Another winner dinner

Tonight for dinner, I created a meal based on a few sources of inspiration and recipes we've had in the past.  I started out planning to make meatloaf muffins, which Roy and I love and Leighton used to love.  But, since I knew I'd get the comment from him that he wished it was the meatballs with rice in them from Auntie Hannah's recipe, I changed my mind and decided to make those instead.  I serve both with mashed potatoes, so that part of the meal was already planned for.  But then, I started thinking about the cabbage in that dish and was really wishing for the cabbage from the Bourbon Street Cafe in Chinook Centre in Calgary (and I am sure many other mall food courts) that is part of the bourbon chicken dish.  I had tried a copycat bourbon chicken recipe last year sometime, and we really liked it.  So, I decided to make that sauce to cook the meatballs and cabbage from my sister's recipe.  Let's just say it was a hit with Leighton (he ate more meatballs than Roy even!).  Phew!

Now some other recipes I haven't shared yet ...

dragon noodles
These are unbelievably delicious.  And so simple.  And cheap.  And require ingredients I always have.  So when Roy & I need a quick dinner for the two of us, this has become my new go-to favorite.

spicy beef and broccoli with cashews
I used some of the sauce that I made for the dragon noodles to marinate some ground beef (I would have used slices of steak, but this is what I had at the time!).  I quickly browned it in a frying pan and added in a little more of the sauce to add some steam action to the pan while I tossed in some garlic, broccoli, and onions.  I only added enough of the sauce to help the cooking process.  I didn't want there to be an actual sauce in the dish.  At the very end I added some cashews and topped it all with some sesame seeds.

BBQ boneless rib sandwich
Remember this from the last recipe round up?  Well, we've had it again since then.  And I remembered to show it to you on better bread!  And it's on the menu plan again this week.  I love it.

corn salad
We love corn on the cob.  Sometimes we just have it plain and other times Roy grills it 'Zambian style' for us.  The kids go through phases when they want it cut off the cob, so when there some of that leftover, it's nice to change it up and make it into a little salad.  This time I used red onion, cilantro, and queso fresco.

freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice and gin
Yum!

Doing well to get through this bottle my Dad bought on one of his visits here!

spinach salad with strawberry dressing
Roy came up with this dressing way back when we lived in Calgary.  It's so delicious.  We like it on spinach salads filled with fruit (any of: strawberries, blackberries, mango, pears, peaches), nuts (any of: almonds, pistachios, pecans), red onion and goat cheese.
- strawberries
- cilantro
- olive oil
- balsamic vinegar
- garlic

baked banana bread oatmeal
I made this but forgot the milk - oops!  It was like a chewy granola bar consistency.  Leighton LOVED it.  I thought it was lacking a little something.  The flavors developed a little more by the second day, but I still want to tweak the recipe a bit and try it again.

spinach ricotta bites
Thought I was making these, but apparently I was confused, lol!  These spinach ricotta ones were tasty, so I am glad I made them by accident!

creamy pesto pasta with artichokes and sundried tomatoes
I like making dishes like these because they are super fast and easy, yet they taste like I spent much more time on them.  That's probably thanks to the jarred pesto I bought at Trader Joe's instead of making my own!  To put this together, I mix pesto with a little cream in a sauce pan, stir in some diced artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, and parmesan cheese, and then mix it with the cooked noodles.  Done and done.  Unless you want to sprinkle some more parmesan cheese on top!

green spaghetti
My sister bought Leighton the Pretend Soup kids' cookbook for Christmas 2 years ago, and he loves looking through the recipes.  He always is interested in the green spaghetti (basically pesto without nuts), and so I encouraged him to grab it one night so he could help me with making dinner.  My plan had us adding in avocado and lemon a la this recipe that I hadn't made in a couple years, and he was ok with that!  I am not sure if it was because he helped make it or if it was because he simply liked it, but Leighton couldn't get enough of it at dinner!  He even asked for some in his lunch the next day (as expected, this is not the best meal to send as leftovers, but he was insistent!).  And don't mind the horrible photo - I thought I got a decent one, but apparently I was too excited to eat and didn't check properly!

teriyaki meatball bowls
A friend posted about this recipe and I immediately wanted to try it.  I used beef instead of pork for the meatballs and next time I definitely want to try either all pork or a mix.  I will also increase the amount of soy sauce in the meatballs.  There is so little that it becomes irrelevant.  Hopefully those two changes will give the meatballs themselves the little boost they need.  The sauce doesn't need any help though.  It's delicious.  And it's the closest I've come to recreating a bottled teriyaki sauce at home, so that was pretty exciting!

coconut bread
It was my friend Lindsey's birthday last month, and I know she is a fan of coconut, so I made her a little basket of coconut goodies (who knew it was so hard to find a nice coconut scented candle?  I feel like I checked everywhere.  In the end, I figured she could handle the laugh and grabbed the Air Wick one!).  This coconut bread is a long-time favorite at our house, and I was excited to share it with her.

strawberry oatmeal bars
I made these to add more coconut goodies to Lindsey's basket.  I was looking for a recipe that would incorporate coconut and the strawberries that were crying out to be finished up from our strawberry picking day.  So, in place of the strawberry preserves in the recipe, I sliced up the berries and cooked them in a little water until they created a nice, chunky jam.  I would love to make these again.  They were really tasty.

cute lunch for Leighton
This isn't a recipe, but I thought I'd include it because it looked cute.  I sometimes try to send Leighton a little bento-style lunch with little bits of food all arranged in one container.  They are fun to put together and I remembered to take a picture of this one!

baked churros 
I had a big menu planned for Cinco de Mayo, but with Riley having a fever, we had to cancel with the friends we had invited for dinner.  We still kept with the theme, but only had BBQ beef fajitas with guacamole and some baked churros.  Oh, and Roy consumed some Coronas!  The churros were delicious and so super easy.  I will make them, and the rest of my planned menu, when we have our Cinco de Mayo re-do in a couple of weeks.  I don't think anyone around here will be complaining about being forced to eat them again!