Sweet & Tangy Sauce

This recipe induces so many memories for me. We have had this at so many family gatherings and it has always been a hit with friends and family alike. People are often a little hesitant but then they taste it and completely love it!
This sauce is really easy to put together as it takes just two ingredients: brown sugar and mustard. Such a wonderful taste results from such a simple combination. We like to use Fish Mama's meatball recipe with this sauce.

Sweet & Tangy Sauce
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Yields: Sauce for 2 lbs meatballs

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
4 T mustard
2 lbs meatballs

Directions:
   1.  In a small bowl combine brown sugar and mustard; let sit for 5 minutes.
   2.  Pour over meatballs; heat until meatballs are warmed through and sauce has thinned. (I typically do this in a crock pot.)
Notes: If you need to increase the quantity of sauce, the general ratio is for every 1/2 cup brown sugar add 2 tsp mustard.

This is linked to URS.

Quesadillas

These quesadillas were a hit with all three of us. I was a little worried at first about convincing my husband that they would still be good, even without meat. It didn't take long for him to decide I was right.

Pulsing the salsa with the beans makes it much easier to work with and a little smoother for the mouth. The spinach and carrots blend so well in this application. You get a few crunches from the carrots, a nice change in this otherwise soft meal.

Quesadillas

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Yields: 5 quesadillas

Ingredients:

10 tortillas

1 can pinto beans, drained

6 T salsa, divided

1 cup spinach

1 cup carrots

1 tsp chili powder

2 cups shredded cheese, divided

sour cream and salsa, for serving

Directions:

   1.  Preheat oven to 350.

   2.  In a food processor pulse pinto beans and 3 T salsa until smooth. Remove to a medium bowl. Pulse spinach and carrots until very fine; add to bowl. Add chili powder and 1/2 cup cheese. Stir to combine.

   3.  Spread bean mixture over 5 tortillas; top with remaining cheese. Cover with other five tortillas.

   4.  Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes, flipping halfway through. Serve with salsa and sour cream.

This is linked to Good Cheap Eats.

Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

My favorite soup at Panera is Chicken and Wild Rice. Now, it's been a while since I've been there so I can't accurately speak to how close this came. No matter though, this was delicious anyway. It was creamy but thick, rich but refreshing--an absolute winner!
This soup contains some ingredients that can be prepped ahead of time, adding to the ease of assembling this. While the recipe only calls for 5-10 minutes of simmering at the end, it can withstand a longer time, as long as it is stirred occasionally.

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
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Yields: 6 servings

Ingredients:
3 cups chicken broth
3 cups water
1 box wild rice (I used Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice.)
6 T butter
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 3/4 cup whole milk
2 cups diced or shredded chicken
2 cups spinach, roughly chopped
1 cup carrots, diced and cooked crisp tender


Directions:
   1.  In a large pot, bring chicken broth, water and rice to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes.
   2.  Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt butter. Add flour, salt, pepper and rice seasoning. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Whisk in milk; bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until thickened, stirring frequently.
   3.  Add sauce to rice; add chicken, spinach and carrots. Stir to combine; simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Adapted from: The Keune Home

This is linked to URS.

Menu 3-7

Here's the recap from what we ate last week:

The Chicken and Wild Rice Soup was pretty tasty. I decided to add the carrots and spinach which gave some nice color to the soup.

The Quesadillas turned out great! I was a little apprehensive for two reasons: I didn't know how the tortillas would work and I didn't know if I'd be able to sell my husband on this meatless meal. Thankfully, the tortillas worked just fine and my husband thought the quesadillas were really filling even without meat.

The Sweet and Tangy meatballs were wonderful. This recipe always makes me think of my family as it is an extended family favorite. I ended up using Fish Mama's meatball recipe, which we really like.

Looking at this plate now our meal Thursday looks pretty sparse but it really wasn't. I ended up just throwing things together for the breading and it worked out great. We also had roasted sweet potatoes and a fruit salad of strawberries, apples and grapefruit.

I know I've said it before but we love pizza night here! There is just something so wonderful about a good, homemade pizza. I tried using tomato sauce instead of tomato paste in my normal pizza sauce recipe and while the flavor was still great it was a little thinner than normal. The thinness resulted in it bleeding off the edges a little bit which made it stick but we saved it!

Brunch was Apple Banana German Pancake. We really enjoyed it and thought it was a nice change from our typical bread based choices.

For breakfast last week we had Butterscotch Bran Muffins. I was a little leery of the bran, which is probably typical, but these were great. I think the butterscotch chips really help balance it out.

Lent starts this Wednesday. Our church has Soup Suppers before church each Wednesday so I won't be cooking on Wednesdays for the next six weeks. Between that and pizza night it was really easy to figure out the menu!

• Monday: Soup Night! Fiesta Chicken Soup: This soup is made from ingredients I almost always have on hand. That's a good thing for me this week.
• Tuesday: TBD: My sister, who's visiting us for her Spring Break, is in charge Tuesday night of picking out the recipe and making it. We'll see what she decides.
• Wednesday: Soup Supper at Church
• Thursday: Homemade Manicotti: This looks like a fun recipe to try. Here's hoping it doesn't completely blow up in my face!
• Friday: Pizza Night! BBQ Chicken Pizza: My sister loves BBQ Chicken Pizza so of course we'll have it for her.
• Saturday Brunch: French Toast: I'll make cinnamon bread Friday to really take this up a notch.
• Sunday: Leftovers

Visit I'm an Organizing Junkie for more menu ideas.



Apple Onion Cider Chicken

This smelled amazing as it cooked! The vinegar really added a sweet tartness. At first, my husband was wondering if this would be too similar to another apple, onion and chicken dish we love but we discovered, while they contain similar ingredients, they each have their own very unique taste.
The original recipe calls for whole chicken breasts. We've found that, in general, we prefer to cut our chicken into smaller pieces. That way, more of the chicken is exposed to the sauce which spreads the wonderful taste throughout.

Apple Onion Cider Chicken
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Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients:
olive oil
2 chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 apples, diced
1 onion, diced
3 T apple cider vinegar
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup water
2 T butter
salt and pepper

 Directions:
   1.  Heat 1 T olive oil in a large skillet. Add chicken and cook until no longer pink. Remove to a bowl.
   2.  If necessary, add more olive oil to pan. Add onion and apple; cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
   3.  Add apple cider vinegar; cook for 1-2 minutes. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Cook until sauce is reduced by half. Whisk in butter.
   4.  Return chicken to pan; stir to combine.

Adapted from: Food Network

This is linked to Good Cheap Eats.

Bunsteads

This is a recipe I remember fondly from my childhood. A few months after we were married I made Bunsteads for my husband and now he too thinks fondly of them. They are filling, warm and tasty.

Bunsteads are a relatively easy sandwich to put together. The mixture can be made ahead of time and refriegerated until closer to dinner time. This leaves only the simple task of filling the bread and putting them in the oven.

Bunsteads
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Yields: 6 servings 

Ingredients
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 can tuna or chicken, drained
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped sweet pickle or pickle relish
1/2 cup Miracle whip
1/2 tsp paprika
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
bread or hamburger buns (not pictured)

Directions
   1.  Lightly mix all ingredients, except bread.
   2.  Fill bread or buns. Seal in tinfoil and place in 350 oven for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through.
   Alternative: Microwave mixed ingredients until warm then fill bread or buns.

Lasagna Soup

In the pot this soup looks like a normal vegetable and broth soup. Once you dish it up on top of the cheeses it turns slightly creamy and absolutely beautiful. There are wonderful layers of flavor in this surprisingly hearty lasgana soup.
The work time for this recipe, like many soups, is not too long but the simmering time means you don't have to prepare it immediately before dinner. The slightly longer list of ingredients might be intimidating but since many of the ingredients are spices they don't create a lot of work.

Lasagna Soup
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Yields: 6 servings

Ingredients:
1 lb Italian sausage
1 tsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced (not pictured)
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
2 T tomato sauce
2 14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 cup uncooked pasta
1 cup spinach, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp basil
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup shredded cheese

Directions:
   1.  In a skillet, cook Italian sausage until no longer pink. Drain fat.
   2.  In a large stock pot, saute onions in olive oil until translucent. Add garlic powder, oregano, Italian seasoning, red peppers flakes and tomato sauce. Cook 2 minutes.
   3.  Add cooked Italian sausage, tomatoes with juice, chicken broth, water and bay leaves. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes.
   4.  Add pasta; bring back to a boil on medium heat until pasta is tender, about 7-8 minutes. After five minutes add spinach and basil. Remove bay leaves.
   5.  To serve put 1/4 cup cottage cheese, 1 T Parmesan cheese and 2 T shredded cheese in each bowl. Ladle soup on top. [When we had this as leftovers it worked well to warm up the soup then put the cheeses on top and stir them in.]

Adapted from: Our Simple Life