He Didn’t Marry Me For My Cooking: Recipe Share #4

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m pretty inept in the kitchen.

Seriously, I once made a 4-layer birthday cake where I failed to remove the wax paper from in between each layer before baking it. It looked beautiful but I just couldn’t quite figure out why it was so terribly hard to cut!

That mystery got solved the moment my brother in-law started pulling wax paper from his mouth.  Oops!

So I have spent the past year looking for recipes that are not only fairly healthy, but ones that had the lowest risk of epic failure on my part.  I hate meal planning, so I’ve managed to find about 12-15 that we really like and we just keep a rotating menu of those same recipes.  This certainly helps with planning and definitely saves us time.

One of our newest additions is a White Chicken Enchilada Bake.  We have made this two or three times now and have yet to grow tired of it.  It’s pretty “low” in most categories and it’s extremely filling.  

As usual, we modify it for our personal preferences.  It calls for layers of tortillas between the inner mixture, however, we have found it easier to leave out the tortillas.  We put the mixture in a casserole dish and bake it.  The Beard chooses to dish his up and then tear up tortillas to mix in it.  I, on the other hand, leave them out entirely.  Totally up to you.  Added bonus?

It makes for yummy leftovers!

This is coming from someone who rarely eats anything after it was originally served.  

The icing on the cake…mmmm, I could go for some cake right now…is that The Princess and The Lordling like it too.  Anytime I can find a concoction that they will willingly eat along with us, is usually a winner in my book.  The less meals I have to attempt to create, the better.  For everyone.  Trust me.

ENJOY!

~Ashley~

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He Didn’t Marry Me For My Cooking: Recipe Share #3

When you have kids, it’s often tough to still make time for adult activities, like date night.  However, we are lucky in the fact that my mom is usually willing to hangout with The Princess and The Lordling whenever we need her too.  So when The Beard get’s to spend time with his “special lady friend” we often eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Taco Lucha.

Side note: “Special lady friend” was my status until we got engaged I think, and still pops up from time to time.  So annoying.  I think that’s why it’s had such a long run.

You know what else is annoying?  Not being able to eat out whenever you want without having to suffer the physical consequences!  However, it is what it is.  So I was really excited to stumble upon this recipe for Clean Eating Oven Baked Fajitas   I love it because I THINK I’m eating my favorite tacos from my favorite restaurant but at no where near the the calories, fat, sodium, etc.

As always, this dish is really easy to assemble and can be customized to your liking.  For example, sometimes I don’t bother using a shell and just eat the meat in a bowl and I always add avocado.  Another reason this gets the thumbs up is that our kids will eat it too.  It’s not too spicy and it’s good for them.  Just ask The Lordling.  He shovels it in!

So if need a quick-to- fix dinner that will impress your “special lady friend” or if you are her and want to impress your mate, try this one out!

~Ashley~

Tip:  In order to view the recipe, you will have to register for its hosting site. It will ask you for a $5.00 donation to support the site but even if you can only donate $0.00, it will allow you to register.

He Didn’t Marry Me For My Cooking: Recipe Share #2

One of The Beard’s go-to responses when I do something dumb or have an epic fail at seemingly simple tasks, is

“It’s a good thing you’re pretty!”  Which is usually accompanied by a head-shake, grin and a kiss.

I admit, I’m no Bobby Flay in the kitchen, nor do I want to be.  However, I do feel quite accomplished when I find recipes that are fairly quick and easy to assemble, use mostly healthy ingredients and actually taste good.  If by some miracle I’m able to cook it myself (instead of having Nana, my mother, do it) and the house is still standing with no one having to go to the ER, then that my friends is just the cherry on top!

It’s always scary pressing our luck with a new recipe, because what if it sucks?  I’m not usually a girl with a back up plan in the kitchen.  It’s a one shot deal.  So while The Beard will eat just about anything, because he doesn’t like to see food go to waste, I on the other hand have no problem dumping loads of the mushy mess of what was supposed to be dinner into the trash.  I then proceed to sulk at my disappointing attempt and say I’m just not going to eat and will “find something” for the rest of them.

The Beard will then tell me that I have to eat and would I like him to run and pick something up, to which I say no, that would be dumb.

Of course I don’t really mean it, but I’m not done sulking yet.  Ultimately, though, that’s exactly what occurs.  He is a good man, but let’s just keep that on the “DL.”

Fortunately, we had a winner two nights ago with One-Pan Chicken Burrito Bowls and therefore no dramatic scene needed to play out.    Even the kids liked it!  Well, the Lordling will chow down on almost anything so he was in from the start, but the Princess took just a bit more convincing, but eventually came around.   The Beard says “like mother like daughter.”  I don’t know what he’s talking about.

In the end, it was really filling and we had plenty leftover for lunches.

I will certainly be adding this rookie into the starting line-up!

Enjoy!

~Ashley~