mmm...beans.

Beans are good in almost any dish. They're pretty universal in that most cuisines use them in many dishes. They're also pretty inexpensive...hey, I'm just sayin'.
So, last night, per our pre-set menu for the week, we had Slow-cooker Sausage & Beans.
Yum. I've made this before, and everyone knows I LOOOOOOVE using the crock pot, but this time a made a few little adjustments. So, without further adue, here's how to make it!

Slow-cooker Sausage & Beans

INGREDIENTS
1 - 1 1/4 Lb. lean (90/10) smoked turkey sausage OR hot Italian turkey sausage, cut into bite-size pieces
(I made it with the Italian this time, but I prefer the smoked...however, Matt loves both apparently, so either one is highly acceptable)

1 Yellow bell pepper, chopped (I forgot to get this, so I just used the green)
1 Green bell pepper, chopped
1 Packet reduced-sodium chilli seasoning
1 14 oz. Can chopped tomatoes with jalapenos
1 14 oz. Can black beans
1 14 oz. Can hot chilli beans (I didn't have those either, so I used Ranch-style)
1 14 oz. Can red beans

DIRECTIONS
Place all ingredients into a slow-cooker/crock pot and stir together.
Cook on Medium for 4 hours. Or, if you don't have a Medium setting, cook on High for two hours and Low for two hours. That's what I have to do, and both times it's been great. No biggie!
Serve over brown rice if you like!

How was it?
Like I said, I've made it twice now and it's been good both times! No complaints here. It's healthy, filling and so easy it's silly! I literally prepped the entire thing in about 4 minutes. Now that's easy.

asparagus.

I used to hate it when I was a kid. My mom would eat asparagus like it was candy. I never understood it then, but I now I do. I love it, and so does Matt. Asparagus is so good most of the year, but in the Spring it's at its finest... I think so, anyway
:-)

Last night we had, as you have seen on the menu, Pan-Grilled Chicken & Asparagus with Garlicky AlmondsSince I'm basically a one-trick-horse when it comes to pan-grilling chicken, I'm not going to post that recipe because it's on this blog somewhere. You know, the one where all you do is olive oil/spray the pan and coat the chicken with Kroger Chicken Grill Seasoning? Yep, that's the one! I will however give the short, simple asparagus recipe. Here goes:

INGREDIENTS
1 Bunch fresh asparagus
1/2 Cup water
1 Tbs. slivered almonds
1/2 Tsp. pre-minced garlic
1/2 Tsp. butter

DIRECTIONS
In a large sauce pan,over medium-high heat, place water and asparagus.
Cover and bring to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, reduce heat to Low and let simmer until asparagus is bright green and a fork can be inserted into it.

In a medium skillet, over medium heat, place remaining ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until garlic and almonds begin to brown. Remove from heat and place a spoon-full of mixture onto each serving of asparagus.
Enjoy!

Well, that's it for night one of this week.
Can't wait for tonight! Slow-cooker sausage and beans...quite possible one of the EASIEST meals in the world. I bet I can prepare it in less then 5 minutes.

menu...who knew?

That's right, we've made a menu for the week. No surprise there. We make a menu every week. Most often the "menu" only consists of about 4-5 meals at home and 2-3"wing-it" nights or "dinner with so-and-so". Not this week! This week we're not going to eat out. Not once. Wingin' it is fun, and we LOVE having dinner with family and friends, but this week, every dinner is planned I'm so excited about this. Don't get me wrong, I love eating out. I enjoy people making the food for me, and I enjoy ingredients that I typically don't purchase for one reason or another, but when it comes down to it, I think I'd rather eat at home. It's so personal. You know EXACTLY what is going into your food and it's a good way to spend time as a family or couple. We love cooking at home, shoot, that's the whole reason we have this blog.
So, I'm doing somehting a little out-of-the-norm this week by posting a menu of what we'll have every night this week. There's two parts to this revelation:

1) We haven't posted in, oh, over a week (sighs)...so it's something to post;

2) This way, since you know what we're having, you can keep me/us accountable to post the recipes, and all the good stuff.

What's on the menu, you say?

Well here it is:

Monday~ Grilled chicken with feta & asparagus with garlicky slivered almonds

Tuesday~ Slow-cooker sausage & beans

Wednesday~ Hollywood-style turkey burgers with bakes zucchini fries

Thursday~ Chicken vindaloo with curried vegetables

Friday~ Lamb chops with pistachio gremolata & panzanella

Saturday~ Steak with bleu cheese crumbles & steamed broccoli with
Dessert: ricotta cheesecake with lemon drizzle

Sunday~ Baked tilapia in parchment with Asian-style veggies

TADA!

lamb chops

Did anyone ever watch that show growing up? Ya. I did. And I must say, our most recent dinner party made me feel guilty...sort of. OK. Not really. That show kind of got old quick, at least for me. I'm sure by the title and the first ramblings of this entry, that you know we made lamb for dinner this particular night. It was good. Real good. We were having some friends over and I decided to take things up a notch. We went super gourmet without being super unhealthy. In fact, this meal was SO healthy it verged on being ridiculous. Here's what we had.

Main Course:
Seared Spiced Lamb Shoulder Chops with Pistachio Gremolata, Israeli CousCous & Garlic Green Beans

Dessert:
Balsamic Marinated Strawberries with No-Sugar-Added Vanilla Yogurt & Pistachios

I told you it was healthy. And, I must say, I got the recipe for the Lamb from my beloved Cooking Light magazine....such a life-saver. I used the same ingredients, but changed the amounts and used shoulder chops, which are less expensive and larger.

Here's what you need for my rendition of this great meal:

INGREDIENTS
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 (8-ounce) lamb shoulder chops, bone in, trimmed of fat
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons finely chopped pistachios
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Grated rind of one lemon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove, minced
1 Cup Israeli cous cous
2 Cups water
1 Package fresh-frozen green beans, follow directions for microwave


DIRECTIONS
-Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Combine first 5 ingredients; sprinkle evenly over both sides of lamb. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add lamb to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. We had ours medium (cook to 160 degrees).

-While lamb cooks, combine pistachios and the remaining ingredients; sprinkle over lamb.

-Place cous cous and water into a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, cover and let simmer until cous cous is puffy and most of the liquid is gone.

Oh.My.Goodness. So good. Really, truly. I'm so glad it was delicious. It's always a gamble cooking something for the first time...especially when you're having company.

I urge you to try it. It's so easy, so healthy and super duper quick (the whole meal only took about 35 minutes...no joke. DO IT. TONIGHT).

Oh! I almost forgot the dessert (under 150 cals by the way!)

Place 1 package fresh strawberries, halved or quartered, into a large mixing bowl.
Pour 1-2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar over berries. Refrigerate a minimum of 30 mins., or until ready to serve.
Once you're ready to serve, place 1/2 cup mix into a bowl or ramekin, top with 2 Tbs. Kroger CarbMaster vanilla yogurt and 1/2 Tbs. chopped pistachios.

I know, I know. Vinegar and berries sounds like a recipe for disaster. But, the tartness (is that even a word?) brings out the sweetness in the berries. Matt was a little werided out by the idea, but once he tried it, he said it was like a "dream". Whatever that means! He's so funny!
I must say, we got to talking with our friends and after they left, I remembered dessert. I'm SUCH a bad hostess! I guess the upside of that is that we had more for ourselevs? Am I even allowd to say that? Is that horrible? Oh well. We'll make it again.
That's all for now! Enjoy!

mexican-ish

I know, I know...the title is somewhat ridiculous. But it's true. Last night I made dinner. No surprise there. It was a spicy dish that tasted, you guessed it, Mexican-ish. Like, it could have been at a Mexican restaurant, but it wasn't. Ah, whatever. I'm confusing myself now.
Anyway, after a long day back at work and into the daily grind after a nice 9-day Spring Break, I made dinner. Matt was working on insurance stuff. Yuck. Not my gig.

Here's what was on the menu:

Tomato Jalapeno Chicken Breasts with Brown Rice, Black Beans, Fresh Corn, Homemade Tortilla Chips & Queso

Sounds Mexican, right?

Here's what you need:

INGREDIENTS
2-4 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
16 oz. Can chopped tomatoes with jalapenos, such as Rotell
2 Tsp. Kroger chicken seasoning (making it's appearance for, oh, who knows how many times)
16 oz. Can no-salt-added black beans
1 Bag Brown rice, cooked following package directions
2 Tbs. Olive oil to coat skillet, or you can use cooking spray
Black pepper, to taste
2-4 Ears fresh yellow corn, boiled or grilled *PLEASE SEE "Dinner for a Dozen" BLOG ENTRY FOR GRILLED CORN RECIPE*
1/2 Small jar low-fat salsa con queso, such as Tostitos
2 Green onions, chopped
*PLEASE SEE VALENTINES BLOG ENTRY FOR TORTILLA CHIP RECIPE*

DIRECTIONS
Over medium-high heat, coat large skillet with oil or cooking spray, add chicken.
Season chicken evenly with Kroger seasoning and black pepper.
Cook chicken thoroughly, add tomatoes, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, boil corn in a large saucepan until corn becomes dark yellow.
Place beans into a small saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes.

SERVING
Place desired amount of brown rice onto plate, place chicken on top and cover with tomatoes. Top the chicken with green onions.
Serve desired amounts of black beans, corn, chips & salsa con queso

Enjoy!

So, I served the plates & set the table...Matt comes out of the office, completely grossed-out by insurance (hehe) and says "whoa, this is like a meal" And I'm thinking "do I normally NOT cook 'meals'?"...then he clarified by saying "no, no, no...this is just a lot...like a lot of work" If he only knew!

So easy.

givin' the people what they want...they tell me it's vindaloo

Vindaloo-who? Vindaloo, it's a spicy Indian curry dish. One of our favorites!
We've been in Colorado for almost a week now and I we figured we'd make dinner for once! We know that we all love spicy food, so this seemed appropriate. And it's cold, so that's another excuse to make this crazy-fantastic Indian dish.

Here's what you need:

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons vinegar
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 tbs. fresh ginger OR 3/4 tbs. ground ginger...fresh tastes better though!
3/4 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground hot pepper...I always use more than this. We love spicy food!
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cup tomato sauce
1 cinnamon stick
1 small onion, chopped
3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces

Directions
Blend the first 9 ingredients in a blender.
Place blended mixture into the crock pot, add tomato sauce, cinnamon stick and onion and stir.
Add chicken and turn to coat.
Cook on low for 5 hours... If your crock pot is older, it may take 5 1/2 - 6 hrs. Also, if you're cooking at high altitudes, like we were in Colorado, it will probably take less time.

Serve with fresh cilantro or parsley on top, if you like!
Serve with pre-made Naan. You can buy this yummy Indian flat bread at most grocery stores. Runs about $3. SO GOOD!

We seriously eat this about once every 10 days or so. It's ultra easy...even tastier, and very healthy...only about 250 cals/serving.

Thank you, India!
Eat up.

spaghetti-oh!

Seriously, who doesn't LOVE spaghetti?
I've been eating spaghetti my whole life, and I'm not about to stop. Matt loves it, too. Although, I confessed as we were eating the yummy pasta and tomato sauce that, when I was growing up, I typically did not eat the sauce. I usually just put it on the side of my plate and ate my pasta sans sauce but instead with melted butter, salt and pepper. Oh how things have changed! I love full-on spaghetti. The whole deal.

Spaghetti is a classic, right? Isn't it crazy how something so universal can be made so many different ways? Well, here's how we make it:

Turkey Spaghetti

INGREDIENTS
1 Lb. 93/7 lean ground turkey (there is almost no fat!), fresh, or if frozen, thawed
(2) 8 oz. cans no-salt-added tomato sauce
1/2 Small can Italian style tomato paste
1 16 oz. can Italian style stewed tomatoes
3 Garlic cloves, halved
1 Tsp. dried oregano
1 Tsp. garlic powder
Olive oil, to coat skillet (or just use a cooking spray)
1 Celery stalk, chopped
1 Large slice red onion, chopped
1/2 - 2/3 Package whole-wheat spaghetti, prepare as directed on package
2 Tsp. shredded parmesan or mozzarella cheese to top

DIRECTIONS
Prepare pasta as directed on package (add a few drops of olive oil to water to avoid pasta sticking to each other), drain and place in a glass serving bowl
Coat a large skillet with olive oil or cooking spray, add ground turkey
Sprinkle with 1/2 Tsp. both dried oregano and garlic powder
Cook until turkey is done, remove from heat and place in the pot you cooked the pasta in
In the same skillet, re-coat with olive oil or cooking spray, add celery, garlic halves and red onion, sautee until onions start to become translucent (about 5 mins)
Add sauteed veggies to turkey, heat over medium-high
Add remaining ingredients to pot, stir until everything is fully mixed
Place 1 serving of pasta into a deep bowl, or onto a plate, top with desired amount of spaghetti sauce and 1 Tsp. parmesan or mozzarella, enjoy!

It's seriously delicious and seriously good for you. Seriously.