Tomato/Mozzarella Salad

INGREDIENTS:

Tomatoes (Home Grown or Vine Ripened are the best!), sliced

Mozzarella Cheese (The hand wrapped or mozzarella balls are so good!), sliced

Purple Onion, sliced

Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Salt and Pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Mix all ingredients and enjoy! 

Shish Kabobs

So these are super easy and there are a million ways to make them. This is just one example!

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb of steak meat (I just buy steak tips from our meat department)

1 Green Pepper, sliced

1 White Onion, sliced

1 package of mushrooms

Worcestershire Sauce

Chef Paul Prudhomme's Meat Magic

Garlic Salt

Olive Oil

Nature's Season

Kabob Sticks

DIRECTIONS:

Marinate the meat in worcestershire sauce, meat magic, and garlic salt. Soak the Kabob sticks in water for at least an hour (this prevents them from burning on the grill!) Assemble the kabobs- alternating steak, mushrooms, onion and the green pepper. Drizzle olive oil on the kabobs and sprinkle with nature's season. Cook over the grill until the meat is at your desired temperature and the veggies are tender. Enjoy!

You can use just about anything for kabobs. I also like to use canned potatoes, pineapple, purple onion, multi-color peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, grape tomatoes, chicken, shrimp...really anything you can put on a kabob, I'll cook! :) I also mix it up on the seasonings for the varieties of meat. 

Beef and Bean Chimichangas

We love Mexican Food, and usually have Taco Night pretty regularly... so I decided to try to put a new spin on the tacos. Andrew usually always orders chimichangas when we eat Mexican out, so he inspired this idea. I didn't want to deep fry them (unhealthy and a mess!) so I tried to bake them. Not quite the same as deep fried, but still tasty!

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 8 oz. can corn

1 envelope taco seasoning

Taco Sauce

Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Melted Mexican White Cheese

16 oz. refried beans

Flour Tortillas

2 TBL melted butter

Tomatoes, Chopped

Lettuce, Shredded

Sour Cream

Guacamole

Salsa

Mexican Rice

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350. Brown the beef in a large skillet. Drain grease and add onion and green pepper until tender. Mix in the (drained) corn and taco sauce with about 1/2 cup of water. Heat until boiling and then simmer. Begin to melt the mexican white cheese in a small saucepan on stove. Open the can of refried beans- on each tortilla, spread a layer of beans, then the meat mixture, topped with taco sauce, and cheddar cheese. Roll the tortillas up, and place seam-side down on a cookie sheet. Spread melted butter on top of tortillas. Bake in the oven about 20-30 minutes until the tortillas are golden brown. Serve with melted mexican cheese, lettuce, sour cream, tomatoes, guacamole and salsa. A side of Mexican rice and a Corona and lime are the perfect combos!

Tuna Pie

INGREDIENTS:

1 can solid white tuna in water

8 oz. Sour Cream (I use low-fat)

6 oz. Shredded Swiss Cheese (my grocery store only sells it in blocks, so I have to shred it myself)

1 can friend onion rings

3 eggs

1 frozen pie crust

Mix all ingredients together and pour into the frozen pie crust. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Another variation is to use hamburger and cheddar cheese instead of tuna and swiss. I made green beans and a salad for the side dishes.

Monkey Bread

This is an easy way to throw together a little 'baking'!

INGREDIENTS:

3 packages of refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough

1 cup sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup margarine

1 cup packed brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Grease bundt pan. 

In a large ziplock bag, mix sugar and cinnamon. Add small pieces of dough, walnuts and raisins. Shake until all pieces are thoroughly coated. Pour mix into the bundt pan.

Melt margarine in a small saucepan, adding the brown sugar to make a syrup. Pour this over the dough mixture in the bundt pan.

Bake for 35 minutes. Let cool slightly, then turn the bundt onto a plate. 

Easy Lasagna Bake

This is good for sharing- it makes a lot of food!

INGREDIENTS:

1 package medium egg noodles

1 16 oz. container low-fat sour cream

1 16 oz. container nonfat ricotta cheese

Black Pepper

5 Green Onions, chopped

2 lbs ground beef

2 TBL seasoned salt

2-3 cans of Spaghetti Sauce

1 green pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped

24 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded

24. oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook egg noodles according to package and drain.

While the noodles are cooking, cook ground beef with salt and green pepper and onion until meat is browned and vegetables are tender. Stir in spaghetti sauce and simmer.

Put the noodles in a bowl and mix with ricotta, sour cream, green onions and pepper. 

Layer ingredients in a deep roasting pan- starting with the meat sauce, noodles, and then shredded cheeses. Repeat until you've used all your noodles and meat sauce. Final layer should be shredded cheeses. Bake for 30-45 minutes until cheese browns slightly. Enjoy!

Potato Soup

We've been having rainy weather here- so I felt like soup! We had potato soup, italian bread sticks and salad. Yum!

INGREDIENTS:

3-4 stalks of celery, chopped

1 onion, diced

4-5 cups of cubed potatoes (I left the skins on red and gold new potatoes)

3 cubes or 3 tsp. of chicken bouillon

Bacon, crumbled

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp celery salt

1 TBL chopped parsley (fresh is probably best, but I used dried)

1/2 cup of butter

6 TBL flour

2 cups milk

Cheese- I used pepper jack, american and mozzarella because that's what I had extras of in my fridge. Any cheese would be good!

DIRECTIONS:

Cook and crumble bacon.

In a large pot, add celery, onion, potatoes, bouillon, pepper, salt and parsley. Add enough water so that all vegetables are fully submerged. Heat until boiling and cook until all vegetables are very tender. 

In a small skillet, melt the butter and whisk in flour. Slowly pour in milk and whisk until it thickens. Add that mixture to the vegetables, with bacon and cheese. Keep warm until you are ready to eat.