More Freezer Meals

I had a couple of packages of Gorton's Grilled Fillets sitting in the freezer and wanted to get creative with them. I thought of making Lasagna Rolls (we have about 6 left over) but discovered that I'd already packed up all of our big pots to cook the noodles in! Whoops! SO I decided to make a sort of mac and cheese with fish instead. We had half a box of Fusilli in the pantry so I used that but any short pasta would work. I'm so glad I made this cuz it was SO easy and SO good! I even had ALL of the ingredients I needed at home! Talk about a clean-out the pantry recipe huh?


Ingredients:

8 oz dry Fusili
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 c whole milk
2 Gorton's Fish Fillets
3 c shredded Mozzarella cheese

Prep:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a shallow baking dish. Cook fillets in the microwave according to package directions.

2. In a pot, bring water to a boil. Add salt and pasta. Cook according to package directions, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Drain pasta and set aside.

3. In the same pot, over medium heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour and cook 3 minutes, whisking constantly. Gradually add milk and bring just to a boil, whisking constantly. Reduce heat and simmer, whisking often, until sauce slightly thickens, 4-5 minutes.

4. Add 2 cups of cheese. Stir until cheese is melted. Remove pan from heat and fold in pasta. Pour into prepared baking dish then sprinkle top with remaining cheese.

5. Bake 15-20 minutes or until cheese is bubble and top begins to brown. Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

Cleaning Out the Freezer featuring TATER TOTS!

I had a craving for Tater Tots a while back so we had about half a bag still sitting in the freezer. I didn't really feel like moving it to our new apartment so I thought I'd use it up. I found this really easy recipe on the Oreida website using just ground beef and a can of Cream of Celery Soup so I thought I'd give it a shot. Not exactly gourmet but it was a decent dinner. I wouldn't really go out and buy a bag of Tater Tots just to make the recipe again though but I'm sure my craving will hit again soon and I'll have half a bag left over. :)

Frank's BBQ Pizza

I brought home a bottle of Frank's RedHot Buffalo Wing Sauce last weekend and right after tasting it, Greg said "This would be REALLY good on BBQ Chicken Pizza!" SO when I discovered an open bottle of BBQ Sauce in the fridge, guess what I made for dinner? This was made on another Boboli pizza crust but this time I used the regular instead of the thin. There's really not that much of a difference, actually. I also used 2 packages of Tyson Roasted Diced Chicken and added sliced mushrooms. SO good! Look at all that cheese!!!

Ingredients:

1 prebaked thin pizza crust shells
1 c BBQ sauce
1 c sliced mushrooms
2 pkg (6 oz each) diced, cooked chicken
1/2 c Frank's RedHot Buffalo Wing Sauce
2 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Prep:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Place pizza shell on baking sheets. Spread with barbecue sauce and top with mushrooms.

2. Toss chicken with Frank's Sauce. Arrange chicken on top of pizzas. Sprinkle with cheese.

3. Bake for 15 minutes until crust is crispy and cheese melts. Cut into wedges to serve.

Saltine Meatloaf Dinner

It's Meatloaf Time again! I swear this is probably one of the best pictures I've ever taken of my meatloaves. Thanks, of course, to my new glass pan! I found a box of Saltine Crackers in the back of our pantry while packing and there was a recipe for meatloaf printed right on the box so dinner was born! I jazzed it up with some Worcestershire Sauce and Dijon Mustard. And I also tossed in some mushrooms just cuz I had them in the fridge. For the final touch, I topped the whole thing with some shredded cheese right when it came out of the oven. PERFECTION!


Ingredients:

1-1/2 lb ground beef
24 Saltine crackers, crushed to 1 cup
3/4 c ketchup
2 eggs
1 pkg (1.1 oz) onion soup mix
1/2 c sliced mushrooms
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp dijon mustard
1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese

Prep:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Combine everything except cheese and mix well. Press into a 9x5" loaf pan.

2. Bake for 60 minutes. Top with cheese and let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Old Bay Salmon YUM YUM!

A while ago I received a small sample packet of Old Bay Seasoning and haven't had a chance to try it out. Greg's been asking for more fish so I found this recipe on their website and decided to give it a shot. YUM! It was SO quick and REALLY good! I served the salmon on top of some left over polenta from the weekend, which I pan-fried until a lil bit browned on the edges.

Inspired by Everyday Food + LAMB!

I was watching Everyday Food at the gym this morning and was totally inspired by this recipe. BUT I also had some lamb loins marinating in the fridge so I decided to substitute them for the shrimp and tomato. I had no idea it was so easy to make polenta from scratch! Now I'll never buy the storemade log ever again! The loins were just simply marinated in some olive oil, minced garlic, dried basil and dried thyme overnight. Then they were broiled for about 10 minutes and still pink inside. SO flavorful! What an incredible Saturday night feast huh? OK now back to packing!

Who Can Resist the Farmer's Market???

We finally got to check out the Farmer's Market at The Metreon and it was pretty awesome! We didn't get to try any of the food there since we already had lunch beforehand but we sure got some samples of the sweet peaches and couldn't resist buying some (well a dozen to be exact)! Now I know why people end up spending so much money at the farmer's market cuz everything tastes SO good and you just can't say "NO!" We also tried a lot of different mustards from another stand and ended up getting 4 different jars. Our favorite was definitely the Curry Mustard! SO good on just about anything! ANYWAY since we now had an abundance of peaches, I decided to bake muffins! SO good! You can seriously taste how juicy and fresh these peaches were in every bite!


Ingredients: (12 muffins)

1-1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c butter melted
1/4 c milk
1 egg
2 medium peaches peeled, diced

Prep:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Line 12 muffin cups liners.

2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together butter, milk, and egg in a separate bowl. Stir milk/egg mixture into the flour mixture and blend just until moistened. Fold in diced peaches.

3. Spoon into muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pan.