Best Ever Burrito Bowls

It is no secret that I like to grill (or that I rarely make the same recipe more than once), so it should come as no surprise that grilling would be on the menu for Isaac's first birthday party.

Well, to be honest, I had initially planned to just order pizza, but Daniel persuaded me to cook for everyone.

Anywho, last week I made these Fiesta Ranch Chicken Burrito Bowls from a recipe I found at Carlsbard Cravings and they were really out of this world. So Daniel said I should just make them for the party.

You know that it's a great recipe when I made it twice... in one week no less! The prep was simple. I just had to marinate the chicken ahead of time and then I whipped up this Cilantro Lime Rice from Culinary Hill (a Chipotle knockoff). It was also amazing (the secret being to cook it with a bay leaf, who knew?!?).

Anyways, if you are looking for a delicious, easy to make meal, you need to give this a try. Seriously. I will be making it again! The chicken and rice are THAT good!

Grandma's Peanut Butter Cookies

A lot of the memories that we collectively shared at my Grandma's funeral revolved around food. Delicious, southern, comfort food to be exact. One of my dad's cousins who attended the funeral was sweet enough to make peanut butter cookies from a recipe my Grandma gave her in 1968. She sent each of us home with a bag of these cookies and then emailed the recipe to my mom to share.

This week I had a chance to whip up a batch, and no lie, these really are the best peanut butter cookies. The recipe calls for 1 cup of fat. I used butter. REAL butter, no fake stuff here. If memory serves me, I'm pretty sure Grandma always used butter when I was a kid.

When I was making my batch, Jack wandered into the kitchen, looked in the mixing bowl and told me that my cookie batter was dirty. I guess the peanut butter made it look too dark for his liking.

I used my hands to roll the batter into balls and then Jack helped me press the fork into the balls to flatten them. He quickly got over his dislike of the "dirty" batter, first licking the beater clean and then devouring every cookie he could get his hands on. He told me they turned out better than he expected.

The funeral was just over two weeks ago, but through food, I am still remembering Grandma.

Grandma's Peanut Butter Cookies, circa 1968
Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup fat (I used real, unsalted butter)                                            

1 cup peanut butter (I used natural, but any brand, chunky or smooth works)

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

 

Directions

Mix butter, peanut butter and sugars.

Add eggs and beat well.

Stir in dry ingredients

Roll into 1-inch balls (or drop by tsp).

Flatten with fork (you can dip the fork in cold water or sugar)

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes until light brown.

Enjoy! 

Weekly Meal Plan

 

It's a Monday morning and I am sitting by the twinkle lights of our live Christmas tree, listening to the wind howl and the rain pitter patter on the windows while I make my meal plan for the week. Playing catch up on my blog (still), but here are some of the meals I cooked recently:

 

 

 

Sicilian Chicken Soup

[recipe from A Dash of Sanity]

 

 

 

This lovely meal is perfect for a cool fall or winter day. The spices are lovely, and a rotisserie chicken from the store works in a pinch if you are short on time. We love to top this dish off with our favorite croutons. If your child does not eat soups yet, this meal is hearty enough to serve vegetables and chicken without the broth. Thankfully Jack is finally starting to eat the entire soup!

 

 

Apple Muffins

[recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything]

 

A couple of weeks ago Jack was sick, suffering from HFMD. There were very few things he wanted to eat. He took comfort in wearing his IronMan costume and he specifically requested Apple Muffins to make him feel better. He was basically eating ice cream around the clock, so I was willing to make him any kind of real food. Thankfully I had apples in my fruit bowl! These muffins were quick to make. I left off the topping and they still tasted great. I had one very happy (and full) Ironman.

 

One-Pot Skillet Lasagna

[recipe from Menu Musings]

 

 

 

Traditional lasagna is a pain to make. That is why I have really embraced the idea of skillet lasagna. This dish is really hearty, with meat and extra vegetables snuck in. It definitely feeds a crowd and makes great leftovers.

 

 

 

Rosemary Orange Chicken with green beans and rice

[recipe from Damn Delicious]

 

 

This dish was so good. The blog Damn Delicious is quickly becoming my go-to for meal planning. The recipes never disappoint and they are always packed with serious flavor. If you haven't discovered this food blog, you need to! I do want to note that Daniel is not a fan of dark meat and has requested I make sure to include the white meat as well. I really liked the flavors of the dark meat – to each his own! 

 

 

 

Chili Cheese Biscuit Bake

[recipe from A Dash of Sanity]

 

 

 

This was a decent meal, but I don't think the biscuits fully cooked. Also, Daniel did not like the use of Italian sausage and Jack didn't really care for it. You win some, you lose some.

 

 

Broccoli, Cheese and Potato Soup

[recipe from Skinny Taste]

 

This was a crowd pleaser. Daniel does not like broccoli, but enough cheese will cure that! For the potatoes, I used leftover mashed potatoes. Since it was pureed, this was a great meal to serve to Isaac as well. Though, truth be told, every time we fed it to him he wound up covered in broccoli!

Weekly Meal Plan

Thankfully I have a 4-year-old who will eat almost anything (or at the very least try new things). I am a big believer in introducing as many kinds of foods as possible to my kids, not to mention I just like to try new things. So really, by default, my family kind of has to try new things. Here are the meals I cooked recently:

Loaded Steak Nachos 

[recipe from Delightful-E-Made]

This meal was a winner with everyone in our family. It was a quick and easy mid-week meal. Daniel had to eat it rewarmed because he worked late, but it still tasted good reheated in the oven an hour later.

BBQ Salmon and Crispy Chickpea Salad

[recipe from How Sweet It Is]

Jack is rarely interested in soups or salads, so for him I typically make a deconstructed version of our meal. In the case of this meal I let him skip the salad part and served it with a side of rice along with the corn and roasted chickpeas. 

The salmon had a pretty strong BBQ rub on it, so I was surprised that Jack gobbled it up. Daniel and I both really enjoyed the combination of flavors in this dish.

Mexican Tortilla Casserole
[recipe adapted from A Cup of Jo] 

For a twist on Taco Tuesday, I made this Mexican Tortilla Casserole and it was a hit. I made it to share with a friend and it was easy enough to double the recipe at the time of assembly. Instead of doubling the beans, I chose to add browned ground beef instead. This dish works great as leftovers.

Rotini With Butternut-Sage Sauce
[recipe adapted from A Cup of Jo]

When making this dish I decided to add crumbled sausage for some extra protein. Also since Isaac is in the beginning stages of learning to eat, I saved some of the pureed butternut squash and onions for him to have separate from the pasta. He ate a decent amount but made a face every time I spooned it into his little mouth!

This dish is a healthier version of homemade Mac-N-Cheese. The pureed squash serves as the sauce instead of cheese. I barely noticed that there was no cheese in this dish and Jack gobbled it up without a second thought.

Naan Personal Pizzas

So this recipe was a repeat from a couple of weeks ago. This time I used Naan bread instead of Pita. I think I prefer the Pita. Both are delicious though. I chopped up mushrooms as small as I could before sauteing them, in an effort to sneak them onto the pizza. Both Daniel and Jack noticed. You win some, you lose some. 

This meal is great if you need to make something quickly (plus it is easy to customize). I actually ran out of cheese and had to grate little packets of cheese – oops!

Chai Latte 
[recipe from Live Simply]

I recently dug out an espresso machine that I received for Christmas several years ago. I have been treating myself to daily lattes. I decided to try out a Chai Latte in my machine. It worked out fairly well – I just placed the tea bags and spices in my coffee filter and then steamed my milk as usual. It turned out pretty well. The linked recipe tells you how to make this drink on the stove top without an espresso machine.

Weekly Meal Plan

The last couple of weeks have been super busy. We have had quite a few events to attend which has meant lots of eat outs and lots of leftovers. Thankfully fall meal planning is great for leftovers – chili and soups tend to taste better with time, and we made good use of both in recent weeks. Here is what I have been cooking lately, I hope some of these recipes encourage you to cook more at home!

Chicken Marsala with Rice and Carrots
[recipe adapted from Fancy Fork]

Originally I had planned to use a slow-cooker recipe from Creme de la Crumb, but once again I have been reminded that I am not a slow-cooker cook. Mostly because I get too busy and don't remember to start the meal in a timely manner. So I pulled an audible and found a recipe from Fancy Fork that incorporated most of the ingredients I had already purchased.

The only thing I didn't have in my pantry was tomato paste, so I substituted with sun-dried tomatoes, which I think added a nice flavor to the dish. For Jack, I kept some chicken tenders separate from the sauce. Overall, a great dish.

Chili with Triple Cornbread 
[Chili recipe via Mohaus and Cornbread recipe from Betty Crocker] 

This is one of my all-time favorite fall meals. I don't cook many meals more than once, but this chili and cornbread makes an appearance a handful of times each fall. It is great for a crowd, and if it is just going to feed a small family, the chili tastes better with each passing day.

I love this cornbread because it is super moist – more like a bread pudding than cornbread. It was perfect for letting Isaac have a taste as well. Chocolate and cinnamon are my somewhat secret ingredients in the chili and they really make the dish. I skip on the jalapeno when serving to kids, but it still tastes delicious and has a bit of heat from the spices.

Personal Pita Pizzas

I don't have a recipe for this. I just got inspired when my brother-in-law made us pita pizzas when we were visiting last month.

Basically you take Pita bread (or Naan bread) and brush olive oil on it. Bake for about 10 minutes at 350º then remove from oven and add pizza sauce, toppings (I used sausage, bell peppers and onions), then top with mozzarella cheese. Bake for another 10 minutes. These are really customizable, great for kids, and a fast mid-week meal.

Vegetable-and-Steak Soup with Croutons
[recipe adapted from Annie's Eats]

Croutons in soup is one of my new favorite things (I buy store-bought, but the recipe tells you how to make homemade). We use them instead of saltine crackers. The only problem is limiting Jack on how many croutons he can eat with his soup! 

Since my husband loves meat, I added steak to the soup to make it a little heartier. We were all fans of this meal and it tasted even better as leftovers later in the week.

Sausage-Egg-Pancakes Muffins
[recipe adapted from AllRecipes.com]

I had some leftover pancake mix [my mom's recipe] and leftover sausage from the pita pizzas, so I decided to make pancake-egg muffins. I have made this before with bacon, but this one was a little difference since I had sausage. I used a Scrambled Egg Muffin recipe from AllRecipes but used a pancake base like I had before, and added cheese.

These were a hit with everyone and really simple to make, plus you can't go wrong with breakfast for dinner. They are easy to customize which is good if you have picky eaters (Jack isn't too picky but he doesn't like green peppers).

Super Simple Banana Muffins
[recipe from Eazy Peazy Mealz]

I recently picked up some really ripe bananas from our local grocery store ($0.88 for 6). These were perfect for this muffin recipe. I just hand mixed it and baked in a muffin tin for 18 minutes (instead of 60 minutes for a loaf of bread). Like chocolate chip cookies, there are a million recipes for banana muffins, and from my experience, I rarely find a bad one! These muffins were super moist and great for preschool mornings when I am running behind.

Apple Spice Cinnamon Sugar Pound Cake Bites
[recipe adapted from Table For Two]

This super simple dessert was perfect for a potluck we attended recently. You toast the pound cake and roll it in a special Apple Cinnamon spice mixture. I had enough spices leftover that I saved it and added it to the top of my banana muffins before cooking, and it was also a good addition to our Saturday morning pancakes.

Weekly Meal Plan

I want to be as transparent as I can on my blog, and this last week I didn't do a lot of cooking. After being gone for a week, I am still settling into normal life. We ate out some and had a lot of leftovers. Sometimes that is just life! Here are the links to the recipes I tried this week, along with my thoughts on each:

Pumpkin Pie
[recipe from the Libby's]
You can never go wrong with Pumpkin Pie. I made this to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. Jack and I gobbled it up over the course of the week.

Spaghetti with Meat Pomodoro Sauce
[sauce recipe via FoodieCrush]
This is the same sauce I used with gnocchi a few weeks ago, and it worked great with Spaghetti as well. I added crumbled Italian sausage for some protein.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole
[recipe via Jo Cooks]
I don't make a lot of casseroles, mostly because they make too many leftovers and there is only so many times you can eat leftover enchiladas, but this is a good dish. 

Probably better for a crowd though! I accidentally bought a green enchilada sauce instead of the red, but it still tasted good. I served it with corn chips (maybe carb overkill since the dish has rice it in), very good though.

Brown Sugar Turkey Meatballs with Mashed Potatoes and Carrots
[meatball recipe via Six Sisters]
I actually made this to take to a friend. It is some serious comfort food. I will have to make it again for us. Definitely a winner for a quick comfort food meal.

Oatmeal Cookie Smores Bars
[recipe via Crazy for Crust]
Talk about a crowd pleaser! I made this for our small group and it we about finished the pan off... granted the were 16 people that dug in, this stuff went fast!