Lots of Meaty Dinners!

We're definitely meat lovers at our house and we've been having some yummy meaty dinners! First off some pork chops braised in a sauce made with a combo of Mango Pineapple Salsa and broth. It's so simple yet perfect for summer. Don't you just think of mango and pineapples when the weather gets warm?

We received some Stonewall Kitchen gourmet jams and jellies as a gift and one of the jars was Hot Pepper Jelly which I found is perfect with lamb. So I made some grilled Lamb Loin Chops and served the jelly on top. AMAZING!

We also had some huge chicken legs braised in a Coconut Curry Sauce. The sauce was just curry powder, ginger, garlic and coconut milk with LOTS of red chili peppers! So simple yet so flavorful served over rice noodles, hubby favorite!

Next we have some pork chops simmered in a spicy pickled jalapeno sauce. Our favorite brand is Embasa and it comes in a can with pickled carrots as well. SO perfect to add a Mexican twist to anything!

I found a recipe for Greek Braised Chicken Thighs and thought I'd give it a try. I'm so glad I did! We don't eat a lot of Feta but we're definitely gonna start! I just love the texture and saltiness!

AND last but definitely not least, I made the most amazing Pepper-Stuffed Pork Chops! Yes the filling fell out a bit but who cares? :)

A Few Easy Dinners

I don't get crazy with weeknight meals and have a lot of easy recipes saved up. These Cheesy Baked Pork Chops were incredible! The garlic and brown sugar rub was just perfect and it doesn't get any faster than couscous. I think I'm missing some green garnish though...oh well!

Next up, some Buffalo Chicken Sliders with Blue Cheese. I made them even quicker by using precooked chicken and adding the Frank's Buffalo Sauce. My hubby thought the blue cheese was a bit over-powering but what does he know right? I love me some stinky cheese!

Lastly a big bowl of Sausage and Pepper Pasta. I chose Bowtie pasta because they're just so cute! Lots of chili flakes and finally got some garnish!

When Life Gives You Lemons

Or in my case, when a coworker brings in a huge bag of Meyer lemons from her lemon tree, I just couldn't resist! I mean, who passes up on free food right? I grabbed a few to make a yummy dinner of Meyer Lemon Chicken. I loved the addition of the capers and frying up some lemon slices to go on top was just genius!

Then, since she kept bringing more lemons in and I was afraid they'd go to waste, I decided to make a special treat for the office, Meyer Lemon Cardamon Crinkle Cookies! They were a HIT! I mean who doesn't like cookies dipped in sugar right?

A Third Thanksgiving

Since my hubby and I spent Thanksgiving separately this year, we decided to do another celebration after he got back. This is our third Thanksgiving since we already had a Pre-Thanksgiving the weekend before! These are very simply baked chicken leg quarters with carrots, potatoes and onions. Not even a recipe required! It's just chicken seasoned with Italian seasoning and baked in the oven for about an hour. Served over stuffing, of course, cuz it's still Thanksgiving after all!

For dessert, I whipped up an easy boxed mix of Pumpkin Pie Bars with Gingerbread Crust. You can get anymore HOLIDAY than these!

Early Thanksgiving with my Hubby!

We usually spend our Thanksgiving with my in-laws but I have to work on Friday this year. My hubby is still flying down to SoCal but I'm staying here and spending the holiday with my mom. That doesn't mean we can't have a little celebration of our own beforehand though! I decided to make it a Pre-Thanksgiving weekend because why not right? It started off with Pumpkin Cranberry Cookies. So soft and yummy!

Then following our tradition, I made Bobby Flay's Corn Muffins that we all love so much from Mesa Grill. (Mine were made with yellow corn cuz blue just never comes out very appetizing!) They're spicy and full of bell peppers and corn.

Friday night, I used some of the leftover pumpkin from the cookies to make a VERY yummy Pumpkin and Thai Curry Chicken. Probably not the most traditional recipe given that it's from Betty Crocker but you can't go wrong with Thai over rice noodles. No complaints here!

Just for kicks, I decided to make some super cute Acorn Cookies from my new cookbook, Smart Cookie. I'm totally in love with all the recipes in there using storebought cookies to make some really creative stuff! In case you can't tell, these were made with Nutter Butter, Chocolate Frosting, Chocolate Sprinkles and Pretzel Sticks. SUPER CUTE right?

Saturday night was our real Pre-Thanksgiving meal with Herb-Roasted Game Hens over Stuffing. Not much of a recipe here. I just drizzles balsamic vinaigrette over the hens and sprinkled Italian seasoning on top. Baked for an hour and they're golden brown and SUPER tasty!

Finally a Sunday night favorite, braised Chicken Legs. Simply browned and slowly braised in my Dutch Oven with onions, garlic and more Balsamic. Served over (what else?)...STUFFING!

More Fall Eats and Treats!

First off, some treats! Pumpkin Pie Pudding Cookies! Instead of the Cinnamon Chips, I actually found Pumpkin Pie Chips. (I just LOVE seasonal baking ingredients!) They came out soft and tasted just like Pumpkin Pie but in tiny cookie form.

A perfect weeknight meal of braised porkchops topped with dried fruit and pineapples served over Couscous.

More Crockpot goodness with Martha Stewart's Spiced Chicken Stew. We LOVED the raisins in this dish and perfect over stuffing.

A Sunday night feast of Apple and Sage Porkchops served over, what else, STUFFING! It feels like Thanksgiving already!

Since we had the day off for Veteran's Day, I decided to bake some 7-Layer Magic Bars. These had a combination of chocolate, white chocolate and peanut butter chips along with coconut and walnuts. A definite hit at the office and super easy to make too!

Velveeta Eats and A Couple of Sweets!

Another week has flown by and it seemed to be centered around one very special item, Velveeta! First up, some Spicy Cheesy Mini Meatloaves for a quick weeknight meal. This was my first time using Velveeta and it was amazing!

Since I couldn't seen to get enough of the stuff, some Famous Queso Dip while watching football.

Next up, Ultimate Nachos (with chicken instead of beef) because we still had more Velveeta left. (Football makes us really hungry for cheese!)

Finally, Cheeseburger Pizza, which literally combined our favorite 2 items into 1!

Coming off of our Velveeta high, I made some simple hot dogs with grilled peppers and onions and spiced up with Jalapenos and Jalapeno cheese.

Now onto some sweets! I haven't posted many cookies recently because they haven't been that interesting. (Chocolate Chips have been a very reused theme!) On a recent grocery trip, I found Pillsbury's Maple Brown Sugar Cookie Mix and it just seemed perfect for the season. They were super easy to make and I added Butterscotch Chips for extra flavor. They turned out really yummy and no one knew they weren't made from scratch! Shhh....

For my manager's birthday, I made some Chocolate Cupcakes (using cake mix) topped with Pink Vanilla Frosting. SO pretty and sweet!

We LOVE Sriracha!

We LOVE Sriracha so much I get the big bottles and still can't seem to keep them around long enough. So when I came across this recipe for Sriracha Chicken, I knew I found a winner! The combination of the spicy, sweet and salty mixture was just perfect! I added some bell peppers and mushrooms for extra flavor and served my chicken over rice noodles. A quick and yummy weeknight dinner!

Hillshire Farms...GO MEAT...I mean SAUSAGE!

We LOVE LOVE LOVE Coconut Curry and add some pineapples to the mix and I'm sold! Tonight we enjoyed a VERY yummy Coconut Curry Chicken Sausage Skillet served over rice noodles. (You can't really see the noodles under all that delicious sauce but trust me, we figured out how to get every last drop!)

Delmonte-Inspired Dinner

Tonight's dinner was inspired by Pineapple Chicken Stir-Fry from Delmonte's website. I just made a few minor changes like using Honey-Roasted Chicken Strips and adding mushrooms. I also served the chicken over rice noodles cuz my hubby LOVES that stuff!

Chicken Cordon Bleu in Pasta Form!

This is a recipe that I came up with using some of my favorite convenience items like Foster Farms Crispy Chicken Strips and Pasta Roni Shells. I'm also a big fan of the salad bar where I picked up cooked ham and mushrooms. VERY easy and totally tastes like Chicken Cordon Bleu!

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp oil 
1/2 c cooked ham, diced
4 crispy chicken strips, chopped into bite-size 
1/2 c mushrooms, sliced
Pasta Roni Shells, cooked 
1/4 c Mozzarella cheese, shredded 
Fresh chopped parsley, for garnish

Prep: 

1. In a pan, heat oil on medium. Add ham, chicken and mushrooms. Cook until mushroom is softened.

2. Stir in pasta and Mozzarella and cook until cheese is melted. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Cajun-Style Fettuccine

We LOVE Cajun flavors cuz well, it's SPICY! Ok, I'm sure this isn't authentic but I figured if I add paprika and cayenne, I'm getting close! Tonight's dinner features Fettuccine with grilled chicken, mushrooms and bell peppers. ALL that in less than 20 minutes. Not THAT'S impressive!

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp butter

1/2 c sliced fresh mushrooms

1/2 c bell pepper, diced

1/4 c onion, diced

1 c diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Cooked chicken, cubed

Fettuccine, cooked

Prep:

1. In a pan, melt margarine over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, bell pepper and onion; cook about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisp-tender.

2. Stir in tomatoes, milk, paprika and cayenne. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally.

3. Reduce heat. Cook uncovered 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in fettuccine and chicken. Cook uncovered until thoroughly heated. 

More Easy Dinners!

Here are 2 more very easy meals for our weeknight dinners. First up is Chicken Pasta-Roni with grilled chicken and mushrooms. Next is Mac and Cheese with Imitation Crab (our fav!). Dinner in less than 20 minutes. Can't beat that!

Quick and Easy Pad Thai at Home

We used to order Pad Thai all the time from our local Thai places but nowadays it's so easy to make my own and it's much faster than takeout too! (Plus, who know if those "No MSG" claims are real or not!) Anyway, here are 2 Pad Thai meals that I've made recently, 1 featuring ground beef and another with chicken. I like to add chopped veggies like bell peppers and mushrooms if I have them but the dish is yummy just with the meat and rice noodles. We like either chopped eggs mixed in or a fried egg on top. The sauce is essentially the same, a combo of fish sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar and of course, Sriracha!

Mexican Smothered Chicken Thighs...How Good Does THAT Sound?

It's been a while since I made chicken thighs mainly because they take a while to cook and now that I'm working fulltime I just don't have the time after work. Sunday nights though are a different story. Even with all the errands and laundry, I still end up with plenty of time to make dinner. So tonight, I made Mexican Smothered Chicken Thighs. I mean, the name just makes my mouth water! I served the chicken over Spanish rice and it was an amazing Sunday night dinner!

EXTRA Chipotle Braised Chicken

I've been saving this Chipotle Braised Chickenrecipe for a while now and finally made it tonight. Am I glad I did! I threw in some extra Chipotle powder, of course, since we like things spicy and it was amazing! The lime juice worked really well with the heat and I served the chicken thighs over Mexican Rice to go with the Chipotle theme.

Back with More Coconut Milk!

We order Coconut Milk by the dozen since we love it so much and when we ran out last week, I was in a panic! Not to worry though, Amazon Prime to the rescue! (Seriously, I'm not paid for writing this but it's a LIFE SAVER sometimes!) Anyway, so tonight, I had to make some Coconut Curry Chicken. It's been adapted from many different recipes and I added a few personal touches of my own.

Ingredients:

2 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
Salt and pepper
1 Tbsp oil
1/4 c onions, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger, minced
1 can unsweetened coconut milk
Rice, for serving
Parsley, for garnish

Prep:

1. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chicken, skin-side down and brown 5 minutes on each side. Remove and keep warm.

2. Add onion, garlic and ginger and cook until softened, 5 minutes. Stir in coconut milk and bring to a boil.

3. Add chicken back and turn heat down to medium-low. Cover and simmer until chicken is cooked through, 20 minutes.

4. Serve over rice and garnish with parsley.

VERY Flavorful Braised Chicken!

We LOVE chicken thighs at our house so I couldn't WAIT to make Alex's Braised Chicken with Tomato. It was SO incredibly flavorful with the cumin and cinnamon and of course, I had to kick it up a notch with EXTRA chili flakes. Yes, we like it SPICY! YUM!

Enchiladas Casserole Style!

My hubby LOVES Enchiladas so when I came across this Enchilada Pasta Casserole recipe, I knew I had to make it ASAP. It was so easy and came out so incredibly good! Instead of the corn and green chiles, I used Trader Joe's Spicy Corn Salsa, which gave the dish an even deeper Mexican taste. I DEFINITELY recommend this recipe!

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo with Enchilada Casserole!

What's better than Enchiladas on Cinco de Mayo? Enchilada Casserole! This was seriously a genius idea! Combining 2 of our favorite meals into 1. The addition of cream cheese in the pasta sauce just added to the awesomeness of this dish. I can't think of a better way to celebrate a Gringo Mexican holiday! LOL.