Thursday, February 24, 2011

Bar-B-Q Meatballs (over rice)

I promise you will get compliments on these meatballs every single time. It makes a lot (hence the 3lbs of meat!) but I love to make the meatballs (minus the sauce) and freeze half for a later date. (I'm all about only cooking half the time!!!) If you want to turn them to appetizers you can just make them smaller..and they are GREAT even without rice.

Ingredients:
3lbs ground hamburger
2 c quick cooking oats
2 eggs
1 (13oz) can evaporated milk
1 c chopped onion (or 2-3 t onion powder)
1/2 t black pepper
2 t salt
2 t chili powder
1/2 t garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350*. Mix all ingredients well. Form into 1 1/2 inch balls. (The Pampered Chef Medium Scoop is THE BEST for this job!) Place in large lightly greased pan (or 2 9x13)and bake for 20-30 minutes-until they are no longer pink in the middle. At this point you can freeze half, or choose to make it all.

BBQ Sauce Ingredients:
2 c tomato ketchup
1 c brown sugar
2 t liquid smoke
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 c chopped onion (1 teaspoon onion powder)

Place balls in crockpot and pour sauce over them (make sure to cover them all evenly!) Heat until warm. If you don't want to use a crock pot I have heated the sauce in the micowave (careful with the ketchup so it doesn't burn!) and poured over the meatballs while they are still hot! In that case you would want to start your rice before making the sauce so it will be done when the meatballs are ready.

*For those of you who don't like onion (You know who you are...) I think the onion really adds to the recipe. I highly reccomend subsituting some onion powder in it's place. I promise you won't hate it...I have snuck this past many an onion-hater this way! You onion loves can laugh...but you don't know what else I've snuck past you! (Like wild game, veggies, etc...) I put the amounts next to the onion in the recipe for all you weirdos (uh..I mean...ahh..nevermind.)

I'll add a picture next time I make them!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

1-2 Month Bear Pages


My Cricut saved these pages-although, the are still definitely not my favorites! I'm so glad I took monthly pictures of Kaden with his bear! The lettering was cut on the Sesame Street Font cartridge. I love this shapes font for little boys!


If I were to re-do these pages I would add more colors. It's tricky, though, when I have a lot of pictures to fit on such a small page. The longer I go on this scrapbook the more I am a believer in 12x12 size! I still may add "bling" or something to these pages if I am inspired...Like I said before...these aren't my favorite pages. I thought the bear pictures would be the easiest pages-but that is proving false! Here are the pages individually.


Was he not seriously the cutest baby ever!

Alfredo Potato Lasagna

This is what we had for dinner tonight. My camera seems to have gone AWOL, so no pictures! If you are planning to make this recipe, keep in mind that it takes an hour and ten minutes to bake, then another 10 to cool. I tried to have it in the oven by 3:45pm to be ready to eat around 5:15pm. I am not giving the exact recipe since I made some changes that I think enhanced the flavor.

Ingredients:
1 jar (12-16oz) Alfredo sauce (the more flavor the better, in my opinion)
1 cup milk
3 lbs potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick
5 T parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded swiss cheese
1 cup shredded mozarella cheese
16oz bag of frozen broccoli, thawed (or equivelant of fresh broccoli!)
2- 2 1/2 cups cubed ham

1. Mix alfredo sauce and milk and whisk together. Peel and slice the potatoes. If you have the Pampered Chef Ultimate Mandolin this is a GREAT fast way to slice those potatoes!

2. Lightly grease the bottom of a deep 9x13 pan. Pour 3/4 cup of the alfredo mixture onto bottom of pan. Layer 1/3 of the potatoes. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the parmesan cheese over potatoes, then salt and pepper to taste. (I did a good healthy layer of both and it wasn't quite enough.) Sprinkle 1/3 of the ham, broccoli, and cheese. Lay another 1/3 of the potatoes, then another 1/3 of ham, broccoli and cheese. Follow that layer with the rest of the potatoes, ham, broccoli and cheese. Pour the rest of the alfredo mixture over that and top with the remaining Parmesan cheese.

3. Cover, and bake at 400* for 45 minutes. Uncover; reduce heat to 350* and back for another 25 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes to thicken and cool before serving.

It really was a tasty meal-for potatoes! (If you know me well, you know I really don't like potatoes a whole lot. But I really enjoyed this recipe!) Also, I used parmesan garlic alfredo sauce. I think the 3 cheeses kind would be good too! The more flavor the better!

YOu can make this and freeze it, the only catch is that it does need to be completely thawed before you start baking or the potatoes won't get done! To do this I take it out the night before and put it on the counter on a dish towel and let it sit overnight.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Gramma's Lasagna

Ingredients:
3/4 lb hamburger
3/4 lb mild italian sausage
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves minced OR 3/8 t garlic powder
1 (28oz) can crushed tomatoes, undrained
1 cup salsa (medium is what I use)
1 (6oz) can tomato paste
2 t sugar
1 t chili powder
1 t fennel seed (I don't actually put this in, most of the time)
1 t dried oregono
1 t dried basil
12ish lasagna noodles
1 (16oz) carton cottage cheese
4 cups shredded mozerella (I actually do cheddar and mozerella together)
3/4 parmesan cheese

In a large kettle or dutch oven, brown beef, sausage, onion and garlic. Cook until meat is browned and onion is tender; drain excess grease. (I buy really lean meat and don't end up draining it, but do drain if there is a lot of grease!) Stir in the next 9 ingredients (through basil). Cook lasagna noodles according to pkg directions, drain, and rinse in cold water. In a greased 9x13 pan (the taller the better, this is really a deep lasagna!) layer 1/3 of the noodles, 1/3 of the meat sauce, 1/2 of the cottage cheese, 1/3 of the mozarella cheese, and 1/3 of the parmesan. Repeat. Top with remaining 1/3 noodles, meat sauce, mozarella and parmesan. Cover and bake at 350 for 45 minutes; uncover and bake for 20 minutes longer. Let stand 20 minutes before cutting.

This recipe freezes really well. Just spray some tin foil with cooking spray and wrap it tightly around the pan. If you are using a plastic lid I reccomend spraying it or using seran wrap first to help it seal. Freeze for up to 2 months. I usually do 2 of these when I'm going to all the work. Then I have a meal in the freezer for some lazy day, or for when I have company coming over!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Outdoor Fun

These next two scrapbook pages are when Kaden was 2 months old. We took about a week-long trip to Montana to visit around. The weekend was spent visiting Howes at their campsite near Anaconda, MT. Kaden was just 2 months old and just too cuddly not to spend a lot of time with him in the hammock!



I love my stencils (from the Target dollar bin one lucky day!) that allow me to have little journal areas.

I cut the "outdoor" from the Sesame Street Fonts cartridge. I originally planned to use the individual letters on a blue shadow, but when it came down to it, I just loved the outline the cricut formed when cutting the word. I really love that with the cricut you can use the outline or the letters...sometimes both! So the letters that didn't get used get put in a container of random letters...they come in useful for many things...AND I feel great that there is NO waste this way! The "fun" was a word sticker I had that is made to pop out from the page. It really adds a lot to the layout-in case you can't tell from the picture!

I ony did one set of pages today since I've been taking a few more pictures. I don't want to overload my post with more than one set of pages. This set of pages are some of my favorite so far.