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Menu Plan Monday 4-25-11

April 25, 2011 · by · 3 Comments
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Yesterday was the first Easter in a long time that I didn’t fix the traditional ham dinner. We had been to a Memorial service for Chris’ Grandma on Saturday and there was a ton of food left over. So, we had leftover fried chicken, lasagna and caesar salad for Easter dinner!

Thanks to my friend Eliza mentioning it on Facebook, I discovered the site Give Every Night New Flavor, which looks to be a collaboration between ConAgra Foods and participating grocery store chains. I picked Kroger because it’s the only one on the list we have here in Lansing, and used the recipe search to come up with a few ideas for meals this week.

I searched for Italian recipes that take 30 minutes or more and serve 4 or more and found a Baked Ziti that only calls for 5 ingredients – my kind of recipe!  Here’s everything I’m making this week:

Baked Ziti Casserole with steamed broccoli and garlic toast

Betty Crocker Chile-Chicken Enchiladas with rice, chips and salsa

Manwich Sloppy Joes, with oven fries and corn

Breaded Fish Fillets with Betty Crocker Au Gratin Potatoes and steamed peas

Pizza Night

Slow Cooker Roast Chicken with mashed potatoes, chicken gravy, and green beans

I link up my menu plan posts at I’m an Organizing Junkie. Head over to see hundreds more menu plans, and feel free to tell me in a comment what you are making for dinner this week!

 

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TABASCO Original Red – What Do You Use It On?

February 1, 2011 · by · 4 Comments
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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of TABASCO® Original Red. All opinions are 100% mine.

TABASCO® Original Red sauce has been a staple in my kitchen pantry for decades. I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of spicy food in general, but my husband LOVES Tabasco. He puts it on tacos, pizza, and even adds more of it to hot wings!  Tabasco is made with just three simple ingredients – salt, red pepper and vinegar – that are aged for three years to produce a hot sauce that actually enhances the flavor of food.

If you’re having a Super Bowl party, check out Tabasco’s Game-Day Party Menu where you’ll find recipes for pizza, wings, 35 different kinds of chili, dips, and finger foods like this twist on classic Chex Mix.

Hot & Spicy Party Mix

  • 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 to 3 teaspoons Original TABASCO® brand Pepper Sauce
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons seasoned salt
  • 8 cups of your favorite Chex® brand cereals (corn, rice and/or wheat)
  • 1 cup mixed nuts
  • 1 cup pretzels
  • 1 cup bite-size cheese crackers

Combine butter, Worcestershire sauce, TABASCO® Sauce, and seasoned salt in a small bowl and mix well. Pour cereals, nuts, pretzels and cheese crackers into a large plastic zip-top bag. Pour butter mixture over cereal mixture inside Zipper Bag. Seal top of bag securely. Shake bag until all pieces are evenly coated.

Pour contents of bag into an open roasting pan. Bake in a 250°F oven for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool and store as directed above.

Makes 11 cups.

If you like Tabasco on your pizza, check out Pizza Perfected for 10 ways to doctor up your pizza delivery. At the bottom of the page are links to 10 ways to doctor up frozen pizza and 10 more ways to doctor up homemade pizza, all using Tabasco sauces.  My husband says that putting Tabasco Original Red on pizza gives it the same tanginess he would get from using yellow banana peppers, except with the added heat.

So, what do you use Tabasco sauce on?

Visit Sponsor's Site

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Healthy Choice is helping me feel better!

October 28, 2010 · by · Leave a Comment
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It’s no secret that I am overweight. Obese, actually, according to my doctor’s official height and weight chart. It’s been a struggle for me for over 20 years. I have signed up for “weight watching” (you know what I mean) more times than I can count, every time I think “this time it’s going to work!”, but it never does. And I think the reason why is because I am not good at preparing meals for myself.

My biggest problem is lunch. I do okay at breakfast with a bowl of cereal and my coffee, and I cook a full dinner for five people every night (well, unless Chris cooks and on Friday when we have pizza – okay, ALMOST every night), but at lunchtime? I just never have any idea what to do. I get bored eating meat and cheese on bread with some carrots on the side…snore. I want a hot meal, or a meal with a variety of flavors, and I’m just not that creative at it.

When Healthy Choice asked me to participate in their “Getting Better for BlogHer” campaign last summer, they sent me a bunch of coupons and asked me to purchase enough Healthy Choice meals to replace one meal a day. It was an easy decision – I would replace my usual fast food lunch! I should also mention that yes, Kaitlyn is here for lunch every day, but she lives on yogurt, apples, and air right now so I don’t have to cook for her ;)

My previous experiences with Healthy Choice’s frozen meals had not been great, to be honest. I remember mushy meats, watery green beans, and that strange fruit dessert that was like pie filling topped with crumbs. So I was VERY happy to see that Healthy Choice has revamped their product lines and the new frozen entrees are fresh-tasting and look as good in the tray as the photo on the box.

My favorite meals are:

  • The Beef Pot Roast, which comes roasted beef and onion gravy, seasoned red potatoes, carrots that are tender-crisp, and an apple-cranberry crisp that tastes like FRUIT, not pie filling, for only 290 calories.
  • The Oven Roasted Chicken, topped with a light gravy, mixed vegetables,  whipped potatoes, and peach crisp for only 260 calories
  • Salisbury Steak with mushroom gravy, redskin mashed potatoes, and green beans with red peppers for only 190 calories.

Are you sensing the theme here? I didn’t realize how much I like GRAVY until I made the list of my favorite meals!

To see all the products available from Healthy Choice, be sure to check out http://www.healthychoice.com/

I’m participating in the Healthy Choice Better for BlogHer campaign in exchange for free product coupons and financial compensation. All opinions are, as always, 100% mine.

edited to add: Yes, I am participating in the Optifast program. They know I am wrapping up the Healthy Choice campaign, and the dietician has worked a daily Healthy Choice meal into my plan.

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Get Steamy at Lunch with Healthy Choice

September 3, 2010 · by · Leave a Comment
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Continuing my series of posts for the Healthy Choice “Better for BlogHer” campaign, I’m talking today about Healthy Choice’s new Steaming Entrees line of frozen meals. I got a look at these at BlogHer ’10 during a special lunch I was invited to held by Healthy Choice.

The idea behind the Steaming Entrees line is that Healthy Choice wanted to make frozen entrees that used no preservatives and contained just natural ingredients. Visually, I think they did a great job with the packaging. Right away you see photos of the vegetables used in each entree, each meal has three different veggies for variety, nutrition, and color.

The original Cafe Steamers line has 6 chicken entrees, one shrimp entree, and a vegetarian portabello parmesan risotto entree.
Each meal includes a carbohydrate like rice, noodles, or potatoes for a balanced meal.

Healthy Choice gave me a lot of coupons so I can keep Steaming entrees and other Healthy Choice products in my freezer, with the goal of replacing my usual fast food lunches with a Healthy Choice meal instead. I’m trying :)

I’ll admit, I probably wouldn’t have bought more than one or two of the Steaming entrees myself if Healthy Choice hadn’t included me in this campaign, because my past experiences have been that the photo on the box looks nothing like the meal you actually get. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that the Steaming Entrees look and taste as fresh as the pictures on the box.

I need to wrap this post up, I have two more to do for Healthy Choice, and next time I’ll show you photos of the actual meals, and maybe even make a video. I appreciate Healthy Choice giving me this opportunity to find something new to eat for lunch!

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Hello from the Nestle Culinary Center!

April 29, 2009 · by · 7 Comments
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cross-posted from MomCooks:

stouffers_logoYesterday, Nestle flew me to Solon, Ohio to attend a day-long conference and roundtable discussion on the topic of Let’s Fix Dinner. This morning we started out in the Nestle Baking Kitchen meeting with Jenny from VeryBestBaking.com and eating fresh-baked cookies (YUM). Then we moved into their Culinary Center which is like a huge kitchen with grills and a wood-fire pizza oven station and people chopping and grilling and mixing.

There is Pecan-Crusted BACON, people. I am in heaven.

We’ve only been here an hour and I’ve already been reminded of just how loyal I am to the Nestle brand. I’ve mentioned before that the only acceptable chocolate chip cookie as far as my husband is concerned is ones made with Nestle Toll House Mini Morsels.

Other products made by Nestle include Carnation Condensed Milks, Libby pumpkin, Pria bars, Powerbars, and of course, CANDY. There’s a little tray sitting in front of me with mini butterfingers and nestle crunch bars.

BACON COATED IN BROWN SUGAR, ROLLED IN CRUSHED PECANS, AND BAKED. NOM NOM NOM NOM.

We’re having presentations from a psychologist, an expert on raising teens, Antonia from last season’s Top Chef, and our moderator is a famous Cleveland newscaster. Pretty cool.

I’ll be twittering regularly today with the hashtag #letsfixdinner if you want to keep an eye on those.

I NEED MOAR BACON.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/table4five/

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