If you’re looking for a unique, frugal and delicious vegetable side dish for Thanksgiving – let me recommend you make Roasted Root Veggies with Thyme, Marjoram and Vinaigrette. Every single time we’ve served this it’s been a HUGE hit.  In fact, it’s become a staple in our Thanksgiving line-up!

Roasted Root Vegetables with Herbs and Balsamic Vinegar

 

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Author: Heather

Recipe type: Vegetables

Ingredients

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray (or use olive oil in a sprayer)
• 9 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 Tbsp plus 1½ tsp fresh thyme
• 1 Tbsp plus 1½ tsp fresh marjoram
• 2 pounds medium yams, peeled, halved lengthwise, then cut into 1¼ to 1½ inch pieces
• 1½ pounds carrots, peeled, cut into ¾″ rounds (about 4 cups)
• 1½ pounds parsnips, peeled, cut into ¾″ rounds (about 4 cups)
• 1½ pounds rutabagas, peeled, cut into ½″ pieces (about 4 cups)
• 2 medium size red onions, peeled, root ends left intact, cut into ½ inch thick wedges
• 3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 3 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tsp grated lemon peel
• Fresh parsley sprigs

Instructions

1. Before you get started, position one (1) rack in the top third of your oven and one (1) rack in the bottom third of the oven.
2. Preheat oven to 425.
3. Spray two (2) large rimmed baking sheets with nonstick spray (or brush or spray olive oil on it).
4. Whisk 6 Tbsp oil, 2 Tbsp thyme, 2 Tbsp marjoram in large bowl.
5. Add yams, carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, and onions and toss to coat. Sprinkle vegetables generously with salt and pepper and divide between prepared baking sheets. Roast vegetables until tender and brown in spots, turning occasionally, about 50 minutes.
6. Whisk balsamic vinegar, remaining 3 Tbsp oil, 1½ tsp thyme, and 1½ tsp marjoram to blend in small bowl. Drizzle over roasted vegetables. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and lemon peel. Season with more salt and pepper, if desired. Transfer to platter, garnish with parsley sprigs. Serve hot or room temperature.

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(Thanks, Tracy!)

What’s your favorite way to eat your veggies during the holidays?

I originally shared this recipe back in May of 2011 – and it’s still one of my favorite quinoa salads. My friend Monica made it at a playdate and it was the first time I’d ever had quinoa – I was instantly hooked.

If you’re a Costco shopper – you can get most all of these ingredients at a great price there. Trader Joe’s is another great option.

Quinoa, Arugula, and Balsamic Vinegar Salad

 

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Author: Heather

Recipe type: Salad

Ingredients

• Prepare 1 cup quinoa, then chill for an hour (make quinoa in a rice cooker!)
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
• ⅓ cup pistachios
• ⅓ cup dried cranberries
• 1½ packed cups arugula
• Add salt to taste

Instructions

1. Add more of what you like, less of what you don’t. I would recommend buying a good quality balsamic vinegar as it’s the primary flavor in your salad. You can substitute spinach if that’s your thing.

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Do you have a favorite soup or salad? 

Need an inexpensive, delicious, colorful, unique, easy-to-make salad? Here. You. Go. This Mandarin Chicken Salad is ALWAYS a hit, whenever I make it. I don’t wanna brag, but it’s true. I just made it for our family barbecue this past weekend and it didn’t disappoint, so I thought I’d share the recipe with you!

Mandarin Chicken Salad (amazing!)

 

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Author: Heather

Recipe type: Salad

Ingredients

Dressing

• 1 teaspoon finely chopped, peeled fresh gingerroot
• ⅓ cup rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
• ¼ cup orange juice
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 envelope Lipton® Recipe Secrets® Onion Soup Mix
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 garlic clove, pressed

Salad

• 8 ounces uncooked bow tie pasta
• ½ cucumber, scored, seeded and sliced
• ½ cup diced red bell pepper
• ½ cup coarsely chopped red onion
• 1 package (6 ounces) fresh baby spinach leaves
• 1 can (11 ounces) mandarin orange segments, drained
• 2 cups diced cooked chicken
• ½ cup sliced almonds, toasted

Instructions

1. First, make your dressing. Finely chop up your fresh ginger root, I like using a micro-planer (like a little grater) to get it super fine. Combine all the dressing ingredients – gingerroot, vinegar, orange juice, vegetable oil, sesame oil, soup mix, sugar and garlic (use garlic press to break it up or chip finely); whisk until well blended. Cover; refrigerate until ready to use.
2. For salad, slice up your chicken breasts into small cubes. Cook ’em up in a stir fry pan with a little olive oil. Or you can grill the whole breasts and slice ’em up afterward. Set aside.
3. Cook pasta according to package direction; drain and rinse under cold running water. Dump your cooled pasta into a big, pretty bowl.
4. Peel the cucumber, remove seeds and dice it up. Dice up bell peppers. I used orange and yellow bell peppers for my salad because my store didn’t have red ones (what?) but I think I actually prefer the color and taste so I might go with this in the future. Dice red onion finely. I left the red onion out the last time because my store was also out of red onion when I went to get ingredients. I also might leave it out in the future because the salad still tasted great and my husband doesn’t like onions.
5. Add cucumber, bell pepper, onion, spinach, mandarin oranges, chicken and almonds to pasta.
6. Pour your delicious dressing over salad; toss it up. Serve immediately. But I also think it tastes delicious the next day too.

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(Thanks, Pampered Chef!)

I’ve been remiss in posting recipes the last two weeks. I have a good reason – we had been back from New York for less than 15 hours when my hubby snapped his achilles tendon, then he had surgery and has been recovering. Between all that excitement and chasing after the kiddos I haven’t had time to take photos of the meals I’ve been making! It’s everything I can do just getting the meals on the table!

BUT things have gotten a little bit easier the last few days and I made a family favorite – it’s a broccoli, sausage stir fry, so I thought I’d share the recipe. I don’t really have a fancy name, that’s just what we call it. It’s random. It’s a variation of a recipe my mom makes. The kids seem to like it – so I keep making it!

Broccoli, Sausage, and Oregano Stir Fry

 

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Author: Heather

Recipe type: Dinner

Ingredients

• Broccoli – about a pound or two, washed/rinsed and cut to to manageable sizes. It’s been on sale for $0.99 cents a pound a lot lately.
• Package of sausage – I like Aidells. Look for it as a manager markdown and freeze it until you’re ready.
• Mushrooms – I prefer crimini because they taste meatier.
• Onion
• Parmesan or pecorino romano cheese
• Pasta – your choice, we like Wacky Mac or Ronzoni Garden Delight.
• Garlic
• Oregano – Buy in bulk at Winco or your local co-op
• Olive oil

Instructions

1. Get a pan of water boiling – to get your noodles cooking. You can pick the variety of noodles that you like best, but we like to use Wacky Mac or the new Ronzoni Garden pasta.
2. In another large saute pan (make sure it has a lid, for a later step), on medium high heat add a little olive oil and saute up diced onions. Once they start getting a little soft, add the sliced mushrooms. Saute.
3. Once onions and mushrooms are looking like they are browning, add minced garlic (a couple cloves?) and a bunch of fresh oregano. I’ve never measured. Add more if you like it, less if you don’t. Maybe a couple tablespoons.
4. Next slice up your sausages and add that to the mix. Cook it up until it it’s browned and heated thoroughly.
5. Wash and cut your broccoli and throw it in on top of all the other good stuff in the pan. Cover the saute pan and steam broccoli.
6. Watch broccoli, when it turns bright green and is steamed to your liking, add grated parmesan to the very top.
7. Then serve on top of cooked pasta!

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I use a food chopper and serve it up for the baby – she loves it! My son shows off his growing muscles from the broccoli (you can see them growing he says!). Then he helps feed his sister. Yes, they are still in pajamas at dinner time. Since daddy’s surgery we’ve been spending lots of quality time like this at home. Why bother getting dressed?

Hope you like it! I’d love to hear any variations you might have on this recipe.

I rarely EVER cook steak. It’s generally not in our budget and we aren’t huge red meat eaters, but we LOVE steak. Who doesn’t? So when Albertsons asked me to be part of their Albertsons Grilling Showdown (which requires cooking New York Steak) I got a little worried. But I agreed to do the Grilling Showdown, because it’s for a good cause and I started searching for some delicious recipes. I found this recipe and I like it so much I’m sharing it as today’s recipe – Grilled Thai New York Steak.

Grilled Thai New York Steak with Lime Sauce

 

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Author: Heather

Recipe type: Grilling

Ingredients

• Three (3) New York Strip Steaks, cut 1½ inches thick (I’m guessing you can use any cut of beef for this. For the tougher meats, just marinate longer.)

MARINADE

• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon hot chili oil (I used Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce)
• 10 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon McCormick Montreal Steak seasoning

LIME SAUCE

• 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• Cilantro sprigs for garnish

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, combine all marinade ingredients. Whisk until blended.
2. Put steaks into a sealable bag (like Ziploc). Add marinade. Seal bag and toss to distribute marinade. Marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.
3. While steaks are marinating combine your lime sauce ingredients in a small bowl: lime juice, soy sauce and brown sugar.
4. Get your grill started.
5. Remove steaks from marinade. Sear steaks over direct heat with the grill covered, four (4) minutes per side.
6. Then cook on a less intense heat until they are done to your liking. I always seem to overcook mine, but I don’t really like rare meat, so it’s okay with me.
7. Let meat rest for a few minutes after grilling
8. Slice steaks and put slices on serving plates. Top slices with lime sauce and cilantro sprigs.

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Let’s hope it’s a winning recipe tomorrow at the Albertsons Grilling Showdown!

(Recipe credit: Terry Gruggen)

I made this recipe on a whim last week and I loved it so much I think it will definitely end up in our meal rotation. Last December I found basil on clearance and I made a whole batch of pesto that I froze using my trusty FoodSaver.

I was down to my last package of pesto and it worked perfectly to jazz up the red potatoes that were hanging out in my pantry.

Pesto Red Potato Salad

 

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Author: Heather

Recipe type: Salads

Ingredients

• Pesto (homemade or store bought) – You can find my pesto recipe here.
• Red potatoes (or any tender potato that you have)
• Fresh parmesan reggiano
• Fresh pesto for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Dice up your potatoes to bite size pieces
2. Boil potatoes. Don’t cook them until they are mush, but a potato salad consistency. (You can boil with a couple whole garlic cloves if you like garlic. You can take them out when the potatoes are done or mash them up and add them in.)
3. Drain potatoes. While they are still warm, mix in your pesto.
4. Grate some parmesan on top and garnish with fresh basil if you like. I also added a little rock salt.

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I promote stockpiling and buying items when they are on super sale to avoid paying full price. By purchasing items ahead of time you avoid running to the store last minute to buy full-priced groceries, and you save yourself those expensive “stop in to pick up dinner” shopping trips. BUT. . .there is one exception, when shopping last minute actually pays off, and that is with dairy, meat and produce markdowns.

A couple weeks ago I went to QFC, my favorite place for manager markdowns. I was sooo excited to find organic basil marked down for only $1.79 a container. The basil, oh the sweet basil, how I love you so. . . but you usually aren’t in my budget. Well I took that home and made pesto! Have you made pesto before? It’s sooo easy, and delicious, and versatile. I made up a bunch of pesto and froze it for future meals.

Pesto

 

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Author: Heather

Ingredients

• Basil
• Parmesan
• Pine nuts
• Olive oil
• Fresh garlic

Instructions

1. Throw all the ingredients into the food processor.
2. That's it!

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Pine nuts are super expensive (I didn’t realize just how much until I got home and looked at my receipt), I recommend substituting another variety of nuts. I have seen recipes that call for walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews – just Google a pesto recipe with whatever nuts you might have around the house. I had fresh garlic and olive oil on hand. (Here’s another basic pesto recipe.)

So if you are going to shop for last minute dinner items, I recommend checking for manager markdowns first. Think creatively – if there is someway you can cook up veggies, or use the ingredients to make a meal you’ll be saving yourself from paying full price!

What’s your favorite manager markdown that you’ve found? 

I was at a bridal shower last weekend and they served up a fun and delicious recipe – Mint Oreo Frozen Dessert. Everyone oohed and ahhed and most importantly – enjoyed the dessert, so I thought I’d share the recipe with you! The great thing about this dessert is it can be made way in advance because you keep it frozen right up until you serve it.

Oreo Mint Frozen Dessert

 

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Author: Heather

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

• ½ gallon chocolate chip mint ice cream
• 1 package Oreo cookies
• ⅓ cup sugar
• ½ cup melted butter or margarine
• 1 jar (16 oz) hot fudge
• 1 tub (8 oz) Cool Whip topping

Instructions

1. Take ice cream out of freezer so it can soften.
2. Break up Oreos, you can put them in a Ziploc bag and crush them with the bottom of a bowl or use your hands.
3. Mix cookies with melted butter/margarine and sugar.
4. Spread cookies in 9″ x 13″ pan and freeze for 20 minutes (set aside 1 cup of cookies for later).
5. Spread hot fudge over frozen cookies in pan.
6. Freeze for 20 minutes.
7. Spread ice cream over hot fudge.
8. Freeze for 20 minutes.
9. Spread Cool Whip on top, drizzle hot fudge and sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture over the top.
10. Keep frozen until you’re ready to serve.

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(Thanks, Ann H.!)