Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Cheese Burger Sloppy Joes

My husband loves sloppy joes. Loves them. So, I decided to create a new version of the classic for him. Well, as I thought.... he loved it! Well here you have it....tangy sauce, cheeseburger toppings, all on a toasted bun, oh delish!



Ingredients:

1 lb. ground turkey
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup ketchup
2-3 tablespoons spicy mustard
salt
pepper
chopped tomatoes
shredded lettuce
shredded cheese
sliced pickles
hamburger buns

1. This is so easy and great because it comes together really quick! First toss your onions in a non-stick skillet drizzled with just a teaspoon olive oil and cook over medium heat until they are a soft and translucent.
2. Next, add your ground turkey and crumble it into the onions. Cook all the way through. Add some salt and pepper. I like pepper, a lot.... so I added a little bit more. Time to add your condiments.
3.Add your ketchup and mustard and stir to combine. Add a splash of water to thin it out if it is a bit too thick. You want it to be nice and saucy. Now taste. Is it good? Add more mustard, ketchup, salt or pepper so it is just how you like it. Or don't touch it.... it is going to be delicious will all the toppings.
4. Toast your buns and top with your sloppy cheeseburger mixture. Right on topp add cheese, lettuce, tomato, and pickles and dig in!

*this is great with homemade french fries and fruit salad. Or in the summer, a nice juicy watermelon!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Glazed Baked Donuts

My husband started a mountain biking club at the high school where he works. So...what we have here is a bunch of high school boys riding around in the mud every other Saturday morning working up an appetite. I thought this is the perfect opportunity for me to try new recipes out on these boys. I mean they are high school boys. They will eat anything :) I made these a couple of weeks ago and they were a hit! I am pretty sure the plate came back with lick marks on it. They loved them and so will you!



Ingredients:

2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup fat free milk
2 beaten eggs or 1/2 cup egg beaters
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons melted butter (I used tub butter)

Glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons milk
(you want this glaze to be thin!)

Frosting: 1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 teaspoons milk
(you want this frosting to be thick, spreadable, but thick so adjust according)

* DONUT PANS: ok, so you can use different pans for this recipe. I have a donut pan. I LOVE it. It is so much fun to use! I have seen them at walmart, target, target on-line, cooking stores, amazon..... If you want to make these without the pan you can use a mini muffin tin and they will be more like donut wholes. You could also use a mini bunt pan. Look for the dount pans.... the 12 bucks is totally worth it!

Directions:

1. In a large bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt. Stir in milk, eggs, vanilla, and butter. Beat together until well blended.
2. Spray you pans with non stick spray. Pour all your batter into a storage sized zip lock bag. Snip the end and pipe the batter into the pans about half full. They get puffy. Just start in one spot and pipe around in a circle until you meet up with your batter.
3. Bake at 400 for 8-9 minutes until they spring back when touched. Give them a few minutes to cool before you put them on a cooling rack.
4. Now I did a double glaze for extra yumminess, but you could just frost them or you can dip them in the thin glaze. Totally up to you.
5. For the double glaze you dip both sides of the donuts into the thin glaze. Then but them back on the cooling racks for excess glaze to drip off. Once the glaze is cooled and hardened you can go ahead and frost them. Add sprinkles, nuts, chocolate chips, coconut....whatever you want!

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Ham and Cheese Broccoli Roll-ups

This recipe is a spin off of a side dish that my mom used to make for us when I was a kid. I added the roll dough and a yummy sweet and spicy sauce and turned it into a main dish meal! It was soooo good. My husband and kids gobbled them right up. These will for sure be another dinner we will eat around here!



Ingredients:

1 batch of your favorite roll dough or refrigerated crescent roll dough (or Rhodes rolls thawed)
2-3 cups of trimmed blanched broccoli (how to blanch veggies at bottom)
sliced deli ham
sliced cheddar or Colby cheese
honey mustard sauce

Honey Mustard Sauce
1/3 cup light mayo
1-2 tablespoon spicy mustard
1-2 tablespoon honey
salt and pepper
I make the sauce with 1 tablespoon each mustard and honey and then taste it to see what I want to add more of. So just taste and adjust to your liking.

1. Divide your roll dough into 2 balls. I use my favorite roll dough that I make in the bread maker, but use any dough you want. Roll one of the balls out into a circle and you want the dough to be about 1/4 inch thick. Using your pizza cutter cut your dough into triangles. You should get 12 triangle wedges. Get all your toppings ready like this:




2. You are going to work with one triangle at a time. Spread a layer of sauce over your triangle of dough. Then at the wide end of the dough put a piece of cheese, top that with a folded piece of ham, and then top that with 2 pieces of broccoli. Like this:



3.Starting at the wide end again, roll up your filled dough and place on a sprayed and foil lined cookie sheet seam side down. Continue with the rest of your triangles. Now... that one ball of dough will make 12 broccoli ham roll ups, SO you can roll out your other dough ball and make another dozen or you can make a small batch of rolls (like I did). :) Totally your call. This is how all your roll-ups should look, yum!



4. Let those hang out for about 15 minutes and then pop them in a 375 oven for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. I cooked mine for about 10 minutes and they started getting brown so I covered them with foil and cooked them for another 10 minutes until they were cooked through. Eat with fruit salad or melon and you are good! You can use your extra sauce to dip in if you want, but they are pretty darn good right out of the oven! YUM!

HOW TO BLANCH BROCCOLI: Super easy and really good for meals like this or for even dipping veggies in dip or hummus. Blanching takes away the super crunch raw flavor of veggies, but still keeps them crispy and tender. All you do is bring a pot of water to a full boil. Drop your clean and trimmed broccoli in and boil 1 minute. Take off the heat and drop into a colander and run COLD water over the top of the broccoli to stop the cooking process. You can also drop your veggies into a bowl of water filled with ice for an ice bath..... but I do the cold water running over because it is easy and works. Anyway, that's it