Meat and Potatoes

Cooking my way through The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl, and stumbled upon this delicious recipe for "Comfort Meatballs". In her cookbook, Ree explains she "came across these puppies when a fellow rancher wife brought them over shortly after she had her third child. Nursing mother, mother to be, or just a hungry guy or gal, these meatballs are sure to satisfy!"

Comfort Meatballs
Courtesy of Ree Drummond

Cooking Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
3/4 cup quick oats
3 tablespoons very finely minced onion
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
plenty of ground pepper

4 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup flour

1 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
4 to 6 tablespoons minced onion
dash of tabasco (optional)

Note: I only used 1/2 pound ground beef and cut the remainder of the recipe in half to feed the hubs and myself.

Cooking Directions:

1. In a bowl combine the ground beef, oats, onion, salt, and ground pepper. Stir with a large wooden spoon to combine.

2. Roll the mixture into tablespoon sized meatballs and place on a cookie sheet. Place in the freezer for about ten minutes to firm.

3. After removing from the freezer, dredge each meatball in flour. Brown the meatballs in oil over medium heat, just until brown on either side, then place in a glass baking dish.

4. In a small bowl mix together remaining ingredients and pour over meatballs.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Totally delicious! Serve these alongside mashed potatoes and green beans and your supper is served.

Grilled Tilapia w/Veggie Pasta

Yay for experimenting with food besides chicken! The hubs loves seafood. Me, not so much. In an effort to expand my cooking skills and creativity while pleasing the hubs' palate, I have come to like appreciate tilapia. Recently, I've tried to incorporate it into our meals at least once a week.

Tilapia is a white fish and doesn't have a strong "fishy" taste. That means I don't have to cover its natural taste with a bunch of seasoning. Instead I try to enhance the natural flavor with only a pinch of seasoning.


This week's experiment involved a favorite of mine: pasta! Basically, I just took a bunch of things I found on hand in the kitchen and threw them together hoping for the best. It turned out pretty well, thankfully.

Unfortunately, I don't do a lot of measuring when I'm making up my own recipes so the following measurements are approximate guesses for two servings.


Grilled Tilapia w/Veggie Pasta

Cooking Ingredients:
2 fresh tilapia filets
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon seasoned salt (I prefer Tony's)

2 servings angel hair pasta
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

2 cups frozen vegetables (I prefer a California medley - carrots, brocoli, and cauliflower)

Cooking Directions:
1. Marinate tilapia fillets in soy sauce and seasoned salt for at least 10 minutes. Grill until no longer pink (I love using my George Forman grill, only takes about 4 minutes!).

2. Boil pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

3. Melt butter and sour cream in a medium skillet over medium low heat. Pour in milk and combine until boiling. Add in cheese and stir to melt. Mix in pasta.

4. Microwave vegetables and a tablespoon of water in a glass bowl on high for 5 minutes. Drain and stir into pasta and sauce.

This meal was easy and quick. Two things I love for my recipes to be! There was just enough flavor and variety, plus there was a little pasta left over for lunch the next day, which is always a plus in my book. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Pioneer Woman Macaroni & Cheese

Hello comfort food! Who doesn't love good ol' homemade mac and cheese?! I know this girl could live on it for days. And I'm not talking about the blue box stuff, I mean the good, gooey, made from scratch kind.

Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman, has the perfect recipe to get the job done (visit her site for a fantastic picture step by step).

Macaroni & Cheese
(Courtesy of the Pioneer Woman)

Cooking Ingredients:
4 cups dried macaroni
1 egg
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 pound grated cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt

Cooking Directions:
1. Cook macaroni al dente.

2. Beat egg in a small bowl. Melt butter in a large pot and sprinkle with flour, whisking together over medium-low heat for 5 minutes. Keep whisking continuously to avoid burning.

3. Stir 1/4 butter mixture into egg, whisking to avoid cooking the egg. Add egg mixture into large pot. Stir until smooth.

4. Add in cheese, stir to melt. Add seasonings.

5. Pour in drained macaroni and stir all together. Pour into a large casserole dish and top with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and browning.

I made this for our family 4th of July cook out and it was a major hit! Greedily I was able to bring home just enough left overs for dinner the next night, and the hubs and I made a meal of it!

Kitchen Upgrade

It's hard to believe that the hubs and I have owned our home for coming up on four years. And for the past, oh, let's say three years, we've both wanted to upgrade the kitchen by adding a backsplash. It's hard to fry chicken without a little bit of oil popping out of the pan and landing on the wall behind the stove. Needless to say, the wall space below the cabinets is a bit difficult to keep clean and pretty when it's only painted.

Two months ago while I was in Texas for a friend's wedding, the hubs decided it was time to stop talking and start doing. So all on his own he went to the tile store and picked out and purchased a box of tiles for the kitchen backsplash. (He got lucky, I actually liked his selection). However, that's as far as the project went. That box of tiles sat on the kitchen counter all by their lonesome until July 4th weekend.

I was quite tired of staring at that box of tiles and tired of debating wether we should install them ourselves or have a professional do it. Enter the rain. See, we've had an unusually wet summer down here in Georgia and the week of July 4th was no exception. Rain. every. day. So the hubs and I made a deal, since it was too wet outside for us to do anything fun we would tackle a house project. He had a four day weekend and we had a kitchen to conquer.

Four trips to the tile store, three rounds at two different Home Depots, and six days later we have a freshly upgraded kitchen with a lovely slate tile backsplash! And I'm quite proud to say that we did it all ourselves. Turns out the hubs and I make a pretty decent DIY team (thanks to the assistance of some YouTube videos).

I am beyond thrilled to have this job finished. The kitchen, my favorite room in the house and where I spend about 90% of my waking hours at home, has a whole new feel to it. It just leaves me asking one question: why on earth did we wait so long?!

Here's the before shot. Nice enough, but nothing special.

It took us two days to get the tile on the wall (we didn't start until after 4pm the first day). Then it had to set for 24 hours before we could apply the grout.

There were so many tiny cuts to make around the windowsill and seven outlets and light switches.

The Hubs was a pro at using the wet saw by the time we were finished! Just look at those perfect cuts.

Once the grout was applied we had to wait another 48 hours before applying the sealant.

Once the sealant was applied it was just a short 12 hours before the whole project was finished.

So happy with how it turned out!

Whole Wheat Pancakes (For 2!)

I'm back!

I've been away from the blog for a while because life, well, was life, and things more important took priority over my recipes. But now that things have settled back to normal I'm excited to start mixing things up again.

To start things off I found this delicious pancake recipe on Pinterest. I made them Fourth of July morning (since the Hubs was actually home to eat breakfast with me!) and we gobbled them up before the butter could melt.

I'm trying to cut processed foods out of my cooking as much as possible and I've fallen back in love with anything whole wheat (I've already made whole wheat chocolate chip cookies and banana bread!). So naturally when I came across whole wheat pancakes I was in! Here's the recipe from Pinch of Yum.

Whole Wheat Pancakes

Ingredients:
1 egg
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cups buttermilk
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder (I didn't have any on hand so I substituted 1 teaspoon baking soda)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons water

Cooking Directions:
1. Whisk together egg and brown sugar until smooth. Add in the oil, vanilla and buttermilk and whisk for another 15 seconds until combined.

2. Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt and stir just until combined. Add in the water until your batter is slightly runny.

3. Depending on the size you want your pancakes to be, pour approximately 1/4 cup of batter onto a hot griddle/pan over medium to low heat. Let sit until the edges are firm to the touch, then flip until each side is a nice golden brown.

4. Remove from pan, top with butter (and maybe a little maple syrup) and enjoy!

(Photo Credit: Pinch of Yum)