A meal, A Plan

I have to admit this.

I am not a throw-a-recipe-together kind of cook...

generally speaking, unless I am in a pinch...

I do better with directions...then, from that, I play around

with the ingredients ( more of something...or less of another)...

I also have to admit that I am a poor meal planner...

I have my go-to recipes...and I do like to try many new ones...

but I usually decide that...well, the day of haha..

My abuela ( my grandmother) sent me the Dec. issue of Rachel Ray Magazine...

(love her!)

...and inside was this little booklet of daily weeknight meals

...a planning guide for a weeks worth of dinners!

Strike me down...it was like gold to gold miner!

Inside the booklet included all the recipes, plus a shopping list for the entire week!

What did I have to do?

Drive to the grocery store and get said food.

Um, yes please.

Also, it cut my grocery bill in meh, half!!!

Yes, half.

I cried too, it's ok.

So here's the deal, go here to get your weekly Rachel Ray  meal guide ...

This lovely recipe pictured above? Well, that is the last recipe for this week... ( since I apparently shop in the middle of the week?) and it was magnificent...I would probably not use bell pepper when I make it next time...and maybe add mushrooms instead...but all around it was amazing...and I ate it for lunch too!

So go ahead... try it out ! Lemme know what you think!

Rachel Ray's

Fettuccine/ Toasted Almond Cream

Ingredients:

 2 cloves garlic ( grated)

12 oz. spinach fettuccine ( broken in half)

8 oz. frozen peas (thawed)

1 small red bell pepper ( I used green)

1/2 cup (2oz) slivered almonds

2 eggs

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Salt & Pepper

1 1/4 cups shredded mozzarella

1/2 lb. thick-sliced smoked turkey ( finely chopped)

Directions:

1. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, add the garlic. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 11 minutes. Add the peas and bell pepper in the last 2 minutes of cooking.

2. Meanwhile, using a food processor ( I actually used a coffee grinder...don't judge...and it worked perfectly) grind the almonds to a fine powder. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup water and process until smooth and creamy.

3. In a medium bowl, lightly beat eggs. Stir in the almond cream, Parmesan, 1 tsp. salt and a generous pinch pepper.

4. Drain the pasta and vegetables, reserving about 1 cup of the cooking water; return to the pot. Add the egg-parm mixture and stir to coat (the hot pasta will cook the eggs). Stir in the mozzarella, smoked turkey and enough of the reserved cooking water to loosen up the sauce.

Viola! Serve and Enjoy!

This recipe was taken straight out of the booklet from the mag...

pretty simple stuff...

Hope you all are having a great Wednesday!

What recipes have you tried lately? Lemme know if you do attempt this one!



Cooked: Save the Day Cookies...

 

'member that little recipe I said I was going to share with you wonderfuls?!? Well, as promised, I whipped up a little virtual "recipe card" so you all can make them too!

I call these my Save the Day Cookies...because that is exactly what happened...or maybe they could be call the Desperate Stay-At-Home Mom Cookies, but let's all agree, that's a bit chunky...no, not you guys...the title...sheesh...though I may say, I wouldn't mind the extra chunky pounds gained from these suckers...cause they are that good...if I do say so myself....

Honestly, the recipe just kind of happened...I was home...the kids were hungry...they acted like they were 3rd world country starving for real...and I was about to go crawl in a kitchen cabinet and twitch for a little while...when I had a eureka moment! Now, this does not happen a whole lot...( I know you are all shocked by that lol) so when it does I just kinda go with it and hope it tastes good in the end. I knew I wanted to make some type of cookies so I stood in front of my pantry until I heard an audible voice speak to me from the cereal/oatmeal shelf... "pick meeeeee....." Well, maybe it was more like a "oh yeah, I have instant oatmeal.." kind of a moment, but go with me on this... So I started googling to see if instant oatmeal could be used to make cookies...and whatayaknow...it can! So then, following the sort-of steps to this recipe I came up with the below cookie recipe!

...now don't these just scream yummy! 

 basically I halved the majority of the ingredients from the recipe I had...I used flavored instant oatmeal and added raisins!

If you decide to try the recipe I would love to hear how it turned out for you and if you made any changes/additions to the recipe how that turned out as well! Oh, and feel free to pass it along if you like... I always like a good cookie recipe in my bag of cooking tricks...

Hope your Wednesday is fabulous so far...I am working on a DIY for you all that I will probably share on Friday!

What yummy treats have you all been baking lately?

Cooked: Rainy Morning Treats

This morning I woke up to heavy rain pelting my windows, and a little boy trying to climb into my bed.... he's afraid of storms...

This was the perfect morning for a warm, cozy breakfast.

I recently pinned a recipe that I thought would be fun and interesting- apple dumplings...

I had the croissants...but no apple...just plums...

Well, they turned out fabulously warm and were the perfect rainy morning treat!

Plum Croissants

 (because the name plum dumplings sounds a little silly when you say it lol)

needed

1 can of crescent rolls ( I used an off brand)

1-2 medium/large sized plums

directions

separate the dough, into its triangles, onto a pan

place 1-2  small slices of plum onto to dough and roll it

like you would a traditional croissant.

follow the baking instructions for the croissants...

mine were 375 degrees for 11-13 min.

....and Viola!

yummmy, warm, -not-too-sweet-not-too-dry goodness!

What's your favorite rainy day treat?

Happy Tuesday friends!

Cooked: the Loaf

Unbelievably, while playing "single momma" this week again, I was able to find the time to cook dinner from scratch, take a picture and blog the recipe/preparation for you guys in a, long-time coming, Cooked segment! Yikes, its funny how things come along in life and just flips it (in this case for the best!).

This recipe, I have to credit my mom with. She gifted me this low-carb cookbook for Christmas and this was my first opportunity to try any of the recipes. I decided to try the meatloaf and it turned out amazing...like I probably could have eaten half of the thing but I restrained myself (barely). To go with it, I roasted some carrots and I have to say, I cannot believe that I don't make those more often...super easy and super yummy!

Soooo, here's the recipe, because I just know you want to try it...oh, and ps., I don't even like meatloaf really...so you know it has to be good!

Here's the recipe!

Italian-Style Meat Loaf

Ingredients:

1 can (6oz.) no salt-added tomato paste

1/2 cup dry wine (optional) (I didn't use it)

1/2 cup water

1 tsp. minced garlic

1/2 tsp. dried basil leaves

1/2 tsp. dried oregano leaves

1/4 tsp. salt

12 oz. lean ground round

12 oz. ground turkey

1 cup fresh whole wheat bread crumbs (2 slices whole wheat bread)

1/2 cup shredded zucchini

1/4 cup egg substitute or 2 egg whites

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine tomato paste, wine (if using it), water, garlic, oregano, basil and salt into small saucepan. Bring to boil; reduce heat low. Simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes. Set aside.

2. Combine beef, turkey, bread crumbs, zucchini, egg substitute and 1/2 cup reserved tomato mixture in a large bowl. Mix well, Shape into a loaf; place into an ungreased 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Bake 45 minutes. Discard drippings. Pour remaining tomato mixture over top of loaf. Bake an additional 15 minutes. Cool and serve!

Roasted Carrots

Ingredients:

Carrots (as many as desired) sliced thin length-wise

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F.

place the sliced carrots onto a baking sheet. Sprinkle with olive oil making sure that all sides are coated. Sprinkle with salt and pepper coating evenly. Roast in oven for 15-20 minutes. Remove, cool and serve!

Whew! Now I am tired! By the way....WE GOT APPROVED FOR THE HOUSE!!!! Yay! so now all I have to do is box this entire house up and ship us all off!!! The Travelocity Gnome comes to mind.....

Hope you all have a splen-did evening!

Cooked...because I actually do ♥

One of the new features I wanted to create this new year was an area where I could share recipes, cooking experiments, mini kitchen explosions lol, etc. I have noticed so many young married girls on the blogosphere like me and well, we don't all know how to cook that amazing nor have time to devote to becoming Martha Stewart. So! I decided well, why not make a place where we can all learn together...Because, yes, I actually do cook (unlike popular belief hah) and I would love to get better at it myself!

So, here's the deal. I will find, test and come up with some recipes here and then (if no one gets sick from it) I will put up the recipe, with a few pictures and you can try it out if you'd like....and let me know how it goes, if you changed up anything and add any pictures of the dish!!! If you are like me, I have to see what I am about to make, so if there are no pictures, I hesitate to try it.

Plus if you have a recipe you want me to try out or feature contact me (using the contact tab on my homepage) and I will be glad to give it a whirl! Sometimes I am too afraid to try a recipe so I get someone else to test it out first, if that is the case with you, I will be the test dummy too (unless it is really odd, like rabbit eyeballs or something creepy like that lol).

Also, you vegans out there...I have been dying to try out some recipes, but I am a little overwhelmed and don't know where to start so if you have anything for me to try....please send it to me. I will gladly try it out too!

Okay, well without further ado....here's my first recipe!

Homemade Hamburger Pizza

Yes, I totally started out with the healthiest of foods, I know lol, but it is such a cheap meal, and my Luca loves it ( I wonder why haha).

What You Will Need:

• Pizza Crust- pre-made, homemade or the packet (for this I used the packet kind)
• Pizza Sauce- you could also substitute with a cheese sauce, bbq sauce, etc.
• Cheese- any types you wish ( I used mozzarella, and cheddar)
• Toppings- For this pizza: fresh mushrooms, onions, ground hamburger
• Pizza Pan- round or rectangle
• Vegetable Oil (or Olive Oil)
• 1/2 cup of water

What You Do:

• pre-heat your oven to 475 degrees
• (if your using the packet, here are my directions) empty packet into bowl, mix in water and knead until you can round it into a ball.
• brush oil over the ball of dough and let rise for 5 min.
• spread the dough over the pan, pinching the ends around the edges
• use a fork and stab the dough thoroughly (this lets the dough cook through evenly
• bake on lowest rack for 5 min.
• (while the crust is baking) brown hamburger in a pan, drain the excess grease and wash the meat in warm water.
• cut up your mushrooms and onions (and/or whatever else you use for toppings (i.e., bell pepper, chicken, etc.)
• (when the crust is done "pre-baking") remove from oven and add your sauce, toppings, cheese, and place back in the oven for an additional 9-11 min. or until the crust is completely cooked through.

Viola! Hot, Cheesy Pizza ready to eat!

* side note- if you do not drain and rinse you hamburger, you will end up with some really soggy crust no matter how long you bake it! Yuck!

Hope you all enjoyed the first ever COOKED, there will be a lot more where that came from, so get your ideas, recipes and pictures in! I wanna see them!

XoXo