2-ingredient Bagels

 I love these with breakfast sandwiches, especially, but a good turkey and swiss is fantastic too. 

2-Ingredient Bagels
(From this website)

2 cups self-rising flour

2 cups plain greek yogurt

1 egg

Everything Bagel seasoning

 

1. In a large bowl, mix the flour and yogurt together until it forms a shaggy dough. Tip it on to a lightly floured surface and knead it until it forms a nice smooth ball. Flatten the ball into more of a disc and cover with a towel. Let rest for 10 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven to 375 before going to step 3. Line a cookie sheet with a silpat liner or parchment paper.

3. Split the disc into eight pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Cover them with the towel again and let rest another 10 minutes. 

4. Lightly coat your hands in flour. Using your thumb, make a hole in the center of each ball of dough about 1 ½ -inch wide, pulling on the outer edge of the dough as you turn it around your thumb to form an evenly shaped bagel. Place on prepared baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

5. Beat the egg with a pinch of salt and then use a pastry brush to brush it on to each bagel. Sprinkle with Everything Bagel Seasoning. 

6. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes.

Pizza Casserole

Saw this on Instagram and tried it out tonight on the pickiest eaters in town and 2/3 actually ate it! Decided I needed to get the recipe down (with the changes in cooking time) before I forget.

Brunch with Babs' Pizza Casserole

16 oz elbow macaroni
3 cups boiling water
24 oz marinara sauce
1-1/2 c. mozzarella cheese
5 oz. pepperoni, divided.

Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Pour macaroni, 4 oz pepperoni, water and marinara sauce into a 9x13 casserole dish. Stir it up and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Pasta should be al dente at this point. Remove from oven and top with the rest of the pepperoni and the cheese. Return to the oven and cook another 10 minutes. Let it sit for 5 minutes and then serve.

Zucchini Quesadillas

My mom likes to use this filling in addition to chicken in her quesadillas. I like to add black beans. I've also had them just as is written. All versions are delicious.

Zucchini Quesadillas
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
2-3 cups shredded zucchini
2 T taco seasoning
8 oz pepperjack cheese (If I have it. If not, I just use regular cheddar or colby jack)
1 t oil
8 7" flour tortillas

Saute onion, zucchini and pepper in oil for 3 minutes. Stir in taco
seasoning; saute 3-4 minutes more or until veggies are tender. Remove
from heat. Use approximately 1/4 cup veggie mix and 1/4 cheese on each
quesadilla.

Serve with salsa, sour cream, etc

Richards Fam Chinese Chicken

I guess this is a huge favorite of my husband's family from growing up, and I can see why! The recipe calls for drumsticks, but feel free to use whatever type of meat you want. I prefer the chicken tenders from costco :) The cook time may vary depending on the meat...

6 lg drumsticks
1/2 c soy sauce
3 Tbs brown sugar
1/4 tsp garlic powder
3 Tbs vinegar
1 tsp. ginger
1 c water
1 chicken boullion cube

Pull skin off drumsticks
Boil water (microwave works) and add the boullion
Mix the rest of the ingredients into the water
Marinate chicken

Bake at 350 for 45 min. until chicken is falling off the bones :)

A couple notes...
-According to my SIL the marinating doesn't really need to happen, I did it for about 20 minutes and mine still had plenty of flavor
-I made this recipe in my pressure cooker, it took 15 minutes and turned out PERFECT (Chicken was about 2/3 still frozen, I did half drumsticks, half chicken tenders)
-Pair it with the fried rice and some broccoli and you will be so happy.
-I'm going to try to do a make-ahead freezer meal with this and I'll update with how it turns out

Chocolate Zucchini Wacky Cake

I'm sharing this because I'm going to want to find it again :)

Chocolate Zucchini Wacky Cake
(Adapted from Lynn's Kitchen Adventures)

• 1 ½ cups all purpose flour 
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 5 tablespoons oil
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Just less than 1 cup water
• 1 cup shredded zucchini
  
  
  Mix all the ingredients except for the zucchini in a large mixing bowl. Once its all blended well, fold in the zucchini. Pour into a greased 8x8 cake pan. Bake @ 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Cool and frost or sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Vanilla Wacky Cake

We may have made 3 of these in the last week...

Vanilla Wacky Cake

1 1/2 c. flour + 3 Tbsp.
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. white vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
5 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 c. water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the dry ingredients in a greased 8x8 pan. Make 3 depressions in the dry mix--2 small, and 1 larger. Pour vinegar and vanilla into the 2 small depressions and the oil into the larger one. Then pour the water over the entire pan. Use a whisk to mix it all together until its well blended. Bake for 35 minutes.

I think this cake NEEDS frosting and/or ice cream. But with those additions it is delicious. And tastes like a sugar cookie in cake form. Yum!

Homemade Spaghettio's Pasta

That's what we're calling it because it reminded me a lot of Spaghettio's sauce. But it was tasty and total comfort food.

Homemade Spaghettio's Pasta
(Adapted from Allrecipes.com)

1 12 oz. box of pasta (we used penne)
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
3 Tbsp. butter

Garlic powder
Black pepper
Shredded Cheese


In a large pot, cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain and let cool for 1 minute.

Meanwhile in a small sauce pan, melt the butter and add tomato sauce. Let simmer 1-2 minutes. Add garlic and pepper to taste.

Pour sauce over drained pasta and gently stir to combine. Add a handful of your favorite shredded cheese and stir as it melts.

We served this with some pre-cooked meatballs to give it a little more oomph but it would be tasty on its own merit too.

Sweet Teriyaki Chicken

Another freezer meal success! Again, from this website :)

Slow Cooker Sweet Teriyaki Chicken

Ingredients:
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 onion, chopped
1 1/2 lbs chicken breasts

Directions:
Mix together soy sauce, sugar, garlic salt and chopped onion in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Place chicken breasts inside the bag and zip closed.
When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours or LOW for 7-8 hours.
Serve over rice.

So yummy! It tasted quite a bit like the teriyaki chicken rice bowls from teriyaki stix, only the chicken wasn't that yucky cheap stuff :) It was a tiny bit salty for my liking, so next time I think I might do a little less soy sauce, and I might just double the sauce in general because I like it on my rice. Overall it was delicious! 

Sweet and Tangy Meatballs

I decided to make a bunch of freezer crock pot meals last week, and rather than put them all on at once I decided to wait until we tried all of them in case there were duds. Meal #1 was wildly successful. According to Micah, they are "the best meatballs ever." I got the recipe from here.

1 package of frozen meatballs (I got turkey meatballs and they were DELISH)
1 jar of grape jelly
1 jar of chili sauce

Mix it all up, put it in a ziplock bag and stick it in the freezer. Thaw for 24 hours (I think we did it for less than that and survived) and then slow cook it for 2 hours on high or 4 hours on low. Serve over rice!

(This was a tiny bit spicy for my liking, but I am a huge spice wimp. I think I'll use more jelly and less chili sauce next time, but not by much)

Pork Chop Marinade

I used a bunch of different recipes to make one that I actually had ingredients for, and it turned out yummmmy!

Marinade:
2 Tbs. Vegetable oil
2 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce (maybe a little more)
Some lemon juice
A few good squirts of ketchup
A small handful of brown sugar

Stir it all up, put it in a zip-lock bag, stick two pork chops in there, put it in the fridge and get it out when you are ready to cook up the chops! Micah just did the pork chops on the George Foreman and it took like 10 minutes. Talk about an easy dinner! (I recommend adding applesauce and baked potatoes to the menu...)

*And in case you are like me and didn't know this, you should poke some holes in the meat before you marinate it. That would make sense, right? But yeah... I didn't. And it was still good!

Jell-O Pie

I tried this one for a dinner I gave last night (for the parentals) and everyone loved it. Especially my husband! So...here it is. SUPER DUPER EASY!

Jell-O Pie by "Nicole"
(From this website...no changes!)

• 2/3 cup boiling water
• 1 (3 oz.) package jello, any flavor (I used lime)
• 1/2 cup cold water
• ice cubes
• 8 ounces cool whip (reduced fat)
• 1 9-inch graham cracker crust

Stir boiling water into jello for about two minutes--until it is completely dissolved. Add ice cubes to 1/2 c. cold water until it equals 1 cup. Pour this into the jello and mix until all the ice is melted. Stir in the cool whip with a whisk until its smooth. Cover and refrigerate the mixture until it begins to set--enough that you could begin to "heap" it into a pie crust. Once its semi-set, "heap" it into your graham cracker crust. Cover and refrigerate overnight.  

 

When serving, cut into 6 pieces. It will make everyone happy. 

The Easiest (and possibly healthiest) Pumpkin Muffins

1 spice cake mix
1 15 oz. can of pumpkin

Mix it all up and put it in muffin tins!

Bake at 350 for about 18 minutes
They turn out a little funny looking, but yummy! I feel like chocolate chips would be a good addition.

*Recipe from Spark People, and according to them there are only 115 calories per muffin :)

Egg Muffins

Lately I have been on a quest to find new, healthy, easy recipes.  I found this "Egg Muffins" recipe on this website: http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2006/10/egg-muffins-revisited-again.html  I'm going to post the original recipe, and then I'm going to post my version of it.


Original:

(Makes 12 muffins, recipe created by Kalyn with inspiration from The South Beach Diet book.

15 eggs (for silicone muffin pans, use 12 eggs for metal muffin tins or individual silicone cups. You can use less egg yolks and more egg white if you prefer.)

1-2 tsp. Spike Seasoning (side note: I don't know what spike seasoning is . . . .)

1-2 cups grated low fat cheese (I like sharp cheddar or a blend of cheddar/Jack cheese, use less cheese if using meat)

Optional, but highly recommended, 3 green onions diced small.

Optional: chopped veggies such as blanched broccoli, red pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, etc. (Using veggies will reduce the fat content)

Optional: diced Canadian bacon, lean ham, or crumbled cooked turkey sausage

Preheat oven to 375 F. Use regular or silicone muffin pan, 12 muffin size. If using silicone pan, spray with nonstick spray. If using regular muffin pan, put two paper liners into each slot, then spray liner with nonstick spray.

In the bottom of the muffin cups layer diced meat, if using, vegetables, if using, cheese and green onions. You want the muffin cups to be about 2/3 full, with just enough room to pour a little egg around the other ingredients. Break eggs into large measuring bowl with pour spout, add Spike, and beat well. (I used to add a bit of half and half or milk, but lately I like the way they turn out without it.) Pour egg into each muffin cup until it is 3/4 full. I like to stir slightly with a fork. Bake 25-35 minutes until muffins have risen and are slightly browned and set.

Muffins will keep more than a week in the refrigerator. Egg muffins can be frozen and reheated, but I like them best when they are just refrigerated. For best results, thaw in refrigerator before reheating. Microwave on high about 2 minutes to reheat.

My Version:

Makes 6 muffins

4 eggs 

3 pieces of turkey lunch meat chopped up

some cheese

some milk

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

I layered the bottom of my muffin tins with a thin layer of lunch meat.  Then I sprinkled it with cheese.  I used about a pinch, a generous pinch . . . My thinking was, "how much would I use if I were making scrambled eggs in this little tin."  I cracked the eggs together in a separate bowl and added some milk, again, thinking, "how much would I add for scrambled eggs?"  I mixed it all together with a fork, just like scrambled eggs.  I then dumped the egg mix on top of the meat and cheese in the little muffin tins.  I tried to fill it about 3/4 full like she recommends, but it poured so fast . . . I added the salt and pepper last, but I think next time I'll just mix it in with the milk.  Then I stirred slightly with a fork and baked for about 25 minutes, until they had risen and were slightly browned and set.

I didn't try them right away, I waited until this morning and then I reheated them like she recommends.  My husband and I had them for breakfast with chocolate slim fast shakes.  They were really good!! I really like that you can make a bunch of them ahead of time, store them in the fridge and then quickly reheat them.

Cranberry Chicken

I made this last night and LOVED it.  It was so easy and so tasty!

6 Skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 1/2 (1 ounce) packages dry onion soup-mix
1 (16 ounce) can cranberry sauce
1 cup French or Russian salad dressing

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place the chicken breasts in a baking pan.  In a small bowl, combine the onion soup mix, cranberry sauce, and dressing.  Stir until well blended.  Pour sauce mixture over the chicken breasts. Cover with foil and bake for 60-75 minutes or until top is bubbly and slightly browned.

*For a more flavorful dish, let chicken marinate in the sauce for several hours.

I came home from work yesterday and threw this together.  I didn't really thaw my chicken before putting it in the dish and pouring the mixture over it.  I let it marinate for about 40 minutes while I went jogging and then I came home and threw it in the oven.  I served it with brown rice.  My husband and I both loved it, it was so tender and juicy.  And, super easy to throw together after a really long day.

Easy-Peasy Tuna Casserole

This is the meal you fix when you need to feel like you're being the domestic housewife ("Look, I'm cooking!") but don't actually want to do REAL cooking. Its not the most amazing tuna casserole I've ever turned out, but its definitely the fastest and it doesn't taste like circa 1987 Cafeteria fare. So I'm keeping the recipe to pull out now and again.

Easy-Peasy Tuna Casserole
(BARELY adapted from Allrecipes.com)
1 box of Macaroni & Cheese dinner
1 can of tuna, drained
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup of milk
3 heaping tablespoons of breadcrumbs
1/8 c. butter

Make the macaroni & cheese according to package directions (i.e. boil, drain, add milk, butter and cheesy powder). Add the tuna, soup and 1/2 cup of milk. Pour it all into a greased 2-quart baking dish. Melt the butter and mix with the bread crumbs. Sprinkle on top of the casserole. Bake for approximately 20-minutes in a 350 degree oven. 

Serve with steamed veggies and a green salad. Ooooh...so "fancy."

Microwave Cinnamon Biscuits

2 cans refrigerator biscuits
melted butter
cinnamon sugar

Dip each biscuit in butter and then coat with cinnamon sugar. Place in a circle in a microwave safe dish. Cook on Cook Level 7 for 7-9 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed with finger. Turn the dish a quarter of a turn halfway through cooking time. Stand for two minutes then invert onto a plate.

Salsa Chicken in the Slow Cooker

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup salsa
1 can cr. of mushroom soup
1 packet of taco seasoning
1/2 c. sour cream

Easy! Put the chicken in the slow cooker and sprinkle the taco seasoning over it (I only used half the packet). Then dump the salsa and cream of mushroom soup over it. Slow cooker it for 9 hours (or so...). When it's done, dump the sour cream in and stir it around. Serve over rice!

This is GOOD for a meal that's only about 180 calories! (okay that doesn't count the rice, which is a doozie)

Parmesan Chicken

2 Boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 c. olive oil or butter
2 tsp. crushed garlic
1/4 c. bread crumbs (I liked the Italian seasoned ones)
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the oil and garlic together so that the flavors blend. In a separate dish, combine bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Cut the chicken breasts in half and dip them first in the oil, then the bread and cheese. Place in a shallow baking dish and cook at 425 for about 30-35 minutes.

This was SO easy and so quick! Not to mention SO good! We ate it with rice, but I bet it would be even better with mashed potatoes.

Funny story... it looks like Sarah already added a recipe exactly like this except italian dressing instead of oil and garlic. So... I bet hers tastes even better. That's why we're BFF!