Garlic Eggplant Pasta Dish

Well, chalk this up to another good recipe I managed to throw together! I admit, as I was sifting through my refrigerator, I had my doubts. I wondered what the kids would think of it, and I wondered if it would be good.

SCORE on both counts! Yay!

This was so easy. And it’s good for you: eggplant, artichokes, olive oil, marinated garlic, marinated black olives, a little basil, OOOO LALA! Eat this healthy stuff, and I’ll bet your term life ins rates will lower! I used all this stuff from leftovers in my fridge (food too expensive to throw to the dog). The garlic and olives I got from the deli at my grocery store.

Here it is:

Garlic Eggplant Pasta Dish

1 small eggplant, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup artichoke hearts, sliced into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup marinated garlic cloves, sliced in half
1/4 cup marinated black olives, sliced in half
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 cup olive oil
prepared spaghetti sauce (I used a big can of Prego)
1 pound ground beef, cooked and drained
pasta (rigatoni or rotini are perfect)

Start the water boiling for your pasta. In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil. Throw in the eggplant and allow to soften. Don’t let it get mushy, though! Toss in the artichokes and basil, and heat up. Toss in the garlic and olives. Keep the mixture moving in the saucepan so that nothing gets browned.

Cook the pasta. Heat the ground beef and sauce.

Serve!

I placed everything in separate dishes (eggplant mixture, pasta, ground beef, and sauce) for the picky eaters. But everyone ate it all. It’s delicious!

Like Grandma’s Chicken Dumplings?

A recipe titled “Like Grandma’s Chicken Dumplings” is a loaded one, for me. My grandmother never cooked (not that I remember; she was always busy shifting through mounds of paperwork, perhaps life insurance rates and retirement benefits?). But seemed to always serve Campbell’s tomato soup and tuna fish sandwiches. It was fine with me, because I loved tomato soup and disliked Chicken Dumplings. Yuk.

Buuuut…. I couldn’t let my kids grow up without once trying Chicken Dumplings, now could I? What kind of mother would I be?! So I found a recipe that made it easy. I can’t say it’s very tasty… they liked it OK, but I didn’t care for it. It is certainly palatable, but I don’t like cream sauces… and this had more sauce then chicken. The original recipe is at Disney Family Food (a new recipe website I’ve discovered). I altered it a little. Here’s what I did.

Like Grandma’s Chicken and Dumplings

Ingredients
2 cups cooked chicken
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
2 soup cans water
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 can refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (8 biscuits)

Directions
1. Mix all ingredients, except biscuits, in 4 1/2-quart CROCK-POT® slow cooker.
2. Cut biscuits into quarters and gently stir into mixture. Cover; cook on LOW 4 to 6 hours.

Tip
Don’t add water to the CROCK-POT® slow cooker, unless the recipe specifically says to do so. Foods don’t lose as much moisture during slow cooking as they can during conventional cooking, so follow the recipe guidelines for best results.

OK, I doubled the recipe. The “2 cans” soup water made for a LOT of water. I did it anyway….

Looks… interesting….

It was just too watery. So I added potatoes. And carrots. All the Chicken and Dumpling recipes I ever saw had potatoes and carrots. This was turning more into a Chicken Stew…. but I wasn’t going to eat canned cream of chicken soup and chicken cubes! It just didn’t seem enough. Adding the potatoes probably diluted a little of the saltiness from the “bouillon” granules (I used Ramen packets). So more salt is necessary.

End result?

Not TOO bad. I skipped the refrigerated biscuits and served fresh rolls instead. The kids liked dipping the rolls into the soup. And the chicken was marvelously tender and moist. But the overall taste….. eh. OK. It’s always the creamy sauce stuff that I don’t care for.

So this was an OK recipe. I don’t intend to make it again, unless the kids beg me. And they probably won’t. The WILL beg me for Tortellini with Edamame and Kielbasa, which I am going to make again.

Wow Chow Pork and Beans Bake

I am blessed by four children who love to eat beans. I can’t believe it! I HATED beans as a kid. Beans are incredibly nutritious, and incredibly cheap! So I’m implementing them more in our diet. I’d like to have it so that we eventually have a bean dish of some sort two or three times a week, rather than once every other week. Served with rice, beans are a complete protein- perfect for children’s growing bodies and for maintaining a healthy heart. Beans and rice, yum! Better than the best prenatal vitamins you can buy!

My recipe makes use of budget meat, packaged dried beans (although you could use canned), and bulk rice. It’s a very budget-friendly meal. I nabbed up a large package of Southern Style pork ribs at my local supermarket– they have them on sale for $1 a pound! The dried beans cost me $1.20, and the rice (5 cups) probably cost me around .50 because I buy my rice in bulk. So for feeding six adult-sized portions, this meal cost me about $5.70 to put on the table. And we still had leftovers, after that. I did add a salad, which raised the price of my meal, but you could add something like apples and oatmeal mixed together, or sliced fresh peaches, and that would drive the cost down. This is also a recipe that keeps well, so you could make two casseroles and serve one of them later in the week.

Here’s a quick and easy (what else?) recipe that’s perfect for a chilly winter’s day. This would probably be a great meal in the summer, too!

Wow Chow Pork and Beans Bake
serves 6-8

2 Tablespoons olive oil
3-4 pounds Southern Style pork ribs (bones removed and fat trimmed, cut up into large cubes)
1 bag dried black beans boiled/prepared to package instructions (or 3 12oz cans, drained)
1 small can tomato soup (save the can, you’ll need it to measure water)
1 tablespoon Adobo seasoning
Minced garlic (according to your liking)

In a large skillet, heat up the oil and sear the meat. Add the Adobo seasoning and cook a little longer. Once the meat is almost completely cooked, place the pieces into a large casserole dish. Pour in any remaining juices from the skillet.

Open the tomato soup can and pour all over the meat. Fill up the can twice with water, and pour it in the casserole.
Take your boiled beans and pour them on top. Add the minced garlic. Chop in the beans just a little, to mix with the liquid.
Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour; then, turn your oven down to 325 and bake for 3 more hours.
The house will smell GREAT.

Serve with rice and green salad or a fruit salad.

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