Weeknight Dinners: Roasted Vegetable and Quinoa Salad

This week’s recipe comes from Ginger Friesen, one of our recent “Go West Moms You Should Know” for her role in creating MealBaby, a free service that allows you to easily coordinate the delivery of meals to family and friends.

Photo by hownowdesign on Flickr.Friesen contributed this recipe for Roasted Vegetable and Quinoa Salad. She says she and her husband and their two young sons are “flexitarians, meaning we eat vegetarian (almost vegan) at home but will eat meat when we go out or are eating at others' homes.” Flexitarian! I’d never heard that term before, but I love it. Anyway, this recipe sounds particularly savory for a cold, rainy night, and we all know those nights are just around the corner. P.S. I’ll admit to never having cooked quinoa before. This recipe might convince me to finally give it a try! -- Tara

Click to read more ...

Weeknight Dinners: Red Beans & Rice With Sausage

The following recipe comes from GWYM reader Tracy Richter. “With two boys, a husband and a dog, getting more than 15 minutes to actually stand in front of the stove is a challenge,” she wrote. “Here's one I've made twice in the last 10 days. Because it simmers for a bit you can get the table set, get the kids cleaned up, etc. and not worry about being stuck at the stove.”

If you have a favorite dinner recipe, please email it to editor@gowestyoungmom.com. We would love to share it with other readers!

Red Beans & Rice with Sausage

Ingredients:

(You can cut up everything in the morning and put it together that night or cut as you go)

1 package smoke sausage - chopped into bite size pieces

1 cup onion - medium dice

1 cup celery - medium dice

Click to read more ...

Weeknight Dinners: White Chicken Chili

The latest “Weeknight Dinner” recipe comes from dedicated Go West Young Mom reader Maureen Slaughter. She says this White Chicken Chili is a special favorite of her husband and youngest son. It was inspired by a dish served at the Hubbard Avenue Diner in Middleton, Wisconsin, and modified from “Betty Crocker Slow Cooker Meals.” If you have a favorite recipe to share, please email it to editor@gowestyoungmom.com.

Photo by Kirako on Flickr.Ingredients:

2-3 uncooked boneless chicken breasts cut up into 1/2-1 inch chunks

2 cans Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained (sometimes I throw in other beans too/instead)

1 envelope Old El Paso 40% less sodium taco seasoning mix

1 can chopped green chilies

1 can condensed reduced sodium cream of mushroom soup

Directions:

Put chicken into crock pot first followed in any order by the beans, seasoning, green chilies and cream of mushroom soup. Cook approximately 5 hours on low. (I stir it once or twice during cooking.) Serve with shredded cheese on top and warm bread. 

Weeknight Dinners: Vegetable Beef Soup

We’re kicking off a new feature that will run on Wednesday evenings on Go West Young Mom. While this first recipe comes from me (well, my mother-in-law) I’m hopeful that the recipes in the ensuing weeks will be submitted by readers. So get out those cookbooks and recipe boxes, and please email you favorite dinner recipes to editor@gowestyoungmom.com. There are no requirements other than it be a dinner easy enough to pull off on weeknights when everyone is busy and tired from work, school, soccer games, etc.

I wish I had thought to take a photo of our most recent batch of soup. Photo by Arthaey on Flickr.Like I mentioned, the following recipe is one of about 20 my wonderful mother-in-law (who is also a wonderful cook) passed along to us early in our marriage, bound in a cute yellow book entitled “Favorite Recipes from Mom’s Kitchen.”

We make it a lot in the fall and winter, and every single time we marvel at how tasty it is – and of course how easy, because it uses a crock pot. My husband actually put together our most recent batch, just last week, and at 2 p.m. the day we were going to eat, I had a huge smile on my face, looking at that simmering crock pot and knowing dinner was already done. Add a loaf of crusty bread and a salad and you have a very balanced meal!

Click to read more ...