Mini Meatloaf

I have a loaf pan SOMEWHERE, but where is it?!? To solve this dilemma and save dinner from almost not happening last night, I decided I would try making them into mini-loafs. With a cupcake pan!

Meatloaf isn't really a glamorous recipe especially this super duper easy one. Preheat oven to 375°f.  In a large bowl mix 2 lbs of ground beef with 2 eggs, 1 cup of Italian bread crumbs, 1 package of Onion Soup Mix and ½ cup of ketchup.  Mix well. Scoop into a greased cupcake tin. And bake. I actually was able to prepare these faster than the oven could heat up, 10 points for me!

Bake for about 25-30 mins. They should be 160°f inside. 

Mix in a small bowl, ¼ cup of ketchup with ¼ cup of brown sugar and add in 1 tablespoon of mustard and stir well. Scoop a spoonful on top of each loaf and continue baking for 10 minutes. 

Funny story: I took these out of the oven and outside to photograph right as the sun was setting and Matt, ears perking up as the oven door open, gets up to see what I'm doing with his dinner. I bring the food inside and set it on the table and he takes the one off the plate and starts eating it! This is an inherited trait from his father so there is no point in trying to break him of this bad habit. But it was SOOO hot he gasps, and starts choking on it! I, FALL to the floor laughing at him as he turns bright red (I'm sure partially from embarrassment). He finally coughs it up and, hopefully, has learned his lesson. Afterwards he comments, "Wow, these are amazing, I don't even like meatloaf, but these are so good!" and scarfs down 2 more, luckily, without another scene. Hahaha!

Ingredients: 2 lbs ground beef, 2 eggs, 1 cup Italian bread crumbs, 1 package of Onion Soup Mix, ½ cup of ketchup - Topping:  ¼ cup ketchup, ¼ cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of mustard 

Cheeseburger Rice

Being a good wife/mom, I'm always trying to find great, cheap yet yummy, dinners. With little searching, I found all these $10 dinners and even $5 dinners recipes! What...?! What am I spending $150 at the store each week on? So, I decided to try this one out and it was for sure under $10 and fed 4, but oh god I'm almost embarrassed to post it. I'm 25 and in the prime of "oh my god I'm getting old, I'm doing everything in my power to stop this! Right. Now." so this dinner kinda fell through the cracks of "taking better care of myself". But....The kids LOVED it! Its exactly what kids dream dinners should be. So I'm happy for that!

1. Step one: lets just confirm this is like a skillet dinner! Its amazing that the entire dinner cooks just in one pot. So first brown 1lb of ground beef. Once that is done, add 2/3 cup...or more like 1 cup of BBQ sauce and a tablespoon of mustard. Mix it in and then add in 1 cup of water and 2 cups of instant rice. Close the lid and let it simmer until the rice is done. 5-10 minutes just depending on how "instant" your rice is...maybe its new rice that actually cooks the SECOND it hits the hot water making it actually instant, you just gotta see! While that is simmering I cooked up 5 strips of bacon (turkey bacon, because its all I have, although the husband commented "Can you imagine how good this would be if you used real bacon" I guess we have a third picky eater now!).

2. Step 2 is eat it, because it is done! Top with handfuls of shredded cheese and crumbled bacon! What is there not to like? No,seriously, we asked the kids, they had no response. 

Ingredients: 1 lb ground beef, 1 cup BBQ sauce, 1 tablespoon mustard, 1 cup water, 2 cups rice, 5 strips of bacon, 1-2 cups shredded cheese

Fajitas

Nothing catches your nose like fajitas frying in the kitchen! I just made these the other day and got a request for more in the same week!

1. First you'll want to marinade these, so make sure you have an hour for that. Cut up your meat into thin strips. I used flank steak the first time and then the second time (which is pictured) I used chuck steak and it wasn't as great, so for sure get a flank steak! In a large bowl you'll want to mix the juice of one lemon, 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic, ½ tsp of cumin, ½ of a jalapeno (chopped), and a sprinkle of parsley. Mix that up and let it sit an hour.

2. While the meat is marinating, you can chop the veggies up and get that out of the way. I used 1 large red pepper, 1 large green pepper and 1 yellow onion. You can cover with plastic wrap and get other stuff done before you want to start dinner.

3. Throw your veggies on first in a little bit of olive oil and get them cookin! I cook the veggies first because we like them really well done! 

4. Then throw your meat in and let that get nice and browned! The smell of fajita goodness should be wafting into every room of the house by now. Mmm!

5. Wrap in a tortilla, smother in sour cream, pour on some cheese, toss in some beans, sprinkle a little lettuce and devour!

Ingredients: flank steak, 1 large red pepper, 1 large green pepper, 1 yellow onion, juice of one lemon, 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic, ½ tsp of cumin, ½ of a jalapeno (chopped), and a sprinkle of parsley 
Toppings: shredded cheese, sour cream, beans, hot sauce, tomatoes, etc.


Check out more tortilla wrapped goodness recipes from Hello Hungry:
Tiny Tacos 
Quick Tacos 
Lettuce Wraps

Pork Chops with Sweet Potato Mash

I'm trying to be really thrifty and so this week when we went grocery shopping I pulled out all my Food Network Magazine recipe tear-outs and picked 5 recipes for dinners this week. I thought that would really eliminate a lot of unnecessary items going into the cart. It ended up being the same price but so far I've made some really amazing meals (for the same price of frozen pizzas and lasagnas). For Monday's dinner I made Honey-Glaze Pork Chops with Mashed Sweet Potatoes.

1. For the marinade you will need the juice of 1 orange, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 2 teaspoons of Cajun seasoning, 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme (I only had dried, darn!), 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, and 3/4 teaspoon of salt.

2. Mix it up! Preheat oven to 375°f

3. Poke pork with a fork all over, then plop in the marinade and let me soak it up (just turn them over in the marinade so they are coated). Set aside extra marinade. Take two big sweet potatoes and cook until soft in the microwave.

4. I didn't understand this step in the recipe so here is my interpretation of how you're supposed to "Transfer the pork chops to a rack set on a rimmed baking sheet"

I lined a cookie sheet with foil, and use my microwave rack to place the chops on so the juices fall underneath! You'll want to add 2 tablespoons to the leftover marinade and pour over the top then place in the oven for 15 mins then flip and cook another 10 mins.

  

5. Slice the potatoes down the center to cool a bit. Then take a large spoon and scoop out the center into a medium bowl.

6. Add to the scooped out potatoes, 2 tablespoons of butter and ½ teaspoons of Cajun seasoning. Stir together and serve!

♥ All done! Now eat, because its freaking delicious! ♥

Blackened Salmon over Rice

After a 2 minute nap the kids kindly gave me I realize I better just get started on dinner rather than struggle with the 1:58 minutes I was still missing from my nap. I pulled out the salmon out of the freezer earlier so I already has the main ingredient, but then we have the huge question of "what kind of salmon". After a little searching I found this recipe which I fortunately had all the ingredients for (including a lemon from my tree! Yay!).

1. (Can you see how tired I am? This more mom needs a break! But nothing cheers me up like having a delicious new recipe turn out great!) In a small bowl blurrily mix together 2½ tablespoons of paprika, 1 teaspoon of dried thyme, ½ teaspoon of garlic powder, 3/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, and a ½ teaspoon of salt. (I used a ½ teaspoon of garlic salt instead).

2. In a pan melt 2½ tablespoons of butter and then add in the juice from a lemon! Preheat oven to 400°f. In another pan start making instant rice. 

3. Take a salmon fillet and dip it in the butter and then dip in the spice mixture. Both sides. From here fry in an oven-proof skillet 2 minutes on both sides then stick in the oven for 8 minutes.

4. For the rice: once the instant rice is done, add in 1 can of whole kernel corn (I didn't use the entire can, so just add as much as you would like), sprinkle in some parsley and a dash of salt, and mix together with a tablespoon of butter. And done! 

5. Serve the salmon over the rice and enjoy! 


♥ Your family will be super impressed seeing you reach for tons of seasonings, using extra bowl for dipping and searing, but in the end this is a really easy and fairly quick recipe! Also, this entire dinner cost me about $8.00 the salmon was on sale during the 5 for $25 at Lucky, can of corn .89, rice comes out to .50 per bag, I had the lemon on the tree and spices in the drawer, with just a couple tablespoons of butter. Nice! ♥

Smashed Potatoes

I made these for our first real dinner in our new home and they were delish! And since I love, love, love anything potatoes we will definitely be having these again!

1. Well, first, I probably would have bought smaller potatoes had I known I'd be making this recipe. Since, I had big ones I still used 8 and we had 2 leftover.  To cook them, I stuck a fork in each one about 3-4 times to get little holes in them and popped them in the microwave for maybe 10 minutes? My microwave has a potato button so I just pressed that. You can test them with a fork; when you poke through them and you hit any hard parts, then its not cooked all the way yet.

2. Arrange the cooked potatoes in big casserole dish. Start preheating oven to 500°f.

3. Take a glass and literally "smash" the potatoes! (Having a 5 year old son means thinking the word "smash" and then repeating over and over in my head "Hulk SMASH"! Can you relate?)

 

4. Drizzle olive oil all over them potatoes and sprinkle on top any herbs and spices you wish. I used pepper with a little salt, paprika, thyme, garlic salt, and a dash of seasoned salt. I don't super like adding salt to food but you have to live a little right? :P

 

 

5. Bake at 500°f for 15mins or until nice and crispy!! This recipe is a breeze but tastes like a LOT more effort!

Roasted Chicken Wings

Are these too late for the Super Bowl? Oh well, they worth it, party or no party! I made these as the main course for dinner tonight, another success!

1. In a bowl mix together ¼ cup lemon juice, ¼ cup butter melted, 1 tablespoon pepper, 1 tablespoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon dried thyme, ½ teaspoon cayenne. Then drop the wings and coat them. Preheat oven to 500°f ( I didn't know my oven went up that high!)

2. On a baking sheet lay down a piece of foil and arrange your wings on top of it. I poured the rest of the leftover sauce on the chicken. Yum! (Although it did set off my smoke alarm when I opened the oven at the end...Ah, it was worth it!)

3. Bake for 20minutes, then flip them over and bake another 10 minutes. I think we had 10 wings in total and no leftovers! The perfect amount for our family of 4.



INGREDIENTS: 10 chicken wings, butter, salt, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, thyme, lemon juice, and pepper

♥ To dip I served this with Homemade Aioli
♥ For a side I made Cabbage You Cant Enough Of

Lobster, Lobster!

So, way longer then I'd like to admit, we bought these frozen lobsters at the store. They were surprisingly not expensive and we agreed we would try to make lobster at home. Maybe because lobster is usually really pricey in restaurants you think of it as a "specialty item" and so, of course, that would mean its really hard to make. Wrong. It was so EASY! Like, way easy. And super good. This is what we did...

1. First you have cut the lobster shell all the way down toward the tail. Then separate the shell from the meat. Turn the oven on to broil HIGH. (Before I go any longer into this blog, this was my husbands treat to me, I didn't make any of it, I just took pictures of his hard work :P )

2. Melt in a stick of butter and pour about half over and into the lobsters. The more the "butter"! (like my pun?)

3. So, step 3, oh no. Well it seems when we were making this it ended up as one "a dash of everything in the spice drawer" mix. Oops! We used (approx.) ¼ teaspoon garlic salt, parsley, basil, pepper, Montreal Steak Seasoning, Montreal Chicken Seasoning (remember this is a MANS recipe!), ½ teaspoon of paprika! Ta-da, I think I remembered it all!

4. Sprinkle the mix over, rub it in under the shell. Just try to get all the meat coated!

5. Broil in the oven on HIGH for 5-10 minutes until they are opaque. Ours took right around 10 minutes. Use the leftover butter for dipping and enjoy! P.S. How cute is my husband for plating these on a pretty plate for the picture? He served this with cheesy mashed potatoes and recommends asparagus or a nice veggie but they cooked so fast we never got a chance to get them out of the fridge to cook!


Ingredients: lobster tails, garlic salt, pepper, paprika, parsley, basil, steak and/or chicken seasoning.

♥ Thanks again baby ♥

Tiny Tacos

I was going to name this "Tacitos" like "little tacos" but Siena's new favorite word is tiny, so to remember these fun little moments we're calling them "Tiny Tacos". I found this idea on Pinterest (everyone girls new bff) and I thought I'd try it out! Here is the link to my Pinterest page and the original pin. They were realllly good!

1. First, brown 1lb of ground beef and drain. Then add in a package of taco seasoning and follow the directions for how much water to add. I used Taco Bell brand seasoning and it requires ¾ cup of water (I just grabbed TB taco seasoning because we love Taco Bell). Make sure to turn your oven on to 350°!

 

2. Then take the little wonton squares and place them into a cupcake tin and fill with the ground beef. I kept questioning myself about how far to fill them; are they like cupcakes and you fill half way or fill all the way up? I didn't know! So I filled them like  ¾ of the way :P

3. Top them off with lots of cheese! Then pop them in the oven for about 13 minutes! (If you use mini-cupcake tins it'll probably cook the wonton wrappers faster, so just watch them.)

4. And DRESS! From top left: sour cream and hot sauce, sour cream and lettuce, jalapeno, and "The Works". My husband scrapped the pan clean to make leftovers for lunch tomorrow and my son said "Mommy is the best cook of all the restaurants!"... I think this dinner is a hit ;)


Ingredients: 1 lb ground beef, package of taco seasoning, shredded cheese, and wonton wrappers.

♥ After a long day, theres nothing better than your family sitting down to a dinner they LOVE ♥

Ribs in the Crock Pot? Oh my!

Ooo, what a treat! Ribs!

Last week I set out to make SURE I went to the grocery store with a list of only the food items I needed for about 5 dinners and lunches this week. I actually did pretty good sticking to my list and I had a coupon for some freebies, which was awesome! In total, I think I spent about $30 less than if I had wandered around aimlessly grabbing things off the shelves. I had seen this recipe for crock pot ribs on Pinterest and saved it, when I got to the store and saw how cheap they were I thought "Hey, im totally going to try this"; I think my husband is pretty glad I did!

1. You make the rub. Which consists of 1½ tablespoons of paprika, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, ½ teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper.

2. And you rub that on about 2lbs of pork ribs, both sides.

3. Arrange the pork in the crock pot like so. Ok, actually I had NO idea so I just squished it there and had to re-rub it. But, hey, it worked!

4. Pour BBQ sauce over the pork. I think I used about half a bottle. I like it saucy! Cook it on low for 6-8hrs. I threw mine in before church and it was done right at dinner time!

5. Take it out of the crock pot and arrange on dripping tray (I took mine out of my toaster oven!). You know they are done when you try taking them out of the crock pot because they just fall apart! (Don't throw out the juice in the bottom of the pot.)

6. So take the juice from the bottom of the pot and strain it into another pot to boil on the stove. Then you want reduce it so it gets thick like BBQ sauce. Do that about 15mins, stirring so it doesn't burn. Meanwhile, turn the oven on to broil HIGH.

7. Pour the reduction over the ribs and pop in the oven for 8-10minutes. It originally says to flip them over and broil the other side, but they just fell apart even more! So before I annihilated these beauties, I just decided to serve as is.

8. I think Matty was a little shocked how good these turned out! I served them with some oven roasted asparagus and scalloped potatoes. (Thank goodness I had the excuse of blogging after eating these because I can hardly move, im so stuffed!!)


INGREDIENTS: paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper, pork ribs, BBQ sauce, brown sugar.


♥ Fat & Happy♥

A Sweet and Lovely Start to Christmas

This recipe was actually one I made for Thanksgiving, it was such a hit, I was assigned to make it again for our family Christmas party today! I was asked to bring something with sweet potatoes and saw this super cute looking dish, which turned to be SO easy to make as well! Its a sweet potato casserole!

1. You'll need to cook the sweet potatoes so that they are mashable. If you peel them, cut them into pieces (about 1in.), cover with foil, then put them in the oven at 400ºf for about 30mins, just poke them with a fork to make sure they are soft and cooked. Take them out of the oven and place in a large bowl. Add to the bowl: 1 cup sugar, ½ cup butter, ¼ cup milk, 2 large eggs, a tsp of vanilla extract and ¼ tsp salt. Mix with a mixer until completely blended together.

2. Spread the mixture into a greased casserole sized dish. Preheat the oven to 350ºf.

3. In a smaller bowl, measure out 1¼ cups cornflakes, ¼ cup chopped pecans, 1 tbs brown sugar, 1 tbs butter that is melted. Mix it all together.

4. Pour the cornflake mixture on top in rows to make it look cute. Bake for 30mins uncovered.

5. Remove from oven and fill in the spaces between the cornflakes with 1 ½ cups mini marshmallows. Put it back in the oven and keep an eye on it until the marshmallows are toasted. Its usually around 15mins. And there you have it!

Ingredients: 4lbs sweet potatoes, 1 cup sugar, ½ cup butter, ¼ cup milk, 2 large eggs, a tsp of vanilla extract, ¼ tsp salt, 1¼ cups cornflakes, ¼ cup chopped pecans, 1 tbs butter, 1½ mini marshmallows. Orignal recipe from here.

♥ My camera focus wasn't working well, so I'm going to have to get it serviced. Bear with me in the meantime! I had to post this anyways because I liked it so much despite the pictures.♥