Search This Blog

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween!

Here are a couple recipes that we had at our Halloween party last night!  Enjoy!

Tropical Meatballs
Combine meatballs, 2 bottle of Famous Daves Sweet and Zesty BBQ Sauce and 1 can of pineapple chunks (UNDRAINED!) to a crock pot and heat.  - YUM YUM YUM!!

Pumpkin Mousse
1 can of pumpkin
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
Cinnamon
1/3 c. Powdered Sugar
1/3 c. of Vanilla or White Chocolate Chips

Melt the chips in a small bowl and mix until melted.  Cool to room temp (I skipped this step for lack of time).
In a seperate bowl, whip the whipping cream until thickened.  Combine pumpkin, cinnamon to taste, melted chips, powdered sugar, and whipped whipping cream together....again YUMO!

Weinie Roll Ups
Cocktail Weinies - the cheese filled ones are SUPER yummy!
Pie Crust or Crescent Rolls
Various dipping sauces - honey mustard, bbq, ranch, etc.

Cut pie crust or crescent rolls in to strips.  Wrap cocktail weinies in strips of "breading" and bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until breading is golden.  Best served warm, but equally as yummy room temp too.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Beans Beans the musical fruit.....

I never used to like beans, I would even pick every last one out of my chili.  For some reason lately, I've been LOVING beans!  They have lots of protein, lots of fiber, and are just all over good for you.  I WAS using canned beans, but because of the sodium content, I decided to try my hand at dry beans.  I had no idea what to do with them, but after reading a couple labels and looking online this is what I did....

1. Rinse the dry beans and remove any beans that are discolored.
2. I poured my whole 2 lb bag in to 6-8 cups of water in a pot on the stove.
(The instructions said to bring them to a rapid boil, remove from heat and let stand)...that's what I did and they were still crunchy...ISH!
3. Boil the beans for approximately an hour or until the preferred tenderness is reached.

I then took my cooked beans and put them in a big bowl in the fridge.  I use them every single day in various ways.  They can be used in place of meat for vegetarians or those that hadn't planned ahead.  They can replace vegetables for those who don't like the greens or if you are running low on the fresh stuff.  They can add fiber to ANY meal.  I've included a couple ways I've used beans...try them out!

"Mac" and Cheese
I literally mixed a cereal bowl of great northern beans with a pretty substantial handful of shredded cheddar and a little splash of milk and microwaved it.  You would be AMAZED how much it tasted like macaroni and cheese, minus the ridiculous amount of insulin resistance provoking CRAP, more fiber, more protein, just YUMMY and LOTS of it!!!

Mexican Breakfast Skillet
Scrambled eggs, tossed with beans and the salsa of your choice.  I also throw in some hot sauce and occasionally top with shredded cheese...mmmmmmmm

Salad Add
Spinach leaves (or leafy green of your choice), fruit (peaches, apples, mandarin oranges, etc), beans, and poppyseed dressing (of dressing of your choice)  YUMO!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Oops, but YUM! Tropical Sloppy Joes

Last night as I was eating my bunless sloppy joes and pineapple rings, an amazing thing happened.  The pineapple juice was leaking it's way in to my sloppy joe meat, but it was soooooooo yummy!!!!  So here's the next recipe I want ya'll to try!!  Now TRUST me on this, it's soooooo good!

Tropical Sloppy Joes

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef (or whatever meat you prefer)
1/2 C or so of Ketchup
4 Tbsp or so ofYellow Mustard (honey mustard is pretty yummy too)
2 Tbsp or so of Vinegar
Couple handfuls of brown sugar (light or dark, I prefer dark and more rather than less)
Pineapple (rings, tidbits, chunks, whatever you have...crushed may even work ok)

Directions:
Brown ground meat.
Add in other ingredients.  Mix WELL!  Taste....too mustard-y or vinegar-y = add more brown sugar.  Too ketchup-y = add just a TOUCH more mustard and vinegar and taste again.  Keep tasting until you have reached the combination you love.
Now comes the fun part!! 
Top your sloppy joe with pineapple....a ring works best if you are using bread.  Otherwise any of the other varieties should work bunless or not.
Enjoy!!

I'd love to hear what you guys think of this one!!  It was totally an accident (as are most of my recipe), but I personally loved it!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Recipe of the Day - Stuffed Mushrooms

These are an awesome appetizer!!

Ingredients: (add as much or as little as you like of each, add or subtract ingredients to taste)
1 pkg baby portabello mushrooms
Olive Oil
Bread Crumbs (flavored or not)
Shredded Cheese
Onions
Bacon
Minced Garlic

Directions:
Hollow out the mushroom caps and place on a cookie sheet.
In a big bowl combine all other ingredients.  Use olive oil just to moisten other ingredients so they can be packed together.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until mushrooms are soft.

Making due

Well today was a test of my creativity, and I ended up with something very simple and satisfying.  I go to the fridge thinking there is still a pork chop left from Monday's dinner...there isn't.  After much searching, the only protein I found in my fridge that I didn't have to prepare much was hot dogs, brats, and shredded cheddar cheese.  So I gathered up all of the leftover steamed veggies from the past few nights and put them all together with a sprinkling of cheddar cheese, microwaved, and VIOLA! LUNCH!  There were three peach wedges left in the can when the kids were finished, so I ate those too. YUM!

For breakfast was just plain old scrambled eggs with 4 pineapple rings...mmmmm I <3 pineapple!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Ranch Bacon Chicken

I'll start my recipes off with my very first self made phenominal dish! This dish was created back in 2003, when I was too busy partying to worry about grocery shopping and we had barely anything in the house.

Ranch Bacon Chicken (prepare to be in love)

Ingredients:

Bonless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing
Oscar Mayer Bacon Bits or Pieces (whichever you prefer)

Directions:
Place chicken in glass baking dish. Cover in ranch dressing. Sprinkle with bacon bits. Bake at 350 for approximately 40 minutes. Easy huh?!

Welcome

Well folks! Welcome to "In My Pans" (insert childish giggle here). I am going to be doing a lot of things with this blog including trying out new recipes and making some up as I go along. Stay tuned, great things to come! (I hope)