Quick Spring Dinner Ideas

With Baseball, Art Shows, concerts, etc... in full swing I try to plan ahead and use the crock pot for meals that whenever someone gets home to eat there is dinner ready! For tonight I decided to try Shephard's Pie, as I had leftover Lamb from Easter. All I needed to do was make Mashed Potatoes and mix frozen veggies and gravy with the lamb. I will post later to let you know how it turned out! Thursday I will be doing

Beer Brisket (from Prevention Slow Cooker)

2 large onions

3-4 Lbs Beef Brisket, fat trimmed

1 bottle of beer

1/2 c chili sauce

2 tsp dried steak seasoning

Place onion in slow cooker, top with beef. Mix chili sauce, beer and steak seasoning. Pour over beef. Cook on low 10-12 hours. Thinly slice across grain. Use slotted spoon to remove onions and place on top of meat. Drizzle some cooking liquid over meat and serve on rolls!

Thai Chicken Wraps

This was quick and yummy! It's from a Back Packing site Manny goes to: http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?61693-Thai-Chicken-Wraps&s=ec5e1b8aa83a921921ea6b59ebafd783

This recipe was designated a lunch/snack recipe due to it's simpleness but of course can be used for a dinner as well.

Ingredients

•1/2 C. Creamy Peanut Butter

•1/2 C. of Prepared Pad Thai sauce (easily found in most grocery stores)

•1 Bunch of Green Onion

•4 Large Tortillas, Wraps, or Flatbreads

•1 Pkg - 7 Ounces of Tyson Chicken (or two 5 ounce cans)

•Leaf or Romaine Lettuce (We suggest Romaine. It's much stiffer and will hold up well in a pack for a day or two as long as it does not get overheated)

Package the above ingredients using whatever method suits you

Trail Preparation

In your cookpot (we suggest using hard anodized aluminum for its non stick properties) stir together the peanut butter, chopped green onions and pad thai sauce. Cook over medium heat stirring until sauce is mixed completely and warm. Do not overcook!

Layout a Tortilla or Wrap, top with lettuce, chicken and onions. Sauce over the top and then wrap burrito style.

Notes

You may also consider saucing the wrap first, then other ingredients but we find personally that having the sauce on the chicken imparts a better flavor.

The Ultimate Sandwich

I love this blog author’s honesty; that is exactly what would happen to me if I planned a hike to discuss how the key to the success in the new school year is to be “organized, organized, and organized.” But it did get me thinking about The Ultimate Sandwich. What would yours be?

Chicken Salad Contessa

We have one of those days today, where we are in the car and driving kids around all afternoon to different activities. We'll all be walking in the house together around 6:45-7 PM and I know they will all be hungry. I wasn't sure what I was going to do about feeding everyone, but when I was at the store this AM, I spied the newly baked Rotisserie Chickens. I grabbed one and came home and put together Ina Garten's Chicken Salad Contessa. Picked up some rolls to go with it. We'll have regular salad and veggies with it. Who knows what, if anything, else...

I made this last year for my daughter's 1st Communion party (that time I did actually bake the chicken myself, but some days, that just isn't possible). It was easy to double or more and it is one of my favorites!

Chicken Salad Contessa

2 split (1 whole) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on (1 1/2 pounds)
Good olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup pecan halves (3 C)
1/2 cup walnuts halves (3 C)
1/2 cup good mayonnaise (3 C)
1/2 cup sour cream (3 C)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves, divided (6 Tbsp)
1 cup green grapes, cut in 1/2 (6 C)
Lettuce leaves, for serving
Small dinner rolls, tops split

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts, skin side up, on a baking sheet and rub them with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Set aside until cool.

When the chicken is cool, remove meat from the bones and discard the skin and bones. Cut the chicken into a 3/4-inch dice.

Meanwhile, place the pecans and walnuts on a separate sheet pan and toast in the oven for 7 to 8 minutes until golden. Set aside to cool.

For the dressing, mix together the mayonnaise, sour cream, 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Fold in half the chopped tarragon leaves.

Place the diced chicken in a bowl, add the pecans, walnuts and grapes. Pour the dressing over the chicken and toss well. Sprinkle the remaining chopped tarragon leaves on top, and serve on a bed of lettuce leaves.

A week of good meal ideas

Sometimes I'm totally out of food thoughts and ideas. This meal ideas just seemed to have "hit" me. I had made Balsamic Beef in the crock pot http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/345/BalsamicBeefSandwiches64948.shtml it was good, but made a lot, so I was looking for a way to use it up. As we had eaten it as sandwiches once and added some red, green and yellow bell peppers to it and served it over egg noodles another time. At my daughter's request, I decided to carmalize some onions and add the last of the beef and some beef broth to it. We all enjoyed this Onion soup variation.

Next I tried some recipes from the January 2009 addition of Everyday Food Magazine. This week we tried the Light Italian Wedding Soup, it was good and we had escarole for the first time. The turkey meatballs do give off a "smell" while simmering, but it was enjoyed by all with bread and a green salad topped with sundried tomatoes, smoked gouda and bacon bits. Last night we made the Steak and Red Onion sandwiches also from Everyday Food Magazine( January 2009 ). I decided to sautee the onions while the beef was resting as I thought we'd all prefer them cooked rather than raw. We opted for our favorite light dressing instead of using the vinegar and oil suggested by the recipe. We also rounded out the meal with the leftover Beef and Onion soup. Our breath was smelly but everyone enjoyed the meals, three nights in a row. Now that may be a first! Today we are home enjoying a snow day. We'll light the fire place soon and I may throw together a pot of chili or defrost Saurbrauten from the freezer (that would be 4 meals liked by all:). Or possible get my husband to cook something in is dutch oven at the fireplace. Now that would be an awesome ending to a good food week. I will post the recipes later.