This Week's Menu

Monday 8/25:
* Chicken Chilaquiles
* Steamed Carrots

Tuesday 8/26:
* Tomato-Caper Flounder
* Pasta

Wednesday 8/27:
* Buffalo Chicken Salad with Blue Cheese

Thursday 8/28:
* Veggie Calzones
* Spinach Salad

Friday 8/29:
* Chicken Katsu
* Rice
* Cucumber Salad

Saturday 8/30:
* Eggplant Parm Sandwiches
* Caesar Salad

Sunday 8/31:
* Slippery Shrimp
* Rice
* Broccoli

Chocolate Cake with Whipped Cream

One box Devil's Food Cake Mix and required ingredients
One Pint Heavy Whipping Cream
Powdered Sugar
1/4 cup chocolate chips, melted

Bake cake in two round cake pans. Let cool and slice off any mounds if necessary. Whip cream and add powdered sugar to taste. Spread 1 cup whipped cream on bottom layer and add top layer. Set aside 3/4 cup whipped cream and mix melted chocolate in with remaining cream. Spread chocolate whipped cream on top and sides of cake. Add remaining plain whipped cream to top of cake. Yum!

Easy Empanadas

This is what I came up with for lunch on Saturday. We liked them so much we had them again for lunch on Sunday and I had to post them. We had leftover taco meat but I didn't want tacos. We also had a pizza dough but Matt didn't feel like pizza and whala . . . empanadas. I rolled out the pizza dough, sliced it into six rectangles, mounded taco meat and cheese on one end, then folded the dough and pinched the packet closed. They took about 15 minutes to bake in a 400 degree oven and they were great. This week I'll try calzones with the dough.

Chicken Katsu

This was such a good meal! Chicken Katsu is one of my favorite Japanese foods. I used this recipe for the chicken. It was easy and really good. I made a Tonkatsu sauce to dip the chicken in which although not authentic, was good and easy to remember: equal parts (I used 2 Tbsps) Soy sauce, sugar, katsup, and Worcestishire sauce. For a side I made a cucumber salad that I love: slice one cucumber add three tablespoons rice vinegar and two tablespoons sugar. Toss together and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours.

This Week's Menu

Monday 8/18:
* Italian Baked Pastina with Zucchini
* Caesar Salad

Tuesday 8/19:
* Double Decker Turkey Tacos
* Spinach Salad

Wednesday 8/20:
* Chicken Katsu
* Cucumber Salad
* Rice

Thursday 8/21:
* Tex-Mex Salad

Friday 8/22:
* Chicken Chilaquiles
* Steamed Carrots

Saturday 8/23:
* Baked Flounder
* Broccoli
* Rice

Sunday 8/24:
* Chicken Picatta
* Pasta
* Spinach

Red Potato Salad with Blue Cheese

I tried this recipe for a different potato salad that I could take to a barbeque. I didn't have buttermilk so I blended some whole milk with some greek style yogurt to make about 1/2 cup of dressing. I then added the dijon mustard and blue cheese to the yogurt mixture. The tang of the yogurt was great in the salad. I omitted the vinegar and bacon. The salad turned out great. I think it will be my new favorite potato salad for a while.

Brown's Black Bean Salsa

This is a fantastic recipe! Thank you to Erin for sending it to me. I took it to a party and it was gobbled up in record time. I wish I had taken a picture; it's so colorful and looks as delicious as it is.

Brown's Black Bean Salsa

1/2 tsp crushed cumin
1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 (15 oz) can corn, drained
1/2 red pepper, minced
1/2 purple onion, minced (about 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup lime juice
1/8 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Toss all ingredients together. Cover and store in refrigerator. Serve with tortilla chips. Makes about 3 cups

Peach Blueberry Crostata

This is one of my favorite summer desserts. I should have posted it earlier since blueberries and peaches will soon be out of season. Here is the recipe. I don't have a pizza stone. I just cook it on a lightly floured cookie sheet and it turns out fine. I love this dessert!

Crispy Breaded Shrimp with Garlicky Beans

When I was going through some of my old magazines, I came across this recipe in Real Simple. I love Real Simple but I've never been too impressed with their recipes. After reading one of the reviews I was inspired to use panko for breading the shrimp and I opted for not using the rosemary. So really, I totally changed the recipe. But, I still made the shrimp. This made for quite an interesting combination in the meal. The beans were okay, I wouldn't make them again. The shrimp, though, was really tasty. All I did was dip them in panko, spray them with olive oil cooking spray and then cook them for about 10 minutes at 400. I had some plum sauce that we dipped them in and it was a great combination.

This Week's Menu

Monday 8/11:
* Cobb Salad

Tuesday 8/12:
* Cheese Enchiladas
* Spinach Salad

Wednesday 8/13:
* Crispy Breaded Shrimp with Garlicky Beans

Thursday 8/14:
* Fake Jerk Chicken
* Rice & Peas

Friday 8/15:
* Chicken Tostadas

Saturday 8/16:
* BBQ

Sunday 8/17:
* Turkey Loaf
* Sweet Potato Fries
* Steamed Veggies

Fake Jerk Chicken with Rice & Peas

Here is a quick version of unauthentic Jerk Chicken. It's spicy and flavorful and a different way to cook chicken breasts!

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
juice of one lime
2 Tablespoons olive oil
4 Tablespoons Jamaican Jerk Seasoning

Shake all ingredients in container or plastic bag. Refrigerate at least one hour. Grill! I used my indoor grill pan and grilled the chicken breasts about 5 minutes per side.

A traditional Jamaican side dish is rice and peas, which is really rice with kidney beans. It's delicious because you cook the rice with coconut milk. This is the recipe I used but I made some changes. Use whole green onions (scallions), not a regular onion. Just put two scallions in the pot with the liquid and when the rice is done you can remove them or eat them if you'd like. I didn't use the liquid from the can of beans. I added enough water to the coconut milk to make five cups of liquid. I didn't add the tablespoon of oil, and I used a jalapeno because I couldn't find a scotch bonnet. After I added the rice to the boiling liquid, I put the lid on the pot and turned the heat to low. It took about 20 minutes to cook. This is a good almost-Jamaican meal.

Tex-Mex Salad

Check out the picture and recipe for this salad here. It looks great in the trifle dish and would be fun to take to a potluck or party. I don't have a trifle dish but it still looked and tasted delicious. The cornbread adds such an unexpected and tasty sweetness and texture to the salad. For three big servings, I used one and a half romaine hearts, one and a half cans of black beans. I used only cheddar cheese, didn't use Sazon seasoning and didn't miss it, and I also added a sliced avocado. The salsa tomato mixture adds a lot to the salad. I made my own dressing that I adapted from the Cafe Rio Salad dressing. The dressing turned out fantastic:

Creamy Tomatillo Dressing

1 pkg Ranch Dressing dry mix

3/4 cup milk

1 cup mayonnaise
5 tomatillos, peeled and halved

2 cloves garlic
1/3 bunched cilantro
juice of half a lime

Blend ingredients together in a blender.

Baked Dijon Salmon

This salmon is so delicious! A big thank you to Erin for sending me this recipe. We loved it! The pecan breadcrumb mixture with the dijon and honey--so good! Try this recipe!

¼ CUP BUTTER--MELTED
3 TBS DIJON MUSTARD
1 ½ TBS HONEY
¼ CUP DRY BREAD CRUMBS
¼ CUP CHOPPED PECANS
FEW DASHES OF DRIED PARSLEY
4 SALMON FILETS

PREHEAT OVEN TO 400. IN SMALL BOWL, MIX TOGETHER BUTTER, MUSTARD AND HONEY--SET ASIDE. IN ANOTHER SMALL BOWL, MIX TOGETHER BREAD CRUMBS, PECANS AND PARSLEY.- BRUSH EACH SALMON FILET WITH HONEY MIXTURE THEN SPRINKLE THE TOPS WITH THE BREAD CRUMB MIXTURE--LIGHTLY PAT THE TOPS TO COMPRESS TOPPING. BAKE SALMON FOR 12-15 MIN OR UNTIL FLAKY.

This Week's Menu

Monday 8/4:
* Chicken Enchiladas
* Steamed Veggies

Tuesday 8/5:
* Baked Dijon Salmon
* Rice
* Steamed Broccoli

Wedensday 8/6:
* Tex Mex Salad

Thursday 8/7:
* Slippery Shrimp
* Rice
* Marinated Cucumbers

Friday 8/8:
* Fake Jerk Chicken
* Rice & Peas
* Spinach Salad

Saturday 8/9:
* Cobb Salad

Sunday 8/10:
* Fry Bread Turkey Tacos

Chicken Parmesan

After watching Food Network the other day, I used this recipe to make chicken parmesan. I followed the recipe exactly but I did not make my own bread crumbs. The chicken was delicious.