What to do with ground beef?

This recipe was easy to make, made my tummy happy and satisfied my husband. It's the all around perfect meal to use up that extra ground beef in your freezer! And an added bonus is that it's ready in less than 30 minutes. No, seriously, it is. You gotta try this if you like a good salisbury steak or meatloaf!

Source: Sweet Tea in Texas



Salisbury Steak

• 1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed French onion soup
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs (I used panko)
  
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder (I just used 1 tablespoon mustard)
  

In a large bowl, mix together 1/3 cup condensed French onion soup with ground beef, bread crumbs, egg, salt and black pepper. Shape into 6 oval patties.

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown both sides of patties. Pour off excess fat.

In a small bowl, blend flour and remaining soup until smooth. Mix in ketchup, water, Worcestershire sauce and mustard powder. Pour over meat in skillet. Cover, and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

I Scream, You Scream...

Why oh why do we buy ice cream when it's so much better homemade?? It doesn't take very long, you control the ingredients (i.e. all organic/good quality), and it tastes so much better! This recipe is no different. Dorie is wonderful!

I also have The Perfect Scoop and really want to try a few recipes in there. Isn't it funny how summer just ended and I'm finally jumping on the ice cream bandwagon? I'm sure my husband will be happy! But my waist line wont. I need to loose those extra 5 pounds of baby weight and this will not help :)

Source: Baking from my Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan



Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream

• 6 oz bittersweet chocolate
• 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup sugar

Break up chocolate and place in a 2 quart measuring cup. Boil 3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream. Pour cream over chocolate and let sit for a minute. Stir slowly until the ganache is smooth.

Bring other 3/4 cup of cream and milk to a boil. While this is coming to a boil whisk sugar and egg yolks together until thickened and creamy. Add a bit of boiled milk/cream to egg mixture to temper the eggs. Than add egg mixture to milk/cream mixture and whisk continuously until a custard forms. The custard mixture should coat the back of a spoon and when you take your finger and run a line down the custard it should stay separated.

Add custard mixture to chocolate ganache and stir with a spatula until incorporated. Chill mixture. Once mixture is chilled add to ice cream machine. Place into a separate container and freeze until firm (I like to wait overnight).

When ready to serve allow ice cream to sit out for a bit to thaw. This will make it easier to scoop.

Pumpkin Perfection

This past Sunday Joseph, the baby and I went to the pumpkin patch. And I had one thing on my mind... bringing home some sugar pumpkins! No carving pumpkins for me. I want ones I can eat. So we went, took lots of pictures of the little one playing with the pumpkins and picked out all kinds of wonderful squash and pumpkins.

This was my first time baking and pureeing a pumpkin but I think I did pretty well. It was soo easy. I now wonder why I never tried this before. This will definitely be the way I do pumpkin in the future.

Source: Adapted from BakeSpace and My Head



Pumpkin Muffins with Maple Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 tbsp. and 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 4 eggs
• 1 ¼ cups applesauce
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups fresh pumpkin puree

Combine the flour, spices, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Mix well and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, applesauce, sugar and pumpkin puree. Mix until well combined. Add in the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two muffin pans with paper liners. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool completely before serving.

Maple Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8oz cream cheese
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup maple
• 1/2 cup whipping cream

Whip all ingredients until soft peaks form. You can either use the frosting right away or refrigerate it a bit to let it stiffen.

* Once you frost the muffins you can top with a few chopped pumpkin seeds for a little extra something.

Chili Chili!

I have been craving chili for quite some time now. I mean it isn't even cold here yet (been in the 80-90s all week) but something was screaming fall to me. So I decided to throw a simple batch of chili into the crock pot and enjoy one of my favorite fall/winter meals.

At the last minute I decided that the chili needed a little something more so I looked in the pantry for something to spice it up a bit. And my hands fell upon a Trader Joes cornbread mix. YUM! I love this mix :)

And the combination turned out to be a wonderful, simple dinner with leftovers for lunch the next day.



Chili Cornbread Cups

• 2 small zucchini, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 1 can diced tomatoes w/ chili
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 packet chili seasoning
• 1 package Trader Joes cornbread mix

Brown turkey and season with salt and pepper. Throw all the veggies, beans, seasoning & turkey into a crock pot and set on low for 8-10 hours.

Preheat oven to temperature stated on package. Make cornbread mix. Spoon chili into oven safe single portion dishes (I used 4 large ramekins). Leave about 1 inch headroom. Than top chili with cornbread mix. Bake for amount of time stated on package (I baked mine for 30 minutes) or until golden brown.

Take out of the oven and allow to cool a bit. Eat right out of the dish or turn over and dump it all out :) YUM!

Sandwich Bread

I love a simple sandwich bread. Well... any bread is simple when you have a bread maker. It's sooo much easier than kneading, waiting, kneading, waiting, baking, waiting and than eating! Now all I have to do is throw in the ingredients, push a button, and wait. Much less work than the old option (although I do love to make a few doughy things by hand...).

So this past week I got on a bread kick. Made bread twice. Usually I only make a loaf once or twice a month so twice in one week is pretty big :) Since you really have to eat most loaves in a day or two I always make the office happy when I bake because the bread comes to work along with me the day after.

This loaf was great for the ham sandwiches I made. YUM!

Source: The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook



Milk Bread

• 1 1/3 cups whole milk (I used low fat...)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine cut into pieces (I used butter)
• 4 cups bread flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon gluten
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons SAF yeast or 1 tablespoon bread machine yeast

Place all ingredients into the pan according to the order in the manufacturer's instructions (I put in order as shown above, liquids first, than dry ingredients with yeast last... I always make a little ditch in the middle of my dry ingredients to put the yeast so it doesn't touch the liquid too soon). Set crust on medium or dark, and program for the Basic cycle. Start the machine.

When baking cycle ends, immediately remove bread from pan and place on rack. Let cool to room temperature before slicing (I know how tempting this is but wait it out!).

Enjoy toasted with some butter or with a nice slab of meat or veggies on it in a sandwich!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Heaven

This cake was heavenly! Seriously. You have to make it. Like for your next party! My coworker's birthday was coming up and I knew I had to make something special for her. She's always been super sweet and is just a great friend/co-worker. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she said she was up for anything. As soon as I suggested a chocolate/peanut butter combo she was excited.

As soon as I had the frosting whipped up I tasted a smidge and was hooked. After frosting the cake I licked the spoon. And maybe the bowl. Yum!

Source: Hershey's and peanut butter frosting recipe from Good Things Catered



Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Frosting & Peanut Butter Frosting (recipes follow)

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

Frost middle of cake (between two layers) with peanut butter frosting and frost the rest of the cake (top and sides) with chocolate peanut butter frosting.

10 to 12 (large) servings.

Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup peanut butter (I added this to the original recipe)

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla and peanut butter. About 2 cups frosting.

Peanut Butter Frosting (I used 1/4 of this recipe)

1 stick butter, room temperature
1 c. creamy peanut butter
5 c. powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 – 1/3 c. milk, divided

In bowl of stand mixer, add butter, peanut butter and 1/8 c. milk.

Mix on slowest setting to combine well.

Slowly add powdered sugar, mixing on slowest setting.

1 Tbsp at a time, add remaining milk, just until desired consistency is reached (you may not need all of it depending on climate and temperature).

Spinach and Tomatoes oh my!

My mother-in-law brought over a bunch of tomatoes from her garden the other day and I knew I had to use them up fast. So I looked up recipes that had the ingredients I had on hand (spinach, onions, tons of spices!) and came upon this one.

It was delicious! And it was so simple to make. I whipped it up as the kabobs were grilling and it was all ready to go by the time the kabobs came off the grill. The meal melded perfectly together.

I wasn't as creative with the rest of the tomatoes... they are all now pureed and cooked into marinara sauce for later.

Source: Recipezaar



Spinach and Tomatoes

• 2 (12 ounce) boxes frozen spinach (I used fresh)
• 2 (16 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
• 1 onion, chopped (optional)
• 1 pinch basil (optional) or oregano (optional)
• parmesan cheese
• balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar

Combine spinach, tomatoes, onion and herbs in a small saucepan.

Heat to boiling then simmer 7-10 minutes or until onions are cooked.

Serve, passing parmesan and vinegar at the table for each person to add as they prefer (I just tossed the parmesan in and sprinkled with vinegar after plating it).

Adventures in Baby Food: Peaches

Peaches are another great food to start with if baby isn't quite 6 months. They're easy to digest, have a diuretic affect and act as a laxative. So if baby seem stopped up from rice cereal or another fruit/veggie, use these to get things going again :) Then everyone is happy (before becoming a mom I did not think I'd even be talking about these things!)

E loved the peaches. I really didn't doubt if he would like them though. He's liked everything we've given him so far. And he's a great eater. He lets you know when he wants more and and lets you know when he's done. He even is using his sippy cup in between "bites". This solids thing is getting more and more fun!

Source: Wholesomebabyfood.com



Peach Puree

• 4 small-medium organic peaches

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut peaches in half and take out the pits. Place peaches in a dish with 1" of water. Bake until soft or until the skin starts to peel up (roughly 20 minutes for me... shorter if the peaches are riper).

Let cool (I didn't wait for them to cool too much) and peel skin off. Place fruit in blender/processor and puree. Strain through strainer and, if needed, use cooking water to thin out or cereal to thicken up the puree.

Serve or store.



After feeding E his lunch I decided to make use of the mesh feeder we got with our food mill (still haven't used) and put an ice cube in there for him to gnaw on. It was GREAT! He loved it. And I didn't have to wipe him up too much from the puree because he had already sucked everything off by the time he was done with his ice cube!

Spicy Southwest

Let me preface this post by saying yes, I know what this looks like. But it was sooo darn good! And I didn't even follow a recipe. I can honestly say that this is a genuine, one of a kind recipe from me. And there are so many alternatives that I'm thinking about for the next time I make them.

All of the ingredients except for the avocado are ingredients that are always in my fridge or pantry. So this is a meal I can make again and again without having to worry about having all of the ingredients.

Next time I want to try topping them with enchilada sauce and setting out dippers for them... sour cream, salsa & guac. And maybe topping them with pepper jack instead. YUM!

Source: my head



Southwest Meatloaf Muffins

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 can diced tomatoes with chiles (I used Rotel)
• 1 can corn
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 egg
• 1/4-1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I used panko)
• Chili powder
• Cumin
• Red cayenne pepper
• Onion powder
  
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Provolone cheese
• Avocado (optional)
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together well. Using a 1/3 cup measuring cup scoop out some mixture and fill a muffin pan.

Bake for 20 minutes. Pop meatloaf muffins out of tin and place in baking dish. Top with cheese and cook for another 5-10 minutes or until cheese is bubbling.

Allow to cool and serve with avocado. The avocado sort of cools off the spiciness if you use a lot of chili powder & cayenne pepper.

Adventures in Baby Food: Carrots

I was at Trader Joes yesterday and picked up a bag of organic baby carrots for dinner tonight. We just finished off the last of the pears so I decided to try them with E. They were a big hit! He easily ate two tablespoons. He was making sounds almost the whole time :) He really likes this solids thing!

Solids are getting easier and easier to prepare. I can't wait to start making large batches to freeze once I figure out what he likes and what he doesn't like. But so far he's liked everything.

And in a month or so I'll actually be able to start making things more fun... you'll see more "spiced up" recipes :)

Source: my head



Carrot Puree

• organic baby carrots

Steam carrots until soft. Puree in food processor. Strain puree into a bowl. Divide into separate portions and serve.

Yup... it's that easy.