Fun with Sandwiches and Bento

I found this site today, with all sorts of creative ideas for sandwiches. No more boring school lunches! Check it out!

Insanewiches.com

If you liked this, you will probably also enjoy the feature we did last year on Bento lunches.

Organizing your Way Out of the What's For Dinner Funk

Do you ever find yourself stuck making the same foods over and over again?

Try this: make a file folder of your favorite recipes. On the back list the non-staple ingredients for making quick shopping lists. Put a divider in the back, and one in the front. As you find a new recipe your family likes, make a new card. Place your cards between the two dividers.

When you are planning your meals for the week, choose the number of cards for the number of meals you want to make. Copy the ingredient lists on to your shopping list, and put those recipe cards in front of the front divider to refer to over the upcoming week. Your pantry will be stocked with the necessary ingredients, and you won't be locked into a calendar menu that isn't flexible. Just pull out a card that sounds good and make it.

Once you have made a recipe, tuck it behind the back divider. This will help you keep track of what you have made recently, so no too-soon repeats. But if you want to make something again, you know exactly where to find it.

What is your best tip for making meal planning quick and easy?

Crockpot Chicken Cassoulet

Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 4-6 hours
Yield: 6 servings

1 can white beans or black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
salt and pepper
1/4 cup sliced sundried tomatoes, not packed in oil
2 tsp EACH dried parsley, thyme and basil
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
one medium onion, cut into chunks
4 cloves garlic, pressed
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 2/3 cup chicken stock

Place half the canned beans on bottom of crockpot and top with chicken. Season with salt and pepper, and add chicken stock.

In a small skillet, saute vegetables and spices in oil until tender. Add to chicken and top with the rest of the beans. Cover and cook on low 4-6 hours or until chicken is cooked through.

Tips and Tricks
I used frozen black eyed peas. Brown the chicken if you wish.
Make It Healthier
Omit salt.
How Kids Can Help
Older kids can open the beans. Younger kids can dump spices.

Mexican Zuchinni Casserole

Cinnamon gives this stove top casserole a delicious Central American flair. It's a delicious way to use up Zucchini from your garden!

Prep: 20 minutes
Yield: 4 servings

2 T olive oil
3 whole peeled garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 ripe Roma tomatoes, diced
4 small zucchini, chopped
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 cup chopped mushrooms
3 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp dried oregano
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup shredded cheese

In a large skillet, heat oil, add garlic, onion, & tomatoes. Saute 5 minutes, add zucchini and saute 5 minutes more. Add mushrooms, broth, chicken & spices, mix well and cook until heated through and vegetables are tender. Top with cheese, turn heat to low and cover 5 minutes so the cheese can melt.

Tips & Tricks:
This meal was a hit with all members of my family, but especially my husband. For an even faster dinner, combine ingredients except cheese with raw chopped chicken in crock pot in the morning, then top with cheese 10 minutes before serving.

This casserole would be a delicious wrap filling. Simply heat tortillas & fill with casserole.

Yellow crookneck summer squash can be substituted for zucchini, for either type of squash, peel before hand for a nicer texture.

I didn't have precooked chicken, so I simply cooked 3 half chicken breasts in the oil before adding the veggies, then I cut them up & returned them to the casserole with the broth.


Make it Healthier:
Omit cheese. Reduce or omit salt.

Rustic Herbed Tomato Tart

photo credit: Maura McEvoy, Intimate Gatherings

This recipe was shared recently by Dawn at Renaissance Mama. She says, "I have been anxiously awaiting the day when I would have enough fresh tomatoes in my backyard to make this favorite tomato tart and today's the day! This is a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks called Intimate Gatherings, Great Food for Good Friends This is the food that says "summer" to me- and it's very easy."

I can't wait to try this out with tomatoes fresh from my own garden.


Rustic Herbed Tomato Tart with a Parmesan Crust

Pastry
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into 5 pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
zest from 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup ice water

Filling
1 1/2 TBS. Dijon mustard
2 TBS freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 TBS finely chopped fresh basil
1 TBS finely chopped frsh thyme
1 TBS finely chopped Italian parsley
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
6-8 ripe plum tomatoes (about 1 1/4 lbs.), cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
1 TBS olive oil
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tsp. water

1. To prepare the pastry: In a food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine the flour, butter, salt, and Parmesan cheese. Pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, with the motor running, add the lemon zest and pour the water through the feeder tube in a steady stream. Process 5-10 seconds, until the dough begins to bind. Remove dough and shape it into a 12-inch disk.

2. The dough can be used immediately or wrapped in plastic and refrigerated. When ready to use, remove dough from refrigerator and let soften at room temperature, about 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 425
4. Place pastry on a baking sheet, using a pastry brush, paint the pastry with the mustard, leaving a 1 1 1/2 inch border all around. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese evenly over the mustard.
5. In a small bowl, combine the basil, thyme, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper. Arrange half the tomato slices over the mustard coated portion of the pastry, and sprinkle the herb mixture over the tomatoes. Cover the herbs with the remaining tomatoes, overlapping the slices if necessary.
6. Fold the pastry in half over the tomatoes to enclose the sides of the tart, gently draping the pastry over the tomatoes and folding soft pleats every few inches. Pinch any cracks to seal the pastry and prevent tomato juices from running out during baking. Drizzle the olive oil over the tomatoes. Using a pastry brush, paint the dough with the egg wash. Place the tart in the oven and bake 20-25 minutes, or until the dough is golden. Cool slightly, slice and serve warm.

Pumpkin Muffins with Pumpkin Glaze

I found this recipe browsing on a forum where many were raving about how good it is. I haven't tried it out yet to see how much it makes or how long it takes, but it has great reviews and I love pumpkin so I'm looking forward to trying it out!

This is a double batch:

3 C sugar
1 C applesauce
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Mix together until combined

3 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp baking soda

sift dry ingredients, then add wet to dry

2/3 cup soy or dairy milk
1 3/4 cups canned pumpkin

add half the milk, mix, half the pumpkin, mix again,
the rest of the milk, mix, the rest of the pumpkin, mix

optional:
1 cup chopped nuts
1 cup chocolate chips

(just fold these in)

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Pumpkin Icing/Glaze:

2 T butter
2 T canned pumpkin
1 T milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 C powdered sugar

Melt butter, stir in pumpkin, milk, vanilla and cinnamon. Add the sugar. Blend until smooth. I love to add it on the muffins when the muffins are still warm, I generally wait 10mins then slather the mix on and watch it melt into the muffins and give such a nice texture and taste when you bit into the muffin.

Backpack Snacks

I found these delicious looking home made granola bars over at Mennonite Girls Can Cook. Click here for the recipe.

Saving Money in the Kitchen

I'm jumping on the bandwagon here, since in the current economy most are trying to pinch pennies wherever they can. Often, the grocery bill is the only flex people have in their budgets. The Toronto Star discusses 5 meals under $5 (Canadian) each also with 5 tips for stretching your food budget.

Finally, the USDA has created a helpful resource for creating meals to fit your budget at their Recipe Finder. Here you will find a form where you can enter the ingredients in your kitchen to search for nutritious recipes, or simply put in a dollar amount and it will bring up recipes that cost that amount or less per serving. You can even search by what appliances you have available--so it can be a cost effective option for cooking while traveling.

What have you found to help you save money in the kitchen?

Honey Baked Beans

Prep: 35 Minutes
Cook: 3-4 Hours

½ 1b dried great Northern beans 1 ¼ c rinsed
2tbsp olive oil
1 med onion, sliced
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 c water
¼ c dark, full-flavored honey
1 ½ tsp salt

1. Put beans in medium saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 30mins. Drain and set aside.
2. Place oven rack in center position and heat oven to 325
3. Heat oil in ovenproof 1 ½ quart dutch oven over med high heat. Add onion and cook until lightly browned, about 4 mins. Stir in tomato paste, chipotle pepper and garlic. Add water, honey, salt and reserved beans and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, cover and pour into crockpot.
4 Cook on high until beans are tender, 3 to 4 hours. Stir every hour. Add boiling water, if needed to keep beans covered and soupy.

Nutrition Facts
Per serving: 208 cal, 8g pro, 35g carb, 7 g fiber, 5g fat, 1g sat fat, 0mg chol, 637mg sodium

Help Us Help You Feed Your Family Better

I am so thrilled with the response to this site, and the consistent and growing readership since we started Mommy What's For Dinner.

As this site grows, we love that we are hearing more and more from our readers about what they like and what has worked for them as they try to feed their families well. We love hearing your comments!

We'd also love to be able to respond to what you have to say, especially when you leave such great feedback and ideas and I want to know more! So, if you leave us a comment, and you have a blogger account, please sign in so we can track back and visit your blog and respond to you there. Or, do us one better by having your email address in your profile so we can reply to your comments. For your convenience, you can follow this blog on your Dashboard or add us to your feed reader to get updates as soon as they are posted.

As always you can email me with your ideas, suggestions, comments or recipes you would like to see on this site.

Mexican Chicken Casserole

Yield: 8 servings
Prep: 15 minutes
Bake: 30 minutes

1 20-24 oz bag of tortilla chips
2 c of cooked chicken (diced or shredded)

6 c of chicken stock (boxed, homemade, canned)
8 oz of shredded cheese (sharp cheddar or a mex mix)
5 tsp of chili powder
salt to taste (depends on the salinity of your chili powder)
1 15 oz can of petite diced tomatoes
1 4.5 oz can of chopped green chilies (near the taco shells in the supermarket)
4 oz of shredded cheese (sharp cheddar or a mex mix)

Preheat oven to 350.

Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with oil. Take 2 handfulls of whole chips and put aside for later. Lightly crush the rest of the chips. Spread them in the casserole dish (NOT TIGHTLY). Spread cooked chicken over the chips.

Heat the chicken stock to a slight boil in a saucepan. Add chili powder, salt, 8 oz shredded cheese, tomatoes & chilies. Reduce heat and cook on low until cheese is almost completely melted.

Pour over chips.

Spread the reserved whole chips over top. Sprinkle the ~4oz of shredded cheese. Bake for 30 mins.

Tips & Tricks:
The texture of the chips is similar to a tamale. It's even better reheated the second day, so the large recipe is nice for those like me who love leftovers!

This is a great way to use up the crumbly chips in the bottom of the bag that no one wants to eat.

How kids can help:
Kids can crush chips, open cans, shred cheese.

Tucanos Grilled Pineapple

My brother has been singing the praises of grilled pineapple, so I set out to find a good recipe and try it out. We have been loving this Tucanos Pineapple from Kieras Recipes. (I really only got a taste because my 8 year old gobbled up the rest.)

Ingredients:

* One half pineapple, cut into long spears
* 1 TBPS butter
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1 Tsp. cinnamon, in all
* lemon juice


Fire up the grill to medium heat. Before putting the pineapple down, sprinkle the spears with half of the cinnamon and a little bit of brown sugar. This will facilitate a sweetness and instant carmelization when they hit the grill.

In a small saucepan, heat the butter, brown sugar and the rest of the cinnamon. Heat until bubbly and the sugar is properly melted.

Grill the pineapple spears over direct heat about 2-3 minutes per side, turning occasionally. Each time it turns, baste with a brush of glaze. When finished, plate up and drizzle a final amount of glaze on top.

Meal Planning: E-Mealz Feed your family for $75 a week?

Meal planning is one of the hardest aspects of running a household. This is why I created this site, because I am rarely prepared to answer the daily question, "What's for dinner?"

In my ongoing quest to find a system that works to keep my family well fed, our budget in check and keep myself ahead of the game someone recommended E-Mealz. E-Mealz is a website that does your meal planning for you. They have defined six goals:

• Spending time with your family
• Save time and money
• Serve delicious food
• Save yourself from multiple and last minute trips to the grocery store
• Stare at your children across from the dinner table rather than into the
• pantry looking for a dinner idea
• Lose weight without preparing separate meals for the family.

E-Mealz is a subscription-based website that creates a concise meal plan (with recipes for the week all on the same page) as well as a shopping list based on sales and organized by aisle. They have a variety of diet options including weight-watchers, vegetarian, and low-fat in addition to lists for typical American family-style dining. You can view samples of the menus here.

I decided to try out E-Mealz and see how it works for my family, but I didn't want to invest the money ($15 for 3 months of menus) to subscribe until I knew whether this would work for us. The website promises a dinner budget of $65-85 depending on which menu choice you make and what store you shop to feed 4-6 people per week.

I printed off a sample menu and went shopping. The sample menu I chose was based on sale prices for July 2006, and the estimated total was $68.90. Normally I keep my pantry well-stocked and I am working to grow a lot of my own produce so there were some menu items I did not need to purchase. I wondered how this list would hold up at today's grocery prices.

I came back from the store having spent $112, but my shopping included staples for my pantry that were unrelated to the dinner menus, such as breakfast and lunch items, strawberries for making jam, fresh produce & healthy snacks for the kids, and toothpaste. Sitting down with my calculator I can see that I spent a grand total of $61.25 for items on the dinner list, without shopping around for sale prices. I omitted from the list bagged salad, head lettuce (lots of lettuce in my garden), frozen biscuits (I can make biscuits from scratch for pennies from my food storage), green beans (already in my food storage), and ground chuck (in my freezer.).

So, I didn't do too bad, considering my shopping list was based on prices 3 years ago! But I still came in $12 over my normal weekly grocery budget of $100 when I included breakfast, lunch, and kitchen staples in my shopping.

The good news is I have fresh food for 7 days with no emergency trips to the store or last minute "let's just go out to eat, I can't think of what to make." I'll check back in a week or so to update you on whether my family liked the food.

Have you tried E-Mealz or a similar meal planning resource? How did it work for you?

Gooey Butter Cake

I found this recipe on cooks.com and its perfect for cooking with children. This cake is somewhere between a coffee cake and a bar cookie. It's fast, easy, and has lots of steps children can do to help out through the whole process. Older children could probably handle this recipe on their own. Best of all? Kids love to eat these yummy cookies!

Prep: 10 minutes
Yield: 24 servings

1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1/2 c. butter
1 egg

GOOEY BUTTER:

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 lb. box confectioners' sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix together cake mix (just the mix, not the other ingredients called for on the box) with butter and 1 egg. Pat into an ungreased 9 x 13 inch cake pan. Cream together cream cheese, 2 eggs, powdered sugar and vanilla. Pour over cake mixture. Spreading to the edges. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

How Kids Can Help:
Kids can unwrap butter & cream cheese, crack eggs, blend crust ingredients, and press dough into cake pan.

Tips & Tricks:
This recipe works equally well with softened as with melted butter.

Chicken Athena

Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 4 hours
Yield: 6 servings

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (6 ounces each)
1/3 cup chopped sundried tomatoes, not packed in oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup Greek olives, chopped
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt to taste

Place all ingredients in a crockpot. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or until chicken is cooked through.

Tips and Tricks
I used scallions in place of the regular onion. This recipe can also be adapted for an oven.
Make It Healthier
Use organic chicken. Omit salt.
How Kids Can Help
Chop onion with food chopper, measure liquid ingredients.
Recipe Source
adapted from Healthy Cooking Magazine