Favorite Meatless Meals

Well, I'm still pregnant over here. 1 more week to go and I cannot wait! Needless to say, I haven't been too fond of cooking lately. For that reason we've been doing a lot of easy meals for dinner and many of them are meatless too. I want to share some of the easy, meatless meals that we love. Don't get me wrong, Tyler and I love meat, but there are plenty of recipes that are great without it -and they're cheap! Lizzie sure doesn't mind, we usually have to hide meat in her food to get her to eat it anyway. So next time you want a budget friendly meal, try one of these!

Fried Rice

Twice Baked Potatoes

White Sauce Pasta

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If you want to add meat, chicken goes great with it. We love it with broccoli too!

Tostadas

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The great thing about tostadas is you can make them however you want. We fry our own corn tortillas and like to melt the cheese on the refried beans before adding the rest of the toppings over it.

Hope you like these recipes as much as we do!

Twice Baked Potatoes

If you're bored of the same ol' baked potatoes, you've got to try these babies out. I love this twist on baked potatoes. It takes a little more time effort but it's worth it! These are great as a side dish but also work as a main dish because they're quite filling. You can add more toppings too, like bacon! I didn't use bacon this time around because I didn't have any on hand. But don't worry, this dish is good with or without it. You can even eat them with your hands if you're feeling adventurous.

Ingredients
4 large potatoes
1 1/2 cup shredded cheese
5 green onions, chopped
1/2 sour cream
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 F. Wash and dry potatoes, use a fork to poke a few holes in the potatoes, place on baking tray and bake for 1 hour. Once baked, let the potatoes cool for about 10 minutes. Cut each potato in half lengthwise. Scoop out in insides of the potato into a mixing bowl but leave about 1/4 inch of the insides on the skin. Place the hollowed potatoes back on baking tray. Add half the cheese, half the green onions, sour cream, butter, milk, salt, and pepper into mixing bowl with the potatoes. Mix together. Scoop potato mixture into the potato skins. Sprinkle remaining green onions and cheese on top. Bake for another 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted.  Enjoy!

Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Don't these sound and look divine? Well they are. As it turns out Nutella and chocolate chip cookies make a perfect combination. It can get kind of messy when making them but they turn out so good that it's ok. Try it out, you won't regret it.

What You Need:
1 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
1 jar of Nutella (you won't use it all)

What You Do:
Mix butter, and sugars until well blended. Mix in eggs. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and vanilla and mix together. Stir in chocolate chips. Chill cookie dough in the refrigerator for an hour. Spoon 24 dollops of Nutella on a cookie sheet and stick it in the freezer for 30 minutes. Chilling makes it easier to wrap the cookie dough around the Nutella.

After dough and Nutella have been chilled, you're ready to make some magic! Preheat oven to 375 F. Spoon out some cookie dough, flatten it in your hand or on the cookie sheet, place Nutella dollop in the center, and then wrap dough around it. Repeat until you're out of Nutella. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Enjoy the chocolatey goodness.

Easter Muddy Buddies

Muddy Buddies are one of my favorite treats to make. Everyone loves them, and you don't have
to use the oven! I also like that you can make them festive, so this time I'm throwing Easter into the Muddy Buddies by adding Easter M&M's. Here's the one downside to this delicious treat...it's super addicting. For this reason, I try to only make these when I'm going to a party so I don't eat it all myself. Enjoy!

Ingredients
9 cups Rice Chex cereal
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups powder sugar
1 bag Easter M&M's

Directions
Measure out Rice Chex cereal into a large bowl. In a quart sized bowl, melt together chocolate chips, peanut butter, butter, and vanilla in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir and then place in microwave for an additional 30 seconds if needed to completely melt together. Pour chocolate mixture into the large bowl with the cereal and stir around until evenly coated. Pour it all into a gallon (2 gallon is even better) ziploc bag, add powder sugar, close the bag tight, and shake shake shake until evenly coated. Pour the Muddy Buddies into a serving bowl and let cool. Once it's cooled, mix in M&M's - as many as you like!

Lemon Basil Salmon

Tyler and I are not seafood lovers at all. However, this is one seafood recipe that we always enjoy. I got this recipe from my mom, she makes it all the time. It's easy and, bonus, it's healthy! The recipe says to cook it in the oven but it's also terrific when grilled. Serve it with some rice and veggies to complete the healthy meal. 

Ingredients

4 salmon fillets

3 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp fresh basil (1 tsp dried)

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp pepper

Directions

Place salmon into a baking dish. Mix together the rest of the ingredients and pour over the salmon and let it marinade at least 30 minutes. Broil (or grill) salmon for about 8 minutes on each side. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Roll Cake

This is one of my favorite cake recipe's that I've tried. I got it from this site, but decided to opt out the nuts. If you like cinnamon rolls and like cake then you will love this! It's the perfect dessert for a cold day, in fact you could even eat it for breakfast. Make sure to eat it warm!

Ingredients

Cake

3 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cup milk

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

4 Tbsp melted butter

Cinnamon Sugar Mixture

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp flour

1 Tbsp cinnamon

Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar

5 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix all cake ingredients together. Pour batter into a greased 9x13" baking pan. In another bowl, mix together the cinnamon sugar mixture. Drop spoonfuls of mixture evenly over the cake batter. Use a knife to swirl it through the cake. Bake for 25-30 minutes. After cake is done, mix glaze ingredients together and drizzle over the cake while it's still warm. Eat right away!

Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is not your average chocolate chip cookie recipe. These cookies are so deliciously buttery and chocolaty, you can't just have one. This is my go-to recipe when given the dessert assignment. I got the recipe from my mom who got it from her friend who got it from another friend. People always ask me for this recipe so it's about time I post it for all to see. My friends named it "Amazing Cookies". Enjoy!

1/2 C butter

3/4 C sugar

3/4 C brown sugar

1/2 C shortening (Crisco is the best)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 ½ C flour 

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 bag chocolate chips (I usually don't use the entire bag, but it's up to you!)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together butter, sugars, and shortening. Add eggs, vanilla, flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until mixed all together - do not overmix! Stir in chocolate chips with a spoon. Roll dough into balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 min.  Yields 24 cookies.

Thanksgiving Dishes

I've hosted Thanksgiving the last 2 years and as stressful as it can be, I actually enjoyed doing it. The first year wasn't as fun because I was pregnant, had morning sickness, and no one knew about it yet so I couldn't even complain out loud. The second time, however, was more enjoyable. This year will be a more laid back Thanksgiving for us, but I want to share some of the recipes I have used for Thanksgiving dinner for those who need ideas!

Citrus Sage Turkey - The star of the show. I got this recipe from my Tyler's cousin. I loved it so much the first Thanksgiving I made it, I had to make it the second time around. My mom, who is usually picky about turkey dryness, commented how it wasn't dry at all. Yay!

Green Bean Casserole - I thought this recipe was too simple to be that good but I got a lot of compliments on it.

Mashed Potatoes - I purposely looked for a crockpot recipe because I only have 1 oven! This is good even without gravy, but gravy is never a bad idea right?

Sweet Potatoes - My favorite dish! My mom makes a spectacular one she got from Williams - Sonoma. I found it online for you, it's so good!!

Rolls and Pies - I'm not going to lie, I did not make these myself. Maybe in the future I will! But I can give a great recommendation of where to get good ones. Kneaders has my favorite rolls that aren't homemade and their pies are fantastic. If you don't feel like baking roll or pies, try Kneaders!

Stuffing- I didn't make the stuffing from scratch either, so if anyone has a great stuffing recipe please share! I just bought the Mrs. Cubbison's brand which was great! But I'm sure a homemade one would be even better.

It wasn't necessarily a fancy dinner but it all tasted great. Good luck cooking for your next Thanksgiving!


photo sources:
 http://www.google.com/imgres?q=thanksgiving+turkey&um=1&hl=en&client=safari&sa=N&tbo=d&rls=en&biw=1290&bih=658&tbm=isch&tbnid=Pf4WlxJ0IIQYmM:&imgrefurl=http://www.foodnetwork.com/topics/thanksgiving/index.html&docid=YvPRsuUSXIIL0M&imgurl=http://img.foodnetwork.com/FOOD/2010/11/23/BT0809H_roasted-thanksgiving-turkey_s4x3_lead.jpg&w=400&h=300&ei=ohSlUJXlOoSnigL6TQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=4013&sig=104123007466545176665&page=3&tbnh=139&tbnw=175&start=53&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:66,s:0,i:342&tx=65&ty=88

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/sweet-potato-gratin-with-pecans.html?cm_src=RECIPESEARCH

http://www.food.com/recipe/green-bean-casserole-47102

http://lecremedelacrumb.com/2014/10/slow-cooker-mashed-potatoes.html

German Pancakes

This is pretty funny looking pancake but man, is it good! I still can't believe my husband had never heard of or tried this until he married me. Now it's one of his favorites! You know me, I love easy recipes and this fluffy concoction is definitely easy to make. You'll most likely have all the ingredients in your kitchen too. So, here it is, German Pancakes.

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1 cup milk

6 eggs

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbsp butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 F. Put butter in a 9x13 baking dish and place it in the oven to melt while preheating. Mix together flour, milk, eggs, When butter is melted, take out the pan and pour the mixed ingredients into the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes. If the pancake is fluffing up like crazy while baking, you're doing it right. It will sink down a bit when you take it out of the oven. You can top with it with powder sugar, syrup, fruit, or jam. 

1 C milk

1 C flour

6 eggs

¼ tsp salt

3 Tbs butter

Melt butter in 9 by 13 pan @ 375 degree. Pour in ba

tter. Bake 25 min.

Crockpot Chili

It's chili season! And my favorite way to cook it is in the crockpot. So I have got an easy and tasty chili recipe for you. I slightly adapted the recipe from this site. This recipe makes plenty, about 8 servings, and they're great as leftovers. Try it out!

Ingredients
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic chopped (2 tsp)
2 (14oz) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 (15 oz) can red kidney beans, drained
1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 cup water

Directions
Cook ground beef in a pan. After draining the fat, put it in the crockpot with the rest of the ingredients. Stir it up, cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Before serving, mix cornstarch with water and add it to the chili to thicken. Enjoy!

Blueberry Banana Bread

I love love love banana bread. I also love blueberries. I just happened to have plenty of bananas and blueberries this week so, naturally, I had to bake something out of them. If blueberries aren't your thing, you can always do chocolate chips or nuts or whatever else instead! I usually do chocolate chips, but I have found that my taste buds really appreciate this combination. I'll be making this more often!

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
3 ripe bananas
1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix in. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, and salt and mix together. In a separate bowl, mash bananas. Pour in mashed bananas with the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Fold in blueberries. Pour the dough into a greased bread pan and bake for 45-55 minutes. Enjoy!

Cake Balls

This is one of my favorite forms of cake. I'm not gonna lie, it can be a little time consuming to make, but they are just so tasty that it's worth it. You can do any type of cake/frosting combo. This time I made red velvet cake balls in honor of Valentines Day. Here is the recipe for these bites of heaven!

Ingredients

1 box of red velvet cake mix

1 jar of cream cheese frosting

1 package of baking chocolate or almond bark 

Directions

Bake the cake according to the box instructions. Let cake cool and them mashed it up with a large spoon. Dump all the frosting in with the cake and mash it all together. Start scooping out bits of the mixture and roll into little balls and then place on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper or aluminum foil. Melt the baking chocolate (I melt a little at a time because it hardens pretty quickly), use a spoon to roll each cake ball in the chocolate until completely coated, and place back on cookie sheet. You can decorate it with sprinkles to make it cuter, just remember to do it before the coating hardens. And you are done! Enjoy!

Dutch Pancakes

Here's a peak into my Dutch heritage. My favorite mornings were when I would wake up to my dad making this crepe-like breakfast mmmmm! They are thicker than crepes and more buttery so...delicious, obviously. I finally got the recipe from my dad. He usually just makes it up, so it's a miracle I got ingredient measurements out of him. Tyler is a big fan of this recipe and I hope you will love it too!

Dutch Pancakes
1 cup flour
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons melted butter
your favorite fillings

Mix together flour, eggs, milk, salt, and butter in a mixing bowl. Mix well. Heat up a medium skillet greased with butter. Pour some batter into skillet (almost a half cup) just enough to spread thinly over entire surface. Flip over when side down is cooked. Once both sides are cooked, slide it onto a plate and fill it with your favorite fillings (fruit, Nutella, peanut butter, jam, etc.). Make sure skillet is still greased well before cooking another pancake. Yields 6.

Crockpot Sweet and Spicy Chicken Burritos

The name of this recipe is a mouthful, and the food itself is a mouthful...of yumminess! I love the combination of sweet and spicy and I love using a crockpot so win-win. Throw the stuff into the crockpot, let it cook all day, and then wrap them in tortillas. This is not only good for making burritos, but enchiladas as well. Enjoy!

Crockpot Sweet and Spicy Chicken Burritos
1 lb chicken breasts
1/2 onion, chopped
20 oz red enchilada sauce
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (for a milder taste, use 1/2 teaspoon instead- it's still good!)
2 tablespoons taco seasoning
Your favorite tortillas (about 8-10)
Shredded cheese

Place chicken and onion in crockpot. Mix the rest of the ingredients (except tortillas and cheese) together in a bowl, and then pour into the crockpot. Cook on low for 6 hours. Once it's done, use a fork or two to shred the chicken in the crockpot. Scoop chicken into tortillas, add some cheese, and wrap it up!

If you want to make them into enchiladas, you can use all the leftover sauce in the crockpot to pour over the stuffed tortillas and then add cheese on top. Bake at 350 F for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is all melted.

Snickerdoodles

Another classic cookie of which you can find in many different variations is the Snickerdoodle. I just can't get enough of this chewy cinnamon-sweet deliciousness. This recipe has always served me well, and so I am going to share it with you. These cookies are my brother's absolute favorite; he always requests them. Try them out for yourself, you won't be sorry!

Snickerdoodles

½ C butter                                       

1 ¾  C flour                                     ½ tsp. baking soda

1 C sugar                                         ¼ tsp. cream of tartar

1 egg                                               1 Tbsp. sugar

½ tsp. vanilla                                   ½ tsp ground cinnamon

Cream butter and add 1 cup of the flour, sugar, egg, vanilla, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Mix well. Beat in remaining 3/4 cup of flour. Cover and chill dough for 30 minutes.  Roll dough into little balls, then roll into a bowl of the cinnamon and sugar.  Bake at 375 for 10-11 minutes.

Rolled and prepped for baking

The finished product. Yum!

Amazing Cookies

"Just another chocolate chip cookie recipe?" you ask? No! These cookies are so deliciously buttery and chocolaty, you can't just have one. This is my go-to recipe when given the dessert assignment. I got the recipe from my mom who got it from her friend who got it from another friend...so who knows where it really came from but it's pretty good. People always ask me for this recipe so it's about time I post it for all to see. My friends named it "Amazing Cookies" so there ya go. Enjoy!

1/2 C butter

3/4 C sugar

3/4 C brown sugar

1/2 C shortening (Crisco is the best)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 ½ C flour 

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 bag chocolate chips (I usually don't use the entire bag, but it's up to you!)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together butter, sugars, and shortening. Add eggs, vanilla, flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until mixed all together - do not overmix! Stir in chocolate chips with a spoon. Roll dough into balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 min.  Yields 24 cookies.

Easy Fried Rice

I have to have a few Asian recipes up my sleeve right? This dinner is a regular at our house. It's easy and pretty quick to make! You can always alter it by using the meat and veggies you like best, or not using meat at all. This recipe makes quite a bit so feel free to half it. Ty and I always have leftovers, but we don't mind!

Ingredients
3 cups cooked rice
2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces (optional)
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup vegetables (I used a bag of mixed veggies)
3 tablespoons sesame oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
 pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder to taste

Directions
While you are cooking the rice, begin cooking the chicken in a wok or a large pan. Once the chicken is cooked, toss the vegetables with the chicken until they are cooked through. Turn heat off for this pan. In a separate pan, scramble the eggs. Once the rice is ready, combine it in the wok along with the eggs. Now that everything is in one place, turn on the stove again to medium low and add sesame oil and soy sauce. Start mixing, and do it at a quick pace to avoid burning rice at the bottom. Remove the pan from the heat and add pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder to your taste. P.S. it tastes better with chopsticks. Makes about 5-6 servings.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a sweet tooth! I love baking desserts and then, of course, eating them. However, I took a little break from baking when the nausea came my first trimester of pregnancy. Not only did I not have the energy to bake, but I lost interest in eating desserts (WHAT?) I know, crazy. At least it was better for my diet. Well now that the nausea is gone and the energy is back, I can get back into it. This cupcake recipe is not too shabby if I do say so myself. Hope you like it! Chocolate + cream cheese = yum!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting:

CUPCAKE:

½ cup butter

1 ½ cup sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ cup flour

½ cup baking cocoa

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ cup milk

½ cup water

FROSTING:

4 oz cream cheese

¼ cup butter

½ teaspoon vanilla

2 ½ - 3 cups powdered sugar

Cream butter and sugar together. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. The batter is a little thicker than cupcake batter usually is so don't worry about that. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-18 minutes. Makes 20 cupcakes.

While cupcakes are baking, make the frosting! Mix cream cheese, butter, and vanilla. Add powdered sugar a little at a time until it is the consistency you like. I like the frosting thick, so if this frosting is too thick for your taste, add a little milk. Also, if you like lots of frosting, then double the frosting recipe (or 1.5 it?). Wait for cupcakes to cool before applying frosting. Enjoy!