Summer Perfection

Just popping in to share my idea of a perfect summer lunch.

A panini made with fresh mozzarella slices, tomato, baby spinach and a schmear of pesto. Plus a side of extra ripe, juicy peaches on the side.

(I use my George Foreman to make paninis and it works like a charm.)


Peaches are so good right now! Yum.

I love summer!

What's your favorite summer lunch?

Finger Lickin' Good

Tonight's meal was a recipe I have heard about for many years, but for some reason had never made.

Now I'm kicking myself for that. I don't know what was holding me back because 1) this is super duper freaking easy to make (I heart my slow cooker) and 2) it is finger lickin' good!

Slow Cooker Root Beer Pulled Pork

with Roasted Brocc & Red Potatoes

Look at all that juiciness!!! So. Good.

The best part is that to make this pulled pork there are only three ingredients: Pork Tenderloin & this......

(Diet) Root Beer and Barbecue Sauce. Toss it all in a slow cooker in the morning, set it on low for 7 hours, come home to a house that smells AMAZING, and you get this:

Well actually first you have to shred the pork but it's really easy to do since it's literally falling apart.

Toss it on a bun, top with some pickles and red onion and FEAST on the deliciousness!

Oh and FYI, this meal is VERY husband-friendly. The hubs was practically worshipping me after this meal. Success!

What's your favorite slow cooker "recipe"?? This might be my new favorite.

Not Fooled

Tonight I am in RELIEF mode.

Today at work we had one of our major bi-annual events at my job and I am SOOOOO relieved that it's O.V.E.R. Every time it stresses me out and is a huge task to coordinate and keep track of everything that needs doing.

I seriously breathed a huge sigh of relief at 3pm today when it was over. Woohoo!! No more of that stress for another few months.

And in another a few months I could possibly be leaving my job to PCS (a.k.a. move) to another state for the Hubs' job.

Soooooo perhaps this was my last stressful/least-favorite event at this job EVER?!?! That actually makes me really happy to think about. Is that bad?!? I think I'm ready for a change.

Anyway dinner tonight was one of our favorite fall-backs:


BLTAMs! ! ! ! !

Deeeee-freaking-licious. I can't get enough of these.

I think I could survive on pizza, BLTAMs, and Mexican food alone and be happy as a clam. Healthy, no?


I planned to bake up some sweet potato fries for a side dish but ran out of time because I spent some time on the phone catching up with a really great friend tonight.

So instead of the sweet potato fries I tried to "trick myself" into thinking I was eating fries by throwing some raw carrots on a plate and drizzling them in light Ranch dressing. Raw carrot fries, if you will.

I'm not gonna lie, it wasn't nearly as good as sweet potato fries would have been. I only ate a couple sticks and then fed the rest to the Libs. She seemed to enjoy them thoroughly, so at least they didn't go to waste!

Do you ever try to trick yourself? How does it work out for you?

Also, what's your favorite fall-back meal?

Supremely Scrumptious Salsa Burgers

Inspiration for this meal came from flipping through the pages of my latest edition of Cooking Light magazine.

"Southwest Salsa Burgers? Hmmm those sound delicious. I shall add that to my meal plan for this week."

Oh how I love Cooking Light. LOVE.

I decided to substitute ground turkey for beef because we just really like turkey burgers.


What's for Dinner? 7/26/2010

-Southwest Salsa Turkey Burgers
-Sweet Potato Oven Fries & Regular Fries
-Steamed Broccoli


Yum yum yum. Supremely scrumptious.

Southwest Salsa Burgers

Other Time: 20 minutes minutes
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 burger)

1/4 cup finely chopped shallots
3/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle chile pepper (I didn't have this so I just used a dash each of chile powder, paprika, and cayenne instead)
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 pound lean ground round (Ground turkey)
1/4 cup refrigerated fresh salsa, divided
Cooking spray
4 (1-ounce) slices Monterey Jack cheese
4 Boston lettuce leaves
4 (1 1/2-ounce) (whole wheat) hamburger buns, toasted
8 (1/8-inch-thick) tomato slices

1. Combine first 5 ingredients and 2 tablespoons salsa. Divide mixture into 4 equal portions, shaping each into a 1/2-inch-thick patty.

2. Heat a large skillet or grill pan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add patties to pan; cook 5 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Top each patty with 1 cheese slice; cook 1 minute or until cheese melts.

3. Place 1 lettuce leaf on bottom half of each bun; top with 2 tomato slices, 1 patty, 1 1/2 teaspoons salsa, and 1 bun top.


CALORIES 385 ; FAT 15.7g (sat 8.4g,mono 4.5g,poly 0.5g); CHOLESTEROL 86mg; CALCIUM 282mg; CARBOHYDRATE 24.3g; SODIUM 720mg; PROTEIN 36.7g; FIBER 1.3g; IRON 4mg

Cooking Light, AUGUST 2010

What's your favorite meat for burgers? Normal old beef? Or turkey? Or something more exotic?

A Measured Meal

Hi there! Sorry I've been MIA lately! We had a lot going on towards the end of this week and then we left for Houston yesterday (Friday). I'm going to try to get caught up...

Tuesday night we made a delicious dinner of Chicken Meatball Subs with steamed broccoli on the side. The inspiration came from this post on How Sweet It Is.

My husband is a BIG fan of chicken parmesan so I knew he would be up for it! He also really likes making meatballs so I was able to rope him into taking charge of dinner....suuuhweet!

These were seriously sooooooo satisfying. Perfect healthy-ish comfort food. A little cheese and carbs never hurt anyone! :)

Alex wanted me to make sure that I mention that he cooks the meatballs on a pan covered in tin foil. He was very proud of himself that the clean up for this meal was so easy because all I had to do was take off the foil and throw it away!

Filling the subs with balls, covering with sauce and then laying on the cheese...

Ohhhh yeah! So good!

Another thing Alex was proud of himself for was remembering to write down the measurements that he used when putting together the balls.

Getting that boy to use actual measurements is like trying to get a pig to fly! But I threatened his life if he didn't so he obliged...the things we do for the sake of blogging!

Alex's Healthier Chicken Meatball Subs

Adapted from How Sweet It Is

1 lb ground chicken

1/3 c. whole wheat bread crumbs

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp lemon pepper

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

2 Tbsp worcestershire (I'm too lazy to look up the actual spelling of that word)

1 egg

Whole wheat hoagie or sub buns

Sliced provolone cheese

Spaghetti sauce (we used the kind out of a jar)

Mix all ingredients together with your hands until incorporated. Form into small golf ball size balls and place on a tin foil covered baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until a meat thermometer registers at 180 degrees.

To assemble the subs, place 3-4 meatballs inside of a bun and then cover in warmed tomato sauce and lay on a slice of provolone cheese. Broil in the oven for about 2 minutes or until the cheese melts. {Don't be like us and let these go too long or you'll get extra crispy a.k.a. burnt buns!}

Are you a measurer or a toss everything in kinda person? I'm a total measurer but my husband is not.

Ranch Me

Today is my Friday and all I have to say about that is THANK GOODNESS! I don't think I could have handled another day of stressful work this week. Now I'm off until Tuesday...wooo hooo! Party! We'll be spending the long weekend at my family's ranch with some good friends of ours and I am E.X.C.I.T.E.D!

Gotta catch you up on last night's dinner and then I'll tell ya all about tonight's DELICIOUS dinner!

Who: Me & some of my girl friends
What: Dinner
When: Last night
Where: CHEDDAR'S {YUM}
Why: Does there really need to be a why when Cheddar's is involved?!

I ordered my new favorite Cheddar's dinner which is the Veggie Plate. You get to choose any 4 sides, plus you choose between a bowl of soup or salad. I had the chicken tortilla soup plus broccoli cheddar casserole, baked potato, green beans and steamed broccoli. I forgot to take a picture at the restaurant {which I seem to be doing a lot lately} but I took one of my leftovers today when I ate them for lunch.

The only thing not pictured is the soup because I ate it all last night

All that food only cost me $6.49 total! Seriously try the veggie plate next time you're at a Cheddar's!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Who: Me & Hubs
What: Cajun Chicken Ranch Sandwiches for Dinner
When: Tonight
Where: At the casa
Why: To satisfy hunger.


These were seriously SO GOOD. I know I say that a lot but I never lie! These. Were. Awesome. And sooooo easy!

Cajun Chicken Ranch Sandwiches
Source: Me

Sprinkle cajun seasoning on chicken breasts and then cook in a grill pan until done. Serve on a bun {or a sandwich thin} with avocado slices, sauteed mushrooms, onion, whatever else you desire. Then drizzle light ranch dressing and buffalo hot sauce on top and EAT. Then come back here and tell me how I was right about how delicious this sandwich is.

We don't have very good internet access at the ranch so I'm out until Monday or Tuesday! Everyone have a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

What are your plans for the weekend?

Tried and True

Tired summer nights are the perfect times for one of our favorite, easy meals: BLTAM's!!!!!



What's for Dinner? 6/21/2010

-BLTAM's on Whole Wheat
-Half a Nuked Sweet Potato with a dollop of low-fat vanilla yogurt

Mmmmm!

We did try cooking the bacon in the oven for the first time...but it just turned out kinda "eh". Kinda soggy, not crispy at all, kinda greasy. Not sure what we did wrong. We cooked it at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

Do you cook your bacon in the oven? How do you do it? Our bacon needs your help! :)

Healthier BLTAM's

What's for Dinner? 5/21/2010

-Healthier BLTAM's
-Sweet Potato Oven Fries

BLTAM's {Bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado & mayo} are one of our favorite go-to, easy dinners. There's just nothing better than combo of salty bacon, creamy avocado & mayo, and the freshness of tomato and lettuce. It's just so dang good and ALWAYS hits the spot!


We made a couple of changes to make these a bit more health conscious than the last time:

1. Whole wheat bread.
2. Center-cut bacon, which is significantly leaner than your average bacon.
3. Light mayo.

Sweet potato fries also made another appearance tonight. They were made the same way as described in this post.

Lean, Mean, Turkey Burger Machines

What's for Dinner? 5/18/2010

-Simple Turkey Burgers
-Sweet Potato Oven Fries

We really love turkey burgers in this household. Sometimes they get a bad rap as being flavorless and dry, but ours are definitely not! Plus, they are WAY healthier than beef burgers. {We use 99% fat free ground turkey.}

Tonight's dinner was positively scrumptious, and made even better by the fact that Alex did all the cooking AGAIN! Score!


To make the Simple Turkey Burgers we just formed the patties {with no seasoning} and then sprinkled both sides of the patties with garlic salt and black pepper. Then we grilled them on the charcoal grill for about 5 minutes on each side. Melt provolone cheese on top once cooked through.

To make the Sweet Potato Oven Fries we sliced up a sweet potato and then tossed them in a bowl with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and some Lawry's Seasoning Salt. Place the potato slices on a rack placed on top of a baking sheet. Then bake in a 425 degree oven for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Turkey Buggah, Turkey Buggah

What's for Dinner? 4/27/2010
Turkey Burgers!


This dinner was a plate full of deliciousness.

And can I just say that I was SHOCKED to look back at old posts and not find a single turkey burger featured in one of my What's for Dinners?!? How did this happen?! We loooovvveee turkey burgers! Shame on us!

On the side:
-Grilled brocc
-Oven potato & parsnip fries

Yes, I said parsnip fries. Wipe that disgusted look off your face right this instant! I got this idea from the lovely Katie at Health for the Whole Self. As you know, I recently cooked with parsnips for the first time ever and I really enjoyed them. So I figured why not give them a shot as oven fries!

Turns out, they're delicious! {Not that I didn't trust you Katie!!} They reminded us a lot of sweet potato fries, with a slight sweet factor to them. Definitely give them a try. I made them the same way as Katie, by coating them in olive oil, salt & pepper and then roasting in a 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

And just because I'm really digging the photos I took tonight and can't choose just one, here's a bonus pic of tonight's dinner.

No, that's not two turkey burgers on one bun that you're seeing. Our burgers puffed up while cooking and ended up looking more like giant meatballs so we sliced them in half to better suit the bun.

Alex's Turkey Burgers

-1 lb 93% lean ground turkey
-small palmful of grated parmesan cheese
-1.5 Tbsp Worcestershire
-1.5 tsp Hickory liquid smoke
-1/2 tsp dried minced onion
-1/2 tsp Mrs. Dash seasoning
-sprinkle of Lawry's Seasoned Salt on the formed patties

Mix all ingredients, except Lawry's, together and form 3 or 4 patties. Then sprinkle the Lawry's on the patties. Grill until internal temp reaches 170 degrees, about 15 minutes. {FYI our patties puffed up and rounded out big time so make them super flat and thin.}

Philly Cheesechickens? {What's for Dinner? 4/6/2010}

Sorry I've been MIA! We spent Easter weekend with my family and did a lot of eating out. It was great! I won't rehash it all since I forgot to take any pictures and you probably don't care much anyway. :)

So moving on, this is what we had for dinner tonight:

Chicken Philly Cheesesteaks {Cheesechickens?}


They were great! It's pretty easy to make these. Just cook up some thinly sliced chicken with onions, bell peppers and seasoning, place in a hoagie roll and melt provolone cheese on top.

We served oven sweet potato fries on the side. Great dinner!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last night I had a coffee to go to so Alex was on his own for dinner. When I got home he informed me that he had cooked an amazing steak dinner and even took a picture of it in case I wanted to blog about it. He's so stinkin' cute!

So without further adieu, here is the dinner:


Oooooh! Ahhhhh! Such pretty colors! And it's making my mouth water just looking at it!

Faux-Burger {What's for Dinner? 3/25/2010}

Tonight Hubs had to go to a unit function for dinner so I was on my own for dinnahhhh. Hmmmm...what to eat, what to eat? FAUX-BURGER! A Morningstar Grillers Prime veggie burger with baby spinach, cheese, pickles & dijonnaise, to be exact. With leftovahhh eggplant veg mix and mashed 'taters.


Off to start prepping food for the shower on Saturday.

{And in case you were wondering, the twitching continues.}

Twitchy {What's for Dinner? 3/24/2010}

I've been having eye twitches all day. ALL. DAY. It's so annoying!! That just goes to show how stressed I am right now. BAH!

A conversation much like the one below happened between the hubs and I when I had a little outburst about how annoying it is to have your eye twitching all day long...

Hubs: "Well just stop stressing, then."
Me: "How?!?!?" :::eye twitch:::
Hubs: "I don't know. Just....do it."
Me: :::eye twitch and angry glare:::

I was elbow deep in pink, baby shower items again tonight so Hubs picked out this recipe for Spicy Chicken Schwarma {click the link for the recipe} from our new Cooking Light to make. I know I say this a lot, but...........THIS WAS SO GOOD! Yum yum yum YUM.


If only eating a delicious dinner was a cure for eye twitching...

BLTAM's {What's for Dinner? 3/23/2010}

Busy, busy, busy I am! I'm co-hosting a baby shower for my very best friend this Saturday so it's been a non-stop rotation of errands and preparations. It's fun but it's exhausting, that's for sure! {Yet all worth it when it's for such an amazing friend}

I basically handed over the reigns to Hubs for dinners this week because I've got so much going on. He decided on BLTAM's {Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Avocado & Mayo} on marbled rye bread for tonight and they were DEEEEEELISH. BLT's are really a perfect example of a simple thing that just works so well.




And because I was still hungry after eating one BLTAM, I made myself a little runny egg on toast snack. Yummmmmmmm.

Near NuWay {What's for Dinner? 3/7/2010}

There's this place in Wichita, KS {Alex's hometown} called NuWay Cafe that holds a special place in both Alex's and my heart. They make the most amazing, crave-worthy loosemeat beef sandwiches. Every time we go to Wichita we make sure we stop at NuWay for a delicious lunch. {I had never heard of loosemeat sandwiches until visiting Wichita...apparently it's a Midwestern thing.}

In the months between visits to our beloved NuWay, we often find ourselves craving the sandwiches but not having any way to satisfy the craving. Well, this recipe was our answer. It tastes very, very similar to NuWay sandwiches, which was VERY exciting to us! What makes it even better, is that these are super easy to make and consists of ingredients that we almost always have on hand.


We served our Near NuWays in hot dog buns {because we didn't have any hamburger buns} topped with mustard and dill pickles. On the side we had sweet potato oven fries {that I accidentally overcooked...oops}.

Bangin' Bacon Cheeseburger {What's for Dinner? 3/1/2010}

Happy March! {Side note: Is it really March already?!? Pretty soon Alex will have been home for 3 months...time flies!}

I'm just gonna go ahead and get to the point here: This dinner was freaking AWESOME! Sometimes it's the simplest things that are the best and this was a perfect example of that. Bacon cheeseburgers with sweet potato oven fries. Yum!

Alex was the maestro for this dinner because he's the Burger Maker Extraordinaire and he did a FAB job! We used the pre-made hamburger patties {the fresh kind...not the frozen ones} from HEB which are 93% lean...so not that bad for you! {The bacon on the other hand.....was full fat. :) } He seasoned the patties with Lawry's Seasoned Salt, garlic powder & oregano and then grilled 'em up to medium doneness.



Ashley's Perfect Burger consists of: toasted bun, cheese, lettuce, one {and only ONE} slice of tomato, red onion, bacon & mustard {lots of it}. CHOMP CHOMP. What does your perfect burger have on it?

What's for Dinner? 1/27/2010

1/27/2010
-French Onion Burgers (recipe below)
-Oven Fries
-Side Salad

Really yummy dinner! The burgers are juicy and the onion dipping sauce makes them even better. Definitely a make-again dinner!

French Onion Burgers

From: Campbell's Kitchen

Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 20 minutes

Serves: 4

These juicy cheeseburgers, served with an onion-seasoned dipping sauce, are as easy to make as they are delicious!

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
1 can (10 1/2 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed French Onion Soup
4 slice cheese
4 Pepperidge Farm® Classic Sandwich Buns with Sesame Seeds, split

Directions:

Shape the beef into 4 (1/2-inch-thick) burgers.

Heat a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the burgers and cook until well browned on both sides. Remove the burgers from the skillet. Pour off any fat.

Stir the soup in the skillet and heat to a boil. Return the burgers to the skillet. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until desired doneness. Top the burgers with the cheese and cook until the cheese is melted. Serve the burgers on the buns with the soup mixture for dipping.

Tip: You can also serve these burgers in a bowl atop a mound of hot mashed potatoes, with some of the onion gravy poured over.

Serving Suggestion: Serve with romaine salad tossed with fresh basil and Italian salad dressing. For dessert, serve orange slices.

Nutrition Information

Nutritional Values per Serving

Using Campbell's Condensed French Onion Soup: : Calories 497, Total Fat 22g, Saturated Fat 9g, Cholesterol 92mg, Sodium 1226mg, Total Carbohydrate 41g, Dietary Fiber 6g, Protein 33g, Vitamin A 5%DV, Vitamin C 0%DV, Calcium 11%DV, Iron 28%DV