Memorial Day is right around the corner, and many people will probably be cooking out on the grill, whether it’s an electric grill, gas grill, or maybe even a little hibachi grill. I have a feeling that our daughter and son-in-law will probably be cooking out hamburgers and hot dogs. We haven’t decided what we’re going to do yet, but I can imagine it might be hamburgers. We don’t eat beef that often, so it’s a treat when we do.
Pictured above: Easy Cheesy Beef Enchiladas
Ingredients:
Directions:
Cook chopped onion and ground beef until no pink is left in the meat. Warm tortillas either briefly in the microwave (this can be done by inverting a dinner plate on top of another one to make a “tortilla warmer”) or in a skillet so they will roll without breaking. Place ground beef/onion mixture in a line down the middle of a tortilla and spoon a couple of tablespoons of enchilada sauce over it. Roll to make tortilla and place in casserole dish. Repeat until all the meat mixture is used up. Pour remaining sauce evenly over tortillas and top with shredded cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
Are you a Chipotle fan? Here are their own Chipotle original recipes.
Here are more recipes you might enjoy:
AND…for an awesome Cinco de Mayo desserts:
ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS: Cinco de Mayo: Origin, Activities, & Books for Children
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Val says, “What can you make with eggs, meat or poultry, vegetables and a starch? Her answer: This is a lame one but the only one that is coming to mind. I’m thinking casseroles but only coming up with breakfast. So my answer is an omelet with meat and veggies in it, with hash browns on the side.
My answer would be Turkey Meatballs & Pasta Sauce:
Mix well. Form 12 meatballs. Preheat large skillet on medium with olive oil, place meatballs in skillet and cook COVERED for 12-15 minutes, turn and cook 5 more minutes. Serve over pasta with Ragu Sauce.
INGREDIENTS:
DIRECTIONS:
Juice the lemons. First, roll the lemons on the kitchen counter, mashing them as you roll. This helps make juicing easier. Cut the lemons in half and take out all the seeds you can. Here are a few suggestions on how to juice a lemon:
After you juice the lemons, add sweetener to taste (Stevia is what we use). Pour over ice with mint leaves.
NOTE: The Peppermint Plant is the very beginning of our garden this year. I’m excited to finally start one because we had a huge garden during all of my childhood. Our garden this year will start small. I will be posting the progress with it under “Gardening.”
Val says, “Hi everyone. What can you make with meat or poultry, rice, cheese and a vegetable? Val’s answer: Cook rice. Add in cooked boneless chicken, cream of chicken soup, broccoli and cheddar cheese. Season to taste. Heat in oven to set or serve as it is.
Here’s my answer, and it’s almost like Val’s. This is a quick & easy meal that is very satisfying, and it’s called:
Chicken & Brown Rice with Broccoli & Cheese
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INGREDIENTS:
DIRECTIONS:
Cook brown rice in water and olive oil according to package directions. As soon as it’s done, add the chicken and soup. Stir. Add just a little more water if necessary. Place the frozen broccoli on top (break it apart), place the lid back on top of the pan, and cook on medium low for 10-15 minutes until broccoli is tender. Add shredded cheese, salt and pepper to taste.
This week at Central Market through April 13, 2010, if you buy a container of Organic Baby Spinach for $5.99 with an in-store COUPON then you get mushrooms (regularly $1.99) and Gourmet Baby Cucumbers (regularly $2.79) for free. Since regular spinach usually has a high amount of pesticides on it, I love being able to get a good deal on organic. So using these fresh ingredients plus organic carrots (another veggie usually high in pesticides), broccoli, green olives, and Hormel Natural Turkey slices cut and cooked in EVOO (coupons for Hormel Natural Turkey), we had a delicious meal that was super healthy! Here’s our salad:
Here’s a recipe that kids of all ages will probably like. They’re not frozen fish sticks – they’re made from scratch! I laugh to myself when I think back to when our son was in elementary school. I often served fish sticks and oven fries to his friends if several kids were at our house at meal time. That seemed to be the one meal that all the kids liked. One of his friends went home one time and raved about the meal I fixed. His mom asked me about it, and I told her it was just Van de Kamp’s frozen fish sticks and Ore-Ida Steak Fries that I cooked in the oven. She laughed and said she was going to have to start fixing that, too, because it was her son’s favorite.
Here’s the simple recipe:
INGREDIENTS:
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat a non-stick baking sheet with a light layer of oil.
Cut fish into one-inch strips. Combine the Panko, flour, and salt in a shallow bowl. Beat the eggs lightly in another bowl. Season the fish all over with salt and pepper, dip carefully in the eggs, then press into the Panko mixture and coat evenly. Shake off any excess mixture.
Place coated fish stix on the baking sheet with at least 1/4 inch space between them. Bake for 12-15 minutes, being careful not to overcook.
*Also try this recipe with chicken.
I’m totally new to doing Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday, but I’m determined to start today. I actually know what we’re having today and tomorrow so that will be easy. We were in Walmart yesterday and I noticed this cute pasta. Yes, pasta can be cute! I have grown to love using Farfalle Pasta in soups because if I let it cook longer in the soup, it enlarges and is kinda like dumplings. Well, I saw MINI Farfalle in Walmart and thought they were adorable. My husband picked out a new pasta sauce that sounds very yummy. And I stopped at Albertson’s to get chicken tenders on sale in the meat market section. So…here’s my first “Menu Monday”:
Monday: Barilla’s MINI Farfalle (bowtie) Pasta with Bertolli’s Portobello Mushroom Sauce, bite-sized chicken breast tenders cooked in EVOO to top the pasta & sauce, & salad
Tuesday: Left-overs from last night
Wednesday: Mediterranean Tuna and Spinach with Green Olives :
INGREDIENTS:
Cook the spinach according to directions. Add the remaining ingredients. Add dill weed, peppper and salt to taste.
Thursday: I just realized I can’t complete the rest of this because our son is coming home from college for a long weekend, and I want to ask him what he has a taste for.
Val says, “Hi all! Let’s try something different. One question. What can YOU make with
*chicken
*bacon
*cheese
*tomatoes
Val’s answer: One delicious sandwich!”
My answer would be a salad with those ingredients in it along with green olives, diced cucumbers, sliced ripe avocado and sliced mushrooms. I wondered what AllRecipes.com would come up with if I put those ingredients in the Ingredients Search. It came up with 22 recipes, and I chose four that sounded especially good to me:
The Kimbell Art Museum Restaurant is known for having great food. This is one of their older recipes. It makes 8 cups which serves 12-16 people:
INGREDIENTS:
DIRECTIONS:
Mix all of the ingredients together. Sometimes cabbage is a little bitter. If so, use a little sugar to take away the bitterness.
If you’ve never been to Central Market which is one of the freshest grocery markets in the country (Texas locations in Dallas, Ft. Worth, Austin, Houston, & San Antonio areas), then I recommend going at least once. Try to go close to lunch time because they have delicious samples of food throughout the store. And they have printed recipe cards to give their customers for the foods they are sampling. Here is one recipe that is good to serve guests:
SMOKED SALMON DIP
INGREDIENTS:
DIRECTIONS:
Put all ingredients in food processor (or blender) and blend to desired consistency. Serve with crackers or baguettes. (Central Market has fresh-made baguettes in their bakery department, and they’re reasonably priced.)
Val says, “Hi all! Sorry I’m late this week, I was sick all day yesterday. With that in mind, I offer this week’s questions.”
1. Are there any drinks you feel help you get better when you’re sick?
Depends on what kind of sick. Congestion & upper respiratory flu – hot green tea and regular tea, sometimes hot chocolate.
Stomach flu – Coke, Sprite, 7-Up
2. Are there any foods you feel help you get better when you’re sick?
Healthy foods, good homemade soups. If it’s stomach flu, then nothing!
3. Starve a cold, feed a fever. Do you believe this?
No, and actually I’ve read that if you feel like eating, it’s good to eat to nourish the body. (healthy foods, of course) Now if it’s the stomach flu, that’s a different story. A person needs to go without eating for 24 hours to kill out the virus. Nibbling on saltine crackers after 12 hours usually won’t hurt. Eating other food, though, just prolongs it because it feeds the virus.
4. Who cooks when you’re sick?
My husband might cook a meal, but usually he will bring something in. Actually, I was sick with bronchitis a week ago, and he made homemade soup for us. I sat and gave him step-by-step directions on how to make it. He did a good job, and it tasted really good to me.