Meaty Pizza Sauce

This is another recipe that I tweaked from The $5 Dinner Mom Breakfast and Lunch Cookbook by Erin Chase.  Seriously, I need to get that back to the library...I've already renewed it once.  I used this sauce in a 2 different recipes as I was doing some batch cooking.  I made calzones and Stromboli.  In the future I will use it to make homemade pizza.  You could double each of the above recipes if you only wanted to make one of them.  Each only requires about 1/2 of the meaty sauce. 

1 pound lean ground beef
1 onion, diced
3 8 ounce cans of tomato sauce
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon onion powder

Brown ground beef with onion.  Once browned, add the tomato sauce and seasoning.  Stir together.  Cook for about 6 minutes until combined well.  Use the sauce for whatever you would like.

Wordless Wednesday

Here you go our images for today include a story of one hot afternoon.

Shhh don't tell but my son was painting his toe nails...I think he liked it, should I be concerned?

Rolling down the street, smoking indo, sippin on gin and juice...Laid back with my mind on my money and my money on my mind . Doing some front porch sitting and drinking some ice cold  Lemonade. 

Deep thoughts...

.
And hypnotizing eyes...you are getting very sleepy...

My dear friends, life is good!  Make sure you enjoy some time with those precious gifts you've been given.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning."  James 1:17

Menu Monday 7/25

Thank goodness for central air.  Here's the problem with living in Wisconsin, it's either freezing cold or hot/humid that you can't stand yourself.  Spring and Fall are supposed to be the "reasonable" seasons in this area, however with a blizzard near the end of April and temps still dropping near freezing into late May/early June.  Now that warmer weather has arrived, it's here...mid 90's with a heat index of well over 100 degrees.  I know we are not alone with all this heat.  I'm not complaining, (because we have working central air) but I'm also not working on my tan like I should be.  I did use my oven but it was at a minimal, mostly for some batch cooking.  What are some ways that you try to beat the heat and get a healthy meal on the table for your family?

Sunday- Easy Chicken Tortellini Parmesan

Monday- crockpot pork stew over rice

Tuesday-Little Cesar's $5 pizza with three-bean salad

Wednesday-peanut butter chocolate chip granola with apple/strawberry smoothies

Thursday-rice cooker mac and cheese with hot dogs

Friday-leftovers

Saturday-lentil tacos with chips and homemade salsa

You can see my menu and others like it at I'm an organized junkie.

Three-Bean Salad

I adapted this recipe from Cheap. Fast. Good.  by Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross.  It is listed as one of their "Super Cheap" meals.  This came together pretty quickly and I would say since I purchased 2 of  the beans for around $.49 per can at Aldi and the corn  and white beans were in my pantry.  If I was a betting woman, I would say this is a meal served for under $2.50, if you play your cards right.  It made a lot.  We ate it as a side dish but it could have been a main dish, easily.  Gosh I have got to figure out how to do an excel spreadsheet or something. 

The 3 Main Beans...

Now for the bean salad...

1 can red kidney beans, drained
1 can small white beans, drained
1 can green beans, drained
1 can corn-I used white because it was what I had, drained
1 small onion, diced
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Place all the beans and corn in a colander, drain and rinse.  Drain well.  Place beans and corn in a medium sized bowl.  Peel and chop the onion, adding it to the bean mixture.  Toss everything together.  Pour oil and vinegar in a small bowl.  Whisk in garlic powder, salt, and pepper.  Pour dressing over the bean mixture and stir until well coated.  Serve at once or cover and chill to serve.

Easy Chicken Tortellini Parmesan

The chicken tortellini Parmesan was born because I had 2 packages of cheese tortellini that needed to get eaten.  I thought I'd spice it up and use chicken instead of ground beef or turkey.  This tasted a lot like chicken Parmesan even without the extra cheese on top.  We all liked it. 

2 chicken breasts, cut into pieces
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 packages refrigerated cheese tortellini
1 jar of spaghetti sauce or 2 cups of homemade sauce
1/4 cup Parmesan

In a skillet, heat oil.  Add diced chicken until cooked through, about 5 minutes.  Cook tortellini according to package directions.  When chicken and tortellini are done, combine in skillet.  Cover with sauce.  Cook until sauce is heated through.  Add Parmesan as desired.

Ricer Cooker Mac and Cheese

This recipe was found over at Lynn's Kitchen Adventures.  It was adapted, slightly for our family.  I purchased a rice cooker and I'm loving it both for rice or great dishes like Jambalaya.  If you have a rice cooker, make this and if you don't...go and get one...this is amazing and simple mac and cheese without all the preservatives of the boxed stuff.

1 3/4 cup homemade chicken broth or 1 can store bought
2 cups any type of pasta, I used a tri-color pasta
3/4 cup skim milk
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese

Place the broth in the rice cooker and add the dry pasta.  Set rice cooker on "cook", after about 15 minutes all the liquid should be absorbed.  Turn it to "warm".  I think it's automatically supposed to do this like it would with rice but it made me a little nervous, so I just did it by hand.  Add about half of the milk.  Then the cheese.  Stir.  Add the remaining milk to the pasta. Stir.  Allow to sit on warm until cheese it fully melted and ready to serve.

Apple/Strawberry Smoothies

My kids LOVE smoothies.  They ask for them all the time.  I meant to take a picture but once I got things semi picked up and I turned around to snap a photo of this smoothie in the "baby" cup, this is what I ended up with.  You can really make smoothies with just about any kind of fruit.  I had never made one with apples before.  Since I had cut up some apples for a trip to the pool, which was cut short by thunder, the leftovers ended up in this smoothie.  Win, Win.  Right?  Snack at the pool and beverage for dinner.  Smoothies come together in a snap with my Magic Bullet.  Clean up is a breeze and it's perfect to make individual smoothies with different fruits with no additional mess.  Do you see how I could end up a hoarder of kitchen appliances? 

1 cup apple diced, not peeled
1 container strawberry yogurt
1/2 cup milk

Place all item in the Magic Bullet.  Blend until smooth.  Serve in bullet cup.  Or I usually pour it into 2 cups for the kids to split.  This serves 1 big person or 2 little people.