Egg Muffins

While I was perusing the Food and Drink board of Pinterest, I saw egg muffin pictures and thought, "Those seem pretty easy...I bet they're not too hard to make."  And you know what?  I was right. Easy, delicious, and they can be made to be as healthy as you want.  I gave one to my boyfriend to try and he texts me later in the day and said "They're actually pretty good."  High praises from the pickiest eater I've ever met.

Ingredients You'll Need:
Liquid eggs or egg whites
Veggies (your choice)
Meat (your choice)
Oil (for muffin tin)
Other additions like cheese, optional

I chose liquid egg whites, red and green peppers, italian sausage, and cheddar cheese.  I was going to add mushrooms but the fresh mushrooms I had were no longer good when I made these. Sad.

First, Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I then chopped up the peppers and chopped half of the red and half of the green. It was almost the perfect amount for 12 muffins, but depending on what else you're putting in the muffin then just adjust the amount. Set aside.

I used 1/2 lb of Italian sausage, and just browned it right up. Again, it was almost the perfect amount for my muffins.  You could really use any meat you want though. Chopped bacon, ham, breakfast sausage (I really want to try maple flavored sausage..I think it'll give the savory muffins a little sweetness).  I have a food saver and I just froze the other half of the sausage.

I then sprayed the muffin tin with spray Canola oil (use whatever kind you want) and wiped off (and wiped out) excess oil.  You just need  enough to keep everything from sticking.  I started the layer by adding some of the sausage in the bottom of the oiled tin. Then I added the peppers and just a little bit of cheese because I love cheese.  If you want, you can mix all the ingredients together in a separate bowl to make sure they're combined well and then spoon the mixture into the muffin tins, but I didn't mind adding them all separately. I filled the tins about half-way with the meat, cheese, and peppers.

I then just poured in the egg whites, almost all the way to the top which was about 3-4 tablespoons, and baked the egg muffins for about 35 minutes and turned the pan halfway through because the muffins near the back of the oven were cooking a little faster than the front.  They'll get nice and poofy while cooking but don't worry, they don't stay that way.

 I took the muffins out of the oven and let cool in the tin about 5 minutes, then removed them from the tin and let them cool completely on a wire rack. I just stored them in a large ziplock bag (remove as much as air as possible) in the refrigerator and they were good up to 5 days after cooking them. I'm not sure if they'll last longer than that because we ate them all within 5 days but use your judgement. Personally, I wouldn't eat them if they were older than a week old just due to the fact that there really aren't any preservatives.

They reheat really nicely in the microwave (35-45 seconds was long enough for the microwave at work) and kept me surprisingly full. I ate two for breakfast and got hungry right around lunch time.

It's a nice change from typical on-to-go breakfasts (granola bars) and it's like an omelette in muffin form! After reheating, drizzle some hot sauce (I like Original Cholula) or spoon some salsa on them for an extra kick! Guesstimating, the total calorie count for my muffins is probably right around 100 calories. Obviously changing the meat, omitting the cheese (or adding more), or using liquid yolks that contain the yolk, will also change the calories. I guesstimated using the MyFitnessPal calorie counter app.

 Until next time, Fire Away!

Garlic Oven Roasted Asparagus

It has been a crazy, exciting, busy 2015 so far! We decided to remodel our upstairs bathroom, which led to wanting to remodel our master bedroom and closet, which led to wanting to remodel our second bedroom and closet.  The master bedroom and closet is done, the second bedroom is in process, and the bathroom has not even begun! We became godparents to the best godson ever and it's only the end of March.  I think 2015 is off to a great start and looking forward to what it will bring!

Last year I learned just how much I love asparagus.  I started out buying the green giant asparagus cut steamers, but my absolute favorite is grilled asparagus. However, living in Minnesota makes grilling really hard to do about 7 months out of the year so I had to learn a new way to get yummy asparagus in my belly without buying a tiny box for 2-3 dollars. I turned to buying fresh asparagus (like I do in the summer to grill) and decided to roast it in the oven. And guess what?  IT WAS SO EASY. 

Ingredients you'll need: 

1 bunch of fresh asparagus

Oil, olive or canola

Minced garlic

Salt & Pepper

First, pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees and cut off those hard ends of the asparagus. If you miss some, oh well. Just spit it out.  Just don't make it for a first date then if you're not going to care a whole lot. 

In a bowl, pie tin, casserole dish, whatever you have on hand (even a large paper plate would work), pour enough oil on the asparagus to and cover it generously, but not to the point where it's soaked. I used an 8"x11" casserole dish.  I used canola oil because I like it better than olive oil, but I'm betting olive oil will be just as good. Then sprinkle some salt and pepper to taste, and add about 1 1/2 teaspoons of minced garlic and toss to coat as evenly as possible.  Add more or less of the salt, pepper, and garlic depending on how much asparagus you have. 

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil (just for easy clean up) and add the asparagus in a single layer on the baking sheet. Make sure to get as much of the garlic on the asparagus as possible! Then bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on how thick the asparagus stems are, until tender-crisp.  All done! Easy peasy lemon squeezy. What a delicious, healthy, greeny side to add to any meal. 

Until next time, Fire Away! 

Cranberry Sauce

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  It's a day for parades, football, and food comas. My contribution to Thanksgiving dinner this year for Boyfriend's side of the family is cranberries and green been casserole.  First up, cranberries!  I decided that I wanted to try making non-canned cranberry sauce.  Don't get me wrong...I love the jellied cranberry sauce that comes in a can...I love it year-round. I just thought that it might be nice to put forth some effort, especially when it doesn't take much effort. I feed people to try and make them feel better.  I buy candy for my co-workers  when they seem stressed out and I like to show people I care about them with food.  This is my first year making cranberry sauce so you know I have some canned cranberry sauce in the pantry for back-up...just in case.  But this recipe is SO easy and it's straight from the Ocean Spray bag.

Ingredients You'll Need: 

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 - 12 oz bag of cranberries

Lemon juice, optional (per my opinion)

Combine water and sugar in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Stir occasionally.  Add the bag of cranberries and stir.  Beforehand, remove any stems you might see.  I only saw one so hopefully I got them all! Also, be careful of splashing! My finger still hurts a little from the burn. Bring the mixture  to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Now, here's where my instructions don't come from the Ocean Spray bag. Taste the sauce maybe 6-7 minutes in (and don't burn yourself! It'll look similar to the photo below). If it's too sweet for your taste, squeeze some lemon juice into the mixture as it should help cut the sweetness and bring back some of the tart flavor. Next year you can then reduce the amount of sugar if you like.  If you like it sweet, don't bother with the lemon juice.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

After I simmered the mixture for 10 minutes I actually took a potato masher and mashed the mixture just a tiny bit.  I didn't mash it completely and left quite a few chunks.  I know, I know, it's supposed to be whole-cranberry sauce but thought mashing it would A) help me see if I missed any stems and B) make sure there weren't any hard cranberries left. 

At this point, pour the mixture into a bowl and cover. Cool completely at room temperature and then refrigerate until ready to serve.  It takes forever to cool completely! The bowl was still hot when I put it in the fridge but I just ran out of time to let it cool. I suggest doing these the night before and refrigerate overnight, or at least give yourself a few hours Thanksgiving morning to let them cool and then get chilled in the refrigerator.

They turned out really tasty! My two nieces (one is 1 year old, the other 10 months old) seemed to really enjoy them.  if you want to put forth very little effort (but looks like you put forth a lot of effort) then I say go for the homemade cranberry sauce!  This was ennough for 9 adults and two kiddos, but if you have a bigger family or people who really love cranberry sauce, you can easily manipulate the recipe to fit your Thanksgiving needs.

Until next time, Fire Away! 

I Didn't Forget!

I just wanted to write a quick post to say I have not forgotten about this blog again!  I've tried a couple of new recipes and to be honest, they were not that great so I didn't feel the need to share them with everyone.  With Thanksgiving coming up I should have a couple more recipes though! Keep your eyes peeled. Until next time, Fire Away!

Crockpot Beef Stew

I don't know if it's the colder weather (which if you haven't figured out yet, I LOVE IT), my new hair color (which I also now love), or PMS, but I'm feeling very philosophical, deep, and emotional (in a good way) today.  I love the chilly weather, the changing leaves, the start of the holiday season, and all the food that comes along with it. Chili, hotdish, hot chocolate, hot apple cider, beef stew.

What's not so great about fall is the lethargy and the want to do nothing but sit on the couch in my jammies and drink said drinks while watching Netflix.  I've always been a firm believer in eating what you want to eat, regardless of what society thinks or says.  If you want to eat a cookie, eat a cookie. Indulge and get yourself those dill pickle potato chips and ENJOY.  However, I've also noticed that the older I get, the harder it is to be in shape. So eat that cookie, but only one. Eat those potato chips, but no more than the recommended serving size. There is a point to this tangent and it's to show it's how I feel about all this great fall food as well.  Everything in moderation, including tater tot hotdish. Is it the healthiest? Not really, but I see nothing wrong with cooking with canned soup as long as you don't eat all the hotdish in one sitting.  Now on to the actual reason of this post. Beef Stew!

I've never been much of a beef stew gal but Andy is a "meat and potatoes" kind of guy so I like to make it once in a while for him.  What makes it even better is that I can just let it sit in a slow cooker and it'll cook itself.

Ingredients You'll Need: 

1 lb beef stew meat
5-6 small or medium red potatoes (I used 3 small and 3 medium)
1 packet beef stew mix
1 packet brown gravy mix1-12oz (1 1/2 cup) package of mixed vegetables, frozen
1 bay leaf
2 cups beef broth
1 cup water
corn starch, optional

First, wash your potatoes and chop into desired size and add to the slow cooker  I chopped mine into 2-3 inch chunks.

Then add the vegetables and beef stew meat to the slow cooker.  I cut some of the bigger chunks of meat into smaller chunks to try and make sure they'll all cook at the same rate.

In a large measuring cup I add the beef broth, water, beef stew, and gravy packets and stir to combine.

Then pour the mixture into the slow cooker with the beef, potatoes and vegetables. Mix well.  Add a bay leaf for a little extra flavor and cook on low for 4-6 hours, or until beef is cooked through and potatoes are tender.

I decided at the list minute to throw some chopped onion in there too.  I actually cooked on low for about 1 1/2 hours and got impatient (read: hungry) so I turned it up to high and cooked for an additional 2 hours. Here is where I whisked in a couple tablespoons of corn starch at the end to thicken up the stew. I've noticed that red potatoes take way longer than yellow potatoes to get soft, so next time I think I'll add the meat after letting everything else cook for an hour, hour and a half first.  I served the beef stew with biscuits and it was delicious and soul-warming.

Until next time, Fire Away!

Tater Tot Hotdish

Yes, tater tot hotdish does warrant two posts in one day. As a native Minnesotan, not only did I grow up on hotdish but I loved it!  We have to keep ourselves warm and comforted somehow during the long, long, cold, winters. Did I mention our winters are long?  I can't bring myself to do a whole heck of a lot of baking or cooking in the oven during the summer when it's hot but ah, Fall and Winter. I turn into Miss Susie Homemaker when it starts getting cold out.  I decorated for Halloween yesterday and I'm pretty sure I need to leave this up year round:

Caution:  Enter if you dare! 

Today I cleaned the kitchen, both bathrooms, and did some laundry.  Then I made some applesauce and now the tater tot hotdish is baking as I write this.

Ingredients You'll Need: 

1 lb ground beef

1/4 large onion, chopped. optional

1/2 tbsp minced garlic, optional

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

12-16 oz package of frozen mixed vegetables (I had a package of corn, green beans, carrots, and peas)

1 lb, 12 oz bag of tater tots (I used Ore-Ida extra crispy tots).  I had 2-3 oz left in the bag, so I didn't use it all.  I'm sure 1 lb exactly would be just fine too.

1 cup mild cheddar cheese, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Brown the beef with the onion and garlic; drain the fat.  I chose to add the onion and garlic to the beef because otherwise there's not much flavor to this dish without it, but it is optional. If you add the onion and garlic, you actually don't really need much more seasoning.  I didn't add anything else...not even salt. Add the beef to the bottom of a greased, 9x13 pan.

Next, layer the veggies (no need to thaw) on top of the beef. Canned vegetables would also work but I find frozen veggies to have more vibrant colors.  Or, you could even cut up your own fresh veggies if you're motivated enough.

Spread the two cans of cream of mushroom soup on top of the vegetables (3 cans if you want your hotdish really creamy).  DO NOT mix the soup with milk or water...just dump it out of the can onto the veggies in its glorious gelatinous state.

Here is where you can sprinkle shredded cheese (I chose mild cheddar) but it's not necessary! I just really love cheese.  You could use whatever cheese your little heart desires but because Andy is not a huge cheese person, I almost always choose mild cheddar.

Arrange the tots on top so there is one layer of tots covering everything.  You can place them one by one in an orderly fashion, or just dump them on top and squish them down to be one layer. Whatever floats your boat. I tried doing them one at a time so it'd look nicer and couldn't handle it after the first two, so I chose the dump & squish method instead.

Place in the oven and bake for 45-55 minutes, or until the tots are done and golden brown, and the hotdish is bubbling.  Take out of the oven and enjoy! Because I like cheese I sprinkled more cheese on top of my serving but again, the cheese is completely optional.

Mmmm those are some extra crispy tots!

SO good! 

Until next time, Fire Away! 

Homemade Applesauce

I don't know what it is about Fall, but it just really makes me want to make hotdish (I'm actually making tater tot hotdish for dinner...yum!) and bake. In my hope to use up the rest of the apples I had on hand, I was searching for apple recipes and came across homemade apple sauce recipes. I thought it'd be really easy to make homemade apple sauce (and it was) but oh my goodness, all the different recipes and variations I found was kind of overwhelming.  And to top it off, all the recipes were for different quantities of apples (6-8 pounds, 20 apples, etc) and I had maybe 7 I wanted to use up. I didn't find a recipe to follow so I decided to just wing it and hope it turned out. I will give credit to The Pioneer Woman for giving me the idea to use brown sugar instead of white.

Ingredients you will need:
7-8 small apples, cored, peeled, and sliced
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp ground cinnamon (use more or less depending on your taste)
4 oz (1/2 cup) apple juice (or apple cider, or water...just a liquid to soften the apples). I used Mott's 100% apple juice.

First, peel, core and slice the apples into eighth's.  Just like with the muffins, unless you have a tool to help you core and slice the apples (like an apple slicer) this is the most tedious part of the job.  I do not have an apple slicer or corer, so I had to do it all by hand.

Throw the apples in a large pot, add all the other ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, and juice), stir to combine, and then cover and cook on medium-high heat for 20-25 minutes, or until apples are nice and tender. Stir occassionally.  Keep an eye on your apples!!  The juice overflowed and made a big mess on our stove and I spent ONE HOUR last weekend just scrubbing the stove and the drip pans and everything so I was not happy this happened. You could just not cover it and let it simmer uncovered...I'd just add a little more liquid since some moisture does evaporate. I uncovered my apples and let them simmer the last 5-10 minutes so I didn't make a bigger mess and did lose some moisture. I think it worked out though...the apple sauce wasn't too liquidy or too thick. It was just right, Goldilocks.

I then transferred the apples to a bowl and tried to whisk it smooth but it wasn't working out too well so I then just put it all in a food processor and pureed for about 30 - 45 seconds.  It then became the perfect consistency and tasted great! It was still very hot though so we'll see how it tastes after it's been refrigerated.

Before pureeing

I consider this cooking experience a success! I'm pretty happy that I was able to create something without needing a recipe...I think that may be a sign I'm becoming more confident in my cooking and baking abilities and I love it! It's a shame tater tot hotdish is on tonight's menu...I do believe this applesauce would be amazing with the pork chops that are just hanging out in my freezer.

After pureeing...it looks like store-bought applesauce but it's not! 

Until next time, Fire Away!