Fall Colorful Country Vegetable Plate

I must say that much of my inspiration for this dinner came from one of my favorite American country restaurants, Cracker Barrel. The first part of my inspiration came from the fact that I had a couple of carrots and a potato that were going bad on me. I made a colorful rice pilaf type thing from brown rice, carrots, and the potato. I guess it could be reminiscent of Cracker Barrel's hash brown casserole only healthier. I pretty much made a copycat brown gravy recipe using a sliced vidalia onion and a can of chicken gravy. Then I made my rendition of fried apples.

I used up the rest of our paula red apples. They turn into amazing fried apples. We don't really care for them for just regular eating because they are so soft and tart. I like either a crunchy tart apple or a sweet crunchy apple for regular snacking.

Fast Easy Healthy Salmon Cakes Dinner

Last time I went grocery shopping I arrived home with an item that I had paid for unbeknownst to me, that I had not picked out. The item was canned salmon! Oh my! I couldn't believe it. I'd arrived home on previous occasions, when to my deep dismay I would discover that I had left some items at the store,  which I had purchased. But not in my life had I ever purchased a random mystery item. I inspected the item at once to see if there was anything suspicious about it. The whole situation seemed rather fishy. I mentally noted that there was a salmon burgers recipe on the back of the can. That could prove helpful. My dilemma reminded me of a time when my Mom told me she made salmon patties for a nice cheap meal when she and my Dad were newlyweds, and my Dad was a grad student. My turn had come.

The recipe on the back of the can called for salmon, breadcrumbs, dijon mustard, lemon juice, egg whites, and green onions.

I smashed some croutons and crumbled a hot dog bun to use for my breadcrumbs.

I took the bones and skin off the salmon, then added worcestershire sauce instead of lemon juice. I didn't put any onions or garlic in my recipe. I added a little dijon mustard and a couple eggs. I used a couple whole eggs instead of the three egg whites the recipe called for. I couldn't think of a good reason to chuck the yolks or to save them for later. The recipe said it would make four burgers. I didn't want four big burgers. I made a bunch of cute little cakes so they would cook fast. 

Anthony and I both liked the salmon cakes. I plan to use the leftovers for sandwiches tomorrow.

Broccoli Baklava

I was wondering what I'd make for supper as I looked through my food supply. In the freezer I found an item of note that had been with us for awhile, since before our move to Clemson in May. It was leftover from some random shopping trip when I bought ingredients to make Beef Wellington and had substituted phyllo for pie pastry. I had only used half of the phyllo, and the other half was still wrapped in plastic. Indeed phyllo pastry can keep for quite some time. I thought, "hmm . . . I wonder what I can make out of that." My husband says I make stuff out of nothing. He loves that I do that, and I think doing so is a lot of fun. I was just trying to think of something good to make. I will also mention that in my investigation of the freezer, I perused the backs of the food packages, scanning them for ideas. I had turned up nothing so far. When I read the back of the phyllo box, I thought, "hmm, I can work with that."

After I made a few grand component substitutions and a change in layout design . . . this is what my recipe looked like:

Olive Oil Spray

20 Sheets of Phyllo Pastry

1/2 Bag Frozen Stir-Fry Vegetables

1 Gourmet Cucumber

2 Carrots

1 Vidalia Onion

Grated Parmesan Cheese

Mayonnaise

Salt & Pepper

2 Eggs

Allow me to recommend Broccoli Baklava to you.

Cajun Fish & Vegetables

I was planning to make fried fish and potatoes but at the last minute I switched to cajun. I'm sure cajun was much healthier. I loved the steamed vegetable medley I created to accompany the fish and potatoes. Anthony added buffalo ranch to his potatoes.

Burritos & Pumpkin Bread

Sometimes when you are sick you just have to take it easy, and so I resorted to the freezer. I pulled a loaf of pumpkin bread this morning. When dinner time rolled around I pulled a couple burritos from the shelf on the inside of my freezer door. Five minutes later a warm cozy dinner for two was all set and ready to eat. Maybe not the most nutritious ever but we enjoyed it.

Sausage & Vegetables

Thinking about what to make for dinner, I thought I would use sausage, zucchini squash, and yellow squash. I thought I'd use squash because we have a lot of it. I decided on sausage from the meat drawer which also included fish and chicken because we had eaten those other meats recently. The original plan was to toss up the sausage and squash with pasta, greens, and some kind of cream sauce. I grabbed a can of New England clam chowder to use as a base for my sauce. I had a head of red oak lettuce to throw in the pan right when the dish was about done. I also pulled the last of the baby carrots from the fridge and a whole onion. Then I remembered we already had pasta a couple times in the last day or so. I promptly changed my plans to sausage and vegetables. I figured the squash would be a lot of carbs in the absence of pasta. I put the clam chowder and red oak lettuce away. I cut the onion in half so as not to overpower the dish. I cooked the sausage, onions, and carrots first since I knew they would need the most time, later adding the squash, water, and then the leftover broccoli. Dousing it all with Worcestershire sauce at the last second, I then added pepper, salt, and a lid. I wanted the sausage and vegetable flavors to really shine so I waited to season.

Sausage & Vegetables

Olive Oil Spray
Sausage
Vidalia Onion
Baby Carrots
Yellow Squash
Zucchini Squash
Water
Leftover Broccoli Florets
Worcestershire Sauce
Black Pepper

Salt

Healthy Eating

Bruschetta Chicken

chicken tenderloins

half of a medium vidalia onion

4 cloves of garlic

olive oil spray

1/4 cup of water

1 cup baby tomatoes halved

1 cup Italian croutons

pepper

salt

Grad Student Wife

The grad student wife needs to be flexible with dinner times regarding unexpected changes in class schedules, class ending times, public transportation schedules, and other surprises. This being said, this evening I did meal prep early, stuck dinner in the fridge, and cooked it after hubby arrived home. Of course I did get a little hungry and antsy as I am pregnant. What better way to tide us over to mealtime than to make a mocha frappuccino with our new blending machine! That is exactly what I did, once I got dinner cooking after the return of dear Anthony. I was kind enough to share the frappe with him. We both thoroughly enjoyed it and then dinner when it was ready. This evening's menu included:

Mocha Frappuccino

-leftover coffee
-lots of ice
-chocolate syrup
-milk

Anthony's Favorite Side Salad

-lettuce
-carrots
-dried cranberries
-honey roasted peanuts
-ranch salad dressing

Almond Bacon Crusted Swai

-swai fillets
-ground almonds
-grated parmesan cheese
-chopped bacon
-olive oil spray

Sugar Snap Peas

Foodie

What better way for a foodie to start a blog than with food. This here is my Mom's recipe for chicken crumb casserole. I cooked it for Anthony while we were dating and he loved it. I made it again the other day when we had company over.