BBQ sandwich

I made Hali's crock pot BBQ pork sandwiches. I just used some rolls we had in the freezer and I served canned peaches w/ frozen blueberries.

Homemade Hamburger Helper

We've certainly eaten our fair share of Hamburger Helpers since we've been married, but it has decreased since I've been out of school and have a little more time in the kitchen. It's still good to know who to use a pound of hamburger, however, so I tried out this recipe and decided it's a keeper:

"Western Hash"

1 pound ground beef
1 can (28 ounces) tomatoes, undrained
1 cup long grain rice, uncooked
1 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 pound (8 ounces) VELVEETA cheese product, sliced

1. Brown the meat in a large skillet on medium-high heat; drain.
2. Add tomatoes, rice green pepper and onion; cover. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer 25 minutes.
3. Top with VELVEETA; continue cooking until VELVEETA is melted.

I omitted the green pepper because we didn't have one in the house, but I would probably try it with it next time for the flavor and texture. I also added a little bit of water towards the end of the 25 minutes as the rice seemed to need it.

Corny Chowder Soupy Dinner

It was a bit windy and chilly (probably in the 50's) tonight, though not bad for being february (we've gotten soft), so I figured I'd whip up a pot of soup.  First I cooked about 8 pieces of bacon and then drained that and set it aside. Then I cooked up about 1 medium chopped onion and about 6 large chopped (in large pieces) mushrooms in some olive oil.  When they were semi-soft I added in a couple handfuls of fresh spinach and cooked for a minute. Then I added 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup and 2 cans of milk. Then I added about 3/4 bag of extra sweet white frozen corn and put the cooked bacon back in the pot. To finish it off I added in maybe 1/2 t of worschester sauce and maybe 2 t of chicken bouillon.  I let it all simmer together for about 10 minutes and it was ready to eat. We served it with some whole wheat bagels. That's it. Yummy to my tummy!!

Hamming it up

We've been using up all the leftover ham. Two nights ago we had homemade mac n' cheese. I got the recipe from Danielle M. when our branch put together a cookbook in Italy. We had steamed frozen veggies w/ it. I choked down a few but I'd rather have my veggies in a cake (see previous post).

Last night we had straight leftover ham w/ homemade mashed potatoes and canned corn. Today I used some of the ham in a green salad. The rest went in the freezer.

Homemade Mac-n-Cheese

1 cup chopped ham
¼ cup chopped onion
2 T. margarine
1 can cream of mushroom soup
½ can milk
1 cup grated cheese
1 ½ cup macaroni noodles

Prepare noodles. Brown ham and onion in margarine. Stir in soup and milk, add cheese, stir well and cook until all melted together. Mix together with noodles. Optional--pour into casserole dish, top with bread crumbs. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.
(I never move it to the oven....it's yummy just from the stove top. I usually use part whole grain pasta...maybe half and half or a little less. I think it tastes too bitter to go all whole grain pasta but a little thrown in is good.)

Mom's birthday dinner

Tonight we had a birthday dinner for my Mom:
* ham
* corn
* yummy salad--greens, blue cheese, apple chunks, toasted almond slivers, sprinkled w/ Italian dressing
* party potatoes

For dessert we had something called Caramel-Frosted Hummingbird Cake. I made it w/ whole grain spelt flour because my Mom is bothered by wheat. It has bananas, crushed pineapple, and shredded raw sweet potato in it. Ben was a little bummed that I sneaked some veggies into a dessert but I was just following the recipe. It was actually very scrumptious. It was very moist too even though I used whole grain. It is quite high in calories and fat and one way to cut back would be to use less frosting--I thought it was a little too much.

Party Potatoes
2 lb. pkg. shredded or southern style hash browns
8 oz. sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of potato soup
1 onion diced or 1 Tbsp. minced onion
8 oz. shredded cheddar
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Spray crock pot w/ Pam.
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.
Add to crock pot and cook on low for 2-3 hours.
(My hash browns were still partially frozen so I had to turn it up to high because they weren't heating up fast enough.)

Caramel-Frosted Hummingbird Cake
Prep: 65 minutes
Bake: 30 minutes
Cool: 2 hours
Stand: 2 hours
Ingredients:
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
2 cups mashed bananas (5 medium)
1 cup cooking oil
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups peeled, shredded uncooked sweet potatoes (about 1/2 lb.)
1 8-oz. can crushed pineapple (juice pack), drained
1 recipe Caramel Butter Frosting

Directions
1. Let eggs stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease three 9-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with waxed or parchment paper. Grease and flour paper; set aside.

2. In bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cloves. Stir in bananas, oil, eggs, and vanilla until moist and thick. Stir in sweet potatoes and pineapple. Spread evenly in prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 minutes or until pick inserted near centers comes out clean. (If you use a 9x13 pan bake for 35-40 minutes.) Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Peel off paper. Cool completely.

4. Prepare Caramel Butter Frosting. Place one layer, flat side up, on plate. Spread top only with 1-1/4 cups frosting. Stack and frost remaining layers. Makes 16 servings.

5. Caramel Butter Frosting: In large saucepan melt 1 cup butter; add 2 cups packed brown sugar. Bring to boiling over medium heat; stirring constantly. Cook and stir 1 minute; cool 5 minutes. Whisk in 1/2 cup milk until smooth. Whisk in 6 cups powdered sugar until smooth. Use at once; frosting stiffens as it cools. Makes 4 cups.
Nutrition facts per serving:
Calories 741
Total Fat (g) 27

Shredded Pork Sandwiches & carrot raisin salad

Tonight I'm making shredded barbeque pork sandwiches and carrot raisin salad. The recipe is as follows:

I put a Pork Sirloin Roast..however big you want it to be...in the crockpot on low for 10 hours with a large sweet chopped onion.  When it was about 8 hours through I took a couple forks and shredded the roast in the crock and then I sprinkled it with salt and added about 1/2 cup of barbeque sauce and about 1/2 cup of ketchup along with about 1/4 cup non packed brown sugar. I like it sweet. You can vary these amounts until it tastes good to you.  Then let it cook the remaining 2 hours. We served it on hawaiian sweet rolls, but any rolls would be good. We also had carrot raisin salad....I just shredded 4 carrots and added 1/2 cup of golden raisins to it and then stirred in about 1/2 cup of Miracle Whip and sprinkled it with about 1/2 t of sugar and stirred it all together.  Good stuff!!  Way to go Amy for getting this site up and running!

It all started with slop.

"Hey, what can I make for dinner tonight with a pound of hamburger?"

I was chatting on the phone with my friend and it was getting close to supper time. I had thought that since I had the foresite to thaw a pound of hamburger I would save my family from another night of fish sticks. Unfortunately, I was burned out on all our usual hamburger creations and didn't have anything new in mind to try. Her suggestion was slop.
Super easy.
Super fast.
Super yummy.
(The above statements have been approved by a 4-year-old picky eater, a tired, non-creative Mom, and a hungry tired-of-fish-sticks Dad.)

Since everyone has to eat, we (Amy and Hali) decided to launch a blog dedicated to the nightly challenge of suppertime. Our main motivation in doing this is to get recipes and ideas so that everybody can stop saying, "Fish sticks, again?" We figure everybody has a few easy favorites like slop and if we all share them then we'll all end up with a bunch of yummy things to make and then we can stay out of the fish stick aisle.

But besides getting recipe ideas we're also just plain curious about what people are eating. So if it's a disaster that ended up in the garbage disposal, or you hit a drive-through, or you had a bowl of cold cereal...we want to hear about it!

There are two ways to share on this site:

#1 Simply leave a comment. While it is very common to be a "lurker" there is no need to do that here. Unless you have taken up fasting every night if you are going to come check out this blog you might as well just leave a comment (anonymously if you wish) telling us what you had for dinner.

#2 Be a contributor and publish your own posts. If you'd like to be a contributor and haven't received an invite just let us know...we're happy to add as many as would like to. If you've received an invite and would rather not be a contributor that's fine too...you can always just leave a comment.

Pictures are fun but optional.

Lots of people like to post about food on their personal blogs. This doesn't have to take away from that....just copy and paste so you can have it in both places.

So to get us started...here's slop:

Brown 1 lb. hamburger (w/ onions if you like).
Add 1-2 cans cream of corn (this batch was made with one can).
Serve over mashed potatoes.
Yes, it sounds too simple to be any good but it is very yummy!