Roasted Pumpkin Seeds ~ Oh So Nice

I have a new Oh So Nice for this week....  Roasted Pumpkin Seeds!  I think these little devils are addictive.  I can't stop eating them.  Here's how to make them if you didn't already know.

First: buy a pumpkin.
Second: gut your pumpkin taking out all the innards. Sounds gross huh?
Third: remove all the stringies and things.
Fourth: melt 2 TBS butter and poor over your seeds.
Fifth: lightly salt.
Sixth: bake 45 mins in a preheated 300 degree oven. Or until they are nice and toasted and crunchy.
Seventh: eat them!

That's it.  They are delish.

Crockpot Ribs

The other day as I was doing some grocery shopping I noticed that boneless ribs were on sale and suddenly had a hankering.  So I bought some up, went home and cooked them for dinner that night.

Here's what I did:

BBQ Ribs: A Crockpot Recipe

Ingredients
1 to 1.5 lb of boneless ribs
Seasonings to taste:
Lawry's Seasoning Salt
Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Paprika
1 Bottle of BBQ Sauce of choice.  I used Sweet Baby Rays' Honey BBQ Sauce

Directions
Season ribs and place them in crockpot. Cook on low for 2 hours. Cover with BBQ Sauce and cook on low for another 2-3 more hours or until done.

They were fantastic!

Quick and Easy Pizza

Last friday night I needed to cook up some ground beef, and I knew two things for certain.  I did not want burgers and I did not want a pasta dish.  So I choose pizza instead!  And it turned out so yummy.

Here's the recipe.

Quick and Easy Pizza

Ingredients:
1 LB Ground Beef
1 Can Pillsbury Pizza Dough
1 Jar Pizza Sauce
2 Cups Mozarella Cheese
1/2 Small Onion Diced
1/2 Green Bell Pepper Diced
1/2 can Basil, Garlic and Orgeno Seasoned Diced Tomatoes (Drained)
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Brown the ground beef with the diced onion.  While cooking, season the beef with salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Once the beef is done, drain if necessary, and then add your diced (or sliced if you choose) bell pepper, diced tomatoes and about 1/4 cup of the pizza sauce.  While the meat mixture is simmering on low, roll out your dough and press into pan.  Bake for 6 minutes.  Pull the dough out of the oven and spread the remaining pizza sauce over dough, sprinkle all but about 1/2 cup of cheese over the sauce, spoon meat mixture over your dough and then sprinkle the remaining cheese over top.  Place back in oven and bake for another 6-7 minutes or until dough is done.

All in all it took about 30 minutes to cook and used up ingredients that I tend to keep on  hand.  I love pizza and lately homemade pizza is the best!  The taste is so much fresher and healthier.  You can use whatever ingredients you like.  I was going to toss on some mushrooms, but in the end it seemed like overkill so I left them off.  But let your imagination and taste buds run wild.

Poor Man's Stroganoff

It seems more and more, during the week, I do not have a whole lot of time to cook dinner.  As in virtually none.  So I end up cooking a lot of meals that are quick and easy and I'm always searching for the 30 minutes or less and 5 ingredients or less menus for the week days.  I also do a lot of cooking on the weekend and saving up those lefts and reinventing them into something else through the week. (See yesterday's post where I talk about the fajitas.)

Well, last night was no different from any other night.  I had little time, and I'd searched all day long for a quick easy recipe and just couldn't find anything that suited my taste buds.  I knew I needed to cook up the ground beef that was in the fridge though. So that was my main ingredient.  After much thought I decided that Poor Man's Stroganoff would do the job quite nicely.

I knew the ingredients I had on hand, and some of those needed cooking up as well. So bonus.

There are several recipes out there on the net for a Poor Man's Stroganoff.  And now, here I am about to add one more.  This is my version of Poor Man's Stroganoff.

Poor Man's Stroganoff

Ingredients:

1.5 Pd Ground Beef

1 Pd Mushrooms
½ Small Onion (I’m not a big onion eater so I use just enough as flavoring but not so much that it’s overwhelming. If you like onions by all means pour them on.)
1 tsp - minced garlic
¼ cup - butter
1 can - Cream of Mushroom
1 tbs - cream cheese
1 8oz container - low fat sour cream
Salt , Pepper, Paprika - All to taste
Egg Noodles

Saute the onion and garlic in a little bit of butter added ground beef, salt, pepper, and paprika to taste. In separate pan saute mushrooms with butter. Once done, add Cream of Mushroom soup, cream cheese, and sour cream. Cook until heated through and well combined. Pour mushroom mixture over the beef mixture and simmer on low for ten to fifteen minutes.

While beef is cooking, cook your noodles. Serve beef mixture over noodles with side of bread.

Another ingredient for me would have been to add a little bit of a hearty red wine to the mushrooms while they were sauteing. But since I did not have any, I left it out.  If you like a runnier sauce you might want to add a little milk or more butter.  Careful with adding more sour cream though; you can make the dish very bland that way.

If you try it let me know how it goes for you.

I took the picture using my iPhone camera so it's not the greatest. Oh and that's slices of loaf bread you see on the plate also.  Hey, I was honest and told you it was Poor Man's Stroganoff...

Chicken Casserole

I was thinking the other day about how I wanted to make a chicken casserole for dinner. The thought popped into my mind and I thought, "How yummy!" So I started thinking about exactly what kind of chicken casserole I wanted. I did some online searches and found a few recipes but in the end I made one up as I went along. So today, I'm going to share it.

Ingriedents:
3 chicken breasts
1 small can of peas and carrots (drained)
1 small can of carrots (drained)
1 small can of corn (drained)
2 cans cream of mushroom soup (low sodium variety)
1/4 cup sour cream
8 oz of chicken broth
1 jar mushrooms
1/4 cup cheddar cheese
2 package Stove Top Stuffing mix (I used chicken flavor but any flavor will
do.)

Additional Ingriedents (to your own personal taste preferences):
Lawry's Seasoning Salt
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Paprika
Cayenne Pepper

Directions:
Boil the chicken breasts. Into the water with the chicken breasts I added some of the Lawry's Seasoning Salt, Onion Powder and Garlic Powder. Not too much just enough to season the chicken. Once the chicken was done, I cut it up into bite size pieces. While working on this, I cooked the Stove Top Stuffing mix. (In all honesty, I used 1 package, but I'm listing out 2 packages of stuffing mix. The 1 package just didn't seem to be enough of crusty goodness on top of the dish once it was finished baking.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Once the chicken is diced and the casserole is ready to be assembled, drain the veggies and add them all to the chicken, along with the mushrooms, soup, chicken broth (I used canned broth not reserves from the chicken.) and sour cream. Then add the seasonings. I added roughly, 1/2 teaspoon of Lawry's Seasoning Salt ( I didn't want to add too much because remember, I seasoned my chicken while it was boiling and I knew I could add more later if it wasn't enough.) 1/4 teaspoon of both the garlic and onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon of paprika and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. I mixed everything together.

After everything is mixed together, I poured it into a baking dish, covered with the cheese and then spread the prepared stuffing mix on top. Popped it into a preheated oven and let it bake for 30 minutes.

It was totally scrumpous!

Now, one day soon I'll share with you my Paprika Chicken recipe. It is totally awesomesauce as well. Until then, Enjoy!

Be sure to let me know if you try the recipe and how it turned out.