Sesame Chicken Pasta Salad

So this is another recipe that I thought I'd posted before but someone told me it wasn't on here! I'm glad they realized it wasn't here because now I have the chance to post it and you can add this delicious recipe to your rotation!  I love this salad because it's light and fresh and makes a giant bowl's worth of food. It's great for a potluck, party, or for packing a family's worth of lunches at once!

Sesame Chicken Pasta Salad
Salad:
1 box of pasta (penne or bow tie are my favorites to use)
3 cups shredded chicken
2 green onions (sliced)
1 bag baby spinach
1 cup snow peas
2 cans mandarin oranges (drained)
1/4 cup sliced almonds

Dressing:
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
1/3 cups soy sauce
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup sesame oil
2 T. sugar
salt and pepper (to taste)

Cook pasta. Meanwhile, toast the sesame seeds.  In a small bowl or salad dressing mixer, whisk all the dressing ingredients (including the toasted sesame seeds) together until well combined.

When pasta is al dente, drain and rinse in cold water.  Place pasta, chicken and half the dressing in a large bowl and toss.  Let refrigerate at least one hour (or overnight) to marinate chicken and pasta.

When ready to serve add the rest of the ingredients and toss with remaining dressing.  Enjoy!

Easy Baked Salmon and Veggies

I love salmon and since it's pink so do my kids :)  We cook it in a variety of ways but one of my favorite and easiest ways is to bake it right along side some veggies.  You throw it all in a 9x13 and walk away. 20 minutes later you're all set with a delicious meal!  It turns out moist, flaky and perfect every time!

 It's pictured here with asparagus but I've also done baby carrots, brussel sprouts, and zucchini. I also change up the seasoning frequently too depending what I'm serving it with.  I've listed lemon-pepper below but I also love dill or southwestern spices (like chili powder and garlic salt).  If you love a quick and healthy meal this will become a go-to for you!

Baked Salmon and Veggies
2-3 lbs. salmon
1 medium bunch thin asparagus (or sub in your favorite veggie)
1/4 cup butter (sliced thin)
3 T. olive oil
1 T. lemon pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Line a 9x13 pan with a large piece of foil (leave enough on the sides to fold over salmon).  Place salmon (skin side down) in the middle of the pan and surround it with veggies.

Thinly slice butter and place pats of butter on top of salmon and veggies.  Sprinkle veggies with olive oil as well.  Shake lemon pepper, salt and pepper evenly over salmon and veggies.  Pull edges of foil in to slightly cover.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until thickest part of salmon is opaque and pink.  Serve with rice pilaf, calabacitas,  mango salsa, mashed potatoes, or enjoy all by itself! 

Calabacitas (updated)

Do you have recipes that seems to evolve over the years! I do too and I never seem to get around to updating them on the blog.  Which means I'm constantly looking up recipes on here and then I realize I don't make it like that anymore. So today I finally decided to do something about it!


Calabacitas are a delicious side dish here in New Mexico.  Full of flavor, low carb, and the perfect compliment to any meat.  We have them with steak, salmon, chicken, or even sometimes in place of meat altogether.  I've even had a delicious New Mexican shephards pie featuring calabacitas.

They are spicy, cheesy, zucchini goodness. My husband and I love them and 2 out of 5 kids eat them too (as soon as my youngest gets teeth I'm sure he'll join in).  I previously posted a grilled recipe I use for these but here is my stove top version!  Enjoy!

Calabacitas
2-3 T. olive oil
2 small zucchini, sliced (about 1/2 in. thick slices)
2 small yellow squash, sliced (about 1/2 in. thick)
1 med. sweet onion, chopped
2 T. water
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/4 cup chopped green chile (I use frozen)
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chile powder
1 can corn, drained
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium- high heat.  Add zucchini, yellow squash, onion and water. Cover and cook until onions are transparent and squash is tender (7-10 minutes) making sure to stir and flip squash/zucchini frequently.  Uncover and add garlic. Continue cooking until garlic is frangrant (2-3 minutes).  Reduce heat to medium and carefully fold in green chile, spices and corn.  Top with shredded cheese.  Re-cover skillet and cook until corn is heated and cheese is melted on top.  Serve immediately.

Ham and Swiss Rolls

So I made these for a cooking party I was hosting last night and I realized I've never put them on my blog!  These are super fast and delicious. They are also a great make ahead recipe since they can sit in the fridge for up to 24 hours before baking. I've made them for appetizers and my girls even love them for dinner with some veggies on the side.  I get asked for the recipe all the time and last night one of my friends had one bite and said she needed the recipe right then!  They are that good!

Ham and Swiss Rolls
1 can pillsbury pizza dough
1/2 lb. thin sliced deli ham
12 slices Swiss cheese (thin sliced)
1/2 cup butter (melted)
2 T. brown sugar
1 T. Worchestshire sauce
1-2 T. dijon mustard (I've also used spicy brown mustard and they turned out great)
2 tsp. poppyseeds

Roll pizza dough out flat.  Top with ham and cheese slices.

 
 

Starting on a long side, roll the dough tightly and make sure to connect the seam at the end.

Using a serrated knife slice into 12 even rolls and place in a 9x13 pan.

  In a small sauce pan combine the rest of the ingredients and stir until butter is melted and sauce is heated through.  Top each roll evenly with sauce. At this point rolls can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours. When ready to serve,  bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Then hurry and grab one before your kids eat them all! Enjoy!

School lunches

Well today was my first full day with 4 out of 5 kids at school!  I miss them but I have to admit it was a little awesome :)  I got so much done and all the stuff I did stayed done for more than 5 minutes!  Woohoo!

One thing I did today, that I've wanted to do every year, is make school lunch bins.  The kind where I prepackaged produce, sorted out sweet and salty snacks, and got ready for lunches ahead of time. Now that I'm sending four lunches to school each day I decided I needed to be better prepared.  My kids love to take leftovers for lunch and they are pretty good about eating different sandwiches too so I'm usually set on the main course/protein part of the meal but my kids are also supposed to have two snacks for morning and afternoon snack time which can sometimes leave me scrambling to fill in the gaps of their lunch. So I finally decided it was time to prep! I decided to make one fruit/veggie bin, a dairy bin, a savory snack bin, and a sweet treat bin. It didn't take very long and I'm not going to lie, it was pretty fun too!  (Which tells me that I probably need to get out more!) So if you've ever thought about giving it a try here are some tips/ideas that I had while doing it.

 First, here are some benefits of sorting out lunch items ahead of time:

1) It saves money! The pre-portioned snacks are so much more expensive than buying in bulk but they are so much more convenient.  I usually buy the small applesauce packs and go-gurts for lunches and buy a big jar of applesauce or container of yogurt for home.  By putting them in lunch bins it makes the snacks last longer because my kids know what is off limits after school! To save even more money you can pre-portion your own snacks.  Bag your own pretzels, gold fish, etc. or buy a big thing of yogurt and put it in little containers yourself.

2) It's easier to keep the pantry and fridge stocked!  No more thinking the pantry is full when in fact half the boxes are secretly empty.  This makes it so much easier to see what I have and what I'm running low on.  It also helps keep things rotated.  And helps me make sure that the produce all gets used up in time.

3) It helps give the kids a chance to pack there own lunches.  I can just tell the kids to pick one thing out of each bin and then I know they have one fruit or veggie, one dairy, one carb and one sweet treat.  Plus when my kids feel like they are picking their own lunch there is a lot better chance they are actually going to eat it when they get to school!

4) It saves time. Instead of having to open a ton of packaging, washing produce, etc every morning it's already done ahead of time when you aren't frantically trying to catch a bus.

5) It just looks cool! Seriously, it makes the pantry look so much nicer.  I feel happy every time I look in there.  Instead of 100 boxes crammed on top of each other and ripped open by kids I just have a few bins with lids on.  It makes me feel like one of those  organized people I hear about on pinterest :)

Next, I want to share some of the things my kids like to put in their lunches:

Fruit/Veggie ideas:
grapes
apples
mini carrots
mini sweet peppers
cut up melon
clementines
bananas
pickles
raisins (yogurt covered)
dried apple rings (I make these in the dehydrator with a little cinnamon)
dried mango
blueberries
strawberries
cucumber slices (sometimes I use tiny cookie cutters to make these into stars or hearts)

Dip ideas (to go with produce):
ranch dressing
peanut butter
nutella
hummus
fruit dip (I just do little cups of cool-whip mixed with strawberry yogurt)


Dairy and Protein ideas:
cheese sticks
baby bell cheese
cheese cut into fun shapes
go-gurts
trail mix
flavored almonds
protein bars
yogurt parfaits
pepperoni wrapped around cheese
ham wrapped around cheese
sargento balanced breaks (cheese, almonds and craisin packs)

Savory snacks:
gold fish
pretzels
beef jerky
cheese crackers
peanut butter crackers
handi-snacks
popcorn
mini rice cakes (my kids love the rasberry yogurt or cheddar kind)
sunchips

Sweet treats:
applesauce
breakfast bars (my kids love the trader joes kind)
fig newtons
jello w/fruit cups
fruit snacks
fruit leather
granola bars
mini muffins
fruit cocktail cups
teddy grahams or graham stix
banana bread
dole peaches and cream cups

Lastly, I'm always looking for new ideas of what to put in my kids lunches so let me know what you like to pack in lunches in the comments! It's always fun to think of new things or learn about new products that are out there :) Happy lunch making!

Cheese Steak Sandwiches

So, I've had a major food aversion to meat this pregnancy but the other day I just really wanted a steak! I knew I probably couldn't actually tolerate eating a whole steak so I opted for these cheese steak sandwiches.

I first made this recipe a couple of years ago and I'm surprised I haven't already shared it here on the blog actually! It's super easy and yummy and 3 out my 4 kids even eat it. :)

Here are a few notes on this recipe: 1) Don't cheap out on the bread.  Get a good baguette to put this on! Something that will hold together but also taste delicious. 2) if not everyone is in agreement about mushrooms you can always saute them in a separate pan and people can add them as desired! 3) Some people like them with just the meat and cheese but I find it a little dry.  We add chipotle mayo to our and it is yummy! I've included it as optional in the recipe.  We just use Kraft brand but there are also some fancier looking chipotle sauces at the store or you can make you own! 4) Before slicing the roast get the meat really cold.  You can put it in the freezer for about an hour or leave it in the back of you fridge for a day before you make the recipe. This will help you slice it thinner and the thinner you cut it the more tender it will be in the sandwich.

Cheese Steak Sandwiches
2 lb. eye of round roast
olive oil 
1 green bell pepper (sliced into strips)
1 sweet onion (sliced into strips)
4-5 white mushrooms (sliced)
salt and pepper (to taste)
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
6-8 slices provolone cheese
chipotle mayo (optional) (we use Kraft but you can make your own)
6  hoagie rolls or baguettes

Slice cold meat as thinly as you can.  Break up slices into bite sized strips.

In a large frying pan, heat 1-2 T. olive oil and add bell pepper, onion and mushrooms. Saute until softened.  Remove from pan.  Add 1-2 more T. of olive oil, meat, salt, pepper and wocestershire sauce to pan.  Heat over medium heat, draining frequently, until meat is cooked through.  I drain my meat throughout the cooking process so that the meat gets a little crispy on the edges instead of getting tough. You can also use your cooking utensil to kind of break the meat up into bite sized pieces. Add veggie mixture back to the pan and mix together with the meat.

Turn off heat.  Cover entire pan with sliced provolone cheese and allow to melt.  Dish up meat and cheese mixture onto each of the hoagies.  Top with chipotle mayo if desired. Enjoy!

Buttermilk Pancakes (and Strawberry Syrup)

Forgive my super bad picture that I snapped really fast Christmas morning!  But I promise these are delicious!  Maybe I'll have to make them again so that I can get a better picture ;)

When my Grandma passed away I inherited her old Betty Crocker cookbook along with her recipes for homemade dog food and beer.  Since I don't need dog food or beer I decided to flip through her cookbook and see what I could find.  One recipe that has definetely stood out is this buttermilk pancake recipe! Delicious!  They come out perfect and fluffy every time.  My favorite part is that you just mix it all in  one big bowl. No combining dry ingredients and then mixing in wet ingredients or anything like that.  Just dump it all in and stir.

This Christmas I paired them with homemade strawberry syrup and it was a success.  Sugar on top of dough will do that ;)  I included the syrup recipe at the bottom of the page.  Give the pancakes a try with or without the syrup.  Easy and worth it!

Buttermilk Pancakes
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup milk (plus extra if needed)
4 T. vegetable oil
2 T. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

In a large mixing bowl beat the egg until fluffy.  Beat in all other ingredients just until smooth.  Add extra milk if batter is too thick. Pour about 3 T. of batter onto a hot griddle until puffed and cooked around the edges.  Turn and cook other side until golden.  Continue with rest of the batter.

Strawberry syrup
1 bag frozen strawberries
1 T. lemon juice
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1-2 T. cornstarch
2 T. water

Put strawberries in a medium saucepan and begin to heat over low heat.  As strawberries thaw, crush and chop slightly with a potato masher.  Increase heat to medium high. Add lemon juice and sugar and bring to a boil.

Combine and cornstarch and water in a small bowl and stir until smooth.  Add cornstarch mixture to the strawberries and continue to cook until thickened.