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Archive for the ‘Cooking’ Category

Menu Plan Monday

Posted in Menu Planning, tagged on April 30, 2012|

Happy Monday and happy almost the first of May, everyone!  As April winds down, I realize that C & I have gotten quite a bit accomplished around here this month.  We helped his parents update their landscaping, built another raised garden bed, and a raised flower bed just in a few short weeks.  I count that as a very successful month! 

This past Saturday, I mulched the strawberry bed and planted some cucumber seeds.  The lettuce and carrots are starting to sprout so that just leaves the tomatoes, sweet peppers, watermelon and sunflower plants/seeds to go in.  Oh, I almost forgot about the six flower pots that are still left to fill, but that will just be fun.  This week is supposed to be nice and warm so hopefully I can get most of that accomplished after work.

My co-worker is having a yard sale in a couple of weeks and told me that I could put whatever I wanted to in it.  She probably shouldn’t have said that.  I am off from work this Thursday and plan on spending most of the day sorting and pricing some items that have lost their usefulness around here.  I have quite a pile of old clothes and a few other odds and ends that are ready for a new home.  I also hope to start on a garage clean-up soon as well.  Whew, there is just not enough time in the day to get it all done.  Let’s face it…there’s not enough time in a 100 days to get it all done.

Grilled pork chops with Oven Baked Fries

Pizza puffs (new) with salad

Tacos

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes with bacon

Apple Braised Pork Loin with Butter Roasted Potatoes

Pizza night

Bakerella’s Peanut Butter Brownies (These didn’t get made this past weekend.)

Please join me at I’m An Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

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Pizza Dippers

Posted in Cooking, tagged , , , , on April 28, 2012| 4 Comments »

I may need a Pinterst intervention, because this is yet another recipe I found on there.  It originated from the blog, The Farm Girl, and it is a simple and good dinner or lunch option.  The Farm Girl calls her pizza pancakes, but I preferred pizza dippers for mine because they turned out a little too thick to really call them pancakes.  Next time I make them, I will add just a tad more milk to make them more like pancakes.

The Farm Girl also used pepperoni in hers, but I chose Italian sausage because that is what I had.  I bet pepperoni would be awesome.  C liked them, but thought they weren’t quite enough for a supper but would be good with chili.  We had the leftovers with chili the next day and he was right.  They were great dipped in chili!

2 cups Bisquick baking mix

1 c. milk (Next time, I will add just a little more. Maybe another 1/8 of a cup.)

2 eggs

3/4 c. shredded Italian (Pizza) cheese

1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 lb. Italian sausage, cooked

2 tsp. Italian seasoning

1/4 tsp. Garlic Salt

Pizza sauce, for dipping

Parmesan Cheese, garnish

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Heat griddle or skillet and grease, if necessary.  In a large bowl, combine the Bisquick mix, Italian seasoning and garlic salt. Combine eggs and milk and stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the cheeses and Italian sausage.

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Pour approximately 1/4 cup onto hot griddle, cook until bubbles form on top and edges are dry. Flip and cook until golden brown.

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Cut pancakes with pizza cutter in to 4 triangles, garnish with Parmesan cheese, if desired, and serve with pizza sauce for dipping.  Enjoy!

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Please join me at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage for Full Plate Thursday.

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Menu Plan Monday

Posted in Menu Planning, tagged on April 23, 2012|

Another week has flown right by and we have had another busy but successful weekend.  C & I are helping his parents update their landscaping this spring and God has smiled down upon us the last two Saturdays making them cool enough to work all day without burning up.  Everything is looking so pretty and refreshed.  Can’t wait to see the final product!

I changed last week’s menu just a tad.  Orange juice cake was the dessert originally listed, but Pinterest got in my way once again.  Enter the Deep Dish Gooey Cookie Pie and Vanilla Frozen Yogurt recipes.  I just HAD to try them!

Here is this week’s plan:

Bubble Up Pizza

Cheeseburger bundles with Oven Baked Fries (2 nights)

Basic Meatloaf with Butter Roasted Potatoes

Pizza night

Grilled Hot Dogs and Chips

Bakerella’s Peanut Butter Brownies (new)

Please join me at I’m An Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday. Have a great week, everyone!

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Dreamsicle Fudge

Posted in Cooking, tagged , , , , , on April 21, 2012| 17 Comments »

Now when I think of fudge, my first thoughts always go to chocolate or peanut butter, but I have now been exposed to something totally different.  Back at Christmas, my uncle tried a candy he had never seen before at his company’s employee dinner.  One of his co-workers brought Dreamsicle fudge and he loved it.  He brought me her recipe, but it made not one, but two 13×9 inch pans and that was just too much to experiment with so I found this recipe over at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen on Pinterest that made a much smaller amount and was basically the same recipe scaled down.

I must apologize because I only have photos of the finished product.  The first two times I tried to make it, I burned it.  I mean I REALLY burned it, so the third time I was very careful and didn’t take photos during the process. It is pretty much just basic candy making, but I just didn’t have the attention span that day to make it so I tried again later after wasting 3 sticks of butter and 6 cups of sugar.

3/4 cup butter
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup evaporated milk
12 oz. pkg. white chocolate chips
1 (7 oz.) jar marshmallow crème
3 teaspoons orange extract
12 drops yellow food coloring
5 drops red food coloring

In a heavy saucepan, combine butter, sugar, and evaporated milk. Cook and stir on low heat until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 4 minutes.

Remove from heat, stir in white chocolate and marshmallow crème. Remove 1 cup and set aside. Add orange extract and coloring to the remaining mixture. Stir until blended. Pour into an 8 or 9 inch square pan that has been lined with foil and sprayed with nonstick spray. Drop reserved mixture by tablespoons on top and cut through with a knife to swirl.

Let pan cool in refrigerator for several hours until set.

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Menu Plan Monday

Posted in Menu Planning, tagged , on April 16, 2012|

Happy Monday to everyone!  I hope your week and weekend was as productive as ours was.  I think I mentioned last Monday that C & I built another raised garden bed and raised flower bed while we were off for spring break.  Last Thursday, C’s dad helped us out a bunch by using his handy dandy tractor with a front-end loader to bring us four beautiful scoops of composted dirt to fill these and top off the old beds. 

I got up Saturday morning to weed and top off the strawberry patch with fresh dirt and it looks so good!  There are plenty of green berries already and we made sure to cover them so last week’s cold snap wouldn’t hurt them.  The two garden beds and the flower bed are also ready to plant so hopefully I will start filling those up this week.

C & I are also helping his parents refresh their landscaping a little so we worked on that Saturday afternoon.  Fresh mulch always makes plants look so much better.  We hope to get more accomplished this week and weekend.  Wish us luck!  Since we are doing so much outside, this week’s menu is a little on the simple side again, but I do have a couple of new recipes planned for next weekend.  Have a blessed and wonderful week, everyone!

Grilled pork chops for 2 & oven baked fries

Tacos with fresh fruit

Grilled steaks with butter roasted potatoes

Pizza night

Sliders (new) with oven baked fries

Orange juice cake (not new but I have never posted it on here.)

Please join me at I’m An Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

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Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pull Apart Bread

Posted in Cooking, tagged , , , , on April 14, 2012| 13 Comments »

How’s that for a long name for a quick and easy recipe that is so, so, so good?  I found this recipe over at the blog Plain Chicken and I may be addicted now. I made this to go with a pot of chili back during cooler weather and was hooked.  This is a perfect bread to go with chili or soup and would be perfect as a party food, too. 

I don’t ever need to make this when I am home alone or I would eat the whole loaf by myself with very few regrets later.  This is definitely an sharing recipe.  It’s just too good!  I will say that mine didn’t turn out quite as pretty as Plain Chicken’s did but it tasted great just the same.

1 unsliced loaf of (round is preferable) sourdough bread (I couldn’t find sourdough at my grocery so I used Hawaiian bread and it gave it a great sweet kick.)
8-12 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
3 oz. bag Oscar Mayer Real Bacon bits (I didn’t have bacon bits, so I just cooked about 4 slices of bacon and crumbled it.)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 Tbsp. Ranch dressing mix

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Using a sharp bread knife cut the bread going both directions. Do not cut through the bottom crust. Place the shredded cheese in between cuts. Sprinkle bacon bits on bread, making sure to get in between cuts. Mix together butter and Ranch dressing mix. Pour over bread. Wrap in foil the entire loaf in foil and place on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Unwrap. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

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Please join me at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage for Full Plate Thursday.

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Menu Plan Monday

Posted in Menu Planning, tagged on April 9, 2012| 1 Comment »

Welcome to this week’s edition of Menu Plan Monday!  Please join me and many, many other bloggers over at I’m An Organizing Junkie for this weekly event.  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and got to celebrate Easter to the fullest.  C & I attended church services yesterday morning and then had two family dinners that afternoon and evening.  Boy, were we stuffed, but it was oh so good!!

Spring break is now over and our time off went by too quickly so it is back to our regular routine with work and home. Since this week promises to be busy at work, I am including a couple of meals that make enough for two nights.  C & I were able to work on a couple of gardening projects while we were off and I will have posts about those coming up soon.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Deep Dish Pizza Casserole (2 nights)

Sausage Bake (2 nights)

Pizza Night

A1 Swiss Steak with Butter Roasted Potatoes

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Baked Ziti

Posted in Cooking, tagged , , , , on April 7, 2012| 8 Comments »

I love pasta!  You would think that I have a strong Italian influence in my family, but that is the furthest thing from reality.  No Italian blood here; just a great love for Italian food!  I found this recipe on Pinterest and it was pinned from a great blog, Creatively Domestic.  Here is the link to the original recipe.

There were only 2 little changes I made: I had to use penne pasta because my local grocery stores do not stock a pasta called “ziti” and I used a half pound of ground beef and a half pound of Italian sausage instead of just one pound of one of them.  This is a wonderful dish and will be added to my regular meal rotation.

16 oz. dried penne noodles
1/2 lb. ground beef

1/2 lb. Italian sausage

1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
6 cups meatless spaghetti sauce, divided
1 cup pasta water, reserved from draining ziti
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

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Note about the above photo:  I cooked the ground beef, sausage, onion and garlic powder the day before to save time.  That is what is in the small plastic container.

In a skillet over medium heat, cook the beef, sausage, onion and garlic powder until the meat is completely cooked and the onion is soft.

Slightly undercook ziti, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water, set aside.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  In the pot where you cooked the pasta, combine 5 cups of the sauce, reserved pasta water, and the meat mixture.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes.  Add the cooked pasta back in to the pot and stir to combine.

Spoon 1/2 of ziti mixture into 13x9x2" baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray. Sprinkle with Mozzarella and 1/2 of Parmesan cheese. Top with remaining ziti mixture and remaining 1 cup spaghetti sauce. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese. Bake 25 – 30 minutes or until heated through.

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All you need now is a salad and some garlic bread.   Mmmm!! This is also great the next day for leftovers. Just re-heat and serve.

Please join me and other great food bloggers at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage for Full Plate Thursday.

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Menu Plan Monday

Posted in Menu Planning, tagged , on April 2, 2012|

Good Monday morning, my lovely readers!  This week is our school’s spring break so C & I are taking a few days off as well to work on a couple of landscaping/gardening projects and maybe to get a little extra rest as well.  Since we will be outside as much as possible, this week’s menu is pretty simple until the weekend when it is time to celebrate our risen Lord and Savior on Easter Sunday.

This week is also a sad and emotional time for me as well.  My mom passed away two years ago on April 5th and her birthday would have been on Easter Sunday so there is a tinge (ok, more than a tinge) of melancholy during this beautiful time.  Mom loved the springtime and whenever the March lilies and forsythias bloom their vibrant yellow, it reminds me so much of her and her love for flowers and plants.  Oh, how I miss her…but, C’s birthday is today so we do have one big happy occasion to celebrate.  Happy birthday, my love!  I hope and pray that you have many, many, many more!

Cheesy steak sandwiches with oven baked fries & Oreo pie (C’s birthday supper)

Country ham & biscuits

Tacos

Pizza night

For Easter:

Honey baked ham (new)

White-out Cake (also new)

Sweet Potato Casserole

Butter Roasted potatoes

Please join me at I’m An Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

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Sloppy Joe Bake

Posted in Cooking, tagged , , on March 31, 2012| 9 Comments »

I love being able to take one recipe and make multiple meals from it.  Last week, I posted about slow cooker sloppy Joes and mentioned the recipe for this week.  It is so quick, easy and good!  I found this on Pinterest and it was pinned from the blog Life as a Lofthouse.  She has her own sloppy Joe recipe which looks really good, too, but since I had the leftovers I used my own.

2 cups sloppy Joe mix

2 cans Pillsbury, Big & Buttery crescent rolls

2 cups shredded cheese

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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray a 13×9” baking dish with nonstick spray.  Roll one can of the crescent rolls in the bottom of the baking dish.  Layer the sloppy Joe mix and cheese next, then top with the remaining crescent roll dough.

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Bake for 30-35 minutes.  This needs to bake for at least 30 minutes so the bottom layer of dough can fully cook.  Slice into squares and enjoy!

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Please join me at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage for Full Plate Thursday.

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