A Day of Cooking

Ugh.  I came home from work on Friday super frustrated with life.  Don't get me wrong... I have a very full life.  I love my family.  I like my job (most of the time).  Not too many people can say that!  It's just that life is a little too full at the moment.  I am counting down the days until summer vacation.  It can't come fast enough!

So, in order to try to give myself more time each night this week, I did a whole lot of cooking today.  My lovely husband, who does not get nearly enough credit for all that he does, went grocery shopping for me while I watched the baby.  Did I say that I love my family? 

Here's what I made:

Rosemary Lamb Stew with Spring Vegetables

Except that I used beef instead.  Lamb is crazy expensive and we are trying to stick to some sort of a budget here, people.  Plus, who wants to eat lamb?  Lambs are baby sheep!!!  :-(  If you eat them, they won't grow to their full potential and give anybody any wool.  Sheesh. 

Smokey Shrimp and Corn Soup

This is not for those allergic to shellfish *cough* Jimmy *cough cough*.  I'm eating some right now for dinner though and enjoying every bit.  Both of the above recipes were from the infamous WW recipe book that I can never find links to online.  I'll see what I can do. 

Veggie-Stuffed Shells

Absolutely no lactose in those... well, at least right now.  I may add some cheese directly to the top once I scoop some out.  They smelled really good while they were cooking and I'm excited to try some this week.  I love all things pasta.  There's also no meat, by the way.  Completely vegetarian. 

MORE Barley with Spinach and Asparagus

Yeah, I made this last week and it was so amazing that I made it again.  I didn't even take a new picture.  It looks exactly the same except that I accidentally added more onion than last time and I did add some leeks (on purpose) because I had one to use.  I like leeks. 

Anyway, if I have to cook this week, then there's something wrong.  Our refrigerator currently has a lot of yummy, healthy choices in it!  Go me!  :-)

Ugh, just ate a spoonful of onion.  I think I chopped/sliced/diced too many onions today. 

Happy Leap Day!

Oh man.  I have a couple of recipes I need to post because they were so delicious!  I figured I should probably try to post them while it's still February, too.  I did cook them in February! 

Happy Leap Day!  :-)

Chicken Alfredo Stuffed Shells

YUM.  We ate this for like a week afterward.  I did substitute half-and-half for the heavy cream and didn't put in quite so much butter.  I also had to wing it when making the sauce because I didn't have nearly the correct amount of cheese.  Despite all of that, it turned out mighty tasty.  I definitely recommend it!

Jelly Meatloaf!

Well, this is really called "Sweet & Sour Meatloaf" and I originally found it in an email from the Hungry Girl site.  However, I couldn't find it when I searched!  Wait!  I lied... here it is.  Ta da!  I particularly thought the edges of the meatloaf were yummy.  It tasted a lot like the jelly meatballs I've made before. 

Mushroom Quesadillas

Sauteed mushrooms... melty cheese... need I say more?

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Yum!  I found this great site called Emily Bites!  Emily does indeed bite... into all sorts of yummy things.  It may be my new favorite recipe blog.  She basically takes recipes and makes them healthier.  That's exactly what I'm looking for in a recipe blog!  Check it out.

On that note, I am off to bed.  It was a long day and I'm not nearly ready enough for March to begin.  Are you?!

Fake Crab

For those of you who know me personally, you know that I love seafood.  I haven't blogged too many seafood recipes though, because I don't tend to make a lot of seafood dishes.  Mainly because hubby is allergic to shellfish.  :-(  Very sad. 

To live in Maryland and not be able to eat crabs is just awful! 

Don't get me wrong, I eat seafood every chance I get... I just try not to flaunt my seafood eating in front of those who cannot partake.  See how much I love you, honey? 

So, the other day I discovered Pinterest.  It's a little too addictive for someone like me.  If you know about it already, you know what I mean.  If you don't, you should check it out!  ;-)  I started pinning all kinds of recipes to my board to try at a later date (I'm pretty excited).  That's when I found a recipe for Pasta Crab Casserole that uses imitation crab meat. 

Why, oh WHY have I never thought to use imitation crab meat before?!

It's super fun to chop!

Pasta Crab Casserole

...and is a great substitute when you can't eat real crab (for whatever reason).  I'm sooooo excited to try some other seafood recipes with imitation crab to see how they turn out.  This one was delicious.  Mmm...

Carmelized Onions?

So, I actually had some time to cook last night.  Jim went shopping for chocolate supplies (look for in the next post)... and I had not one, but TWO dinners cooked and ready for him when he came home.  I was on a roll.  Why?  Who knows? 

I made good old spicy chili.  Mmm.  I also made this:

Macaroni and Cheese with Carmelized Onions

Fancy, right?  I've never carmelized an onion before.  You may say they look a little blackened... is that different from carmelizing?  Haha.  About half the onion burnt to a crisp and I had to throw it away.  Those were actually the less blackened ones...  :-)

It was still pretty tasty.  Not to mention a weight watchers recipe.  For Mac & Cheese.  Dig it.

Onions prior to blackening... I mean, carmelization.

After it was all mixed in the pot, it went in the oven for a little while and got all congealed and cheesy.  Yum.

I do have to say that while this was fairly good, I think I have to say that the blue box is still my favorite.  What kind of macaroni and cheese do you like? 

Casseroles for Baby

With baby on the way, I started making casseroles... I figured at least if I could freeze a few casseroles for later, we wouldn't starve.  Here are some pictures! 

Beef & Tater Bake

Who doesn't love tater tots?  I'm a fan.  Remember, though, I am in general a fan of things all jumbled together in a yummy mess.  Plus, I was pretty pregnant when I made that.  Regardless, it was tasty.

This next casserole is for any fan of pizza.

Spiral Pepperoni Pizza Bake

A little warning... either don't fill your dish quite so full of mozzarella OR put the dish on a cookie tray so that the cheese doesn't bubble all over your oven.  I love my darling husband who cleaned our oven!  <3

This last casserole is completely designed by me! 

Alissa's Mexican Polenta Bake

Alissa's Mexican Polenta Bake
1 can refried beans
1 roll of polenta, cut into rounds
Corn (canned or frozen)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
Green chiles
1 lb. ground beef, turkey, or chicken (I prefer beef... but you can use what you like!)
Taco seasoning (Packet or make your own!)
1/2 onion, chopped
1 jar salsa con queso
Other toppings... grape tomatoes, black olives, mushrooms, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, sour cream, guacamole, etc.

Cook the ground beef in a pan and toss in the onion.  Add the taco seasoning.  *Just a side note... I made my own taco seasoning the other day without a packet (because I didn't realize I was out of them).  This works just as well! 

Spread the refried beans into a 13 x 9 pyrex dish.  Sprinkle some of the corn and black beans on top.  Add the polenta rounds spread out evenly.  Add more corn and black beans.  Add the seasoned meat and onions.  Add mushrooms or banana peppers if you're going to do so.  Add more corn, black beans, green chiles, jalapenos, etc.  Top the dish with the jar of salsa con queso. 

Bake in the oven at 350 for about 20ish minutes.  Top with anything else you want!  See... easy.  For all of you who are watching your weight... this was about 9 WW pts for 1/8 of it.  Not too shabby.

Please note that I am writing this almost 6 weeks (tomorrow) after baby arrived! Did I manage to make and freeze these casseroles prior to baby arriving? NO. Baby came 3 weeks early and surprised everyone... especially me and Jim. 

My sweetie at 1 month.  :-)  Love!

Mexican Casseroles

Thanks for hanging in there with me, blog readers.  :-)  I decided that I miss cooking!  My preggo body has had some weird cravings, which has led to not so much real cooking.  We've definitely been doing more semi-cooking for convenience rather than using the awesome recipes I've been gathering for the past year.  I was thoroughly exhausted last week with school back in session and with my swollen feet, I can barely stand at night, let alone cook! 

So, I've decided that I'm going to do some serious cooking on the weekends so that I don't have to cook each night during the week.  We'll see how it goes.  Today I went with a Mexican theme and made Taco Soup, plus these two new casserole-y recipes I found:

Mexican Lasagna

Texan Ranch Chicken Casserole

Oh man, can I tell you how delicious these smelled as they were cooking?  It was like a creamy, melty, smorgasbord of Mexian fantastic-ness in my kitchen today. 

We sampled the Mexican Lasagna for lunch and it might truly be the best lasagna I've ever eaten.  Well, the best non-Italian lasagna, anyway.  My Uncle Dennis makes an excellent Italian lasagna that I'm not sure I can compete with yet.  Maybe someday.  ;-) 

The Texan Ranch Chicken Casserole is currently sitting in our freezer for an evening when we run out of other scrumptious food.  It smelled so good that it was hard to put it in there to save for later! 

Here are some other pictures I took as I was cooking.  Remember, we like things that are all thrown together in messy jumbles.  :-)  If that's not your thing, you may want to skip the whole casserole idea!

Enjoy! 

Do you have a good casserole recipe?  I'd love to hear/see/taste it!  :-D