Chorizo Breakfast Casserole

Made this yummyness for a work Easter Brunch. It would work for breakfast or even dinner. Smells sooooo good!!

Ingredients:

1 can Crescent Rolls

1 30oz bag of shredded hash browns, thawed

8 large eggs, beaten

2 cups milk

1 8oz (12 oz would work too) bag shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 tbsp Onion Onion

1 tube mild Chorizo sausage, browned

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Unroll the crescent rolls and lay on the bottom of the baking dish. Press them out to cover the bottom of the dish. 

Add the hash browns on top of the crescent rolls. Combine the beaten eggs, milk and Onion Onion then pour over the hash browns. 

Srinkle or spread (different brands cook differently) the chorizo on top of the hash brown and egg mixture. 

Cover with Press N Seal or plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. 

Remove from the refrigerator and bake at 400 degrees (F) for 30 minutes. 

Take the casserole out of the oven and sprinkle with the cheese. Bake another 15 minutes to finish setting and melt the cheese. 

Serve warm. 

Ooey Gooey Trifle

Oh my YUM!!

We found a Trifle bowl at a flea market recently for $3. Score!  I just love flea markets. DH and I have wanted one for quite awhile but didn't want to pay what they want for a new one. Imagine our glee when we found this in a booth!!

We are having our son, daughter in law and grandson over for Wahoo! Chili tonight so we gotta have dessert right?  Heck yeah. Well I always have the pound cakes in stock so we decided on Classy Chocolate.  I wrote my DH a list and off to the store he went. 

Here's the result and the recipe. Feel free to change it up. Make it yours!

Doesn't that look delicious?

Ingredients:

Classy Chocolate Pound Cake

1 1/2 sticks of butter

1 cup water

1 large box of vanilla instant pudding mix

3 cups milk (we used fat free, use what you have)

1 8oz bar of cream cheese

1 tub of whipped topping

Creamy Caramel Sauce or Caramel Ice Cream Topping

Berries of your choice 

Make your pound cake and let cool for at least 2 hours, longer if you can. 

In a bowl whip your cream cheese until it is smooth. I put mine in the microwave in my glass bowl (don't do this with a metal bowl!) for 20 seconds if you need to. 

In a separate bowl, mix the vanilla pudding according to the package directions. 

When well combined add to the cream cheese and mix until thick and somewhat smooth. It will still have cream cheese bits in it. 

Add half of the whipped topping and fold in until smooth and well combined. 

Cover and chill for at least 20 minutes. 

When the pound cake is cool, cube it and place half of it in the bottom of a trifle bowl. 

Add a layer of the pudding mixture, then a row of berries around the edge. Drizzle with caramel sauce and repeat the layers.  Add the other half of the whipped topping to the top, drizzle with more caramel and garnish with berries.  

Allow to chill while you have dinner and then serve. Enjoy!! 

Rustic Spaghetti & Meatballs

There is just something special about Italian for Valentines Day. It's red I suppose but more than that it is like a big warm hug to your family or special someone. 

Since I was able to make tacos with the leftover pork this week, I can use the ground beef we got for tacos as meatballs for our Valentines Dinner. Winning!!  

I have another recipe for Rustic Herb Meatballs here in the blog. I didn't have bread crumbs this time though so I used some crackers I had in the cabinet. Use what you have!  

I know you just love our fine Valentine China. Ha!

Here's the recipe for the spaghetti and the meatballs. Use whichever recipe you want however. 

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef

1 egg

10-15 crackers

2 tablespoons Rustic Herb Seasoning

Start by putting the beef, eggs and Rustic Herb Seasoning in the bowl. 

Then put crackers 10-15 or so in a zipper bag and crush. I just used my hand mixers.....my hands!  Then pour your crumbs into the bowl. I don't add salt or pepper because the Rustic Herb Seasoning provides that peppery flavor and the crackers have salt on them. 

This version I am baking. So spray your chosen baking dish with cooking spray, an 8x8 baker or I used my deep dish pie plate. 

Roll your meatballs about 1 inch and place into your baking dish. 

Cover with foil so that the grease doesn't pop all over the oven and the meatballs cook through. 

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. I pre made mine this morning since I already had the oven on for our valentines biscuits and gravy breakfast. But you could do this while you are making your spaghetti at dinnertime. 

I made my spaghetti noodles. I cook mine for 9 minutes so they aren't over cooked. Warm the jarred sauce in a sauce pan. I like to jazz mine up with either some Mama Mia Marinara Seasoning or more Rustic Herb Seasoning. Add your meatballs to the sauce and warm through. 

Serve over the spaghetti and garnish with Parmesan cheese. 

I am serving a salad and a loaf of Bountiful Beer Bread. Oh yeah!  It's Valentines after all. 

Have fun with it and make it your own. Happy cooking!!

Breakfast Casserole

So, I don't know why it is but when I am sick I like to cook. Call me weird, I'm used to it. Ha!  I was rummaging through the fridge and came across some leftover biscuits. We bought one of those breakfast packs at the grocery that has eggs, bacon, sausage and biscuits in them.  We had already fixed the bacon and biscuits thus the leftover biscuits. ;) Notice there is no leftover bacon.....

So I started rummaging some more and came up with a couple of potatoes, some eggs, some shredded Mexican blend cheese (courtesy if Wahoo! Taco night!) and voila!  I have created a breakfast casserole. Now it does take some time so you better have a yogurt or something to tide you over. My hubby had leftover pizza from last night. Hmmm

So here is what I threw together. You know it has Tastefully Simple in it and if you don't have leftover biscuits bit have leftover beer bread heaven forbid, that would work too. 

Ingredients:

5-6 leftover biscuits, cubed

2 peeled and cubed potatoes

2 tablespoons or capful of Onion Onion

1 lb roll of breakfast sausage

3 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon coconut oil

6 eggs beaten

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon Garlic Pepper Seasoning 

1/4 cup shredded cheese

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. 

Prep your biscuits and potatoes and place in a greased baking dish. I used a 10x10 square but a 13x9 would work too. Sprinkle with the Onion Onion and set aside.

Cook and crumble the sausage until no longer pink. Remove from the pan with a strainer spoon and sprinkle over the biscuits and potatoes. 

My sausage didn't leave much fat in the pan so I added the coconut oil. Stir in the flour, stirred and let it cook for a minute or so.  Add your milk while whisking the whole time. Cool until thick and bubbly. Immediately pour over your sausage layer.

Crack and beat your eggs. Add the Garlic Pepper Seasoning and stir well. Pour over the gravy layer, OH YEAH! 

Sprinkle with shredded cheese and chill for 15-20 minutes or even overnight if you want to make it ahead. 

Bake for 50-60 minutes, serve warm and enjoy!

Fusion Rice Bowl

So my favorite thing to do when I am home sick is make comfort food. If I feel up to it. Today I didn't really feel up to it but I wanted something yummy and comforting for lunch, sooooo......

Here is what I did. 

Ingredients:

1 boxed rice/vermicelli mix, I used the fried rice flavor

2 tablespoons butter

2 cups water

4-5 bunches of kale or your fave green, chopped

1 pouch of tuna, unflavored

2 teaspoons soy sauce

2-3 teaspoons Balsamic Vinegar of Modena 

Fresh ground pepper to taste

1 tablespoon Avocado Oil

1 egg, beaten

Prepare the rice according to the package. 

To the prepared rice, add the chopped kale. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until the rice is tender and water absorbed. May take a little longer depending on the water content in your kale. 

Add the soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, tuna and pepper. 

Move rice mixture to the side, add the avocado oil to the pan and your beaten egg. Scramble egg until firm and break up into your rice mixture. 

Add more soy sauce and balsamic vinegar to your taste. Serve in a bowl and enjoy!

Low Fat, Full of Flavor

Ok, so I am struggling with a gallbladder issue. I don't know yet at this point exactly what is going on. This has really changed how I have to eat. Nix the fried, fatty foods, no cheese, no full fat dairy, no red meat, no pork, no food!!  No, I don't think of it that way. I am looking at this as this is how I should really be eating anyway. I have had to be creative. I know, takes some thought and planning, ugh. For me, not so hard, for others like my hubby, maybe so. 

I had to lay off if Garlic for a few days. The horrors!!  Not too bad, really. I learned to use my other TS products, my Oil and Vinegar Assortment. Yummy balsamic vinegars of Modena and avocado oil to be exact. 

I made a yummy whole wheat pasta with veggies, avocado oil, a little mango balsamic vinegar of Modena and just a smudge if grated Parmesan cheese. Sooo good. 

Today, I did a "stir fry" in just a couple of teaspoons of olive oil with sweet potato, zucchini I and crumbled extra firm tofu and 2 teaspoons of Malt Vinegar Frencj Fry Seasoning. High protein and fiber, super low fat and talk about flavor!  Sooo good. What an awesome lunch. I refuse to be down and eating with no flavor!  

 

Simple Fruit Salsa

I threw a Tupperware party at my house the other day and wanted to make something with the Simply Salsa. My Tupperware lady was already going to make regular salsa with one of her awesome gadgets. Hello my name is Valerie and I am a kitchen gadget addict. I digress. So if you have been following the blog for awhile you know that I LOVE to throw together things on the fly and then try to remember the recipe later if it actually works well. This is one of those times. This was just soooo good. Below is the super simple recipe. You can use almost any fruit you have. 

Ingredients for what I did:

1 bag of smoothie fruit, partially thawed

2 apples, peeled or unpeeled

1 banana

Mango Balsamic Vinegar of Modena

Simply Salsa Mix

Sea Salt

In a blender or food processor blend the frozen fruit leaving it somewhat chunky. Pour into a mixing bowl. Core and quarter your apples. Blend them with the banana leaving it somewhat chunky. Add to the mixing bowl. 

Add 2 Tbsp of the Mango Balsamic Vinegar of Modena and 3 Tbsp of the Simply Salsa Mix plus a couple of grinds or a dash of sea salt. Mix well and chill for at least an hour. Serve with tortilla or pita chips.  Let me know what you think!

Rustic Mama Mia Stromboli

It's Saturday night and my teenage daughter has a friend over for the night. Kids love to help in the kitchen!  Even teenage ones. These two are actually stellar cooks so I was glad to have their help with this. It was so fun showing them something new to make and have them share in my recipe creation. =). You can use any topping you like on your pizza. These are the ones we like. 

Let's get cooking!

Ingredients:

2 cans refrigerated pizza crust

1 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened 

2 Tbsp Rustic Herb Seasoning

1 pkg sliced pepperoni

2 cans sliced mushrooms

1 c prepared Mama Mia Marinara Sauce

8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

2 Tbsp melted butter

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. 

In a bowl, combine the softened cream cheese and the Rustic Herb Seasoning. Set aside. 

On a greased cookie sheet spread out your pizza dough long ways.  

Turn the pan so that the long side is in front of you. Spread 1/2 of the cream cheese mixture on half of the dough. 

Add your toppings. 

Spread 1/2 a cup of the Mama Mia Marinara Sauce on top of the toppings. 

Doesn't this look amazing??!!  Ok, now time for the mozzarella cheese. 

Fold the dough over and roll the edges from the bottom crust to the top to seal. 

Repeat with your second pizza crust and the other half of the ingredients. 

Cut slits in the top to vent and bake for 15 minutes. Take the Stromboli out of the oven and brush with melted butter. Gorgeous!!!

Return to the oven for 7 more minutes. Pull out f the oven and let rest for 10 minutes. 

Slice and serve. 

Tip:  make it a meal with a fresh salad with Spinach & Herb Dressing and a cool refreshing Mango Margarita Blender Drink. 

Serves 4-5. 

Bayou Bourbon Pork Tenderloin Medallions

I am loving this new grill!!  Tonight is Bayou Bourbon Pork Tenderloin Medallions. We bought the pork tenderloin on sale and yum, yum, yum!  I thought I loved Bayou Bourbon before but holy cow!!

I cut the tenderloins, there were 2 in the package, into 2" medallions. I sprinkles them with Seasoned Salt, of course, and then put them on my hot grill. I let them hang out for 10 minutes and then turned them over. I glazed them while they were hanging out on the other side for another 8 minutes or so, turned them over and then glazed them on the other side. 

We served them with a baked potato and veggie!  Talk about a healthy meal!  Cheap too!!!

Ah-mazing BBQ Ribs!!

Oh my goodness were these good and my first time cooking baby back ribs. One of our local stores had them on sale so we bought 3 racks!!  I am getting better at taking note of what I do so bare with me. It does take some time to do so a Saturday or Sunday is best. Or whatever your day off is. 

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 - 2 racks if baby back ribs

Himalayan Sea Salt Blend

Sweet & Smoky BBQ Seasoning (this is from last summer, so if you don't have that, use your fave BBQ rub)

Your fave jar BBQ sauce (we like Sweet Baby Ray's)

Do this early or even the night before for best flavor:  Rinse your racks and trim the silver skin off of the bone side of the rack. I cut mine in half for ease of cooking. Turn your Himalayan Sea Salt grinder a few times to taste. I did 8-9 grinds per side. Then sprinkle with your BBQ rub. Massage it into the meat and wrap in foil.  Repeat with the rest of your half racks. 

When you are ready to cook:  Line a large baking pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Set aside. 

Take your foil wrapped racks out of the fridge and set on the table or counter. Preheat your oven to 325. Once preheated, place your racks in your baking pan. 

Cover with foil. Bake for approximately 90 minutes. 

Check the temperature with meat thermometer. Once at 150 degrees, remove from the oven. Let sit while you preheat your grill. 

You are going to want to use an indirect heat to finish off the grill. On our gas grill, one preheated, I turned off the left burner,turned  the middle burner on low and the right burner on high. 

Place the ribs on the left side of the grill meat side up. Then mop them generously with the BBQ sauce.  Let them cook for 5 minutes. Turn them over and mop the other side. Let them cook 5 minutes more. 

Once they have cooked on both sides, remove from the grill and place back into your foil covered pan. Let rest for 10 minutes. 

Cut into individual portions and serve with your favorite sides. A serving is 3-4 ribs per person.