Nutritional Information being added! And a surprise!

I have been posting my state recipes on erecipe.com and they figure out the complete nutrition information for each recipe. I think this will be good for readers and for our family as well. 

I am going back through my posts and uploading to erecipe.com the recipes for the states that we have already completed and then updating each recipe's post with the new nutrition information.  I plan to add the nutrition information to all of my following posts, as well. 

As a test, the first recipe I added (as a whim) was for New Jersey for a Cannoli Tart.  Good news, it was "Recipe of the Day" on their website yesterday! 

Tour of Fifty States: Utah's meal

Last weekend we had the meal from Utah.  When I think of Utah, I think of wide open spaces, beautiful scenery, National Parks, and Mormons (Latter-Day Saints.)  The inspiration for this meal comes from the peaceful Mormons and their love of simple, hearty, family-friendly comfort food.

Menu: Meatloaf, Funeral Potatoes, Lime Jell-O
Outcome:  Everyone really loved the meatloaf --the recipe I used called for bell peppers, but I think that next time I would choose mushrooms instead.  Precooking the onions and peppers would make for a softer texture, so I am adding that step in the recipe below.  The "Funeral Potatoes", also called Hash Brown Casserole, was a hit!  We were scraping the dish to get the last of it out.  And who doesn't like Jell-O for a tasty treat? 
Next up:  Matthew chose Colorado!  That state meal (to be served the weekend of 6-8 June) will be the last one until August, when we're all back together again.  With family road trips, the kids' summer visitation, summer camps, and family visits, we all won't be back together for all 6 of us to have one of our states' homemade meals until school starts again. 

Meatloaf and Funeral Potatoes

Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Soup

When it's Bill's kids' weekend at our house, we like to prepare something for Friday's dinner on Thursday night.  First, just about anything cooked the day before tastes so much better the next day (think Red Sauce , Chili, and just about any casserole or soup.) And second, after a full day of work and picking up the kids, who wants to make dinner?  I get home first, so I pop it in the oven or reheat on the stove and throw together a salad so everything's ready when they get home. 

Last night Matthew and I made soup for tonight that we'll serve with a salad made with lettuce from our garden (yay!!) and some cheesy garlic bread. Creamy Roasted Red Pepper soup is one of our family's favorites! It takes a longer time than other soups to make, but boy is it worth it! We have made several recipes from The Soup Bible and this is our adaptation of their recipe.

Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Dinner for Two From the Fridge

During Spring Break, all of the kiddos were gone ... Bill and I had been eating leftovers or just snacking on quick items for dinner over the week.  For our last night alone, I thought I'd make a nice candle lit dinner.  Looking in the fridge, I found a bag of spinach, a box of strawberries, some tomatoes and onions, and a ham steak.  I think it ended up as a nice meal.

Here's what I came up with:
Mustard Glazed Ham Steak
Spinach au Gratin
Tomato and Onion Salad
Strawberry "Cheesecake" Trifle