As always if you order today I'll throw in a helpful kitchen/cooking/meal planning tip for free. This weeks tip; Plan Your Meals. This is a tip that you hear a lot and as much as we hear it most of us never do it. Me personally, I always thought it would be too time consuming. It also envoked a feeling of having to be a Leave it to Beaveresque type of family. You know, Mom in the kitchen in the dress and pearls, apron on serving a well planned out meal to our loving families. It seemed like a lot of work and pressure. Having actually done it for some time I have come to appreciate what a time and money saver it is. How many afternoons have you spent staring into the fridge or pantry thinking, for example, I could make spaghetti, but there's no sauce. With a little planning you can easily avoid all of that.
Once a week I sit down with a pad of paper, a cup of tea and a copy of What's Cooking. My first step is to write down seven meals. I attempt to try one new recipe per week chosen from my handy What's Cooking Magazines. As my collection of recipes grow it's very easy to come up with 7 meals. On my list I include a couple of Abby friendly meals, like pancakes or chicken nuggets. There's also an easy night or two, which would be a frozen pizza or soup and sandwiches. I also ask Mike's imput, if there's anything he'd like to have. Having done this for a little while now, these dinner lists really write themselves. The next step is to write out a grocery list using the meal list as a guide. Any recipes I use regularly are written on 4X6 index cards which I attach to the meal list and clip the whole thing to the fridge. It sounds like a lot of work, but it takes me less than 30 minutes a week to take the guess work out of every afternoon. Now on to whatyou paid for:
Easy Bistro Chicken
2 tsp vegetable oil
3 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can (19 oz) Alymer Accents Petite Cut Tomatoes with garlic and olive oil, undrained
1/4 Zesty Italian salad dressing
3 tbsp tomato paste
4 small boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup Kraft 4 Cheese Italiano Shreds
2 tbsp bacon bits
Heat oil in a large non stick skillet on medium high neat. Add mushrooms and onion, cook 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Stir in tomatoes with their liquid, the dressing and tomato paste.
Add chicken; cover. Reduce heat to medium low. Simmer 12 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
Sprinkle with cheese and bacon bits; simmer uncovered, 5 minutes or util cheese is melted. Serve over hot cooked rice if desired.
What we would/did change:
Well first off the chicken does not cook in 12 minutes, so be prepared for that. I only used 3 breasts because there's only three of us. I'm not a huge fan of bacon bits so I cooked up a couple of slices of actual bacon and added it to the sauce rather than sprinkle it on top. The entire small can of tomato paste went in as well with no adverse effects. As I mentioned in my last WCW post, if a recipe calls for cheese I use whatever I have on hand. That night it was cheddar. The recipe suggests serving it with rice, but that didn't seem very yummy to me. The obvious choice would be pasta, but that seemed too heavy as the sauce is more on the watery side. In the end I served it over egg noodles which seemed a perfect fit.
Score:
Me: 5 *'s
Mike: Well Michael went all Russian Judge on this dish and gave it a 4.5 *'s. The half point deduction was for the lack of garlic toast accompanying the meal. I have appealed the ruling, since judging was limited to the recipe itself not the entire meal. The appealate board, however was not swayed by my argument so the score stands.
Now since I'm all about value for the dollar I offer you another What's Cooking Wednesday recipe at no extra charge.
3 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can (19 oz) Alymer Accents Petite Cut Tomatoes with garlic and olive oil, undrained
1/4 Zesty Italian salad dressing
3 tbsp tomato paste
4 small boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup Kraft 4 Cheese Italiano Shreds
2 tbsp bacon bits
Heat oil in a large non stick skillet on medium high neat. Add mushrooms and onion, cook 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Stir in tomatoes with their liquid, the dressing and tomato paste.
Add chicken; cover. Reduce heat to medium low. Simmer 12 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
Sprinkle with cheese and bacon bits; simmer uncovered, 5 minutes or util cheese is melted. Serve over hot cooked rice if desired.
What we would/did change:
Well first off the chicken does not cook in 12 minutes, so be prepared for that. I only used 3 breasts because there's only three of us. I'm not a huge fan of bacon bits so I cooked up a couple of slices of actual bacon and added it to the sauce rather than sprinkle it on top. The entire small can of tomato paste went in as well with no adverse effects. As I mentioned in my last WCW post, if a recipe calls for cheese I use whatever I have on hand. That night it was cheddar. The recipe suggests serving it with rice, but that didn't seem very yummy to me. The obvious choice would be pasta, but that seemed too heavy as the sauce is more on the watery side. In the end I served it over egg noodles which seemed a perfect fit.
Score:
Me: 5 *'s
Mike: Well Michael went all Russian Judge on this dish and gave it a 4.5 *'s. The half point deduction was for the lack of garlic toast accompanying the meal. I have appealed the ruling, since judging was limited to the recipe itself not the entire meal. The appealate board, however was not swayed by my argument so the score stands.
Now since I'm all about value for the dollar I offer you another What's Cooking Wednesday recipe at no extra charge.
Jello Light Creamy Layers
1. Dissolve 1 pkg (9.1 g - 11.2 g) Jello Light jelly powder in 1 1/2 cups boiling water.
2. Whisk in 2 cups frozen Cool Whip Light
3. Pour into individual bowls. Chill until set. Top with additional thawed Cool Whip.
Makes 4 servings, 2/3 cups each.
What we would/did change:
Nothing. I don't like Cool Whip on it's own, so I didn't serve it with any extra on top. As it chills it separates into two layers. One a fluffly mousse like layer. The other layer tastes like a sherbert, it has a similar texture to jello, but it's creamier. It's a very quick and easy dessert that looks impressive.
Score: 5 *
This dessert was a big hit with Abby.
And since I'm an equal opportunity Mom, here's Maya as well:
Yes I am that funny!
2. Whisk in 2 cups frozen Cool Whip Light
3. Pour into individual bowls. Chill until set. Top with additional thawed Cool Whip.
Makes 4 servings, 2/3 cups each.
What we would/did change:
Nothing. I don't like Cool Whip on it's own, so I didn't serve it with any extra on top. As it chills it separates into two layers. One a fluffly mousse like layer. The other layer tastes like a sherbert, it has a similar texture to jello, but it's creamier. It's a very quick and easy dessert that looks impressive.
Score: 5 *
This dessert was a big hit with Abby.
And since I'm an equal opportunity Mom, here's Maya as well:
Yes I am that funny!
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