Recipe: Parmesan Zucchini

This summer we ate out on our patio often each night, taking full advantage of each beautiful night.  One of the easiest sides I made was Parmesan zucchini.  It's so easy to make, literally takes 5 minutes and another 7-10 minutes to cook.

Start by halving the zucchini.  Drizzle a little EVOO and salt & pepper.  I also added Italian seasonings.

Add your shredded Parmesan cheese, add a little more salt, pepper & Italian seasonings.

Pop into the oven on 350 for about 7-10 minutes until the cheese melts.  Broil off for another minute until you get good color.

2 zucchinis will get you enough for 4 people as a side.  It's so good but still healthy.

-stephanie

Personal Appetizer

I'm still digging my way through emails at work and getting home organized, somewhat organized, again so I'll keep today's post light.  I crave food, not typically sweets, occasionally a good brownie or chocolate chip cookie, but always food.  I'm a huge appetizer girl and potlucks and tailgates are my favorite.  So a couple weeks back I wanted something different for lunch but wasn't super hungry.  I had some black beans needing to be eaten so I came up with this.

A layer dip.  I love this stuff so much and it's not too incredibly terrible for you.  Black beans, sour cream, shredded cheese, diced tomatoes, diced jalapenos, chopped cilantro.  Serve with a side of your favorite chips and you have yourself a personal appetizer.  For those nights your in by yourself and want to watch a movie, this is perfect!

-stephanie

Open Face Meatball Sandwich

These days, I rush out of work to pick up the kids and then I'm thinking, what's for dinner.  I need something fast and easy so I'm always looking for recipes to keep it simple.  This is the recipe and it's so good.  I love a good meatball sub.

Ingredients

Texas Toast

Pasta Sauce, warmed

Meatballs, cooked through

Mozzarella Cheese

Seasonings - oregano, italian, garlic, etc

Set your oven to the temperature on the garlic toast instructions.  Place them in a baking dish and toast slightly while prepping the rest of the food.  Load up the toast with meatballs, pasta sauce, seasonings & top with mozzarella.  Cook in the oven for approximately 10 minutes.  Set broiler to toast the tops slightly.

done.

-stephanie

Chicken Avocado Pita

During the summer, I eat a lot of avocado, tomatoes & fresh mozzarella.  Any way I can, by itself, as a dip on a chip or like this below picture.  In one big pita of fabulousness.

Ingredients

Avocado

Grilled chicken, diced or sliced, or sliced & diced if you like it like that

Cilantro, chopped

Tomatoes, diced or cherry tomatoes halved

Fresh mozzarella, shredded if you don't have fresh

Lemon juice

Salt & pepper

Pitas

Combine the cilantro, avocado, lemon juice and salt & pepper in a bowl.  Prep everything else and assemble your pitas.  Eat & enjoy!  It's that simple and so good!

-stephanie

Pizza for Breakfast

You know those Saturday mornings when you want something hearty for breakfast but you're really tired of scrambled eggs & toast or pancakes?  I had that moment a couple Saturday's ago.  I had some sausage links in the fridge that needed cooked and  there are always eggs and cheese in our house so that was my starting point.  Again, I wanted something different so I started thinking out of the box...well in the box I suppose because I also had a box of Jiffy pizza crust.  That's where my breakfast pizza was born.



I had my crust, and a lot of toppings but I did't have a sauce and then I took a step back and thought, "sure you do, you make a pretty good sausage gravy".  So that's what I did.

Ingredients
1 box Jiffy pizza crust
Shredded cheddar cheese
6 scrambled eggs
Sausage links or crumbles
White gravy (recipe below)
Any other toppings you'd like (ie. I should have put hash browns on this bad boy too)

Make your pizza crust just as the box instructs you.  Place it in the oven to precook the crust while you're making your eggs, sausage and gravy.  You'll want to make sure the crust is nearly fully cooked since you won't put it back in for long once assembled.

Once all of your toppings are ready you can assemble your pizza.  I poured some gravy down first, layered with eggs, add any of your favorite toppings, little more gravy if needed then your shredded cheese.  Bake off for another 5 or so minutes.

White gravy recipe
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups milk

Melt butter on medium high heat then add flour and make a roux, continuously stirring.  Once fully incorporated, add your milk slowly and whisk together.  I like to add my milk a little at a time and make sure you break down the roux so it incorporates and starts to become a thick gravy.  If you add the milk too quickly the roux won't incorporate and instead you'll have chunks of buttery flour (yuck!).  Once all milk has been added, continue to heat of medium to medium high heat as the gravy bubbles.  Continue stirring like crazy because you don't want to burn the milk.  After 5 minutes, turn the heat off and add your sausage.

It's such a nice alternative and so much fun to eat for breakfast.  Little messy but so yummy!

-stephanie

Asian Ramen Salad

When I was planning Graham's baptism party, food was a big part of the planning.  We knew we were going to have pulled pork sandwiches but needed some ideas for lighter sides to accompany the sandwiches.  I decided on this fabulous Asian Ramen salad a friend of mine makes pretty regularly.

Ingredients

1 bag broccoli slaw salad

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup sliced almonds

2 bags oriental ramen noodles, crunch up noodles (save the packets)

1 cup green onions, sliced

3/4 cup olive oil

1/3 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

Mix the first 5 ingredients in a bowl and set to the side.  Take the next 3 ingredients (along with the two packets) and mix in a bowl.  The sugar will not fully dissolve but do your best whisking them together.  Pour the dressing mix over the top of the salad and refrigerate for about an hour before serving.

If you like a crunchier salad, hold to mix the dressing until last minute.  If you like the noddles a little softer, apply the dressing more in advance of serving.

-stephanie

3, 2, 1....Dip!

Whatey what is she talking about?  3-2-1 Dip.  Never heard of it?  Well buckle up, because it's awesome.  My go to, easy appetizer for any potluck or party.  Great for tailgating and bad for your hips.



Ingredients
3 - 8oz packages cream cheese
2 - cans of Rotel
1 - lb of cooked sausage (spicy, regular, sage, whatever you like)

Get it? 3, 2, 1.  Easy to remember and easy to make.  Pop it all in your crock-pot on low for about 4 hours and ta-da, you're done.

You're welcome.

-stephanie

Recipes: Bacon & Broccoli Quiche

Last week I posted about all the food we made at the baby shower for our friend Katie.  I hate when blogs don't share recipes so get yourself ready to save these.  So yummy and so easy.  Do we notice a trend there?  I'm all about easy recipes.  This one boggles my mind because the quiches are so good and seem like they would be a lot of work and a lot of ingredients when they're not.  The bacon was the worst part.



Bacon Quiche
1 sheet refrigerated pie pastry
1/4c sliced green onions
1tbs butter
6 eggs
1 1/2c heavy whipping cream
1/4c unsweetened apple juice
1lb sliced bacon, cooked & crumbled
1/8tsp salt
1/8tsp pepper
2c shredded swiss cheese

Broccoli Quiche
1 sheet refrigerated pie pastry
1/4c sliced green onions
1tbs butter
6 eggs
1 1/2c heavy whipping cream
1/4c unsweetened apple juice
1 10oz bag of frozen broccoli
1/8tsp salt
1/8tsp pepper
2c shredded swiss cheese

Line pan with crust.  In a small skillet saute green onions & butter. In large bowl, whisk eggs, cream & juice.  Stir in bacon or broccoli (or bacon & broccoli if you're crazy), salt, pepper and onions.  Pour into crust & sprinkle with cheese.  Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes until clean center.

Enjoy friends!

-stephanie

Happy St. Patrick's Day Potato Pancakes

This really doesn't have anything to do with St. Patrick's day.  The pancakes aren't green and potato pancakes aren't from Ireland, but they're still good.  And I'll still be eating potato pancakes any day of the week.  I guess I always assumed they were Irish since us Irish folk love potatoes. Anywho...

Ingredients

2 eggs

1/2 diced white onion

salt & pepper

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

2-3 cups frozen hashbrowns

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.  Start with 2 cups frozen hashbrowns and add more if needed.  You should be able to easily form a ball with the mix without it being too mushy.  If it's too mushy add more hashbrowns.  You could always add a tablespoon of milk if needed.  Roll mix into balls about 2 inches around and place into pan of hot oil.  Press down with spoon until it forms a pancake.  Cook about 2 minutes on each side.  Cool & serve with sour cream and applesauce if desired.

Pesto Tortellini with Roasted Tomato

Monday was our first nice day of 2014.  At least nice enough that I was willing to venture out during my lunch break.  I made my way to Trader Joe's because I could get lost in that s tore for a solid hour without realizing it.  It was lunch and I was feeling hungry so it was probably a bad idea to be a grocery store but I did it anyway. What I found was this.  Cheese tortellini.  I knew dinner was done the minute I laid eyes on those cheese filled pasta circles.

I didn't want anything very heavy for dinner so instead of making a red sauce or even worse, a heavy alfredo, I went with a light pesto olive oil coating.  Then I thought, let's kick it up a notch (a la Emeril) so I roasted some tomatoes.

Ingredients

Cheese Tortellini

Pesto packet - the instant kind where you add oil & water

Tomatoes

Garlic

Oil

Salt & Pepper

Mozzarella

Directions

Cook your tortellini as suggested on the package.  While your tortellini is cooking, heat up some oil and about a tablespoon of garlic.  While the oil is heating, start mixing up your pesto packet.  By the time your pesto has been assembled you can keep it cooking on low and focus on the tomatoes.  Slice the tomatoes in half length wise and put cut side down into warm oil.  Roast for about 3-5 minutes over medium heat.  Flip and cook other side for another 3-5 minutes.  Flip back over and add salt, pepper and a little mozzarella if desired.  Toss pesto sauce in with cooked tortellini, top with roasted tomato and enjoy!

-stephanie

Breakfast, MMM, Breakfast

So apparently this week I'm all about recipe posts.  I made this breakfast casserole and it's ah.may.zing!  I actually made this Christmas morning and forgot to capture any pictures.  Probably because I was so caught up in Addie's excitement.

Ingredients

Crescent rolls

3 - 4 eggs scrambled

4 oz cream cheese

1/2 pound sausage

Cheddar cheese

Start by cooking up your sausage so it's ready.  While that's cooking, roll out your crescent rolls and lay half of them in the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish.  Spread your cream cheese, layer your cooked sausage, scrambled eggs, and shredded cheddar cheese.  Apply the other half of the crescent rolls on top.  Bake in the oven at 350 for approximately 15-20 minutes or until the top is browned.

You could easily add in some veggies or any other ingredients that would be a good addition. This makes enough for 4 people if you're serving with a side of fruit or yogurt.  If your serving to guys, you may need more.

-stephanie

S'mores Dessert Pizza

With everyone in my house sick with a cold we spent all weekend lounging around and enjoying some quiet time in.  Last night was the last of those nights before another crazy week started so we decided to make it a pizza night.  Addie made her own little cheese pizza and I made a pizza for Rick and me to share.  We had a little leftover pizza crust so I made a fun dessert pizza with all the toppings for a s'more!

This looks pretty prior to cooking, but still tastes heavenly!

Ingredients
Pizza crust - we use Jiffy
Chocolate of some variety - I used hot fudge sauce
Graham crackers - crumbled up
Mini marshmallows

I highly suggest making your pizza crust and cooking it partially before loading your toppings.

Spread your chocolate around the pizza, then top with graham crackers & mini marshmallows.  Bake in the oven at approximately 425.  Toast the rest of the way until marshmallows start browning.  Cut & enjoy!

-stephanie

Breakfast Scramble for Dinner

There are days when I come home from work, quickly work out before Rick and the kids get home and then have to figure out what's for dinner.  Honestly there are a lot of nights that I just toss something together very last minute.  Monday night was one of those nights.  I hadn't pulled anything out of the freezer to thaw so I was thinking about what I could toss together quickly.  I remembered we had some of those smoked sausages so I decided breakfast for dinner, and why not make it even easier by tossing it all into one big pan to cook.

Ingredients

1 link smoked sausage (I used andouille)

Hash browns

6 eggs + milk for scrambling

1 cup cheddar cheese

You'll want to start by cooking your hash browns to your liking.  While those are cooking, cut up your sausage into bite sized pieces.  Toss the sausage into the hash browns once they're cooked.  While the hash browns continue to brown and the sausage heats up, crack 6 eggs and a splash of milk into a bowl and scramble.  Pour over hash browns & sausage and add in your cheddar cheese.  Cook until eggs are set.  Salt & pepper to taste & enjoy!

-stephanie

Tasty Thursday: Balsamic Chicken Sandwich

It's pretty awesome!  Yesterday I got home from work and had to quickly throw together dinner for the family.  I had fresh mozzarella that desperately needed eaten along with a couple roma tomatoes and fresh bread. It was so easy to make.

Ingredients

Chicken breast

Balsamic Vinagrette Dressing

Fresh Mozzarella

Roma tomatoes

Fresh bread

I pan grilled the chicken along with the dressing.  Once cooked, I assembled the sandwich on the bread with the fresh mozzarella and tossed into the oven long enough to melt the cheese.  Top with tomatoes, basil, more dressing or mayo for a light but filling sandwich!

-stephanie

Tasty Thursday: Sausage Quiche

I love quiche.  It's one of the easiest breakfast items to make but can really look much fancier than it is.  Plus you can make it ahead of time for parties, pop it in the oven and focus on entertaining instead of cooking.  To make things even faster, use the pre-made pie crust from the store.

Ingredients

1 9inch pie crust

1/2 pound sausage, browned & drained

1/2 cup finely diced onion

3 eggs

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese  

Start by preheating your oven to 375.  Lay your pie crush in a 9inch pie dish.  Pop into oven as the oven preheats and you mix up the rest of the ingredients.   Combine browned and drained sausage with onion, cheese, and flour.  Pour into pie shell.  In a separate bowl, beat milk and eggs together and then pour over sausage mixture.  Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until eggs have set.

- stephanie

PS.  Don't forget to enter to win the $50 Matilda Jane credit here.

I Love Ree Drummond

Can we all agree that Ree Drummond is amazing?  I love that she makes fabulous food but it's all so simple and typically very quick to make.  When I stumbled across her recipe for this Sour Cream Noodle Bake I knew I had to make it.

Of course I substituted the ground beef for ground turkey.  We really don't purchase ground beef anymore to try to save on calories and fat.  I still love ground beef but ground turkey substitutes well in every recipe I've tried it in.  

I love a meal I can bake and just leave alone while I clean up the rest of the dishes and set the table.  Cooking, cleaning, and setting the table at once just doesn't work well especially with Addie running around and Graham inevitably crying as soon as I start dinner.

This one is a keeper!

-stephanie

PS.  Don't forget to enter the Made with Love giveaway here.

Mmm, Lasagna

Lasagna.  Seriously it's one of my favorite things to eat.  And this girl is not a fan of Italian food.  There's just something about all that pasta, sauce and cheese.  Oh goodness, the cheese.  Ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan.  The list could go on and on. So, last week I whipped this up for dinner and it was heaven.  Pair it with a tasty garlic bread and a fabulous salad and you're done.  You'll have dinner and leftovers for a couple days.  Unless you're feeding a group of 8, then you'll have just enough for dinner.

 

Ingredients

1 box oven ready noodles

1 lb ground turkey, chicken, beef

1 - 12oz ricotta

1 - 12oz cottage cheese

pasta sauce

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese (reserve 1/2 cup)

Cook up your meat.  Add your pasta sauce.  Let it simmer for a few minutes until warmed.  While that's simmering, mix the ricotta,cottage cheese, Parmesan and 1 cup mozzarella cheese. Scoop out just enough meat sauce to barely cover the bottom of a 9x12 baking dish.  Lay out enough pasta to cover the sauce.   Spread 1/3 cheese mixture across the pasta, scoop out more meat sauce to just cover cheese mixture.  Do another two layers of pasta, cheese, meat sauce.  Lastly cover it up with the remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese.  Toss it in the oven covered on 350 for 30 minutes.

 

-stephanie

 

PS. Don't forget to enter the $50 Matilda Jane giveaway here.

Hearty Vegetable Soup

The weather has turned again here in Ohio.  With temperatures in the 40s this week it's time to break out the soup recipes to stay warm.  I wanted soup that screamed fall weather soup and my mind kept coming back to vegetable soup.  I thought, how difficult can it be?  It's in fact, not difficult at all and anyone can do it!

Ingredients

4 cups hot water

4 beef bouillon cubes (vegetable if you want to keep it vegeterian)

1 large can whole tomatoes, pureed

1 tablespoon minced garlic

16 oz frozen mixed vegetables

2 cans diced potatoes

 1 can kidney beans

1 can white beans

Toss everything but the beans in your crock-pot on low for 6-8 hours.   The last hour toss in your beans.  Salt & pepper to taste and serve with your favorite crackers!

-stephanie

Baked Taco Ziti

I have about 5 minutes before Graham starts crying so this is going to be it for today.  This is one of our favorite recipes.  Seriously, Rick & Addie both had 3 servings each so you know it's good!  It's also one of the easiest things to make and doesn't take too much time.

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef, turkey or chicken

1/2 box ziti noodles

1 cup water

1 pkg taco seasoning

4oz cream cheese

1 cup shredded cheddar

Start by boiling your water for your  noodles and cook until near al dente.  While water is boiling brown your meat.  When meat is fully browned add water and taco seasoning.  Bring to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes.  Add cream cheese and incorporate fully.  Once noodles are cooked, place them in a baking dish, pour on meat mixture and 1/2 cup shredded cheddar.  Top with remaining cheddar and bake in 350 oven for about 15-20 minutes.

-stephanie

Hillbilly Hash

One of my uncles made this once at a family get together and ever since I get this craving for it.  I'm not sure why he called it Hillbilly Hash but that is its name and it is yummy!.  If you need a quick simple meal that you can't get enough of, this is it!  And it can't get much easier than two ingredients.

Brown up the potatoes as the package suggests then toss in your diced sausage and continue to cook until sausage browns up and is the color you like.  Add a little salt & pepper and possibly a little cayenne or chili powder if you want a bit more kick.

If you make all the sausage & the entire bag of potatoes you'll have about 4 servings.  I made half for us since Addie doesn't eat much and Rick and I don't really need a full bag.  

Dinner is done in less than 20 minutes!

-stephanie