Buffalo chicken salad

April 9, 2013

We had a good day for leftovers. My hubby packed a leftover hamburger for lunch. My son packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (yay, use up that bread buddy!). My daughter wanted to buy school lunch today but already made plans on what she wants to pack tomorrow. It came time for me to eat lunch and I looked in the fridge. We still have more of the beef rouladen from our German night. I didn't feel like having a big ol' hunk of meat for lunch. Hmmmm. How do I convince myself to eat leftovers? By serving it with one of my absolute favorites.....pasta and home canned tomatoes! I had half a serving of the rouladen and half of the pasta. Yum!

I had planned on making buffalo chicken salad for dinner. I ordered it the last time we ate from our friend's restaurant and loved it. I figured we could make it easily at home. I found a recipe on Pinterest a few days ago and I think it had the chicken breaded in panko bread crumbs and then fried. The recipe wouldn't open for me today. Oh well. Grilling the chicken will be healthier anyway. I remembered that we still have ten pounds of potatoes from when we all were too full to have potatoes on Easter. Grilled potato slices will go great with our salad. We put our buffalo chicken on a bed of romaine lettuce, red onion, cucumber, tomatoes, and mushrooms. I also served some celery on the side. The buffalo sauce we bought was a slight bit too hot for me (I'm a wimp) so I mixed it with ranch. Then I remembered that there was still some of the sour cream/guacamole/avocado mixture in the fridge. So much for this salad being healthier! Oh well, it was delicious! The kids got pretty excited for their dinner when they saw their plates. I had arranged the veggies into a smiley face on top of their lettuce. Who knew red onion eye brows would be so funny?!

Time for lime

April 8, 2013

My hubby and both kiddos packed their lunches today. My hubby brought leftover smoked beef roast (sandwich). My son brought pizza and fruit. My daughter brought chicken nuggets and leftover spinach and pine nut quinoa. I was so disappointed that the tuna tataki was all gone. Then I got an idea. There was a container of leftover lettuce, red onion, cucumber, avocado, and tomatoes. There was leftover soy ginger dressing that I made. I still had sushi ginger. I substituted beef roast for tuna. It actually went together well. I think probably because the red onion, avocado, sushi ginger, and the dressing all had such strong flavors that it hid the beef.

I tried a new recipe tonight from bigboldbeautifulfood.blogspot.com for dinner. Chicken taquitos that are baked instead of fried. I sauteed chicken seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper and set it aside. I sauteed onion and garlic. Then I added cumin, salt, and paprika and cooked it for another minute. I added the chicken back to the pan and stirred in some cilantro. I was going to use corn tortillas so I heated up some chicken broth to a simmer. I dipped the corn tortillas into the broth for one second and then set it on a cutting board. I put some chicken mixture onto the bottom third and topped it with mexican cheese, rolled, and put it into a greased pan seam side down. Brush the tops with olive oil and bake at 425 for 15 minutes. We served them over a bed of romaine lettuce, red onion, and tomatoes. My hubby topped his with some lime juice. I also wanted a sauce for them. I grabbed some sour cream and a single serve pack of guacamole and put it in the food processor. Then I remembered that I had half of an avocado in the fridge so I put that in too. Everyone really liked the taquitos. I was surprised that they could be so crunchy without having to fry them.

I knew once I saw a recipe on shewearsmanyhats.com that I HAD to make it for my hubby: lime pie dip. It was so easy to make. Mix together half a block of cream cheese, 14 oz sweetened condensed milk, 1 teaspoon of lime zest (I used 2 tsps), 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Refrigerate for one hour to thicken up a bit. I served it with cinnamon graham crackers. Everyone really liked the lime pie dip too. My hubby said he likes this dip better than the cookie dough hummus.

Tuna Tataki

April 7, 2013

Finally. A spring day that feels like spring. We wanted to cook on the grill today. My hubby grilled some local beef burgers while I looked for toppings. I had my sister's homemade relish on my hotdog yesterday and that got me thinking. Why have I never put relish on a burger? Also, I thought about my hubby's love for rueben sandwiches. I have leftover sauerkraut. Hmmmm. By the time that he brought the burgers inside, I had made my decision. Why chose a burger type when you can cut it in half and do both! On one half I put grilled red onions, homemade relish, american cheese, ketchup, and mustard. On the other half of the burger I put american cheese, sauerkraut, and a new sauce that I bought this week. It is kickin' onion blossom from miracle whip. They were both delicious!

We did some yard work today and needed a snack. Remember all the tuna that we ate on vacation this past week? It's time we try to make a tuna appetizer. I found a recipe on food network for tuna tataki. Oh yeah. This is gonna happen. My hubby fried some tuna that was crusted with panko bread crumbs. I made the sauce which consisted of: 1/2 teaspoon of minced ginger, 1/3 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup olive oil (it could probably be less), and the juice of half a lime (it called for 1/3 cup but that would have been way too much), and some pepper. I chopped some red onion, tomato, sushi ginger, and avocado. We put the tuna and toppings in lettuce wraps. Oh wow. It was awesome! We snacked and there was still a big piece of tuna left. I asked my hubby if I could have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Wohoo! He said yes......then about 10 minutes later the kids came back to the kitchen and devoured the rest of the tuna. Ugh. I think we may need to make this a lot more often!

Ok. Dinner time. I had the pleasure of smelling it for about 7 hours before we got to eat. Anyone who knows my hubby knows that he can smoke some mean meat on the grill. He smoked a local beef roast and then finished it off in the oven. He rubbed it with season salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, chili powder, and brown sugar. It was so full of flavor! Just look at that nice pink smoke ring!

We all love the quinoa kale craisin pilaf that I copied from Gordon Biersch. I decided to alter it a bit tonight. I made spinach quinoa with toasted pine nuts. I sauteed some onion and garlic then added one cup of quinoa and cooked it for a couple of minutes. Then I added two cups of homemade chicken broth. I let it simmer for about five minutes and then added 3/4 of a bag of fresh spinach, basil, salt, and pepper. After cooking for about ten more minutes, I topped the quinoa with freshly grated romano cheese and some toasted pine nuts. My daughter said she likes this one better than the kale craisin pilaf. My hubby and I liked it but prefer the kale craisin pilaf. Another day where restaurant food had nothing on us. Yay!

Oh Crepe! It's Rouladen & Spaetzle

April 6, 2013

What an amazing food day! One item that I LOVE for breakfast (on the rare day that I eat breakfast) is crepes. Why do we never make them at home? Today is the day. I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com for a blueberry sauce. Ohhhhh. I have one more small bag of blueberries that I froze from the farmer's market. I pulled up a recipe on Cooks.com for crepes. Ok, hubby. Time to get to work! I assisted (well maybe I just grabbed stuff out of the cupboard) while he made me breakfast. The sauce had sugar, orange juice, blueberries, lemon juice, vanilla, and cinnamon. The blueberry sauce called for leaving the blueberries whole. I prefer a smooth sauce so after he finished it I just put it in the food processor. Oh my goodness. They were amazing! I think the next time we will put a little less orange juice in the sauce so that more of the blueberry stands out.

We wanted a quick lunch today. My hubby grilled us some hotdogs which we topped with ketchup, mustard, and some of my sister's homemade relish. Yum!

Tonight was German night at our house. Remember I said that I splurged on an item this week? It was spaetzle. They were $3 something a package which is expensive to me for a "noodle". It just so happens that we went to a friend's house last night and she is German. She pulled out her cookbook for me and gave me some tips for our meal tonight. She normally has gravy on her spaetzle. While pulling up the recipe today, I saw that you could layer spaetzle, sauerkraut, and then swiss cheese. We didn't have swiss so we tried muenster on some and provolone on some. I also couldn't pass up trying it with gravy. The main dish that she suggested was German Rouladen. Basically, you take a very thin piece of flank steak, spread mustard on it (I used champagne dill mustard), top it with bacon, onion, and pickles (I used homemade pickles). Roll it up and secure it with a toothpick or cooking string. Sear the rolls in butter and then add 2 1/2 cups water and a beef bouillon cube. Let it simmer for an hour. Most of our juice reduced so I added a can of beef broth. I set the rolls to the side and thickened the juice with cornstarch to make the gravy. The rolls were really good. Surprisingly flavorful considering we added NO seasonings. The gravy was ridiculously good. I was disappointed that there was barely any left after dinner! We will definitely make this again. So which spaetzle dish did we like better? The gravy made it sooooooo delicious. The kids thought the cheese made it taste like macaroni and cheese. They both win!

On to dessert. Ok, so this isn't a German dessert. We had blueberry sauce leftover from this morning. Hmmmm. I had a few cans of biscuits. My hubby assisted my daughter and she made monkey bread that we dipped in the blueberry sauce. Oh my goodness. I couldn't stop eating them! Who needs restaurants when you have food this good at home. Well done today hubby. Well done.

Grocery savings; new topping for blt

April 5, 2013

Today was grocery shopping day. I was a little nervous to go because with both kids and my hubby in tow I figured that we would be impulse buying like crazy. My pre-challenge weekly average at the commissary was $175. Today I spent $17.92 on toiletries and cleaners. I spent $100.09 on food. I kind of splurged on a specialty item for a theme dinner this week (you have to wait to hear about it). However, I made up for that with a few good deals. I got to the deli craving ham for sandwiches. They had Italian turkey on sale for $1.99 a pound. Ok turkey it is. I wrote to several companies a couple of weeks ago asking if they had coupons. Some said no. Some said yes and sent cents off coupons. Some said yes and sent me coupons for free items. Today I got french onion dip and Hawaiian hamburger buns for free! I was going to get a 12 pack of root beer for free but saw that they were on sale for $2.99. I figured that I would save my coupon for a week when they aren't on sale. Oh! Speaking of free... The cashier told me about a pack of coffee that I could get for free so I will get that in the next few days when we run errands. I spent $5.08 on gossip magazines. After adding in their surcharge and taking out my coupons, I spent $119.88 out of pocket. This is a savings of $55.12.

The kids had this week off of school so the only savings they did was my son packed on last Thursday saving us $2. Our pre-challenge weekly restaurant average was $80. This past week we went to TGIF to share an appetizer and also ordered delivery from our friend's restaurant last night (we didn't feel like cooking after driving home all day from our vacation). We spent $51. This is a savings of $29. *Disclaimer: yes we ate at restaurants during our vacation but I used prior challenge savings to pay for our food expenses. We decided to not count the vacation against us for this week and just did the challenge for days that we were at home.* Our savings for this week is $86.12. This brings our grand total savings to $2,860.76 in 170 days.

We wanted an easy dinner. Easy but delicious. Of course it involves bacon! We made blt sandwiches with guacamole, lettuce, red onion, tomato, cucumber, and bacon. My daughter loves cucumber and I figured that it would just give our sandwiches extra crunch. I think we may have done this a long time ago. Anyway, it was yum!

Challenge savings put to use

April 4, 2013

Did you miss my posts during the past few days?! Of course you did. We decided to take a little road trip to the East coast. We have been saving money with this challenge since October and have not spent any of our savings yet. I couldn't decide if I wanted the challenge to pay for the entire trip or just the food. I finally decided that the challenge savings would pay for our food expenses during our trip. This way we can splurge on other times and not feel bad. Do you want to see the awesome food we enjoyed? It totally validated my challenge. Save a little here and there in order to save up for a nice splurge!

The first day of our trip we ate lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. We shared an appetizer of Ahi Carpaccio. I had seared Tuna Tataki Salad. My hubby had a Monterey Cheeseburger with avocado. My daughter had pasta. My son had corn dogs.

We had dinner at The Melting Pot. We had the four course meal. We started off with a cheddar and a traditional swiss fondue with apples, bread, and vegetable dippers. Our next course was salad. We had the tangy house dressing. Next up was the main course. We had two different cooking styles: mojo and bouillon. We cooked teriyaki marinated sirloin, honey orange duck breast, andouille sausage, citrus infused pork tenderloin, pacific white shrimp, chicken breast, and chicken potstickers. This course also came with more vegetable dippers. We chose two dessert chocolates. We had cookies 'n cream marshmallow dream fondue and bananas foster fondue. The dippers included: strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, rice krispies treats, marshmallows, pound cake, and brownies. 

Our second day we went to the number one seafood restaurant in town. I started off with a cup of clam chowder. We shared a sesame seared tuna appetizer (we dug in before I remembered to take a picture!). I had one of their daily specials. It was a salad with beets, seared scallops, pink grapefruit, and local feta cheese. All the tuna at this restaurant is caught locally and brought to them each day fresh. My hubby had sesame seared tuna with jasmine rice and seaweed salad. The kiddos shared an adult order of lobster ravioli with basil pasta, charred tomato coulis, and basil oil.

Next we hit up a frozen yogurt place that I have always wanted to try: Pinkberry. I had coconut. My hubby and son both had key lime. My daughter had passion fruit. 

For dinner we went to Legal Sea Foods. Three of us started out with clam chowder. I had their special of tuna and shrimp. My hubby had stuffed shrimp with a crab stuffing. My daughter had fish shaped ravioli and my son had macaroni.

What day would be complete without taking dessert back to the hotel? We picked two to share from the Cheesecake Factory. We had ultimate red velvet cake cheesecake and 30th anniversary chocolate cake cheesecake.

We decided to come home a day early. Today we did a little shopping at some outlets and just had Subway as a quick lunch. We had a great time and had delicious food. Nom nom as my daughter says.

Leftover and over

April 1, 2013

We spent the morning working on the house. My hubby did some cleaning while I went through the kids' clothes and gathered up stuff for our upcoming rummage sale. I gathered up an overflowing laundry basket full and two stuffed garbage bags full. I feel lighter just having it all set aside to get rid of.

We took a break for a quick lunch. I pulled all of Easter's leftovers out and we all picked what sounded good. Ham, corn, salad, olives, ham pinwheels, and spinach pasta. My hubby took our dyed Easter eggs and made a small batch of deviled eggs too. For a snack this afternoon, we each had a piece of pie (Lemon and thin mint). I feel heavier. Ha.

We worked on other projects and all of a sudden it was after 6 p.m. Yikes. We all decided that we were ok with having more leftovers. Wow. Really?! Ham (my daughter made hers into a sandwich) was once again the star. We also used up the rest of the corn, salad, olives, spinach pasta, and deviled eggs. Unbelievable that leftovers are all gone one day after Easter! There was maybe one meal left of ham so I froze that. If we don't hit up the pie again tonight, I may try to freeze those too.

We are going to be super busy over the next few days so I'm not too sure if I will get a chance to sit down and write my blog. Don't miss me too much. My food will be back to tempt you soon!