3/11- Starlit Spicy Lemon Chicken Wraps

I, along with the rest of modern civilization, am hooked on Pinterest. It has its disadvantages, such as sucking up all my time that I could be using to be productive, but it has distinctive advantages too. These include, but are not limited to, giving me ideas for things to do with the kids, helping me find ways to decorate my house when we win the gazillion dollar lottery, and finding new recipes to try. My kids are very grateful for the new things we've tried from there, but I think my favorite thing that I've found on Pinterest so far is this recipe. It's so good, in fact, that I'm sitting here blogging about it not more than an hour after I finished eating it. (I usually take at least a week to get around to blogging, folks.) It's THAT good.

Now, the title says "spicy"..... I kind of left that part out. I'm not huge on spicy myself, and I know the kids aren't, so I adapted it a bit. I totally left out the 6 T of hot sauce. I don't even have any hot sauce in the house for the aforementioned reason. I still used the chili flakes and paprika, and even added a dash of cumin. And since it was absolutely gorgeous outside today, I used the real grill- no silly grill pan for this girl if I can help it! (The actual grill is way easier to clean!)

The other changes I made were to use store-bought guacamole mix. I did actually mash up 2 avocadoes, but Food Lion sells this mix that looked good and easy, so I gave it a shot. LOVED it! Easily as good as that Wholly Guacamole stuff, and probably way cheaper. I used light sour cream instead of creme freche, and used regular old lettuce instead of watercress. I'm cheap, what can I say?

The whole family loved it, so it's definitely a keeper. I've actually decided that whoever we have over for the first time this Spring/Summer to grill out will be having this for dinner. :) This is definitely going on my list of favorite grilling recipes!

http://www.thelondoner.me/2011/08/starlit-spicy-lemon-chicken-wraps.html

3/1- Balsamic Chicken

This winter has been one of the strangest winters I can remember with more days in the 50's than in the 30's, and less snow than I ever remember seeing here. I decided to take advantage of one of the warmer days and fire up the grill since it felt more like spring than winter. One of my CL magazines had a page with several different ideas for marinades and ways to cook chicken, and this was one of them. I'm a big fan of balsamic vinegar, so I decided to give it a try. I was not disappointed!

The recipe actually calls for a combination of booking in a skillet and then finishing it in the oven..... that just seemed like way too much work and too many dishes, so that was further reason to use the grill. Much easier clean-up!

The chicken was served with steamed broccoli, broccoli alfredo pasta, and grilled pineapple. Delicious!

HH6 February Challenge

Here was February's challenge: In celebration of Valentine's Day, create a dish that represents your relationship with your significant other. (example: the meal you had on your first date, on a vacation together, what you ate before you got engaged, the meal you had at your wedding etc.)

I'm late posting because I couldn't get my act together, but I'm posting nonetheless! When my husband and I were in college, whenever we visited each other, he would run to the store and buy some steaks and then grill them for me. It was something I rarely cooked since chicken is cheaper, so it was kind of a treat. He'd bring candles and set the table and everything, so it was something special and romantic that he'd do for me. It's something we still do once in a while, but not as often as either of us would like.

For this particular meal, I bought super cheap steaks (because I'm trying valiantly, and mostly unsuccessfully, to come in under our grocery budget), covered them with salt and pepper, and grilled them. I find that that way often tastes better than smothering them with some sort of sauce. I served the steaks with garden salad, and broccoli cheddar pasta. As usual, the kids were more into the pasta than the steaks, but Joe and I thought it was all delicious, and enjoyed the memories associated with the meal. :)

Once again, the picture is stuck on my phone, sorry! 

2/26- Chicken Cakes with Horesradish Ailoi

I could've sworn I'd posted about these before, but I didn't see it in my archives so here goes. I apologize if it's a duplicate. I hesitated to make this for a long time because it sounded weird to me, but it's really amazingly good. The food processor makes grinding up the chicken really fast and easy, and from there it's just like mixing up meatloaf or burgers or something. The cakes cook very quickly, and the horseradish sauce is really fast to make as well. It's another quick and easy meal that's very tasty! The kids love it, and R actually like the horseradish sauce! I've never met a not-quite-two year old with such mature taste buds!

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/spicy-chicken-cakes-with-horseradish-aioli-10000001206203/

2/25- Ginger-Honey Pork Chops

This recipe is actually for a pork tenderloin, but I substituted pork chops instead. Potato, potahto, right? The sauce was really simple to make, and was very flavorful. I'll definitely make this again.

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/pan-grilled-ginger-honey-pork-50400000118622/

Once again, the picture is stuck on my phone. Humph. Since I generally sit down and do these post in batches, there will be a few more where this is a problem. Lesson learned, but I still have catching up to do, sorry. It looked so pretty and yummy, too!

2/21- Warm Ham with Shallots and Vinegar

Ham steaks usually go over really well with the kids, so when I found this I knew I had to give it a try. It's from my big Cooking Light cookbook, and it's a really fast meal. The recipe actually recommends it for brunch, but it worked very well as an entree for dinner. I served it with scalloped potatoes and mixed veggies. As predicted, the kids inhaled it! Some of the leftovers worked super well in scrambled eggs the next morning. :)

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4166141795730485774

I have a picture on my phone, I thought I could upload it from it but it's just for Android. Phooey.

2/19- Enchilada Casserole

We had friends from Church over for dinner, and I decided to make them gineau pigs for a new dish. I've never made Enchiladas of any kind before, but this recipe seemed super easy so I decided to give it a try. It was super tasty! Adults and kids alike gobbled it up. It's definitely on my list of things to make again. I served it with salad, cilantro rice, and fruit salad. Yum!

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/enchilada-casserole-50400000118573/