For 2: Ritz Salmon

Please don't go thinking this is some fancy dish that I knocked off from the Ritz Carlton...haha - no way Jose.  This is a fantastically easy, quick, healthy, tasty dish made with 3 easy ingredients!  Here's the deal: preheat the oven to 400, put 2 salmon filets (skin or no skin, your choice, if skin, skin side down) on an aluminum foil lined baking sheet, sprinkle each with salt and pepper, spread about a tablespoon of Dijon mustard on them, crunch up about 6 Ritz Crackers and sprinkle the crumbs over them, pressing the crumbs down into the mustard so they stick and bake for about 20 minutes.  TADA serve with some roasted broccoli and there's your dinner!  And since you foil lined both of your baking sheets you have minimal dishes for your husband to wash.  I think next time I might mix up some rosemary or dill with the mustard, or use a coarse ground mustard, or use Triscuits instead of Ritz, or ...the possibilities are endless!  I am so glad to have this simple recipe in our go-to dinner rotation! 

What is your favorite way to make Salmon?  Would you make any changes to this recipe or are you going to try it the simple way, or both?
Sincerely Loving Food,
Lainey

The let down...

I don't know about you, but I always feel this "let down" after a holiday.  Not that anything is wrong, but the excitement is gone and so is that jovial feeling that I had just a few days before.  Well not this year, I am not falling for that Thanksgiving let down.  How did I avoid it you ask....well I got a puppy and he is ADORABLE!  Please meet Ralph!

This week we will be training and cleaning up messes, hooray ;)  It may not be all fun and games, but it is for sure a way to beat the holiday let down.  I mean how can you frown looking at that little face?

Since we will be playing with this little guy so much I am keeping my menus simple this week.  Tonight I am trying a quick salmon recipe (if successful I hope to share with you), and then we will do some take out and this crock pot chicken and dumplings.   Which if you like chicken and dumplings (or even if you don't), you have to give this a whirl.  Last time when I made it I stirred in some peas and a handful of fresh spinach at the end: so delicious, so easy, so comforting.  Try it I dare you!

Sincerely Loving Food,
Lainey

Happy Thanksgiving! Green Bean Casserole - the way it should be

Hi there and Happy Thanksgiving!  I am happy to rejoin the world of blogging.  Honestly, I just needed a break for a little while and now I am feeling refreshed and ready to share ideas again! 

This idea isn't original and may not be well received, but I am going with it because I am passionate about it.  What the he## is up with all of these people "redoing" Green Bean Casserole?  Sorry, I don't get it.  I understand that canned soup isn't the best thing for you nutritionally, ok fine, but seriously people are talking about the "dreaded cream of mushroom soup" as if it is battery acid.  My Momma Sylvia makes Green Bean Casserole with cream of mushroom soup and soy sauce just the way the back of the Campbell's can tells us to.  It is my favorite thing on the Thanksgiving Table.  I love it and I start and finish my meal with a big helping of it.  Sorry I just don't get why a re-do is necessary, but I saw 4 different shows on food network this weekend with a "new take on green bean casserole"  If you want to re-do something, re-do something that needs it, like candied yams.  Seriously you don't want a can of mushroom soup on your Thanksgiving table, but you are ok with a side dish with the word "candied" in the title?  To me this makes no sense.  I understand that homemade is important, and I treasure homemade things like cornbread dressing and gravy and creamed corn and a ton of other things.  But the Green Bean Casserole, I think it is best just the way it is.  Please leave me and my canned cream of mushroom soup alone; we will be just fine, very happy actually...

How was that for a soap box?  What do you think of Green Bean Casserole?  What are you most looking forward to on Thursday? 

Happy to be back and Sincerely Loving Food,
Lainey

Monday...

Sometimes it rains.  Sometimes it pours.  Sometimes you loose your phone.  Sometimes you just want to eat McDonald's even though you know it is bad for you, but you want it anyway. 

Today in Atlanta it's raining.  I lost my phone over the weekend and I have a crazy craving for a double cheese burger with a side of McNuggets; I mean french fries.  Yes, french fries are a side McNuggets are a meal...anyway.  That is the direction my Monday is headed, hopefully yours is a little more sunny!

Sincerely Loving Food,
Lainey

For 2: Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken

I thought about not posting this because it seems like so many blogs are posting "tired of your boring chicken" recipes, but this was a big hit at our house so here you go and sorry to jump on the bandwagon.  This chicken is fast and easy to put together so it is great for a week night.  If the thought of cream cheese in chicken makes you think this is going to be terribly unhealthy, substitute the fat free kind in and serve it with some sauteed spinach.  The nutrients in the spinach cancel out the fat in the cream cheese, right?
Sincerely Loving Food,
Lainey

Stolen Recipe Success

A few nights ago we had a delicious corn meal breaded chicken with a jalapeno sauce that I got from Let's Dish and it was so good.  It was crunchy fried chicken topped with a jalapeno popper.  The hubs and I both love jalapenos, so if you do too you should try this.

*picture from Let's Dish

For the tailgate last weekend I made a breakfast casserole in the crock pot.  This was so easy!  Throw everything in the night before, turn it on and the next morning carry it to the game.  Try it this weekend!  Waking up and smelling breakfast is delightful!

What blogs are you reading?  Have you  made anything great lately?  Let me know!
Sincerely Loving Food,
Lainey

For 2: Zucchini Alfredo

I’m not gonna go all out and say this pasta dish is good for you, but I will say it is better for you than the traditional fettuccini alfredo. In all actuality it is not really all fettuccini or all alfredo, I used a thinly sliced zucchini for half of the noodles and reduced fat cream cheese for the alfredo, but it was creamy, comforting, cheesy and filling. And if you're honest with yourself isn’t that what you want from a Fettuccini Alfredo? I used a mandolin to transform the zucchini to noodles, but you could easily do it with a knife and some patience. I will tell you now and I will say it again in the recipe, at one point the cream cheese is going to look really weird – like you think it is ruined/curdled/burned type of weird, but just keep stirring and keep going with it – it will work out in the end. This really is so delicious and with the chopping and cooking comes together in about 20 minutes.
Sincerely Loving Food,
Lainey