Carrot Cake... for breakfast?

Parents magazine recently had an article about veggies for breakfast, I figured I could give it a shot. One recipe in particular looked easy and I already had the ingredients on hand! If you like carrot cake, this is a must for breakfast!

low fat vanilla yogurt
shredded carrots (i used the small side of my shredder so I actually ended up with more of a carrot pulp)
raisins
walnuts (I didn't have any on hand)
cinnamon

layer (or mix like I did) yogurt, carrots and raisins. top with walnuts and sprinkle with cinnamon! amazing how a low fat, nutritious breakfast can taste like dessert!

Three Cheese Beef Stuffed Shells

So, when Anthony walked up to get seconds of this meal last night and literally gave me two thumbs up! He said it was the best food he's had in awhile. SCORE! This meal was so delicious!

1 box jumbo shells (cook and drain)
1 lb lean ground beef (cooked, drained and slightly cooled)
1 8oz pkg cream cheese (softened)
2 tsp italian seasoning
2 cup shredded italian blend cheese
1/2 cup parmesean
1 egg
1 jar chunky spaghetti sauce

In mixing bowl combine cream cheese, egg and italian seasoning. mix until smooth. add parm and 1 1/2 cup of italian cheese. stir in beef. spread a small amount of sauce over the bottom of a 9x13 glass dish. stuff shells and place them tightly in dish. cover with the rest of sauce and top with remaining italian cheese. bake at 350, covered for 30 minutes. uncover and continue baking for about 15 more minutes until sauce is bubbling!

Dump Cake

I first had this at a work potluck about 7 years ago. I brought home the recipe and made it that night. It was so delicious! I have forgotten all about it until now! This is the easiest cake EVER! I really recommend keeping the ingredients in your cupboard for impromptu dinner guests. Best of all, there is nearly no work involved and it takes less then 5 minutes to throw together! This yummy cake is a cross between cake and cobbler... delish!

1 box of yellow cake mix
1 20 oz can of cherry pie filling
1 20 oz can of crushed pineapple with juice
2 sticks butter or margarine sliced

Preheat oven to 350. Dump cherries into 9x13 glass dish



Dump pineapple (juice and all) into pan and mix with cherries.



This should make a very pretty pink base for your cake.



Pour dry cake mix evenly over fruit, feel free to taste it, Aidan did.

I realyy should have used sticks of margarine rather then spread because this part was a pain!

Bake for 45-60 minutes until cake is bubbly on top. Finished cake pictures in next post!

Tex Mex Shells

This is certainly a favorite around our house. I think I might have gotten this recipe off of one of those recipe cards in the meat department at Walmart, go figure :)

1 lb ground beef
1.25-1.5 lbs large shell pasta cooked and drained
1/2 onion, chopped
1 can olives, drained and sliced (or 2 cans pre sliced olives)
1 can diced tomatos, drained (you could also use about 1.5 cupsof halved cherry tomatos)
3 cups shredded cheddar
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 can milk (tomato soup can)
1 package of fajita seasoning (I really think this recipe tastes best with Great Value brand seasoning, I have tried others)

Brown beef with onion and drain.



Mix beef, onion, olives, tomatos and pasta. Mix together seperately tomato soup plus one can of milk and fajita seasoning. Pour this over pasta mixture and add shredded cheese.



Place in pyrex dish and cover with foil and bake at 375 for about 45 minutes.

This is also really yummy topped with crushed fritos!

An experiment...

Spaghetti sounded good today. While at Fred Meyer I thought I would look at their meat specials. Low and behold I found ground pork, at $0.79 a pound! I figured I should try it. I cooked my ground pork with some chopped onion, italian seasoning and garlic. It is better then I expected. It is down right delicious! It tastes like little chunks of lean pork chop. Speaking of lean, the butcher said he estimated the pork to be 85% lean. Not quite as lean as ground turkey (generally ground turkey is 93% lean) but way tastier and much healthier then ground beef. My spaghetti is still simmering (I did half ground pork and half ground beef) but I just had to share with you my fantastic experience with ground pork! By the way, it is normally priced at $1.49 per pound at FM!

Not forgotten....

I have NOT forgotten about my blog, promise. With the rise in price for groceries lately, I have been making super easy, not so healthy meals around here. I need to sit down and cut some coupons as well as really work out a grocery list so I can stay in budget and still make my yummy meals! We've been doing easy, cheap stuff this last week like chili mac, corn dogs and tater tots, fried egg and pastrami sandwiches, etc. I need to get back to making our meals a little less processed and a little healthier, this "to go" food has got to go!

Taco Salad

So, I grew up with traditional taco salad. Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, olives, taco meat, cheese, tortilla chips and ranch dressing. This is a little twist to the traditional salad.

1 head of iceberg lettuce, chopped
1 can olives, sliced
1 lb ground beef, browned and drained (you can add taco seasoning or not, it's your choice)
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups cheddar cheese
1 bag doritos (crunch them all up in the bag)
Catalina dressing

I would normally say to simply toss all of these ingredients but I don't toss them all so that I can save the leftovers without them getting gross. Toss everything but the chips and dressing. WHen serving, add the chips and dressing to each plate. This is such a yummy way to enjoy taco salad! (BTW, this picture is lacking dressing and chips)