20 Minute Chickpea Curry

Tonight I’m trying out a new recipe from lecremedelacrumb.com.  20 minute Chickpea Curry.  So far it’s true to it’s name.  You just have to remember that when serving it over rice it may take a little longer.  Thankfully, I now have a rice cooker so as soon as I remembered that I needed rice with tonights dinner, I put it on.  🙂   The only prep for this meal is dicing the onion, slicing the pepper, mincing the garlic and opening a few cans.  The veggies sauté nicely and then you add in the coconut milk and the rest of the ingredients.  It’s simmering on my stove right now waiting for my husband to get home so we can eat.  It smells really good and the tasting I’ve done so far gets me hopeful that I both made it right and that it tastes good.  And there’s rice, so at least the kids will eat something.

No photo, sorry.  It doesn’t look very appealing just sitting on my stove.  Check out the original website, those pictures are gorgeous!

 

Slow Cooker Lemon Chicken

So, it’s been a busy week around here!  With two kids, there is never a dull moment.  This week kept with that trend.  I didn’t have a new recipe to share because we had company over and I made the Easy Baked Ziti!  Monday the 11th was a school holiday, so we went to the zoo!  My brilliant self decided to walk, thinking that 1.6 miles wasn’t really that far.  Well, I hadn’t pushed both kids in the stroller that far in a while.  By the time I got home… I was tired.  Tired me = no home cooked meal.  Tuesday, was a preschool meeting at 6, Wednesday was a late night for the husband, Thursday too, and then me feeling sick on Friday resulted in pizza.  Don’t even ask about the weekend!  Sailing with friends and a birthday party = eating out for 3 meals!  

Definitely time to get back in the kitchen.  For both my stomach and checking accounts health.  

I’m trying a new one today. In fact… it’s still cooking!  I got this from one of my favorite sites.  Get Crocked.

Ingredients are simple and minus the lemonade concentrate, I had them all on hand.  

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in strips
• 1/2 c. flour
• 1 T. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 6 oz. frozen lemonade concentrate (just use half of a 12 oz. can)
• 3 T. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
• 3 T. ketchup
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 2 T. cornstarch
• 2 T. cold water

Please visit the website for complete directions.  I can tell you though, that it is very simple.  This one does require a little work before you can just turn on the crock pot and go though.  I planned this for yesterday, but didn’t have the chicken defrosted, and by the time I would have gotten that done, and the chicken browned, it would have come out too late to eat.  

I simply took 4 chicken breasts from the freezer and set them in the fridge overnight so they would be nice and defrosted for when I got around to making it today.  Dropping my oldest off at preschool at 12:45 means that I could come home and start the prep and have 4 hours be perfect timing for dinner.

Here it is so far…

 

I plan to serve it over some rice.  Maybe adding a little cilantro as a garnish.  Tune in tomorrow for the review. 

Easy Baked Ziti

This is one of my latest favorites.  It’s easy, common ingredients and it tastes good.

I’m not sure how I came upon this recipe, but I found it on 10minutedinners.com.  Besides the ricotta cheese, I usually have all of the ingredients in my kitchen.  I tend to buy multiple boxes of pasta, then put them into uniform rubbermaid containers in my cupboards.  The 5 types that I always have on hand are farfalle (butterfly), elbows, rotini and penne and thin spaghetti.  This recipe calls for ziti, I have used a mixture of penne and rotini before when I have been low on one and it doesn’t make a difference in taste.  The beauty of this recipe too, is that you can use any type of pasta sauce you want.  If you pick a chunkier sauce, it will have more texture in the dish, and if you use a thinner sauce, you can add more italian seasoning, or other seasonings as you wish.     It makes plenty of servings so that there are always leftovers and the best part of all, is that you can just throw everything in and then put it in the oven.  No pre-cooking of the noodles needed! (My favorite part)

Ingredients

• 1 jar favorite tomato-based pasta sauce (26 ounces)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 container ricotta cheese (15 ounces)
• 1/4 grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 package grated mozzarella cheese (8 ounces)
• 1 box ziti (8 ounces)
• 1 tb. Italian seasoning *
• Minced garlic*
• garlic salt, garlic powder *
• *optional

For further instructions please follow the link below or check our her site from the link above.

– See more at: http://10minutedinners.com/easy-baked-ziti-recipe/#sthash.IMkx0bmy.dpuf

Very tasty and with minimal prep, very easy to make with 2 children running around.  Just be aware in your menu planning that it does take 55 minutes to cook.  It will also be very hot when it comes out so be sure to let it sit for awhile before feeding it to kids.

Sesame Noodles with Chicken

This isn’t exactly a new recipe, but I do not think we started making it until we lived in Washington, so it counts.   🙂  

Last night was my daughters preschool Halloween social.  They didn’t have their normal afternoon class in order for us to have this family pot luck in the evening.  Sign up began last week.  Since I am always running late in dropping her off for school, I got stuck with a main dish.  I didn’t mind though, because due to trying to make more actual meals, I had some in mind.  At first I was going to make a dish called Easy Baked Ziti.  Sounds easy right since it has the word Easy?  Well, it is easy, but takes 55 minutes to cook.  The grandparents are in town and we had been out sailing during the day (and timing never works out when family are involved) so we didn’t have time to make that.  Going through my recipe’s… I remembered this one.  And since I have a ton of chicken, I thought it would be perfect.

This recipe is easy for us now since we usually have all of the ingredients on hand, minus the scallions.  I know most people may not have all of the vinegars or sauces on hand, but they are pretty cheap and last a long time.  Since the main ingredients are chicken and spaghetti, it’s a kid favorite.   There is also minimal chopping involved so I can make this while I have my 2 kids running around.   We also almost always double it since chicken usually comes in bigger packages then 1/2lb.  

Source: Weight Watchers

PREP12 Min

COOK10 Min

 

Ingredients

• 1/2 lbs spaghetti uncooked whole-wheat
• 1/2 cup scallions green parts only, chopped
• 1/2 lb chicken thigh cooked, skinless, boneless, cut into thin strips  (I’ve also made it with chicken breasts and it’s great)
• 3 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp hoisin sauce
• 1 Tbsp dark sesame oil
• 2 tsp chili sauce with garlic
• 1.5 tsp honey
• 1 Tbsp cilantro fresh, finely chopped
• 2 tsp sesame seeds

Directions

Cook noodles according to package directions. Remove 1/4 cup of pasta cooking water; drain and rinse.

In a large bowl, combine noodles, scallions and chicken; toss gently, but well.

In a cup, combine reserved cooking water, vinegar, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, oil, chili sauce and honey; stir well.

Pour vinegar mixture over noodles; toss gently but well to coat noodles. Sprinkle with cilantro and sesame seeds; serve.