What’s for Dinner?

Last week while shopping I picked up a Teriyaki Pork loin. I usually get a seasoned pork loin every so often but I had never seen a teriyaki one, so I was intrigued. And for only $4 I liked the price. As I put it in the oven tonight I wondered if it was going to be any good. I don’t know why I thought that cause we love teriyaki flavor, but the thought of teriyaki PORK flavor was kind of turning me off now.

But as it began cooking the house filled with that teriyaki flavored that smelled so delicious and it was then I knew it was going to taste great.

Half way through cooking I threw together a quick rendition of my home made au gratin potatoes (I just used canned potatoes instead of fresh potatoes) and some sautéed zucchini/squash mix.

I forgot to take a picture before eating but snapped this one as I was taking care of the leftovers. Mr.B said it was great and that we really should have pork loin more often. I guess that was a hint for me to buy them and make them more often, lol.

So that’s what we had for dinner...what did you have?

Dinner out just got cheaper.

Do you go out to eat a lot? Would you if you had gift certificates?

If you answered Yes to that question then have I got a deal for you. Head over to Restaurant.com and use code HEART* at checkout for 80% off your purchase. That means you can get a $25 gift certificate for $2...YES only $2!

I just picked up the 3 month Dinner of the Month Club for only $6! That means that I will get 1 $25 gift certificate each month to a restaurant of my choosing for the next 3 months plus a bonus $10 certificate. If you purchase the 12 month one it comes with a bonus $50 certificate and with this discount it will only cost you $24! That's an amazing savings of $96!

So if you like to go out to eat then I suggest you pick up a few of these bad boys. I mean if you're going to the restaurant anyways you my as well save some money. And you can print them instantly so head over, purchase one now, and head on out to dinner. That is if your not buried in 10 inches of snow like me.

Most of them do have a minimum purchase of $35 required**. But most of the restaurants in my area we'd spend that plus some anyways. So instead of walking out of there with a $40 tab plus tip we leave with a $15 tab plus tip. Not bad for a nice dinner out.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that with this code you will also receive a $15 FTD Flowers Reward Credit! So you can send yourself some nice flowers, or maybe a friend if you'd rather.

*This coupon code ends on 2/14
**On $25 gift certificates, may be different if you purchase a different denominations.

What's Cookin good Lookin?

Mr. B is a huge fan of Lasagna, it is his favorite meal. So when I came across this recipe I knew I had to make it. Not only because it looked good, but because I could make a bunch up and freeze them so he could heat and eat when ever he had a craving.

So this weeked I am making these:

Don't those look delish? Now the original recipe calls for tofu and spinach, which I am not about. We are meat eaters so I will be using meat. Usually ground beef, but I have been going with healthier alternatives and using ground turkey, so I may do that.

Here is the original Recipe with my substitutions in red.

Lasagna Roll ups

1 (16 ounce) package uncooked lasagna noodles
1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
1 pound firm tofu 1lb ground beef or ground turkey
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach - thawed, drained and squeezed dry May leave this in as you usually can't taste it when it's mixed in dishes, otherwise I will just omit all together.
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
1 (28 ounce) jar pasta sauce

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles for 5 to 8 minutes, or until just slightly underdone; drain and rinse.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together grated cheese, ricotta cheese, tofu, frozen spinach, and 1 cup Parmesan cheese.
3. Lay out a noodle. Spread a layer of the cheese mixture on the noodle, then add a thin layer of sauce. Roll the noodle up, and place seam side down in a 13x9 pan. Repeat for other noodles. Top with remaining sauce and Parmesan cheese.
4. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F (175 degree C) oven for 30 min, or until hot and bubbly.

I will be adding my meat to the sauce instead of tofu to the cheese mixture. I may also decide to double this recipe since I am going to make up a bunch and freeze them.

I'll be sure to let you know how they turn out!

Cooking, giveaway results, and a Q&A.

Today Mr. B and I raked the yard, boy did we have a lot of leaves. I'm glad that the trees in our yard are now bare so we shouldn't need to rake again this year. But I am not looking forward to the snow fall that is soon to follow. As I am the one who has to leave for work in the morning it will always be covered in fresh snow, I wonder if I can get Mr. B up to shovel and clean the car off for me.

I made bean soup for dinner tonight, well actually it cooked in the crock pot all day. I used a very simple recipe that included ham, beans, onions, water, and pepper, That's it. Throw it in the crock pot and cook on high all day. I also made corn bread with a touch of sugar added, we like ours a little sweet. Some how I even got Mr. B to volunteer to do the dishes even though it was my turn, but I wasn't going to complain.Now I'm sitting here blogging and watching the shows I have recorded on the DVR. Monday is our busiest recording night so I have a lot to catch up on. Luckily it goes fast since I can fast forward through commercials, the best thing about having a DVR if you ask me. Oh, you didn't ask me, well you got my opinion anyways, lol.

Also I need to post the winner of the Navigating the Land of IF book. The first name drawn was actually Melissa G, but she stated she already had this book so I did another draw at random.org and the winner is Jennifer! I have emailed you and hope to hear back from you soon.

Well I think I'm done rambling on, unless there is something else you think I should talk about....anything???? Do you have any questions for us, anything you're just dying to know? Well feel free to ask in the comments section and I'll be sure to answer them on an upcoming Q&A post.

Melissa's Italian Stuffed Chicken Breasts

I was laying on the couch the other day trying to think of some new recipes. We eat a lot of chicken and I've run out of new, fresh ideas. So I started thinking. Mr. B's favorite dish is lasagna, but the reason he loves lasagna is the ricotta cheese. So I started thinking about chicken stuffed with ricotta cheese, and then it grew from there.

I decided to stuff my chicken with ricotta, Parmesan, and mozzarella cheese. Then I decided that since his next favorite dish is Parmesan chicken that I should also bread it. So I decided to use some Shake 'n Bake as well. I needed to run to the store for the shake n bake and while there I seen some fresh mushrooms and thought those would taste wonderful in it as well.

I returned home and gathered my ingredients:

Once home I decided that an onion would add great flavor as well. I chopped up the mushrooms and onions and sauteed them for just a few minutes in a teaspoon of olive oil.

In another bowl I had mixed together 1 tub of ricotta cheese, a handful of mozzarella cheese, and sprinkled in some Parmesan.

Added my sauteed mushroom/onion mix:
Then I split my chicken breasts like so:
and stuffed it as full as I could:
I then coated them in the Parmesan crusted shake n bake and placed them into a lightly sprayed pan:
I baked them for about 25 mins until the chicken was cooked thoroughly.

Since I had some mushrooms left and some cheese mixture I decided to throw them together for a stuffed mushroom type of thing. I also coated the mushrooms in the shake n bake mixture I had left:
Then spread out the cheese mixture and added mozzarella cheese to the top.
I baked this for 10 mins then put under the broiler to brown.

We had company over for dinner so I didn't get a chance to get a picture of the completed meal, but Mr. B snagged a picture of the chicken on his plate:
Every one said it was great! And Mr. B said I will be making this again, which is a great compliment from him. Since he usually says he loves everything I make, but to be that adamant about eating it again is a good sign. I'm glad it was a hit.

I served this with bow tie pasta and steamed broccoli with cheese sauce. I also had some sauce for the pasta and the chicken. I had enough for 4 people and it was a little over $21 for the whole meal. We do have lots of pasta and sauce left for lunch tomorrow. So we will get 2 meals out of it as well.

Here is the complete recipe if you would like to re-create it. But I didn't really measure anything so it is very vague on the amount of items....sorry.

Italian stuffed chicken
4 chicken breasts
1 12oz tub ricotta chees
About a handful of shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 package sliced fresh mushrooms (I only used half the package for the chicken)
1 medium sized onion
1 packet Parmesan crusted shake n bake.
1 teaspoon olive oil

Saute mushrooms and onions in olive oil.
Mix ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan cheese in bowl. Add sauteed mushroom/onion mixture.
Split chicken breast and stuff with cheese mixture.
Coat with shake n bake
Bake on 400* for 20-30 minutes until chicken is cooked thoroughly.

I hope you enjoy :)

Wish I'd had a Margarita too.

Well Mr. B and I decided we need to get healthy. And in order to do that we need to drastically change our eating habits. So I've been on the search for some healthy inexpensive meals. Then I remembered a favorite dish of mine, that is some what healthy.

So I ran to the store after PT and picked up all my ingredients, $30* later and I'm headed home.

*I also purchased things other than tonight's dinner. Tonight's meal was around $16.
Wondering what were having? Why Salsa Chicken with Black beans and Spanish rice of course. I purchased reduced fat, no fat, or organic products and the whole meal comes in under 600 calories.

The chicken was put in a pan with just the salsa, no oil or anything. I usually make my own spanish rice but went the easy route and bought a box mix instead. Also I bought a can of refried black beans, not as low cal as just regular black beans would have been. But we like our beans refried, lol.

I served the chicken over romaine lettuce. I take 1 serving of reduced fat shredded cheese and sprinkle over the whole meal, I also top my beans with pico de gallo. We also have 1/2 a serving of baked tortilla chips.

And ta da:Dinner is served! We enjoyed it and were very full after all of that food. As a bonus and because I made so much and turned 3 chicken breasts into 6 we have a ton of food left. I think it will be dinner tomorrow night as well, easy for me!

Friday Night Fun

I think of myself as a pretty good cook, but when I'm working I don't enjoy cooking so much. So we tend to get out a lot on the nights I work. But really, who wants to get out of work at 8pm, after working since 8am, and come home and cook dinner? I know I don't, that's why we eat out a lot, lol.

But since I am off on Medical leave right now I have found time to cook. So we've been eating at home a lot more. Which has to be much better for us health wise and financially.

Friday night is our usual "Big Night Out" meaning we go to an actual restaurant and not a drive thru. And sometimes a movie or just out with friends. Well since being on medical leave has put a little dent in our finances, and we have a surgery to pay for, we have been trying not to splurge so much.

We did go see a movie tonight: Zombieland. But we went to the Twilight showing so that for 2 tickets is was only $8.50 instead of the usual $9 a piece. Quite a savings, and I think we may start going to the twilight showing more often. It was a pretty funny movie, if you like zombies, which I do!

But I also decided we should eat at home. Like I said we usually go out to a niceer restaurant at least once a week. Well once you consider dinner for two, drinks, and tip we usually spend at least $50 or more. That's a lot, don't you think?

So while grocery shopping I picked up a couple of steaks. Here they are marinating before Mr. B grilled them. Those are some nice looking steaks at $5 and some change a piece, don't ya think? (Don't worry I'll give you the total of the day at the end of the post)
Now we usually have a vegetable and either mashed or baked potato with our steaks, but since I am making Potato soup tomorrow I decided to just do a double veg tonight. So we had sauteed Zucchini and Squash (each .99 cents a lb), one of Mr.B's favorites.
I always cook these together in a frying pan with 2 tablespoons of butter and Mrs.Dash Original Blend.
While I'm cooking the veggie's Mr. B is cooking the steaks on the grill. We finish up at the same time and dinner is served.
Doesn't that look delish? Our steaks were a little over cooked (bad thing about not being at a restaurant, you can't send it back, lol) because it was getting dark out and our outside light isn't working, so Mr. B had a hard time seeing our steaks. Usually we have dinner then a movie so it's lighter out, but since we went to the early show then stopped at the store afterwards we didn't get home till almost 8pm.

But it tasted wonderful, much better than a restaurant steak!

So, are you wondering how much our Friday night cost? Well let's see:

Tonight:

Twilight Movie
2 Tickets: $8.50
Snacks: $7.50
= $16.00

Dinner at Home
2 T-bones: $11.20
2 Zucchini: $2.97
2 Squash: $2.34
= $16.51

Total for night in: $32.51

A usual night out:

Evening Movie
2 Tickets: $18.00
Snacks: $7.50
= $25.50

Dinner Out (I'll use the dinner we had with my family last week at a place like Red Lobster)
2 Meals $37.98 (18.99 x2)
2 drinks $4.00 we just order pop/tea not an alcohol drink
Tax $3.00
Tip 20% $9.00
= $53.98

Total for night out: $79.48

That's a savings of $46.97! Wow, That's a lot! I didn't realize how much we were spending on a night out. I can't even imagine what our total would have been if we'd have each had a cocktail instead of pop and Iced tea. I think I will try to stick with the new Friday night more often.