Dinner Dilemma-- Solved

If you've been reading my blog for a while (or are a mother to less-than-perfect children), you know how frustrating dinner time can be for me. Take this post or this one as examples of what I go through regularly. Every night we have to coax, beg, and threaten to get at least one if not all of our boys to eat their dinner. The exception is when I get Little Caesar's, which I obviously can't do more often without lots of guilt, and yet it feels so nice to just have everyone eat.

Last night after dinner, I decided that instead of turning into Hot n Ready junkies, we are going to pretend that we live in Mexico every. Single. Night. And I don't mean eating-in-a-Mexican- restaurant kind of food. If we have enchiladas, chilis rellenos, tamales, or anything remotely exciting, we have the same ordeal as usual.

But if I serve pinto beans, rice, corn tortillas, salsa, cheese, some fruit, and a vegetable, there is almost complete silence at the table (once everyone's food has been plated, that is.) Sheer bliss. I wonder how long it would take for Jared and me to get tired of that every night, what with the silence and all. I think I could eat beans and rice for a long, long time. At least it's more nutritious than pepperoni pizza!

What would your family eat every night?

Dinner with Elder Neves

Back in the fall of 1991, my parents dropped me off at Fugal Hall at BYU. I had really planned my entire life on going to BYU, but now that I was there I was filled with apprehension. What had I done? Here I was on a campus of 30,000 people, 650 miles away from home, and I was pretty sure that my cousin Jan was the only person I knew there. I put my things in my new bedroom and wandered down the hall to the kitchen/living area of our small apartment. There sat a striking red head who reminded me of Nicole Kidman: tall and slender with creamy skin. She turned out to be one of my best friends through all my years at BYU and beyond. Neves (there were so many people in our dorm with the same first name as her that we fixed on her last name) introduced me to the BYU Mens' Chorus (the Thanksgiving of American Folk Hymns and Celebration of Christmas albums are from my days there and are must haves) and the two of us were groupies, sitting in on rehearsals most days. We were in awe of the conductor, Mack Wilberg (who has since become the assistant conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) and his ability to arrange familiar songs into amazing feasts for the ears. Neves and I took Italian together for four semesters and irritated our other roommates by speaking it on an off all day. She was so impressive to me because she thoroughly researched anything that interested her and seemed to know about everything under the sun. She introduced our apartment full of mates to various festivals held in the Salt Lake region (the Scottish and Greek festivals were our favorites,) to the Pie, a U of U hangout, and to chicken jambalya. Neves wrote to me the most faithfully of anyone while I was a missionary in Russia--more frequently than my mother--and I loved her letters which were stimulating, hilarious, intelligent, and random in their subject matter. Neves continues to awe me with her amazing wit, her impressive knowledge, and her world travel is something I try not to covet. I am so glad to call her my friend.
Anyhow, this homage to Neves came about today because her baby brother, Elder Neves, came to dinner last night at my mom's house. Not long ago, Neves had emailed me that he was in Whittier, so while I was here we decided to invite him and his companion (missionaries are never, ever alone except for in the bathroom!) to come over. It was a delight to see again the six year old boy that I met that fall, whom I have enjoyed immensely every time I've seen him since. He looked very well and was fun to have at our table.
Here's what we had for dinner:
Beef Carnitas from Cooking Light (I HIGHLY recommend this recipe. I've made it twice in the past few weeks)
Pinto Beans
Fruit Salad with Watermelon, Pineapple, Mango, and Banana with lime juice
Warm tortillas
Guacamole, Salsa, and Sour Cream
Brownies with Dryers Ice Cream

And speaking of Dryers Ice Cream (Edy's on the east coast), one of the flavors that we enjoyed last night was another walk down memory lane. In my high school days, one of my haunts was the Brown household. They always had lots of ice cream (we only had ice cream on birthdays at my house) and coconut popcorn--and my favorite flavor there was a chocolate ice cream with peanut butter cups in it. Why has my quest to find such and ice cream been so unfruitful up until now? Other chocolate PB ice creams have a vanilla--or even worse, a peanut butter base. But this is the real thing, with rich chocolate ice cream. You've got to try some. Not only will you love it, but if enough people buy the special flavor, they won't take it off the shelves. Here is the Dryers website--check out this flavor finder, where you can type in your favorite flavor and your zip code and they'll tell you where to find it. Such a cool tool.
OK, I must run. We are off to the beach today. I'll take lots of pictures and share our picnic food later.
As Neves would say, Cheerio!

Food, Glorious Food!

Just thought I'd post a few recipes that we've enjoyed in the past week. The food has been yummy. It would be so much easier to be thin if I didn't like food! Sorry, no great food pics this time. I'm on vacation and I was too busy to stop and take a picture after making some of these!

Here's a pesto sauce from Weight Watchers that has lots of flavor but is lower points than most pestos. I like to freeze it in 1 tablespoon portions in an ice cube tray and then use it as a sandwich spread or add it to a marinara or something else for a little kick. The 1 T. portions are 1 point each.

Pesto Sauce

• 2 cups packed fresh basil
• 2 T. toasted pine nuts
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 T. olive oil
• 1/2 c. chicken broth
• 1/4 c. freshly grated parmesan
• 1/2 t. kosher salt

Put basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, and chicken broth in food processor and process until pureed completely. Add salt and parmesan cheese and process again, for about 30 seconds. Yields 8 Tablespoons at 1 point each.
I made some cheese tortellini and tossed it in 1/4 c. pesto, then added a chopped tomato and served with Caesar Salad, crusty bread, and this eggplant:

Almost Breaded Eggplant

Slice one medium eggplant in 1/4 inch thick disks. Place disks side by side on baking sheet and spray liberally with olive oil spray. Sprinkle each with kosher salt, fresh ed pepper, about 1 T. Italian seasoned bread crumbs, and 1/2 T. shredded Parmesan Cheese. Bake in 400 degree oven until tops are crispy. I count three disks as one point. It 's a yummy way to have eggplant!

This next dish is great because it is easy to throw together and make a few. I made three pans last week to share with friends and it hardly took longer than making one. Serve with pinto beans (or S&W Pinquitos, my favorite canned beans), fruit salad, and the cilanto lime rice recipe later in this post.

Easy Chicken Enchiladas (Casserole Style)

• 10-12 corn tortillas, each sliced in 6 pie shaped pieces
• 3 large chicken , grilled or baked (seasoned with cumin, salt, pepper, and onion powder) (or the meat from a large rotisserie chicken, shredded)
  
• 1 cup diced onion
  
• 1 small can diced green chiles
• 2 1/2 c. shredded monterey jack cheese
• 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
  
• 1 can green enchilada sauce

Spray 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350.
In small saute pan, saute diced onion in 1 tsp. olive oil until soft. Set aside
Layer ingredients like a lasagne in the pan. Put tortilla wedges down first, to nearly cover the bottom of the pan. Next, add 1/2 the chicken, onion, and chiles, spreading them out over the tortillas. Sprinkle 1 cup of the jack cheese over entire pan. Repeat the layers. Finish with a top layer of tortilla wedges. Pour enchilada sauce over entire pan, pressing tortillas down with a wooden spoon if necessary to soak in. Nothing should be dry. Top casserole with remaining 1/2 cup of jack cheese and 1/2 c. cheddar cheese.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until bubbly and cheese begins to brown. Remove from oven and let sit 10-15 minutes before serving. Garnish with some sour cream.

Cilantro Lime Rice

I originally had this at Erin's (see my July 10th post) and have since made it a family staple. We even served it at my brother Tyler's wedding Open House a few years ago (what a great party that was.) Anyway, Erin may have morphed her recipe over the years but this was it back then.

• 2 c. long grain rice, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 c. butter
• 1 c. onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 1/2 c. chicken broth
• 2 c. salsa verde (I like Herdez)
• 1 can chopped green chiles (I omit these in deference to my hubby)
• juice of 2 limes, plus some zest
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
  
• Fresh cilantro

Melt butter in large saucepan pan. Add onion and garlic and saute 5 minutes. Add rice and continue to saute, stirring constantly, until rice begins to brown. Add chicken broth, 1 c. salsa verde, and the green chiles. Stir to combine. Add salt and a few sprigs of cilantro (you don't need to chop them--you'll pull them out later.) Put lid on pan and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid is absorbed and rice is cooked, about 30 minutes.
When rice is done, remove lid and add the juice of two limes, zest to taste, and about 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro. Fluff with a fork and serve. Yummy.
By the way, Ian is not exactly my favorite, but he is currently our most photogenic. Don't tell the others!