Roasted chick peas!

These are addictive and inexpensive.
Whether you buy chick peas or garbanzo beans they are the same thing. If you get the can rinse them well. If you get the dried kind re-constitute them.






Then cover in olive oil and seasonings. I like to use Lawry's seasoned salt or Everglade seasoning. Use less seasoning than you think you need you can always add more. Spread out on a baking sheet and bake in the oven on a low heat. 250 degrees. You'll know if the oven is too hot because they will pop like corn. Once dried out they will be crunchy and chewy.

Warm Cheese Dip

1/4 cup of butter

3tbsp all purpose flour

1/8 tsp dry mustard

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp garlic

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp smoked paprika

2 cups milk

2cups (8 oz) cheddar cheese

1 package of cream cheese

1/2 can of ro-tel or tomato, onion and pepper mixture.

 

In medium sauce pan melt butter blend in flour and seasonings.  Should be smooth and bubbly. Gradually add milk blending out all the lumps. Cook and stir over until medium heat until mixture boils; simmer 1 minute stirring constantly. Gradually mix in cheddar cheese alternate with tomato and pepper mixture. Add cream cheese in chunks and mix till melted and gooey. Serve immediately or keep warm in a crock pot. Can be stored in fridge and reheated. Comes out creamy and smooth and stays creamy and smooth.  

Barley Salad



So after hearing about how rice has arsenic in it and wheat is GMO, I decided to look into some other possible products. So one possible replacement was barley. There was a recipe on the package for a salad. But I forgot half the ingredients and found that most salad dressing has soy oil (even the olive oil kind) So.... I came up with my own recipe and it's so good. I don't know why people aren't scarfing this stuff up left and right. Turns out barley is supper healthy for you and not just cause it's found in beer. Super good for the stomach and digestion. And it was inexpensive.

Salad:

3cups cooked barley

1/4 cup feta cheese (the kind with seasoning)

about 10 sliced Greek olives

2 green onions, snipped

smidge regular onion

1/4 green bell pepper

 

Mix all this together and then add dressing just before serving.

 

Dressing:

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

basil

garlic

celery seed

oregano

sea salt

black pepper

thyme

 

Mix dressing to taste. Then add to salad just before serving. The original recipe had radish in it I could see how that would be good. It called for 8 to 10 and I really don't like radish. 

Mary's Cajun style pork fried rice.

1cup rice

2 cups of water

left over pork (I used loin meat but you could use a chop)

1/4 cup of frozen soup vegetables (peas and carrots is traditional for pork fried rice)

1/4 cup onion

1/4 cup red bell pepper (green would work, or jalapeno what ever)

1 egg

 

 

This is one of those "OH NO WHAT DO WE EAT" recipes. It just kind of makes itself. First fry chopped pork in the bottom  of your rice pot with some butter or oil, garlic, oregano and Cajun seasoning. Put in frozen veggies. Don't use tomatoes or corn. All other veggies are good. Mine had okra in it witch lent itself to be Cajun. Stir to coat with oil and spices. Then add your water. When boiling add rice cover reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until water is gone.

 

In the mean time fry onions and peppers in a frying pan set to side. Then fry the egg on a high heat stirring constantly. It should look like a scrambled egg when done.

 

Mix all ingredients together with  the cooked rice mixture. Then serve with soy sauce. It is very filling and inexpensive.

Parrot cassarole.



5 yellow squash

2 zucchini

2 potatoes

two slices of hog jowl or better with thick cut bacon or ham

3 Tbsp  olive oil

1 to 2 onion

4 eggs

1/4 cup of heavy cream

1 cup of mixed cheeses

salt

pepper
garlic

onion powder

thyme

 

 

 

Slice all vegetables into thin rounds like for potato chips. Slice onions into rings. Fry the hog jowl to release juices in a large frying pan. Remove with a slotted spoon. Add 2 of the 3 table spoons of oil.

 Then fry onions and potatoes together. Remove to casserole dish.

Add the hog jowl back to pan with last table spoon of olive oil. Then fry the squash and zucchini with hog jowl, until soft.  Add seasoning while squash are cooking. Remove with slotted spoon to casserole dish. Careful not to get any excess water in dish.

Whip eggs with heavy cream.  Pour over casserole dish with cheese and mix well. Careful not to break up squashes but coating everything.   Bake in oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Then enjoy! 

 



Fast Lasagna

I made my husband a quick version of Lasagna for his birthday. It's really easy and anyone can have perfect lasagna every time if you follow this recipe.

One box of oven ready Lasagna noodles

one jar of your favorite vegetable garden spaghetti sauce

1small onion

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 pound of hamburger

1/2 pound of Italian sausage with out the casing

24 oz cottage cheese

1 egg

3cups of mozzarella

seasonings

 

Fry up the onion and garlic until soft. You could also add green pepper, carrots or mushrooms whatever you like.

Add to sauce. Fry up the hamburger and sausage in the same pan the onions were in, mixing the two together. Add that to the sauce and heat sauce till boiling.

 Italian sausage and hamburger

Mix cottage cheese with an egg add salt and pepper, oregano, garlic, any other seasoning you like to taste. You could use ricotta but cottage cheese is cheaper and give the lasagna a light taste.

 Layer in this order.

1. sauce
2. noodle
3. cottage cheese mixture
4. sauce mixture
5. mozzarella
6. noodle
7. cottage cheese mixture
8. sauce mixture
9.  mozzarella

And then for the last layer put noodle, sauce mixture and the rest of the mozzarella and parsley flakes.

I fit three noodles across in this pan.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degree preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until cheese is bubbling and browned.

Just before it was ready for the oven.

 Be sure to let the Lasagna set up for about 10 minutes or so before you cut into it. That just long enough to cook the garlic bread or shred up a nice lettuce and tomato salad.

End result. It could have set a little longer to be less watery but we couldn't wait.

Here it is on the plate. Needed a little Parmesan and it was delicious.

 

 





Balls and Weenies

We used Hillshire Farm and Nathan's this time. both were good.

This is my go to for any kind of party. It's so simple it will blow your mind. You need:

Ro-tel ( if you cant find this use onion, pepper and tomatoes or salsa)

bar-b-q sauce

lil' smokies

and meat balls (use ready made frozen ones)

 

Place all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook till sauce gets thick. You can add water if needed. This may not be the healthiest snack food but everyone all ways raves over it. I say make the people happy.