Aloha Chicken Kebabs with Sweet Potato, Mozzarella Sticks with Cauliflower and Ketchup with Carrots

Tonight I cooked from the book of Jessica Seinfeld called Deceptively Delicious in an attempt to sneak some veggies into my son's stomach. The story that unfolded at our dinner table was a good news, bad news one ... I will start with the good. 

My son ate more Chicken Kebabs than I and declared that they were his most favourite ever and wants them for lunch tomorrow (there was left overs) That made me happy because they had sweet potatoes and pineapple on them so he got one veggie... Now here comes the bad... 

They were SO labour intensive! I must admit they were awesome, so worth the effort, but I would not dream of making these on a weeknight or for company. The Mozzarella Sticks with Cauliflower were a colossal FAIL! They started out great, until I cooked them, then they turned into little piles of hot mess. My son took one bite and said - YUCK! :( As for the "Ketchup" with Carrots - Even if you had no idea what ketchup was, you would know that this was not it. It turned out to basically be a dish of tomato paste with a hint of spice.

Go to Aloha Chicken Kebab Recipe!

Go to Mozzarella Stick Recipe!

Go to Ketchup Recipe!

Broccoli Cheddar Chicken Bundles

Savour this description for a moment... "Chicken stuffed with cheddar, bacon and broccoli then coated with Shake'n'Bake" and baked until crispy.

...mmmmm...

Yup, it's that good. It takes a little bit of prep, but these fab little bundles of deliciousness are awesome! I used the "Southern Fried" style of Shake'n'Bake and it tasted terrific! I also swapped out the "cook and chop bacon" step with bacon bits (REAL) AND to top it off, my deception began tonight by me pulling the wool over my hubby's eyes and mixing 1/2 Cup cauliflower in with the mashed potatoes. It was super tasty and he had NO idea! *insert evil cackle here*

Go to Recipe! (You're going to want to!)

Cheese, Brown Sugar and Kid's Scissors

Hello! It's time to catch up!

All the meals so far this week have not had recipes per say, I just make them out of my head and they vary each time. 

Tonight's meal was Sugar Ham, Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes, and Steamed Broccoli. For the Ham I mixed brown sugar, Dijon mustard and a little maple syrup and then poured the mixture over smoked ham that I had roughly chopped in 2 bite sized chunks. The Scalloped potatoes are made in a casserole dish which are alternating layers of (1) thinly sliced potatoes, (2) shredded cheddar, finely diced onions with dollops of Velveeta, and (3) a mixture of cheddar cheese soup mixed with sour cream, milk and water. I cover and bake my scalloped potatoes for about 1 1/2 hour at 350*. It's a slow process, but this meal is DELICIOUS. Not the most healthy, so I served a tossed salad on the side. 

My son and I also made a fun winter craft. A scissor skill pair of mittens. My son had a blast with this and I just kept drizzling the glue and letting him pile the bits of tissue paper and then we added a few sparkly "snow flakes" on top. It was easy and a lot of fun and it's nice to add a dash of colour and sparkle to the house after all the Christmas Decorations have been taken down. BTW - child safe scissors are key!

If you get a chance to make this craft share a photo on my Facebook page! :) 

-Jill

Holiday Catch up

Good grief the last time you heard from me (other than my Meal Plan) was on the 24th! I didn't mean to keep you hanging like that, I have just been soo busy (as we all have I am sure) 

So here are the remaining items from the last couple days which will catch up up to today... 

Chocolate Coffee Oatmeal Pie

Christmas Eve we had Mandarin Cake and Chocolate Coffee Oatmeal Pie. Manadarin Cake has always been a regular staple of mine and it turned out just as good as always. Last you heard I mentioned my mishap with the Chocolate Coffee Oatmeal Pie, but not how it tasted. It tasted terrific! It was like a gigantic butter tart, so if you like those like I do, you'll love this pie and the lack of Liqueur had no bearing on it at all! 

2 Bite Pumpkin Pie

Mini Oreo Cheesecakes

Christmas day we had 2 Bite Pumkin Pies and Mini Oreo Cheesecakes. As I had mentioned before the Pumpkin Pies were AWESOME and I made a batch for the 28th as well. The Mini Oreo Cheesecakes were yummy, but I found the cookie on the bottom to be a little hard still - the next day they were better. So if you make these, I would do so a day early and keep them in the fridge. You can also put any kind of cookie you can think of on the bottom as the cheesecake itself is VERY neutral.  

Boxing Day - nothing to report, just left overs! 

December 27th was my son's 3rd birthday so we had a pizza party where we all got to make our own pizza. I just put the toppings in bowls and let everyone choose their own and baked them in the 350 degree oven right on the rack. The one tip my Mum gave me about mixing cheeses (because I like to mix Cheddar and Mozza for our pizzas) is to add a little of the powdered Parmesan and it helps the cheese to not stick together. Brilliant really!

December 28th - we went to friend's for dinner and I brought Magic Bars and 2 Bite Pumpkin Pies. Nothing new here. 

Snow Log (cut up)

December 29th -we had company so I decided on Roast Beef, Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Carrots, Gravy and Yorshire Puddings. No real recipes here - sorry - other than the Yorkies and I must say I was not loving them. They didn't rise really high and they were a little more dense than I like. So I think I am on the market for a new recipe there. I do have my Mum's fabulous Yorkie recipe hiding somewhere in my house, I will try to dig that one up the next time. Everything else turned out great - in my mind you cannot go wrong with Gravy...EVER. For dessert we had Snow Log and I could not stop eating it... so easy, so cute and so delicious and not too sweet either. These will make another appearance for certain. The only change here is I rolled it in Flaked Coconut, not Vanilla crumbs - AHH-SOME!

Well, sorry this post was so long, but now we are up to speed. Tonight is Chinese Chicken with Pineapple - an easy, returning meal so no post this evening.

-Jill

Amazing Veggie Burgers and Layered Vegetable Casserole

Amazing Meatless Meal indeed! An easy and delicious homemade Veggie Burger Recipe that has turned out great for me about a dozen times. I have even doubled the batch and frozen the patties and it still turned out fab. 

This Casserole is another dish that I have made quite a bit. It is a lot of work, but it makes a very large casserole - perfect for a pot luck or large crowd. I couldn't find any cubed pre-cooked squash so earlier today I cut an Acorn Squash in half, scooped out the seeds, rubbed with olive oil and placed cut side down on a cookie sheet, baking it for about 1/2 hour on 375*F. I then let it cool a bit and scooped out the flesh and then continued on with the recipe.

This was a feel good meal, perfect for a freezing, snowy day and there's lots left over that I can put aside for my husband when I go away next week. 

Go to Amazing Veggie Burger Recipe!

Go to Vegetable Casserole Recipe!

3-Ingredient Baked Sticky Chicken and Sweet Potato Wedges

Tastes A LOT better than it looks, I promise!

Both items tonight were tasty and I FINALLY found a Sweet Potato "Fry" recipe that actually turned out crunchy! All I can say is thank goodness for Panko. The chicken didn't turn out sticky per say, but the flavour was great and the sauce was like a wonderful homemade bbq style. These will remain in my menu repertoire for future use and I bet this chicken recipe would be awesome on the grill! (and it just might turn out sticky then).

Go to Chicken Recipe!


Go to Sweet Potato Wedges Recipe!

Pollo Fajitas, Jello Pumpkin Balls and Building a Community

I found myself scrambling a bit today. Meal planning is such a big part of my life that when I can't make a meal on my list I feel lost. I searched through the vast library of recipes on www.allrecipes.com and found Pollo Fajitas and Cilantro Potatoes and thought they sounded good and they both used ingredients I had on hand. Both were decent, but I did not fall in love with either. The flavours were mediocre and I am not too sure what they needed to be "kicked up a notch". If you try them, please feel free to let me know your thoughts.

Go to Pollo Fajitas Recipe!

Go to Cilantro Potatoes Recipe!



Tomorrow we have a Halloween party to attend so I made my Jello Popcorn Balls and I can say they turned out AWESOME! They were easy and VERY tasty - I love that you can use truly any flavour of Jello for these. I think green and red batches will be required for Christmas. I think the kiddies are going to love them, and hey, if they don't I'll sure eat them! :)

Go to Jello Pumpkin Balls Recipe!

I would like to announce a couple of exciting changes to my little blog today...Meal Plan-it's family has grown ~ it has become a member of the Food Blogs community today!
"FoodBlogs.com keeps track of hundreds of food blogs (or foodie blogs, as they are often referred to) from around the world." It allows you to sort through thousands of posts and find the relevant posts for you. Feel free to stop by and visit me there and ensure to favorite me to  get all my posts in your feed.

Another fun networking family that I became a member of today was Foodista. Foodista is kind of like the Wikepedia of the food world. It is "the cooking encyclopedia that everyone can edit". Come by and visit me, say hi and check out some of my recipes and see my blog posts.

I hope you enjoy the changes and that you stop by my Facebook Page and hit the like button and while you're there - suggest me to your friends!

Have a SPOOKTACULAR Halloween!

Chicken Korma and Indian Chapati Bread

For a simplistic recipe off the back of a Curry Paste Jar - it turned out tasting SO authentic and it seemed I had slaved over the stove all day. For some reason I was inspired to make my own homemade Chapati Bread on the side for the first time ever and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to make. It did take longer to cook each piece of bread than I anticipated, but they turned out PERFECT! My 7 1/2 month old enthusiastically grabbed and ate it along with his older brother. Over all it was an impressive meal to finish of the week, even though it was easy, fast and really inexpensive to make.

Go to Chicken Korma Recipe!

Go to Chapati Bread Recipe!

Caesar Chicken Fingers with Carrot Fries and Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

Go to Recipe!

Welcome to Day 3 of "Magazine Meal Plan Week" as well as my "What's Cooking Wednesday Meal" . Although this meal sounds WONDERFUL on paper and even looks delicious, in reality it was just decent. The "Fries" were not crispy at all - they were super wimpy, but they DID taste good and I LOVE that they are Carrots. The Chicken was good, but the breading fell off easily due to the Caesar Dressing underneath. The Dip was yummy and I think I'll use that recipe any time I need a good Honey Mustard Sauce. So overall not a huge failure, but also not a huge success.

Today I did a fun Autumn craft with my son. I got the idea from Sugar and Shimmer. This lady is truly a craft/baking whiz, you should check her out. And although the craft was a big trial for my patience, my 33 month old and I had fun and I think it turned out pretty cool and now it rests on my door.

Remember you can always follow me on Facebook, so stop by @ Meal Plan-it  and keep up to date!! :-)

Quinoa Salad and Caramel Apple Bars

Well it's been a couple days because i haven't had to cook for a while. My MIL cooked Cabbage Rolls on Saturday and Turkey Dinner on Sunday, so we have been spoiled. Tonight it was back to it and Man alive did I pick a good one!! 

I saw this recipe and thought it looked interesting because it truly has everything in it and it turned out to be one of my new fave salads of ALL time. This Quinoa salad would be PERFECT for a pot luck or for any gathering or BBQ as you can make it up to 3 days in advance. The blend of sweet and savory is impeccable and it is so colourful and pretty to boot. PLEASE try this salad!!!

Go to Recipe!

I also had a little bit of time to try a friend's recommendation of an easy Apple Bar: Easy Apple Caramel Bars They were a snap to make and turned out perfect. With a dollop of Vanilla Ice Cream, they made a perfect light dessert. Thanks Caryn for the recipe, it was awesome. 

This time of year is SO great for baking and I must admit I just LOVE it and all the crispness in the air and wearing chunky sweaters while drinking hot apple cider and baking with aromatic spices like nutmeg and cinnamon and making ANYTHING out of a pumpkin. I love to experiment, so if you have a fave Autumn recipe, please send it my way and I'd love to try it!!

Veggie Burgs & Carrot/Cabbage Stirfry Review

Overall the meal was a big hit - this is one that we have had before and will have again for sure! Fast, Easy and it has it all! :-)

Preschooler Meal: It was all out of a package (Fish Sticks, Corn, Sweet Potato Fries) except the tar tar sauce. He gobbled it all up no prob! :-) 

Go to Cabbage and Carrot Stirfry Recipe!

Go to Tartar Sauce Recipe!