Quick Weeknight Meals

A new school year is just around the corner. I went into Walmart and picked up the kids supply list and it made me think of the busy year ahead. Everybody needs quick meals to make during a busy week. Here are a few of our favorites.

Spinach Artichoke Pasta

source: The Pioneer Women

Prep time: 10 min. Cook time: 20 min.

Ingredients

6 Tablespoons Butter
4 cloves Garlic, Finely Minced
2 bags Baby Spinach
2 cans Artichoke Hearts, Drained And Halved
3 Tablespoons Flour
3 cups Milk
1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
Salt And Pepper, to taste
1/2 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
1-1/2 cup Mozzarella Or Monterey Jack Cheese, Grated
1/2 cup Chicken Broth (less Or More)
12 ounces, weight Penne, Cooked Until Al Dente
1/2 cup Seasoned Panko Breadcrumbs
Crushed Red Pepper, To Taste

Directions:

 

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large pot or skillet. Add garlic and throw in the spinach. Stir it around until it’s wilted, about 1 minute. Remove spinach from heat and set aside.

 

Add 2 tablespoons butter to the same pot and raise the heat to high. Throw in the halved artichokes and stir it around until they get a little color, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the artichokes from the pot and set them aside.

 

Reduce the heat to low. Add 2 tablespoons butter to the pot. When melted, sprinkle in flour and whisk until it’s combined. Pour in milk and whisk to combine. Let it cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until starting to thicken. Add Parmesan, Mozzarella/Monterey Jack, salt and pepper, and cayenne pepper. Stir to melt, and if it’s overly thick, splash in chicken broth.

 

Add artichokes and pasta, tossing gently to combine. Gently fold in spinach, then pour the pasta into a serving bowl. Sprinkle the top with crushed red pepper flakes and plenty of Panko breadcrumbs for crunch.

Pizza is one of our favorite meals to eat in this house. You can easily make the dough over the weekend. Split the pizza dough in two equal pieces. Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and place in freezer bag.

When you want to use the dough pull it out about an hour or so before you want to use it or the night before and place it in the refrigerator to defrost. Once defrosted make the pizza as you usually would. If you try and use the dough and its still frozen in the middle, just split it and let it sit out a few minutes more.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

A Punky original

I use this Pizza Dough recipe.

Ingredients:

A couple of cups of Leftover Chicken, Shredded

1/4 c Franks Red Hot

2TBS unsalted butter

Mozzarella Cheese

1/4 red onion, opitional

blue cheese crumbles, optional

Directions:

Preheat oven to 500° with pizza stone place in the bottom half of the oven.

In a skillet over med heat, put franks red-hot sauce and butter in. Heat just until butter has melted. Add chicken and coat with buffalo sauce. Turn off heat and set aside. Press dough out into a pizza round. Dock center of pizza dough. With a slotted spoon remove chicken from skillet and place on pizza dough. You don’t want to use a lot of the sauce. If you do you will have soggy pizza. Top with Cheeses, and onions. Bake in a 500° oven for 8-10 minutes or until crust and cheese are golden brown.

 

 

Asian Noodle Salad and Egg rolls

original salad source: The Pioneer Women

I modified a bit for what I had on hand.

Egg rolls: A Punky original

Ingredients

SALAD INGREDIENTS:

1 package Linguine Noodles, Cooked, Rinsed, And Cooled
1 head Sliced Napa Cabbage (reserve half for egg rolls)
1 small head Sliced Purple Cabbage (reserve half for egg rolls)
1/2 Red Bell Pepper, Sliced Thin
1/2 Green Bell Pepper, Sliced Thin
1 bag Bean Sprouts (reserve half for egg rolls)
Handful of baby carrots,sliced thin (reserve half for egg rolls)

1 Chopped Cilantro, Up To 1 Bunch, To Taste
3 whole Scallions, Sliced (reserve some for the egg rolls)

_____
FOR THE DRESSING:
1 whole Lime, Juiced
8 Tablespoons Olive Oil
8 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons (up To 3 Tablespoons) Sesame Oil
1/3 cup Brown Sugar
3 Tablespoons Fresh Ginger Chopped
2 cloves Garlic, Chopped
2 whole Hot Peppers Or Jalapenos, Chopped
Chopped Cilantro

Preparation Instructions

 

Mix salad ingredients together. Whisk dressing ingredients together and pour over salad. Mix with tongs or hands and serve on a platter.

Note: dressing keeps for up to three days before serving, without cilantro.

Egg Rolls

Ingredients:

1 pkg Egg Roll wraps

1 lb ground beef, pork, or turkey

the reserved vegetables from the salad

2 TBS soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

2 TBS cooking sherry

1 tsp ground or fresh ginger

2 TBS corn starch

1 TBS oil, to saute vegetables

oil for frying, at least a couple of inches worth

salt and pepper, to taste

little bowl of water, so that you can dip your fingers in to seal the egg rolls

Directions:

In a large skillet brown meat, when done browning drain off fat. Set meat aside. In a measuring cup or bowl mix soy sauce, sesame oil, cooking sherry, ginger and cornstarch. Mix well so that there are no lumps of corn starch.

In the same skillet add 1 TBS oil over medium/high heat. Once oil is hot add vegetables to the skillet. Saute vegetables for a couple of minutes. Add the meat back to the skillet. Pour sauce over meat mixture. Season with salt and pepper as needed. You wont need a lot of salt because of the soy sauce.  Warm for a minute or so. Turn off heat and set aside.

Pull out egg roll wraps from the refrigerator. Spoon 2-3 TBS of filling in the middle of the wrap and seal egg roll with a bit of water on your fingers. In a large heavy bottom pot over medium high heat add a couple of cups of oil, at least enough to go up the side of the egg rolls. Once oil is hot enough, about 350°, place only enough egg rolls in the pot seam side down being careful not to crowd the pot. Fry till golden brown and flip carefully. This doesn’t take very long. Once fried remove from oil and place on a paper towel lined plate.

This can be done ahead of time and you can freeze finished egg rolls. On the evening you want to eat them heat oven to 375° and bake for about 20 minutes or so.

 

 

 

Eggplant Baked Pasta

a Punky Orginal

Ingredients:

5 TBS Extra virgin olive oil

1 eggplant, cut into cubes

1/2 box of mini penne pasta (or rotini, penne, ziti, or farfalle pasta)

1 small white onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 jar spaghetti sauce

1 tsp dried Italian seasoning

1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

salt and pepper to taste

1 1/2-2 c. Mozzarella cheese

freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Lightly spray a 13×9 baking dish with non stick cooking spray.

Turn on oven to broil.

In a large pot cook pasta according to package until pasta is al dente. Once done drain off water.

In a large skillet over medium heat add olive oil. Once the oil is hot add the diced eggplant and cook for about 10 minutes or until softened. Add onion, garlic and spaghetti sauce and Italian seasoning to the pot. Simmer sauce for about 8 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add cooked pasta and about half the cheese to the pot. Stir to combine. Pour pasta into the baking dish. Shred fresh Parmesan cheese and top with remaining mozzarella cheese.

Place in oven and broil just until cheese is nice and brown. Maybe about 5 minutes, watch carefully you don’t want burnt cheese.

Serve with garlic bread.

 

Super Quick Shrimp Fra Diavolo

Source: Giada De Laurentiis

as seen on my sisters blog.

Ingredients

1 pound large shrimp, peeled, deveined
1 teaspoon salt, plus additional as needed
1 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus 1 to 2 tablespoons
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes *I used a 28oz can
1 cup dry white wine *I omitted this because I didn’t have any, you can use chicken broth or omit all together if you use a big can of tomatoes
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves * I used about 1/2 dried Italian seasoning
3 tablespoon chopped fresh basil leaves

Directions:

 

 Heat the 3 tablespoons oil in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat, add the red chili flakes to the oil. Add the shrimp and saute for about a minute, add the salt and toss, and continue cooking until just cooked through, about 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer the shrimp to a large plate; set aside. Add the onion to the same skillet, adding 1 to 2 teaspoons of olive oil to the pan, if necessary, and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juices, wine, garlic, and oregano. Simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, about 10 minutes. Return the shrimp and any accumulated juices to the tomato mixture; toss to coat, and cook for about a minute so the flavors meld together. Stir in the parsley and basil. Season with more salt, to taste, and serve.

 

Hope these recipes turn into your “go to” weekly recipes. I know they are ours. Happy eating.

OMG Beef Broccoli

I have to start out by saying this was so darn good. I have been watching a lot of The Big Bang Theory in this house lately and every time they sit and eat Chinese food I get a hankering. I hopped on over to pinterest and looked for a new recipe to try. I modified the recipe slightly. I will post a link to the original if you’d like to give it a try.

Beef with Broccoli

Original Source: Rainy Day Gal, 

(This is my modified version)

2 head broccoli, crowns only cut and rinsed.

1 1/2 lb. Flank Steak sliced thinly against the grain.

3 Tbs. vegetable oil

pepper to taste.

Marinade:

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp sugar

1 Tbs. corn starch

1 Tbs.water

Place all the ingredients in a large bowl, add the meat and toss together. Cover with plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator for about an hour.

Sauce:

1/4 c soy sauce + 1/2 c water ( I used this as a substitute for low sodium soy sauce)

3 Tbs. brown sugar

3 Tbs. flour

1 1/2 Tbs. sherry or rice wine

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

Mix all ingredients in a large measuring cup or bowl making sure to get clumps of flour incorporated. Set sauce aside.

Cooking Directions:

In a large pot/pan bring 1 inch of water to a boil. Add cut broccoli and cover with a lid. Steam for about 3 min. Pull out and set aside season with pepper. Dump water.

In the same pot/pan add 1Tbs of vegetable oil to pot. Place an even layer of marinated meat to the pot. Cook over med/high heat. Do Not Move or flip the meat until the first side has gotten a nice crust on it, flip and cook the other side. Remove cooked meat and repeat the process adding oil as needed for the remaining batches. Once all the meat has been cooked dump the excess oil from the pot.

Put broccoli and meat back into the pot over low heat. Add Sauce to the pot and stir to combine. Leave the heat on just until it’s all heated through. Serve with or over white rice.

In other news I did a little bit of sewing this past week. I made a skirt out of $1 bandana from WalMart for my daughter for St. Patrick’s day. 30 minutes of sewing time used some black and whited polka dot fabric from my stash. Can’t beat that. Cheep and cute. That’s how I roll. 🙂 Here’s a picture of “Little Miss Sassy Pants” in her Cheaply Cute skirt.

Happy Cooking and Crafting.

 

 

 

Winner winner Chicken dinner

This post is really about the sides but I did roast a chicken and I couldn’t resist this title 🙂 First this is how I prepared my chicken. I didn’t take picture of the process quite frankly it’s not a pretty site but the results are well worth it. Super easy and lots of flavor. I opted out of making the sauces. I just really like the finished chicken.

But like I said this post is really about the bread and the green beans. I usually only make these rolls for special occasions. I don’t know why it’s not like they are hard to make. So I decided on Christmas that I would be making these way more often.

Honey Yeast Rolls adapted from Cooking with the Big Dogs seen on Mom Makes aka my sisters blog

2¼ teaspoons instant yeast
1 cup water (105-115 degrees Fahrenheit)
¼ cup honey
3 tablespoons canola oil
1¼ teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 cups bread flour (508 grams)
1 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoons honey

Directions –

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitter with the paddle attachment, stir together the yeast and warm water – let sit for three to five minutes. Add the honey, oil, salt and egg to the yeast mixture and mix well. Add three cups of flour and mix until the dough comes together in a sticky mass. Switch to the dough hook and with the mixer on low, incorporate the remaining 1 cup of flour.Continue kneading on low-speed for 8-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Sometimes, depending on the time of year (during the winter, especially), the dough is a bit drier, and I add in water, a few tablespoons at a time, until the dough is smooth and elastic. The dough should feel soft (not sticky) and pliable when you are finished kneading it.Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turn once to coat, and cover with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel. Let it rise in a warm, draft-free spot until it is doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.Turn the dough out on a lightly floured work space and knead about 30 seconds. Cover and let the dough rest for another 10 minutes. Punch the dough down and divide it into 10-12 equal sized pieces. Shape each into a smooth ball and place into a greased 9×13 inch dish, spacing evenly. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free spot for 20-30 minutes.Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix together melted butter and honey and brush the mixture over top of the unbaked rolls. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and the rolls are baked through. Let cool slightly before serving.

And then there’s the green beans. OH MY GOODNESS! We eat these at least three times a month. They are super easy and so darn tasty. So much better than canned green beans and a lot cheaper in the long run too. The biggest expense is the Parmesan cheese but the block lasts FOREVER!  You wont be sorry that you bought it plus you can use it on other things like Garlic bread, pizza, spaghetti the possibilities are endless.

Garlic Parmesan Green Beans adapted from A Sweet Pea Chef

1 lb. fresh green beans, stems removed
2 tbsp. unsalted butter (***I usually use olive oil instead)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tbsp. freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Steam green beans until slightly tender, about 6-8 minutes.

Melt butter (***or olive oil) over medium heat in a large skillet. Add garlic and cook 1-2 minutes. Transfer steamed green beans to the melted butter and garlic. Toss to coat green beans evenly and continue to sautee for approximately 5 minutes over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and sprinkle grated Parmesan. Toss once again until Parmesan is melted, approximately 1 minute.

 

New Year’s Tradition Pozole…repost

Every New Year’s Eve while I was growing up my Grandma would make pozole and every Christmas she would make tamales. I figured that I would continue this tradition and make some pozole for my family. I have yet to attempt to make tamales even though my Grandma mailed me her recipe months ago.  Here is the recipe that I use. It’s not exactly like my Grandma’s but it works for us.

Pozole 

1 lb. pork tenderloin, cut into 1/2″ pieces

2 c. chopped onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 TBS. chili powder

1 (14oz) can chicken broth, or more for more broth

1 (15.5oz) can hominy, drained

3/4 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp salt

Garnish

onion, diced

fresh cilantro

lemon wedges

cabbage, sliced thinly

Directions:

In a large pot over medium-high heat, put some oil in and add pork to pot cooking for 4-5 min and brown on both sides. Remove and set aside.

In same pot, over medium-high heat add a little oil saute onions for 2-3 minutes add garlic, chili powder and cook for 15 seconds. Add pork back to the pot and chicken broth stir and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add drained hominy, cumin and salt(if needed). Simmer uncovered for another 20 minutes. Serve in a bowl with a squirt of lemon, cabbage, raw onion, an cilantro; or any variation of the garnishes. Enjoy on a cold day or just cause you have a hankering for a good soup.

 

Pozole

I know I’m nuts…the weather here is not soup weather but sometimes you just get a hankering for a good soup. I love pozole! It has been a tradition in my family that on Christmas we make tamales and on New Years my grandma makes Pozole. So in keeping with the tradition I have carried it over to my little family. I don’t have my Grandmas original “recipe” she just adds a little of this and a little of that and a lot of love. So I have come up with my own. We like it, but when I go home for the holidays I request my Grandma’s. I also needed an excuse to use my new fancy pot that my sister sent me for my “Mother’s Day/Early Birthday” gift. It’s a Princess Heritage Tri-Ply Stainless Steel 6 OT. stir pan with lid. Head over to her blog, she loves cooking and sell Princess House items. So far so good I love this pan. When I added my pork to the pan, which heats up so nice and evenly, my pork browned perfectly. It cleans well too. Can’t wait to use it again. Not enough cupboard space in this house but that’s okay because it sits nicely on my stove top, kind of like kitchen jewelry like my Sister would say. And it truly is a pretty pot. Anyway back to the recipe, Pozole is a soup kind of tastes like menudo without using the tripe. Instead you use pork or pork loin. Don’t get me wrong I like menudo but I will leave the preparations for that to the professionals. It seems complicated….maybe not but I just don’t want to touch the raw tripe 🙂

Pozole 

1 lb. pork tenderloin, cut into 1/2″ pieces

2 c. chopped onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 TBS. chili powder

1 (14oz) can chicken broth, or more for more broth

1 (15.5oz) can hominy, drained

3/4 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp salt

Garnish

onion, diced

fresh cilantro

lemon wedges

cabbage, sliced thinly

Directions:

In a large pot over medium-high heat, put some oil in and add pork to pot cooking for 4-5 min and brown on both sides. Remove and set aside.

In same pot, over medium-high heat add a little oil saute onions for 2-3 minutes add garlic, chili powder and cook for 15 seconds. Add pork back to the pot and chicken broth stir and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add drained hominy, cumin and salt(if needed). Simmer uncovered for another 20 minutes. Serve in a bowl with a squirt of lemon, cabbage, raw onion, an cilantro; or any variation of the garnishes. Enjoy on a cold day or just cause you have a hankering for a good soup.