Hello, Hello Fresh

I was sent a coupon code from a friend to try Hello Fresh (PS this link has a discount code too!) and I figured why not. We had been in a little bit of a food rut so why not. I went with the Classic Plan for Two because the meals looked better to us anyway and was excited to pick our first meals.

Veggie Loaded Orzo with Sausage was up first, ingredients laid out

First of all, I love that is comes all in a bag together so you just grab it and go. The meals are shown in about 6 steps so they move pretty fast and you are ready to eat in no time.

Plated and ready to eat (this meal feed Hubby and I dinner and me for lunch the next day)

Next up was Orange and Cashew Chicken Stir Fry, I got my little helper involved in cooking this one.

She loved being able to help me make dinner and even ate this one as well

This was my favorite meal the flavors were on point and so fun.

Finally we had Steak Tagliata, my helper again

The kids ate the arugula salad and sweet potatoes with this one (they are not steak fans...yet....)

Hubby loved the sweet potatoes from this recipe, so easy to do, and it was a nice change of pace for us and the kids.

We have decided to try another week of Hello Fresh because it gave us some fun ideas and was a great experience for the whole family. Any meal suggestions we should try?

Imagine Food Soups and Broths

Trying new products is one of my FAVORITE things to do! So when Influenster sent me some products by Imagine Foods I was excited to see what the line offered. My kids are HUGE soup eaters, strange I know, but they love soup. We try to make a lot of it ourselves because I do not like buying food with things in it I cannot pronounce (or my six year old cannot read). Finding soups that they like and I will buy can be a bit challenging.

So the Imagine Foods lines is a big win in our house.  What is not to love when the products start with real and organic ingredients! Even better our local Wegmans carries these products. That was a side track, back to the products we were sent.

I always like to have chicken broth on hand and this Super Reds sounded amazing to both Hubby and I. I decided to try the chicken broth first. I browned up some chicken and then added the pablano and queso soup, thinned out with the broth to a pan and simmered for about 7 minutes. While the chicken was simmer I cooked the couscous in the broth as well.

This was a super quick and easy dinner (I forgot to snap a picture), but both kids loved it (even my little one who claims she does not like chicken if not in nugget form).

I can't wait to try the Super Reds another night!

**The Imagine Foods products were provided to me free by Influenster to facilitate this review.

Bebox for Meal Preppers

Recently I was contacted by Jenna of the BeBox to help with her goal to make her dream a reality. After reading about her and her product, I knew I wanted to help.

After being frustrated, like many of us are, we the lack of quality containers to prep meals for on the go, Jenna came up with the idea of a customizable, stackable container.

Seriously, how cool is this product? Jenna is raising money for the BeBox to have it go into production so we can all have one. So please go check out the BeBox and order yours now so that Jenna can start making her dream a reality!

***No compensation was received for this post, I just think this is an awesome idea and want to help get it into production.

Pesto cubes

I accidentally picked up parsley instead of cilantro at the Wegmans the other day! So I had to think of something to do with all this parsley when suddenly it hit me....PESTO! I love pesto but Hubby not so much a fan, so I don't normally make it, but when you have parsley you do what you need to not waste (hehe).

Into the blender went my parsley and olive oil

I then added garlic and walnuts. I never have pine nuts on hand but realized that walnuts work just as well. After it is all mixed up I put them into mini muffin cups and into the freezer they go. Let it sit overnight and

PESTO CUPS!

What is your favorite thing to make and save?

Making Freezer Fries

What does one do with a bunch of extra sweet potatoes after the holidays that you could just not pass up???

Turn them into sweet potato fries to keep in the freezer! (Although little miss is on a no sweet potato fry kick I will break her of that!)

First thing is you wake up early on a Saturday morning and have the kitchen to yourself (not really, but that did happen and I LOVED every minute of it) Ok so really you cut your potatoes into the shape you want, feel free to use a mandolin. 

   

While you are cutting, put a pot of water on to boil. When ready drop your fries in small batches into the pot to blanch for 3 minutes. 

After they are blanched put them on to a cookie sheet to cool. 

Once cooled I put them in the freezer overnight then into a plastic bag to keep. When I want fries I pull them out of the freezer and into a 375* over for 20-25 minutes. Perfect use of extra potatoes and a huge savings!

Fun Fall Foods

I love the foods of Fall, so warm and comforting, so when anything I am associated with send me new recipe ideas I have to share. My love of coffee brings us this rub idea from Nescafe Tasters Choice:

Coffee-Spiced Rub (covers 4 pounds of meat) 

Ingredients:
2 1/2 teaspoons packed brown sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons NESCAFÉ TASTER’S CHOICE House Blend 100% Pure Instant Coffee Granules 
1 1/4 teaspoons sea or kosher salt
1 1/4 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/4 teaspoons ground coriander
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Baking Cocoa

I am planning to make this and put in on some chicken. I am always looking for fun ways to spice up chicken dishes. What is your favorite way to "spice" up chicken?

Fun Game Day Snack

As the weather gets cooler (yay!) it is time to start looking for Sunday snack foods! Check out this great spiced nut recipe from Nescafe Taster's Choice!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons hot water1 1/2 teaspoons NESCAFÉ CLÁSICO Pure Instant Coffee Granules or NESCAFÉ TASTER'S CHOICE House Blend 100% Pure Instant Coffee Granules

1/4 cup granulated sugar1 tablespoon honey or light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt3 cups whole mixed nuts (such as walnuts, pecans and unsalted almonds)

Instructions

PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Line baking sheet with foil.

COMBINE water and coffee granules in medium saucepan; stir until dissolved. Stir in sugar, honey and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat; stir in nuts until completely coated. Spread in single layer over prepared baking sheet.

BAKE for 5 minutes; stir. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, stirring halfway through bake time. Cool completely on baking sheet. Break into pieces; store in an airtight container. Can be made up to one week in advance.

Posted as a member of the  @NescafeUSA Tasters.

Tasty Summer Barbeque Treats

Check out this great Guest Post from Kelli MacDonald! 

With summer just around the corner, even those who don’t typically cook are becoming anxious to roll out the grill and prepare for another season of tasty barbeque treats. There is a wide variety of goodies that can be prepared in the back yard, and every year, more new ideas emerge for your outdoor taste buds.

The All Time Classics

No grilling season can really get started until you’ve brought out the classics at least once. The traditional all beef patty – cooked to perfection over charcoal – simply can’t be beat. Add a bit of grilled onions and peppers under the bun, and you’ve got yourself one great burger!

Taking a close second is good old barbeque chicken. Regardless of whether you prefer legs or wings, the tender bites of poultry smothered in your favorite sweet or spicy sauce will definitely help to ring in the summer season.

Of course, you can’t leave out barbeque ribs. Here you can place a slab of baby backs on a piece of aluminum foil – each side sprinkled generously with a dry rub – and you’ll hardly be able to wait until they’re cooked. Some may say they’re messy, but with just the right amount of sauce – and plenty of napkins – you should be ready to roll.

Don’t Forget the Fish

Although it may sound odd to some, fish on the barbeque can be absolutely amazing. In fact, fish – more than most other types of foods – can really benefit from the hot and fast cooking atmosphere of the grill. The secret here is to simply let the grill do most of the work.

One caution, though, is that you will need to make sure that the fish doesn’t stick to the grill. So, regardless of whether you brush the fish with some oil or you oil up the grill, in any case, be sure that you are working with a non-stick surface.

Once it’s ready, though, the meat from the fish should flake easily with a fork. You might also decide to soak the fish in a pre-cooking marinade. Either way, this meal only takes a few minutes to prepare and fully cook – and even less time to eat!

For the Vegetarians in the Group

Even if you prefer to stay away from burgers and steak, you can still take full advantage of all that a back yard grill has to offer. Skewered grilled vegetables taste great when cooked on a grill – especially asparagus, yellow peppers, and mushrooms. You can even marinade your veggies in an olive oil, salt, and lemon juice sauce to give the items a nice kick.

Topping It Off With Dessert

No dessert is more American than apple pie, and it just doesn’t get any better than a grilled apple with sweet coating to top off your outdoor meal. For this great treat, simply core the apple and fill it with a spoonful of brown sugar. Then, grill the apple covered for between 10 and 15 minutes. You and your back yard guests may be tempted to keep the grill lit all year long after tasting this dish!

Kelli MacDonald is a key part of the newest name in luxury group discounts, LuxeYard. She is also a prolific blogger and guest writer.

Combined Lasagna

For as long as I can remember Hubby and I have talked about doing a lasagna which was a combo of his mum’s with a white sauce and my mom’s with ricotta and red sauce. Finally we did it! Here it is:

While it turned out good, I think we would do more white sauce next time for a creamier end result.

First we made a Bolognese sauce with onions, beef, tomatoes, and mushrooms. Simple and very easy.

Next was a white sauce with sharp white cheddar cheese.

Then we got a jar of sauce (because for $0.99 I could not make it cheaper myself) and some ricotta.

So first we put down a row of no boil noodles in the pan. Then we added some Bolognese and white sauce. That was covered with more noodles, and the next layer was ricotta and sauce. We repeated the layers until we filled the pan up! Then we put parmesan and white cheddar cheese on the top and baked it for an hour.

This had great flavor and stayed together so nice for the picture, but we both wanted it to be creamier! More cheese sauce next time.

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

After our awesome produce delivery before the Super Bowl, Hubby and I knew we needed to make some salsa! Hubby loves black bean and corn salsa so he looked up a recipe and we used this as a guide.

1  can black beans, rinsed and drained
11 oz. whole kernel corn (we used frozen and filled the black bean can)
1 t minced fresh jalpeno pepper
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1/3 c. chopped fresh cilantro (or subst. 1 t dried cilantro)
1/4 c. diced onion
1/4 c. fresh lime juice (about 2 limes, squeezed)
1 t. salt

We mixed it all together then popped it in the fridge on Saturday night. By game time it was all set to go and tasted amazing. We might not be buying salsa in our house anymore!

What is your favorite thing to make and not buy?

Jacqui Helper

With working full-time and little miss at home, we need to have some quick dinners on hand. The other night I had planned to grab a hamburger helper from the pantry and make a quick dinner, 1 little problem, we had no helper in the house……

What to do, well I had the ground beef out so I thought we have plenty of veggie I can make my own helper.

So I browned off the ground beef, sautéed some onions and mushrooms in the pan, added some fiesta spice mix, peas, and milk then simmered away while the pasta cooked. We mixed it all together and this was a pretty tasty pantry and freezer meal.

 

What have you thrown together in a pinch?

Grains Side Salad

I love taking recipes I find and changing them based on what I have on hand. This is based on this recipe from Martha Stewart Living. I used couscous in this salad, but the recipe calls for barley which I think would be nice too.

For this salad take 8-10 mushrooms and cook them for 5 minutes in a skillet on high with 1 tablespoon oil. Let cool then slice. Whisk together 1/4 cup oil, 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, salt, and  pepper. Add mushrooms, 1 grated carrot, 1/2 an onion chopped, and parsley. Serve cold.

This salad made a nice and easy side dish to our dinner the other night and had both our starch and veggies in it.

How do you like to change recipes you find?

Nesting or just being me?

I am the first to admit that I am 100% nesting right now. I know that I am, and I am ok with that. I am not sure how Hubby feels about it, but I told him he just needs to deal with it!! How is one way to tell if you are nesting? My answer would be you spend your Saturday making over 30 meals to put in the freezer!

I would say this is defiantly nesting, but Hubby and I do this a few times a year anyway, so I am not sure it 100% counts. We made a number of our favorite recipes (found here) and packed them away for Baby Girl arrival. Only 6 weeks to go!!

How did any other mom’s out their “nest” in the last few weeks?

Memorial Day Punch

For some reason I decided I wanted to have a punch of some type at our Memorial Day BBQ. But as the only person that would not be drinking, I wanted to find something that people could spike! After looking through a number of bar books we have Hubby and I came up with this recipe for Pineapple Cranberry Punch:
2 quarts cranberry juice cocktail
1 quart 14 oz unsweetened pineapple juice
16 oz ginger ale
16 oz club soda
Pineapple chucks
Here is the final product

The only problem with this, it was VERY drinkable, with alcohol in it, I might be in trouble!
What is your favorite summer punch recipe?

Chicken and Mushroom pasta

When I was in graduate school and Hubby would come to visit we liked to make dinners and stay in because we did not get to see each other much. One of the meals we loved making was a Chicken and Mushroom pasta. This is a very easy recipe to make and nice and filling.

First, boil water for your favorite type of pasta and cook as directed. Next slice a chicken breast and cook the pieces with a little salt and pepper. In a saucepan, brown off sliced mushrooms ( I used about 5 large mushrooms for this dinner). To make the sauce add milk and cream cheese to the mushrooms and cook until thickened. (You might have to add some flour/water mixture to thicken it as well). Then combine the pasta, chicken, and sauce into the pan. Add some frozen peas and top with fresh parm cheese.

What is a favorite dish from your college days?

Curry and Rice

Hubby and I like to make a quick vegetable curry when we feel like we need to add some vegetables into our diet. We use this recipe and just add whatever veggies we have on hand at the house. This time it was just frozen mixed vegetables and mushrooms.

To make this even easier we used a Uncle Ben's Ready Rice I got with a coupon. This basmati rice was so easy to use and had a good flavor to it. It was very fluffy and EXTREMELY low in sodium. When you need a quick side I would highly recommend it.

 

*This is my own opinion I received nothing for this, I just like how easy these are too use!

Egg-cellent Dinners

Hubby and I have been trying to have one egg based dinner a week lately. It helps us cut down on meat based dinners and also allows our grocery bill to be kept a little lower. We love making a frittata as our egg dinner because the options are almost endless. Here is the one we made recently:

For this the first thing we did was brown off some potato slices (I used 1 small potato). Then into the pan went mushrooms, leeks, green pepper, and peas with a little cumin. After the veggies got soft we added 6 eggs whisked with a little milk. We cooked that until it began to set then put the potatoes and some shredded cheese on top and under the broiler it went until brown.

This is just an easy and tasty dinner especially for the summer months. What does in your frittata?

Savory Friendship Bread

I have not really tried too many savory dishes with my Friendship Bread starters (I am more of a sweets girl!) but I want to start making bread so I thought I would give it a try. I used this recipe from Emeril Lagasse as a guide and tried to make a Chessey Sourdough Bread. I used 1.5 cups of my friendship bread starter, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1.5 cups of white flour, along with 3/4  tsp of salt. I put all that in my mixer with the dough hook on and let it do it’s job. I then added about a cup of chopped cheese (swiss and cheddar to the mix) and placed it in an oiled bowl to rise.

After a few hours, I put cornmeal on the counter and kneaded my dough for a bit before making it into a ball. On to my baking peel it went to rest covered for another hour.

Finally, I cut an X on the top, sprinkle my baking pan with more cornmeal and into a 400 degree oven it went. After about an hour I check to see that the crust looked done (ok maybe a little over done). Although it does not look amazing I still actually enjoy the taste of this bread, since the swiss all melted into the bread and looks weird I might leave it out next time. But I am still enjoying eating it!

 

Any bread makers out there that have suggestions?

Salsa Night

The other night I noticed a salsa container in the fridge that I knew was not going to last much longer. Since I hate to waste things I got my thinking cap on and decided we would have salsa chicken. This was so easy (and would have been quick if my oven actually worked the whole time – little problem but Hubby was able to fix it in 2 minutes! LOVE HIM).

I took 2 chicken beasts and put them in aluminum foil. I placed half a jar of salsa over the top and into the oven then went for about 20-25 minutes (I am guess that is how long it should have taken).

On the side was a baked potato also done in the oven (they are so much better that way) topped with some of the salsa and cheese, as well as corn.

How do you like to use up extra things in the fridge?

Cranberry Vanilla Friendship Bread

Some people might remember that I have been working with the Friendship Bread Kitchen to test recipes the last few months. You can see a post here for biscuits, well this month it was a recipe for Moms for Mother’s Day. My variation was Cranberry Vanilla Bread.

Here is the recipe I used for my loaf:

1 cup Friendship Bread starter

1 egg
1 1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup flour
1 box vanilla instant pudding

Then I added:

1/2 teaspoon vanilla syrup
1 cup dried cranberries

Then into a 325 degree oven for 1 hour and you can smell the vanilla baking! When it comes out you have a super moist bread. One of the women I work with kept eating little pieces off the loaf all day because she liked it that much!

This is also great as crumbles on top of yogurt.

I also wanted to thank my friends at the Friendship Bread Kitchen for my new starter jar!

I can’t wait to try using it. Have you tried Friendship Bread yet?