Tbsp
• High-sided 9 x 13 baking dish

**Preheat oven 350 degrees

1. Cook Jumbo Shells for 15 mins in salted water
2. Drain and let cool
3. Squeeze as much water out of the frozen spinach as you can using a clean dish rag 
4. In the large bowl, add: Eggs, Ricotta, Mozzarella, ¾’s of a cup of the parm, the parsley, the basil, and salt along with the drained spinach … mix until complete blended
5.  Then stuff cooled shells with 1 Tbsp of filling and place them in you 9 x 13 inch pan and cover with sauce     then sprinkle with the remaining parm cheese and mozz if you have it.
6. Bake in oven for about 25 to 30 mins.

 Let cool a little and then enjoy.

1/24/10 Sunday nite Polynesian Pork chops, with Sauerkraut and Sweet Carrots

We went to our Mega Mart and found 3 pork loins marked down to $2.00 each we could not pass this up. So here, we are 2 pork meals for the week.

This meal includes 2 side dishes-Sweet Carrots and Sauerkraut

These are very easy and don’t need much work.

Sauerkraut- buy a can at the store and open it up and microwave it. See Easy.

Carrots- boil some fresh cut carrots in a saucepan, then drain water, and add honey, orange zest, dab of butter, and S and P. These amounts will very so you will need to taste as you go.

Now the Pork is a little more challenging.

 You will need:

 In a large Skillet:

•  Pork Loin cut into chops
• splash of Olive Oil
• 1 small onion chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic minced

 In a Saucepan:

• 1 jar of chili Sauce
• 1 can of cranberry jelly
• splash of Worcestershire sauce
• couple of pinches of sugar
• a tsp of honey

 Get ready to put all the above into a baking dish so Pre-heat over to 350 degrees.

The Sauce: In the saucepan added the chili sauce and the cranberry jelly, cook until jelly is has diluted. Then add the other ingredients and taste. If it needs more of any of the other ingredients have at ….it is your sauce now. While the flavors of the sauce cook together on low for a little bit moves on to the meat.

The Meat: In large Skillet splash in the olive oil and heat the pan on med high for a bit. (Until when you toss a splash of water in it is sizzles away) then place the pork chops in. *You are just browning them on each side…. so as 1st side gets brown turn.
Then make some room in the pan for the onions and let them sauté until tender while the second side is cooking. Toss in the chopped garlic when 2nd side is almost done so as not to burn the garlic. (You may need to turn down the heat if it gets too hot)

Oven Time
When Pork is brown and onions and garlic are sautéed place, them in a baking dish and pour ½ of the sauce over it. Place it in a preheated over for about 15-20 mins. Check temperature of Pork with your meat thermometer if close to or at 180 degrees (if not cook until meat reaches that temperature) add the rest of the sauce and cook for about 5 mins.

Dinner is all done now so just plate up and serve Yumo’s. Hope you love the flavor combinations as much as we do.

Saturday nite 1/23/10- Sweet and Sour Chicken

YES WE ARE CHEATING !!!!

Was in a rush and running late from the store, so we threw this together.

• 28 oz bag of Popcorn Chicken
• splash of olive oil
• 1 red pepper chopped- or green if you like
• ½ an onion roughly chopped
• 1 pineapple or large can of pineapple chunks
• small can of Water chestnuts sliced
• 2 regular jars of Sweet and sour sauce (orange stuff)
• Quick Rice

• Standard for all my recipes Salt and Pepper to tastes

****Green onions optional

Serves 4 in a hurry

We started by cooking the popcorn chicken in the oven per directions on bag, and then prepped the veg and the fruit. In a large skillet with olive oil we sautéed - the pepper and onion (until they where tender) then added pineapple and water chestnuts and tossed them around a bit. Afterwards we added the jars of Sweet and Sour sauce then let them come to a simmer, tossed in the Popcorn Chicken, S and P if needed. DONE … Put on top of rice and call it dinner. You get all your food groups in a sweet little sauce.

Menu

Menu Week of 1/23/10- 1/29/10

• Paula's Pork with purple cabbage and mash potatoes

• Polynesian pork chops with sauerkraut and sweet carrots

• Beef stir fry

• Stuffed Shells with bread sticks

• Spicy Pineapple Chicken with orzo

• Weight Healthy Shepherds pie

• Quick and Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken

Dessert is Salt sweet Dark Chocolate Brownies

Friday Night Dinner 01/22/2010

Pizza Salad

I recreated a wonderful meal we had at a local restaurant called the Pizza Salad.

It was a simple and lovely dish that you can make from scratch or from store bought ingredients and still look really creative.



You use:

• A small cooked pizza dough cut into 8 pieces 
• then add the toppings, I used mixed spring greens and added all my fav salad stuff. 
• also added some cut up deli salami
• goat cheese to fancy it up.

We went to the restaurant and picked up the dressing a creamy Italian (which I can not figure out how to make yet).   It was a great dinner that we all enjoyed and not hard at all.

I think my favorite part is watching my 16 year old eating with her hands like a pizza.

I hope you enjoy this one.

now if i go out for dinner i can blog about what we r eating too .
Meredith