Place frozen shrimp in a steamer pot or double boiler (fill bottom pan with water) – cover and steam on low heat until shrimp turns pink.
Rinse and cut stems from fresh broccoli. Steam or microwave if you prefer tender broccoli crowns.
Boil water and cook pasta according to box directions, or for approximately 7 minutes.
Drain but do not rinse pasta and return to pan.
Add broccoli crowns
Pour in entire jar of Ragu Cheesy Sauce, adding a little water to the empty jar, shake and pour into pan. Stir to mix ingredients thoroughly and cook on low for an additional 7-10 minutes to heat sauce and soften broccoli crowns.
Seasoned only with a little black pepper this made for an easy breezy meal and was a big hit with my men.
I missed a few Friday Foodie Features last month but the timing is now right with the official start of Autumn. October begins the season of football, family and comfort foods and it also means a return to my all time favorite way to make a meal and that is with the Crock Pot or Slow Cooker.
It wasn’t too long ago that there were only a few Slow Cooker Seasonings available at the grocery stores, now there are several more options available on the supermarket shelves. I’ve tried a few of the new ones by McCormick’s and the Fiesta Chicken was a hit in my house, my men loved it – ‘ole
Ingredients:
1 can of black beans
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 cup frozen corn
1-2 lbs or chicken thighs or breasts
1 packet of McCormick’s Slow Cookers Seasoning – Fiesta Chicken
Spray Crock Pot with cooking spray or use liner, put in chicken thighs or breast – remember NOT to wash the chicken.
Mix all ingredients into a bowl and stir
Pour mixture over chicken
I had this frozen tomato so I added it
tip when a tomato begins to soften, don’t throw it away, put it in the freezer to use later in sauces or the Slow Cooker.
Cook on low 7-8 hours
Served over rice – Cilantro optional – dinner is served!
What happens when it’s Friday night and you don’t feel like cooking, ordering pizza or going out and a bowl of cereal just won’t cut it? In our house when that happens we head straight to the garage and to the freezer. There is where I try to keep microwavable meals and snacks specifically for those occasions and last Friday night it was Lean Pockets Pretzel Bread Sandwiches.
I am not a big proponent of frozen meals & snacks because of the excessive sodium some of them contain but these Lean Pockets brand sandwiches are only 250 calories with 650 mg of sodium which isn’t a lot compared to others that contain well over 1000 mg of sodium.
The Lean Pockets Sandwiches were filled with Spinach and 3 Cheeses, Fontina, Romano and reduced Fat Mozzarella. I zapped one in the microwave for 2 minutes 30 seconds in the crisping sleeve then cut it in half. It didn’t seem like it had a lot of filling and could have had more spinach, but to my surprise it was quite good and hit the spot. The soft pretzel bread encased a flavorful mix of spinach and cheeses that paired well with my glass of Friday night wine!
Speaking of wine, I want to reintroduce my “play cousin” Cook E doe Face. She is a down to earth YouTube Vlogger who will have you in stitches as you watch her create some delicious dishes and “knock you on your butt cocktails”.
Cook E de Face is from Philly and I fell in love with her atty-tud (Philly slang) from the very first video I watched. In today’s world it is so easy to get caught up in the negativity but you know me, I like to keep it light. Cook E doe Face has me laughing out loud and reminds me of my own New York cousins. If it were left up to me she would definitely have a show on the Food or OWN Network!
This week’s Foodie Feature is a 4 ingredient but less than 40 minute meal. I was in 3 different grocery stores last week, Sunday at Safeway with hubby for the major shopping, then after work on Tuesday at ShopRite and again on Wednesday at Food Lion with my son who needed to get supplies for a BBQ on Friday.
In Shoprite I was looking for ingredients to make the Turkey Tacos and noticed the Veetee Thai Jasmine Rice, my men really like Jasmine Rice so I bought a pack to try. In Food Lion the Campbell’s Skillet Sauces were on sale and even though I didn’t have my coupons I got it to use with chicken I had in the frig.
Ingredients
Chicken
Veetee Thai Jasmine Rice
Campbell’s Skillet Sauce (Thai Green Curry)
Vegetable or Olive Oil
Heat 1 Tbls oil then add 1 lb of chicken breast, slice or diced according to your preference
Cook until no longer pink, 10-12 minutes then add Campbell’s Skillet Sauce
Reduce heat, cover and cook an additional 5 minutes
Microwave Thai Jasmine Rice for 2 minutes
Spoon chicken over rice and serve
It’s a bit spicy but my men loved it and I was out of the kitchen quickly!
This week’s Foodie Feature is a 4 ingredient but less than 40 minute meal. I was in 3 different grocery stores last week, Sunday at Safeway with hubby for the major shopping, then after work on Tuesday at ShopRite and again on Wednesday at Food Lion with my son who needed to get supplies for a BBQ on Friday.
In Shoprite I was looking for ingredients to make the Turkey Tacos and noticed the Veetee Thai Jasmine Rice, my men really like Jasmine Rice so I bought a pack to try. In Food Lion the Campbell’s Skillet Sauces were on sale and even though I didn’t have my coupons I got it to use with chicken I had in the frig.
Ingredients
Chicken
Veetee Thai Jasmine Rice
Campbell’s Skillet Sauce (Thai Green Curry)
Vegetable or Olive Oil
Heat 1 Tbls oil then add 1 lb of chicken breast, slice or diced according to your preference
Cook until no longer pink, 10-12 minutes then add Campbell’s Skillet Sauce
Reduce heat, cover and cook an additional 5 minutes
Microwave Thai Jasmine Rice for 2 minutes
Spoon chicken over rice and serve
It’s a bit spicy but my men loved it and I was out of the kitchen quickly!
This week’s Foodie Feature has a few more than 4 ingredients but took less than 40 minutes to prepare. It was an easy breezy mid-week meal that my men really enjoyed and got me out of the kitchen in record time!
Try it and let me know if you added a twist to make it better.
I didn’t make it into work this morning because of a quick moving, yet severe rainstorm that caused me to turn around and head home. Fortunately the weather improved and it turned into a wonderful sunny afternoon.
I’m still on the Nutrisystem program and eating their meals but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped cooking dinner for my men. Last night’s easy breezy meal contained only 4 ingredients that took 40 minutes to prepare.
They really liked this dish and there was enough leftover for them to have for lunch today. If you try this recipe let me know, and if you put your own little twist on it, tell me what you used.
Ingredients: Dry Pasta Turkey Sausage Frozen Broccoli Salad Dressing
Boil pasta according to box instructions
Cut Turkey Sausage into bit size pieces
Cover sausage with 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup salad dressing
Cook 10 minutes
Add broccoli, cover and cook add’l 15 mins or until desired texture
Hubby’s day was nice and I want to thank you for all the birthday well wishes. I didn’t get the Walgreen’s Gift Card but did cook a wonderful meal, we had baked salmon, stuffed clams, steamed potatoes and coleslaw, dessert was a Lemon Meringue Pie which is his favorite.
I had hoped for warmer weather to wear this sleeveless BisouBisou Peplum top, but it’s a rainy drab day so I added a lightweight cardigan.
Hubby’s day was nice and I want to thank you for all the birthday well wishes. I didn’t get the Walgreen’s Gift Card but did cook a wonderful meal, we had baked salmon, stuffed clams, steamed potatoes and coleslaw, dessert was a Lemon Meringue Pie which is his favorite.
I had hoped for warmer weather to wear this sleeveless BisouBisou Peplum top, but it’s a rainy drab day so I added a lightweight cardigan.
On Saturday I purchased three seasoning packs from Sugar Spice and Everything Nice: Buffalo Bleu, Cracked Crab and Habanero & Green Chile. On the back of each label is a recipe for making a Dip but I decided to use the Buffalo Bleu as a seasoning for a crockpot meal.
Ingredients:
Frozen chicken thighs
Package Buffalo Bleu seasoning
1 cup water
Jasmine Rice
Mandarin Oranges (optional)
Spray Crockpot with cooking spray or use a Slow Cooker liner for easy clean up
Mixed seasoning with 1 cup water – could have used less but didn’t want dry chicken
Place frozen chicken thighs in crockpot, cover with seasoning mix, cook on low
Returned home to a kitchen smelling wonderful!
Cooked rice according to instructions, warmed oranges in microwave for a few seconds
Chicken and rice was served with a small salad and was delicious. The seasoning did not make the chicken overly spicy nor salty as I expected, I used drippings over rice. My men and I thoroughly enjoyed this dish and am looking forward to using the Habanero & Chile seasoning as a dip.