Tomato basil fettuccinne

I was watching a cooking show and the challenge was to make a basic tomato basil pasta.  It's amazing all the ways you can make a "BASIC" recipe like that.  So I figured I'd give it a try.
I wanted to use fresh tomatoes, but they're horrid this time of year.  All green and tasteless and gross.  So I used a big can of petite diced tomatoes, put that into the pan, added some garlic, salt, pepper, lots of basil, cracked red pepper flakes, and a small bit of italian seasoning.  Then I cooked some fresh fettuccinne noodles, (I didn't have spaghetti or angel hair so I had to go with the thicker noodles).  I took them directly out of the boiling water when they were almost done and added them straight to the tomato mixture without rinsing them, (it makes the pasta sauce a bit more thick).  Then added fresh parmesan cheese.
I have a new favorite!  I'm going to play with it a bit, but I LOVE this recipe.  It's such a clean fresh flavor. Fresh Find....

Easy stir fry

I know, I do stir fry's all the time.  It's my way of making my kids think I'm a gourmet cook and getting them to eat lots of veggies.
This time I got his sauce called "Veri Veri Teriyaki" sauce, and let me tell you, it was DELICIOUS!  I got it from Walmart.  It was like $3.50 or something like that, but it just looked so good I couldn't pass it up.  Lots of sesame seeds, and I love those!  When I stir fried the noodles at the end, I also added some oyster sauce so the meal wasn't so bland this time.
I went a little overboard, it was a bit salty.
I also stir fried some eggs, like they put in fried rice.  Mmmm, and the kids can get some extra protein too cuz you can chop it up really fine so they don't know it's there.
Not that my kids care, they love eggs (crazy, cuz I hate them!  Ewwww.)
K, gotta get the kids on the bus.
Have a great supper tonight!  Remember, no night is too ordinary for not ordinary food.

Sausage Kale soup and Seafood Alfredo

AKA "Zuppa Tuscana", the most delicious soup I've ever made, hands down.

And seafood alfredo made with scallops and shrimp (we made chicken too for us seafood haters!)
The alfredo sauce was icky because the recipe calls for a little bit of cream cheese, so my chicken alfredo tasted like sauteed chicken bagels with cream cheese.

I've decided the cream cheese is not my favorite in there.

But overall the meal was delish!
I'm going to be making that soup again FOR SURE.  And it's easy too!

Andoulle sausage and cheesy potato soup

We got these sausages, which are actually quite delicous.  Sweet with a hint of spice.  So I sauteed them in a pan.  Meanwhile, made a box of au gratin potatoes.  Then added the sausage to the potatoes, added some milk, chicken broth, paprika, chives, and garlic powder.  I thickened it with some cornstarch/cold water mixture.  Then put some butter in the bottom of a pan, let it melt, and added seasoned bread crumbs.  Popped those under the broiler to crisp up, and added those ontop of the soup.

SO good!  But SO salty.  I gotta figure out a way to make it less spicy next time.  Maybe less chicken broth and more milk.
Super good though.  The chives were great, they complimented the cheesy potatoes so good.  And Mike loved the bread crumbs ontop!

Whiskey Chili

Super easy meal tonight.  We've been gone for a long time visiting family all over the place.  So I pulled out the ground turkey.  I think it's pretty ishy tasting usually, but works good in things like chili cuz you can't taste it then, and it has more of a hard texture than beef.  So I cooked that up, added onions and olive oil, then added a big ol' glug of whiskey.
Let that cook off, add tomato sauce, black beans, and cannelini beans, and some dried mushrooms.  Salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, spanish paprika, cumin, and italian seasoning.  Oh yeah, and I put some moroccan seasoning too.  It's got this sweet smokey flavor.
We put, of course, cheddar cheese and sour cream in it, and ate it with fritos.

I skipped the chocolate this time.  Last time I made chili I had WAY too many flavors, so I opted for a more clean flavor this time.
Make it, guys, tell me what you think....

venison roll ups

I'm not going to be home tonight, so I'm making venison roll ups for the kids and Mike.  Let's see...I'm making it up as  I sit here and type.  I'm putting venison in the crockpot, number 1, with some worcestershire, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and red wine.  Maybe a touch of horsey sauce.  Thyme.  That sounds good.  And I'm going to let that cook all day so when hubby gets home he can shred it and put it in tortillas, melt cheese over the top of it, add lettuce and tomato.  There it is.  My feeble attempt at a meal while I'm in mourning all over again...  I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Steak Paninis

Who ever said that sandwiches weren't for supper?  Not me....
So I sliced up some sirloin tip steak really thin and cooked that in olive oil until medium.
Then mixed up sour cream, horseradish, applesauce, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper.
In a seperate bowl, I put chopped parsley, minced onion, chili powder, garlic, and lemon pepper seasoning and mixed that up.
So for the sandwiches, I put olive oil on the english muffin bread and put that on the griddle.  I spread the sour cream sauce on the bread and added the meat, the parsley mixture, chopped romaine, sharp cheddar cheese, and then slathered on some more of that sauce on the opposite side of the sandwich and grilled the whole sandwich like a grilled cheese.

The flavors were SO good!  Mike didn't like the horseradish, but I thought it was delish!  Just the right amount, it wasn't too overpowering.  Very mild.  And the lemon pepper and parsley just brought out a bright flavor in the sandwich.
We had applesauce with supper.  Sandwiches and applesauce.  What can I say, I'm not too domestic today.  Off I go to brush the onions out of my mouth and clean my house up a bit.

Thank you everyone for reading, by the way.  It makes my meals so much more exciting to cook.