Typical Suburban Family

We’re heading into our 2nd week of eMeals and I’m still loving it. We ended up making 5 of the 7 meals last week and I tweaked a few of the recipes slightly so that my kids would eat the meals.

All in all though it’s been a huge hit and takes away my frustration when I think “What can I make for dinner tonight?”

I cannot wait to try week 2. The recipes look delicious!

I had never heard of this site, eMeals, until a few weeks ago when a friend mentioned it on facebook and asked for feedback from friends/family.

I was intrigued!

What was it?  Could I use it?

The simple answer was… yes!

I immediately sent in my request to become an eMeals partner through their blogger program and couldn’t wait to get started.  I downloaded my first week of meal plans and today I was shocked at how easy it was to grocery shop with the provided list for 7 amazing meals.

I’m not sure about you, but my biggest pains when it comes to cooking are as follows:

1. Finding new and different recipes to try that the whole family will like.
2. Figuring out my needed groceries and determining the quantities of each.
3. Organizing my list to make grocery shopping easy so I’m not back tracking at the store.
4. Remembering what recipes I’m making and figuring out which nights to use which recipes.
5. Actually cooking the meals before the fresh produce goes bad.

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Problem solved.  I’m not kidding.

With eMeals it really is simple.  I downloaded my weekly plan (I selected the classic meals for 3-6 people).  It determines my my meals and recipes based on my pre-determined grocery store weekly ad flyer.  I was able to print my meals, recipes and shopping list in 3 simple pages and bring it all with me to the store.

The list was organized by area at the grocery store making it simple to follow and if I wouldn’t have run into several neighbors and friends, I would have been in and out of the store in no time!

With the shopping portion checked off as successful I couldn’t wait to try one of the recipes.  The first one up was a Poppy Seed Chicken recipe served over rice with a side of green beans.  It was delicious.  I prepped and cooked it and we took it over to a neighbor’s house to enjoy with them.  Everyone loved it.  The kids even asked for seconds (and Ryan asked for thirds!).   The meal feed 3 adults and 2 kids with multiple helpings and left overs.

So far, I’m in love with eMeals.

Do you use it?  Have you considered?  What’s stopping you?  Go ahead and sign up today.  You won’t be disappointed.

I haven’t posted a Typical Suburban Recipe in awhile.  It also means I haven’t done much home-cooking lately either.  Unless of course you count frozen pizza, chicken nuggets and other various frozen meals.  Time has been limited lately.

With my schedule changing last week, I’m trying to get back on track though.  I found this recipe on Pinterest a few weeks ago and recently made it for our family.  I served it over pasta and it was absolutely delicious!  Below is the recipe the way I made it (not according to the original recipe at Skinnytaste.com)

• 8 chicken tenderloins (I cut mine into bit size pieces)
• 2 tsp butter
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 12 oz sliced mushrooms
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/3 cup fat free chicken broth
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

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Heat a large skillet on medium heat; when hot add 1 tsp butter and 1 tsp olive oil.  Add chicken to the skillet and cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.  Set aside.  Add additional oil and butter to skillet, then add garlic and cook a few seconds.  Add mushrooms, salt and pepper stirring occasionally until golden, about 5 minutes.  Add wine, chicken broth, parsley.  Stir the pan with a wooden spoon breaking up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan.  Cook a few more minutes or until the liquid reduces by half.  Add chicken back in and stir all together.  Serve over pasta.

I came across this recipe via Pinterest and tried it last night.  It was originally published by Chaos in the Kitchen and after making this recipe I can guarantee I’ll be making more of them from this site.

Creamy Shrimp and Mushroom Pasta
serves 4, prep 5 minutes, cook time 30 minutes

• 8 oz fettuccine or linguine pasta noodles
• 10 tbsp butter, divided (yes 10 tbsp, this is not a typo!!)
• 8 oz fresh, sliced mushrooms
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 oz cream cheese, cut into small pieces
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
• 2/3 cup boiling water (from your noodle pot)
• 1 lb cooked shrimp (I used frozen shrimp)

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1. Boil and salt a large pot of water and cook your pasta.  I usually only use about half of an 8 oz box, preferring fewer noodles.
2. While your pasta is cooking, cook your shrimp if necessary and reserve.  If your shrimp are pre-cooked and frozen, quickly thaw them under running water.
3. In a large skillet melt 2 tbsp of butter over medium heat and saute mushrooms until soft and brown.  Season with salt and pepper.
4. Reserve cooked mushrooms and melt remaining butter in the skillet.  Add minced garlic, cream cheese, and herbs.  At this point, I generally feel like something has gone terribly wrong.  The cream cheese doesn’t really melt and starts to look almost curdled, don’t worry about it!  It will all smooth out and be wonderful when we add the water. I promise.
5. Simmer cream cheese mixture until well blended. Get a scoop of boiling pasta water from your noodle pot and mix it in, stirring quickly to smooth out the sauce.
6. Keep sauce hot and add shrimp and mushrooms, mix well and simmer (stirring often) until everything is hot and thickened, about 10 minutes-you wont ruin this sauce by accidentally boiling it so don’t worry.
7. Toss sauce with cooked noodles and serve.

With the chill in the air it feels like Halloween is right around the corner.  Yes, you heard me correctly that there is a chill in the air in Atlanta.  And by chill, I mean mid 70s.

So naturally, with the chill and Halloween approaching, I’ve been on Pinterest searching for fun Halloween goodies to make with the boys.

One of my favorites is the Candy Corn themed Chocolate Covered Pretzels.

Or what about the Spooky Spider Oreo Cookies? How adorable are these?!

Candy corn sugar cookies will be a hit in our household for sure!

Personally, I cannot wait to make eat these! I absolutely love Rice Krispie Treats and these Little Pumpkins are so cute!

And the house wouldn’t be complete with a little Halloween decorating. This is simple, easy and fun. I know the boys will enjoy filling our vases with candy and coming up with fun names for them too. I’m sure eating the candy will be high on the list as well. I’m just guessing on this one though….

Are you getting excited for Halloween, fall and chilly weather or is it just me?  I would have made my Indian Summer Turkey Chili today if I hadn’t broke my All-Clad crock pot the other day.  I’m not sure how many days I can live without it since we use it all the time!  It was a wedding gift and I’m so sad that I broke it.  If only a new one would magically appear on my doorstep since I’m on a we-are-not-spending-any-money without a very valid reason.

Maybe I should consider this a very valid reason.  What do you think?

About a month ago I received 40 pounds of free chicken breasts from Zaycon Foods.  Needless to say we have been eating a lot of chicken lately and it’s been delicious!

While at Publix, when I noticed the new Philadelphia Cooking Cremes, I couldn’t resist.  How easy.  Plus as an added bonus, the recipe on the back sounded delicious.

Santa Fe Chicken Enchiladas
Prep Time:  15 min.  |  Total Time:  35 min.  | Makes:  4 servings

What You Need!

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 tsp. oil
• 3 cups shredded cooked chicken breasts
• 1 can (14.5 oz) no-salt-added diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 tub (10 oz) Philadelphia Santa Fe Blend Cooking Creme, divided
• 1/2 cup Kraft Mexican Style Finely Shredded Four Cheese
• 8 flour tortillas (6 inch)

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Make It!

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook and stir onions in hot oil in large skillet on medium heat 4 to 5 minutes or until crisp-tender.  Stir in chicken, tomatoes, 3/4 cup cooking creme and shredded cheese.  Spoon about 1/3 cup chicken mixture down center of each tortilla; roll up.  Place seam-side down, in 13×9 inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray; top with remaining cooking creme.  Cover.  Bake 15-20 minutes or until heated through.

They turned out delicious and made for great leftovers too. I can’t wait to try the other blends of Philadelphia Cooking Cremes.

Disclaimer:  I received the chicken breasts at no cost from Zaycon Foods with no requirements to promote their company or product.  The opinions in this post are my own.  This is not a sponsored post from Philadelphia Cooking Cremes; I was simply excited to try this new product and loved it.  All opinions are my own.

This is one of my favorites taken from the Better Homes and Gardens New Dieter’s Cookbook.

8 ounces beef top round steak (I used flank steak)
1/2 cup reduced-sodium beef broth
3 Tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
Nonstick cooking spray
1 1/4 pounds fresh asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces or 3 cups small broccoli florets
4 green onions, sliced into 2 inch lengths
1 Tablespoon cooking oil
2 cups hot cooked rice

Thinly slice beef across the grain into bite size strips.  Set aside.

For the sauce, in a small bowl stir together the beef broth, soy sauce, cornstarch, sugar, and ginger; set aside.

Lightly coat an unheated wok or large skillet with nonstick cooking spray.  Preheat over medium-high heat.  Add asparagus or broccoli, mushrooms, and green onions.  Stir fry for 3-4 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender.  Remove from work or skillet.

Carefully add the oil to wok or skillet.  Add beef; stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes or until brown.  Push the beef from the center of the wok or skillet.  Stir sauce.  Add sauce to center of wok or skillet.  Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.

Return vegetables to wok or skillet.  Stir all ingredients together to coat with sauce; heat thoroughly.  Serve immediately over hot cooked rice.

Simply delicious!  View more Typical Suburban Family Recipes.

I had this yummy wild rice chicken salad while on vacation in MN.  Most everything else that I ate was beer battered and deep fried so this was a nice change for me.  I loved it so much that I made it immediately when we returned to Atlanta.

Now I’m sharing one of my Typical Suburban Recipes with you all.  I hope you’ll try it and then come back, leave me a comment and let me know how much you enjoyed it.

I realized I never took a picture of it once I mixed the two portions together. Bummer.

Dressing

2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Combine in food processor, blend thoroughly

Salad

4 cups cooked wild rice (cooked with chicken stock) Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 whole chicken breast, cooked and cubed
3 green onions, including tops sliced
1/2 red pepper diced
2 ounces pea pods cut into pieces
1-2 ripe avocados, cut into medium sized pieces
1 cup toasted pecan halves
Lettuce leaves

Toss warm rice with lemon juice, cool.
Add chicken, onions, red peppers and pea pods; toss with dressing.
Cover. Refrigerate for 2-4 hours.  Just before serving add avocado and pecans, toss gently together, transfer to salad bowl and garnish with lettuce leaves.

I substituted the chicken breast for shredded and then diced rotisserie chicken.  And I double the batch to be sure we had lots of leftovers for lunches.  And instead of the lettuce leaves I served it with the tortilla chips that have a hint of lime.  You can scoop up this salad in a chip and wa-la.  Instant yum!

Do you have a recipe to share?  Why not link up below and share a new (or old) favorite recipe from your blog.

Ingredients

This post was provided by guest blogger Byn at 365 Days of Clean Eating.  Byn blogs about our healthy “Clean Eating” journey.She is  a mom of five kids and this year it is their goal to ‘clean up’ their diets ala Tosca Reno’s The Eat Clean Diet. She posts a recipe for each day so be sure to check out her blog and subscribe for new recipes.

While I was on the chicken theme during my bulk cooking weekend, I decided to make the Chicken and Corn Chowder from the Better Homes and Garden New Dieter’s Cookbook.

The green chili peppers gave this recipe a little kick that was mmmm…..mmmmm… delicious!

• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups chopped, peeled potato
• 2 cups fresh or frozen whole kernel corn
• 1 4-ounce can chopped green chile peppers, drained
• 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
• 2 cups light or low fat milk
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 5 ounces cooked chicken, cut into thin strips
• 2 tablespoons snipped fresh cilantro or 2 teaspoons snipped fresh oregano

Directions

In a large saucepan cook onion in hot butter for 3 to 4 minutes or until tender.  Add broth, potato, corn, chili peppers, and black pepper.  Bring to boiling; reduce heat.  Simmer, covered, about 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally.

In a screw-top jar combine milk and flour; cover and shake well.  Add to potato mixture.  Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.  Add chicken and cilantro or oregano.  Heat through.

If you are freezing this meal, just let it cool to room temperature and place in freezer container.  Wa-la!

If you missed the Chicken Tetrazzini recipe, you will want to be sure to check that one out too.

What recipes do you have that are good for freezing?  Leave a comment with a link and I’ll be sure to check it/them out!