Almost Shepherd's Pie

1/2 lb bacon, diced (I take the bacon almost thawed and slice it crosswise so that each piece is 1/2 in wide)
1 large onion diced
about 3/4 lb frozen mixed veg.
about 1 cup unsweetened soy milk
1 tbs flour
mashed potatoes
parsley
cayenne pepper

1.  Make mashed potatoes, enough  to fill a 9in X 9in pan 1in deep
2.  Brown bacon and onion in skillet
3.  Drain 1/2 the grease
4.  Add flour and brown it
5.  Add soy milk and stir until thickened
6.  Place veg mix in evenly bottom of 9X9 glass casserole dish
7.  Place the bacon gravy mixture on top of the veg mix
8.  Cover veg/gravy with the mashed potatoes, filling the pan so that it is nearly level
9.  Place in oven at 400 for 30 min

Egg and Bacon Pasta

This is a staple meal in our family. John was taught by a former roommate who went on his mission to Italy (my brain says Eric, help me out here John). It is Eric.
John in turn impressed me by making it while we were dating. The most impressive things were that he made it in my house, and I swore there was no food in the kitchen, He is amazing.

On to the recipe. First off, since this is an Italian dish, learned from someone who learned it in Italy, there is a rule. Garlic and Onion do not go in the same dish. Weird, huh? John has fits when I do Mexican and he's trying to use Italian logic and I say "Look! It's Mexican, it's SUPPOSED to have both!" Anyways, with that in mind there are two versions of this dish, the onion on (which I prefer) and the garlic one (that I think John secretly prefers.) There's no secretly about it.

Egg and Bacon Pasta with Onion

1 lb. Farfalle Pasta (also known as Bow-Tie Pasta, or in our house Bat Pasta.)
1/2-1 lb Bacon diced (Use what you and/or your family prefers, me I luvs me some Bacon.)
1-2 Eggs (Depending on the size of eggs used, 1 extra-large)
Crushed Red Pepper
1 Large Onion chopped
Parsley

Timing on this really depends on where you live and how long it takes to cook pasta, so please keep that in mind.
In a frying pan, crisp Bacon, Onion, Parsley, and Red Pepper. (On parsley I toss in about 2 good pinches, and Red Pepper is done to taste. A few shakes and it gives a nice flavor with no heat, more than that and you get flavor and heat.)
In a large saucepan (has to fit everything in) but not too large cook the pasta, time this so it will finish within about a minute of bacon being done. You want everything as hot as possible. Drain water, and return to pan on stove, stove turned off. By the way did I mention that your saucepan needs a lid? Because it does.
Put bacon mix in pan with pasta, quick toss. Crack egg(s) into pan, stir it up so egg is thinly coating everything. Put lid on, forget about for 5 minutes.........Put that lid down! What did I say?! 5 minutes!
If for some weird reason (like too much egg used) the egg is not completely cooked, you can turn the stove back on a low heat, let everything warm up a little more, turn off, wait 5 minutes again (with lid on).
Enjoy! I think this is best served with steamed broccoli or really any other green vegetable. John thinks it's best served with seconds. Thirds, fourths, whatever.

Egg and Bacon Pasta with Garlic

1 lb. Farfalle Pasta (also known as Bow-Tie Pasta, or in our house Bat Pasta.)
1/2-1 lb Bacon diced (Use what you and/or your family prefers, me I luvs me some Bacon.)
1-2 Eggs (Depending on the size of eggs used, 1 extra-large)
Crushed Red Pepper

Garlic (a clove or three, or if you buy the canned minced garlic, about a heaping spoon full)
Basil

Timing on this really depends on where you live and how long it takes to cook pasta, so please keep that in mind.
In a frying pan, crisp Bacon, Garlic, basil, and Red Pepper. (On basil I toss in about a good pinch, and Red Pepper is done to taste. A few shakes and it gives a nice flavor with no heat, more than that and you get flavor and heat.)
In a large saucepan (has to fit everything in) but not too large cook the pasta, time this so it will finish within about a minute of bacon being done. You want everything as hot as possible. Drain water, and return to pan on stove, stove turned off. By the way did I mention that your saucepan needs a lid? Because it does.
Put bacon mix in pan with pasta, quick toss. Crack egg(s) into pan, stir it up so egg is thinly coating everything. Put lid on, forget about for 5 minutes.........Put that lid down! What did I say?! 5 minutes!
If for some weird reason (like too much egg used) the egg is not completely cooked, you can turn the stove back on a low heat, let everything warm up a little more, turn off, wait 5 minutes again (with lid on).
Enjoy! I think this is best served with steamed broccoli or really any other green vegetable. John thinks it's best served with seconds. Thirds, fourths, whatever.

I had a dream and it involved Chicken, Avocado, and Lime. So, it's not very surprising that the next day I was on Google looking up recipes that included those 3, and was dairy free. And I was successful, finding this recipe at myrecipes. So here it is, with a few tweaks that I did, and a few more I plan to the next time I make this.

Cilantro-Lime Chicken with Avocado Salsa

Ingredients

• Chicken
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro (I think dried would work just as well)
• 2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

 Salsa

• 1 cup chopped plum tomato (about 2)
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
• 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
•  2 avocado, peeled and finely chopped

Preparation

1. To prepare chicken: Pound chicken to about 1/2-3/4 inch thickness. Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl; toss and marinate several hours or preferably over night. Remove chicken from marinade; discard marinade. Sprinkle chicken evenly with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Grill on your barbeque grill.
2. To prepare salsa, combine tomato and next 4 ingredients (through pepper) in a medium bowl. Add avocado; stir gently to combine. Serve salsa over chicken. Might want to double the amount of salsa, as it is incredibly yummy.

Now on the myrecipes site, they pictured this as being served over rice. But in going with another person's comments about this recipe we tried it over lightly seasoned spaghetti squash. WOW! There were no leftovers, our girls were loving it!

Bake you spaghetti squash, halve it, scrape out seeds, fluff flesh to look lie spaghetti, season with a small amount of margarine, onion (powder or minced), garlic (powdered or minced), salt and pepper.

I wish I had remembered to take a picture, so in your mind see a plate, generous serving of squash, chicken breast on top, and then beautiful salsa over all of that.

This is a little bit of a pricier meal, and is best in Spring/Summer time. Enjoy!!

Lizzy's Easter Cookies

Yum! This is my own recipe. It started with trying to make a combination snickerdoodle (without the cinnamon) and a chocolate chip cookie (without the chocolate). It might still need a bit of tweaking, but we enjoy it very much.

Lizzy's Easter Cookies

• 3/4 C Butter or Margarine
• 1 C Brown Sugar
• 1/2 C Granulated Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Cream of Tartar
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 2 1/2 C Flour
• Starburst Jellybeans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Cream together the butter and sugars.
Add in eggs and beat well.
Mix in baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.
Add in flour.

Now at this point you have two options. The fast, sloppy and not quite as good tasting (but still good) and the way more time consuming but less mess and yummy.

So first the fast way.

Mix in the Jellybeans, about  100-150 is what I like. It's about 3 per cookie. 

Line baking sheet with parchment paper. (Very, very important, or your baking sheets will be a mess!) Drop cookie dough by spoonfuls. The size I do has about 12 per sheet. Make about 3 dozen.

The better way, if you have the time.

Line baking sheet with parchment paper (makes for easier cleanup in case any of the jelly beans accidentally touch the pan). Drop by spoonfuls onto the sheet. Flatten the cookie a bit. press about 3 jelly beans into the top of each cookie. 

Cook for 10-15 minutes. 

 

Zucchini Pecan Waffles

So I just have the list of ingredients, we just use the regular instructions of waffles. (Like separating eggs and beating egg whites, and what order things go in.)

Zucchini Waffles
* 3 C Flour
* 2 tsp Cinnamon
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/2 tsp nutmeg
* 2/3 C Sugar
* 2 C Zucchini--shredded
* 1/2 C Oil
* 2 eggs
* Peel of 1/2 of an orange--Zested or see helpful hints.
* 1/4 - 1/2 C Pecans (can sub walnuts, but pecans are better)
*1/4 C Milk (this might be different due to altitude. Add slowly till right consistency.

Helpful Hints
--Make sure Waffle Iron is well oiled otherwise it sticks.
--Spread thin on Waffle Iron as these puff like mad. If you use the amount you are used to you'll end up with 2" high waffles.
--Peel an orange with a vegetable peeler, careful not to get too much of the white inner peel. Put in chopper (I use my mini chopper) with nuts. Chop till small (almost granual, like think of grinding your own whole wheat on the biggest setting).
--You can replace the zucchini with just about any squash, but what spices and nuts changes.
--Makes a great breakfast for dinner, a great brunch, a great middle of the night snack, okay really it's great at any time
--Make a double batch. =)

Hamburger Extender

Now I could tell you that this recipe will help save you money. And maybe it does, I haven't priced it out. But my guess is it comes out pretty close.
We like meat in our house. I admit it. We will never be vegetarians. I just start twitching if I think about never having bacon or ham again. But one thing we agree on. We don't need to use as much meat as we do. So I was pretty excited when someone pointed me to the ground beef alternative at Veggie Converter. I've done a few tweaks to make it more what we want.
Anyways now anything that we use ground beef for we use half ground beef and half of this rice/lentil mix. We have even successfully made hamburgers with it. We have changing to buying 80% beef, because this mix does not have much fat, and so if you don't have a higher fat content hamburger you have to add oil of have it stick completely to the pan. So without further ado...

Rice/Lentil ground Beef Extender

• 2 cups Brown rice
• 2 cups Green lentils
• Water
• 4 tablespoons Montreal steak seasoning
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup dehydrated mashed potatoes
• 1 cup rolled oats

Directions:
Boil rice, lentils and steak seasoning in water until slightly soft . Drain any excess water, if necessary. Combine with remaining ingredients. And you're done.


This makes a whole lot. I store it in quart bags in my freezer. then when I make dinner I grab a bag of ground beef and a bag of this mix.


Does it taste the same as just plain ground beef? No. Does it still taste pretty darn good? Yes.


Enjoy!

Technique notes for next attempt:
8 cups water.
Start the rice first and half cook it. Then add the lentils. Slightly overcook. Proceed as normal.

Mmmm...Leftovers

You know the best part of having a roast? Leftovers! You may not agree with me, I used to hate leftover roast. But then we found a few recipes in an old 1950's cookbook that call for leftover roast. One of our favorites is

Meatloaf in a Blanket

• 1 onion chopped
• bacon drippings, or butter, lard, etc.
• 2 cups finely chopped cooked potatoes (right from your crockpot roast)
• 1 1/2 cups chopped cooked beef 
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk (of whatever variety, we do Soy with this recipe)
• Salt and Pepper
• Baking Powder Biscuit dough (made with 2 cups flour)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
Brown onion in drippings, add potatoes, mix well. Combine everything else in skillet except dough. Heat thoroughly, making sure egg is cooked.
Roll biscuit dough into rectangle 1/2 inch thick. Shape hot meat mixture into a loaf in the middle of the dough. Draw dough up over mixture to form a roll (one big honking roll). Press edges together. Slash top a few times.
Place on baking sheet and bake 15-20 minutes.
Serve with a Mushroom Gravy


This takes a few times of making it to start making it look pretty. But it is yummy. We will throw in carrots as well if we have some leftover from our roast.

Yes, we now make roast so that we can have leftovers. We also will double to triple this recipe. The part you cook in a skillet, will look sort of like a very large omelet with not enough eggs. Where the name meatloaf came from I don't know. (Except it is meat, in a loaf, hmmmm.) We also like making this for the missionaries if we are feeding them and sending them home with the leftovers. Without the gravy it travels really well and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner.