Hearty Veggie Lasagna

This is a new favorite dish in our house!  I don't think I'll ever make a lasagna with beef again!  I'm trying to get better at taking pictures...unfortunately I didn't take a picture of this one though.

3 carrots-peeled & chopped
1 broccoli crown, chopped
1/2 celery stalk, chopped
1 medium onion-finely chopped
1 tsp dried garlic
1 tsp thyme
salt & pepper
2 jars spaghetti sauce
8 whole wheat lasagna noodles
16 oz container of cottage cheese (I added a couple sprinkles of Italian seasoning to mine)
2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 cup parmesan cheese

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees
-Cook noodles according to package
-Combine veggies & sauce (I sent all my veggies through the food chopper for a couple spins)
-In bottom of casserole dish, spread about a cup of the sauce.  Layer 4 noodles, then sauce, cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, and parm.  Add a 2nd layer. 
-Bake for 15-20 mins or until cheese is melted and bubbly :)
-Serve with a green salad & whole wheat bread sticks! 

YUM!!! 

Strawberry-Pretzel Salad

I always get nervous when someone asks me to bring something to a gathering.  Especially something I have never made before!  My mother in law asked me to bring a jello salad, or pretzel salad to a BBQ on Labor Day.  I had never made a jello salad in my life!  So I turned to Google the night before and found this recipe!  Everyone really liked it! (the picture doesn't do it justice)

-2 cups crushed pretzels
3/4 cup melted butter
3 TBS sugar, plus 3/4 cup sugar
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese
1 (8 oz) container whipped topping
1 (6 oz) pkg Strawberry Jello
2 cups boiling water
1 (16 oz) container strawberries

--Preheat oven to 400 degrees
--For the crust, mix the pretzels, butter and 3 TBS of sugar.  Press this mixture into a 9x13-inch pan and bake for 7 minutes.  Set aside and allow to cool.
--In a mixing bowl, beat together the cream cheese, and 3/4 cup sugar. Fold in the whipped topping and spread over the cooled crust.  Refrigerate until well chilled. (this is a very important step, let the creamed mixture set until firm)
--In a small bowl dissolve the jello in the boiling water and allow it to cool slightly.  Add the strawberries (I chopped mine up in little pieces) and pour over the cream mixture. Garnish with whipped topping and strawberries.  Refrigerate until serving! 

(The recipe I found also called for pineapple, but I didn't use it.  I stuck with just strawberries and it was really good!  Next time I'll add the pineapple.)

2 minute pizza!

Today I had a sudden craving for pizza for lunch.  My 2 year old loves pizza, but I wasn't about to make a whole pizza just for us for lunch.  So I used my imagination and used these things

-1 whole wheat tortilla
-1 TBS pizza sauce
-mozzarella cheese
-Pepperoni

I topped the tortilla with sauce, cheese & pepperoni.  Popped it in the microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds and WA-LA!  Pizza for lunch!  It was yummy! 

Best EVER Chocolate Chip Cookies!

I used to work with a lady that made THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES EVER!!  She had given me her recipe after the first time I tried them and for the life of me I could not get them to turn out like hers!  I would ask her every time I made them if she added something, or used more of something and she would never give me a direct answer.  She would always say you have to watch the texture, and the time that you bake them. Well today I figured it out!  And it was just what she said, you have to really watch the texture (not too thick, not too thin) and the baking time has to be PERFECT!!!

Here's the recipe:
1 cup butter flavored shortening
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/4-2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 a bag of chocolate chips (this is a huge key!! only use half of a bag, not the full two cups any other recipe calls for!!)

--Preheat oven to 375
--Cream together shortening & sugars.
--Add vanilla & eggs and mix until well combined.
--Stir in baking soda & flour (start with 2 cups of flour and add a little more as you stir to get just the perfect texture.  Today my texture was pretty sticky and they turned out PERFECTLY)
--Then stir in the chocolate chips.
--Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet. (ROUND IS THE KEY WORD)
--Bake at 375 for 7 minutes 30 seconds.  I know it sounds crazy but those last 30 seconds are crucial and will make or break your perfect cookie!!!  I experimented today with just 7 minutes, they were too gooey, and 8 minutes browned them too much and they were crunchy.  7 minutes 30 seconds will do the trick!!!

ENJOY!!!

Delicious Pasta Salad

This was super easy to make and we really enjoyed it :)

1 lb wacky mac noodles, cooked & chilled
1/2 head broccoli
1/2 head cauliflower
2-3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 cucumber, peeled & sliced
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 bottle Zesty Italian Salad Dressing

Combine all ingredients in large bowl, mix until well coated with dressing.  Serve with corn bread or muffins!  Yum! 

Fruit Salsa with Baked Cinnamon Chips

This has become a summer favorite!  It's pretty easy to make, and you can really tweak it to your liking :)

1/2 fresh pineapple
1/2 pound fresh strawberries
1/2 small carton raspberries
1 medium apple (I've used delicious red, and gala. They are both good)

--Chop up all fruit into smaller than bite sized pieces and refrigerate.

Cinnamon Chips:
6-8 Whole Wheat Tortillas
1 cup white sugar
1 TBS ground cinnamon

--Mix together sugar and cinnamon
--Spray tortillas with cooking spray (I've even just spread some olive oil on them) and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on them.  Cut into tortilla chip shapes using a pizza cutter.
--Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes or until the edges start to brown

Serve with the fruit salsa!  Yum!

Squash & Potato Bake

This was a fairly simple recipe and it was very tasty!  All the men in my house gobbled it up! 
4-5 red potatoes, sliced
1 yellow squash, peeled, sliced
1 zucchini squash, peeled, sliced
minced garlic and onion
Thyme, Salt & Pepper
--Spray baking dish with cooking spray, put some minced garlic and onion on the bottom of the pan and then put in the peeled veggies.  Top with seasonings
--Bake at 400 for 50-60 minutes.
(if desired after about 30 minutes, sprinkle some shredded cheese on top and continue baking until cheese is melted)

Best Ever Veggie Stir Fry

My husband and I watched a documentary called "Forks Over Knives" about 3 weeks ago.  Since then we've eaten meat, once.  It has been such a good change for our family!  I recommend to everyone to watch it!  Given our new eating habits, I've had to tweak a lot of my favorite recipes, and find new ones.  I wanted to find a really good veggie stir fry, I hunted online for days and I just couldn't find one that appealed to me.  So I threw this one together myself and it has been our favorite meal EVER!  It's so good!

1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1/2 yellow onion
1/2 head of broccoli
1 bunch green onion
1/2 of a fresh pineapple
1 jar Kikkoman sweet and sour sauce
2 TBS ketchup
1 tsp garlic powder (or 2-3 cloves garlic)
1 TBS ground ginger

--Chop up all the peppers. onions, broccoli, and pineapple.  Throw it all in a large frying pan or wok, add sweet and sour sauce, ketchup, garlic, and ginger.  Cook on medium/high heat for 15-20 minutes depending on how you like the texture of your veggies.  We like ours crunchy.  Serve over brown rice!  YUM!!!

Crock Pot BBQ Chicken

This is one of my husbands favorite meals, I'm surprised I haven't posted it sooner. 

2-4 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
1 bottle of your choice BBQ sauce (I love Sweet Baby Raye's. Tonight I used the Sweet Onion flavor)

--Usually I just put the chicken and half the bottle of BBQ sauce in the crock pot, and let it cook for 6-8 hours on low.  After reading the grocery budget guide (posted below) I will no longer be doing that.  It's a better idea to cook the chicken (probably just with some water in the bottom) and add the BBQ sauce as you serve up the chicken so if you have left over chicken you can put in the fridge and use it in another recipe later in the week.

This is a really simple and quick to throw together "go to" recipe for me!  Tonight I served it with some left over funeral potatoes, green beans and corn!

Family Guide To Groceries on a Budget

I found this guide on pinterest and thought I'd give it a shot.  It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it did have some good tips and some good recipes for budget friendly meals, spices, snacks, baked goods, etc.. It was worth my $3.49 to download on my Kindle and took me about 20 minutes to read the whole thing.  I will be incorporating some of the tips and trying some of the recipes to see if I can at least downsize my grocery budget from about $75-$100 a week to anything smaller!  This guide says on average the American family of 4 spends over $700 a month just on groceries!  I'm willing to try just about anything to save a few dollars and some of these tips will be quite helpful.

Sausage Lasagna Roll-Ups

This recipe was really yummy, both my boys and my hubby loved it and I was surprised at how filling it was!  The hubby and I both took leftovers to work the next day!

8-10 whole wheat Lasagna noodles (I used 9 for our family of 4)
1 lb ground Italian Sausage
1 jar alfredo sauce
8 oz cream cheese
salt & pepper

--Boil Noodles according to package directions.  Meanwhile brown sausage.
--In a small bowl combine Alfredo sauce, cream cheese and a dash of salt and pepper.  I warmed my cream cheese in the microwave for about a minute (stirring half way through) just to soften it up a little.
--When the noodles are cooked rinse them in cool water until they are cool enough to handle.
--Add the cooked sausage to the Alfredo/Cream cheese mixture.
--Spoon a few tablespoons of the sausage mixture onto the lasagna noodles and roll them up jelly roll style and place them seam side down in a 9x13 inch baking dish. (I put some alfredo sauce in the bottom of the pan to prevent the noodles from sticking)
--I sprinkled the top of mine with some mozzerella cheese, a little parmesan cheese, and some parsley flakes
--Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until it's heated through and the cheese on top is melted.

I think next time I will add some diced tomatoes and maybe some sliced olives for color, but other than that this dish was delicious!  I'll definitely be making it again!

Orange Chicken

This recipe was fairly simple.  I think next time I'll try it without the breading though for the sake of time.  Here's the recipe I used, the only thing I would change is not breading it or pan frying it before it goes in the crock pot.

3-4 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, cut into small chunks (I used 3)
1/3 cup flour
olive oil
1/2 TBS salt
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
3 TBS ketchup
6 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
4 TBS brown sugar

In a bowl, mix the vinegar, ketchup, orange juice, salt, and brown sugar.  Pour the flour in a small bowl (I used a zip lock bag) and coat the chicken with the flour

Pour a small amount of olive oil in a skillet and brown the flour covered chicken.  (It doesn't need to be fully cooked since it's going in the crock pot)

After you've browned the chicken, put it in the crock pot and pour the sauce over top.  Give it a stir to coat the chicken and let it cook on low for 5-6 hours or high for 2-3 hours.

Serve over rice.

I added some minced garlic and red peppers to mine to bulk it up a little.  I think next time I'll add even a few more veggies than I did this time. 

Love Day Fun Foods

I know I should have posted this BEFORE Valentines day, but you can use them next year!

Use a cookie cutter to cut out bread and make sandwiches!

Make heart shaped pancakes!  Pour the batter onto the griddle in a V shape and the batter melts together into a heart shape.  Lots of fun, my 5 year old loved it!

Pretzel Buttons.  See recipe below :)

Pretzel Buttons:

6 dozen square pretzels

1 bag of Hershey's Hugs

1 bag of plain M&M's

--Spread pretzels on baking sheet.  Top with hershey hugs and bake in the oven at 200 degrees for about 5 minutes.  Then press an M&M into the middle of each.  Chill in the fridge until set :)  Super yummy and really fun treat!  

*You could do this for any holiday :)  This Christmas I'll be doing this instead of dipping pretzel rods.  So much easier!  And a little bit tastier!  

Ham Steak

I don't know about you, but I could never figure out what to do with a ham steak.  And since we bought a whole pig a few months ago, it's about time I figured it out!  Thanks to google and a few recipe sites, here's my favorite way to cook a ham steak!

2 bone in ham steaks
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 small can pineapple chunks, undrained

--Put the ham steaks on a baking sheet.  Drain pineapple juice into the baking sheet and put the pineapple on top of the ham.  Sprinkle the brown sugar on top and bake at 375 degrees for about 20-30 minutes.  Tonight I served these with cheesy potatoes and steamed carrots!  Yum!  And perfect for Valentines!  My hubby's fave :)

Quick & Easy Pizza

I had never made home made pizza until tonight, and this recipe was super easy and very yummy!  I've been looking for an easy pizza crust recipe and this one did not disappoint!  I think the only thing I'd do differently next time is, brush some olive oil and seasonings over the edge of the crust so it browns a little nicer and has a little more flavor, but really this was a good basic recipe!

1 (.25 oz) package active dry yeast
1 tsp white sugar
1 cup warm water (110 degrees F)
2 1/2 cups bread flour (I used all purpose)
2 TBS olive oil
1 tsp salt

--Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  In a medium bow, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water.  Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

--Stir in flour, salt and oil.  Beat until smooth.  Let rest for 5 minutes

--Turn dough out into a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to a lightly greased pizza pan.  Spread with desired toppings and bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until edges are golden brown.  Let baked pizza cool for 5 minutes before serving.

For my toppings tonight I did basic cheddar and mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, and a jar of Ragu pizza sauce.  My 5 year old loved it, he said "I love this pizza, it's so good" my one year old scarfed it down and we were all giggling as we kept hearing little snorts and snuffs from him while he was eating it.  The hubby loved it and is taking left overs to work tomorrow.  This is definitely a keeper and we'll be making it again!  This is a great one for the little ones to help with, putting on the toppings is fun for them!

Slow Cooker Sweet & Sour Pork

This dish was super easy and super delicious!  Both my boys and the hubby loved it!  It's always a keeper if everyone likes it.  I love hearing "Mmm...this is really good" and "Yum, Thanks mom" when attempting a new or different recipe :)

3-4 pork chops
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 purple onion-chopped
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 small can pineapple tidbits-undrained

--Mix together ketchup and brown sugar.  Put pork chops in bottom of crock pot, spread ketchup mixture over chops, and add chopped onions on top.  Cook on low for 7-8 hours.
--30 minutes before serving add peppers and pineapple.  Serve over rice.  ENJOY!  Yum!

**I added some dried cranberries in the beginning just because I needed to use them up, and thought they'd add a little more sweetness to the pork.** 

Fruited Turkey (or chicken) Salad Pitas

This recipe came from a Taste of Home magazine.  It turned out so super yummy, my two boys and my hubby gobbled it up and LOVED it!

1/2 cup reduced fat plain yogurt
1/2 cup reduced fat mayonnaise
2 TBS lemon juice (I used lime because that's what I had on hand and forgot to get lemon at the store)
1/2 tsp pepper
4 cups cubed, cooked turkey breast (I used 2 chicken breasts, cubed and cooked them in a frying pan with salt, pepper, and a little olive oil)
2 celery ribs, thinly sliced
1 medium apple, peeled and chopped (I left the peel on mine)
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh spinach
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup chopped pecans
8 pita breads (6 inches), halved (I used whole wheat tortillas)
16 romaine leaves
8 slices red onion, separated into rings (I chopped mine up and added to the mixture)

--In a small bowl, combine the yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon juice and pepper.  In a large bowl, combine the turkey, celery, apple, spinach, cranberries, and pecans.  Add yogurt mixture and stir to coat.  Cover and refrigerate until chilled.

--Line pita halves with lettuce and onion; fill each with 1/2 cup turkey mixture

This seriously is going to be a "go to" meal for me when I need something simple and delicious!  It will be great for lunches too!  One of the tips in the recipe book said that using pretzels instead of nuts (due to allergies) was a good substitute.  To use pretzels it says to crumble a handful of pretzels onto a microwave safe plate and toast them in the microwave for 2-3 minutes (be sure to watch carefully to prevent burning).