Repeat Dinner

We are starting to repeat dinners now for two reasons:

1. We are running out of ideas of what to cook, and

2. We want to use all of our ingredients that we have bought

So last night we made something we have made before: Spinach tortellini with homemade breadsticks. I'm not gonna lie, our breadsticks are goooood. I mean really good.

Taquitos

Yet another recipe from Our Best Bites. We made Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos. These are good for dinner, or you can freeze them and have them for a snack. We served them with Spanish Rice. We were going to make homemade spanish rice, but we ended up just making it from the package.

Click here for the recipe for taquitos.

Hawaiian Haystacks

Last week we made Hawaiian Haystacks for the first time. I got this recipe off of a favorite blog of mine -- Iheartnaptime.net.

*This is not actually a picture of our food -- it was taken from iheartnaptime.blogspot.com

Hawaiian Haystacks:

-1 pound chicken

-2 cans cream chicken

-1 cup of milk

-1/2 cup of sour cream

-1/2 teaspoon Lawry's salt

-salt and pepper to taste

Combine all of the above ingredients and pour over chicken in crockpot. Cook on high for 4 to 6 hours. When it's done, shred it, and serve over rice. Top it with tomatoes (I just used canned diced ones because I didn't have any fresh), coconut, pineapple, cheese, chow mein Chinese noodles, and sliced almonds. So yummy!

Crispy Coconut Chicken Fingers

Once again we made something from my new favorite cookbook, Our Best Bites. And once again I forgot to take pictures. This time my parents were in town, so Lora and I made dinner for the Skidmores and the Riehles (well, actually Lora wasn't feeling well so Beck and Chloe helped me).

Anyway, we made crispy coconut chicken fingers. We served it with an apricot jam dipping sauce and oven fries. It was actually a really easy meal. You basically dip chicken fingers in flour, then egg, then in a coconut/bread flakes mix.

Click here for the recipe for the chicken fingers. And click here for the oven fries.

Day 6

On Day 6, we made orzo pasta (I know we have made a lot of Italian, and we have vowed to not make as much Italian from here on out.) This is a light vegetarian dish that I have been making for a few years. It is so yummy and so healthy. We served it with Parmesan toast made Skidmore boys style -- bread with garlic salt and Parmesan in the oven broiler.

Recipe: (I doubled it)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic (I use sometimes use 3)

2 cups orzo pasta

1 zucchini, peeled and chopped

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

1 (16 oz) can stewed tomatoes, undrained

1 (14 oz) can vegetable broth

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon dried basil leaves

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1/4 chopped fresh parsley

2 teaspoons grated lime zest

2 tablespoons lime juice

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese for topping

Cook the orzo pasta. While it's cooking, saute the garlic in the olive oil. Stir in zucchini and carrots. Cook until vegetables soften. Stir in the tomatoes, vegetable broth, Italian seasoning, and basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to medium. Cover, and simmer until almost all liquid is absorbed. Stir in the green onions, parsley, lime zest, and lime juice. Remove from heat, cook slightly, and serve sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.

Day 5

On Day 5 we made a three cheese chicken penne pasta bake. Beck even helped us out for this one. Click here for the recipe.

These pictures were actually taken before we baked it and added freshly grated parmesan and mozzerella cheese. We forgot to take pictures afterwards.

Jammin'

Jeanne taught us how to make homemade jam on Friday. It was so fun! It was the first time both of us had done canning. We made strawberry, blackberry, and strawberry blackberry jam.