The ODD Cookbook Is On Shelves Today! {Plus Easy ODD Back to School Dinners}

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Erin

Well. It’s happened. It’s now on bookshelves nationwide!

The One Dish Dinners cookbook is for every busy home chef, moms and dads alike, who are struggling to come up with creative dinner ideas that won’t cost an arm and a leg, AND that won’t leave a ginormous mess in the sink!

With this cookbook, you’ll have more variety on the dinner table, meals that please your family, more money in your pocketbook, less time in the kitchen and way less mess to deal with at the end of the day!

The book is filled with over 150 delicious meal ideas, all of which are cooked in one dish (yep, it’s true.) Everything fro…

  • slow cooker meals,
  • casseroles,
  • complete dinners on the grill.
  • plus 10 mouth-watering “one-bowl” desserts…including the best from-scratch brownies you’ll ever taste, and some amazing fruit crisps and crumbles.

I am a busy, busy, busy parent, just like you. And I work hard to make the most use of my time, and spend as little of our family’s hard earned dollars at the grocery store, and ultimately on dinner. I’ve been making $5 Dinners for our family for over 4 years now, and I’ve shared all my juicy tips and tricks in my first 2 cookbooks, and this cookbook just brings it all together to help stretch your limited time, money and elbow grease to the max.

Before you get yourself a copy of the cookbook, I wanted to share 5 of our family’s favorite One Dish Dinners recipes. Perfect for busy school weeknights, perfect for keeping your kitchen cleaner than usual, perfect for helping you maintain a few shreds of sanity ๐Ÿ™‚

  1. Southwest Mac รขโ‚ฌหœn Cheese
  2. Pizza Penne Bake
  3. Loaded Potato Frittata
  4. Slow Cooker Sweet Potato and Chicken Curry
  5. Twice Baked One Dish Potatoes

Now…if you haven’t purchased the book yet. Please do. For your own sake. I wrote it to help save you 3 very important things…money, time and sanity. So if you want to salvage what’s left of those things in your life, you need this book. Yes, need.

You can find it on bookshelves of all major book retailers, and you can click here to get it online at Amazon too.

And if you pre-ordered the cookbook from an online retailer, then it should be on it’s way to your doorstep, if not already there! (When you get it, come tell me on the $5 Dinners Facebook page! I’d love to know what you think!)

Happy One Dish Dinner-ing ๐Ÿ™‚

Erin

Posted in Recipe | 9 Comments

{CLOSED} One Dish Dinners Cookbook – Giveaway

Posted on August 19, 2012 by Erin

Update: This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for all the entries! Winners will be announced shortly!

And, the winners are:

  • bethk42@
  • gert003@
  • dawn.lenzie@
  • mandied79@
  • p_j4ever2000@
  • Decadentdesserts4u@
  • shelgem@
  • mandyrice@
  • janschop@
  • karen_310@

All winners have been notified via email with further instructions.

This week, we are celebrating the 4th birthday of $5 Dinners, and my One Dish Dinners Cookbook release (September 4th, pre-order now!). In addition to the multiple giveaways (starting Monday mid-morning) happening over there, I’ll also be giving away 10 of my new cookbooks this week here on One Dish Dinners!

Giveaway Details

1. Contest ends Sunday, August 26th at 5 pm CST.

2. Winners will be chosen at random and emailed.

3. Entries (leave separate comments for multiple entries)

Thanks bunches friends and good luck!

 

Posted in Recipe | 307 Comments

Cheeseburger ‘n Fries Kebabs

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Erin

Burgers just got a little more exciting. And tastier…the smoky flavor infused into the pickles and onions is fabulous. Perfect, perfect, perfect!

Serve these as is, or serve each little burger ball on a small dinner roll. We enjoyed these like this with some baby carrots and pineapple.

Prep the burger balls, defrost/thaw the potato wedges, cut the onions and pickles, and “quarter” the cheese slices.

String it all up. Kebab them up. (Can kebab be used as a verb? Hmm.)

Grill em.

Roll em, and grill all sides.

Once the meat has cooked through, move the kebabs off of the direct heat and let the cheese slices melt on the burger balls.

Boom, eat them up!!!

For the rest of the potato wedges, place as many as you can fit onto skewers and grill them for a few minutes on each side, until cooked/warmed through. Serve a skewer or two of grilled fries with your burger kebabs!

A delightful summer meal!

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Cheeseburger ‘n Fries Kebabs

Yield – 4 servings
Prep Time – 15 minutes
Cook Time – 10-15 minutes on the grill

Ingredients

2 lb. bag of frozen potato wedges
1 lb. ground chuck
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp Italian seasoning
3 dill pickle wedges, cut into chunks
1 onion, cut into chunks
3-4 slices of cheese, cut into 4 small pieces
Condiments – ketchup, mustard, spicy mustard, mayo, or other favorite
Optional – small dinner rolls for serving

Side dish – fresh fruit or baby carrots or small side salad
 

Directions

  • Defrost or thaw the potato wedges completely.
  • In a bowl, mix together the ground beef, bread crumbs and Italian seasoning. Toss in a little salt and pepper too. Make 12-16 small burger balls that you can skewer. Pack tightly, as they will loosen slightly as you grill them.
  • Cut the pickles, onions and break the cheese slices into 4 small pieces.
  • Skewer the burger balls, pickles, onions, and potato wedges. Grill for a few minutes on each side, until meatballs have cooked through. Then move to indirect heat or top rack on the grill and place the cheese slice on top. Close the lid and let cheese melt, 2-3 minutes.
  • Serve Cheeseburger ‘n Fries Kebabs immediately with side dish.
Posted in Grill, Recipe | 28 Comments

Stovetop Italian Chicken with Potatoes

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Erin

Hiding under all these perfectly tender red potatoes and carrots are a couple of chicken thighs. I promise.

This recipe is a happy accident.

I meant to make this in the slow cooker. Except I didn’t get it started in time. I hadn’t written it onto my daily planner. And I forgot to set the slow cooker on the counter the night before. And it wasn’t until 2:30 pm that I figured out my error.

But thankfully there was still plenty of time to get it made…just not in the slow cooker. The Dutch oven was the only option.

Braise the chicken thighs, while cutting up the potatoes and carrots…then let it slow cook on the stovetop.

(This would work well with boneless chicken thighs. If you prefer to use chicken breast, you might want to add a little more water, as the chicken breasts won’t release as many juices as they cook.)

Same delicious result, with minimal fuss and minimal dishes!

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Stovetop Italian Chicken with Potatoes

Yield – 4 to 6 servings
Prep Time – 15 minutes
Cook Time – 1 to 2 hours

Ingredients

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
8 bone-in chicken thighs
Salt and pepper
About 2 lbs red potatoes, quartered
4 carrots, peeled and cut into circles
1 small onion, diced
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
2 tsp Italian seasoning
Drizzles of olive oil

 

Directions

  • Add the olive oil and balsamic vinegar to a large Dutch oven. Turn on the heat and then brown the chicken on both sides. Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper.
  • Add the potatoes, carrots, onion and diced tomatoes over top of the chicken thighs. Pour about 1 cup of water over top. Then sprinkle the Italian seasoning plus a little more salt and pepper over the top.
  • Add a few drizzles of olive oil over the top. Bring the liquid to bubbling, then reduce heat to medium low and cover tightly.
  • Let cook for 1 hour to 2 hours, or until chicken is cooked through and potatoes and carrots are fork tender.
  • Serve Italian Chicken with Potatoes out of the stovetop, as is. No side dish necessary!
Posted in Dutch Oven, Recipe | 24 Comments

Ham and Potatoes Saute with Baked Eggs

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Erin

For those here from the Costco Meals post, welcome to my One Dish Dinners site. Stick around and check out the other recipes. A note about this recipe, ham is not on the Costco list because they don’t sell it in small enough portions for this particular set of meals. My suggestion, use any you have in the freezer leftover from a holiday meal…OR cut up 2 links of the chicken and apple sausage and toss it with the potatoes before putting in the oven to bake the eggs.ย 

Ingredient substitution: Chop up 6 of the gold potatoes into bite size pieces and saute as directed.

This is easy enough that it could be a weekday morning breakfast. It does take a few minutes to get things sauteed, but only needs a few minutes to bake. So…it would be easy to fit into the morning kitchen plan…

  • Turn on oven.
  • Dump potatoes and ham into skillet.
  • Make lunches.
  • Toss the potatoes and ham.
  • Holler at kids to get shoes on. And to pack their backpacks.
  • Put the whole skillet into the oven.
  • Make sure everyone is presentable and that shoes are on the right feet. Cut up fresh fruit. Put final touches on lunches.
  • Serve warm, filling, hearty and wholesome breakfast.
  • Give hugs and kisses and send everyone off to work and school.

Or, you could just try this on a leisurely weekend morning…or a weeknight “brinner.”

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Ham and Potatoes Saute with Baked Eggs

Yield – 4 servings
Prep Time – 10 minutes
Cook Time – 5 to 7 minutes

Ingredients

1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 bag (28 oz.) frozen diced Potatoes O’Brien (or 3 cups diced gold potatoes)
2 cups ham, diced (or 2 chicken and apple sausage links, diced)
4 eggs
Salt and pepper, to taste
Dash of Italian seasoning for serving

Side of fresh fruit

 

Directions

  • Preheat to 350.
  • Add the oil, potatoes and ham to the skillet and saute for 7 to 9 minutes. Then make a few wells for the eggs.
  • Crack the eggs into each well. Then put the skillet right into the hot oven.
  • Bake for 5 to 7 minutes, or longer if you want the egg completely baked.
  • Sprinkle a little salt and pepper and some Italian seasonings onto each egg.
  • Serve Ham and Potatoes Saute with Baked Eggs and a side of fresh fruit.
Posted in Recipe, Skillet Dinner | 25 Comments