Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Grilled Asparagus

The best asparagus I've ever had! I love asparagus, and this was the most delicious preparation. I will be making this over and over again. We had my mother-in-law over for dinner last night and my husband really wanted some steak. I asked if he'd be willing to throw some asparagus on the grill. Nate cooked it perfectly. The asparagus got some great grill marks and picked up a bit of the steak flavoring. It was my favorite part of the meal last night!

Ingredients:
asparagus spears, cleaned and trimmed
olive oil
kosher salt
pepper

Preparation:
Toss asparagus with a drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Grill for about 8-9 minutes, flipping once. We have an electric grill, so time may vary if you have a gas grill. You just want your asparagus at that nice tender-crisp stage. Nate cooked our asparagus in the same spot he had grilled our steaks so they picked up some of that great steak flavor. So good! Enjoy!


Monday, March 19, 2012

Savory Onion Soup Shredded Chicken Sandwiches

With my cold and a long to-do list today, I wanted an easy to prepare dinner. This recipe fit the bill. It is SO easy and tasted great. Perfect for a night like tonight, or any weeknight. You could even throw the chicken in early in the morning on high and have it for lunch. I got the idea from Table for 7. Just serve this up with some chips and carrot and celery sticks and you've got a great meal!

Ingredients:
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used 3)
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup Italian salad dressing
1 envelope of dried onion soup mix
garlic powder- per taste preference (I used about 1/2 tsp.)

Preparation:
Whisk together water, Italian dressing, soup mix, and garlic powder, and add to crock pot. Add chicken to crock pot and stir to make sure it gets coated. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours. Once chicken is cooked, remove from crock pot and let rest for 10 minutes then shred well. Add back to the crock pot and stir to mix it with the juices. Turn crock pot to the warm setting for 30 minutes then serve on toasted hamburger buns.

Mini Garlic Monkey Breads

We ate these monkey breads with our turkey meatloaf cupcakes last night, and it was comfort food at it's finest! These are so good and super simple to make. I can't wait to makes these again. I saw the idea over at Life as a Lofthouse. Make these soon, you'll love them! I halved this recipe for Nate and I.

Ingredients:
Makes 12 rolls
18 frozen Rhodes dinner rolls, thawed
6 Tbsp. butter, melted
3 Tbsp. garlic bread seasoning

Preparation:
Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray. Cut each thawed roll into 4 pieces. Set aside. In a bowl combine the butter and garlic bread seasoning. Place 6 to 7 roll pieces into the garlic mixture and coat with mix. Place 6 to 7 coated roll pieces into one muffin tin. Repeat the process until all 12 muffin tins are full.
Bake at 400 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until rolls are golden brown. Serve warm.

Turkey Meatloaf Cupcakes

These were so so good! Have you ever had a night where you just throw a bunch of stuff together and it turns out to be awesome, an instant family favorite? Well, we had a night like that last night. Dinner was perfect. I need to go grocery shopping so this recipe was me just wingin' it. I didn't measure anything last night, so these are my best estimates. This is my new favorite meatloaf recipe, and Nate just text me that the leftovers were awesome too.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs. ground turkey
1 large egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1-2 Tbsp. worcestershire sauce
3/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp. dried onion flakes
1 tsp. steak seasoning
1/2 - 1 tsp. kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp. parsley flakes
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika

Preparation:
In a large mixing bowl combine all the above ingredients by hand. Do not over mix or your meatloaf will be tough. You want to mix it until it's just combined. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Spoon equal amounts of the meat mixture into the cupcake liners. I used a 1/3 cup measuring cup and got 8 meatloaf cupcakes. Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 -35 minutes or until turkey is cooked all the way through (I didn't set a timer, so the time is just an estimate). I double checked done-ness with my meat thermometer. Remove meatloaf cupcakes and peel off the liners. Let rest for 5 minutes before eating. Enjoy!

Chinese Pepper Steak

We had Nate's cute sister over for our weekly dinner last Thursday. Knowing that Stephanie loves Chinese food, I decided to make pepper steak. Pepper steak is Nate's favorite Chinese dish, well, it's probably tied with ham fried rice. He prefers his spicy, me, not so much. I simply took out mine and Steph's portion of pepper steak out of the skillet and then added some hot sauce and spice to Nate's portion. I referenced an idea from Allrecipes, but tweaked it for our tastes. This is such a simple meal, enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 lb. sirloin steak, sliced into very thin strips (I simply bought the pre-cut stir fry meat from the store, it was a super busy day)
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 bell peppers, chopped (I wanted to use one green and one red, but the red didn't look great at the store)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3/4 cup beef broth
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. steak seasoning (I use a homemade steak seasoning but you could totally use something like Montreal)
salt to taste
3/4 tsp. brown sugar
olive oil
crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Sriracha sauce (optional)

Preparation:
In a small bowl mix cold water, soy sauce, brown sugar, and cornstarch. Whisk well to dissolve cornstarch. In a large skillet, brown the steak strips in a Tbsp. or so of olive oil with the garlic, ginger, and steak seasoning. You're not trying to cook it all the way through, you just want to brown it. Remove the meat and keep warm. To that same skillet add your bell peppers and onions, saute for about 5 minutes or so, or until tender-crisp. Add beef broth to skillet. Next add your water/soy sauce mixture. Stir well. Add you steak back in and bring mixture to a boil*. Once boiling, stir and simmer the dish until the steak is at your desired done-ness and sauce thickens. Serve hot over basmati rice.

*If you want your dish spicy, add a tsp. or two of sriracha and some red pepper flakes at this point.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Amazing Drop Biscuits

Hands down the best biscuits I've ever had! Phenomenal! These biscuits are so good, you need to make these, and soon. We had them to with some baked chicken and salad tonight, and I'm already looking forward to having a biscuit with some scrambled eggs in the morning. I can't say enough good things about this recipe! I got this recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. I didn't change a single thing, so here is her recipe verbatim.

Ingredients:
2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. sugar
¾ tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk, chilled
8 Tbsp. butter, melted and slightly cooled

Preparation:
Heat oven to 475 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment or a silpat liner.
In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In a 2-cup liquid measure, stir together the chilled buttermilk and melted butter until the butter forms small clumps. Stir the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula just until the ingredients are incorporated and the mixture slightly pulls away from the edges of the bowl.
Using a greased ¼-cup measure, scoop out mounds of the dough and drop them onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing about 1 ½ inches apart. Bake the biscuits until the tops are golden brown and crisp, 12 to 14 minutes. Remove from the oven, brush with additional melted butter. Serve warm.

Photo updated 05/15/14.

Tex-Mex Lasagna

Another Mexican dish for Nate! I'm happy to say it turned out really well. Both Nate and I really enjoyed this dinner. We didn't end up eating dinner until 8:10 last night, so I'm so happy it was good! I make a Mexican lasagna which we both really like, it uses tortillas instead of noodles. This recipe is another fun variation. I saw the idea over at Not So Homemade, and adapted it, I also made my own sauce. One perk of this recipe is that you are more than likely to have every ingredient on hand. All I had to buy was a green pepper and an onion. Love it when that happens!

This makes an 8x8" or 9x9" pan. Simply double for a 9x13".

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. lean ground beef
9 lasagna noodles
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/2 small onion, diced
2/3 cup frozen corn
1/2 can black beans, rinsed and drained
shredded Mexican cheese blend (I had colby jack on hand, so that's what I used)
1 (8 oz.) can mild Rotel sauce
1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste
6 oz. water (just use the tomato paste can)
1 cup mild salsa
2 Tbsp. taco seasoning
salt and pepper

Preparation:
In a pan, combine the ground beef with a small amount of salt and pepper, 2 Tbsp. of taco seasoning, green peppers, and onions. Cook and crumble the ground beef. Once finished, set aside. Par boil the lasagna noodles (cook them most of the way through and take them out a few minutes before finished). Rinse the noodles with cold water to stop the cooking process. Lay out the noodles on a piece of parchment paper so they don't stick together. In a medium bowl, combine the Rotel sauce, tomato paste, water, and salsa. Add a pinch of salt if you need. In an 8x8" or 9x9" baking dish, pour some sauce into the bottom of the dish. Make sure it's enough to cover the entire bottom. Lay some lasagna noodles on top of the sauce. You will most likely have to trim down the noodles so they will fit. Pour a small amount of sauce on top of the noodles. Add 1/2 the meat mixture on top and then 1/2 the beans and corn. Sprinkle some cheese over the top. Add another layer of lasagna noodle, then sauce. Make sure you add a fair amount of sauce to ensure the noodles finish cooking in the oven. Then add the other 1/2 of the meat mixture, beans, and corn. Sprinkle some cheese over the top. Add the last layer of lasagna noodles and a fair amount of sauce on top, making sure it covers the top. I had just a little bit of sauce left over, so don't stress if you don't use it all, but you should use most of it. Cover the baking dish with a square of parchment paper, and then cover with tin foil. Bake at 375 for 35 minutes. Remove the tin foil and parchment paper and sprinkle some cheese over the top. Return, uncovered, to the oven for another 10 minutes, or until cheese is fully melted. Let the lasagna stand for a full 10 minutes before slicing, or else your lasagna will be a sloppy mess when you dish it up. Nate finds this 10 minute wait almost unbearable, poor guy! Dish up and serve hot with a fresh and crisp green salad. Enjoy!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Dijon Ranch Chicken

Oh, this chicken is so good! It is most definitely a keeper recipe. I included this recipe in the marinades section because I think this would also taste awesome on pork chops. We both loved the bold flavors and how moist and tender our chicken was. Even with all the seasonings you add, nothing is overpowering. This is a dish easy enough for any weeknight, yet tasty enough to serve to company. I got the idea from Not So Homemade, and I altered it to suit our tastes. Hurry and add this recipe to your menu for the week!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 - 2 lbs. chicken (you can use breasts, drumsticks, thighs, whatever you're craving)
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix
1 Tbsp. dried parsley flakes
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. dried onion flakes
1/4 tsp. pepper

Preparation:
In a small bowl combine everything but the chicken. Mix well. Using a basting brush, coat the chicken on all sides with a layer of the mustard mixture. Marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for one hour. Once finished marinating, bake or grill your chicken until it's cooked through. Let rest 5-10 minutes before serving. I made boneless, skinless chicken breasts and baked them at 400 degrees for 32 minutes.




P.S. This is fourth new recipe I've tried in the last 24 hours. That has to be some sort of record! I'm just glad they all turned out tasty!

Baked Churros

Okay, this is another super simple recipe. It comes together in a matter of minutes and is definitely a crowd pleaser. I took it tonight to a game night and everyone enjoyed them. I saw the idea over at Six Sisters' Stuff, it's a darling site, be sure and check it out.

Ingredients:
2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Unfold and cut puff pastry sheets in half lengthwise, and cut each half crosswise into 1-inch-wide strips. Place strips on a lightly greased parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown . Meanwhile, combine sugar and cinnamon. Remove pastry sheets from oven and dip in butter, then roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Let stand on a wire rack 5 minutes or until dry. Serve warm. Makes 36 churros.

Blueberry Muffins

I actually made breakfast! I rarely make breakfast in our house, unless I make breakfast for dinner. This week was so crazy. One of the busiest I've had in months and Nate was so great this week. He totally deserved a good breakfast. Muffins for Nate! I was just going to do a box mix, but I couldn't bring myself to pay over three dollars for one mix, so homemade it was. I got this idea from The Girl Who Ate Everything.

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen (I used frozen, don't even worry about thawing them, just throw them in)

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350º. Line muffin pan with paper muffin liners. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and milk. Add flour mixture and stir until just combined. Gently fold in blueberries. Divide batter evenly into 12 muffin cups. Bake at 350º for 20 to 25 min, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Makes 12 muffins.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Baked Cinnamon Sugar Donut Bites

My little brother is visiting us this weekend. Both he and Nate love cinnamon sugar anything! It was the perfect opportunity to make these donut bites. They are super simple, and super fast to make. I bet kids would love these. I saw the idea over at
Table For Seven.

Ingredients:
1-10 count tube of refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil. Cut each biscuit in half and then roll into ball form. Place on prepared baking sheet and bake for 5-8 minutes or until lightly brown. In a separate bowl, mix sugar and ground cinnamon until well combined. Once doughnuts are cooled, coat with warm melted butter, then coat with cinnamon sugar mixture. Makes 20 small doughnuts

Friday, March 9, 2012

Pot Stickers and Dipping Sauce

I made this pork roast earlier in the week and we had lots of leftovers. I re-purposed the leftover meat to make these pot stickers. They turned out so well! Nate and I both really enjoyed this dinner. Assembling the pot stickers is a bit time consuming, but it is so worth it. This is definitely a keeper recipe in our house. I followed this recipe from Simply So Good pretty closely. She has some great step-by-step photos posted too. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did!

I doubled this recipe since I had a lot of leftover pork and it made 58 pot stickers.

Ingredients:
8-10 oz. ground pork (I used some leftover roast that I diced up)
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 1/2 cups napa cabbage, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp. green onion, minced
20-30 pot sticker wrappers
oil
water

Preparation:
In a food processor combine pork, chicken broth, soy sauce, cornstarch, green onion, ginger, pepper, and cabbage. Pulse mixture until it's well combined and there are no chunks. Take a pot sticker wrapper and wet the edge all the way around. Add a small amount of the filling. Fold wrapper in half. Wet the outside edges and pinch into small pleats. Repeat until filling is gone. Keep the pot stickers covered with a damp paper towel until you cook them. In a large pan, heat 1 1/2 Tbsp. oil over medium heat. Once oil is hot, add pot stickers seam side up, but don't over-crowd the pan. Cook until bottoms are golden brown (Nate and I like our pot stickers a little more crispy, so I also brown the sides). Once the bottoms are browned, lower the temperature to medium-low. Add 1/3 cup water to the pan and immediately cover with a lid. Be careful, the oil/water mixture will splatter. Steam pot stickers until water has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Once finished, remove from pan and keep warm until serving. Clean out pan and then repeat until all the pot stickers are finished. Serve hot with your favorite dipping sauce.


Dipping Sauce
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. seasoned rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. sweet chili sauce
1 tsp. sriracha hot sauce
2 Tbsp. scallions, minced
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ginger, minced

Combine all of the ingredients in a medium size bowl and set aside.




Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Asian Roast Pork

I have such a good husband. I had a horrible day yesterday, and at dinner time I was gone working on things for my church calling. Cute Nate made dinner all by himself. All I did was some prep work earlier in the day, and Nate baked the roast and pulled the fried rice together. When I got home from my meeting, dinner was on the table including a napkin in the shape of a rose! Nate did a great job, dinner was really tasty. Everything turned out really well. I saw this idea at Allrecipes and modified it to fit our tastes.

Ingredients:
1 (2 lb.) pork roast
1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/8 cup brown sugar
3 green onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 Tbsp. Asian chile paste (if you don't like things spicy, cut this in half)
1 tsp. pepper

Preparation:
Whisk together soy sauce, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, onions, chile paste, and pepper. Pour into a gallon sized ziploc bag. Add pork roast and make sure it gets evenly coated. Marinate in the refrigerator for 6-8 hours. Bake roast at 325 degrees for about an hour, or until your desired done-ness.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Black Bean Dip

This was really good. I don't even like black beans, and I enjoyed a couple bites of this. Nate loved it. This dip is so easy, and if you're going to be serving this at a party, I definitely recommend doubling. It's funny, I came across this idea today and knew that Nate would love it with our dinner tonight. How's that for a quick turn around! I saw the idea over at Finding Joy in My Kitchen. I was in a rush so I modified the recipe a bit, but it was a big hit with the husband.

Ingredients:
1 (14 oz.) can black beans (I used the low sodium ones)
2 heaping Tbsp. lite sour cream
1 Tbsp. milk
1 Tbsp. taco seasoning
shredded cheese

Preparation:
Rinse and drain your beans. Add beans, sour cream, milk, and seasoning to food processor. Pulse until smooth. Pour the bean dip into a lightly greased 8x8" baking dish. Sprinkle some shredded cheese over the top of the bean dip. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and dip is bubbly. Enjoy hot.



I shared this recipe over at Chef in Training and Mandy's Recipe Box.

Cookies 'n Cream Rice Krispie Treats

Two dessert posts in one week, what has come over me? Tonight we took dinner to one of Nate's cousins that just had a baby. They have a few other children, so I wanted to bring something kid friendly. I thought this dessert fit the bill. Nate also loves cookies 'n cream flavored things, so I killed two birds at once and made him a fun dessert too. I found this super simple idea over at Glorious Treats.

Ingredients:
6 cups Rice Krispies cereal
20 regular oreos, crushed/chopped (about 2 1/2 cups crushed)
5 cups mini marshmallows
3 Tbsp. butter

Preparation:
Put rice krispies treats into a large bowl. Spray a 9x13" casserole dish or cake pan with non-stick spray, set aside. In a gallon sized ziploc bag, crush oreos. You want to have some crushed into small pieces, and some bite size chunks. Add oreos to rice krispies and stir to combine. In a large microwave safe bowl, heat butter and marshmallows together, about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. They will expand, so make sure your bowl is big enough. When the marshmallows are puffy and mostly melted, carefully remove from microwave and stir to fully combine the butter, and make sure the marshmallows are fully melted. Pour melted marshmallows over cereal and oreos and use a spatula sprayed with non-stick cooking spray to quickly combine all the ingredients. As soon as all the cereal is combined, spread mixture into the prepared 9x13" dish. Use the spatula to press the mixture around the dish, and flatten as needed. Allow to cool before cutting into squares. Enjoy!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Nate's Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

We had a big pasta dinner with Nate's siblings tonight. Nate and I were in charge of bringing the meat sauce. I got so spoiled and Nate volunteered to do all the work. I picked out a recipe for him to make and gave him a few pointers. I have to say, Nate did a fantastic job. The sauce was really really good. This recipe makes a ton, so even after feeding 8 people, I still have enough to freeze for another meal. We used a recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe and suited it to our tastes. Great work Nate!

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cups onion, chopped and divided
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 lb. Italian sausage (we used mild)
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 12 oz. can tomato paste
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 teaspoons dried oregano
3 teaspoons dried basil
2 14-oz. can Italian-style diced tomatoes
2 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 1/2 cups beef broth
2 bay leaves

Preparation:
Cook and crumble Italian sausage, and drain any fat. Set aside. Heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add 1/2 of the onions and saute until translucent and slightly browned. Add garlic and stir constantly for 1 minute. Add beef and cook until no red is showing. Drain beef slightly. Add sausage. Blend up the remaining onions in a blender or food processor until mostly smooth. Add mixture to the garlic, onions and beef and stir to combine, cooking for another minute. Add tomato paste and spices and cook for 1 minute, stirring until combined. Add tomatoes and beef broth. Stir until combined and add the bay leaves. Bring to a boil and then reduce to low and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. The sauce will seem watery at first but will reduce to perfection after simmering for an hour. After simmering we put the sauce in the crock pot and kept it on low all day. Serve over hot cooked pasta. Enjoy!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Milky Way Cupcakes

Are you shocked to see a dessert from me? It's about time I made another dessert. Nate and I had dinner with some of our favorite people, the Taggarts, last night. Cute Suzy made dinner and I brought this dessert. Everyone said they really enjoyed these cupcakes. Nate's favorite candy bar is a milky way, so I thought this might be a fun dessert. I saw a recipe for snickers cupcakes over at Homemade by Holman, and I simply switched it to milky ways. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
Cake-
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Frosting-
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup caramel sauce
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 lb powdered sugar
3 milky way candy bars for garnish


Preparation:
Cake-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pans with cupcake liners. Recipe yields about 30 cupcakes. Combine sugar through salt in a large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla and beat on low until just incorporated. Increase speed to medium and beat two minutes. Stir in boiling water, the batter will be thin. Transfer batter to prepared pans, filling each liner about 2/3 of the way full, approximately 1/4 cup of batter. Bake approximately 22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans about five minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

When cool, use a paring knife to cut a small cone shape out of the top of each cupcake. Add caramel sauce as desired. You can cut the point off the cone and add it back to the cupcake if desired.

Frosting-
Beat butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about two minutes. Add caramel sauce, heavy cream and vanilla and mix to incorporate. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating on low speed until incorporated to reach the right consistency. Increase speed to medium-high and whip about one minute until light and fluffy. Fill a piping bag and pipe onto cupcakes or frost as desired.

Chop candy bars and sprinkle over the top of cupcakes.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Shredded Beef Quesadillas

Okay, so remember this beef I made last week? It made a ton of meat, so I was able to freeze half for another meal. Last night I used the leftover beef and made these super yummy quesadillas. They were fantastic. I have to say, the meat froze beautifully and tasted just as good as the night I made it. In fact 25 minutes after dinner was over and all cleaned up, Nate told me he was in the mood for another quesadilla! I think I broke his heart when I told him the meat was all gone. Poor guy.

Okay, so not really a recipe, more of an idea for you, but I promise it's worth making!

Ingredients:
shredded beef*
flour tortillas (I found these new ones that are only 80 calories and way tasty, you can find them at Winco or Maceys)
shredded cheese
butter
toppings such as salsa, pico, olives, sour cream, etc.

Preparation:
On half of your tortilla place some of the beef and a bit of cheese. Fold the other half of the tortilla over and cook on a lightly buttered griddle, flipping once, until cheese melted. Cut into wedges with a pizza cutter and serve hot!

*I used leftover meat that was frozen. I put it in the fridge the night before I plan on using it to let it thaw. At dinner time I put the thawed meat into a skillet and heated it through before adding it to the quesadillas.



We had Nate's cute sister Stephanie over for dinner last night and she gave these quesadillas her seal of approval!