Dinners Sept. 2-8

I am excited about the dinners we have planned this week!  They are all tasty, easy to prepare, and make great leftovers for lunch!

Meals 1 & 6... - Burgers (we bought extra meat to make this 2 times this week!)
Meal 2 - Baked coconut fish with homemade sweet potato chips
Meal 3 - Stuffed shells  - easy to make (including homemade Alfredo to DIE FOR!)
Meal 4 - Chicken fajitas with peppers, onions, and mushrooms
Meal 5 - Apple & fennel seasoned pork chops with peppered couscous

Meals 1 & 6 - Burgers
As stated in last week's post, Neal makes the BEST BURGERS EVER.  Burgers are one of our favorite dinners.  Instead of turkey, like last week, we are using lean ground beef.  I plan on topping mine with goat cheese this week to make for an extra delicious treat!

Meal 2 - Baked coconut fish and sweet potato chips
This meal is much more simple than it may sound at first.  I used tilapia filets, 1 egg, homemade breadcrumbs and shredded coconut to make the fish.  

• Thaw your fish if frozen and preheat oven to 350
• Dip in an egg that's been cracked and scrambled (I used a Tupperware container)
• Dip that fish into a mixture of breadcrumbs and coconut flakes.  I used about 1/2 cup bread crumbs and 1/4 cup coconut flakes to season 5 tilapia filets. 
• Place your fish on a pan or I use a metal cooling rack placed on top of the pan and cook for 8-10 minutes depending on the size of your fish.

Sweet potato chips are also VERY easy to make.  I put them in the oven while it's heating up and I am preparing my fish.  Simply slice a sweet potato into thin chips, season with about 1/2 a T olive oil, pepper, salt, and cumin to taste (I used about 1 t of salt & pepper and 2 t of cumin).  After cooking my fish, if my chips still need some baking, I put the oven on broil for 2 minutes + to get them a little crispier.

Meal 3 - Stuffed Shells
This is SO DELICIOUS!  You MUST try making your own Alfredo sauce! 

Easy Alfredo Sauce

Low to Medium heated saucepan, combine the following:

1/4 cup butter

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 -1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

THAT's IT!

 

You can stuff your shells with so many different ingredients, this time I chose onion, garlic, mushrooms, mixed greens, ricotta, and Parmesan.

Ingredients

12 Shells - cooked

Homemade Alfredo

1 onion

3-4 garlic cloves

1/4 cup chopped mushrooms

2 handfuls fresh greens (spinach)

4 oz ricotta cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan

1/4 - 1/2 cup mozzarella shredded

 

Take those big shells and cook according to the package.  We made 1 dozen, I had 3, Neal had 5, and we have 4 left over for lunches.  Rinse and cool after cooking.

 

In a large pan with 1 T olive oil, saute 1 diced onion and 3-4 cloves of garlic on medium heat for 6 minutes.  Add about 1/4 cup chopped mushroom and saute.  Add in two handfuls of fresh greens (spinach works great) and about 1 T water, cover with lid and let steam.  Once the greens are wilted, take out this mix and chop it up on a cutting board.  Let this cool slightly.

 

In a large bowl, combine 4 oz ricotta cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan, 1 egg, and 2 t Italian Seasoning.  Combine your onion/greens mixture with this cheese mixture.  Stuff your shells and place them in a baking dish with a lid (or use foil).  Pour your homemade Alfredo sauce on top of your shells and sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top.  Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees.