In keeping with the time theme for the next few weeks here is this weeks weekly installment for Quick Easy Meals.
I call this School Lunch Specials because they were inspired by some of my favorite school lunches as a kid. Yes I had favorite school lunches as a kid. Not all School lunches are bad and one of my favorites and now my families favorites was Bagel Pizzas with carrots and broccoli and ranch dip. I like to vary this particular recipe because let's face it there are a TON of varieties of bagels. For instance you can use Everything Bagels with pizza sauce and pizza toppings, you can use plain bagels with HUNTS oregano and basil tomato sauce and whatever pizza toppings you like. What I'm saying is the combinations are endless and you can let your imagination fly. To alleviate the "guilt" of serving your kids bagel pizzas you create a side dish of fun veggies for dipping.
Prep time: varies depending on ingredients used for pizza
Hands on time: approximately 20 minutes.
Ingredients:
Bagels (big or small bagels it doesn't matter)
Pizza sauce or tomato sauce
Mozzarella cheese
Sliced pepperoni
Browned Italian sausage.
Browned Hamburger (I like to brown my hamburger ahead of time and freeze it)
Sliced bell peppers
Black or green olives
Really whatever you like on your pizza that's what you put on top of your bagel.
Favorite raw veggies sliced for little hands
Ranch Salad dressing for dipping.
Set the oven to 350 degrees and assemble your bagel pizzas. Cook in pre-heated oven until cheese melts and is slightly bubbly. Cup up your veggies and assemble on the side of the plate. When the bagel pizzas have cooled slide onto the plate with veggies and ranch dressing for dipping.
My families other favorite "School Lunch Special" is tuna melts with Homemade Fries. For this recipe you'll need Lender's Everything Bagels. I've tried other brands and they are sadly just not the same. For easy clean up I suggest lining the cookie sheet with some tin foil.
Ingredients
Favorite brand of tuna fish
1 medium onion
2 stalks of celery
sweet pickle relish
Mayonnaise
Dijon or some kind of spicy mustard.
5 large potato's (roughly one large potato per family member)
Thick sliced Cheddar Cheese
3 sliced tomatoes
Vegetable oil
Large pot for frying
In a large mixing bowl your going to put in two of your favorite cans of tuna fish (be sure to drain the liquid first). Finely chop the onion and celery and add to the tuna fish. From there you're going to mix in your mayonnaise. Notice I'm not giving you measurements for this, that's because EVERYONE has their own idea of what is enough for their perfect tuna fish to mayonnaise ratio. After you mixed your desired consistency up you're going to add 1 tablespoon of the spicy mustard and mix well then add the relish to taste. Set that aside and line your cookie sheet with tin foil and place the Everything bagels split and open on it. Spoon the tuna fish onto the bagels and and place one slice of tomato and one slice of cheddar cheese on top. In case you haven't yet it's time to pre-heat the oven.
Now rinse off those potatoes and peel those bad boys! here's the secret to REALLY amazing home made fries. Whether your bake them or fry them ALWAYS rinse them in with clean water and then pat them dry. This gets rid of the excess start from the potatoes. Put the vegetable oil in the pot and once the oil is hot and popping you're going to slide the potatoes into the oil. Watch them carefully when they float to the top take them out and put them in a brown paper bag. OK now mostly likely your kids are going to want to do this part. In the brown paper bag place whatever seasonings you want on your fries, salt, pepper, Tony Chachere's, whatever it is that you love seasoned on your fries close the bag up and give it a shake! Shake it, shake it, and do the french fry dance! I like to peel, wash, and fry each individual potato and place them in separate paper bags for each of the kids to shake. This way each one gets their "own" special home made fries ;-).
Once your oven is pre-heated place the cookie sheet of tuna melt bagels inside and let bake till the cheese melts about 5 to 8 minutes.
Remember those paper bags you shook your fries in? Tear those bags open along one side and spread out at the table then place one bagel tuna melt next to those "special" homemade fries.
Hands on time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Meals Made Easier
Thank you for bearing with me while our office went through their busy time. It's finally slowed down enough for me to get back in the saddle. With that in mind I've pulled my favorite "no fuss" easy dinners and put those together for a months worth of meals. The holiday season is on us and our lives will go zipping by at lightening speed. With Fall decorating, Halloween parties, pumpkin patches, Thanksgiving, and of course Christmas, you won't want to be spending a whole lot of time in the kitchen. Or if you happen to be my friend Elizabeth you think Kitchen is synonymous Drudgery (I don't know if that's an actual word but I'm claiming it!), so in honor of the impending holidays and for people like my friend Elizabeth the next few weeks blogs are going to be all about saving time and whipping up easy, yummy, meals.
Week One:
Tortellini with Butternut Squash, Mushrooms, and Fontina
Hands on time: 10 minutes
Total time: 40 Minutes
1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 pound button or cremini mushrooms, stems trimmed and halved if large.
1/4 cup fresh sage leaves. (If you don't have fresh sage leaves you can use dried sage leaves just be sure to cut the amount down by half).
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and black pepper
1 pound fresh or frozen tortellini
2 ozs. Fontina or Gruyere, grated (1/2 cup), plus more for serving.
Heat oven to 450 degrees f. on 2 rimmed baking sheets (or a pizza stone if you have one), toss the squash and mushrooms with the sage, oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Roast, tossing once, until tender, 20 to 25 minutes.
While that's roasting you want to start cooking the tortellini according to the package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water; drain the tortellini and return to the pot. Add the vegetables, Fontina, 1/4 cup of the cooking water, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and toss gently to coat. Sprinkle with Fontina.
IF that's still too much cooking for you here's another fall evening favorite in our house.
Tomato soup with Roast Beef, Cheddar, and Horseradish Panini.
Hands on time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
1 large family size can of tomato soup
2 large onions, chopped (optional)
4 cloves garlic, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
sandwich bread (whichever kind you feel like using)
8 ozs thinly sliced roast beef
8 ozs sharp white cheddar, sliced
Ok remember how I said the onions and garlic were optional? Well that's because I like to "doctor" my tomato soup with them. If you'd like to try your soup my way it's super simple, just chop the onions and garlic and throw them in with the canned tomato soup and let it all simmer on the stove top together. Tomato soup is so versatile you can throw just about anything you like in there and it's gonna be good. So that's it for the soup. I do have a homemade tomato soup recipe and just for fun I'll post that for my slow cooked Sunday dinner post.
While the soup is heating up and cooking it's time to assemble the sandwiches. Remember when I posted that improvised panini post? Well same thing applies here if you don't have a panini press don't worry about it you can improvise with other things. A panini is really just a fancy grilled sandwich anyway. Your going to to need a small bowl and a whisk. Stir together the sour cream and horseradish. Form sandwiches with the bread, roast beef, cheddar, and half the horseradish mixture.
Side note: if you happen to have some arugula on hand (a peppery type of lettuce) it's awesome on these sandwiches.
Heat a lightly oiled grill pan over medium heat and cook the sandwiches until the cheese is melted, about 5 to 6 minutes per side. Top the soup with the remaining horseradish mixture and serve with the sandwiches.
Week One:
Tortellini with Butternut Squash, Mushrooms, and Fontina
Hands on time: 10 minutes
Total time: 40 Minutes
1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 pound button or cremini mushrooms, stems trimmed and halved if large.
1/4 cup fresh sage leaves. (If you don't have fresh sage leaves you can use dried sage leaves just be sure to cut the amount down by half).
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and black pepper
1 pound fresh or frozen tortellini
2 ozs. Fontina or Gruyere, grated (1/2 cup), plus more for serving.
Heat oven to 450 degrees f. on 2 rimmed baking sheets (or a pizza stone if you have one), toss the squash and mushrooms with the sage, oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Roast, tossing once, until tender, 20 to 25 minutes.
While that's roasting you want to start cooking the tortellini according to the package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water; drain the tortellini and return to the pot. Add the vegetables, Fontina, 1/4 cup of the cooking water, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and toss gently to coat. Sprinkle with Fontina.
IF that's still too much cooking for you here's another fall evening favorite in our house.
Tomato soup with Roast Beef, Cheddar, and Horseradish Panini.
Hands on time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
1 large family size can of tomato soup
2 large onions, chopped (optional)
4 cloves garlic, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
sandwich bread (whichever kind you feel like using)
8 ozs thinly sliced roast beef
8 ozs sharp white cheddar, sliced
Ok remember how I said the onions and garlic were optional? Well that's because I like to "doctor" my tomato soup with them. If you'd like to try your soup my way it's super simple, just chop the onions and garlic and throw them in with the canned tomato soup and let it all simmer on the stove top together. Tomato soup is so versatile you can throw just about anything you like in there and it's gonna be good. So that's it for the soup. I do have a homemade tomato soup recipe and just for fun I'll post that for my slow cooked Sunday dinner post.
While the soup is heating up and cooking it's time to assemble the sandwiches. Remember when I posted that improvised panini post? Well same thing applies here if you don't have a panini press don't worry about it you can improvise with other things. A panini is really just a fancy grilled sandwich anyway. Your going to to need a small bowl and a whisk. Stir together the sour cream and horseradish. Form sandwiches with the bread, roast beef, cheddar, and half the horseradish mixture.
Side note: if you happen to have some arugula on hand (a peppery type of lettuce) it's awesome on these sandwiches.
Heat a lightly oiled grill pan over medium heat and cook the sandwiches until the cheese is melted, about 5 to 6 minutes per side. Top the soup with the remaining horseradish mixture and serve with the sandwiches.
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