Veggie Pizza

This is one of my staples for holidays, parties, etc.  Modified from allrecipes.com

The link calls for dried dill, but I do not like that flavor so I omitted it. 

Ingredients
2 (8 ounce) packages refrigerated crescent rolls
1 cup sour cream
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1 (1 ounce) package ranch dressing mix
Veggies as needed (I use tomatoes, broccoli, shredded carrots, but you can add anything you want here)
Cheddar cheese

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a jellyroll pan with non-stick cooking spray.
2.Pat crescent roll dough into a jellyroll pan. Let stand 5 minutes. Pierce with fork.
3.Bake for 10 minutes, let cool.
4.In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine sour cream, cream cheese, dill weed, garlic salt and ranch dip mix. Spread this mixture on top of the cooled crust. Arrange the onion, carrot, celery, broccoli, radish, bell pepper and broccoli on top of the creamed mixture. Cover and let chill. Once chilled, cut it into squares and serve.

Honey Pear Crisp

What do you do with a bag of delicious pears straight from your parent's tree? 

Honey Pear Crisp!  Courtesy of Vintage Victuals it came out absolutely delicious.  No walnuts for me.  I used all purpose flour, light brown sugar and just a shake or two of ginger. I cooked it for a little longer and dotted more butter on it later, I didn't have it incorporated enough the first time around. Better luck next time!

3-4 large pears, peeled and thinly sliced
4 tablespoons salted butter, divided
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of ginger
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Grease a small oven-safe dish – an 8×8″ square will work fine.

Layer the pear slices in the prepared dish. Dot the top with 1 tablespoon of the butter. Drizzle the honey over the top of the pears.

In a small bowl, combine the rest of the butter, the oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and ginger. Use a fork or a pastry blender to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the pears. Finally, sprinkle the walnuts on top.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, until the topping is browned and the filling is bubbly. Serve warm with whipped cream, ice cream, or frozen yogurt.

Sauteed Mushrooms

OH so easy and oh so delicious! Straight from allrecipes.com, we followed the recipe except omitted the wine. And the basil. So I guess it was just butter, mushrooms, and garlic. Delicious!

1 tablespoon butter
2 pounds sliced fresh mushrooms
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 cup red wine
Directions
1.Heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and garlic; cook and stir until the mushrooms are a light golden brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in the basil.
2.Reduce heat to low, and pour the wine into the skillet. Simmer until most of the wine has evaporated. Serve immediately.

Creamy Taco Mac

I've seen this across many different blogs.  I'm not a big hamburger helper fan.  But since we have half a cow in the deep freeze, I often need creative ways to make ground beef, so I put this on the menu.  It's good for what it is - nice and creamy and cheesy.  I like my steak bites better, but this wasn't bad:-)

I used a version from Lauren's Kitchen

Ingredients

1.25 lbs ground turkey
1/2 onion, chopped
8 oz dry pasta + 1 cup reserved pasta water
1 16oz jar of salsa
4 Tbsp mild taco seasoning
3 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
salt & pepper
1 cup shredded Mexican cheese, plus more for garnish

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook pasta per directions. Reserve one cup of pasta water.

Over medium heat, brown ground turkey until no longer pink. Add onion and cook 5 minutes. Add taco seasoning and salsa. Allow to simmer over low heat for 5 minutes. Add cooked pasta, reserved water, cream cheese, sour cream, and shredded cheese. Give it a good stir until cheeses are melty and incorporated. Simmer over low heat for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt & pepper, as desired. Top off with cheddar cheese for extra cheesy goodness.

Menu Plan Monday

Hi there! If it seems like we have a lot of repeats, it's because I didn't get the chance to make everything last week!  So we'll try the Cheddar Chicken and Creamy Taco Mac again this week.  But the steak bites are fabulous and so easy we seem to make them all the time now!  It's actually great because we have 1/2 a cow in the freezer so we have plenty of sirloin and it doesn't call for too much else!


Monday
Breakfast – Cereal
Lunch – PBJ, frozen WW meal
Dinner – Chicken Fajitas, salad

Tuesday
Breakfast – Cereal
Lunch – PBJ, frozen WW meal
Dinner – Creamy Taco Mac, Corn

Wednesday
Breakfast – Cereal
Lunch – turkey/bacon on onion roll, frozen WW meal
Dinner – Steak Bites, sautéed mushrooms, salad

Thursday
Breakfast – Cereal
Lunch – PBJ, frozen WW meal
Dinner – Cheddar Cracker Chicken, Boxed Rice Pilaf, Frozen Veggies

Friday
Breakfast – Cereal
Lunch – PBJ, frozen WW meal
Dinner – OUT

Menu Plan Monday

Just another week of trying to save money:

Monday
Breakfast – Cereal
Lunch – turkey/bacon on onion roll
Dinner – beef tacos, Spanish rice

Tuesday
Breakfast – Cereal
Lunch – PBJ (J) leftover taco & rice bowl (A)
Dinner – Chicken Alfredo

Wednesday
Breakfast – Cereal
Lunch – turkey/bacon on onion roll
Dinner – Meatloaf, Twice Baked Potatoes, Corn

Thursday
Breakfast – Cereal
Lunch – PBJ (J), soup & toasted cheese (A)
Dinner – Creamy Taco Mac, Green Beans

Friday
Breakfast – Cereal
Lunch – EAT OUT (J), leftover taco mac (A)
Dinner – Cheddar Cracker Chicken, Boxed Rice Pilaf, Frozen Veggies

Hot Crash Potatoes

From Pioneer Woman!  Here they are -

12 whole New Potatoes (or Other Small Round Potatoes)
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Kosher Salt To Taste
Black Pepper To Taste
Rosemary (or Other Herbs Of Choice) To Taste

Preparation Instructions
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add in as many potatoes as you wish to make and cook them until they are fork-tender.

On a sheet pan, generously drizzle olive oil. Place tender potatoes on the cookie sheet leaving plenty of room between each potato.

With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and mash again. Brush the tops of each crushed potato generously with more olive oil.

Sprinkle potatoes with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and fresh chopped rosemary (or chives or thyme or whatever herb you have available.)

Bake in a 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Menu Plan Monday

This week's menu!  We are trying to stay budget friendly, as you can see.  This is about the 4th week that I've done menu planning. I love it!  I thought I would get quite a bit of opposition from my husband, but I've found as long as I ask him what he wants to eat during the week too, he is fine with it!  Another huge benefit is that I'm no longer staring at the refrigerator trying to figure out what to eat in the evenings.  Typically I would have almost all of the ingredients of a lot of different things - now I buy only what I need.  So I'm hopefully saving money also!

I decided to start menu planning based on this post from Annie's Eats.  She outlines a great way to organize everything.  I have found that if I bookmark items throughout the week and copy over to my "notes" page on my laptop, by the end of the week, I just need to pick a few new meals to prepare and stick to a few standbys that I know my husband will like!  I put it all on a Word document, print it and put it on the refrigerator.  I also keep the links in Word, and keep the document open so that I can easily find the new recipes.  It works out great for me!



Monday
Breakfast – English muffin breakfast sandwiches – bacon, egg, cheese
Lunch – PBJ (J) ham & cheese (A)
Dinner – Homemade sausage & mushroom pizza

Tuesday
Breakfast – English muffin breakfast sandwiches – bacon, egg, cheese
Lunch – PBJ (J) ham & cheese (A)
Dinner – Mushroom & Swiss cheeseburgers on the grill, corn on the cob

Wednesday
Breakfast – English muffin breakfast sandwiches – bacon, egg, cheese
Lunch – PBJ (J) ham & cheese (A)
Dinner – chicken, pineapple, mushroom kabobs & Corn salad:

Thursday
Breakfast – English muffin breakfast sandwiches – bacon, egg, cheese
Lunch – PBJ (J) ham & cheese (A)
Dinner – Crispy chicken Costoletta, Crash Hot Potatoes, Garlic Roasted Asparagus

Friday
Breakfast – English muffin breakfast sandwiches – bacon, egg, cheese
Lunch – EAT OUT
Dinner – Lasagna Rollups

Cupcake Cabernet Sauvignon

Delicious!  No better way to describe it.  I just wish it wasn't $12. 

5 out of 5

Broccoli Salad

Broccoli Salad - from allrecipes.com

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups fresh broccoli florets
3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
4 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
Directions
1.In a bowl, combine the broccoli, cheese, bacon and onion. In another bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, vinegar and sugar. Pour over broccoli mixture and toss to coat. cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

From Good Things Catered:

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Adapted from the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted & cooled until warm
1 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 c granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare 8x8 baking dish.
-In medium bowl, combine dry ingredients and set aside.
-In bowl of stand mixer, or by hand, mix butter & sugars until thoroughly combined.
-Beat in egg, yolk and vanilla until combined.
-Add dry ingredients & beat at low speed just until combined.
-Stir in chips.
-Pour into baking dish and lightly pat to even out mixture in pan.
-Place in oven and bake until light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet center is still soft & puffy (about 30 minutes in my oven).
-Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting into bars.

Cheesy Rice

From CD Kitchen
Serves 4

Ingredients:
3 cups cooked rice
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon salt
1 dash ground red pepper (more if desired)
1 cup grated Cheddar cheese, divided

Directions:
Combine rice, sour cream, salt, pepper, and 1/2 the cheese. Spoon into a buttered, shallow 1-quart baking dish. Top with remaining cheese. Bake at 350degrees F for 20 minutes.

Menu Plan Monday

Here is this week's plan:

Monday
Breakfast – Ham & mushroom omelets, hash browns, English muffins
Lunch – PBJ (J) Totino’s (A)
Dinner – Cheeseburgers on the grill, cheesy rice, broccoli salad

Tuesday
Breakfast – Bagels, raspberry cream cheese, honey cream cheese
Lunch – Chicken salad on Hawaiian
Dinner – Chicken Gyros

Wednesday
Breakfast – Bagels, raspberry cream cheese, honey cream cheese
Lunch – Chicken salad on Hawaiian
Dinner – Cheese stuffed tomatoes , Pioneer Woman Steak Bites , Baked Beans

Thursday
Breakfast – Bagels, raspberry cream cheese, honey cream cheese
Lunch – Chicken salad on Hawaiian
Dinner – Monicals (?) DQ Ice Cream Cake

Friday
Breakfast – Bagels, raspberry cream cheese, honey cream cheese
Lunch – EAT OUT
Dinner – Sloppy Joe, Mac & Cheese (make half)