Creamy Tortellini and Roasted Veggies

Okay, so I have some disclaimers to make.

Our ugly and delicious dinner.

1. I am a portrait photographer. I am not a food photographer. The following photo, of tonight's dinner, does not represent my skills as a photographer nor any culinary skills that I may or may not have.
2. The only healthy thing about the following meal was the roasted veggies. This is probably an excellent meal to eat while you're carb-loading for a race. I'm most certainly not. I'm just eating this way because it's fall. And it's fun. I did get to shower today, though. So, that's something.

Onward and upward....sometimes when I'm at the grocery I just grab random stuff for that night of the week (and there's usually always at least one) that I have NO CLUE what we're going to make for dinner. Like...my brain just can't process what we have available to make or I'm not hungry for anything and/or I am just out of time. Whatever the case, I grab a few things I can throw in the freezer for such days as this. 

We had to take a full sick day on Friday because our baby (two-year-old) was battling a respiratory infection of some sort and needed me on the couch with her ALL DAY LONG. She was really sick, you guys, and it was really sad. What? Snuggle a sweet buttercup baby on the couch all day? Twist my arm. So...we did that. We watched show after show and learned that she REALLY loves the movie/musical Annie. She was still sniffly Saturday and by Sunday the other kids had whatever she was having. SO...we got behind on basically everything and I had to kick it into high gear today. We got a bunch of school work underway, laundry folded, other junk cleaned and I started dinner early, LIKE A BOSS. 

I remembered the tortellini (cue the harps, bells and trumpets). I've never made anything with tortellini before. So, I did the only truly logical thing. I made a cheese sauce for it. Friends, when in doubt, cover dinner with cheese and you'll be everybody's favorite mom. Just saying. 

Cheese sauce went like this-ish: 2c almond milk (or whatever you have); 1 brick of cream cheese; a handful of Romano; some butter; pepper; a bunch of garlic; flour and...I think that's it. Melt it all down on medium heat and stir it all together till it's thick and smooth. If you can't get the flour lumps out - stir a figure 8 in the pot until they start to thin out. That's not witchcraft; it works. 

Also? I know some of you Type A people are freaking out because there are no measurements listed and you're probably scrolling down to leave a comment right now and tell me there are no measurements. You know why? I have no idea how much of what I threw in there (I even guessed on the 2c of milk). And? It really doesn't matter. You have to trust me. Start with a 1/4 of flour and don't go nuts with the other stuff. You will be okay. Just  keep smelling it and taking taste tests. 

I threw the tortellini (frozen) in my crock and poured the sauce over. I cooked it on high for a while (a few hours) and checked for doneness. Once it was nice and cooked through, I left the crock on keep warm till dinner. 

On the side, we had my favorite Costco veggies (roasted in the oven with: olive oil, sea salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, Hungarian paprika, and dried minced onion). YUM. Listen to me...all you really need is salt, pepper and olive oil and your veggies. Add what you like!!! I cooked these around 425 for...you guessed it...a while. I don't know. 40 minutes maybe? Watch for doneness and don't burn 'em. 

Finally, my last starchy component - the Sister Schubert roll. If you like rolls. Please do yourself a favor and get some from the freezer section!! Delicious yeasty amazing rolls ready in 10 minutes. YUM!!

As always, enjoy!!! 

Slow Cooker Scalloped Potatoes!

It's a rare-occasion, but sometimes the Internet does indeed let me down when it comes to finding recipes. That rare phenomenon happened this morning as I searched - to no-end - for a crockpot scalloped potato recipe. Basically, this is what happened. Every recipe had ingredients that I didn't want to mess with; didn't have; or required time I didn't want to spend. So, alas, I invented something. We haven't sat down to dinner yet, but I smell the potatoes cooking and I think the outcome will be favorable. I also might have scraped the leftover sauce out of the pan and ate it straight. So I kind of know it's going to be good as long as I don't burn it.

Here's how it went down...

Prep work:

• Wash and thinly slice some red potatoes. I think I used 5 or 6 to feed our family of 6.  Tough, right? 

On the stovetop: 

• 2c almond milk - bring it to a boil
• Add in 1/4c flour - or just accidentally dump in some random amount like I did. It's cool. Stir till it's smooth.
• Salt, pepper, garlic, minced dried onion and butter (like 2T of butter).  Stir it up some more. 
• Throw in a handful of cheese. I don't know how much. Don't fret. Just put a generous palmful-ish in. And if you crazy, add more and more and more and more. I love cheese.

JUST DON'T FORGET TO STIR CONSTANTLY. K? I'm not responsible for your burnt cheese sauce, only my own. 

Now, layer it up in your crockpot:

• Spray the TAR out of your crockpot with a non-stick spray. Otherwise, you might as well just throw out your crock when you're done. 
• Layer 1: Potatoes (salt, pepper, minced dried onion and parsley them)
• Layer 2: another handful of cheese;
• Layer 3: pour on 1/3 of the sauce. 

Repeat 1-3 until you are out of ingredients or space in your crockpot. Top with some more pepper and parsley or whatevs. I use dry parsley because fresh parsley is like...I might as well just throw it in the trash right after I use it the first time. I never use a full head of parsley before it turns into a science experiment. 

Cook on LOW for 8-10hrs or HIGH for 4-6hrs. I cooked on HIGH because I basically can't think about dinner 8-10hrs ahead of time unless it's like Thanksgiving day or we have RESERVATIONS. Can I get an AMEN? 

Enjoy!!  I served it with baked ham/pineapple for my meat-eaters and boiled cabbage. 

We also had banana/vanilla wafer pudding - part of our homeschooling math and science lesson for the day. Sadly, I forgot to add the bananas. Live and learn, right? This is real life, people. 

Vegetarian Crockpot Lasagna

Earlier today, I asked the People of Facebook what they thought about crockpot lasagna. I've seen it on Pinterest time and time again. I've never even bothered to pin it because I just imagined it becoming a soupy disgusting mess and a big waste of time, ingredients, and the money used to purchase said ingredients. Surprisingly, though, the responses I got from Facebook were all positive. I really couldn't believe so many people had tried this out. Today was a perfect day to put this one to the test since we had some errands late this afternoon and not much time to prepare a meal last-minute.

I'm happy to report, this recipe seriously surpassed all of my expectations! This may be my new favorite way to make lasagna! :) Ready for the recipe? I just made this up in my head as I went along. So, we'll see how jacked up it sounds when I write it out. Here we go...

What you need: 

• 2 jars of pasta sauce. - Barilla or Bertolli. (I promise they taste homemade). 
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup plus 1/4 cup romano/parmesan (I used Kraft this time, ssshhh...don't tell my Pops)
• 1 tsp dried basil (or chopped up fresh basil if you're lucky)
• 1 package of fresh mini portabello mushrooms (washed and sliced)
• 1 yellow squash/zucchini (washed and sliced)
• 1 eggplant (washed and sliced)
• 1 package oven-ready lasagna noodles (Barilla)
• 1 15oz package of ricotta cheese
• 1/4 cup Greek Yogurt (OR 2 eggs)
• Seasonings: onion powder; garlic powder; cayenne; and sea salt

What you do: 

• Pre-heat your oven to 350 and spray a baking sheet with cooking oil (I used grapeseed)
• Make a single layer of sliced eggplant and spray the slices with more cooking spray (bake about 7 minutes per side, but periodically check for doneness. I have no idea how long I cooked mine. When you can stick a fork in it; it's done). 
• While your eggplant is baking, spray a hot skillet with oil and add the rest of the sliced veggies. Season (to taste) with onion powder; garlic powder; cayenne (just a pinch, now); and sea salt. Saute all until tender. 
• While your veggies are sizzling, go ahead and mix up the filling - 1 container of ricotta; 1/2 cup romano/parmesan; 1 tsp basil and the greek yogurt or eggs. Mix until combined and set aside. (I use greek yogurt in place of eggs all the time; I don't like egg germs. You all do what you want.)
• Once all veggies are done, throw them all in the skillet and toss together for good measure. Now it's time to start layering this masterpiece up in your crockpot!
• Spray your crockpot down with non-stick cooking spray.
• Layer as follows: sauce (thin layer to cover bottom of crockpot), lasagna noodles,* 1/2 veggies; 1/2 ricotta mixture; mozzarella; sauce, lasagna noodles, 1/2 veggies, 1/2 ricotta mixture, mozzarella; lasagna noodles, sauce, mozzarella and the other 1/4 cup romano/parm.  Or, you know, how ever you want. No one's gonna inspect your layers! Just start with the sauce on the bottom and top layers. PS. I only used about 1 & 1/4 jars of sauce. Save the remaining sauce for pasta another day.

Cook on LOW for about 4 hours. Keep checking it (stick a fork in then noodles to see if they are tender). I think I turned my crockpot on WARM after about 3 hours and then off about 45 minutes before we ate. This gave the lasagna time to set-up nicely. Kid and husband approved. :)

Let me know if you try it and, enjoy!!

Lookie there, totally normal lasagna!

Lebanese Inspired Chicken - Clean and Crockpot Style!

The hubs and I have some fantastic Lebanese friends. They are some of the kindest, most hospitable people we know. And, they're also some of the best cooks we know! If you haven't had Lebanese food, you really need to live a little and try some! It's so healthy and SO flavorful. You'll love the rich, spicy aroma that fills your house when this is slow cooking all day.

One of our favorite dishes is shawarma. Now, we love the flavor of shawarma, but of course I wasn't going to be able to pull off the whole roasting on a rotating spit deal, so I opted for crockpot production instead. Authentic, right? :) I call this "Lebanese-inspired" because I added some of my own flare to it which drives the authenticity down, but it was still SO GOOD. I try to convert a lot of traditional recipes to the crockpot because that just fits our life a little better right now. We never quite know what time dinner will be served.

Here's what you need:

• About 2lbs, boneless skinless chicken breasts
• Shawarma spice mix (or make it yourself)
• 6T olive oil
• 6T lemon juice (I used bottled, ssshhh!)
• Minced garlic (I guessed and used a little under a tablespoon or so)
• Red bell pepper 
• One small onion

Here's what you do: 

• In a small bowl (like a cereal bowl) mix olive oil, lemon juice, spice mix (like 3T or so) and garlic. Stir until well incorporated.
• Place your chicken in the crockpot, pour liquid mixture over chicken. Cover and set to 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low. 
• A couple hours in, go ahead and sauté the red bell pepper and onion (cut into strips) with some salt and garlic. Once sautéed  throw that in on top of your chicken. It adds a nice flavor, color and some added veggies. 
• When chicken is finished cooking, shred with two forks and serve over rice with whatever garnishes you may want. 

What else: 

• In an effort to keep this recipe clean, I served it with brown basmati rice, black beans, and a dollop of non-fat plain greek yogurt on each dish. 
• This would also be delicious in a whole grain pita or whole grain tortilla. 

This recipe is husband and older-child approved. :) My little littles weren't sure about it, but with some coaxing (or maybe a tortilla) they'd probably take it down.

What does a roast and smoothie have in common?

Nothing, except I'm writing about them together in this post - oh, and that I served carrots with both. So, after yesterday's womp-womp-womp post about how I've let the baby become the world's most adorable leech, I felt something lighthearted was in order for today. You guessed it, more food talk. Who knew?

A friend the hubs' and mine (and I? and mine? is that right? I really do have a degree in English, sometimes I just do my own thing...). Anyway...this dude we know has been nagging me to try making a roast in the slow cooker using tomato sauce (vs. the water and dry onion soup that I usually use). Since I've been rather bored with our current meal rotation, I decided to try this tomato-y roast and hope for the best. (I'm not the worlds biggest tomato fan). Apparently, we've been missing out! I threw a delicious chuck roast (sprinkled with seasoned salt) in the crockpot with carrots and chopped onions, on high for five hours (the roast was still a little frozen when I threw it in). During the last hour or hour and a half of cook-time, I tossed in two sliced zucchinis (skin on). If you add them in the beginning, they'll be destroyed. Trust me, I've done it (a lot more than once).

We had leftover brown rice on the side (the tomato-y sauce is used to gravy-up the rice). This meal is clean if you eat red meat and use a clean pasta sauce (no artificial ingredients - try an organic one!); if not, that's the only questionable part. It was SO delicious. Husband, kid, and nagging friend-approved. :)

And because I'm still pacing around on a weight-loss plateau, I figured it woudn't hurt to ramp up the fruit and veggie consumption. I knew my Ninja blender could juice, but I hadn't put it to the test yet. I threw a bunch of mixed frozen fruit, spinach, and carrots in a Ninja cup. I drizzled honey on top and added unsweetened vanilla almond milk (that's not entirely clean, I guess, but close enough for me). It was pretty ugly, but eating raw spinach, carrots and frozen fruit never tasted so good! I made one again the next day, too. You should totally try this recipe - especially if you aren't a veggie fan. This is a good way to get a couple servings in in a somewhat unconventional way.

Happy Thursday everyone, enjoy! :)

Taco Soup - Clean and SO MUCH YUM!

Okay, you guys...I love soup, but I hardly ever make it because I'm really the only soup-eater in this household. We also don't eat chili because we've come down with stomach viruses TWICE after eating it. So, chili is a definite no-no here. I decided, though, that Taco Soup may be a happy medium. I read a bunch of recipes, but when it came time to make it, it came down to using a few things I had and picking up what I could find at the store, quickly. 

Let me just tell you, it was a total success! My non soup-eaters ate it (plus the leftovers); it didn't taste like chili and it wasn't super soup-y either. We loved it and this recipe made more than enough for our family of six (we've been feasting on the leftovers). Here it is, if you want to give it a try!

• Throw 3-4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts, seasoned with cumin, in your crockpot. 
• Cover with: 
• a can of black beans with diced jalapeños (drained), 
• can of corn (drained), 
• a can of rotel chiles (however spicy you want), 
• 15oz can of tomato sauce and 
• 32oz carton of chicken broth. 
• Cook on low for 8hrs or high for 4. It's SO delicious. 
• Shred chicken with two forks once soup is finished cooking.
• I also boiled brown rice pasta and incorporated that after shredding the chicken. Plain brown rice would be fine, too.  
• We had cheese and blue corn chips to top it. You could also serve with a dollop of plain non-fat greek yogurt instead of sour cream for extra yum (and protein!).  

Enjoy!

Salsa Chicken - Crockpot Style

I posted a Salsa Chicken recipe a few weeks ago that my family pretty much went nuts over. Now, I hate to mess with a good thing I really wanted to see if it was crockpotable...because if I can have dinner prep finished at noon (and not when three ravenous children are clawing at me for food around, say, 5:30 while I'm finishing - or starting - dinner), that would be most excellent.

The only way this recipe could be easier, friends, is if it was fixable in a steamer bag (no, I'm not trying that).

Here's what you need: 

• Boneless/skinless chicken breasts (I get about 2lbs to feed my family of two big people and three little people)
• 1 pkg. taco seasoning (that stuff that comes in a packet and is about .60). I got the nacho cheese taco seasoning variety and highly recommend it. 
• 1 jar of your favorite salsa (I chose medium chunky salsa)
• 1 bag of shredded cheese (cheddar or Mexican cheese is good)

Here's what you do: (ready?)

• Lay the raw chicken in the crockpot
• Cover front and back of each chicken breast with taco seasoning
• Cover chicken with entire jar of salsa
• Fill salsa jar about 1/4 full of water (to get excess salsa out and to add a little liquid) and pour around the chicken - not on directly on top if you can help it.
• Cover and cook on HIGH for 4hrs. (make sure your chicken looks done; I'm not responsible if your crock takes longer than four hours and you a.) get food poisoning or b.) have ravenous children clawing at your legs). 
• About 30min before your timer goes off, take the lid off your crock and cover chicken w/shredded cheese (I think I used half a bag). Start your rice.
• Once your timer goes off, slice and serve. You can use the excess salsa juice on top of your rice - it makes a great Mexican-style rice. 

Enjoy!! (and enjoy not thinking about making dinner all afternoon). :) 

Super EASY Slow Cooker Pulled Pork (or Chicken)

If you are a fan of crockery cooking, you'll appreciate the no-fuss nature of this recipe; If you're one of those people who believes nothing good can come from a crock pot - here's a recipe that's sure to prove you wrong! I make this pulled pork (or chicken) recipe for almost every family get together we have (we have a big family so this is an easy option - I increase the recipe for them, buying 10lbs of meat). Though...now that I say that...they  may think it's the only thing I know how to cook. Regardless, it's a crowd pleaser and SO easy. 

Ingredients: 

• Boneless pork rib roast or chicken breasts - about 2-4lbs for a family dinner, I would guess.
• Chicken stock (1-2 cartons)
• Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, your favorite variety (1 bottle)

Directions:

• Put raw meat into the crockpot 
• Cover completely in chicken stock (make a pool, basically, with the chicken swimming under the stock; if you run out of stock, just use water).
• Cook on HIGH for 4 hours (if you have time to spare after the 4 hours, turn crock pot to warm mode).
• About 45 minutes before your guests show up, set your oven to 350.
• Once your 4hrs is up, remove meat from the crock pot and transfer to baking dish (I love to use the throw away foil kind because there's no cleaning required) shred meat with two forks (it should shred really easily).
• Gently mix with bbq sauce to your taste. I usually mix with more after it bakes.
• Bake uncovered in pre-heated oven for 30 minutes. Watch to make sure it doesn't brown.
• Mix gently with more bbq sauce if needed. :)

Serve on oversized buns with cheese, pickle, and onion as optional condiments. Enjoy! :)