Love Sheet-Pan Meals

Hi there everyone. Hoping all is well by you. Hard to believe it is June already. these last 5 months have been like a nightmare and we have not woken up yet....wish it were over and things were back to normal. 

Well to keep myself occupied and entertained during the quarentine, I was trying different recipes, looking through old cookbooks and old magazines. JP was not complaining in that area.....as he likes to eat food, hot or cold, he ain't fussy in that department. 

Anyways, this recipe below "Petite Meatloaf Dinner" was from an old magazine "Cooking Light" from October 2018. I am amazed at all the magazines I had stashed away. Saw this recipe the other day and decided to make it. The recipe called for carrots and beans. I had no beans so improvised with what I did have. Brocoli, potatos, carrots and radishes, tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper, garlic powder and spread out on a sheet pan.

Sorry for my shadow....this is before the meat and vegies were cooked. The recipe for the meat loaves were pretty easy.
1 lb. lean ground turkey (I used ground beef)
1/3 cup quick-cooking oats
6 Tbsp. unsalted ketchup, divided(3 Tbsp. for meat, 3 for sauce)
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 large egg
1 tsp. dried marjoram
1 tsp. kosher salt, divided, (1/2 for vegies, 1/2 for meat)
2 tsp. low-sodium Worcestershire sauce
12 oz. fresh green beans, trimmed
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

Again, sorry for my shadow....this is after the meat and vegies were cooked. So preheat the oven 450 degrees. Combine the turkey, oats, 3 tablespoons ketchup, onion, egg, marjoram, and 1/2 tsp salt in a medium bowl. Mix and divide into 4 (4x2 1/2") loaves. Place evenly spaced, on pan. Combine Worcestershire sauce and remaining 3 tablespoons ketchup in a small bowl and brush over loaves. Spread the vegies around the loaves and bake 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Turn vegies and continue to bake until loaves are no longer pink in the center. 12-15 more minutes.

I have to say....this was really good. And while I was making the meatloaf dinner, I was making this french bread to go along with the sheet pan dinner. 

Nothing like warm bread with your meal. These two loaves lasted maybe 2 1/2 days. During quarentine I was making lots of sourdough bread, that was fun....this is just a regular loaf, only thing different was that when I baked the bread, the directions said to put a pan of water under the bread, not exactly sure what that accomplished, but maybe I will try that technique again with a regular loaf. The only thing I can figure is that the bread browned on top better and was more crusty, which I like.

Well time to close, tis getting late and I need to finish this post. you all have a great day and keep looking up....thinking there will be better days ahead. Cheers ~ Louise

Hospice Valentine Cards

Hi there everyone. How are you all doing this fine day. I am finally getting it together in January, and it is almost over!! Wouldn't you know it, just a little slow here.

We finally finished the cookbook and submitted it to Fundcraft on Tuesday the 28th with 275 recipes in all. It's going to be a nice cook book with many good recipes. Mary decided to sell the book for $20 which would mean after paying the expenses of making the books, she could possibly make 4k that would go towards the scholarship fund for Josh. She ordered 300 books, I have a feeling they will all sell. Josh knew a lot of people as do Mary and Ron. There is also going to be 2 other fundraisers this year along with the cookbook. So, the cookbooks could be sold at those fundraisers also.

Finished making the Hospice Valentine cards Wednesday night. Whew. Just 50 cards this time around. A lot of the cards were cards I had hanging around and all they needed were the Hospice inserts or a verse or even to cut the face of the card off and put it on a piece of new card stock. The card below, Happy Valentine's Day with Hearts, speckles and gems. (the card on the left) is a recycled card, cut down to fit the card stock.

Now these cards below...made 10 of these. Fun, fun, fun. Not sure why I wait to the last moment to finish things....but this time it was the cook book that took prominence....needed to get that done. So now I can say....Cook book done (check) Hospice cards done (check) now I have to work on our taxes which are due at the accountants office February 25th. Yikes!!! This is NOT one of my favorite jobs. Going through all the papers and bills etc. for 2019. Well, I do like to organize, so maybe that is a plus.

I still have some of my Christmas stuff up yet....I like the lights...guess maybe this weekend the tree and village will come down. After all, Valentine's day is right around the corner.

The Chicago Blackhawks....they have been on a by-week this past week. First game is February 1st...it's been a dry spell, a lot of Hockey fans have been having withdrawls...lol!!! They were riding on a 5 game winning streak, so hoping they come back still RED-HOT and on fire and headed for the play offs and the Stanley Cup.

Well, I think it is time to close here.....getting late and I have to get up at 7am to be at the Hospice meeting by 9:00am. We meet at Panara's Bread Co. Coffee is usually good there. We pass around the cards so the other ladies can see the cards made by the others. Always fun to see other ladies ideas.

Hope your January was awesome and February will be better then awesome...if there is such a thing like that. Keep looking up cause better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Blue Apron Meal #2 - Summer Soba Salad

Hi there everyone. How is your day going. It's been warm here and our window air conditioner in the kitchen konked out....sucks!!! So needless to say, it has been warm in the kitchen when I cook.

Just to let you know.....card making has not been a priority on my list of late....that's why you have not seen any cards. My only excuses are:
#1- no inspiration,
#2- hard to see, (as I am now going through cataract surgeries)
#3-still disorganized from home improvements that were made in May. I look at the mess in the basement and just don't know where to start organizing first.
#4-summer has been the priority with planting, watering and enjoying the season.
#5-just not feeling up to par the past couple of months.

So much for my tail of woes. In the next few pictures is the food I received from Blue Apron last Thursday to make this tasty meal Monday evening. Here is the site for Blue Apron.

Summer Soba Salad with Corn and Soy-Mirin Dressing

Here are all the vegies prepped and ready, one thing not prepped was the ginger....did that after I took the picture. The ginger was added to the corn....just may do that again....now's the time with corn being so fresh. The ginger gave it that extra spicy zing!!!

So in the below picture is the finished product....oh yes......this was delicious, I most definitely will make this again. When you order  your food, you can order for two people or four. Even for two people this was more then enough for the two of us.

If you go on the Blue Apron site, go to their "cookbook" and type in "Summer Soba Salad",  you can get the recipe there if you are interested in making this tasty salad. Tomorrow, my new order comes. I will take pictures.

I told JP this afternoon...."you sure have been eating well this week"....there has been plenty of left-overs for his lunch before leaving for work.

Tomorrow, I will post the 3rd meal, "Vietnamese Chicken Wings with Salad and Rice". Another winner in my books.

Have a good evening and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

Microwaved Potato Chips MMMMM Good!!!

I haven't added a recipe on my blog for a long time, so here is one I just tried tonight. I have no idea how many points it has for you Weight Watchers, calorie wise, there are 198 calories per serving and 220 mg. sodium, oh.....but they sure are good!!

I got the recipe for Jacques Pepin's cookbook "Simple and Healthy Cooking" on page 66, I shall attempt to type out all that Jacques said on this recipe.............here it goes.

Microwave Potato Chips with Salsa Cruda ~ yield: 6 servings

It is amazing how potato slices dry and brown in the microwave oven without the addition of any fat or salt. It is important to cut the potatoes into very thin slices in a food processor fitted with a slicer disc attachment or with a hand-held potato slicer. The only drawback to this recipe is that you can cook just 10-15 potato slices at a time (depending on your microwave's size).

To make larger batches of chips, lightly coat a large jelly-roll pan or cookie sheet with vegetable cooking spray. Arrange the slices in a single layer, without overlapping, and spray the surface of the slices. Bake the slices at 400 degrees for 16-18 minutes, watching closely and removing slices as they become brown and crisp.

3 large potatoes (about 2 1/4 pounds), peeled
3 cups Salsa Cruda
(another recipe he has in his cookbook....for now, just open a jar of Salsa. I did not use salsa with my chips tonight and they were just fine the way they were. I did add some pop corn salt and spices).

Using either a slicing disc fitted on a food processor or a conventional potato slicer, cut the potatoes into 1/16" slices. Wash the slices in a large bowl of cool water and dry them thoroughly with paper towels.

Arrange some of the potatoes in 1 layer on a waffled microwave tray and microwave on high heat for 5 minutes, or until crisp. Remove. Repeat until the remaining potato slices are cooked. Serve with Salsa Cruda. (or your special jar of Salsa)

So there you have it, chips whenever you want them. I don't usually keep chips in the house, cause I can polish off a whole bag by myself..........(Chips are my temptation). Sometimes I have a taste for chips...........now I can make them and they taste really good!!!

Well, it is getting late so I shall close this blog for tonight. Keep looking up for your redemption draweth nigh!!!
Cheers ~ Louise

HERE'S MY COOKBOOK~~~~YAY!

Here it is .................pretty cool huh? Was thumbing through it and found a neat cabbage recipe, have not tried it yet but when I do, will certainly report on it. So here is the first recipe from my new cookbook:

1 cup cabbage, 1 tablespoon parsley, 1 package diet sweetner (I will use splenda), 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 1 package IAW chicken or IAW beef soup (you can use boullion cubes), Caraway seed to taste.
In a small sauce pan combine all ingredients: cook over medium heat until cabbage is tender. (Approximatley 10-15 minutes) Serves 1 person 92 calories, 6 gram carbohydrates, 0gm of fat, 17 gms protein. Note: The cooked cabbage was very good, I would cut down on the splenda and not so much pepper......totally forgot the parsley. I better try it again, as we have alot of parsley growing and I still have some cabbage in the refrig.

Bad news for the day, the husband just got home from his trip to Green Bay. The car broke down.....alternator problems he thinks, plus the bearings are going out. Sometimes I hate old cars cause they just drain you of all your money. We still have a big bill at the service station where we have our cars fixed. Both of them are old, mine is a '96 and husbands is a '94. I wish we had the money to invest in a new car but that is just not in the budget. Oh well, "se' la vie'" what will be, will be.

Getting kind of nervous about these swine flu shots that just may become mandatory to take. Have you been keeping up with all the different ingredients that are included in this vaccine? I have a deep concern as to why they are forcing this on us and want to pump all these poisons into our systems.............hummmmm.........I wonder if the president and his family and "all the kings men" will have to take the swine flu vaccine or is it just "US SUB HUMANS" Sorry, I have been reading alot of stuff lately that makes me wonder. Just how really free are we????????? Go to http://www.freedomfighterradio.net/ for the ingredients for the Swine flu.

I am going to close this blog for now and find that website you can go to that actually has all the ingredients in the swine flu vaccine...............you will be shocked!!!! To say the least.
Louise

♥I WON♥I WON♥

YES, YES...........I won a cookbook from "Inches A Weigh" YAY!!!!!!! I am so excited!!! Here's how it happened. I had been wanting to get the cookbook, which costs $25......one of the counelors said, "Louise why don't you wait and see if you can win the cookbook as there is a contest starting, and one of the prizes is the cookbook?" I thought..........oh, so long to have to wait........but waited, I did.

The contest consisted of a baseball diamond and every pound you lost, took you to either 1st base, 2nd base or 3rd base, or 4 lbs gave you a home run!!!!! I only managed to get around all 4 bases ONCE.........never quite getting around again. Sooooo, that meant I only had 1 entry in the box. Yesterday was the big day and names were picked and, and, and, TA DAAAAAAA.......I won the cookbook!!!!!!!

Well, now I should have some fun making new recipes for JP and I with the Inches A Weigh cookbook. Next post, I will show you what my new prize looks like and perhaps I will give you a tried and true recipe...........I will be like Julie, who tried all of Julia Child's recipes in her french cookbook.................I will try all the recipes in the Inches A Weigh cookbook and give you a full report.....lol!!!!

Talk to you later, have to get ready to go collect my prize~Louise

♥♥♥Beautiful Day Today♥♥♥

I love this time of the year......and to make it even better the weather is gorgeous today..........almost heavenly!!! But alas I have to get ready to do a few jobs today, going out and about in the traffic...........sometimes I like to just stay home, can find lots to do and then there is always going into my little studio to make a few cards, which is what I did last night..........here's a picture. This was a "unique technique" using alcohol inks on one side of a piece of vellum then stamped the image of a lighthouse on the other side of the vellum, embossed with black and gold embossing powder. Layered vellum on white cardstock and punched two holes on the side and ran ribbon through the picture. Again layering on black cardstock then on the card, embellishing with gold stickers. Turned out really nice, although it is hard to see in this picture. I want to make some more cards like this, but I need to fine thicker vellum for this project, thin vellum does not work well. Curls up.

I found this wonderful cookbook at Savers (a second hand store)the other day....Graham Kerr~The Galloping Gourmet~1970 vintage cookbook for 99cents. Has some wonderful recipes in it. There were a couple I thought I might try.........like maybe the Beef Stroganov, London Broil and Mushroom Salad sounded good some of the other recipes were very complicated. But then guess that would be the fun of making it.

Did you get a chance to see "Julia and Julie" do go, it was really fun to watch. Heard yesterday that Julia Child's cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" is the #1 best seller because of the movie. Alas, I am on a waiting list at the library to get her cookbook. Julia cooked with alot of Butter and Cream........yikes........lots of calories for sure. I would like to try her beef stew........of course that was not the "French" word for it...........on this tv program they said they figured one serving of this wonderful, succulent stew had 993 calories in ONE serving. Now I don't know if that was a cup or two cups or what.......but Julia used real bacon chunks, butter, cream and of course meat and vegies AND MUSHROOMS!!!!! I love mushrooms, and they are good for you too!!!

Well, I think I better close this blog for today, need to get ready for work, only have two jobs today, but they are in opposite directions. Dollar General in Kaukauna is a round trip of 16 miles, so I will be gone most of the day, if I get ready now, and get out of the house by 1:30, I could be home by 6:00pm or so.

Well, you have a great day and keep looking up!!!

Louise