Tasty Thursday

      We are now in week 3 of dealing with a sick baby (a cold, an ear infection, and now croup). Thankfully it hasn't been too bad. Owen is still mainly his cheerful, energetic self though he might be a bit whinier when he is tired. And the croup cough is really startling to hear coming from my baby's bedroom. The first night he had it, we were wondering how a dog had managed to sneak into Owen's room. But after buying a cool moisture humidifier, his cough has gotten much better and he is sleeping through the night again. 


     Owen and I are both going a little crazy from being cooped in the house for too long, but we are heading to the grocery store today so we'll at least be able to get out of the house a little bit. I have missed being able to go to my workout classes and we've also had to miss Owen's last music class and a few playdates. 


    I've still been sticking to making our meals every night though. I really enjoy cooking at the end of the day and for the most part it is actually relaxing to be able to cook while Tim takes care of Owen. The best recipe that I made this past week was the chicken enchiladas from Skinny Taste. They were very good and not too time intensive to make. Otherwise, the majority of the other recipes (pollo in potaccio, sweet and fiery [chicken], and bangin' good shrimp) that we tried were good, but not particularly good enough that we will make them again. My version of Aunt Beth's beef and barley soup was very good though and wonderful for the cold days we've been having up here. We will definitely make it again. Anyway, my picks for this week were mainly chosen to use up stuff that we already have in the freezer and fridge and also to satisfy my cravings for burgers and Mexican food. I also have a special treat for Owen planned. So without further ado, here's the menu for the week.


Thursday: Cheeseburger salad. This is a recipe from Pioneer Woman that I have had my eye on for a while. I have a recipe that I love for a cheeseburger casserole, but it's not even remotely healthy. This seems like a much better alternative to satisfy my craving for a big, juicy burger. The hamburger meat is mixed with ketchup, mustard, and barbecue sauce and then served on a bunch of romaine lettuce with cut-up pickles, homemade croutons, red onion and cheese. I am so excited about trying this recipe. My friend Katie made it a few weeks ago and she gave it a big thumbs up. 

Photo from thepioneerwoman.com.

Friday: Chicken tamale bake. This is a recipe from the cooking blog Emily Bites. The blog creator said that she likes it even better than her bubble up enchilada casserole, which is one of her most popular recipes. I've been craving Mexican food for the past week and I'm looking forward to trying this new recipe because it uses Jiffy corn muffin mix and should be yummy. And it's a Weight Watchers friendly recipe so it should be pretty healthy (if we control our portions). We'll have it with a side salad to use up any leftover romaine lettuce we might have from the night before. 

Photo from Emily Bites.

Saturday: Peach whiskey barbecue chicken. This is a recipe that I have made before. It is so delicious. I didn't use the whiskey the last time I made it because Owen was still getting breastmilk then, but I probably will still omit it because I don't really want to buy whiskey since we don't drink it normally.  I have chicken thighs leftover in the fridge from one of my meals last week so I knew I needed to pull out this recipe to make it again. We'll have it with mashed red potatoes and green beans. 

Photo from thepioneerwoman.com.

Sunday: Chicken parmesan wraps and buffalo chicken wraps and barbecue chicken wraps. I still have wonton wrappers in my fridge from making taco cupcakes a few weeks ago, but I wasn't sure what to do with them. I googled wonton wrapper recipes and found the site Can You Stay For Dinner? The blogger has a post called "5 ways to use wonton wrappers." She actually is using egg roll wrappers, which are about twice as big, so if you want to make these recipes, beware of buying wonton wrappers and get egg roll wrappers instead. Because I have wonton wrappers, I can't make egg rolls, but I figured I could use her recipes as a launch pad and with a little inspiration from Emily Bites' "cupcakes," I can figure out something. I'm excited about making these for us to eat while we watch the Superbowl. Gotta love those commercials. And the fact that we now live on the west coast so we don't have to stay up late to watch the whole thing. 

Photos from canyoustayfor dinner.com.

     For dessert we'll have these peanut butter blossom cookies with heart-shaped chocolates instead of hershey kisses. I know it's a Valentine's Day recipe, but I wanted something sweet to eat for dessert and I have another recipe that I want to make for Valentine's Day. 

Photo from bettycrocker.com.

Monday: Enchilada soup. I made this just a couple weeks ago, but I was not exaggerating when I said that I wanted it again as soon as possible. I am going to double the recipe so that I can freeze a lot of it to have another time. I highly highly recommend trying this great soup from the blog Skinny Taste. 

Photo from Skinny Taste.

Tuesday: Leftover soup.
Wednesday: Shrimp arrabiata. This is a recipe that I learned to make when Tim and I were first married and it is one of his favorites. I hardly make it anymore because shrimp can be so expensive here, but I found a good deal on some frozen shrimp last week so I'm excited about having this recipe again. Arrabiata comes from the Italian word for "angry" because this pasta is spicy. We will have it with steamed broccoli. 

Photo from myrecipes.com.

     And as a special treat for Mr. O, I am going to try to make my own goldfish crackers. The recipe seems pretty simple and I think it will be really neat to be able to make a homemade version of this processed snack food. Owen has tried goldfish crackers at his friend's birthday parties and is a big fan, but I would prefer not to get him addicted to salty and sweet snack foods too early. I am not going to splurge on the goldfish shaped cookie cutter, so we'll see if I can't find a way to either make one myself or they'll just be square shaped. 

Photo from missanthropistskitchen.com