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Tuesday night I made my Twangy Meatloaf for dinner. It is one of the family’s favorite meals, and it’s not all that expensive to prepare. I make my meatloaf a little different than most people do, as you can tell in the picture. I cook my meatloaf in muffin tins. This helps with portion control and it also cooks faster than a whole loaf does. I always make more meatloaf than we need for one meal, because we all love the leftovers. I call it twangy because the worcestershire sauce mixed with the ketchup has a twang to it. I could have made half of this recipe and had enough for one meal for our family of 7. I also made the family favorite sides mashed potatoes, and honey glazed carrots.

Twangy Meatloaf
2 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup of oatmeal
1 Tablespoon onion flakes
2 eggs, beaten
3 cups of ketchup
8 teaspoons worcestershire sauce

Combine turkey, oatmeal, onion flakes, and eggs in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine ketchup and worcestershire sauce. Add half of the ketchup mixture to the meat mixture, and combine. Spray muffing tins with non-stick spray of your choice. Fill each cup leaving a little room at the top, with my tins i got 18 meatloaf muffins. Put 1 Tablespoon of ketchup on each meatloaf and spread over the top. Bake at 375. I cooked mine for about 15 minutes, but cooking times will vary based on the size of your tins. If you wanted to be really creative you could put the meat in a mini-muffin tin and make bite size meatloaf, which little ones might really like. You will have between 1/2 cup and 3/4 cup of the ketchup mixture left. I use this mixed with 2 cups of water when I make my gravy.

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

10 medium sized potatoes, peeled & diced
1 8oz package of cream cheese, diced
1 stick of butter
1/4 cup of half and half
salt & pepper to taste

After your potatoes are peeled and diced, place them in a pot, add 1/2 tablespoon of salt, and cover with water. Boil until fork tender. While they are cooking dice your cream cheese and slice your butter; placing them in the bottom of your bowl. After potatoes are cooked, drain and place in bowl on cream cheese and butter. Add half and half, salt & pepper. I always start out with a little salt & pepper, tasting as I mix ; adding more as needed. Beat with a hand mixer until potatoes are creamed.

Honey Glazed Carrots

1 lb carrots, peeled & sliced
1/4 cup honey
1 stick of butter

Steam carrots, and drain. While carrots are draining melt butter in bottom of pan. Add carrots to butter, stirring lightly to coat. Add honey and heat until warm. This is a very quick and easy side dish.

This is one of our family favorite casseroles, but for some unknown reason I don’t make it that often.  I’m trying to look at cooking as frugally as possible, and this is a dish that falls into that category.  Tonight I’m serving this with garlic cheddar biscuits, and a salad.  The use of chicken noodle soup may seem rather unconventional, but it’s mighty tasty.  I hope you will try it with your family, and if you do, I’d love to hear what they thought of it.

Creamy Sausage Casserole

1 pound bulk turkey breakfast sausage

2 cans (10.5oz) chicken noodle soup

2 cans (10.5oz) cream of chicken soup

2 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, grated

8 cups cooked rice

Brown sausage in skillet.  Mix rice, soups, & 1 cup of cheese together.  When sausage is cooked, combine with rice/soup mixture, and spread in 9 x 13 baking dish. Heat at 325 until cheese melts and contents are bubbly.

Cheddar Garlic Biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour

3 teaspoons garlic powder, divided

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup margarine

3/4 cup cheddar cheese

1 cup buttermilk

3 Tablespoons butter, melted

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, & 2 teaspoons of garlic powder.  Cut in margarine then add cheese and buttermilk, and stir in until moistened.  Drop by heaping tablespoons about 1 in apart on a greased cookie sheet and bake at  450 degrees for 10 minutes.  Melt butter and mix in remaining teaspoon of garlic powder.  After removing biscuits from oven, brush butter mixture over biscuits.  You can bake biscuits for 3 or 4 additional minutes, or you can serve.  Makes about 1 dozen biscuits.

I love baking soda!  I buy boxes and boxes of the stuff.  I have found tons of uses for it, and it makes my life so much easier.  At times I wonder what I ever did before I found it.  One of my favorite uses for it is when cleaning the stove.  If you have greasy stubborn spots on the top, just dampen, add a little baking soda and wait about 5 minutes.  The baking soda will absorb the grease, and the grittiness of it will help scrub the stain away.  The best part is when dealing with those gross drip pans.  You know the ones that get food permanently adhered to them? Well, if you just fill your sink with hot soapy water and add about 3 tablespoons of baking soda and the drip pans.  Then you wait for about 10 minutes.  Amazingly when you pick up the drip pans, almost all of the dirt will be removed, and what isn’t easily comes off.  You almost feel like you are cheating when you do this because its so easy.

If you want some other great ideas, just drop by Rocks in My Dryer

Every Tuesday Tammy hosts Kitchen Tip Tuesday. This week she is talking about her pantry and food storage. Since I don’t have Photoshop re-installed on my computer yet I am going to use photos I’ve already uploaded before. Today Tammy linked to a post she did in the past about using jars for storage, which I also do. We live in a mobile home, so my kitchen is rather small. I wanted to be able to store food, but do so in an attractive way, since it is out in the open. I hope that what I have done, will spark some ideas about how to organize your kitchen. In January I did a post on my small kitchen, if you would like the full tour, feel free to stop by that post.

This is the top of my refrigerator. The beans are actually stored in juice decanters that I found at Wal-Mart. Lindsay and I were looking for unusual jars, and saw these. They are great for the beans and have an airtight seal.

This is the pantry that Gene built me. In the jars on the top shelf I have egg noodles, oatmeal, instant potatoes, brown sugar, & pancake mix all stored in cracker jars. I also have a few items stored behind the jars such as extra boxes of powdered milk. On the lower shelves you will see jars with powdered sugar, & cornmeal.

These jars hold my unbleached flour, prairie gold flour, sugar, and two of them hold cereal. I love these jars because of the wide mouths and the ease of use when baking. I was forever spilling sugar, and flour all over the place when trying to get it out of jars with smaller openings. The small openings also caused me to have to use a very small cup to scoop, which made it take much longer to measure out the big batches I make.

This is a shot of the whole pantry. A lot of people wouldn’t like it because it’s open, but I have found it helps me to keep things more organized. I considered hanging curtains on it, but felt they would be always getting in the way. I don’t mind the kitchen looking like a work center, because that’s what it is. I have come to realize that my kitchen is many things. It is the heart of our home, a place we work together, play together, laugh, joke and sometimes cry. It is a place where memories are made. While I want it to be practical and functional, I also want it to look welcoming and cozy.

Well, I’m off to organize my kitchen cabinets.  I am going to be doing so de-cluttering  and re-organizing of my cabinets this week.

I am getting my menu posted a little late, but hey, I have a good excuse. We had company for dinner tonight and on top of that some of the girls have been sick with a stomach bug and allergies.  That caused my day to be quite busy, with no time for the computer.

I will try to come back during the week and add links to recipes that I have planned for the week.  I can’t wait to see what’s everyone’s planned and if you want to get in on the fun, drop by Laura’s blog.

Monday:
Brisket, Gold mashed potatoes, gravy, corn off the cob, honey glazed carrots & yeast rolls

Tuesday:
Meatloaf, leftover vegetables, macaroni & cheese

Wednesday:
Red beans & rice, cornbread & salad

Thursday:
Cajun injected chicken, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, butter beans

Friday:
Lentil soup with leftovers, & homemade bread

Saturday:
Sausage rice & cheese casserole, salad & homemade bread

Sunday:
Pasta casserole with pepperoni

The other day the girls and I happened to tune into Rachel Ray’s talk show. We were able to see some neat animals, and then the cooking segment. In her cooking segment Rachel cooked Philly Cheese Steak Sloppy Joes. I made a modified version, going from memory. This is the how I made them, which is very close to her version.

You will need:

2 lbs ground meat (I used very lean turkey)

1 onion, chopped

salt

pepper

2 Tbs. Better Than Bullion*

2 cups water*

Steak Sauce

4 Tbsp. butter

4 Tbsp. flour

2 cups milk

8 oz Provolone cheese

hamburger buns

*You may use 2 cups of beef broth for these two ingredients*

Brown ground meat with onions, and drain any fat. Sprinkle ground meat mixture with a little salt and a few grinds of pepper.

Warm the water and with Better Than Bullion and mix well, and add it to the meat mixture.

Pour on steak sauce, adding a little at a time until it smells right. I used maybe 1/4 of a large bottle. Allow the meat mixture to simmer, uncovered, so that the liquid will evaporate.

While the meat is simmering you can make your cheese sauce. Melt your butter over med. heat; once it has melted add your flour. This will make a roux, which you only want to cook for a couple of minutes. Add your milk and mix.

Once you milk begins to bubble add your cheese. I could only find sliced provolone, so I stacked the slices and sliced them into strips, cutting them again to make them smaller and easier to melt.

Continue stirring until you cheese melts.

Put meat mixture on bun and top with cheese sauce… then enjoy! From this recipe you will get at least 12 sandwiches on the smaller buns.

I am finally getting back in the swing of things since the trip and have been cooking some. Tuesday night I got my Mother’s Day present early (we’re not much for waiting for the actual day around here). Here is what they gave me:

Ain’t she a beaut!! I was so excited! I have been wanting some enameled cast iron, but didn’t know they had any this nice. You can read about it at the Lodge site. I couldn’t wait to use it, so last night I roasted a whole chicken in it with vegetables. Tonight I was really glad I had it as well as I needed it because I was cooking so many side dishes. My menu tonight was:

Apricot Glazed Pork Chops

1 large Family Pack of Pork Chops
8 T. apricot preserves
2 T. water
Tony’s , salt & pepper to taste

This was such an easy dish; I seasoned my meat with a little Tony’s on each side (after tasting I think they needed a little more Tony’s and some salt and pepper). I then mixed the preserves and water and spread it on the pork chops. I baked them at 350 until they reached 160 degrees (which took about 30 min).

Steamed Cajun Cabbage

1 large head of Cabbage
1 stick of butter sliced
1 tsp. Tony’s
1 tsp. salt
a few grinds from the pepper mill
about 1 1/2 inches of water in the bottom of the pan

I steam my cabbage on med heat for about 45 min, watching the water level to make sure it doesn’t cook out. If I cook it more slowly the cabbage sort of melts, which is the way I love it.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

5 Sweet Potatoes, peeled & sliced
1 Stick of Butter
1/4 cup of half & half
Cinnamon
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
Dash of Cloves
Dash of Nutmeg
Dash of Allspice

Steam the sliced potatoes in a pot with 1 1/2 inches of water in the bottom. I use a simple metal steamer for this. After the potatoes are finished move them to a bowl and add the other ingredients. Use a hand mixer to cream the potatoes. For the spices I go by smell, so unfortunately I don’t have exact measurements. You can serve these as they are, or you can put them in a 9 x 13 pan with marshmallows on top and brown it in the oven.

Steamed Cauliflower
1 head of Cauliflower, cut into chunks
1/2 tsp Tony’s
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Chop cauliflower and put in a pan with about 1 1/2 inches of water. Sprinkle Tony’s and salt on the cauliflower cover and steam until tender. Take out of pan and put in a serving dish, straining out the water as you do this. Sprinkle in cheese and toss.

Butter Beans
1 bag frozen butter beans
1 smoked turkey neck
1 tsp. Tony’s
1/2 tsp salt
a few grinds of pepper from a mill
water to cover beans

Cook beans over med. heat for about 45 min, or until beans are tender. I buy smoked turkey necks on hand just for beans. I usually buy a pack with 6 or so in it, and then wrap them individually in plastic wrap and then put them all in a ziploc bag. I keep them in the freezer and take one out as I need it.

I have been buying a lot of strawberries lately, going to whichever store that has them for $.99 a pound. We have had strawberry shortcake, strawberries with ice cream and one of our favorites is warm brownies with strawberries, ice cream, cool whip, and chocolate sauce on top. Tonight we didn’t have any of the things we have been eating our berries with, so we decided to try something new. Caroline made Tea Cakes and we had them with strawberries, whipped cream and melted chocolate chips. Talk about good!

Tea Cakes

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1 T. milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs, milk, vanilla and mix. Then add in dry ingredients. Roll into balls (using flour on hands if needed), and pat down to 1/2 in thickness and lightly sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 325 for about 10 minutes. Yield: about 2 dozen

I hope you have a good week, and hopefully I will be posting more in the near future.

For an update on Gene’s dad check out my post on My Simple life.

Gene’s dad had a small heart attack tonight. When they did a heart cath they found that he has several blocked arteries and will undergo bypass surgery either Tues or Wed. Sorry I don’t have more time to write; we are preparing to leave tomorrow after lunch. Gene has to go into the office for a bit to finish up something before we head out. I will try to update over the next few days from my parents house.

Kroger had some great sales this week, and I was able to do a great deal of stocking up. I have some meat in the freezer that I’m trying to use up which allowed me to save some money in that area. Over the last week I have been building up my supply of coupons, and created a system for organizing them. This system is working well for me; making it so that I can use them more effectively.

Sunday: Lunch for church: Chicken & Sausage Gumbo over rice, salad, French bread, and bread pudding

Monday: Organic Chicken, broccoli & cheese, honey glazed carrots, mashed red potatoes, and biscuits

Tuesday: Shepherd’s Pie

Wednesday: Gumbo over rice, salad & bread

Thursday: Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya

Friday: Chicken Quesadillas

Saturday: Vegetarian Red Beans & Rice with cornbread

For more menu ideas drop over to Laura’s to get some great ideas.