Quick & Easy

Food Category: G-Rated
Difficulty: Easy

Tonight, I had a very important meeting to attend. OK, fine. It was a very interesting game of Bunco. But the point is that I threw together some food for the family before I headed out.

Man had leftover turkey & stuffing from the freezer. The kids had chicken strips baked in the toaster oven. I did make mashed potatoes to pull both meals together. Veggies, Schmeggiges. Who eats them if Mom's not home anyway?

Obviously, there was nothing exciting food-wise, but I'll share my recipe for HausFrau's Red Rooster:

2 quarts of cranberry juice
8 oz frozen orange juice concentrate
2 1/3 cups of peach vodka

Mix together into a gallon bucket (I use my Bill Miller ice tea bucket) with a lid & freeze for 24 hours. The cranberry & orange juice certainly count toward you five-a-day. Substitute orange juice blend with calcium for that extra nutritional punch. See how healthy it is? And vodka is made from potatoes. It's almost like kicking back a V8.

Bean & Cheese Quesadillas with Spanish Rice

Food Category: PG
Difficulty: Easy

Bean & Cheese Quesadillas

I had a container of frozen taco meat, beans & salsa in the freezer. I reheated that in the microwave & added to my quesadillas. Lightly butter white flour tortillas & pan grill on one side. Flip & add beans & cheese (gouda & Monterrey jack) and a bit of bottled taco sauce (Taco Bell). Fold in half. Grill each 1/2 side.

Served with microwave-in-the-bag corn & side salad (w/fat free Catalina dressing).

Spanish Rice

• sautee 1/2 medium onion in 2 T evoo until 1/2 cooked over medium high heat
• add 2 c. uncooked white ricecontinue to sautee until the rice begins to turn golden
• add one clove crushed garlic
• add 2 cups of water seasoned with a Sazón seasoning packet, 3 oz tomato paste, T Spanish rice seasoning (I used Fiesta brand, widely available in Texas)
• bring water & rice to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer
• continue to cook until all the water is absorbed, about 20 minutes

Leftover potential: Rice, beans & corn reheat great in the microwave. To reheat leftover quesadillas: microwave on 1/2 power until no longer fridge cold. Then cook in a toaster oven @ 400F until cooked through & crisp. Or cook on the stove top in a non-stick skillet. You can just nuke, but they lose the good texture & flavor.

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.

Honey Mustard Grilled Chicken Sandwiches

Food Category: Bum Lovin', PG
Difficulty: Easy

Chicken Sandwiches:

I used 2 frozen chicken breasts (they were huge) that I cut in half crosswise while partially still frozen. I ended up with 4 thin chicken filets about the size of the bread. Season with garlic & onion powder, pepper & all purpose chicken seasoning. Let the chicken marinate in the dry rub for about 30 minutes.

Pan grill the chicken in a bit of evoo. Baste with a honey-mustard mixture (half honey, half spicy mustard). Remove from heat & set aside until ready to assemble the sandwiches.

I toasted the bread on a stove-top pan grill.

Sandwiches were assembled with:

lettuce

sliced Kosher dill pickles

sliced red onion

3 slices Oscar Mayer precooked bacon (70 calories, lots of flavor)

Miracle Whip

honey-mustard chicken breast

Served with:

Thick cut oven fries.

Here's the white bread, white potato version:

And, the healthier, whole wheat & sweet potato version:

With sweet potato fries as a side, you can easily get 3 veggie servings (one for the lettuce & 2 for the fries).

Here's a recipe & cooking method for garlic oven fries. My only suggestion would be to definitely cook the potatoes on parchment paper to prevent sticking. Other than that, I think I'll give these a try soon. Just like mine, only better because of the garlic!

Again, here's Paula's sweet potato fries recipe.

Wine & Cheese or Tuna Sandwiches

Food Category: Bum Lovin', PG-13 (because of the rotwein)
Difficulty: SuperEasy

This is HausFrau's favorite go-to meal for no fuss, no mess.

Whole grains, calcium, good fat, heart healthy red wine . . . eat & repeat.

Others in my family had tuna sandwiches with leftovers from lunch. I make my tuna with:

• Solid white albacore or chunk light Starkist (the big can)
• chopped celery ribs with leaves
• finely chopped red onion
• 2 chopped boiled eggs
• chopped Kosher dill pickles
• 1/2 chopped red apple
• Miracle Whip -- the bare minimum needed to hold it all together
• pepper, lemon herbed seasoning, fresh parsley

Served preferrably on whole wheat. Certain family members prefer worthless white (Man, Laze-E).

Salsa, Guacamole & Bean Dip with Tortilla Chips

Food Category: PG
Difficulty: Easy

It was snack night at our Haus. Friends were visiting from Hohenfels (Hi, CoopaChick, E-Girl & J-Boy) & this kept the teens happy. Winkler Kupfer Spezial straight from the source in Lengenfeld, Bavaira, kept the adults happy.

Tortilla Chips served with:

Bean dip topped with melted cheese: leftover pinto beans, seasoned with chili powder & cumin, food processed, heated in the microwave, melted cheddar & gouda on top.

Haus Salsa

Guacamole, made with: 2 large avocados, 1 T lime juice, 2 T chopped red onion, 1/4 c cilantro leaves, small clove of minced garlic. Chopped fresh jalepeno peppers optional.

Garnished with sour cream & pickled jalepeno peppers.

Dinner in Paris

Man & MiniMe had McD's. Laze-E & I had yummy ham & cheese on fresh baguettes from a Brioche. Hey, it was a quick day trip. No time to leisurely dine over French cuisine. As a matter of fact, we grabbed food, ran to the bus & ate on the way back to Brussels.That's FastFood, HausFrau style.