Grocery List - Free Printable

Grocery shopping for my family each week can be such a chore. There are always things I forget and things I buy on an impulse. So I made myself a list template for the categories I really need. Feel free to download and print it out if these are also the things you're buying each week.

Download printable

Parmesan crusted chicken

I'm just going to jump on in here like I've posted more recently than a month and a half ago.

We're trying to cook more instead of eating out, so this week I made a real effort to plan out my grocery trip. I took this recipe from my Pinterest food board, and it was super easy.

 

I followed this recipe, but used Miracle Whip and will probably use less next time. To be fair, though, I didn't actually measure and tend to go with a more-is-more philosophy. 

I also made this broccoli, more or less, to go with it. It didn't taste too healthy, so I'd consider that a win.

Next on my food to-do list: make a bunch of freezer meals ahead of time so I don't have to cook when I get home from work!

Pepperoni pizza puffs

Another Pinterest find, originally found here. Will was impressed that this wasn't made with any kind of pre-bought dough. Here's my slightly adjusted version (credit still goes to plainchicken.com, though):

Ingredients:

-3/4 cup flour

-3/4 tsp baking powder

-1/2 tsp garlic powder

-3/4 cup milk

-1 egg

-4 (or 5 or 6!) oz shredded mozzarella cheese

-3 (or so) oz mini turkey pepperoni

-pizza sauce (you may need a lot if you share with a sauce hog like I do!)

Pre-heat oven to 375. Grease muffin pan. Mine wasn't mini, but it wasn't quite full-size muffins either. Either should work though. 

Whisk together flour, baking powder and garlic powder. Whisk in milk and egg. Stir in cheese and pepperonis. It says to let it stand for 10 minutes. Don't ask why; just do it! 

Stir and pour into the muffin pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Dip in pizza sauce and devour.

Cheesy enchilada casserole

This casserole has made it into Will's top 5 favorite things I cook. I don't know if that's a testament to how good the recipe is or just how bad my cooking is. In fact, I think he only named 4 things, so it's probably the latter. (If you're interested, the list goes Crunchy Onion Chicken, Salisbury Steak, this casserole, and Southwestern Casserole. They are all really hard to screw up).

I found this casserole on Pinterest, of course, and it's super easy. A lot of ingredients, but nothing very complicated.

Ugly, but so good. Just like most things in life. 

You can go here for better photos and a better description of how to make it.

Ingredients:
- 1 pound lean ground beef or turkey
- A large onion diced, but I used onion powder. My eyes appreciated the substitution.
- 2 1/2 cups salsa. I didn't buy enough so it was more like... 1 1/2
- 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1/4 cup reduced-fat Italian salad dressing
- 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium taco seasoning (reduced-sodium so you can pretend you're being healthy)
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- A few 8-in tortillas. I used flour, the ruler of all tortillas.
- A can of drained corn. They say small can, I just used part of a big can and ate the rest while I waited for it all to cook.
- 3/4 cup sour cream ... or whatever suits your fancy.
- Shredded Mexican cheese. They say 2 cups, but err on the side of way too much.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. I didn't do this and had an agonizing wait for dinner.
2. Brown the beef/turkey, drain.
3. Stir in salsa, beans, corn, dressing, sour cream, taco seasoning and cumin.
4. Spoon a layer of meat mixture into a 2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese. Put a tortilla on top. (Side note: The woman from the link above cut off the edges of her tortillas and fried them and added cinnamon and sugar. I hate frying, but it sounded like a good idea, so I buttered my leftovers, sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on them, and baked them on a cookie sheet with the casserole until they were crisp.)
5. Repeat the layering a time or two and then top it all with a whole bunch of cheese.
6. Cover (they say foil, but I just used the baking dish glass cover) and bake for 25 minutes-ish.
7. Ta-da! Bring the leftovers to my house (seriously, that's a very important part of the recipe).

If you like honey mustard...

... you'll probably like this chicken. It's a Weight Watchers recipe, but I didn't use lite honey mustard so I'm sure it wasn't quite so healthy. All you need is chicken, honey mustard, dill, salt and pepper, and cornflakes (I didn't use the scallions).

This one might go in the regular rotation, along with this definitely not healthy french fried onion chicken.

Mini chicken pot pies

I stole this recipe from a high school classmate's blog, but her site doesn't seem to be working anymore, so I'll post it so the world can keep enjoying this super easy dinner. And yes, by world I mean the four people who read this. Hello, world!

Ingredients:
-1 can cream of chicken soup
-1 large can of canned chicken
-1 can of peas and carrots (or whatever other veggies you want in there)
-6 tablespoons of cream cheese
-2 cans of biscuits

Mix all the ingredients (minus the biscuits). Get someone else to open your cans of biscuits so you don't have to deal with the scary pop. Separate each biscuit in two, spread them out a bit, put a spoonful of ingredients in the center of one. Stick the other on top and seal up the edges good. Then just follow the baking instructions for the biscuits.

This recipe makes a LOT (at least for two people), so be prepared to eat it all week. If you're like me and Will, though, you probably won't mind.

Jalapeno popper chicken

I also made this delicious chicken last week. I didn't take any photos because it was seriously ugly, but it really tasted just like a jalapeno popper.

This is the photo from the blog the recipe was on. Mine did not look anything like this, but it tasted as good as this one looks. I followed the recipe, but I think my chicken breasts may have been a little small, so they were very messy, and I ended up doing 6 rather than 4.

Stuffed peppers

I cooked things for dinner a couple times in the past week that didn't come straight out of a bag or box. Be proud of me. I made these stuffed peppers last Sunday, and even had some leftovers to take to work. People were impressed because it looked healthy and home-made. I don't know how healthy it was, but appearances are what matter! I used a recipe I found on Pinterest and made a few minor changes. Here's how I made it.

Not too pretty, but tasty.

1 cup rice
4 green bell peppers
1 large onion, diced
some olive oil
2 links Italian turkey sausage
a couple shakes of oregano
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 can black beans
shredded cheese of your choice

Cook rice according to package directions.

Preheat oven to 375. Trim bottom of bell peppers so they have a flat surface to stand on. Cut off a fairly generous amount of the stem end of peppers, then remove seeds. Place hollowed-out peppers in a baking dish that you've sprayed with non-stick spray. (I used a big baking dish, but the recipe said a dish that's close in size to the peppers will work best.)

Remove stem part from the pepper caps and trim off any white membrane, then dice pepper caps and the onion into fairly small dice. Heat 2 tsp. olive oil in a large skillet, then saute diced pepper and onion for 3-4 minutes, until they are starting to soften but aren't browned. Remove pepper-onion mixture to a bowl, add 1 tsp. more olive oil, then squeeze sausage out of the casing and cook until it's lightly browned, breaking apart with the back of the turner. (My end mixture came out a little greasy, so next time I might drain the sausage after this step)

Put the onion-pepper mixture back into the pan with the sausage, add the dried spices, and saute 2-3 minutes to blend the flavors. Then add cooked rice, season the mixture with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste, and cook just long enough to warm, about 1-2 minutes.

Stuff the filling mixture into the hollowed-out peppers, using a spoon to press the mixture down so it's tightly packed into the pepper shell. If you have any extra filling, you can put it in a small ramekin and bake along with the peppers. Bake peppers for 30 minutes, then remove from oven and put whatever amount of cheese you want (I recommend a lot because it's the best part) on top of each pepper. Put peppers back into the oven and bake about 10-15 minutes more, until cheese is melted and lightly browned. Serve hot.

Cheesy garlic sticks

My apologies to Will for leaving a garlic smell in his apartment that has lasted 3 days, but these were still pretty good, if you don't mind me saying so (Will minds because saying anything means expelling my stanky Italian breath).

I used something like this recipe, but I used crushed garlic(? diced garlic? something slightly different) and store-bought canned pizza dough, because I'm not fancy (and admittedly can't find anything in the nearest Kroger).

Ta-da.

Next time I think I'll use even more cheese.

Food, food, food

My crowning achievement at work came on Friday when I brought in some pumpkin cookies that everyone went crazy for. I happen to think they were a little overhyped, but I didn't mind being the office hero for the day. It makes me think simultaneously that I should open a bakery and that I should never bake anything again so that I can end on such a high note.

Cakey cookie goodness.

I've also cooked a few other things lately that turned out pretty good, so I'll share those recipes (I'm still debating whether I'll share the pumpkin cookie recipe because I like to feel needed). 

This weekend Will made this tasty barbecue chicken in the crockpot for sandwiches. A while ago, I made a crockpot taco soup that lasted for a week and a half. It'd be so perfect if the weather would ever just cool off.

Last weekend, I made some baked French fries to go with our black bean burgers and they were sooo good. Even good cold, unlike normal French fries.

Before

After (should've used a little more Pam)

Crunchy PB Brownies

Last weekend, I made these delicious brownies that I saw on Pinterest from this blog. And then I took them to work so that people would like me! Perfect plan, huh?

Terrible picture because we were about to eat the last ones and I hadn't photographed it yet. But there's brownie on the bottom and chocolate chips, peanut butter cups, peanut butter, Rice Krispies, and peanuts on the top. Sooo good.

Happy 4th!

We always have pretty low-key July 4ths consisting mainly of lots of barbecue (this year stayed true to that tradition) and maybe watching fireworks out our windows. I decided to add a cool cake to the mix this weekend, mostly because I saw this cake online and couldn't resist trying it out. It originated on 17 and Baking, and I used the directions from Glorious Treats.

Inconspicuous outside:

Surprise patriotic inside:

I felt bad for my unAmerican brother-in-law, so since Canada Day was Friday, I made him a cake, too.

 And on an un-cake-related note, here's Will and Jonas! Jonas is big and sturdy enough now that Will's not afraid to hold him.

Kansas City

This past weekend, I made a trip to Kansas City to visit Naomi and her fiance, Bruce. And while we did some other fun things (wedding dress shopping, regular shopping, dog snuggling), the food was my favorite part. Probably not surprising.

One night, Bruce grilled up some pork chops, peppers with cheese and one very special pepper with an egg inside. It looked really awesome and I kind of want to try to make something similar, even though it probably won't be as good. This is as close as I can find in recipe form and it's making my mouth water. Must have it.

We also had seriously delicious barbecue (though officially as a Texan, I can't say it was better than ours) at this restaurant in a gas station. Yes, in a gas station. Only part of its appeal. It's called Oklahoma Joe's and I would highly recommend it if you're ever in the area.

I should've taken some pictures of all the delicious food I ate but my hands (not to mention my mouth) were full. Sorry!

International feast

I've been putting this post off because it's really the last one I have from The Netherlands. I've been back 3 weeks now but it feels like 2 months. So here's my last goodbye to European life, with a post about our goodbye party/international feast. 

All the interns met at Emanuele's place in Delft and we each brought something from our home country.

I ended up making 7-layer dip (with weird taco seasoning in the beans and jong kaas because I couldn't find cheddar or any Mexican cheese blend, unsurprisingly) and my addictive corn salsa. Here's Sarah and Øystein gobbling it up.

And we barely saved room for the tons of other food. Seriously, there was sooo much food.

JJ, who's from Chicago but has some Filipino blood, made Adobo chicken and eggs.

Adista made Indonesian peanut sauce that I could eat all day on top of anything. I don't know if that linked recipe will come even close, but it's worth a try for the most delicious sauce imaginable.

 Øystein said Norway has a lot of salted meats and fish, so he made us a great salad instead. I've actually made it a couple times since I've been home. It's got spinach, avocado, sunflower seeds, cherry tomatoes, roasted red bell peppers, feta cheese and olive oil/balsamic vinegar.

Nuno's Spanish omelette.

Emanuele made some gnocchi and Giuliana made sangria (which isn't really Italian, but she's spent some time in Spain), but I didn't get any photos of those because I was too busy eating. But here's them arguing in Italian because Emanuele let us drink the vino Giuliana was going to use for the sangria. And I understood the whole conversation. Proud?

And to top it all off, JJ and I introduced them all to S'mores! I hadn't thought about it before, but that's very American, one of those things they'd only seen in movies. This might be because they don't have Graham crackers in Europe. I had to buy them at an ex-pat shop for something like $10 a box.

 JJ was an excellent (and graceful) marshmallow roaster.

Here's everyone stuffed (we also had some desserts made by Nancy and Sarah) after all the food, yet still not quite as stuffed as we were in that office. Is it strange that I kind of miss that place?

Cookin' kuchen

When my parents visited me in The Netherlands, my dad was hoping to find some kuchen, a German cake that his grandmother used to bake. He didn't have much luck, so for his birthday earlier this week, I found a recipe and made it in lieu of a birthday cake. And I don't know whether it tasted like his grandma's, but it tasted good enough that I've been asked to make it again for Easter (yes, we already ate the whole thing).

It's Cinnamon Swirl Kuchen, which is basically a coffee cake and those brown spots are cinnamon, not burns, I promise. The cinnamon and sugar I put in it remind me of the time I thought I had invented a soup. But it was really just sugar and cinnamon and room-temperature water. I wouldn't recommend it.

And even though this is a really crumby picture, I just wanted to show how it somehow magically swirled! I put it in as layers and it came out swirly!

Here's the recipe, if anyone's interested. I'm trying it with a glaze this time.

Taste of home

Alright, I need some help. At the end of next week, the other interns and I are going to have an international food day/dinner/party. Each of us is supposed to bring a traditional dish from our home countries (or home states for those of us lucky enough to come from a state bigger than most European countries).

So what do I bring? Don't say McDonald's.

I need something simple enough that I can make it and find most of the ingredients in a Dutch supermarket (and I'd prefer to not have to buy a dozen spices that I'll just throw away the next week when I leave). But it also needs to be something that isn't readily available here, like burgers or hot dogs or pizza.

(Although this Five Guys Burger looks amazing. (And this photo happens to be from the Brooklyn location where my love of Five Guys started). Man, it must be time for lunch because I am drooling.)

Photo from SimonDoggett on Flickr

I don't think I could make barbecue here. And I don't want to fry anything. I'm thinking Tex Mex. Does anyone know any really simple (time- and ingredient-wise) recipes for a Tex Mex dish? Enchiladas or taco filling or a really good dip? I might just settle for a dip and salsa if no one comes up with anything.

Dutch food

To help me prepare for my quickly approaching adventure, Will gave me a book called The UnDutchables: An Observation of the Netherlands, Its Culture and Its Inhabitants. I guess it has served its purpose because I am now silently freaking out about how unprepared I am and how awful some Dutch behavior sounds (though I'm sure American habits sound much worse to outsiders).

One question it has answered, though, is what kind of food do Hollanders eat? (Also, what kind of toilets do the Dutch have? But that post logically comes after this one)

Erwtensoep: pea soup with lumps of ham (or pig's knuckle) and vegetables. I don't really know what pig's knuckle is, but that below just looks like sausage, which I can handle.

 Photo from dutchmeup.blogspot.com

Hutspot: mashed potato with onions, carrots and maybe meat, with gravy. Pretty straightforward.

Photo from www.internationalfood.eu

Hagelslag: chocolate sprinkles. My friend Kelsey, whose father is Dutch, told me about these chocolate sprinkle sandwiches and I thought they sounded pretty awesome. With my recent rat problem and the resemblance between hagelslag and rat droppings though, I'm much less enthusiastic about them.

Photo from www.littlechutewindmill.org

Haring: raw herring. I don't think I'll be trying this one. At least not in the traditional throat-sliding version seen below.

But I am going to try to get Will to help me make these oliebollen on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.

Being thankful

My family's Thanksgivings are always fairly low-key, especially the last few years. Which I happen to be very thankful for. This year, my brother wanted slightly less traditional food, so we each pitched in (even him) a dish or two.

I promise I'm wearing shorts under that apron.

Instead of just turkey, we had turkey spaghetti. We jazzed up the mashed potatoes with bacon and cheese and who knows what else. Sweet potato hash replaced the usual candied yams and marshmallows. Plus a lot of other fattening, filling things.

I found my contributions on evilchefmom and they turned out pretty good.

As an appetizer, I made these cheese fritters, which are kind of like mozzarella sticks in ball form. It was my first time to fry anything, and thankfully, there were no major mishaps.

I wasn't in love with the texture of the cheese because there was so much ricotta, but I've been asked to make them again, which is the mark of success. We decided next time there will be less ricotta and more mozzarella to solve the texture problem.

I also made a pumpkin layer cake with cream cheese frosting. It was pretty time consuming but worth it. If only dessert didn't come at the end when we were all so stuffed.

The best part of the day: perfecting the super-secret, super-awesome Poller family handshake. I'm terrible at keeping secrets, though, so I'd probably show you if you asked.