Food Friday

Oh man this has to be the first Food Friday post I've done in a while that was actually done without duress. I hope it shows.

Homemade bread

I started baking bread my sophomore year of college, after I received my bread machine from Middle Child and wife. I would say it's safe to say I've made close to a hundred plus loaves of bread since and while my machine still does most of the heavy lifting, I really like to bake the loaves off in the oven. A 1 1/2 lb loaf splits into two nicely, that way I can fulfill my carb cravings and give one away.

Grilled Stuffed Burritos

I will most likely never have a deep yearning for Taco Bell (or Taco S#@! as Husband calls it) since I know how to make these now. Kelly at Semi Homemade Mom has come up with a spot on recipe that makes a TON (be prepared for leftovers). However, these were so good, Husband ate...seconds. In all actuality, he ate fourths. Any time Husband eats more than one helping, I know I'm onto something. I was ready to give up my George Foreman, but I guess it now serves a purpose.

Cook chicken boobs, cook.

Original Recipe for chicken and good ol' Pasta Roni.

 So once a week, I do a slow cooker chicken recipe, usually on the day I know that I have absolutely no time because I need to sleep. What I've started to do, is take marinade recipes, throw my frozen chicken breasts in, turn the crock pot on, set my alarm and forget about it. For this week, I slightly modified the recipe I found because 1) I didn't need to marinade 18 chickens and 2) I didn't have all the ingredients. Also, when I put four chicken breasts, frozen, in my slow cooker, they're done in four hours. A minute more and they turn into dust balls. So make sure when making any of my slow cooker recipes in your slow cooker, you adjust for that. Apparently, mine thinks it's a microwave.

Marinade For Chicken

(adapted from recipe on Allrecipes.com posted by JILLYPOOH)

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

seasoning salt, to taste

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup Italian Dressing

1 tsp dry mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Rub chicken breasts with seasoning salt. Mix remaining ingredients together. Put in slow cooker with chicken. In a normal slow cooker, will most likely be 6-8 hours on low and 3-4 hours on high.

**Meatless Monday** A Little Inauthenic Mexican

After waaayyyyyyy too many hours untangling the yarn that Melodie took her aggressions out on, I decided I didn't want to do anything too complicated for dinner. We have a 5 lb block of cheese, courtesy of Costco, and since I've been avoiding the George Foreman (although we have yet to get a propane tank for Big Beautiful), I decided quesadillas were the way to go. I made some rice to go with it, sauteed some mushrooms to go with the cheese and Voila! meal in 30 minutes. Eat your heart our Rachel Ray.

I don't like when the cheese ends up on the outside of the quesadilla, so I folded them all nice and neat.

What did you make for dinner to start your week off? Nice and easy or 3 course meal??

Food Friday...Kind of

**So obviously it's not Friday but after I underwent internal combustion on Friday, I had to put off this post. I needed to lay in my recliner with my remote in one hand and my pants unbuttoned. In other words, I needed to be a man. A woman would have come home, poured herself a cocktail and finished Panini Week off strong. I chose another path. Don't judge me. Instead, please proceed to our normally scheduled post.**

 Since I used some of our Christmas money to buy the George Foreman, I've been meaning to try paninis on it. I should say try again, as the first time I tried, I used normal slices of wheat bread which were crushed under the weight of the lid. Note to self: use more substantial bread. Hence, the induction of Panini Week.

Monday: Grilled Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!!!!!!!!!!

  So to kick off Panini Week, I relied on an old standby-the grilled cheese. Now if it wasn't for my toaster oven, I would've given up on standard grilled cheese a long time ago. I don't think I was meant to cook in a pan; it just ends with pizza being ordered and endless scrubbing of aforementioned pan. To make a grilled cheese sandwich now, I put American cheese between two slices of bread and stick it in the toaster oven until the cheese is melted. What would the UDG be without her appliances?? (most likely just UD)
   For my grilled cheese, I used Pepperjack and Cheddar Cheese Sourdough purchased at the From The Hearth Bakery Cafe stall at our Farmer's Market (which is wonderful slathered with cream cheese! not just for bagels people!). The all important cheese portion was a mixture of shredded mozzarella and thinly sliced sharp cheddar (once you go sharp...never mind). I buttered the outside of the bread with, uh, butter and the inside I layered on Best Foods mayo (that's Hellman's to those of you East of the Rockies). The real stuff. No imitators allowed in the UDG casa. Topped it off with a salad drizzled with GODDESS DRESSING!! and popcorn. Yes popcorn.

Next time I'll leave off the butter as the sandwich as a whole got mushy in the center instead of nice and crisp. 

Tuesday: Turkey Panini w/ Mozzarella Cheese

  For my turkey panini, I used sourdough bread from Trader Joe's. Not a super impressive bread but it did have HUGE slices, which is great for sandwich making. No butter on the outside but did lay on the mayo. Paired it with some pineapple slices and my staple salad and this was a delicious dinner.

Fresh off the press w/ ice cold pineapple

Take a look at all the goo....food porn at it's best...

Wednesday: Mexican Panini

  So putting this post up late was actually my second epic pail. My first epic fail was when I ran out of momentum on Wednesday and made a Mexican Panini aka Quesadilla. And this wasn't even like, a fun quesadilla. I grated some cheese, put it between two tortillas and threw it on the press. Melted cheese everywhere. Still haven't cleaned up from it. Should probably be more ashamed, but I'm not. Topped it off with some sour cream and called it good.

Epic Fail #1 (but it was so tasty!)

After Wednesday, it was just all downhill. Thursday I ate with the Binky's (kickin' chicken taco salad) and Friday sucked so bad I treated myself to baby Panda's...no I didn't, I got take out from Panda Express (that's how rumors get started. 

Ultimately, I learned that when making a commitment to eating something for an entire week, it's best to have a menu laid out. These were probably the most boring paninis ever made and it was all due to poor planning on my part. Here's hoping Salad Week goes better.

Reason # 67429257 why I love my George Foreman...

Today's lunch: honey ham and salami with american and swiss cheese in a wrap.