1. Season the roast with garlic salt, salt and pepper.
2. Pre-heat your oven to 500 degrees then…
3. turn it down to 475 degrees and cook your roast for 21 minutes. Then…
4. you turn off the oven and leave it there for 2 and a half hours.

Mine turned out tender and juicy and delicious!! (TIP: use a good, sharp knife so your meat doesn’t seem tough.)

Heat up a can of your favorite green beans and a box of rice pilaf as sides and Viola! Dinner is served! (I like Near East brand rice pilaf)

Some great tips to help make getting healthy meals on the table a snap! I talk about cooking 6 meals in one day to serve for the whole week, double-baggin a second portion, freezing techniques, using Press N Seal, Reynolds Wrap, Ziplock containers and more!

I get you! I know you don’t have the time and energy to buy all these ingredients, prep them and drop them into 6 other little bowls you have to wash! Now, I love my family and go to lengths to make them a wonderful dish now and then, but most evenings you’ll find me rushed and trying to get dinner on the table before the natives get restless!

It starts with a can…Here is a simple and easy recipe for a hearty autumn soup your whole family will love and it will not only be a staple for Halloween and football game nights, it is a dish company will love.

It is a pasta and bean soup but you can call it what you like. We refer to it as bean soup but it’s really called Pasta Fagioli (fa-jol) I know Giada has a much more complicated recipe, but I know your time and budget can be limited. Keep the ingredients in your pantry and you will always be ready. Another great tip is to buy these items when they are on sale! I stock up when Albertson’s has the 10 for $1.00 sale going!

Please note, I don’t always give exact measurements; I cook like you! Eye ball measurements and add to taste. The Food Network chefs always serve their food to a fun group of family and friends and you can too if you abandon guilt and expectations, keep it simple and skip to the fun part of enjoying your family!

Bean and Pasta Soup

Level: easy
Cost: amazingly budget friendly
Clean up: easy

Ingredients:

• 2 cans canneli beans *(white kidney beans)
• 2 cans chicken stock
• 1 large can of chopped tomatoes flavored with garlic, basil and oregano.
• 1 small brown onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• leftover ham or 4 slices of bacon or salt pork…whatever you have on hand!
• olive oil
• small sized pasta (salad macaroni or small shells, even alphabet pasta is a fun choice!)

Instructions:

1. In your soup pot, saute chopped garlic, onion and leftover ham or bacon in olive oil.
2. Rinse beans and add beans, chicken stock, tomatoes and about a cup and 1/2 of water.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste. (I add a few crushed red pepper flakes)
4. Bring to a slow boil, reduce heat and add about 3/4 cup of uncooked pasta.
5. Let this soup slowly simmer for about an hour.

Tips:

Be careful when adding pasta; keep in mind it can as much as double in size.
Serving tips: serve with a loaf of fresh baked bread always avail at the front of the store, canned bisquits, or corned bread.
Shopping tips: buy chopped tomatoes already flavored with herbs for quick and easy italian or mexican meals!  These tomatoes usually go on sale when the plain ones do.
Cooking tips: Cube and freeze those last few slices of ham from your next holiday dinner for this dish.

This year, my husband was in the kitchen when I was in my cooking frenzy. He watched as I poured two bowls of cranberry sauce and held one into the air. “This one,” I announced, “is for us”. He shrugged his shoulders and said “OK”. He was completely underwhelmed. He stole some shredded cheese from my bowl and said very casually, “I don’t like cranberry sauce”.

I have been feeding this man for over 17 years. I thought back to all the Thanksgiving dinners we have celebrated together. I mentally pictured his plate: no yams, no green bean casserole, no lime jello, double serving of stuffing and a turkey leg and, yes… my cranberry sauce!

“But you eat it every year! ” I was floored.

Every year since our daughters could reach the stove, we have made the sauce. Sometimes we make a fancy one with orange zest and nuts, but we always have one bowl of the original. It was so wonderful to see our little girl proudly place a dish she made on her grandmother’s table and listen to the compliments from family members.

“I only eat it because you make it.” he said as he casually ate more shredded cheese.

“But you don’t eat all the other food you don’t like. You don’t eat yams or jello and will pass up dessert completely if there is only pumpkin pie”. I really was confused.

“Yes, but you don’t make any of that.” he answered, stole more cheese and then went back to his office.

This was a learning moment for me. It was a lesson about the language of love spoken by a husband and father. You see, when a man speaks his language of love, it rarely includes words. A man’s language of love come from actions.

Every Thanksgiving, my husband must have watched me and one of our daughters making a simple cranberry sauce over the stove, put it into a crystal dish and set it on my mom’s Thanksgiving table. All these years, I thought he never really noticed or cared. But he had. Even though he never liked cranberries, he knew his wife and daughter would be watching to see who would eat what they had prepared. He always took a good sized serving and complimented us in front of everyone.

I love this about my husband. Even though he is a vet having served with the Marine Corps, this simple action every Thanksgiving makes him my hero. He would never want his wife’s or daughter’s dish to go untouched.

His language of love is there and I must remember to watch for the actions, which, after all, speak much louder than words.

Among the many challenges we have to take on is that of meal preparation. It seems fairly easy when you see a newscaster standing in front of a counter that has 18 ingredients, chopped, minced, measured and placed in a perfectly sized glass bowl! When a mom is deciding what to prepare for a meal, she has to open her pantry, fridge or freezer and figure out what she can make. Throw in some homework, a colicky baby or an emergency trip to the vet with a sick dog, and dinner plans quickly fly out the window!

I have been prepping meals for over 25 years and have a list of favorites that my family loves and that are quick and easy for me to cook. Including these meals into your rotation can ease up your routine and also are easy enough for family members to help prepare. I also am a big fan of cooking double portions and freezing for later.

One of my favorites is the award winning meatloaf recipe from the back of the Quaker Oats box! I double the recipe, or even triple it if ground beef is on sale and freeze a few loaves for another busy night! This recipe yields a meatloaf for 6 servings. It always comes out moist and delicious! Few things in a mom’s life can be this predictable!
I serve macaroni and cheese and fresh green beans and it is always a pretty and colorful presentation! My husband enjoys a meatloaf sandwich the next day.

Recipes
Classic Meatloaf

Ingredients

*
* 1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef or turkey
* 3/4 cup Quaker® Oats(quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
* 3/4 cup finely chopped onion
* 1/2 cup catsup
* 1 egg, lightly beaten
* 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Preparation

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine all ingredients in large bowl; mix lightly but thoroughly. Shape meatloaf mixture into 10×6-inch loaf on rack of broiler pan.

Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until meatloaf is to medium doneness (160°F for beef, 170°F for turkey), until not pink in center and juices show no pink color. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing. Cover and refrigerate leftovers promptly and use within 2 days, or wrap airtight and freeze up to 3 months.

Yield

6 TO 8

One rainy afternoon, Kathy and Baby Jeremy stopped by and she asked me what I was serving for dinner. I said, “We were having the rainy day special, Albodigas.” Kathy said she loved that soup and asked how to make it. So I promised to get her the recipe.

It is so easy to make and although it requires a good amount of chopping of fresh ingredients, it is one of those meals that can be stored and reserved throughout the week…with quesadillas for a complete dinner or just a bowl for a hearty lunch.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
• 1 small brown onion, chopped
• 1 bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped
• 2 handfuls of uncooked rice
• 1 raw egg
• salt, pepper, garlic powder
• 6-8 carrots, coin sized slices
• 3-4 celery ribs, chopped
• 4-5 red potatoes, quartered
• 1 can of tomato sauce

Directions:

1. Set a large pot of water to boil. (I add some salt to the water while it boils.)
2. Combine ground beef, 1/2 onion, 1/2 of the cilantro, rice, egg and seasonings and mix by hand.
3. Form meat mixture into small meatballs and put in boiling water.
4. Add chopped carrots and celery to mixture, remaining onion and cilantro, tomato sauce to water and meatballs.
5. Set to simmer for 90 minutes.
6. Add potatoes and simmer another 30 minutes.
7. Salt and pepper to taste.
8. Serve with fresh wheat, white or corn tortillas or for a complete meal; quesadillas!

You can find other quick and easy recipes right here on this blog. Just select the ‘RECIPE” link from the Categories menu on the right. I am all about the easiest way to prep healthy meals within a budget!

Send me some of your favorites and we can all help each other get in and out of the kitchen quickly and enjoy our families! ]]> http://debiontheweb.com/soup-recipe-for-kathy-and-other-new-moms/feed/ 0 http://debiontheweb.com/5-ingredients-or-less-pot-pie/ http://debiontheweb.com/5-ingredients-or-less-pot-pie/#comments Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:00:03 +0000 Debi Gutierrez http://mommycomic.com/mmmv/archives/165 Here’s one of my favorites, in fact, I am making this later today for my daughter and her babysitter!  I’ll have just enough for leftovers for hubby’s lunch.

Chicken Pot Pie

Frozen deep dish pie shells

1 family sized can of chicken (or you can use leftover roasted chicken)

1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables

1 can of  Cambells cream of chicken mushroom soup

salt, pepper, garlic powder

Simply mix chicken, vegetables, and soup into a bowl.  Add seasonings to your taste.  Scoop mixture into pie shells.  Here’s a hint, place the top shell on to the mixture the same way they were placed as frozen, so pie crust is sealing the chicken mixture. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 40 minutes.  If you want a pretty presentation, during the last 15 minutes, brush egg wash over the pie for a golden crust.  Serve with biscuits.

I keep all these things on hand so I can get this dinner together when I have a day that gets away from me.  Fix it and forget it and like I said, leftovers make a good breakfast or lunch!

I save my sanity by keeping a list of “5 Ingredients Or Less”  dinner  suggestions handy and I am going to share a few with you.  Feel free to give me your ideas as well!

Let’s start with an easy one…so incredibly easy!   Breakfast for dinner!!   It’s been months since my family has had time to enjoy a great breakfast on the weekend.  Dinner gives us a little more time.  Fry bacon, make toast and to keep it easy for me, I make scrambled eggs for everyone.  I scramble them with milk and can toss in anything I may have handy, green onions, bell peppers, shredded cheese, or ham.  I slice up some fruit and we are eating within a half hour.

Ingredients:

Bacon, eggs, bread, fruit.

It’s that easy!

Here’s how I save time in the kitchen.  First, I plan my grocery shopping to take a few hours from the time I get my coupons together, shopping, unloading and organizing my groceries for the week.  I know it sounds like an extravaganza,  but trust me, it’s worth it.  I am a busy woman and I never know when I will be called for an audition which takes me out of town for the better part of the day.  I organize my kitchen so my husband or I can make meals with little effort.  But it does take time.

As I have mentioned in previous blogs, I have a reach in freezer.  I love it.  It has saved my family so much money.  Do not invest in a fridge for the garage or put your old one out there….they drain so much energy and as you know, you can’t keep much in a fridge for months like you can with a freezer.  You can also take advantage of sales on meat.  Properly stored, you can keep meat for months!

When I get home from shopping, I wrap my meats for the freezer or fridge and put them away. I keep a few days worth of meat in the fridge, the rest goes in the freezer.

Then, I take all my veggies, carrots, celery, cucumbers, onion,  etc, and I wash, slice and store it in see through plastic baggies.  Why wait until the day you cook to wash, peel and cut up veggies.  No recipe I ever saw calls for a whole carrot or celery stalk!  When was the last time you had to throw a whole onion in a dish?  If I know I am going to use lettuce and tomato within a few days, I wash, dry and cut that up too.  Diced onion can be stored in the freezer and defrosts easily.  You can even store in snack sized baggies.  You usually don’t need more than that in your average recipe.

I also grate a 2 lb brick of cheese and can store it in my deli pantry in baggies.  Now I am ready to rock and roll a whole wheat quesadilla on a school morning or an omelet  on the weekend.  I also have cheese ready for popular Mexican foods like tacos, burritos or tostadas!   If I find mozzarella cheese on sale, I also grate that so it’s ready for pasta or salads.  Let’s face it, cleaning a cheese grater is the worst!!!

Anything you see prepackaged at the grocery store, you can do at home.  It takes time, but it is worth the money.  Lettuce, cheese and cookies can cost you up to 3 times as much.  And in today’s financial climate, we all need to learn how to save here and there.

If the spirit moves me, will even package pretzels, crackers and cookies in snack sized bags (holds the right portion size)  for lunch.

You must invest in freezer friendly storage containers and plastic bags…and the help of your family.  You can all decide what to eat during the week.  Anytime the family is gathered around food… even putting it away, can be a good place for conversation.

Add 1/4 cup of vinegar to the final rinse water  when washing clothes.  By rinsing off dulling saop residue, vinegar brightens colors and whitens whites.  It even keeps your black clothes as dark as when you bought them.

Add 1/2 cup of vinegar to laundry detergent  when washing new clothes. It gets rid of manufacturing chemicals in new clothing.

Add 1 cup of vinegar to your dishwasher and run it empty for a cycle.  The vinegar gets rid of any soap residue that makes glassware cloudy.

Make a spray bottle of a mixture of vinegar and water to clean and freshen counter tops, inside of the microwave, lunch boxes, plastic food containers and  the refrigerator.

A mixture of white distilled vinegar and water (mixture amount depends on the size of the job) will get rid of varmints such as fleas on your dog, or ants in your yard.

I know this blog entry may seem lack luster is comparison of what is going on in the world.  We have an economic crisis, two wars, a new president, and sometimes with all this going on, I feel like the only thing I CAN control is the health, and happy hum of my home!