Lulu's Recipe Box

Thai Chicken Peanut Wraps

This recipe takes me back to my senior year at Luther College. My girlfriends and I were finally out of the dorms and into Baker Village, small townhomes on campus that had kitchens! We loved cooking and baking together, and these wraps were one of our favorite meals for dinner. For graduation, my friend Joanie put together a recipe binder for all of us girls so that we could continue making our favorite recipes post-college.

I still make these wraps and many other recipes to this day. These wraps are one of my favorites though because they are healthy and simple to put together. Also, the peanut sauce is to die for. You can't eat these wraps without the peanut sauce! You can certainly omit anything that doesn't sound good to you though. The black beans were not in the original recipe, but one of my girlfriends thought they were a great addition. A few of the girls that were vegetarians would fill their wraps with tofu instead of chicken which was also a great idea! Whatever you fancy, these wraps can be very versatile.  Just don't forget the amazing peanut sauce!

 

Makes 6 wraps

Ingredients:

6, 8-10 inch wheat tortillas

1/2 tsp. garlic salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts (cut into bite size pieces or thin strips)

1 T. cooking oil

4 cups packaged shredded broccoli (broccoli slaw mix)

1 tsp. grated fresh ginger

1 cup black beans (drained)

For the Peanut Sauce:

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

3 T. soy sauce

3 T. water

2 T. cooking oil

1 tsp. minced garlic

Directions:

1. Wrap tortillas in paper towels. Microwave on high power for 30 seconds to soften. (Or, wrap tortillas in foil. Heat in a 350 degree F. oven for 10 minutes.)

2. In a small bowl combine garlic salt and pepper. Add chicken; toss to coat evenly. In a large skillet cook and stir seasoned chicken in 1 T. hot oil over medium-high heat for 2 to 3 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from skillet; keep warm. Add broccoli and ginger to skillet. Cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Add the black beans and cook until they are heated through. (I add these last so that they don't get too mushy)

3. To assemble, spread each tortilla with about 1-2 tablespoons Peanut Sauce. Top with chicken and vegetable mixture. Roll up each tortilla. Serve immediately with remaining sauce.

Peanut Sauce
In a small saucepan combine all of the peanut sauce ingredients. On low-medium heat, bring the sauce to a boil, constantly stirring until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat. Makes about 2/3 cup.

***Recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff

I'm really on a roll with meal planning so far this year. I've enjoyed going to the grocery store just once to get all of my ingredients for the week. It saves me time and gas money not running to the grocery store several times a week when I find myself needing an ingredient for a meal. One of my other goals in the new year is to try a new meal every week. So far this week, I've tried two new meals, stuffed shells and this slow cooker beef stroganoff from one of my favorite recipe sharing websites, Tasty Kitchen. All of the recipes I have found on Tasty Kitchen have been wonderful, including this slow cooker meal. It's a great comfort meal, especially in the winter. It's also easy to throw together and easy on the wallet. The only thing I would do differently next time is to make the sauce a little thicker. It all depends on your preference, but TC and I both like a thicker sauce. I think next time I will experiment and take out the water to see if that helps thicken it up a bit. Serve this over egg noodles, pasta or mashed potatoes.

Serves 8 (I'll be cutting the recipe in half next time for just the two of us)

Ingredients:

2 lbs. Beef Stew Meat

1 whole onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb. sliced fresh button mushrooms

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup water

1 tsp salt to taste

1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper

2 T. Worcestershire sauce

1 cup sour cream

Directions:

Place everything except for the sour cream into your slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Stir in the sour cream and cook on high for another 15-30 minutes.

Serve over egg noodles, pasta or rice.

***Recipe from Tasty Kitchen

 

 

Stuffed Shells

Today was a good day! After a three day weekend, we had a two hour delay this morning due to freezing rain so I had another morning to sleep in a little bit. The day flew by since we only had 30 minute classes and before I knew it, I was home making these yummy stuffed shells. After making these tonight for the first time, my first question was why haven't I made these sooner?! Stuffing shells  sounded so difficult and time consuming to me, but it was actually very easy. A little more complicated than boiling some pasta and adding sauce, but definitely worth the extra 10 minutes or so. I found a few different recipes and adapted them to my tastes. I forgot to get spinach at the grocery store so I didn't include that in the mix, but I will definitely add it next time. This pan made enough shells for TC and I tonight for dinner and we are both looking forward to eating the leftovers for lunch tomorrow! Serve with some salad and crusty bread for a delicious meal that the whole family will love!

Ingredients:

20 jumbo pasta shells (about half a box)

2 cups red pasta sauce (from a jar or homemade)

1 cup ricotta cheese (I used skim)

1 whole egg

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 T. chopped fresh basil

6 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and drained and squeezed until very dry (optional)

(chopped fresh spinach would work too)

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese for topping (you could top with parmesan as well)

Directions:

Cook the pasta shells according to the package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water.

Meanwhile, in a medium sized bowl combine the ricotta cheese, egg, salt, pepper, garlic, basil, spinach, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. Stir well to combine.

In a 9x13 dish, spread half of the red pasta sauce on the bottom. Stuff each shell with about 2 Tablespoons of filling. Place the stuffed shells in the dish with the open side facing up. Top the shells with the remaining pasta sauce.

Feel free to use less sauce if that's what you prefer.

Cover with foil and bake for about 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees. In the last ten minutes of baking, take off the foil and sprinkle the top with more mozzarella cheese. Return to the oven until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

***Recipe adapted from This Week for Dinner and Tasty Kitchen

Sloppy Joes

The hubby and I are gearing up for the Packers playoff game tonight with some sloppy joes. I originally put them on the menu for Sunday night, but we pushed dinner out with friends to Friday night, and sloppy joes sounded really good for this cold night while we watch football. This yummy recipe comes from my mother. Can you tell that she is a good cook from all of the recipes I post from her?! I was a lucky girl growing up with a mother that cooked amazing meals every night. Sloppy joes are a delicious sandwich to warm you up on a cold winter night. It's a great meal to make for a crowd too (maybe an idea for the upcoming Superbowl parties). It freezes really well which is what I'll be doing with our leftovers. I feel like sloppy joes are sort of a Midwestern thing. People on the East and West coasts, did you grow up eating sloppy joes? Maybe you call them something different? I'm just curious. Have a wonderful Saturday night everyone! GO Packers!

P.S. Lulu's Recipe Box is now on Twitter! Follow me @lulusrecipebox

 

Ingredients:

2 lbs. ground chuck or ground beef (90% lean)

1/2 cup chopped onion

7 oz. ketchup

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cider vinegar

2 T. lemon juice

1 T. brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp. dry mustard spice

Cheddar cheese (optional)

Hamburger buns

Directions:

Brown onion and beef in a Dutch oven over medium heat.  Drain off fat.  Add remaining ingredients.  Heat to boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to low, cover tightly, and simmer for 30 minutes. Put a generous amount on a hamburger bun and top with cheese if you prefer. Freeze extra.

 

Banana Bread

 

I received these adorable mini bread pans from my mom for Christmas and have been anxiously waiting for my bananas to ripen up so I could bake some banana bread. My snow day yesterday was the perfect day for whipping up this delicious and moist banana bread. I love these little bread pans, because it's the perfect size to give as a gift to someone and they bake and clean up wonderfully! Plus, mini bread loaves are so much cuter. : )

Now onto the banana bread! It's a recipe that my mom has used for many years from our old church cookbook. It's delicious for breakfast or dessert, especially if you add some chocolate chips, which I did to one of the bread loaves. That's the other great thing about these mini-loaf pans. You can put something different in each loaf, one with chocolate, one with nuts, and one just plain to please everyone in your family or all of your friends.

 

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup sifted flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup mashed bananas

chopped pecans/walnuts (optional)

chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

Cream sugar and butter. Beat in eggs. Stir in the sifted flour and salt and mix well. Combine buttermilk and baking soda in a small bowl and then add to the batter. Stir in bananas and nuts/chocolate chips if using. Pour into greased and floured 5x9 inch loaf pan or 3 mini-loaf pans. For one, 5x9 inch loaf, bake at 350 for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. For 3 mini-loaf pans, bake at 350 for about 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let the loaf cool completely before removing from the pan.

 

Slow Cooker French Onion Soup

My favorite soup, hands down, is French onion. If French onion soup is on a restaurant menu, I don't have to think twice about ordering a bowl. So when I saw this easy slow cooker version, I knew I had to try it.  I put it on my menu for this week, but I couldn't wait until Thursday to make some. Plus, today's snow day seemed like the perfect opportunity to eat warm, comforting soup! The soup was delicious. It seemed too good to be true that it would be so simple to make AND taste better than some French onion soups I've had at restaurants. I can't wait to make this again!

Note: This recipe only serves 2 people. I was able to fill up the two bowls above and there was a little leftover.

Ingredients:

2 cans of beef broth

3 Tablespoons butter

2 yellow onions

1/2 tsp. granulated sugar

1/4 cup cooking sherry (or dry white wine)

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

French baguette

Gruyere or Swiss cheese (I used slices of Swiss. Next time, I'll try Gruyere)

Directions:

Heat your CrockPot to high and put the butter in to start melting. Slice the yellow onions into thin rings. Break up the onion slices with your fingers and rub them around in the melted butter. Add the beef broth, sugar, salt and sherry. Cook on high for 6-8 hours or low for 10-12.

Slice the French bread and arrange them on a baking sheet. Bake in a 400 degree oven until the bread is  crisp and golden at the edges, about 5 minutes. You could also put them in your toaster to get them crispy.

Ladel the soup into broiler-safe bowls and set the bowls on a baking sheet. Top each bowl with baguette slices (do not overlap slices) and place 1 or 2 slices of cheese on top (or shredded cheese if that's what you are using). Put them under the broiler (watching closely so you don't burn the top) until cheese is melted and bubbly around the edges.

Carefully tranfer the hot bowls to plates for serving.

 

***Recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking

Weekly Meal Planning

Happy New Year! I know it's a bit late, but I'm now just getting back to my blog after a fun 10 day trip to Iowa for the holidays and getting back into the work routine again. I'm definitely enjoying this weekend so far. We took all of the Christmas decorations down today which felt great to get done and also made a trip to CostCo to stock up on the essentials. I don't know if it's the new year or the fact that I'm finally getting rid of this sinus infection I've had for 2 months, but I have so much more energy. I've been on a cleaning and organizing kick this weekend and tonight I'm planning out our meals for the week (I know...such an exciting Saturday night, haha) so that I can hit the grocery store early tomorrow morning. I love going to the store when no one is there because I don't have to play bumper carts with the crowds. I really fell off the bandwagon the past few months with weekly meal planning so I'm ready to get back into my routine. This blog also gave me the motivation to get back into it! Here are our menu for the week! Hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend!

Monday:

Leftovers from Sunday Fiscalini Farms Cheddar Cheese and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Soup

Tuesday:

Orzo with Chicken and Asiago

Wednesday:

Chicken Taquitos

Thursday:

French Onion Soup (I'll post it later this week!)

Friday:

Grilled Steak with Couscous and Asparagus

Saturday:

Dinner out at a new Mexican restaurant with friends

Sunday:

Sloppy Joes (I'll post this one too)