Homemade Taquitos- Great Make Ahead Lunch Idea

Made with chicken or beef, these Mexican inspired tacos-to-go will please adults and children alike.  These were simple to make and made enough for two meals.  I made them with chicken and liked them so much that I made them the next week with ground beef.  See the ground beef version pictured below: I like to make meals that can be recycled at lunch time.  In theory, I think it would be incredible to have a freezer stocked with homemade convenience foods such as taquitos, soups, mini pizzas, muffins, etc. but in reality we eat them as fast as I can make them and they don't make it to the freezer for more than a couple of...

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Cheap meals: Have you tried Mjeddrah yet?

You may not have heard of this heart healthy porridge of lentils and rice.  A Lebanese staple, Mjeddrah is simple to make, extremely filling, and full of flavor. It is also cheap! Besides the fact, that we really like it, its cheapness is why I am making it today.  Sometimes we eat like kings at the beginning of the month just after payday and like paupers the last week of the month trying to stretch our groceries as far as they will go.  This will feed us for at least two meals so it saves time and effort too. This takes a while to cook, but most of that is hands off time.  I am home a lot during the day, so this works...

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500 Calorie Dinner Idea: Spaghetti Squash Baked Spaghetti---with homemade Spaghetti Sauce!

Growing up, we had spaghetti for dinner nearly every Wednesday night because Wednesdays were church nights and we needed a quick supper.  I still think spaghetti is pretty tasty, but I look for ways to change it up because regular spaghetti seems so plain Jane to me after having it so often during childhood. It doesn't hurt that replacing the traditional noodles in this recipe with spaghetti squash slashes calories and ups the vegetable intake.  My husband nearly had a panic attack the first time I put this on the table, but I saw him sneak back for seconds and take more than his fair share of leftovers the next day.  This dish...

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Meatloaf and Potatoes Night

Meatloaf frequently gets a bad rap...and why?  If you can leave behind your preconceived notions, it is actually a tasty meal.  I have been known to put meatloaf on my menu for weeks before I actually get around to making it and with some fairly good reasons: Number 1: I have never been 100% satisfied with my standby Betty Crocker Meatloaf recipe and I wasn't sure how to spruce it up to my liking. Number 2:  Those big loaves take a LONG time to cook.  I'm too impatient on most nights.  I have made mini meatloaves in muffin tins before, but then you have to deal with cleaning meatloaf off 12 muffin tins and that ain't...

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Brownies with Avocado? Really!

I just finished a great homemade brownie.  it was fudgy, moist, choclatey and has a secret ingredient---avocado!  You may be familair with the notion of replacing part of the fat in recipes with applesauce, but have you tried avocado?  It doesn't eliminate fat or calories, but it does replace saturated fat with healthy good for you fat. A couple of years ago I purchased Jessica Seinfeld's book, Deceptively Delicious which is all about hiding vegetables and fruits in recipes using vegetable and fruit purees.  She has some great ideas for adding nutrients to everyday dishes and she got me to thinking about more ways...

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Don't Knock It Casserole--Comfort Food Reigns Today!

Casserole is an American staple, and I am a casserole lover--especially in winter.  As I have worked to reduce the processed foods we use in our meals, I have been hesitant to eliminate condensed soups from my cooking.  I have tried a couple of replacement recipes and the final results have tasted, well, flat--- if that can be a food descriptor. I made one of my quick dinner standby's the other night without condensed soup and really didn't notice a difference in flavor.  The "replacement" soup was just as good as the canned stuff.  We may have a winner, my friends!  Now this casserole still has Ritz crackers as a topping,...

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Indian Chicken and Vegetables

If you've never tried Indian food--THIS is the recipe that will convert you to an Indian food lover!  This is my personal favorite so I stand behind it 100%.  I hoard the leftovers for myself and really enjoy that my kids are still a little wary of this dish---more for me, I say! Indian Chicken and Vegetables I traveled to India some time ago and experienced a week of real Indian food.  After about three or four days, I was thankful for the granola bars I had stashed in my luggage because I couldn't handle the spices for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner.  I thought I had had enough curry for a lifetime!  But, that crash...

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