Shrimp Alfredo

One thing that my kids will usually eat is anything that involves noodles. We eat a lot of pasta with marinara sauce because of this. But my mother makes awesome shrimp Alfredo and they like that too. Of course they pick everything except the noodles out. But at least they eat those!


1/2 c butter
2 cloves garlic, minced (you can add more if you like garlic a lot)
1 c cream or milk
1 tbl - 1/8 c flour
3/4 c grated Parmesan cheese (fresh is best)
1 c steamed broccoli, well dried
3/4 c chopped tomatoes, well dried
1 c cooked shrimp, well dried (or cooked chopped chicken)
2 c penne noodles (this is a pre-cooked measurement)


Boil noodles according to instructions. Drain and rinse well. Transfer to oven proof dish and place in 200 degree oven. Melt butter over medium heat in large skillet. Add garlic and saute for a few minutes. Add flour (about a tablespoon for cream or about 1/8 cup for milk) and cook until well incorporated. Add cream or milk and cook until hot. Add cheese stirring until melted. Add broccoli, tomatoes, shrimp and noodles stirring to coat. Serve hot.



I usually use cream because it gives the sauce such a great flavor, but you can use milk to make it lower fat or if it is all you have on hand (like I did last night!). The flour thickens and adds stability to the sauce, so when you use a lower fat base you need to add more flour. If the sauce starts to separate you can add a little more flour and if you add too much flour, just add a bit more of the cream or milk. I love the shrimp in this but I have also made it with chicken (again what was on hand).

Gyoza

My husband lived in Japan for a lot of his life, so he and his family eat a lot of Japanese food (go figure on that one). My son asked for this the other day and I actually made it despite it taking forever to make. Well, it doesn't take forever, unless you have to keep refereeing or you make a million of them.


1 lb ground turkey or pork (I always use turkey, I've never found ground pork here)
7-9 leaves Chinese cabbage minced
3 green onions minced
1-2 cloves garlic minced
1/4 tsp grated ginger (you can use powdered also or leave it out entirely)
1 tbl soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp oil
50 gyoza wrapper
oil for frying


Mix ingredients in a bowl. Place spoonful of mixture into center of each wrapper. Seal by damping half of the wrapper edge, folding over and pressing down. Cook in batches in approximately 2 tbl hot oil until brown on both side. The pour small amount of water into pan, cover and cook until water has boiled off.

Use equal parts vinegar and soy sauce for dipping.


My son then decided that he only wanted to eat the wrappers and told me the filling wasn't so good. Sigh, at least it was a good try.

Puffy Cakes

My mother-in-law calls these German pancakes, but when I learned how to make them (and then lost the recipe) in middle school, we called them puffy cakes. And as when ever I try to look up 'German pancake' on google, I get about ten different varieties, I will call these puffy cakes. Because that's what they do; puff up when baked. I personally feel that these definitely fall under the breakfast category, but we had them for dinner tonight.


6 eggs
1 c flour
1 c milk
1/4 - 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c butter

Preheat oven to 425. Beat eggs then mix in flour, milk and salt until well blended. When oven is hot, put butter in 9x13 glass baking dish and place in oven until butter is melted. Remove dish from oven, pour batter in and replace dish in oven. Bake for 13-18 minutes or until golden brown on edges (they will rise up, hence the name puffy cake). Serve with maple syrup, powdered sugar or cinnamon and sugar.


My children refused to go to the grocery store so I could not buy the necessary ingredients for the fajitas that I wanted (Happy Cinco de Mayo!). Then one of them asked for pancakes when I asked what on earth am I going to make for dinner and I told them they could have puffy cakes instead. My son grumbled (I don't know why, he gets to eat both with syrup), but I made them anyway. What was the difference going to be anyway? It's not like he's eaten anything I've made for dinner in the last week and a half! The two of them ended up eating 2/3 of the pan between them. I couldn't believe it and after every bite was sure it would be their last. So I am feeling much better as a cook tonight. Although, not so great as a mom who feeds her kids healthy dinners!

Chicken Manicotti

This is my mother's recipe and I totally love it. It's even some thing that my picky little penguins will usually eat. I always make my own sauce for it (I'm neurotic like that), but canned sauce works just as well and makes the recipe much easier.


1 c cooked chopped chicken
15 oz ricotta cheese
3/4 c Parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 - 3/4 c mozzarella cheese, grated
1/8 c chopped fresh parsley
1 10 oz package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1/2 - 1 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp basil
1/8 - 1/4 tsp pepper
marinara sauce
1 package manicotti shells


Boil manicotti shells according to package's instructions, until al dente. While these are cooking combine all other ingredients (except sauce) in a bowl. Drain shells and rinse with cold water to cool and prevent sticking. Stuff shells with chicken mixture. Place in 9x11 pan, cover with sauce and top with more grated mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot through.

You can also use fresh spinach if you wilt it first. To do this you rinse your spinach, put it in a non-stick pan and cook it over medium heat until it looks like thawed frozen spinach. It takes about five minutes (or that's how long it took me tonight), but if you have fresh spinach on hand, or if you like it better anyway, it's not that hard.



I made this tonight thinking my little penguins would both eat it (unlike most of the meals I've made lately), but they both surprised me and refused it. Well, my daughter ate some but only when I fed her and could get my son to actually sit at the table instead of telling me he didn't like it and didn't want to eat it. Instead they both ate strawberries, snow peas and the croutons out of the Caesar salad for dinner.