Good Old Spaghetti

For last Friday night, we had good old spaghetti since I wanted a kid's food.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 lb ground beef
• 1 yellow onion, minced
• 1 medium green zucchini, diced small
• 1 pkg whole wheat spaghetti noodles
• 1 jar Ragu Garden Chunky spaghetti sauce

Brown the ground beef in a saucepan while crumbling with spatula. While that is browning, bring a large pan of water to boil over high heat. Drain and rinse meat before putting back into the saucepan. Add the onion, sauce, and zucchini. Bring to a simmer. While that is simmering, add the package of noodles to the water, cover, and boil according to the directions. Drain noodles before serving.

Serve the noodles covered in the spaghetti sauce, topped with Parmesan cheese. I served our meal with corn (that was steamed with butter and crushed garlic cloves) and garlic bread (french bread, butter, garlic, minced onion, parsley, and salt).


KID RATING: ****

• Chef Bri - "I ate two servings of it all."
• Kairi - "It was so yummy. I slurped my noodles and they hit me in the face!"
  
• Charis - "Bri, you can make this tomorrow for breakfast."
  
• Jocelyn - "Isn't there any left? I want more please."
• Xander - "Nana - mmmmm!"
  
• Daddy - "This is wonderful Bri, very flavorful."
• Mommy - "This is honestly probably the best chunky 'mock-homemade' spaghetti sauce I have ever tasted Bri. A great comfort food meal!"

Toasted Sammies

We had Family Movie night on Sunday instead of Friday this week so we had sandwiches on a blanket in front of the TV.

Ingredients:

• 8 thin slices of Boar's Head pastrami
• 6 thin slices of Muenster Cheese
• 1/4 cup Boar's Head Sundried Tomato Pesto Mayonnaise
• 1/2 small white onion, sliced thin
• 1 small zucchini, sliced thin
• 1 medium loaf french bread, cut long
• Country Crock butter
• salt and pepper to taste

In a frying pan, saute the onion and zucchini in butter until onions are clear and the zucchini is starting to brown. Set aside. Spread mayo on both insides of the bread. Lay cheese on top of the mayo. Lay meat on top of the cheese. Spread the onions and zucchini on top of the meat. Place the whole loaf, opened, under the broiler until the cheese is melted. Remove from the oven, close the loaf of bread, and cut into sandwich sized portions.

We served ours with Pasta Puttanesca and anjou pear slices.



KID RATING: **

• Chef Bri - "I LOVE the sandwich."
• Kairi - "Uh uh. I don't like the vegetables and it tastes funny"
  
• Charis - "If I don't want my sandwich, can I still have desert?"
  
• Jocelyn - "I like the meat and cheese and bread"
• Xander - "mmm?"
  
• Daddy - "This sandwich is excellent!"
• Mommy - "REALLY tasty Bri!"

Brown Sugar Meat Loaf

Sorry - we forgot to get pictures this time. We served this with crn on the cob and blueberry muffins.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup packed brown suger
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 11/2 pounds lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 cup finely crushed Keebler's Toppers crackers (garlic and herb)
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 5x9 inch loaf pan. Mix the ketchup and Worcestershire sauce together. Press the brown sugar in the bottom of the pan and spread the ketchup mix on top of that. In a bowl, mix all of the rest of the ingredients (your hands work the best). Press into the pan on top of the brown sugar and ketchup. Bake for 1 hour. You can use a paper towel every 15 minutes to soak up the grease during cooking by carefully dipping it into the grease.

KID RATING: ****

• Chef Bri - "This was the best meat loaf I have ever made!"
• Kairi - "So yummy... it's like meat bread"
  
• Charis - "This is so good. It tastes like candy"
  
• Jocelyn - "Oh yeah Bri - this is the bestest you have ever cooked!"
• Xander - "yum - mama more". he ate everything on his plate
  
• Daddy - This was the best meatloaf I have ever had - it was moist, didn't fall apart, and hardly needed any BBQ sauce.
• Mommy - Briaunna, this is better than any meatloaf I have ever made. You truly have a gift for the kitchen!
  

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I can't give you the recipe because its daddy's secret recipe. But here are some pictures.




I did it all myself. I put everything in after I measured it out, I mixed it all up, and I baked them. I also ate them.

MIA

Momma here - sorry we skipped this week. She did make a meal, but we have grandma in from out of town and didn't take pictures or blog it.

But, in case you wanted to know what she made, it was a special dietary-needs meal. Grandma has Celiac Sprue, cannot have seeds, nuts, or pepper, and Grandpa is diabetic. Soooooo.....

We made a garden chicken pasta.

Ingredients:

• DeBoles Rice spiral pasta
• Tomato juice
• 1 Zucchini - chopped
• 1 Yellow Squash - chopped
• 1 Yellow Onion - chopped
• 3 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
• 2 garlic cloves - diced
• dash of sage
• Salt

She cooked her pasta to just UNDER-done. While that was boiling, she combined all of the rest of the ingredients in a saucepan and boiled it down to semi-thickened and vegetables were slightly unfirm. Toss pasta in and top with a sharp cheddar cheese.

She served it with tossed salad topped with walnuts, dried cranberries, bleu cheese, and vinegar dressing.

So proud - sorry for missing a week. :o(

Salmon Parcels

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp sesame seeds
• 4 slices fresh ginger (cut into thin strips)
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 4 Tbsp orange juice
• 4 thick salmon fillets
• 1 carrot (peeled and cut into thin strips)
• 1 red pepper (de-seeded and cut into thin strips)
• 3 green onions (cut into thin strips)
• salt and pepper
• noodles (we used udon)

I cut my vegetables earlier in the day so they were ready for the meal and we used yellow pepper instead of red pepper. I also toasted my sesame seeds early and put them in a baggy.

Preheat the oven to 400. In a dry frying pan, toast the sesame seeds until golden. Remove pan, turn off the stove, and set aside.

Cut baking parchment into 4 pieces, at least twice as big as the salmon fillets (we used paper lunch sacks that we sprayed with a little olive oil). place a fillet in each bag or on each parchment piece. Top with a mixture of the vegetables.

In a small cup, mix the soy sauce and orange juice. Drizzle the mix over each fillet. Season with salt and pepper. Carefully fold the top and bottom of each parcel (or top of each bag) and gather up the sides. Leave room for the bag to steam the meat. Put all of the bags in a small backing dish, side by side. Put in the oven for 15 minutes.

While that is cooking, add the noodles to a pot of boiling water and cook until done. Drain. Remove fish from the oven when the timer goes off. Let them cool in the bag for about 2 minutes before opening.

We served our fish on the noodles, sprinkled with sesame seeds. We also served it with cranberry walnut salad.

It seemed to be a lot of vegetables for the fish. I would do 1/2 of the peppers next time.


KID RATING: ***

• Chef Bri - "I love it ,but the ginger was a little spicy."
• Kairi - "I liked everything about it" (and her plate was cleaned off)
• Charis - "I like the noodles and ginger and salad. I don't like the yellow pepper thingies."
• Jocelyn - "no fishy, no fishy. I love everything else though!"
• Xander - "Uh uh". (he didn't eat anything but his noodles and fish).
• Daddy - loved it all! He didn't like the skin on the bottom of the salmon though.

Hammy Cheesy Chicky

Ingredients

• 4-6 chicken breasts
• 4-6 slices ham
• 4-6 slices of Havarti cheese
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp sage
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 cup chicken broth

Slice chicken breasts ALMOST in half. Flatten with a meat mallet or heavy-bottomed glass (beat up the chicken. AAAAAAAH!). Put one slice of cheese and one slice of ham on each chicken breast and roll up like a kid in a blanket. Tuck the ends in and stab it with a toothpick to hold it together.

Mix flour, Parmesan cheese, sage and pepper in a bowl and roll the chicken rolls through it. Put the chicken rolls on a plate in the fridge for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, put cream of chicken soup and broth in a pan to warm up.

At the same time, heat the oil in a pan on the stove. Brown the chicken on all sides (careful, the oil spits) then put it in the crock pot. Dump the soup mix on top. Cover the crock pot and cook on low for 4-5 hours.

Remember to take out the toothpicks before you eat it!

We ate ours with jasmine rice and steamed broccoli.




KID RATING: ****

• Chef Bri - "the sauce is my favorite. But the chicken got over cooked on the bottom and was a little crunchy on one place."
• Kairi - "AWESOME! I love HAM! I didn't like the crunchy stuff though."
• Charis - "I love the whole food. The meat and rice is soooo good and creamy"
• Jocelyn - "I like it. It is heart-filled yummy to me!"
• Xander - "Yea!" (he ate everything except the broccoli)