What We Ate - November 7

Hello! It's been several months since I've shared a "What We Ate" post and I decided that it was time to try and get back into the swing of it again. Hopefully it will motivate me to continue planning meals. I love gathering meal ideas and hope you get some inspiration on new meal ideas here.

Sunday - Grilled Pizza

Grilling pizza is probably my favorite meal to make at home right now. We've been perfecting our homemade dough recipe and I used this recipe as a starting point, but added 1/4 cup of olive oil instead of the suggested amount. The increase olive oil was inspired by this pizza dough recipe.

I quadrupled the recipe and we had enough pizza to feed 14 hungry people plus a small amount of leftovers.

Our favorite topping combo this week was a honey BBQ sauce from Trader Joe's, mozzarella, blue cheese crumbles, thinly sliced green apples and peppered bacon crumbles.

Monday - Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos

We love tacos around here and this week I decided to mix things up and make a veggie mix instead of meat to fill our tacos. 4/5 of us loved it, so I'm thinking it was a success.

One of my favorite things about this meal is that I heated the leftovers from breakfast and topped it with an egg. Two meals in one!

Tuesday - Oatmeal Waffles

These tend to get added into the dinner mix every couple of month and everyone loves them. Some topped them with strawberries and cream. I choose to top mine with a little almond butter and pure maple syrup. Bonus: these are gluten free if you use gluten free flour.

Wednesday - Hawaiian-Style Turkey Sloppy Joes

This recipe was recommended to me by my sister and I thought we'd give it a try. I haven't made sloppy joe's in years and it was good to have them again. This recipe had a nice sweetness added by the pineapple juice. Instead of the apple cider vinegar, I added some Trader Joe's BBQ sauce. Everyone loved it, so this is a keeper.  I cooked up a few zucchinis and a red bell pepper as a side dish.

Thursday - Trader Joe's Orange Chicken + Pei Wei

Thursday nights are always crazy around here with choir and soccer practices and I didn't have time to prep dinner. Luckily Audrey was home at dinner time and cooked up some Trader Joe's Orange Chicken plus some fried rice. I picked up a salad and lettuce wraps at Pei Wei to round out the meal.  I had 5 minutes and home, so I threw food into a plastic container and then Max and I were off to soccer. Sorry for the terrible picture - I snapped it in a dark parking lot with my phone while at at soccer practice.

There's a look at what we ate this week. Now it's time to plan out dinner for next week!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

My Friday "What We Ate" Posts have not quite happened this summer. Partly because we've been too busy to cook many blogworthy meals and and also, I've given myself a break from a lot of cooking this summer. I'm planning to return to the weekly meal post once school starts up again next month.

But, I did make some delicious banana chocolate chip muffins this week and want to share the recipe with you. The recipe is based on a banana bread recipe from this Cook Illustrated Magazine. As you can see from the date, this issue of the magazine is from 1999. The banana bread recipe was worth saving the magazine all of these years! Yes, I could scan and save the recipe digitally, but I just like pulling the paper version down from my shelf when a banana bread craving strikes.

I didn't have the nuts or yogurt called for in the recipe and wanted to add some chocolate, so I changed up the recipe to make it fit the ingredients we already had. Plus I added brown sugar in place of some of the white sugar. The taste of brown sugar is hard to beat.

Here's a look at my recipe altered from the Cooks Illustrated version:

2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup buttermilk (or regular milk with a splash of vinegar)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
6 tablespoons of melted and cooled butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the flour, sugars, baking soda and salt together in a medium mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, cream together the mashed bananas, buttermilk and eggs. Then slowly mix in the melted butter and vanilla. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined, then mix in chocolate chips.

Line muffin pans with wrappers and fill them 2/3 full with batter. Bake for 12 - 16 minutes. Remove for the oven once the muffin tops are slightly golden and an inserted tooth

This will make about 18 regular sized muffins or 48 mini muffins.

These were gone within 24 hours of baking them. Hope your family loves them as much as we do!

What We Ate - April 24

What We Ate is a weekly feature on my blog where I share what we are eating for our family dinners each night. We all have to eat, right? I figure I may as well share what we are eating and will hopefully inspire some ned ideas for you.

Okay, this was another crazy schedule week, so we didn't get to have consistent dinners at home every night. But I still have a few things to share about our meal with you this week.

Monday - Lacrosse Awards Banquet

We went to an awards banquet where we enjoyed steak, salad and baked potatoes. My assignment was baked potatoes, so no recipe to share for that.

Tuesday - In-n-Out Burger

My friend Jennie and I took our kids to pack meals at Feed My Starving Children right after school and returned home about 6:00 p.m. and then we needed to go to the Apple Store for a phone repair. It was a full night and I hadn't planned a meal, so when In-n-Out Burger was nearby, so we stopped in for dinner. In my attempt to make it somewhat healthier, I ordered my burger protein style so that it can wrapped in lettuce instead of the bun.

Tuesday Breakfast - Sautéed Vegetables with an Over Easy Egg

This has been my breakfast for several days and I'm loving it! I love that the day is starting off packed with veggies and protein. I dice up 3 sweet potatoes and 2 zucchini along with half an onion and cook in a little coconut oil until softened and it lasts for at least three or four meals.

Wednesday - Skinny Orange Chicken and Spicy Cauliflower Stir Fry

Yay, I finally cooked this week! I made the same orange chicken that I made a couple of weeks ago plus a new recipes that I noticed that Pioneer Woman posted using cauliflower. Both were delicious. We just layered them together in a bowl.

Thursday - End of School Year BBQ Celebration with Friends

We went over to our friends' house for dinner where we grilled up a bunch of turkey and chicken sausage along with chips & hummus, watermelon and grilled bell peppers.

Why didn't I take a picture of the bell peppers? Perhaps because that were so good that they didn't last long. If you are looking for a delicious side next time you grill, you should give them a try.

Grilled Red Bell Peppers with Feta, Tomatoes and Basil

Slice bell peppers in half and remove the seeds. Place the curved outside edge of the pepper on the grill and heat until the pepper starts to soften. Then flip the pepper over and sprinkle the inside with some feta, diced grape tomatoes and chopped basil and continue heating on the grill until the cheese softens. Enjoy!

There you have it, another week. We survived the last week of school. Now summer break begins!

What We Ate - May 16

Hello! Happy Friday. This was a bit of a shorter week for making dinner because late Wednesday night I boarded a chartered bus with 3 classes of 5th and 6th graders for a field trip to San Diego. So, there were only three nights of making dinner at home.

Monday - Becky Higgin's Garlic Chicken Farfalle Pasta

We've been making this deliciously decadent recipe for years and it's one of our favorite special occasion meals. This is what we put together the day before on Mother's Day and we had leftovers on Monday.

Tuesday - Roast with Pan Seared Veggies

Picked up this roast at Trader Joe's and cooked it on high in the crockpot for 6 hours. It was so easy and good.

I've decided to work on increasing our veggie intake around here and started off with a mix of 3 diced sweet potatoes, 1/2 of a yellow onion and 2 zucchinis. I sautéed them in a bit of olive oil and let them cook until soft. I added a bit of water while they simmered to help the veggies soften up a bit.

Wednesday - Carnitas with Cauliflower Rice

I tried out two new recipes for this dinner and both were delicious and will be made again.

We used the carnitas and cauliflower rice to create a tasty Mexican style salad topped with lettuce, avocados, salsa verde and bell peppers.

This was a great dinner that packed in a great variety of vegetables.

There you have it! Another week of dinners around our house complete.

What We Ate - May 3

It's been a bit of a crazy eating week. I considered not even posting about our meals this week because it was a cooking at home fail. On the other hand, we had a great time connecting with family and friends at several fun events this week. So, I figured, why not share what we were up to this week. Plus we had one of my all time family favorite comfort foods, Chaulpa, and knew I wanted to share the recipe.

Monday - Leftover Pasta + Salad

My sister had made a huge pan on pasta on Sunday and she kindly shared a bunch of the leftovers with us. So I heated up with pasta, made a salad and dinner was ready.

Tuesday - Chalupa

My sister Kristen returned home from an 18 month church mission to Virginia on Tuesday. It was fantastic to see her and get to actually talk to her. She was allowed a phone call on Christmas and Mother's Day plus a weekly letter, so communication was pretty limited with those of us at home. Here's our group at the airport welcoming her home.

My mom fixed Chalupa for dinner which is a combination of pork roast and pinto beans that cook together for hours. Then you layer chips, chalupa and all of your favorite taco toppings on your plate. Delicious!

Chalupa Recipe:

3 - 4 lb. pork roast
3 garlic cloves, diced
1 tsp. organo
1 tsp. salt
water to cover the roast
2 cups of dry pinto beans
2 Tbls. Chili Powder
1 Tbls. Cumin
1 (4 oz.) can diced green chilies

Cook everything on low in a crockpot for 8 hours until beans are tender. During the last hour, shred the meat and allow it to continue cooking in the sauce.

Our favorite toppings: lettuce, diced tomatoes, green onions, olives, guacamole, sour cream and salsa.

Here's the recipes for my favorite salsa that I made for dinner on Tuesday: Homemade Salsa

Wednesday - Liberty Market

After going to Audrey's last lacrosse game which ended near 7 pm, we decided to head to one of our nearby favorite places for dinner, Liberty Market.

If you are ever in GIlbert, AZ, I highly recommend a stop here. My favorites are the white pizza, picnic salad and capresse salad. If you have room for dessert (we didn't), you should give the Salt River Bar a try.

Thursday - KEZ Woman of the Year Dinner

One of my close friends was nominated at one of a Phoenix radio station's Woman of the Year and she invited Ward and I as her guests at a banquet honoring all of the nominees. It was such a cool experience to get to learn about women making a big difference in our community. Plus, they served us an amazing dinner that stated off with this salad.

Dinner was a mini filet mignon, fish, potatoes and veggies. The evening was topped off with an amazing chocolate tart. We felt pretty spoiled and indulgent. 

Friday Night - Chelsea's Kitchen

Our boys were away on a church Father's and Son's campout, so it was girls night out with my girls and some friends. We were up in Phoenix for a choir festival and after looking at Yelp to see what was nearby, we noticed that we could walk to Chelsea's Kitchen. I ate one of the most delicious burgers ever. If you are even in Phoenix - go here! They also have a restaurant in the Phoenix Airport (terminal 4) so if you are ever flying through, grab some food here.

Well, you can see it was quite the week for delicious food with no cooking on my part. It was almost like a vacation! I'm sure it will be back to reality next week.

What We Ate - April 24

Hello! Well, it's already Friday again and that means I get to share my meal plans from the week. If I was getting a grade for completed meals, it would be a 50%. Not so great, but that's how life goes sometimes. ON the bright side, we did have two great

Monday - Homemade Pizzas

Okay, this is the most requested dinner from Max, so I try to work it in at lest once a month. I usually buy the pre-made pizza dough at Traders Joe's and divide the dough into smaller pieces and let each person make a personalized pizza.

Our favorite toppings:

Pepperoni
Sun Dried Tomatoes
Pesto
Olives
Fresh Mozzarella Slices

No real recipe here. Just roll out the dough onto a baking sheet, maybe drizzle it with a little olive oil and add toppings. We sometimes as marinara and sometimes don't. Just depends on our mood. Bake at 425 degrees until the crust is finished and the cheese is melted.

Tuesday - Skinny Orange Chicken + Garlic Fried Rice

I had to laugh at the irony of doing a "skinny" recipe along with "fried" recipe. It all balances out, right? Technically the rice isn't fried, so hopefully it's not too bad.

Photo Credit

This was the first time I'd used the orange chicken recipe and it was a hit! Every last piece was scrapped from the bowl. I added a lot of broccoli to the chicken.

My go-to recipe for cooking broccoli is to spread it on a baking sheet, toss a little olive oil, salt and pepper on it and cooking it at 325 degrees in the convection oven for 10 minutes. The brocoli browns and gets a little crispy. Love it!

The Garlic Fried Rice recipe is one that I've made many times over several years and we all love it! I always double the recipe and then freeze leftovers for a future dinner. I also cut the amount of butter in half from the recommended amount in the recipe. Instead of the ham listed, we use Boars Head sliced peppered turkey.

Wednesday - Joe's Farm Grill

For some reason, most of our family was open at 5:30 on Wednesday and Ward suggested that we go out to dinner. Sounded good to me!

If you are ever in Phoenix, I highly recommend working in a visit to Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert. My favorite menu items are the fried green beans, BBQ Chicken Pizza and the Bleu Cheese Burger.

Thursday - Little Caesar's and Smoothies

I had a great plan, but this night ended up being a bit crazier than planned. We were gone from 3:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Choir rehearsals, a lacrosse game and a couple of visits to friends filled our night. Little Caesar's was all we could manage since it was fast and the kids wanted pizza. I only ate one slice because honestly it's not my favorite. Once I was finally home, I made myself a smoothie.

Here's my go-to smoothie recipe:

1 banana
1 cup of frozen mixed berries
1 orange/cutie peeled
Enough almond milk to cover the fruit

Blend and enjoy! This makes to hearty servings.

Friday - Banana Bread

This isn't going to be our dinner, but I did bake up a bunch of banana bread today and so I thought I'd share the recipe. We had 9 very ripe bananas sitting on our counter and it was time to make some banana bread. I had pinned a no sugar, no oil, no butter banana bread recipe on Pinterest and decided it was time to give it a try.

I tripled the recipes (we had a lot of bananas!) and think it turned out deliciously. The tripled recipe made four mini loaves plus a regular sized loaf. I did mix a handful of mini chocolate chips into the regular sized loaf because I couldn't resist adding a little chocolate.

The good thing about skipping a couple of our planned meals this week is that now I'm ahead for next week!

Happy weekend to you.

What We Ate - April 18

Everyone has to eat, so I've started a new Friday feature here to share what we ate during the week. Hopefully you will find a few new dinner ideas here.

Monday - Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

Ward and I were lucky enough to be given tickets to a Phoenix Suns game on Monday and the tickets included dinner. Got to love that. But our kids were all going to be home and needed something they could make for themselves. So grilled cheese was on the menu.

What goes better with grilled cheese than tomato soup? This tomato soup is a quick recipe that I've made many times. The soup tastes so fresh and delicious and it only takes a few minutes to put together. I highly recommend you give it a try.

Tuesday - Honey Lime Sweet Potato, Black Bean and Corn Tacos

This was a Pinterest find and it was really delicious. I used pinto beans instead of black beans, but other than that, I followed the recipe. It was a perfect meatless meal and I'll definitely be making these again. The honey and lime added great flavor to the taco filling.

I used my "inside-out" cooking method to crisp up the cheese on the tacos.

Wednesday - Bean & Cheese Burritos + Salsa

The teenage girls at church did a fundraiser on Wednesday where they sold homemade bean burritos and salsa. Of course, I wanted to support them. We picked up two dozen burritos. I plan to freeze most of them and then have them on hand for quick lunches.

I hear the girls used this salsa recipe from the Pioneer Woman.

Even though I didn't make these burritos, I do like cooking up a tasty pot of bean for burritos. Here's my go-to recipe for crock pot refried beans. All you need is beans and tortillas and dinner is ready.

Thursday - BBQ Beef Sandwiches

Since we'd gone meatless all week, I decided that I'd better throw some meat into our meal plan. I just put a 3 pound roast in the crockpot, poured 3/4 of a bottle of BBQ sauce over the roast and cooked on low for 8 hours. Before eating, I shredded the meat with two forks. This was a perfect meal for our busy come and go night and dinner was ready whenever people were ready to eat.

We used little slider buns and topped the meat with avocado slices and coleslaw.

It was a bit of a simple dinner week around here, but sometimes that is just what is needed.

What We Ate - April 11

Hello! I've been thinking about this blog and that I want to mix things up a bit around here. This has mainly been a space where I share my scrapbook layouts and I still plan to do that. But there are so many other things I also love in my life and want to share more about other things too.

One thing that is important to me is weekly meal planning. No plan equals poor food choices, grumpiness and a bit of stress around our place. So I do my best each Monday to plan and shop for our meals for the week.

I try to keep things easy on myself and only plan and buy for four dinners. Of course, we buy things for breakfast and lunch too, but those are pretty much the same every week (English muffins, cereal, apples, bananas, strawberries, sandwich stuff) so the main planning is for our dinners. We get together with our extended family on Sunday and I just usually make one thing for that meal. Friday and Saturday nights are generally no cooking nights and we go out, do takeout or get together with friends. So that leaves planning out Monday - Thursday.

Something I'd like to add here on the blog is a "What We Ate" post each Friday to share what meals we've had during the week. I'm always looking for new dinner ideas and I hope sharing our plans might help you out with your meal planning.

Monday - Sun Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Ravioli plus a pre-made salad

I picked up both of these things at Trader's Joe's.  Love that place. Their salads are really delicious and are filled with a great variety of items. I seriously couldn't put a salad like these together for less than $4, so I pick them up pretty often. The butternut squash plus quinoa is my favorite.

Okay, I admit, this isn't the fanciest dinner. But it was fast to prepare and almost everyone in our house ate it without complaint. My kids like to drizzle a little olive oil + balsamic vinegar on their ravioli. I prefer a quick sauce that I whip up:

Garlic
Olive Oil
Spinach
Can of Diced Tomatoes
Pepper
Splash of Whipping Cream

Sauté some diced garlic in olive oil for a couple of minutes and then toss in a couple handfuls of spinach and a can of diced tomatoes (juice goes in the pan too) and some pepper to taste. Mix around for a couple of minutes and let the spinach wilt. If you are feeling decadent, pour in a splash of whipping cream. You won't be sorry. 

Tuesday - Dad's Enchilada's

At the request of Ward, this is what we had for dinner on Tuesday. I could be most favorite comfort food meal. They got the name "dad's enchiladas" because they are named after my dad since he made them for our family when we were growing up. He still makes them for us from time to time even now. He didn't do a lot of cooking, but he did make these fabulous enchiladas.

Wednesday - Oatmeal Waffles with Strawberries + Cream

These are my all time favorite waffles! Lots of oats and no flour. They are hearty and delicious. Plus, who doesn't love breakfast for dinner?

Thursday - Meatball Sandwiches + Cantaloupe

No big and fancy recipe for this one, which makes it perfect for a night when you need something you can prep in the morning in 10 minutes and have it ready to go at dinnertime.

Here's what you need:

1 pound extra lean ground beef
1 pound ground sausage
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce
Rolls
Cheese (optional)
Crockpot

This made 20 meatballs.

Just mix the ground beef plus the ground sausage together in a bowl. Then roll the meat into golfball sized pieces and put them in a crockpot. No seasonings needed for mixing into the meat because the sauce adds the perfect amount of flavor after simmering with the meat all day. Pour a jar of marinara sauce over the meatballs and turn on the crockpot to low for 8 hours.

We served the meatballs on toasted rolls and added a slice of smoked gouda cheese. Everyone must have liked it because we didn't even have one leftover meatball.

Okay, there's a looks at "What We Ate" this week. What do you think? Do you like see what other people are making for dinner? Do you plan meals out or just take it a night at a time?