Mickey Mouse Tuna Melts

I love Works For Me Wednesday hosted here... even if I don't participate very often, I love to read other peoples ideas.

Erin at Closing Time wrote about making Mickey Mouse tuna melts for her kids. This was perfect timing! (Thanks Erin!) Last week I realized that DD (who will be 4 soon) has never had tuna, so I bought a can. I figured this would be the best way to have her try it out!

She was very excited!

Recipe Review

From my deals the last week, I have alot of pork. I don't normally cook any sort of pork beyond bacon, I'm just typically not a fan. I tried making pork chops a while ago and DH and DD loved it, but the grissel and bone just didn't do it for me. So... I bought boneless pork chops and make them with this recipe!

(this isn't my picture... but mine turned out just like this)



http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Grilled-Brown-Sugar-Pork-Chops/Detail.aspx


INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup apple juice
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 cup water
6 boneless pork chops



DIRECTIONS
Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat.
In a small saucepan, combine brown sugar, apple juice, oil, soy sauce, ginger, salt , and pepper. Bring to boil. Combine water and cornstarch in small bowl, and whisk into brown sugar mixture. Stir until thick.
Brush grate lightly with oil before placing pork chops on the grill. Cook over hot coals for 10 to 12 minutes, turning once. Brush with sauce just before removing chops from grill. Serve with remaining sauce.

My Review:

I actually made this just as the recipe calls for and it was really good! It gave me some hope for incorporating pork into some of my meals. Dh, DD and even DS really liked this. Will definitely having it again!

Time: 30-40 minutes from start to finish

Difficulty: Easy
Ages: All

REBATES

I also got my caregivers marketplace rebate... it was less than I thought it would be but I had some crazy recipets and thought that that might happen! Total was $25.15. I am taking that off of May's budget!

Total OOP for May $66.53

Recipe Review and Works for me Wednesday

So I am doing a combo today...its a little late for Works for me Wednesday, but still...its Wednesday!

Ok... so for my recipe review today I decided to try a new meatloaf recipe I found...and of course I never follow the book so here is the actual recipe.

But alas....here are the changes I made...

I added celery, about 2 stalks chopped

Did a bit of onion and onion soup mix

omitted salt due to the soup

I didn't do the sauce on the bottom, that just doesn't make sense to me, wouldn't it get all baked and stuck? I made a glaze instead and added Worcestershire sauce

I also only did 1/2 cup milk

I used bread crumbs instead of saltines

Wow, even the same recipe? LOL

Well here is where the WFMW comes in... instead of using a loaf pan, I used muffin pans. It cuts the time down quiet a bit and it isn't any more difficult. The glaze does get baked on the top (anyone with ideas on how to prevent that??) but other than that, I like to do it this way sometimes.

As far as the actual taste of the dinner goes, I thought it was good. DH says it taste like my other recipe (which uses brown gravy instead of onion soup, and a few other changes....geez MEN!) lol Anyway, I am sure it was because my glaze was the same. I guess I can do meatloaf either way now depending on what I have. DS (11 months) ate this up! He loved himself some meatloaf and corn!

Difficulty: Easy

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes (in muffin pans)

Will we make this again??....darn tootin :)

Family Recipe Review

As promised, I did a review of this calzone recipe.

As suggested by the reviewers I decided to use the Philsbury Pizza Crust instead of the homemade bread. We also used pizza toppings instead of spinach.

PREP TIME 1 Hr (if made by recipe directions)
COOK TIME 30 Min
READY IN 1 Hr 30 Min

INGREDIENTS

1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
2 eggs
2 tablespoons dried Italian seasoning
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
salt and pepper to taste
1 (32 ounce) package frozen white bread dough, thawed

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
In a large bowl, mix together the ricotta cheese, eggs, Italian seasoning, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese and spinach. Set aside.
Divide the bread dough into 8 pieces and roll each piece out to about an 8 inch circle. Spoon about 1/2 cup of the ricotta filling onto each circle, fold over and seal the edges. Place onto a greased cookie sheet.
Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until nicely browned on the tops and bottoms.

My Review

I think that if I used some other kind of crust, this would have been better. It really reminded me of a biscut. And maybe more regular cheese and not as much ricotta. I will be trying a different calzone recipe next time! We all ate it, it just wasn't the best.

Difficulty: Easy

Ages: All

4 pita breads (6 inches in diameter)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaf or 1 teaspoon dried mint leaves
1 teaspoon sugar
1 small cucumber, seeded and chopped (3/4 cup)
1 pound ground lamb or beef
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 small onion, chopped (1/4 cup)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups shredded lettuce
1 medium tomato, chopped (3/4 cup)

1. Split each pita bread halfway around edge with knife; separate to form pocket.
2. Mix yogurt, mint and sugar in small bowl. Stir in cucumber.
3. Mix lamb, water, lemon juice, salt, cumin, oregano, pepper, garlic and onion. Shape mixture into 4 thin patties.
4. Heat oil in 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Cook patties in oil 10 to 12 minutes, turning frequently, until no longer pink in center. Place cooked patty in each pita pocket. Top with yogurt mixture, lettuce and tomato

First, I have to start out by saying, I probably didn't do this recipe any justice. I just saw ground beef and out of habit started cooking it in the pan and chopping it up. This was suppose to be done in patties and since the way it was cooked deviated from the recipe, I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt!!

So I ended up putting the patty ingredients in with the pan after draining the grease.


Finished Product



My Review
This was something different to try and it was good, but there would definetlybe some changes that I would make. First, the cucumber sauce needs to be pureed, or more thin than using "chopped" cucumbers. It tasted good but the texture wasn't quite right. DH and I both ate it, but 3 year old DD didn't care for it at all.

Difficulty: Easy
Ages: All
Cook Time: 20 minutes

Family Friendly Recipe Review

I am starting a new part to the blog.... Family Friendly Recipe Review!


I love to try new recipes, I love experimenting and trying new things. Alot of the world in cooking is new to me since i spent the first 4 1/2 years or so of my marriage ordering take out and hitting drive thrus.


So, each week I will try a new recipe and rate it here on the blog. If you have a recipe you would like me to try, please send it to me!





Ok, so for our first week we have this recipe


Country Style BBQ Chicken (found on allrecipes.com posted by WolfWalker)











INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon dry mustard
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

DIRECTIONS
-Mix the onions, ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, dry mustard, salt, and pepper in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking dish.
-Arrange chicken in the baking dish. Pour sauce over the chicken.
-Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until chicken juices run clear.



My Review
This is definatly different than the bbq sauce from a bottle. The flavor is more ketchupy, but was very good. My husband and two children ate it up! It was great leftover too. I would recommend that using more chicken (or making less sauce) there was way more sauce than chicken.


Difficulty: Easy
Ages: All
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time (sauce): 15 minutes

Overall it was great! We will be having this again!

What to do with the food stockpile?

I am totally copying Amanda here (see her blog on the left) but I think it is good to show some things to do with your deals and stockpiles when regarding food. You can frequently get biscuits for free or close to it, so I always have a crazy amount of them. Here is one recipe that I do often for my kids, and the second is one I copied from Amanda.

Biscuit Pizzas

These are super easy. Just smash out the biscuit to the desired size. Add sauce (I use spaghetti because there is more of it and I can use the rest later, you can use pizza sauce though) then add toppings. I only had cheese tonight, so that went on top. Bake at 350° for about 12 minutes. Sometimes I bake the biscuits for a bit first, then add toppings to make sure it isn't too doughy.

Use plain biscuits for this, don't use butter or flaky. They aren't good that way!





Now, I copied Amanda's recipe for this, but I used scrambled eggs and cheese (I didn't have any breakfast meats) and I put them inside these little biscuit pockets. I plan to make a bunch and freeze them for DH, he can't drink milk in the morning, so these are perfect!

YUMM-O!!!

If you are local to the Houston area, I have to pass along this information! My friend Janae (Confessions of the Stay at home mom) has a husband who is an AMAZING cook!! Right now, just in time for the holidays, he is selling some of his famous tamales! They come in chicken or beef, and they are HUGE and delish!! :) They are $8 for a half dozen or $16 for a full dozen. Yummy yummy... contact Janae at JanaeKrell@gmail.com if you are interested!!