Sweet-and-Sour Pork (Southern Living 1981)

 

I think 1981 must have been  a big year for Sweet-and-Sour Pork. There has been a Sweet-and-Sour Pork recipe in pretty much every month. I made this one in February. It was a hit, so when Chery suggested that I try this one again in May, I thought it would be a no brainer winner. 

WRONG!

J-Boy ate this like he was being poisoned. Junior and The Hubs loved it. I thought...meh. I liked the other one better. Although I did like the addition of pineapple in this one, the sauce of the other one was more sweet and sour to me. This one was a bit more salty. The Hubs liked this one better. Junior didn't specify, but ate it well. 

I did not change much for this recipe. I browned the meat in olive oil instead of vegetable oil. I skipped the onion and went a bit less than 1/4 cup on the sugar. The rest was according to directions!

Here's the sauce getting in the mix. Notice the swirly swirls of soy sauce. The sauce smelled pretty much like soy sauce, although it tasted much better. The pineapple juice added a nice depth of flavor and sweetness.

The sauce all mixed up was a lovely brown color.

I chopped up one bell pepper. I love they way they smell. The boys love all the seediness of the inside. I'm not sure why, but every single time I cut one up, I have an audience of two and they comment on the seeds. Maybe the seeds are a surprise to them?

The meat bubbling up nicely. I must have taken this picture before I added the water or after I took some out. I ended up pouring some of the water out before adding the sauce. I didn't want a repeat of the takes a million years to thicken episode of the prior sweet-and-sour pork. 

Right before serving it looked great! Smelled great too. The peppers were still very crisp (which The Hubs LOVES...crisp veggies...not necessarily just crisp peppers.)

 

In my bowl! 

 Yum-o!

~Audry 

Chicken Tetrazzini (Southern Living, 1980)

This was an Audry pick.  So, I guess that I will say thanks to my little sis.  It was really good.  I mean, not earth shattering good, but definitely a winner in our household.  According to Chris, we may even make it again, even with the gluten free corn pasta noodles!

Chicken Tetrazzini
7 ozs Gluten Free corn spaghetti, cooked
2 chicken breasts,(spiced to taste) cooked and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tbls margarine
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup milk
1 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

Cook onions in melted margarine.  Once translucent, add corn starch.  Slowly add milk, lemon juice, and remaining ingredients.  Combine cooked spaghetti and cooked chicken with sauce.  Garnish with paprika (gotta love the 80's).  Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. 

I'm not going to lie, this one was tough.  I had a tough time converting the recipe from the MICROWAVE instructions (again with the microwave!!) and then I just seemed to accumulate dishes.  

I hate having so many dishes in the kitchen.  That being said, it was a good dish - there just seems to be a better way to do this one than the way I did.  Oh, well.  It was good and we both enjoyed it.

  Next time, I will attempt to streamline the dish consumption and maybe add peppers of some kind?  It kind of needed a kick.

Until next time,
Chery

Zesty Barbecued Chicken (Southern Living, 1980)

This was actually a VERY easy weeknight meal for us... and one that the hubs picked out.  It was a default choice, but he was still pretty happy with the results.

Other than NOT cooking this in the microwave, I left everything else the same for the most part.  I just don't understand cooking chicken in the microwave.  Re-phrase that, I don't think I WANT to understand cooking chicken in the microwave!

Zesty Barbecued Chicken
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped red pepper
2/3 cup bbq sauce
1 tbls brown sugar
1 tbls red wine vinegar
boneless, skinless chicken breast

Combine first 5 ingredients and chicken in a bag.  Marinate for 1 hour (or even overnight).  Cook at 350 for 40 minutes. 

There was plenty of "topping" to put on top of the chicken.  The flavor was really good - and we got some added veggies with the peppers in the marinade.  The extra sauce was really good - and would have been excellent over rice, but, alas, we had cauliflower instead.

Until next time,

Chery

Peanut Butter Muffins (Southern Living, 1980)

I have had a lover affair with peanut butter since I was little.  It is one of those perfect foods to me.  I adore everything about it.  I have grown-up from the wonderful sugar filled peanut butter of my childhood and now use only natural, but I still eat it just about every day.  Yum.  So, when these muffins made an appearance in my 1980 Southern Living, I knew I was going to want to try these.

I really didn't change TOO much...

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Bread
2 cups Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Mix
2 tbls brown sugar
1/3 cup Natural Creamy peanut butter
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/3 cup applesauce
1 tbls butter, melted

Just everything up in the same bowl at the same time. I did and it turned out fine.  Pour in loaf pan.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

To go along with my love affair with peanut butter, I have a new love - All Natural Cafe Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Mix.  

I stumbled upon this while grocery shopping and since it was cheap, I thought, why not?  I'm so glad I put it in my shopping cart!  You can't tell a difference!  No kidding, it doesn't have any other flavor than flour.  Craziness!  I made this peanut butter for a weekend at the beach with friends.  Everyone thought the muffins were good - even though they were gluten free!  I think it was the baking mix.

It wasn't peanut butter-y enough for me.  Very mild peanut butter flavor, but that may be good for some people who aren't as obsessed with peanut butter as I am....  (I won't hold judgement or think you're strange, promise). Unfortunately, because I did this to take out of town, I forgot to take a picture.  Oh, well.  It was a brown-ish bread.

Until next time,
Chery

Broccoli-Rice Casserole (Southern Living 1981)

This recipe came from Lindy's suggestion. She's really trying very hard to help my family branch out in our veggie eating ability. Thanks sis!

Buying the "jar process cheese spread" was fun. The boys were like...what's cheese wiz?? I assured them they'd like it. I think the would...plain, or minus the veggies.

I swapped cream of mushroom soup for cream of something else. I have a mushroom aversion. I think I used cream of broccoli. I also opted for a carrot/califlower/broccoli mix instead of straight broccoli. This was for two main reasons: 1. I couldn't find the 10oz chopped broccoli, and 2. Too much broccoli for mama equals a gassier baby. Y'all. It is how it is. I learned that about Baby Girl in week 2.

An almost action shot. Making the brown rice.

After the rice cooked, I mixed in the rest. On my cookbook. Counter space is at a premium in this kitchen.

Mixture ready for the baking pan.

There is nothing about this that looks appetizing. I cannot blame it all on my lack of photography skills.

This was a terrible. I kept asking The Hubs...what can I do? How can I save it? This is the pits. It was a bit better when I added extra rice. But...Junior said he liked it.

He.

Said.

He.

Liked.

It.

I think he was lying. I think it might have had something to do with the mini-lecture The Hubs had delivered during the Hot Chicken Supreme Fiasco. Something about, "your-mom-works-hard-to-make-dinner-for-you-and-there-are-kids-starving-all-over-the-world."

We'll never know, though, because I won't be making this again. Both The Hubs and I agreed it would have been much much better if the veggies had been alone. Sans cheese wiz and condensed soup.

  ~Audry

Audry - Menu Plan 5/4/2014

I've missed a few weeks (I think) on menu planning...I've been planning. But not menu planning. Planning an upcoming trip! Hooray! That's a much more fun planning in my book. 

My apologies if my menu planning posts are few and far between until the trip. I'm trying to use up our freezer stash while making more freezer stash. 

Rotating the stock, so to speak.


On to the plan!

Monday - Cinco de Mayo, y'all! We'll have a Mexican themed meal. J-Boy asked for enchiladas, but I think I'll pull the old Enchilada-Burrito-Switcheroo because I like flour tortillas better than corn. I'll use enchilada sauce and I think he'll be none the wiser. I think he likes flour better anyway...
Tuesday - BBQ Chicken Bake (an assignment from Chery)
Wednesday - Sweet and Sour Pork (another assignment from Chery)
Thursday - Cheesy Pizza Meatloaf (another assignment from Chery! It's the week of Chery! Congrats, sis!)
Friday - leftovers...or one of the things I didn't make in the week...or something from the freezer (remember...stock rotation?)

Have a great week, y'all!

~Audry

Macaroni-and-Cheese Deluxe (Southern Living 1979)

I didn't think I was going to get this mac and cheese dish into the menu plan the week of the 13th, but we did - and the kids loved it.  I used about 3.5 cups rotini pasta instead of an 8-ounce box of elbow macaroni because I had rotini in the house.

I also decided I wanted for us to try it, because it would use cottage cheese, and I had made a mistake in my purchase choice for cottage cheese.  It was on sale, but I failed to recognize that it had no salt added.  I'm not sure if that was the problem, but we really didn't like it with fruit.  I thought, though, that it would work in a recipe or two, and it did!  I really don't like throwing away recently purchased food if I can help it.

Macaroni-and-Cheese Deluxe (Southern Living 1979)
3.5 cups whole grain rotini pasta
2 cups low-fat, small curd cottage cheese
1 cup light sour cream
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 t salt
Dash pepper
1-1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375F.
Cook pasta according to package directions; drain.
Combine cottage cheese, sour cream, egg, salt, and pepper in a large bowl.  Stir in Cheddar cheese.  Add macaroni; stir well.
Pour into well-sprayed 9-inch baking pan.  Cook for approximately 30 minutes at 375F.

Lindy