Once the dust settled...

Didn't I say I was going to be in a 'cooking frenzy' this weekend???  Oh boy...was I RIGHT!  It started bright and early (4am!) Saturday morning with me boiling up some wild rice and ended on Sunday with my wishing they had invented full body zip-up heating pads to soothe my sore shoulders, back and feetJ hehehehehhehehee....

Once the flour dust settled, I had quite a good stock of quick meals that I know will freeze & reheated quickly and tastily to help us out in the next few weeks as we adjust to our new lives as a family of three!J

• Wild Rice Meatloaf
• Garden-Style Lasagna  (LOVE this recipe!)

• Regular ole meat & cheese lasagna
• "The Sandwich Kings" All-American Meatloaf (can't WAIT to make this into sandwiches J)

2 recipes of plain & 2 recipes of roasted garlic gnocchi!  I had made these the 'cheaters way' with instant mashed potatoes since I had a HUGE box my aunt had given me in my pantry.  Which I would normally be SOOO against had I NOT had such success with my 'instant' basil gnocchi.

I used this recipe and just added 2 cloves of roasted garlic to the mix for the second bag.  Hope they're as good as they smelled! J

Also on tap was a double recipe of Jim Lahey's NO KNEAD pizza crust!  Perfect for pizzas OR calzonesJ

And just for kicks:  Since I had a container of blueberries that would not stay fresh one. more. day, I turned them into some low-fat Blueberry Corn muffins (made with non-fat Greek yogurt and my 'hydrogenated oil FREE corn muffin mix'J)

And lastly...since I knew homemade cookies wouldn't exactly be on my cooking radar for...a bit, I figured I might as well go out and whip up a batch of these MONSTER MARSHMALLOW COOKIES!  Milk Chocolate chips, oatmeal, RICE krispies & marshmallows??  I mean, REALLY!

No worries...more than 1/2 of this recipe went PROMPTLY in the freezer where they will be a quick defrost of 1 or 2 for future dessertsJ

The freezer REALLY is good for portion control.  We dived up each of the lasagna and meatloaves to create exactly one-meal portions.  Pretty hard to go back for 'seconds' if they're FROZEN, no?? J

So with all of that cooking, I just HAD to have some simple dinner recipes for the rest of the weekend!  First up was some Saffron Fettuccine...

Based on this recipe, your 'sauce' is made by a quick boil down of some chicken broth & white wine along with saffron, onions, garlic & carrots...

Once it's reduced, you drain the veggies and add in some butter & grated cheese...

But we didn't want those good saffron-infused veggies to go to wasteJ  So we just threw them on top of the pasta too!  This was soooo good after a long day on my feet and nice & warm while the wind whipped by outside!  (Wasn't Saturdays wind CRAZYYYYY, Jersey folks??)

And, on what I figured, may be one of our last 'leisurely cooking Sunday morning breakfasts'J, I picked this recipe for light, crisp & airy Oatmeal Pancakes to slowly savor in the peace & quietJ hahahahaha...

I had one more recipe that I made last night for dinner, but I figured I'd save it and share it with you tomorrow.  Salads are on tap for tonight and I'm not sure how 'unique' this one is going to beJ  We'll see!

Phew...sick of hearin from me yet??  Hope I gave you guys some good ideas for 'cooking ahead' AND a few quick recipes!  

Have a good Monday!J