Week 6

Mystery Ingredients:  Pickles and Granola Bars

This week I made Dill Pickle Meatloaf and Apple Granola Salad.  When I selected meatloaf, I was a bit concerned that this might be the week I fail at the challenge.  But, it was the only recipe I could find that incorporated pickles into an entrée rather than just a garnish or sauce.  I have made meatloaf once in my married life as Mike and I don't really care for it, but I decided to take a risk.  Plus, the recipe had good reviews.  I debated how to use the granola bars.  I was pretty sure I was going to smash them up into granola but it took me a few days to figure out what to do with the granola.  A parfait seemed too easy.  I wanted to use them in a side dish.  So, after much searching online, I found the recipe for this salad.

I started the meatloaf at 3:00 in the afternoon.  No, it did not take that long to prepare or bake, but  distractions are constant in my house.  For example, about 15 minutes after I started working on the meatloaf, Jake was begging to get out the Lego trains and build a train track.  So, that is what we did.

Back to the meatloaf.  It was really quite simple to prepare.  I mixed up the ingredients for the meatloaf (used all ground beef instead of half ground beef and half ground pork as the recipe specified) and placed it in the fridge until it was time to bake it.  I also mixed up all the sauce ingredients and placed them in the fridge.  I bet you are wondering how dill pickles were used?  In the meatloaf mixture, I used 1/2 cup of dill pickle juice and in the sauce mixture I used 1/2 cup of finely chopped dill pickles.  It took over an hour to bake and during that entire time our house smelled so good.  Here's the finished meatloaf.

Not the best picture.  I should have placed the meatloaf on a plate first before snapping this picture.  But, it was getting late and Mike and the kids were hungry and patience was dwindling.

While the meatloaf was cooking, Benjamin made the apple granola salad.  He has been looking forward to using the meat mallet to smash granola bars all week.  We started with a box of crunchy granola bars.

Benjamin placed two granola bars (one package) in a plastic bag, sealed the bag, and started smashing.  He got a little carried away at first and smashed one up a little too fine.  I intervened and explained that we wanted them to look like granola and not flour.  He did great after that.

He added raisins to the granola pieces and then it was time to shred a couple of apples.  Shredding apples sounds easy, but he found it wasn't nearly as easy as it looked.  But, he persevered and successfully grated two apples.

I gently mixed the granola pieces, raisins, and shredded apple together to create this lovely looking salad.

We were finally ready to eat.  The house smelled great and everyone was hungry (since it was almost 7pm).  I also made some bacon and cheddar mashed potatoes to round out the meal.  This was definitely a comfort food meal.   Yum!

Guess what...the meatloaf was GOOD!  Actually, really good.  The most amazing thing about this meal was that Jake liked the meatloaf.  He asked for seconds!!!  Jake doesn't eat very much and he refused to try the potatoes and salad, but he ate the meatloaf.  Yippee!!  Everyone liked the meatloaf, but Benjamin didn't care for the sauce.  Benjamin and Jonathan loved the apple granola salad.  I think Benjamin ate about half of it by himself.  There was no leftover salad.  All the recipes were keepers (even the potatoes which were also a new recipe).  So, another success.  Melissa: 6, Mike: 0.  For a variation on this meal, I might make the meatloaf into individual sized patties and serve them as hamburgers next time.

Next week's mystery ingredients:  Corned Beef Brisket and Grapefruit.  Seriously.  I have never eaten, nor have cared to eat, corned beef.  It's almost always served with sauerkraut, which I do not like.  The smell alone will send me into another room.  Mike knows this, which is probably why he chose this ingredient.  Ugh!  I bought a grapefruit several years ago for the boys to sample.  They hated it.  So, I really have my work cut out for me this week.  I need to make a meal that the boys will eat.  I have selected my recipes and think I have a good chance of pulling off another successful meal.  I'm most excited about the recipe I selected for the grapefruit.

Week 5

Mystery Ingredients:  Hot Dogs and Kit Kats

"You never cease to amaze me."  This is an exact quote from Mike after he ate this week's Chopped meal.  He really thought he was going to stump me when he selected hot dogs as one of the mystery ingredients.  Obviously, after 14 years of marriage he doesn't know me that well yet.

This week I made Hot Dog Pizza and Kit Kat Cheesecake.  I decided that I could turn hot dogs into Italian sausages.  After all, Italian sausages are just processed meat with spices added.  So, that was my plan.  I could tell Mike was dreading my pizza all week long.  Every time I mentioned it, he got this look of dread on his face.  But, I reminded him that if he chose an ingredient, he had to eat the meal I prepared with it.  So, there was no backing out of this one.  Plus, I was confident I would succeed.

However, I first started with the cheesecake.  After baking and cooling, it needed to be refrigerated for at least 3 hours.  So, I made it around mid-afternoon.  It was super, super easy.  Cheesecakes can be very intimidating, especially after you see all the selections at Cheesecake Factory.  But, you can make a simple cheesecake that is still super yummy.  I've made big, elaborate cheesecakes before and they are just too big for my family.  After all, the boys have never even had cheesecake so if they didn't like it then it would be up to Mike and I to eat it all.  And, neither one of us needs that responsibility.  So, I opted for this smaller cheesecake using a prepared graham cracker crust.  The original recipe specified toffee bars.  So, I substituted Kit Kats.

Can you believe these are the only ingredients I needed for the cheesecake?  So, if you are feeling like cheesecake but don't want to go to a lot of work, I'd highly recommend this recipe (click on "Kit Kat Cheesecake" above to follow a link to the recipe).  Seriously, so easy.  The only change I made to the recipe was that I did not put Kit Kats on top of the cheesecake.  I was afraid they might melt in the oven and I didn't have enough.  The cheesecake was perfect without the Kit Kats on top.

After a few hours, it was time to start the pizza.  I make my own sauce and dough, but before I started that I wanted to make my hot dog sausages.  Once made, I was just going to let them sit in the fridge until I needed them.  I first cut up 6 of the 8 hot dogs in the package and tried to cut them on a slant.

Now, it was time to transform them.  I sautéed half of the cut-up hot dogs at a time with olive oil, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder and fennel seed.  They smelled so good!

Benjamin's contribution to this meal was taste-testing my sausages.  We had our Chopped meal on  Monday night this week instead of Sunday and Benjamin had a lot of homework and baseball practice.  So, I was without my sous chef.  He loved the sausages and gave them a thumbs-up.  They were very tasty.

As I mentioned, I make my own dough and sauce.  I use recipes that Jonathan received from a cooking birthday party.  Both recipes are super, super easy and delicious.  The sauce is by far better than any pizza sauce you can buy in a store.  Here are the ingredients that I use for the sauce.

I usually have all of these items in my pantry and when you add up the cost, it is super inexpensive.  You just mix everything together and you have pizza sauce.  It was now time to assemble the pizza.  Here's what a hot dog pizza looks like.

Looks like sausage, doesn't it?  However, we like lots of toppings on our pizza.  So, I added diced pepperoni and on half of the pizza I also added diced green pepper and onion.  After about 20 minutes in the oven, we had pizza.

Now was the time of truth.  Does hot dog pizza actually taste good.  YES, very much so!!  Now, if I had just sliced up the hot dogs and added it to the pizza it probably wouldn't have tasted very good.  But, transforming the hot dogs into Italian sausages was definitely the key for success.  As for the cheesecake - yum!!  The boys aren't big cheesecake fans we discovered.  Benjamin ate the graham cracker crust and picked out the pieces of Kit Kats.  Jake had a few bites, and Jonathan asked if I could make it without cream cheese next time.  However, Mike is a huge fan of cheesecake and thought it was delectable.  Another Chopped home run!!!

Next week's mystery ingredients:  Pickles and Crunchy Granola Bars.  Sounds terrible, right?  Well, I found an entrée recipe that uses pickles and has received great reviews so I'm optimistic once again.  Mike seems to think I need less than a week to plan and prepare the meal. He's suggested that he pick the ingredients on Sunday morning that I have to use for a meal that evening.  I might soon be up to that challenge.

Week 4

Mystery Ingredients:  Mango and String Cheese

Our Chopped meal was a night late this week.  Mike and I were in California enjoying a nice kid-free vacation and we didn't return home until right before dinner on Sunday night.  I was definitely not up for preparing our special dinner so we pushed it off until Monday night.  It was funny how much Benjamin and Jonathan were looking forward to our Chopped meal on Monday.

This week I made Chipotle Tilapia Tacos with Mango-Cilantro Salsa and Mexican Cornbread.  The recipe for the tacos looked intimidating - lots of ingredients and what seemed like many steps.  But, I found it was quite manageable.  I just broke up the recipe and prepared most if it in advance of dinner.  I cut up and coated the tilapia and just put it in the fridge.  I was also able to make the salsa and aioli ahead of dinner and just put them in the fridge as well.  Doing all of this prep work in the middle of the afternoon while the older boys were still in school made dinnertime much more manageable.

The first thing I noticed about the recipe for the tacos was that it required 3 tablespoons of chipotle chili powder - yes, that is correct - 3 TABLESPOONS!!  Oh my, but I went ahead and made the recipe as it stated.  This is what the tilapia looked like with the chipotle coating.  There are a few other ingredients in the coating, but what you see is mainly chipotle chili powder.  I then placed the tilapia in the fridge and for the next few hours, until dinner, my fridge smelled of chipotle.

I next prepared the salsa.  It seemed like a lot of work considering the recipe only states that you should use a spoonful on each taco.  But, I love fresh salsa and this is where I incorporated the mango.

It really didn't have a whole lot of taste alone, but it did really add to the overall taste of the taco.  There definitely needed to be some fresh, mild flavors to balance out the heat from the chipotle chili powder.  It also looked quite pretty.

I then prepared the aioli, which is a fancy word from flavored mayo.  It was super simple.

After some outside time with the boys and a few loads of laundry, it was time to make the remainder of the meal.  I had to cook the fish, make Spanish rice (using a recipe from my rice cooker), simmer two cans of black beans, and make the Mexican cornbread.  I had a lot to do!  I made the rice first and just let the rice cooker do most of the work.  Easy.  Done.  I then made the cornbread.  I used a favorite cornbread recipe of mine and added three sticks of string cheese, diced, and 1/2 teaspoon of chipotle chili powder.  I could have added more of the chili powder, but I wanted to keep the flavor mild since I knew the tacos were packing some heat. The corn bread was very yummy!!

Now, it was time to cook the fish.  Once again, very easy.  I just had to cook it in a little olive oil on both sides for about 5 minutes each and it was done.

Benjamin wanted to help out a little.  But, since I did most of the work while he wasn't home (school and then some batting practice with Mike), I gave him the job of warming the tortillas.  He's done this before so no explanation by me was needed.  What this picture doesn't show is Mike coughing in the background as his eyes watered from the aroma of the chipotle chili powder!

At last, it was time to eat!!  The boys gave the meal a "thumbs-up", but then quickly went for their water glasses to cool off their burning mouths.

It was hot - very hot.  But, that didn't stop Mike and I from eating it.  We ended up scrapping most of the chipotle coating off of Jonathan's fish and Benjamin just stopped eating his fish about half-way through the taco.  They loved the corn bread, as did Jake.  Here's the finished meal.

While it was very hot, we all want to make it again.  I will likely cut the chipotle chili powder in the fish coating in half if not more and only lightly coat the fish in it.  Jonathan has requested no spices at all on his fish, which is typical.  But, the tacos were very good.  These are not your ordinary tacos and felt like something you would order in an upscale Mexican restaurant.  I have to share just one more picture, a close-up of the taco plating.  Chef Anne would be proud!!

Next week's mystery ingredients:  Hot Dogs and Kit Kats.  Well, I think Mike feels my ego is getting a little inflated due to the success of my Chopped meals.  So, he threw me a curve ball for next week with the selection of the hot dogs.  Seriously, how to you make hot dogs into a nice meal.  Ugh!!  I do have an idea, but I'm not sure I'm sold on it.  As for the Kit Kats, I think he just wants me to make dessert, which we usually don't have at dinner.  Should be an interesting meal!

Week 3

Mystery Ingredients:  Cheetos and Grapes

Mike thought he was going to challenge me by selecting Cheetos.  But, it was an easy challenge!!  After all, Cheetos are just crunchy cheese and there are so many ways to use crunchy cheese.  I made Cheetos Encrusted Pork Chops and Breakfast Fruit Salad.  Mike said my selection of the fruit salad as a way to utilize the grapes was a cop out.  Maybe it was, but it wasn't just a basic fruit salad.  The combination of fruits was something I have never done before and I made a nice lemon-orange sauce to drizzle over the salad.  Maybe I should have made grape jelly...  Oh well, the fruit salad was super yummy.  In addition, as a way to go above and beyond, I used the Cheetos in a second dish as well.  I made twice baked potatoes with crushed Cheetos on the top.

I made the twice baked potatoes in advance.  We were planning a family bike ride after Jake woke from his nap.  We weren't going to be getting back from the bike ride in enough time to make the potatoes right before dinner.  So, I just made them up in advance and put them in the fridge until we got home.

The pork chops were AMAZING!!  Seriously, we will have them again...and again...and again.  I adapted a recipe we've used many times for pork chops encrusted with crushed stuffing mix (aka, Stove Top).  They are good, but we'll be using my new Cheetos recipe from now on.

Staying true to my frugal nature, I used whatever pork chops I had in the freezer.  I had 4 thick boneless chops and one thin bone-in chop.  The first step was to crush the Cheetos.  Believe it or not, it actually took some time to crush the Cheetos to a finely ground state.  I just have a little chopper so it always left a few bigger pieces of Cheetos that I had to spoon out.

Once I had sufficient crushed Cheetos for both the pork chops and twice baked potatoes, I got everything ready for the breading process.  I've also discovered recently that coating meat with egg substitute is a whole lot easier (and less messy) than a beaten egg.  It's also healthier.  So, I used egg substitute instead of egg to bread the pork chops.

At about the same time as I took this picture, Benjamin came loudly inside from a trip to Sports Authority saying he was ready to help.  I gave him the job of breading the pork chops.  He actually did a pretty good job.  He only spilled a little of the egg/milk mixture.  However, since Jake is allergic to eggs in the raw state (or undercooked state), we had to stop the breading process to clean the counter, cabinet, and floor very well.  Overall, Benjamin did a great job and the pork chops all ended up nicely coated with Cheetos.

It was then time to put everything into the oven.  I added some crushed Cheetos to the top of the already prepared twice baked potatoes and put them and the pork chops in the oven.  I had a very orange oven.

The only problem I encountered was that the Cheetos on top of the twice baked potatoes browned very quickly - too quickly.  I had to cover the pan with foil so that the potatoes could get hot without the Cheetos topping burning.  It worked well and the potatoes were very good.

The salad was the last thing to make.  Once again, in Chef Anne style, I first got everything ready.

All I had to do was chop up the cantaloupe and apples, wash the grapes, and slice the banana.  Benjamin took care of the banana while I did everything else.  The topping consisted of lemon yogurt and orange juice concentrate.  Super easy and very tasty.

Finally, everything was ready!!!  I could not wait to taste the pork chops.  They looked a little funky given they were bright orange, but they sure smelled good.  Here's the finished meal.

As you can see, I finally stored away my snowman dishes and retrieved my non-winter dishes from the basement.  I think it worked as the snow is finally almost completely melted from my yard :)

For those of you brave enough to try the Cheetos encrusted pork chops, here's the recipe.  They are simply delectable.  I highly recommend them!!

4 to 5 pork chops (boneless or bone-in)
2 T. margarine, melted
1 beaten egg (or equivalent egg substitute)
2 T. milk
1/4 t. pepper
1 cup finely crushed Cheetos

1. Trim fat from the meat.  Brush the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish with the melted butter.  Combine the egg and milk in one bowl and place the crushed Cheetos in another bowl.  Dip pork chops in the egg mixture and then coat with crushed Cheetos.  Place in baking dish.

2.  Bake at 425 degrees for 10-20 minutes per side (depending on thickness of pork chop and whether it's boneless or bone-in).  Turn chops half-way through baking time and cook until no longer pink.  Enjoy!!

Another successful Chopped meal at the Shepard household.  

Next week's mystery ingredients:  Mango and String Cheese.  I've selected a rather labor/time intensive entrée which utilizes the mango so I pray that the weather is nice so that the boys can play outside while I cook.