Lobster

Nights out at nice restaurants often leave you full, satisfied, and poor.  However, it's possible to have fancy schmancy food for a fraction of the cost, and some dishes are EASY to fix at home.  Lobster is one of these.  Granted, it's not a $3 meal, but you can find good lobster for around $12 a lb.  Pair this with a salad and corn on the cob and you're set.  Or, if you want to get really fancy, pick up some steak as well and treat yourself to surf and turf at home.  Yum.

First, pick out a lobster.  He will be alive, and you can store him in the fridge until you're ready to cook!

Put an inch or two of water in a big pot, and add a generous amount of salt and a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice.  Bring to a boil, and then, after cutting the bands off the lobster, put him in head first.  Cover with a lid.

Cook for about 13 minutes per pound.  The easiest way to know if he's done, is to invest in a meat thermometer, and cook to 160 degrees. 

While the lobster is cooking, prepare a buttery dipping mixture for the meat.  Use 1/2 stick butter, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, fresh parsley, and garlic salt to taste.

Sooo yummy.  Enjoy!

Mulligan Stew

This is a super simple, yet delicious and fast meal.  It's so easy I sometimes dismiss it as a possibility, thinking I want to make something more difficult, and therefore just recently made it for the first time for my hubby.  And now I'm not allowed to dismiss it anymore- he loved it, and your family will too!

Mulligan Stew
1  pound pkg. ground beef (or ground turkey, which is what I use)
1  medium onion, chopped
1  can pork & beans
2-3 Tablespoons ketchup
A couple of dashes of Worcestershire
2  teaspoons brown sugar
1-2 Tablespoons mustard

DIRECTIONS:  Brown the hamburger with the onion.

Drain and add the pork & beans.

Stir in the ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, and Worcestershire to the meat mixture.

Cook for 15 minutes on low. Serve with a salad and bread and butter.

 I like extra mustard on mine:)

Hearty Breakfast Pizza

With all these farm fresh eggs at my disposal, I've been looking for new ways to make breakfast for dinner.  I made this pizza last night, along with some fried potatoes on the side.  I didn't need the fried potatoes.  This recipe makes one very filling pizza, so much that the hubs even had leftovers for his breakfast this morning!

Hearty Breakfast Pizza

1 prepared pizza crust (I used the Jiffy pizza crust, I was short on time, and they make one of the best crusts!)

1/2 lb sausage

1/2 lb bacon, chopped

1/2 large onion, sliced

2 cups grated cheese (I happened to have cheddar and colby jack on hand so that's what I used)

4-5 eggs

1 Tbsp milk

dash of hot sauce

salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425°.  Cook sausage, bacon, and onions.  Set aside.  Prepare pizza crust and spread very thin on a pizza pan (again, I <3 my stoneware!)  Cook crust for about 10 minutes.  While you are cooking the crust, whisk together the eggs, milk, hot sauce, salt and pepper.  Scramble these eggs until they are about halfway done.  Take the pizza crust out of the oven.  Spread your eggs from the center of the crust out, leaving a little edge for crust.  Sprinkle your meats and onion over the eggs, and top with cheese.  Bake again for another 10 minutes or until eggs are set and crust is golden. 

The hubs was a little wary at first (he has trouble branching out from meat and potatoes, must be part of the cattle farmer's creed or something) but he said, "this was way better than I thought it would be, you're gonna need to pack this up, cause I'm gonna pound it for breakfast in the morning!"  Best part about this recipe is that you can change up the ingredients.  Timothy suggested that next time we use some morel mushrooms (the season is coming up!)...maybe I can sneak in some spinach and some exotic cheese...or maybe not

Give me some ideas...What would be yummy on a breakfast pizza???

Taco Dip

This can be used as an appetizer, but we often have it as a main course when I'm too busy (or too lazy) to make a full meal.


Taco Dip
1 can refried beans
1lb ground beef (can substitute turkey)
1 package taco seasoning
1 can sliced olives
1/2 jar salsa
1/2 large tub of sour cream
Lots of shredded cheese
Serve with tortilla chips

Brown ground beef (I use turkey), then add taco seasoning and simmer.




Layer ingredients, starting with refried beans.





Followed by taco simmered ground beef yumminess.


Add some olives.



Spread the salsa.



Don't skimp with the sour cream!


Add the cheese, please.

Refrigerate for about 30 minutes before serving- if you can wait that long.

Marchetti

This is our family "comfort" food. So good!

Marchetti
3 Cups egg noodles
1 lb hamburger (you can sub in turkey)
1 Can tomato soup
1 Can cream of mushroom soup
1 ½- 2 Cups shredded cheese
1 Tablespoon chopped onion
Garlic salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Boil egg noodles until al dente, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, brown the hamburger with chopped onion, garlic salt and pepper. Drain pasta, put in 9 x 13 baking dish. Add hamburger, mushroom soup, tomato soup and ¾ of the shredded cheese. Mix well and top with remaining cheese. Cook in oven about 30 minutes until flavors join.

Creamy Chicken Enchilada Casserole

While there is no red sauce, this casserole is definitely a favorite of my husband's. 

2-3 cups cooked chicken pieces (I usually use breasts, but thighs would be equally delicious)
1 package flour tortillas (12)
1 diced onion
1 package cheddar jack cheese
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk (optional depending on how "creamy" you want it)
1 carton (16 oz) sour cream
1 can diced green chiles
1 can diced jalapenos

Mix soup, milk, and sour cream in a small bowl.  Mix chicken, chiles, jalapenos, and onion in a separate bowl.  I usually mix 2 spoonfuls of the sauce in with the chicken mixture.  Make 2 layers of tortillas, chicken mixture, and cheese in a greased 9x13.  Pour the remaining sauce over the top, covering the whole casserole.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

This casserole will serve approximately 8 people, so I have been known to cut it in half.  I use the smaller tortillas and they are perfect for my round Corningware baking dishes.  I also find it easy to throw all of my first ingredients into a food chopper or processor.  This gives it a really good texture. Otherwise you may need to shred the chicken.

Judy's Enchiladas

I got this recipe from my Mother-in-law, Judy, and these are the BEST enchiladas I have ever had. The recipe is super easy too!

1 whole chicken - boiled until done and debone
( you can use chicken breast instead of whole- takes about 3-4 chicken breast)
1 pkg 8'' flour tortillia's
1 pkt enchilada sauce made according to directions on pkt
OR 1 can enchilada sauce (I prefer the canned kind- better flavor, less mess)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
2-3 cups shredded mont jack cheese

Cook and debone chicken. Mix with soup & sour cream. Make enchilada sauce according to directions on pkt. Spread 2-3 large spoons sauce in bottom of 13x9 to cover. Place 1 large spoonfulls of chicken mixture down middle of flour tortilla, add small handfull of shredded cheese down along chicken mixture, then roll up, placing seam side down in dish. Continue until all chicken mixture is used up and 13x9 is full. (You can make your enchilada's however full you want them. I usually get 8-10 in a pan.)

Cover with remaining enchilada sauce. Use your spoon and pull enchilada's apart a little and let some of the sauce run down between them. Spinkle with a little remaining cheese. Bake @ 350 approx. 30-40 minutes until hot and bubbly and cheese is melted on top.

Baked Lemon Pasta

I got this recipe off one of my favorite blogs: thepioneerwoman.com. However, I ended up doing all of this, then making another batch of sauce (just halved everything) and poured it over the dish because when mine came out of the oven it was pretty dry. Also, because in our house pasta alone is not a meal (that's a Blake rule), I also made some shrimp tempura to go on top of this pasta. It added a lot of flavor as well. I will definately make this again as we both really enjoyed it!

Baked Lemon Pasta
1 pound thin spaghetti
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons minced garlic
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon
2 cups sour cream
1/2 teaspoon salt, more to taste if desired
Plenty of grated Parmesan cheese
Flat leaf parsley, chopped
Extra lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook spaghetti until al dente. In a skillet, melt butter with olive oil over LOW HEAT. When butter is melted, add minced garlic. Squeeze lemon juice into the pan. Turn off heat. Add sour cream and stir mixture together. Add lemon zest and salt. Taste, then add more salt if necessary. Pour mixture over drained spaghetti and stir together, then pour spaghetti into an oven safe dish. Bake, covered, for 15 minutes. Then remove foil and bake for an additional 5 minutes. When you remove it from the oven, squeeze a little more lemon juice over the top. Top generously with Parmesan cheese, then chopped parsley. Give it a final squeeze of lemon juice at the end.

Photo courtesey of The Pioneer Woman