Recipe for Stir Fry Cabbage/veggies

I have a wonderful recipe to share. It was given to me by my sister in Christ, Edith Thompson. She was given the idea by way of the Holy Ghost! Hallalujah! Sister Edith also added some bacon grease, but I'm leaving that off for dieters like me.

Here is what you need:

1/2 Cabbage (or a whole if you want and/or any kind of veggie, if you don't want to use cabbage)

1 Onion

1 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning (more if you like)

1/2 cup of olive oil

Pinch of salt

As much pepper as you want

A handful of roasted salted sunflower seeds

Here is what you do:

Pour the olive oil into a skillet and let it get heated up. Add your cabbage and/or other veggies into the skillet. Add the onions also and the sunflower seeds. Add your seasonings. Take it off the heat when the veggies are done. Serve with a smile! Enjoy!

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Turkey Burger Soup

Now that I am making lifestyle changes, I have changed some of my ‘comfort food’ recipes to be more health conscious. I love hamburger soup, but I rarely eat beef anymore, so I have made my soup with ground turkey breast instead. It is packed with a lot of flavor.

Here is what you need to make turkey burger soup:

1 pound of lean ground turkey breast

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 cloves of minced garlic

1 large onion chopped

1 medium bag of baby carrots sliced in halves or thirds

1 green bell pepper and 1 red bell pepper chopped

1 jar of V-8 juice

1 teaspoon of Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy

1 teaspoon of Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb

1 bag of frozen corn

2 small potatoes diced (optional)

2 medium zucchinis cut into bite sized pieces.

Here is what you do:

In a large soup skillet pour the olive oil and heat up the pot and add the turkey; sauté it with the onions. When the meat is browned, add all the other ingredients and let simmer for about 35 to 40 minutes. Serve with crackers on the side if desired. If you are diabetic, you might like this soup. You can leave the potatoes out if you want to control the starches.

Enjoy!

Recipe for Turkey Meatloaf

Since I am now participating in Weight Watchers, I have been having to reinvent my comfort foods into healthy foods suitable for weight loss. I made a wonderful meatloaf made with ground turkey. My family loves it, and I think you will too. 

Here is what you need to make healthy turkey meatloaf:

1 pound of ground turkey

1/2 cup of old fashioned oatmeal (not the instant kind)

3 tablespoons of barbeque sauce

3 tablespoons of Worchester sauce

1 finely chopped onion

1 finely chopped pepper

1 tablespoon of your favorite Mrs. Dash seasoning

1 egg

Here is what you do:

Place the ground turkey in a bowl. Add all your ingredients, and mix well. Spray a baking pan with PAM spray and pour your meatloaf into the pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. If you want, you can cover the meatloaf with more BBQ sauce and top with low calorie cheese if you like. 

Recipe for Healthy Spaghetti Sauce

I recently joined Weight Watchers, and I have had to change the way I let myself and my family eat. We no longer eat beef more than once a week. The rest of the time we either eat turkey, chicken, fish, or just veggies. I have made a great spaghetti sauce that is easy and healthy. I serve it on whole wheat spaghetti noodles.

What you need to make healthy spaghetti sauce:

1 large jar of Prego Sauce

1 chopped onion

1 pound of ground turkey

2 tablespoons of Worstchester sauce

1 teaspoon of your favorite Mrs. Dash 

Here is what you do:

Place the ground turkey in a bowl. Add the onion, Worchester sauce, and Mrs. Dash. Mix the ingredients into the meat with your hands or with a spatula.  Spray a skillet with PAM and fry up the meat. Do not add any salt, because there will be sauce.

Pour the sauce into the meat. Let the sauce come to a boil and it is done. Serve over whole wheat noodles. 

Recipe for Curried Pork Chops and Gravy

This is by no means low in calories; I would call this comfort food. My dad was all about making comfort food. Back in my childhood, no one really thought about cutting out the fat in dishes, because the fat was where all the flavor was. Though I don't make this dish very often, I would like to say I do have it on the table for special occasions, like Easter or birthdays.

Here is what you need to make curried pork chops and gravy:

2 heaping tablespoons of butter
4 pork chops
2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup of Bisquick
1 and 1/2 teaspoon of curry powder
2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
2 cups of milk
1 package of Lipton Onion Soup Mix

Here is what you do:

Heat up a skillet on medium low heat; add the butter and let it begin to sizzle. Dip the pork chops in the egg and dredge through the Bisquick (Save the Bisquick for the gravy). Place the pork chops into the sizzling butter and let it pan fry on one side until there is a nice crust on it and then flip it over to fry on the other side. Take the pork chops out and drain on a paper towel or napkins while you make the gravy.

In a blender add the milk, curry, mushroom soup and milk. Blend for just a couple of seconds and slowly add to the skillet, stirring all the time. Add the Lipton Onion Soup Mix and continue to stir the gravy until it is done.

Serve with mashed potatoes and a green salad if you like.

Enjoy!

Recipe for Red Snapper

I try to have a good fish dinner at least twice a week for my family. I like fish, but I don't like fish that has a strong fishy taste. If there is a hint of a strong oily fishy taste my family will not touch it and neither will I.

Here is what you need:

1 pound of red snapper fillets
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 cloves of minced garlic
2 tablespoons of lemon juice (real not bottled)
1 cup of buttermilk
1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
1 small diced onion
1 cup of sliced black olives
Aluminum foil


Here is what you do:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Place a layer of aluminum foil down in your baking pan so there is little clean up after the fish is baked. Spread half of the oil onto the aluminum foil, and then spread the rest of the oil onto the fillets. Next pour about 1/4 cup of buttermilk onto the foil. Arrange your fish on the foil, cover with garlic, onions and black olives and then cover with the rest of the buttermilk. Sprinkle the red pepper flakes over the layer of buttermilk.

Bake the fish for 15 minutes. The fish should be light and flaky. When you take the red snapper out of the oven squeeze on the lemon juice over the fillets and serve with a side salad and baked potato if desired.

Recipe for Vegetarian Taco Salad

Every once in a while I like to make something a little different. I got this from my dad. Bless his heart, he loved tacos, but just couldn't get the hang of eating them, because every time he tried to bite into the tortilla it would break apart and he would have a mess on his plate. I watched with amusement as my dad broke up his taco with his fork and ate it like a taco salad. From then on my dad would break up two tortillas and then load all the goodies on top. Since then when I serve tacos with hard tortillas I do the same thing.

Here is what you need:

1 head of lettuce shredded
1 can of drained chili beans
2 diced tomatoes
1 cup of chopped onions
2 ripe avocados
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 pint of sour cream
2 packages of taco seasoning
8 ounces of shredded cheddar cheese
1 bag of tortilla chips

Here is what you do:

Mash up the avocados in a small bowl. Add lemon juice. I like to put the avocado into the food processor with the lemon juice to make guacamole.

In another bowl add the sour cream, and add the taco seasoning to it and set aside.

In another bowl add the diced onions, chili beans, and tomatoes.

To build the salad you put a layer of tortilla chips on the bottom. (I like to break them up into smaller pieces.) Add a bed of lettuce on top of the chips. Then add the chili beans, onions and tomato mixture. Top with cheese, guacamole, and sour cream mixture.

Enjoy!

Recipe for Almost Old Fashioned Turkey Stuffing

Stuffing is great any time of year; it's not only for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love making stuffing because it brings me closer to my dad. Dad did everything the old fashioned way. I loved tasting his stuffing before it went into the turkey. I called it 'raw stuffing,' but of course it wasn't raw.

Even as a little girl I helped my dad make stuffing. He'd tell me to go wash my hands really good, and to come back to the table. He gave me loaves of what he called 'day old bread,' which was bread that didn't get sold and would be sent back to the bread man.

I sat at the table and broke up the bread into neat squares with a butter knife. I was 7 or 8 years old at the time. While dad was dicing up the onions and giblets I would be doing my job of making a big bowl full of bread cubes. He'd start putting all the herbs and spices in the stuffing and then he would let me mix it up with a big wooden spoon. The aroma of sage would permeate my nostrils and it was heaven. Every time I smell sage I think of my dad. I learned so much from him. He was truly a connoisseur in my eyes.

I make stuffing, but I don't make it just the way he did with all the extra labor; I'm a bit of an almost homemade kind of cook. I'll sometimes take a recipe of my dad's and make it my own by putting my own little twist on it. To me, making stuffing takes me back to my childhood, and I remember the good times. Dad loved it when I wanted to help him in the kitchen.

Here's my version of my dad's old fashioned turkey recipe:

Here is what you need:

1 large casserole dish
1 - 1 pound bag of seasoned stuffing mix
1 cup of onion
1 cup of chopped celery
3/4 cup of butter
2 and 1/4 cups of water
1 teaspoon of sage
Cooked chopped turkey giblets (optional)
1 cup of sliced almonds
1 cup of cranberries
PAM spray

Here is what you do:

Saute the onion and celery in the butter until the onions are clarified. Add the water. Take the sauce pan off the heat and add giblets, cranberries, and add half of the almonds. Now slowly add the stuffing mix until the moisture is all incorporated. Spay the casserole dish with PAM spray, and empty the stuffing mixture into the dish. Top with the remaining sliced almonds.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.

Enjoy!

Recipe for Apricot Glazed Turkey Roast Dinner

Sometimes my family is in the mood for turkey, but I don't want to roast a whole bird. A turkey breast is good for any time, but I like to make this meal for when we are having company, just because it tastes so delectable. The last time I made this dish was when we had a pot luck dinner at our church. Everyone was to bring a covered dish. We weren't told what to bring, we were just supposed to bring something. I brought two turkey breasts and I expected to have some left to bring home, because there were other forms of meat and casseroles there; however, there wasn't even a slice left! It did make me happy that everyone seemed to like my apricot glazed turkey roast.

Here is what you need for the recipe:

1 - 4 to 5 pound turkey breast
1 jar of apricot preserves (you can also use jam if you like)
1 cup of canned or left over chicken stock
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon juice (from a real lemon)
1 box of Stove Top Stuffing
1 cup of dried apricots diced
1/2 cup of chopped pecans
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon of pepper
1 basting brush


Here is what you do:

Preheat your oven at 425 degrees. Rinse off the turkey breast and then pat it dry. Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the roast and bake for 15 minutes. While the turkey is roasting, empty the jar of apricot preserves into a small sauce pan and mix in the brown sugar and lemon juice. Heat the mixture on the stove until the preserves are softened into a more liquid state. You don't need to bring it to a boil. When the preserve mixture is softened where it can be spread onto the turkey roast take it off the heat.

When the turkey breast has roasted for 15 minutes take it out and baste the turkey breast with the apricot preserve mixture using the basting brush. Lower the heat of the oven to 325 and bake it for 1 and 1/2 hours, or as directed on package if the directions are different. Baste the turkey breast every 20 minutes while baking.

While the turkey breast is roasting up make your Stove Top Stuffing the way it says on the box, except use chicken stock instead of all water; then add the pecans to it and the apricots. Mix this mixture up well and place in a casserole dish sprayed with PAM. Transfer the stuffing into the casserole dish and bake for 45 minutes at 325 degrees. When the turkey breast is done take it out of the oven and let stand for 10 minutes before slicing.

You can make a gravy out of the turkey drippings if you want to by pouring the drippings into a sauce pan and adding 1 heaping tablespoon of Bisquick and heat on medium heat while stirring. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with mashed potatoes.

Enjoy!

Recipe for Crock Pot Potato Soup

Potato soup is one of my family's favorite dishes. I make potato soup many different ways, but this one is one of my favorites. Potatoes are plentiful, and if you get caught short of money until payday you can make lots of meals with potatoes. This one recipe is just the way my dad made it when I was young. It is so simple, anyone can do it. I like to use a crock pot to make this recipe, because I can start it in the morning and then by supper it is ready.

Here is how I make my potato soup recipe:

Cut up 6 potatoes and put them through the food processor or chop them up into very small pieces by hand and place them in the crock pot. Add about 2 teaspoons of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper, and add 6 cups of water and 3 cups of milk. Add a stick of butter or margarine to this and let it cook. When the potatoes get tender add 1 and 1/2 cups of instant mashed potatoes to help thicken it up a little. Then add 1 and 1/2 cups of Parmesan cheese.

Serve with crackers, and douse with a good healthy portion of Louisiana hot sauce if you like. This is amazing. My family loves it.

Enjoy!

Recipe for Curried Chicken

Here is a recipe that my dad handed down to me. We had chicken a lot when I was growing up. It was one of the cheaper types of meats back in the day, unlike now when there is nothing cheap anymore. Dad tired to make his chicken dishes taste different so we wouldn't get sick of having chicken all the time. We probably ate chicken 3 to 4 times a week when times were lean. Looking back at those days, I feel I was very fortunate to have meat on the table every day of the year.

Get your taste buds ready, because this curried chicken recipe will knock your socks off. It is so good! Maybe I'm just partial because it came from my dad, but I do think it is a real winner.

Here is what you need to make curried chicken:
3 cups of chicken diced into bite-sized pieces
1 cup of chicken broth
2 cups of half and half
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon of pepper
2 Granny Smith apples peeled and chopped
2 sticks of butter or margarine
1 large onion chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 red pepper chopped
1/3 cup of shredded coconut
6 tablespoons of flour
1 and 1/2 tablespoons of curry powder

Here is what you do to make curried chicken

Note: Here is a good way to clean out your refrigerator. If you have left over chicken in the fridge, us it instead of cooking more.

Melt the butter or margarine in a skillet on medium low heat, add the onions, peppers, celery and apples. Saute them for about 5 to 6 minutes. The onions should be clarifying. Now add the flour and combine with the butter. Slowly add the chicken broth and stir until the flour is mixing well with the flour. Add the rest of the ingredients now. Stir the mixture frequently so that it doesn't burn on the bottom. When chicken mixture comes to a boil it is ready to take off the stove. From start to finish it shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes to make this delicious meal. Serve with rice and spinach if you like.

Recipe for Spaghetti Squash

I like vegetables, but sometimes I just want something different in the line of veggies. The other day I found a good sale on spaghetti squash, so I picked up 5 of them. You can make a meal off from spaghetti squash. If you are a vegetarian, you can make spaghetti squash and cover it with spaghetti sauce and eat it like regular spaghetti, but that is not what I do.

When you go to purchase a spaghetti squash you will need to note how the squash looks. The outer shell should be very hard; it should be a fairly uniform pretty yellow color. If you see bruising or discoloration on the shell of the spaghetti squash do not buy it. Only buy spaghetti squash that is not bruised or blemished, because they may be spoiled inside.

To prepare spaghetti squash, wash and dry it, and then you should cut it in half lengthwise. Spaghetti squash is very hard, so you will have to use a large sharp knife to pierce the skin of the squash and push the blade down into the squash. Once you get your knife inside the squash you will need to work the knife down to split one side; next start from the other direction and continue to split the squash. Once you have it split all the way, you then just pull the two ends apart until the squash breaks in two pieces. Now you will need to remove the seeds. Take a spoon and scrape out the seeds and throw them away. You can also save the seeds and dry them out for planting if you wish.

Once you have removed the seeds from the squash lay them flat side down on a baking pan lined with aluminum foil. Bake them in a 400 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes. When the squash is done the inside of the squash can be scooped out of the shell and into a bowl. The meet of the squash looks just like spaghetti.

All I do is add a bit of Italian salad dressing and top with Parmesan cheese. It is that simple. If you like you can serve with diced tomatoes, or you can prepare your spaghetti squash just like you would with real spaghetti. Any way you fix this vegetable is delicious.

Recipe for Crock Pot Vegetable Soup

The thing about crock pot meals is that there is not fuss. You can get your meal started in the crock pot with very little prep time if any. If you work you can start your crock pot meal and have it piping hot for when you come home. I work in my home; I'm busy from the time I get up until I go to bed, so I try to make my life as easy as possible. One way of making my life easy is by making a vegetable soup made in the crock pot. It's quick to prepare and simple.

Here is what you need to make my recipe for crock pot vegetable soup:

1 and 1/2 pounds of ground beef
1 chopped green pepper
2 stalks of sliced celery
1 medium sized bag of baby carrots
3 cups of water
3 teaspoons of chili powder
2 envelopes of onion soup mix
2 large cans of stewed tomatoes
1 bag of frozen corn
3 large diced potatoes

Here is what you do:

Brown the ground beef, and drain off the fat. Transfer the cooked meat into the crock pot. Add all the other ingredients and stir. Turn your crock pot on high for 1 hour, and then turn the heat setting to medium or low. If you work outside the home, just set your crock pot setting to to medium or low and the soup will be done for when you get home.

Serve with crackers or French bread. I love to get the French bread in the long hard loaf. It is so good to cut off a piece of bread and dunk the bread into the soup and eat it. My family likes to load the soup down with crackers to sop up all the broth from the soup.

Enjoy!

Recipe for Taco Macaroni Salad Dinner

Don't you just love a one dish meal? I do. My taco macaroni salad dinner is simple to make, and it tastes oh-so-good! This recipe belongs to my daughter. She is the taco maker in our family, and sometimes when we want something a little different she will make this meal instead of the regular taco and burrito meal.

Here is what you need to make the taco macaroni salad dinner recipe:

1 pound of ground beef
1 box of your favorite mac and cheese
1 taco kit (it has the taco flavoring and taco shells)
1 cup of picante sauce
1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese
1 chopped onion
1 chopped bell pepper
1 bag of salad mix
1 diced tomato
1/2 cup of sliced black olives
1 carton of sour cream

Here is what you do:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the onion and bell pepper and cook them with the ground beef in a skillet. When the meat is done, drain off the fat. Then add the taco seasoning, and picante sauce.

In a boiling pot boil the macaroni and prepare the mac and cheese according to the instructions on the package. Now mix the macaroni and cheese in with the ground beef mixture. Add half the cheese in with it.

Next you will transfer the mixture into a casserole dish, and top with the other half of the cheese. Break up the taco shells into small pieces and place on top of the casserole, and lightly press them into the casserole. Bake for 25 minutes. When you serve the casserole top with salad mix and top that with tomato and sour cream.

Enjoy!

Recipe for Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

What could be more decadent? Sweet potatoes are one of the most versatile veggies ever. You can make pies, cookies, breads, and cakes from sweet potatoes. Tonight I am fixing twice baked sweet potatoes for dinner.

Here is what you need to make this recipe:

3 large sweet potatoes
1/2 cup of chopped pecans
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of dark brown sugar
4 ounces of cream cheese
2 tablespoons of milk

Here is what you do:

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Line your baking pan with aluminum foil so you don't have a mess to clean up later. Lay your sweet potato halves face down on the aluminum foil. Bake the sweet potatoes for 35 minutes and let them cool so you can handle them. Once the sweet potatoes are cool enough, scoop out a good portion of the meat of the sweet potato into a bowl. Leave a little bit around the edges of the potato so that the skin does not collapse or tear.

Next use a potato masher to mash up the sweet potato. Add the cinnamon, brown sugar, cream cheese and milk. Mix this up well and put the mixture back into the sweet potato shells. Top the sweet potatoes with the pecans. You will need to lightly press the pecans into the sweet potato so they don't fall off. Now put the sweet potatoes back into the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes to heat them all the way through again.

You can make this recipe bigger or smaller as you wish. I have a family of 3 and these 6 halves don't go to waste. They are great to have on hand in your refrigerator to eat cold or warmed in the microwave for breakfast.

Recipe for Western Omelet

Do you like western eggs? If you do you will love the western omelet. It's very easy to prepare, and so delicious.

Here is what you need to make my western omelet recipe:

1/2 green pepper
1/4 onion
3 eggs for one omelet
Splash of milk
Splash of olive oil
2 slices American cheese
Slice of sandwich ham

Here is what you do:

Pour a splash of olive oil into an omelet pan. While the oil is getting hot cut up half a pepper and dice it. Chop up the onion. Add the veggies to the oil and saute them slightly. Now transfer the partially cooked veggies into the eggs and add the milk. Whisk it up good and frothy and pour into the pan. Let the egg cook on one side. When you see it starting to solidify on top flip it and fry it on the other side. Add the ham and cheese and fold the egg over and serve.

My 10 Most Favorite Foods

I love to cook, and it is a good thing, because I am the only one in the family that is good at it. Any time my daughter is ready to eat she asks me to cook it for her. There are some foods I like more than others, and the ones I like are the ones that I cook the most. Some of my favorite foods are not homemade, but I sort of make them my own, in an almost homemade kind of way.

Here are a list of my most favorite foods:

1. French Fries - I like to oven fry my fries by spraying them with a little olive oil cooking spray. I bake them until they are good and crispy. I don't like a soggy French fry. Once the fries are done I like to top them with some canned chili and cheddar cheese. These are yummy.

2. Pancakes - I make my pancakes with Bisquick only. I don't bother using regular flour or self-rising flour, because Bisquick has them all beat. These pancakes are light and fluffy. I sometimes use them for bread when I am out. I've made sandwiches with the. Just a couple of days ago I used small pancakes for hamburger buns. They are so good!

3. Hot dogs - I like hot dogs any way you want to cook them. I like them in a bun, of course, piled up with relish, onions and mustard. I also like hot dogs fried and cut up on a plate. I dip them in mustard. I've also used hot dogs in scrambled eggs. I kind of make the eggs like a Western egg, but I add hot dog to it. This is really good if you love hot dogs.

4. Grilled cheese sandwich - I use my pancake griddle to make my grilled cheese sandwiches. I butter one side of two slices of bread. I stick one slice butter side down onto the hot grill. It will start sizzling right away. While that is sizzling I cut off 2 slices of white extra sharp Vermont cheese. I buy the Cabot brand of Vermont cheese, because that is the sharpest cheese I can find. I love really strong sharp cheese. One I put the slices of cheese on the sandwich I put the other slice of bread on top of the cheese butter side up. Then I just flip the sandwich and let it brown on the other side and serve. This is to die for!

5. Stuffed cheese burger - For this kind of burger I make a meatloaf kind of mixture by using bread crumbs, an egg, and steak sauce. Then I take a about 2 ounces of this hamburg mixture and flatten it out to make a thin hamburger. I place it down on my baking pan and put a chunk of blue cheese in the middle and then cover the top with another really thin hamburger and seal the top. I bake them until they are done and these are so very good!

6. Baked macaroni and cheese - I'm not talking about any of this boxed stuff with the fake powder cheese. No, I have to have the real thing. I boil the macaroni, and then shred a bunch of that sharp Vermont cheddar cheese I mentioned above and add that to the cooked macaroni. I add a little bit of salt and pepper and a bit of milk and put it in the oven to bake until it has a good firm crust on the top. You haven't had anything until you have had mac and cheese done this way.

7. Freshetta Pepperoni Pizza - This is a store bought pizza, and it is so good. I buy the kind that is made of whole wheat. I don't doctor this up at all, because it is perfect the way it is. This is really good dipped in ranch dressing.

8. Almost homemade chili - This is a chili that comes in a kit. I don't know the name of the kit, but it comes in a brown paper bag. In the bag is chili powder, salt, and cayenne pepper, and a little corn meal thickening agent. I make my chili by browning my ground beef and draining it. Then I put the meat into a pot with 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 2 cans of tomato sauce, 3 cans of chili beans, and a small jar of Prego sauce. I add a chopped onion and a chopped bell pepper to the mix and let it simmer for 35 to 40 minutes and then serve with crackers. This is yummy with a dollop of sour cream and yellow cheddar cheese.

9. Brussels Sprouts - I love these things. I have always called them 'baby cabbages'. They are awesome steamed, boiled or even sauteed in butter. They are also scrumptious with Velveeta cheese melted into them.

10. Green beans and red potatoes - These are good cooked together. I like the really little red potatoes, but if you can't find them really small the bigger ones cut up in chunks will do just fine. I cook these until they are done and then at the end I add milk to them and heat them a bit more but I don't let them boil. I serve this dish in a bowl and it's good all by itself or with corn bread.

Recipe for Pancake Sandwich

What do you do when you are out of bread, but you want a sandwich? Do you put your sandwich off until you can get to the store to get more bread? When I don't have bread I improvise. The quickest way for me to make bread is to whip up a couple of pancakes. Pancakes make the perfect sandwich material.

Last night I made hamburgers and we had no bread, and neither did we have any hamburger buns. I make up a batch of small pancakes just large enough to make a cheeseburger nice and cozy. This morning I made pancakes to make a sausage and egg sandwich. For supper I made pancakes to make a grilled cheese sandwich. Pancakes are very versatile.

For 2 pancakes I just use about a half cup of Bisquick and enough milk to make it into a nice pancake batter. I cook the pancakes on my electric pancake griddle.I don't even measure it myself. I know how much I will need for the amount of people I am making pancake sandwiches for.

Then you just put your favorite filler on one pancake and cover it with the other and make a sandwich out of it. If you are ever out of bread, don't fret, just make a small batch of pancakes small enough to make sandwiches.

Recipe for Almost Homemade Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

I am one of those almost homemade kind of cooks. I like to cook, but I don't want to be all day doing it, if I don't have to. There are some very good products on the market that make cooking a lot easier than it used to be, and still have a great tasting meal. I make spaghetti and meat sauce once a month, and my family loves it.

This is all you need to do to make my spaghetti and meat sauce. You will need a large boiling pot and fill it about 3/4 full of water. Add a teaspoon of salt to the water and a small splash of olive oil. Bring the water to a boil and place your pasta in the water. It's okay if the pasta is partially outside of the boiling water, because as the pasta softens it will submerge into the water. It is necessary to put the oil in the water so that the pasta does not stick to each other.

Here is what you need to make the meat sauce:

2 jars of Prego spaghetti sauce
1 onion
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 jar of sliced button mushrooms drained
1 pound of hamburger
1 teaspoon of garlic

Cut up the onion, peppers, and mushrooms and set aside until you get ready to fry them. While you have the pasta cooking put some olive oil into a skillet and turn the heat on to medium low to heat up the oil. When the oil is hot put in the veggies to cook them until the onions are clarified. When the veggies are done take them out of the skillet and crumble up the hamburger. Add the garlic powder and fry up the meat. Drain the meat when it is done and place into a pot with the Prego sauce. Add the fried veggies to it and bring to a boil. Turn on low heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Drain your pasta when it is done. Serve up some pasta on your plate and cover it with as much meat sauce as you want. Sprinkle the dish with Parmesan cheese. This recipe is also good for diabetics.

Enjoy!

Recipe to make Poutine: The Meal to Die For

The following is an article was written by my dear writer friend, Carol Roach. I have never heard the name poutine, but I have had fries made this way. I've just called them cheese fries, but I am sure these are so much better. Please take a minute to read this well written article about how to make poutine.


Poutine: The Meal to Die For


Is it really possible, could it be true, is the last standing tradition in Quebec coming to an end? If you are wondering what the heck I am talking about I am talking about that wonderful gooey mess of food called poutine. Poutine is a traditional French Canadian dish originating in Quebec Though there are several stories about just where in Quebec this tasty dish comes from. Poutine has now become a national treat. Poutine pronounced by the rest of Canada as pooh teen, is actually pronounced, "puts in" here in Quebec.

If you ask Mr. Fernand Lachance of Warwick, Quebec, he will say that the dish originated in his restaurant, in 1957, when a customer came in to ask for a bag of deep fries and curd cheese. " Ça va faire une maudite poutine! 'That's going to make a terrible mess!" Lachance responded to his customer,

Mess or not, poutine became an instant success and customers began to ask for it on a regular basis. Lachance claims the popular dish we have today with the French fries cheese curds and brown gravy is again a family variation. He says he started serving the brown gravy because his wife made it and today we have the three-ingredient combination that we Queberers just love.

The story I heard was that poutine is a dish from Lac St. Jean, Quebec. Where ever it is from, I tell you that it is good.

How Do Make A Good Poutine

You start with fresh potatoes, cut your own, I don't use frozen potatoes
Fry them in vegetable oil, now some people say frying them in lard is better I don't know I never tried that.
Pour brown gravy on top of the French fries
Then add curds of cheese, the original recipe calls for Gouda, or white cheddar, but you can use mozzarella, which is what I use.

Heat in the oven until the cheese is melted or nuke it in the microwave if you wish.

It is a simple recipe that is eaten alone as a meal, or can be eaten with hamburgers or hotdogs, or anything really that you would normally have with French fries.

Cautionary note: don't over do it, poutine is very filling.

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