Ingredients:

2 lb pork loin

1 jar of BBQ sauce ( Today I used Kraft and I believe it was hickory smoked)

2 tbls brown sugar

crushed red pepper

parsley

sharp cheddar cheese (about 3/4 cup)

Bisquick Mix (I used the heart smart one)

Milk (for Bisquick)

Put the whole pork loin in  the crock pot. Set for 8 hours on low. Add the bottle of BBQ sauce, brown sugar, crushed red pepper and parsley (the last 2 ingredients to taste). Cook 8 hours. When the pork is done, shred with forks and mix well into sauce. Let cook another 10 minutes while you prep the Bisquick. Get out a baking pan, I use a glass 11×13. In a bowl, mix 2.5 cups of Bisquick with 1.1/4 cups skim milk. Mix and pour into baking pan and bake at 450 as directed. When it’s done, remove from over. Turn off crock pot and top the Bisquick mixture with the pulled pork, spreading evenly. Top with cheese and bake for about 5 more minutes or until the cheese looks nice and melted. That’s all, so easy and you have a simple, heavenly, eat!! Hope you all had a great weekend!

Ingredients:

3-4 chicken breasts (I tenderize with a meat tenderizer)

1 eggplant sliced and peeled

bread crumbs

2 eggs

milk (about 3/4 cup)

2 regular size jars of traditional spaghetti sauce

2 garlic cloves minced

1 package of spaghetti

Basil

ground black pepper

sharp cheddar cheese (about 3/4 cup)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a plate spread bread crumbs. In a medium bowl combine the eggs and milk and mix to make a wash. Dip all of the chicken and eggplant one at a time into the eggwash, then coat with breadcrumbs. Place in baking pans, one for the chicken, one for the eggplant because in our house, those two just can’t touch, haha. Pour a jar of sauce over each, making sure it completely covers and gets under the chicken and eggplant. Add minced garlic and  sprinkle with some pepper and basil. Bake for about 30 minutes then top with the sharp cheddar, sprinkle a little more basil on and cook for 10 more minutes. It’s so so so yummy!! I usually serve this with a salad, but tonight I was craving broccoli which my husband and I love ( kids still fight it, even though I’ve been serving it for 12 and 9 years to them!) I make the frozen broccoli as directed, then after I drain it I add a scoop of butter and some shredded cheddar cheese and melt the cheese and serve!

Ingredients:

1.3 lbs Ground Turkey

1 jar (24 oz) Traditional Spaghetti Sauce

1 can (14.5 oz) Diced Tomatos with green chilies (drained)

1 cup uncooked brown rice (cook as directed)

garlic clove minced

1 small onion diced

shredded sharp cheddar cheese

basil (to taste)

parsley

ground black pepper

6 green peppers (remove tops and clean out)

In a large frying pan fry up the ground turkey and diced onion. Drain and add minced garlic.  Add the jar of spaghetti sauce and diced tomatoes and cover and let simmer for about a half hour. In the meantime you should be making the rice as directed and boiling a large pan of water to cook the peppers. When the water for the peppers is boiling, add the peppers and cook them for only about 5 mins, you do not want them overcooked, just softened. When they are done, set aside in a baking dish/pan. When the rice is done, stir into the sauce mixture and simmer another 5 minutes. When the rice mixture is done, stuff the peppers with it and I usually have extra filling that I just add to the pan I am baking the peppers in, it always gets eaten! Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, top the peppers with sharp cheddar cheese and sprinkle with some parsley. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or so. I served with a side salad.

For the French Onion soup you will need the following:

1 tbls of butter

about 5 medium onions sliced

2 32 oz low sodium Beef broths ( I used swanson)

1/2 cup of water

dried parsley

crushed red pepper

ground black pepper

a slice of bread (your preference, one for each bowl of soup)

Mozerella cheese

Melt butter in a large pan, add sliced onions and saute until they are softened and light brown. Add a half cup of water and cook until it starts absorbing. Add beef broth, parsley (as much as you like, same with the peppers), black pepper, and crushed red pepper. Simmer for about a half hour. In the meantime, prep the salad. When the soup is done, place a slice of bread in a soup bowl, add the soup, top with Mozerella. I then put it in the microwave for 30 seconds to melt the cheese faster. Sprinkle with a little more parsley and black pepper and enjoy.

Salad:

Bag of Ceasar salad kit (yeah, I cheated to make it easier and of course I used Publix mix, LOVE our Publix:-))

cucumber sliced (I wanted to use up an open cuc we had, you don’t have to add this as it isn’t typically in ceasar salad)

1 package of  chicken shortcuts (I used perdue Grilled Chicken)

Rinse salad mix in strainer. When drained put into a big bowl, add sliced cucs. Add Chicken. Place salad in serving bowls, top with the croutons and dressing that came with the kit and enjoy. Simple and Yummy!!

This was a very easy dinner which I love, especially when I’m feeling lazy like I was today. I need that sun to recharge me, I think tomorrow it will be shining and my energy will return!!

Since I have not had the time to post in the past few days, yet have full well  had every intention of doing so, I’m going to post 2 recipes tonight. I have taken pictures of all of my meals and just not been able to blog. Tonight I needed a simple, easy dinner and as it turns out it was also a very “cheap” dinner! As the not by choice owners of 2 mortgages because we own a house in the northeast that will never sell in this economy…deep breath…..cheap is our favorite word! LOL. Here is what I made tonight!

Ingredients:

1 smoked sausage (I got oscar myer lite, they come in a 2 pack) cut into chunks

1 small bag of frozen spinach (thawed and water squeezed out)

1 small onion, diced

2 large garlic cloves minced ( I always use my pampered chef garlic press, LOVE IT!)

1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (any cheese would work, I had this and it needed to be used)

1/4 cup lemon juice

crushed red pepper

italian seasoning

black ground pepper

sea salt

olive oil

Make pasta as directed. Meanwhile in a frying pan have the onions sauteing in olive oil. When they start looking transparent add in the sausage, thawed spinach and lemon juice. When almost done add the minced garlic and all of the above spices to your desired taste. I add very little salt as we avoid sodium as much as possible. Get out a pasta bowl, add some olive oil to the bowl then add the pasta. Stir in the sausage and spinach mixture. Add a little more olive oil, top with the shredded cheese and serve. It looked so pretty and tasted amazing! Easy as pie! I hope you all had a great Monday!

I feel like I have been neglecting my blog!! We have been a very sick family since the fall, I think our first fall in the south has really taken a toll on our immune systems as we are in a very different environment. I’m kind of feeling like I’m at the end of my rope with it, but what else can we do but press on and hope it gets better! It will!! Saturday morning, mind you while my husband was at urgent care to get treatment for his sinus infection that his Dr. would not give him meds for on Thursday (grrrrr) I made an amazing Breakfast pizza!! And the urgent care Dr. did give him meds and he is definately doing better, not great, but much better than he was!! Thank you LORD!!!! This is what I did for our breakfast pizza! Super scrumptious!

Ingredients:

1 refrigerated Pizza dough, I used Pillsbury because they rock and I had a coupon which also rocks

5 strips of cooked bacon, broken

4 eggs scrambled (I scramble them with skim milk)

hash browns (southern style diced in the frozen section is what I used, cooked)

1/2 an onion (carmelized)

dried parsley

shredded cheddar cheese (about 1 cup)

franks hot sauce

Spread the pizza dough onto a pizza stone or baking pan

add about a cup of the frozen hashbrowns, spread throughout the pizza

add onions, egg, bacon, cheese and sprinkle with parsley. Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes or until it looks done. Let sit a few minutes then slice and serve! And we love our spice so of course we sprinkled franks hot sauce on ours! This was a great Saturday morning treat!

Speggetti Pie Ingredients:

1 lb speggetti

1 jar speggetti sauce ( I used preggo traditional, I’m a huge preggo fan when I don’t make my own sauce)

1lb of lean ground beef (about 3/4 of a pound would work, but my lovely shih tzu likes to have some hamburger so I make extra!)

1 small onion diced

1 lg garlic clove minced

3/4 package of shredded cheddar cheese

Ricotta Mixture:

1 lg tub of part skim ricotta

1 egg

dried basil

dried parsley

ground black pepper

Fry up the hamburger and onion until browned. Meanwhile cook pasta and have sauce simmering as well as mix the ricotta in a large bowl adding all ingredients. Use parsley, basil and pepper to your liking, I load it!!  Add meat to sauce and mix together. When pasta is cooked, drain and put back in pan, mix in the sauce mixture. Layer an 11 x 13 pan with half the speggetti mixture. On top of the speggetti add the whole ricotta mixture, flatting out with a spatula so it is smooth. Sprinkle with a little cheddar cheese. Top with the remaining speggetti mixture.

At this point the pup has been watching, she is very spoiled and always smells the cooking hamburger and is waiting patiently for her portion. Isn’t she cute! Anyways…back to the recipes!

Biscuit Ingredients:

2 cups of Bisquick Heart smart mix

3/4 cup skim milk

1/2 cup shredded monterey jack cheese

ground black pepper, basil

parsley

Mix all ingredients together, I put a lot of the spices in but you can do it to your desired taste. Drop my rounded teaspoonfuls onto a cooking stone (or baking sheet) and cook at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes or until they look done. (you can see the final product pic above)

Grams Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie Ingredients:

1 box of chocolate pudding mix (not instant, the kind you heat on the stove, please not, I accidentally bought the wrong kind this time, oops!)

1 pre-made pie crust (I used publix regrigerated, pillsbury is great too)

2 tbls of creamy peanut butter

whipped cream for topping (I used light canned whipped cream)

First you want to bake the pie crust and let it cool completely. When crust is ready make the pudding as directed. When it’s cooked, stir in the peanut butter until marblized. Cool and serve with whipped Cream. I won’t go into detail how I messed this up, at this point I had been cooking and ebaying all day so I was tired! BUT the pie was still delicious, it was just lumpy as I had to improvize! BUT it was chocolate and it was yummy! This is a pic, yours will look much smoother!

Very yummy dinner!

3-4 good sized boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used 3)

1package of Brie cheese (in the specialty cheese section, I used. .55lb)

about 3/4 of a cup of craisons

1/4 of an apple diced small (I used gala as that is what I had on hand)

Italian bread crumbs

In a medium size bowl mix the brie, craisons and apple. Take your rings off and dive in with your hands, the best way to mix this is to knead and mix with the hands. After this is done rinse chicken and cut a pocket into the thicker side of the breast, do not cut all the way through. Stuff with the cheese mixture. Since the chicken is still moist from rinsing, I then roll the stuffed chicken breast in Italian bread crumbs to lightly coat it. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. This is a good time to start the rice:-)

Next:

1 package of low sodium bacon

1 bunch of asparagus

olive oil

ground black pepper

Now take the asparagus, wash and cut off about an inch from the bottom. Group evenly into groups of about 7 or 8. Take a piece of uncooked bacon and wrap it around the middle of the first group of asparagus. Repeat with the rest. Lightly coat asparagus with olive oil, sprinkle with ground black pepper and when the oven is available cook at 400 for about 15 minutes.

When Rice is done, add a tbls of whipped butter, lots of parsley, some crushed red pepper, ground black pepper, a couple turns of sea salt and a clove of garlic and some basil. Mix well.

Here is the finished product! Heavenly!!

You can order this jam at sidehillfarmjam.com for a mere 5.85! I cannot wait to try the cranberry orange next!

Ingredients:

4 boneless lean pork chops

Apricot Orange Marmalade

crushed red pepper (is anyone noticing a theme to my recipes??)

parsley (makes it peeeerty!!)

Place pork chops in a baking dish. Scoop a good size amount of the orange marmalade onto each chop, then spread lightly to cover most of the chop, but don’t thin the jam out too much! Sprinkle with crushed red pepper (to taste) sprinkle with parsley and bake at 350 degrees for about 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour and voila,  done and tasty!! I served this with vegetable fried rice, recipe as follows:

Ingredients:

1 cup of Brown Rice (to make 2 cups)

1 small onion diced

1 medium garlic clove minced

1/2 bag frozen broccoli

1/2 bag frozen peas

2 fresh carrots peeled and diced

1 lg egg

Red pepper

black pepper

parsley

2 tbls whipped butter

Cook Rice as specified on bag. Mean while in a frying pan saute the onion and carrots in the butter until slightly tender. Add Broccoli and peas stirring often. Add (to taste) the red pepper and black pepper and a little parsley as well as minced garlic. When this mixture is almost done and is not longer cool or frozen, and the veggies are at desired tenderness, push the veggie mix to one side of the pan, take the egg and crack open to the empty side of pan and fry it while chopping and stirring the egg. When the egg is done mix into the veggies. Add rice, mix well and it’s done!

The pork chops were so good, we are a big fan of adding spice into “sweet” so the red pepper with the marmalade was a perfect pair!