best dessert

Progresso Recipe Starters Giveaway

Back to school means back to busy weeknight schedules. Between homework, activities, practices, work and class, preparing a delicious home-cooked meal can be quite a challenge, and getting started is often the hardest part. Let new ProgressoTM Recipe StartersTM cooking sauces give you a head start to a home cooked meal, and you´ll ace the dinner time routine this year!

Progresso Recipe Starters sauces are available in five flavorful varieties that can each be used as a starter to create numerous home-cooked meals. For added inspiration, Progresso created 80 recipes utilizing this new line of cooking sauces that can be found on Progresso.com/RecipeStarters. Many of these recipes are classic family favorites, such as Bacon Mac n´ Cheese, Chicken Pot Pie and Chicken Parmesan, and utilize ingredients your family may already have on-hand. In addition, all of the recipes on the site include a Rate and Review feature, so we encourage you to leave a rating and review of your own, in which you can even include a link back to your blog post about that recipe! Look for Progresso Recipe Starters in the soup aisles!

Inspired by the five "Mother" Sauces that form the basis of classical French cooking, including Béchamel, Velouté, Tomato, Espagnole and Hollandaise, Recipe Starters use a variety of ingredients and the best techniques to make sure you have delicious options to take on the school days dinner dilemma. The five varieties are:
Creamy Parmesan Basil: This creamy, full-bodied and indulgent sauce that was inspired by alfredo and creamy pesto sauces can be used to make dishes such as Crispy Garlic-Parmesan Chicken, Creamy Chicken Alfredo, Basil Chicken Ravioli Carbonara and Basil Chicken Thai Noodle
Creamy Roasted Garlic with Chicken Stock: With caramelized, roasted chicken broth, garlic and a touch of cream, this stock is perfect for dishes such as Creamy Lemon Chicken, Chicken Pot Pie and Chicken Enchiladas
Fire Roasted Tomato: A medium-thick tomato sauce, accompanied by flavors of roasted, caramelized tomatoes, oregano and bell peppers, which can be used as a great way to begin creating Pulled Chicken Sandwiches, Easy Weeknight Chicken Parmesan, Cheese-stuffed Mini Meat Loaves and Mole Tacos
Creamy Portabella Mushroom: Creamy and highly indulgent, this smooth sauce is rich with sautéed Portabella mushrooms, giving you any easy way to start delicious dishes like Easy Weeknight Beef Stroganoff, Steak and Mushroom Sandwich and Tetrazzini
Creamy Three Cheese: Rich and creamy with a blend of yellow and white cheeses, and a savory background of chicken stock, onion, garlic and cracked pepper, this is a great way to satisfy cheese lovers with Easy Weeknight Bacon Mac & Cheese, Twice-Baked Potato Pizza and Cheesy Egg Breakfast Tacos.

Just look at this Creamy Lemon Chicken...

It's made using the Creamy Roasted Garlic Progresso Starter.

How would you like to win this...

Two cans of Progresso Recipe Starters

$10 Gift Card to purchase your recipe ingredients

Progresso Recipe Starters cookbook with 5 recipes

Baking Dish

Measuring Cups

Sauce Scraper

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Disclosure: The information, products and ProgressoTM Recipe StartersTM gift packs were provided by Progresso through MyBlogSpark.

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Totally Tasty Tuesdays

How was everyone's weekend?

We spent it celebrating Preston's 8th birthday at the fair and watching Hannah sing at the fair.

And eating a funnel cake.

That's my Kid.

Let's see what you've been up to this past week...

S'more Pudding

It's getting cold at night. I love that I can finally say that.

I am so over the heat.

Today we are headed to the State Fair for one last "summer" hurrah.

Hannah was asked to sing at it so we are headed up to Blackfoot, ID to watch her in her element.

Brave, brave girl.

Today I have a delicious pudding treat to share.

It is really so simple, but I love the Cook and Serve pudding. Chocoalte is my favorite of the bunch.

Ingredients

1 large box of chocolate Cook and Serve pudding

Graham Cracker Crumbs

Jet Puffed Mallow Bits

How You do It

Make the pudding according to package directions. Pour into ramekins or small bowls. Let cool. Sprinkle with crumbs and Mallow Bits.

These amazing yummy bits are fabulous. I use them in cookies and add to my hot cocoa when I just need more.

Stick in the fridge until cool or serve immediately.

Printable Version

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Gourmet Rack of Lamb

An easy way to be frugal at home is by purchasing less expensive ingredients, or buying only those that are on sale. Every now and then though it is important to treat yourself, especially if you love to cook! Stop in to a gourmet food store and see what premium products they have in stock—a little quality can go a long way. Try experimenting with luxury olive oils or mustards for the recipe below.

image by waferboard

Ingredients

1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (7 bone) rack of lamb, trimmed and frenched
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Directions

First, move oven rack to the center position. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Then, in a bowl, toss the bread crumbs with the garlic, rosemary, 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp of pepper. Drizzle 2 tbs olive oil to moisten the mixture. Set aside.
With salt and pepper, season the rack of lamb all over. Now heat 2 tbs olive oil in a heavy, oven-proof skillet over high heat. Sear the lamb for 1 to 2 mins on all sides. Brush the rack with mustard, and then cover in the bread crumb mixture until evenly coated. Cover the ends of the bones with foil to prevent charring.
Set the rack bone side down in the skillet. Roast the lamb in the oven for 16 mins. With a thermometer, read the center of the meat after 10 to 12 minutes and remove the meat, or let it cook longer, to your taste. Let it rest for 5 to 7 minutes, loosely covered, before carving between the ribs.

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Gluten-Free Turkey Meatloaf with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Pecan Crust

Gluten-free turkey meatloaf with sun-dried tomatoes and pecan crust.

A Turn Toward the New

The morning was cool and bright. It was going to be one of those quintessential Cape Cod autumn days. A day tourists swoon over. Worthy of a post card with The weather is sublime- wish you were here scrawled in black gel cursive between sips of a Hot Chocolate Sparrow latte. The sky was a cake bowl of cobalt blue with that particular pink edge to it that only painters notice, the blush that softened the tree line at the north end of the West Barnstable marsh gentling the heavy greens of the pines and oaks into a bluish, almost violet gray.

She brushed her teeth with fennel toothpaste and spit into the low slung sink, pausing to breathe. A long inhale to slow her heart. The cottage was pin drop quiet. The boys had climbed the rubber lined steps into the school bus hours ago, peanut butter and honey sandwiches bagged, milk money in their pockets. She had waved from the street and watched them navigate the bus aisle in shadow, avoiding her maternal gaze, not turning to wave back. Too risky, she understood.

The walk back up the curve of road to the rental she had found last spring felt different this morning. Not because of the air and its September clarity that sharpened the asters and the Queen Anne's Lace with impossible precision- though she felt a kinship with the acute focus the turning of the seasons always brings. That sense of realignment, a perennial return to purpose. Ironically, she always felt as if fall was the season of new beginnings. Not spring.

Fall was the season she woke up, as if from a dream.

Today was the first day of a plein air painting workshop. A post-divorce return to premarital roots, when she painted for the love of it- not the pragmatic bill-paying need of it. Painting for an income (however necessary it may be) is dangerous business. Courting the marketplace changes your work. A self consciousness slithers in and infiltrates your choices. The observer becomes observed. Judged. Rewarded for meeting expectations.

She had always been more than willing to please. To notice the cues and needs of others. It was more than habit. It was ingrained in her bones. She had an uncanny knack for it. And she hated it about herself. She hated her automatic willingness to anticipate and acquiesce. Sometimes she would hear her own words hang in the air and for a quantum, split second wonder who had just spoken. There were entire days lost to living outside herself, hovering above her left shoulder, just beyond reach.

Stepping into the tiny sunlit kitchen she stood still for a moment, tempted by the cluttered breakfast table. The sticky bowls and spoons. The allure of distraction. The comfort of routine. But it didn't take. She snatched her car keys off a hook and grabbed a canvas bag of painting gear by the door, turned the knob with her free hand and opened it wide. Three minutes later she made a right at the empty bus stop, and accelerated east down Old King's Highway.

To be continued...

Read more + get the recipe >>

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Totally Tasty Tuesdays

This is gonna be quick!

We are on our way out the door to go up the canyon for Labor Day.

But I needed to get this ready so I can see all the greatness you will link up!

Here is last week's most viewed recipe...

Caramel Apple Pound Cake

from Served Up With Love

Other Faves...

Peanut Butter S'mores Bars

from Back For Seconds

Brown Sugar Bacon Waffles

from Life as a Lofthouse

Blueberry Sour Cream Pound Cake

from Wilderness Wife

Healthy Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup
from Yummy Healthy Easy

Grab a button if you were featured...

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Chinese Spicy Chicken

Remember how I told you that Chinese food is my favorite?

Well, I did and shame on you for forgetting this very important fact about me.

I made Sweet and Sour Chicken a while ago and it's one of my favorite meals that I make.

My husband isn't one for sweet dinners.

Like Sweet and Sour Chicken. Or those Swedish Meatballs. Or any meat that's sweet. It frustrates me. Why can't he like exactly the same foods as I do? But then I say to myself, "Self, if that were the case, there would be less for you." Duh. It just means when he is gone to WY, I can make all my favorite foods that he doesn't like. And they are all for me.

But then I decided to be nice and make this dish for him. He does like Tiny Spicy Chicken. It is the same as Sweet and Sour Chicken, only less sweet and has a fire kick to it.

Chicken

3-4 boneless chicken breasts

salt & pepper

1 cup cornstarch

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup canola oil

Spicy Sauce

1/4 cup sugar

4 tbsp ketchup

1/2 cup vinegar

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp garlic salt

Sriracha Hot Sauce to taste

Red Pepper flakes

How You Do It

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Rinse your chicken breasts in water and then cut into cubes. I like my chicken partially frozen when cutting. It makes it easier. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs. Heat 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet and cook your chicken until browned but not cooked through. Place the chicken in a 9x13 greased baking dish. Mix all of your Spicy Sauce ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and then pour evenly over the chicken.