Everyday Food for Busy People
You know I love a 15 minute meal. This one may come in at even less time than that.
I’ve had the idea for this for a while, but I wasn’t confident about how the flavors would taste together. But it was great! Especially considering the super quick prep time.
This dish does have jalepeno, but if you’re careful to remove the seeds, they aren’t spicy. It gives a nice addition to the flavors.
Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]
Are you looking for some healthier apps for game day? In planning our Super Bowl Menu (b/c for me, it’s all about the food and commercials!), I thought this Roasted Garlic Hummus would make a perfect addition. I’m not a fan of beans in general, but I have found that I love hummus and other recipes with chickpeas. I also discovered with this recipe how easy it is to make hummus at home! Now the flavor combos are endless.
It may look a little bland and boring, but the roasted garlic makes this anything but! Garlic takes on a whole new flavor dimension when roasted.
Ingredients
Instructions
Lately, we’ve fallen into a lovely routine of family dinners after church. Even though all of our kids still live at home, the oldest two are busy with work, school and activities. We often don’t see our daughter for several days, other than passing each other at breakfast. And our son, who is a senior in high school is often working or busy with other things.
Family dinners are much rarer than they used to be.
But lately, we’ve all been home for Sunday lunch after church. Most weeks, our daughter’s boyfriend joins us too. I love having everyone gathered around the table, catching up with each other.
Last Sunday, I decided to try out a new slow cooker recipe for an Italian style chicken dish (recipe coming soon). This Pesto Bruschetta Spread seemed the perfect thing to serve with it.
Everyone loved it! It’s creamy and full of flavor, thanks to the PHILADELPHIA Creamy Pesto Cooking Creme. The tomatoes on top were a perfect pairing with the pesto and cheese. They’re big enough that the picky people could dip around them, leaving more for the tomato lovers.
This was quick to make, which made it doable for after church. Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]
This is an amazing meal. First, it only takes a few minutes to put it in the slow cooker. And it tastes fantastic. The pork roast is tender and full of flavor, thanks to Italian Herb Salt, garlic and white wine.
I’ll definitely be making this one again. Next time, I will add more whole cloves of garlic. Jim and I were searching in the potatoes to find the cooked garlic. They were perfect with the potatoes.
I love a meal that tastes like you’ve slaved over the stove, when you really only spent five or ten minutes putting it in the crockpot. That’s my kind of cooking.
Here’s what you’ll need to make this: [Read more...]
This hearty pasta sauce is full of flavor. Slices of sweet Italian sausage links, combine with bell peppers, onions and garlic in thick tomato sauce.
I like for most slow cooker recipes to not need any kind of browning or cooking on the stove, but this one does require some pre-cooking. Thankfully, it only takes a few minutes to get everything into the crockpot. I made this on a Sunday morning before church. The hands-on prep only took about 15 minutes.
You could also continue cooking it on the stove, but I like the convenience of the crockpot. No need to stir or tend the pot and you can leave the house while it’s cooking.
Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]
Please welcome new contributing writer, Andrea Green. I love this quick side dish. Sides are one thing that I tend to neglect. This one is easy and I love that leftovers can double for lunch the next day.
I love couscous! Any side dish that can be prepared in 10 minutes has my undying devotion. But, I’ll admit that it can be pretty plain on it’s own. So I like to add all kinds of veggies, nuts and dressings to my couscous – like in this Orange Curry Couscous. It is one of my absolute favorite ways to dress up plain couscous. Plus, you can use it as a side dish for dinner, then use any leftovers the next day for a delicious lunch!
Ingredients
Instructions
This post is linked to Finding Joy in My Kitchen.
Andrea has been married to Peter for 20 years, and together they have two teenage daughters. Struggling with the reality that soon her girls will be on her own, she is leaving them vlogs at 101 Life Lessons. You can also find her at The Greenbacks Gal where she finds organic deals, green steals and cooks real food meals.
I’ve made these potatoes twice now. They are so simple, but they taste like you’ve really put in a lot of effort. I love a good cheat!
This is more method than recipe, but I’ll add it in Ziplist below. I’ve made this with about 1 lb. of potatoes and half a container of Philly Cooking Creme. I thought that was a perfect amount of creaminess. I’ve also made it with 3 lbs. potatoes and a whole container of Cooking Creme. I thought that was a little dry, but Jim liked it better that way.
So, do what suits you and your family. If you want to up the creaminess, but don’t want to use more cream cheese just add a splash of milk.
Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]
A few weeks ago I decided to make a recipe from Feast in 15. But I didn’t have any cooked chicken in the freezer. And it was way too hot to grill that day. So I decided to use the skillet instead.
The result was an entirely new recipe. I used chicken marinated in soy sauce and Italian dressing. A quick thaw in the microwave and it was ready to go. Browning the chicken in the skillet and then adding the veggies made for a tasty sauce, perfect for serving over couscous or pasta.
I don’t have an ingredient photo for you this time, because I thought I was making a recipe I’d already shared in Feast in 15. Sometimes something new sneaks up on you. [Read more...]
Have you ever made a recipe that just didn’t turn out? I’ve done it a lot of times, but one I remember well.
Jim and I were recently married and I was just learning to cook. We used to invite friends to come to dinner and I would make a new recipe. Most of our other meals during the week consisted of ramen noodles or instant potatoes. We were college students and had no money, so it was a splurge to buy ingredients for a nice meal once a week.
On this occasion, I made a dish that had chicken, Italian sausage, potatoes and tomatoes in it. The recipe called to bake it in the oven for 1 hour. Needless to say, that was not nearly a long enough cooking time for so much meat and raw potatoes. When I served it, we cut into raw chicken. Yuck!
Thankfully, the guests we had were also college students. They were easily satisfied with a bowl of cereal until the dinner had more time to cook.
I never tried making that recipe again, but I remember that when it finally cooked it did taste good. So when Frigidaire recently asked me to share a “do-over” recipe, I knew this would be the one. Except this time I made it in the slow cooker to give it a good, long cook time.
Frigidaire has a new Gallery dishwasher that features an OrbitClean Wash Arm that gets the dishes clean the first time. Raise your hand if you’ve ever had to have a do-over on a load of dishes. Frigidaire invites you to visit Facebook.com/Frigidaire to share your own “do-over” moment. It doesn’t have to be food related. One lucky visitor is going to win the ultimate do-over! And Frigidaire is also donating $1 to Save the Children for every do-over submitted. So pop over and share your do-over moment.
Back to my do-over recipe. Here’s what you’ll need to try the slow cooker version, which worked out much better than the oven method I used so many years ago. [Read more...]
I love a good short cut. When it comes to garlic, I’ve learned that the best short cut is to get a good garlic press instead of using jarred garlic.
Fresh garlic can be a pain in the patootie if you don’t have a good press. But the fresh stuff packs so much more flavor than the kind in the jar, it’s worth purchasing a quality garlic press. You won’t even have to peel the paper off the cloves if you have a good press. Mine is from Pampered Chef, but there are many great brands out there.
We love garlic at our house! It goes well with our love of pasta. Here are a few of my favorite recipes that use garlic: [Read more...]
