All you need for Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinnner

Personalize Your Holiday Menu with Dream Dinners Everyone has their own twist on how to celebrate the holiday’s, but one thing most of us agree on is it must include turkey or prime rib. If you’re looking for a simpler way to serve a complete holiday dinner, we have the answer. If you all you need is a few things to round out your menu or a potluck dish, we have the answer. Our holiday menu delivers on the value, quality and simplicity you’re looking for. Holiday Roasted Turkey – Available only in November This spectacular, simple-to-prepare turkey will raise your dinner to an entirely new level of distinction. The bone has been removed, so it’s easy to carve, and by keeping the skin intact, it remains juicy and flavorful. Better yet, easy to prepare and serve doesn’t mean you skimp on quantity. This cut of turkey is the equivalent of a 16 to 20lb whole turkey! Find this in the Fast Lane category on our menu. Holiday Prime Rib – Available only in December An entertainers dream – a simple to prepare prime rib! This tender 3 lb. boneless, aged prime rib roast comes out perfect every time, and is ready in under an hour. This dinner is also an excellent value when compared to similar cuts from a premium retailer. They can’t help you prepare it to perfection, but we can. We provide the horseradish sauce, you provide the presentation. One order yields 6, 1/2 lb servings. Larger cuts are available, just ask. Find this in the Fast Lane category on our menu. Holiday Family Favorite Side Dishes – Pick 3 Order the side-dish combination that works best for you! Combine our turkey with a selection of our sides and you’ll serve the ideal dinner, personalized to your family’s tastes, time and budget. We’re offering choices from among 5 side-dish options, including 3 different mashed potato seasonings. Ordering is easy. First, print a copy of this page and identify the side dishes you want. Second, online today, or during your October session, place an order for the Holiday Family Favorite Side Dishes. One order gives you a choice of 3 items from the list below. (Bring the printed version with you to your November session.) During the month of December, all of our side dishes are available individually as a Chef Touched Selection at participating locations. Green Bean Casserole We think you’ll find this to be a big hit at your holiday table! Young and old alike will enjoy the creaminess of adding Alfredo sauce and Parmesan cheese to these green beans, combined with the surprising crunch of water chestnuts. All this topped off with bread crumbs and sliced almonds to make an overall wonderful Holiday dish! Mashed Potatoes We think we’ve solved the only problem with mashed potatoes and that is there are never enough! This year we’re providing you with 5 pounds of mashed potatoes and letting you personalize them with your choice of seasoning. Cheesy Mashed Potatoes Gorgonzola Mashed Potatoes Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes Sweet Potatoes The holiday dinner in many parts of the country isn’t complete without sweet potatoes. You’ll find the ease of the already chopped and ready to bake sweet potatoes perfect for this busy time of the year. We offer two seasonal choices. Brown Sugar and Pecans Savory Sweet Potatoes, New Recipe Savory Stuffing You combine the traditional bread, celery, butter and spices with sausage, apples, cranberries and pecans to make this stuffing really something very special. You can add all or just a few of the above ingredients to personalize this recipe for you and your family. Gravy, Cranberry Sauce and Biscuits This combination will round out your meal, leaving you with time to sit back and enjoy this special time with family and friends. A sparkling bowl of jewel-colored cranberry sauce is a must for the holiday table. (We’ve added a little orange flavor to give it some zest.) We finish with savory gravy and pearl onions, plus 12 home-style flaky biscuits.

Crispy Coconut Chicken with Jasmine Rice

I love the way Jasmine Rice smells when it is cooking!  I served these as an appetizer.  I cut each raw chicken breast into 4 strips and skewered them on a 4 inch wooden skewer, then coated and cooked them.  I layered them over the bed of Jasmine Rice and served the skewers with a sweet and sour dipping sauce that I added 1 tsp of red pepper flakes to on the side. It was a hit!

Monte Cristo Chicken

I gave this dinner to a friend who had a house full of sick kids!  Hopefully it worked like chicken soup and helped them get well.  I know it helped her to not have to think about making dinner!  It is so hard to seeing your kids uncomfortable, especially when they are all sick.

Greek Island Shrimp with Pasta

This is one of my favorite Dream Dinners.  The trick to making this perfectly is to cook the shrimp just until they start turning pink.  As they begin to turn, remove the pan from the heat and serve, they will be tender and perfect as you pour them over the pasta. To kick it up I added 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes to my sauce as it was cooking, we like it spicy!

Sheppard’s Pie

This recipe came from our Dream Dinners owner in West LA, Mar Vista, CA, thank you Brook Hensley.  It is a classic delicious one pot dinner, meat and vegetables all topped with fluffy mashed potatoes.  We had unexpected company for dinner and this was perfect.  I pulled it our from the freezer, peeled the foil off and put the frozen dinner into a beautiful Williams and Sonoma baking dish to defrost in the microwave.  Then to the oven and everyone enjoyed a warm and cozy dinner.

Mango Glazed Salmon

In Seattle we BBQ in the rain!  My husband grilled these and used half of the glaze, I heated the remaining glaze in the microwave and topped them just before serving over rice.  We cooked all 6 filets so that we would have leftovers.  There are so many things to do with good salmon.  I used one filet the next day to make a dip, one I took to work over lettuce for lunch and the other two went into a wrap for dinner 2 nights later!  We are keeping up on our Omega’s!

Salmon Dip combine:

1 cooked and chilled Mango Glazed Salmon filet, broke up with a fork. 

1/2 cup light mayo

1/2 tsp curry powder

1/4 cup mango chutney

1 green onion, sliced

3 Tb crushed cashews on the top

 

Ranch House Chicken and Potatoes

I love the Fall!  Even the food taste better in the fall! This is a classic comfort dinner.  We love Walla Walla sweet onions, I sliced 2 onions and surrounded the chicken, tucking the onions around the edge of the pan before baked it.  The onions cooked down into the potatoes tasted and smelled delicious as they roasted away while the chicken and potatoes cooked.

Cinnamon Apple Cake

Thank you Melissa from Massachusetts!  She has lots of apples this year and was making this cake this morning out of the Dream Dinners Cook Book when she realized something was wrong.  This is the original recipe, the one in the cook book is incorrect, for each cake you need 3 cups of flour!  Again, thanks Melissa for calling. If you have lots of apples or just love a delicious Cinnamon Apple Cake, try this!

Big chunks of apple and a cinnamon crumb topping make this dense cake a wonderful breakfast treat, or the perfect end to your dinner. You can lighten up on the oil by replacing ½ of the oil with apple sauce. This cake can be made and frozen with out baking. Thaw and bake fresh, but be careful, your home will smell so delicious; you will be attracting family and neighbors!

Serves 6

 3 cups flour

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

4 teaspoons cinnamon + 2 teaspoons for topping

¾ cup canola oil

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups Granny Smith apples, or any mixture of tart and sweet apples

1 cup low fat buttermilk

¼ cup liquid egg substitute

Prepare the baking dish(es) with non-stick cooking spray. Putting your dessert together: Combine flour, white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, oil, salt, and ginger in a large mixing bowl. Transfer 1 ½ cups of this mixture (4 ½ cups if cooking “times three”) to a small mixing bowl and add 2 more teaspoons (6 teaspoons if cooking “times three”) of cinnamon to it. Stir until incorporated, then set small mixing bowl aside (this will be used as the topping).

Add to the remaining flour mixture the baking soda, baking powder, apples, buttermilk and egg substitute, stirring just until combined. Do not overmix.

Pour into the prepared 9 x 13 baking dish.  Sprinkle the topping in the small mixing bowl over the apple mixture in the baking dish.  Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake for 1 ½ hours, until cake is set and topping is golden brown. Serve at room temperature or slightly warmed.

Why We Need Dream Dinners

Home-Cooked Meals Put on the Backburner Moms and Dads Who Work Long Hours Are More Likely to Replace Family Meals With Fast Food, Prepared Entrees

By Bill Hendrick WebMD Medical News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD Sept. 9, 2009 –

Job stress and irregular working hours are recipes for more fast food, less dinner table time, and more skipped meals, a new study suggests. Parents who work long and odd hours are more apt to buy fast food and prepared entrees, says the study by Cornell University researchers, published in the September/October issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

And another coping mechanism is to skip some meals entirely, say the researchers, who conducted a three-part telephone survey of 25 working moms and 25 working dads in upstate New York. They found that: About a quarter of moms and dads said they had no access to healthful, reasonably priced, good-tasting food at or near their workplaces.

Fathers who worked long hours or had non-standard work schedules were more likely to opt for take-out meals, more apt to miss family meals, and more apt to eat on the job.

Mothers with long hours or non-standard work hours reported having more restaurant meals or already-prepared entrees, and also skipped breakfast . Only 56% of fathers and 40% of mothers had more than five home-cooked family meals a week.

Half to three-fourths of parents had at least one fast food meal per week, and at least one take-out meal a week. Watching TV was common during family meals, especially for moms. The most common speed-up strategy was grabbing quick food at work instead of a meal.

Fathers who lacked access to reasonably priced, good-tasting food at work were more likely to miss lunch, eat while working or in the car, and were less likely to pack a lunch.

“The importance of work structure for employed parents’ food choice strategies is seen in the associations between work hours and schedule and food choice coping strategies, such as meals away from home and missed family meals,” Carol M. Devine, PhD, RD, and other Cornell researchers write. “Long work hours and irregular schedules mean more time away from family, less time for household food work, difficulty in maintaining a regular meal pattern and less opportunity to participate in family meals.” Such a situation, they say, “may result in feelings of time scarcity, fatigue and strain that leaves parents with less personal energy for food and meals.” The researchers say that “structural work conditions among parents — such as job hours, schedule, satisfaction, and food access — are associated with food choice coping strategies with importance for dietary quality,” adding that their findings have “implications for worksite interventions.”

http://www.webmdhealth.com/nl/nlv.aspx?id=gbeHtOUklZg=&s=494

Control Your Diet to Prevent Diabetes by Dr Elizabeth Smoots

Control your diet to prevent diabetes

 

By Dr. Elizabeth Smoots

 

Exercise and weight control are the mainstays of diabetes prevention. The scientific evidence I’ve seen indicates that more than half of new cases of diabetes mellitus could be avoided through simple lifestyle changes.

Here are dietary steps you can take to reduce your risk of diabetes.

General nutrition

What you eat directly affects your blood sugar. In diabetes, blood sugar levels rise too high after every meal. You can keep your sugar level on a more even keel by choosing a low-fat diet rich in fiber, fruits and vegetables, lentils and beans, and whole-grain breads and cereals.

Another factor that increases your chance of getting diabetes, and getting it at an earlier age, is excess weight. Losing as little as 10 to 20 pounds can help a lot — often improving your body’s ability to keep your blood sugar normal.

Recent studies have uncovered several other nutrition factors that reduce your risk for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus. Since diabetes is projected to affect 1 out of 5 Americans by 2050, any changes in what you eat that could help are well worth considering.

More dietary factors

Here from the field of diabetes research are some intriguing dietary findings:

Coffee: Some data suggest that coffee consumption may help prevent diabetes. A substance in coffee called chlorogenic acid may slow the liver’s release of glucose. Study participants who were heavy coffee drinkers — 4 to 5 cups per day — had a 30 percent lower risk of diabetes. Until more is known, however, researchers don’t recommend changing your coffee habits.

Green tea: The drink may reduce insulin resistance — a phenomena that commonly leads to diabetes. Insulin resistance occurs frequently in overweight people and makes the body’s cells less sensitive to the hormone insulin. When this happens, blood sugar levels can rise to the abnormally high range indicative of diabetes.

Alcohol: Insulin resistance may also decrease with moderate drinking. That means no more than two drinks a day for men or one for women. If you don’t already drink, however, the evidence is not strong enough to start imbibing. It’s also important to watch out for weight gain that’s commonly associated with alcoholic beverages.

Magnesium: In a study that followed 40,000 women aged 45 or older for six years, participants who consumed the most magnesium had the lowest risk of type 2 diabetes. Foods that are best at supplying you with magnesium include green leafy vegetables, fruits, whole grains and nuts.

Red meat: The risk of diabetes goes up in people who frequently eat red meat. Since meat is also high in saturated fat and cholesterol and may lead to heart disease and cancer, moderation is essential.

Soft drinks: Limiting the amount of high-sugar beverages you drink — such as soft drinks and fruit juice cocktails — can help you avoid diabetes. The drinks provide excess calories and large amounts of rapidly absorbable sugars that can contribute to weight gain and diabetes.

Nuts: Consumption of nuts and peanut butter reduced diabetes risk in the Nurses’ Health Study. This occurred even in obese women, and was not influenced by age, family history of diabetes, physical activity, smoking or other dietary factors in the study.

Spices: Scientists have found that black pepper, cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon all improve the ability of insulin to lower blood sugar levels. The level dropped 18 to 29 percent in a study of people taking cinnamon, 1/2 to 3 teaspoons daily for 40 days.

For more information: American Diabetes Association, www.diabetes.org.

E-mail comments to doctor@practicalprevention.com. Dr. Smoots’ columns are not intended as a substitute for medical advice or treatment. Before adhering to any recommendations in this column consult your health care provider.

© 2009 Elizabeth S. Smoots

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20091006/LIVING/710069992/-1/COLUMN05

Beef Pasta Bolognese

The best way to cook this is in your crock pot.  I like to cook it slow and low, 8 – 10 hours on low and come home to the house smelling of wonderful garlic, tomatoes and tender meat. 

Our Dream Dinners penne pasta is precooked and does not need to be boiled but if you have to  boil pasta this is the best way –  use 2/3 more water than pasta, bring water to boil, add 1st kosher salt and stir in pasta. No oil please, it only makes the sauce not stick to the pasta which is exactly what you want sauce to do, be soaked up by the pasts.  To keep pasta from sticking to itself, reserve 1 of boiling water that you drain the cooked pasta from and toss it back into the cooked pasta in 1/4 cups at a time until it stops sticking.  I cover a big platter with cooked pasta, pour the beef and sauce in the middle and sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley and shredded Parmesan Cheese!  Perfect!

Baked Fish and Chips with Tarter Sauce

Ok last time this was on the menu, I was a bit skeptical, can you really make fish and chips with taste good without  frying?  Yes you can!  This cod taste like eating candy, its moist, flakey, sweet, all wrapped up in a batter that does bake ups deliciously.  To add to the delicious fish the Dream Dinners tartar sauce is out of this world.  Non fat mayo, capers, seasonings, perfect complement to the fish and the chips   One of our owners even served it at home in individual baskets lined with red and white checkered parchment paper, just like the RRobin, but at her own dinner table,  Fun!

Dijon Honey Lime Grilled Salmon

We did grill outside in the Seattle rain !  It was worth it, the lime in this recipe brings out the flavors and char grilling is the perfect touch on the is easy, healthy and delicious Dream Dinner.  We had one filet left over and so the next evening I made a yummy salmon spread and served it with crackers.  I minced 1/4 cup green onions, added 1/2 cup non fat mayo, 1/2 tsp minced garlic, 1/2 cup non fat, 2 heaping Tablespoons of Dijon and fresh zest of 1/2 lime. Blended all together and chilled until serving.

Nana’s Lasagna

When I put this together in the store I used the cooked chicken and just a few pepperoni slices so that I could keep the flavor of the original Nana’s recipe but lighten the calories and fat by using cooked chicken.   I also added 1/2 crushed red pepper flakes to heat it up .  I peeled the foil pan off the frozen dinner, placing the dinner into my Southern Living  Baking Dish,  http://mag1.olivesoftware.com/ActiveMagazine/getBookEnc.asp?Path=U1RMTS8yMDA5LzA3LzAx&BookCollection=STLM_AM&ReaderStyle=SLH&browserWindowWidth=1270&browserWindowHeight=750

Thawed in the microwave and then baked as directed.

Grilled Chicken Mediterranean with Polenta

We had a dinner party and I served this dinner…. EASY!  I served this with roasted green beans, whole beans, 450 degree onion, tossed the green beans with olive oil, kosher salt and minced garlic.   Roast on a foil lined pan for 10 – 15 min until dark brown sections start on beans.  My friends brought a delicious green salad and I heated up some wonderful crusty bread.  I love entertaining with Dream Dinners because I have time to enjoy our guests and clean up is a snap! Ask me if you need help with your next event and I will customize a menu and time line for your next party.