Pasta Meat Sauce - Cheater's Version

Looking for a super easy but delicious meat sauce?  Try this.  It makes enough to feed 18+ if you have a crowd.   It was so tasty that even our light eaters had seconds.  I'm going to use Italian Sausage instead of ground beef in all my meat sauces now.

Pasta Meat Sauce Cheater's Version

1 medium onion, chopped
4 T. olive oil
3-4 T. garlic, minced
4 jars of pasta sauce (I usually use a variety of whatever brand is on sale of Tomato-Basil, Marinara, Roasted Garlic, etc.)
1 t. or more red pepper flakes
1 lb. sweet italian sausage

If the sausage is in links, remove the casings and fry the italian sausage in crumbles.  Set aside.

Saute the onion in the olive oil in a large stock pot until translucent.  Add the garlic at the end and saute for another minute.  Add the jarred sauces, red pepper flakes, and sausage.  Bring to a simmer and simmer for 30 minutes or so.

Use it right away or let it cool and freeze if for another day.

Yum.

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lb = pound
t = teaspoon
T = tablespoon

Spice Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

I'm not a baker, but after my successful Speckled Easter Egg Cake (see April 2018), I decided to give a showy cake another try.  This time, for Thanksgiving.  It's a combo from a few different ideas I saw online.

Spice Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

1 Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix, mixed according to directions

Frosting:
1 lb. powdered sugar
1 c. butter, softened
2-3 t. vanilla
2 T. milk (or more to thin frosting to desired consistency
1 t. cinnamon

Stem:
2-3 chocolate frosted chocolate cupcakes.  I used store bought--easy!

Prepare the cake mix.  Pour the batter into a greased and floured bundt pan and bake according to the instructions on the box.

When the cake is done, let it sit in the pan for 15 minutes before flipping it out of the pan to let it cool completely.

To prepare the frosting, put the powdered sugar and softened butter in a bowl and blend.  Add the vanilla and 1 T. of the milk and combine.  Add the next 1 T. of milk (or more) if it is too thick.  (I ended up using about 2 1/2 T. milk total.)  Finally, add the cinnamon and mix.

Before smoothing the grooves

Frost the top and sides of the bundt cake.  With a flat knife or back of a spoon, make grooves all around it. 

While the buttercream is firming up a bit work on the stem.  Scrape off the frosting off of 1-2 cupcakes and pack them on top of each other to fill in the hole in the center of the cake.  Put a frosted cupcake on top.  Take the scraped off frosting and cover the sides of the top cupcake.  Use a fork to run grooves up the cupcake so it looks like a stem.

Now that the frosting is set a bit.  with your finger, tamp down to smooth the rough edges of the groves to make it look more smooth and natural.

After smoothing the grooves

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c = cup
T = Tablespoon
t = teaspoon
lb = pound

Spaghetti Squash Pesto Alfredo with Sausage

This was so yummy! 


Spaghetti Squash Pesto Alfredo with Sausage 

1 spaghetti squash
1 lb. sweet italian sausage
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
1/4 to 1/3 c. pesto (see the pesto recipe August 2017!)
1 jar of creamy alfredo sauce

Cut a spaghetti squash in half and scrape out the seeds and guts.  Brush with olive oil and bake on a sheet pan, cut side down,  at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until tender.  Use a fork to pull out the squash into spaghetti

Fry up sausage and mushrooms.

Heat alfredo sauce and add pesto sauce.

Add the sausage and mushroom mix to the sauce or let people layer it on the spaghetti themselves.

Breaded Tilapia

In the mood for fish?  Try this.

Breaded Tilapia

2 filets
1/4 c. light mayo
1 T. seasoning mix of your choice.  Pick something with a kick of flavor!
1/3 c. almond flour

Smear both sides of the filets with mayo. 

Combine the seasoning and almond flour in a shallow dish or plate that is big enough for the fish to fit into.

Flop the filets, one at a time, in the almond flour mix so each side is well coated.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 12-15 minutes or until flaky.

Apple and Feta Flatbread

I made up this recipe to use up a couple of ingredients I had sitting around. Light and delicious! 

Apple and Feta Flatbread
1 flatout flatbread
2 T. raspberry preserves
1/4 c. feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 apple, sliced thin
candied walnuts
arugula

Spread the preserves thinly on the flatbread.  Scatter the sliced apples feta and walnuts on top.  Bake in the oven at 425 for 5-8 minutes. 

Take out of the oven and top with arugula.

Good eatin'.

Want to kick it up a notch?  Drizzle it with the Alternate Dressing recipe found in the Pear Salad recipe from August 2016 in this link!

Shrimp Salad

Don't have any lobster laying around?  Try this easy version using a bag of pre-cooked shrimp.  Thumbs up and great on it's own or in a split top brioche hot dog bun.

1 lb. pre-cooked shrimp, chopped
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
2 - 3 stalks celery, sliced thin
1 green onion, chopped
1/2 pickle, diced
a few shakes of Old Bay Seasoning
dashes of salt and pepper
1/2 c. or so mayo

Throw everything in a bowl and mix together.

DONE!

Chicken Egg Rolls

Looking for a healthy egg Roll?  Look no further!

Make the PF Chang Copycat Lettuce Wraps from my May 2017 post.  And add a bag of shredded cole slaw mix in the pan and toss until it is soft.

Place a spoonful or two of the mix in the middle of an egg roll wrapper.  Fold one corner over and then the ends in.  wet the final corner edges and roll it up to seal.

Spray a sheet pan with cooking spray and put the egg roll on the pan.  Then spray the tops of the egg rolls.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 10-15 minutes or until they are golden.