As requested...(edited)

Here are a few recipes to go along with my menu sidebar:

Monday: Chicken Tortellini & Sauteed Squash

This recipe is SUPER easy especially if you have pre-cooked chicken. We had some cooked chicken from the day before so all I did was boil some cheese tortellini (the frozen kind), then chopped the chicken and tossed it with marinara sauce. EASY CHEESY. And the vegetables I just chopped and sauteed in olive oil then seasoned with salt and pepper. I'm all about keeping it simple especially when 5:00 is the magic hour for chaos.

Tuesday: Greek Chicken Salad Wraps, Chips, and Grapes

Go here for the original recipe (thanks for sharing Emily!). I was short on time so I used some more of our pre-cooked chicken and tossed it with a Greek dressing I already had on hand. This recipe is SO good and fairly easy. Even my five-year-old liked it!

Wednesday: Mac & Cheese & Peas

For directions, read the box. :) I do have two comments about macaroni though.

1.) It's SUPER easy to make your own. All you do is cook some pasta and then toss it with grated cheddar cheese and a little milk or cream and S&P. It turns out really yummy this way, plus it's a great way to use wheat pasta!

2.) My favorite brand of the box kind is Annie's Homegrown Organic Macaroni & Cheese. Not that I'm totally into organic pasta or anything, I just think it tastes better than Kraft. You can buy a big pack of them at Costco.

Thursday: Pork Tacos

Last week we made BBQ pulled pork (thanks Alton Brown!). It made a TON, so we froze quite a bit of it. All I had to do was pull out the meat, stick it in a pan with a lid and throw it in the oven until it was warmed through. I served it with chopped tomatoes and lettuce, grated cheese, BBQ sauce, sour cream, guacamole, and warmed tortillas. They were delicious!

Friday: Veggie Spaghetti Salad & Asparagus Roll-Ups

I haven't tried either of these recipes yet, so I have no idea if they're good, but they sounded good to me so I thought I'd give them a try.

Veggie Spaghetti Salad:

1pkg. thin spaghetti, halved

3 med. tomatoes, diced
3 small zucchini, diced
1 lg. cucumber, halved, seeded, and diced
1 med. green pepper, diced
1 med. sweet red pepper, diced
1 (8 oz.) bottle Italian salad dressing (1 bottle???? That sounds like WAY too much dressing to me! You probably should start with a quarter cup and then add more to taste.)
2 T. grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 t. sesame seeds
1 1/2 t. poppy seeds (I skipped out on these.)
1/2 t. paprika
1/4 t. celery seed
1/8 t. garlic powder (I added 1 clove fresh garlic, minced in place of the powder)

Cook spaghetti; rinse in cold water and place in large bowl. Add tomatoes, zuchinni, cucumber and peppers. Combine remaining ingredients in small bowl and pour over salad. Toss to coat. Cover & refrigerate at least 2 hours.

*This recipe seems like it makes a ton, I'm definitely going to half it when I make it. I'll let you know tomorrow if it's good!

This recipe turned out great! My kids loved it. My husband isn't a huge fan of pasta salad to begin with, but said he probably would have liked it if it was just served warm instead of chilled. So you could probably serve it either way. I'll definitely try it again as a hot dish. If you decide to go the warm route, you might want to skip the Italian dressing and just toss the pasta with a little olive oil and salt and pepper.

Asparagus Roll-Ups

16 Fresh asparagus spears

16 slices sandwich bread, crusts removed
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
8 Bacon strips - cooked and crumbled
1/4 cup green onion, chopped
1/4 cup butter - melted
3 T. grated Parmesan cheese

Place asparagus in a skillet with a small amount of water; cook until crips-tender, about 6-8 minutes. Drain and set aside. Flatten bread with rolling pin. Combine cream cheese, bacon & green onion; spread 1 T on each slice of bread. Top with an asparagus spear. Roll up tightly and place seam down on greased baking sheet. Brush with butter and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Cut roll-ups in half. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes 32 appetizers.

*Again, this recipe makes a LOT, so I'm going to cut it in half.

Okay, now that I've made them I made quite a few alterations. (And they turned out FABULOUS!!!) First after cooking the asparagus and seasoning it with salt and pepper I sliced them in half. Then, instead of using slices of bread I used a package of Pillsbury lowfat crescent rolls. I mixed the onion (I actually didn't have green onion, so I just used a little onion powder) with the cream cheese and spread it on the triangles of dough. Then I placed half a slice of bacon and two halves of asparagus in the dough before rolling it up. I decided to skip on the butter and just sprinkled the rolls with parmesan cheese. Then I followed the cooking directions on the package of the rolls (bake at 375 for 11-13 minutes). They were SO yummy! I'll definitely be making these again.


Also for anyone interested, I posted a few recipes on E's Recipe Corner recently that turned out really yummy. (Baked Egg Rolls, Creamy Cilantro Salad Dressing, Homemade Hamburger or Hot Dog Buns (thanks Celia!), and Warm Vanilla Syrup (again thanks Celia!).)