What's your 1 favorite main or side dish to make?

I love making Smashed Tatoes. It's just Mashed taters but with the skins on. You wash the outsides real good, then cut and boil taters for 20 minutes, or until soft, then drain them. Put them back into the pot or into a serving dish, add milk or cream, butter or margarine, salt and pepper to taste, and smash them with a tater masher. Best to do this with thinner skinned taters like golden, purple, red, or yellow taters, but not russets, they aren't good for this.

I also like to add a little cheese or garlic to the taters before smashing them sometimes. But it's up to you and what other foods will be on the plate. I love taters.

Okay. Here are some of my other favorites. I just felt I had to post them.

BRAIDED SPAGHETTI BREAD

This is a really simple recipe; it just takes a little planning for thawing the dough. It will take 2-3 hours for the bread loaf to thaw to room temperature or 1-2 hours for the rolls to thaw to room temperature.

You will need:

1 Loaf Rhodes Bread Dough or 12 Rhodes Dinner Rolls, thawed to room temperature
6 oz spaghetti, cooked
1 cup thick spaghetti sauce
8 oz mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2 –inch cubes
1 egg white
Parmesan cheese
Parsley flakes

Spray counter lightly with non-stick cooking spray (or use parchment paper).
Roll loaf or combined dinner rolls into a 12x16-inch rectangle. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 10-15 minutes.

Cook spaghetti according to package instructions. Drain and let cool slightly.

Remove wrap from dough. Place spaghetti lengthwise in a 4-inch strip down the center of dough. Tip with sauce and cheese cubes.

Make cuts 1 ½-inches apart on long sides of dough to within ½-inch of filling.

Begin braid by folding top and bottom strips toward filling. Then braid strips left over right, right over left. Finish by pulling last strip over and tucking under braid.

Lift braid with both hands and place on large sprayed baking sheet. (or transfer parchment paper to baking sheet). Brush with egg white and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and parsley (I added garlic powder).

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly and slice to serve.



ROASTED PARMESAN GREEN BEANS

Tender crisp green beans roasted to perfection, topped with shredded parmesan cheese. This is the easiest way to prepare the best tasting green beans, picky kid approved!


Roasted Parmesan Green Beans
Skinnytaste.com
Servings: 4 • Serving Size: 1 cup • Old Points: 1 pts • Points+: 2 pts
Calories: 62.4 • Fat: 2.9 g • Carbs: 8.0 • Fiber: 3.8 • Protein: 2.7 g • Sugar: 0
Sodium: 38.4 mg (without salt)

Ingredients:

12 oz green beans, trimmed (make sure they are dry)
2 tsp olive oil
kosher salt + fresh cracked pepper to taste
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tbsp shredded parmesan

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum for easy clean-up.
Lay green beans out on the baking sheet and drizzle oil over them. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder and toss to evenly coat.

Spread them out on the sheet so that they all lay flat and place on the lower third section of your oven. Bake 10 minutes, shake the pan to turn; bake 5 additional minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with grated cheese.



STUFFED PIZZA ROLLS

1 roll refrigerated pizza dough* (or make your own)
marinara/pizza sauce (click here to make your own)
2 T grated Parmesan cheese (sorry, I don’t know how to make that)
1 T olive oil or melted butter
1/2 t garlic powder
1 t dried Italian seasoning
mozzerella cheese
Pizza toppings of your choice: ie, ham and pineapple, pepperoni slices, sausage, etc.

*You can use regular pizza dough, or thin crust.

Preheat oven to heat specified on pizza dough package. Usually it’s 400 degrees. If you make your own dough, 400 is usually a good heat as well.

Unroll your pizza dough onto a lightly floured surface. Pat or roll the dough so it’s about 12″ by 8″. You’re going to want to cut it into 24 squares, so just eyeball it if you need to. Use a pizza cutter to slice the dough into 24 squares

Place cheese and desired toppings on each square. (Note that you’re not putting the marinara sauce on the dough- it’s for dipping after) You just need to be able to enclose the toppings in the dough so keep that in mind.

When all of your dough squares have cheese and toppings on them, carefully lift up each square and wrap the dough around the toppings. Pinch to make sure each ball is sealed shut and then place them seam side down in a lightly sprayed pie pan (or similar sized dish).

Brush the tops of the dough balls with olive oil or melted butter (I’ve used both and there’s not much difference in result) and then sprinkle with the garlic and Italian seasoning and top with Parmesan cheese. (In lieu of the Parmesan, garlic, and Italian seasoning you could substitute this garlic bread seasoning.)


Cook them in the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on top. Keep an eye on them! Doughs vary, so I’d check them after even 10 minutes.

Serve warm with warmed marinara sauce on the side for dipping.

**I hope you enjoy these recipes** :bigsmile:

Grilled kobobs made with either lean sirloin or pork loin marinated with soy sauce, garlic, honey. Marinate for atleast 4hrs and add ur veggies onions, mushrooms, peppers. I like to grill peaches and pinapple also depending if it pork or steak.

Check out budgetbytes.com. Here are some of my fav recipes:

http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/2012/03/honey-spice-chicken-thighs-513-recipe.html
http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/2012/02/hearty-black-bean-quesadillas-661.html
http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/2010/12/swamp-soup-793-recipe-099-serving.html
http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/2012/04/southwest-salad-with-taco-ranch.html

I eat these a lot :drinker:

I like steamed broccoli. Sometimes I have two sides of it. mmm

Beets! Peel and chop them into about a 1/2" dice, put in a pan with chicken (or beef) broth and simmer until tender. I usually let the broth mostly evaporate and stir in a small pat of butter at the end to make them saucy.

Sweet potato mash is another good side.

Dang the first thing I thought by just reading the title was .... CHICKEN!!! hehe nevermind though

Love me some soba noodles with tofu. Saute up some garlic, onions, and swiss chard. Drop the soba noodles in and tofu. Quick and easy. I don't use the sauce that comes with the soba (yaki soba). Super quick and soba and tofu are rather cheap. Once plated you can crush up some walnuts and top it with that.

I also like this mixture cold. Garlic and onions still sauteed with soba. Assorted color bell peppers, cucumber, apples, and other produce you like. I use a meat (turkey, chicken, steak, etc) rather than tofu for the cold salad.

Steamed broccoli, cauliflower, or asparagus works.

Some baked salmon with lemon zest, garlic, green onion, teriyaki. Obviously when the salmon is on sale, or use something cheaper like tilapia

Baked sweet potatoes with garlic and some pepper. Maybe a dash of honey on it.

I'm getting hungry now. Later!

Edit: Loving the profile pic btw