Quickie Expat Meatloaf and Biscuits

 

  I don't know about you, but I'm a big fan of having kids in the kitchen.  Sure, it creates a bigger mess, and maybe slows things down a bit, but cooking as a family is something that my husband and I make a serious effort to do.  I really believe that it builds confidence while teaching kids about what's in their food (which usually gets them to eat things they might not normally be inclined to try).

 

That said, there are moments when getting a kid to eat a vegetable is like pulling teeth from a snow leopard.  When veggie strikes come up, and this expat mama is craving some "American" style food like meatloaf, it makes it pretty darn easy to sneak in some vegetables. 

 

Now we have visited meatloaf before...there's "sneaky meatloaf" and also a couple of different ways to eat meatloaf when you have leftovers...but this recipe was made on the fly on a day when I had one egg in the house, some spinach, a couple of heels of bread, and some leftover pasta sauce.  I pureed the spinach in with the sauce, toasted and blitzed the bread in the blender, and mashed it all together with the egg in a large bowl.  After that, I baked it for about 40 minutes in a 350-degree oven, and voila, dinner!  The best part?  Kyle and Laela made Laela's favorite biscuits, and voila, we had ourselves a tastylicious American style dinner that took so little effort, Laela and her Daddy wound up playing "biscuit dough" for a half hour.  Fun times.

 

For this easy peasy meatloaf, you'll need:

• 1lb ground beef/meatloaf mix
• 2 heels of bread (toasted and then crumbled in food processor/blender)
• About 1 cup of pasta sauce
• 1 cup spinach (pureed)
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper to taste

 

Wednesday I'll be sharing a super easy cupcake recipe that Laela and I like to make when we're craving cupcakes, and don't feel like making a ton of effort!

Spinach and Chicken Casserole

 

With fall upon us, I've begun to crave more soups, comfort foods, and casseroles.  While Kyle was on his last business trip, it was a rainy, chilly week, so I decided to throw together a pretty easy casserole with chicken, multi-grain macaroni noodles, peas and spinach.  It turned out great!  This is definitely one of those dishes that tastes better and more flavorful with each passing day.

 

 

Spinach and Chicken Casserole

 

You'll need:

• 1 cup frozen spinach
• 1 cup milk
• 1 Tb butter
• 2 Tb flour
• 1 Tb onion powder
• 1Tb garlic powder
• 2 cups peas
• 2 cooked chicken breasts, chopped
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 1 spig rosemary, chopped
• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
• Salt and pepper

Instructions:

• Preheat your oven to 350-degrees.
• Cook macaroni noodles as instructed on box.  (I prefer whole grain or whole wheat noodles.)
• Heat a medium saucepan to high heat.
• Whisk 1 Tb butter and flour into a paste in the heated pan.
• Whisk milk into butter and flour paste.
• Whisk in the rosemary, thyme, onion and garlic powder.
• When the mixture becomes creamy, whisk in the spinach.
• Salt and pepper the sauce to taste.
• When the noodles are done cooking, drain them.  Then, pour them into a 2 1/2 quart corningware or baking pan.
• Add the peas and chicken to the pan.
• Pour the sauce over the noodles, peas, and chicken. 
• Stir to combine ingredients.
• Place pan in the preheated oven.
• Cook for 15 minutes.
• In a small bowl, mix 1 Tb butter with breadcrumbs (I stir them together with a fork.)
• Sprinkle the bread crumb mix over the casserole.
• Cook for 10 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs are golden brown and the casserole bubbles.
• Enjoy!

 

Hummus Veggie Sandwich

Hummus is a staple in our house.  Laela sometimes sneaks spoonfuls while I make a platter of pita chips, peppers and hummus.  Kyle loves it with crackers.  I love it with turkey on a sandwich, but mostly, I love it on a veggie sandwich.

You might be thinking, "veggie sandwich?!  Is this chic serious?!"  Well, yes.  Yes I am. 

It was a rainy day here in South Carolina, and all I wanted was a nice warm bowl of tomato soup and a sandwich- or a salad.  I couldn't decide.  I had made Laela and Kyle some yummy, gooey grilled cheese sandwiches, but I wasn't really in a cheese mood, so I went foraging in my fridge.  I happened upon some pesto, hummus, a tomato, some roasted peppers, a cucumber, spinach salad, and some tasty gorgonzola crumbles.  Hmmmm...salad or sandwich, salad or sandwich?

A salad sandwich!  I toasted a piece of double-fiber, whole wheat bread and cut it in half.  Next, I  slathered a thin layer of pesto on one side of bread.  Then I topped it with one slice of tomato, a few pieces of fresh spinach, 2 slices of roasted red pepper, a sprinkle of gorgonzola crumbles, a couple of slices of a cucumber, and a light sprinkle of salt and pepper.  After that, I spread some hummus on the other half of bread, and viola!  A tasty hummus and veggie salad.

This is one of those really healthy sandwiches that you can make with any veggies that you have hanging around in your fridge.  I've made this with just tomato and spinach, or tomato and cucumber.  Sometimes I add pesto.  Sometimes I don't.  I've used fresh basil leaves with tomato and hummus and it was delicious.  Give it a try!

Real Simple Chicken, Spinach, and Noodle Casserole

I don't make casserole's very often.  It's not that I don't love food that's cooked all together in a lovely mismash of flavor (I've been known to gross out my family a time or two by stirring my mashed potatoes, corn, chicken, gravy and whatever else might be floating around on my plate into a yummy mix), it's just that I really don't think to make them.  That, and maybe I have some horrid repressed memory of a tuna casserole floating somewhere in the recesses of my brain- because for some reason, that's what often comes to mind when I think casserole.

This month, in Real Simple magazine, they listed a few tasty casserole recipes.  I decided to test out the chicken, spincach and noodle casserole on my family.  I made a few little changes (like the addition of basil, as well as fresh thyme rather than dried, and frozen spincach rather than fresh), and it came out really well.

Real Simple Chicken, Spinach, and Noodle Casserole

*make ahead tip:

The casserole can be assembled and refrigerated up to 1 day in advance (but don't top with the bread crumbs.)  Sprinkle with the bread crumbs just before baking.  Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.  Uncover and bake for 8-10 minutes more.

You'll need:

• 6 Tb unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 cups milk (they recommend whole milk, I used 2%)
• 1 cup sour cream (I used low fat)
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• 12 oz egg noodles
• 4 slices sandwich bread (or breadcrumbs if you don't feel inclined to use the food processor.  *TIP: Use the heels of the bread that you more than likely throw away to make bread crumbs.)
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken, or rotisserie chicken (I used 1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast cooked broth on medium low heat for 4 minutes per side, with salt and pepper to taste)
• 5 oz baby spinach, chopped (I used 5 oz chopped, frozen spinach, drained of water)
• 2 tsp dried thyme (I used three sprigs of fresh thyme.  Remove the leaves by running your thumb and pointer finger down the stalk.  Discard the stalk, add the leaves to the mixture.)
• I used 6 chopped fresh basil leaves.  Even if you have an herb mincer, I find that rolling the basil and using scissors to cut it works best.

Instructions:

• Heat oven to 400-degrees F.  Melt 4 Tb butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add the flour an cook, stirring, until foamy, 1-2 minutes (do not let the mixture darken.)
• Slowly whisk in the milk.  Bring to a simmer and cook, whisking often, until thickened, 3-5 minutes.  Remove from heat and whisk in the sour cream, 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper).
• Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to the package directions.  Drain and return them to the pot.  Pulse the bread in a food processor until coarse crumbs form. (Or just use 1 cup breadcrumbs)  Melt the remaining 2Tb butter in a microwave safe bowl.
• Add the milk mixture, chicken, spinach, thyme, and basil to the noodles.  Toss to combine.  Transfer to a 9x13 inch or some other 3 quart baking dish, sprinkle with the bread crumbs, and drizzle with the melted butter.
• Bake until the bread crumbs are golden and the filling is bubbling, 8-10 minutes.  Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Kyle was away for two weeks and of course, as soon as I started to drive to the airport to pick him up, I started to feel like I'd been kicked in the head, chest and stomach.  Needless to say, our "romantic" reunion consisted of a lot of Nyquil, cold medicine, and of course, some very sexy Vicks Vapor Rub.  To top it all off, the baby got sick at the same time as me, which resulted in the three of us passed out on the couch watching Disney movies.

Eh, could be worse.  At least we were together!

So for all of you healthy people out there, this one's for you.

Before I met Kyle, I boycotted Valentine's Day.  I hosted an "Un-Valentine's Day" party at my house with my girlfriends, or we'd go to one of my favorite places- Swanky Bubbles.  The important part was having yummy bubbly cocktails, and delicious "girl food".  You know what I'm saying, most things that you dip, such as fondue (what is with guys not wanting to dip things?  IT'S AWESOME!) or Greek food, which for some reason, most guys I know just don't like the stuff.  Since most girls I know do like Greek food, I'm going to give you a super simple way to make spanakopita, my most favorite food ever!

Many people refer to spanakopita as a "spinach pie".  I think that's just because they can't pronouce span-a-koh-peet-ah.  Spanakopita!

Don't fear the filo!  Rock out this recipe!

Spanakopita

• 8oz chopped spinach (I use frozen)
• 8oz feta cheese, crumbled
• 1Tb dill
• Salt and Pepper (to taste)
• 1/2 sweet onion, chopped and carmelized
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• Filo dough- defrosted (most packages come with 2 rolls of it.  You need one roll.)
• 1 cup butter (melted)
• 1 egg

Defrost and drain your spinach.  Toss in a bowl.  Add dill, salt, pepper, nutmeg, feta, egg, and onion.  Mix well.

Lay out 3 or 4 sheets of filo on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with baking spray.  Using a pastry brush, paint on some butter.  Spread some of the spinach mixture onto the middle of the filo, leaving about 1 1/2 inches around of filo.  Layer 3 or 4 sheets of filo on top of the mixture.  Paint butter on the filo.  Leave about 1 1/2 inches of filo surrounding the spinach mixture.  Continue to do this until you run out of mixture.  Then top the last bit of mixture with 5 or 6 sheets of filo.  Wrap it around the entire stack of filo/mixture layers, so that it is completely covered.  Tuck the filo underneath so that it looks like a nice, neat rectangle, or square.  Then pour the remaining butter on top, spreading it all over the filo.

Bake at 350 degrees.  Cover with foil for 20 minutes.  Take the foil off after the twenty minutes, and cook uncovered for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

*Note- If you are super fearful of ripping apart filo, you can cook this like a lasagne- use a lasagne pan, and just follow the directions.  Don't worry about tucking or making it look nice.  Just top it with the 5 or 6 sheets of filo, pour the remaining butter, spread it out, and bake according to directions.

In case you were wondering, this is also a great dish to use to sneak in some spinach...my daughter LOVES this!