So far this week…

Things got a little upside down this week. We went to the movies on Monday and so I didn’t fix supper. We grabbed Arby’s on the way home. Tuesday we did eat out (Spaghetti Warehouse) and then on Wednesday we had the Bacon Cheeseburger Roll-Up. Tonight was the crockpot meal and tomorrow we will have breakfast for supper.

I’ve got recipes uploaded with pretty pics, excluding tonights supper, so I am up to date. I’ve got a drink recipe and a dessert recipe still to do-but I have had enough type for tonight.

Hope y’all have a great day and happy eating!

Bacon Cheeseburger Roll-Ups

Another recipe from Kraft and their latest magazines. This one I kept wanting to say BBQ in there somewhere so I decided to add some BBQ sauce-about 1/2 cup.  On the Kraft site someone mentioned making a taco version of this and I can’t wait to play around with that idea.

Bacon Cheeseburger Roll-Up

1 lb. lean ground beef

4 slices bacon, chopped

½ cup chopped onions

½ lb (8 ounces) Velveeta

1 package (13.8 oz) refrigerated pizza crust

Preheat oven to 400. Cook ground beef, bacon, and onions in large skillet on medium-high heat until ground beef is evenly browned, stirring occasionally. Drain; return meat mixture to skillet. Add Velveeta; cook until completely melted, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; set aside.

Unroll pizza dough onto baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Press into 15×8 inch rectangle. Roll up dough, starting at one of the long sides. Rearrange, if necessary, so roll is seam0side down on baking sheet.

Bake 20 to 25 minute or until golden brown. Cut into six servings.

Crustless Bacon and Cheese Quiche

This one comes from the Kraft mag that came out here recently.

I really enjoyed this-in fact I ate nearly half of the pan! My husband liked it also and wanted to share. I halved this recipe and put in a smaller pan however, I think next time I will make the full amount. This would be a great brunch recipe.

 

Crustless Bacon and Cheese Quiche

1 cup sliced green onions

1 cup sliced tomatoes

12 slices bacon

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

12 eggs

1/3 cup sour cream

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 325. Reserve 2 tablespoons each onion and tomatoes, set aside. Cook bacon in large skillet until crisp. Remove bacon with slotted spoon to paper towel covered plate, reserving 1 tablespoon of the bacon drippings in skillet. Add mushrooms to skillet; cook and stir two minutes or until tender. Remove from heat. Chop bacon. Add to mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes; mix well.

Beat eggs and sour cream with wire whisk, until well blended. Pour into greased 13×9 inch pan; top with bacon mixture and cheeses.

Bake 30 minutes or until center is set. Sprinkle with reserved onions and tomatoes. Let stand 5 minutes before cutting into pieces to serve.

Serves 12 people.

Link and Menu planning

I would love to have a house someday with a room just for me with built in bookshelves and a leather couch. I love to read-mystery, fiction, non-fiction, cookbooks, really anything. That’s why I am half afraid I’m going to end up like Nancy Benoit in this story from the Detroit Free Press. You should read about how many cookbooks she has and her system. Makes me understand we are all a little loco about our hobbies.

I’ve got a recipe to post that was incredibly good but that posting won’t happen till probably Wednesday. I’ve been trying to get through some of the magazines that I’ve got on hand-mostly Kraft’s monthly magazine. The Crustless Egg and Cheese we had on Saturday was great. Last night it was tacos-no recipe to share. Tonight it’s Bacon Cheeseburger Roll-Up from Kraft. Tuesday night it’s our anniversary and we’re going to see a concert. Here’s the rest of the week

Monday Bacon Cheeseburger Roll-Ups

Tuesday: Eat Out

Wednesday: Smothered Beef and Biscuits and Scrambled Eggs

Thursday : Potatoes, Sauerkraut, and Sausage (in the crock pot)

Friday: Chicken, stuffing, and veggie

Saturday: Smokehouse Burgers

Sunday: Spaghetti

Monday: Chicken Sandwiches

I’ll be getting groceries on next Monday hopefully. If not, it will have to be on Tuesday and I’ve got a plan for Monday. A little less stress I’ve decided to join the gang over at I’m An Organizing Junkie and post a link there to my menus. If your looking for some ideas and/or new recipes try looking through others menus. I enjoy doing this and picking up some recipes and decided to join along.

Happy eating!

Chicken and Ham Casserole

This recipe was from Allrecipes and seemed like a very simple throw together thing. In fact, I made some additions and substitutions and ended up loving this dish! It reminded me of a variation of pot pie and is one that will go in my recipe file.

I used a chicken breast, cooked and chopped and it was the perfect size. We buy the diced and/or chunk ham in the two pound packages for salads and easy meals and used that. The spices I used I did not measure-so just eyeball it. A couple of good shakes of celery salt and parsley flakes and a pinch of chives really did the trick for me. Feel free to substitute other spices or leave them out entirely.

Chicken and Ham Casserole

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

½ cup cooked, cubed chicken breast

½ cup cooked and cubed ham

½ cup cooked wide egg noodles

¼ cup chopped celery

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

3 ounces shredded cheddar cheese

1 teaspoon paprika

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Stir in the flour and heat until bubbly. Slowly add the milk, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened and smooth.

Remove from heat and stir in the chicken, ham, noodles, celery, salt, and pepper. Transfer mixture to a 1 ½ quart casserole dish.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle with the cheese and top with paprika, as desired. Return to oven and bake for 5-10 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.

I omitted the celery-didn’t have any. I used one saucepan to cook the chicken, then the noodles, and then make the sauce. I also tossed in nearly a cup of frozen mixed veggies and added celery salt, parsley flakes, and chives. I omitted the paprika on top.

Grocery shopping

Actually, I goofed. We only needed groceries for one week not two but I had a blonde moment. So next week, which is a good thing, we will need to get only a few more groceries. Also, I’ve got a set schedule of what day we are having what for supper. For some reason, I got that we we’re having spaghetti so we had spaghetti. Instead it was suppose to be stir fry. I’ll just flop those two nights and no biggie.

We went to Aldi’s and spent 75.86 The outlet bread store was 11.00 something (I’ve misplace the reciept) and I went to Albertson’s to get the last few items. That total was 54.48. One note on Albertsons-I thought they were doing the double coupons however, mine wasn’t doubled. And two, next week I will go to Wal-Mart because too me it just seemed awful high. I did save 6.48 in “bonus buy” savings and 2.34 in coupons for a total of 8.82 in savings. Maybe I will look at thier ads and just pick up whats on sale.

So for this two weeks of groceries I spent 141.34. This is better than 165.00 but the hubby wants 80.00 so I overspent. And went over my budget of 100.00. Instead of kicking myself over it all, I think I will make chocolate pudding and try again next time.

I’ve got a question for y’all: how do you make your grocery list or do you even have one? Is there one sure-fire tip that works to save you money?

I’ve been wanting an upright freezer to stock up on bulk or family size meats and have plenty of veggies, pizza, etc on hand. This will have to wait, obviously. I’ve got to clean house a little tonight and make brownies for a family member and something sweet for us. Hopefully I’ll get a recipe posted in the next little bit! Happy Eating!

Ragin Cajun Jambalaya

Today’s supper was from ConAgra foods, specifically Hunts. It’s called Ragin Cajun Jambalaya and used chicken and smoked sausage. The recipe I’m sharing serves eight which is way too much for my husband and I so I cut it in half. I did use the 8 ounces of tomato sauce though without any problems. This does take some time-I had to cut up the chicken into strips, fry them up with the sausage, take it out of skillet, put in rice, and then put everything back in the pan. I used a Dutch pan. I also didn’t have onion, which I could have sworn I did have, and used some minced dried onions sauteed with the rice, and I added some dried red and green pepper flakes.

 

Ragin Cajun Jambalaya

 

16 ounces smoked sausage, cut into ½ inch slices

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into strips

1 medium onion, finely chopped (about ½ cup)

2 cloves garlic

1 ½ cups long grain white rice, uncooked

2 cans (10 ounce each) Ro-Tel Original Diced Tomatoes and Green Chiles, undrained

2 cans (14.5 ounce each) chicken broth

1 can (8 ounce) tomato sauce

Cook sausage and chicken in large skillet over medium-high heat until chicken strips are no longer pink in centers and juices run clear, stirring frequently. (Best to spray pan with non-stick spray before starting.) Remove from saucepan; cover to keep warm. Add onions and garlic to same saucepan; cook 3 minutes or until onions are crisp-tender, stirring frequently. Remove from skillet; cover to keep warm.

Add rice to same saucepan; cook 5 minutes, or until golden brown, stirring frequently. Add sausage mixture and onion mixture; mix well. Stir in tomatoes with their liquid, the broth and the tomato sauce; bring to a boil. Cover saucepan with lid; reduce heat to low.

Simmer 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Stir before serving.

Yeah for me

I got the bathtub cleaned which was one of my original thoughts when this came up. I’ve been off for seven days and finally conquered it. Although the drain still ain’t really draining. But at least it’s clean. I’ve even added a reminder to my Google calendar so that I will remember. Cause it’s been a while and was flat out nasty.

I’ve managed to keep the house picked up and the kitchen somewhat clean. There are some deep cleaning chores I want to accomplished. But I do have this summer. We have eaten out the past couple of days so no pictures or recipes. I did make a chocolate cake I will hopefully share today or so.

I just want to mention two products that I really like-I spent the money and got the Scrubbing Bubbles  designed for soap scum. When your drain takes forever to drain the shower water soap scum happens! I like this product because it makes cleaning somewhat easier. Also, for my dishwasher I like the Cascade 2-in-1 Action Paks and discovered a couple of weeks ago that they have it available with bleach. My mom frequently washed dishes in bleach water. This is preciously  what I needed for those loads with pans that are sticky or plates that have set overnight. Wonderful products to me. What makes your cleaning a little easier?

Whew

The house got cleaned on Sunday morning and things have been falling into place in me keeping the place up. On Monday, my sister came over and we rearranged my bedroom. That’s now being kept up on a daily basis. I’m hoping that the hubby will see the effort I put in and start hitting the hamper or taking dishes to the kitchen or whatever. I haven’t done much today. I have got the kitchen/living room/bedroom picked up. Not bad, but with my hubby off yesterday, there was a few extra glasses and whatnot lying around. Just as much my fault as his. I also accomplished this today:

Yummy-hot chocolate cake and cold milk. Good stuff, Maynard!

Well, I am going to start the dishwasher and go read some. Have a great day!

Stovetop Mac N Cheese with Ham and Peas

Boy is this a long title! Basically it’s homemade mac and cheese with peas and ham to make it a meal. It’s made with shredded cheese and milk and elbow mac. It was very good but for me it was a little bland. I think I will stick with using Velveeta instead. This recipe was from Andrea Chesman’s Mom’s Best One Dish Suppers.

Stovetop Mac N Cheese with Ham and Peas

1 pound elbow mac

5 tablespoons butter

2 1/2 cups grated sharp Cheddar

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/2 cup milk

1/2 pound ham, diced

2 cups frozen peas

Salt and pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil; cook the macaroni until just done, about 8 minutes. Drain and return to the pot.

Put the pot over the lowest possible heat and add the butter, cheese, mustard, milk, ham, and peas. Stir until the cheese melts. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

The recipes states it serves 4-6 and we got almost six plus servings out of this dish. Great idea for mixing veggies into mac and cheese. I used a little extra milk and next time will use Velveeta instead.