Posts filed under ‘Dinners’
Buffalo Chicken
From the Chicken Entree Category at emealsforyou.com.
Buffalo Chicken
My mom would make this chicken every once in a while. It was always a hit; what kid doesn’t like chicken and rice with a little heat in the gravy. My mom would call this Chicken Louisiana and that is what we call it on the emealsforyou.com website although in today’s world it would be known as Buffalo Chicken. The nice part is you can make it as hot as you like. You can use any hot sauce you have around but for a real Buffalo taste substitute a little “wing sauce” for the hot sauce.
Make it for the guys watching the Final Four, make it hot and watch them sweat.
Chicken Louisiana
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 4 |
| Category: | Chicken Entrée |
| Meal: | Hot Stuff (Quick Meals Planner) |
| 2 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 4 | medium | chicken breasts, boneless, skinless |
| 2 | medium | celery ribs |
| 1 | bunch | scallions, sliced |
| 1 | 15 oz can | chicken broth |
| 1 | tsp | hot sauce to taste |
| 2 | Tb | tomato paste |
| 2 | tsp | cornstarch |
| 2 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
Place oil in pan, brown chicken; add celery and onions sauté for 3 minutes, add chicken broth and tomato paste, reserving 2 oz of the chicken broth. Cook for about 20 minutes, until chicken is done. Add remaining chicken stock to corn starch, add to pan, stir. Salt to taste, add hot sauce to taste.
Serve with rice and salad.
This and many more great chicken recipes at emealsforyou.com.
Read the Label – A Rant and a Recipe
From the Soup Category at emealsforyou.com.
Chicken Soup
From the label of Campbell’s Chicken with Rice Soup. Ingredients: Chicken Stock, Rice, Chicken Meat, Carrots, Less than 2% of: Modified Food Starch, Chicken Fat, Salt, Celery, Monosodium Glutamate, Flavoring (Soy), Potassium Chloride, Sugar, Maltoextrin, Onions, Vegetable Oil, Mechanically Separated Chicken, Yeast Extract, Cornstarch, Lower Sodium Natural Sea Salt, Beta Carotene, Sodium Phosphate, Soy Protein Isolate, Disodium Inosinate and Disodium Guanylate, Lactic Acid, Spice, Chicken (Dehydrated)
WOW, I can’t pronounce half of these ingredients on the Campbell’s Chicken with Rice can much less want to feed them to my family. Hard to believe all of these are in a 10 1/2 oz condensed can. Come on people; you can do better than this. It takes only a few minutes to start a great pot of soup for your family. Let it cook for a while and you will have a wholesome meal for your family with enough left over for at least one more meal. Make my soup once and I promise it will become a family favorite; or perhaps your really like Disodium Inosinate.
Old Fashioned Chicken Soup
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 10 |
| Category: | Soups |
| Meal: | Weekly 8 (Quick Meals Planner) |
| 3 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 5 | lb | chicken, whole, cut up |
| 2 | tsp | salt, kosher |
| 2 | medium | onions, chopped |
| 1 | cup | carrots, diced |
| 4 | medium | celery ribs |
| 50 | oz | chicken broth |
| 70 | oz | water |
| 1 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
| 0.5 | recipe | spaetzle |
This recipe makes a lot of soup and you will have extra cooked chicken leftover for another use. Heat a large soup pot, add the olive oil, when it begins to shimmer add the cut up and dried chicken. Brown, don’t burn, the chicken on both sides. Add the onion, carrots, celery, salt, and stir. Lightly brown the vegetables; add the broth and water and stir. Cook on a low boil for 20 -30 minutes; until the chicken is fork tender. Remove the chicken to a platter and taste the broth. Depending on the chicken, the broth may need to be reduced to concentrate the flavors. Cook on the boil until the broth is tasty. In the meantime, remove the chicken from the bones. Cut half the chicken into small pieces and add back to the soup pot. Once the soup is done adjust the salt and pepper to taste. (It is important to not add the salt prior to reducing; as the soup will become too salty)
Bring the soup back up to the boil. Drop the spaetzle batter into the boiling soup to form small dumplings.
Use the remaining chicken in chicken salad or tacos.
More delicious soups, less crazy ingredients at emealsforyou.com.
Valentine Special – Steak Diane
From the Beef Entrée Category at emealsforyou.com.
Steak Diane
So it’s Valentine’s Day again and you are searching at the last minute for that perfect dinner for your significant other. If you want to “play” Julia Child without all the heavy duty work, this is the meal. A quick stop at the local market and about 20 minutes in the kitchen and your will have a restaurant quality dinner. Finish it off with a few large strawberries dipped in melted chocolate chips and enjoy the rest of your evening.
Steak Diane
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 2 |
| Category: | Beef Entrée |
| Meal: | The Boss is Back (Distinctive Dinners) |
| 2 | medium | steak, fillet |
| 0.5 | Tb | soy sauce |
| 0.5 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
| 0.5 | 10.5 oz can | beef consommé |
| 0.5 | Tb | mustard, dijon |
| 1 | tsp | cornstarch |
| 1 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 1.5 | small | shallots, sliced |
Flatten steaks to 3/4 thickness by placing in plastic bag and hitting them with a mallet or pan. Place on plate, drip soy sauce on them and salt and pepper to taste.
Mix consommé, Dijon mustard and cornstarch in bowl, set aside.
Add 1 Tb of butter to pan. Heat pan until butter bubbles, add steaks, cook 2-3 minutes per side, and remove from pan and cover.
Add consommé mixture to pan and remaining butter, stir, making sure to get all the bits from the bottom of the pan. Add steaks back to the pan.
At this point if you are feeling adventuresome, remove pan from stove, add cognac (no more than 2 oz) and light with a long match. Very impressive, be careful.
Plate, drizzle gravy over steaks and serve.
More like this at emealsforyou.com.
Neighborhood Dinner – Bolognese Sauce
From the Easy Recipes I Can Cook Category at emealsforyou.com.
- Bolognese Sauce
I was reading the NY Times this morning and saw an article on cooking magazines and how they are struggling to find a theme that works. Seems Rachael Rays’ magazine is outperforming Bon Appetit. I had to laugh to myself that it took some consultant to figure out that with today’s economy people are more interested in finding ideas they are comfortable cooking than snails from the south of France.
We here on this blog and for more than 5 years on our website, emealsforyou.com, attracted our customers and readers by providing good, wholesome, easy recipes and mealplans that don’t require three chefs, a specialty grocery and 14 hours of intense labor in the kitchen. We have always provided the type of meals that you can serve your mother-in-law, your husband’s boss or the neighbors from across the street. Comfortable, affordable recipes that could have come out of Bon Appetit, but come out of your kitchen. Have the neighbors in, catch up on what’s happening, and enjoy a good, old-fashioned dinner together.
Bolognese Sauce
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Easy Recipes I Can Cook |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 3 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 4 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 0.75 | cup | carrots, diced |
| 0.75 | cup | celery, chopped |
| 1 | large | onions, chopped |
| 6 | cloves | garlic, chopped |
| 4 | slices | bacon |
| 1 | lb | beef, ground, extra lean |
| 1 | lb | pork sausage |
| 3 | Tb | tomato paste |
| 1.5 | cup | milk, whole |
| 1.5 | cup | wine, dry white |
| 1 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
| 4 | Tb | cheese, Romano, grated |
Melt butter in a large sauce pan over medium heat, add olive oil. Add carrots, celery and onions and sauté until onion is translucent. Add garlic and bacon (chopped), add ground beef and sausage, with casing removed to the pot. Cook for 15 minutes, add tomato paste, cook for 10 more minutes. Add milk and wine and simmer for 20 minutes. Add salt and pepper taste, sprinkle grated Romano on top. Serve over pasta.
If the sauce is too thick add some pasta water to loosen it.
Look for more recipes and mealplans at emealsforyou.com.
Quick, Great and Diet Friendly – Chicken Piccata
From the Diet Friendly Category at emealsforyou.com.
Chicken Piccata
Diets don’t work. Eating right works. Week 1 of our attempt to get back into those “regular” clothes again after the holiday onslaught. I took all the butter in the frig and put it in the freezer; we ate our weight in butter with all the meals and desserts last month, so it is off to the Siberia of appliances for the butter that makes all that stuff taste better. We are serious this time.
Our site, emealsforyou.com, has several categories to help us get through our self-imposed tightening of the belt, as it were.The Chicken Piccata below is just one of the many mealplans that we provide to help. In our Careful and Carefree MealPlans we give you 4 weeks of mealplans; including 3 meals a day and 2 snacks. The secret to positive weight loss is in portion control; not is denying yourself really good food. Our WOW (Watching Our Weight) plan helps you prepare great meals, sacrificing nothing in taste, while controlling the portions you prepare.
Our other weight-loss plan is a friendly bet. Four of us each put $50 in a pot and the person losing the largest percentage of body weight by March 1st wins it all. So if you need help planning emealsforyou.com is the answer. If you need more help, get together with some friends and give the bet a try. Who knows, you just may win the money for that smaller wardrobe.
Day 5 Dinner – Chicken Piccata
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 1 |
| Category: | Diet Friendly |
| Meal: | Week 2 (Careful and Carefree MealPlans) |
| 4 | oz | chicken breasts, boneless, skinless |
| 1 | Tb | rice flour |
| 0.5 | pinch | salt, kosher |
| 0.5 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 0.25 | Tb | lemon zest, finely chopped |
| 3 | medium | mushrooms, sliced |
| 1 | Tb | lemon, juice of |
| 4 | oz | chicken broth |
| 0.5 | tsp | capers |
| 0.25 | Tb | cornstarch |
| 0.5 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
| 0.5 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 6 | cup | spinach, fresh baby |
| 1 | Tb | pecans, toasted |
| 0.5 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
| 0.666 | cup | pasta, angelhair, cooked |
Pound chicken breasts in zip-lock baggie to 1/2” thickness, add flour and salt, shake to coat. Heat oil in pan, brown chicken, add zest, mushrooms, and lemon juice. Cook for 3 minutes, add capers and chicken broth reserving 2 oz. Cook for about 7 minutes, until chicken is done. Add remaining chicken stock to corn starch, add to pan, stir. Salt and pepper to taste.
Heat oil in pan, add spinach and pecans, cook until just wilted. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Each serving has 635g calories, 23.7g fat, 60.2g carbs 7g fiber and 44.6g protein.
Plate over cooked pasta.
Recipe of the Week – Mom’s Best Meatloaf
From the Easy Recipes I Can Cook Category at emealsforyou.com.
Mom's Best Meatloaf
After all the holiday meals, after all the Coq au Vin, Beef Bourguignon and the Lemon Tart, long hours preparing the meals; it’s time to settle back into a more comfortable meal. We all tend to overdo it during the holidays. I truly enjoy the prep and then watching people enjoying the meals I have prepared but preparing a classic meatloaf is good for the soul.
Along with the vows to enter the new year with a new prospective on our waist size comes a renewed need to get back to basics. Back to mom’s meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans. And besides, after a wonderful meatloaf meal there will be equally wonderful meatloaf sandwiches.
Mom’s Best Meat Loaf
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Easy Recipes I Can Cook |
| Meal: | Weekday Special (Distinctive Dinners)Themes |
| 2 | lb | beef, ground |
| 0.5 | cup | breadcrumbs ,dried white |
| 2 | large | egg |
| 0.5 | cup | sour cream |
| 1 | cup | chili sauce |
| 1 | whole | onions, diced |
| 2 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 1 | tsp | salt, table |
| 1 | pinch | pepper, fresh ground |
| 4 | slices | bacon |
| 2 | tsp | sugar, brown |
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine beef with breadcrumbs, eggs, sour cream, and one half cup of chili sauce. Sauté onion in butter until soft and add to mixture. Mix in salt and pepper and from into a loaf shape in greased 9 by 13 baking dish. Mix remaining chili sauce with brown sugar and spread over meat loaf. Cover top with bacon slices. Bake in a 350-degree oven for one hour or until juices run clear.
Find more easy and classic recipes at emealsforyou.com.
Recipe of the Week – Beef Vegetable Soup
From the Soup Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Beef Vegetable Soup
We had snow this weekend. When we moved from Chicago I thought the early snowfall was behind or more to the point north of us. We got enough that the ground remains covered; and now the temperature has dropped drastically. What better time than now for a steaming hot bowl of beef vegetable soup.
Picking up a few items at the grocery, we headed home. It took only about 15 minutes to get everything together and on the stove. 2 hours of simmering and we had a huge pot of wonderful, steamy and fulfilling soup; enough for us and more than enough for the freezer for the next snowy day. Add some crunchy French bread and a salad and you have a satisfying dinner.
Beef Vegetable Soup
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 10 |
| Category: | Soups |
| Meal: | N/A |
| 2 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 1 | lb | beef soup bones |
| 1 | lb | beef soup meat |
| 1 | large | onions, chopped |
| 4 | 15 oz can | beef broth |
| 1 | qt | water |
| 2 | lb | mixed vegetables, frozen |
| 1 | 15 oz can | tomatoes, diced |
| 0.5 | tsp | oregano, dried |
| 3 | medium | bay leaves, whole dried |
| 1 | Tb | garlic powder |
| 3 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
Heat oil in a large soup pot and soup bones and soup meat. Brown on all sides. Add onions and sauté for 2 minutes. Add broth, water, vegetables, diced tomatoes, oregano, bay leaves and garlic powder. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for several hours, skimming off the foam that forms on the top. Remove bones and soup meat to a separate bowl; using a fork shred meat, discarding bones and fat. Place meat back in soup and adjust salt and pepper to taste.
Many more soup recipes at emealsforyou.com
Recipe of the Week – Pumpkin Tortellini
From the Vegetarian Entrée Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Pumpkin Tortellini
If you didn’t get enough pumpkin last week, I have the answer, Pumpkin Tortellini. Admittedly this recipe requires a little extra work but I promise you it is so good that you will make it over and over again. A good “escape route” here is to make raviolis in place of the tortellini; once you learn the technique you are only one additional fold away from making the tortellini. The brown butter sauce is crazy good and can be used on everything from scallops to pork chops.
Pumpkin Tortellini
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 4 |
| Category: | Vegetarian Entrée |
| Meal: | Veggie – Fireside Dinner (Theme Meal Plans) |
| 3 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 0.5 | small | onions, chopped |
| 3 | cloves | garlic, minced |
| 0.5 | tsp | salt, kosher |
| 0.25 | tsp | pepper, fresh ground |
| 1 | 15 oz can | pumpkin, canned |
| 0.25 | tsp | thyme, dried |
| 0.5 | Tb | sage, fresh |
| 0.25 | tsp | nutmeg, ground |
| 8 | oz | cheese, goat |
| 1 | packet | wonton wrappers |
Heat olive oil in a small non-stick sauté pan. Chop onion into a fine chop. Add onion and garlic to pan, sauté until onions are soft. Add pumpkin, salt, pepper, nutmeg, chopped sage and thyme, stir, reduce heat to medium/low and simmer for 10 minutes; stirring every couple of minutes. Remove to a bowl and cool. Allow goat cheese to reach room temperature. Add cheese to pumpkin and blend until combined. Cut wonton wrappers into 3” X 3” squares. Place 1 heaping teaspoon of the pumpkin just off the middle of the wrapper. Wet edges with water, fold into a triangle and pinch edges to secure. Wrap the triangle around your finger, wet one edge and pinch the two ends together to form the tortellini. Cook in boiling salted water for 4-5 minutes until the tortellini float. Remove, plate and serve with Brown Butter Sauce with Figs and Toasted Hazelnuts.
Shown here with Brown Butter Sauce with Figs and Toasted Hazelnuts found at emealsforyou.com: ( Recipes/Misc/Brown Butter…)
Recipe of the Week – Pan-roasted Sea Scallops
From the Fish Entree Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Pan-roasted Sea Scallops
The big question that always comes up around Thanksgiving is not about the turkey. It is “just what do I feed the out-of-town relatives when we are not eating turkey.” I admit it, I am not a huge turkey fan, once or twice a year and maybe a sandwich after the big event, but my “turkey tolerance” is limited.
Speaking with a friend this morning he told me that he had just made the Pan-roasted Sea Scallops on the site (emealsforyou.com) and they were really good. Bingo, a timely reminder of another great meal that I can serve during the week. The good news is this is a very quick and easy to cook meal that will keep the family talking halfway to Christmas. Christmas is another story, lots of options for the Christmas meal; I can tell you it won’t be turkey.
Pan-roasted Sea Scallops
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 2 |
| Category: | Fish Entrée |
| Meal: | Dinner in the Round (Distinctive Dinners) |
| 8 | large | scallops, sea |
| 1 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
| 4 | Tb | Panko breadcrumbs |
| 1 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
| 1 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 1 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 8 | leaves | sage, fresh |
| 2 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 0.5 | medium | lemons |
Note: This recipe takes very little time to make and therefore be sure to have the rest of the meal ready to go before starting the scallops.
Dry scallops thoroughly on a paper towel. Salt and pepper both sides of the scallops. Place Panko breadcrumbs in a shallow dish, salt and pepper breadcrumbs. Dip one side of scallop in breadcrumbs. Place butter and olive oil in pan; heat pan until oil begins to smoke. Place scallops, breadcrumb side down in pan and cook until light brown (about 3 minutes); flip scallops and cook for three minutes on reverse side. Remove scallops to a side plate. Lower heat to medium, place sage leaves and butter in pan and swirl, cooking for three minutes. Plate scallops and drizzle brown butter sauce over scallops, serve with a lemon wedge on the side.
Shown here with baby Yukon Gold potatoes and peas.
More holiday ideas at emealsforyou.com
They May Be Right – A Healthy Rant
(From the Diet Friendly Collection at emealsforyou.com)
I am in the middle of adding a bunch of Diabetic Healthy meals and recipes to my site: emealsforyou.com. This requires lots of research and as it turns out a little soul searching as well. As we age we find we begin to eat a little less than when we were in our teens and twenties, devouring everything in sight. The only problem with the high caloric intake is that back then we were constantly on the go with continual physical activity. Now we tend to watch a little more tv and exercise a little less. My patron saint of cooking, Julia Child, used to say, “everything in moderation.” Problem is if you are like me the moderation was in the exercise and not in the feeding frenzy.
So I sit here and go through my recipes and meal plans and do the math on the number of calories, carbs, fat and protein grams and get a good idea of what it is we are putting in our mouths; or more importantly the quantity of what goes in. Checking the Nutritional Values I am amazed at the difference a smaller portion of protein, whether meat or fish, makes to the overall value of the meal. By cutting back on a 6 -8 ounce portion to a 3 -4 oz portion we are saving ourselves a bunch of “bad” down the line. The other eye-opener is that the cut of the meat has a significant effect on the healthiness of the meal. Before you fire off the emails telling me that 3-4 ounce portions are too small consider this: A Micky D’s Quarter pounder is exactly that, 4 ounces of meat.
Bottom line here is buy smaller and leaner and you may be exactly that soon.
See our Diet Friendly, Diabetic Healthy and WOW – Watching Our Waists categories at emealsforyou.com
Note: 3 -4 ounces is about the size of a deck of cards.
Day 1 Dinner – Grilled Pork Chops with Sweet Potato
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 1 |
| Category: | Diet Friendly |
| Meal: | Week 3 (Careful and Carefree MealPlans) |
| 0.5 | tsp | oil, olive |
| 3 | oz | pork chops, boneless center cut |
| 0.5 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
| 0.5 | tsp | lemon, juice of |
| 1 | small | sweet potatoes |
| 0.5 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 1 | large | peaches, whole |
| 0.065 | tsp | pepper, fresh cracked |
Put oil on a paper towel and wipe grill. Salt and pepper the chops. Grill 3-5 minutes on one side, rotating 90 degrees to make grill marks. Cook 2 – 4 minutes on the other side. Drizzle the lemon juice on top of chops prior to serving.
Pre-heat oven for 325 degrees, bake sweet potatoes for about 30 minutes, until fork tender. Split open add butte. for added flavor, place on grill for 3 minutes prior to serving.
Peel and halve peaches. Remove pit. Oil all sides, place on hot grill or grill pan cut side down,and cook 5 -6 minutes, until softened. Sprinkle with cracked black pepper.
Each serving has 461 calories, 21.5g fat, 40.3g carbs, 5.7g fiber, 26.4g protein.
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