Turkey Meatloaf

Posted By: Kristi

A friend at work told me about this recipe, found here, it was really really good! I was very impressed! I cut this recipe in half and it was huge. Below are the ingredients for double what I made.

Ingredients

• 3 cups chopped yellow onions (2 large onions)
• 2 tablespoons good olive oil
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)
• 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 3/4 cup chicken stock
• 1 1/2 teaspoons tomato paste
• 5 pounds ground turkey breast
• 1 1/2 cups plain dry bread crumbs
• 3 extra-large eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup ketchup

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
In a medium saute pan, over medium-low heat, cook the onions, olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme until translucent, but not browned, approximately 15 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce, chicken stock, and tomato paste and mix well. Allow to cool to room temperature.
Combine the ground turkey, bread crumbs, eggs, and onion mixture in a large bowl. Mix well and shape into a rectangular loaf on an ungreased sheet pan. Spread the ketchup evenly on top. Bake for 1 1/2 hours until the internal temperature is 160 degrees F. and the meatloaf is cooked through. (A pan of hot water in the oven under the meatloaf will keep the top from cracking.) Serve hot, at room temperature, or cold in a sandwich.

Let us know what you think! If you have another meatloaf recipe, please share. My husband loves meatloaf and I would love to try different kinds.

Recipe - Taco Soup

Posted By:  Stephanie

I love Taco Soup, or is it Chili?  I'm not really even sure what to call it, or what the definition on chili really is so lets just go with, I love this recipe!

1 large onion, chopped

1 can Pinto Beans

1 can Chili Beans

1 can Whole Kernel Corn

1 can Diced Tomatoes - any flavor, I prefer Italian Seasoned

1 can Mexican Style Tomatoes - I used Tex Mex Style Tomatoes

1 package Taco Seasoning

1 package Ranch Dressing Mix

1 lb meat of your choice - I threw in 3 frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts

Put in the crock pot (do not drain cans) for about 7-8 hours on low heat.  If you use chicken breasts like I did, pull them out when the food is cooked and put them in a bowl.  Using forks shred the chicken which will be very easy to do.  Put it back into the crock pot and mix the meat in.

When serving this it is really good with cheese, sour cream and tortilla chips!  YUMMY!

Although this recipe is extremely quick and easy I like to make it even easier by putting all the ingredients in a large zip lock bag and freezing it.  That way I can put the bag in the refrigerator the day before so that I'm able to break it up in the morning and get it into the crock pot and not have to mess with the cans, chopping and all that good stuff.  Most likely it will still be mostly frozen if you took it out of the freezer the evening before.  Just a little tip so that you don't end up with a big mess, use a pitcher to put the bag in before adding your ingredients, that way you wont have a spill accident which is easy to do with all the liquids.

Cake Mix and Pudding Cookies

Posted By:  Stephanie

These cookies are so good and soft!  I know some people love a crunchy cookie but I am all for a nice and soft one.  I've never had a recipe that gave me that perfect fluffy cookie until now.  A friend made these, told me how to make them and I couldn't wait to try it out myself.

All you have to do is follow the instructions on any cake mix, minus one egg that it calls for and add one pudding.  It's that easy!  Oh and of course they wouldn't be the same without being topped with frosting!  The only trick to making these fluffy and not into flat pancakes (I did that once) is to make sure that your eggs are at room temperature.  The pudding should already be at room temperature because it is not the pudding that comes in the refrigeration section at the store, you will find it near the cake mix in the warm aisle.  I'm sure there is a better term for that but I'm not sure what it is.  = )  

Now that the weekend is here you should run to the store and give it a try.  As with any baking adventure in our house Little Lou got involved and loved it.  She likes when we use the hand mixer and before we turn it on she gets excited and yells, "I want to make noise!"  I sure do love that girl!

Have you made cookies from cake mix?  If your recipe is different please share.

Chocolate Covered Marshmallows on a Stick

Posted By: Kristi

For Stephanie's baby shower for Lelo, I made white and milk chocolate covered marshmallows on a stick and they were a huge hit! Everyone enjoyed them, especially the kiddos!

They were really fun to make and looked great as part of the table decor. 

Here's what you need to make them:

Sucker sticks (I got mine at Michael's, but I made these again for another party and just cut cute paper straws in half and used them)

Marshmallows

 White and/or milk chocolate morsels

Sprinkles of your choice

1. Cover a large tray (that can easily fit in the fridge) with wax paper.

2. Line up your marshmallows.

3. In a microwavable container, microwave your chocolate morsels.

4. Dip the end of your sucker stick in your melted chocolate and place the stick in the top of a marshmallow. This will help keep your marshmallow on the stick when you dip the entire marshmallow in chocolate. Otherwise, it will be to flimsy and won't hold together.

5. Repeat this process on all marshmallows.

6. Dip your entire marshmallow in the chocolate. Keep turning the stick in your fingers to remove the excess chocolate.

 7. Add sprinkles and then repeat on your next marshmallow.

 These are a hit, you should give them a try!

Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

Posted By:  Stephanie

Remember this post from last Friday when I was talking about what to do with all those tomatoes in your garden?  Well, we have MANY more tomatoes that have become ripe sense then.  My mother in law who lives next door was canning up some spaghetti sauce so I decided to share a recipe with your from the Blue Book of Preserving by Ball.

Yield: about 6 pints

2 cups chopped onions

2 cups chopped green peppers

1 cup chopped celery

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons oil

2 pounds ground beef (the sauce in the picture above does not have the meat in it)

3 (6-ounce) cans tomato paste

3 (8-ounce) cans tomato sauce

1 (29-ounce) can whole tomatoes, chopped (or fresh tomatoes of course)

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoons oregano

1 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Saute onions, green peppers, celery and garlic in oil until onions are tender.  Add ground beef; cook until browned.  Drain off fat.  Add remaining ingredients; simmer 1 hour.  Remove bay leaves.  Cool.  Ladle sauce into can-or-freeze jars or plastic freezer boxes, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.  Seal, label and freeze.

If you give this recipe a try let us know what you think!  

We have lots of projects we hope to get started/complete over the weekend and couldn't be more excited about it!  Have a wonderful weekend, we'll be back Monday for more fun!

3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

Posted By: Kristi


These are the easiest cookies and are scrumptious too! This is a nice recipe to have on hand when you are having a sweet tooth but are a little low on groceries. I don't know about you but we usually have these three ingredients on hand. Especially peanut butter, we are peanut butter freaks!

Here's what you need:

 

1. First mix the sugar and peanut butter up a bit and then add the egg and mix all three ingredients together. Doing it this way will make it so your baked cookies are the perfect texture.

2.  Once all three ingredients are mixed up well, roll small balls and place them on your cookie sheet (I used my Pampered Chef stone).

3. Make your fork marks on top of each ball.

4. Preheat your oven to 350 and place your cookie sheet in the oven. Cook for 8-13 minutes.

5. Remove from the oven and let cool. 

6. Devour!

How to Make Liquid Hand Soap

Posted By:  Stephanie

Good morning!  Today I'm going to show you a quick tutorial on how to make liquid hand soap.  Seriously, it is so easy and such a money saver that we should all do this.

Gather all your supplies:

1 gallon distilled water

1 8oz bar of soap

*after trial and error on my husband's part making body wash we found Dove does not work well*

Glycerin

 *usually found near the band aids*

1 TBSP measuring spoon

Cheese grater

Step 1:  Grate the bar of soap and add the soap and 2 TBSP Glycerin to a pot of 1 gallon distilled water.

We (my husband and I) used a 5.5oz bar of soap and found that if we used a bit less water or an 8oz bar of soap it would have worked a little better.  We were still happy with the results so the soap wont go to waste.

Step 2:  Turn the heat to medium/high heat and continue to heat until the soap shavings dissolve.

As it is dissolving stir it up, this process doesn't take long.

This is what it will look like once you're finished dissolving the soap.

Step 3:  Wait about 24 hours for the soap to settle and become less runny.  Get out your handy mixer and mix it...mix it real good. (said in the tune of Push It by Salt and Peppa)

Step 4:  Use a funnel and pour your soap into the gallon container the water came in for storage.

That's it, you're done!

Of course everything turns out better when you have a messy cute assistant helping out.

Now get to it!  

Seriously this is SO easy and will save you tons of money over time.  Like I said though, don't use Dove bar soap for this, it was a runny mess!  I personally prefer the natural soaps for 2 reasons:

1.  The cost savings is even greater

2.  When we did try the dove the smell wasn't pleasant it was all chemical, no thank you.

Tomato Soup - Canning Recipe

Posted By:  Stephanie

Happy Friday!  Today I thought I would share with you a great tomato soup recipe that you can use to can some of those tomatoes that you have grown and aren't sure what you're going to do with.  If you're anything like us, you plant WAY more tomatoes then you really need just because they are SO good!  My mother in law loves this recipe and makes sure she puts up many jars of this yearly.

Tomato Soup

20lbs tomatoes peeled and smashed, cook and stir until mushy (about 30-40 minutes)

*We have a Vitamix so we skip that step and just throw them in there with the skin, such a time saver!*

In a separate pan:

4 C finely chopped onions

2 bunches finely chopped celery and leaves

4 C grated zucchini

1 bunch fresh parsley chopped

2-3 bay leaves (optional, take our prior to putting in jars)

Boil together while tomatoes are cooking

When tomatoes are cooked add the cooked vegetable mixture.

Melt butter and add the flour stirring constantly.  When smooth add the salt, pepper and sugar.

1 1/4 C flour

4 cubes real butter

3 tbs salt

2 tsp pepper

2 C sugar (you can use less)

Slowly add to the tomato mixture stirring constantly; bring to a boil - mixture will be thick.

Fill jars; leave 1" head space.

Cold water bath for 45 minutes

This makes about 12-15 quarts.

Of course if you don't have that many tomatoes you can always make a 1/2 batch.

Have a great weekend!

This recipe has been linked to Take it on Tuesday.

Corn on the Cob

Posted By:  Stephanie

Hello and happy Tuesday to all of you!  I'm sure many of you are back at work today after a long weekend wishing it never had to end!  We had a great time celebrating Memorial Day and spending lots of time with family and friends.  I wanted to share this particular BBQ day with you for a specific reason, the corn on the cob.  Oh my, this guy below (Derek) really knows how to BBQ and taught us a new trick for eating our corn.

Before I let you in on that secret (which you may already know but all of us at the BBQ had NO idea)  I have to show you these boys.  Look at how much fun they had playing together in the mud.  Now that is what memories are made of!

Alright all you need to do is BBQ the corn.  Derek did this by putting the corn on the BBQ with the husk still on.  Once it was ready he peeled it back and put some mayonnaise and parmesan cheese on the corn.  Seriously, magic people!  You have to try it this summer during your next get together.  You'll be famous with your friends.

As you can see, I was enjoying every bite.  I think it's funny how you can see my belly sticking out the bottom too.  Lelo is getting to be a big girl!  Less then 12 weeks until our due date, time is flying by.

Please tell us, what do you put on your corn on the cob?

Veggie Pizza

Posted By: Kristi

The same night I made the pot roast, I also made veggie pizza. I know they don't really go together but I was craving them both, so I went for it. I liked it even better than the pot roast, the flavors are delish!

Ingredients:

• 2 (8 ounce) packages refrigerated crescent rolls
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 teaspoon dried dill weed
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 (1 ounce) package ranch dressing mix
• 1 cucumber
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups fresh broccoli, chopped
• 1 carrot, grated

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray a jellyroll pan with non-stick cooking spray.

 This is a jelly roll pan (basically, a baking sheet). I wasn't sure what it was until I Googled it. = )

Pat crescent roll dough into a jellyroll pan. Let stand 5 minutes. Pierce with fork. Bake for 10 minutes, let cool. 

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine sour cream, cream cheese, dill weed, garlic salt and ranch dip mix. Spread this mixture on top of the cooled crust. 

Add the cucumber, carrot, bell peppers and broccoli to the top. Cover and let chill. Once chilled, cut it into squares and serve.

 The flavors are amazing, you should really give this one a try. It is perfect for dinner parties or showers!