Spaghetti Meat Sauce & Kraft Dinner Casserole

Whenever I go away on vacation, I leave my son a casserole to start his meals off.  A co-worker told me this recipe when he was young.  I was always looking for quick, easy, tasty, kid friendly ideas.  This was one and we both loved it.  I don't make it now, because I don't used processed foods much any longer, but today this really suited the purpose, and it was nostalgic to me in the sense of his childhood.  It's nice to enjoy food memories from the past at times.  It's very simple:

Chicken Stew

So, I used what ingredients I had in my fridge and made a stew with them.  I had 4 chicken thighs with legs, so cut them up to make 8 pieces.  I seasoned with Trader Joe's "Garlic salt, sea salt, roasted garlic, onion and parsley" and fresh cracked pepper.  I browned them in some olive oil and then took them out and set them aside.  The rest of the ingredients I used are:

Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts were on sale this week, so I picked some up.  I was debating at trying the "Chicken Kiev" dish again, but then saw this recipe and decided it would be dinner.  It looked easy and not fussy, which was what sold me.  Plus my son and I agreed that with that chicken kiev, it would have been better with cheese.  I had some nitrate free deli ham from Trader Joe's and some Emmentaler Swiss cheese in the fridge so it was all good.  I decided not to make the sauce though it looked great - I love sauces - I could be the mother of all mother sauces, but I thought that the cheese was enough for excess calories tonight.  For sides, I had sauteed mushrooms and leftover baby potatoes from brunch yesterday.  I gave my son some mac & cheese, mushrooms and corn for his.

Smoked Turkey, Chicken Andouille & Pinto Bean Enchiladas

I had lots of leftovers from this last night, so I decided to make enchiladas with it.  I also had some low-carb tortillas in the fridge too, so thought this would be a good use for them.

Scrapple

Two co-workers and myself got together and purchased some Scrapple.  We can't get it Canada so my co-worker kindly picked it up at her address in Washington State for us.  They ship it on ice packs.  We'd all heard of it but never tried it.  So, the ingredients are not very appetizing, if you get it as it was originally made, with awful offal... Ours didn't have that.  We ordered from "West Coast Scrapple".  Ours was made with "high-quality lean ground pork".

Crock-Pot: Smoked Turkey Legs with Pinto Beans & Bacon Corn Bread

This is my re-do of a soul dish I once knew.  My dad's last wife (R.I.P.) was a great cook.  She was black and taught me soul food before I knew what that was.  Her fried chicken and sweet potato pie will be forever etched in my memory.  I never have had either since that compare to hers...She taught me how to make the chicken but I have never come close to recreating it.

Philly Cheesesteak Sliders

I had a pack of King's Hawaiian rolls in my freezer and I had to take them out, and now I had to use them.  I thought Philly cheesesteaks sounded good.  I bought 2 New York Strip loins and cooked them in my cast iron pan like here.

Easter Dinner: Honey Baked Pork Roast

I was going to make turkey and then ham (too much sodium!) and then I couldn't decide.  I came across this recipe and got a pork picnic roast on sale - $10 for 5 lbs, so went with it .  It's been a long time since I've had roast pork so this felt like quite the nice splurge.  My side dishes were going to be roasted baby carrots with tops, mashed baby creamer potatoes with roasted garlic and lastly, gravy.  Very simple.  The recipe also supplied directions for a honey mustard sauce to serve along side the roast so I opted to do both - that, and the gravy.

Perfect Instant Ramen

I thought this was a good thing to make my son for lunch when he got up today.  It's Easter Sunday and he rarely gets a Sunday off from work so I expected I wouldn't see him until around noon time.  This is from chef Roy Choi.  Below is the blurb and recipe from the NY Times cooking site:

Mushroom Green Bean Chow Mein

I don't make chow mein, I think it's much easier to order it in.  Also, my son doesn't like it, so there's really no sense in making it, as I'll just eat it all.  However, last weekend, I was at an Asian grocery store and the fresh noodles compelled me to buy them.  Unfortunately I didn't read the ingredients then and saw there was eggs in them, therefore:  cholesterol.  I am doing well with not eating real eggs often, so decided it was fine tonight.  My co-worker just brought some "Mandarin Orange Chicken" back from Trader Joe's for me, so I decided to do this for dinner tonight.  This particular TJ's chicken is rated really highly on the Interweb so I wanted to try it.

Chicken Kiev

I stumbled across this recipe on the weekend and decided to give it a whirl, though I did my own thing with it.  It looked relatively easy for the weeknight.  I would serve with some salad and a baguette to sop up that sauce.  Normally my grocery store always has boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale but not this week.  They did have bone in breasts on sale so I bought 4 of those and decided I'd make them boneless and skinless myself.  I cut down along the bone, removed the tendons and the skin.

Mushroom & Eggplant Sloppy Joes

My grocery store had my favorite potato buns in stock and on sale, so I thought I would try this recipe.  I usually make sliders but thought this would be healthier.  I saw it on "The Chew" over the weekend and it looked really yummy.

Roasted Spatchcock Chicken, Carrots & Tomatoes

The rain kept me from my lunch time walk again 😢.  I did do a short walk though and went to Costco.  I bought tonight's dinner and it was pretty easy to make.

Fish Tacos

I bought some Pacific Snapper today and decided to make fish tacos with corn tortillas.  I bought pre-packaged slaw and dressed it lightly with Hidden Valley Ranch dressing.  I added in a diced jalapeno pepper with seeds and cracked fresh pepper over it.

Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin

I really only planned one meal for the weekend and decided I would make that tomorrow, so I looked in the freezer to see what was available.  There was a pork tenderloin so I took that out.  The nice thing is it doesn't take long to thaw.  I was thinking about roasting it as I didn't feel like making anything too bothersome for dinner.  I had some bacon left so decided to wrap it in it to help with the leanness of the pork.  I searched the cupboard and saw that I had some Weber BBQ rub so thought that would be a good idea too.