Chicken n' Shrooms

Meal #2 this week featuring pasta ( no red sauce or meatballs all week!). Chicken with mushrooms and garlic wine sauce.  Brian's been using a lot of mushrooms in his cooking lately, and I love it.  Served atop egg noodles....with more of that yummy shaved parmesan.  And this is a Cooking Light recipe??  i find that hard to believe, but it's true.

Hurricane Shrimp

Menu for last night (courtesy of Pinterest):  Spicy Parmesan Shrimp Skillet.  We write the house menu up to two weeks in advance, so obviously it wasn't written with "Sandy" in mind.  The power in our house went out at 4:45 pm, so it was looking like pb+j.  The kids were thrilled with sandwiches by flashlight.  I munched on half a nutella and banana sandwich, hoping the power came back on in time to cook something a little better.
Wish granted!  Around 7pm, we were able to put together this recipe.  It was delicious...with soy sauce and green onion, but also some shaved Parmesan and red pepper flakes.  A fusion dish, if you will.

Orange You Glad

Last night's dinner was my way of emulating Chinese takeout....orange crispy chicken.  It tasted ok but definitely didn't come close to what I was shooting for.  First of all, it was a crockpot recipe.  That's perfect for a busy Saturday!
The first step was to dredge the chicken in flour and fry slightly to give it some crispiness.  Nope....the hot oil just seemed to rinse the flour right off the chicken!  I added some broccoli to the final dish just to get in some veggies. 
To sum up, this wasn't bad.  But it wasn't good, either.  I might be better off just ordering takeout next time!

Soup#2: Bacon Corn Chowder

With the arrival of fall comes the cool air that makes me want to have soup.  So last weekend seemed like a good time ti to make a second soup in order to work on my Day Zero list.

This recipe came from Taste of Home online, but I found it on Pinterest.  It's a very simple recipe, and doesn't have a ton of leftovers.  The ingredients include celery, bacon, potatoes, cream style corn, onion, milk and salt/pepper. The first step, sauteeing the bacon, onions and celery on the stove made the house smell incredible. It came together quickly and made a nice lunch for a cool Sunday.  I did add a sprinkle of smoked paprika before serving to give it that extra oomph.

Weekend Eggs

It's a shame that the kids don't like eggs.  Because their Dad makes an incredible omelet.

Breakfast Birthday Party

My parents have the luck to have their birthdays four days apart (but my Dad is a year older.)  We always celebrate them together.  This year, we had a Breakfast Birthday Party one Saturday morning to celebrate!

It was a big hit, with fruit, juice, waffles, 2 kinds of quiche, bacon AND sausage and the piece de resistance....a birthday cake made from caramel-iced cinnamon rolls!  Everyone loved the food, and I'll bet NO ONE was hungry for lunch!

Happy Birthday Mom and Dad!