Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes

So, this was dinner tonight...

Sliced potatoes (I did about 9 small potatoes, sliced about 1/4" thick)
1 can cream of chicken soup (I use the 98% fat free)
1 can milk (the cream of chicken soup can filled with milk)
onion powder
garlic powder
ham cut into chunks
handful of cheddar cheese

I washed and sliced the potatoes. I leave the peel on. Then mix the soup & milk & spices together. Put all ingredients in a crockpot on low for 5 hours.

BBQ Turkey Meatballs

YUM! I made these last night for dinner and they turned out so much better than I hoped! By the way, our Costco has fresh ground turkey for $2.29/lb. Soooooo, we got a pack of that and some of their sandwich rolls and had a great dinner.

1 lb fresh ground turkey
1/4 cup oatmeal
1 egg
onion powder
garlic powder

Combine all ingredients very well, form into golfball-size balls. Brown meatballs in hot oil. Cook in crockpot for 3 hours, add BBQ sauce (KC Masterpiece original is AMAZING!) and heat for another 1/2 hour. This made about 16 meatballs. We served them on warm sandwich rolls. Thomas added fresh parmesan and I added romaine lettuce. Hannah even liked them. These would be REALLY good served over rice.

Lasagna Recipe

My sister-in-law asked me for my lasagna recipe, so here it is ...

For a 9x13 pan of lasagna
9 cooked lasagna noodles (or a box of the no-cook kind)
1/2 lb Lean ground beef
1/2 lb Sweet Italian Sausage
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jar spaghetti sauce (I use Western Family Original, the generic equivalent to Prego)
1 16 oz tub cottage cheese (or use ricotta cheese or a mixture of both)
2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 egg

I prefer the cooked noodles. So, while I am boiling the noodles (make sure to add oil to the noodle water so they don't stick), I brown the ground beef and sausage with the garlic. When the meat is fully cooked, drain off fat and pour into a bowl. Add most of the jar of spaghetti sauce and stir in cottage cheese & an egg. In a sprayed 9x13 pan, put three lasagna noodles, lightly sprinkle with 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, spread 1/2 of the meat & cottage cheese mixture. Place three lasagna noodles on top, lightly sprinkle with 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, spread remaining meat & cottage cheese mixture. Place three more lasagna noodles on top. Spread with remaining spaghetti sauce. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Spray aluminum foil with cooking spray and cover lasagna.
Bake at 450 degrees for about 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake about 20 minutes more until cheese is completely melted and top of the lasagna is browned.

Lasagna tastes better the longer the flavors have to marinate. I usually make lasagna in the morning, and keep it in the fridge until about an hour before we are ready to eat. Then I bake it.

Leftover lasagna is almost always better than the first day! Sooooo, make an extra pan or a large pan for leftovers on purpose! I slice my leftovers into single serving portions, wrap each portion in saran wrap and freeze it. Then my hubby can grab a piece to take to work with him.

This recipe is really subjective. You can change a lot of things. You can use all ground beef or all sausage. You can leave out the meat altogether and just use veggies. For a great healthier lasagna, sautee fresh sliced mushrooms and zucchini. Summer squash is also delicious in this recipe. You want veggies that will add to the flavor of the dish, not distract you. So, don't go crazy with carrots or foods that have a lot of texture or a strong flavor. Spinach is good, too, just be careful not to add too much. Lasagna is a good food to disguise veggies in! Because lasagna has such a strong flavor, you can cover the veggie flavor. Break out the blender and throw in your sauteed veggies with your spaghetti sauce.

BBQ Chicken & Black Bean Nachos

Thomas says that I like to eat Mexican food much more than he does. And that is probably true. It's just because it is just about the only flavorful food left that I can actually eat! ;) Thursday, I threw several chicken breasts in the crockpot with 1 cup Sprite and 1 cup water. Nothing else. Although, I probably should have thrown some onion & garlic in there, too. I put them in frozen. I let them "crock" for about four and a half hours. I took half of the chicken & all the juices out and put it in the fridge for chicken & potato pie (that I made last night). Then I shredded the remaining chicken and coated it lightly with KC Masterpiece Original BBQ sauce. We had BBQ chicken sandwiches that night for dinner. Today, we still had a bit of chicken left and I didn't want it to go bad, so I made it into nachos. SO GOOD! We were out of lettuce or it would have been a salad.

Layer chips in bottom of a pan.
Cover with shredded BBQ chicken.
Sprinkle black beans over the top.
Shred cheese (or soy cheese) over the top.
Bake at 400 degrees until the cheese is melted and the toppings are all hot.
Add fresh tomatoes, frozen corn, salsa, italian salad dressing.

YUM!

Chocolate Cookies with Rolo Centers

These are the easiest cookies in the world to make "from scratch". We used to make them all the time in college. And the reason it took me forever to post the recipe is because I had to consult the cake cookie expert, Mary, about the proper baking temperature and time... and I think I got it right!

Ready... set... GO!

Cake Cookies
1 box cake mix
1 egg
1 stick melted butter
Mix together. Drop by tablespoon on a cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 11 minutes. Let them cool on the baking sheet for about five minutes. Strawberry cake cookies are soooo good! The Funfetti cookies are a lot of fun, too!


Now... the chocolate & rolo version
1 box german chocolate cake mix
1 egg
1 stick melted butter
Stir all ingredients together until just blended. Drop by tablespoon on a cookie sheet. Push a half of a chocolate Rolo in the center of each cookie. Bake at 375 degrees for 11 minutes. Let them cool on the baking sheet for about five minutes. I am guessing that a Milk Dud would work well, too.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies. If you aren't going to eat all of the cookies the same day, make sure you seal them in a tupperware container or a Ziploc.

1/2 Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I played with the chocolate chip cookie recipe again and they were even better than last time! Thomas says that these are best chocolate chips cookies ever! :) He's so sweet to me! Love ya, Babe!

Here you go...
2 sticks softened margarine
2 eggs
2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup white flour
1 2/3 cup wheat flour
2/3 cup oatmeal
Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes!


and coming soon... chocolate cookies with rolo centers... yum!

Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

With this recipe, you mix the dough in your bread maker and then bake it in the oven. And it is GOOD. I found the original recipe in a bread machine cookbook, but I've altered it QUITE a bit! I made 3 batches of it today, so I know it works and it tastes GREAT! Add the ingredients according to your bread machine directions. I add them in order of the recipe because my bread maker gets warm before it mixes the ingredients at all.

3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons water
1 large egg
2 Tablespoons softened margarine
1 1/4 cup white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup oatmeal (optional)
2 Tablespoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast (I prefer RedStar)

After dough cycle is finished, remove dough from bread maker. Let dough rest 10 minutes. Then I divide the dough in half and form into loaf shapes. Cover with a towel and let rise 45 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

This recipe is an odd-size. It is too big to put in one loaf pan, but too small for two loaves. So, I usually just form it into a loaf shape and bake it on a cookie sheet. The oatmeal is just to give it some different/extra nutrients. You can't even see the oatmeal pieces with this little amount. But if you add more, the dough doesn't rise well. This bread does get stale easily. So, be sure to keep it wrapped up when you aren't eating it! Also, as soon as you take it out of the oven, slide it off the pan and wrap it in a dishtowel. It'll help the crust stay soft and the inside moist.

It also makes a DELICIOUS pizza crust! I usually add a couple of teaspoons of garlic powder and roll the bottom in cornmeal when I make pizza crust. That is what we are having tomorrow! I make a deep dish crust for me and a thin crust for Thomas. I just bake the crust in a quiche pan to get a good deep crust. If you want it to be REALLY good, after the crust has cooked for about ten minutes, spread some garlic butter on it, then top it and finish the baking! But, since we are trying to eat healthier, we'll skip that part this time.

Hannah really likes this bread. She even eats the crust on the wheat bread because she can't tell what part is crust and what part is bread. This also makes a WONDERFUL white bread. Just use all white flour. This bread is a lot more dense than traditional homemade bread. It freezes and thaws really well. Because it is such a dense bread it doesn't lose a lot of its size when you defrost it like a lot of breads do. I highly recommend it!

the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies EVER

So, I modified the Hershey's Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe. They were so good. Want the recipe??? Here you go!

Hershey's Chocolate Chip Cookies (Meredith's version!)
2 sticks butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups white flour
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup milk chocolate chips
Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes

Next time I am going to use 1 1/2 cup wheat flour, 1 cup white flour... I'm currently out of wheat flour. Anyway, that's it for now... the cookies were DELICIOUS!

If you want them without the oatmeal, I use 3 cups flour. If you follow the recipe exactly as it is on the bag, they are really really thin and crispy. That's pretty much the only variation I make. Next time, I will probably add another tablespoon of brown sugar.

so, we didn't make it to church...

AGAIN! Our poor bishop is going to think that we are completely inactive! And I guess that we sort of are, however unintentional that may be. When that alarm rang at 7:30 this morning, there was no way in the world I was getting out of my bed. I couldn't have even if I wanted to. My entire body aches from head to toe. I didn't get to sleep until about 4:30, Ainsley woke up at 5:30 to eat. I tried to sit on the couch and feed her, but I couldn't. She kept kicking me, trying to get get onto her right side. She sleeps on her right side. So, I made the terrible mistake of just laying her in bed with us. That meant that she nursed the rest of the "night" and I didn't get good sleep, which I desperately need. Hannah slept in until 10. She still has a nasty nose and cough, so it is probably a good thing she didn't go spread it around Primary. But at least she has a voice again. Ainsley's cough sounds a bit different today. I haven't figured out if it is good different or bad different. We may be taking another trip to the pediatrician's office tomorrow. I seriously hope not, though. I can't afford this! At least we have health insurance now.

So, what is it about being sick and craving hamburgers??? Yep, we had hamburgers again for lunch today. We justified it by saying that we HAD to use the last of the wheat buns, and we didn't want chicken. And I wanted to try the sweet potato fries that Kathryn mentioned in my healthy eating post. Delicious!!!!

Sweet Potato Fries (courtesy of Kathryn)
Peel sweet potatoes and cut into wedges.
Sprinkle with oil & salt.
Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, flip, bake 15 minutes more or until your wedges are crunchy.
I also sprinkled with pepper & a bit of garlic powder, because that is how I like my baked sweet potatoes.

Thomas even willingly took one bite! He didn't necessarily like it, but he's still alive! Hannah is protesting eating her sweet potato fries. She wants pretzels instead. I'm not caving! She just has to eat one bite. But I managed to eat about 2/3 of 2 potatoes... can you eat too many sweet potatoes? :)

and they are even good cold! I just went back and ate a few more fries!

there is a fine line between love and hate...

Well, folks, it is 3am on Sunday. I have church in six hours. Why, then, am I still awake? Because about three and a half hours ago, I took some Sudafed for my cold. My heart is racing and I can't sleep. I'm exhausted from not sleeping for the last few days, but I am just not sleepy. This can't be good for me. I hate Sudafed! BUT the good news is that I CAN breathe again and my head doesn't feel like it is going to explode anymore. I love Sudafed. I just wish it would let me sleep...

So, for dinner tonight, I ended up making soup & homemade bread. The soup was just 1/2 a chicken breast (diced), 4 or 5 large potatoes, a large carrot, a small clove of garlic, 1 carton of chicken broth and a small beef bouillon cube. I threw it in the crockpot and let it simmer while the bread was mixing and baking. I seasoned it with onion powder, a tiny bit of season salt, black pepper and a dash of cumin. The cumin added a little spicy touch without being overpowering. I was hoping to use curry powder, but I couldn't find my bottle. Thomas has been complaining for days that he can't taste anything with this cold, so I thought I would spice up dinner a bit for him. And the reason I used half a chicken breast is because the last time I bought chicken, I cut up a couple of the chicken breasts into strips and portioned them into Ziploc bags for things like stirfry & fajitas & soups. If there are enough potatoes and breads, you don't really need the extra meat. I know, most people are going off carbs and eating more meat, but I can't. I am already allergic to eggs so I have to watch how much poultry I eat. AND meat is so dang expensive these days. I'd rather buy a bag of potatoes anyday!

still sick

yep. it's true. we're still sick.

yesterday, we were both craving big juicy hamburgers. so, instead of running out to Apollo Burger (aka Crown Burger or Burger's Supreme... if you're from Utah, you KNOW how tempting those are!) I made homemade hamburgers. YUM! They were so good. And instead of french fries, I used a couple of leftover baked potatoes and sliced and grilled them on the George Foreman. They were actually really good. So, a much healthier alternative than fast food. AND I made a few extra hamburger patties to put in the freezer for another craving hamburgers day!

Meredith's Healthier than Fast Food Burgers (makes 3 to 4 patties)
1 lb extra lean ground beef (93/7)
1/4 cup oatmeal
onion powder
garlic powder
1-2 tsp brown gravy mix
1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
season salt
Really mix all ingredients together well. I use my hands and squeeze them all together until you can't really distinguish the ground beef "strands". I know, that sounds gross! If you like onions, you can use chopped onions instead of onion powder. Fresh garlic is really good, too! Form the mixture into large thin (1/2" to 1" thick) patties. Then you can pan fry them, grill them, George Foreman them (drains off the fat), or freeze them for a rainy day!

I serve them on grilled whole wheat buns. I inverted the buns so that the inside of the buns were facing out and the outsides were together. I sprayed the George Foreman grill with cooking spray and placed the buns on the grill, closed it lightly and let it grill for about 30 seconds. It smashes the buns a bit, but we actually like them like that.

Grilled Baked Potato Slices
Wash & bake as many potatoes as you like. I do one medium potato per person. Slice 1/4" to 1/2" thick. I leave the peel on (extra fiber!). Spray with cooking spray or oil of your choice. Lightly sprinkle with season salt & onion powder. Throw them on the George Foreman grill until the tops are lightly browned. This could easily be achieved in the oven, too.


Not only was the dinner healthier but it was SO MUCH CHEAPER! We figured out that it cost us $1/person to have a healthier hamburger dinner. I love my George Foreman grill. We just have the little tiny one and I really wish that I had a bigger one. I think we may do grilled chicken sandwiches tomorrow since we have extra buns to use. But that would require that we go out and get chicken. And quite frankly, my head hurts too badly to go out. So, we'll probably eat quesadillas or nachos! :) Try the hamburgers and don't be skeptical about the oatmeal. It's a good filler, a good way to get some extra fiber, it may actually help counteract some (okay, a teeny tiny bit) of the cholesterol, and it makes the hamburgers more moist!

healthy eating

Okay, I am sick and tired of being sick and tired! We have been to the doctor's office more times than I care to count. We have a pharmacy of over the counter and prescription medication, and we are still sick! What is wrong with this picture? Thomas and I have both been losing weight, and we have attributed that to the fact that we rarely eat out anymore. I used to think that my family ate pretty well. But the last week or so I have started paying more attention to food labels. Do you know what kind of garbage is in your food? I have food allergies, so if I try a new food, I read the labels. Even if it is something that I just haven't eaten in a while, I check to make sure that there are no new ingredients, or any ingredients that I have developed an allergy to since I last ate it. I tell you this because I thought last week that I might have a kidney infection. I didn't want to go to the doctor, mainly because I don't have a doctor here yet. So, I figured I could go get some cranberry juice and that might help until I could find a good doctor. I read the labels on over 15 different varieties of cranberry "juice". The ones that were actually made of juice were mostly apple juice, grape juice and pear juice with a smidge of cranberry thrown in. I couldn't believe how much sugar is in this "juice". I can't believe I give this stuff to my kids thinking it's healthy. It's one thing for me to let Hannah have some Kool-Aid. I know it's straight sugar. But so is the dang juice! And then I sat back and looked at the meals that Hannah has eaten lately. Every morning she eats a Pop-Tart for breakfast. And don't even think about trying to swap it out for anything else. She is a creature of habit and will screw up her entire day. Trust me! Then lunch is either chicken nuggets or a turkey sandwich or a hotdog with fruit. Not terrible on non-hotdog days. The nuggets are all white breast meat and are baked not fried. But dinner sure doesn't vary much. She usually ends up with more nuggets, pizza, another turkey sandwich, or hotdog. I make her eat more fruit and some vegetables. But it's like pulling teeth. I know that kids are picky eaters. I always make her try whatever we are having for dinner. But our meals are not much healthier. They are real food, not processed or pre-packaged meals, but we eat way too much meat and not enough fresh vegetables and grains.

So, to connect the dots... I think the reason we are sick all the time is a lack of healthy eating. Well, that is one of the many reasons. I think we are getting ready to try a radically different style of eating in our home. We are going to ease into it; I don't want to shock our digestive systems! But I am going to start baking more our of breads and tortillas. Eventually I want to get my own wheat grinder and grind my own flour, but we'll start off slow at first! :) I have already started planning my vegetable garden for the summer. My goal is to get my family eating and enjoying more vegetables than just canned green beans and frozen corn. I did manage to disguise sweet potatoes enough for Thomas to like it. I substituted sweet potatoes for pumpkin in pumpkin bread. It was really good. Not terribly healthy, but he ate sweet potatoes and he is still alive! Okay, so if anyone has any good recipes for healthy ways to disguise veggies or good recipes for whole grain breads, let me know! Feel free to post them in the comments section. And if anyone else wants any recipes, I'll post reviews on the ones that I try. *Note* Due to food allergies I won't be able to try all of them! :) If you find one here and try it, post a comment with a review or send it to me in an email!