Fix It and Forget It Friday

Tis the season for seasonal food! Cranberries are a big thing this time of year right? So let's try this! There are also some spices that fit in with seasonal tastes!

Ingredients:
3-4 lb. pork roast
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup ground or finely chopped cranberries
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp. grated orange peel
1/8 tsp. cloves
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

Sprinkle roast with salt and pepper. Place in slow cooker.
Combine remaining ingredients. Pour over roast.
Cover. Cook on low 8-10 hours

This has a mixture of tastes sure to impress any dinner party! Add a twice baked potato and you'll be a hit!

Hawaiian Pork Sandwich

This is the first recipe submitted by a guy! He's been a friend of mine for a long time, we lost track of each other for a couple years, but thanks to the wonderful Facebook we're back in contact, good thing, because these sandwiches sound amazing! This is a crock pot recipe, but I'm doing it today!

Ingredients:
Pork Roast
Sweet and sour sauce
1 can pineapple rings
Yellow or green onion, chopped
Sandwich style rolls

Rub the roast with the sweet and sour sauce, you can let it marinate over night
Put in crock pot with 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup pineapple juice (from the canned pineapple)
Add onion
Cook on high 1 hour
Turn to low for 8-10 hours
Once it is cooked shred the meat mixing the onions in with it
Add more sweet and sour sauce until it is the consistency of a pulled pork BBQ sandwich, but be careful to not overdo it
If you like a little kick add crushed red chili
Serve on roll with a slice of pineapple

Thanks Ty, can't wait to try these, once I'm sick of turkey of course!

Taco Tuesday

My favorite thing for dinner is breakfast. I love breakfast foods. So, here's to breakfast!

Breakfast Burrito:
1 Egg for every burrito you'll need
1 Package bacon or sausage your favorite kind
1 Package flour tortillas, warmed
Grated cheddar cheese
Sour cream
Hot sauce

Scramble the eggs
Cook the meat
Assemble your burrito, eggs first, then meat, top with cheese
Roll up
Add a little sour cream to the top with hot sauce

Fix it and Forget it Friday

It's been a long week for me. Hence, not so many posts! I came across this is one of my cook books and it is perfect for times when you are busy!

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 can cream of chicken, celery OR mushroom soup (10 3/4 oz.)
1/3 cup milk
1 package Stove Top stuffing mix and seasoning packet
1 2/3 cup water

Place chicken in crock pot
Combine soup and milk, pour over chicken
Combine stuffing mix, seasoning packet and water. Spoon over chicken
Cover. Cook on low 6-8 hours

While this has the meat and a side in one, I'd add a vegetable for good measure.

Taco Tuesday

If you're in a pinch, this is so easy! I usually have all this stuff at home because we eat it in different ways!
Bean and Cheese Burritos

Ingredients
1-2 cans refried beans
1 package flour tortillas
Shredded cheddar cheese

It best to first heat beans through on stove top
Put beans down the middle of tortilla and top with cheese
Heat in microwave until cheese is melted
Roll up like a burrito

We like to have sour cream on the side to dip. It's good with just a plain old green salad.

And the Winners Are...

OK, the drawing for November is closed. You now have a week to send me your address so that I can mail your prize. mealtimhelp@hotmail.com
The winners are :
Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:8 3 9 6 12
Timestamp: 2008-11-17 18:27:08 UTC
#8
Amber said...
I would love to be entered!Amber
#3
Erin said...
I have seen these in the store, but hadn't given them a try yet. What a great opportunity to try them!P.S. I will e-mail you one of my favorite easy recipes...
#9
Nichole said...
Oh enter ME...I have been wanting to try the produce bags!! You're the best!Nichole ;)
#6Brandi and Shawn said...
I want to win win win!!!
#12
THE MASCARO'S said...
AMY
You have until Friday to get me your addresses before I choose a new winner!

Saturday Sweets

Have you ever seen the blog cake wrecks? I think it is hilarious! So all week, she finds awful cakes, posts a picture and comments about it. On Sundays, she has something called Sunday Sweets. It's one day out of the week where the cakes are fabulous. You really ought to check it out. Anyways, I take Saturday and Sunday off for the whole meal preparation. So I don't post on here either. I was emailed a cookie recipe and thought if anyone else wants to send "sweets recipes" I'll post them on Saturdays. We'll call is Saturday Sweets. This will be mainly for all of you to share your recipes. I'll put on one occassionally, and if I don't get a new recipe, we'll just skip it.

So here's the first. My friend from high school sent this one. She calls the EST cookies. As in easiEST, yummiEST, and fastEST. She also had this to say about them:
"So I know you have mostly posted Meal time items but I consider these cookies Meal time helps because they take so little time to make and leave me with plenty of time to make dinner!!"
Thanks Girl!

Ingredients:
1 box of cake mix ANY flavor ANY brand
1/3 c. oil
2 eggs

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix all ingredients together until smooth. The mix will have a thick consistency.
Roll into one inch balls and place on cookie sheet 2 inches apart.
Take the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in flour and flatten the balls down.
Bake for 6-8 minutes.
Let cool on the cookie sheet for 1 minute before removing.
Frost after 5 minutes with any flavor frosting you want!
You can make ANY combination of cookie you want (Chocolate on Chocolate, Rainbow cake mix with Rainbow frosting, Spice cake mix with cream cheese frosting).
These are SO tasty and SO worth the LITTLE amount of time it takes!

Let me just add my two cents. If you make the Devils Food Cake buy the cream cheese frosting. Frost one cookie and top with another. It's a little homemade Oreo!

Corn Dog

I noticed that I use a lot of hotdogs on here. I guess I find them so versatile! Have you ever tried to make a homemade corn dog? I think they are awesome! I used a fryer and that made it so easy, but I bet you could try to fry them on the stovetop. I wonder what they would be like baked. If you try that, let me know, it would be a lot healthier. So here's how I did it.

Ingredients:
Hot Dogs (Again, I like High Grade)
Corn Bread Mix (I used the cheap Jiffy Mix stuff and it was great, but any would work)
Vegetable Oil

Heat the oil
Mix the corn bread how it says on the package
Coat hot dogs in the batter
Fry until golden brown

I used skewers, but they were actually more of a hassle than it was worth, tongs work a lot better. If you want smaller corn dogs cut the hot dog to the size you want. We had friends over for this, real gourmet meal right? But we also made homemade french fries and fry sauce to go with it. If you want to try something new to dip both in, add equal parts sour cream and mayo, not miracle whip. It's awesome!

Cream of Broccoli Soup

This recipe comes from Erin. Thanks for the recipe and I'll put you down for a second time to the drawing the month. Thanks for the recipe! I forgot to mention that this only takes about 20 minutes start to finish and her kids will eat it! That's a good thing to remember! Thanks for reminding me!

Cream of Broccoli Soup

About 5 cups of water
1 head of broccoli
3-4 chicken bouillon cubes
About 2 cups milk

1/2 cup butter (no substitutes)
1/2 cup flour

1 cup cheddar cheese OR
1 can cheese whiz OR
1 cup Velveeta

Put the water, broccoli cut into small pieces, and bouillon cubes into a large pot. Boil until broccoli is cooked (about 10 minutes). Pour in the milk, turn heat down to medium and heat until the milk is warm.

In the meantime, melt the butter in a saucepan on medium-medium/high. Add the flour and stir it together. Let simmer while stirring frequently for 3-4 minutes. Stir butter/flour mixture into the broccoli water. Stir until somewhat thick. (Do not let it boil or if you use real cheese it will curdle.) Add the cheese, cheese whiz or Velveeta. Use white pepper and seasoning salt to taste.

Serves 6ish

This would be good in a bread bowl too. I love that!

Taco Tuesday

Cheesy Tacos

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup taco seasoning
1/2 lb. (8 oz.) Velveeta Mild Mexican Cheese with Jalapeno Peppers, cut up
1 pkg. hard taco shells, warmed
1 cup shredded lettuce
1 chopped tomato
1 cup salsa

Brown meat in large skillet, drain
Stir in water and seasoning mix
Add Mexican Velveeta
Cook on low heat until Velveeta is completely melted, stirring frequently.
Spoon evenly into the taco shells
Top with lettuce, tomato and salsa

November Giveaway

It's already time for another contest. Ziploc sent me 5 coupons for Up to $3.00 On any Ziploc Zip n' Steam Cooking Bags, Ziploc Vacuum Bag Refills or Ziploc Produce Bags. I checked at our local Wal-Mart and this coupon will get you 1 of 2 size Zip 'n Steam bags; 10 of the medium or 7 of the large. I didn't look for the others because I really like the Zip 'n Steam. These bags are actually really cool. There will be 5 winners this month as I planned to give all 5 away this month instead of one a month for five months, where is the fun in that?
Here's the rules for this month:
1. Post your name, you can use your first name only if you want, on this post
2. I will use random.org again to pick 5 winners and will post whatever the winners posted here on Monday November 17
3. Those winners will have until Friday the 21st to email me their mailing address at mealtimehelp@hotmail.com
4. If I don't hear from the winners, I will go back to random.org to start the process over again the following Monday. This way, there is no personal info posted for the world to see.
Want an extra chance to win?
Send me your favorite recipe at mealtimehelp@hotmail.com

Fix it and Forget It Friday

Have you ever made a Cornish game hen? These were intimidating to me! I like the whole boneless skinless no work chicken breast. But then we tried the game hen on a BBQ and they were amazing. I'll have to post that next week. But I found this at www.cdkitchen.com. It sounds fast and good. I love stuff in the slow cooker. It is always so tender and flavorful.

Ingredients:
2-4 Cornish hens
2 cans (14 oz) chicken broth
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
salt

Season hens with lemon pepper, salt and sprinkle with minced garlic
Pour chicken broth in crock pot and carefully set hens into the broth
Crock all day on low more than 5 hours

Serve with rice. Minute rice of course!!! And some steamed veggies.

Angel Hair Tuna

I also found this on Taste of Home. It has tuna, which I like, but the old hubbie does not. I will have to make this when he's away.

Ingredients:
2 packages angel hair pasta with Parmesan cheese dinner mix (You know like a Lipton or Pasta Roni)
1 can tuna, drained (Use 2 cans if you want a little extra tuna taste)
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
3/4 cup crushed butter-flavored crackers (about 15)
1/4 cup butter, melted

Prepare pasta dinner mixes according to package directions
Stir in the tuna and Italian seasoning
Transfer to a large serving bowl; cover and let stand for 5 minutes to thicken.
Toss cracker crumbs and butter; sprinkle over the top
(I'm going to skip the crackers. I don't know, it seems weird)

Fix It and Forget It Friday

Missing the summer days yet? One of my favorite things of summer is BBQ! I really enjoy the flavor of a good BBQ sauce. But just because it is cold it doesn't mean we can't enjoy that all winter too! And on top of it, this is so easy!

Ingredients:
8 pork chops-I realize by leaving the bone in you get more flavor. I like boneless pork chops so much better. Either way, they taste good.
1 cup (or more) BBQ or sweet and sour sauce

Cover just the bottom of the slow cooker with sauce with 1/4 cup water
Brush each chop with sauce, then place in slow cooker
Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours

Chili Dog

So after yesterdays "creative" Taco Tuesday, it got me thinking about hot dogs. I said yesterday that I really like high grade hot dogs. Let me just tell you all, they are so worth the extra cost. Once you buy them, you won't want any other again!

Ingredients:
As many hot dogs as you have people. If you do use high grade plan on one per person. Even big eaters usually won't eat two whole dogs. Maybe one and a half!
1-2 can chili. I really like Nalley
Enough buns for dogs. When I make these, I like to buy the big crusty deli rolls.
1 bag grated cheese

Cook your hot dog how you like it. BBQ, microwave, boil, broil whatever suits you.
Heat the chili through on medium heat on the stove
Cut rolls in half
Put dog in roll and top with chili and cheese

Oh, I can't wait to have these! I like that these are so easy and anything goes with it. Baked fries, or fry them up. Chips or salad. Or a salad from the deli!

Taco Tuesday

I've used up all my ideas for Taco Tuesday, but then I found this on Kraft Foods. I don't know about it! It may be really good for kids, who knows? I love hot dogs, especially high grade hot dogs, so this might be good.

Ingredients:
1 package hot dogs
1 package taco shells
1 bag shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 bagshredded lettuce
1 chopped tomato
1 jar taco sauce

Put hot dog in taco shell
Wrap loosely in paper towel
Microwave for 45 seconds to 1 minute or until heated through
Top with cheese, lettuce, tomato and taco sauce

Deep Dish Hunters Pie

So October marks the deer hunt around here and many men and women have slayed the beast! I figure that many of us may have freezers full of deer or elk meat this time of year so here's one that sounds as good to me as you can get when eating wild meat! By the way, I found it at Taste of Home. There are a lot of ingredients, but I guess that's how you get the wild taste out of the meat! Also, it seems a lot like shepards pie.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup milk
1 Tbs butter
1/4 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
FILLING:
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 cup sliced carrots
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1 Tbs butter
2 cups cubed cooked venison
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
3 Tbs all-purpose flour
3 Tbs cold water
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 Tbs minced parsley

Cook potatoes in boiling water until tender
Drain and mash
Add the garlic, milk, butter, rosemary, salt and pepper
Set aside.
In a large skillet, saute mushrooms, carrots, onion and green pepper in butter until tender
Add venison, broth, thyme and nutmeg
Bring to a boil
Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes or until meat and vegetables are tender.
Combine the flour and water until smooth
Stir into skillet
Bring to a boil
Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened
Transfer to a greased 13x9 baking dish
Spread mashed potatoes over the top
Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 30-40 minutes or until bubbly
Sprinkle with cheese
Bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted
Sprinkle with parsley