What’s for dinner?

I ask my preschool kids this everyday. I don’t know why. I suppose it’s just small talk like when you ask someone how they are doing. Sometimes you don’t hear the answer but it’s almost like you are saying “hey, how are ya?”. Anyway, their answers are always spaghetti. I can relate because sometimes after working as a preschool teacher by day and health counselor in the evening, I am pooped so I am looking to make something easy in the evening. Lord knows if I left it up to bf then it would be frozen pizza or oatmeal (sometimes it is). I really only have time to make new meals and experiment on the weekends. This year I decided to make a greater effort to share my love of food with everyone and finally all of the pieces are coming together so that I can do that. It’s slowly but surely coming along and….I love it. If I had to do one thing for the rest of my life, it would be to make food for people. I love to put ingredients together and create and for me, it’s all about the presentation. I love to celebrate holidays and have themed food to go along with the decor of a party. I love it all! Now, if my pesky jobs wouldn’t get in the way of that now. I am truly grateful to have a job that I love but I don’t want to do it forever. I would rather be in my kitchen with my apron, spatula and notebook experimenting much like a scientist with his beakers and lab coat. Yes, that’s me. Of course, I love to eat the food too. I suppose that would be the job I would pick, to be a professional food taster, then baker/cook/blogger would come in close second. So, what’s for dinner tonight? For me, frozen organic ravioli, salad with organic sprouts and steamed broccoli. Not too creative but easy, clean and still delicious. You gotta do what you gotta do when you are a hard working lady.
In other news…here is a picture of a cat (my baby. rescued feral. Leela aka Baby Lee)

Blue Cheese Chicken Buffalo Boats

Blue Cheese Buffalo Chicken Boats

Ok, so I have been a little bit “out of the groove” of doing my usual grocery list and meal planning. So, I looked and we had some new chicken sausages I have been wanting to try and some crescent rolls. I was going to have to use the crescent rolls because we were out of hot dog buns. Easy enough, right?! It is. I will show you!

Blue Cheese Chicken Buffalo Boats
1 package of crescent rolls
1 package of blue cheese buffalo chicken sausages (or any sausage that you prefer but be sure to read the label for organic, non-GMO, hormone and antibiotic free!)
1/4-1/2 cup crumbled cheddar cheese- I used raw milk cheddar
organic iceberg lettuce
organic cherry tomatoes
organic celery
organic dill pickles or relish
organic ranch, french or blue cheese dressing (I only had french but I prefer ranch)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees or what the crescent roll package suggests.

Non-GMO crescent rolls without artificial colors or ingredients & “clean” sausages

Start with finding crescent rolls without the artificial colors, yes they usually have them, or any other artificial ingredient. I use Immaculate Baking Company and I have been able to find them at my local Kroger. If you can’t find them at yours, ask the manager to order them. They can also be found at health food stores. I know some of you Martha’s out there probably make your own crescent rolls and that’s great too! The Immaculate Baking Co. is also Non-GMO. The sausages I found at a new market and wanted to try them. They are antibiotic and hormone free and they also had clean ingredients. Really check your labels when purchasing meat because I had purchased chicken sausages before that were everything I was looking for until I got them home and read the label again. They said hormone and antibiotic free, no added weird ingredients, humanely raised…then I saw at the very bottom they had a pork casing. Well, I don’t eat pork! So, please please please check your label.

Unroll crescents to make 4 rectangles.

Place sausage into the center of the crescent roll.

Here you can really play around with how you want to make the sausage. If you are adding cheese, make a slit down the middle of the sausage and insert the cheese. I used raw milk cheddar and put a little inside the sausage.

Then, you will take the crescent rolls and fold them up along side of the sausage. Don’t cover them completely. Just rolls up to the edges of the sausage so that it looks like it is sitting in a little “boat”. You want them to be like a hot dog bun basically or open faced sandwich.

Chicken sausage boat with folded edges and raw milk cheese inserted into the slit. Read for the oven!

Place sausages into the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until the crescent rolls are golden brown.

Chop up the rest of your ingredients-lettuce, tomato, pickles and celery. When the sausages come out of the oven, add your chopped veggies and drizzle with your choice of dressing.

Blue Cheese Chicken Buffalo Boats! Ready to eat!

There you go folks! Your boats are loaded and ready to eat!!! This meal was so easy and different. I like making easy meals and I like variety. I served this with a side of steamed organic broccoli. When I cook, I try to keep everything nutritionally balanced. Since we don’t eat hot dogs or sausages often, I needed to make sure we had some veggies or greens added in to balance it. Although it is a healthier cleaner version, it is still a processed food. So, we enjoy these quick summer meals occasionally.

What kind of boat are you going to make tonight?