Bacon Wrapped Hamburger

Yes.  Bacon.  Please.

Within the last couple of years, I've actually been preferring turkey bacon, which is pretty much blasphemy.  Turkey bacon I usually use just because of the lack of grease that flies back at my face when it's frying.  But there is something utterly delicious about a slice of thick cut, porky bacon.  Mmmmm.

Well, I was making burgers and an idea came into my head.  I love bacon cheeseburgers.  How epic would it be to wrap bacon around a  burger patty?  What!!??  Yes.  I did it.

I only had a pound of ground beef and doesn't make much with the way I normally make burgers (I make 'em big) so I mixed an egg and some cheese into the beef to fluff it up a bit.

Bacon Wrapped Burgers

a handful of shredded cheddar
a little bit of grated Parmesan
chopped onion
1 egg
spoonful of ketchup
spoonful of Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper, to taste
1 lb ground beef
bacon
burger buns

Mix the beef with the cheeses, onions, egg, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper.  Form them into patties.  Wrap bacon around the patties (I used 3 slices).  Cook them up to your liking.  And you have yourself a burger with the potential to give you the meat sweats.  Yummy.

Crunch Wrap Night!

I was so excited giddy to make one of my favorite Taco Bell menu items for dinner. I saw different variations all over the interwebs and decided to wing it and try to make them on my own.  The whole week, this is what I was counting down to...Crunch Wrap Night!

I need to start out by saying that I love Taco Bell.  It's cheap, Mexican and plain good.  I will admit, that before I started dating the BF, I wouldn't go there as much.  And if remember correctly, I don't think I had my first taste of TB until I was about 16 (gasp!). 

I know that Taco Bell doesn't use the highest quality of ingredients.  I am fully aware that their meat is dehydrated and that they squirt out sour cream.  But I say ignorance is bliss, because my wallet and my belly are what control me.

Back to Crunch Wrap Night...

They were sooooooooooo good.  I wanted to eat more, but I shocked myself by sticking with one.  Mine had a completely different flavor, but I'm thinking it was better than, dare I say, Taco Bell.  Bottom line...I win.

 
My Ingredients:
the largest flour tortillas you can find
1 lb ground beef (the amount of crunch wraps will vary with how much meat you put in each wrap)
taco seasoning
chopped onions
refried beans (a BF request)
chopped tomatoes
shredded lettuce
small corn tortillas
nacho cheese

How I Made Them:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray the corn tortillas (however many you think you'll use) with cooking spray and place them on a baking sheet(s).  Bake for a couple of minutes, flipping them over, til they're lightly brown and crunchy.  Wrap the flour tortillas in tin foil and warm in the oven during this.

Cook the meat.  Add onions and taco seasoning.

Spread some of the refried beans in the center of a warmed flour tortilla.  Fill the tortilla with the beef, crunchy corn tortilla, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and taco sauce.  Fold the edges over the center (I still had a big opening in the center, so I used another tortilla that I cut to fit).  Carefully put in a hot pan sprayed with cooking spray.  Let it sit for about 2 minutes (or desired doneness) before turning the crunch wrap over.  It'll fall apart if you flip it too soon.  Once flipped, let it cook for another minute or two, or to your liking.

And that's how you make a Crunch Wrap!  And me making this will in no way affect my eating at Taco Bell. I mean, come'on...

Mexican Pizza

I'm a little bummed out after my grocery store trip.  Every customer was given a free raffle ticket for gift cards of different amounts.  Two - three numbers were called over the intercom every 10 minutes.  It normally takes me an hour to shop and it didn't seem like there were many customers, so I figured I had a decent chance.  Nope.  The number after mine and the two numbers before mine were called.  And two lucky sons of guns won a $75 gift card!  As I was going to the register, I even checked the "winner board" to see if I'd been called and just didn't hear.  Nope.  Story of my life....

Anyway, I love pizza.  I'm always looking for different types of pizza.  There's been some misses, but there's been some hits...like this Mexican Pizza from Emily Bites.  I've had mexican pizza before, but never made one.  And it was SOO easy.  The BF loved it.  I was dissapointed I didn't have another pizza crust to make another one.

Mexican Pizza adapted from Emily Bites

1/2 lb ground beef (I used a whole pound and had leftover meat)
1 pkt taco seasoning
pizza crust (I used Freschetta)
1/2 c salsa
3 tbsp taco sauce
canned black beans, rinsed and drained
sliced jalapenos
shredded cheese
chopped green onions

1. Preheat the oven to 450.
2. Cook the ground beef over medium-high heat.  Add taco seasoning and stir to thoroughly combine. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, combine the salsa and taco sauce and stir together. Spread the mixture evenly across the surface of the pizza crust.  Sprinkle black beans across the top of the salsa layer and then follow with the reserved taco meat. Sprinkle the cheese evenly across the top.
4. Place pizza in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove from the oven, slice and sprinkle the green onions over the top.

I also ended up pouring taco sauce on top of the pizza to add more heat.


Open wide! 

Stay classy,

Heidi

A Lazy Sunday...

I wish. 

Fact or Faked is on an April Fool's SyFy marathon all day and as much as I would love to just veg out and geek out, I can't.  I just got back from the grocery store, which is usually an hour ordeal and then not even counting the prep work before the trip (I clip coupons and organize my grocery list).  Then, I promised myself I would run for about an hour (gotta train for that race in October!)  Then, I have to clean our bathroom that's gotten pretty sad lately, at least the toilet and shower.  Then I wanted to go through some of my old tshirts and cut up the gross undershirts and re-purpose them for cleaning rags.  Then, I need to fix dinner for when the BF gets home (Lemon and Dill Baked Salmon w/ Roasted Broccoli!)

Looking back at what I just said, I guess I don't have THAT much to do.  I'll be able to veg out when the BF gets home, but still, I just want to be lazy...

Today is April Fool's Day as well.  A small part of me wanted to send mine and the BF's parents a card saying "Congrats, you're gonna be grandparents!"  :)  But then, karma might bite me in the butt

:(   It would've been funny though...

Yesterday, I made another manly breakfast, well, semi-manly.  Bits of sausage, bacon, ham, green peppers, onions all mixed with scrambled eggs, and topped with...wait for it...warmed sauerkraut.  Since the BF already ate at this point, I had this all to myself.  Served with toast and some french roast coffee, it was a good start to any Saturday (well, it was already afternoon by this point, but I don't fully wake up til about noon anyway).  There were leftovers, so the BF got to experience this breakfast this morning. 

Oh yea, I also made this awesome Chinese Broccoli Beef Noodle Stir Fry from Steamy Kitchen.  I couldn't find Chinese Broccoli, so I ended up using regular broccoli florets, but it still tasted good!

I took a picture, but I didn't realize the shot was blurry until I saw it on the computer.  With that said, I'm using one from the Steamy Kitchen site. 

 Mine DID NOT look like this at all, so maybe it was best that my shot came out blurry...

Chinese Broccoli Beef Noodle Stir Fry
from Steamy Kitchen

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
3 tablespoons Shaoxing wine, sake (rice wine) or dry white wine (I used sweetened Mirin)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon tapioca starch or cornstarch
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1 pound beef sirloin, thinly sliced
1 pound fresh or 10 ounces dried noodles
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 large garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped
1 1/4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 pound Chinese broccoli or regular common broccoli, cut into bite-size chunks or florets
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
-In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 tablespoon each soy sauce, oyster sauce and rice wine. Add the sugar and continue to whisk until completely dissolved. Stir in the cornstarch and continue stirring until smooth. Add the sesame oil and beef, and mix well. Marinate for 20 minutes. Drain and discard the excess marinade.

-Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the noodles until 1 minute shy of done and drain. (We'll finish cooking the noodles at the end)

-Heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil in a skillet or wok over high heat and stir-fry the garlic until fragrant, about 1o seconds. Add the beef and stir-fry until tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

-Add the remaining tablespoon of oil and when hot, add the Chinese broccoli, stir frying so that the oil coats the Chinese broccoli. Pour in the 1/4 cup of the stock, turn the heat to medium-low and cover with a tight fitting lid. Cook the Chinese broccoli until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the Chinese broccoli to the same plate.

-Add the remaining cup of stock and the remaining 2 tablespoons each of soy sauce, oyster sauce, and rice wine to the same skillet and bring to a boil over
high heat.

-Add the noodles and cook until the liquid has almost completely evaporated, leaving the noodles lightly moistened,2 to 3 minutes. Return the beef and broccoli to the skillet and toss to mix the ingredients thoroughly. Season with pepper to taste and serve.

Stay classy,

Heidi

A "Man" Breakfast and Some Mexican For Ya...

I'm so glad it's spring, although the weather lately has been more summerish (we're talking like 80 degrees!)  It's been nice though.  I love my short sleeve tops!  But with spring comes rain, which it has been doing since yesterday.  Not too thrilled with that.  Rain makes me feel kinda blah and I don't want to do anything productive.

Yesterday morning, I made what I called a "man" breakfast.  I had eggs and leftover chili, so what do I do?  Make omelets covered with chili!  It was...different.  It took a couple of bites to get used to, but it was good.  Towards the end, I was starting to get a little sick from all the protein, but like I said, it was still good!

Over the week, I also made an awesome dinner, courtesy of Pinch of Yum's Chicken Tamale Pie recipe (recipe follows).  O.M.G. it was good, and so incredibly easy.  I bought a rotisserie chicken and shredded that for the pie.  The sweet from the corn and the savory from the meat and sauce just went so well together.

I'm going to use the picture from the website since I was too excited to eat this to take a picture.  And hers looked way better than mine anyway.

How amazing does this look!!??

I came home the other day, and saw this.

One of the animals, not sure which one, sure does love sleeping under the covers while we're gone. As you can see there's a perfect little animal tent going on there...

Chicken Tamale Pie from Pinch of Yum
Serves: 8 
Total Time:  45 minutes

Ingredients

1/3 cup fat free milk

1/4 cup egg substitute

1 1/2 tablespoon taco seasoning, divided

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper

1 (14 3/4 ounce) can cream-style corn

1 (8.5 ounce) box corn muffin mix (such as Jiffy)

1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained

1 (10 ounce) can red enchilada sauce

2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast

3/4 cup shredded white cheese

cilantro and crumbled Cotija cheese for topping

Instructions

-Preheat oven to 400°.

-Combine the first 7 ingredients (milk through green chiles), using just 1/2 tablespoon of the taco seasoning, in a large bowl, stirring just until moist. Pour mixture into a round pie plate coated with cooking spray.

-Bake at 400° for 15 minutes. While corn is baking, toss the chicken in the remaining 1 tablespoon taco seasoning. When corn is done, pierce entire surface liberally with a fork. Pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with chicken and sprinkle with cheese.

-Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Cut into pieces and top each serving with cilantro and Cotija cheese.

Stay classy my friends,
Heidi

Sloppy Joe Casserole

I love sloppy joes.  I did a little twist of it earlier this week.  I adapted the recipe from a cookbook that I wish I could remember the name of, so if anyone knows, please tell me so I can give the credit deserved for this awesome recipe.

Sloppy Joe Casserole
Makes 8 servings

*The amounts of each ingredient are a good starting point, but I usually eye ball alot of it and add less or more of each depending on my taste
4 tbsp olive oil
2 chopped onions
2 cloves minced garlic
2 lbs ground beef
1c ketchup + 1c bbq sauce (the original recipe called for 2 cups of ketchup, but I prefer even amounts of both ketchup and bbq sauce)
4 tbsp molasses
1 tbsp chili powder (I had Mexican chile powder on hand)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
*I also added a little bit of brown sugar for a sweeter overall taste.  I normally don't if the BBQ sauce already has it.)
salt and pepper, to taste (which I forgot this time and didn't even notice in the end)
2 handfuls of shredded cheese
1-2 tbsp melted butter
1 pkg premade dinner roll dough (I used a can of Pillsbury Grands!)
sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  In a skillet, heat the oil and saute the onions and garlic.

Add the beef and cook.  Stir in the ketchup, bbq sauce, molasses, chili powder, and Worcestershire sauce.  Season with the salt and pepper.

Simmer for about 15 minutes.  Remove from the stove and transfer to a casserole dish and sprinkle with the cheese.

Separate the dough and place on top of the cheese. Brush the rolls with some melted butter and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.  Bake uncovered until the rolls are golden brown, about 25 minutes.

Besides being incredibly easy, I love how they're not messy like traditional sloppy joes.  Even with just the BF and I, these didn't last long.  They even taste great reheated the next day.

Stay classy my friends,

Heidi