MommaCooks

posted by Nina on Jun 25

Smells fantastic, tastes fantastic and won’t heat up your kitchen.

Ingredients:
3-4 lb. boneless pork loin roast
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can whole cranberry sauce
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. apple juice
3 apples, cored, peeled and coarsely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Place roast in Crockpot and rub with garlic. Add remaining ingredients and cook on low for 7-9 hours. Serve with rice or couscous.

What did the family think? Hubby and I thought this was really good. It definitely tastes like comfort food.

posted by Nina on Jun 4

A traditional dish…with a twist.

Ingredients:
Topping:
7-oz. can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
2 1/4 lbs. sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-in. pieces
1 c. milk
1 tspn. salt
1/4 tspn. pepper

Filling:
2 lbs. ground hamburger, turkey or chicken
Cooking spray
2 c. onion, chopped
1 c. carrot, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 c. frozen peas, thawed
1/2 c. crushed tomatoes
3 T A-1 steak sauce (or something like it)
2 T tomato paste
1/2 tspn. pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

For topping…remove one chile from can and coarsely chop. Set chile and can of chiles to the side.

Place potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain.

Put potatoes, chopped chile, milk, 2 tspn. adobo sauce, salt and 1/4 tspn. pepper in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer on medium speed until smooth.

For filling…cook hamburger in a large pan, stirring to crumble, until cooked through. Drain fat and transfer meat to a medium bowl.

Spray pan with cooking spray. Put on medium-high heat and add carrots, onion and garlic. Saute for about five minutes or until tender.

Add beef back to pan with carrots and onion mixture. Add peas and the remaining ingredients. Heat through for about two minutes.

Spoon beef mixture into a casserole dish. Spread sweet potatoes evenly over beef mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes or until heated through.

What did the family think? This was not a hit at my house. That said, I really liked it. I don’t think I will be making it again though since I was the only one who liked it.

recipe from Cooking Light

posted by Nina on May 19

This was a yummy recipe I made during Lent. The salmon cakes were really good and the aioli was a very nice complement.

Ingredients:
AIOLI:
2 T mayonnaise
2 tspn. fresh lemon juice
1/4 tspn. minced garlic

SALMON CAKES:
3 (6 oz) cans boneless, skinless pink salmon in water, drained
1/4 c. green onions, sliced
1/4 c. fat-free mayo
2 T. dry breadcrumbs
1 tsspn. Cajun seasoning blend
2 tsspn. Dijon mustard
1/2 c. dry breadcrumbs
1 tbspn. canola oil

Preparation:
AIOLI:
Combine all ingredients for aioli in a small bowl and set aside.

SALMON CAKES:
Combine salmon, green onions, mayo, 2 T. breadcrumbs, Cajun seasoning and mustard in a medium bowl.

Shape salmon mixture into eight patties. Dredge patties through 1/2 c. breadcrumbs.

Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet. Cook patties, three minutes on each side or until browned on both sides and heated through.

Serve aioli over salmon.

What did the family think? These turned out very nicely. A few of the patties kind of fell apart while I was cooking them, so they didn’t come out looking very pretty, but they still tasted great. Hubby thought they were great and the boys ate fish sticks. We had some broccoli and a baguette with our fish.

Recipe from Cooking Light

posted by Nina on May 3

I think this is the first Jaime Oliver recipe I ever made and it is a good one. It’s like a frittata and it’s super yummy.

Ingredients:
4 small potatoes, cut into chunks
Salt and Pepper to season
6 large eggs
1/2 lb. chorizo (links or ground)
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 shallots, peeled and very finely sliced
Juice of one lemon
Olive oil
A bunch of flat leaf parsley, leaves picked

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Put the potatoes in a pot of boiling water. Cook until done. Drain.

Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Heat skillet and add sausage and potatoes. After the chorizo is thoroughly cooked remove the potatoes and the sausage from the skillet with a slotted spoon.

Sprinkle the rosemary leaves into the skillet. Pour the eggs on top immediately. Then add the sausage and potatoes spreading everything out evenly. Leave the skillet on the burner for a few minutes.

Remove from the stovetop and put the skillet in the oven. Cook until golden brown on top and cooked through.

While the omelet if cooking, put the shallots in a bowl with the lemon juice, some salt and pepper and a glug of olive oil. Mix in the parsley leaves. Serve a little on top of the omelet. Enjoy!

What did the family think? Hubby and I liked all of it VERY much. Out oldest ate the potatoes and the eggs while our youngest only ate the chorizo.

posted by Nina on May 3

I made these tonight for the first time ever and they were a HIT! Everyone liked them. They do take some time to make, but if that means that no one was fussing at the table, then it was worth every second.

Ingredients:
1 T. olive oil
1/2 lb. Italian sausage
1/3 c. yellow onion, chopped
1 oz. fresh spinach
4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 c. grated Parmesan, plus 1/4 c.
13.5 oz. refrigerated pizza dough, or make your own
Flour (for rolling out pizza dough)
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 c. marinara, for dipping
Parchment paper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Heat olive oil in a skillet and add chopped onions. Cook for a few minutes and add Italian sausage. Cook for about five minutes or until sausage is throughly cooked and then add spinach. Cook until wilted.

Take pan off heat to cool for about ten minutes.

Add cream cheese and 1/3 c. parmesan. Stir to combine and set aside.

Roll out pizza dough on a lightly floured surface to a thin 20 by 12-inch rectangle. Cut the rectangle into four equal-sized rectangles.

Spoon the topping into each rectangle. (Make sure to not put the topping in the middle of the rectangle, but put the topping on one side since you are going to be folding it over.)

Fold the dough over the topping. Use a fork to seal and crimp the edges.

Carefully place the pizza pockets on parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

With a pastry brush, brush egg wash on the top of each pizza pocket.

Sprinkle with remaining parmesan cheese.

Bake for 15-17 minutes.

While those are cooking, warm up your marinara sauce for dipping.

Did I do anything differently? The original recipe did not call for onions which I added and it did call for arugula which I left out and added fresh spinach instead. I don’t do arugula.

What did the family think? Everyone loved it and ate it and our oldest thought it was genius that I put cream cheese in it. (That boys LOVES cream cheese. )

Important note: You really need to use parchment paper. I didn’t have any so I just used aluminum foil and the pizza pockets stuck to it in a very big way.

posted by Nina on Apr 18

This is a twist on Sloppy Joes, but it’s less “tomatoey”.

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground turkey
1 (10.75 oz.) can condensed chicken gumbo soup
2 T ketchup
1 T yellow mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
Hamburger buns

Ingredients:
Brown ground turkey (or hamburger or chicken-whichever you prefer) in a skillet. When turkey is cooked through, add soup, ketchup, mustard, salt and pepper. Stir until all of the ingredients are thoroughly mixed and heated through.

Serve on buns just as you would traditional sloppy joes.

Did I change anything? Yes. The original recipe called for water to be added to the skillet and then having it simmer for an hour. If you don’t add the water then you don’t need to let it simmer and everyone gets to eat faster.

Variation: If you have trouble finding chicken gumbo soup, you could probably substitute a can of chicken and rice soup.

What did the family think? They will all eat sloppy joes, but this didn’t exactly look like sloppy joes, so I wasn’t sure if they would eat it or not. Everyone ate it though with a minimum amount of complaining from the youngest members of our family.

posted by Nina on Apr 10

It doesn’t get any easier than this. I found this recipe on-line a few years ago and have made several variations, but this is the simplest one I have made. Simple is good. We have this at least twice a month at our house. It is a great dish to have on a night when you know you are going to be busy or getting home late. It’s done when you get home AND your house smells FANTASTIC!

Ingredients:
Salt
Pepper
Poultry Seasoning
1 large roasting chicken
1 small lemon

Directions:
After making sure there aren’t any gizzards, etc. in the cavity of the chicken, cut the lemon in half and place both halves of the lemon in the cavity of the chicken then place the chicken in the crockpot. Sprinkle a little bit of salt, pepper and poultry seasoning on the chicken. Put the lid on the crockpot and cook on low for 4-8 hours. (Ours is usually done within five hours at the most.)

Variations: You can put just about any reasonable spice on this chicken that you want to and it will turn out tasting great. You could use paprika, lemon pepper, garlic salt, thyme, cayenne…get creative.

We usually have this dish with a veggie that can be prepared quickly and some bread and butter with honey on it. Again, very quick, but yummy.

What does the family think? Hubby and I love this dish. It is definitely a comfort food in our house. Our boys aren’t huge chicken fans, but they’ll eat it.

posted by Nina on Apr 9

It’s about a couple of things actually.  One, there are times when I have the hardest time coming up with ideas to cook for dinner.  I hope this might serve as a place for people who are desperate for ideas to come and get some inspiration.  Secondly, I often have a place on my personal website where I post what we are having for dinner each week, but I never really had a forum for letting people know if any of the recipes I had tried out that week were any good or not.  My goal is to post a dinner recipe a day as well as modifications I made and what the family actually thought of it.  Happy cooking!