Gourmet Meals For Less

Third rollover is a charm....Jerk Chicken Quesadillas with Slaw

this picture is why I love natural light 
Slaw Salad

I am tired.... and I hear you saying..."uh huh, what mom isn't?"  and I know that...but that still doesn't change the fact that "I" am tired.  And can't come up with anything clever or witty to say tonight.  It's just been one of those weeks and I'm ready for the sunshine to come out to stay, permanently!  So tonight you get just a recipe.  I will edit this later to include the price breakdown, it was under $10...didn't doubt it on this one.  So stay tuned for a more detailed breakdown and critique, but for those who might actually make the Rollover Menu in 3 days I wanted you to have this last recipe.  And thanks for understanding about my ho hum entry cause it's just been a ho hum kind of day.

Rolling it over...Jerk Chicken Sweet and Spicy Sesame Noodles

As promised here is recipe #2 from my second round of Rachael Ray Rollover Meals.  Recipe #1, Jerk Chicken with Roasted Vegetables and Pineapples was a huge success...but oh my!  This one was even better.  I thought it was interesting that we found the same thing to be true with the Pork Loin Rollover Meal.  We really liked the main recipe, but LOVED the Pork Loin Chili even better.  Maybe it's because in both cases the meat has had time to absorb even more of the flavors while waiting in the fridge to be used for the follow-up recipes.  But whatever it is, this recipe did not fail.

I was so excited to have a guest 'taste tester" over for the Sesame Noodles.  I often get suspicious that my family is so happy to have a good hot meal and is afraid that this might cease to exist if they are too critical, that they might not always be giving me their unfettered opinion.  So, it's nice when someone else is over to give me feedback. 


Now this person, tends to be a little bias cause she loves me dearly, and she knows when she stops in she is likely to get something good to eat, but I know she will ALWAYS tell me the truth...we have that kind of relationship...and it's a good thing.  So I was glad to get her take on this recipe...the fact that my friend who is very careful with "portion control" went back for seconds..and shhh I think even thirds...was a good sign!  She gave it two thumbs up and so did hubby and I, so I consider this one a big success!  I hope you will too...oh and it makes a TON!  Way more than I thought it would, so it's a great one for extra guests. 

And please indulge me for a minute on a little side note here to my extra guest...

Thank you for spending the evening with us.  It was full of good eating, hysterical laughter, some "interesting cartoons" (hehe) and "from the heart" conversation...you are a joy in my life!

 

 

Rachael Ray rollover meal round 2....Jerk Chicken

Here's the next promised 3 day Rachael Ray Rollover Meal Plan.  Jerk Chicken with Roasted Vegetables and Pineapple. I love these because it allows me to focus most of my cooking energy on one night making the next two evenings of meal preparation a breeze.

After having completed two of these plans now, the first one was Roast Pork Loin, I have realized that it is VERY important to start that first meal on a day when you have some extra time.  You do not want to make this first meal when you feel rushed or frazzled.  Save the next two meals for your "busy" days...now if I could just learn to take my own advise..

So, you are wondering, how was the jerk chicken with roasted vegetables and pineapple?  My husband's words when he walked in the door should give you a clue..."Oh man!  That smells SO good, what is it?"  Nothing like hearing those words to make you forget the hour you just spent blending from scratch jerk chicken rub; and peeling and coring a whole pineapple while trying to avoid chopping off a finger.

The aroma of the chicken cooking truly transformed the whole house...if I closed my eyes I even felt like I was on a Caribbean island somewhere...okay in reality not so much..BUT it did smell really good.  The chicken roasted beautifully, it was moist and delicious.  I was worried about it being a little "spicy" for the kids since it had two jalapenos in the rub but it wasn't at all!  Just a perfect blend of spicy and sweet.

Below you will find the first of three meals.  At the end I will list the additional ingredients you will need for the other two recipes so you can purchase all of them at once.

Frustrated Blogger...and Fusion Pizza

Fusion Pizza

 

Sigh….so what do you do when Typepad loses an entire blog entry that you spent hours working on?  One with lots of pictures and recipes that are in your head and not written down?  You sulk and swear not to spend another hour on the computer….at least for a day.  I am patiently waiting to see if the amazing little Typepad elves behind the scenes can retrieve this lost entry and so in the meantime I’m going to share with you what I did with the second half of my roasted chicken.  If by some miracle I get my Roasted Rosemary Chicken entry back I will put that up, if not I will retype it when I’m in a better mood about it.  But, today you get my version of a Rachael Ray rollover meal. 

 

Funny thing, I’ve been cooking like this for a long time, just never had a name for it.  I always try and get two meals out of a roasted chicken, and this time was no exception.  My family knows when a chicken is cooking that the next night means BBQ chicken pizza, but this week they were in for a second treat.  By poaching two chicken breasts in addition to what was left over from the roasted chicken, I was able to not only make the BBQ chicken pizza but tried my hand at a chicken curry pizza as well…can you say yum! (Okay so technically the kids didn’t even try the curry pizza, but trust me if you like Indian food you will like this pizza)

After promising that if you would go ahead and purchase the curry paste for Indian Curry Roast Veggies over Spiced Rice I would come up with some other recipes using it, I felt now was as good as a time as any.  With fusion food (defined as combining elements of various culinary traditions while not fitting specifically into any) you can get away with experimenting new tastes and flavors that normally do not go together, so I thought what the heck, Indian and Italian can’t be too bad right…and I was feeling a little daring so thus I present you with two great homemade pizza recipes:

BBQ Chicken Pizza and Curry Chicken Pizza

Rollover Menu.....Day 3

Indian Curry Roast Veggies with Spiced Rice

 

Last night concluded the third day of my rollover menu experiment.  I have been wanting to prepare one of Rachel Ray's Rollover Meal Plans, and was hoping I could bring it in at under $10 a night.  So far I have succeeded.  The first night's meal: Rollover Roast Pork Loin and Gravy with Roasted Veggies and Potatoes

came in at: $8.96

The second night's meal: Roast Pork Black Bean Chili

came in at: $9.39

My expectations for the third night's meal coming in at well under $10 were high.  1- because it was mostly made up of item's that were from the first night's meal cutting down on the cost and 2- because it was vegetarian.  The largest expense from the first two nights was most obviously the pork loin.  The two male's in my household were viewing with some trepidation the concept of eating dinner without any meat, (my hubby's only consolation to this meatless dinner was getting to take the left over chili to work) so I had to make sure last night's meal delivered...

Rollover Menu....Day 2

Rollover Roast Pork and Black Bean Chili

A little recap for those of you just joining me...I am working through a three day menu plan featured on Rachael Ray's website called "Rollover Meals".  Monday night I completed meal one:

Rollover Roast Pork Loin and Gravy with Roasted Veggies and Potatoes

Last night was meal two.

We are some chili eating fools in this house and we especially love to have it when it's below -20° outside (okay so it's not actually -20° more like just straight 20°but it feels like -20°) so I was excited to try this recipe.  It definitely was chili with a southwestern flair, and the hope was it would be quick and easy since I did the bulk of the food preparation the night before.  Could it deliver on it's promise to make tonight's meal a breeze??

Roll Over Menu....Day 1

Rollover Roast Pork Loin and Gravy with Roasted Veggies and Potatoes

 

I started receiving Everyday with Rachael Ray last year in the mail,

 

and have really enjoyed the section on budget recipes she features every month.  Occasionally on her show and website she will share her "Rollover Meals". 

The premise of the plan is that you can cook the bulk of your ingredients the first night, and roll them over for two more days...so that you end up with three unique meals.  Now Rachael does not imply that these meals will come in at $10 or under, but I wanted to give it a try.  So my first attempt at her "Rollover Meals" consisted of the following three meals:

Rollover Roast Pork Loin and Gravy with Roasted Veggies and Potatoes
Rollover Roast Pork and Black Bean Chili
and
Indian Curry Roast Veggies over Spiced Rice

 So join me over the next three days to see if I can succeed in creating convenient rollover dinners while staying under $10 a meal.