Recreating Restaurant Dinners: 1

Last night I made a recreation of Mike's favorite dinner from Chili's:
Monterey Chicken
It was pretty darn delicious, and a very close to real knock-off.
The recipe:
4 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless and pounded out a little bit (not too thin just so its even)
4 slices of bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces
3/4 cup shredded jack cheese
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
your favorite BBQ sauce, I used sweet baby ray's original
fresh diced tomatoes and chives or green onions for garnish

1. cook the bacon til crisp. place on a plate with a paper towel, and do whatever you want with the bacon fat. (I saved it and put it in the freezer)
2. salt and pepper both sides of the chicken and cook in the same pan as the bacon.
3. Preheat Oven to 350.
4. put chicken in an oven safe dish and spread 1-2 tablespoons of BBQ sauce on each chicken breast.  Top with bacon and then with the jack and cheddar cheese mixture. Cover with Aluminum Foil. Put in Oven until the cheese is melted.
5. Dice Tomatoes and green onion. When you take the chicken out of the oven and put it on the plate, top it with the tomatoes and green onion (or chives).

I served this with a baked potato and broccoli, cauliflower, carrot in a cheese sauce (green giant frozen veggies)

Chili's price (for 1 serving): $10.29
Homemade Price (for 4 servings): approximately $9
It took less time to make than it would have taken me to call Chili's and go there pick up the food and bring it back... Totally Worth It!!

Making Dinner Your Own

Thursday night I made Spaghetti with Italian Sausage and Stuffed Clams...
sounds sorta fancy, was delicious, looked amazing... Did I do anything from scratch? NO!!!
At around 1pm, I took Rhodes Texas Rolls out of the freezer, sprayed a muffin pan, and threw the rolls in the pan, covered it with a dish towel and set aside.  I also opened a jar of Ragu, put that in a pan with a couple cloves of garlic, a couple tablespoons of fennel seed, and some italian seasoning. Put that on low, stirred and walked away.
That took less than 10 min of my time, and in about an hour the whole place smelled like I was cooking the sauce from scratch!
Know what I did next?!

Played with Keira until Mike got home - he came home early because we were expecting a very important guest - a great friend of his back from Iraq.

"30 Minute Meals Style" I finished cooking dinner.

I preheated the oven to 450. Filled a pot of water and put it on high to get it boiling. Stirred the sauce. And then I started to clean some Iceberg lettuce and a tomato for a salad.  When the oven was preheated, I took the stuffed clams out of the freezer, place them on a sheet pan and in they went.  I took out my fake italian sausage (it was really italian style hot and spicy smoked sausage). I grilled them up on a grill pan. took 3 of them and cut them up into piece and through them in the sauce. The others went on the platter, then I finished up the salad, and then dropped the heat in the oven to 350 about 15min into cooking.  5 minutes later I put the rolls in the oven. I salted the boiling water and added the pasta. I finished setting the table, and made my garlic butter - 2 tablespoons of butter melted in the microwave, and a few shakes of garlic powder.  After 10 minutes, I drained the spaghetti, reserved a ladle of the starchy water and added it to my sauce, and put the spaghetti back in the pan.  I took out the rolls, and brushed them with the garlic butter, and put them back in the oven. I stirred the sauce one last time and added some to the pasta to get it coated. I then took out the clams and rolls.  Put the rolls in a bowl with a dish towel to keep them warm.  Added all the spaghetti to my platter, and put a couple stuffed clams on the platter as well.
It was good - as good as opening a whole bunch of packages could be in my opinion. It looked good - It looked like I went through a lot of work when in reality I was in the kitchen for less than 45 minutes TOTAL.
It made a ton of food. So of course I put it in individual containers so Mike could take it to work for lunch.
No I would not ordinarily post something like this because there is no recipe, but this is the sole reason right here:
He brought it for lunch and a co-worker asked him "Wow, where'd you go for dinner last night?"
REALLY??? My out of the box fake meal looked like it came from a restaurant!?!
I am feeling proud and thought I'd share :)

Left -Over Eggroll wrappers...

+ String Cheese = Mozzarella Sticks!
Thank you Guy Fieri for this gem of an idea!
I made this, and I'm not a very skilled fryer so the oil was too hot, and the mozzarella sticks a lil darker than i'd like and the chesse not as ooey gooey as it was on his show - but I'd totally make them again! They were still delicious - and I think everyone should make them!
check out the recipe here!
I made 6 (without the salami) and I cut the string cheese in half - so I only used 3 of those.
I used 1 egg with a splash of milk, and just eyed the bread crumbs - I didn't have panko - but they were still crunchy!
I hope you all try this and enjoy - Its yummy :)

July Grocery Shopping

So I will be giving you a glance at my shopping yesterday.  I went way over what I wanted to spend for the month. I gave myself a budget of $150 and came in just under $200 - the good news: most of it was on stuff for the house, not on food. So technically I can in WAY under my budget of $150 for food! :)

So First: Jewel
WOW that's all I can say! I'm sorry I didn't post this yesterday so whoever might actually read this thing could take advantage of the deals - maybe some of them are still going on... and I really hope so because I felt so good after leaving this store!
I split my order in two...
My first order was Ice Cream!
a box of Lemonade Fruit Bars $3
a box of Strawberry Fruit Bars $3
2 boxes of Nestle Drumsticks $5
Total $11
Received a $4 coupon off my next purchase... to be used right now on:

10 -12pks of Coke Products = $20
4 Hillshire Farms Sausages = FREE
(minus peelie coupons on the Coke $2 off when you buy 2! yep I got 10 pks of Coke and 4 Sausages for $10!!!)
1 Honey Maid Graham Crackers =$2.50
1 Jet Puffed Marshmallows = $1.00
1 Hershey's 6pk = FREE
(minus $1.00 coupon when you buy the 3 above =$2.50 for those 3 items!)
4 packets of McCormick Marinades =$0.50/ea
(minus 4 - $0.50 coupons = FREE)
1 Weber Grill N'Orleans Cajun Seasoning = $1.67
(minus $0.50 coupon =$1.17)
2 Smokey Bones BBQ sauces = $2.00
TOTAL $16.09 (-$4 coupon!)
----------------
JEWEL TOTAL $23

NEXT: Target
1 lb. Strawberries $1.99
(minus $1 target coup. =$0.99)
1 Homel Thick cut Bacon = $2.79
4 lbs Ground Beef ($1.79/lb) = $7.16
EDY's French Vanilla Ice Cream =$2.33
(minus $1 target coup. = $1.33)
1 Quaker Chewy Bars = $2.04
TOTAL $16

LASTLY: Meijer (my trouble store haha)
2 Jiffy Corn Muffins $.94
2 Biscuits $1.12
1 Bunch O Parsley $0.79
1 Green Onion $0.50 (I didn't really need green onion BUT I saw on the next food network star a tip that said if you put the whites in a glass of water the greens will regenerate and you never have to buy green onions again... so I though hmmm I'll give that a shot!)
1 can diced tomatoes $1.05
1 head of Lettuce $1.29
2 Cream Cheese $2.50
1 Milk $1.98
2 Lemons $1.00
1 String Cheese $3.89
6 lbs of Chicken Breasts $11.92
20 packets of Kool-Aid $2.00
1 5pk of Mac & Cheese FREE
(with purch of Kool-aid!)
1 Can Tomatoe Sauce $0.62
3 Barilla Whole Wheat Pasta's $0.79/ea $2.37
2 lbs Tomatoes on the vine $1.90
2 Hamburger Buns $2.00
1 Hamburger Buns $1.00
1 Loaf of Bread $1.00
3 jars of Ragu $4.50
(minus 2 coups totaling $1.60 = $2.90)
5 Rhodes Warm N Serve Rolls 2/$4 -$10
(minus 5 $1 coups totaling $5 = $5.00)
2 lbs LOL Butter $5.00
1 Simply Orange $3.00
3 Chunk Cheese $4.50
TOTAL $59
--------------
GRAND TOTAL $98!!!
(for 36 meals... that ain't half bad!)

July Menu: Eat Out Of The Pantry Month

This month I have no real plan of attack.  I planned and shopped for 4 weeks.  But there is no true menu you to follow, just ideas of what I will make...

• Left-over stuffed shells in the freezer with Italian Sausage
• Sloppy Joes with Fries (x2+lunch)
  
• Ham Steak with scalloped potatoes, broccoli in cheese, and rolls
• Monterey Chicken with salad
• Beef Chop Suey with rice (x2+lunch)
  
• Chili (x2+lunch)
  
• Lemon Chicken Schnitzel (+lunch)
  
• Chicken and Dumplings (x2+lunch)
  
• Pasta with Stuffed Clams
• Hamburgers (x3)
• Grilled Cheese (x2-3)
• Popcorn Shrimp with Corn and Fries
• Shrimp Scampi Pasta (+lunch)
  
• Jambalaya with Cornbread (x2+lunch)
  
• Pasta (x2+lunch)
  
• Meatloaf (x2+lunch)
  
• Cajun Chicken Pasta (+lunch)
  
• Mac & Cheese (+lunch)
  
• Hot & Spicy Italian Sausage Sandwiches (x4)
  
• Polish Sausage Sandwiches (x4)
• Tacos (x2)
  

planned for 28 days - should have enough for for 36 days... w00t!
Still have to do my shopping list for my Pampered Chef party on July 21st...
But the menu sneak peek:
1.) Jalapeno Popper Dip
2.) Smoky BBQ Chicken Sandwiches and BBQ Sauce
3.) Apple Berry Salsa with Cinnamon Chips

This Week: Pork

On Monday (because I forgot to take my pork loin out of the freezer Saturday for Sunday FAIL) I made a new recipe that I found on FoodTV.com from Robin Miller (and changed a few things because I didn't have everything). It was alright for a crockpot dish - I tend to not care for crockpot dishes because they all seem to have that same stew-like flavors... But Tuesday and Wednesday (because it was that good on Tuesday) I made a recreation of our dinner on Monday and boy was it GOOD! So First here is the Monday recipe:

Crockpot Sage & Parmesan Crusted Pork Loin

INGREDIENTS:
2 pounds diced red potatoes
1 cup chopped onion (I used frozen from a bag because I had no onions, DOH!)
1 cup chopped celery (I chopped this earlier in the month and froze it - worked well)
1 cup chopped carrots (Same as above here)
1 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (I used a 14.5 oz can)
1/2 cup sherry (No sherry here, so I used left-over red wine I had from my Chicken Cacciatore)
1 (2-pound) pork loin (I used a 4 pound pork loin because we are eating it all week here)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons dried sage (I only have rubbed sage - don't know what the difference is but it worked)
1 tablespoon salt-free garlic and herb seasoning (I don't have this & didn't measure the parsley and garlic powder that I used - just enough to season the whole thing)
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

DIRECTIONS:
Place potatoes, onion, celery, and carrots in bottom of slow-cooker. Pour in chicken
broth and sherry. Season pork all over with salt and black pepper, sage and
garlic and herb seasoning. Place pork on top of vegetables and top with
Parmesan, pressing the cheese into the meat. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8
hours or high for 3 to 4 hours.

When I cut into this in the crockpot is was falling apart and I just scooped up the veggies on the plate and that was that.  But Tuesday and the pork refrigerated, it was much easier to cut into 1/2" slices.

I sliced up 2- 1/2" slices and seasoned them with salt and pepper on both sides.  I put them in a pan on high - but I use a electric stove so cooking sometimes is a challenge (no oil or butter or anything) for a couple minutes on one side, flip them over let them go a couple min on the other side, turn it down to low, add the BBQ sauce of your choice and put a lid on the pan.  Meanwhile, I took the potatoes that were in the crockpot with the pork and put them in a bowl, threw some garlic powder on it, and put it in the microwave for 1 min.  When it came out of the microwave I smashed them down with a fork and added American cheese singles broken up to it. Stirred and back in the microwave for 30 sec. and then stirred again. I was completely out of cheese and that is all I had, I imagine cheddar would be better, but it was soooo goood!  I also made (frozen) corn in butter and stove-top pork stuffing to round out the meal.

Wednesday I added Parmesan cheese to the potatoes, per Mike's request, and boy did that make a difference! If you make these potatoes with cheddar I would still advise to add some Parmesan. mmm mmm goood!

I think tonight I am going to make sweet and sour pork from the rest of the pork that is left - It is just under half left... not bad for 3 dinners and 2 lunches! GO PORK! :-)