Meal 18: Ashley makes chicken rolatini

What you need:

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups (1 medium) zucchini, shredded
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Romano cheese (or parmesan)
• 3 oz part skim shredded mozzarella
• salt and pepper to taste
• 8 thin chicken cutlets, 3 oz each
• 1/2 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
• 1 lemon, juice of
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt and fresh pepper
• olive oil non-stick spray

Directions:

• Wash and dry cutlets, season with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 450°. Lightly spray a baking dish with non-stick spray.
• In a large skillet, heat oil on medium-high heat. Add oil when hot then saute garlic a minute, or until golden. Add zucchini, 1/4 cup Romano cheese, salt and pepper and saute about 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool. When cool, add mozzarella cheese and mix to combine.
• Lay chicken cutlets down on a working surface and spread 3 tbsp of zucchini-cheese mixture on each cutlet. Loosely roll each one and keep seam side down.
• Combine breadcrumbs and grated cheese in one bowl; in a second bowl combine olive oil, lemon juice, and pepper in another bowl.
• Dip chicken in lemon-oil mixture, then in breadcrumbs and place seam side down in a baking dish (no toothpicks needed). Repeat with the remaining chicken. When finished, lightly spray with oil spray.
• Bake 25 - 30 minutes. Serve immediately.
  

Result:

I couldn't find cutlets at the store, and we didn't have a mallet to pound them out, so I used 'thinly sliced chicken breasts' instead. They were a little fat, so I did have to use toothpicks to hold them in place, but they still turned out awesome.

I loved the parmesan in the filling and the extra bonus on the breading. The lemon/olive oil substitute for eggs was nice, too! Sneaky way to get some zucchini in your diet!

I'll buy more chicken next time. I thought I had more in the package! They went quick!

Meal 17: Ashley makes honey garlic chicken

What you Need

• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped or grated
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup honey
• fresh basil, shredded, for garnish

How it's done:

• Place the chicken in the bottom of a 4-quart slow cooker. In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, soy sauce, ketchup and honey. Pour over the chicken and cover.
• Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or high for 3 to 4 hours. Remove chicken, place on a plate and tent with foil to keep warm. Transfer the remaining sauce to a saucepan and reduce down over medium heat until desired consistency is reached. Serve over the chicken and garnish with fresh basil.
• Serve over rice.

Result:

• This was really great for how simple it was!
• I personally thought the saltiness of the soy sauce was a little strong, so if I make it again, I'll use a low-sodium variety (but nobody else said anything)
  
• Also, I only cooked this for 5.5 hours on low, and I'd have liked to lose the last half hour at least. It was a touch on the dry side (but not much)
• I didn't have time to reduce the sauce, so I just added wondra to thicken it up. I imagine the sauce would have been different reduced!
  

Meal 16: Ashley makes bowtie pasta

Ingredients:

• 1 box farfalle (bowtie) pasta
• 2 jars pasta sauce- I use Ragu's sauteed onion and garlic
• ~1tsp dried basil, oregano, parsley
• 1 package italian sausage
• 1 package mozarella cheese

How it's done:

• Cook pasta using box directions
• Meanwhile, remove sausage from casings and brown in frying pan.
• Put pasta sauce in large pan. Add herbs. Once sausage is cooked, add to sauce (minus the grease)
• Once pasta is done, drain it and add it to the sauce and sausage
• Stir in entire package mozarella cheese
• Once the cheese is melted, it's ready to serve!

Result:

This wasn't a new recipe for me, but I hadn't made it in a while! It's always a favorite, and it's super easy. Tastes great reheated, too, so it's awesome for leftovers. :)

Meal 15: Sydney makes meatball sandwiches and broccoli and cheese casserole

How it's done and ingredients:

Mini meatball sandwiches: HERE

• Because we didn't have provolone cheese, Sydney used swiss instead, and it tasted fine!
  

Broccoli and cheese casserole: HERE


Results:

• The mini meatball sandwiches were great. Super moist, flavorful!
• The casserole was super cheesy, which I think we all found a little overwhelming ("I have more cheese than broccoli" -Sydney). Apparently we don't like our Velveeta as much as the pioneer woman does.
  

Meal 14: Ashley's failed Avacado Pasta

SO. Here's the deal.

The recipe I used called for a food processor. We had a blender. Said blender decided it did not want to function properly.

This meant that despite my best efforts, several ingredients could not be added in (because no one wants to bite into whole raw pieces of garlic, let's be real).

In the end, we gave up on it. I tried my best to eat it, but seeing as it was only olive oil, avacado, and lemon juice at that point, it tasted an awful lot like avocado with a little bit of lemon juice, and it just wasn't cutting it.

SAD DAY. I'll try this again sometime when I have a food processor.

On the plus side, I used one of our (ten) containers of spaghetti we've needed to make use of.

Meal 13: Sarah makes pork tenderloin

Ingredients:
TBA

How it's done:
TBA


Result:

• The potatoes were awesome.
• The gravy for the pork tenderloin was really good- very different!
• Actual roast was a little overcooked, probably because Sarah was waiting on us slackers to get home and trying to keep it warm!
• Overall: great!
  

Meal 12: Ashley makes Chicken Tacos

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts
• 1/2-3/4 packet chicken taco seasoning
• 1 jar salsa
• 1 can corn
  
• Whatever taco toppings you prefer (we did avocado, pico, cheese, sour cream, lettuce)
• 1 box rice
• 1 can black beans

How it's done:

1. Put chicken, salsa, corn, taco mix in a slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours.
2. Serve with toppings.

Result:

These were ridiculously good for how easy they were. Highly recommend and will make again!