Wednesday, February 27, 2008

WFMW: Dinner Time and the Working Mom

Good day to all you incredibly stressed, lacking in time mom and dads out there! (can you see me waving, try using your imagination if that isn't shot). So yes, here is another installment of Dinner Time and the Working Mom (parent). Its hard to take myself seriously posting these meal ideas up here because I mostly don't know what I'm doing....I tend to make a lot of things up in the kitchen, just throw this and that together.

For instance last Sunday I took a turkey ham (much cheaper and less fat then real ham) and stuck it in a casserole dish with some cut up carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, onion and about 3/4 cup of water. Stuck it in the oven for about an hour and look, quick easy and yummy! I added crescent rolls to this with some honey and the whole meal was complete.

That same day I did an all day simmer of Split Pea with Turkey Ham soup. This is SO easy to make, OMG. It's crazy how easy it is. I usually just buy some chicken stock if I don't have my own...and who am I kidding, when would I ever have my own?? Ok, I did once, but that was a fluke. So chicken broth works fine, I prefer the low sodium kind especially since I put Turkey Ham in the soup which is salty on its own. As you can see I also put carrots in it, but that is mostly because I think it's so pretty!
I just buy a BIG can of stock, pour it in with the peas and let it cook all day. I gage the soup periodically adding water if I think it seems too thick, a sprinkle of Thyme and I understand Bay Leaf (2) adds to the soup nicely. And, for you hot nuts out there- a couple dashes of your favorite hot sauce actually really adds something nice to the flavor. When I had this for lunch I used someones green garlic hot sauce and it really gave it a nice slight kick with added flavor. Just something to think about.

Also last week I made Lasagna, which Boogs absolutely LOVES. He eats more servings than his daddy on nights I serve this.

When I make this I usually just grab a big tub of cottage cheese-24 oz (small curd), throw in a cup of Mozzarella cheese, one egg and blend well. But today to try to get a little extra veggies in the boys I added Spinach. Yum Yum Give ME SOME! Mix that thawed/fresh or whatever kind of spinach in and you're halfway there.
I'd also recommend that you start browning your meat then put the white concoction together. You don't have to use ground beef, you can use soy crumbles (mimics ground beef), ground turkey or no meat at all. I used meat. Layer that on Oven Ready Lasagna (dude, you don't even have to cook the noodles! How easy is that?) and throw in the oven for about 45-60 min.

Here you see my little helper pretending to assist me. He LOVES to cook even though he doesn't get to help out much. This day I gave him some spices with lids on and he spent a good 5 minutes pretending to shake various this or that on top. I'm certain he's destined to be a great famous Chef! Watch out Iron Chef, here comes my Boogs!!
And here is the finished product. Of course the cheese on top isn't that even, but what do you expect with a 2 year old helping. I made this meal directly after dinner last Wednesday night and let it cook while JimmyEW and I snuggled. Now I had Thursday's meal and lunches for Friday!

In our last installment Charissa suggested the much loved Breakf
ast for Dinner. This meal is especially popular with JimmyEatWorld since he would eat Breakfast for every meal if he could. However I've had much issue getting Kiki to eat eggs. He always refuses, tells me he doesn't like them and turns his little snotty cute nose up. Well you know what? Daycare Daddy told me he eats eggs over there so in front of Kiki I asked Daycare Daddy how he makes his eggs and when I made these I told Kiki I was following Daycare Daddy's instructions. Which I wasn't lol. But Kiki did eat them :)

I just mixed about 5 eggs with some soy milk and stirred rapidly (what would that be called? Whip? Whisk? I haven't had Home Ec since 7th grade). I added some Tastefully Simple Spinach and Herb Spice, a little salt, a little pepper, chopped onion, some chopped Turkey Kielbasa and shredded cheddar cheese and VIOLA! An egg concoction Kiki will eat!

Trying to be healthy I instructed JimmyEW to purchase Turkey Kielbasa (which I prefer anyway having grown up in the Cult with the "You will die and go to hell so don't touch that OREO" rule). So JimmyEW agreed however he managed to sneak in what he called "real pork sausage" so his unclean meat juices got all over my turkey. Poor turkey. Good thing I'm not in the cult or I wouldn't have been able to touch that meat.


mmmm....sizzle sizzle....
This is me smiling dorkily blissfully in my apparently unstylish character T-shirt as I make JimmyEW his pate. I usually get all their food together while he gets their drinks.
This is JimmyEW's plate (notice the Pig). I also added the amazing Apple Cinnamon pancakes I talked about last issue. This time, thanks to JimmyEW's prodding, I added much more apple. These truly are DE-LISH!


"Well Sassy, thanks for all this help with dinner but what do I do for lunch? And can I mention I'm tired of listening to myself get fatter?" Glad you asked, me too! So this is what I'm doing for lunches this week.

First, I know I have issues getting all my fruits and veggies so I decided if I can't eat them then why not drink them? This V8 Fusion is a full serving of fruits AND veggies PLUS its light. And I have to say, it's good. At least the Peach Mango is good, and this may be the only flavor that comes in light, not sure. "But Sassy, I can't drink my lunch. I need substance. What do I do?"
Well, so do I. This is what I did. I took two tortilla shells heated for 15 seconds so their soft, spread each with a table spoon of hummus. I have Garlic and Chive which I don't like much (I bought it by accident). Notice the Carl Buddig lunch meat...I have NO idea who this guy is so it skeezed me out a bit. I asked JimmyEW if he was a football player or something, he just looked at me like I was weird.I took two tortilla shells heated for 15 seconds so their soft, spread each with a table spoon of hummus. I crumbled cauliflower on top of the hummus, stuck in some lettuce and a few slices of turkey. Doesn't that look yummy? Two of them equal 1 serving and was about 190 calories and 9 grams of fat depending on how much meat you use. Not bad, add a cup of Split Pea soup and you can eat just one and save the other for the next day.

Now that I've given you some good food ideas for dinnertime meals, someone help me out with some quick easy diet versions of foods you love for lunch. I can do lunch time and the working...person :)

AND NOW for someone who actually knows what they're doing, go visit Jen at A2eatandwrite for What's Cooking Wednesday! And go check out more Works for Me Wednesday tips at Rocks in My Dryer!

15 comments:

Sister Honey Bunch/Judi maloney said...

Mmmmm, sausage.

I haven't even had breakfast.

I love your kids.

Kelli said...

I love V8 fusion. There are other flavors that come in light. :)

Ashlee said...

I use Turkey Kielbasa and ground turkey and turkey ham.....all the turkey versions of meats. There's not really a noticeable difference, and it's so much better when you're trying to eat light. :0) They even make Turkey Burger patties...you know, the preformed ones. So, when I go to BBQs at friends houses, I take my own little patty and have them cook that up for me. There's a difference of 23 grams of fat!
Your lasagna looks so yummy!
Lunch at my house is always just a turkey and cheese melt on the old George Foreman. :0) I buy the 97% fat free turkey or chicken breast and fat free cheese. I know it sounds gross....fat free cheese...but the preslice stuff isn't bad. The shredded stuff doesn't melt, so don't bother with it unless you want a good sprinkling of cheese on your salad, but don't want the added fat from it. I've done the roll ups too, but never with hummus...that sounds yummy..I might have to give that a go.
I just finished my March menu last night. Grocery shopping today..not my favorite.

Anonymous said...

One of my favorite easy meals is a variation on your hummus roll-ups, except I use a tortilla, hummus, red or yellow pepper, and a Boca burger.

I also like to cook a big batch of curry at the beginning of the week and use it for lunch--I take extra firm tofu and sautee it with garlic, red peppers, and spinach. Then I dump in a jar of store-bought yellow curry or coconut curry. Serve over brown rice, et voila!

Thanks for the easy dinner tips--I think I'm going to try your lasagna...

Madam Crunchypants said...

Okay, I just finished breakfast, and now I'm freaking STARVING again. NUMNUMNUM, I am totally coming to your house for breakfast for dinner.

I love turkey Kielbassa, and will buy it over pork pretty much whenever I can, but I'm a Kielbassa junkie. It's the only processed meat I'll go near. You would think that maybe there's some Polish in my family history, with the way I love it.

I'm now really curious about turkey ham too. I might need to look for it while grocery shopping on Friday.

Anonymous said...

I don't know about you guys who are working moms, but we get in the dinnertime rut a lot. It seems I end up cooking the same meals week after week, until I drag out the cook book and look for something different, but fast. I love casseroles and doing roasts on Sunday because then we are good for Monday.

I call myself the Miracle Chef - meaning its a miracle we eat.

Jen said...

Wow... you had bunches of recipes on there! And I didn't even have mine up today... boohoo! ;-(

Great ideas, though. Still debating what I'm putting up tomorrow (WCW on a Thursday)...

Jim Burke II said...

Classic Mama, good to know there is other light.

Jen- I was totally going to make Curry for this week too but with working I need to do it at night or on a sunday so I'm doing it this sunday. Thanks for reminding me!

Ash-do you have a good Turkey Burger recipe? Can you tell me what sort of ground turkey to get? I had TurkeyLoaf nightmare and now I"m afraid of it!

Thalias Child- Let me know how you like it. I also like Chicken/Turkey Hot dogs over beef and pork.

High Hopes- I need to learn more about roasts because I love the make sunday and eat a few times during the week options.

Jen-You should post your easiest most fall back meal that you make when you don't know what else to do. That'd be fun!

Anonymous said...

Ok, the above was actually me- oops! lol!

piper said...

Wow! I'm NOT worthy!

Anonymous said...

I make really good turkey meatloaf. A 20 oz package of lean ground turkey from Jennie O (on sale this week at Spartan Stores), a box of stove top (or any brand) stuffing, and half a can (or all, depends on your taste) of cranberry sauce. Mush it all together with some spices (no salt the stuffing mix has enough)and it comes out meatloaf. You can add pork sausage for spice too and to make a bigger meatloaf but it adds some fat. As for roast...get a working crock pot and you are set! I've never made lasagna I may be brave enough to try. You made it sound easy.

Anonymous said...

Jim

Everyone thinks that cooking roast is hard. It is the easiest thing I do during my whole week of cooking. I get a decent sized roast and season it with some salt and pepper, pop it in the oven at about 375 check it in an hour with a thermometer. I usually cook them for about 2 hrs. I always use a meat thermometer and cook it to Med rare. When you take it out let is rest for about 20 minutes, because it will continue to cook.

Sometimes I cook my veggies around it but more often than not I make mashed potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. Really it is easy peasy.

Anonymous said...

You rock hard Sassy! You are way to hard on yourself as a cook too. You make awesome meals. Who cares if sometimes it is really winging it? I don't, my stomach doesn't, and the kids don't either. Good job and for the record, all those meals tasted just as good as the look!

Anonymous said...

Hey Sassy

All good cooks wing it! You just had the best endorsement of all the hub. Its hare being creative 365 days a year.

Sister Sassy said...

THanks High Hopes :)