Sloppy Joes

**We had this for dinner about a week ago. I thought it would be fun since I love grilled sourdough bread to have it on that, and I enjoyed it. I think to switch up the sloppy joes next time I make them, I may buy some french bread and broil it under the broiler with some butter and parmesan cheese and then serve the sloppy joe mix on top of that.**

This is the recipe I use, but it is so easy to just buy the packet of sloppy joe mix, or a can of "manwich" to make a quick dinner.

1 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced or 1/2 tsp. granulated garlic
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 tbsp. flour
1 cup water
2 tsp. prepared mustard
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup ketchup

In a skillet, over medium high heat, sauté ground beef, onion, pepper and garlic in a tsp. of olive oil (if beef is very lean). Cook, stirring occasionally until meat loses its red color.

Stir in flour, water, mustard, worcestershire sauce, and ketchup. Cook uncovered for about 20 minutes.

Spinach, Sausage, Garlic, and Pine Nut stuffed Chicken

**My Aunt came in to town for the long weekend and decided to make us dinner. This is a recipe she found from Rachael Ray. She loved it enough to make it for us, and now we love it. We did not have the butcher take out the breast bone of the chicken. Boy would that have made things easier! Do they charge for that? To test it out we also used a regular chicken breast and just pounded it with a mallot to thin it out and then rolled up the mixture in it. As the chicken cooked, it made delicious drippings. You just put them all in a measuring cup and then suck out all the fat with a turkey baster. If you were to make these rolled up with just chicken breasts (which I preferred more) the only bummer would be that you probably won't get all that yummy juice, AND they definitely would cook much much less. **

Ingredients

•1/2 cup pine nuts
•1/2 pound sweet Italian chicken or turkey sausage (we used turkey sausage and I cooked it till almost all pink was gone. I'm wierd with raw meat that way)
•2 boxes frozen spinach, thawed
•1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano, divided
•1 garlic clove, grated (we just used a heaping TB of minced garlic)
•2 egg yolks
•1/4 cup breadcrumbs
•Salt and ground black pepper
•1 3-pound whole chicken, butterflied with rib cage removed (ask your butcher to do this for you)
•3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

Preparation

Pre-heat oven to 400°F and place a rack in the middle of the oven.

Place the pine puts on a baking sheet and pop them into the oven for about 3-4 minutes, until golden brown in color.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the chicken sausage with the spinach, toasted pine nuts, 1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, garlic, egg yolks, breadcrumbs, salt and freshly ground black pepper.

On a clean work surface, place the chicken skin-side down and season the inside with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place the chicken sausage mixture in the middle of the chicken, then take each leg and wing of the chicken and bring them together to enclose the sausage mixture.

Place the chicken onto a baking sheet, seam-side down. As best as you can, form the chicken so it looks like it was never boned out. (You can tie the legs together to help keep its shape, but that is optional.) Drizzle the chicken with EVOO, salt and freshly ground black pepper, then place into the oven on the middle rack and cook for about an hour, until a thermometer stuck into the middle reaches 145°F and the breast meat registers 165°F.

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

** This is a recipe from "The New High Altitude Cookbook" **

When we moved from California to Utah, none of my baked goods recipes worked. Everything was flat, raw in the middle, cookies spread wide on the baking sheet, and my quick breads were a total disaster. I was devastated!

This cookbook saved me. :) YAY! For those of you living at high altitudes (I'm at 3800 ft), this recipe is perfect. It doesn't rise in the middle like my bread did in California, but it still tastes wonderful, cooks through & stays moist. I also love that it's made partly with whole wheat flour or wheat germ.

This bread freezes extremely well. I like to bake up quite a few throughout the cooler months so we can pull them out during the summer. It also makes a great gift. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

1 cup shortening
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
3 eggs, beaten
3 large bananas, mashed
1/3 cup water
2 cups whole-wheat flour and 1 cup + 2 Tblsp. all-purpose flour
OR 1 1/4 cups wheat germ and 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp double-acting baking powder (make sure it's "double-acting")
1 cup chopped nutmeats (like walnuts)

1. Preheat oven to 325* - 350*F. (In my oven, it's better at 325* and I bake it for 15 minutes longer)
2. Grease two 9x5x3" loaf pans.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening & brown sugar until light & fluffy. Add eggs, bananas & water. Mix well.
4. Combine dry ingredients & stir lightly with whisk to totally combine.
5. Add dry ingredients to banana mixture, stirring only until blended. Stir in nutmeats.
6. Pour batter into prepared pans.
7. Bake 1 hour at 350*F, 1 hour 15 mins at 325*F, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan.
   

20-Minute Spaghetti & Sausage Meatballs

I know - pretty basic meal - but the cool part is the sausage meatballs! You can use bulk Italian sausage, or buy the actual sausages and cut the casing at one end. Then you squeeze out the sausage filling & roll it into meatballs.

The actual recipe is called "30-Minute Spaghetti & Meatballs", but it only took me about 20 minutes to prepare. Nice change from regular Italian meatballs too.

This recipe came from "Martha Stewart - Everyday Food".

20-minute Spaghetti & Sausage Meatballs

Serves 6

1 pound sweet or spicy Italian sausage
1 tsp olive oil
Your favorite spaghetti sauce
1 lb spaghetti

Bring a large pot of water to boil.

Meanwhile, remove sausage meat from casings (or just use bulk Italian sausage) and roll into 24 balls.

As you add the spaghetti to the boiling water, begin the meatballs.

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add sausage & cook until browned all over, about 5-10 minutes.

At this point, you can heat the sauce in the microwave & serve or you can add the sauce to the meatballs & simmer for 2-3 minutes, then serve.

Drain pasta & serve with meatballs & sauce. We topped ours with Parmesan cheese too.

Enjoy!

Baked Chicken Sandwich

My friend Adrianna came over and wanted to cook dinner for us and this is what she made. YUMMY! The possibilities with this are endless. You could use a pesto sauce, you could use some vegetables that have been par-steamed, you could do a taco type one and just add refried beans, meat and grated cheese over the cream cheese. If you have any other ideas, please leave your comments.

Ingredients

*These ingredients are just from watching her do it. There was no recipe to follow*
9 Chicken breast tenders cooked in olive oil
2 French bread loaves cut in half
1 120z Whipped cream cheese. (I think if you use regular, it would be fine too, just leave it out a few minutes to soften more.)
Minced garlic
Monterey Jack cheese
jalapeno sliced (seeded too, if you don't want the EXTRA spice)




Bake your chicken in oven and cut to small pieces. We cooked ours for about 35 minutes.

Spread cream cheese equally over all 4 loaves. Put about 2-3TB minced garlic on each loaf and spread that evenly.

Sprinkle cut up chicken equally over the cream cheese and garlic, then top with grated cheddar/monterey jack cheese. Add peppers to top.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Most of the loaves we cut in thirds to serve. One of them we cut smaller for the kids.

Use your imagination and come up with some creative toppings. Enjoy!

Chinese Top Ramen Salad

**This recipe is from my friend Melissa. She made it as part of our Mothers Day "brunch" at church. I have had this salad before, but the flavor of this one was better than the recipe I have and I like that it didn't have any meat in it, although it certainly would be yummy with it in there.**

1 pkg. chicken flavored instant Ramen - break noodles into small pieces
2 T. sesame seeds
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 head large cabbage, shredded (I use a bag of that pre-shredded cole slaw mix.)
4 green onions

Brown sesame seeds and almonds in 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes. Mix salad ingredients. Combine with dressing (below).

Dressing:
1/2 c. vegetable oil
3 T. vinegar
2 T. sugar
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
Flavor packet from Ramen noodles

Snickerdoodles

*These are one of my favorite cookies. Make sure not to bake them too long. The moister they are the better.*

Snickerdoodles

1 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

cinnamon/sugar mixture to roll cookies in

Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla.

In a seperate bowl add flour, cream of tartar, salt and soda. Slowly add dry ingredients to creamed mixture.

Roll in to balls and then roll in cinnamon/sugar. Place on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes depending on your oven.

Chocolate Oreo Trifle

**This is not the picture of the trifle, but we had some friends for dinner the other night and I thought I would try something new. I made this dessert as directed below, but cut the cake in half instead of in cubes and just layered the ingredients on top of the cake. Cake, cookies, mousse, cool whip. repeat. We all liked it, but for some reason we enjoyed it better made as the trifle.**

**This is the Trifle! It was Mothers Day Dessert and it was so YUMMY!**
We made a trifle one time with chocolate pudding and chocolate cake and we did not like it and the cousins who are all chocolate lovers didn't love it either. So, my sister in law is an oreo lover, and I make another chocolate mousse dessert that the family loves, so this is a mix of a few ideas put into one.

**The mousse directions for this recipe is from another chocolate mousse dessert that my mom always made growing up. I will post how to make that recipe below the Trifle recipe.**


Chocolate Oreo Trifle
1 box Devils Food chocolate cake mix

Mousse:
1/2 cup HOT milk
6oz Dark chocolate bar (I buy one of the large Hersheys dark chocolate bars)
4 cups mini marshmellows
1 pint heavy cream

1 16oz cool whip

1 pkg oreo cookies

Make cake mix as directed on back of box. Bake it in a 9x13. When it is cool, cut it into cubes. Mine was probably cut in to 6-7 rows wide and about 10 rows long.

Meanwhile in a blender add chocolate bar broken up into squares, 4 cups marshmellows and HOT milk. Turn blender on until all ingredients are melted and blended in. Place in fridge and let it cool down to at least room temperature.

When the chocolate mixture is cooled down. Beat the heavy cream in a mixer until stiff peaks appear. Fold in the chocolate mixture.

Put oreo cookies in a baggie and crush them with a mallot.

Get out your trifle dish or punch bowl like I used. Layer 1/3 of cake mix on bottom, cookie crumbs, 1/3 of chocolate mousse mix, and 1/3 of the cool whip. Repeat 2 more times. You should end with cool whip on top. Then just sprinkle some oreo crumbs on top for looks.

Refrigerate for a couple hours before serving.

Chocolate Mousse Dessert

Mousse:

**See directions above**

Cookie crust:

1 cup butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar or granulated sugar ( I use half of each)

2 cups flour

Mix together until crumbly. Layer into a 9x13 baking dish. Bake 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Let cool completely. Layer mousse over top of cookie crust. Refrigerate for several hours before serving.

OR

Oreo crust:

1 pkg oreo cookies

1 stick butter

Crush the entire package of cookies. Add 1 stick of melted butter. Stir and then press into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Layer Mousse on top of oreo crust. Refrigerate for several hours before serving.

Smokey Black Bean Enchiladas

I made this recipe as part of our "cutting back on meat" and my husband and I really enjoyed them. My two young daughters 12 and 4 did not love them, but our guest and her 2 kids ages 12 and 10 really liked them. So, you will have look at the ingredient and see if you think your family will enjoy them. The smokey flavor from the title probably comes from the cumin.

Smoky Black Bean Enchiladas
adapted from: Fake ginger
Filling:
1 Chipotle pepper from canned "chipotle peppers in adobo sauce"
1 TB olive oil
1 medium onion diced
3 cans black beans (rinsed)
1/2 tsp onion salt
3/4 cup Orange juice

Sauce:
1 cup mild or medium salsa
1 cup tomato sauce
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp cumin

12 corn tortillas
8oz block of cream cheese cut in to 12 slices
2 cups Monterey jack cheese grated

Mince chipotle pepper with knife and fork. Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Saute onion and chipotle until soft. Stir in beans and orange juice. Simmer 10 minutes. Using back of fork mash half of beans. Cook a few more minutes and mash the beans more. Set aside while you make the sauce.

For the sauce just combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir together.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place the corn tortillas in a tortilla warmer and heat in microwave for 30-60 seconds until soft.

Lightly spray a 9x13 baking dish. Pour a thin layer of sauce on bottom of dish. Assemble tortillas by placing the filling mixture down the center of each tortilla. Place a slice of cream cheese on top of filling and roll up. Place seam side down in baking dish. Pour remaining sauce over top of tortillas. Sprinkle monterey jack cheese over top. Cover with foil.

Bake for 20 minutes with foil over top and 5-10 minutes with foil off.

Chipotle Burgers

If you like the "kick" that comes from Chipotle peppers, you will love these.

Sorry I don't have a picture, but we started eating and OOPS! it was too late to get a picture. lol

Chipotle Burgers
From: Our best bites

1 1/2 lbs ground beef (20% is best for burgers, so that they don't get too dry)
1 1/2 Chipotle peppers from canned chipotles in adobo sauce
1 1/2 Tb Adobo sauce from can of peppers
1/4 cup minced onion or fresh grated onion (I used minced)
1tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Chipotle-lime Mayo
1/2 cup mayonaise
2 tsp lime juice
1 1/2 tsp adobo sauce from canned chipotle peppers
2 Tb chopped fresh cilantro (I did not use this because I didn't have any)

Make Chipotle sauce ahead of time and refrigerate.

For burgers put all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Use your hands if you need to. Form patties and barbecue until done. Put cheese on each patty if you want a cheesy chipotle burger. We only had american cheese in the drawer and it was yummy.

Place on a bun with whatever trimmings you like. Don't forget to add the Chipotle mayo sauce. It really helps give more of that "chipotle kick."

Fried Zucchini

Summer is coming and all your zucchini will need to be put to good use! Try this. I would add more seasoning of some kind, but I can't figure out what I would add. It would either be garlic powder, onion powder or maybe a mixture of each. Maybe even some garlic powder and some onion salt instead of powder. I will have to make it again and try it out.
This recipe came from HERE

Fried Zuchini
From: Fake Ginger

2 medium zucchini , grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 -1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs (I used a little less than 3/4 cup)
1/2 parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
oil for frying

Start heating oil in skillet over medium high heat. I eventually moved mine up to high heat because they were taking longer to cook, and I wanted them to cook faster. My mind was telling me they were sitting in there too long and absorbing more oils. :)

In a medium sized bowl add all ingredients. If the mixture seems a little too moist, just add more breadcrumbs. The mixture needs to be moist, but not wet enough where it won't stick together.

I used a cookie scooper, a little larger than a TB and scooped up a heap, placed it in the hot oil and patted it down sligthly. Cook each side until desired browness.

Drain on paper towels.

I served mine with homemade Ranch dressing. YUM.

Taco Chicken

Thanks to my friend Jennifer D who shared this recipe when we were a part of a recipe group. Since then, I have heard of this recipe being made with salsa too, and I liked this version much better. Yummy!

Taco Chicken

2 can cream of chicken (or you could use 1 cream of chicken, and 1 cream of mushroom)
1/2 cup salsa
1 packet taco seasoning
1 cup sour cream
3-4 chicken breasts (depending on size)

Place soup, salsa and taco seasoning in crock pot. Stir well. Add chicken. Bake on low for 4-6 hours. Remove chicken and shred. Return chicken to sauce. Add 1 cup of sour cream, stir all together and serve over rice.