Catalina Chicken Stir-Fry

Catalina Chicken Stir-Fry


3/4 cup Catalina dressing (Kraft)

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 clove fresh garlic, minced

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed

1 (16 oz.) pkg. frozen mixed Oriental Vegetables

Cooked rice

In a wok or fry pan, sauté garlic in a little of the dressing. Add rest of dressing, soy sauce, and chicken. Cook 5 minutes. Add vegetables. Cover. Simmer 5-7 minutes until vegetables are crisp tender. Serve hot over cooked rice.

This recipe was very easy to make. The rice took the longest to cook so we started that first while I cubed the chicken. I put in more garlic than the recipe called for because we really like garlic. I also just used a mixed vegetables consisting of peas, corn, carrots and green beans because that was what we had in the freezer. There was a lot of sauce which was a big plus for my husband because he loves to have some sort of sauce over his rice. We enjoyed this meal. I wouldn't call it one of my favorites but since it was easy to make and tasted good, I would make it again.

Hamburgers and Hot Dogs

Tonight for dinner we had hamburgers, hot dogs and grilled zucchini and yellow squash. For the hamburgers, we buy ground beef and make our own patties. It's a lot cheaper and they taste better too! For the zucchini and squash, we just sprinkled them with olive oil, salt and pepper. It was a simple and delicious dinner!

Grilled Vegetable Pasta

Grilled Vegetable Pasta

Ingredients
4 tomatoes, cut into 1-inch slices
1 onion, cut into slices
1 zucchini, cut in half lengthwise
1 yellow squash, cut in half lengthwise
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
8 ounces penne, cooked
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Preparation
Toss together first 8 ingredients in a large bowl.
Grill vegetables, covered with grill lid, over medium-high heat (350° to 400°), turning occasionally, 6 minutes or until they are tender.
Cut zucchini and squash halves into thin slices, and place in a large bowl. Add remaining grilled vegetables, pasta, and basil, tossing gently; sprinkle with cheese.

We really enjoyed this pasta dish. I chose not to grill the tomatoes. I like them better not cooked. We also didn't have basil so we left that out. The zucchini, yellow squash and onions were delicious. We liked all the different flavors of the vegetables with the pasta and will definitely make this again. We served the pasta salad with a grilled steak.

Grilled Steak

Grilled Steak

1 top round london broil

olive oil

adobo

pepper

salt

First, sprinkle olive oil onto steak. Then, sprinkle adobo, salt and pepper to taste. Cook to your liking.

We love a grilled steak! A steak doesn't need more than the above ingredients to have a nice flavor.

Grilled Pork Chops Marinade

Grilled Pork Chops Marinade
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon oregano

1/2 cup olive oil
3/8 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

pepper
3 pork chops

Combine all ingredients and pour over pork chops. Marinate overnight. Grill!

We have been using our grill every night this week for dinner. We decided to grill pork chops and marinate them. My husband really likes a teryaki flavor so he enjoyed this marinade. I thought it was a little too salty (and I really like salt). We're going to experiment with other spices for pork chops. We served the pork chops with rice and corn. (We love rice and could eat it everyday!)

Meatloaf

Meatloaf
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
2 eggs
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion

1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce

Combine beef, bread crumbs, eggs, salt, pepper, and 1/3 cup tomato sauce. In shallow baking pan shape into loaf. Bake at 375* for 1 hr. Pour off excess fat. Pour remaining sauce over loaf. Bake 15 minutes more.

The meatloaf was really tasty. I'm not a big fan of meatloaf but I wanted something different from what we usually make with ground beef. It was really easy to make and only took about 5 minutes prep time. We had the meatloaf with baked potatoes and corn.


I found this recipe on http://www.supercook.com/. It's a really neat website that allows you to put in all the ingredients you have and it finds recipes that incorporate those ingredients.

Crispy Parmesan-Ranch Chicken Breasts

Crispy Parmesan-Ranch Chicken Breasts

1 cup bread crumbs
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 (1 ounce) package hidden valley ranch dry ranch dressing mix
8 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup melted butter

Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Set oven to 350 degrees F. In a shallow dish mix together the bread crumbs with Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, black pepper and dry ranch dressing mix. Place the melted butter in a shallow dish. Coat the chicken breasts in the melted butter, then roll into the bread crumb mixture. Place in prepared baking dish. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Broil for a few minutes to get them a little crispier.

We really enjoyed the Crispy Parmesan-Ranch Chicken Breasts. I did cut the recipe in half since we weren't going to eat 8 chicken breast between two adults and one 20 month old. The only thing I didn't cut in half was the packet of ranch dry dressing mix. The chicken took longer than 30 minutes to cook, although the pieces were kinda thick. We liked the flavor of it better than if you just bread the chicken with the bread crumbs and bake it. We ate the chicken with white rice, peas and the No-Knead Rolls.

I found the recipe on the Babycenter boards, in the group Cooking for Your Family. There are a lot of good recipes floating around that board that I'm going to try!