Sloppy Joes and Baked Potatoes

Sloppy Joes not from a mix or a can!!! (well, technically there is a can involved, but you know what I mean)

There is a much better picture of this recipe on allrecipes.com. I never said I was a photographer. These are called Neat Sloppy Joes and you can find the recipe HERE. I followed the recipe with the exception of the celery. I wish I had this recipe before! I'll never buy a packaged mix again. Just make sure to check the ingredients on the soup and ketchup if you are trying to avoid high fructose corn syrup.


These are baked potatoes. How exciting, right? I pricked them with a fork, rolled them in kosher salt, and put them in the crock pot. Ah, now it makes sense. More of a convenience thing because I didn't want to turn on the oven.

Beefy One-Pot Dinner and Baked Corn

No, these recipes don't really go together, but in my head they did. I wanted something resembling corn bread to go with the beef dish, but it didn't exactly work that way.

Beefy One-Pot Dinner is from the Kraft website and you can find it HERE. Again, read the reviews and do what works for you. I made it in the crock pot for the first time, and it came out fine. It was okay, and I'd probably make it again. Make sure you really like the BBQ sauce you use, because the taste is very predominant.

Baked Corn II is from the allrecipes website. I normally make baked corn with corn muffin mix, cans of corn and sour cream, but wanted something using frozen corn and ingredients I had on hand. You can find the recipe and read the reviews HERE.

Rotisserie-Style Chicken and Strawberry Shortcake

From one of my favorite blogs comes this great crock pot recipe for Rotisserie-Style Chicken. This is a picture of my raw chicken (actually, just a chicken breast) atop a bed of foil-wrapped potatoes. If you are not a fan of foil, I'm sure you could just cut up some potatoes and put them on the bottom. I was really happy with the way it turned out, and I'll be doing this again soon. Here is the recipe... Rotisserie-Style Chicken

For dessert we had this strawberry shortcake from Kraftfoods.com. If you haven't subscribed to their Food and Family magazine, you should sign up! It's free and has some great ideas. Of course all of their recipes are also on the website, along with reviews, so you can always check it out there. You will notice that my picture looks NOTHING like the one on the Kraft site... I thought the shortcake was done, but I apparently took it out of the oven too early. It was raw in the middle, so I threw it out and baked another one. I went to slice it in half and discovered it was not quite done either. SOOOOOOOOO, I put it back in the oven and to make a long story short, one half then got burnt. Whatever. I had a one-layer cake and no one really cared.

Simply Sensational Strawberry Shortcake

Cheesy Spaghetti Bake

I realized this recipe looked pretty disgusting as I was taking the pictures, but it tastes great and can feed a bunch of people. It is from a 2005 Taste of Home magazine.


Cheesy Spaghetti Bake

1/2 lb. uncooked spaghetti, broken into 3-inch pieces
2 lbs. ground beef or turkey (I only used about 1 pound)
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped (optional)
2 c. milk
2 cans condensed tomato soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup (or celery)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Cook spaghetti for less than the package says, because it will cook again later. Drain and place in a greased 13 x 9 pan. In a huge pan or pot, brown the beef with the onion and green pepper (if you are using). I also added two cloves of garlic and some Worcestershire sauce. Drain the beef when it is done and add back to the pan. Add the milk, soups and one cup of the cheese. Bring to a boil. Spoon over the spaghetti and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until slightly browned.

Mixing everything in the pot until it comes to a boil.

Just dump the spaghetti into the dish. I used Ronzoni Healthy Harvest spaghetti that I had uncovered during my recent pantry cleaning. Combined with the Healthy Request soups and low-fat cheese, I felt like I was doing something right!

As you pour the mixture over the spaghetti, it will look really soupy. That's okay- the spaghetti will absorb most of it. (That's why you didn't cook it all the way!)

I was expecting everyone to like this, which is silly of me. My one-year old son ate so much of it I thought he might get sick. He ate all of his, and as I stepped out of the room, he climbed into his sister's chair and ate all of hers too. (As if she would eat it! HA!) Husband and I liked it too, which is good, because there are tons of leftovers.

Waffles

After a long day of peeling away at 18 layers of wallpaper, I decided to crack out the Belgian Waffle maker we had gotten as a wedding gift. Yes, I've used it, but evidently not in some time.

Waffles

2 c. flour

2 T. sugar

1 T. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 eggs, separated

1 3/4 c. milk

6 T melted butter or oil

You need lots of bowls. Just warning you ahead of time. Mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl. In a smaller bowl mix egg yolks, milk and butter. Add wet ingredients to dry slowly. In another bowl, beat egg whites until still and gently fold into the batter. Cook according to your waffle maker's instructions. Mine is great. It beeps when it's done.

Everyone applauded when the waffle maker came out of hiding. Not really, but my husband was pretty excited. The kids claim they've never had waffles (well, only one since the other can't talk). Dinner was a pretty happy time.

Baked Potato Soup

Another recipe for potato soup! Just remember that I did not promise this to be a healthy or low-fat blog. That being said, here's a great soup recipe from my friend Anita.

Baked Potato Soup

4 lg. baking potatoes
2/3 c. butter
2/3 c. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
6 c. milk
1 c. sour cream
1/4 c. chopped green onions
10 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Bake potatoes at 350 for 65-75 minutes or until tender; cool completely. Peel (optional) and cube potatoes and set aside. In a large saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until smooth. Cook for a few minutes. Gradually add milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened (make sure to keep an eye on it and stir CONSTANTLY). Turn off heat. Whisk in sour cream. Add potatoes and green onions. Garnish with bacon and cheese.

I like to "bake" my bacon in the oven at 400 for 15 minutes or so. I learned this at a Pampered Chef party and have been doing it that way ever since. Oh, and make sure to ignore the part about 10 strips of bacon. You might as well cook the whole package. Who ever has left over bacon? I added garlic to my melted butter in the pan, and I didn't have any green onions, so I added some dried chives at the end. Not very flavorful, but added a little color.

This was definitely a good soup, and quite filling. I should have served it with a huge green salad. My husband liked it, but has texture issues, so he wasn't crazy about the crispy bacon on top. I thought he was crazy, because it was perfect. It tastes like a loaded baked potato in a bowl. Kids were only semi-interested. They were happy to munch on bacon and cheese.

Apple Cake with Caramel Frosting

Can words express the deliciousness of a caramel apple cake? I think not. I got both recipes from allrecipes.com, which is an awesome website when you are looking for pretty much any recipe. I love reading all the reviews!

You can find and print the recipe for the apple cake here.

This is what mine looked like after it was done baking. I used a bundt pan because I felt like it, but next time I'll probably use a 13x9. If you do use a bundt pan, bake it at 325 because it takes considerably longer and you don't want it to burn. I also added a little nutmeg and omitted the walnuts. Of course this cake needs some frosting, right? Caramel Frosting is definitely the right match for this cake.

Make sure you use a wooden or silicone utensil when stirring this... I once melted down a whole cheap plastic-like spoon stirring caramel. It was funny at the time, really! I looked in the pan and saw all these white bits and wondered what was happening... then I noticed my spoon was getting smaller and smaller...

A little slice of heaven. We could barely wait to try it. I insisted we eat some dinner first, so I threw together a quick meal. I cooked some wheel pasta, tossed it with Alfredo sauce from a jar, added leftover ham, green beans and some Parmesan cheese. Sometimes you just can't make things from scratch in a hurry! BTW, two pieces of cake went "missing" before dinner anyway. They (uh, we...) couldn't even wait seven minutes before digging in. It's just that good!

Pizza Dough

I almost didn't include the pictures because the pizza looked so burnt, but I was preoccupied and it happens.

Pizza Dough

5 c. flour (I use 1-2 c. whole wheat)
1/2 c. cornmeal
2 pkgs. RAPID RISE yeast
4 t. salt
1/4 c. oil
2 c. water


Combine 4 cups of the flour, cornmeal, yeast and salt in a big bowl. Heat the water to 120-130 degrees. Add the oil and the water to the bowl. Mix and add more flour as needed. Dump it all onto a floured surface and knead for 3-4 minutes. Form it into a ball and place back in the bowl. Cover and let rise for 10 or 15 minutes. (this is also on the back of the yeast package) Punch down dough and divide into 4 portions. Cover and let stand for about an hour. Preheat your oven to 450 or so. I like to pre-bake my crust for a few minutes before adding my toppings, but did not do it this time... thus the burnt cheese.

Not a lovely picture, but you get the point. Make pizza dough. At home. Much healthier. Makes a bunch of pizza. *You can freeze the dough after the first rising, then defrost and let rise again when ready to use.*

Scalloped Potatoes and Ham

I don't make New Year's Resolutions anymore, but there are some things I'd like to do differently this year. One is to use fewer pre-packaged things. Here is a recipe that tastes ten time better than using the packaged variety.

Scalloped Potatoes and Ham

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 T. butter

2 T. flour

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 1/4 c. milk (may need more)

Paprika

3-4 medium potatoes

1-2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

2 c. cubed ham (this is optional)

First, grease a casserole dish and set aside. Peel and slice potatoes super thinly. Put in a bowl of cold water.

In a small saucepan, cook onion and garlic in butter until tender. Stir in flour and pepper. Add milk and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Add cheese and stir until melted. This is like a game. If it is too thick, add more milk, if not, add more cheese. Add some paprika and stir.

Drain the potatoes and layer half in the dish.

Pour over half of the cheese sauce and then top with the ham.

Layer the rest of the potatoes and sauce, then cover tightly with foil. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 3o more minutes or until potatoes are tender. Mine seemed to take forever. I love the burnt cheese around the edges. Mmmm.