We had friends over for dinner on Saturday for a turkey that we smoked on the Traeger. It was amazing and so moist. If you have a Traeger grill I highly recommend trying a turkey on it. For me, however, the real star of the meal was the sides!

I made Garlic Cheese Rolls from Our Best Bites and Homemade Rice A Roni from Food Network Magazine.

First of all the Garlic Cheese Rolls were AMAZING! I had made them before but this time I didn't put them in a muffin tin like suggested. Instead I baked them in a 13x9" pan like cinnamon rolls. This kept the rolls softer and gooey in the center. My mouth waters just thinking of them. They came out of the oven about 20 minutes before the rest of the meal was ready and non of us could keep away from them. They ended up being appetizers as well as a side dish.

The Homemade Rice A Roni was also fantastic and so easy! I have now added it to "the binder" which means it is a new family favorite. I am always looking for side dish ideas and this was perfect. The recipe was from Food Network magazine but I am not sure which issue because I tore it out of the magazine to try. I love food network magazine and always find many things in every issue I want to try.



Homemade Rice A Roni (they call it Rice-Pasta Pilaf)

Toast 1/2 cup broken spaghetti in a pot over medium high heat with 2 tablespoons butter. Stir in 1 cup rice add 2 cups chicken broth, 1 cup water, 2 garlic cloves and 1 teaspoon salt. Boil for 3 minutes, then stir, cover and simmer 15 minutes. Let sit 5 minutes; fluff with a fork and smash the garlic. Stir in some butter and cilantro.

This week at work I got the opportunity to speak at a childhood obesity prevention workshop. We were highlighting the We Can! (Ways to Enhance Childhood Activity and Nutrition) program from the National Institutes of Health. If you have children, I highly recommend checking out the We Can! website. Anyways, they have a cookbook that I brought home and I am going to start trying some of the recipes. They are super healthy and kid friendly.

Tonight I thought I would share with everyone my new dinner obsession. Couscous! Couscous is a perfect side dish especially for the summer because you can add goodies to it such as carrots and parsely, or feta, cucumber and lemon, or even dried cranberries and almonds. It is always refreshing and always great to have with leftovers. The only thing is that it is a little addicting so its not so great as I am trying to watch my figure for my wedding dress! Hope you enjoy as much as I do!


Buy a couscous package and read instructions to see how much boiling water you will need. Place couscous in a large bowl. Pour boiling water over top, cover, and let stand for 5 minutes. Remove cover, add dried cranberries and toasted almonds (or whatever you think might be good), and fluff with a fork until combined. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. It's that easy!

This week I decided to make a dish that uses mango salsa. I had this idea while at the store and didn't have a recipe but I think it turned out pretty good. The ingredients I used were mangos, red bell peppers, cilantro, lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper. It seems to be a simplified version of what I am seeing online. Other sources say to add jalapeño pepper, red onion, and cucumber instead of the red bell pepper. I think the red bell pepper actually added a stronger flavor that I really liked. Not to mention the beautiful color it added! I served the salsa over shrimp and rice. It was such an easy and refreshing summer meal!

Tonight for dinner we had stuffed vegetarian peppers and they were so yummy! I just thought this one up while at the store and I would definitely do this again. Its very easy and looks so gourmet. Here is what I did:
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1. Cut the top off of a bell pepper and h0llow out the insides.
2. Place the bell peppers in boiling water with the cover on for about 5 minutes.
3. Cook some Spanish rice of your choice and then place inside the bell peppers.
4. Add some cheese to the top and place in the oven until the cheese is melted and the peppers look roasted.
5. Serve with cornbread on the side
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The picture link on blogger doesn't seem to work tonight so I will get back with the picture next week. Hope you try this one though! Let me know if you do! It's a keeper!

For me whenever we make Mexican food for dinner I can never come up with a great side dish. Last week when we were having friends over for dinner I was going to serve tacos and was trying to figure out what to put with it. Flipping through my huge binder of recipes I stumbled upon this one from Family Fun October 2006.

The recipe is for Mexican Rice Salad. It looked so refreshing in the magazine I wanted to give it a shot. I am so happy I tried this! It was delicious and very fresh tasting. It even got the honor of being moved from my huge binder of recipes to my small binder of family favorites. I ended up serving it to another friend the next night and she loved it too. This is now my go to side dish for Mexican food night.

Mexican Rice Salad

Juice of 1 Lime (about 2 Tablespoons)
1/2 Cup Salsa
1/2 Cup Italian Dressing
4 Cups Cold Cooked Rice (Must be cold or it will make the salad gummy)
1 Cup Diced Red Bell Pepper
1 Cup Cooked Corn (I didn't have any of this but next time I will make sure I do)
1/2 Cup Chopped Green Onion
1/2 Cup Chopped Cilantro

Mix the lime juice, salsa, and salad dressing in a large bowl. Stir in the rice, bell pepper, corn, green onion, and cilantro. Cover and refrigerate up to 3 days.

Let me start out by telling you a funny story about my trip to the grocery store today. I usually go to a big chain store but today I was found myself next to a health food store so I decided to do my shopping there. As I was in the produce aisle I heard some music and out walked a person playing the trumpet, another person playing the accordion and harmonica, and lastly a person with some cymbals?!? I am still not sure what to think about all this and they continued to do loops around the store for the duration of my shopping. Needless to say, it was very interesting but fun. Perhaps I will have to go back next Monday to see if this is normal.

Right there in the center of our Mexican Pizza is the success of an experiment from last night. On my menu plan I had written Spanish Rice but I didn't have the ingredients on hand to make my usual version. What I did have was brown minute rice and many cans of tomatoes from a recent sale in town.

All of a sudden I had an ah ha moment and went with it. What I did was drain all the liquid from a can of diced tomatoes with chilies into a liquid measuring cup. I had about 3/4 cup of tomato juice and added enough water to get 1 cup. I brought the liquid to a boil in a small saucepan and added 1 cup of Minute Rice.

To cook I followed the package directions which was to cover and let simmer for 5 minutes then remove from the heat, stir, cover and let sit another 5 minutes. Once it was all ready to go I stirred in a couple scoops of the diced tomatoes.

The end result was spectacular and I am still in shock over how easy it was. If you are in a pinch and need a great side dish give this one a try.