Come N' Get It

We had some pretty good dinners this week--
since I am working only part-Part-time for awhile
I've had more time to think about meals n' such.

This week I took requests and made them:

Stuffed Pork Chops (Mr W)
Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (Nana)
Hawaiian Haystacks (Me)
Shrimp Fettucine Alfredo (Boofus, Dani, and Nana)

Two nights were Taco Bell (tortilla with cheese, meat and vegetables in some form or other)
Papa Murphy's Pizza.(Hawaiian pizza, Cheese pizza and Veggie Calzone)

Here are the recipes I used:

Stuffed Pork Chops


Easy Stuffed Cabbage Rolls:
Preheat Oven to 375o
Head of Cabbage
ground meat (turkey, chicken, beef or pork will all work)
2 cups of rice
Spaghetti sauce
Italian Cheese (provolone, mozzarella, whatever)
Salt & Pepper


Get the Rice boiling. (2c rice to 4c of water)
Cut the core out of the Cabbage.
Place in Steamer and cook until outer leaf is soft, almost transparent.
While that's steaming,
brown ground meat, season to taste, drain off fat.


When the cabbage is done,
rinse with cold water in the sink, drain.
Gently peel off the number of leaves you want for the rolls.
Then, shred or cut up about 2 cups of cabbage leaves.


When the rice is finished,
Add meat, cabbage to it in a big bowl.
Now you have a choice:
You can add the spaghetti sauce to the mix right then,
OR
You can pour the spaghetti sauce over the rolls once they're 
ready to go in the oven.
We do a little of both.
Half in, half over.
Okay, 
so to make the rolls,
take a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the rice mixture
and plop in the center of a cabbage leaf,
then roll it with the natural curve of the leaf.
Place it in the pan, open side Up.
Repeat.
Sprinkle Cheese over top.
Bake for about an hour, until leaves are tender.


*****


Hawaiian Haystacks 


3-4 lbs of Cooked Chicken, cubed or shredded
2 jars of chicken gravy (I've also heard cream of chicken soup works too)
2 c Rice (throw that on to cook first)


Add Ons:
shredded cheese
chunk pineapple
water chestnuts
chopped up celery
crunchy chow mein noodles
slivered almonds
chopped green onions or red onion, chopped
Bell pepper in any color!


So you make the rice,
put some chicken on top
then stand back and let every one top it 
with whatever they want,
however they want.


Easy Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo


Bag o' Shrimp, cooked or uncooked, you decide.
2-3 Jars of Alfredo sauce ( we like Newman's Own or Bertolli's--whichever is on Sale)
Box of Fettuccine or Linguine noodles 
Parmesan Cheese
Seasonings like garlic salt, salt and pepper


So look at that, basically 3 ingredients. Love it.
Get the water going for the noodles.
Dump the sauce into a large enough pan that will hold the shrimp too.
If you have time, let the shrimp thaw and drain off the water
before adding them to the sauce.  It'll thin out if you don't.
Once the shrimp are drained and you can even pat them dry,
add them to the sauce.
Cook the noodles how you like them, drain.
And serve like you would spaghetti!
Top off with parmesan cheese, serve with garlic bread and a salad.


****


Dinner time is my favorite part of the day.
Yes, it's noisy and busy and everyone's hungry--
but the conversations around the table are worth 
the planning and prep time.
Most days.
Some days, it stinks on ice too.
Afterschool is a busy time for anyone who has yahoos--
which is why our Mutual night was Taco Bell
and the one night I worked and ran errands was Papa Murphy's.
Which is fine by my standards.
The important thing is we ate together.


Gotta keep your eye on the ball.
What about your week?
Any great recipes you wanna share?