Thursday, June 14, 2012

Friday Favorites

It is finally Friday!  Woot, Woot!

This is moving week for us so we are all stoked over here.

Our new house has a large back deck and Mr. Homegrown is picturing lots of cook outs.

So, this week I am showing you my top 5 favorite grilling and cook out recipes.

Here they are.


Grilled Salmon with Avacado Salsa


Easy 7-Up Marinade


Grilled Steak Fajitas

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Grilled Cilantro Lime Shrimp Skewers

Cilantro Thai Chicken
Cilantro Thai Grilled Chicken

Well, these are my top picks for this week.  What are yours?  I am linking up with Finding Joy in my Kitchen.  Go check out everyone's top picks.


Sausage Rolls


My kids are hard to please in the kitchen and even harder to impress.

It is a bummer really.

But these sausage rolls please and impress them!  They are wonderful things.  There are only two ingredients in them.  TWO!  They do not have any milk/diary in them.  And they are super easy and deliscious.  It is sort of a trifecta of foods.

Here is what you need:

2 cans of Pilsbury Cresent rolls
1 pound of ground sausage, I use Bass Mild but Neeses is good too!

Here is what you do:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Separate 1 can of crescent rolls and form into 4 rectangles.  Press the perforations together to seal. 

Take the uncooked sausage and cut it into 8 equal sized chunks.

Using 4 chunks of the sausage, spread each of the rectangles with a thin layer of sausage.  I normally try to flatten the sausage in my hands and then lay it on the crescent dough. 

Starting at the short end, roll the rectangle into a cylinder.  Repeat with the other can of dough and remaining sausage. 

Use a serrated knife to cut each cylinder into slices.  I get 5 slices out of each cylinder.

Place the sausage rolls onto an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 18 to 20 minutes. 

This is my little Beanes favorite breakfast.  As an added bonus, these freeze well!  Just pop them in a freezer bag.  When you are ready to eat, reheat them straight from the freezer in the toaster oven!  So easy.

I am linking up with Metamorphais Monday, Allergry Free Wednesday and these other Awesome Parties!

Monday, June 11, 2012

Menu Monday June 11

Summer has begun here!  We are staying up a little later and waking up a little later. 

I love not being tied to a school schedule!  We are really busy though.  Summer is always busier than I envision it being.  This week, Monday is the only day where we have nothing to do. 

We close on our new house this week, so I am going to try to get some freezer cooking done so I will have plenty of back up when we start the move process.  So this week I have planned a pretty easy and kid friendly menu so I will be able to freezer cook along the way. 

Here is the line up:

Monday

Crock Pot Baked Potato Bar
Salad
Left over soup

Tuesday
Out to eat with the Little Beanes

Wednesday
Honey Lime Chicken (did not get to this last week)
Rice
Broccoli

Thursday

Pizza using Beer Batter Pizza Dough
I will  make extra pizzas and freeze!

Friday

Slow Cooked Sticky Chicken
Rice
Vegetable

Weekend

Mini Corn Dogs
Fresh Corn
Something else I find at the Farmer's Market!

I hope you have a great week!  I am linking up at Menu Plan Monday.  Go check out all of the other menu plans.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Beef Teriyaki



This is my first freezer meal.  With our upcoming move, I decided I need to get some meals ready to go.  I bought some Sirloin steak that needed to be cooked right away.  So Beef Teriyaki it is! 

I was really happy with how it turned out.  It is easy to cook and froze well.  When I needed a meal fast, I just let it thaw for a couple of hours and then reheated it on the stove.  Easy.  It was delicious and all the little Beanes ate it without complaint.  Score!

Here is what I did.

Ingredients
1 pound of boneless beef sirloin steak
2 Tablespoons cooking oil
2 Tablespoons of cornstarch
1 can of beef broth (14 oz.)
2 Tablespoons of soy sauce
1 Tablespoon packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 bag of frozen stir fry veggies, thawed

Directions

Slice beef into thin strips.

In a bowl, combine the cornstarch, beef broth, soy sauce, brown sugar and garlic. 

In a skillet, saute the beef in the oil, over medium/high heat, until browned. 

Stir in the stir fry veggies and soy sauce mixture.  Cook until mixture boils and thickens, stirring frequently. 

If you want to eat immediately, serve over rice.

To freeze for later, let the mixture cool and then transfer to a zip lock bag and freeze flat. 

To eat from the freezer, let the mixture thaw and then reheat it in a large pan.  Serve over hot rice.

This was a very good and easy meal.  I really enjoyed being able to pull it out of the freezer and heat it up on the stove.  Because we used a bag of the frozen stir fry veggies, they did not get soggy in the freezer.

I am linking up with Metamorphosis Monday, Allergy free Wednesday and these other Awesome Parties

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Friday Favorites

It is finally Friday!

We close on our new house in one week!  We are all so excited.  My house is in total disarray.  Total!  It is driving me crazy.  I have boxes everywhere, paint projects in different levels of completion, and little Beanes trying to 'help' everywhere.  They are not helpful, bless their hearts. 

I am so thankful that school is out and we are not tied to the school day schedule right now. 

I feel like the quality of our meals is getting ready to take a nose dive for the next few weeks.  I have found my top 5 favorite recipes that I wish I were going to eat.  It's not going to happen any time soon, though.

Here are my top 5 favorites.

Creamy Shrimp Rolls
Creamy Shrimp Rolls


Thai Crunch Chicken Salad

TPW_8348
Grilled Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas

Homemade mushroom soup recipe by Season with Spice
Homemade Mushroom Soup

healthy hot chocolate
The Perfect Hot Chocolate

I am linking up with Finding Joy in My Kitchen.  I hope you all have a great weekend.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Menu Monday June 4

It is Monday. Yo!

We had a great week of food last week.  Everyone at well and I got to go out to eat...twice.  Mr. Homegrown took me to The Cheesecake Factory for my birthday.  The next day, we ate lunch at California Pizza Kitchen.  It was great to spend time alone with him. 

This week I am going to try mostly new recipes using stuff that I have on hand.  It will be interesting to see if any of them will make it to the family favorites list.

Here is the line up.

Monday
Honey Lime Chicken
Rice
Broccoli

Tuesday

Sausage and Pepper Skewers
Pasta Salad

Wednesday

Crock Pot Chicken Teriyaki
Rice
Edamme

Thursday

Spicy Bean and Rice Burritos
Salad
Corn

Friday

Cheeseburger Flatbread Melts
Salad
Chips

Weekend
Breakfast for supper

What is on your menu this week?

I am linking up with Menu Plan Monday.  Go check out the other meun plans. 

Saturday, June 2, 2012

My Birthday Cupcakes

My birthday was last week.  I enjoy a special day for my birthday.  My husband usually leaves it up to me to plan and cook dinner.  I have learned, over the years, that means I will cook my birthday dinner too. 

Mr. Homegrown takes me out to dinner on my birthday, but for the family celebration where the little Beanes give me a card they made and sing happy birthday, it is just dinner as usual around here.  So, this year, I remembered that and decided to make myself a special dinner and dessert for myself.  It was yummy.

I was feeling the years creep up on my with this birthday.  I don't feel old but I am old enough to say that I have had some of the same friends for 30 years.  I had sort of gotten okay with saying that about friends.  I mean, when you grow up in and continue to live in the same town, chances are you will have some of the same peeps as you did in kindergarten.  Last weekend the years really hit me when we were on vacation in the mountains.  We were waiting to in line to go in Linville Caverns.  I was telling String Beane and Butter Beane about the last time I was at Linville Caverns.  I was around 8 or  years old.  My mom and dad took my brother and I to the caverns and I remember it as a really fun trip.  As I was telling my boys about it, I realized that it had been 30 years since that first trip.  Thirty!  That just sounds like longer ago than I should know about.

To make myself feel young again, I made a cupcake that I found online.  It was a throw back to peanuts in Coke!  I used to eat/drink peanuts in Coke while riding to the beach in the summer.  No matter how long ago that was, I feel like a little girl when I think of peanuts in Coke. 

Here is the recipe that I found.  I modified it to make it safe for my String Beane.  It was super yummy.  The frosting is the key!  It was my favorite homemade frosting ever!


Cupcakes
1 cup Coca-Cola
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter (I used Fleishmann's unsalted margarine, milk free)
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a cupcake pan with paper liners and give a quick spray of cooking spray. 

In a small sauce pan, heat the coca- cola, cocoa powder, and margarine until margarine is melted.  Whisk in the sugars until dissolved.  Revome from heat and let it cool.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together.  In a small bowl, whisk  the egg until just beaten.  Stir the egg into the cooled cocoa mixture.  Add the cocoa mixture to the flour mixture.  Stir until combined. 

Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to pour the mixture into the cupcake liners.  Bake for 25 minutes or until the cake springs back when touched in the middle. 

Salted Peanut Butter Frosting
4 cups of Powdered Sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened (I used Fleishmann's unsalted margarine, milk free)
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
3-4 Tablespoons heavy cream (I used vanilla Almond milk)
Ground salted peanuts, for garnish

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, combine powdered sugar, butter, peanut butter and salt.  Mix on low speed until just combined, then switch to high speed.

Add heavy cream one tablespoon and beat until mixture is lightened and smooth.  Transfer to a piping bag or zip-top bag with the corner snipped.  Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.
Garnish with ground peanuts.



These cupcakes were as good as they look in the picture.  They made me happy on my birthday!  That is what a good cupcake should do.

I am linking up with Metamorphosis Monday, Allergy Free Wednesday and these other Awesome Parties!

Friday, June 1, 2012

Friday Favorites

Hey Slick.  It is Friday! 

I am so excited to start this weekend.  Summer is here and we are finishing up our first year of school.  Woot! String Beane will have Kindergarten graduation tonight!  Sniff, sniff!  Where did the time go?  You should see him in his cap and gown.  Priceless.

I have found tons of recipes lately that would be great summer time foods.

Here are my top 5 favorites for this week.

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Cookie Dough Smores
This idea is simple, yet genius.


Butterscotch Marshmalow Bars


Grilled Chicken and Pineapple Sandwich


Roasted Corn and Avacado Salad with Spicy Vinaigrette


Tilapia Burgers with Watermelon Salsa


I am linking up with Finding Joy in my Kitchen.  Click over and see what everyone else has found this week.