New Recipe: Sweet Breakfast Panini

My awesome MIL got my family a panini press/griddle/grill. YAY! So I've been using it. A lot. Good buy, obviously.

This morning I decided to try a sweet breakfast panini since the appliance was still out from pork chop snadwiches last night.

Ingredients:

-Cinnamon bread
-Thinly sliced strawberries OR strawberry sauce OR strawberry puree
-Sweetened cream cheese (cream cheese plus sugar... however sweet you like it)
-Butter/ margarine


I used strawberry puree I had in my fridge... cinnamon bread... and neufchatel cheese.

Butter your bread on the outsides. Smear cream cheese and lay out your strawberries. Stick in the panini press and cook. OR if you don't have a panini press... Make sweet grilled cheese for breakfast!

Awesome Sauce: A SUPER quick (like, five minutes) meatball sauce from stuff in your pantry

Okey doke, folks. I was thinking about dinner. We had a pound of ground beef hangin' out in the fridge. We also had some leftover mashed potatoes from Easter. I was out of beef broth and onions/ onion powder. Couldn't make a gravy without those! No sir.

So I whipped up an awesome sauce to go over the meatballs my hubby made (I know, I know. He rocks.) from the ground beef and the mashed potatoes we had.

Now, this would be an even faster and easier meal if you buy those wicked yummy meatballs from Costco.

Okay here is the sauce recipe I made up using items from.... MY PANTRY!!! It is meaty and rich and super tasty:

1. A can of beef consomme (it has gelatin so it thickens somewhat, but you could use half of a can to three quarters of a can of beef broth. Maybe it would be thinner... maybe not. You could always thicken with cornstarch or flour if you needed)
2. A packet of Lipton Onion Soup Mix
3. A can of cream o' mushroom soup
4. Pepper and garlic powder to taste

Mix it all together with a whisk and heat 'til bubblin' (stirring a lot so it doesn't scald). Pour liberally over your meatballs and mashed 'taters. mmmmmmm.

Pepperoni Eggplant Parmesan

 



I LOVE eggplant parmesan. My 3 year old? Not so much. I wanted a way to entice him {read bribe} to eat it. How? Pepperoni.

Okay. Peel your eggplant. Slice into medallions.

Dip first into this mixture:
1 egg
1/4 C. milk

Then into this mixture:
1 C. parmesan cheese
1 1/2 pieces of dry bread (use your food processor to turn it into crumbs)
1 T. basil
2 t. oregano

Fry. Drain. (DRAIN WELL. Eggplant kind of sponges up the oil) Make sure you get the outside nice and crispy. This will make the eggplant parmesan really yummy and not slimy.

Cook your pepperoni in a frying pan for a minute. Just 'til they get slightly crispy. I buy Turkey pepperoni. Much less fat and still a lot of flavor.

Now layer! I put a little sauce (homemade with italian sausage in it) on the bottom so the eggplant won't burn. Then layer half of your fried eggplant medallions, sauce (it depends on hom much you like) and perpperoni.



Next your cheese. You can use mozzerella, ricotta, or provolone. I LOVE provolone cheese. Particularly this brand. It's from Costco and is so flavorful and delicious.

Your eggplant parm should look like this:

Now layer the last of your eggplant, more sauce, more pepperoni, and more cheese.

Bake at 375* 'til hot and bubbly. I think... 15 minutes? Maybe more. Watch it carefully!

Happy cooking!

HEADS UP!!! GIVEAWAY!!

Hey there. Here's a link to my reading blog to enter to win a chance for a FREE BOOK!!! Who doesn't love free?

So go here, read my review, and enter to win.

It's a clean, chick lit book. It's an LDS (Latter Day Saint) romance, but I think it would appeal to anyone who likes good, clean, romance.

Free ebook Cookbook

Check out this link here for a free cookbook download of Quinoa recipes :).

Happy cooking.

Roasted Winter Veggies and Sausage

Again with the photography!

Anywho. I love really hearty meals in the winter... and if they are sorta healthy... even better. That way I can trick my bod into thinkin' I'm storing up for the long, cold months, but NOT (ish).

K. This is another recipe I made up and didn't measure a lot so once again, let your tastes determine how accurately you follow my rough amounts.

Ingredients:
2 parsnips
2 Italian Yellow Squash
6 Red Potatoes
5 Carrots
1 (large) sweet potato (the white kind, not the orange yam)
1 or 2 Kielbasa type dinner sausage(s) (I used turkey sausage). Depends on how much sausage you want.
1 yellow onion
1 Red Bell Pepper
3-ish  garlic cloves
Oil
About 2 T. Thyme
Salt (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)

Preheat your oven to 325* (longer roasting) OR 425* (much faster roasting time)

Peel and roughly chop the parsnips, carrots, onion and sweet potato.
Wash and roughly chop the potatoes, squash, and bell pepper.
Dice the garlic cloves.
Slice the sausage.

Mix your thyme, salt, and pepper in a bowl.
Mix all the vegetables and then drizzle just enough oil to evenly and lightly coat. Sprinkle your seasoning mix over and mix. Taste a bit of carrot to test the seasoning amount. Add more salt/ pepper as desired. Remember, though, as these roast the flavor from the onion, garlic, and sausage will boost your dish.
Mix in the sausage.

Line a cookie sheet with foil for easy cleanup and dump everything out on the cookie sheet.

Bake in the 325* oven for about 55 minutes (or until veggies are tender and brown) or bake in the 425* oven for about 20 minutes (or until veggies are tender and brown). STIRRING HALF WAY THROUGH. If your veggies are tender, but not browned you can broil them for a few minutes.

Enjoy!

Note, I roasted mine in two ceramic dishes because it was super pretty when I put it on the table. And I got a new ceramic dish for Christmas and wanted and excuse to use it.

Creamy Italian Crockpot Chicken and Noodles

 

So, we've already established that I'm not a fab photographer by any means. Keep that in mind if you don't think this looks appetizing. It was DELICIOUS.

 

Okay, here's the recipe. P.s. though, I made it up and didn't exactly measure so you can adjust individual ingredients as your tastes determine.

 



Ingredients:
One can cream of Mushroom Soup (low-fat or low sodium would be just fine)
2/3 bottle of your favorite Italian Dressing (I like Kraft's Tuscan Italian with Romano... or whatever it's called)
One brick Cream Cheese (I use neufchatel so I don't feel so guilty)
5 carrots peeled and thinly sliced
6 ish bonless skinless chicken thighs OR 3 boneless, Skinless chicken breasts
A box of your favorite noodles

Okey doke, folks. Here's what you do:

Dump your italian dressing into your crock pot. Stick in your raw chicken. Cook on high for... 2 ish hours? (One hour in, dump in your carrot slices.) Just until your chicken and carrots are cooked. Shred your chicken. Add the cream of mushroom soup, and the brick of cream cheese. Stir it all around until the cream cheese is all melted and incorporated.

Boil your noodles. Serve mixed together or with the sauce on top.

YUM.

A new use for those Jell-O moulds

We were given a Jell-O mould for Halloween from my sister-in-law. Made some Jell-O jigglers and then put it up on the shelf and haven't used it since.

SO! Today my little guy wanted to eat yogurt out of it so I filled the mould up with his all-natural vanilla yogurt. THEN! Inspiration struck. He was sad when I explained to him that he could eat the yogurt out of the mould, but it wouldn't stay in a shape. We decided to freeze them and...

 

VOILA! An hour later: A super fun way to eat yogurt.

Trying a new recipe! I'll let you know.

Click here for A New Recipe I'm Trying. I'm excited. A little nervous, but excited. I am bringing this to my girls' night tonight. It's nerve wracking to try a new recipe when you are planning to feed other people. We're watching an Irish themed movie and we wanted dessert. Irish dessert. I've never made Irish dessert before so it isn't like I had a choice. I have to make something new. I suppose I could have made it before. Oh well!

So, St. Patrick's Day isn't really close, yet... but! I'm trying a new Irish dessert. According to the website I got it from, it is authentic. Apparently Corned Beef and Cabbage isn't, by the way. If you want to read why they say that check here.

HEADS UP!!

Exciting news... might be about a giveaway... check my other blog out here for details....

Recipe: chicken alfredo pasta

Okey doke, folks. SO! I have this classic alfredo recipe from my mom that is killer. So I will post that link. THEN, I will post some changes that made it.... amazing.

Classic Alfredo: Read the recipe in this post here
BUT. If you want to take this to the next level try these tips:



Brown some chicken in a pan with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper rubbed on. Then deglaze the pan with some chicken stock and let it finish cooking. SAVE THE LIQUID!!

Set your chicken breast aside, and measure out your leftover juices. Add more chicken stock to make it so you have half the needed liquid (either 1/2 or 3/4 cup).

Follow the recipe for Alfredo sauce, but use half milk (or half and half) and then your chicken stock mixture. Cook your noods and serve tossed in sauce and topped with your chicken breast.

READERS!!!

Hey everyone. You are awesome, can I just say? Thank you for following me and sticking with me even though I haven't posted much lately. I'm still around... and even crafting some. I'm just.. busy! Who knew how crazy things could get with two kids?!

I have a favor to ask you... a suggestion, I guess. If you like to read it would mean a lot to me if you would follow my book blog.  If I get enough followers then publishers will be more likely to let me read books that will be coming out ahead of time. Then I can read them and review them on my blog and let you know if they are worth your time and maybe help you find a new favorite book.