Who is Hannah you ask? She is the adorable and hilarious sister of that duo that rocked it out on Biggest Loser, season 11.  I was sad to see that season end.

This recipe is SO good….and healthy. Kid friendly too. My kids loved it.

INGREDIENTS

Olive Oil Spray

1/2 cup minced onion

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1lb extra lean ground turkey

salt to taste

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 cup tomato sauce

1 can chicken broth

1 Tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

2 large sweet red bell peppers

1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

INSTRUCTIONS

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly coat a large nonstick skillet with olive oil cooking spray; heat over medium heat. Add onion and garlic to the pan. Saute about 2 minutes, or until softened. Add turkey and season to taste with salt. Add garlic powder. Break meat apart and cook over medium heat for about 10-12 minutes until meat is thoroughly cooked. Add 1/4 cup tomato sauce and 1/2 cup chicken broth. Reduce heat and simmer over low for about 5 minutes. Add fresh cilantro or parsley to the turkey mixture ( I use cilantro).

Cut bell peppers in half lengthwise and remove seeds and stem. Put in baking dish and spoon the turkey mixture into each pepper half. Place all stuffed peppers into a casserole baking dish and pour the rest of the chicken broth in the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle with a little cilantro, if you like, to make look pretty!

(I did not because my kids don’t “like eating bushes”)

Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes. When done, sprinkle with cheese before serving.

oh yum!

Thank you Hannah!

This recipe is one of my all time favorites growing up.

My girls are following in my footsteps. They ADORE this meal.

My mom gave me a box full of recipes that she wrote down for me on good ‘ol recipe cards. I love technology, but I can not give up my recipe box. I still file recipes all old school like. I am not changing. I will give my daughters recipe boxes when they go out on their own too.

BEEF & PEA PODS

Beef

Snow Peas

Marinade (recipe below)

oil

Cut beef into thin strips and marinate for at least 3o minutes in fridge (can be left all day).

Marinade

4 T soy sauce

2 t sugar

1/2 t ginger

4 t cooking Sherry

I like to marinate in gallon ziplock bags. After putting the marinade and meat into the bag, squeeze all the air out and roll the bag up. This way all the meat soaks in the juices.

While the meat is doin’ its thing, clean pea pods and cut the ends off. Steam for about 4 minutes and set aside.

Drain meat from the marinade (save marinade). Brown meat for a few minutes in 1-2 T oil.

Stir in pea pods and remaining marinade and simmer until cooked through.

CRISPY NOODLES

1 package of Noodles

(in the Chinese food section of your grocery store. Mine is located in the produce department. They are refrigerated.)

Follow directions on package to boil for about 3 minutes.

Drain.

Make sure your frying pan is nice and hot and add a generous amount of Crisco. I know Crisco is gross, but it is necessary to keep the noodles from sticking and turn them awesomely crunchy.

You can fry one side of the noodles until golden brown and then turn the whole thing over to fry the other side.

When finished it becomes like a giant pancake. Cut into triangles and serve.

If you fail on the flipping portion, never fear. Serve them kind of chunked up as shown below.

It just looks like you meant to do that.

The outside layer of the noodles become crispy while the inside stays soft like regular pasta.

There is nothin’ like it!

YUM YUM!

Don’t judge this recipe on my food photography skills. Photographing food seems easy. It doesn’t blink and it doesn’t move, right?

Try this! You will thank me!

Happy Thursday!

I received a wonderful spaghetti sauce recipe the other day from Ashley. My helper has always called this Some~ghetti and I have a warrant out for an arrest if anyone dares to correct her. It is one piece of baby~ness that still makes me smile and I will hold onto it for as long as possible. Consider yourself warned.

I appreciate this recipe because it is just a super good, basic, flavorful, red meat sauce. It makes a WHOLE bunch and so I thought I would make individual servings to use for lunches and dinners. I bought 4 sets of 5 each, Up and Up Target brand tupperware containers. It cost me 7.96 for all of them. If you already have the spices in this recipe and just purchase the meat, tomato sauce, and 3 boxes of spaghetti noodles. You can make all of this for just under $20.

One batch of this sauce made me 20 frozen meals of one cup of spaghetti and sauce. Plus 5 more servings for our dinner tonight. So the moral of my story is that depending on how much sauce you like, you end up with 25 cups of spaghetti! Thats just .80 cents a cup. I mix up the sauce and noodles and scooped one cup in each container. I just take out of the freezer, pop the lid off, and microwave for 3 min on high to defrost and I have yumminess for just 7 weight watchers points and no nasty frozen meals. It may not be the most appealing to eat out of tupperware, but with a newborn and 3 kids to homeschool, I’m all about function right now.

Here is the recipe…

3 lbs ground meat

1 Tbs oregano

2 tsp garlic powder

1 Tbs salt

2 Tbs Worchestershire sauce

1 tsp black pepper

1 Tbs basil

3 Bay leaves

1/3 cup minced onion

6 15 oz cans of tomato sauce

10 drops Tabasco sauce (does not make spicy, just gives it a slight zing)

Brown meat, drain well. Stir in spices. Add Tomato sauce. Simmer a min of 30 min. Remove Bay leaves.

3 small boxes of spaghetti noodles, cooked

Mix it all up and…

Voila. 25 cups of yummy.

Enjoy!

I recently stumbled across what I will call the world’s best dessert over at A Whisk and a Prayer. I have served it twice and by the reactions I have received at both occasions and from my family, I say I am not alone in my feelings.

Do yourself a favor, go to the store NOW, and get the ingredients to make this super easy yummy dessert!

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups brown sugar/ plus some additional for the sprinkles on top

1/2 cup sugar

8 Tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 cups old fashioned oats

3/4 cup raisins

2 package Candiquick White Chocolate (or any quality melting chocolate). Target carries Candiquick in the baking aisle.

Mix all ingredients except raisins in mixing bowl. Place in freezer for 30 minutes. Remove from freezer and add raisins. I mixed them in with my hands.

Once mixed, make about 1 inch ball shapes and put back in freezer, to avoid getting to soft while you prepare the chocolate.

Follow package directions to melt Candiquick. Once melted dip the dough one at a time until covered. I place in tray and coat with a spoon. Once coated I pull out with tongs. I initially tried about 6 at a time, but found that they got too soft and lost shape from the hot chocolate. One at a time works best.

Place on parchment lined baking sheet. If necessary drizzle some chocolate on top to make sure all the sides are covered. You can coat about 3-4 and then sprinkle with sugar. Just be careful the chocolate doesn’t harden first.

Continue until complete and put into fridge.

Once hardened they are ready to serve. With Candiquick it takes about 30 minutes in the fridge to be ready.

Makes about 30 truffles.

There likely won’t be left overs, but if there are…store in refrigerator.

YUM!

Another family favorite, quick and easy recipe.
Today I made in the crock pot instead of on the stove.

1 lb lean turkey
8 oz can black beans
Lawrys chili powder package
8 oz corn
1/2 cup diced tomatoes
8 oz can chilli
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup dice onion

Cook turkey and onions and then add remaining ingredients. Heat thoroughly and serve.

Enjoy!