Shrimp & Pasta

Food Category: Bum Lovin', PG

Difficulty: Easy

Garlic Pasta

Cook Barilla Plus Thin Spaghetti according to package directions. When cooked, rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process & prevent pasta from sticking.

Toss pasta back into pan with 2 large crushed cloves of garlic (don't cook) & evoo. Season with sprinkles of salt, oregano, basil & a tad of ground cayenne pepper.

You could just stop right here. My kids could live off garlic pasta without complaint.

Or you could add the shrimp . . .

Gorton's Shrimp Temptations, Shrimp Scampi: cook according to package directions. I add more shrimp (uncooked, tail on) because the Kinder have wised up. I tell you, it's a sad, sad day when children decide to like shrimp. It's almost as bad as when they figure out that chicken legs are not the most desirable part of the bird. Or that hotdogs pale in comparison to ribeye.

Don't be afraid of the scampi. It's only 120 calories per serving.

Served with frozen broccoli, microwaved to perfection.

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bon appetite!

Leftover potential: All of this will hang in the fridge for a few days. Makes a great lunch for during the week. Extra broccoli can be frozen and later added to soups.

Fish & Chips

Food Category: G-Rated, Bum Lovin'
Difficulty: Easy

This was yet another super exciting meal our the Haus tonight!

The Protein:

Garlic & Herb Crunchy Fish Fillets by Gordon's, straight out of the box & cooked in the toaster oven.

The Veggie:

Frozen petite green peas that were nuked, sprayed with I Can't Believe it's Not Butter & sprinkled with salt

The Carb:

Oven Baked Potato Chips

• preheat oven & baking sheet to 450F
• peel & thinly slice potatoes
• toss with olive oil, salt &/or pommes frites seasoning
• line hot baking pan with parchment paper
• place potatoes on hot pan in a single layer
• baked for 10-15 minutes, turning frequently, until crisp & golden brown

The potatoes cook better if they are in a single layer, but I had more potatoes & just piled them up on the pan. If you eat single servings, this meal is about 500 calories. Load up on raw veggies if you need more volume.

Leftover potential: Peas can be frozen in the freezer soup container. Should you have leftover fish, it can be reheated in the toaster oven to make fish sandwiches later. Potatoes can be added to soups, but not frozen first. They can also be tossed into omlettes or breakfast burritos.

Asian Salad

Food Category: PG, Bum Lovin', High-5
Difficulty: Easy

Here's my first official repeat with Asian Salad with Tuna

This time the salads were made with:

• red tipped lettuce
• Napa cabbage
• sugar snap peas
• shredded carrots
• chopped red onion
• sliced cucumbers
• pineapple chunks
• Sweet & Spicy Starkist Tuna
• rice noodles
• a drizzle of teriyaki garlic sauce
• Newman's Own Low Fat Sesame Ginger Dressing

And, we had smoothies for dessert:

• frozen chunks of bananas & pineapple
• frozen whole strawberries
• mixed with just enough orange juice & skim milk to blend

I made Chex Party Mix in the crockpot yesterday & it turned out great - so great that it's all gone today. There are lots of great recipes at the Chex Website if you need inspiration.

For this mix, I used wheat, rice & corn Chex, oyster crackers and broken stick pretzels, packet of Ranch seasoning mix, several generous shakes of parmesean cheese, a bit of seasoning salt & just enough butter & olive oil to coat the mix, probably about 1/4 cup total.


Melt the butter in the microwave, mix in the oil & seasoning, then pour over the cereal mix (already in the crockpot). Stir to evenly distribute the butter & cook on high for 15-20 minutes or until the cereal starts to warm up. Switch to low for about 2 hours, keep uncovered. Stir occasionally & sample often.

Have the kids make some for your next get-together. It's really, really good served warm right out of the crockpot.

Fillet of Fish

Food Category: G-Rated, High-5, Bum Lovin'
Difficulty: Easy

Fish

Totally out of the box Gorton's:

• Garlic & Herb Crunchy Breaded Fillets
• Garlic Butter Grilled Fillets

Tartar Sauce

• Light Miracle Whip and/or Light Mayo
• dill pickle relish
• lemon juice
• finely grated onion
• pepper & lemon herb seasoning

Oven Fried Potato Wedges

• sliced unpeeled potatoes into skinny wedges
• toss with evoo & season with salt, pepper, garlic & onion powder, seasoned salt or pommes frites seasoning
• bake at 400F for 20-30 mins, turning frequently until desired crispness

Broccoli & Carrots (both fresh & steamed in microwave)

I don't measure anything when making the Tartar Sauce. Just throw ingredients together until it looks/tastes good. However you mix it up, it will taste mucho better than the kind in the jar.

To speed up the baking time for the potatoes, place unseasoned potato wedges in a microwave safe bowl & cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on high for a few minutes. This little bit of precooking will pull a lot of the water out of the potatoes. Don't overcook potatoes in the microwave - you want the potatoes to still be "hard" to the touch - just with less water. Drain water, pat potatoes dry with papertowels. Then add olive oil and seasoning & bake in the oven. These potatoes are really good sprinkled with parmesean cheese right before serving.

For a healthy dessert:

Orange-Pineapple-Banana Smoothies

• frozen bananas (peel and freeze in chunks)
• frozen pineapple (freeze either fresh or canned - reserve the juice)
• 1 orange, zest first, then peel & remove seeds

Blend orange zest & whole orange with just enough skim milk, orange juice or pineapple juice to get the blender going & pulverize the orange. Add frozen fruits & more liquid. Again, just enough liquid to keep the blender going. You may have to stop frequently and spoon the frozen masses down to the blades & add small amounts of juice or milk.

You want the smoothies so thick that you have to spoon them out of the blender & eat with a spoon (not straw!).

Hello, my name is HausFrau and I am hell on blenders, but I make awesome smoothies.

The fruits & veggies & grilled fish are all totally bum lovin'. If you are dieting, just be careful with the breaded fish, the potatoes & tartar sauce.

Leftover potential: Tartar sauce will keep in the fridge for a few days. Straight-up leftovers are an option. Potatoes can be added to omlettes. Veggies can be frozen for soups later. Fish can be used to make fish sandwiches for lunch. Leftover smoothies are yuck -- so bottoms up!