Turkey Manicotti with Italian Veggies

from Sandi Richard - Fixin' Dinner

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Eggs/Dairy/recipe.html?dishid=6098

Ingredients

Easy Turkey Manicotti

• 1 pound (450g) ground turkey
• 1/2 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Table Blend seasoning
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (384ml)
• 1/4 soup can 1% milk
• Cooking spray
• 8 ounces (250g) manicotti noodles
• 1 8 ounce tub 1% cottage cheese (250g)
• 1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce (700ml)
• 1/4 cup low-fat grated Parmesan cheese
• Aluminum foil

Italian Veggies

• 2 celery stalks
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1 cucumber
• 1 cup baby carrots
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Italian seasoning
• 1 cup grated low-fat mozzarella cheese.
•  

• Directions

  Easy Turkey Manicotti

  1. Brown ground turkey in a large nonstick frying pan or work at medium-high.
  2. Once meat is thoroughly cooked add: spice, soup and milk to pan, in that order.
  3. Mix well to combine and then remove from heat.
  4. Spray lasagna or cake pan with cooking spray.
  5. Spoon filling unto uncooked manicotti until ¾ full. When all shells are filled and in pan, spoon cottage cheese over top, then spoon sauce over top.
  6. Sprinkle on Parmesan and cover tightly with foil, shiny side down.
  7. Bake in oven, set timer for 50 minutes.
  8. When timer rings for manicotti, uncover.
  9. Grate cheese directly over top.
  10. Return to the pan to oven and set oven to broil.
  11. Watch it carefully as it only takes a couple of minutes to bubble up.

  Italian Veggies

  1. Chop celery, pepper and cucumber.
  2. Place veggies in medium size bowl.
  3. Add carrots.
  4. Toss with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and spice.
  5. Let stand in fridge.

  
  I love Sandi Richard's recipes.  I laugh when I read the recipes as she tells you exactly when you can go change out of your work clothes.  The recipes ARE as easy to prepare and she promises and most of the time my family finds them as tasty as her family rates them.  This was easy to prepare.  I LOVE how you didn't have to cook the manicotti before filling them!
  

  

  
  
   These were really good!  Even Mr Picky and Miss Almost Vegetarian ate theirs without complaint.  I start to wonder though...is this because they are getting used to trying my new recipes all the time or was it as yummy as we thought it was?

Husband of Cheerios and I both loved the Italian veggies too.

We would make both of these again but next time - we would put a little sauce at the bottom of the pan so that the pasta would cook just a bit more.  It was just a tad too chewy in spots.  :)

Strawberry Asparagus Salad

Every couple of Fridays my sister and I have lunch together at her desk.

I had some strawberries in the fridge that needed to get used up so I did a search on Pinterest for strawberry salad. I found this recipe which was great because I also had a few spears of aspargus left in the fridge as well.

 

http://www.danamadeit.com/2011/08/recipe-strawberry-asparagus-salad.html

RATINGS:

Heather - 9 - "A nice light spring salad"

Erin - 9 - "A great lunch"

Heather's Imitation of DaDeO's Appocado Salad

Now that Brad and I live outside the city limits we don't often go out to eat anymore. On December 3rd my cousin Kendra was visiting from Medicine Hat so we headed to Whyte Ave for the evening with a reservation at DaDeO's New Orleans Diner & Bar. The entire meal was delicious! The crab cakes, Po'Boys and sweet potato fries (have changed if you haven't been there awhile and are even better than before) were all divine. What took me by complete surprise was how fantastic the Appocado (apple & avocado) Salad Kendra and I shared was. We debated possible ingredients and even tried to trick the server (he was new) into telling us what was in the dressing, sadly to no avail. Days after I was still thinking about it. I tried googling it to find the recipe but no dice there either. So I tried the next best thing, looking for a Dijon vinaigrette recipe. After reading many recipes I decided on the following honey Dijon vinaigrette recipe from about.com.(http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/oilvinegardressings/r/honeydijonvin.htm)

I did amend the recipe a little bit, I added an extra tbsp of the white balsamic vinegar, and rather than whisking the ingredients I used my immersion blender. Then to get a smooth creamy texture I slowly added the oil while running the immersion blender. Then toss with an even amount of chopped apple and avocado. Spinkle with toasted slivered almonds. Enjoy.

RATINGS:

Heather - 9.5 - "So good, but somethings missing. Shoot I forgot the almonds."

Reno Crew - 9 - "A nice change"

NOTES:

Next time I make the vinaigrette, and there will be a next time, I will try apple cider vinegar (might be a bit tangier) and will use only 1/2 cup olive oil (I think that it will still hold together).

This made a lot of dressing. I only used about 1/3 to toss and coat 1 apple and 2 avocados chopped up.

Sugar Snap Salad

On my trip to Galloway's Fine Foods in Richmond I picked up a package of sumac based on the recommendation of my cousin Crystal. It has a light lemony flavor. When we got back to her place I browsed her July 2011 copy of Bon Appetit magazine and found this recipe. It is also on epicurious.com which you can link to below.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sugar-Snap-Salad-366394

RATINGS:

Heather, Brad and Company - 9 - "A nice summer side salad"

Hail the Kale Salad

If you have ever tried a Japanese Cabbage Salad and liked it, you'll LOVE this salad. The recipe is from the Planet Organic website.

http://www.planetorganic.ca/goodfood/recipecorner/salad/hail-the-kale-salad

I was able to pick just enough kale from my garden to make this. Mmmm fresh veggies.

RATINGS:

Heather - 10 - "LOVE"

Brad - 9 - "Yum"

NOTE:

You can substitute regular soy sauce for the Bragg Liquid Aminos (which I did).

The Tamari Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds would be great on a green salad as well.

Mandarin Almond Salad

Another recipe from Quinoa 365. I am determined to get my moneys worth out of this book so I will probably be trying at least 1 recipe a week.

This recipe said it packs well for lunches so that is what I am going to do.

Mandarin Almond Salad

1 3/4 c water

1/2 c brown lentils (I couldn't find so I used green lentils instead)

1/2 c quinoa (this time I used red)

1/4 c canola oil

4 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp fresh lime juice

3 tbsp canned mandarin orange juice

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c slivered almonds (I toasted them)

1/2 c dried cranberries

3 tbsp minced fresh parsley

1 10oz can mandarin orange segments

Bring water to boil. Rinse lentils and add. Cover, lower to a simmer and cook for 18 minutes.

Add quinoa to lentils and return to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cook for 10 minutes.

Turn off heat and let sit on burner for 4 minutes. Drain any remaining water (I didn't have any). Fluff with fork. Set aside to cool.

Whisk together oil, vinegar, lime juice, mandarin juice and salt to make dressing. Pour over quinoa mixture. Stir in almonds, cranberries and parsley. Add mandarin orange segments and toss gently.

Pack in Tupperware bowl, grab a spork and off to work.

Rating:

Brad - N/A - Hasn't tried it yet

Heather - 10 - "This was better than I expected. I love the citrus flavor."

I will defiantly make this again, to have in the fridge to take for lunch. The dressing is fantastic, I think it would be good on a spinach salad also.

Pears & Chicken...

Since Heather gave us a bunch of zucchini - I had to find a recipe to use some of it up.

Chicken Vegetable Marinara - from Krafts Kitchen

2 slices bacon - chopped
450g/1lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 T italian seasoning
3 large carrots - diagonally sliced
1 onion - chopped
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups  waters
1 1/2 cups pasta sauce
3 cups whole wheat rotini pasta uncooked
2 zucchini, cut into 1/2" thick slices/chunks
1/2 cup Kraft 4 Cheese Italiano light shredded cheese

Cook and stir bacon in large saucepan on medium heat 4 min or until crisp. Use slotted spoon to transfer bacon to medium bowl, reserving drippings in pan.  Add chicken and seasoning to drippings; cook and stir 4 min or until chicken is no longer pink.  Add to bacon, set aside.

Add carrots and onions to saucepan; cook and stir 2 min.  Add broth, water, pasta sauce and pasta; stir. Bring to boil on high heat; simmer on medium low heat 12 min. Stir in zucchini and chicken mixture; simmer 8-10 min or until pasta and vegetables are tender and chicken is done.

Creamy Balsamic Pear Salad - Krafts Kitchens

6 cups torn mixed salad greens
2 red pears - thinly sliced
1/2 cup Kraft 4 cheese italiano shredded cheese
1/3 cup slivered red onions
4 slices low - sodium bacon, cooked, crumbled
1/3 cup pure Kraft Refrigerated Creamy Balsamic Dressing

I made the chicken/pasta exactly the way the recipe states but we made a few modifications to the salad recipe.  I used "real" bacon bits instead of making bacon, I couldn't find red pears at Save-On so I used green, Save-On also didn't have the salad dressing so my husband improvised by combining a raspberry vinaigrette and some creamy cucumber.  Weird but strangely good. 

Overall - the salad was good.  We would make it again.  Both Mr Picky and Miss Almost Vegetarian picked away at it and weren't overall fans.  Both my husband and I liked it.  It would be fun to try again with their recommended dressing and I don't know - I wanted some raisins put in.  :)   I don't know if red pears taste any different than green pears but that might change things up too.

The pasta...was a HUGE hit!!  Everyone loved it.  Even Mr.Picky scarfed his down in record time and Miss Almost Vegetarian wanted another helping.  The next day I brought some to work and a friend of mine - let's call her Mrs Flowers - tried some and thought it was great too!  This recipe will be becoming a regular entry into our meal plans. 

Simple Spinich Salad

as adapted from Allrecipes.com

1 6oz package fresh baby spinach
1 cup chopped cucumber
1 cup fresh broccoli florets
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup real bacon bits (we didn't use this )
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup sliced fresh mushrooms (we didn't use this)
1/4 cup chopped red onion (we used chives)


Dressing
1/3 cup mayo
1/4 cup sugar
2 T red wine vinegar
(we actually didn't make the dressing - we used Kraft Raspberry Vinaigrette)

This picture was taken just before the salad was tossed.

Both my husband and I really enjoyed this salad.  The best part for both of us was surprisingly - the raisins!!  We think they added a nice touch!  Mr Picky griped and groaned and just poked at his salad.  Miss Almost Vegetarian picked out and ate all the raisins and cucumber.  We would make this again!

30 Minute Meals Again...

Hello from Melanie...

From Rachael Ray's 30 Min Meals 2 and as seen on the food network website.   Cut and pasted for convenience below:


Baby Spinach Salad with Thyme and Dijon Vinaigrette with Crisp Swiss Cheese Crisps

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
1 sack, 12 ounces, baby spinach or 3/4 pound from bulk bins
1 small red apple, cored and thinly sliced
1 wedge lemon
3 or 4 sprigs fresh thyme, stripped from stems and chopped
1 rounded teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, eyeball it
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, eyeball the amount

Directions
Heat a nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add shredded Swiss in small, 2-inch piles to the hot skillet. When the cheese fries to a light golden color at the edges, about 1 minute, and can be moved with a thin spatula, turn the cheese rounds, cook another 15 seconds, then remove rounds from the skillet and transfer rounds to a work surface to cool. The cheese crisps will cool within a minute or so. Repeat to form 12 to 16 crisps, 3 or 4 per salad. Crisps may also be flavored with cracked black pepper and chopped thyme or other herbs.

Place spinach in a bowl. After slicing your apple, squeeze a wedge of lemon over the slices to keep them from browning. Toss apples with spinach. For dressing, combine thyme, Dijon mustard and vinegar with a whisk. Stream in olive oil while continuing to whisk dressing. Pour dressing over the salad and toss to coat greens and apple evenly. Pile salad onto cheese roundss and serve.



Sirloin Beef Burgundy: Boeuf Bourguignon

Ingredients

3 slices bacon, chopped
3 tablespoons butter, divided
16 white mushrooms, medium in size, wiped with damp cloth to clean, thinly sliced
1 cup frozen pearl onions, defrosted and drained
Salt and pepper
2 pounds lean sirloin, 1-inch thick, trimmed and cubed into 1 inch pieces
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup burgundy wine
1 1/2 cups store bought beef stock
Bouquet of 3 or 4 sprigs each sage and fresh thyme, tied with kitchen string

Herb Egg Noodles:
12 ounces wide egg noodles, cooked to package directions
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves, 2 handfuls
12 blades fresh chives, snipped or finely chopped

Directions
Heat a large deep skillet with a heavy bottom and a lid over medium high heat. Add bacon to the pan and brown. Remove crisp bacon bits with slotted spoon. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons butter to the pan and melt into bacon drippings. Add mushrooms to the pan and turn to coat evenly with butter and bacon drippings. Season the mushroom slices with salt and pepper. Saute mushrooms 2 to 3 minutes and add onions to the pan. Continue cooking onions and mushrooms 2 to 3 minutes longer, then transfer to a plate and return pan to the heat. Add remaining butter to the pan and melt it, then add meat to very hot pan and brown evenly on all sides, keeping the meat moving. Add flour to browned meat in the pan and cook the flour 2 minutes. Add wine to the pan slowly while stirring. When the wine comes up to a bubble and you have scraped up the pan drippings, add the stock and bouquet of fresh sage and thyme sprigs to the pot. Cover the pan. When the liquid boils, reduce heat to medium. Cook covered 5 minutes, remove lid and add mushrooms, onions and bacon back to the pot. Simmer with the cover off until sauce thickens a bit. Adjust seasoning and remove herb bouquet.

Toss hot egg noodles with butter and herbs. Place a bed of noodles in a shallow bowl and pour beef burgundy over the noodles and serve.




Before cooking this - have one of these....

It does help with the cooking process....and helps pass the time while you watch the swiss cheese mounds brown.

 

While everything is simmering at the end, be sure to take a sniff.  Yum.

It`s funny how much tastier parsley can make noodles look!
 

When it`s all said and done, here is what they look like:

Note that this recipe makes a TON of food.  I made this while Mr Picky and Miss Almost Vegetarian were away at their Grandma`s house.  We had leftovers for a few days with this amount.  Both DH and I were a little startled by the taste of the salad dressing.  We were both thinking that the dressing should be fruity tasting.  However by the end of the salad - we had gotten used to it and really liked it.  I loved the addition of apples and the swiss cheese crisps to the salad.   DH gave 2 thumbs up to the beef dish.  I thought it was good but picked out all the mushrooms.  I am after all, Mr Picky`s Mom.  :)  We will make this again.

Friday Afternoon by Heather and Kandice

Kandice and I have been cooking side by side since we lived together about 3 years ago. We are completely comfortable in each others kitchens and make a very effective team. Yesterday afternoon we hung out and I made supper while Kandy baked some cookies for dessert.

Warm Thai Chicken Salad

My sister was the one who originally found this recipe in a magazine while sitting in a waiting room (how ironic) and scribbled it down.

For dressing mix together

Juice of 2 large limes (or use bottled about 6 tbsp)

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp grated fresh ginger (I keep PC frozen ginger just in case)

2 tsp fish sauce

1/2-1 tsp chili flakes (I use less, I am a wimp)

2 cloves garlic, minced

The veggies

1 red pepper, thinly sliced

1/2 cucumber, halved & thinly sliced

1/4 green cabbage, sliced

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

4 cups baby spinach

The meat

3 chicken breasts, sliced into bite sized pieces

Cook over medium-high heat until just cooked through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour in dressing and cook 3 minutes more.

Pour over vegetables and toss.

As an option you can top with chopped peanuts and mango. I highly recommend using both.

Rating

Brad - 10 - "We have to eat this often during the summer"

Heather - 10 - "I love how fresh this salad is"

Kandice - 10 - "I don't like cilantro but I like this salad"

Home Made Oreo Cookies

This is a recipe from my childhood. I have no idea where mom got it from. I found it in a box of stuff the other day and thought that I would try it again. Kandy said that it is super easy to make.

1 box Swiss Chocolate cake mix

1 box Devil's Food cake mix

4 eggs

2/3 cup oil

Mix and make into walnut size balls
(the Pampered Chef small scoop was perfect for this).

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

Cool and fill.

2 tbsp margarine

4 oz cream cheese

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 cups icing sugar

Rating

Everyone - 10 - "MMMMMMM"

Late Lunch / Early Supper

Friday's are my day off each week so I like to spend a little more time on meals since I am not pressed for time. With the whole day ahead of me this past Friday I decided to try the Easy Pork Shoulder recipe from the BIG BATCH section of EDF #71 (page 90) since it has to cook for 5 hours. You cook once and get 3 meals, sounds like a plan to me. Meal 1 from the recipe is pulled-pork sandwiches with coleslaw (page 91) with my mom's potato salad as a side.

Easy Pork Shoulder
This recipe is definately easy. You simply score the fat, sprinkle with salt and pepper, put in a pan with 1/2 cup water and then leave it in the oven for 5 hours to slow roast. After the 5 hours the meat was falling apart. I even ended up with enough juices from it that I can make some split pea soup in the future. Then you just remove the fat and shred with 2 forks and divide it up for your future meals.

Next it was on to making the potato salad. I might be biased but I think that this is one of the best potato salads ever.

Mom's Potato Salad
4-5 cups diced cold boiled potatoes
3/4 cup thinly sliced celery
1/4 finely chopped onion
3 hard boiled eggs
1 cup Miracle Whip
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
salt
pepper

Mix together Miracle Whip, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper.
Pour over potatoes, celery, onion and eggs.
Gently fold.
Refrigerate until cold.


Here's where things got a little out of hand. The pulled pork sandwhich recipe calls for homemade or store bought bbq sauce. I only use Bulls Eye bbq sauce (Bold Original I think it's called) and I didn't think that it would be good on pork so I decided that if I was going to chance tying a new store bought sauce I may as well make my own. So I pulled out my bbq cook books and found a couple of recipes. To further complicate things I elected to combine them and create my own.


Heathers BBQ Sauce
1 cup beef stock
1 cup crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup fancy molasses
3 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 small onion very finely diced
2 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
4 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground chipotle
1 tsp dried oregano

Mix together and simmer until reduced by about one third (approximately 20 minutes).

Last step, the pulled-pork sandwiches. We debated about whether to try the coleslaw on the sandwiches or not and figured that we would go for it. So I quickly chopped up the cabbage and carrots and tossed with the dressing, combined the pork and the bbq sauce and assembled.

Ratings (for the meal as a whole):
Brad - 7 - Would like to have this meal again
Heather - 7 - Didn't love it and am not sure that it was worth all the work I created for myself

As a side note my friend Kandice also made this recipe the day before. Her rating was the same as mine. The one thing that might have made a difference is that we both used smoked pork shoulder when I think we should have tried to find one that wasn't. If I see one in the store I may attempt again to compare.

Oriental Salad and Lettuce Wraps

The salad recipe was adapted from 2 sources:
1. thepionerwoman.com and 2.www.meals.com

I made WAY too much salad so I will post the adjusted amounts that I would use

1 package oriental flavor ramen noodle soup
1/3 cup sunflower seed kernels
1/3 cup slivered almonds
2 green onions, chopped
1 bag of pre cut salad - romaine-radicchio blend

Break raw noodles into small pieces. Add the sunflower seed kernels, almonds, green onions, and salad.  Mix.

Dressing:
1/3 cup evaporated fat free milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1.5 Tablespoons white vinegar
1.5 Tablespoons white sugar
Flavor packet from the Ramen noodles
Mix well.  Add just before serving. Toss to coat.


Lettuce Wraps - as adapted from a recipe from my friend Amy

1 head iceburg lettuce
130g chow mein noodles (or egg noodles, chinese style)
2 T vegetable oil
1 package ground chicken
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
1/2 yellow pepper, finely chopped
1/2 red pepper, finely chopped
200g water chesnuts, sliced/slivered
1 cup shiitake mushrooms, slivered/matchstick
2 T soy sauce
1/2 tsp brown sugar
5T hoisin sauce, use more if desired
5T Thick teriyaki sauce
1 T chili sauce, adjust to taste
2 scallions, finely chopped
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp ginger
1/4 cup peanuts, whole

Unwrap lettuce into cups and wash thoroughly.  Heat vegetable oil on med-high heat and after a minute, add noodles.  Cook for 5-10 min depending on level of crispiness desired.  Remove and set aside.  If desired, pour 1 tsp oil in the wok and saute garlic. Add chicken - stir fry until no longer pink.  Add onion, peppers, chestnuts and mushrooms.  Fry for about a minute. 

Combine soy sauce and sugar.  Mix until sugar is dissolved.  Add soy sauce mixture to pan.  Fry for about 2 min.  Add hoisin sauce, teriyaki and chili paste. Add the scallions, coriander, ginger and peanuts.  Serve over  the noodles that were set aside.   Spoon into lettuce cups.  Wrap and enjoy.

We served these with green onion cakes and some Oriental Appetizers from M&M Meatshops. I made a lot of extras because we had my parents over for supper and I wanted to have backup food in case my experiments failed.  It's not that I didn't trust the recipes - I didn't trust my cooking!  Hee hee...

Neither Mr.Picky or Miss Almost Vegetarian ate any of the salad or the lettuce wraps.  They ate a lot of rice (my other back up food) instead.  However the 4 adults at the table enjoyed the salad and the wraps.  I would make both of these again.

My First Post

Hi Everyone! I love food. Cooking, baking, watching Food Network, eating out at nice restaurants, adding to my collection of kitchen stuff (dishes, baking pans, appliances, utensils (how many kinds of whisks does one person need?), muffin cup liners, sprinkles, the list goes on and on), reading cook books, I even enjoy wandering the isles at the grocery store. I am very excited to be part of this blog to have a place where I can chat about one of passions!

Everday Food Magazine from Martha Stewart is my absolute favorite source for new recipes. They are quick and easy recipes and have all sorts of great tips. I have a subscription and I just received issue #71 (yes I have them all) in the mail last week. I like to try new recipes the month I receive them otherwise it seems that I never do. In this issue there are several that have my mouth watering.

Last Saturday Brad and I spent the evening cooking together and tried the Eat Out (at home) Greek Feast recipes on page 49. We made pork souvlaki, greek salad and rice. I rated the meal a 10 and Brad gave it a 9 (10's are reserved for the super fantastic, special occasion meals he says). This meal is definately going to become a regular at our house.

The Marinade

This was easy to prep.
Just olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, fresh oregano, salt & pepper.

I am going to try this marinade on both beef and chicken in the future.

Ready to Chill

I bought a whole pork loin from Costco for this and cubed the meat myself. It is a really inexpensive way to buy pork. $17 and it will be 5 meals for the 2 of us.

Heading to the BBQ

We only let the meat marinate 1 hour. Next time I would give it as much time as possible though (it would just get better and better I think).

Plating!

I was skepticle of the greek salad. When I have tried to make them at home before with greek seasoning mix they haven't thrilled me. This one was AMAZING. Who knew that just olive oil and lemon juice could taste so good!
The dipping sauce was good on the souvlaki but not essential (if you have no other use for the rest of the Greek yogurt I would skip it).

Meal for Another Day!

We doubled the recipe and then sealed up the extras with the FoodSaver and put them in the freezer. I have frozen store bought ones before so I figure this should work great. I will let you know.

A Salad and some Veggies

On Wednesday I tried 2 new recipes.

The first is from the Barefoot Contessa's "Back to Basics" cookbook.  It's called roasted parsnips and carrots.  It was a super easy recipe to follow and was quite basic - just some veggies, some spices and some olive oil.  My husband loved them, Mr. Picky even ate them and Miss Almost-Vegetarian loved them too. That means a winner in our minds!!

The second recipe was "Asian Spinach Salad" from  the "Carlson Family Cookbook - Volume 2".  Since I have the author's permission, I will post the recipe here:

8 cups packed baby spinach leaves
1 red pepper, cut into thin strips
1 cup thin matchlike carrot sticks
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1/3 cup dry roasted peanuts
1/2 cup chow mein noodles
1/3 cup Kraft Asian Sesame dressing.

Combine first 5 ingredients in large bowl.  Add noodles and dressing just before serving; toss to coat.

I used chives instead of green onions and I didn't have peanuts on hand so I used almonds.  Mr.Picky didn't like the salad and Miss Almost-Vegetarian wasn't a fan either.  I *REALLY* liked it but my husband just thought it was so-so (he liked the salad ingredients but didn't really like the dressing).

We had the salad and roasted veggies with M&M Meatshops Chicken Pasta Primavera.  All in all, a very tasty mid-week supper and far better than Kraft Dinner.  :)