There are certain items that are plentiful and priced right at the grocery stores post-holiday. Stock up on these Smart Ingredients, and you have tools for dinner success that you can use throughout the next few months, and make many cheap and easy — and delicious — dinners.

Ham

What is leftover from the holidays is priced extremely well in stores right now, or even, buy one get one free. A great Cook Once, Eat Twice food, ham can be made for one delicious elegant dinner, with the leftovers used for many recipes including Ham and Cheese Muffins, Split Pea Soup with Ham and Ham and Swiss Baked Ziti (from the cookbook 40 Dinner Duos: Cook Once, Eat Twice.

Ham and Swiss Baked Ziti

Serves 4-6 (easily doubled)

• 8 ounces Ziti or similar pasta
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 cups shredded Swiss cheese (cut fine if you can only find slices or cubes
• 1 cup leftover ham, cubed
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, melt butter in medium saucepan over low heat. Cook garlic in butter for 30 seconds, stirring frequently. Stir in flour and salt, increase heat and stir until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Add milk, heat to boiling and stir until smooth. Add mustard and cheese, reduce heat, and simmer, stirring until cheese is melted and mixture is smooth.

Pour pasta into ungreased 2-quart baking dish. Add ham and cheese sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and Bread crumbs. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and browned.

Shrimp

Used for cocktail around the holiday season, it is priced at less than half of what you can find it for at other times of the year. Stock up and freeze in 1-lb. portions for a great “Smart” dinner ingredient. See the “Recipes” tab on our website for recipes for:

Shrimp Creole

Shrimp Po Boy Sandwiches

Coconut Shrimp

Shrimp Etouffee

Chipotle Shrimp Tacos

Cream of Mushroom Soup

While I often prefer to make my own white sauce with mushrooms, I must admit canned Cream of Mushroom soup is an undeniable Smart Ingredient when it comes to easy weeknight dinners. When I need a quick or easy comfort-food dinner, I use it to make Ground Beef Stroganoff, Pot Roast in the crock pot, or Tuna Casserole. The excess from the holidays should be priced at half what it is the rest of the year. If this is an ingredient you use, stocking up at half price is a great way to shop “Smart”.

French’s Onions

These gems are a nice bonus to top casseroles, salads, burgers and at the holidays… of course… green bean casserole. With the holidays gone, nab a can or two you can use over the next few months.

Cranberry Sauce

The price of canned cranberry sauce has really gone up this year, so nabbing some at a holiday price is a bonus. I love cranberry sauce (fresh or canned) to make Cranberry Brie Pizza, Apple Cranberry Pie, Cranberry Brisket, Cranberry Meatballs and Cranberry Chicken. At a sale price, I will buy at least a dozen cans if this Smart ingredient, and know that it will add up to so many appetizers and dinners in coming months.

Happy shopping and stocking up!

As I shared my cravings for a meatball sandwich, and a really good Reuben with my family recently, I realized that in the dinner world, “Sandwich Night” gets a bad rap. It definitely has its place in the week, and can provide as much of a well-rounded, healthy, hot meal as “meat and potatoes”, and often can be more convenient.

Adding good sandwich rolls to your weekly shopping list can open up a world of possibilities. Or, if you have time to bake, and keep Smart Ingredient RED STAR yeast on hand, you use our recipe for Italian Gondola Bread to  make great dinner rolls any day of the week.

In addition to meatball sandwiches and Reuben’s, some of our other favorite weeknight sandwiches include:

Baked Shrimp or Crab Cake Po’ Boy, Monte Cristo, and Chopped Salad “Pocket” sandwiches. See recipes below:

Baked Shrimp Po’ Boys

Ingredients (for 4 sandwiches)

• Four rolls
• 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
• ½ cup cornmeal
• ½ cup flour
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons Creole seasoning (or see recipe below)
• 1 cup mayonnaise (or ½ cup mayo, ½ cup Greek yogurt mixed together)
• 2 cups lettuce, finely chopped

* You can make your own Creole seasoning with a mix of garlic powder, salt, paprika, oregano, thyme, black pepper and just a touch of cayenne.

Dust shrimp with 1 tablespoon Creole Seasoning. Combine flour and cornmeal, and dredge shrimp. Grease baking dish with olive oil. Place shrimp on baking sheet and put in 400 degree oven for 10 minutes each side. Combine mayo (or mayo and Greek yogurt) with remaining Creole seasoning. Top bread with mayo, lettuce and shrimp or crab cakes.

Monte Cristo Sandwiches

This sandwich provides a sweet savory combination of meat and cheese between two slices of french toast. Turkey is often substituted for the ham.

Ingredients (for 4 sandwiches)

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 8 Bread slices (we often use Rosen’s potato bread for these, but any bread will work)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 8 slices deli ham
• 4 slices Swiss cheese
• Maple syrup (optional)

Chopped Salad “Pocket” Sandwich (copycat recipe of Pockets restaurant salad sandwiches in Chicago)

Ingredients (for 4 sandwiches)

• 4 ciabatta rolls, homemade gondola, pita or other hearty bread
• 1 heart Romaine lettuce, finely chopped
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1 tomato, seeded, cored, and diced into small pieces
• 1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• 3 slices cooked bacon, crisp and crumbled
• 1 cup small pasta noodles, such as Conchiglie

Cook pasta according to package directions, and rinse in cool water. Drain pasta. Mix all ingredients together, chill and serve on large rolls or homemade bread. Serve with your favorite dressing on the side.

. . .for Thanksgiving or anyday.

I had a lovely cooking demo at Geneva Library this week. Geneva, IL is one of those destination downtowns with all the great specialty shops and fantastic restaurants. I always enjoy a trip there, and this was no exception. I presented “Cook Once, Eat Twice”, where we discussed unique ways to use leftover Thanksgiving Turkey and Cranberry Brisket. We also discussed other Thanksgiving cooking strategies such as what you can plan and cook ahead to reduce stress (people shared many ideas for what can and has been done already… fruit pies prepped and frozen, rolls frozen, stuffing frozen, etc.). Another highlight was when my guests shared unique dishes that their family makes for this holiday. I was intrigued, and recreated some recipes here for you to try:

Onion Bake

This one seemed straight out of the 70′s, but with ingredients my family loves (Swiss. Worcestershire, Pumpernickel) I had to try. It had a very unique presentation, and was packed with flavor. 

• 1 large vidalia onion, sliced thin
• 1/2 can cream of mushroom soup
• A few splashes of Worcestershire sauce
• 4 slices Swiss cheese
• 4 slices pumpernickel bread

Lay the onions in a baking dish, top with soup and Worcestershire sauce. Lay cheese and then bread on top. Bake for 30 minutes in 375 degree F oven, covered.

Corn Casserole

Spinach Squares

Got one to share? We’d love to hear about the unique dishes that will make it to your table this holiday. Tell us via a reply to this post, or on our Facebook page.

Yes, we are a bit behind, but no less in the giving mood… Reply to this post to be entered to win a FREE copy of “70 Meals, One Trip to the Store.”

Every month in 2011 we are giving away a copy of our best-selling cookbook to a lucky blog subscriber. Here is some feedback from one of our recent recipients:

“We are really enjoying trying the recipes in your cookbook.  We especially like the Parmesan Crusted Fish Filet and the Black Bean Tortilla bake. Living in Northern Minnesota it can sometimes be difficult to get to the store at a moments’ notice.  I’m using the tips in your cookbook and on your website to help cut down the number of times that I need to go to the store.  This will be especially helpful come winter. This will save us big time on gas and on grocery costs as I can stock up when there are sales.”       — Rose

Thanks Rose. Those are two of my favorite recipes too. The Parmesan Crusted Fish recipe is one of the easiest I have for achieving great flavor in fish with about two steps and two minutes prep time. A quick 20 minute bake in the oven, and you have an incredibly delicious dish. And the Tortilla Bake is one of those gem recipes where you combine four simple ingredients and come away with a ton of flavor. Glad you are enjoying the book and the convenience/cost-savings it provides you and your family!

The recipe I want to share with you this week is one I created for the Apple Fest Celebration at the Olive Tap last weekend: Pork Empanadas using the Olive Tap’s Cinnamon Apple Balsamic Vinegar. (You can order the Cinnamon Apple Vinegar at theolivetap.com. Or substitute cider vinegar with a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.) The smell the simmering meat generated through the store was amazing.

Pork Empanadas

The following article reported last week by ABC News discusses a study that isolated a regular family dinner as the number one factor relative to less-risky behavior in teens.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Parenting/family-dinners-linked-risky-behavior-teens/story?id=14583590

We agree that having a regularly occurring family dinner is a huge step toward family closeness. We also know that it can be a strong factor towards nightly dinner success for the cook. When a regular family dinner is what is expected of and by the members of your family, you have more control over what goes on the table. And consistency is a huge step toward cooking success. If you are in the kitchen, playing to win at the cooking game, you are using the Smart ingredients you buy, making the most of your time by prepping forward for the next few meals, and streamlining your turf. Remember, the more you practice the game, the better player you are. And the whole family will be a better part of the team with the guidance of a good leader. So, commit to getting to the table and providing a homemade meal for your family every night. We will help you with four more delicious easy weeknight dinners:

Crock Pot Chicken Marbella

Don’t be intimidated by the unique ingredient combination in this age-old dish. It is time tested for a reason… it’s amazing!

Ingredients

• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/2 cup balsamic or fig vinegar
• 1/3 cup chopped pitted prunes
• 1/2 cup chopped green olives
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4teaspoon black pepper
• 4-5 chicken breasts

Cook onions and garlic in butter or oil in crock pot or covered pot on stove for 4 minutes. Stir in flour and until thick. Add remaining ingredients, including a tablespoon or two of the juices from each the olives and the capers. Simmer for several hours, covered, on medium low.

Vegetable Frittata

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked pasta
• 4 eggs
• ¼ cup milk
• ½ cup frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 tomato, diced
• ½ cup pepper/jack or Mozzarella cheese
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil

Coat bottom and sides of baking dish with olive oil. Mix all ingredients in large bowl and pour into casserole dish. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

Lime Marinated Steak (Cook Once, Eat Twice… Steak Spinach and Cheese Quesadillas)

Ingredients

• 4-6 thin steaks
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 lime

Season steaks with salt and pepper. Cover steaks with the juice of the lime, cover and marinate one half hour up to several hours. Grill over high heat for just a few minutes per side. Serve with Black Bean Asparagus Salad.

Steak and Spinach Quesadillas

Ingredients

• Leftover Steak, sliced
• 1 cup frozen, thawed spinach, or 2 cups raw spinach
• 1-1/2 cups chihuahua, mozzarella or provolone cheese
• 8 tortillas

Layer each of 4 tortillas with equal amounts of steak, spinach and cheese. Cover with remaining four tortillas. Grill in greased pan on stove 3 minutes each side on medium low until cheese is melted and bubbly.

You know I’m not a fan of freeze-ahead meals, but freeze-ahead ingredients that can be used for a fresh, homemade meal I’m all for. One that works the best in my opinion is seasoned cooked chicken. Chicken is one of those meal bases that I call a palette. A great neutral meal base that tastes great with dozens of preparations. And when seasoned with my favorite poultry seasoning, Vegeta, it provides a rich flavor in so many recipes. I know Vegeta is not easy to find in stores, so we are now offering Vegeta for sale through our website. We will ship it direct to you to help you have dinner success in your home. And for this month only, we are having two giveaways… one copy of 70 Meals, One Trip to the Store, and one can of Vegeta, to two separate winners. (All you have to do is comment on this blog post to be entered to win.)

To plan ahead for this busy time of year, season several pounds of chicken meat with Vegeta or other poultry seasoning, and cook over medium heat in a touch of olive oil for approximately 20 minutes or until cooked through. Alternately, you can grill your chicken, or bake your chicken at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Cool the chicken and dice into 3/4-inch cubes. Place approximately 2 cups of chicken each in Ziploc bags. Here are 5 of the many recipes from the 70 Meals, One Trip to the Store cookbook in which you can use the pre-cooked chicken for delicious, fresh and EASY weeknight meals. Others include Chicken Cacciatore, Chicken Stir-Fry, Chicken Stroganoff, Barbecue Chicken Pizza and Chicken Fajitas.

Chicken Fried Rice

Chicken Strata

Grecian Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 bag of 2 cups diced pre-cooked chicken
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1  14-ounce can marinated artichoke hearts
• 1  14-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained of most of the liquid
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 2 cups cooked rice

Cook rice according to package directions. Add remaining ingredients to crock pot or pot on stove and cook over medium heat until well blended.

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients

• 1 2-cup bag of diced chicken
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/4 onion, diced
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 -1/2 cups chicken broth, or broth made with Vegeta
• 2 cups mixed vegetables (typically peas, carrots, green beans and corn)
• 2 crust pie crust

Thaw chicken and vegetables (if frozen). Mold one pie crust into the bottom of a 9″ pie plate. In a large pan, Make a roux by melting butter and stirring in flour, salt and pepper until thick. Add onions and broth, and stir until smooth. Add milk, and continue stirring until thick and bubbly. Blend in chicken and mixed vegetables. Cool slightly and pour into prepared pie dish. Top with second crust and seal edge. Cut slits in top of crust. Use a pie shield or place tinfoil around edges to prevent excess browning. Bake at 400 degrees F for 45 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Chicken Caesar Wraps

Ingredients

• 1 bag 2-cups pre-cooked chicken
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 4 tortillas
• 2 cups lettuce, diced

Whisk egg, oil, salt, pepper, garlic, cheese and lemon juice for dressing. Add chicken to dressing to coat. Spoon 1/4 mixture into each of 4 tortillas, and add equal amounts of lettuce to each. Roll to form wraps.

While the Organizing Dinner cooking class focuses a lot on dinner success, we get asked often about help organizing the rest of the meals. As the busy school year has begun, here are some “cook once eat twice” strategies where you can cook a delicious dinner and then use the leftovers to make quick and easy, protein-filled, freezable breakfast options. If its a challenge to find the time to make a homemade breakfast, or if other members of your family are always on a rush out the door, these grab-and-go options save you many preservatives as well as money in lieu of the similar packaged/drive-thru/frozen options.

Baked Ham & Ham and Cheese Muffins

Sweet & Savory Baked Ham

Serves 4-6 with extra ham for Ham and Cheese Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 (3 pound) ham
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 cups water or broth

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place ham in roasting pan. Rub top and sides of ham with mustard, and then cover with brown sugar. Pour water or broth (I use Vegeta vegetable broth) in bottom of pan. Cover ham with a tent of tinfoil. Bake for 1 hour (20 minutes per pound if you are using a larger or smaller ham), until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees. Remove from oven and let sit for 15 minutes before carving.

Enjoy a delicious Ham dinner, and then use the leftovers to make this recipe for Ham and Cheese Breakfast Muffins. You can freeze the muffins and thaw each morning for a quick breakfast that is also hearty and delicious.

Sausage Lettuce Wraps & Sausage Biscuits

Lettuce Wraps

Serves 4 with extra sausage for Sausage Biscuits

Ingredients

Cook sausage in large non-stick pan over medium-high heat until browned, breaking into small pieces. Remove 2 cups of sausage, cool and reserve for Sausage Biscuits. Add szechwan seasoning to remaining sausage in pan. Add water chestnuts, carrots, green onions, walnuts and soy sauce; cook, stirring until heated through. To serve, spoon about 1/2 cup sausage mixture into center of each lettuce leaf. Roll and eat.

Use leftover crumbled sausage to make Sausage and Cheese Biscuits as a delicious and hearty grab-and-go breakfast option. These biscuits can be frozen pre-made (in batter form) or after they are cooked so you always have protein-filled breakfast options on hand.

Ready to restart the school year, activities and all that means for dinnertime in your house? Perhaps you made a resolution to become more successful at dinnertime? Make more meals and eat less take-out this school year? Organizing Dinner is dedicating this entire month’s blogs to providing you solid solutions and delicious recipes for weeknight cooking success.

This post is going to cover Organizing Dinner’s Smart Ingredients way to plan your meals. As you may recall us saying in the past, it does not take a “plan” as in any sort of written-out schedule. Why this doesn’t work: there is little flexibility. You need to be able to make what you have a taste and time for on a certain night… and on a moment’s notice. Our plan is also more like a lifetime plan than one week-at-a-time plan… which can fly by and leave you, again, without a plan.

Here’s how to start your Smart Ingredients plan:

Define your family’s three “go to meals”. For this week, buy the ingredients you need for these three meals in bulk. This is not confining you to a year of eating these three meals over and over. Rather, this is a groundwork. In addition, the “Smart” shopping style of buying in bulk is not one where you are spending an excess amount of money, and buying more than you can store at home. Rather, you are buying just the Smart ingredients that add up to dinner in your house. Eliminate the “random” ingredients you may buy as an “Oh, I might use this someday”, and for this week, just focus on success.

With this first step, the pressure of wondering what’s for dinner is over…. gone from your year. Next we’ll show you how to expand the variety of your meals. 

To give you an example, any night of the year my family would eat pizza, pasta or tacos. Therefore I always keep on hand the following ingredients: tomato sauce or ingredients to make it, tortillas, ground beef, chicken, and yeast and flour to make homemade pizza dough. Yeast, pasta and flour are easy to buy in large quantity and ground beef, chicken and tortillas can be frozen. On my weekly shopping trip, I always grab cheese that can be used for my tacos, pizza and pasta dishes, and some of my family’s favorite vegetables, such as peppers, spinach and onions.

Now, looking at the ingredients mentioned above, consider what can be made for dinner. I can make traditional pasta with noodles and red sauce, OR I could use some of the chicken and whatever vegetables I have on hand to make a chicken pasta with a cheese sauce. I could make a traditional cheese or vegetable pizza OR I could make a taco pizza. I could make ground beef tacos OR I could make chicken tacos or fajitas. You see by learning to mix and match Smart ingredients, I have expanded a simple 3 “go to” weeknight dinners to 6 without having to buy any more ingredients.

There is so much information out there in the grocery world. Hundreds upon thousands of ingredients we are told by advertising and pretty packaging will make our dinners successful. To win the game, you need to be in charge of what you’re buying. Casting a net on hundred of random items at the grocery store doesn’t always add up to dinner at home. Shopping Smart does.

This shopping plan is a mini excerpt of the 70 Meals, One Trip to the Store cookbook. Click here for the Chicken Fajitas recipe from 70 Meals, One Trip to the Store.

I’m excited about what’s on sale this week. And this back-to-school sale isn’t about backpacks and school supplies. It’s on dinner supplies that can get us one step closer to dinner success this school year. Right now ground beef is $1.99/pound in the Chicago suburbs, about a dollar less than it has been the rest of the year. As an added bonus, pork roast is $1.50 pound. This is fantastic just in time for the school year and after-school activities. It is time to stock up on both. Being prepared for busy weeknight dinners during the school year does not mean you have to revamp your life, commit to a new “plan” or otherwise stress yourself out. It just requires thinking ahead, and playing the dinner game on the offensive. Come to the game prepared to win. For example, if your family likes ground beef and/or pork for dinner, there are a multitude of options you can make just by having those two basic ingredients on hand. The 70 Meals, One Trip to the Store cookbook includes 20 recipes that are based on ground beef. Since the recipes all include only items you are likely to have on hand at home (whether or not you use the book’s shopping list) that means without stress there are any number of dinners you can make using ground beef, such as tacos, enchiladas, spaghetti and meatballs, salisbury steak, chopped steak, hamburgers, beef stroganoff and more.

There are also many, many ways to cook a pork roast. My favorites include shredded barbecue pork in the crock pot or pork roast with mango salsa, or teriyaki glaze, and use the leftovers another night that week to make one of the many dinner duos from 40 Dinner Duos that include pork, such as pork fried rice, or chipotle pork sandwiches.

Shop smart for yourself this back-to-school season, not just for the kids, and prepare yourself with cabinets full of Smart ingredients that add up to dinner success.

September’s blog posts will focus on quick and easy weeknight dinners such as crock pot cooking and cook once, eat twice. Please share our blog link with any friends you think might be interested in these recipes. We appreciate it!