Meatballs w/ Veggies, Roasted Butternut Squash and Broccoli

Recently we tried this recipe for Veggie and Herb Meatballs. I only used 1/2 pound of organic grass fed beef and to make up for some of the bulk, I added about 1/2 cup or so of brown rice (I had extra prepared rice on hand from another recipe earlier in the week). Otherwise I pretty much followed the recipe using zucchini and yellow squash for the veggies. And I used dried spices instead of fresh. These came together pretty quickly and tasted pretty darn good. 

Before I started on the meatballs, I had thrown some butternut squash in the oven. It takes about 40 minutes or so to roast butternut squash depending on the size of the pieces. I started out with the intention of following this recipe for Roasted Butternut Squash with Kale and Almond. I pretty much fell off my plan though bc I was getting distracted by the kids; so I just left it at, roasted butternut squash that had been tossed in olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and parsley! I just never finished it off w/ the kale or almond topping. Maybe another time! 

I also roasted some broccoli in the oven. I know "roasted" broccoli isn't exactly a traditional way to prepare it but we like it in our house. I just sprinkle on a little olive oil, salt and pepper and roast it for about 15-20 minutes. 

Might not seem so pretty but this is what the inside of the meatball looked like! 

Mexican Chicken Casserole

Last week I found this recipe on Pinterest for Cheesy Chicken Rice Bake which I have dubbed, Mexican Chicken Casserole. Please do yourself a favor and try this recipe! It was super easy to throw together and so, so tasty! All four of us really liked it. The flavors were amazing. I followed the recipe pretty closely and it made a huge amount. I could have cut it in half to feed my family of four and still had left overs; so this is perfect to feed quite a few people. Additionally, it would be really good as a dip for a party. I believe this will be coming with me to a football party this season! 

As for the recipe, I made the chicken and rice on Sunday so that I could easily throw this together after work one day. I added everything the recipe called for and I included olives bc they just sounded like a good addition to all the ingredients! While the rice helps the dish go longer by increasing the volume, I would say you could get away with a lot less. Next time I will probably only add 3 cups or less. And I will add more salsa and probably an extra can of green chiles. The flavors were amazing but the spice was lost on all of those ingredients. It didn't have any zing to it. So a little extra spice of some kind would be preferable. Otherwise...wow! Really, wow! I thought this was SO GOOD! 

See...it's really "ricey"! 

Lentil Mushroom Shepherd's Pie

A while back I tried a new recipe for Veggie Lentil Shepherd's Pie; see this post for info and link to to the original recipe. While I liked the way it came out, I immediately thought that it would have been better with regular potatoes as opposed to sweet. So I gave the recipe another shot last weekend substituting with gold potatoes. Either way it is a really good (and nutritious) dish but I'd say I much prefer the regular potato version. 

That's a lot of flavor! 

I left the skin on the potatoes (bc I like it like that). 

After baking; the liquid was oozing out from the bottom and the smell was incredible! 

May not look very impressive but it's super delicious! 

Apple Pie Pancakes

Sunday morning...I'm out of nearly everything and have no idea what to make my kids for breakfast. After spending a couple minutes on Pinterest I saw this post for Apple Pie Pancakes. I had everything I needed so I whipped up half a batch (it was just me and the kiddos that morning, Daddy was working). These were amazing! Repeat, amazing! 

Note-I added some nutmeg and chopped pecans to the mix. Yum! 

Steak, Kale, Cauliflower and Potatoes

Last Saturday my husband worked his behind off in our backyard so I wanted to make my hard working man a "hungry mans" meal! Meat and potatoes! I bought some grass fed steaks at Whole Foods and used this recipe for the garlic/soy marinade. I let the steaks sit in the marinade while I cleaned up dishes from earlier and got my kitchen ready for the sides. 

I started by quartering some red potatoes and then threw them on a parchment lined cookie sheet before drizzling w/ olive oil, salt, pepper and a generous amount of rosemary. I roasted these at 400 for about 30-40 minutes or so, tossing them every 15ish minutes so they didn't stick. 

After I got the potatoes in the oven, I rinsed and roughly chopped a head of cauliflower. I found a recipe for this a while back but now I just eyeball everything. Put the cauliflower pieces in a bowl and pour some olive oil, the juice of half a lemon (or more if you like strong lemon flavor), fresh sliced garlic, salt and pepper. Toss it all up and then throw it on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Roast at 400 for about 20 minutes or so, until the cauliflower is at least fork tender. Just watch it so it doesn't burn. 

Once the potatoes and cauliflower were about 10 minutes from being done, I threw one bunch of roughly chopped kale into a saucepan with some minced garlic and about a half cup of water. The kale barely fits into my largest saucepan but it steams and cooks down rather quickly, just like spinach. 

Finally I cooked the steaks on my griddle pan on the stove. On the rare occasion that we have steaks, my husband usually barbecues them but since he was working so hard in our backyard, I wasn't about to ask him to stop and bbq. 

This meal was a little bit time consuming from start to finish but it was well worth it! Husband was happy!

Zucchini Tots and Whole Wheat Biscuits

Last week I followed this recipe for Zucchini Tots. They were pretty quick and easy and came out really good. The only issue I had was removing them from the mini muffin pan. I used olive oil to "grease" my pan but it didn't seem to help one bit. These were really good served with ranch dressing. 

I also made some home Whole Wheat Biscuits following this recipe. They were ok. Theoretically they were just fine but they needed some flavor. Whole wheat flour is pretty dull so next time I will either had some seasonings and spices or maybe a splash of maple syrup to give the biscuits a sweeter bite. 

Zucchini prior to squeezing out the liquid. 

I made the biscuits a little too thin. This is before they baked and I wasn't sure how much they'd rise. Well now I know...roll out thicker biscuits! 

Sunday

I spent the better half of my Sunday in the kitchen prepping dinner and ingredients for more dinners later in the week. Pictured: brown rice cooking, potatoes boiling, lentils and veggies waiting to be thrown in a pot for Shepherd's Pie, beans soaking before being cooked in the slow cooker the next day and chicken breasts cooling after being baked.