Weekend Wrap Up & Something New for Your Family Table Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese

 Happy Monday friends! We are riding high after a big win from our Buffalo Bills last night! It was a great way to end the weekend. Sharing a few bits from the weekend, including a great new Fall recipe I made yesterday. 

Let's get to it! On Friday, Ella was off to the Cross Country State Championship for the last time. Unfortunately she injured her leg in her last race, so was not able to race but was there to support her team. As a senior and captain, she wanted to get her team a little something to celebrate the special weekend. 

We got them all matching Pajama pants from Old Navy. We tied them with a ribbon,  a little liquid IV packet, and she wrote a personal note to each girl. Such a cute little gift if you’re doing an exchange with teen girls or your girlfriends!

Saturday I had a great walk catching up with a friend. We have been spoiled with really good Fall weather this year. I think we are on our track to see the latest snowfall here in Buffalo. We usually have had at least one snowfall by now. Ill take this snow-free Fall!

I spent Saturday running all of the errands. And I think everyone else did too. The shopping centers and the roads were so busy! Definitely feeling like the holiday season. I wore this new fleece that is total \Free People dupe at a fraction of the price. It is so cozy and cute for running around. I got in the black-and-white, but it comes in several other colors.

All that shopping had me in the holiday spirit and I began to decorate the inside of the house for Christmas.

Sunday was a low key day of working out, laundry, and getting some stuff ready for dinners for the week. The Bills were playing in the later game, so I made a Game Day dinner of barbecued pulled pork, coleslaw, and this butternut squash mac & cheese. I was looking for a mac and cheese recipe that was a little bit healthier. This would be a great addition to a Fall or Thanksgiving dinner. 

This is not a weeknight meal, as it takes a couple of extra steps. I followed this recipe, making a couple of changes as I went along. 

You cook and puree the squash to add to the cheese sauce. 

The recipe called for a couple of different cheeses to be blended together. While I was grocery shopping, I saw this bag and just went with this blend.

The recipe called for skim milk and I used almond milk. Now the sauce didn’t thicken as much as I think a traditional mac & cheese sauce thickens. Not sure if that’s just this recipe or if it’s because I used almond milk. Either way, I thought the taste & texture of the finished product was great. 

I added about an extra 1/2 cup of cheese over what the recipe called for. 

The recipe called for 10oz of pasta, but I did a full package which was 16oz. I also only used about 3/4 of the sauce. Just seemed like there was too much sauce for the amount of pasta. I topped it with a bread crumb topping and it was ready to go in the oven! 

It turned out nice and golden and had really great flavor. You could taste a hint  of squash, but it was very mild. A great Fall dish! I think you could add a few cups of broccoli to this dish too and it would be great.

Wishing you a great week! See you back here later in the week, there is always room for one more at our family table.

Xoxo

Genevieve  

p.s. I get commission for purchases or clicks made through links in this post. Thank you for supporting my blog. 

Something New for Your Family Table BBQ Salmon Bowls

Happy Monday friends! The calendar may officially say Fall. but we were so excited to steal another day on the boat yesterday. The sun was shining, and it was pretty warm, so we took advantage. 

This is a wild week ahead. It’s homecoming week for the kids, so there’s lots of activities at the end of the week with the Powderpuff football game and homecoming dance. We’ve got two volleyball games and two cross country meets in the week as well. And Ella's birthday is on Friday too!

I have shared here before our family's love of salmon. So when I stumbled across this barbecue salmon bowl, I knew we had to try it. It got two thumbs up from everybody on the table last night.

I mean, how could you go wrong with these ingredients. Salmon, fresh avocado, mango, and cilantro........ 

First step was to assemble the mango salsa. This came together really quickly.... just chopping a bunch of things and throwing it in a bowl. I have a feeling this would taste better if it was left to sit for a while longer and let all the flavors come together. This is definitely something you could make ahead of time to cut time off during a weeknight meal. I would just hold off on the avocado and add it in before you serve it. 

This would be so good with chips!

Next step was creating this barbecue rub for the salmon. Just some spices like paprika, garlic powder, and the key was some brown sugar. It kind of gave that sweet and smoky flavor to the salmon. All the spices came together with a little bit of olive oil and then patted it onto the salmon. 

When I make this again, I will put just a little less of the rub on the salmon. 

The recipe called for baking in the oven, which I did. It baked at a high temp in less than 10 minutes. You could definitely do this in the air fryer as well, you just want to keep an eye on your time, as the brown sugar can burn pretty quickly.

I made some quick jasmine rice, and then topped with the salmon and the salsa and dinner was done. I added some fresh jalapeños to the top of mine. The mango salsa called for it but I skipped it, since my kids are not huge fans of spicy. 

This one will officially be in our rotation for dinner! You can grab all the recipe details here. 

See you back here on Wednesday, there is always room for one ore at our family table. 

xoxo

Genevieve

 

Something New for Your Family Table Fall Transition Meals

 Hello Monday!!! We had our first weekend back in the Fall sports scene and the weather sure felt like Fall! I was feeling extra Fall like on Saturday while I was standing in the fields watching Ella race. 

My nails were painted a darker Fall color, I was in my favorite sweatshirt and must have boots , and had a PSL in my hand.

Sharing two new to us meals I have made the last few weeks. I feel like these are both good "transition meals". Meals that aren't Summer grilling, but noy quite full on hearty slow cooker meals. 

This first one is a lemon sausage pasta. The recipe calls it spicy, but I made it "non-spicy" by using a mild sausage instead of the hot variety. 

It was a nice, light sauce with the brightness from the lemon, but felt hearty with the addition of the sausage.  You can grab all the recipe details here. 

I have been seeing people share their plates featuring Marry Me Chicken or Marry Me Shrimp. I decided to try it out one night. Now I don't know that it would convince me to marry someone, but it was delicious!

The recipe suggests serving it with mashed potatoes, pasta or rice. We ended up having it over pasta. It was good, but I think I would do mashed potatoes next time around. The recipe calls for already baked chicken, so if that is all set to go, the rest of the meal comes together pretty quickly. It was full of rich, warm flavors and felt like a perfect transition meal into Fall. You can grab all the recipe details here. 

Do you have any favorite Fall transitions meals? Share them in the comments below, I am always up for trying a new recipe! 

See you back here on Wednesday, there is always room for one more at our family table.

xoxo
Genevieve

p.s. I get commission for purchases or clicks made through links in this post. Thank you for supporting my blog. 

Something New for Your Family Table Firecracker Meatballs

Happy Tuesday friends! It’s official…Summer is done here and my kids are back to school tomorrow. I was looking at the family calendar for the week and we are full steam ahead! Practices, volleyball game, cross country meet, picture days, concession stand volunteering….we are in it this week! While it all sounds crazy, I do love it! 

Amber Massey shared this recipe for Firecracker Meatballs a couple of weeks ago on Instagram and I took a screenshot and made it.

 It was so good, I actually made it twice in one week. The sauce made quite a bit and I had a bunch of leftover so I kept it in the fridge and just made the meatballs and green beans again later that week.

The meatballs were super moist, and the recipe calls for cooking the meatballs and the green beans on the same sheet pan.  I don’t know if my sheet pan wasn’t big enough, but I ended up doing two separate pans the second time I made them.

I followed the recipe exactly as called for in round one. I made one change the second time and I did not drizzle the meatballs in olive oil before cooking them. I just didn’t feel that they needed it. They were delicious both ways. 

I cooked them on the longer side of the time recommendation, because I had less meatballs than the recipe suggested you would have. Which meant I made them on the larger side.  I always seem to do that! I do love this scoop when I’m making meatballs!!

The coconut rice that the recipe called for was amazing. I made the rice the first time and the flavors really enhanced the dish. The second time I made this, I just did jasmine rice. Not quite as much flavor, but still good and an easy shortcut for a weeknight! 

Even with making the coconut rice, this meal came together in less than 30 minutes, which would make it perfect for a school night. I would also say this would easily reheat. so you could have it a different times of the night, depending on games or practices.

You can grab the full recipe details here.

Wishing you a great first week of September. See you back here tomorrow! There is always room for one more at our family table. 

xoxo

Genevieve

 

Something New for Your Family Table- Summer Clambake

 Happy Monday friends! Sharing a recipe today that I probably should’ve shared earlier in the Summer, but it just didn’t happen.  Three of the four people in my family love steamers. Ella is not a big fan. So last week while she was away at running camp, we did our clambake.

While, it may sound complicated, this method is pretty simp. I have been cooking them in foil packets over the grill and they turn out amazing!

I start with about a pound of baby red potatoes and boil them for about 15 minutes. You want them slightly tender, but not cooked all the way through. I drain them and set them aside to cool.

Our local grocery store carries a bag of 50 count little neck clams. That's the amount I use for this recipe.  To clean them, I soak them in cold water with a little bit of salt to help draw out any of the dirt or sand. And then drain and rinse them well.

Then I got my foil packets ready. I just do two large pieces of foil crisscross like the picture below.

To each foil packet I add about a dozen clams, an ear of corn that I just break in half, some potatoes, and then a few pieces of sausage. I use a pound of a smoked sausage and just cut it into bite-size pieces, You can do any sausage you want, it just needs to already be pre-cooked or smoked. 

Once I lay all of that together, I give it a quick sprinkle of salt and pepper. I fold up each side of the foil and pour about a quarter bottle of a light beer into each packet. I used Corona on this day because that’s what I had on hand. Any light beer will work, or you could also use chicken broth. 

Fold up the packets tightly and place the packets right on the grill on medium-high heat. And that’s it. They cook for about 20 minutes or so. You can take a peek inside the packet and once the clams begin to open, you are good!

I dump everything into a big serving dish.

And then everybody gets their own individual little butter dish for dipping. 

That's it- our simple way to do a Summer Clambake! Perfect for the upcoming long weekend. 

Have a great week friends. See you back here on Wednesday. There is always room for one more at our family table. 

xoxo

Genevieve

Something New for Your Family Table BBQ Pork & Pineapple Tostadas

Hey there Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend! We made our rounds on another college tour, Ella spent the night at a friend's lakehouse, got in our workouts and spent the rest of the weekend on laundry and catching up around the house. 

I started following Lille Eats & Tells and gosh she shares some great meal and food ideas!  We made these BBQ Pork & Pineapple Tostadas and they were amazing! So much flavor and bonus.... the pork cooks in the slow cooker, so a little lighter workload for dinner! 

I followed the recipe pretty closely, but she used leftover pork and I was starting from scratch. I put some pork in the slow cooker, along with a packet of Siete Carnitas Seasoning and about 1/2 cup of chicken broth and let it cook on low all day. You can grab the full recipe here.

When I got home from work, I put together the salsa. 

The flavors here were so good! This would be a great salsa to use with fish or shrimp tacos too!

I found this BBQ sauce at our local Wegmans. It sounded like it would pair perfectly with this meal. 

If I don't make my own sauce, I try to find one with clean ingredients and this ingredient list worked for me. 

When I make a pulled pork or carnitas in the slow cooker, I like to shred it on a sheet pan and then pop it into the broiler for a few minutes to crisp it up a bit. You don't have to do this step, but I like a little crisp to the pork. Just keep a close eye on it, as too much time can dry it out. I would say 2-4 minutes. 

Once the pork was out of the broiler, I tossed it with the BBQ sauce to coat. 

And then we built our tostadas with the pork, pineapple salsa, Monterey jack cheese, jalapenos and a little more BBQ sauce. 

This recipe was a winner in our house and a great meal idea for back to school. Whether you use leftover pork as the recipe calls for or make it in the crockpot, the meal comes together pretty quickly!

Wishing you the best week!

See you back here on Monday, there's always room for one more at our family table. 

xoxo

Genevieve

p.s. I get commission for purchases or clicks made through links in this post. Thank you for supporting my blog. 

 

Something New for Your Family Table Honey Chipotle Chicken Skewers

 Happy Monday friends!!!! I saw this over the weekend and I feel it in my soul! 

Like where has this Summer gone???  We had a fun weekend, with a random opportunity to see Carrie Underwood in concert. 

She was great and her legs look just as good in person as they do on TV! 

Anywho, I am here to share a dinner idea for your family table. We are still in the peak of grilling season, so I am grilling any chance we get. I found this recipe from Pinch of Yum for these Honey Chipotle Chicken Skewers. A quick marinade and a quick grilling is my kind of Summer meal. 

The marinade recipe is pretty simple and full of clean ingredients. No funny things here!

Now the recipe has "chipotle" in the title, but I did not (nor did my kids) find this to be spicy. It was more of a sweet, robust flavor. 

Love skewers on the grill!

As per usual, we made our meal into a bowl! I roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli. For the sweet potatoes, I cut them into bite sized pieces and drizzled with olive oil, salt and cinnamon. They roasted at 425 for about 45 minutes.  Once the bowls were assembled I added a drizzle of Mike's Hot Honey. 

So, so good!!! I hope you give these a try! You can grab all the recipe details here. 

Wishing you the best Monday! See you back here on Wednesday. There is always room for one more at our family table. 

xoxo

Genevieve