Tag Archives: emeals

Bandwagons, menu plan Monday, partner campaign, recipes

Two-thirds of last week’s eMeals recipes were great

11/04/2013 Nichole 4 Comments

Disclaimer: eMeals.com has provided Nichole with a free subscription in exchange for a review. Nichole’s opinions remain her own, and she remains very opinionated about food.

Last week we tried a couple of eMeals recipes, and only one of them — a pasta with a pumpkin-sausage sauce — was a flop. To be fair, that’s not something I would normally even consider trying. It wasn’t terrible, but it didn’t fit our preferred flavor profile at all. It smelled amazing while it was cooking, though. I was pretty disappointed that it wasn’t as delicious as it smelled.

The Sweet and Smoky Bacon-Wrapped Chicken, however, was a big hit. Poppy said it tasted like “something a cowboy would eat,” which must’ve been a compliment because she ate it without complaint. None of the rest of us had trouble with it, either.

Sweet and Smoky Bacon-Wrapped Chicken

Author: eMeals.com

Ingredients

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half lengthwise
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1⁄2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon chili powder
6 slices natural uncured bacon
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons honey

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Sprinkle chicken evenly with salt, pepper, paprika, and chili powder. Wrap 1 slice bacon around each piece of chicken; secure with wooden toothpicks.
Heat oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat; brown chicken, in batches, 2 to 3 minutes on each side.
Arrange chicken in the skillet, and bake 15 minutes or until chicken is done and bacon is crisp.
Drizzle with honey during last 5 minutes of baking.

We also tried the Chicken Tikka Masala — which Pete thought was called “Chicken Chicken Masala” — and it received high marks, too. I couldn’t find garam masala at the store, so I found an “easy garam masala” recipe and mixed up my own. Super simple, and it was way less expensive than buying it because I already had all of the spices involved.

This week we have a couple birthdays, so we’re once again not doing the full week of eMeals recipes. I’d hate to have a pumpkin pasta scenario on my birthday. So we’re going with things we already know on the birthdays and eMeals the rest of the week!

Monday: ???

Today’s my birthday, and I think we’re going out. I haven’t decided where I’d like to go. Possibly to Firehouse Subs, because I am hopelessly devoted to their brisket & cheddar sandwich.

Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie

I love a good chicken pot pie, and I’m really hoping that the eMeals version is just that. There are biscuits involved instead of a crust, though, so we’ll see.

Wednesday: ???

A friend asked us last week if we wanted to go out for dinner this Wednesday, but I haven’t heard back from him to confirm. So we might be going out again. But maybe not.

Thursday: Cheeseburgers

Me: Hey Pete, what would you like for your birthday dinner?
Pete: Hmmm, I don’t know. Probably cheeseburgers.

And so cheeseburgers it is!

menu plan Monday, recipes

Nothing like pancakes to kick off the week

10/14/2013 Nichole

Disclaimer: eMeals.com has provided Nichole with a free subscription in exchange for a review. Because of the nature of the product and the fact that Nichole writes/thinks about food a lot, you can expect to read at least a little bit about eMeals every week for the next month or so. Nichole’s opinions remain her own, and she remains very opinionated about food.

On Saturday we got to see Missouri beat Georgia in person, and it was uncomfortably hot and the QB got injured, but it was mostly awesome.

We’re continuing the eMeals.com experiment this week, and once again I only have two of the week’s seven recipes on the roster. My goal for next week is to try three of them!

Monday: Orange Pancakes: This is one of this week’s eMeals picks, and it calls for a side of bacon. Sold.
Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie: It’s October. It’s supposed to be pot pie weather, but it’s been pretty warm here lately. Maybe putting pot pie on the menu will bring in a little cool weather.
Wednesday: Tortellini: It’s easy, and the kids love it.
Thursday: Slow Cooker Chinese Barbecue Pork: This is another of the eMeals recipes. It sounds pretty tasty, and I’m always happy to find a reliable CrockPot meal.
Friday: Pizza: Yay pizza!

Last week the only eMeals recipe we ended up trying was the Philly Cheese Steak Stromboli. It was really good, but it called for far more roast beef than I actually ended up using.

Philly Cheese Steak Stromboli

Author: eMeals.com

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 25 mins

Total time: 45 mins

Ingredients

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
2 (11 oz) cans refrigerated thin-crust pizza dough
2 tablespoons stone-ground mustard, divided
2 tablespoons fat-free mayonnaise, divided
13 oz package deli sliced roast beef
8 oz package sliced provolone cheese

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and bell pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes or until tender. Unroll dough, and spread each with 1 tablespoon mustard and 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, leaving a 1-inch border. Top evenly with vegetables, beef and cheese.
Roll up dough, jellyroll style, beginning with long side, pinching ends to seal. Place seam side down on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing.

menu plan Monday, partner campaign

In which I try to take the “planning” out of the menu-plan equation

10/07/2013 Nichole 1 Comment

My meal-planning routine usually consists of taking a spin through my Menu Plan Monday archives — because I can never seem to remember what we eat from week to week — and then looking through my I’d Eat That board on Pinterest for a few new ideas.

For the next couple of weeks, though, I’m not going to do either or those things.

Instead, I’m going to be downloading a weekly menu plan from eMeals, which will include a grocery list of everything I need for that week’s meals. I usually spend at least 30 minutes of my Friday evening pulling together my menu plan and compiling the grocery list; I’m looking forward to finding out what else I could be doing with that half-hour. (Handicrafts? Learning a new skill? Watching more television? The possibilities are endless, but the probability is sadly the latter!)

I’m not expecting to follow the eMeals plan to the letter every week, because (1) we can be kind of picky and (2) our schedule lately means I haven’t had time to actually prepare a meal every night. This week, for example, we have “Nutcracker” rehearsal, an American Heritage Girls meeting and all sorts of soccer practices, so we’re only going to be having two of the eMeals meals. It’s not that they’re especially complicated or lengthy; I just tend to lean on recipes — and I use that word lightly here — with which I’m already familiar.

Monday: Grilled cheese sandwiches: I used to always serve tomato soup with our grilled cheeses. And then we all admitted that none of us really likes tomato soup, so we don’t bother with that anymore.
Tuesday: Spaghetti: I think might even have some meatballs in the freezer!
Wednesday: Beef Chalupas: This will be the first eMeals recipe we’re trying. It’s supposed to be served with “crispy zucchini and corn.” Side dishes are never my strong suit; I’m hoping having it all planned out for me will help with that!
Thursday: Philly Cheesesteak Stromboli: And this is the second of the eMeals! It uses refrigerated pizza dough and roast beef from the deli, among other things. It’s served with Cajun french fries, which are really what sold me on trying this meal.
Friday: Out: Poppy will be doing her very first tae kwon do testing on Friday, and I’m preemptively planning to go out for a celebratory dinner. Go P!