Meal 62

Tonight's meal was inspired by a very scary moment I experienced this week.  Tony & I were sitting down at lunch & caught a few minutes of the Rachael Ray show while she was cooking.  She was making Adirondack Red Wing Burgers & the longer we watched the more engrossed Tony became in what she was doing....when she finally topped those burgers with blue cheese (His absolute FAVORITE!)...I saw a look in his eyes that scared me.  That look made me believe for a minute that if Rachael Ray suddenly became single...he might just leave me for her.... :)

Actually I looked over at him & said "She's married you know!"

So today, just two days later, I made those burgers & they are AMAZING!! They are a great combination of all the classic hot wing flavors on a bun.  As always, we added a spinach salad on the side & everyone was in heaven.  Here's the link:
 
http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/adirondack-red-wing-burgers/

62 meals completed!

Meal 61

Tonight's meal was amazing.  Tony marinated deer tenderloin all day, we sauteed it & added a fresh spinach salad with boiled farm eggs & olive oil brushed grilled french bread.

It was simple & perfect....61 meals complete.

Meal 60

A friend of mine recently attended a "Women of Joy" conference & brought me home a "Taste of Joy" cookbook....first of all - I LOVE gifts, so I was thrilled & secondly -  I thought it was full of thoughtfulness b/c she knows that I'm trying to cook these 300 meals!!  And tonight, that cookbook truly brought joy to our home with an amazing recipe. 

I think the recipe "Spinach Squares" is actually in the appetizer section of the book, but it turned into our main dish for the night & it was WONDERFUL! 
Here it goes:
1/2 stick margarine (I used butter as always)
1/2 onion, finely chopped (I used 2 large green onions out of our garden)
8 ounces fresh sliced mushrooms (I used a small can of mushrooms)
1/4 cup breadcrumbs (didn't have these either, so I substituted 1/4 cup polenta)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 teaspoon pepper, oregano, basil (I used fresh oregano & basil from our backporch)
2 (10 ounce) packages of chopped frozen spinach, thawed & drained (instead of frozen, we used fresh from our garden)

Saute butter with onions & mushrooms.  Combine rest of ingredients with onion & mushroom mixture.  Place in greased 9x13 inch baking dish.  Bake at 325 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.  Cut into squares.

We ate this with home-made yeast rolls & fresh green onions.  It was wonderful!!
60 meals down, 240 to go.

Meal 59

So I brought home extra spaghetti from last night's meal....and totally re-created it into something I hope will be wonderful for supper.  I guess you could call it "spasagna."  1 layer of spaghetti & meat sauce topped with two layers of cheese & I just kept building it that way.  I'm also in the process of baking those buttery yeast rolls that I discovered the recipe for the other day.  We are REALLY excited about those.  We'll probably add a spinach salad - if it stops raining long enough for us to go get some out of the garden.

Here's the math in a different way...this is the 114th day of 2010.  I've fixed 59 meals, so that means that there have been 55 days that I haven't cooked. I know that might not seem GREAT to many of you, but I'm thinking that's WAY more than I've done before, so I'm happy.

241 meals to go...and I've cooked over half of the days of this year already!
I am calling that success.

Meal 58

Our church's relay for life team served spaghetti last night at a church event, so that was meal 58 for us.  I made a double batch, stuffed it into a crockpot & that was it.  There was nothing spectacular about it - store bought spaghetti sauce & even regular old spaghetti.  But it was for a great cause & it was meal 58!!

Meal 57

I'm so excited about tonight's meal.  Not just because I fixed it, but b/c I think I'm finally getting comfortable & more confident in my cooking.  I'm finding that the food I'm preparing is getting simpler in many ways.

I sauteed some more chicken just as I did for our last meal.  Added to that are fresh spinach salads from our garden....topped very simply with grated queso fresca.

And, the big deal of the meal is some buttery yeast rolls that I made from scratch this afternoon.  Not only do they look wonderful, but they are wonderful. 

57 meals down....243 to go.

Meal 56

Last night I stopped at El Mazatlan (our local Mexican restaurant) & took home a cup of their wonderful white cheese dip.  At home I cut some boneless-skinless chicken breasts into very thin strips & even pounded them out even thinner.  Then I sauted them in some olive oil & sprinkled on some fajita seasoning.  I made rice quick by just boiling it with some tomato bouillon.  Then everyone (who ate in shifts) just piled their bowl with rice, chicken & cheese!! This meal got rave reviews from the diners.

56 meals down....244 to go!