Favorite Meatball Recipe

My kids love meatballs and so I make them occasionally and freeze them.  It makes them happy.  Here is my daughter being "a big helper."

Favorite Meatballs

Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground beef  (Sometimes I mix in half ground turkey to make it healthier.)
1/2 cup dried bread crumbs
4 large eggs
1/2 cup milk (I use skim)
3/4 grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
1/3 cup minced onions (I like the dehydrated kind you can buy in the spice sections, but fresh work.)
1/8 cup minced garlic or more
1 Tbsp. parsley
2 Tbsp. Basil

Mix all together with your hands.  Don't be shy.  Roll into balls about the size of a golf ball on a greased baking sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 40 minutes.

Eat right away with spaghetti, as meatball sandwiches, or allow to cool and freeze.

Icecream Sandwich Cake

Once upon a time I went to a dinner where they served this awesome cake and I finally made it for Father's Day.  This is a great one to do with the kids.

First make Hot Fudge Sauce or buy some.  Mine favorite comes from Our Best Bites. 

You melt a 1/2 a stick of butter and a can of Sweetened condensed milk.  Stir often.  When the butter is melted you add 1/2 cup chocolate chips until those melt and everything is creamy deliciousness.  Let this cool.

Whip some cream or you can use Cool Whip, but I personally don't believe Cool Whip should be counted as a food.  Get a 9x13 pan.  I bought three boxes of Ice cream sandwiches and my kids ate four and it ended up being perfect.  I bought some square sandwiches and some rectangle and that worked great.

Place sandwiches in the pan like so...

Then add some cooled hot fudge sauce, then a layer of whipped cream, and then more sandwiches.

More Hot Fudge, more whipped cream, and then some crushed up Heath bits or really whatever candy bar you want or even M&M's.  Go wild.

Then cover and place in the freezer.  Eat whenever you want.  I love desserts you can make way in advance.

Honey Lime Enchiladas

I have a hand full of recipes I'm constantly being asked for and this is one of them.  They also freeze great.  I also won an Enchilada competition with this recipe.

I had a friend just have a baby so I made a giant batch of these babies and somehow made three pans!

Honey Lime Enchiladas

Ingredients:

   For the chicken marinade:

    7 Tbsp. honey

     Juice from two large limes

    1 Tbsp. chili powder

    1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Mix all together in a bowl and set aside.

For the enchiladas:

   4 chicken breasts, boiled and shredded

 small  package of tortillas 

   caramelized onions (1/2 a sweet onion chopped fine and cooked with a Tbsp. of balsamic vinegar on low for 1/2 an hour.)

   24 oz. monterey jack cheese shredded

    20 ounces green enchilada sauce

   1 cup heavy cream

    can of black beans drained and washed.

    Mix the shredded chicken and the marinade together and sit int he fridge for about a 1/2 an hour.  Preheat your oven to 350.    Reserve the extra marinade.  Mix the chicken, beans, and onions together in a bowl.  Spoon the filling mixture into the middle of a tortilla and add a dollop of cheese.  Roll up and place in a 8 x 13 pan with a tiny bit of the green enchilada sauce spread on the bottom.  Fill your pan with the rolled and filled tortillas.  Mix the cream, left over marinade, and the rest of the enchilada sauce and pour over the enchiladas.  Top with the rest of the shredded cheese.  Bake for 30 minutes.  

 Enjoy!  To freeze, bake like normal and then let cool completely.  Wrap with foil twice and freeze.  

.

black beans

caramelized onions

marinated chicken

Oatmeal Breakfast Cups to Freeze!

 I'm always looking for something healthy and fast to make for breakfast because I'm usually the last one to eat after I help my kids get ready, make their lunches, and feed them breakfast.  

So I found these Oatmeal Cups and fell in love.  Their healthy, fast, AND you can freeze them!

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup banana or about 1 banana mashed

1/2 cup honey or some other kind of sweetener

5 cups Old Fashioned rolled oats

2 tbsp. flax seed meal (LOVE this stuff!)

1 tbsp. cinnamon ground

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 1/4 cups milk (I used powdered milk to try to use my food storage and water of course.)

Optional toppings: nuts, berries, raisins, chocolate chips

    Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

    Mix the wet ingredients: eggs, vanilla, applesauce, banana, and honey.  Then mix in the dry ingredients.

You can either add in the extra toppings now so they are baked throughout the cup or you can sprinkle them on top and individualize them.  I used blueberries and chopped pecans in mine.  But if your kids like chocolate chips and you don't add some chocolate chips on the top of a few.

    Spray two muffin tins or put in cupcake liners.  Fill each muffin tin cup so they are all even.

    Add any extra toppings now and put the tins in the oven for 30 minutes until you can pierce it with a toothpick and it comes out clean.

     Cool on a rack completely and place in freezer bags.

     I pull out one or two oatmeal cups for breakfast and microwave them for 30-40 seconds.  

Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread 

First boil together:

2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup water

When butter is melted take off the heat and place in the bowl you will be using to mix for it to cool completely.

Meanwhile dissolve 2 Tbsp. yeast into a cup of warm water. Let that sit for 10 minutes.

When the butter mixture is cool add the yeast, 2 beaten eggs, and six cups of flour.

Beat together until it is a uniform ball and place in the fridge for four hours.

I make these into little pockets so I set up a little station where everything is at my disposal to create these babies. They take some effort.

Roll out the dough. I sometimes have to just pick it up and stretch it. It fights back.

 Cut into squares with a pizza cutter.

Brush a little melted butter or margarine on each square and put cut up ham and grated cheese on each one.

Then pick up the two opposite corners and squeeze them together.

Then squeeze the other two corners together and you have a neat little pocket.

Or my new method which is MUCH FASTER is to roll them like a burrito!

Then press all the seams together to make it secure.

Place them on a sprayed pan or one with a Silpat on it and brush with melted butter.

Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes until golden. Careful the bottoms seem to burn easily for some reason.

Store in the fridge in a container or a bag. You can freeze too. Just make sure they are completely cool before you put them in the freezer.

Here's another topping choice you have. I make little pizza pockets too. Repeat the first three steps... roll out the dough, cut, etc. Then dab a spoonful of pizza sauce into the center of each square.

Then place a few pieces of pepperoni or your favorite pizza toppings.

Fold together the same way and bake for the same amount.
My kids and husband love them both ways. You can make this recipe healthier by decreasing the sugar, adding wheat flour or just by adding different fillings. I've added green peppers cut up before and that was good. Coming next is the dessert you can make with Monkey Bread!

Monkey Bread II

Okay, now for the dessert Monkey Bread. I made two batches of monkey bread this week and I had some left over when I ran out of toppings and my back couldn't take rolling it out anymore, so then I made the dessert.

For the dough recipe go

Melt some margarine... about 1/4 of a cup depending on how much dough you have. Mix a few tsp. of cinnamon, a packet of butterscotch instant pudding, 1/2 cup white sugar, and 1/2 cup brown sugar together.

Place them all in convenient containers to dip dough balls in.

I usually use a loaf pan to bake this in but it is always hard to get all the dough cooked this way so I decided to try a pie pan and it worked a lot better!

 Usually I roll and dip as I go, but I decided to roll all the dough into balls first this time and it went a lot faster and was a lot less messy.
Roll the dough into balls and then dip one by one in the margarine and then the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Place in the pan close together and bake in the oven at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Make sure the dough on the bottom is fully cooked. Just lift up one of the top ones to check.
Take out of the oven and frost with whatever you want. I just used a tiny bit of my left over margarine from dipping and added 2 cups of powdered sugar and a dab of milk. I added purple food coloring because we were having a PPP night at a youth activity at church and the treats had to start with P. I fudged with purple Monkey Bread.

They are delicious cold or warm. Enjoy!