MIchael Symon's Broccoli, Bacon and Cheddar Pasta

So although Aaron didn't like this, the rest of us really did.  I found this in 5 in 5 cookbook, and Michael Symon describes this as a take on broccoli with cheese sauce, and I agree that's what it tastes like.  Noah gave it a perfect 10, Owen and I gave it a 9, Jonah seemed to really like it, but Aaron gave it a 4, oh well.  Anyway, each serving, for 8 servings, was 497 calories.  Here's what to do:

13 oz penne (my box was that size and whole grain, use a full package of whatever kind you would like)
salt
6 T bacon fat (reserved from cooking bacon)
8 slices bacon
1 bag steamed broccoli, about 3 cups
3/4 c pine nuts
8 oz shredded aged cheddar cheese
dash of red pepper flakes

Cook penne according to directions for al dente pasta.  Reserve 1 c pasta water, and set aside.

Cook the bacon until crisp, then add in the pine nuts and broccoli, cooking about 2 minutes.  Add in the reserved pasta water and deglaze the pan, then add in the cheddar and red pepper flakes.  Stir in the pasta, then serve.

Michael Symon's Spicy Fried Potatoes

My favorite potato recipe, hands down.  I loved this.  I gave it a perfect 10, Aaron and Noah gave it a 9, and Owen gave it a 4 because of the spicy sauce.  I found this in Michael Symon's Carnivore cookbook, and it was a great side dish.  Each serving was 329 calories, and this was spicy!  The potatoes by themselves are not, just the sauce is.  I actually cut down on the spice, I can't imagine how spicy it would be with the original amounts.  I will post what I did here.

7 small yukon gold potatoes, chopped in half and cooked in well salted water
1/4 c olive oil
1 T paprika
1/2 T chipotle powder
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c mayonnaise
1 T sriracha sauce
1/4 c bacon fat
salt
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 scallion, chopped

Combine the olive oil, paprika, chipotle powder and garlic together in a small saucepan, and warm for about 1 minute.  Remove from the heat, let cool slightly, then add the mixture to the mayonnaise and sriracha.  Set aside.
Heat the bacon fat in a skillet, then smash each potato with your hand, and cook the potatoes for about 3 minutes per side.  Sprinkle them with salt, the lemon juice and zest, and the scallions.  Serve with the spicy sauce.

So delicious, I will be making these again, and Owen likes them a lot without the spicy sauce, he gives them a 9, so maybe try that if you make this, the potatoes even on their own are delicious.

The Border Cookbook's Riders In Chaps

So this wasn't a hit with anyone aside from Owen.  He loved this meal, he gave it a perfect 10, Noah gave it a 7, Aaron gave it a 4, and I didn't even have any of the eggs, so I don't get a vote.  I don't love eggs, especially not over medium ones :).  Anyway, the pork was really good, everyone agreed on that, but no one liked the eggs in addition, except for Owen.  Like I said, he loved it with the eggs.  The pork was an easy crockpot combination, and the eggs just needed to be cooked right before serving, so this was an easy meal.  Each tostada with two eggs on it was 535 calories.  Here's what to do:

1 lb pork loin
1 large onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 canned chipotle chile and 1 t adobo sauce
1/2 t salt, plus more to taste
1/4 t dried thyme
1/2 c water

6 tostadas
guacamole
12 eggs
cheese
beans if desired

Place the pork, onion, bay leaf, chipotle chile and sauce, salt, thyme and water in your slow cooker.  Cook on low for around 6 hours, or until the meat shreds easily.  Shred it and set aside.
When ready to serve, cook the eggs either sunny side up, or over medium, and salt them to taste.
To assemble, take one tostada, swipe with beans if using, layer on meat, 2 eggs, cheese, and guacamole, then serve.

JoAnne Fluke's Green Chili Cheddar Biscuits

I found this recipe in one of JoAnne Fluke's books, and it sounded good and was easy.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any green chilies, but I didn't realize that until I had already started this, so we had an interesting experiment, which the boys and I loved, and Aaron definitely didn't.  He gave them a 4, and the boys and I gave them a perfect 10.  Each biscuit was 355 calories, and I made 11 biscuits.  I posted the original recipe here, but I didn't add the green chilies, I added a little salsa, a little more sour cream, and some chili powder.  We thought they were delicious.

Cheese and Green Chiles Biscuits

Preheat oven to 425

3 ½ c flour packed down 

1 t salt

2 t cream of tartar 

1 t baking powder 

1 t baking soda

½ c butter softened

1 c shredded sharp cheddar cheese 

4 oz jalapenos 

2 large eggs, beaten 

1 c sour cream 

½ c whole milk

½ c cheddar cheese, shredded 

Mix flour, salt, cream of tartar, baking powder, and baking soda.  Cut in the salted butter (or do this in the food processor.)

Stir in the shredded cheese and the jalapenos.  Then add eggs and sour cream.  Lastly add the milk.

Drop biscuits onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Sprinkle the tops with cheddar cheese.  Bake for 12-14 minutes, until golden brown.

Our Best Bite's Cheesy Tortellini Spinach Bake

This recipe from Our Best Bites is simple and hearty, but not one of Aaron's favorites.  It has 365 calories for 1 serving, and Aaron gave it a 4, Owen, Noah and I all gave it an 8.  This is simple, and I added a little more tortellini than the recipe called for, but otherwise I followed the recipe exactly.  I probably won't make this again, although it is easy and tastes good, just Aaron hated it :(.  Anyway, this is not too spinachy if you use fresh spinach, and my kids like it as do I.

20 oz cheese tortellini
3 strips thick sliced bacon, chopped with 2 T grease reserved
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T flour
2 c almond milk (I used this because I have leftovers and it is way less calories)
salt
1 1/2 t basil
1/4 t red pepper flakes
1 medium lemon zested and juiced
2 c baby spinach leaves
3/4 c mozzarella cheese
3/4 c parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 350.
Boil the tortellini until done, drain, and set aside.
Cook the bacon and reserve the grease.  Cook the garlic in the grease, then add the flour and make a roux.  Add the almond milk to make a white sauce, then add the zest, basil, red pepper flakes, and juice.  Cook until thickened.  Add the 1/2 c of both cheeses, spinach, and sauce to the tortellini, then place into a greased 8x8 pan and top with the remaining cheese.  Cover with aluminum foil, bake for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and cook for an additional 10 minutes.  Let sit 10 more minutes before serving.

Salted Caramel Apple Crumble

So I normally love the food I've tried from Lauren's Latest blog, but this salted caramel apple crumble, unfortunately, was a flop for me.  I gave it as high as I did because it wasn't terrible, but we were all severely disappointed.  This smelled and looked wonderful, and the caramel tasted great, but the salty apples just ruined this for us.  Also, the crumble topping was too salty too :(.  This was easy to put together, and I followed the recipe exactly except for putting less salt than it called for on the apples, but it just didn't work for our family.  1/8 of the total was 477 calories, and Oma and Opa gave it a 7, Aaron and Noah gave it a 6, I gave it a 5, and Owen gave it a 4.  Oh well, we won't make this again.

for the caramel sauce-
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
for the crumble-
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons softened butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
for the apples-
4 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the caramel sauce- heat sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat to melt sugar. Continue cooking and swirling sugar until it turns amber in color. Whisk in sea salt and heavy cream. Mixture will bubble up violently briefly. Continue whisking until sauce is smooth in consistency. Stir in butter and vanilla. Set aside.
For the crumble- combine all ingredients together using a stand mixer. Mixture will be crumbly, but stay together when squeezed. Set aside.
Prepare apples and toss in lemon juice. Cook apples in a large cast iron skillet over medium low heat in butter to draw out moisture. Sprinkle with salt to draw out all the moisture possible. Drain apples and place back into skillet. This process should take about 5-7 minutes of cooking.
Pour 3/4 of prepared caramel sauce into the apples and stir gently. Top with the crumble topping. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes and serve with remaining caramel sauce.

Pumpkin and White Chocolate Mousse Parfait

So this is a recipe we tried out for Thanksgiving, and everyone except for Aaron really loved this.  Oma, Opa, Owen, Noah and I all gave it a 9, while Aaron gave it a 4 :).  White chocolate and pumpkin are both things he really dislikes.  Oh well :).  You have to have pumpkin on Thanksgiving.  This was unfortunately incredibly high in calories, but if you make the serving small enough, which we did, it's not too terrible.  The servings for 1/16 of the total are 460.

The white chocolate has a lot more subtle flavor than the pumpkin, so it's important to make the white chocolate layers thicker than the pumpkin ones.  I also made the choice to add more cinnamon graham cracker crumbs than ginger snap crumbs, because I don't love ginger or ginger snaps.  We also didn't add any caramel to this, as the recipe suggests, but it was delicious just the same.  Here's what we did:

1 c pumpkin puree

4 c whipping cream, divided

1/2 c sugar

3/4 t cinnamon

1/4 t nutmeg

12 oz white chocolate chopped

1 T vanilla

15 ginger snap cookies, crushed

9 cinnamon graham crackers, crushed

 

In a medium saucepan over low heat, combine pumpkin, 1/2 cup of cream, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg, mixing until sugar dissolves. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and set aside.
In another medium saucepan (or wash and reuse the same one) over low heat, combine white chocolate and 3/4 cup of cream until smooth. Transfer melted chocolate mixture to another large bowl and set aside.
As both of these mixtures are cooling to room temperature, prepare the whipped cream. Beat the remaining cream and the vanilla in a bowl using an electric mixer until soft peaks form.
Fold 1/4 of the whipped cream into the white chocolate mixture using a spatula. Then fold in another 1/4.
Fold 1/4 of the whipped cream into the pumpkin mixture using a spatula. Then fold in another 1/4. (All of the whipped cream should be worked into the mixtures by now.)
Cover each bowl and chill for at least 2 hours.
Assemble the parfait by transferring each mousse to a separate piping bag (OR use handy Ziplock bags and cut a small corner off of each) and layer the mousse and ginger snaps into the serving glasses in any order you like. Top with caramel sauce and more ginger snaps. Chill for another hour. Serve chilled.



Anne Burrell's Parmigiano Flan

This was another flop for us.  Anne Burrell's Parmigiano Flan from Cook Like A Rock Star was uninspiring, but at least it was easy :)  The recipe made 6 little flans, and they were each 395 calories.  These took much longer to cook than the recipe said, and I found them very unpleasant.  They were too, I don't know, eggy, or something, but the consistency was very off-putting.  Owen gave them a 7, he thought this was good, but Aaron and Noah gave it a 4 and I gave it a 3.  Here's the super simple recipe

2 c heavy cream
4 large eggs
1 c parmesan freshly grated
salt
cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 325.
Spray 6 ramekins and set aside.  Combine cream, eggs, cheese, salt and cayenne and whisk well.  Divide the mixture between the ramekins. 
Place the ramekins in a dish, and fill up the baking dish with hot water until the water reaches halfway up the ramekins.  Cover with foil, and bake for 30-35 minutes (I cooked ours for at least 45, and they could've cooked quite a bit longer).  Remove from the oven and cool.  Serve with salad.

Dorie Greenspan's Rice Pudding

We tried Dorie Greenspan's rice pudding from her cookbook Baking: From My Home To Yours, and this was only pretty good :(.  I love rice pudding, it is such comfort food for me, but even though I followed the recipe exactly, it didn't turn out.  It didn't set up, it was soupy.  Sad.  Aaron gave it a 4, Owen gave it a 5, and Noah and I gave it a 7.  We had some strawberry sauce on top, and that was good, but the soupiness really was off-putting.  Here is a link to the recipe, scroll down to see the recipe in English, and after searching the internet, I found out that everyone had soupy rice, that this needed to cook for at least 45 minutes, but more like an hour.  Hmm...kind of frustrating, but I will probably try this again given my love of rice pudding.  One poster said to use 1/2 c rice instead of 1/4 c, so I may try that as well.  The calories for a serving, we made 6 servings, were 284.  I would try this with the modifications suggested, and definitely serve it with some sauce.  Also, I didn't try the chocolate variation, because I like me some plain old rice pudding ;).

Italian Ricotta Cake

So this is the Easter cake I promised, and although it wasn't too difficult, it also wasn't fabulous.  I'll post the recipe the way I made it, but in the cookbook the Golden Book of Chocolate, the recipe calls for orange peel in the ricotta filling, and I just don't like chocolate with fruit very much.  Aaron gave it a 4, because he doesn't like cake and this wasn't a fabulous cake, Owen gave it an 8, and Noah and I gave it a 7.  It wasn't very chocolatey, and although I cooked it for the time called for, my cakes were a little done and dry.  I'm still trying to figure out this oven of mine ;)  Anyway, for 24 servings, the calories per slice are 329.

Italian Ricotta Cake

Cake:
1.5 c almonds, finely ground
2/3 c flour
2/3 c cocoa
2 t baking powder
large pinch of salt
8 large eggs, separated
1.5 c sugar
2 t vanilla
1/2 t almond extract
1/2 c milk
chocolate curls or chips

Ricotta Filling:
1 c heavy cream
1 lb ricotta cheese (I used part skim)
1/2 c powdered sugar
dash of vanilla and almond extracts

Chocolate Topping:
2 c heavy cream
2/3 c powdered sugar
1/3 c cocoa
1 t vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375 and butter and line two 9 inch cake pans with parchment paper.  Grind the almonds in a food processor, then add flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt and process together.  In a mixer bowl, beat egg yolks, 1 c sugar, vanilla and almond extract together until pale and very thick.  Turn mixer to low and gradually beat in the dry ingredients alternating with the milk.  In another bowl, mix together the egg whites until frothy, then beat the egg whites with 1/2 c sugar until the whites are stiff and glossy.  Fold the egg whites into the batter, then divide the batter between the two prepared pans.  Bake 20-25 minutes (I baked mine for 23, they were too done).  Cool the cakes in pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans to a cooling rack and cool completely.
For the filling, beat the cream until stiff.  Process the ricotta, powdered sugar, and flavorings (the recipe uses 1/2 c orange peel here, I just used other flavorings) until smooth in a food processor.  Fold the whipped cream into the ricotta mixture.
For the Frosting, beat the cream, cocoa, powdered sugar and vanilla until stiff. 
Divide cakes in half, so there are four pieces.  Place one cake down on a plate, top with 1/3 filling, then repeat with the next two cake layers and the rest of the filling.  Place the last cake layer on top, then frost with the frosting and decorate as desired.

I don't know if Dutch processed cocoa would've given us a deeper chocolate flavor, but I do know that this could've used more chocolate.  Anyway, this was the first recipe from the new cookbook I tried, and I'm excited to try more.

Farfalle with Broccoli Rabe Pesto and Sausage

This was an epic failure :)  We despised this.  It is called Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe Pesto and Sausage from Anne Burrell's cookbook Cook Like A Rock Star.  So far, we have really enjoyed all the recipes from Anne Burrell that we have tried, but this one we did not.  I will post the recipe in the cookbook, not with the modifications I made, because maybe it would've been better if I hadn't made any alterations (mine were minor) but I doubt it, since I think the broccoli rabe was the problem.  We had never tried that vegetable before, and it was so bitter it was unpalatable for us.  The calories for 8 servings the way I made it were 457/serving and Noah gave this a 2, Owen gave it a 3, and I gave it a 4 because I was having wishful thinking since it was new and healthy.  Here's the recipe from the cookbook:

For the Pesto

Salt
2 bunches of broccolini (broccoli rabe), tough lower stems removed, coarsely chopped
1/2 c chopped pistachios
3/4 c freshly grated parmesan
1/4 c mascarpone
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (if needed)

For the Pasta

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 lb Italian sausage, casings removed
1 lb orecchiette
Olive Oil
Parmesan

1. Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil.  Drop the rabe into the water, give it a swish, and remove it immediately, saving the water to cook your pasta in later.
2. Reserve 1 c of the rabe.  Toss the rest in a food processor and pulse until you have a coarse paste.  Add the pistachios and Parmesan and puree until smooth.  If it seems dry, drizzle in a little olive oil while the machine is running (I didn't need this).  Add the mascarpone and pulse until combined; taste for seasoning.  It should be slightly bitter, nutty, and creamy at the same time.  Reserve.
3. Coat a large sauté pan with olive oil and bring to a medium-high heat.  Add the sausage, using a spoon to break it up, and cook until brown and crumbly, 8-10 minutes.
4. Bring your broccolini water back to a boil and toss in the pasta.  Cook til al dente and drain, reserving 1/2 c pasta water.  Add to the sausage pan with the water, the reserved broccoli rabe, and 2/3 of the pesto.  Stir to combine and cook until the water evaporates and the pesto is clinging to the pasta.  Remove from the heat, drizzle with some olive oil, sprinkle with more parmesan, and stir vigorously to combine.  Serve immediately.

Maybe our broccolini was super bitter, but we'll never have this again :)

Whipped Root Vegetables

We had these whipped root vegetables the other night, and we didn't love them :)  Owen gave them a 4, Noah gave them a 5, and Aaron and I gave them a 7, because they just weren't fabulous.  We found the recipe in Michael Symon's Live to Cook cookbook.  The celery root really overpowered everything else, so it just wasn't as appetizing as we would have liked.  Here is the recipe with the amounts I used:

Salt
2 potatoes
1 celery root
2 turnips
2 parsnips
2 sticks unsalted butter

Cook the peeled and chopped up vegetables in well salted water.  Boil until the vegetables are softened, and can be pricked with a fork easily.  Drain, then cook over low heat for 5 minutes to get rid of the excess moisture.  Put the veggies through a food mill (I don't have one of these, I just beat them with beaters, and they didn't smash up as well as I would have liked), and then add the butter and more salt to taste.  Serve.

Green Beans in the crockpot

Cooking in the crockpot is always chancy around our house, because we like flavor, and the crockpot just doesn't deliver.  Regardless, I love the crockpot for the ease it brings me.  Monday, we had to drive Aaron to and from work, so I knew I had to have food prepared ahead of time so we could eat right when we walked in the door, since we had hungry people by the time we got home ;).  I premade dinner to just warm up, and I decided to try a recipe from my cookbook The Italian Slow Cooker from Michele Scicolone.  This is one of the better crockpot cookbooks, with lots of flavor usually.  The green bean recipe was easy, and I thought it would be flavorful, but it just wasn't.  Noah gave it a 2, Owen gave it a 4, and Aaron and I gave it a 6.  This wasn't a hit, obviously :).  Still, with some tweaking, it might be okay, and it is in the crockpot, so it won't take very long to make.

1 lb green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 whole onion, chopped
2 oz bacon, chopped
1 c canned tomatoes and their juices
1 T fresh marjoram, basil, or thyme (I used dried marjoram)
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 T olive oil

In a skillet, heat the olive oil.  Add the onion and cook for about 10 minutes, until very tender.  Add the bacon and cook until bacon crisps up.  Add the tomatoes, green beans, onion mixture, herbs, and salt and pepper and cook on high for 1 1/2 hours, then stir and cook for another 30 minutes.  (I did it on low for about 3 hours.)  Season again to taste, and serve.

Again, this wasn't great, but it was easy, and not terrible :)

Linguine with Heirloom Tomato, Capers, Anchovies, and Chile

So we had Michael Symon's pasta a few days ago, and I thought it was okay, and that's all anyone else thought too.  I was sick when I made it, and so I don't know if I did it right or not, and I know it didn't turn out how we wanted, but I'm not sure I can blame the recipe on that.  Anyway, we all gave it between a 4 and 5.  One fun thing I got to do was make my own pasta, since I received a pasta maker for Christmas this year, so the pasta was homemade for this meal.  Fun!

Here's the recipe

kosher salt
1 c dried bread crumbs
1 T olive oil
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1 t crushed red pepper flakes (I used less)
Pasta dough cut into linguine
1 large brandywine heirloom tomato, about 1 cup
6 salt-packed anchovies, rinsed, filleted, and minced
1 T salt-packed capers, rinsed and patted dry
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 c sliced flat leaf parsley leaves

Bring a pot of water to a boil for the pasta and add salt until it tasted seasoned.  Toast the bread crumbs in a dry skillet over medium heat, tossing as needed, until lightly browned, about 3 or 4 minutes.  Remove from the heat.
Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat.  When the oil is hot, add the garlic and sweat it for 2 minutes.  Add the red pepper flakes and cook for another 30 seconds.
Drop the pasta in the boiling water and cook until al dente, about 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, add the tomato, anchovies, and caper to the sauté pan, bring to a simmer, and cook for 2 minutes, or until the tomato has released its juices and the anchovies have melted into the sauce.  Remove the sauce from the heat and add the extra-virgin olive oil and parsley.
Strain the pasta and add it directly to the sauce.  Toss well before dividing among four bowls.  Top with the bread crumbs.

This was from Michael Symon's Live To Cook cookbook, and again, we didn't love this.  However, it was alright, and maybe another time when I can actually taste and smell again, we'll try it again.

Chicken Quinoa Soup

The recipe I'm sharing is something I threw together, trying to make myself cook.  I'm not having a lot of luck with the cooking thing right now, because everything I cook tastes terrible to me.  However, the rest of the family seemed to enjoy this.  We had this with some grilled cheese sandwiches, and everyone ate it up.  Aaron and Owen gave it a 7, and Noah gave it an 8.  I gave it a 4.  Anyway, it's easy and tastes alright, if a little salty.  Here's the recipe.

Chicken Quinoa Soup

1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces
Celery
Garlic
Onion
Thyme
Water
Salt
Quinoa

Cook chicken with desired amounts of celery, onion, and garlic and top with water.  Cook as long as desired.  Remove all ingredients from the broth, add in seasonings as desired, cook down a little while you let the chicken cool.  Remove bones from chicken, and return chicken to the broth.  Add in the quinoa and cook until the quinoa is ready.  Serve.

This wasn't hard, and wasn't fabulous, but it was interesting.  I used quinoa because I didn't have any noodles, and the quinoa was a lot healthier. 

Chicken Bacon Wraps, Bean Salad, and Mashed Potatoes

For dinner we had some really great recipes. The first recipe, Sweet Chicken Bacon Wraps from Paula Deen were such a big hit, they disappeared before I could take a picture.  These were delicious, fast to eat, and fun.  Look at the link for a picture, that's just what they look like.  Aaron gave them a perfect 10, the boys and I gave them a 9.  I wish I would've salted the chicken before wrapping it in bacon, but other than that I thought they were awesome.  The calories for the recipe the way it was written are for 24 rolls, about 63 calories per roll.  They are actually much less than that though, because I used maybe 1/4 of the brown sugar mixture, which would lower the calories quite a bit.  Fun and not too calorific!  We like that kind of food around here. :)

Next comes our veggie.  My parents brought me a bunch of veggies from their garden, so I looked for a recipe online that would use both zucchini and green beans, but wasn't a soup.  There aren't that many, surprisingly.  This Keeping up with the Beans salad was delicious, and uses tons of veggies, so we really liked it.  We gave it a 9, and the dressing was great.  I used less than it called for, especially less balsamic vinegar, because we're not huge fans of vinegar around here.  Anyway, this is a great salad to make for all those veggies coming out of your ears days.  The calories will vary based on what kinds of veggies you use, but for 10 servings, ours was 189 calories per serving, and they are big servings.

Last of all we had some garlic mashed potatoes.  They are Guy Fieri's Johnny Garlic's Famous Garlic and Rosemary Mashed Potatoes.  The boys and I really liked them, but Aaron said they had a funky flavor.  Go figure.  I'm not sure what was wrong.  The boys and I gave them 8, and Aaron gave them a 4.  Oh well.  I cut the garlic down to 4 cloves rather than 4 tablespoons of garlic, and I only used 1 T olive oil, and only 6 potatoes, rather than 5 pounds of potatoes.  We got six servings out of this, and each serving was 143 calories.  Hopefully you'll like these as much as the boys and I did, and not like Aaron did :)

Tomorrow we're having shrimp fried rice and fried zucchini.

Chicken and Zucchini and Potatoes

So tonight was not one of our favorite dinner nights, but it was pretty good. We'll start with the chicken. The recipe was Chicken with Vinegar and Garlic, and the recipe is found in the Italian Slow Cooker cookbook and here's the recipe:
Chicken with Vinegar and Garlic
Skinless, bone-in chicken (we used 2 thighs and 2 legs)
3 3 inch pieces fresh rosemary
6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1/4 c sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 c beef broth (or red wine)
2 T balsamic vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste

Salt and pepper the chicken.  Place the chicken in the crockpot, arrange tomatoes, garlic, and rosemary around chicken.  Pour broth and vinegar over everything.  Cook on low for at least 5 hours, better if longer.

We liked this alright, it had a pretty good, if muted flavor, and it was super easy. Owen gave it an 8, and the rest of us gave it a 7. The calories are 305/serving.

Our veggie for tonight was not great.  It was also found in the Italian Slowcooker cookbook, and part of the problem was mine.  I didn't check which setting to place the crockpot on, so I put it on low and the veggies didn't get done.  Sigh...Anyway, here's the recipe:
Zucchini and Potatoes:
2 zucchinis
1 onion
2 potatoes
1/2 t oregano
1/4 c water
1 T olive oil

Place everything in crockpot and cook for 1 1/2-2 hours on high.  Make sure potatoes are done before serving.

I can't fairly rate this, because of having to microwave the veggies and still not having the potatoes done, but what we had only got a 3 from Aaron, a 4 from me, and Owen gave it an 8 and Noah a 5. Besides Owen we really didn't like this. The potatoes were bland, and everything except the zucchini was undercooked. The total calories for 1/6 of the total were 99. Try it and let me know if it's better when it's cooked correctly :).
Tomorrow we're having PW's Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich.

Robert Irvine's Chicken and Hash and Cheddar Chive Turnovers

This was our dinner for tonight.  It was just not good.  The chicken and sauce were good, we used chicken broth instead of the wine, but the hash was not.  The chicken and hash were 381 calories together, so a low calorie dinner, but no flavor on the hash.  We gave it a 4 out of 10, and that's because the chicken was good.  Here is the simple recipe for the biscuits, and they are great.  I got the recipe off of foodnetwork.com.

Cheddar-Chive Turnovers

225 calories / biscuit

Directions

Mix 2 (less) tablespoons melted butter with a pinch of salt and cayenne. Lay out rounds of refrigerated biscuit dough on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Brush with the butter; top with shredded ½ c cheddar and chopped chives. Fold into half-moons and crimp to seal, then bake as the label directs. Brush with more butter. 

Tomorrow we are having some Shredded Wheat Banana Bread.

Snickerdoodle Donuts, Crockpot Mexican Pulled Pork, Pioneer Woman's Watermelon Granita

Breakfast was found http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/breads/snickerdoodle-donuts/
and they were the best baked donuts we've ever had. So good and easy. 231 calories/donut, and I had to tweak the recipe a bit to make only 6 donuts, so if you made the full recipe the calories would be less.  We give the donuts an 8, and that's only because Aaron scored them less because they don't taste like Krispy Kremes :)

 

http://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/2012/03/slow-cooker-mexican-pulled-pork.html is the recipe for dinner, but I used canned creamed corn, Rotel (10 oz) tomatoes, and Kidney beans rather than black beans.  I also added cumin to the spices, and kept some of the onions with the pork.  The tacos we made were delicious, the pork was a little sweet and spicy, and we topped it with avocado, homemade salsa, and cheese.  The taco meat we split into 16 servings, so per serving it was 122 calories and we gave it a 9.  So delicious!

We also tried the Pioneer Woman's Watermelon Granita from her new cookbook, and I liked the flavor and the texture, but Aaron thought it was too cold to eat like ice cream, so he added pop to his and drank it.  He gave it a 4, and I give it a 6.  I think we'll stick to ice cream :)  Tomorrow we're trying Jack crusted Pork with a spinach salad.