Hot Italian Chicken Sandwiches

I discovered a yummy, portable meal last night that I'll likely use again several times this summer.  And keep in mind for ball game evenings next spring!!

The kids were clamoring to get to the pool when we got home from swimming lessons yesterday at 4:30pm, but the baby needed a quick nap, so I told them we could head down there as soon as he woke up. 
It was too early for dinner right then, but waiting until after swimming would leave us famished. I didn't really have any lunch meat or snacky meal stuff to take with us. I did, however, have a big loaf of french bread that I had planned and forgotten to use when we grilled steaks the other night. Inspiration hit and I quickly pan-broiled some chicken with some italian seasoning. I cut the loaf of bread into fourths and then sliced them open, laying them out on a baking sheet.  I sliced the chicken breasts and laid them out on one side of each bread half, topping it with shredded mozzarella and bacon bits. It was already yum!  Next I threw them in the oven under the broiler till the cheese got bubbly and the bread just got toasty.  I took them out, spread a little mayo on the empty side of the now piping hot toasty bread and added a few thinly sliced tomatoes.  Then I just closed up the sandwich, wrapped it in foil, and threw it in the pool bag and we were ready to go just as the baby woke up from his quick early evening catnap. :) We also brought along some chips and apple slices to munch with our sandwiches. 
Ryan met us down at the pool after he got home from work and we had the perfect little poolside picnic, with still hot and melty, really really yummy sandwiches. 

Hot Italian Chicken Sandwiches
Half-Whole loaf of french bread, sub rolls, deli rolls, etc
2 Chicken breasts
Italian seasoning
Shredded Mozzerella
Bacon bits
Sliced tomatoes
Mayonnaise

Pan-broil or grill chicken breasts, seasoned with Italian seasoning.
Put sliced chicken, cheese and bacon bits on one half of each sandwich and put under broiler just until melted and toasty.
Add mayo and tomatoes and enjoy. Or wrap in foil to enjoy later!

(Adults loved it, Savannah loved it, Sawyer took one bite and jumped back in the pool.)

No-Cook Pizza

I found this recipe after looking high and low for another no-cook main dish that wasn't all veggies and wraps hoping maybe my kids would eat it.


Cold Ham Sandwich Pizza

• 1/2 cup cream cheese with chives, softened
  
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 Tbsp. horseradish sauce
• 1 prepared Boboli® pizza crust
• 1-1/2 cups chopped cooked ham
• 1-1/2 cups chopped plum tomatoes
• 1/2 cup shredded lettuce
• 1/4 cup creamy Italian salad dressing

In small bowl, combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, and horseradish sauce and blend well. Spread over the pizza crust. Top with ham, plum tomatoes, and lettuce and drizzle with salad dressing. Cut into wedges and serve immediately. (6 servings)

I tweaked it a just a tad to fit what we had in our kitchen:
I used regular cream cheese and mixed it with the mayo and a little shot of dijon mustard since we're not a horseradish family.
I chopped up the deli ham I had, rather than cubed cooked ham, and made up my own pizza crust; I already had the oven on in the early morning making some quick breakfast bars, so I mixed up a Jiffy pizza crust (adding some garlic parmesan seasoning to the dough since I was going to be working with plain cream cheese) and popped it in the oven while it was on. Then I just left it out on the counter to cool and rest until we topped it cold at dinnertime.

Sawyer helped me spread the cheese mixture and sprinkle on the lettuce, tomatoes and ham. We threw some corn on the cob on the stove for a few minutes (so it wasn't a completely no-cook meal) and dinner was served.






























I had hoped Sawyer would be more likely to try it since he helped me make it; but notsomuch. He basically picked off a little ham off of his piece and called it good. Savannah did better, but didn't finish it. Ryan said he liked it but didn't seem blown away by it or anything. He did eat two pieces though...

I, on the other hand, loved this pizza! I was so nice and cool and refreshing. The cream cheese "sauce" was perfect and the fresh toppings were nice and light. I will definitely be coming back to this idea throughout the summer. I may pick up a Boboli or two to have on hand... or it would be really good on some focaccia bread or something similar.
Yum!!

Pepperoni Pasta Salad

I'm not a fan of pasta salads. I love me some pasta, but I like it warm and usually creamy or cheesy or something of that sort. :)
But I tried a recipe I'd been eying on the back of our mini pepperoni* bag and I have to admit I'm a fan. This would be a perfect idea for pasta salad for a potluck or barbeque, as there is no mayo or anything that you have to worry about sitting out.

*we got this huge bag of the cutest tiny bitesized pepperoni at Costco... it's Hormel and they are so yummy -do you think the size makes them more appealing??- and we were all in love with them. They're perfect for making your own mini-pizzas, or for salads, or like here- for pasta salads. Sadly, Costco isn't currently carrying them and I can't find them anywhere in stores or online.

This exact recipe isn't on the Hormel website either, so I thought I'd jot it down in case I ever come across these precious mini's again. Obviously, it would work just as well with regular pepperoni cut into quarters or snipped into smalled bites...

8 ounces rotini (spiral-shaped) pasta (I used half regular and half whole wheat), cooked and drained
1 cup Pepperoni Mini's
4 ounces provolone cheese, cut into 1/4 inch cubes (I just used the shredded mozerella I had in the fridge... about a cup)
1 medium tomato, diced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 small can sliced ripe olives, drained
3/4 cup prepared Italian salad dressing
1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

Combine all ingredients except for the dressing and Parmesan cheese in a large bowl. Add Italian dressing and toss to coat. Refrigerate salad for 1-2 hours before serving. Stir well before serving and toss with Parmesan cheese.

I mostly made this to use up the last of our pepperoni, and I thought the kids would like it. They like pasta, cheese, olives, they love those little pepperonis, and (Savannah at least) like tomatoes and peppers. Turns out, I loved it as well! I picked around the bell peppers and olives, Sawyer picked around everything, but it was a hit with Ryan and Savannah. We steamed some brocolli to go with it, as well as some slices of french bread. What a great summer meal to keep in mind!!

Roasted Cauliflower Soup

I don't know what this soup kick is that I'm on... if you were to ask me I don't even really like soup.
I do think I like it more when I make it from scratch though... YUM!

Here's another good one. I originally had low hopes for this one. I am not a fan of cauliflower. I only made it because my neighbor recommended the recipe and we had two heads of cauliflower from our produce co-op. I wasn't planning on eating those two heads of cauliflower myself, so why not give it a whirl.
Well, it shocked me, but it turns out I like cauliflower soup! This version anyway. It's really got great flavor and it was super simple to make:

Roasted Cauliflower Soup
(from Epicurious)

2 heads cauliflower
3 garlic cloves
2 shallots
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
2 cups heavy cream

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Cut cauliflower into 1-inch flowerets (about 10 cups). In a large baking pan toss cauliflower, garlic, and shallots with oil to coat and roast in middle of oven about 30 minutes, or until golden.

In a 4-quart kettle simmer broth, water, roasted cauliflower mixture, and herbs 30 minutes, or until cauliflower is very tender. Discard bay leaf and in a blender puree soup in batches until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids), transferring to a bowl. Return soup to kettle and stir in cream and salt and pepper to taste. Heat soup over moderate heat until just heated through.

*****

I didn't have shallots, so I used some red onion instead. I wasn't entirely sure from the recipe how to roast the veggies, so after cutting the cauliflower, I just chunked up the onion real big and left the garlic cloves whole and tossed it all on the pan. Also, I roasted them longer than 30 minutes, as per reviews on the recipe... I think I did 45min+... they were quite blackened. I also skipped adding the water and used Half&Half instead of the heavy cream, and only just over 1 cup instead of 2. It was plenty creamy even that way.

Ryan and I were both really impressed with this soup. Savannah tried a decent amount too. She actually said it was too sweet. (?!)
We served it with cornbread and veggies and dip. We're thinking next time (and I do foresee making this again... Not sure if I'd buy cauliflower just for it, but next time we get a head or two from our co-op, I'm looking forward to this soup!) we'd try adding some sausage or cubed ham or something meatier to the soup to make it more of a filling main course.

Cheesy Tilapia

I saw this recipe on a blog documenting A Year of Crockpotting. I've taken quite a few recipes from there actually, because I love using my crockpot. This is my favorite so far.

This was a recipe using the same method of wrapping the fish in foil packets as my favorite salmon recipe. The foil traps all the moisture and juices in, making a beautifully tender fish, never dried out. This recipe simply calls for a crockpot instead of an oven, and I found myself wondering which was more energy efficient; using the crock pot for 3-4 hours or using the oven for 30-40 minutes. Anyone know the answer to that?
I definitely like having it prepared and out of the way before the dinner hour though!

Here's the recipe:

Cheesy Tilapia

• 3 or 4 Tilapia filets (or any other favorite white fish)
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese (cheddar is fine, parmesan is yummy!!)
• juice of 2 lemons
• 4 chopped garlic cloves
• pinch of salt and pepper

1. mix all ingredients except for the fish in a bowl
2. lay out pieces of foil for each piece of fish
3. rub sauce mixture on both sides of each piece of fish
4. fold foil over fish to make seal packets
5. toss the packets into the crockpot and cook on high for 3-4 hours; fish should flake easily with a fork

Ryan and I really liked this fish. One discovery I made was that the sauce was extremely watery when first taken out of the crockpot... I had cut some up for the kids and when I returned to the packet to transfer the rest of the fish to my plate, the sauce had thickened up and turned "cheesier". I used parmesan cheese and the whole thing was really yummy.

Maple Jack Pork Chops

Another new recipe this week. And it earned another permanent place in my cookbook!
How could it not, with an easy 5 ingredients, less than five hour cook time (in the crock pot), and one of those lovely just throw it all together and truly forget about it until dinnertime.

I especially like these 'half-day' crockpot recipes... quite often I forget or get a late start on getting a meal in the crock pot first thing in the morning. But then I'm always around at noon or early afternoon, and thats the kids' downtime in their rooms, which means I should always have time to prep a meal!

Anyway. These pork chops. Melt in your mouth. Mmmm, Mmmm. Really.

Want to try them?
All you need is a crockpot, a few pork chops, an onion, some dijon mustard and this:

Yes, really.

Maple Jack Pork Chops
(from Recipezaar)

4 thick-cut pork loin chops
1 sweet onion peeled and sliced
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup Jack Daniels whiskey
2 tbsp Dijon mustard

Place onion slices in the bottom of your slow cooker. In small bowl, whisk together the syrup, whiskey and mustard. Season pork chops with salt and pepper and then dip each chop into syrup mixture and place in slow cooker on top of the onions. Pour remaining syrup mixture over the pork chops. Cover and cook on LOW for 4-5 hours.

French Dip Sandwiches... YUM!

I've been craving a good French Dip sandwich lately. I used to always order them in restaurants, but then I ran into a few too many blah ones and got tired of it. There's nothing like a really good perfectly tender juicy french dip sandwich though....
So when I found an easy yummy sounding recipe for it, I decided to try it. (First I found the recipe I wanted to try here, but ended up over here as in our house it's much more likely to find beer than a good red wine. hehe.)
So here's what we ended up with:

In the crock pot goes
1 can beef broth
1 can condensed french onion soup
dash of both garlic salt and onion powder
and 1 bottle (12 oz) of beer (I used an IPA because that's all we had in the house (well, that's not true-- we had plenty of light beers, but really I didn't need to be adding water to the broth!) but comments on the Allrecipe recipe mentioned the darker the beer the better)

Then I salt and peppered a 2+ lb sirloin tip roast and plunked that into the broth, turned the crock pot on low for 7 hours and that's it.
I had Ryan slice it up and put it back in the pot about 30 minutes before we ate to let the beef soak up more of the juices.
We piled the slices up in little french rolls, doled out the juice in individual ramekins, and French Dipped away!
It was really good. It may be just that I haven't had one of these sandwiches in so long, but I was quite impressed. I love easy recipes, I especially love easy crock pot recipes, and I loved this one! I will definitely be making this again!

Meatballs

I decided to try something different today with the meatballs than I normally do. I usually just make a quick brown gravy and we eat the meatballs with mashed potatoes.
Last minute-try something new kind of recipe. Simple:

30 frozen meatballs
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp onion powder

I simmered it all together in a pan over med heat for about 20 minutes. Then served over egg noodles.
We also had some honey sweet peas and crescent rolls.
Sawyer: ate only a roll
Savannah: ate everything but the noodles (she's not a pasta fan)... and had seconds on the meatballs!
Ryan: didn't really say one way or the other, but ate lots.
Heather: meh. I really liked the flavor on the meatballs, but the sauce by itself on the noodles I thought was kind of bland.

mmm, mmm good

It was such a soup kind of day!
It was trying hard to snow much of the day today... just the tiniest little flurries flying around in the gray sky... cold, cold wind, the kind that stings your skin...
It was great to stay in all afternoon and smell homemade soup simmering away.

We had Swistle's Soup for dinner. It's a super simple throw together soup that you don't have to cook all day... I just liked the feeling/smell of it simmering on the stove all day so we left it there.
Here's the recipe.
I had grabbed a fresh loaf of Sweet Wheat bread from the bakery on the corner too, and it was a great meal.
The kids both ate everything on their plates (cheese cubes, peaches and the bread) and while Sawyer (of course) totally gonged the soup, Savannah actually ate a good bit of hers.
I love this soup!

Tuna Noodle

Tonight we had a quick meal of Cheesy Tuna Noodle, peas and apple slices.
Savannah ate everything (she's on a roll lately!!) and Sawyer ate nothing. Ryan had two bowlfulls even though he always tells me this is not one of his faves. I, on the other hand, who usually scarfs it down, only picked at it tonight. Role reversal I guess. I only used one can of both tuna and soup tonight to the two boxes of macaroni. I think I like two cans better.

you should try these

a couple of catch-up recipes from last week:

Wednesday we had
Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin with Apple Glaze

Ingredients
-		1 HORMEL® ALWAYS TENDER® Teriyaki Flavored Pork Tenderloin (17 oz.)
-		2 tablespoons butter
-		1 cup apple juice

Directions
Preheat oven to 425ºF. Remove tenderloin from package. Place butter in an ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. When butter foams, add the tenderloin and brown it well on all sides (about 3 minutes per side). Remove tenderloin from the skillet and whisk in apple juice, stirring up browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Return tenderloin to skillet and baste with juices. Place skillet in oven and roast meat, turning every 5 minutes and until internal temperature reaches 155ºF (about 20 minutes). Remove skillet from oven and allow tenderloin to rest for 5 minutes. Slice tenderloin into ½-inch medallions and place on a serving platter. Before serving, drizzle medallions with remaining glaze.

We serve this over our favorite brown rice.
I love this dish.
Savannah even finished hers without complaining.... so you know it's okay!

Later in the week, I was going to make Beef Stroganoff, but Ryan was complaining he wasn't in the mood for more pasta. I came across this recipe I had floating around in my recipe book so I decided to give it a spin:

Beef Stoganoff Pot Pie
1 pkg Pillsbury Pie Crusts, softened as directed on package
1 lb extra-lean ground beef (I used the beef I had for the noodley stroganoff... cubed sirloin, probably just over a pound)
1 cup chopped onions
1 garlic clove minced
1 cup soft bread crumbs
1 cup chopped parsley
1/2 tsp pepper
2 eggs
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
4.5 oz sliced mushrooms
1 egg white, slightly beaten

1. prepare pie crust as directed on package for two-crust pie using 9" glass pie pan.
2. Heat oven to 375*. In large skillet, cook ground beef (or beef cubes!), onion and garlic over med-high heat until beef is browned and cooked through. Drain. Stir in all remaining ingredients except egg white; mix well. Pour into crust-lined pan.
3. Unfold second crust. Cut out shapes or vents in several places. Place crust over filling; flute edge. Brush with beaten egg white.
4. Bake at 375* for 45 to 55 minutes or until crust is deep golden brown If necessary, cover edge of pie crust with strips of foil after 15-20 minutes of baking to prevent excessive browning. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

It's definitely not low-cal, but it was really yummy! Savannah helped me bake it all, but she wasn't too interested in eating the "meat pie". It's a nice warm, homey, meal for grey days!

Beef Kebobs

Super excited about this meal!! It was so quick and easy and it was delicious. Also, something different for us. I mean, we do plenty of grilling around here, but can't say that I've ever done kebobs and this was so simple and so good!
Recipe is from familyfun.com

	1/2 pound lean round or stew beef, cut into 1-inch cubes
	Salt to taste
	Cherry tomatoes (20 or so)
	1/4 cup soy sauce
	1/4 cup honey

1. Combine the beef cubes, cherry tomatoes, soy sauce, and honey and toss to coat. (I put it all in a tupperware bowl and it was Savannah's job to shake it up!)
2. Skewer the beef cubes and tomatoes, alternating. If you're using wooden skewers, soak them in water for 20 minutes or so beforehand. (Ryan had the kids help him do this. Savannah is very into making patterns right now!)
3. Place the kebobs on a small baking sheet and keep them covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator until you're ready to cook them. The kebobs can be broiled for 10 to 14 minutes (turn once) or grilled. Serves two adults and two kids, with leftovers.
We served the kebobs with herb buttered angel hair pasta and steamed (and buttered) green beans. This was definitely my favorite meal of the week. Savannah loved the cherry tomatoes and the noodles... she did try some of the meat for us. Sawyer, of course ate nothing.