Main Dish

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #JustAddRotel #CollectiveBias

During Lent this year I have been making meatless soup recipes inspired by cuisines from around the world, and this week I made a delicious Mexican Tomato Soup with Corn Dumplings.

This soup combines traditional Mexican flavors like tomatoes, hominy, and chiles, and adds in bite sized corn dumplings for a soup that is rich and filling without any meat. This soup is quick and easy to make, and using shortcuts like RO*TEL diced tomatoes with green chiles makes it even easier!

Traditionally, Vatapa is a Brazilian stew made with shrimp or fish.  This week I decided to change it up a little bit and make it with mussels.

I was planning to use fish, but my grocery store had mussels on sale, and they were very fresh, so I changed it up and make Vatapa with Mussels.  Mussels are much cheaper than most seafood, so they make an economical choice. The broth for this stew is kind of unusual, as it is made from fish stock, beer and coconut milk.  It sounds like a strange combination, but it made for a rich broth that really enhanced the flavor of the seafood.

This hearty stew combines Guinness with lamb for a rich and tasty Irish Stew.

I usually see recipes for Guinness Stew with beef, but Guinness Lamb Stew is more traditionally Irish and it tastes great too.  The stew is better with a long slow simmering, so I like to add the potatoes and carrots for only the last 45 minutes, so they don’t get over cooked.

Shepherd’s Pie is perfect comfort food for the cold winter months!

Shepherd’s Pie is an English recipe that is traditionally made with lamb. But here in the U.S. it is usually made with ground beef, which in my opinion makes it not nearly as tasty! So I make Shepherd’s Pie with lamb, and I use chunks of lamb too, so it is more like a delicious stew, with lots of meat and vegetables.

I am sure I am not the only person looking for healthy and delicious recipes this New Year!  For me the hardest meal to eat well at is lunch, because I get bored with the same old lunches day after day. So this week I put a different twist on basic tuna salad to make this tasty Southwestern Tuna Wrap.

To make it I combined Bumble Bee^® Albacore White Tuna with vegetables and beans for an easy and healthy lunch.

Fast and easy meals are a necessity for my family!  There are many nights I only have half an hour to get dinner on the table before rushing off to Scout meetings or sports.  This recipe for Chili-Lime Shrimp over Rice, made with the reformulated I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!, is perfect for those busy nights.

The original recipe was for Chili-Lime Shrimp Over Quinoa, but my husband won’t eat quinoa, so I changed the recipe to use rice instead.  The meal is ready in about 30 minutes, and I made a quick salad while the rice cooked for a complete quick and easy meal.  I usually just serve rice plain, but adding the I Can’t Believe Its Not Butter Spread! to the rice along with some cilantro was a big hit with my family.  It adds a delicate flavor to the rice, and makes it taste much richer.

Fall just seems to lend itself to soups and stews, and one of my favorite meats to use in stew is lamb.  So when I was asked to create a lamb recipe by the American Lamb Board I made this rich and creamy lamb stew, inspired by Indian flavors.

One of my college roommates was of Indian heritage, and she taught me to how to use traditional Indian spices and ingredient to make tasty meals.  This dish uses the spices ginger, cardamon and coriander to subtly flavor the meat and vegetables.  In addition, braising meat and vegetables in yogurt is common in Indian cooking.

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

Making lunches for school can be a challenge! Even though I homeschool my kids there are many days when we need to make a brown bag lunch, since we attend weekly classes and go on field trips.  My lunch packing is more challenging because my kids are not big fans of sandwiches.   In fact my daughter Eleanor won’t eat recipes with bread at all.  She does however like lunch meat and yogurt.  So we made Pastrami Cheese Rollups along with a Yogurt Fruit Parfait for a perfect portable lunch.

With Labor Day fast approaching many people are planning outdoor parties for one last big blast before Fall officially arrives!  This is a great time of year to go beyond the standard steaks and burgers and do something different on the grill, like a clam bake.

For a clam bake on the grill all you have to do is layer clams, corn and potatoes in a Reynolds Bakeware Pan topped with aluminum foil.  Then at the end of the day there is no clean up, and the entire meal is in one easy to serve pan.

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

It seems like food prices just keep going up, so I am always looking for coupon deals that will let me save money on groceries. Using coupons can help me stretch my food money while still giving my family tasty food to eat. Kraft frequently has printable coupons available on products my family eats every week, and this week I used those coupons to add a twist to a family favorite meal and make Chicken Bacon Quesadilla with Peanut Sauce.

Like many moms I have go to quick meals that I know my family will enjoy, like Chicken Quesadillas. But those old standby meals can get boring. So when I saw that Kraft had an online coupon for bacon this week I decided to change things up, and add bacon to quesadillas along with using Planters Peanuts to make a quick peanut sauce for dipping.

The Veggetti®, gift card, information, and additional gift pack have been provided by Ontel.

My family and I love pasta, but sadly it isn’t always a healthy choice for dinners.  Lately we have been trying to cut back on the amount of refined carbs we eat, and one great way to do that is to replace pasta with “noodles” made from a healthy vegetable like squash.  I recently made the replacement in one of my favorite pasta dishes, the classic Cincinnati Chili.

It tasted pretty good with zucchini noodles, and then I didn’t feel guilty about adding a decent amount of cheese on top! To make the noodles I used the Veggetti, a new kitchen tool I was recently asked to review.  This is a simple little device that is designed to quickly turn vegetables into healthy spaghetti.

I am a member of the Collective Bias Social Fabric Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser

Summer is the time for many celebrations. And one of the best ways to celebrate is by grilling meat for a summer picnic or BBQ. There are so many great recipes that are better on the barbeque, like this one for quick Shrimp and Sausage Kebobs.

My family and I have lots of summer celebrations planned.  Last weekend we attended the graduation party for my niece Joy, and there are quite a few more graduation parties planned over the next month.  And then there are the traditional events we have every year, like a big Fourth of July picnic and combination birthday party.  When it comes to planning for summer parties I love all the help available at my local Price Chopper.