Tomato Meat Sauce

8 Mar

 

Some day, I will get a chance to try making my own pasta.  For now, one of our favorites is tortellini, and I normally get the Six Cheese Tortellini from Schwan’s.  I normally use a jar of tomato sauce with this, but since I had tomatoes, green peppers, and onion from Bountiful Baskets, I decided to make my own sauce.  I didn’t really do any measurements, just added in as I went.  It turned out pretty good!

 

Tomato Meat Sauce

What you need:

1 lb ground beef
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
6 Roma tomatoes, sliced
1 6 oz can tomato paste
2 teaspoons fresh oregano, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste

How to make it:

In a large skillet, brown ground beef.  Add garlic, onion, green pepper, and parsley.  Cook until onions and peppers are soft.  Add sliced tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, salt, and pepper.  Crush tomatoes as they cook.  Let simmer for 15 – 20 minutes.  Serve with your favorite pasta.

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Spinach, Feta, and Pesto Pizza

5 Mar

This cauliflower pizza crust is really growing on me.  I was skeptical as first, but the second time around, it turned out great again.  I did notice that with 1 large pizza, the center stays a little soft, but I think that might be solved by making individual size pizzas.  Even with it a little soft, no complaints in this house, and everyone just used a fork to eat it.  Even my kids gobbled this up, and I love getting an extra veggie in them for the day hidden in the crust.  This time, instead of tomato sauce, I made Spinach Basil Pesto for the sauce. Then, I put chopped red onion, sliced black olives, torn fresh spinach leaves, a 4 oz container of crumbled feta cheese, and a 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese.  I had forgotten how much I love feta cheese on pizza.  This was a delicious meal!

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Weekly Meal Plan: 3/4/2012 – 3/10/12

5 Mar

Here is what I am planning on making this week!

Sunday: Wasn’t feeling well, so we had sandwiches/wraps for dinner

Monday: Kotopoulo Lemonato and Roasted Brussels Sprouts.  Whole chickens were $.77/lb at Fry’s this week, so I picked up 2, I will make one tonight and the other will go in the freezer for another time.  I will use the bones to make Homemade Chicken Broth in the slow cooker again, most likely will go into the freezer for a meal another time.

Tuesday: Cauliflower crust pizza, with Spinach Basil Pesto, topped with spinach, feta, red onion, black olives, and mozzarella cheese

Wednesday: Top sirloin steaks we got from the Farmer’s Market, Twice Baked Cauliflower

Thursday: Not sure yet..

Friday: Baked Crunchy Cod, rice, steamed broccoli

Saturday: Out to dinner with my parents

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Strawberry Kiwi Smoothie

5 Mar

 

Yesterday, we had some kiwis a little too ripe for just eating, but hadn’t gone bad yet, so we made smoothies again.  I have strawberries in the freezer, so we used those, along with some frozen yogurt.  The girls were happy!

 

Strawberry Kiwi Smoothie

What you need:

1 cup vanilla frozen yogurt
4 kiwis
10 strawberries, approximately

How to make it:

Put all ingredients in blender, and puree until smooth.

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Turkey Cranberry Wreath

4 Mar

 

I guess I should really call this just a Turkey Wreath since I don’t normally add in cranberry.  I saw this demonstrated at a Pampered Chef party, and I believe it is from one of their cookbooks.  This is perfect to make with leftover turkey from Thanksgiving, but I didn’t get to make it this year because I used my leftovers in other ways. This would also be good with chicken in place of the turkey.  The pictures I have are from when I first made it 3 years ago so that I would remember how to make it the next time.  Unfortunately, I thought to take the pictures a little too late, but it at least helps some visually.

 

Turkey Cranberry Wreath

What you need:

2 packages of refrigerated crescent rolls
2 cups cooked turkey, chopped
1/2 cup celery, sliced
1/2 cup dried cranberries (I usually leave these out)
1 cup Swiss cheese, shredded (I sometimes use shredded mozzarella)
1/4 C. walnuts, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons honey Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, snipped
1 egg, separated

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 375 F.

In a medium bowl, mix together turkey, celery, cranberries, cheese, walnuts, mayonnaise, mustard, black pepper and parsley.  Scoop filling over seams of dough, forming a circle.

Separate crescent roll dough into 16 triangles.  Arrange 8 triangles in a circle with wide ends of triangles toward the center on a large round baking stone. The corners of wide ends should overlap and points will extend 1 inch beyond baking stone.  Arrange the remaining 8 triangles in center, matching the wide ends together. Seal the wide end seams using a roller.  The points of these 8 triangles will overlap in the center, do not seal them together.

Lift the inner dough triangles across the filling and tuck under other side of filling.  They should go over on a diagonal, however, in my picture below, they look folded straight over.

 

Continue with the outer triangles, lifting them over the filling and at the opposite diagonal direction from the inner triangles.


Beat egg white of the separated egg lightly; brush over dough. Discard the yoke.

Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cut and serve.

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Breakfast Wreath

4 Mar

I was first introduced to wreaths at a Pampered Chef Party, a Turkey Cranberry Wreath (I will share the recipe soon!).  I’ve also made a Taco Wreath.  So, when I saw a Breakfast Wreath on Pinterest, I knew I wanted to give it a try!  It’s really easy, and I added in some of the Roasted Corn Salsa I had in the fridge.  It was delicious, and I will be making this again!  There are many possibilities with this one, I used eggs, bacon, cheese, and the salsa, but you could do any combination of eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, vegetables, and cheese, based on your breakfast favorites.  Also, there are 2 ways to make wreaths, this one I used 1 can of 8 crescent rolls, and when I share the Turkey Cranberry Wreath, it uses 2 cans of 8 crescent rolls.  You could make this Breakfast Wreath using the 2 can method instead, the 2 can method covers the filling more, but with 1 can, you still get good coverage too.

Breakfast Wreath

What you need:

1 can refrigerated crescent rolls
8 slices bacon, cooked, but not too crispy (I used turkey bacon)
5 eggs
Any other veggies you want to add to the eggs
1 cup shredded cheese, I used Mexican blend, but you could use cheddar, colby jack, pepper jack, etc.

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Scramble the eggs and add in any other veggies you want to use.

Unroll crescent dough; separate into 8 triangles. With wide ends of triangles toward the center, arrange the 8 triangles in a circle on large round baking stone or on a greased baking sheet.  The corners of wide ends should overlap and points will extend 1 inch beyond baking stone.  Lay a piece of cooked bacon on each triangle.

Spread 1/3 cup of the shredded cheese around the inner circle of the wreath.  Scoop egg filling onto the dough on top of the cheese.  Top the filling with another 1/3 cup of cheese.

Lift the ends of the crescent rolls over the filling and tuck under the middle of the ring.

Brush the dough with a beaten egg or olive oil.  Sprinkle the remaining 1/3 cup cheese over the dough.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 – 17 minutes, or until crescent rolls are golden brown.  Cut into 8 pieces and serve.

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Basket Breakdown – 3/3/2012

3 Mar

This week I got the conventional basket for $15, no extras, so $16.50 was my total.

I got Mandarin oranges, kiwi, bananas, Lady Alice apples, pineapple, Roma tomatoes, Altaulfo mangoes, Yukon gold potatoes, green bell peppers, green chiles, butter lettuce, Brussels sprouts, and cucumbers.

Now, the fun of deciding what all to make!  I think I will roast and dice the green chiles for the freezer.  The cucumbers I will most likely make more Refrigerator Pickles.  I will probably make some kind of tomato sauce with the Roma tomatoes and green bell peppers.

 

Note: The type and amount of food may vary from another basket because of geographic location and because of variances in how the ends of produce cases are distributed after everything has been distributed evenly.  I also volunteered this week and got 1 extra item for volunteering.

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Mango Banana Smoothie

3 Mar

 

We have a had time eating mangoes just on their own.  So, what do we do with fruit that we don’t get eaten?  Make smoothies!

 

Mango Banana Smoothie

What you need:

1 cup vanilla frozen yogurt
2 mangoes
1/2 banana

How to make it:

Put all ingredients in blender and puree until smooth.

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Weekly Meal Plan: 2/26/12 – 3/3/12

3 Mar

Well, I never got around to getting up my weekly meal plan for last week.  I’ve had a bad migraine all week, so I have been limited in the amount of time I can take looking at the computer screen.  I’m feeling somewhat better today, so hopefully next week’s meal plan will be posted before the week is over!  So, here is what we did have:

 

Sunday: Shrimp and Broccoli Alfredo

Monday: Lemon Herb Chicken, Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup

Tuesday: Salmon, Yellow Squash Casserole

Wednesday: Leftovers/On Your Own Night

Thursday: Classic Margherita Pizza with Sausage

Friday: Garlic Butter Shrimp over rice, Broccoli, Cheddar Garlic Biscuits

Saturday: Italian Crescent Zucchini Pie

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Cheddar Garlic Biscuits

2 Mar

I made these tonight to go with the Garlic Butter Shrimp we had tonight.  These taste a lot like the biscuits they serve at Red Lobster, and aren’t very hard to make.

 

Cheddar Garlic Biscuits
Based on recipe here 

What you need:

2 cups Bisquick baking mix
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder, divided
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon dried parsley

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Mix together the Bisquick, milk, cheese, and 1/4 tsp garlic powder in a bowl.  Drop biscuits by spoonful onto an ungreased baking sheet, you should have dough to make 12 biscuits.

Melt butter, and stir in the remaining 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and the parsley.  Brush half of the mixture over all the biscuits.

Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes.  Remove from oven and brush the remaining butter mixture over all the biscuits.

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