Onion Dip with Greek Yogurt (Use it/Lose it day 3)

So far, so good! We've got plenty of food and haven't had to get too creative. Here's what was on the menu for day three:

Breakfast: Blueberry Buttermilk Bread; vanilla yogurt with blueberries; milk


Lunch: Boiled Water; apple wedges with peanut butter


Dinner: Beef Stir Fry over Rice (used the flank steak from the freezer, the Meyer lemons (called them "oranges") in my produce bin, the Green Giant teriyaki vegetables from the freezer, some fresh broccoli, onions, soy sauce, ginger, and cornstarch to make this)


Snack: Onion Dip with cucumber slices and raw broccoli (recipe follows)

Onion Dip - 1 Points Plus value per serving
Serves 12

What You Need:

• 1 cup minced onion
• 2 cups plain low-fat Greek yogurt)
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup chopped chives
• salt and pepper to taste

How it's Done:

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Cover and chill overnight (or all day).
2. Serve with veggie sticks, crackers, bread cubes...whatever!

How to Host a Dinner Party

How to Host a Worry-Free Dinner Party

courtesy of All Home Cooking. All Year Long., Buitoni Riserva Pastas & Sauces, & FoodBuzz

1. Prepare. Invite guests. Plan a menu based on the number of guests, your chosen theme, and your time constraints. Be sure to choose an appropriate number of hot and cold appetizers, beverages, main courses and salads, and desserts. A theme makes this easier, as it gives you a place to start and keeps you on track throughout decorating, choosing menu items, and choosing music.
2. Be everywhere all at once. Be the cook, the server, the cleaning crew, and the enchanting, charming hostess. Stay clean, stay fresh, and stay on the ball. Remember, you're doing it all alone, but you must make it look easy!
3. Serve delicious foods right on time to a fawning crowd of appreciative diners.Keep smiling like it's effortless.

Before you throw your frying pan at my head, read on. Dinner parties can be home-prepared AND easy. Really! Thanks to Buitoni, I was able to single-handedly pull off a dinner for ten people without being frazzled, frustrated, and feeling left out of the fun. Here's how I did it:

I picked my theme. I knew my dinner would focus on Buitoni Riserva Pastas & Sauces, so I went for a charming, homey Italian dinner. I decorated in red and white and had Italian music playing softly in the background. I served on white plates.

I planned my menu. I chose a variety of foods I could either prepare ahead or that went together effortlessly minutes before serving. Here was my menu:

• A platter filled with marinated cherry peppers, kalamata olives, hot peppers, and bruschetta -- I bought the peppers and olives. The bruschetta I made from scratch. It took 15 minutes thanks to some prior planning and preparations.
• Toasted Buitoni Riserva Wild Mushroom Agnolotti: These took 15 minutes to fry.
• Pasta & Salad for the main course: I chose Buitoni Riserva Chicken 7 Four Cheese Ravioli with Alfredo Sauce, alongside the Spicy Beef & Sausage Ravioli with Marinara Sauce. I chose the Quattro Formaggi Agnolotti, with both sauces, for the vegetarians in my party. Keeping with the red & white theme, I served a stacked tomato-mozzarella salad drizzled with olive oil. The pairing was beautiful and delicious. Using prepared pastas and sauces makes a dinner party come together with simplicity and ease. Using prepared items doesn't have to mean sacrificing flavor, value, or quality. Buitoni pastas are high-quality, high-flavor, good value items. The ingredients lists contain all items I recognize and am comfortable serving. The pastas are stuffed to the gills with delicious fillings, allowing you to taste everything in them, unlike other ravioli products that have only a tiny bit of filling. The flavor combinations are unexpected, both simple and complex at the same time. A dance for your taste buds.
• For dessert, an assortment of classic yummies: cheesecake, tiramisu, cannoli, and strawberries with strawberry-pecan cream. Again, prior planning and preparations minimized kitchen time when I would rather be mingling with guests.

I served my guests. Since Buitoni did part of the work, and most of the rest was done ahead of time, I was free to have fun with my friends and family. Easy as a pizza pie. ;)

Thank you, Buitoni and FoodBuzz, for this unique opportunity. It was amazing.

Toasted Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti. Simple to make. Just dip them in egg, then Italian breadcrumbs. Fry in hot oil 3 minutes. Drain. Serve with Marinara Sauce. This was a favorite among guests. The agnolotti is absolutely stuffed with pieces of mushroom. The aroma is excellent and the flavor is mouth-watering. Perfect!

Appetizer platter with cherry peppers, hot peppers, olives, and bruschetta

These cute tomato dishes from Pier One made the perfect server for my Pesto Bruschetta. To make this appetizer, simply slice a baguette into 3/4" slices and toast under the broiler until crispy. Top with pesto (either homemade or prepared)m sliced, seeded tomato, and fresh mozzarella. Place back under the broiler for a minute or two to melt the cheese.

Want a salad that looks great, tastes great, and goes well with red & white pasta? Try this simple tomato stack. Simply slice a ruby red tomato. Alternate tomato, fresh mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil. Drizzle with olive oil and serve! It's eye-catching, fresh, and delicious, but simple enough so as to complement, not overpower, the main dish. Bonus points: It uses the same cheese as the appetizer, cutting your entertaining costs a little bit.

The main course. For our vegetarian guests, Quattro Formaggi Agnolotti in place of the Chicken & Four Cheese and Spicy Beef & Sausage Ravioli. Both groups were served this way, with red & white next to one another. It made a stunning presentation and was gobbled up quicker than I could snap pictures!

The pasta & salad together. A stunning presentation of red, white, and green, don't you think? The flavors worked wonders together. Simple red & white place mats and white cloth napkins kept the mood casual and inviting.

Strawberries & Cream. The cream is simply cream cheese, sugar, strawberries, and pecans blended together.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

A crust of rich chocolate on the tiramisu

Tiramisu. Yum!

*note: I was compensated for my efforts and provided with free Buitoni Riserva pastas and sauces. However, that in no way impacted my opinions, nor was I, at any time, told what to write. My opinions are genuine and completely my own.

Winging It

Day 165.

The Hubs got a nummy lunch yesterday. See, it's low carbing right now, so most of his meals are Hunk O' Meat and Raw Salad Vegetables or Egg with or without Meat, Cheese, and Veggies. BORING.

I surprised him with some chicken wings yesterday for lunch. They were really easy to make, low-cost, low-carb, and he loved them.

Chicken Wings
Amounts shown are for 18 wings

What You Need:

• chicken wings (rinsed and patted dry)
• oil for deep frying
• 1/2 cup hot sauce
• 1/2 cup butter

How it's Done:

1. This is so easy if you have a deep fryer. We just happened to score one for cheap at a yard sale a few weeks ago. Heat the oil to 375 degrees.
2. Cook wings for 14 minutes or until cooked through. They will be nice and crispy.
3. While the wings are cooking, combine melted butter and hot sauce in a large bowl.
4. As the wings finish cooking, drop them into the sauce. Stir them around in the sauce so that they get coated nicely.
5. Serve right away with blue cheese dressing and celery.

Aren't those little dishes cute? They're from Pier One. I found the whole set at a thrift shop for $9.00 :)

I'm Exhausted...

Day 86.

I'm so tired. I apologize for not posting anything yesterday. I intended to post a homemade fig newton recipe, but my in-laws arrived, announced that they couldn't eat my planned beef recipe, owing to being a Friday in Lent (not being Catholic, I do not observe the no meat on Fridays in Lent, so wasn't expecting it), and we went out to eat at Red Lobster instead. I do not like seafood. Or blackened chicken. Red Lobster has NO vegetarian options on their menu (except for a side salad). The non-seafood options are limited to blackened chicken and steak.

Anyway, I didn't get home until after 9 p.m. and didn't feel up to the task of creating homemade fig newtons. I'll make them sometime this week.

And all day today, allllllll day today, we were out shopping. I was out shopping with no money. I hate going shopping without money. And, I had a headache. And no headache medicine.

Then, I came home (around 4 this afternoon), took a couple Motrin and went upstairs to watch a couple episodes of Friends (the ones where Ross and Rachel finally become a thing). An hour later, I felt better, so I came back downstairs and made dinner for four adults and two children. I made, all from scratch, my sweet potato yeast rolls, chicken-fried steak, salad, mashed potatoes, and corn. Plus I made an appetizer (coming up later in this post). And then I served dinner.

And everyone got their food before me. Which is fine. That's what a good hostess does.

But there were no more forks or knives for me to use. So I had to wash a set for myself.

And the only gravy left was the sticky stuff that develops a skin at the bottom of the gravy boat.

And there were no chairs left to sit on. And no one thought to grab me one from another room. So I went and ate in the living room. Alone.

And no one said thank you. And no one complimented my cooking.

And no one has volunteered to put away the leftovers or do the dishes. Guess what I get to do after I finish typing this. While other people read, color, watch television, and play computer games.

What do you do when this happens at your house? It feels rather unappreciative. Mom, if you're reading this, I love you and I thank you for every single meal you ever cooked for me. And every dish you ever washed on my behalf.

 

Hot Onion Dip

What You Need:

• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup sour cream
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 2 large onions, peeled and diced

How it's Done:

1. Combine all ingredients. Pour into an ungreased 8" square baking dish. 
2. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. 
3. Serve hot with chips or crackers.  

Redemption

Day 65.

Here's another tip for saving money at the grocery store: Always check for mark-down shelves or carts. The produce department, the bakery, the deli, the meat department, and the grocery department are all good sources of marked-down merchandise. I allow for spontaneous purchases in these areas every month. Sometimes, I find nothing worth buying. Other times, I find a grocery gold mine. This month, I found lettuce, tomatoes, and mushrooms marked down in my produce department. For fourteen ounces of super stuffer mushrooms in perfect condition, I paid 90 cents.

Also, I had some gruyere cheese, half & half, and white wine that needed to be used up. So I made stuffed mushrooms.

And my husband redeemed himself by loving them.

Panko-Gruyere Stuffed Mushrooms
makes about 8 large mushrooms

Ingredients:

• 14 ounces (roughly 8) Super Stuffer mushrooms, cleaned and dried, stems chopped and reserved
• 2 Tbsp salted sweet cream butter plus 1 Tbsp for dotting tops
• 1/4 cup finely minced white onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup half & half or cream
• 1/4 lb. gruyere cheese, in small cubes
• 2 Tbsp dried parsley flakes
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
• extra salt and pepper for mushroom caps
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs

How it's Done:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly spray 8" square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Melt 2 Tbsp butter in a saute pan. Add mushrooms, onion, and garlic. Cook and stir until soft anf fragrant.
3. Add wine. When it stops hissing and the steam cloud goes away, stir in the half & half or cream. Cook and stir several minutes at a simmer.
4. Stir in cheese until it is all melted. Remove from heat.
5. Pour hot mixture into a mixing bowl. Add bread crumbs and stir thoroughly.
6. Lightly salt and pepper each mushroom cap, then fill them with the cooked stuffing. Place a dot of butter on each musroom.
7. Bake 20 minutes, until heated through. Serve warm.