East Potato Sides

Source: Laurel

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Bake Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Bret and I have started adding a potato side dish to most of our dinners for several reasons: 1) eat more vegetables, 2) reduce our calorie intake by filling up on lighter side dishes instead of just one large main dish, and 3) add more volume to the meal for super cheap (let's face it, we're farrers/blanchards and it takes a lot to fill us up). We've had a lot of fun mixing and matching different combinations:

Step 1: Potatoes (cut and spread in a single layer on cookie sheet)

-diced red or russet potatoes

-thinly sliced sweet potatoes

Step 2: Seasonings (rub potatoes with a little olive oil and desired seasonings)

-parmesan cheese, italian bread crumbs, and garlic salt

-seasoned salt, pepper, chili powder, cinnamon

-salt, lemon pepper, orange zest

-invent your own!

Step 3: Bake (425F oven for 20-30 minutes, longer if potatoes are cut extra thick)

Step 4: Enjoy!

Note: For efficiency, I usually make the potatoes first, then make the main dish while they're cooking so that both are done around the same time and ready to serve.

Sloppy Buffalo Joes

Source: Rachael Ray

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 2 pounds ground chicken or turkey breast
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped or grated
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4-1/3 cup hot sauce, such as Frank's Red Hot brand
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 8 good quality burger rolls, split and toasted
• 1 cup blue cheese crumbles
• 2 large dill pickles, chopped

PREPARATION

Heat a large skillet with the EVOO over medium-high heat. Add the meat and break it up with wooden spoon, then cook for 5-6 minutes. Add in thecarrots, celery, onions and garlic, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, then cook for 7-8 minutes more.

In a bowl, combine the vinegar, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, tomato sauce and stock. Pour into the pan and stir to combine. Simmer a few minutes more. Pile the sloppy Buffalo filling onto the buns and top with blue cheese and chopped pickles.

Comments: We liked Rachael Ray's buffalo chicken chili so much that we searched for a similar sloppy joe recipe to serve at our super bowl party. Lo and behold, it was right there in her online recipe archives. Once again, the flavor was outrageous! We complemented this healthy dish with sweet potato fries, green salad, and Heather's cowboy caviar for a spectacular guilt-free menu!

Butternut Squash Apple Soup

Source: Kim Blanchard

Servings :6
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

· 5 cups chicken broth
· One medium sized butternut squash peeled and cubed in 1” cubes
· One diced yellow onion
· One apple diced – unpeeled
· Vegetable oil
· 2 Tablespoons butter
· Salt to taste
· White pepper – to taste
· Nutmeg about 1 teaspoon
· Cinnamon- about ½ teaspoon

Directions:
Sauté onion in 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil until soft
Add chicken broth and cubed squash
Cover and boil for about 15 minutes until soft
Add diced apple and boil for another 5 minute until soft

Remove from heat, spoon out squash and apples (retaining broth) and blend in blender just until smooth
Return blended squash and apples to pan with broth
Add butter
Add salt and white pepper to taste
Add nutmeg and cinnamon
Mix well

Serve hot

Comments: I tasted a yummy Butternut Squash Apple Soup at Whole Foods Market and came home and looked up a bunch of recipes online and then combined them and created my own. This turned out delicious!

Chicken Cacciatore

Source: Kim Blanchard

Servings: 6
Prep Time: sauce: one half hour
Prep Time: chicken: one half hour
Cooking time: one hour for each
Total time: two hours

Ingredients:

Sauce:
· One large green pepper- sliced thinly
· One large white or yellow onion- sliced thinly
· Three large diced cloves fresh garlic or two teaspoons mined in jar
· Olive oil
· One 8 oz package mushrooms- sliced
· Small bunch of fresh basil or two Tablespoons dried
· Salt and pepper to taste
· Two cans or jars of your favorite marinara sauce

Chicken:
· Fresh chicken breasts- I allow one breast per person. I thaw frozen chicken and when slightly thawed slice them horizontally in half-to make them thinner
· Milk
· Bread crumbs
· Olive oil for browning

Pasta- cooked
Parmesan cheese grated


Directions:

The day before serving:
Sauce:
Sauté the garlic, green pepper and onion in olive oil until just soft, add the mushrooms and sauté just until beginning to get soft. Add the marinara sauce (I usually use the Hunts four cheese, but last time used one Prego with meat and one Hunts Four Cheese and liked it better), and simmer for about an hour on low heat. Add basil. Add salt and pepper if needed. Can be chilled and served the next day.

Chicken:
Place the sliced chicken breasts in a bowl and moisten with about one cup of milk. Salt each piece lightly on both sides and then dip on both sides in bread crumbs. Brown chicken lightly in olive oil on both sides and place in baking dish.

Add 1/3 cup water to baking dish with chicken and seal tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for about 35 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Serve immediately with your choice of pasta, sauce and cheese.

Numbers: varies

Comments: I prepare the sauce a day before serving, mostly because I usually serve this at a Sunday family dinner and I use Saturday as my prep time, but I think that the flavors are better too. Our kids get to pick the menu for their birthday parties, and this is often their choice.

Citrus Red Leaf Salad

Source: Kim Blanchard

Servings: apx 6
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: none
Total time :25 minutes

Ingredients:

Dressing:
· ½ teaspoon orange zest
· 1/3 cup orange juice
· 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar (I use any kind of vinegar)
· ½ cup oil
· 2 Tablespoons sugar
· 1 Tablespoon dry Good Seasons Italian Dressing Mix

Salad ingredients:
· Mix of small leaf lettuce and red leaf lettuce – your choice of the proportions to serve about six small salads.
· 1 half of a thinly y sliced red onion (I cut ahead and let sit out for several hours or overnight so not so strong tasting)
· 1 can drained mandarin oranges
· 1 small jicima peeled and cut into thin slices
· 4 oz candied sliced almonds

· One peeled avocado diced
· ½ cup dried cranberries

Directions:
Mix the dressing ingredients in the blender and set aside. I usually make the day before so that the flavors have time to blend.

Numbers: this makes about 6 small salads, but I double when I serve our family.

Comments:
I either buy the candied almonds or I make them myself by putting about 1 Tablespoon of butter and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar in a fry pan and after melting the butter and sugar together toss the nuts in bubbly mixture for a minute and then cool. You are supposed to do it without the butter, but I have a hard time not burning them.

Served at Laurel’s #23 birthday party.

Banana Cake

Source: bhg.com


Servings: 12-16
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup shortening (or butter)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs

Directions:

1. Grease and lightly flour two 8x1-1/2-inch or 9x1-1/2-inch round baking pans or grease one 13x9x2-inch baking pan; set pan(s) aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add bananas, buttermilk, shortening, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until combined. Add eggs; beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour batter into the prepared pan(s).
3. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 25 to 30 minutes for round pans or about 35 minutes for 13x9-inch pan or till a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Cool layer cakes in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove layer cakes from pans. Cool thoroughly on racks. Or, place 13x9-inch cake in pan on a wire rack; cool thoroughly. Frost with desired frosting. Makes 12 to 16 servings.

Comments:

For Scott's 30th birthday (the first one he had since we'd been married), he told me his favorite cake was banana cake. I went to Mum to get her NZ banana cake recipe, but she hadn't made it in years; plus, it was in metrics and I was too unconfident with my math skills to convert it. So, I looked in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. . .and voilà! Scott said it was even better than the NZ version he remembered. This is now especially a favorite with the Wihongi sisters-in-law and I am usually requested to bring this to every family potluck function.

A few tips: 1) substituting shortening with butter works great, 2) Chocolate Cool Whip is our personal favorite "frosting," and 3) for a fun variation: remove 1 cup of the batter, mix it with the chocolate packet from a chocolate marble cake mix, and swirl the chocolate-banana batter in with the regular batter before baking.

Meatball and Orzo Soup

Source: Rachael Ray

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 1/2 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, grated or finely chopped
• 1 quart chicken broth
• 1/2 pound ground chicken or turkey breast
• 3 tablespoons Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
• 3 tablespoons breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup orzo pasta

PREPARATION

Heat the EVOO over medium heat in a medium pot. Sauté the onion and carrot for five minutes, then add the broth and bring up to a boil.

Mix the meat with cheese, breadcrumbs, egg, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper. Mix, and if the mixture is too moist, add a few more breadcrumbs.

When the soup comes to a boil, roll and drop 1-inch meatballs into the broth. Stir in the orzo and cook for five minutes. The pasta will not be done but it will continue to cook. Ladle into thermoses.

Comments: To speed this recipe up, I used frozen meatballs instead of making them from scratch. From start to finish, I made it 10 minutes or less. Also, I didn't have any orzo, so I substituted with cooked rice. DELICIOUS!