My Latest ETSY Acquisition and an Update on Dream Dinners

I've had my eye on this vinyl wall decal from singlestonestudios for quite sometime. My lovely sister bought this for me and I put it up on my living room wall over the weekend. I think the colors are fantastic with my blue walls! I hope the light doesn't melt it. So far so good =)

The Dream Dinners experiment is going well. So far we have made the Steak Gorgonzola and the Toasted Pecan Chicken. My boyfriend exclaimed "This is six servings?" I replied with "yes, honey this is six normal size servings". (He eats like a horse!) We were both full after we ate the steak with a side of roasted potatoes and we actually had leftovers! The gorgonzola butter sauce was fantastic!

The Toasted Pecan Chicken was also delicious. I thawed the meal the day before, took the chicken out of the yummy marinade and coated the chicken in the Pecan/Bread Crumb mixture! It was delicious. How can you go wrong with toasted pecans? I served it with a side of baked potatoes and salad.

Overall, I still feel that the price and ease of preparing these meals is well worth the price. The clean up was simple. Basically, throw the freezer bags in the trash.

Tomorrow night is the Beef Bolognese Pasta! I can't wait =)

Dream Dinners

I had a wonderful night last night! I decided to go to a Dream Dinners session. I'm always struggling with cooking meals for two people. I find all these wonderful meals I want to cook so I go out and buy all the ingredients needed and make a great meal. Inevitably, I always end up throwing out half a bottle of this and half a jar of that after a few weeks of not using the ingredient again.
Dream Dinners is a Godsend! This place is fantastic. You go to their website, pick out 36 portions on their menu. I chose 6 meals of 6 portions. They offer nutritional information for all of the meals. I chose mostly the heart healthy options since I am a lifetime Weight Watchers member and need to keep track of my points.

When I arrived at Dream Dinners I was greeted by a very friendly employee who welcomed me and explained the process. There is a station set up for each meal they offer. I went to my first session and she explained that I place a gallon Ziploc bag inside of a canister. From there you fill bag according to the recipe in front of you with the ingredients in front of you. Everything is prepared, chopped, minced, grated etc. Easy as pie. I made all six meals in under 1 hour. I placed them all in freezer safe packages along with the defrosting and assembly/cooking instructions. I brought them home ready to serve as soon as we are ready to eat them.

I'm hoping they'll taste as good as they appear to taste. I will need to remember to place each meal in the fridge 24 hours before cooking.

My only complaint would be the lack of sides accompaniments. When I signed up I assumed there would be something to accompany the dishes, but no luck. They did have frozen sides available for an additional cost but I decided not to purchase those.

Overall, I feel it was worth the $172.00 I spent. This comes out to about $28.00 a meal. This sounds like a lot but when I factor in all the food I throw out, time spent at the grocery store, time spent cutting, chopping, CLEANING up, etc. It is totally worth it.

I plan to share the meals and my satisfaction here on the blog for anyone that's interested. I chose the following meals for my first Dream Dinners experience:

Baked Fish and Chips with Tarter Sauce
Toasted Pecan Chicken
Beef Pasta Bolognese
Savory Honey Grilled Chicken with Sesame Honey Butter
Steak Gorgonzola
Slow Cooked BBQ Beef with Rustic Country Rolls

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

We had a cookout this weekend and made this delicious Mac and Cheese. Thought I would share the recipe. It was sooo yummy.



2 pounds elbow macaroni
1 big block of Velveeta
2 bags of shredded cheddar cheese
1 block of cheddar cheese
1 can of evaporated milk
1 stick of butter
2 eggs

Cook elbow macaroni. Drain. While hot add evaporated milk and eggs and butter. Stir. Cut Velveeta and cheddar into cubes. Add into macaroni slowly stirring as it melts. Add shredded and leave a little to sprinkle on the top. Pour into baking pan. Sprinkle top with remaining shredded cheddar. Cook at 375 for 1 hour or until brown and bubbly on top.