Three Men & One Lady.: dinner

Showing posts with label dinner. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

How We Break Bread

I feed my family the same meal four times a week and they love it. No, seriously... they do. You see, I get home at 5:00 PM Monday through Thursday each week. In order to squeeze in all of our after work activities and dinner, I needed to find a way to feed my family fast (in a healthy way, mind you -- no TV dinners or fast food) so that we have more time to do other things and less time is spent slaving away in the kitchen so to speak.

So that's when I decided to feed my family like I would feed an army... literally. Each Sunday, I make the main course - this week, it was cheese and broccoli soup. I make a large enough portion to provide enough servings for dinner, Monday through Thursday nights. I store the main course in our refrigerator and then simply heat up what we need each night and make any side dishes as necessary during that process (e.g. salad and whole grain bakery bread).

Here are a few examples of what we've been eating lately for dinner:

Week 1: BBQ Grilled Chicken with Vegetables (e.g. asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.)
Week 2: Diced Sweet Potatoes covered with a Meat Spaghetti sauce with Salad or Vegetables
Week 3: Chicken and Vegetable Stir-fry with Brown Rice
Week 4: Homemade Soup with Salad and Bread (bread is often optional)
Week 5: BBQ or Baked Pork Chops with a large Green Salad
Week 6: Crock Pot Spaghetti with Vegetables or Salad (or both!)
Week 7: Homemade Chili with Salad and Cornbread
Week 8: Tacos or Taco Salads

(Please note: we don't always eat all of the above meals or all of the above meals in that order. Sometimes I add things to a meal listed above, or take away from them. I just wanted to show a glimpse of how we roll.)

You may wonder if we get sick of the meal eating it four nights in a row. Yeah, sometimes we do. But the beauty of this method is that we don't eat that meal again for a very long time... or sooner if we like. Sometimes I use a crock pot, sometimes I spend a little time on Sunday meal prepping... but it works for us. And any time I can give myself and my family the gift of time I'm a happy camper.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

One of our favorite dinners.

Kind of one of our comfort meals, the hubs and I almost think of this meal as a treat. I make it more of the consistency of chili than soup, but this - my friends - is a pretty delish taco soup. Here are the deets if you are interested:

Ingredients:
Meat of your choice (pictured: 1 lb. ground beef)
Diced tomatoes with Green Chilies (2 cans)
Kidney Beans (2 cans)
Vegetarian Baked Beans (2 cans)
Diced Green Chillies (1 small can)
Onion (medium in size, chopped)
Corn (optional - 2 cans)
Taco Seasoning (1 package or to taste)

To Make:
Because I used ground beef, I had to brown the beef with the chopped onion. In a stock pot, I added the other ingredients - diced tomatoes and green chillies, kidney beans (drained), vegetarian baked beans, diced green chillies, and taco seasoning. I placed the stock pot on a medium-heat burner and stirred the ingredients together, adding the browned ground beef to the mixture. Finally, I let the soup simmer together for approximately 10 minutes or so... pretty. easy.

To Serve:
We usually add shredded cheese, sour cream, and a few Fritos on top. Yum.

To Alter:
This soup is also a very easy crock pot meal. When I make it that way, I add chicken breast instead of beef and put everything together in the pot at once, close the lid, and let it cook for 6 to 8 hours on low. I did not use corn in my soup this week (pictured above), but I have used it before. The hubs requests that I add it back into the recipe next time... but I could take it or leave it. We also add one little can of diced green chillies to add that extra **pow!** to the dish. So good, so very good.

Give this meal a whirl and let me know how you do... because we may just have this as our main course again next week!

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

How We Do Dinner.

Being a working mom, it makes the nights go by in the blink of an eye... just having a few precious hours with my men during the work week. Which, I am sure, is the same for most of you. So, I knew I had to do dinner differently. Do it in such a way that I would not have to cook something each and every night of the week, but still be health-conscious. Allowing more free time to spend with my family.

So, the hubs and I agreed on our current process: cooking one big meal on Sunday that will carry through until Thursday (leftovers Monday through Wednesday). With this method, I have time to cook something delicious on Sundays that is an easy reheat-able meal the next three nights. Why through Wednesday? Because Thursday nights we have family dinner night at my parents' home and Friday is a "weekend day" for me, with more time to cook (same with Saturday).

We plan our meals in such a way as to not get sick of them... sure you may be tired of the recipe by day four, but you won't have it again for another month or two.

This week I tried a new recipe: Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole. It was pretty good, I have to say. I didn't follow the recipe 100%, only using the following to create a pretty tasty meal:

4 Chicken Breasts
1 pkg. Black Forest Ham
1 pkg. Swiss Cheese (thin sliced)
Panko Bread Crumbs (I used 1/4 pkg... use as much or as little as you prefer)
Dehydrated onions (to taste)
Garlic Salt (to taste)
Black Pepper (to taste)

First, I boiled the chicken for approximately 20 minutes. Once the chicken was heated to about 160*F, I shredded the chicken into chunks and placed it into my large pyrex casserole dish. To the chicken, I added the dehydrated onions, garlic salt, and ground black pepper.

Next, I added two layers of black forest ham.

On top of the ham, I added two layers of swiss cheese and sprinkled some panko bread crumbs on top, mixed with a little more garlic salt and ground black pepper. I then placed this dish into our pre-heated oven to cook for approximately 15 - 20 minutes at 375*F.

I have to say, the finished product was pretty delicious and moist.

The best part about cooking a large meal that needs to feed our family for four dinners is the need to portion control everything. So along with our main course, I add a vegetable and a pretty large salad to make sure everyone gets enough to eat (i.e. the hubs). This week we had a large green salad with fresh avocado on the side. Yum, yum.

So there you have it. Monday through Wednesday, our dinners only take about 15 to 20 minutes to prepare and eat, leaving much more time to spend together and even squeeze in a little workout time.

How do you meal planning for your family?

Sunday, September 8, 2013

What's for Dinner: One Pot Chicken and Vegetable Risotto

{Recipe found HERE}

Sorry friends... I only paused mid-stir after adding the arborio rice to take a photo of what I thought would be many of this new dish I tried tonight on my family. While I didn't quite get a finished-ready-to-serve photo, let me just tell you this recipe was a major hit with the fam... especially the hubs, who I had to keep slapping his taster spoon out of the pot before it was ready.

Chicken, mushrooms, yellow bell pepper, green onion, yellow onion - all diced and mixed with arborio rice, parmesan cheese, garlic salt, black pepper, beef stock, and water. You really cannot go wrong.

But, let me warn you. Because I opted to make a bigger pot for leftovers during the week, this recipe turned into quite the ordeal today. I think I clocked a total of four hours (not even joking one bit) of checking, stirring, liquid-adding, and repeat... when I do it again, I think I will pressure cook the risotto separately to speed up the time a bit.

Definitely try it out... and let me know your thoughts.