Makin' Magic Outta Canned Goods - 7

This week's plan is:


Beef Tenderloin with Rice and Broccoli and Squash
  **We discovered the perfect way to cook thick cut steaks! It's from America's Test Kitchen. We used the same method for cooking a whole tenderloin. Check out the recipe here: Tenderloin. If you can't see the recipe, message me and I'll find it for you.
  **The trick is to cook them in an oven at 275 degrees for about 30 minutes (longer for the whole tenderloin) and then finish them by searing them in an oven. It seems backwards, but it's awesome!
  **I made the compound butter that is shown on the tenderloin: garlic, shallots, parsley, butter, salt & pepper.  
  **Doing a whole tenderloin was delicious and much cheaper than individual steaks! I think the whole tenderloin cost $15? if most people in your house like their steaks done to a similar temp. I'd suggest it! A 2 lb. tenderloin would have easily fed 4 of us.
  **Squash just sounded good, so I roasted it in the oven with the meat and topped it with butter and brown sugar... Can't get much better than that!

Spicy Pasta with Sweet Potatoes
  **This was a recipe i found in Better Homes and Gardens. It looked interesting, so I wanted to try it! 
  **This pasta was a little weird, but it grew on us as we ate. I think It would be better if you halved the peanut butter, and increased the cream cheese by an equal amount. It was a little like eating spaghetti and peanut butter. It did NOT reheat that well, keep that in mind.
  **Here's the recipe...  
     1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch cubes (about 2 cups)
     1/2 tsp each sugar, chili powder, and cinnamon
     8 oz dried rigatoni
     1/3 cup peanut butter
     3 oz cream cheese, cut into chunks
     2 tsp Asian chili sauce (Sriracha)
     1 Tbsp soy sauce
     6 green onions, thinly sliced
  1. Preheat oven to 450. Oil a rimmed baking pan and set aside. Toss sweet potato cubes in a bowl with 1 T olive oil, sugar, chili powder, and cinnamon. Spread in prepared pan and bake 20 minutes or until tender. (Lauren's note: These were delicious as-is!!)
  2. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1 cup pasta water. 
  3. In a saucepan combine peanut butter, cream cheese, chili sauce, and soy sauce. Whisk in 3/4 cup of the hot pasta water. Stir over medium heat until heated through. If too thick, stir in additional water. Stir in most of the green onions. 
  4. Serve sauce over pasta with sweet potatoes and remaining onion. Serves 4.
  
  **This pasta was a little weird, but it grew on us as we ate. I think It would be better if you halved the peanut butter, and increased the cream cheese by an equal amount. It was a little like eating spaghetti and peanut butter. 
  
Turkey Burgers with Rosemary Mayo and Chips and Salad
  **I love turkey burgers. I'll eat them just about any way they're fixed. I saw this recipe for Chicken Burgers, and just substituted the Turkey Burger patties I had in the freezer. 
 **Technically we had these for lunch on Saturday before I had to work, but they were delicious! I threw some spinach leaves and a tomato on each one, with the Rosemary Mayo, and they were great! 

Hot Wings with Chips and Guacamole
  **Eric came over for the game on Sunday and brought some chicken wings with. Chicken wings might be my favorite food of all time. We tried some new sauces, but the tried-and-true favorite is still Franks Red Hot. And staying true to the commercial, "I put that sh!t on everything!" 
  **Can't beat fresh Hot Wings. 
  **Oh, and I made some guacamole too. 

Bon Appetit!

Halloween

"Oh, Kermie!"

Meetiversary

Ryan and I were matched on eHarmony in September last year. We met for the first time the first weekend in October. To celebrate our 1-year Meetiversary, we traveled up to Ely for one of his coworker's weddings. We had a great weekend away! What a great way to celebrate!!

We spent a lot of time hanging out by the lake.

We also visited the North American Bear Center. What a great place!

Here we are at Steve & Heidi's wedding.

Endless Summer...

Enjoy some photos from our summer!

We went to Hudson to tour some life sized replicas of Columbus' ships the Nina and Pinta. It was pretty cool! A crew of guys sailed them around the United States stopping periodically to show them off. It was really interesting!

Life size replicas of the Nina and Pinta

Erin and Shirley waiting to go aboard the Nina and Pinta

SJ checkin' out the Saint Croix River

For Dad's birthday Ryan and I spent the weekend in Wausau. Dad and I canned some Chili Sauce (straight from Gram's recipe!) and I made him a birthday pie.

Canned Tomatoes

Chili Relish

 

Dad's Birthday Pie!

Ryan and I spent quite a bit of time at the State Fair this year...

Here's Ryan with 18 inches of Corn Dog... I'm a lucky lady.

Here's Ryan with is favorite... Pickle Dogs

We've spent quite a bit of time with Zennon and Ava. They were such great helpers on moving day!

Robot Ava

Zennon

Ava

Makin' Magic Outta Canned Goods - 6

Alright, I know I've been slackin' lately with my meal plans. But thanks to some inspiration from the Totally Together Journal and a pretty decent routine at home, I'm back in the Meal Planning Saddle! My new job has me home in the evenings, so Ryan and I eat dinner together most nights. Here's what we've got going on!


This week's plan is:

Pot Roast with Potatoes and Carrots
  **I made a pretty basic Pot Roast in the Crock Pot. I won't lie, I didn't love it. I don't think it was the recipe, I think I just don't love Pot Roast.  
  **I got 2 roasts in one package, so I think next week I'll cut one up and turn it into Texas Chili. 

Apple Raisin Cake for Bible Study
  **We alternate who brings dessert to Bible Study. This week I took a Betty Crocker gluten free yellow cake mix, and added all of the miscellaneous ingredients to make it into an apple spice cake.   
  **This was my all-time favorite cake recipe back in my gluten full days. I had high hopes for a fall dessert with this GF cake mix!
  **Besides the fact it was raw in the middle, it was a huge success! All of the ladies said it was good enough to share with gluten free and gluten full, alike! 


Corn Risotto with Rotisserie Chicken
  **I hate having frozen vegetables in my freezer. It seems I buy them for a specific purpose, and then never finish the bag, and then they get freezer burned, and you wind up with 6 half-bags of veggies that get thrown away. So in an attempt to use up the corn in my freezer, I stumbled upon this recipe for Corn Risotto. 
  **You people should know that making risotto is not nearly the pain people make it out to be. I found a great step-by-step tutorial at this blog, and it was well worth the few minutes stirring!
  **With the coupon I had for a Rainbow Foods Rotisserie Chicken, this was a pretty simple, well rounded meal!
  **I'm excited to try other risotto flavors in the future!! 

Homemade Pizzas
  **We ended up synchronizing dinner plans with Erin and Richard this night. So it turned into something of a pizza extravaganza. 
  **We each had our own pizzas with our own toppings on them. We ended up with tons of extra pizza, but nobody was disappointed!
  **I love making pizza so much, I think everybody should do it once a month as a family! Talk about a Money-Saving-Family-Fun-Night! 


Cabbage Rolls
  **I used the filling from the Nye's Pollynaise Room recipe, and the sauce from the Emerill's recipe. And then I changed it a little... these are my thoughts... 
  **You should know that we REALLY liked these. The flavor is there, but there's some things I would change in the technique.
  **I don't want to eat something bad enough to let it cook for 2 hours in the oven, after spending an hour trying to put it all together. That means, the raw rice you used as a binder won't cook all of the way. Next time I will use raw oats (like in the Quaker Oatmeal Meatloaf recipe) and then bake them for just an hour.
  **The recipe originally called for a lot of greasy meat: beef, sausage, pork, bacon. I had 3# of frozen beef, 1# of frozen spicy Italian sausage, 1# of frozen ground turkey. I used equal parts of turkey and sausage. There was a lot of flavor and good texture, but it wasn't too greasy since the turkey is so low fat. I'd use a similar mixture again! I do think you could use any combination of ground meat you have, but I think the sausage is key in bringing the flavor.
  **They're a little intense to make. You have to mix the filling, and steam the cabbage leaves without tearing them, and then stuff them, and make the sauce, and then bake them. They could easily be made and assembled and then put in the fridge for tomorrow, which is probably how I'll do it next time. 
  **The last thing I'd do differently, would be to pour 1 cup of chicken stock over them for baking, and reserve the sauce to top them once they're done. The yummy Emerill's sauce got too diluted while baking. 

Bon Appetit!

How do they do it?

One of my biggest struggles since getting married is maintaining the household. I can't figure out how moms do it. I have no responsibilities in the home except keeping it together, and can't seem to get it right. But there are other women out there with all of the same responsibilities PLUS many children and a job and a social life. I can't figure out how they keep their house together.

I've gotten some good advice from some ladies in my life, and feel like once we're into our new apartment we can safely start developing a routine.

Erin sent me a link to a blog this week, where the woman made a resolution to use her Slow Cooker every day for a year. It's pretty cool. I've already made a recipe from her list, and have intentions to make another on Sunday, plus another on Monday! And guess what!! Her recipes are Gluten Free! It's like the perfect storm!! Check Stephanie out at: crockpot365.blogspot.com

In exploring her website, I found she has another website called Totally Together for tips and tricks on "how to streamline your household routines so you can have a (somewhat) tidy and tranquil home in just minutes a day." YES PLEASE. She's got links to A Beginner's Guide to a Clean and Organized Home, Meal Planning, The Daily 7 for a Highly Successful Household, and much more! I think anybody could find something helpful on her site! Check it out!!


She also has a book, but I'm having trouble finding it online. Could be useful!! If anybody can find it to buy, let me know!

Where?

Excuse me, do you know where the Ladies' Room is?