What's For Dinner?

Winner Winner Chinese Dinner

I know I swore my cooking posts would start again today, but after last week’s simple non-postworthy recipes, the subzero (yes, actually BELOW ZERO) temperatures, and the severe lack of ingredients in the house, we opted for a carry-out Chinese dinner from one of our favorite places, China Wok. I’m a slacker, I know.

Oh, and it was really tempting to not leave the house after seeing these hanging outside our front window:

Those are approximately 5 to 8 feet long icicles, the longest of which hangs directly above our front door. SCARY!

Back to dinner…

I started with half of these amazing steamed dumplings full of spicy pork:

And the rest of what I had didn’t photograph well… one patty of chicken egg foo young, a few bites of chicken fried rice, a bit of some spicy noodle thing, and of course:

My fortune read: “You will be recognized and honored as an influential member of the community”.

There’s a lot of catch-up I still need to do which I’ll address in tomorrow’s post, but for now, I want to announce the winner of the MyBlogSpark and Progresso Soup giveaway. Thanks to random.org, I came up with number #3 which was a recipe for cabbage soup from Christina! I know you’ll read this, so Christina, when you do, email me your information and I’ll contact your benefactor!

I’m off to watch the Simpson’s 20th Anniversary Special and get to bed early… it’s going to be a LONG week!

OH, and I’m committing to you here: I WILL COOK A NEW RECIPE TOMORROW. It has been blogged, so it shall be done.

Technorati Tags: Asian, Chicago dining, chicken, Chinese, dinner, dinner out, giveaway, noodles, pork, restaurant

10 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, January 10th 2010 | Tags: Asian, Chicago dining, chicken, Chinese, dinner, dinner out, giveaway, noodles, pork, restaurant
Posted in Asian, chicken/turkey, dinner out, giveaway, pork

Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful…

…But my dinner was so delightful.

Wow, cheesy post title there…wow.

Seriously though, its brutal out there right now! There are HUGE snow storms coming, and it’s supposed to snow until 6 p.m. tomorrow! Apparently, winter is here… but in 9 days, we’ll be here:

I can’t freaking wait!

Dinner tonight was a big casserole dish full of deliciousness! Usually, people have childhood memories of mom’s tuna casserole. I have to say, I have NO memories of a tuna casserole mostly because my mom doesn’t like hot tuna (not to be confused with Hot Tuna, the fantastic band with members from Jefferson Airplane). My first experience with tuna casserole was in college, when some glue-like substance held together questionable tuna and mushy noodles in the dorm cafeteria.

I decided, after many requests last year from Adam, to make a tuna casserole. I mucked with a few recipes I found online, and came up with a fairly decent meal. When I was in the grocery store today, and saw that my favorite canned tuna was only $1.00 a can, I knew what dinner was going to be: Tuna Noodle Casserole.

Ingredients

14 oz. small pasta, cooked

2 cans white tuna, drained

1 can peas, drained

1 can reduced fat, low-sodium cream of mushroom soup

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 Tbsp. dried minced onions

black pepper to taste

1.5 c. shredded low-fat cheddar cheese, divided

1/2 c. panko bread crumbs

Directions

In a bowl, mix together all ingredients except the pasta and panko, reserving half the cheese. Pour the pasta into a baking dish, and top with the tuna mixture. Stir well, then top with remaining cheese and panko. Bake at 375* for about 30 minutes until heated through and the top is crunchy. Enjoy!

I love how simple and comforting this recipe is, and I love even more how MUCH it makes! I’ve got lunch for tomorrow (if there’s school) and the rest of the week!

Tonight is also one of my favorite nights of the winter: Charlie Brown Christmas night! I just love PigPen in the dancing scenes…

Have a wonderful night!!

Technorati Tags: cheese, noodles, pasta, seafood, simple recipe, tuna

15 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, December 8th 2009 | Tags: cheese, noodles, pasta, seafood, simple recipe, tuna
Posted in fish or seafood, simple recipe

Reality=Cooking

Reality has officially set in, and we’re no longer in wedding-ville… soon enough though, in 15 days actually, we leave for our Jamaican honeymoon!

For me, reality means grocery shopping and cooking. We did the shopping part yesterday, and I did some cooking today. Dinner was an old favorite:

Chili Mac!

As usual, it was simple, spicy, comforting and satisfying. Still need the recipe? It’s below:

Ingredients

1 lb. extra-lean ground beef or turkey (this recipe is also great meatless)

2 small onions, diced

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 large (32 oz.) can light red kidney beans

1 large can dark red kidney beans

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1 small can (15 oz) diced tomatoes with green chiles

3 Tbsp. chili powder

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 box whole wheat pasta

water as needed

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large pot, and add the onions. Cook until lightly browned and then add the ground beef. Cook until browned and then add the beans, crushed tomatoes, chili and garlic powders. Simmer a few minutes, then add the pasta. Add enough water to just cover the pasta, stir well, and simmer until the pasta is done. Serve with a topping of cheese and sour cream.

Tonight will be filled with organizing wedding gifts, and more importantly, watching some of my favorite shows. Its been hard getting back into the swing of things with nearly a week off, but I think I’m getting the hang of it. Tomorrow night is our work holiday party, and I haven’t been able to go to one since I started working at this school almost 3 years ago! It should be a good time!

To all of you who were interested in guest posting during our honeymoon week, you can write a post on anything food related and email it to me! I’m really not picky!

Have a wonderful Thursday night, and a fabulous Friday!

Technorati Tags: beef, cheese, chili, dinner, food, noodles, pasta, red meat, simple recipe

13 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, December 3rd 2009 | Tags: beef, cheese, chili, dinner, food, noodles, pasta, red meat, simple recipe
Posted in beef, simple recipe

Bachelorette Party Recap!

Only a food blogger… I swear, only a food blogger would do what I did at her bachelorette party.

There was much drinking (as was expected) and a great time was had by all… There were quite a few embarrassing pictures taken of me, mostly involving odd facial expressions and looks of shock while opening gifts. There was one photo, actually, that one Meghan said she’d give me $100 if I put it on the blog. I deleted it. I guess I can share one goofy one with you…

I should rewind a bit. My sister Leigh(my Maid of Honor) did a fantastic job planning a very “Mara” night out. Thanks to some cool chef people my sister knows, she was able to get reservations at The Bristol, a restaurant that does not take reservations. It’s a very cool restaurant with interesting food and a focus on sustainable ingredients.

Lizz and I got there early (a RARE occurrence for us) and went up to the upstairs bar while we waited for the rest of the party to arrive.

While we waited, we ordered drinks. Little did I know that the drinks we ordered would be some of the best I’ve ever had, EVER.

This was called a Dardanian Cocktail. It contained gin, muddled pear, elderflower and sour. It was un-freaking-believable. I drank oh… 4 of these.

This was called a Cu-Cui, which had pear vodka, cucumber puree, and something else I don’t remember. Lizz kept saying it was like someone took a salad and put it in a drink. It was also amazing.

Before we sat down at the table, I made it a point to get a picture with Leigh and Lizz

The rest of the party finally arrived, and we headed downstairs to the table

We perused the menus and decided to share a bunch of appetizers and each get our own entrees. Now, you all knew that I’d take pictures of my food. I actually debated blogging about the night, but then Lizz reminded me that if I didn’t, I’d probably regret it… so, here goes (some of the pics are blurry…I did my best!):

I ordered another pear cocktail, and my friend Erin proceeded to order me drinks.

Another pear cocktail as well as a cocktail with Patrón silver tequila and citrus

Then the appetizers came… duck fat fries (the BEST I’ve ever had, hands down)

These came with homemade ketchup and horseradish cream sauce… SO AMAZING!

And, there was savory monkey bread with dill butter… which luckily, Leigh remembered to take a picture of with one piece remaining while I scolded myself… bad food blogger!

There was an apple and manchengo cheese salad

And Leigh and I split fresh radishes with butter and salt. An amazing combo if you’ve never tried it!

Then the entrees came out. Not only did I take pictures of MY food, but I passed my camera around and made everyone else take pictures of THEIR food. I’m really not positive of what all this stuff was… I’ll label the ones I’m sure of.

Half chicken with mustard spaetzle and apple salad (there were about 5 of these at the table)

Goat meat ravioli type things. Thanks for the great picture Meghan!

Raviolo. A HUGE ravioli filled with fresh ricotta cheese and egg yolk. Still smacking myself for not ordering this myself!

Fresh noodles with something called mojama. It’s a Spanish delicacy of cured tuna, grated over the top

Organic grass-fed beef with sweet potatoes (they’re in the background!)

No idea… greens of some sort?

Leigh and I split this whole roasted Pompano fish. I’ve never had more buttery fish, ever!

There were also desserts that were devoured before a picture could be taken, but I assure you, they were FANTASTIC!

After dinner, the group split up and a bunch of us headed north to a quasi-improv show called Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind. I say quasi-improv because while true improv isn’t rehearsed, this is… it’s 30 plays in 60 minutes, the cost of admission is $9 plus whatever is rolled on a 6-sided die, and if they sell out, they order pizza. We’ve been going to this show for the better part of the last 15 years, and it was the PERFECT thing for us to do. The doors didn’t open for another 45 minutes when we got there, so we went around the corner to a favorite bar, Hopleaf, for another drink. I got a raspberry Lambic.

[source]

We then went back, got in line, and took a final group picture.

From Left: Me, Lizz, Leigh, Leah, Mom, Anna, and Kristin

It was an amazingly fun and perfect night out! Thank you SO MUCH to Leigh,, all who came, and everyone who helped make it a night I’ll never forget! I love you all!

I spent the night at Lizz’s house, and we had the luxury of going to IHOP for brunch… there’s something about breakfast food cooked by someone else that’s just so great! Dinner has yet to be decided…

Technorati Tags: beef, Bristol, cheese, Chicago dining, dinner, dinner out, family, food, friends, fun, noodles, out, red meat, restaurant, salad, seafood, thank you, wedding

19 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, November 15th 2009 | Tags: beef, Bristol, cheese, Chicago dining, dinner, dinner out, family, food, friends, fun, noodles, out, red meat, restaurant, salad, seafood, thank you, wedding
Posted in beef, dinner out, family, friends

On a Roll!

I can’t believe it!

I have now cooked TWO CONSECUTIVE NIGHTS!! The best part? I didn’t have to go to the grocery store! It was a complete and total “see what’s in the house and throw it together” kind of meal… and thank goodness it was good!

This random conglomeration included, for two servings:

3 slices bacon, diced
2 small chicken breasts, diced
1 large bag frozen broccoli
1 roma tomato, chopped
garlic powder
basil
oregano
2 servings Al Dente spinach fettuccine
1/4 c. lowfat cheddar cheese on top

Quite green. Quite simple. Quite delicious.

There may have also been some garlic bread on the side that I could NOT get a good picture of…

I’m definitely not 100% yet, so the full day of work and cooking have definitely worn me out. House is on tonight, and I’m planning an early to bed night. I apologize for the lackluster posts, but I promise they’ll get better. I swear!

Have a fantastic evening! Be looking for posts this week on ginormous sandwiches, a “you pick what I cook” dinner poll, and a Guest for Dinner!

Technorati Tags: cheese, chicken, dinner, food, fun, Italian, noodles, pasta, simple recipe, vegetables

17 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, November 9th 2009 | Tags: cheese, chicken, dinner, food, fun, Italian, noodles, pasta, simple recipe, vegetables
Posted in Italian, chicken/turkey, simple recipe

Peanutty Noodle Wednesday

It’s BAAAAACK!!!

Noodle Wednesday is back after a one-week hiatus, and I’m so thrilled I decided to go with it! I couldn’t decide what KIND of noodles to make, so I asked on Twitter: peanut or parmesan? The overwhelming response? Peanut!

Some of the Twitter-spouses even chimed in that THEY wanted peanut, and one (who we didn’t count) said Parmesan.

So peanut noodles it was. I made a big serving of some of my Al Dente egg noodles:

And after draining made a quick sauce consisting of:

2 Tbsp. Simply Skippy peanut butter
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
tiny squeeze Sriracha hot sauce
1 Tbsp. soy sauce

Ok, it wasn’t even a sauce, I just stirred all that into the hot noodles and it all melted together. And it was delicious.

Not the prettiest dinner in the world, but it certainly was delicious! The only thing I wish I’d done was make more of them so I could eat them for lunch tomorrow! I also wish I’d put some color on the plate so it looked prettier… but oh well, they were AWESOME!

In other news, today is Sesame Street’s 40th birthday! I still believe that Sesame Street is truly the best show on TV, now or at any time, and I’m so glad I got to grow up watching my favorite monsters, birds, grouches, and worms (remember Slimey?) In honor of this momentous occasion, my favorite Sesame Street song!

What’s yours favorite Sesame Street song or skit???

Thank goodness tomorrow is Thursday! This week is going SO MUCH FASTER than last week!

Technorati Tags: Asian, dinner, food, fun, noodles, pasta, simple recipe, vegetarian

11 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, November 4th 2009 | Tags: Asian, dinner, food, fun, noodles, pasta, simple recipe, vegetarian
Posted in Asian, simple recipe, vegetarian

Warning Blah Post Ahead

I’ve been sick since Friday. Not sick like I was last spring where I had to go to the hospital, but sick. I had a headache so bad I nearly passed out in the shower Friday morning, a fever maxing out at 102 degrees, and my body hurt like I just worked out for hours.

Luckily, I’m on the mend, and my appetite came back yesterday and I indulged in some pizza. Tonight all I wanted was Chinese food, so that’s what we got!

steamed spiced pork dumplings (my favorite!)

Chicken chow mein cantonese with…

pan-fried noodles instead of rice!

We always had chicken chow mein cantonese growing up, and its a total comfort food for me… which is what I needed! I’m resting up tonight as I’m planning on heading back to work tomorrow. Too bad I have too many cooties to go visit my favorite little peapod!!

Baby Quin, Halloween 2009

Could he be any cuter?!

Here’s hoping I’m up to cooking tomorrow!!

Technorati Tags: Asian, cute, dinner out, friends, noodles, sick

18 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, November 1st 2009 | Tags: Asian, cute, dinner out, friends, noodles, sick
Posted in Asian, dinner out, friends

Slightly Different Noodle Wednesday

I spent the most glorious hour and a half this afternoon hanging out with my friend Heidi and her brand new baby! Quinlan is absolutely adorable, and he has that new baby smell and fuzzy red hair on his head… I’m in love Congratulations again, Heidi & Adam!!!

When I got home after a ridiculous commute since our town has decided to cut every major road down to less than one lane in each direction, the last thing I wanted to do was cook a complicated meal. Luckily, there was a package waiting for me on the counter when I walked in!

The lovely and generous Monique from Al Dente pasta offered to send me some samples last week, and I was more than happy to try them. There are 5 different varieties that she sent, but for tonight’s Noodle Wednesday I opted to cook up the garlic parsley fettuccine with some broccoli florets, olive oil, and parmesan cheese… talk about comfort food!

The garlic flavor in the pasta itself was mellow and delicious, and made the preparation of dinner super simple. The best part? The pasta was perfectly cooked in 4 minutes! I can’t wait to try the other varieties, and SOON!

I have some cookies to bake tonight for the winner of a blogger bake sale… it’s one of those things that I keep meaning to do, and every time I go to bake, something comes up and I end up not baking. So, Michelle, if you’re reading, you WILL get your cookies!

Don’t forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway!

Have a great Thursday!

Technorati Tags: cheese, food, giveaway, Italian, noodles, pasta, simple recipe, vegetables, vegetarian

15 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, October 21st 2009 | Tags: cheese, food, giveaway, Italian, noodles, pasta, simple recipe, vegetables, vegetarian
Posted in Italian, giveaway, simple recipe, vegetarian

365 Days (Giveaway Post)

359 Posts

6,077 Comments

over 100 recipes

5,930 Tweets

245 Google Reader followers

402 FeedBurner subscribers

715 Twitter followers

ONE YEAR OF WHAT’S FOR DINNER!

Did anyone figure it out? The theme for yesterday’s Cute Food Saturday was “birthday cakes”. Not because any human was having a birthday, but because the blog was! I cannot believe it’s been a year already. I’ve met some of the most amazing people, both virtually and in real life, and had wonderful experiences, fun times, and great food.

I’ve discovered new foods

Indulged addictions:

Drastically improved photos:

Then and Now

Eaten at amazing restaurants:

Tru thanks to FoodBuzz, Frontera Grill

The Publican, and Red Mango/Yogen Fruz

And through all this, we’ve been planning our wedding, which will be in 41 days!

To celebrate my Blogiversary, I’m going to give one lucky What’s For Dinner reader a “favorite things” prize pack including, but not limited to:

One foodie charm of their choice
One coupon for free Oikos yogurt (16 oz)
One 32 oz. jar Tropical Traditions Extra Virgin Coconut OIl
One coupon for free Alouette spreadable cheese
One package of Matt’s Cookies (a Chicago favorite)
Three pieces of Fannie May chocolate (another Chicago fave, individually wrapped of course)
Two Cherry Pie Larabars
A Food-Themed bracelet by my ColorHungry friend
One Chicago-themed travel mug

That’s not all, but I haven’t figured out the rest yet! Due to shipping costs, entry is limited to US residents only. How to enter? The usual!

Leave a comment below for one entry
Link back to this post on your blog, or email me for a second entry, AND leave a second comment that you’ve done so..
Tweet about the contest mentioning @imadedinner AND (this is the key for the third entry) leave a second comment to tell me you’ve done so

Only comments will be counted for entry!! The contest will run the whole week, and the winner will be announced on Sunday, October 25th.

I spent today at the apple orchard with Lizz and Skylar, and then we went to Asian Noodle House…enjoy the pictures!

Thank you all for continuing to read my little blog, and for being such wonderful additions to my life. I’m truly grateful for all of you!

Technorati Tags: alouette, Asian, cheese, Chinese, cute, dinner, dinner out, food, friends, Frontera, frozen yogurt, giveaway, noodles, out, restaurant, Rick Bayless, sushi, thank you, Tropical Traditions, twitter, wedding

151 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, October 18th 2009 | Tags: alouette, Asian, cheese, Chinese, cute, dinner, dinner out, food, friends, Frontera, frozen yogurt, giveaway, noodles, out, restaurant, Rick Bayless, sushi, thank you, Tropical Traditions, twitter, wedding
Posted in Asian, contest/giveaway, dinner out, friends, giveaway

Noodle Wednesday

Apparently, Adam and I have a new tradition… Noodle Wednesdays! Who knows how long this will go on, but it’s two weeks in a row now that we’ve gone to Asian Noodle House on a Wednesday. I had every intent of cooking dinner, and even asked Adam to go to the grocery store to pick up a few ingredients, but alas, after our first meeting with our Rabbi who will be marrying us (in 45 days!!!!!), we were too hungry to go home and wait for dinner to be done.

So now you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for the recipe I was planning! Trust me, it’s a good one!

Tonight, we were adventurous. We started with an appetizer of cuttlefish balls.

Don’t know what a cuttlefish ball is? Well, we didn’t either! A cuttlefish, according to Wikipedia is not a fish, but rather a mollusk. They’re kind of gross looking in all honesty, but man, they’re delicious!

I went with braised noodles with roast duck… a new favorite!

This came with a small bowl of delicious shrimp wonton soup:

It was a satisfying meal as usual… and luckily we ate a bit later than usual, so I won’t get hungry before bed! There are a lot of fun things happening in the next week or so, but you’ll all have to wait and find out what they are…yeah, I’m sneaky like that. And no, I still haven’t quit my job to be a full time blogger. Thats not gonna happen!

Have a wonderful Thursday all!

Technorati Tags: Asian, Chicago dining, dinner, dinner out, noodles, out

15 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, October 14th 2009 | Tags: Asian, Chicago dining, dinner, dinner out, noodles, out
Posted in Asian, dinner out, fish or seafood

What's For Dinner?

Winner Winner Chinese Dinner

10 Comments

Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful…

15 Comments

Reality=Cooking

13 Comments

Bachelorette Party Recap!

19 Comments

On a Roll!

17 Comments

Peanutty Noodle Wednesday

11 Comments

Warning Blah Post Ahead

18 Comments

Slightly Different Noodle Wednesday

15 Comments

365 Days (Giveaway Post)

151 Comments

Noodle Wednesday

15 Comments

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