Sloppy Joes

I needed a quick-to-eat and quick-to-serve meal tonight since we had Pack meeting at 6:30. So we had Sloppy Joes. Not my favorite, but it served it's purpose. Here are the recipes:

Buns These are pretty good. I'd like to eventually tweak them, but they are good with pulled pork sandwiches and Sloppy Joes. I'm still working on better options for hamburgers.

Filling

1 lb. hamburger cooked with 1 chopped onion and 1 chopped green pepper (drain and rinse fat)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp mustard

3/4 cup ketchup

3 tsp brown sugar

Simmer together.

We also had a green salad with tomatoes and pickled cucumbers. In the past I would have served chips with this, but I haven't bought chips (other than corn chips) for several months and it saves so much money not to mention so much healthier (which is probably my biggest reason).

Stuffed Peppers

Monday night was a big meal because we were anticipating company (however they didn't end up coming :(. . . they missed a great meal!) Here is what we had:

Stuffed Pepper Mmmmm. . . we love this recipe! I've never used the Hungarian peppers--I've always used Anaheim with great success. I follow the recipe quite closely. Although I was out of Basil so that was omitted this time with just as great results. (Just for my records: Greta was quite sick and needy this day but I needed to get the peppers done because Jerry and Carolyn were coming to dinner so I employed Chandler to put her in the stroller and walk around the block. That wasn't a lot of time and so unwittingly I used my index finger to pop out all if the seeds and membranes instead of using a knife like I normally do. . . .BAD idea. My finger was burning for close to 24 hours!)

I also made this Swiss Chard. It was quite good. Swiss chard is not my favorite vegetable but I (and a few others) had 2nds of this. I'll make this recipe again if I have more Swiss Chard.

Rice Pilaf--I just threw this together. I didn't think it was stellar, but Chandler loved it and requested this whole meal for his birthday. Here are the basics of what I did:

1/2 cup wild rice cooked for about 20 minutes in the microwave (it takes longer than regular rice to cook in my rice cooker so I have to give it a head start)

Add that to 1 1/2 cup uncooked rice and 2 cups of chicken broth and 1 cup of water. Also add to rice cooker, 1/2 tsp garlic, 1/2 tsp butter and some parsley flakes.

While cooking toast some almonds (I did about 1/3 cup but wished I had done quite a few more) in frying pan in a little butter. Remove. Saute 1 finely chopped carrot and 1/2 red onion (or more) and 1/2 tsp garlic. When rice is finished, add vegetables and almonds to rice. At this point it didn't taste quite right. I ended up adding about 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp. sugar. That seemed to do the trick, but it could definitely could use something else. I'll have to work on that next time.

Cut up cantaloupe.

For FHE treats we had Blackberry cobbler. We liked this.

Stuffed Tomatoes--Sunday

I had 8 tomatoes*(see note below) that I needed to do something with. Fresh salsa is about the only way my family will eat fresh tomatoes (except for a few of us) and since we've had fresh salsa so much in the last few weeks I really wanted to do something else with all of those tomatoes. They were quite ripe and needed to be used quickly. So I found this Stuffed Tomatoes recipe. I was really doubtful that most of my kids would eat it, but I shouldn't have been worried. It was quite well received. While it didn't instantly become a new favorite, everyone ate it quite well. I'll definitely make it again when I've got more tomatoes than I know what to do with. I followed the recipe fairly closely, however having the cheese throughout the stuffing would have been good. I'll mix a little in the stuffing next time as well as on top. I also added more bacon than called for because of my nervousness. Of course that made it better, but I think I could get away with less. The final thing I would change is to spray Pam on the bottom of the baking pan instead of covering with water. Stuffing and cheese fell out that would have been eaten had it not been sitting in a pool of water. We had rolls and corn on the cob with this.

For Sunday treats I made this Corn Chip Surprise. Mixed reviews. If you believe, as Tom does, that corn chips should be their own food group then this treat is for you. If you are like me and can completely live without corn chips, don't waste your time, money or calories!

*It probably seems weird that I would 'just have' certain fruits and vegetables on hand, but I order a Bountiful Basket every week and so my meals are planned around the fruits and vegetables that come in the basket.

Baked French Toast

Saturdays are a hard cooking day for me. I really want the day off, but kidlets are still hungry. Often we just have fruit and popcorn but I had what I needed for this French Toast so I decided I could manage that much cooking. Definitely NOT healthy! But most everyone really liked it, I was the only with reservations--mostly because I was feeding a dessert to my family as a meal!

Changes I made: I didn't let it sit overnight. I followed one reviewer's suggestion to flip the bread over half way through cooking. That made the topping go to the bottom and stick to the pan instead of stay on the French Toast. If I do that again, I would not add the topping until after they were flipped. It would have been WWWAAAYYY better with my homemade French bread. The boughten version was too soft and a bit mushy. I also cut back to 6 eggs per one reviewer's recommendation mostly because I didn't have as many eggs as I thought I had and wanted enough to get me through the week. And personally, I would cut back on the milk and topping too. If I made it for a birthday breakfast, I would make it to the birthday person's desires, but if I ever make it for a real breakfast, I will tone down the fat content by quite a bit.

More notes: 6-11-11

This time I let it sit overnight and I used my homemade bread. The bread was much better, but I didn't notice too much difference from letting it sit overnight. I also didn't add the topping until halfway through the cooking, used milk instead of cream and only used 6 eggs. It was still quite mushy. I want to try it with about half the milk and maybe 4 eggs. Everyone gobbled it up as it was, but I still want to perfect it to my taste.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Since all the boys in the house were heading to Father's and Sons tonight, everyone had eating out plans. The boys at Dairy Queen at the bottom of the canyon and the girls at Panda Express (I used to like their food, but lately it has felt like such a waste of money.) I took advantage of the night off of cooking to make cookies. These are pretty good. My tips: freeze the peanut butter cups after unwrapping them so they don't melt as you push them in the cookie. Refrigerate or freeze after putting the candy in so they set up. To conserve dishes, measure all the cup ingredients in a 1/2 cup measure.

Muffin Mix

I bought Lehi Roller Mills muffin mixes for years (I bought 52 at a time so I could have enough on hand to have them once a week for a year!) Then I decided there were better ways to spend my money. But I like to have muffins in my breakfast rotations, however, I don't have a lot of morning time so I need a mix. I found this recipe for a bulk mix. We are plugging our way through it. It is decent, but not fantastic. If I make it again, I think I'll leave out the cinnamon and nutmeg out of the mix. I can easily add it if I want for each batch. There are also many different variations listed on the page with the recipes to change it up. Unfortunately I don't keep too many of those things on hand so changing it up takes planning and I am not a good breakfast planner (maybe that would help me!). Anyway, here is how we like this mix best.

For 12 muffins:

2 3/4 cups mix

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup water

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup applesauce

1/2 cup craisins

3/4 cup walnuts, chopped

2 TBSP flax seed

After they are in the muffin cup, sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar.

I just found this recipe for a new mix. I'm posting it here so I can find it again. I'll let you know! (It will be a while though since I've still got quite a bit of that other left and only one container.)

Triple Berry Jam

I've been needing to make jam for over a month and I finally did it today. Here is the recipe I use. It is from my sister, Katie. I don't process it, I just put it in containers and put it in the freezer. I love this because I can make it any time of year. I use 9 cups of this fruit (from Costco) instead of what the recipe calls for:

Triple Berry Jam

4 cups frozen blueberries

2 1/2 cup frozen raspberries

2 1/2 cup frozen strawberries

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 pkg. pectin

8 cups sugar

Combine berries and lemon juice. Crush slightly. Stir in pectin. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar and return to boil. Boil 1 minute stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam (I skip this part). Process 5 minutes. Yield 6 pints.