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December 27, 2013

Beef & Brussels Sprouts Stir-Fry over Brown Basmati Rice

Cook something extraordinary tonight.
Chef-designed recipes & fresh ingredients
Delivered to your door.

Today with great anticipation I received my first Plated box. Y’all know how much I love to cook, viagra so I think Plated was created just for me. They send you all the ingredients you need to make a chef-designed recipe — right down to a teaspoon of cumin, 2 garlic cloves, two chicken breasts, etc. — in an insulated box.

I ordered two servings of the beef & brussels sprouts stir-fry and two servings of the winter vegetable enchiladas. I made the enchiladas tonight.

The recipe was very easy to follow, and the results delicious! Thank you, Plated. Now I’m looking forward to cooking up tomorrow night’s dinner.

Cook something extraordinary tonight.
Chef-designed recipes & fresh ingredients
Delivered to your door.

Tonight was my second meal provided by Plated. They delivered all the fresh ingredients including the beef and sauces to my house in an insulated box yesterday along with an easy-to-follow recipe with photos. I made the Winter Veggie Enchiladas last night, viagra
and tonight I made the Beef & Brussels Sprouts Stir-Fry over Brown Basmati Rice. I only ordered two servings, illness
but we discovered last night that the servings are large, treat so tonight with the addition of some additional steamed vegetables, I was able to to serve me, Anthony and our three children. It was a big hit (except with the 14 year old who thinks I serve too many vegetables).

If you want to sign up for Plated, please use my link: https://www.plated.com/invites/4f79bb. Thank you and enjoy!

December 26, 2013

Have you tried Plated yet?

Cook something extraordinary tonight.
Chef-designed recipes & fresh ingredients
Delivered to your door.

December 13, 2013October 29, 2015

West African Stew

I first had West African Stew in Chevy Chase, order MD, approved at the home of good friends Juliette and Hamet. Hamet is half French/half African (Mali). Juliette is Chinese. (Their kids are GORGEOUS!) Juliette calls this stew “African comfort food.” It smells divine and tastes just as good. So I agree with Juliette — this is true comfort food. I couldn’t find Juliette’s recipe, pill so I combined this one and this one.

Browning chicken pieces with onion.

Lots of orange and yellow vegetables.

I served the stew over rice and with some hearty sourdough bread. Delish!

December 4, 2013

Creamy Southwest Chicken Soup

I love my pressure cooker! I got home at 5 p.m. tonight and knew that I needed dinner ready around 5:30 p.m. — Anthony needed to be at church for worship team practice at 6 p.m., look so I made this yummy recipe in the pressure cooker. I used a homemade taco seasoning recipe instead of the store-bought pre-packaged crap — I used an empty pill bottle to store the extra. The original soup recipe calls for cooking it a slow cooker. Instead I used my pressure cooker, and it was done in just 12 minutes on high.

Instead of tortilla chips, I lightly coated two whole wheat tortillas with olive oil and a sprinkle of cajun seasoning, then put them under the broiler until lightly crisp. Dinner was a hit! Anthony only had time for one bowl, but he said not to put it away — he’d eat more as soon as he got home. Now, that’s success.

November 29, 2013

Leftover Thanksgiving Soup

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, purchase and we had 33 people here at our house. It was fun and loud and the food was fantastic!

After everyone finished eating, hepatitis I cut up the turkey carcass with the help of my mother-in-law and placed it in my electric pressure cooker along with several cups of water (didn’t measure — about four?) and cooked on high for 30 minutes to make stock. After it cooled, I strained out the broth into plastic storage ware and then separated the meat from the bones. The meat filled up half a gallon zip lock bag. I also saved the drippings from the turkey roasting pan along with the chopped onions and celery that I cooked with the turkey. I placed it all in the frig til I figured out what I wanted to do with it today.

Leftover Thanksgiving Soup:
Turkey broth and drippings (minus the fat that had accumulated at the top)
Turkey (only used half of what I had — freezing the rest for another day)
Bacon-wrapped green bean bundles, chopped (brought by my niece Rachel)
Broccoli-rice casserole (brought my my sister-in-law Sandra)
Baby carrots, chopped
Giblet gravy (only about a 1/2 cup left)

Combine all in a large soup pot and heat. That’s it!

October 25, 2013

Pressure Cooker Mushroom Chicken over Herb Egg Noodles

Dinner tonight was sort of impromptu. I knew I had three chicken breasts thawed in the frig, approved but beyond that, buy more about I had nothing planned. A quick inventory of the kitchen cabinets found a can of cream of mushroom soup, herb egg noodles and a yellow onion, and dinner was created in my mind. I placed the chicken breasts in my new Fagor 3-in-1 electric multi-cooker, topped with sliced onion, a can of cream of mushroom soup, and a can-full of milk. I locked the lid in place and cooked on high for 10 minutes. Meanwhile I cooked my herb egg noodles. It turned out pretty good — especially after I sprinkled a little Cavender’s All-Purpose Greek Seasoning on top. (We put Cavender’s on just about everything in our family — or Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce.)

Next time, I think I’ll skip the milk and brown the chicken first. But overall, it worked. My family ate a homemade meal. This mom’s work is done here (well, until tomorrow morning at least).

August 24, 2013May 5, 2016

Beautiful Mess

Today my family and I have been running in different directions. This morning I was at the gym. They went to the farmer’s market. Then I collapsed in my bed from said gym experience. They were kind and let me have an hour nap while they played downstairs. Then this afternoon, pancreatitis I had a baby shower to go to, allergy and they are running errands. I have said it before — my husband is really AWESOME. I just got home from the baby shower, prosthesis and they are still out. The house is quiet — just me and the dog. And I see cups on the counter, toys on the coffee table, guitars on the floor — all little reminders of my wonderful family and how blessed we are. The old me would have just seen a mess, but this new me, the me that’s really trying to live in the moment and be grateful for the little things, sees a beautiful mess. It’s a mess of reminders of how God has blessed me with a loving man who adores me and three smart and funny daughters who continue to amaze me every day and a snuggley old dog who has been by my side through good times and bad over 14 years. I am one lucky girl.

August 10, 2013

Tortellini Soup Dinner

I’ve really been trying to come up with meal plans that use ingredients already on hand. So tonight’s dinner started with a package of cheese tortellini and some hamburger meat. I searched Pinterest (my new “cookbook”) and found this recipe for Beef & Spinach Tortellini Soup to use as a starting point. I changed it up quite a bit. Let’s see if I can recall it here:

In a stock pot, visit I browned about a pound of hamburger meat along with half a sweet white onion chopped up. I heated four cups of water in the microwave, ask then added six beef bullion cubes to it. As the hamburger was nearing done, pill I added a tablespoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of rosemary, salt and pepper, and a tablespoon of chopped garlic. (All measurements are estimated since I didn’t use measuring spoons — I just eye-balled it.) Then I added the beef bullion and half a package of chopped frozen spinach to the stock pot. I brought it back to a boil and added the cheese tortellini; boiled for about 6 minutes. When I taste tested it, it was missing something, so I added some heavy whipping cream and let it heat back up. Perfect! I served it with sharp Swiss cheese shavings on top.

As an appetizer, I had a platter of cheeses, sausage, crackers and bread sticks. Kroger had this wonderful goat and cow cheese with fig jam on top out for samples when I was grocery shopping today. It’s usually about $17, but I got one as “manager’s special” for just $7. It was nearing it’s sell by date — but since I knew we’d eat it tonight, so not a problem. Bring on the expensive cheese! When Anthony and the girls got home, they were very happy to dig into this platter of yumminess.

Finally for dessert, I made individual banana puddings. I did cheat and use instant vanilla pudding, but made up for it by making the whipped cream from scratch. Man, there’s nothing like homemade whipped cream!

My family was very pleased with dinner. The two older girls actually went back for seconds on the soup — and it had spinach in it. Amazing! There are five more little banana puddings in the frig. I wonder if they’ll make it to see morning.

July 21, 2013

Leftover Night

My husband Anthony says that Leftover Night was always his favorite growing up. He’s one of 13 children, here and Leftover Night was a free-for-all — cereal, spaghetti, ice cream, chicken, meatloaf — on one plate if he wanted! Tonight we did our own version of Leftover Night — a scaled back, house of five people version. Plus I made Rotel Cheese Dip with pork sausage from our CSA farm. My brother Rob and his son joined us. I have to admit, it was a great dinner!

Arkansas peaches chicken and waffles from The Waffle Wagon voodoo chicken fingers and fries from The Afterthought

July 3, 2013

Favorite Pie Recipes

My favorite pie recipes come from an old 1980 cookbook put together by the El Dorado, epidemic AR, adiposity Service League called In Good Taste.

You can order your own copy of In Good Taste at http://www.amazon.com/Good-Taste-Dorado-Service-League/dp/B000YHP0WM.

Some of favorites in the cookbook are the Mystery Pecan Pie (the mystery is a cream cheese layer), glaucoma the easy Pecan Pie, the Grandma’s Light Chocolate Pie (not light in calories — light caramely color and flavor is A-MA-ZING), and the Lemon Chess Pie.

My coworker Mary mentioned that Lemon Chess Pie is her husband’s favorite pie, but that she didn’t have a good recipe. So Sunday night I whipped one up — seriously, this recipe is EASY — and brought it to work on Monday. Several of us had a slice, but save a big slice for Mary’s husband. Here’s the recipe:

And here’s Mary’s text message to me the next day:

Cook something extraordinary tonight. Chef-designed recipes & fresh ingredients Delivered to your door.

Cook something extraordinary tonight. Chef-designed recipes & fresh ingredients Delivered to your door.

Cook something extraordinary tonight. Chef-designed recipes & fresh ingredients Delivered to your door.

Cook something extraordinary tonight.
Chef-designed recipes & fresh ingredients
Delivered to your door.

Cook something extraordinary tonight.
Chef-designed recipes & fresh ingredients
Delivered to your door.

Cook something extraordinary tonight.
Chef-designed recipes & fresh ingredients
Delivered to your door.