Crockpot Meatloaf

Happy Monday Everyone!

Hope y'all all had a fantastic weekend.

This week I have a super easy recipe that is sure to be a family favorite! I have had meatloaf before and to be honest it has not been one of my favorites. It is either dry or too sweet or doesn't have any flavor at all. But for some reason I have been craving meatloaf so I decided to try and put together a recipe that would be moist and flavorful. It came out fantastic! Everyone loved it so much that there were no leftovers at the end of the evening.

Ingredients: 

1.5 lbs. ground beef

1/2 onion, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

3/4 cup breadcrumbs

Dash or tow of Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. mustard

1/2 can tomato sauce

1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg

Salt and Pepper

Topping:

1/2 can tomato sauce

2 heaping tbs. ketchup

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 400*. You can always prepare it ahead of time and refrigerate until you are ready to cook it.

2. Mix all the meatloaf ingredients in a large bowl. You can either use a spoon or your hands. I find the spoon to be a lot less messy and just as effective.

3. Place tin foil on a baking sheet. Spray with olive oil spray. Place meatloaf of the pan and shape into a loaf.

3. Bake in oven for 1 hour or until internal temp reaches 165*.

4. Mix the other half of the tomato sauce with the ketchup and spread over top of the meatloaf. Bake for another 10 minutes. 

If you are going to make it a crockpot/freezer meal:

If you want to make this a freezer meal prepare the Meatloaf as if you were going to bake it. Once it is all mixed together shape it into a loaf and vacuum seal or place in a freezer safe bag. When ready to cook thaw completely and cook in the over at 400* for 45 - 60 minutes and then top with tomato sauce/ketchup mixture or you can place in the crockpot with topping and cook on low for at least 8 hours.

For the green beans:

Sautee two slices of bacon in a pan until cooked. Add 1/4 teaspoon of minced garlic and cook for another 60 seconds. Next add a bag of frozen whole green beans and stir until green beans are coated with bacon grease. Place a lid on the pan and let cook until heated through. Season with salt and pepper. Best green beans EVER!

oh stormy day

Wednesday as I was sitting in the living room watching some TV before everyone got home for the evening when I noticed that there were some pretty dark storm clouds heading our way. Not too soon after the boys walked through the door. They made it just in time too. Not too long after they came in the sky started getting really dark and the wind started blowing. We decided that since it is very rare that we get good storms these days we would sit outside and watch it and all it's glory.

Sadly our neighborhood got about 5 minutes of rain and 15 minutes of wind while 2 miles away got 2.5" of rain. It was really disappointing. Either way the boys had a fun time riding their bikes outside listening to the thunder and watching the lightning.  

After we were done playing in the drizzle that fell from the sky we headed inside for dinner where I had been cooking these crockpot chicken tacos all day. I originally found the recipe from Chocolate Therapy but made my own taco seasoning instead of using the packaged kind. I just like homemade better than the packaged stuff.

Ingredients:

6 boneless skinless chicken breast

2 tablespoons homemade taco seasoning or 1 pkg taco seasoning

1 jar salsa - I used mild pace picante

Taco Seasoning Recipe:

2 tablespoons chili powder

1.5 tablespoons paprika

1.5 tablespoons cumin

1/2 tablespoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Dash of cayenne pepper

You can double the recipe if you like to have more on hand for a later date! 

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in the crockpot. Give it a good stir. 

2. Set on HI and cook for 6-8 hours. Chicken should fall apart when you stir with a fork.

3. Serve chicken on warm flour tortillas with lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, guacamole and salsa.

You can even freeze and use your leftover meat to make an easy Chicken Tortilla Soup!

(recipe to come later)

For the rice:

Rice is one of Tyler's favorite things to eat so when he asked me if I bought the rice just for him I took that as the highest of compliments from a 6 year old. 

Ingredients:

2 cups of long grain white rice

1 can petite diced tomatoes

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon oil

Spanish rice seasoning

Knorr Caldo de Tomate seasoning

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large skillet. Add the rice and cook until slightly browned.

2. Add the entire can of diced tomatoes with juice, the water, spanish rice seasoning and caldo seasoning.

3. Bring to a boil. Turn down heat and cook on low until rice in cooked. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. 

pizza friday's

Back in the day when the boys were a little younger, okay more like last summer, we always designated Friday nights as pizza and a movie night. We let the boys pick a movie and we would all pile up on the couch and just hang out as a family. It was great! I loved our Friday nights! I miss our Friday nights. I think they are going to make a come back really soon. 

When we were poor I would always make home made pizza, but then it just got easier to order Dominos (and less messy too!). But then I started to miss making home homemade pizza with the boys. 

Does it make a HUGE mess? Yes, of course it does. But it can be cleaned. 

Do they always eat the ingredients before they make it onto the actual pizzas? Duh! What kid wouldn't?

But it always so much fun to gather in the kitchen and pick out what they want on their own pizzas. I mean look at these happy faces...

(2009)

 (2012)

Now our big thing has been cooking outside. With the weather so nice these past few weeks it makes it really hard to not want to cook outside. Then on Pinterest one day I saw that people were grilling pizza. 

Ya, I know. I thought they were crazy too. 

After seeing several pics of people grilling pizza and doing some more reading into it I thought I would give it a shot. worst thing that could happen is I completely screw it up and we eat takeout that night.

Ingredients:

2 boxes Jiffy pizza crust or you can make your own using the recipe below

Pizza sauce

Mozzarella cheese

Pizza Toppings of Your Choice:

Pepperoni        Ground Beef 

Sausage                  Ham

Chicken               Pesto

Peppers                 Onions

Olives               Jalapeños

Mix and match with whatever you like! 

Directions:

1. Start by making your crust. Either out of a box or from scratch. While your crust is rising, preheat your grill.

2. Once your dough has risen, form a ball and cut in half. 

3. On a piece of wax paper brush on some olive oil.

4. With each half roll out a crust on the oiled wax paper. You don't want to go to thin or it will not work on the grill. 

5. Gather all of your toppings so they will be easily accessible. 

6. Once you are ready to grill your pizza flip your crust over so that the wax paper is facing up. The wax paper will will pull right off. 

7. Let the crust cook with the lid open for 6-8 minutes (mine was on medium)

8. Once cooked flip over and start applying your sauce then toppings.

9. Close lid and let cook another 5 minutes.

10. Remove from grill, let cool and enjoy!

I Absolutely LOVE Rainy Days

Happy Saturday Lovelies! 

Hope that you had a fantastic week and that you are enjoying your extended holiday weekend.

This week I worked so hard to make my pool super pretty for this weekend. Happily Mother Nature had other plans. We are supposed to get rain all weekend long. And I couldn't be more excited! We desperately need it. In a really bad way. So the more rain the merrier. Plus, as much as I like laying out in the pool, I love sitting on the porch and listening to the rain even more!

Bring on the rain clouds!!!

The most entertaining part was realizing that Miss Molly had never seen the rain. And talk about excited! She ran around the entire yard trying to catch the rain. 

What I love even more than the rainy weather is the fact that I can make rainy day soups! 

Here is one of m super fave rainy day recipes...

Ingredients:

4 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into pieces

16 ounces chicken stock

3 tsp flour

2 cups of milk (I used 2%)

1 cup heavy cream

Salt & Pepper to taste

Red pepper flakes, optional

Garnish:

Colby jack cheese

Green onion

Bacon 

Directions:

1. Heat your chicken stock in a medium saucepan over high heat.

2. Peel, wash and cut up your potatoes. Add to chicken stock, cover and cook until fall apart tender.

3. While the potatoes are cooking whisk together your flour and milk.

4. Once the potatoes are falling apart and looking kind of mushy add the milk/flour mixture and the heavy cream. With a potato masher mash the potatoes until you get a chunky soup consistancy.

5. Add the heavy cream, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Put on low heat and let thicken.

6. Serve garnished with cheese, green onion and bacon.

Pickled Vegetables

Recently I made homemade quick pickles and they were such a hit that I decided to make some quick pickled vegetables and see how they turned out. I mean who doesn't love fresh, crisp, pickled vegetables?

New to the whole pickling of vegetables I decided to just use the same recipe I used on my pickles with some little tweaks here and there.

I started off my chopping up my head of cauliflower and slicing some carrots, cucumbers and jalapeños. There were a few strips of onion in there, but I didn't care too much for them. 

Once everything was chopped and sliced I started layering my ingredients just like I did with the pickles. Then I poured on the brine, sealed the jars and placed in the fridge. Voila! There you have quick refrigerator pickles.

I would really like to figure out a way to be able to seal these so they have a shelf life instead of having to be refrigerated.

Next time though I will be using bigger jars, these pints are not big enough! 

Quick Refrigerator Pickles

1/2 tsp black peppercorns

a little more than a dash of red pepper flakes

1 tsp dill seed 

1 clove minced garlic

1 whole head of cauliflower, cut into bite size pieces

6 jalapeños, cut into slices

1 medium bag of carrots, peeled and sliced

1 medium white onion, cut into thick strips

Combine :

3 TBS kosher salt

2 TBS sugar 

1 1/4 cup of distilled white vinegar

2 cups of cold water

Add the dry ingredients to the bottom of the mason jar. Then add the chopped veggies to the jar, alternating layers. Be sure to pack them in tight, but not too tight. Pour the liquid mixture over the veggies. Seal the jars and place in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours. It is tempting to want to eat them before then, but I promise that the wait is worth it! 

quick pickles

Have you ever tried making pickles? 

Well I have... lots of times.

And I will tell you that it is a pain in the butt. Plus you have to let them sit forever before you get to eat them. No fun! But I found a recipe for some quick refrigerator pickles that is a-may-zing!

Start by washing your cucumbers. 

We don't want any dirt in those pickle jars!

Next cut your cucumbers into spears. 

You could slice them, but I have found that they are easier to eat when you cut them into spears.

Add your dry ingredients to your canning jars.

The recipe calls for dill seed, but all I had was dill weed the first batch. I got pretty much the same results with both batches. Dill seed is just a little bit messier.

Pack your pickles in the jars. 

Pack as many in there as you can comfortably, they all turn out the same. 

Add your liquid mixture to the canning jars.

24 hours later... Open the pickle jar and enjoy the wonderful pickles!

Quick Refrigerator Pickles

1/2 tsp black peppercorns

dash of red pepper flakes

1 tsp dill seed 

(I used dill weed, but dill seed works a lot better)

1 clove minced garlic

5 lb. of pickling cucumbers

Combine :

3 TBS kosher salt

2 TBS sugar 

1 1/4 cup of distilled white vinegar

2 cups of cold water

Add the dry ingredients to the bottom of the mason jar. Then add the cut cucumbers to the jar. Be sure to pack them in tight, but not too tight. Pour the liquid mixture over the cucumbers. Seal the jars and place in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours. 

Eat and Enjoy

bbq and a birthday

{all photos via iPhone}

Today is my amazing husbands birthday! And what did he want for his birthday?

A new iPhone of course :)

Since it was his birthday I let him pick what we were going to eat that night, and he wanted steak...
so here are the two prettiest I could find.

They smell awesome too!

And he did not want a birthday cake... he wanted a BIRTHDAY PIE!

Here is the peach birthday pie...

Make a wish!

We love you and hope you had an awesome birthday!

Love You Lots

pizza night

Tonight is pizza night!

So in spirit of that I wanted to post a few pics of my boys helping me make our dinner tonight.

This is what happens when I say ‘look at the camera and say cheese’.

It took me three tries to get Jacob to look at the camera :)

Tyler is just a ham!

They made some beautiful pizzas tonight.

Unfortunately, my abilities to cut a pizza are not the greatest : /

yummy blueberry pancakes

This morning I had a craving for blueberry pancakes... so out of bed and into the kitchen I went.

Lately I have been wanting to cook more at home, so I thought that this was a perfect time to get started. Plus, the boys were eager to have ‘hiccup berry’ pancakes.

Delicious!

Hope you all have a blessed Saturday

mini bagel pizzas

The other day I was brain storming trying to think of fun ideas for lunch. My boys definitely get tired of sandwiches. There is only so many ways you can make a sandwich exciting! I know that they love those little frozen mini bagel bites, but to be honest with you, I think they suck! If you eat them right after you bake them they are great, but if you let them sit at all they get all hard and chewy. Not good at all! So I thought ‘why can’t I make my own’?

So… I bought little mini bagels {and I had English muffins laying around the house}, made a quick and easy pizza sauce, got little mini pepperonis, some pizza blend cheese and I personally like to add some sliced jalapeno for a little kick and extra flavor. Bake at 375* until cheese is bubbly {about 5-8 min}.
Voila! Kids and hubby loved them!

Mini Bagel Pizza Bites

mini bagels or english muffins
pizza sauce {store bought or make your own}
mini pepperonis
mozzarella or pizza blend cheese
any other toppings that you may like

preheat oven to 375*

1. half the bagels/English muffins

2. spread on the pizza sauce.
you may have to use a little more because the bread soaks it up

3. sprinkle on a layer of cheese

4. add pepperonis and any other toppings if you choose

5. place directly on rack and bake for 5 min.
if cheese has not melted all the way bake for 2 more min. and check again.

 

Pizza on a Stick

My boys new favorite meal is Pizza on a Stick. I first got the idea from Bread in Five, but I tweaked it and tonja-ised it so it was easier to make. And Instead of making my own bread, I have found that it is much easier using Pillsbury’s Rustic French Bread :)

The first step is to roll the dough out on a clean counter and spread and a thin layer of pizza sauce about a half inch from the edges.

Next sprinkle a layer of cheese and make three lines of pepperonis. It will look similar to below.

The rolling part I think is the hardest part. You have to be careful not to tear the dough.

After it is all rolled up and purdy, slice like you would when making cinnamon rolls. *Make sure you are using a sharp knife* My knife was not near sharp enough, so it was a little tricky.

Lay out on a baking sheet and bake for 20 min at 350*

Do de do de do de do….. (think Jeopardy them song)

BAM! Pizza rolls!

Then you place the pizza rolls on a wooden skewer and you get….

Pizza on a Stick!

(That is pizza sauce for dipping)

My First Ever… What I Ate Wednesday {WIAW}

I love reading Peas and Crayons!

Every week she does this thing called What I Ate Wednesday.
And I thought it would be fun to give it a try.

My life is not that exciting, so I try to make my food somewhat exciting.
Maybe someone will find what I ate this week interesting :)

 
Michelada and Chili Rubbed Fajitas {recipe coming soon}

Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato & Basil Sauce and Salad with Homemade Vinaigrette.

No I did not make this sushi but it was still yummy!
Philadelphia Rolls with Smoked Salmon and Spring Rolls.

If you would like to see what other people ate this week head over to Peas and Crayons!

Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato & Basil Sauce

I always make spaghetti the way the boys like it. You know the kind. Either I crack open a jar and add a little zing to it or I make a really thick sauce with lots of meat.
Tonight was going to be different.
I bought some fresh noodles at the grocery store, so I wanted something light to compliment the delicate noodles.

I decided to make a fresh tomato sauce with garlic and basil. I had never made a fresh sauce so it was either going to be a huge success of a huge disaster.

I think it was a success. All three of my boys scarfed it down and wanted more :)

I started out with my main ingredients: organic grape tomatoes, fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil and garlic.
I also used salt, freshly ground black pepper and crushed red pepper.

I started by cutting the tomatoes in half.
I think the knife I used was a little big for the tiny tomatoes.

I then squeezed all the seeds out the the tomatoes so that they are now hollow, empty shells.

This was the fun part! I just went to town choppin’ away.

Once the tomatoes were chopped, I minced up a couple of cloves of garlic and added everything to my pan that had 2 tbs. EVOO drizzled into it.
Can you smell it yet?
You can at this point add the salt, pepper and red pepper if you like.

Chop up your basil and set aside.

There are several pictures missing here. I got caught up with my cookin’ and forgot to snap the photos. So let me fill you in:

Boil your water and add a splash of olive oil to prevent sticking. You only boil for about 45 seconds or so since they are fresh noodles.

Immediately drain your noodles and add to tomato sauce. Mix noodles with sauce until well coated.

Add about half of your basil and some freshly grated parmesan if you like. Stir.

Once plated sprinkle some fresh basil on top for garnish.

Doesn’t it look yummy?!

For the garlic bread:

In a bowl mix half a stick of real butter with about two teaspoons of minced garlic.
Spread over bread and broil on LO in the oven until toasted.

The salad was my favorite part! I was not too sure how Michael was going to like it, but he loved it!

In a small bowl add 3 tbs. of red wine vinegar, 1 tbs. freshly minced shallot and 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard.

Whisk together with 3 tbs. EVOO until everything is well incorporated.

Put your salad into a bowl and drizzle the dressing over the leaves.
Mix gently to coat the leaves.
Add some freshly shaved parmesan and serve.

I will ever use bottled salad dressing again!

Happy Eating!