Easy Weeknight Dinner- Skillet Lasagna

One of the many perks of being a stay at home mom is the luxury of getting in a bit of the Today show (either before Logan wakes up or during his am nap) and last week (or a few weeks ago, not sure.....shocked, I'm not)
I happened to catch the cooking/Today's Kitchen segment where Christopher Kimball was making a lasagna dish all in one skillet. Totally intrigued.
It was so easy I was able to pretty much remember it (with a few minor ad-libs) and found a blogger who made a version of it so I could add it to my "Dinner Time" Pinboard- since lately I (along with quite a few of my friends) am totally using Pinterest to meal-plan every week!

The original recipe is courtesy of Cooks Illustrated HERE
The "What's Cookin Chicago" blog version HERE
and my version, well....here...

28oz can diced tomatoes
1 yellow onion, chopped
4-6 cloves of garlic- coarsely chopped
red pepper flakes
oregano
basil
1 pound fresh Italian sausage (or Italian turkey sausage), remove from casing and crumble up- OR, EVEN BETTER, buy round Italian sausage that has not been "sausage'd" into casing at all- some markets will have this, ask your butcher too!! 
10 dry curly edged lasagna noodles, broken into 2 inch pieces
8oz  tomato sauce
a few handfuls shredded mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
about a cup of ricotta cheese
Water, olive oil, salt & pepper
chopped fresh basil for garnish/serving, optional

Pour diced tomatoes with their juices into 4 cup liquid measuring cup. Add water until mixture measures 4cups; set aside.

In a large skillet that has a lid, add 1-2 T of olive oil over medium heat, let it heat up for a few minutes. Add onion and a pinch of salt and cook about 5 minutes. Add garlic, chili pepper flakes, basil & oregano (I eyeballed it- a couple big pinches of the basil/oregano a small pinch of chili flakes)

Add sausage meat (removed from casing for easier breaking up) & cook until meat is cooked through all the way.

Scatter pasta over meat but do not stir. Pour diced tomatoes with juices and tomato sauce over pasta. Cover and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until pasta is tender, about 20 minutes.

Remove skillet from heat and stir in cheeses. Season with salt and pepper. Dot with heaping tablespoons ricotta, cover, and let stand off heat for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with basil Parmesan.

serve with a big yummy salad like THIS ONE

First Crock Pot Pin- Gyros!!

This was a great find!
Thanks to Rainy Day Gal I found A Year of Slow Cooking and can't wait to give so many of those great recipes a try!
I loooooove gyros, so this was a perfect first crock-pot-pinterest find to make

You can find the recipe on the links above- it was DELICIOUS! I used Trader Joe's Tzatziki dip, non-fat feta cheese & flat bread and made a quick side salad to go with it.

Side Salad-
cucumber
red onion
tomato
balsamic vinegar
oil
salt
Chop- toss- EASY.

Check out my slow-cooker-recipe collection on Pinterest, growing daily- by clicking HERE

Easy Weeknight Dinner- Taco Casserole

Easy weeknight dinners are awesome, so is anything that gives you more personal time to spend with your family (or with yourself!!)
I'm also a HUGE fan of dinners that last more than just one night. This is one of those, easy and leftover-delicious. I made this on a Sunday then Monday when we got home from a long day just a little reheating and dinner was ready!!

Brown 1 lb ground beef or turkey in a skillet over medium-high heat
Season with taco seasoning- you can use a packet from the store or make your own!! (click HERE for lots of great make your own seasoning recipes),
I also added a few dashes of hot sauce- when meat is cooked all the way, remove from heat and let cool a bit.

Spray a casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray
I used soft taco sized corn tortillas (the corningwear is about an inch bigger than the tortilla all the way around- which works)

Put a tortilla in the corning wear

Then sprinkle on a thin layer of shred cheese, spoon on 1/3 of the meat, add some drained, rinsed canned black beans, a little handful of chopped tomato and spoon some chunky salsa over that- then more cheese.

New tortilla, repeat- cheese, meat, beans, onions, salsa, cheese- tortilla

Repeat layers

Tortilla on top

Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.

Serve w sour cream and avocado n hot sauce.

This also makes a great freezer meal- right before the "bake at 350" step you can cover the casserole dish in freezer Press n' Seal, then add the lid and freeze- just add 10-15 minutes to the cooking time when cooking from frozen- and for goodness sake, remember to remove the press n seal before you put the frozen dish in the oven! 

Crock Pot Asian-Inspired Beef Tacos/Pitas

I'm TRYING to do at least one crock-pot recipe every week, mostly to expand my crock pot horizons and save a TON of time making dinner for more than one night while I spend the day playing and hanging out with my little guy & weenie dogs!
A friend at my husbands office was recently intrigued and had ordered a brand new crock pot so I sent him the link to A Year of Slow Cooking and he decided to try the Slow Cooker Shredded Korean Beef Tacos for his Superbowl gathering & said they came out GREAT!!
I couldn't wait to give them a try!! Click the link above for the recipe and ingredients- the only think I changed was MARINATING the beef, which I think is key if you have time- and per my husband- poke holes in the beef and insert garlic slivers everywhere- then mix the rest of the ingredients and let the whole thing marinate in the fridge at least an hour, more if you can spare the time.
I also scooped out the ginger, onion, jalapeno, garlic etc with a slotted spoon and puree'd it for a little kick-y sauce.

The first night we had soft tacos on corn tortillas

The second night stuffed em in a pita

The third night Nate FRIED the tortillas and made taco shells

My coleslaw was pretty much the same as on the link above-
I mixed 1 T soy sauce and 2 T rice vinegar in a bowl I added a few SMALL squeezes of Siracha- a little goes a long way you can always add more so add a wee bit and taste...whisk it all together.
Take a few handfuls of the shredded cabbage/slaw mix and in a gallon storage slowly add a bit at a time of the vinegar mix and toss with the slaw till coated.
Shake in some toasted sesame seeds, toss again- serve with tacos.

Green Smoothies by Sweet Life Kitchen

I thought I should start a post where I can add all the different smoothie mixes- for ease and reference!
As I post new mixtures- I'll upload the link and pic to THIS post so you can always come back to this one post for ideas~

The basic formula we use for our everyday breakfast is a quart-sized freezer bag full of fruits & veggies- plus 1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt, 1 cup cold water and two big handfuls greens (spinach, chard, kale....)

Green Smoothie 1

Green Smoothie 2

Green Smoothie 3

Green Smoothie 4

Green Smoothie 4

More green-ness! Added broccoli to the mix this week- and thanks to a fabulous Facebooker suggestion- I used frozen broccoli in the  fruit & veg bags.
We also got a GIANT bag of frozen fruit ala Costco to see how we liked that- and convenience wise it works brilliantly- it's 6lbs of strawberries, mango, papaya and pineapple- so the smoothies are super SMOOTH!

Here is what I put in each quart size freezer bag::
1 zucchini chopped
1 handful chopped frozen broccoli
1 small banana chopped
1 (more like 1 1/2) big handful of the frozen fruit mix
1 small handful/ sprinkle of blueberries

What I added to the blender each morning
1 freezer bag of fruit & veg (above)
1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
1 cup cold water
2 big handfuls of spinach

Makes 2 14oz smoothies

Lemon chicken- bad photo. GOOD chicken.

This was a use-what-we-got week night dinner. Easy, yummy and a bad photo to boot because I was in a hurry to eat & get baby boy in the bath!

Here's how I threw it all together- in a flash...
What you need:
1 T butter
1T olive oil
2 chicken breasts, chopped
1/4 onion chopped
1-2 T capers
1 lemon
1T flour
Salt pepp

Add butter n olive oil to pan add chicken, onion, salt peppr cook 8 min, until chicken is completely cooked through. Remove chicken & onions from pan, set aside leave liquid in skillet
Add juice of 1 lemon, the flour and whisk constantly on med-low heat until it thickens, then add the chicken & onions and capers to the pan- cook an additional 5 or so minutes on low to get it all saucy- serve with rice or cous cous and some veggies!