Best Sloppy Joes

So before we moved up to UT my dad was already living up here with my brother and working. Although I did miss my dad, my mom, sister and I had a lot of fun with it just being the girls. My dad isn't necessarily picky when it comes to food but I know there was stuff we'd make that we all liked that he may not have been a fan of. We were trying new stuff out and getting creative with some of our already favorite recipes. Well one such evening, my mom and I came up with a great idea for some dang good sloppy joes.

So normally you think ground beef with some manwich on a hamburger bun. Pretty good or maybe not appealing to some, but pretty plain and basic. Well we decided to make it a little bit better. We bought some nice crusty rolls. Spread on some butter/margarine... whatever you like. Then on that you put a little bit of garlic salt. We love garlic salt in our family. When we don't use bbq sauce on something, its garlic salt. Such a great basic seasoning for everything... turkey, steak, roast, chicken... whatever. Yum yum. Then over that you put some cheese slices. I love sharp or extra sharp cheddar. Lots of bold flavor. So you take that and toast it. I have a toaster oven so its easy to do that way. You can probably just pop it in the oven and broil it for a min or until the cheese is starting to bubble. That should toast the bread enough too. Once you've got those yummy cheesy toasty rolls you put your meat mixed with manwich (I prefer ground turkey) on there. Then you have one yummy sloppy joe. These are one of Scott's favorites and the first time we made them for my dad when we moved up, he was in heaven. They're so good and spice up the average sloppy joe. You should try it out or maybe you can come up some other creative ways!

3-d framed flowers

So I need to give credit where credit is due. I got this from make it and love it. I love her blog. I follow it. She has some amazing ideas. I just need to learn how to sew before I can do some of them. But I was looking for a little something original to do in my house so I followed her tutorial for a 3-d framed flowers. Mine came out like this. Not perfect but not bad.

Once I can get some black spray paint I'll probably spray these frames black but other than that I love these colors together. Like rasta colors... but more earthy :)

Pies in a ramekin

So I don't have a picture of this (go me) but its a super easy dessert. I like it because its a nice little size and the perfect little dessert. I guess if you like pie that is. Plus there are endless possibilities... just like making a normal pie! I start off with a frozen marie calendars pie crust. They are a little more expensive than other brands but I just love theirs. They come in two packs so I just use one for 4 ramekins. Once it thaws I roll it up together and divide it into 4 equal parts and roll those into balls. Then I roll those out with a rolling pin until pretty thin. You're gonna kinda press it into the ramekin and have a little extra hanging over the edge. Then you'll take a pie filling of your choice and fill the cup. Then just fold over the extra crust to close off the top. Also make sure you poke some holes in the top with a fork to vent. Then I put them on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil and bake at the temp according to the pie filling directions. You'll have to watch it. I think it bakes for like 20-25 min. Basically until its golden brown. Just keep your eye on it. Then once they cool you can top it off with a small scoop of ice cream and eat it right out of the ramekin. I've used cherry and apple pie filling so far and both are so good. Next I'm trying blueberry. I also want to try cooking the crust then doing a homemade chocolate pudding filling and top with whipped cream. You can really do a lot with it. I love my ramekins. Its a great investment to have a little set of those things. I use 'em all the time! If you don't have some and want to buy them make sure you get a set with lids. Since I can make 4 little pie things with mine I just put lids on the other two and keep them in the fridge. Same when I make homemade pudding and other things. Much more convenient. Hope you'll give it a try! It's so easy!

Thanksgiving Point Gardens Giveaway

It's been a while since I entered a giveaway. I saw this one and had to! Over at Love Stitched they are giving away 4 family passes to Thanksgiving Point's Tulip Festival. I wanted to go so bad this year but we just don't have the money. I wanted to go last year too but lack of money then too. I've heard its amazing and beautiful and I love doing stuff like this. I'm a total nerd when it comes to this stuff. You can enter too and even if you don't want to go, if you win, you can give them to me! :) So anyway check it out! Here's the link again: http://lovestitched.blogspot.com/2011/04/thanksgiving-piont-tulip-festival.html

Apple Nachos and Coffee Klatch Kolaches

So I tried out a couple recipes I saved from my Taste of Home magazine.

One night Scott and I had a little sweet tooth and I looked around to see what we had. I had a couple apples that were on the verge of turning soft and a couple bags of caramel bits, some mini choco chips, and some marshmallows that I don't remember buying and opening but did at some point but somehow were still soft. So I was thinking..... apple nachos! I had seen this recipe a while back and really wanted to try it. I was missing the peanuts and sprinkles but its ok. They were still quite yummy. Charlotte was loving them. Definitely not the healthiest way to eat an apple but pretty good none the less. I'd type up the recipe but when I have the link... why do that? Hopefully you don't have to be a member to view it but if so you can add your info or just tell me and I'll cut and paste it.
http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Apple-Nachos
Oh and here's my pic of them. Mine were pretty ooey gooey.

The other recipe I did was Coffee Klatch Kolaches. Also another Taste of Home recipe. They had some more traditional type pastries from other countries and this happened to be a Czech one. Since that is where some of my ancestors come from I thought it'd be fun to try. My parent's had invited us over for breakfast before the Sunday morning session of conference. I thought my mom might have had something similar to this before. She said my grandpa used to make something like it but with a very similar name. They're pretty easy to make. Just takes some time while waiting for the dough to rise and what not. I used cherry pie filling and then tried the more traditional version with the prune filling. I liked both but would love to try and do some other pie fillings. Yummy little pastries. Here's the link for that one:
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Coffee-Klatch-Kolaches
And here is my picture of mine. Not as perfect as the ones in their pictures but that's ok. Not too bad.

A to Z

I'm not really sure how many people actually check out this blog but I'm boycotting cleaning at the moment. I just did a bunch of stuff and really don't feel like getting to the kitchen yet so her I am not cleaning. Saw this on Liz's blog and thought it'd be fun to do to take a little break.

A. Age: 27.... holy moly it looks weird writing that down.

 

B. Bed size: a sad sad queen that needs to be replaced. Oh how I long for a cali king!

 

C. Chore you dislike: Hmmm... I actually do like cleaning. It's a stress reliever for me. But when I have no stress to relieve I get kinda bored. If anything I think washing the dishes gets old the quickest because sometimes its multiple times a day and standing on hard floor like that is terrible on my ankles, knees and lower back.

D. Dogs: 1...he's cute but he can be a pain when he wants. He's more like our first kid.

E. Essential start to your day:A good day would start with a great big breakfast... healthy breakfast I might add. Maybe a nice big omelet with lots of veggies. Not all days are like that so heck... if I can just eat breakfast I think that's a great start.

F. Favorite color: green in so many different shades. I love green

G. Gold or silver: Silver... but I don't mind a little gold now and then

H. Height: 5'8"

 

I. Instruments you play(ed): Big fat 0. Tried to learn the piano but I hated trying to read music and gave up. I like sports better anyway. I'd rather listen to music than play it.

J. Job title: Homemaker

 

K. Kids: 2 if you count the dog

L. Live: Lovely Tooele, UT.... when you tell most people that they either think you're white trash (those that have heard of it) and everyone else can't even repeat the name of it back to you.

M. Mom’s name: Diane

 

N. Nicknames: Aud, Audie, Audder pop, Potty, Podder pie, Pod... the list goes on and on

O. Overnight hospital stays: I think just when I had Charlotte. Everything else I was released the same day.

P. Pet peeves: In UT... a lot driving stuff. I don't know what these people learned in drivers ed but it was totally backwards from what I learned. In CA... fake people and the competition. Everyone is always competing for the best stuff. Who cares. It's all crap anyway.

 

Q. Quote from a movie: Oh my goodness. I have so many quotes from movies. My life is movie quotes. Half of mine and my husbands conversations are movie quotes. Most recently a lot of them are from Nacho Libre since that's Charlotte's new favorite to watch. Like "Chancho, when you're a man, sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room, just for fun."

 

R. Righty or lefty:Righty

 

S. Siblings: 1 Brother and 1 Sister

 

T. Time you wake up: Anywhere between 7 and 8 usually. Pretty much whenever Charlotte does

 

U. Underwear: Garments

 

V. Vegetables you don't like: hmmm...not sure if I've ever met a veggie I didn't like. Maybe brussel sprouts. But I'm willing to try them again just maybe prepared differently

 

W. What makes you run late: Usually Charlotte

 

X. X-rays you’ve had: I don't know... quite a few. I had a few for my sprained ankles and some for hurt wrists or badly jammed fingers. Never a broken bone though.

 

Y. Yummy food you make: I think most stuff I make is pretty good. I think Scott likes most stuff I make. I'd have to say I excel in the dessert area. Horrible thing for someone trying to lose more weight.

Z. Zoo animal favorites: All of them. If I had millions of dollars my house would be a zoo with tons of animals for me to interact with. I love animals more than most people. I'm jealous of Noah. That was a sweet deal he had.

Pesto Pizzettas

This was so new for me but I had to give it a chance. You use polenta. What the heck is polenta? Like grits I guess? I was blindly searching for it at the grocery store. I guess they sell it pre made in a tube but I couldn't find that but I just stumbled upon dry polenta so I searched the internet and made it myself. You basically mix it up like you're making malt o meal and then spread it on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and let it cool in the fridge. Then I used a round cookie cutter to cut the shapes. So anyway... here's the recipe. I really liked it and a couple of these can make for a nice snack or you can have like 3 of these with a couple cups of salad and a little fat free dressing and a cup of fresh berries for lunch. Here we go:

Ingredients:

1 (24 oz) tube precooked, ready to heat polenta (usually found refrigerated in the produce dept. or near dried polenta in the pasta isle.... I found mine near like flax seed and whole wheat bran)
1/4 c low fat marinara sauce
2 tbsp bottled pesto
1/4 roasted red bell pepper, cut into thin strips (I used the ones in the jar)
4 artichoke hearts, thinly sliced
3/4 c shredded low or reduced fat mozzarella or Italian cheese blend
Fresh basil or thyme

Preheat oven to 400

Spray the polenta slices lightly with olive oil cooking spray and place them on a baking sheet. Bake the polenta for 8 minutes. While it's baking, place all the toppings in small bowls for quick and easy assembly. Turn the polenta slices over and bake for 8 minutes longer. Remove the polenta from the oven and turn on the broiler.

Top each baked polenta round with 1 tsp of marinara sauce. Add 1/2 tsp pesto, a strip of roasted bell pepper, artichoke slices and 1 tbsp of cheese.

Broil the pizzettas for about 3 minutes, or just until the cheese is melted, bubbly, and light golden. Remove the pizzettas from the oven and top them with the fresh herbs. Serve immediately. Leftovers heat well the next day.

(I usally just make enough for what I'm going to eat then since it gives you the measurements of exactly what goes on it so you can do that too)