<p>^^^I had an hors d’oeuvres that was seemed to use crescent rolls with spinach and melted cheese. It was served warm. I tried to duplicate it at home without the exact recipe and it was pretty bad. Does anyone have a good recipe for something similar.</p>
<p>Shiitake Mushrooms :)</p>
<p>Shiitake…aha! I was spelling it wrong! :D</p>
<p>I like to cook and bake from scratch as often as I can. Usually buy large pack of chicken breasts, clean and wash them and then put 2-3 breasts in ziplock bags with either italian dressing or balsamic vinegarette and place them in freezer. Then during week can either saute/stir fry them with vegetables add pasta or grill them. Also bread them so that I can either make chicken parmesan or slice over salad.
Trader Joe is my sous chef. He makes a lot of things possible in my kitchen as well.
We also do "make your own pizzas with the whole wheat pizza shells with left over meat and vegetables.
Crock pot on occasion for chicken and dumplings, and tomatoe sauce and meatballs and chili.
My D is a vegeterian and an easy, quick dinner is a very large potato in microwave, then top with shredded cheese and broccoli or anything else like chili, sauce and meatballs. Good for leftovers.</p>
<p>I can’t live without Trader Joes. I told my h that one of the requirements of our next move is that we locate near one…otherwise I’ll go into withdrawal.
Also, love my crock pot in the winter. When I want something really easy, I just stick boneless chicken breasts in the pot and cover them with TJs marinara sauce.
Serve over pasta with a sprinkling of parm chesse…a snap</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>LOL. Mine too. Great for side dishes, particularly the mushroom risotto. I’ve also tried the frozen potato chunks that make very good last-minute mashed potatoes. Alas, I’ve got one son who loves potatoes, while the other hates them and H and I are trying to avoid the carbs — these frozen sides really work for us.</p>
<p>This isn’t particularly quick but it’s extremely easy, very cheap and surprisingly yummy. Kids love this.</p>
<p>Take chicken drumsticks, dip them into melted butter and then roll them in a dish of instant potato flakes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and some crushed garlic. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about an hour. </p>
<p>The only bad thing is that you need to leave the skin on the drumsticks for them to stay moist, and if you take the skin off before you eat the chicken (to save on fat and calories), you lose that crispy potato crust!</p>
<p>Now why would anybody remove chicken skin? :)</p>
<p>Well…I’m really disappointed we don’t have a Trader Joe’s within 60 miles. </p>
<p>:(
They built one near our last house but it was after we moved.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in traditional recipes simplified I recommend Mark Bittman’s books. *The Best Recipes in the World *and How to Cook Everything.</p>
<p>Time to ask this…
Soozviet - how do I make the green grin face?
Tried several things and can’t figure it out…</p>
<p>milkandsugar - we are not vegetarians but are making a very conscious effort to eat less meat. OK - I am making the effort 
Would you like to share any other recipes? I am not a big fun of cheese …</p>
<p>Now that it is summer, it is so easy to just throw something on the grill. If I can remember, I will marinade it all day. London broil, salmon, chicken legs, chicken breasts, are all quickies. Slicing zuccinni or other veggies and putting them in alum foil drizzling first with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and then putting them on the grill makes the quick side dish with a frozen loaf of bread ( I keep ciabatta, garlic and other good breads in the freezer, throw them in a 450 degree oven for just a few minutes which gets them piping hot). Sometimes I’ll chop a head of lettuce and throw some other veggies like cucumber, green onions, tomato, etc together for a salad. When the grill won’t do, I’ll pick up a rotisserie chicken from Costco. I do a lot of my shopping at Costco. Now we are just 4 which is going to mean a lot of adjustment in cooking style, going down from 9+ when we had the older boys home and both mothers along with the boys’ friends. Tonight I was pressed for time so I picked up fresh fettucine spinich pasta at a little Italian shop along with a pint of cream sauce. We had a quick fettucine alfredo with a bag of salad and sliced nectarines with vanilla icecream for desert. Our last quickie dinner was teriyaki meatballs (Costco again) heated with snow peas in a light soy, ginger sauce and served over rice. I like to buy those big pork loins at Costco, cut them into thirds, freeze two thirds of the meat, make a roast out of one third. Leftovers become pork curry (with frozen stew veggies and curry sauce served over rice), ginger pork over rice or thin slices of pork over asian noodles and with dipping sauce, ginger, green onions. One of my kids’ fave dishes is very thinly sliced round steak (I get it from an Asian shop but you can ask butcher to thin slice eye round roast as if you want to make a cheese steak sub, cooked with garlic, teriyaki sauce served over rice with a side dish of steamed broccoli with sesame seed and lemon. I also make German rouladen with the thin sliced beef that my kids really like.</p>
<p>I will be checking out our Trader Joe’s more. We were Costco people with the quantities I needed to buy.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Green grin is a colon and a capital D 
Here’s a whole list…
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/misc.php?do=showsmilies[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/misc.php?do=showsmilies</a></p>
<p>Oh for goodness sakes, I thought green grin face was a recipe and was going back through the posts to see what it was!</p>
<p>cptofthehouse^^^ LOL</p>
<p>Milk and sugar–do you have Costco? Our Costco sells chicken breasts in pre-packaged (2 per package) freezer bags–i LOVE it–they are even perforated, so you can take just a couple or a few depending on what you need for a dinner. I used to bring the bulk packs home and separate them all into freezer bags–and now don’t have to do it!</p>
<p>All right, how are you all getting those faces? I went to the list, but I can’t make a face. : (</p>
<p>mathmom, I’ve discovered Mark Bittman, too. I have his “How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.” That’s where I got the recipe for the salad with orange slices that I posted before. He has a page of salads with various combinations of fruit, nuts, and cheese. I love the way he does variations on a theme.</p>
<p>Fast, healthy quiche: Make a “crust” by mixing cooked brown rice, an egg, and parmesan cheese. Press into pie pan. Fill with your choice of vegetables, pour over eggs mixed with ricotta cheese, sprinkle with parmesan and bake. The brown rice disappears - no one will be sure what the crust is.</p>
<p>missypie…no Trader Joe’s here either. </p>
<p>My D has it in NYC though. </p>
<p>Here we just have the local market.</p>