Chicken & Veggie Shishkabobs

These are so easy and yummy! -They just might be our family's new favorite meal! I found the marinade recipe randomly online (I sadly don't remember where so as to give credit... allrecipes.com maybe? -I just googled shishkabobs) and we added what sounded good to us, made it and fell in love!

*Note: we have made these a few times now, both outside on the grill and on our little George Foreman grill... super easy! :)

Ingredients:

For the kabobs:
Chicken Breast, cubed (we use about 2-3 breasts)
Veggies, cut up into bite size pieces (we use various peppers, onions, grape tomatoes and etc)
skewers
For Marinade:
3/4 cup Soy Sauce
2/3 cup Veggie Oil
1/2 cup Lemon Juice
1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 cup Mustard
2 cloves Garlic (I just added Garlic Salt instead with the pepper)
Salt & Pepper
Directions:
*If using wooden skewers, remember to soak in water for at least 30 minutes before using.

Mix marinade together well in a med-large bowl (which you will let the chicken soak/marinade in) -we like to reserve some in a separate bowl on the side (about a cup or so) before adding the raw chicken for extra basting while cooking.

Place chicken pieces in to marinade, cover and allow to soak in the fridge for at least 1 hour (the longer the better).

Prepare skewers as desired for cooking, & then just cook until chicken is well done (basting the skewers more while cooking) & enjoy!

**We've been making either fruit smoothies or fruit bowls to go with them, so yummy!! :)

Russian Pelmeni

So Ive been homesick for Russia a lot lately, as well as having some major cravings for some of my favorite foods from there. The other night I decided to make some Pelmeni. Mmmmm...
Nina, our area coordinator in Voronezh would teach us how to make some common Russian dishes, but she often didn't have ingredient amounts, so this is kind of my adaptation to the recipe.
Pelmeni are kind of like ravioli, in a sense, since they are 'filled little pasta-guys'. The filling is usually a meat mixture, but is also really good when just red peppers and tomatoes and etc. (The pictures shown were actually my first time making them in years, and my very first time using meat) They're really simple to make, need only a few basic ingredients, and only take a few minutes to cook once assembled! Russians usually eat them with sour cream and butter... but vinegar, ketchup (Russian ketchup comes in flavors and is awesome), or your favorite pasta sauce. They also freeze well and can be frozen for large amounts of time! This recipe makes about 30-40 pelmeni.

Ingredients:

Dough:
2-4 cups of flour (depends on consistency... it needs to be a manageable but slightly sticky dough)
1 cup milk
a 'dash' of salt
1 tbsp oil (I used olive oil this time but veggie is ok)
2 eggs

Filling:
Some finely chopped veggies (red peppers, tomatoes, etc)
....or some sort of meat mixture.
For the meat I did:
1 lb ground beef
1 sm. chopped/grated onion
1 crushed clove of garlic
(garlic)salt and pepper

Directions:
Mix meat/filling mixture and dough in separate bowls.Roll out and gently knead dough. (You can either roll out entire thing of dough very thing and cut out circles with a cup... or, you can do it like me) Break off about a tablespoon sized piece of dough and rolling to a ball, then flatten into a thin circle (the thinner the better, mine are never quite as thin or as small as the Russians, but they still taste the same! -just beware that they plump up a lot when cooked) In the center of your dough circle, put about a teaspoon sized dab of you filling. Fold dough in half over it and pinch edges to close. (so it should have a flat edge and a half circle rounded edge with the filling inside. Take your two corner edges and pull around to meet, making a ball/circle shape and pinch together to hold. (I should've taken pictures for you since that was probably confusing, but my hands were too doughy! They should look similar to the finished -uncooked- ones pictured below though)

They're really simple and quick to make, but I probably wrote that so it was pretty confusing, sorry! Hope the picture helps!
Then boil a pot of salted water and add a few pelmeni at a time. When they are cooked they should float to the top. (when I did the meat ones I let them boil while floating at the top for a few extra minutes just to be safe that it was cooked enough)
Once finished, dab with a bit of butter, a blob of sour cream, and salt and pepper (I use garlic salt on mine) or other sauce that sounds good... Dan mentioned that they'd probably be really good with soy sauce as well(though that would make them more like Asian pot stickers! *wink*)
Enjoy! -let me know if you have any questions! (I will have to add some pictures to illustrate the wrapping so its not as confusing)

Chicken & Veggie Stirfry

I love making this! Its so simple, pretty quick, and a good way to get in TONS of veggies! Dan laughs because I call this 'My Experimental Stir-fry Veggies with a Hint of Rice' ... its always different depending on what we have available at the time (hence 'experimental') and its like a whole pan full of veggies .... with a little rice. :) This is totally one of those meals you just make up as you go with what you have and what sounds good!

Ingredients:
Chicken breasts (we usually do 2-3)
Veggies, chopped (various peppers, peas, carrots, corn, squash, zucchini, water chestnuts, etc)
Rice (I go by looks since we keep our rice in a plastic container, but usually its about 2 cups)
Soy Sauce and/or Teriyaki Sauce
Salt & Pepper to taste *optional

Directions:
Cube and cook chicken well in a large frying pan. (Add a splash of Teriyaki if you like)
On another burner cook your rice. (we usually have the 'instant' kind around, so it only takes a minute or so)
Chop and add your veggie medley to the pan with the chicken. Saute until tender.
Add rice, some soy sauce, and mix well. I usually cook it all together for another minute or two after adding the rice.
Add soy sauce or seasoning as you like it and enjoy!
(makes about 6 servings)

Bow ties with Veggie Cutouts

One of my favorite cookbooks growing up, ...well, make that 'ever'... is the Disney Family Cookbook! Its not only yummy (and adorable!) recipes, but they're also recipes made to try to interest kids in cooking. I seriously recommend it. :)
Ive been looking around for a yummy recipe to make with squash and zucchini.... not only because I like it and my lovely friend Tannie gave us some form her garden, but also because it needed t be something yummy that I made with them so as to help convince my veggie-hating-husband that he likes them too. I kept coming back to this recipe(which Ive always wanted to make -probably mostly because its the cover picture and is so cute!) so I decided this was it.
....Not only did we all (including Addie) like it, but it was super easy and really quick! -which is always a big plus right?! :)
**I couldn't find a picture online, and I didn't take one of the meal I made because we didn't have all the ingredients so it wasn't as 'pretty' as the photo in the book -though it was still just as yummy! The only photo I could find to use (for now) is a picture of the cover of the book. Doesn't show it too well, but you get the idea right?

Want to try it? Here's what you need:

Ingredients:
2-3 cups vegetable cutouts (carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, red & green peppers, etc)
*the picture shows cute little 'cutouts' of veggies in shapes, but we just did the basic chopping veggies into bite sized pieces ... also, I didn't measure by cups, I just added 1 squash 1 zucchini, etc...
1 pound bow tie pasta, cooked (*we just used Penne because that's what I already had -and again, just 'dumped' a good amount in, didn't measure an actual pound)
2 Tbsp Olive oil
1/3 cup ground almonds (*we didn't have any and it was still good without it)
1/3 cup milk
3 crushed garlic cloves (again, I didn't have at the moment so improvised with garlic powder/salt)
1/2 tsp salt
black pepper
Parmesan cheese

Directions:
To make cutouts, slice the vegetables into 1/8 or 1/4"thicknesses, and cut into shapes with tiny cutters (cut from the fleshy side) .... OR, just be boring like me and chop your veggies into basic bite sized pieces. Set aside.
While the pasta is cooking, heat 1 Tbsp Olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Saute the vegetables for 3-4 minutes.
Remove vegetables and add the remaining olive oil and the almonds. Stir until lightly browned. (*again, we didn't have the almonds, so I just left the veggies int he frying pan and added the rest of the ingredients).
Return the vegetables to the pan and add the milk, garlic, salt, and pepper to taste. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
Drain pasta, and toss it with the vegetable mix in a large bowl. Serve with Parmesan if desired. (which we did).

It took like 10 minutes total, and was not only yummy, but a success in getting the picky husband (probably 'kids' in your case) to eat their veggies! *wink*