Semi Homemade

There is nothing exceptionally special about the two meals I bring you in this blog. However, I thoroughly enjoyed them both and perhaps they'll give you some more dinner ideas! There is no such thing as too many recipes or too many ideas. Variety is important to enjoy food and want to eat healthy food as opposed to fast food. Variety makes you anticipate cooking and gathering around the table (or your favorite chair if you live alone like me!).

It's no secret that I love the Food Network. It inspires me to make great things and try new recipes! But, one of the most practical shows on the best channel ever, whether she annoys you or not as she does some people, is Semi Homemade with Sandra Lee. Making fancy meals with finesse (which is the Food Network's favorite word) is super fun! I love love love doing it. Including extravagant meals every once in a while is great, but doing it all the time just isn't practical! Unless you have some kind of super power and no jobs or kids or other responsibilities, you just can't always make everything from scratch. Most of us do things the semi homemade way. AND there is nothing wrong with a box! Hamburger Helper really is one of my favorite things to eat. Don't start throwing stones! I grew up on the stuff. Once every three months or so, I love me some Hamburger Helper.

For Sunday cooking day the planned meal was a Tony Chachere box mix red beans and rice. It was really good! I added some chicken green onion jalapeno sausage to it. I made some Glory Foods Southern Style turnip greens to go with it. Which by the way are the best non homemade turnip greens ever! They really are good. And you just can't have red beans and rice and turnips without cornbread! I mixed up a batch of Jiffy cornbread muffins. Yes, I could have made all these things from scratch. But you don't have to do that every time. Quick fixes are great! Use them.

For Tuesday cooking day the planned meal was a really simple and pretty healthy meal, but really yum! I used one of the two packets in a poultry shake-n-bake (Wal-mart brand) box and mixed it with about 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese, the shake on top your spaghetti and pizza kind, in the bag that came with the box. I wisked two eggs in a bowl. I dipped four turkey breast cutlets in the eggs and then gave each a good shake in the shake-n-bake/parmesan mixture. I quartered a medium sweet onion and put in in the sprayed baking dish with the turkey cutlets. I cooked them per package instructions. They were so moist and flavorful and just good!

I also sliced up 5ish potatoes in round chip-like pieces. I put them in a sprayed baking dish with a quartered red onion and sweet onion. I chopped three small garlic cloves, drizzled olive oil, sprinkled sea salt, cracked black pepper and a lot of Greek seasoning. I also sprinkled on probably about 4 tablespoons of shredded good parmesan (the rest of what I had left). I tossed and stirred the mix and baked them in the oven as well with the cutlets at 400. I put them in first, cooked them probably for 40 minutes.

I cooked steam in the bag whole green beans. The steam in the bag vegetables are so good! They have less sodium and taste so much more fresh. Both of these meals fed me four times and I didn't get tired of either of them. They will definitely find their way back on the rotation. Don't be ashamed of the box! Don't only rely on the box, but the box is our friend.