ROTW: Breakfast Casserole (ANYTIME)

Oh Goodness is this yummy! I had to use a roll of jimmy dean sausage that my mom gave me. I went to Allrecipes.com (its my got to site for recipes) and plugged in Sausage, and up came all sorts of casserole recipes and soups....

I'm in Florida and just wasn't in the mood for soups. So I skipped over those and opened a bunch of tabs of the casseroles. I scrolled through my open tabs looking at the pictures and the ingredients. ( I love seeing the recipe, if it looks yummy I am more likely to make it ) I had three I narrowed it down too...then I made my final decision: Country Breakfast Casserole

I generally read through the comments below the recipe to see what others have done to make the recipe better or for mistakes that people have found in the recipe, so I can avoid disasters. But i realize now that I did not do that this time.

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package breakfast sausage
• 1 chopped green onion
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 6 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 (2.64 ounce) package country gravy mix
• 6 slices bread, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons melted butter (optional)
• paprika to taste (optional)

I followed this pretty much the way it was. Except I swapped out the green onion with sweet onion, and the bread with a package of stovetop cornbread stuffing mix (un made). I also added one more egg, 1/4 cup more milk, and 1/4 cup more water. ( I wanted to make sure I had enough liquid to reach the stuffing) I also sauteed about 2 TBS of diced Jalapenos in butter and left them until they were sort of caramelized, and added it to my pie dish with the sausage/onion mixture - I made this in two 9 inch pie plates. I wanted a little more kick to mine.

Brown the sausage, add in the chopped onion, saute until onions are translucent. Place this at the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Top with shredded cheese. Mix together the eggs, water, milk, and gravy mix ( I used one that makes two cups-pepperidge farms sausage country gravy I believe-(which I had to run to the store and get because I thought I had one but didn't). I added some garlic, and a pinch of cayenne pepper, some onion powder, kosher salt and pepper. Then pour this on top of the sausage mixture. Top with the bread. Top with the butter. ( I used the stovetop cornbread stuffing un made, and no butter-when it was almost done I pulled it out and used spray butter on the top) Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes.

This was sooo sooo sooo good! Kids went back for seconds! Even the baby ate it!

Next time I think I might add some Zuchinni or squash to it as well....up the eggs and milk again...maybe even some mushrooms. Yummy! I love casseroles, You can basically throw in anything and they are good....most of the time....I've had a few come out horrible.

Enjoy!

<3 Carrie

ROTW: Mummy Dogs

Ya I know this post should be in October, but Whatever....Here it is...

Alright so take a can of pizza dough, unroll it and press it out a bit, and slice it with a pizza slicer into 10 slices.

Wrap each hot dog with one slice of dough.

Bake in pre-heated oven (package recommendation) until golden brown.

Serve. My Kids had fun with them...This is Parkers:

This is Emma's:

 Riley's:

I also tried adding a strip of cheese under the dog and then rolled them up...cheese came out, but it was so good anyhow!!

<3 Carrie

ROTW: Spagetti Bread!!

Yes, I realize I spelled Spagetti wrong, but I like it like that. :)

I found this recipe on Pinterest. ( OMG, right now my kids are watching Spongebob, and it is Soooooo annoying.....A crab has a whale as a daughter....) OK anyway's, I thought this recipe looked so yummy!

One loaf of frozen bread dough, thawed and left to rise, then rolled out for a rectangle pizza dough shape. My dough took about 4 hours to thaw and rise in the oven with the light on.

Cook some noodles up, which ever you prefer-I used the garden delight spagetti. Heat up your sauce, it can be meat sauce or no meat, which ever you prefer. Mix together your spagetti noodles and sauce. place about 4-5 cups worth of this on the middle of your dough, length wise, in the shape of a log. Top with cubed cheese of your liking. In a state of furry (I'll save you from this, because I actually want you to try it *see below) from my quest to tackle to rolling of this dough I forgot to add the cheese (UGH-seriously how could i FORGET the cheese-the BEST part of it!!!) or to take a picture of this step, so I borrowed one:

Picture credit

Slice outward from the spagetti log into the dough toward the edge, like above picture. Then braid the dough 'slices' , starting with first pulling up your ends to the top of your log then braiding. Like below picture:

I went ahead and topped mine with melted butter and some garlic powder, onion powder, and some Italian seasoning. and then baked it at 350 for about a half an hour. Until it looked like this:

Let it cool for just a bit....and slice into that thing:

*Now picture how much better this would look if I had the cheese in it, melting all over the noodles and oozing out the peep holes of the braid!!! Oh how mad was I when I realized I had forgot the cheese!!!!!!! I am going to make this again, and I will NOT forget the cheese...although that furry I mentioned about the dough might keep me from making it again.

I hope you try this, several other PaA girl's have and they loved it....aside from the furry with the dough, lol.

<3 Carrie

ROTW: Stuffed Acorn Squash

Hello, So in my healthier eating habits, I wanted to try new healthy recipes, I ran across some acorn squash recipes....most of them called for a brown sugar/butter coating, which I am trying to avoid sugar, and well butter....its bad...

I saw a few that we're stuffed...so I looked through my pantry, and saw what I had and threw this together:

Doesn't look awesome, but Oh My Stars was it delicious, it was so good, That I had it again for lunch and dinner the next day!!!

Savory Stuffed Acorn Squash

Slice Acorn Squash in half.
Seed them, and make a cut into them, just barely several cuts one direction then several the other direction.
Place cut side up in a shallow pan, and cook at 380 degrees for about 40 minutes or until tender, like a sweet potato.

While that is baking prepare your stuffing:
1 1/2 cups instant brown rice, prepared as directed
1 can of chicken breast in water ( I always keep this on hand, in case I forget to defrost )
Shredded cheese, medium handful, I had Mozzarella
1 can tomato sauce

I think I added a bit or salt and pepper, maybe some garlic powder...

When the Acorn Squash is tender, pull it out and stuff it, and return to the oven until warmed through.

Cut into fourths and enjoy!

<3 Carrie

ROTW: Chicken Cornbread Bake

Hey there guys. Today's recipe is for Chicken Cornbread Bake. Yummy, easy, and interchangeable!
Meaning you add what you like to it, and omit things you don't like.
My kids thought this was yummy, the husband ate it as well...It is better the day you make it though, when you eat it as a leftover, its kind of dry.

Sorry for the icky picture, I'm still learning how to take pictures of food.

Recipe:
1/2 c Butter, melted
1 half an onion, diced
some minced garlic
1 can corn, kernels
1 can creamed corn
dash of salt
2 eggs
1 cup Buttermilk (I use 1 T lemon juice and fill the rest of the measuring cup with milk)
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1 cup Cornmeal
1 cup Flour
2/3 sugar

Saute up the garlic and onions in additional butter or olive oil. Set aside.
Mix the above ingredients together, and fold in the onions and garlic.
Place this mixture in a greased 9x13 pan AND a greased 8x8 pan. (I was afraid it would overflow if I filled it all into one pan. Use your judgement...

Next mix:
2 1/3 cups chicken, shredded/diced, whatever, must be cooked though.
1 can green chile's
1 can mushrooms, or fresh
1 1/2 cup Sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

Place this in dollops on top of the cornbread, leaving the edge free.

Top with cheese (I forgot this step in my recipe and it was still good, but would be delicious with cheese, anything is delicious with cheese), Bake at 375 degrees for about 35-40 minutes.

Serve.
Now like I said above, this is def a must eat the night you bake, or else it gets kind of dry, but you could fix that with some gravy or some chili?! And you can add green peppers, red peppers, olives, red onion...anything really...

ROTW: Chicken Enchilada Pasta

This weeks installment is Chicken Enchilada Pasta! This was so so so yummy! Very easy to make also. Here's what you need:

1 box Penne Pasta, or what ever you have is fine
1/2 an onion, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
2 cans green chile enchilada sauce
2/3 cup red enchilada sauce
1 can green chile's
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 cup sour cream
2 cups shredded cheese
@2 cups shredded chicken (more less depending on what you have on hand...I had about 1.5 cups here

Optional, whatever veggie you have on hand for garnish, green onion, tomatoes, and sour cream for the top as well...

 Make your pasta how you like it, al dente or soft, up to you...
Saute up the onion and red pepper in some EVOO or butter.
Add to the onions, the enchilada sauces and green chile' and the spices, cook about ten minutes on medium heat.
Add in your sour cream  and chicken, stir well to incorporate, then add cheese, stir to incorporate.
Stir in your pasta and serve with the optional ingredients.
This was very yummy, kids even liked it, The husband approved as well!

ROTW: PW's Cajun Chicken Pasta

This week I have recipe from The Pioneer Woman! Cajun Chicken Pasta. Mmmmm!

Cook some noodles up.

 Drain 'em!

Slice up some veggies, I used Red Pepper, Green Pepper, Red Onion, and some garlic

Also some tomato's.

Dice up your chicken breasts, this is three I think.

Saute them up with some cajun seasoning.

Now, your supposed to take the chicken out and then saute up the veggies, I think I did that, and then this is when I added them back in, I think...Its been awhile since I made this...

And then you add your liquid's....mine never did thicken up, I had to refrigerate it and order pizza, (We were headed out to the drive in movies and it wouldn't thicken right...so I just said forget it, and stuck it in the fridge.....It was so good the next day though!)

Sauce: 2 cups chicken stock, 1/2 cup white wine, 1 cup heavy cream, black pepper, cayenne pepper or more cajun seasoning.

In your pan after your done sauteing the veggies and chicken, add the wine and chicken broth, cook for 3-5 minutes, add in the heavy cream, stir don't let it stick to bottom, and get all the bits up off of the bottom of the pan from the chicken and veggies, and then add in your seasoning, it should be spicy. Cook until it thickens slightly....this is where I failed...mine never thickened, I even added cornstarch to it and nothing, no idea what went wrong....So I threw the chicken and veggies back in, cooking it longer and longer, and still nothing, I had run out of time, we needed to walk out the door to go to the drive-in and so I stuck it in the fridge and had my neighbor grab us a pizza too!

BUT we had this the next night, I just pulled it out of the fridge put it on a burner and warmed it up and it was perfect! PERFECT!

This was so yummy! Def worth the frustration....I do not have a finished picture, but I linked the website up there ^ , so go check out her pictures! Awesome! Awesome! ( I have never had anything less than awesome from her site! NEVER!)

ROTW: Calzone

Hey there lovely followers! Nothing too too special on today's post, just a simple yummy calzone I made the night before we moved!

Ingredients: Dough (store bought), ricotta, mozzarella cheese, toppings, and some pizza sauce for dipping. I chose to use pepperoni, mushrooms and olives.

Roll out the dough, spread ricotta over half the dough, leaving the edge free, thickness depends on you, top with toppings, and then layer on a good amount of mozz cheese!

Fold the empty dough over, and seal with a fork, and place on baking sheet.

Bake as directed on dough baggie: about 20 minutes at 350 (I think), or until golden brown.

Cool slightly and cut and serve with Pizza sauce to dip in! This was so good, it was really hard not to eat it all......I know, because I ate it all!



Thanks for checking in! See ya tomm for another post!

ROTW: Veggie Quesadilla

I had in the fridge a ball of Mozzarella and a bunch of awesome veggies, so I sliced the all up and made this awesome yummy healthy Quesadilla. I used Corn Tortillas. I sliced up some avocado, black olives, onion, red pepper and some of the mozzarella, put it on my tortilla:

Put it in a pan...

Covered it for a few minutes, so the steam could melt the cheese and soften veggies slightly...

Flipped it, doesn't that look awesome!

Took it off the heat and sliced it up and served it with some salsa!

This was so quick and easy, and filling, and healthy!

ROTW: ReeRee Pockets, Dessert Style!

Morning Everyone! Hope all is well where ever you are. Its very dreary out here today....

I made ReeRee Pockets again this week, only I put a dessert in them instead of a main meal! They were pretty good, not as good as what I had thought in my head they were going to taste like, but for a quick simple small dessert, this will do!

I used peaches, because that is what I had in the fridge, this would be really good with apples, or even a mix of berries....maybe even a cream cheese filling with some simple vanilla beans, and a berry sauce. There really are just so many options when it comes to making this!

You can find the original recipe here, and its variations are also in that post as well!

Take a peach, skin it, slice it thin.

Add in some brown sugar, cinnamon, and a tiny bit of flour, this shouldn't be runny, more like a paste.

Take your crescent roll and flatten it out...

 Top with about three to four slices of your peach mixture and add a tiny slice of butter.

Roll them up and pinch sides...

 In your bowl that had the peaches in it and the 'paste' of b. sugar and cinn. and flour....add in some more brown sugar, melted butter, and some heavy whipping cream, mix together.

Pour mixture over top of pockets...and bake at 330 degrees for about 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Don't these look divine?

I served mine with ice cream....yummy!


Imagine a yummy vanilla bean cream cheese filling with a warm berry sauce, or an apple filling-like apple dumplings (Pioneer Woman has a recipe very similar to this it uses mountain dew, OMG is it ever good!) or a berry filling, with a caramel sauce.....Oh the possibilities!

ROTW: Drive-in Hot Dogs

This recipe is from a co-worker of mine, Stacey, we we're talking about easy quick go to recipes of ours, and she shared this one with me. She said that her family used to make a bunch of these up on Friday nights and pile in a car and go down to the Drive-in Movie place, and eat them while watching a movie. They sounded delish so I decided my family needed to try them.

These are the ingredients you'll need: Hot Dogs, Ketchup, Mustard, Pizza Sauce, Shredded Cheese, Hot Dog Buns, and Aluminum Foil.

Cut up the Hot Dogs, I cut mine in half and in half again length wise and then diced them into small pieces, add some ketchup, mustard, a small things of pizza sauce, and some shredded cheese, warm in a pan.

 Have your Buns ready...

Scoop mixture into buns...

Wrap Hot Dog's in Aluminum Foil...

and Put them in the oven for about 20 minutes at 350 or until warmed through..unwrap and enjoy.

Don't these look yummy? Kids thought they were just OK, and the Husband didn't care too much for them...Next time I make these, I am going to use chilli in place of the pizza auce and add in some diced onion...