Wonderful Winter Salad

I've been doing my best to be creative with my foods, adding flavors I don't normally cook with. So far I have been successful. Citrus is in season now and I love grapefruit. I normally eat it as just a fruit at breakfast. Well, while perusing Pinterest, I saw that the Pioneer Woman pinned a salad with grapefruit and kale. I'm a big fan of kale, but don't particularly care to eat it raw. It has a rough texture, so not my favorite to eat as a salad. (I prefer using it soups where it will hold up to soaking in liquid for a long time.) Today I made a similar version to this salad. I had arugula, grapefruit, and crumbled feta and made this beauty.

It was fabulous! I topped it with some slivered almonds and a raspberry walnut vinaigrette. I'm looking forward to make this again!

Cooking with What's in the House

Prior to the holidays, my husband and I made a commitment to each other that we are going to pay down our debt. Like many other Americans, we have a lot, but we are now working on fixing this. Paying down our debt means we are adjusting our lifestyle a bit. We were never ones to really go out a lot, but we would, and when you tally up the cost per month, it was several hundred dollars. Additionally, since I am the one that does the food shopping, I have to really budget my spending. Many times I would just buy things because they are on sale, not necessarily something we needed because we were out. Well that is stopping and I'm working on creating easy meals based on what is in our home already. 

When I originally thought of this dinner, I was going to do a tomato based chicken and pasta dish (which is what we'd always have), but when I opened the pantry and saw a jar of Classico light alfredo sauce, I came up with something else. I knew I had Boar's Head deli ham in the fridge and half a bag of Trader Joe's frozen peas in the freezer. So I created my own version of chicken carbonara and it was delicious!

I had 2 boneless chicken breasts already defrosted in the fridge. I cut them up into bite size pieces and seasoned them with salt and pepper. (Remember, do not use a wood cutting board when cutting up raw meats!) I had a skillet on the stove on medium heat with some olive oil in the pan and added the chicken to get it cooking.

On a separate burner, I had the water going in a pot to boil so I could add the Barilla fettuccine. Once the chicken had no pink visible on the outside, I added the peas and chopped ham and let that cook for a few minutes. Then I added the jar of sauce.

I lowered the heat on the pan and let the chicken mixture simmer until the pasta was finished. I drained the pasta then added it to the chicken mixture and stirred it together. It was such a tasty dish!

Happy New Year!

We've already enjoyed five days of 2014 and here in Long Island, we had our first blizzard. We got about 11" in my area, but it was that really soft fluffy snow so it was easy to shovel.

It's been frigid to say the least so I have been spending a lot of time in the kitchen. I go back to work tomorrow so I started my freezer meals over the break. Some of my favorites are ones I can throw in the slow cooker. All of the ingredients are raw and put into a ziplock. I made several chicken and beef dishes. These will be great on these cold winter days!

On our snow day, I wanted to turn the oven on for breakfast. I wasn't in the mood for eggs so I scoured Pinterest for ideas and found cinnamon buns! I had all of the ingredients so I went to work. My ingredients:

1 can of crescent rolls (I used reduced fat Pillsbury)

1/3 cup of brown sugar

2 T of butter (melted)

2 t of cinnamon

I preheated the oven to the temp listed on the dough container. I opened up the dough and rolled it out onto a cutting board. I pinched together all the perforated seams. In a bowl, I mixed together the butter, sugar and cinnamon, then spread it across the dough. I rolled the dough into a tube with the cinnamon sugar mixture on the inside. Using a sharp knife, I sliced the dough into 8 pieces. In a greased dish, I arranged the sliced dough and placed it in the oven. 

The buns baked for about 14 minutes. I let them cool a few minutes before using a spatula to remove the buns. I decided not to ice the buns and keep it a little lighter. They were delicious and sweet enough on their own!

Roasted Tomato Bruschetta

My family went out to lunch the other day and one of our appetizers was bruschetta. I haven't had that in awhile and it was so good. I love the taste of fresh tomatoes, basil and red onion. Such a great treat in the summer when tomatoes are in season! This morning I was preparing some freezer meals and saw the pint of grape tomatoes in my fridge. I had originally bought them with the intention of making a pasta dish, but that didn't happen and they were starting to go bad. I thought about the bruschetta and thought that would be a tasty treat. Since tomatoes aren't really in season now, I decided to roast them. This is how I prepared this tasty treaty. 

I emptied the pint onto a baking sheet and preheated the oven to 400 degrees. I drizzled extra virgin olive oil over the tomatoes and seasoned with salt and pepper. I tossed them around on the sheet to get an even coat and placed it in the oven. 

I let them roast for about 20 minutes. 

I let them cool so that I can handle them with my fingers. I chopped them up and put them in a bowl. I then diced a quarter of a red onion. 

I tossed that in the bowl with the tomatoes and added a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I added some dried basil and mixed everything together. 

I let it sit in the fridge for several hours so all the flavors could meld together. When snack time rolled around, I took a slice of thin bread and brushed it with olive oil and put it in the toaster oven to brown it and make it crisp. I cut the bread into 3 pieces. I sliced 2 thin slices of Bel Gioso fresh mozzarella and placed them onto the bread. I then put a heaping spoonful on top of each piece. What a delightful snack!

Freezer Meal: Lasagna

As any working mom will tell you, there is never enough time in the day to get a good dinner on the table at a decent hour. For the 2+ years, I always did a bulk cooking day. This always helped with dinner during the week since all that was needed was to heat up. This cooking day would also take hours every Sunday. It got tiresome since I was literally wasting hours each week, preparing meals. I knew there had to be an easier way. I discovered freezer meals on Pinterest. This has really changed things for me. Instead of taking several hours a week, I only spend a few hours a month preparing meals that I just throw in the freezer. And best of all, I am not cooking! It's all raw ingredients that are tossed into a ziplock and put in the freezer. The day we will have that meal, I take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to defrost. My husband will dump the contents of the bag into a baking dish and pop it in the oven. Voila, done when I am finished work. Slow cooker dinners get put in the fridge for defrosting the night before. In the morning, I set up the slow cooker, empty the bag contents, set the time and let it go. Delicious hot dinner ready at a decent hour. 

I am currently on my holiday break, so have some free time to do some freezer meals. One of my favorites is lasagna. This isn't something I prepared with the raw ingredients and froze because I didn't have the space to store the entire pan size dish. I baked it, and when it cooled, cut it into 3 large portions. Remember, it's only 2 adults and a toddler eating so we don't need that much!

Here is how I prepared it. I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. My ingredients:

1lb. Mozzarella, shredded

16 oz. ricotta

 2 eggs

4 cups of tomato sauce (I used my own homemade sauce)

Salt

Pepper

2 boxes of no cook lasagna noodles, like Barilla

In a large bowl, mix the ricotta and eggs together. Add about 2 tsp of salt and half tsp of pepper and mix. Taste it to make sure it is seasoned. (Remember you can always add more to season, so start off with a little bit!)

Next, take a roasting pan and spread a thin layer of sauce to the bottom. You don't want to put the noodles directly on the bottom of the pan or they will stick. Place a layer of noodles on top of the sauce. 

Layer some ricotta mixture on top of the noodles and add a handful of shredded cheese. (I like to have the mozzarella as a layer in the middle of the lasagna. 

Add sauce to this layer. Then more noodles, ricotta mixture and sauce. Your final layer should go noodles, sauce, the remainder of the mozzarella.

Cover with foil and bake for about 45-50 mins. Remove foil and continue to bake another 10-15 minutes so the cheese browns and the top layer is a little crispy. It should look like this perfect, mouth watering dish when it is done.

If you plan to eat it that night, let it cool for about 5-7 minutes to let juices settle. I also love adding more sauce to the top of my individual piece. Dig in and enjoy!

First trip away

Today begins the first trip I will be away from my daughter. I have to say I am not nervous about how she will be. I just have this overwhelming wanting to just stay with her. I know the first time is always the hardest. I'm sure many parents that travel feel this way all the time. I just have to keep saying to myself that I get to sleep in tomorrow and have no one to focus on but myself I will be able to do face time with her and will be back Tuesday, so I am only two full days away from her. Hopefully I don't burst into tears!

Clothes purging

Every few months I purge my closet and dressers. I went to NY & Company during lunch and picked up a few tops and a dress. I went to hang them up and realized my clothes were so scattered in my closet. I began pulling out some things I haven't worn and organizing what I had hanging. When I finished, I had pulled out over 25 items! Next I went to my drawers and pulled out more stuff. Now I have space for new clothes and a nice big bag of clothes to donate!