Author: Helena Hennigan

Dinner Ideas

Lasagna Casserole

Helena HenniganLeave a comment

It was another looong day, and suddenly it was dinner time. I looked in the fridge and there was about two cups of some yummy meaty spagetti sauce, some mushrooms, fresh parsely, and some green onions. The sauce was enough for maybe two people, but definitely not for a family of four.

I threw some swirly noodles in a pot and fixed them to just al-dente. When they were done and drained I added the chopped green onions, parsley and mushrooms. I then threw in all the sauce that was left, and I also added some cottage cheese.

I gave everything a gentle stir and then put it in a square dish, covered with some mozzarella cheese, and then popped it into the oven for about 20 minutes. It was delicious!

Ingredients

  • 1-2 cups spagetti sauce
  • 1 box of noodles
  • 4-5 green onions
  • 1/2 bunch parsely, chopped
  • 1 small box of baby Portobello mushrooms
  • 1 cup cottage cheese
  • 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese

Directions

  • Preheat your oven to 350°
  • Fix the noodles according to the directions. Drain the noodles on the early side of the time, example if it says 9-11 minutes, drain it at 9 minutes. You are going to be cooking it a little bit more in the oven later.
  • While the noodles are cooking, prep the veggies. Cut the green onions, parsely, and mushrooms.
  • Drain the noodles, leaving a little bit of the water to help with mixing everything. Add the prepped veggies, spagetti sauce, and cottage cheese and stir gently. Taste to see if you need to add any other spices or salt.
  • Put mixture in an oven sage dish and cook for about 20 minutes until the cheese is nice and melted.
Dinner Ideas · Salads and Sides

Noodles and Tomatoes

Helena HenniganLeave a comment

It is the end of summer, and I have so many TOMATOES! I knew I needed to use them, but how could I use them differently then I already had. I already used them in salads and sauces, and I’m not a fan of tomatoes soup or how they taste when they are dried.

I opened up the fridge to see what would go with tomatoes, and what would be fast. I had some leftover pasta, peas and bacon. The bacon was this precooked bacon from Costco that you can reheat in a skillet or microwave, it is amazing!

I threw the bacon in a skillet and cooked it and set it aside. I threw the noodles in the hot skillet and you could hear this sizzle. I didn’t want the noodles to stick to the pan and I wanted some more flavor so I added some pesto sauce. I threw the tomatoes in and let everything get nice and hot.

When it was nice and warm, I added a little parmesan cheese and some peas and stirred gently. I like cheese, so I topped everything off with some mozzarella cheese. I let the cheese get all melted and served it up. This yummy dinner took less than 30 minutes. How great is that!

Ingredients

  • 8-10 slices of bacon (Chicken or another protein would be good too)
  • 2 cups cooked pasta ( I used macaroni noodles, but Spagetti noodles would be really good too)
  • 1 -2 cups grape tomatoes
  • 1 cup peas
  • 2-3 Tbspn pesto
  • Salt to taste
  • 4 Tbspn parmesan cheese
  • 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese (optional)

Directions

  • Cook the bacon and remove from the pan.
  • In the same hot pan, medium-medium high and your cooked pasta. You should hear a nice sizzle.
  • Add your pesto and tomatoes to the noodles and stir gently, until the pesto is nicely combined. Taste to see if more pesto and or salt is needed.
  • When everything is hot, add your peas and parmesan and again stir gently until combined.
  • If you are adding mozzarella cheese, sprinkle liberally over the top and turn off the skillet.
Dinner Ideas

Yellow Curry

Helena HenniganLeave a comment

With the summer drawing to a close, I am excited about warm cozy foods again. I have loved eating out of the garden and we have been eating super simple garden meals. I was craving something with a little bit of a kick, and curry sounded really good. I know this isnt a traditional curry, but I really like how well this came together.

I chopped up some chicken breasts and grilled that with some yummy smelling spices; turmeric, curry powder, and some fennel seeds. While the chicken was cooking, I cut up some garlic cloves, an onion and a Serrano pepper. I noticed that if I cook down the pepper, it takes some of the heat out; also taking the seeds out of the hot peppers work too.

When the chicken was just about done, I added the onions and garlic, but wanted some more veggies. I quickly peeled some carrots and cut up a pepper and threw those in. I let them cook for a few minutes and then added a can of coconut milk and a can of chicken stock, and then let that simmer.

You could easily eat the finished curry as is, it is delicious. But while the chicken was cooking I fixed some Jasmine rice. My three year old and one and half year old loved it. They were literally licking their bowls and asked for more.

Ingredients

  • 2lbs chicken breast, chopped
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 5 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1 Serrano pepper (jalapeno would work if you don’t want all the spice)
  • 2 tspn turmeric
  • 2 tspn fennel seeds
  • 2 tspn curry powder
  • 1 can coconut milk
  • 1 can chicken stock
  • Salt
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 bell pepper (I used red, but any color will work)

Directions

  • Place the chopped chicken breast in a medium high sauce pan. If you need oil, add some vegetable oil or some of the coconut oil so the chicken doesn’t stick to the pan. Add the spices to the chicken, turmeric, fennel seeds, curry powder and salt to taste.
  • While the chicken is cooking, cut the onion, garlic cloves, and the Serrano pepper. I added those when the chicken was about half way done. I wanted to cook down the Serrano pepper.
  • If you want to control the heat, you could leave the serrano whole and let it simmer with everything and when it gets to the desired heat; a whole pepper is much easier to fish out then a little slices.
  • While the chicken is cooking, finish prepping the rest of the veggies. Chop and peel the carrots into bite sized chunks, chop the pepper into bite sized pieces as well.
  • When the chicken is almost done or completely done; add the carrots and pepper. Cook for a 2-3 minutes.
  • Make sure the chicken is done, and add the coconut milk and chicken stock. Stir gently, bring to a low boil, and then turn on low and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
  • Eat as is or serve over Jasmine rice.
Salads and Sides · Uncategorized

Dilly Beans

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Yay for summer time and pickling! I planted a whole bunch of beans and as a result now have a whole bunch of beans -funny how that works. I love to fix them with a quick stir fry or blanching too. However, I think my girl’s have a new favorite, dilly beans. Dilly beans are just like making pickles, minus the canning part; so you have to keep them refrigerated.

The brine

Looking at all the colors I still wanted more, so I grabbed some carrots and let my oldest peel them; she loves helping. While she was peeling I grabbed an onion, a head of garlic, and some spices and started the brine. I like to put the onions and garlic in the brine and bring everything to a boil. I’ve found that putting the onions amd garlic in early helps them pickle quicker. I also added the carrots early so they could get a head start on pickling too.

The brine is really easy as long as you remember 2:1 ratio of 2 cups water to 1 cup vinegar. Any vinegar will work; apple cider, balsamic, red wine, white wine or rice vinegar, but I really like the plain white vinegar. You just want to make sure that the brine covers everything. Salt is the other thing, use kosher salt. If you are in a pinch and only have iodized salt, that will work, but it will make your brine cloudy – learned that one from experience.

Some of the purple beans are already changing color
The purple beans changed color so fast.

The grape leaves also change color and pickle in the brine.

There is some condensation on the outside of the jar.

Ingredients

  • 3-4 lbs green beans
  • 3-4 carrots, peeled

Brine Ingredients

  • 1 head of garlic, peeled
  • 1 onion
  • 3-4 stalks of fresh dill
  • 3 allspice balls
  • 1 tspn black peppercorns
  • 1/2 tspn mustard seed
  • 1/2 tspn fennel seed
  • 6 cups water
  • 3 cups white vinegar
  • 1/4 cup kosher salt
  • 4-5 fresh grape leaves (optional)

Directions

  • Pour the water and vinegar into a large pot and set on high. Make sure you have enough liquid to fully submerge all your beans.
  • Peel the onion and garlic. Slice the onion into large chunks and add to the brine.
  • Add the salt and spices into the brine and taste. Add more salt or other spices if you want more of a certain flavor.
  • Peel the carrots and slice into chunks that are about the same size as your beans; add them to the brine.
  • Prep your beans by washing and snapping off the ends. You should have plenty of time before the brine starts to boil.
  • Let the carrots boil for 2 minutes and then add the beans.
  • Gently stir the beans and turn off the heat.
  • If you are using grape leaves, place them on the top of the pot and submerge them.
  • When everything has cooled place your dilly beans inside some containers and refrigerate.
  • They should last at least a month in the refrigerator, unless you eat all them first.

Dinner Ideas · Salads and Sides · Uncategorized

Homemade Tartar Sauce

Helena HenniganLeave a comment

I don’t know what it is about summer time specifically, but I love fish. It can be salmon, fresh caught trout, tilapia or halibut; really just about anything. And while I can eat fish freshly grilled or baked, my husband really likes his fish with tartar sauce, unless it salmon.

For dinner I pulled some really nice tilapia steaks out of the freezer and was ready to fry them in a little bit of oil, salt, dill, and black pepper. While I was thawing out the fish knew my husband would like some tartar sauce.

I grabbed some pickles, half an onion, dill and some sour cream and ranch salad dressing. I grabbed the “whopper chopper”, my little hand held food processor, and put the vegetables to chop away. My daughters saw the chopper and instantly wanted to help. They love to help with anything and everyhing right now, I’ll take all the help I can get.

When everything was chopped into uniformly small pieces, I added some sour cream, and some ranch dressing. I’ve substituted plain greek yogurt for the sour cream and it was just as tasty, I just didn’t have any plain greek yogurt in the fridge.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup of sour cream (plain greek yogurt works too)
  • 2-3 Tbspn ranch salad dressing
  • 3-5 baby dill pickles
  • 1 small onion
  • 1/4 cup diced black olives (optional, but tasty)
  • Salt and pepper- to taste

Directions

  • In a food processor add the onion, pickles and dill and chop until everything is uniform.
  • In a seperate mixing bowl add the sour cream and ranch dressing. Pour the onion and pickles mixture into the bowl and stir. Taste to see if salt and/or pepper is needed.
  • If adding olives, add at the end and stir gently.
  • Serve with your favorite fish and refrigerate when done.
Dinner Ideas

Cast Iron Flank Steak

Helena HenniganLeave a comment

This lovely hunk of beef was so easy to fix, I’m definitely going to repeat it. The marinade took less then ten minutes to prep, and the cooking time went super fast as well. The best part is, you most likely have most if not all of the ingredients.

First flip, only a few more to go.

The Chinese 5 spice is optional, but it gives the steak a great flavor. I love the smell of cinnamon and anise (black licorice). When you add it to a stir fry, it completely changes the flavor profile. I highly recommend using it, if you have it; and if you don’t, I recommend getting it, because you will use it. Especially when you want a different flavor than what you normally are cooking with.

Resting the meat

Little Tips

  • A tip for cutting the meat, after it is cooked, is to slice against the grain. The grain is fairly easy to see. I sliced it thinly against the grain and my girls couldn’t eat them fast enough.
  • The marinade is great, feel free to discard when you are done. I actually poured it into a little pot and brought it to a boil. I then simmered it until the sauce thickened nicely. The sauce is great to drizzle over the sliced steak. Or if you have some cooked spagetti noodles or even rice noodles throw them in a bowl and pour the sauce over and toss together.
  • Let the meat rest at least ten minutes before slicing.
Yay! Perfectly done!

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs flank steak
  • 3 Tbspn soy sauce
  • 3 Tbspn worchestire
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1-2″ ginger, minced
  • 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/2 tspn chili flakes
  • 1 tspn Chinese 5 spice (optional)
  • 2 tspn sesame oil

Directions

  • Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, minus the steak.
  • When the sugar is nicely dissolved, and the oil is mixed in nicely pour into a gallon sized zip lock bag with the steak, and marinade it for at least 30 minutes. I marinated mine for about 2 hours.
  • Warm your cast iron skillet, to medium high adding a little bit of oil. When the pan is nice and hot, place your steak in the pan. You should hear a nice sizzle sound.
  • Cook each side for 6-8 minutes on each side, until the meat is done.
  • I had to flip it a few times, and also when the meat was getting close to the temperature that I wanted, (145° because I was going to let it rest) I added a little tab of butter. The pan was getting to hot and dry and the extra butter helped.

Salads and Sides · Uncategorized

Summer Cucumber Salad

Helena HenniganLeave a comment

You know when you plant a cucumber plant or three, and then your seedlings actually grow, so now you have a total of eight cucumber plants? If you aren’t me and only have a cucumber plant this salad will still work for you.

When I go out to the garden with my just turned 3 year old, I pick all the ripe cucumbers, and she helps me find the ones I missed. There are always some hiding, and even after you swear you have picked them all you go out the next day and there is a giant cucumber that was missed.

This salad is super simple and can use a lot of cucumbers, or a little depending on how many you need to use. We had a church picnic, and I used four English cucumbers and two pickling cucumbers. I wanted to make a lot, but you can easily make this for a few people.

I added some fresh dill and basil to the cucumbers

Ingredients

  • 2-3 English cucumbers, peeled
  • 1 red onion, sliced thinly
  • 4 Tbspn vinegar or lemon juice
  • 2-3 Tbspn Olive oil
  • 1 tspn salt, to taste
  • Optional: fresh garden herbs- dill, basil

Directions

  • Peel and slice the cucumbers thinly, and place in a mixing bowl. Slice the onion thinly and add to the mixing bowl. If you are using an herbs, rough chop the herbs and put them in the bowl as well.
  • Drizzle Olive oil over everything, then the sprinkle salt. Drizzling the Olive oil first, gives the salt something to stick to, and then add the vinegar and/or lemon juice
  • Mix carefully and taste to see if more salt, oil or vinegar is needed.
  • Let it sit for ten minutes or so to soak in the flavors, or serve immediately. This can also be made the night before.
Dinner Ideas · Salads and Sides

Summer Squash and Purple Green Beans

Helena HenniganLeave a comment

After spending all spring planting, watering and weeding; I love the time when you can finally eat from your garden. Especially the first few veggies, whether they are some barely red tomatoes, or some itty bitty squash.

I couldn’t help myself, it seemed like the summer squash were staying at three inches for a week and not maturing so I picked them when they were still pretty little. I like picking he squash when they are young and tender, when they get too big, they are only good for zucchini bread -at least I think so.

I grew some purple green beans this year and even though I planted the green beans and the purple green beans at the same time, the purple ones seem to have matured faster. So when I went out with my 3 year old today to get stuff for dinner, she helped me pick the purple green beans, basil, dill, and I picked two little summer squash. She loves hunting for the veggies, and of course taste testing them to male sure they are good.

Stir frying the veggies goes really fast, just about 4-5 minutes tops on medium heat. Thankfully it was that fast, because my one and a half year old was starving. She ate about half the purple green beans.

If you don’t have purple green beans, regular green beans will also work. Or if you just want to fix the summer squash, it is also delicious by itself in the dish. Just to let you know, the purple green beans will change color; from purple to green.

Ingredients

  • 1-2 Summer squash
  • 1-2 garlic gloves, minced
  • 1/2 lb purple green beans
  • 3-5 basil leaves (optional)
  • 3-5 sprigs of dill weed (optional)
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 Tbsp butter

Directions

  • Slice the summer squash into even slices, about the 1/8 “.
  • Heat a skillet to medium and add a tablespoon of butter and the garlic.
  • When the garlic is fragrant, about a minute add the summer squash and beans. Cook for about two minutes and then stir.
  • Sprinkle salt, and let everything cook for another two minutes or so.
  • Serve warm and enjoy.
Dinner Ideas · Salads and Sides

Summer Pea and Pasta Salad

Helena HenniganLeave a comment

I love summer produce straight from the garden. I have another big garden this year and my girls love it! I have a lot of cilantro and parsley that I needed to use before it bolted. I grabbed about a grocery store bunch of parsley and a handful of baby dill and brought it to the house to fix for dinner.

I was thinking of making a simple parsely salad, but I also wanted the girls to eat some for dinner. Even though they like almost all vegetables, I like to include other things I know they like with their veggies. So I grabbed some giant rigatoni noodles and boiled them. I thought they would love putting the noodles on their fingers.

While the noodles were boiling I quickly chopped up the parsely, and few green onions and the dill. When the noodles were finished, I put them in a big bowl and threw in all the chopped veggies. It didn’t look green enough, so I grabbed some frozen peas (my garden ones still aren’t quite there) and threw those in with the rest of the veggies and pasta. With the noodles still being warm, they quickly thawed out the peas.

You can leave the salad as is, or add in some protein. I added some chicken that I had cooked the night before. Bacon would be delicious, or even canned chicken or tuna would also work. You can eat immediately or serve chilled, either way is scrumptious.

Salad Ingredients

  • 1 bag of pasta (spiral, penne, rigatoni)
  • 1 bunch parsely, chopped
  • 3 green onions, sliced
  • 1 bag (12-16 oz) frozen peas
  • 3-4 sprigs fresh dill, chopped (optional)
  • 2-3 Chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (optional)

Dressing Ingredients

  • 4 Tbspn white vinegar
  • 4 Tbspn lemon/lime juice (substitute vinegar if needed)
  • 2-3 tspn salt, to taste
  • 3 Tbspn Olive oil

Directions

  • Fix the pasta according to the package directions. While the pasta is cooking, chopped the parsley, green onions and dill.
  • When the pasta is done, drain and quickly put in a mixing bowl. Add the frozen peas and the rest of the chopped veggies and stir gently.
  • If you are adding chicken or other protein add as well.
  • Sprinkle salt, oil, vinegar and lemon juice over everything and mix again. Taste to see if more salt is needed.
  • Serve immediately, or chill for half an hour before serving. Refrigerate any leftovers.
Dinner Ideas · Salads and Sides · Uncategorized

Salad Rolls

Helena HenniganLeave a comment

For the longest time I tried authenticating my favorite salad rolls, sometimes called spring rolls. The one I was trying to replicate have BBQ pork, rice noodles, Thai basil and some lettuce; and then there is the usual peanut sauce to dip them in. The rolls are so good! It has been so hard to replicate the BBQ pork. I don’t know what seasoning or marinade they use for the pork, but I habe yet to figure that one out.

Yesterday, I had a total epiphany when I was walking through the garden. Salad rolls, can be made with anything you would make a salad with. I don’t know why it took so long to figure that out. I thought why not use everything from my garden in the salad rolls and see how well it goes.

I already had some pulled pork and ground beef in the fridge, and had some peppers, carrots and green onions. My peppers and onions in my garden aren’t ready yet, thankfully I was able to pick; cilantro, arugula, spinach, Romanian Lettuce, and baby dill.

The longest part is prepping everything. Just slice everything super thin, juliened, for the thicker stuff -like carrots and peppers. Everything else just wash and cut to the length of the roll that you plan on rolling.

Once I realized that my rolls didn’t have to taste exactly like our favorite restaurant spring rolls, I was able to enjoy the taste of the freshness from the garden. The baby dill was and unexpected burst of yummy, even my two year old (almost three) picked up the flavor of the dill. She did call it a “pickle” but hey thats what you use for pickling so I’ll take it. I also like that if there are any leftovers you can make a salad the next day since everything is already prepped.

Rice paper rolls don’t have to be too intimidating, I took a picture of the brand that I use. When everything is prepped heat your water for the rice paper. Soak one paper in some very warm water and then load everything in the middle of the circle and fold and roll. It takes a little bit of time to figure out your technique for rolling the delicate rice paper. I figured out the longer you leave the paper in the warm water the easier it is to manipulate.

This is a simple sample of what you can in your spring rolls; also it is what I had in the fridge.

Ingredients

  • 1-2 lbs cooked protein, chicken, pork, or beef will work
  • Rice paper
  • 1 package wide rice noodles
  • 1-2 carrots, juliened
  • 1 bunch cilantro
  • 1-2 bell peppers, juliened
  • Sprigs of fresh dill
  • 2-3 green onions
  • Handful of spinach leaves
  • Sweet and spicy sauce

Directions

  • Cut all the vegetables into just about the same sizes and widths, wether you have to slice, julien or chop.
  • Fix the rice noodles according to the package directions
  • Warm a shallow pan of water for the rice paper rolls, and dip one in at a time. Submerge the rice paper until it becomes soft nd pliable.
  • Place one sheet of rice paper on a plate and layer on the goodies.
  • I like to start with a little bit sweet and spicy sauce, a little meat, noodles, and the vegetables and herbs.
  • Fold two parallel ends and then roll.
  • They are great as is or you can dip in more sweet and spicy sauce or yummy peanut sauce.

Tips

  • When you are looking at your rice paper circle, imagine a rectangle in the middle and put all the meat and veggies inside that “rectangle”. Then when you fold, take the two “short” ends of the rectangle in the middle and then roll like a sleeping bag.
  • Use your favorite vegetables in the roll, and whatever is in season tastes delicious.
  • Have everyone make their own rolls. It’s really fun and then they get exactly what they want in each roll.
  • Leftovers make for a great salad the next day