Anniversary Dinner

Today is my 15 year Anniversary and I'm lucky enough to have my mom here from Sweden cooking dinner for us tonight. We are having leek and potato soup with herbs and diced salmon for appetizer and then an exotic pork tenderloin with coconut sauce and rice. Yum. Can't wait.

Need inspiration

John's at work and I need some inspiration or it will be left overs for me (mmmm yummy salmon) and Mac and cheese for the kids. Not exactly healthy:)

Salmon with wild rice and mango salsa

Last night we had one of my favorites! Salmon with wild rice and mango salsa.

I make my salmon wrapped in foil in the oven mostly because my kids don't like any kind of "crust" on it but also because it turns out so moist and delicious. I season it with some salt, pepper, garlic powder, lemon juice, parsley and a little olive oil. Wrap in foil and bake at 350 till its nice and flaky. About 20-25 min.

With it I make mango salsa:

2 tomatoes

1 mango

1/2 red onion

cilantro

lime juice

salt

pepper

olive oil

You can put a jalapeno pepper in to give it a kick but my kids would not eat it for sure so I leave it out:)

Mmmmmmm. Good!

Chicken Salad

Today's lunch:

A salad with mixed greens, tomatoes and cucumber with Olive oil, lemon juice, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

On top a skinless chicken breast from the Foreman grill seasoned with salt, pepper and a squirt of lime juice. Yumminess:)

Cream of Wild Rice Soup

Ok, so I made the Rice and Chicken and while it looked great and smelled great it did not taste great so I will not be sharing that one:(

Instead a true and tested wonderful soup that Lisa Stephens passed on to me:


Cream Of Wild Rice Soup

3 cup cooked wild rice
1 large onion, diced
2 to 3 carrots, diced
2 to 3 celery ribs, diced
1-1/2 cups diced cooked chicken (or ham)
1 stick butter
1 cup flour
8 cups chicken broth
1 cup milk (or half and half)
Salt and pepper to taste.

Prepare wild rice first. In soup kettle, saute onion celery, carrots and chicken in butter until vegetables have softened. Sift in flour a bit at a time, stirring until well blended. Do not let brown! Slowly add broth, stirring with whisk until flour/vegetable mixture is well blended. Add rice, adjust seasonings. Heat thoroughly. Add milk and reheat gently. DO NOT BOIL.

This is one of my favorite cold weather soups. It also freezes nicely in soup size portions. Super easy and I always have the ingredients on hand.

Basmati Rice and Chicken

On the menu tonight is Basmati rice and Chicken. I will post a recipe and hopefully a picture later on.

I'm always trying to find new things that my picky kids will like. We do not eat out often with the kids and it amazes me that when we do the kids menus are disgusting! Pardon my English. How can we go to a restaurant and enjoy a nice piece of fish or meat and stuff our kids with chicken tenders or any other wide variety of fried food? No wonder the children of America are obese. I'm sorry but I think it's so sad. What are we teaching them? How hard is it to serve a piece of grilled chicken and not fried. With that said, I'm sure there are some great places out there with better options. For all my friends that like to go out to eat, here is a website that could save you some money.
www.kidsmealdeals.com It shows you where kids eat free in your area on any given day.

Simple Pot Roast

Tonight's dinner is actually a left over roast from yesterday. But when something is so good it just doesn't matter. And this is. It's a pioneer woman recipe and I love it. This recipe calls for a Dutch oven but I made mine in the crock pot on Medium for 6 hours and it was fork tender and delicious. I served mine with mashed potatoes.

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 whole (4 To 5 Pounds) Chuck Roast
2 whole Onions
6 whole Carrots (Up To 8 Carrots)
Salt To Taste
Pepper To Taste
1 cup Red Wine (optional, You Can Use Beef Broth Instead)
2 cups To 3 Cups Beef Stock
3 sprigs Fresh Thyme, or more to taste
3 sprigs Fresh Rosemary, or more to taste

Preparation Instructions:

First and foremost, choose a nicely marbled piece of meat. This will enhance the flavor of your pot roast like nothing else. Generously salt and pepper your chuck roast.
Heat a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Then add 2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil (or you can do a butter/olive oil split).
Cut two onions in half and cut 6 to 8 carrots into 2-inch slices (you can peel them, but you don’t have to). When the oil in the pot is very hot (but not smoking), add in the halved onions, browning them on one side and then the other. Remove the onions to a plate. Throw the carrots into the same very hot pan and toss them around a bit until slightly browned, about a minute or so.
If needed, add a bit more olive oil to the very hot pan. Place the meat in the pan and sear it for about a minute on all sides until it is nice and brown all over. Remove the roast to a plate. With the burner still on high, use either red wine or beef broth (about 1 cup) to deglaze the pan, scraping the bottom with a whisk to get all of that wonderful flavor up. When the bottom of the pan is sufficiently deglazed, place the roast back into the pan and add enough beef stock to cover the meat halfway (about 2 to 3 cups). Add in the onion and the carrots, as well as 3 or 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary and about 3 sprigs of fresh thyme.
Put the lid on, then roast in a 275F oven for 3 hours (for a 3-pound roast). For a 4 to 5-pound roast, plan on 4 hours.

Lets share some yumminess

If you are like me and love, love, love to eat, Love to cook and is always looking for new inspiration and fresh recipes then this might work for us all.
I was trying to come up with a way for my friends and I to share recipes online. I was thinking of posting on facebook but I think it might get to complicated.
What I'm hoping for is a spot where we can all post some daily yumminess and help each other with dinner ideas for our kids and families.
I have a few sites that I love and am always pulling ideas from that I will share with you and I hope you will do the same:)