Meg's Meatballs!

This recipe comes from my favorite stranger-blogger Meg! On her side bar she has rainbow boxes and one is full of yummy-sounding recipes. So tonight my husband and I made her recipe for meatballs which you can find HERE.

My husband the foodie added garlic salt and onion powder, and we used green onions instead of white because we had them. Once again, 3 out of 4 liked it!

We made mashed potatoes with butter, milk, garlic salt and chives, and then had some frozen mixed vegetables to round off the meal. YUM!

Chicken Tortilla lasagna

Here's another new recipe from the emails. Originally it sounded good to me, but not to my husband. I expected one of my kids to dislike it and wasn't sure what the other child would think. Kind of fun to take risks!

I made it tonight. Go HERE for the recipe.

I cooked two chicken breasts myself, just browned them with salt and pepper in the pan. Then I cut everything up, mixed it up, layered it and we ate!

I did not think it smelled good when it came out of the oven. My husband thought it looked good. It really was good! The child I was sure wouldn't like it, loved it, and had seconds! The child I wasn't sure about picked the tomatoes out and ate it grudgingly. LOL.

Anyway 3 out of 4 of us recommend it. :) Enjoy!

Healthy? Cookies!

Along with trying to eat better, I bought some craisins to snack on instead of say, candy. *giggle
While getting a handful, I was looking over the recipes on the back of the package. I found a yummy kind of cookie to try and oh yes, it was yummy!

This is exactly how many it made, and I only ate MAYBE a cookie worth of dough. Promise! *grin
Its best right out of the oven. I may try to microwave them...

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies - from the Ocean Spray Craisins bag

2/3 cup butter or margarine softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup Craisins
2/3 cup white chocolate chunks or chips (I used semi-sweet chips)

Preheat oven to 375*. Using a mixer, beat butter/margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. Combine oats, flour, soda and salt in a separate mixing bowl. Add to butter mixture in several additions, mixing well after each addition. Stir in dried cranberries and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto un-greased cookie sheets. bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack

Chocolate Shake!

Another kind of shake/smoothie I like is an instant breakfast shake. Typically I put in three ice cubes, a huuge spoonful of {smooth} peanut butter, 1 packet or serving of chocolate instant breakfast powder and approximately 1 cup of milk, blend it up and there's my breakfast!

But sometimes I put in fresh or frozen strawberries or raspberries in place of the peanut butter. or pomegranate. Those are all tasty options!

Unique Deliciousness!

Okay, so on those recipe emails I get, a meal of Mexican Shepherd's Pie was featured.

I thought "hmmmmmm..... we hate every shepherds pie we've ever tasted, but I do love me some Mexican....and that's easy.....and its got rave reviews.....okay, we'll give it a shot."
Last night was the night. SUCCESS!!! Yep, this one's a keeper!

It sounds a little bit strange, putting mashed potatoes with Mexican, but it was really, really good. My husband also thought that if we just made the meat and veggie part, and scooped it onto baked, or even twice baked potatoes, that would be dreamy too. The kids ate without complaint and the adults had seconds. Its that good.

My edits: I put fresh ground black pepper with meat. I put in only 1/4 tsp cumin because I like the flavor and my husband doesn't. Also, we put on the cheese and then stuck it in the oven to broil for about 5 minutes. Then added chopped tomatoes and green onions at the table.

1/20/15 ETA recipe:

Ingredients

1

lb extra lean (at least 93%) ground beef

1/2

cup sliced green onions

1

cup Old El Paso™ Thick ‘n Chunky Salsa

1 1/2

teaspoons chili powder

3/4

teaspoon cumin

1

can (11 oz) Green Giant™ SteamCrisp® Mexicorn® corn, drained

1

pouch (4.7 oz) Betty Crocker™ loaded mashed potatoes

Water, milk and butter called for on potatoes pouch

1/2

cup shredded Cheddar cheese (2 oz)

1

medium tomato, sliced into thin wedges

Tortilla chips, if desired

• In 10-inch skillet, cook ground beef and 1/4 cup of the green onions over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally until beef is thoroughly cooked; drain. Stir in salsa, chili powder and cumin. Spoon corn evenly over beef mixture in skillet. Cover and cook over low heat until mixture is thoroughly heated.
• 2Meanwhile, make potatoes as directed on pouch, using water, milk and butter.
• 3Spoon potatoes over corn in skillet; spread evenly. Sprinkle with cheese and remaining 1/4 cup green onions. Cover; cook over low heat about 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Arrange tomato wedges in spoke fashion over potatoes. Garnish with tortilla chips around outside edge of skillet.

Crepes!

ETA: I have now fixed the recipe that I messed up originally. It is now a complete recipe!

I have been trying to have a dinner plan way, way ahead of time, as in, attempting to buy everything I'll need for two weeks of dinners. This post is for a friend of mine who asked what we were eating one night!

Once again, it was breakfast for dinner. The recipe comes from the Betty Crocker cookbook, circa 1974.

Crepes:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 cups milk
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I also thought I'd try to show the steps so that you have a better idea of what I do.

First, I mix it all up with hand beaters. When its mixed well and getting frothy, stop, and let it sit a couple minutes. It will look like this:

I use a measuring cup to scoop about 1/3 cup of batter into the pan. And yes, I just set the measuring cup on a plate, between each pan full.
(pardon the stove top....!)

I pour the batter in the middle of the pan and then pick up the pan and swirl it around so that it covers the bottom of the pan and goes just a bit up the side of the pan, like this:    
I keep swirling til it stops moving.

Let it cook until it sort of dries out...there will be a lot of tiny bubbles that pop, and that's how you know its time to flip.

Once you flip it, it will look like this. I like it lightly browned. Sometimes the edges crisp more than the rest and if that's the case I just flatten it with the pancake flipper and then the outside 1/3 will brown as well as the center.

Spread or top them with something yummy, roll it up and eat!!!

This is what a double batch stack looks like. mmmm! As I cook them, I put them on a plate in the oven, which is set to about 200* until we're all ready to eat.

Topping/filling ideas? Well in our house, we like the following ideas:
~ a squirt of lemon juice and a bit of white sugar sprinkled all over the flat crepe
~ homemade orange syrup, made with oj concentrate and I don't know what else
~ jam
~ nutella (with fresh strawberries or bananas)
~ applesauce
~ maple syrup

You could use any kind of fresh fruit or pie filling I bet. Probably peanut butter would be good. Just spread it like this, roll it up and ohhh what a yummy meal!

I just remembered that once at a friend's house she made a chicken salad kind of thing and put that in her crepes. But perhaps her recipe was different...

Off-Nights

What are those? Nights when my husband won't be home for a few consecutive dinner times. Nights when I have a headache. Nights when I'm exhausted or sick. Nights when I have waaay too much to do and the kids need to eat anyway.
What do you eat on nights like that?

Here's a list of the kinds of things we eat...

• Cheese crisps. Also known as open quesadillas. Serve with apple slices or carrot sticks and you've got a meal!
• Grilled cheese sandwiches -with or without tomato soup
• Chicken nuggets & tator tots or french fries
• Macaroni & Cheese. have a side of hot dogs or chicken nuggets and cooked vegetables and that's a meal too. (sometimes I stir cut hot dogs and mixed veg in the pot just before I'm ready to serve)

My kids' favorite dinners are served on nights when I am either not hungry as early as they are, or I'm eating left overs of something else and they don't want it. That is the night that my son gets a corn dog, my daughter gets a hot dog. Then they round off the meal with which ever dairy snack they didn't have already that day (string cheese or gogurt) and another easy produce like carrot sticks. I do *not* eat hot dogs in any form, this is just for them. I also refuse to do this more than once in any 7 day period (unless I am really, really sick) which bugs them. ehh, its better that way.

Make-your-own Hamburger Helper?

So, I get recipe emails and peruse them for ideas.

Tonight I made this: "Healthified" Mexican Pasta Skillet, mostly because we had the ingredients on hand. lol!
I must admit, I don't use the brand's listed in recipes like these, and in this case I used a jar of the salsa my mom and I made two summers ago! haha! Also, I browned the meat in freshly ground black pepper and a bit of onion powder. I'm sure that adjusted the flavor.

As noted in the reviews on that link, my pasta wasn't cooked by the time the liquid was absorbed, so I added about 1/4 cup more salsa and a little less than that more water. That may be due to elevation since I'm at 4700ft.

Anyway, my family all liked it. Even the child who doesn't like salsa ate it pretty well. Its worth a try!

ETA: On 7/14 I made this and added 1 small shredded yellow squash. You could hardly tell it was there and the kids still enjoyed it!

Fried Rice!

Fried rice is tasty and wonderful. It is also 99% magic because the boys in this house do not like rice...but they will both ask for this. Yep. It's that good!

This recipe originally came from my uncle who served a mission in Hong Kong when I was very young. My dad was usually the one to make this and I will post the instructions he gave me when I was a new bride wondering what on earth to cook. But it seems to me we all cook it differently... and that's okay. Its always delicious!

You will need:

Rice - white or brown is fine.

a bit of vegetable oil

Ham cut into cubes (or spam)

Corn

Egg

Pineapple tidbits

Peas

Chopped Carrots

Soy Sauce

Salt

Pepper

Cook rice a head of time and chill. Pour oil into pan (a wok is great!) and heat. Add any meat you want and brown it. Add an egg or two and scramble it. Add anything of the produce you want to put in your Fried Rice and heat. Finally, add chilled rice. Toss together in the pan until its mixed nicely.
At the table add soy sauce or other seasonings to taste.

Yep, its that easy. And sooo good.

Breakfast for Dinner!

Do you ever have breakfast for dinner? Growing up we *only* had breakfast foods at dinner time because my dad was the waffle/pancake cooker and went to work before anyone was up to eat breakfast. We always did cold cereal or instant oatmeal for breakfast. The other "breakfast foods" were reserved for dinner. Except on Christmas...that was our waffle day.

Today, my husband loves to make breakfast, but he usually eats after the kids have been up awhile. Sometimes he makes enough for them to eat lunch, but usually he makes a very small batch, or he freezes the leftovers for another day.

If I'm cooking "breakfast", its for dinner. Like on this night. Tonight was German Pancakes. or puff pancakes. or even hootenannie! (or however you would spell that) Its quick, its easy and its filling, and that is exactly the kind of meal I like to make!

German Pancakes:
1/4 lb butter or margarine
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
6-8 eggs (depends on how many are eating)

Heat oven to 375. Slice butter or margarine into 'pats' and place randomly on bottom of 8x11 inch (for 6 eggs) baking dish (13x9 pan for 8 eggs) and stick the pan in the oven for the butter to melt.
Mix flour, milk, salt and eggs in blender or with beaters until smooth.
Pour mixture into melted butter, and return to oven for about 20 minutes.
You'll know its done when its brown on the edges and tall and puffy! (you know...I think it gets taller when I use margarine...this batch had butter...)

You can top your German pancake with powdered sugar, but we stick to syrup. Fruit flavored syrups are my favorite.

"Easy Beef Enchiladas"

This one is my favorite meal. It was kind of a hard day so I treated myself to this. How's that for sass? LOL!

This comes right off the Old El Paso can shown below. And actually, until recently, I half the recipe for my family... All the ingredients I need are here:

Start by thawing your ground beef. I have no idea how much...my husband portions out the beef and sometimes does half pound blobs and sometimes full pound blobs. We were just discussing this the other night and he laughed that I don't bother to know, I just grab a blob and that's how much meat we get in the meal! Anyway, back to the dinner...
I always put freshly ground pepper and salt, and usually dehydrated onion in the pan with my ground beef as I brown it. But in the spirit of New Years, I'm thinking we should skip the salt... And I always drain the grease off my meat.

Heat the oven to 375*. Lightly spray your baking dish. Remove the meat from the pan into a small mixing bowl. For my little family, I pour about half of the enchilada sauce over the meat. The recipe calls for more... I put about two small handfuls of shredded cheese in the bowl now, and mix it up. To get my tortillas to roll easily (instead of tear) I microwave them on a plate for about 25 seconds. Then I scoop spoonfuls of the meat mixture onto a tortilla and roll it up. My pan holds 6 enchiladas, and once they are all rolled up, I pour the rest of the sauce over the enchiladas, sprinkle cheese on top and stick it in to bake for 15-20 minutes!

A good morning!

Like many of us, I'm trying to eat better with the new year. Healthy eating is not my forte, but an easy thing for me is shakes or smoothies. Actually, to call that easy is probably the wrong word. I have a number of weird food allergies, mostly of produce, which is the main ingredients in smoothies.

Probably twenty years ago my parents bought a book called "Recipes to Lower Your Fat Thermostat". Our absolute favorite from this book was an orange julius type drink. Evidently this doesn't qualify for low-carb diets but here's the recipe:

Orange Julius at home:
1 cup skim milk
1/3 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
4 ice cubes
1/2 tsp vanilla
Blend in blender until smooth!

When I was a kid we'd have this for a summer snack. I like it for a quick breakfast now. The ice never seems to blend up well, but that's okay.
For Christmas, Santa brings me a pomegranate. Its one of my favorite fruits and I'm not allergic to it. But what do you do with a pomegranate? I like to eat it in a salad or even some plain, but last winter I had several and ended up pureeing the fruit (and straining off the seeds) and putting it in my orange shake in place of the vanilla! I probably use 3 tablespoons of pomegranate puree, and it is sooo yummy! The orange and the pomegranate seem to balance each other and there's not even a hint of tartness. Just a perfect start to a day!

Edited 11/9/12:

Pineapple chunks work nicely too!! Today I had a fresh pinapple that I chopped up and put maybe 1/2 a cup of chunks in my regular orange smoothie. YUM! Plus the added benefits of the nutrients and fiber in the pineapple!