Home Sanctuary

The Secret Ingredient to a Gazillion Quick and Delicious Meals

OK, maybe not a "gazillion," but enough meals to make your family think you're an amazing magician in the kitchen! I love to impress my hungry, fork-stomping brood with my ability to whip up an impressive dinner in a matter of minutes.

I've already shared my Rotisserie-Chicken love affair with you. And now I spill the beans on my other paramour, the smoked sausage.

Simple, elegant, and good gracious! It's PRE-COOKED! Move over hot dogs, there's another chopped, pressed meat in town.

I like the Skinless variety because it's, well, skinless.

So get your apronon and try a few of my favorite ways to use this edible chameleon.

Sausage and Vegetable Medley

Start (pretty much any) meal preparation by sauteeing up some onions. Throw in some red or green peppers in for color. At this point, your family will be drooling in anticipation, because they can tell you're working on something good in there. While that is starting, slice up any other veggies laying around (you know you have some!) like zucchini, broccoli, carrots etc. and toss those in. Add sliced smoked sausage at the very end, and voila! A colorful, flavorful dish to serve over rice.

Variation: 1)
Serve the above next to couscous. I love couscous because it only takes 5 minutes.
Variation 2)
Serve over Ramen noodles (cook according to pkg, and then drain like spaghetti. Yum!)

Red Beans and Rice

You CAN make this from scratch, but why?

There are many mixes like this, but here's one brand I've used.

NOTE: I add 1/2 cup rice and 1 cup water to the mix so it's not too spicey. Add sliced sausage during the last 5 minutes and serve with chips and cheese.

Sausage and Pesto, with Pasta

Start up your onions and veggies, like in the first recipe. Add sliced sausage. Cook up some pasta (ziti, penne). Toss all together with prepared Pesto to taste. To this you can add feta cheese, slice olives, etc.
You might want to serve this on some nice china with crusty bread. It's so good your head will explode from all the compliments you'll receive.

Breakfast for Dinner

This is an actual monthly menu category. Sausage can be substituted for bacon or ground sausage patties, etc.

And the simplest of all meals:

Easy: sauteed onions and sausage, served on a toasted bun with melted provalone cheese.

Easier: microwaved sausage served on hot dog buns

Easiest: eat sausage directly from package, skip the bun. (Not recommended.)

For more recipe ideas, Eckrich has plenty. AND they have printable coupons! Go getcha some!

This week I noticed that my grocery store had their store brand for "Buy One Get One Free" and since they have a long refrigerator life, you can stock up on an extra package or two. Perfect for having on hand during the holiday rush of activities.

For more Works for Me Wednesday ideas, go visit Shannon!

Best and Easiest Pot Roast

Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

I've always made Pot Roast for my family, and I'm a big believer in the Crock Pot.  But the most compliments I ever receive from my family on my Pot Roast is when I make it with this magic ingredient:

Thanks, Fam.  Love you, too.

Seriously, McCormick's Slow Cooker Pot Roast seasoning might be loaded with MSG, but who really cares when your family asks for seconds?  Now I just buy several packages at a time and don't worry about having to follow a recipe.  I add some veggies, and I must say,

IT'S DELICIOUS!

(You could even hide the package and pretend you made it from scratch....they'll never know.)

Get-Real Menu Planning for Busy Families

There are many elaborate menu plans I see that I just know won't work for my family. They include things like "Roasted Leg of Lamb with Braised Asparagus and Cherries Flambe for Dessert."

Riiiiight.

I've found that I can easily come up with a month's worth of dinner ideas out of stuff I already know how to make.

First, I start by brain-storming. I list broad categories of dinners, like: Italian, Crock-Pot, Grilled, Mexican, LEFTOVERS (yes, it's a category), PAPER PLATE MEALS (you gotta get real), Gourmet (I'm putting this in for you "Foodies"), Soup N Sandwich, Breakfast for Dinner, etc.

Then, I think of as many meals as can that fit under each category.

Italian: Spaghetti, pizza, manicotti, baked ziti, stuffed shells from Sam's, etc.

Crock Pot: Pot Roast, Barbeque Chicken, Beef Stew, Italian Chicken

Go ahead! Take out some paper and try it. I'll bet you can come up with a BUNCH!

Each Category really only needs 4 items because.....

Then, I look at our Family Calendar. I start plugging in the standing activities we have that affect our dinner times. For example: for many years, we had piano lessons twice a week from 5:30-6:30, which meant that we either had to eat early OR late. On Wednesday nights, we have church. Sports might be on another night. I take a blank calendar page and write these activities across the top. I put in my work/volunteer schedule: On Thursdays I work all day at Junior's school after I've served at the homeless shelter.....(cough)

Then, I take a blank calendar page, and working across the week, I start assigning the broad categories to days of the week.

On Piano nights, I assigned Crock Pot Night, and Sandwich Night--both are quick and easy with little clean-up required.

On Sports Nights, I might do Drive Through Night (Oh, didn't I tell you? That's also a category! I just like to plan it in, rather that use it willy-nilly)

On Monday nights, we are all home together so I plan a nice, sit-down meal. Gourmet perhaps?

On Saturday nights, I might do Breakfast for Dinner, because you never know who is actually going to be home: waffles are always a hit.

I actually found that I could come up with TWO MONTHS worth of dinner ideas by doing it this way. And even when I don't stick to the menu plan, just having it posted up on the refrigerator helps jog my memory when I'm in a pinch, which it often. It also helps me remember to thaw things out ahead of time and start early enough in the day so I don't have mutiny on my hands when 6:30 rolls around and the troops are starving. Voila, Dinner is Served.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

More Apronons

One of my Company Girls, Grace, gave me this link to Shannon's (Rocks in my Dryer) giveaway of a perfectly darling Apronon.

I think we should all sign up for one, right now. Connie, at Smockity Frocks is a very talented lady and you can order one if you don't win the giveaway.

What's an Apronon?

When we were little, my sister, Katherine, used to ask our Mom,

"What's an Apronon??"

She couldn't figure out what Mom meant when she would say, as she began to prepare dinner, "I need to get my apron on."

As a result, we still call aprons, "Apronons."

When my girls and I make cookies or lefse, someone goes looking for the apronons, which are hanging on a nail in the pantry. When I am cleaning up a messy kitchen with greasy slop, I reach for an apronon. And I always wear an apronon when making spaghetti, so it won't splatter onto my clothes. The men in our family even put on apronons when they carve the turkey at Thanksgiving, or clean up the holiday dishes.

I like wearing apronons. I only have a few of them, but they serve me well. Mine are the kind tie around your neck and back, and are made of sturdy material. My sister has a darling collection of kitschy apronons, and has used them for decoration in her kitchen. It looks great!

You know, when I tie my apronon I feel a kind of connection to my Mom and Grandmothers, who always wore their apronons not just for cooking, but for cleaning as well. Generations past also had housecoats, or housedresses: loose comfortable dresses that women wore while they did their household chores. They weren't nearly as attractive as the apronons, they were more like apronon's Ugly Cousins.

You can buy some super cute apronons these days, and I highly recommend going out and purchasing one or two. Mine are the practical kind, made for barbequing and tough enough that a man won't feel awkward wearing them. I do like my man to feel at home in an apronon.

But I think I'm going to upgrade my apronons to something a little more feminine, something June Cleaver would wear. I'm still inspired to take my business here at home seriously enough to invest in what I need to feel professional.

Professional AND cute. Look at this one I found at wrapables.com:

Apronons are just the thing.

Creative Meals To Make With a Rotisserie Chicken

I said we rarely eat out, but I never said I make all my meals entirely from scratch!

Enter: the Rotisserie Chicken.

On Tuesdays, Albertsons has these on sale for 3.99 each. But mostly I'm in a hurry on the Other Days, and have to pay full price. It doesn't really matter, because I can still feed my family for a lot less than if we drove through McDonald's.

First, pull off a leg and nibble on it while you decide what to do with the rest of the chicken. Take the chicken off the bone and pull it apart or cut it up into chunks. Hmmm. How about......

1. Sauteed Vegetable Medley, served with chicken, over rice.
Lightly saute onions and whatever veg you have on hand. While that is sizzling, make a pot of rice. Add chicken bits to the veggies just before serving to heat through, and serve it over the rice.

2. Chicken fajitas
Saute up some onions and peppers, then add chicken right at the end. Let everyone build their own fajita, with grated cheese, beans, lettuce, sour cream, salsa. Don't forget the chips. This is a good one to serve with cut up fruit.

3. Pasta with Chicken and Vegetable Pesto (Delish!)
Lightly saute vegetables in olive oil. I like onions, red peppers, zucchini, broccoli and carrots. It just takes a little bit of each kind to make a lot. Add the chicken at the end.

Meanwhile, boil ziti or mostaccioli pasta (or whatever you have). Mix the pasta in with the vegetables and add several tablespoons of Pesto to mix in also.

You can add some goodies like feta cheese and black olives to this just before serving. Tastes like it came from a restaurant!

4. Chicken Salad

Every one has their favorite way to make chicken salad, so I won't do a recipe here. Sometimes, I put scoops of chicken salad inside buns and wrap in foil and heat in the oven. It's like a Hot Pocket, except it tastes good.

5. Chicken/Vegetable Soup

My Mom is the queen of soup making. Even a small amount of leftover rotisserie chicken can make a delicious soup, and we especially love it in the fall and winter. All you do is put some water and/or canned chicken broth in a pot and get it slowly boiling. Start digging through your vegetable drawer, and cut up whatever you have on hand and throw it in, along with the chicken. It's the onions and the garlic that make everything taste good, so use plenty. I usually add boullion cubes to boost the flavor. Thicken it at the end and serve it up with crusty bread.

6. White Chicken Chili

I use the recipe on the back of Bush's Northern Beans. The recipe used to be on the back of the Navy Bean can, but now they went and changed it. I'm waaay over my 500 word "limit" so I'll post the link to the recipe here.

You can always just eat the chicken right off the bone, which is what we do quite often. Paper plates optional.

How about you? Share your Rotisserie Chicken ideas with me, so the rest of us Company Girls can get inspired!

Easy, 2 Ingredient Chicken

I've noticed that my Food/Meal Planning Category is very sparse.  That's because I do little or no planning these days, not like I used to when all five of us sat down to the table every night.

What I do try to do is have ingredients on hand that I can throw together to make a meal quickly.  So even though we are rushed and disorganized at times, we rarely have to eat out, and don't need to rely on the Pizza Man for sustenance.  I'll talk about the importance of a well-enough-stocked pantry sometime soon.

Here's what we had for dinner last night.  Don't scoff.

4 Individually Frozen chicken breasts, still frozen

1/2 cup of barbeque sauce

(OK, I added some onions to this....just because I like onions.)

Toss in Crock Pot for about 6 hours, or until chicken can be shredded.  Serve on buns (with extra bbq sauce) with baked beans, chips and watermelon.

Hey, it's easy and made enough for leftovers, which I love. (One less meal to plan.)

Christmas Cutout Cookies

On the heels of lefse-making, our OTHER favorite Christmas traditions is making and decorating cutout cookies.  We've done this for almost 20 years, and the kids STILL love it.  I like my sister Katherine's recipe the best, for making the rolled cookies.  They are buttery and not too sweet, perfect for topping with icing.  I believe she got this recipe from her mother in law, a truly decadent baker.

1 1/2 c butter, soft

3/4 c sugar

3 1/3 c flour

Mix in large mixing bowl at low speed.  Roll out 3/8 inches thick, cut into desired shapes Bake at 300 for 20-25 min (ours never go that long, so watch for browning).  If dough doesn't stick together, add drops of evap. milk or half and half.

Icing:  Mix about a bag a powdered sugar with 1 stick of soft butter (or less)  Add small amounts of milk until it is a smooth (not too thick) consistency.  Add 1-2 tsp. almond flavoring, the secret of cutout cookie deliciousness.  Divide up into bowls and stir in food coloring (red, green, blue, yellow, leave one bowl with white).  Have colorful sprinkles on hand, along with toothpicks and small plastic knives for swirling designs around.  Give each person a paper plate to work over, to keep the sprinkles from going EVERYWHERE.

Hint:  Toothpicks make great decorating tools: you can dip one in frosting, then touch a sprinkle and it sticks to it!  Then you can place those itty bitty sprinkles in perfect places to make stunningly perfect patterns.  Your friends will be wowed.  When you get sick of such attention to detail, then just sprinkle away.  It's all good.

Wish I had a picture to post of some our best creations--there have been some that were fit for the Smithsonian.  Then there were others that were so muddled with every color imaginable, we just had to eat them right away, with a glass of cold milk. 

Best Cookie Wishes,

Rachel Anne

Norwegian Lefse

As promised, here is a recipe for lefse.  My grandmothers both made delicious, paper-thin delicacies, and mine is a mere shadow of what I remember eating as a child.  Their recipes called for a "little of this, a little of that," so I've had to use some trial and error to find one that works for me.  For those of you that have no idea what lefse is, it is a Norwegian flatbread like a tortilla, only made with potatoes.

Disclaimer: All amounts are approximate, and though I make no guarantees I will say that I find lefse to be very easy and forgiving to make. I recommend a generous amount of butter and sugar and cinnamon on each finished lefse for maximum enjoyment!

4 cups mashed potatoes

1/4 cup butter

salt to taste (1-2 tsp)

1-2 cups flour

Mix butter and salt into mashed potatoes.  Cool in refrigerator.  Knead in flour, without overworking.  Form into a log (maybe 3 inches in diam), wrap with plastic wrap and keep chilled until rolled out.  Cut off slices of the potato roll and roll out with lefse rolling pin.  Use a well-flour surface or pastry cloth, and keep enough flour on the potato slice so it doesn't stick to the rolling pin. 

Carefully pick up each rolled lefse piece (a smooth lefse stick is helpful), gently shake of excess flour, and cook on hot, non-stick griddle.  Flip when lefse starts to bubble, and has golden speckles.  Periodically wipe or brush flour from griddle.  Cover finished pieces with cloth, cool completely before storing in fridge in ziplock.

Spread with butter, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.  Roll up and serve!

I try to not make this too far ahead of time before Christmas, because my family has been known to polish off a batch before I've had a chance to serve it.  Lefse-making has been a great family tradition, one we always look forward to.  It's easy to make and soooo delicious!

Here is a poem I found at www.lefsetime.com.  They also carry Norwegian products and baking supplies.

Yew tak yust ten big potatoes
Den yew boil dem til dar don,
Yew add to dis some sveet cream
And by cups it measures vun.

Den yew steal 'tree ounces of butter
And vit two fingers pench some salt,
Yew beat dis wery lightly
If it ain't gude it is your fault.

Den yew roll dis tin vit flour
An' light brown on stove yew bake,
Now call in all Scandihuvians
Tew try da fine lefse yew make!

Rachel Anne

Lazy Cook/Smart Cook

There are two ways of looking at my cooking methods--kind of like the "half full or half empty" glass, I choose to believe the half full, "Smart Cook" view!

I use Planned Leftovers alot.  You know, cook once, eat twice.  Though not a big fan of casseroley foods (ate too many as a kid!) they do have their place.  Following are some easy examples, and I'm sure you can think of many more that would work for your family.  The trick is to cook up more of the meat (or main dish) than you need for one meal.  It takes NO extra time. 

Day One: Grilled Chicken (Grill twice as much as you will need for one dinner)  I like to marinate them in Italian Dressing first - YUM!)

Day Two: Using the leftover chicken breasts, make

• Fajitas (saute onions and peppers, heat up some beans and throw on some tortillas)
• Chicken sandwiches on buns (open a can of baked beans, chips)
• Chicken/veg Medley over rice (saute up whatever veggies you have on hand, onions a must, add sliced chicken right at the end to heat, and serve over rice.
• Chicken/veg Medley over drained Top Ramen Noodles
• Soup

Day One:  Pot Roast in Crock Pot  (Get a large roast)

Day Two:

• Shredded up pot roast/gravy sandwiches or over rice
• Use meat with barbeque sauce for BBQ Sandwiches
• Baked potato topping/ salad

Day One:  Ham with some kind of potato

Day Two:

• Pasta salad with ham pieces
• Scalloped potatoes with ham
• Baked potato topping
• Ham sandwiches
• homemade pizza with ham topping

Other ideas:

• grill up extra hamburgers/hotdogs, store in ziplock.  (Grilled hotdogs taste sooo much better, even reheated)
• Make a huge pot of spaghetti sauce, freeze into meal-size portions.
• Ask Katherine for her White Chicken Chili recipe and make a bunch of it. (Or, use the recipe on the back of Bush's Navy Bean cans)

You get the idea.  I really only cook an original meat about 3 times a week, and use the cooked, leftover meat for reincarnated concoctions.  By using the planned leftovers, everything usually tastes fresh, especially when you add a fresh salad or vegetable each time.

Lazy or Smart, it works for me!

Rachel Anne