What's Cooking Wednesday

  Well, the news around here on the food front is HEALTHY. I know, not very exciting. But I need to create some excitement for myself! I've been trying to change my lifestyle (I'm not calling it dieting) for about a month and a half now. So far, I've just kind of eaten food groups more than meals (does that make sense?). I don't feel like I'm really cooking a meal, I just have these different things that I eat: meat, veggie, fruits, cheese, more meat, more fruit, eggs, more veggies...you get the idea. I only have a few dishes(or what I consider a meal. I think I'm weird, because when I think of a meal, I think of dishes that have more than one ingredient. I've always been an avid one-pot cook, so maybe that has something to do with it) that are a pretty much all-around healthy dishes.

One of my go-to healthy recipes is one I've mentioned here one or two times. It's PW's Chicken Tortilla soup. It's deliciously yummy and pretty dern healthy!

Recipe here

I also recently threw together some stuffed peppers and we really enjoyed them. I noted all the things I wanted to do differently to make them better, too. Here's a rough outline of the recipe.

1 lb. ground turkey, seasoned with lots of good stuff (totally open to interpretation LOL)

When that's almost browned, throw in some chopped onions (oh, ya'll know me, right?!), garlic, and the tops of the peppers (that you are cutting open to stuff. when you cut the top off, the part around the stem is still good! Use every last bit!). Drain if needed.

When I made this the first time, I didn't use any rice, though it was in most recipes I glanced at. After eating it without rice, while it was yum yummy, I could see how having something rice-like in there would help. Anyone have any suggestions other than just rice? Bulgar? Quinoa? Something like that? I also didn't use any tomato product in the mix, but I could see really digging that, too. Some tomato sauce? Paste? Diced tomatoes? I'll have to think on that.

Stirred in some shredded cheese. Yeah, I can't seem to get away from the stuff. Shoved those peppers as full and as tight as I could get (I used red/orange/yellow peppers. MUCH better, IMO), and make the tops into little heaping mounds, too. Baked for 20 mins, topped with some cheese, then baked another 10 minutes. Some of the recipes I saw called for baking for over an hour, but I wanted the peppers to still have some crunch, and they turned out perfectly. 

Here are a few recipes I want to try. Trusty old Pinterest, ya know.

Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas

via Stacey Makes Cents

Garden-Style Lasagna

via Recipe Girl

Chicken Parmesan Burgers

via Point-less Meals

Any good, healthy recipes you can share? I'd LOVE to get some more dishes in my rotation. 

Let's see if I can come up with some kind of photo or something to go along with this post...

Ah! Here we go! I went went a couple of my friends to see Ree Drummond (aka Pioneer Woman, aka, PW, aka P-Dub) and have her sign our books! We met her (and Marlboro Man) in the flesh! And they were as nice as you'd expect them to be. And I had a great night out with the girls, too.

Till next time,

What's cookin' Wednesday

I've missed blogging! I won't bore you with excuses, but we all know how crazy life can get, and mine definitely gets that way sometimes. Oh, and there's that little thing of me being pretty lazy, too. That kinda puts a hiccup in things occasionally.

So it's Wednesday, and that means FOOD around here! Well, today, it's going to be more about food/kitchen organization than actual food, but you gotta get your kitchen in order to have an easy breezy prep and cooking time, right?

First thing's first...meal planning. I've been doing it for about a year now. I did it for two main reasons: so I wouldn't feel so CrAzY when I went to the grocery store, and to save money. Yep, if you have a very set list and know exactly what you need when you set foot in the store, you WILL save money. I guarantee it*

So this is what I do. It's simple. First, I make a list of all the dinners I will make for the next week (I only meal plan one week in advance. Some people do much more...more on that in a bit). Then I think about who will be home and what they will need for breakfast and lunch. Then, I think about the ingredients I will need for these meals, and make my list accordingly. Brandon is my "checker." I sit regally in my chair and call out ingredients to him and he dutifully checks cabinet/fridge/freezer to see if we have said ingredient. If not, it goes on the list. Ta da! Meal plan made; grocery list made.

A friend of mine, Lena, made this INCREDIBLE meal plan calendar. Someday I want to be like her. (I want to be like her in more ways that just this meal plan. Let's just suffice it to say she's kinda awesome.)

How cool is that?! Yep, pretty cool. (I must ask her about lentil tacos. Sounds so interesting!)

Onward to kitchen organization.

Disclaimer: I have none of this awesomeness in my kitchen. This is simply a dream of mine. This all comes from my "Smart Organization" pinboard on Pinterest.

**Sigh** Don't you just wish?! And if you have any of this cool organization stuff in YOUR kitchen, don't tell me. It will just make me hate you.

So, it's off to the races for me on this Wednesday. Have a wonderful day!

*No guarantees are actually made. I will NOT refund money you don't save or anything crazy like that.

What's cookin' good lookin'

Well, here it is...Wednesday. Yes, it's late Wednesday, but it's still Wednesday. Boy, I just typed the word Wednesday A LOT.

So according to my schedule, Wednesday is:

ALRIGHT!! Food! One of my mostest favoritest things in the whole wide world! Well, since it's late, and my posts have been practically novel-size, I'm going to keep this short and sweet and share with you some of my favorite recipes from one of my favorite home cooks, Ree Drummond, aka Pioneer Woman. If you want to eat something good, eat any one of her recipes. The woman knows what she's doing! Without further ado, here's the goods.

Seriously the best mashed potatoes EVAR.

Can you say Mac 'n Cheese?!

It may not sound good. It may not even look good. But eat her dump cake right now.

Amazingly delicious (and actually really healthy) Chicken Tortilla soup.

Creamy Chicken Spaghetti Casserole. Isn't that a lovely descriptive dish title?

Go. Eat and be merry. 

Controversy

I try not to touch on too many controversial subjects on my blog. I have friends who have very differing opinions on a lot of things, yet we manage to remain friends. I've decided I can no longer keep quiet on this front. I may make some enemies here, but I'm prepared to defend my position...to the death*. Here goes nothing...

If you don't cook with onions, you're a wimp.

There I said it. No onions? Wuss. "I don't like onions!" Weenie. "Onions smell so bad!" Get over it!

Onions are the one thing in my pantry (actually, I keep them in my fridge veggie crisper) that I'm never without. If an onion  can possibly be used in a dish, I'ma be there with it. They can bring a tang to a dish like no other. They can even bring a little heat with the right onion. Yet, when you cook them down, they have the most mellow, sweet, and savory taste. They are very versatile and bring flavor out in almost every meat, especially meat of the beef and pork persuasion.

I bring this up, because whenever I'm chopping an onion (which let's face it, is practically every day), I always have this nagging voice in my head. I shall not name names. But an old friend of mine (we are no longer friends...I won't say it's because of onions, but it didn't help the friendship any) claimed she was the best cook in the eastern hemisphere (See?! That should tell you right there how smart SHE was). She was very prideful of this fact. Yet, she was also prideful of the fact the she didn't use onions because "they're gross!!" Did I ever throw in her face that you CAN'T BE A GOOD COOK without using onions? Nope. Never. I'm too good a person for that. Did I start bringing my onion-laden dishes to our get-togethers and relish in the praise they received? You betcha. Because onions are hella good, I'm telling you!

So be down with the onion. If you're afraid of them, I'll let it slide if you give them another try. Be adventurous. You've never heard Wolfgang Puck say "onions are icky!" That's because they're a cook's best friend. And I need a friend, because I ditched that other chick.

*of a small vegetable

Meatless Mondays

Yep. I know. It's Tuesday. But I wanted to share with you all something that my family has started to do recently. We've decided to have Meatless Mondays. This is where we eat meals without any meat in them for the entire day of Monday, both improving our health and the environment.

   This is what the Wikipedia entry on Meatless Mondays says:
"Meatless Monday is a non-profit initiative of The Monday Campaigns Inc. in association with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Center for a Livable Future. The program follows the nutrition guidelines developed by the USDA. Meatless Monday is part of the Healthy Monday initiative. Healthy Monday encourages Americans to make healthier decisions at the start of every week.
   Meatless Monday focuses its initiative on Mondays for multiple reasons. Monday is typically the beginning of the work week, the day when individuals settle back into their weekly routine. Unhealthy habits that prevailed over the weekend can be forgotten and replaced by positive choices. A weekly reminder to restart healthy habits also encourages success. A 2009 trial published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine provided individuals with weekly health prompts and encouragement. Approximately two thirds of participants responded with improvements in their overall health, eating habits and physical activity levels."

  And PLEASE check out the Wikipedia entry on the Environmental impact of meat production.

  This is just a little something my family and I have decided to partake in, doing what little we can. And there are tons of meals you can have that are meatless! We've had Veggie Stir-Fry, Pasta Salad, Quiche (we obviously aren't doing Vegan Mondays since we wouldn't be allowed eggs then LOL), and I plan on having fun looking up different meatless meals!