Back to School Dinner Recipes

“Let’s keep it easy this year. Keep it simple.” That’s what I tell myself as the new school year approaches. Sometimes I’m successful, other times not so much. The problem with living low carb/GAPS is that you can’t order out on those nights when you’re not in the mood to cook. Trust me though, the temptation is there. 😈

Which is why I’ve decided to share some of my favorite go to recipes that take 30 minutes or less to cook. Trust me, I wouldn’t share these if I thought they were anything but reliable.

This is of course a recipe roundup, but it’s all recipes that we have enjoyed one time or another. As most of y’all know, I’m a huge fan of sheet pan recipes. Thankfully those can take up to 30 minutes to bake, taking all the guess work and slaving away over a hot stove out of the equation. Just add it all to a sheet pan, place in the oven and just like Elsa, let it go!

As always, I encourage you to play with the seasonings, change things up to fit your dietary needs, and make substitutions where needed. You don’t have to follow the recipe exactly, unless you want to. Plus the bulk of these recipes your kid(s) can help prepare. Hope you all enjoy and welcome back to school!!

20+ Easy Low Carb Dinner Recipes:

1. Roasted Peppers Onions with Italian Sausage

1. One Pan Garlic Lovers Shrimp and Veggies

1. LC Sesame Chicken and Broccoli Sheet Pan Meal

1. Sheet Pan Meatloaf with Potatoes and Green Beans (turnips or cauliflower maybe substituted for potatoes)

1. Low Carb Goulash

1. Baked Chicken and Zucchini Casserole

1. Eggplant Mini Pizzas

1. Where’s the Crust Pizza
2. Easy Chicken Paprika with Sour Cream Gravy (Low Card, Gluten Free)

1. Sheet Pan Chicken Parmesan

1. Sheet Pan Garlic Lemon Butter Salmon (good served with pan roasted vegetable medley or salad)

1. Sheet Pan Chicken Thighs with Bacon (boneless thighs is preferred)

1. Sheet Pan Taco Bowls

1. Low Carb Jalapeno Popper Chicken (a family fave, I like using rotisserie chicken)

1. BLTA Chicken Salad Lettuce Wraps

1. Low Carb Chili Cheese Dog Casserole (a great recipe to use leftover low carb chili with)

1. BBQ Chicken with Bacon and Cheese (low carb, keto friendly)

1. Easy 10 Minute Asian Zucchini Noodles

1. Cowboy Butter Chicken and Zucchini Noodles

1. California Turkey and Bacon Lettuce Wraps with Basil Mayo

1. Quick Keto Dinner

1. Buffalo Chicken Jalapeno Popper Casserole

1. Chicken in Creamy Parmesan and Sun-dried Tomatoes (serve with Zucchini Noodles and Salad)
2. Keto Broccoli Casserole

Holiday Food Storage and Recipe Review

Good morning everyone! I hope you all are just as excited as I am 😀 This is our last day of school before Thanksgiving week break. I love this time of year, it’s a great time to reflect, relax and get in some much needed rest before jumping back into the daily schedule that is our lives. Another reason I love this time of year is because I get prep all kinds of goodness for an up and coming food-fest without killing myself in the kitchen!

Much planning goes into our food prepping, we have to decide what gets made and put into the freezer, what can wait to be made a couple of days ahead of the holiday and when to begin taking stuff out of the freezer to thaw it out almost completely before baking it. It all makes for an easy holiday when you can put semi-frosty casseroles in the oven to bake, no more getting in the kitchen at 9am to get veggies chopped, cornbread crumbled, casseroles combined and baked…trust me you’re going to have a more enjoyable time in the kitchen this year by going ahead now with your baking and feel more relaxed with more time to spend with your family (which is more important than slaving away in the kitchen)!

Roast chicken, the most commonly eaten white meat (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

• First let’s start off with the bird. Goose, turkey, chicken, or duck whatever your choice of fowl is you’ll want to go ahead and get that bag boy cooked up and deboned. Unless you have a tradition of slicing it up at the table. In which case continue on McDuff! Our family isn’t big on slicing Mr. Turkey up on the table, Dad has always taken it to task to slice up the turkey himself and placing an assortment of dark and white meat into a disposable aluminum pan with a little of the turkey stock ladled over it. Cover it up with foil and keep it in the warming drawer until you’re ready to serve. Same works for ham too! You can cook it up several days in advance, freeze it, thaw it, add some ham stock to it, cover and keep warm in your lower oven. The meat is moist, tender, and no on will be able to tell that you cooked up ahead of time.

Green bean casserole (Photo credit: Mandajuice)

• Casseroles are a must this time of year. Festive Squash Casserole, Green Bean Casserole, Sweet Potato Casserole, and the list goes on 🙂 Any casserole can be placed in the freezer, thawed and baked. We add our crunchy bread toppings and cheese on top before freezing and during cooking everything crisps back up and melts beautifully. The key is to thaw it all out, take everything out as soon as you get up and set it out unwrapped from its freezer paper cocoon. By about 2pm you’ll have mostly thawed casseroles ready to bake, and the key is to bake them gradually. You’ll probably have some cold spots that are going to need extra time baking, keep the casseroles covered with foil until everything is thoroughly hot. If you want your crispy toppings to crisp back up, remove the foil and cook until it’s nicely browned and bubbly around the edges. Might take 10–15 minutes, keep an eye on it. If you’re a marshmallow fan on your sweet potato casserole you’ll want to leave those off of you dish as it reheats in the oven. Once the casserole is heated through you can then add the marshmallows to the top and return it to the oven til it reaches a desired doneness.

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie (Photo credit: Jim, the Photographer)

• Pies: I have fond memories of my Mom making pumpkin, pecan, apple, and chocolate pie a couple of days ahead before Thanksgiving and Christmas. The house always smelled amazing and I can remember taking teeny tiny pinches off the flaky crust…I was a sneaky child 😉 How can you prep pies for the holidays? Start by making and freezing your dough. Yes, you can freeze pie dough. If you can buy it from the store frozen, honey you can freeze the homemade dough as well! Freeze in a square or circle wrapped in plastic wrap, then wrapped in foil, and finally wrapped in freezer paper. Sounds like a lot of fuss it’s better to be safe than sorry. Thaw it out overnight or from the time you get up and make your pies. You could skip this step entirely, go ahead bake your pies up, freeze them and take them out the morning of the feast. You can even stick them in the warming drawer for that warm right out of the oven feel 🙂

Turkey Dressing (Photo credit: M. Manning)

• Cornbread dressing or stuffing? We’re not into the whole stuff the turkey with seasoned bread. That might be a hold over from my Mom’s childhood. She learned to make cornbread dressing from her mother in law and has perfected it over the years. It can certainly be made ahead of time and reheated. I won’t delve too much into this because of the growing debate between stuffing and dressing…to stuff or not to stuff…just know that if you make the casserole version you can bake, freeze, thaw, reheat it and still have and amazing casserole for your harvest table! Just don’t forget the giblet gravy 😉
  

  gravy (Photo credit: pluckytree)

   

• Gravy is it’s own food group in our family. It is great on a slice of homemade bread, dipping yeast rolls in it, smothering cornbread dressing in, floating a slice of turkey, or just right off the spoon. Yes, we love our gravy, you can either freeze the turkey stock or go ahead and make the gravy to freeze. When warming it up check the seasoning to see if it needs more salt and pepper.

• 

  Mashed Potatoes!!! (Photo credit: Manuel Alarcón)

  About the only thing I’m not going to instruct you on in making ahead of time are the mashed potatoes. Freezing potatoes can offer iffy results, might not be as creamy or fluffy as you prefer them. It’s the one thing freeze leftover potatoes to use for potato cakes but on Thanksgiving or Christmas Day it’s important to serve the very best to your loved ones and friends. So whether they are mashed from freshly peeled or it comes from a box, make the mashed potatoes on the day of so it will be at its freshest!

• 

  Cranberry Sauce 009 (Photo credit: MGF/Lady Disdain)

  Have I left anything out? CRANBERRY SAUCE! Yikes, almost forgot about that saucy perfection *oops* Ok make that two things I wouldn’t recommend making ahead. I prefer the homemade stuff though I grew up on the jellied version. I actually grew up hating that stuff because it didn’t look or taste right, but my Dad had to have it every year because it’s what he grew up with. Three years ago I decided to make it from scratch, the recipe is on the back of ever bag of fresh cranberries, I make a sugar free version that’s sweetened with xylosweet. Flavored with orange zest and instead of water I like using diet cranberry juice instead of orange juice.

So now you should be ready to get a jump start on your holiday, getting started this weekend will be a great way to get ahead even if you choose to only freeze a couple of things. You’ll be slicing your time in the kitchen by more than half!

And for your out of town guests, serve up this buttery sweet blueberry biscuit cake (which is my variation on The Simple Cook’s Bo Berry Biscuits). You could make them into individual biscuits or save yourself some time and spread the thick batter into an 8×8 inch baking pan. The recipe doubles easily and can be baked in advance minus the lemony glaze.

It’s a simple recipe:

Picture from The Simple Cook Blog

Bo Berry Biscuit Recipe

Biscuits: 
2 Cups Flour
1 Cup milk
1/3 Cup sugar
5 T of butter
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 oz of blueberries (fresh or dried)

Glaze: 
1 Cup of powdered sugar
1/8 Cup of water
1 tsp of vanilla
½ tsp of lemon juice 

Directions: 
Freeze butter. Preheat oven to 450F. Mix salt, sugar, flour, and baking powder in a bowl and sift. Add the cold milk into dry ingredients and mix. As dough begins to form, use a cheese grater to grate your frozen butter evenly over dough. Fold dough, and knead… repeat until all butter is spread evenly throughout dough. Fold in the blueberries. Gently pull of chunks of dough and pat to form biscuits. Place on ungreased cookie sheet or cake pan. Place in oven and bake for about 7-12 minutes (until golden). Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in the microwave, and paint finished biscuits with pastry brush. Mix glaze ingredients in a bowl, and drizzle over BoBerry Biscuits with a fork.

    

Now, the variation I did was using frozen blueberries. I didn’t thaw them out, and I loved the idea of shredding the butter with the cheese grater. I have never done that before and really it helped to get the butter incorporated into the batter. When I pulled it out I could see little pools of melted butter on top, heart flutters. 

I like an intense lemon flavor with blueberries and strawberries so I added extra lemon juice to the glaze. But other than those slight changes, I followed the recipe and this turned out perfectly! If you wanted to add some lemon zest to the batter you could, or do a medley of orange, lemon and lime zest for a citrus cake (minus the blueberries). I think that would be very yummy with a citrus glaze!! It’s a wonderful treat and pairs nicely with hot tea 🙂

You can definitely serve this up with your choice of breakfast meats, scrambled eggs, or enjoy it all by it’s lonesome self. I think it would also be great with cranberries for a more harvest feel, just adjust your sugar since cranberries are really tart, add some orange zest and some orange spiced glaze on top.

This is going to be my final post until December 2,2013. I hope you all have a blessed holiday, stay safe and warm.

From my family to yours Happy Thanksgiving!!!

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Goodbye September…

Hard to believe that this is the last day of September. It has certainly been a full month, so thankful for everyone who has helped in spreading PCOS Awareness this month, for joining me speaking out and making sure pictures and articles get passed around. Just because this awareness month is ending doesn’t mean the work is done. We live with this on a daily basis and every day we can help make a difference in another woman’s life by spreading the word. At least once a week from here on out I will be posting on Health Check Tuesday/Teal Tuesday continuing this good fight against Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. Please join me on Tuesdays, post your pictures, testimonies, questions, or links to more information about PCOS. If you don’t have a local support group, like me, let’s come together on here once a week and create our own support group. Encouraging one another to not give up, to not lose hope or sight of our dreams and goals. Let’s all welcome October with renewed vigor and positive outlook as the year winds down to a close.

Last week proved to be terrible for me, not motivated to do really anything for the blog or for fall. That’s just how things go some times. But this week I’m pulling out some of our favorite flavors of fall, trying out new recipes that I have found recently, and finish up my fall bulletin board. Most of it is handmade decor, free printable items that I was able to get in black and white and color it myself. My son has enjoyed it so far and is helping him to work harder in school 🙂 I don’t plan to change it up for a while, I might add some turkeys later on but for now it’s good the way it is.

In a couple of weeks I’m going to be baking up a lot of goodies for a Missions Conference that I’m attending. Right now I’m making my final decisions on what to take (leaning more toward some pumpkin scones to add to the snack table and making a simple chocolate sheet cake with homemade frosting on top as a dessert). Everything I plan to make will definitely make its way to this blog along with recipe reviews and even trying out some “new” vintage recipes to ring in the autumn season! So get ready for another fun and full month!!

Happy fall and have a blessed day!

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Mexican Lasagna

There are so many recipes out there for Mexican Lasagna, you really don’t have to look very far. All you have to do is pick one that appeals most and go with it! Growing up, this was a family favorite, a staple. Mom found the recipe in a Southern Living cookbook and the recipe was called Matador Mania. Over the years it has evolved into something else now, it’s juicier, spicier, cheesier and just down right awesome! Of course each time we make this no two pans are ever alike, unless we’re making these in bulk. Sometimes the spices will vary or the refried beans will vary depending on what we can find. Since we are watching our carbohydrates I now make this with low carb high fiber flour tortillas. I posted a video on my Facebook page showing one of the steps I have to take in preparing this dish. The full 2 minute and 25 second video on my Page (sorry for the background noise, I had the floor fan running since I had three burners going and an oven preheating).

The recipe is simple and can be made ahead of time. Here’s what you’ll need:

1 pound ground beef

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

Salt and Pepper to taste

1/2 cup water

1 packet of your favorite taco seasoning

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 can of refried bean (I used black bean refried beans)

16 oz  jar of your favorite salsa or taco sauce

6 (7 inch) corn tortillas

8 oz sour cream

1-2 cups of cheddar cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Brown ground beef with onions and minced garlic. Drain fat, season with salt and pepper to your liking. Stir in packet of taco seasoning, water and oregano. Let this simmer for 10 minutes on low to allow the flavors to blend. Stir in the refried beans, this will help bind it up and thicken the meat mixture. If it gets too thick just add a little water to help thin it, you want to be able to spread the meat, not deal with clumpy thick meat.  In a 7×12 or 7×11 baking dish spoon some salsa or taco sauce into the pan, just enough to cover the bottom of the dish.

Arrange three corn tortillas on top of the sauce, spoon half the meat mixture on the tortillas, half the cheese, half the sour cream and finish with more salsa/sauce. Repeat the layers on more time minus the sour cream layer (save it for anyone who might like to have some on top of their portion during the meal), your top layer should be cheese. Cover the pan with foil, bake for 40-45 minutes covered. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes to allow the cheese to melt and brown slightly on top.

Let the casserole cool for about 10 minutes before serving and enjoy with your favorite tortilla chips, sour cream, guacamole, rotel dip, or more salsa. This dish is simple, delicious and is always requested in our house.

To make this low carb, just use low carb high fiber flour tortillas. For best results, fry them up in a little peanut or coconut oil. The crispy texture will soften while baking and absorb some of the salsa. You can use ground turkey or ground chicken if you prefer. I find I have to use a little extra salsa when I make it lower in carbs, to help compensate for the fried tortillas, plus I leave the sour cream out when I make it since my Dad isn’t a huge fan of it. As for leftovers, last night I had one serving leftover…and I doubled the batch! LOL All I’ve heard today was how yummy it was, how it was better than before.  If you use the black beans it will darken your meat some and bake darker just like you see in my photo.

Be prepared for no leftovers!

Happy eating!

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Food Storage 101: Casseroles and Burritos

Evening folks, it’s been a hot and busy day around here. Woke up sneezing ( I don’t have allergies), sore throat, and barely any energy. Felt like a zombie during our school day, and even though I still had a plethora of things to do in truth I just wanted to go back to bed. But I didn’t! I pushed through the sluggish fog brain and achiness. Throat is still a touch sore but I’ve amped up my alkaline stuff and actually starting to feel a little bit better.

I cooked up some bulk ground beef over the weekend and decided to make a couple of casseroles along with some homemade burritos. For several weeks now Monday nights have become our hectic night. I feel like I’m racing against the clock to get dinner done before 5pm CST so my Dad can get a hot meal before rushing off again to his Shelter in the Time of Storm training class. This is why I’m trying to build up our freezer with casseroles and other quick fix meals that will come in handy on those crazy busy nights and the days when I’m not feeling good.

So, after school with my boy, I pulled out the cooked ground hamburger from the fridge and gathered a few other ingredients for a Cheesy Beef and Noodle Casserole, a Bean and Rice Casserole, Mini Mexi-Chicken Casserole, and Beef, Bean and Cheese Burritos.

Cheesy Beef and Noodle Casserole

2 pounds ground beef, cooked and drained

12 ounces egg noodles, cooked

1 can condensed tomato soup

1 tblsp dried minced onion

1 tsp garlic powder

4 ounces velveeta

4 c shredded cheese

1/2 c milk or cream

1/4 c Parmesan cheese

2 Tblsp dried parsley flakes

Salt and Pepper to taste

In a medium pan cook ground beef, drain fat; while in a large pot boil egg noodles with a little salt and oil. Drain noodles and set aside.

Into meat add remaining ingredients, reserving 2 cups of cheese for topping, stir gently until cheeses are melted. Stir in cooked noodles and pour mixture into deep casserole pan. Top with reserved cheese and bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes or until bubbly around the edges. Let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving along with your favorite sides.

This will easily serve 6–8.

General family consensus:: This one is a keeper! Tastes like a kicked up hamburger helper!

Mini Mexi-Chicken Casserole

2 cups crushed tortilla chips

1 can drained chicken

3 Tblsp homemade taco seasoning or your favorite taco seasoning

1/2 c black bean and corn salsa, great value brand

3/4 c shredded cheese

Pour crushed tortilla chips into a 3/4 quart baking dish. In a medium bowl shred drained chicken with fork; season with taco seasoning and stir in salsa. Pour mixture on top of crushed tortilla chips and sprinkle the top with shredded cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Serve with sour cream.

Chicken is perfectly seasoned, tender, and chips still retained a bit of a crunch which will add some nice texture! This dish can be doubled or tripled easily!

When we shop at Kroger’s it’s usually to buy 10 boxes of some instance meal for $10. We’re not used to eating those boxed meals on a regular basis but in a pinch they are nice to keep on hand and tonight I decided to use one in a casserole. I based the following recipe off one I found that had everything but the kitchen sink, and since I wasn’t willing to be in the kitchen for hours on end here was my saving grace tonight!

Beef and Rice Casserole

1 box of Zatarain’s rice mix, your choice

1/4 c white rice

1 pound ground beef, cooked and drained

1 can of whole kernel corn

1 can tomato sauce

2 Tblsp dried minced onion

1 green bell pepper, chopped

2 cups shredded cheese

Cook your favorite Zatarain’s rice mix according to directions, adding in an extra 1/4 cup of white rice, bell pepper and minced onion. Cook until rice is completely done.

   

In casserole pan mix together ground beef, corn and tomato sauce. Set aside.

Once the rice was thoroughly cooked, mix it with the meat mixture and spread out evenly. You can choose to top with a mexican blend of cheese or regular cheddar cheese. Once cooled, cover tightly with foil and freeze overnight. Wrap in freezer paper and properly label, freezing for up to 3 months or until ready to thaw and bake.

Reheating Instructions:: Thaw casserole completely, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 25–30 minutes or until bubbly around the edges. Serve with favorite tortilla chips, sour cream, and salad.

Beef, Bean and Cheese Burritos

1 1/2 pounds ground hamburger, cooked

1 can refried beans

1/8–1/4 cup homemade taco seasoning or your favorite taco seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

2 cups shredded cheese

13 tortillas

In large pan cook ground beef, you can drain off the fat if you like I left a little in the pan so the meat wouldn’t be so dry.

   

Season meat with your favorite taco seasoning, salt and pepper. Stir to combine and add in refried beans and shredded cheese. The mixture will be thick.

Using a 1/4 measuring cup scoop out some of the mixture and with a spoon center the burrito mixture.

  

Fold in the ends, lightly pressing them into the meat. I like to fold them away from me, it’s easier. If you want these rounder you can use less mix and roll them if you wish. Same technique.

  

Place the folded burrito in the center of a piece of plastic wrap. Again, fold up the edge closest to you and roll the burrito away to the opposite side. Tuck in the ends and you have a wrapped burrito ready to store in the freezer.

I wasn’t expecting to get thirteen burritos, I thought I had just enough mix to get a dozen. The more the merrier 🙂 In order to get most of the air out of the ziploc bag I used a drinking straw in the corner after I mostly zipped it shut. Suck out most of the air, but not all of so as not to crush the burritos.

There you have it! Everything is getting happy happy in the freezer, in the weeks to come these meals are going to be enjoyed and a god-send to our family.  I encourage you to play with the flavors, use ingredients that your family enjoys, and customize these recipes according to your taste.

Have a blessed evening!!

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