April's Awesome Main Meals

[2sunshines]

Originally Posted by charla

Do you have a recipe to share for Cantonese noodles?

I was going to ask the same thing.

[schmamy]

Last night I made an old recipe for roast chicken with balsamic peaches--one of those that I've made once or twice in the past, but not for years, and needed to test out one more time to decide if it deserved its place in my recipe binder.

It didn't. It was OK, but DH and I felt very "meh" and both boys complained. Into the trash the recipe went. Next time I am hungry for "balsamic" and "chicken" I will make balsamic chicken stew.

Tonight is chili at DS2's preschool for a fundraiser, but I need to get a start on tomorrow night's lasagna soup.

[charla]

Schmamy, are you the one that makes vegetable soup fairly often? If so, do you have a recipe to share?

[serenityvee]

We had Thai green curry last night but it was a take away as I was ill and not up to cooking. Tonight we'll have salmon with a chilli sauce, Caesar salad with green beans and broccoli, and some brown basmati rice.

[schmamy]

Originally Posted by charla

Schmamy, are you the one that makes vegetable soup fairly often? If so, do you have a recipe to share?

Yeah, I do...I used to make a huge batch of it every couple of months for our church's Bible study outreach. Some friends pointed out to me recently that the way I do it is overly complicated though...

The way I do it is a two-day process. First day, I cook a chuck roast in the crockpot all day. Here's my confession: It's a Pepsi Pot Roast recipe. I cook almost entirely from scratch now, without cream-of-this soup and box-of-that...but you will pry this recipe out of my cold, dead hands. I can't help it, it's our favorite. That said, I don't *actually* use Pepsi (or any cola) anymore. The original recipe is:

1 chuck roast
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 package dry onion soup mix
1 can Pepsi

I typically replace the cola with 1 c water and 2 T maple syrup or 3 T sugar. You can also make your own dry onion soup mix, and your own cream of mushroom soup...I've done both, but when I'm cooking for the Bible study I just do not bother.

Because I have two large crockpots and because we really like vegetables cooked with our roast, I will often take one roast and split it into two crockpots and double the seasoning. You can't get enough potatoes, onions, carrots, a wedge of cabbage for DH *and* a whole roast easily into one crockpot. Plus then there's more of the good broth for soup base.

I do it this way because we really like to eat the pot roast. My family of four can eat roast + gravy, carrots, potatoes, and onions for one meal, and then there's still enough leftovers to make a huge pot of soup.

For the soup, it is all dependent on what you like or have on hand and how many crockpots/how big a pot you have I find it's one of those things where, by the time I put some of all the different things I want in it, I've got a HUGE batch of soup. But, it freezes well and is great for taking to a new mom, feeding a crowd, etc.

I cut up the meat and the vegetables from the roast and save all the broth + whatever gravy we made and didn't eat. You can scoop off the fat once it's hardened in the fridge if you want. Then add:

green beans
corn
peas
more onions/carrots as needed
diced tomatoes
cabbage, if you like it
potatoes if you want them (the ones you cooked with the roast will turn to mush if you cook them with soup all day)

Then I add enough low-sodium V8 to make it the consistency of a thick stew/soup.

So it's not exactly a recipe, per se...but we really love it and it always goes over well. Hope that helps

[LilacPhoenix]

Yesterday was chicken, rice, and green beans with Cajun seasonings.

[hollybells]

Tonight is Chicken Coq au Vin (wine optional ) in the crockpot with egg noodles, fresh steamed green beans and carrots with dill.

Tomorrow is Mummy-Jack day (not one of his JK days) so we'll be making homemade pizza, starting the dough in the bread machine early in the afternoon. He enjoys chopping things, spreading around sauce and sprinkling on seasoning and cheese with all the enthusiasm of his four years on the planet.

[LilacPhoenix]

I threw together a TexMex meal for today. Chicken breasts, rice, black beans, and leftover crushed tomatoes and olives. All together, seasoned with cumin, a little chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and Celtic sea salt and pepper.

[2sunshines]

Tonights dinner was sockeye salmon, roasted broccoli, mashed potatoes, salad, and orange slices.

[hollybells]

And the veggie steamer we've had since we were first married croaked tonight.

Oh the humanity.

[charla]

We had sausage and tomato risotto and Parmesan yellow squash.

[mamaKristin]

Chilli with LOTS of veggies.

[backtobasicsmum]

We're finally not in the deep of winter, so I'm bbq-ing as much as possible! Steaks, pork chops, chicken legs.

But today was rainy so we had tacos (salad style for me).

[2sunshines]

Originally Posted by hollybells

And the veggie steamer we've had since we were first married croaked tonight.

Oh the humanity.

Seriously. I feel for you. Ours randomly croaked a few months back and I was devastated! I use that thing so much! I replaced it with a $2 model from a thrift shop so it all worked out.

Originally Posted by backtobasicsmum

We're finally not in the deep of winter, so I'm bbq-ing as much as possible! Steaks, pork chops, chicken legs.

But today was rainy so we had tacos (salad style for me).

No fair. Here in Michigan we're expecting another winter storm today. I miss my grill. It looks so forlorn covered up on my freezing cold deck.

[LilacPhoenix]

Today I was on the go so I picked up something quick from the store - precooked chicken fajita meat + frozen rice + stick of butter.