Cooking and EVOO

I had to share a delicious dinner we had last night.  Mostly because it was cheap and easy, both top qualities in my book!!  I was inspired by a cooking show called Jamie at Home.  It's one of my favorite cooking shows.  The guy is hilarious and has the most FABULOUS garden.  He cooks healthy, simple yet delectable meals with lots of fresh ingredients.  I hardly ever see it, though.  I don't get to watch much TV that I actually like.  Typical mom, yes?  Anyway, his last show that I saw was about squash.  I am NOT a squash lover by any account, but want to try it more because it is healthy and usually pretty cheap.  And grows well, so in my future garden I will plant some.  His dish included cooking squash with onion, garlic, herbs, salt, pepper, and topping off with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO).

So I prepared one pan full of sliced zucchini, sliced yellow squash, pieces of onion and sliced carrot.  I drizzled a good amount of evoo on top, added salt and pepper and lots of garlic (out of my jar of chopped garlic).  Then prepared another pan of cubed red potatoes topped the same way-evoo, salt, pepper, lots of garlic.  I baked them at 375 for about 30 min, maybe?  I didn't watch the time, just checked them until they were done.  They were so so so good!!  All the family liked it so much, they kept saying, "Mmm, this is so good!".  YES!  The little kids ate all but the yellow squash and onion.  Oh well.

For the main dish I got some boneless pork chops, which are buy one get one free at Fry's right now.  I put them in my big cast iron pot (LOOOOVE THAT POT!)  and browned them in a little evoo with salt and pepper.  Then I mixed a can of golden mushroom soup with a little Hidden Valley Ranch powder and more garlic.  Just pour that over the pork chops (I cooked 7, I think) and cook on med-low until done.  They took about 20-30 min to cook.  If I had time, I would have had a salad too, just because I like something cool with all that warm food, but it was great. 

Anyone have any other great ideas of how to prepare squash?

Frugal meals

Here are some frugal meal ideas that I made last week.

Chicken baked with marinara sauce, brown rice, and peas. We love chicken and rice.

Mexican casserole-layers of corn tortillas, hamburger browned and mixed with enchilada sauce (red or green or mix), and cheese. The kids all liked this! Yay! And a salad on the side.

Yummy chicken marinade- sprinkle chicken with lemon pepper and garlic powder, mix zesty Italian dressing and some A-1 and let the chicken marinade for a while. Grill, bake or saute to your liking!

Stuffed bell peppers-peppers were on sale (I like to use red, orange or yellow ones) and so was ground beef. Take the peppers, cut of the tops and remove seeds. Place in boiling water for several minutes. Then I just mix cooked hamburger, some cooked brown rice, season it up with garlic and onion, add some tomato sauce and fill the peppers. Top with more tomato sauce and a little cheese and bake at 350 for about an hour. Great with a salad.

How do YOU eat an oreo?

I saw some mint oreos in the store today, and couldn't pass them up.  While watching my kids eat them, I discovered some interesting things. It reminded me of those old commercials that said, "How do YOU eat an Oreo cookie?"
Here's what I noticed:
Tailgunner enjoyed his the way any baby would.  Thoroughly!
Dr. D didn't really end up eating his.  He pulled them apart, dipped the side without cream into his milk until it was soggy, then threw it away.  Then he nibbled on the cookie around the cream on the other side and left the center of the cookie with the cream on it.  I'm guessing he doesn't love oreos!  He did have fun dipping, though.
Blondie dipped and ate, no problem.
Little Miss separated hers, licked all the cream off, then dipped and ate the cookies.
I usually like to dunk mine in cold milk, then eat the whole cookie together.  Sometimes I do like to separate it but I never just lick the cream off.  I like double stuff and mint the best.  I really love Trader Joe's Candy Cane Joe Joe's the best (their version of oreos are called Joe Joe's).  All the Joe Joe's are great.

So...how DO you eat an Oreo cookie?