Life is too short to cook for you people

Here is another Bottolfini staple. This means it's easy and delicious.

Taco Salad. Yum-o as that pest on Food TV would say.

So here's what you're gonna do to wow your family this week.

Brown 1# of ground beef or turkey in a skillet. Drain off the grease and return the pan to the range. Add to the cooked meat 2 cans of chili beans and 1 jar (I think it's about 12 ounces) of salsa. Simmer it for about 15 minutes. It should look like this:



Return the pan to the stove and add one bag or half head of shredded lettuce, one bag or about 2 cups of shredded cheese, and a small can of sliced black olives. Mix it all together.

I know it sounds gross but the best ideas always do, right?





Serve over Fritos. I like Chili Cheese Fritos but you can use plain if you want. Or maybe Tostitos.



It should look something like this - cell phone optional.

Yum right? I added jalapenos after I took the picture but I didn't want to scare you.

Enjoy!

Fast Bulbs & Gravy

Yesterday afternoon while I was preparing one of my husband's favorite meals for the fifty millionth time I started to wonder why some people refuse to share their recipes.

I've never shared this recipe but mostly out of shame. My grandmother on my father's side insists that there is "no such thing as good Italian food fast" and I'm afraid that she just might be a little bit incorrect about this meal. Therefore, I declare that this meal is NOT Italian, just good. (Or maybe it's not the 19th century anymore and things are made a little faster.)

Either way, I'm NOT saying Grandma D is wrong. No way. No how.

This is also not Grandma D's recipe, it's mom's. So Grandma would probably have a complaint about that too.

Anyway, on to the recipe. I might warn you that I DO NOT measure but I'm a fairly good guesstimator, if I do say so myself.

BULBS

• 1.5 # of Ground Turkey or Beef


• 1 tube of Ritz crackers


• 3 eggs


• 2 TBSP Chili Powder


• 2 TBSP Flour


• 1 Onion


• 1 Green Pepper


• 3 Cloves Garlic
  
• Salt


• Pepper
  

SAUCE (Oh yah, you're making the gravy too)

• Can Of Tomato Juice (Big Can)


• 290z of Tomato Puree
  

Get out a stock pot and pour in the Tomato Juice and Tomato Puree. Bring to a boil for about 15 minutes.

In a separate boil mix together all of the other Bulb ingredients and add to the sauce in even balls after the sauce has boiled 15 minutes. Like this:

I used an ice cream scoop to get the bulbs the same size so they cook evenly. Use whatever you want to make them even.

Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for about an hour and a half. Your house will smell amazing! Serve over pasta al dente with garlic bread (and if you have kids add some sort of vegetable).

I made Halloween cupcakes for dessert...um, out of a box. Hehe.

Works For Me Wednesday

It's Works For Me Wednesday over at Shannon's again. Since I still have a cold this may not be anything that the rest of the world isn't already doing, but it works for us.

Menu Planning.

Not only does this practice save time, we have been able to cut our grocery budget in half. Apparently the aimless wandering around the market and the last minute meal planning was costing us much more than we realized.

Simply, every Saturday morning Hungry Husband and I sit down and talk about what we'd like to eat every night for the following week. Then we plan out the list and head to the market.

It helps us save on unnecessary mid week trips where we grab "just a few snack items" that inevitably go bad before we eat them.

Not a fancy plan, nor a great invention, but it definitely works for us.

Stampin & Stuff

Here are some of the cards I've been making lately.

Sorry - I'm not very good behind a camera.

I made this card for my friend in Colorado.

In our relationship, I'm pretty sure she's "red fish".


I made this card for my husband. It was just a "thank you" for being such a great guy - sometimes. It's hard to make manly cards, isn't it?
Oh, here's something else I made this weekend! It's CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD! Yum. We have so much zucchini in our garden and I'm so tired of eating it like a vegetable. I made this.

What? It's healthy...there is a vegetable in it!

If it's 3 p.m....you can find me in the pantry

I HAVE GOT to lose weight.

Metabolism may possibly be working against me.

And I think I found a cellulite dimple on my forearm.

I am all about self-control until the afternoon.  Then my evil twin takes over.  And she likes to snack.  A lot.

Could you give me a little assistance in the snacking department?

And no, the good-for-you snacks that I can think of don't sound good.

What do y'all do during that time between lunch and supper?

Apparently Swiss Rolls and ice cream sandwiches are not going to cut it.

(And you might throw in suggestions for the time between supper and bed.)

(Just in case anyone else that reads this blog needs help during that time.)

(Not for me, of course.)

Potato Pancakes

I bet you thought I was going to post a recipe.

I'm not.

I lost my potato pancake recipe and it was my favorite.

I have a 5# bag of potatoes in my cabinet.

No recipe.

No dinner.

Wah.

Hey Look! A Recipe!

Remember when I told you I would share recipes as long as they met my rules?

Well here is one that I Love. Love. Love.


Except that it never turns out quite right because, well, I get to shop at the commissary and they never have ANYTHING *ahem* but I'm very grateful for their good deals.



Since all military wives rotate the same five recipes for every function you have to come up with something fresh and innovative or your five recipe ingredients will not be at the commissary.


So if you make it like the recipe says you get yummy, pretty, pineapple pie.


Yum.


If you make it with commissary ingredients you get yummy, pineapple pie that looks something like chunky vomit but tastes oh so good. I just use extra cool whip to cover the vomit chunks - oh and kids love it when you tell them you brought vomit pie to their parent's BBQ.


Trust me on this one. I'm good with the kids.

Pineapple Cream Cheese Cake (aka Vomit Pie)


Ingredients:


20 oz Crushed Pineapple
6 oz Pineapple Jello (or if you shop at the commissary Orange, Pineapple, Pomegranate Jello)
Block of Cream Cheese
Cool Whip
Graham Cracker Pie Crust


Drain the juice from the pineapple and set the pineapple aside. I give mine a good squeeze so I have plenty of juice.


Empty the Jello packs into the juice and microwave until the Jello dissolves. Add the cream cheese and pineapple pieces to the the Jello and mix it all together.


I imagine if you stick with it long enough it would get smooth and creamy. I'm impatient.


Put Jello mixture in pie crust and place in fridge until it's almost time to go.


Top with the Cool Whip until it looks pretty.


Use extra if you're stuck with orange Jello.

Hey Look! Another recipe!

Summer is full of pot lucks and bar-b-que.  It's also full of neighbors who don't invite you to their "informal get-together" until the very last minute.  This recipe isn't very last minute friendly, but very very popular in my circle.  I also whip it up when my husband comes home at midnight and announces with a smile that the office pot luck is tomorrow.  Panic. Setting. In.  I mean, I only work full time myself.

Therefore, I present you with my version of Fast and Furious Fruit Cake.

See.  It's healthy.  It has Fruit right in the name.

Ingredients:

Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix

Whipped Topping (I use Cool Whip)

Cream Cheese frosting

Assorted Fruit

Prepare and bake the sugar cookie dough according to the package instructions.  You will make one large cookie the size of a jelly roll pan.  

Hint: I spray my hands with Pam before patting the dough flat.  

The dough must be relatively even or you will have part crunch/part goo.

Mix a tub of cream cheese frosting with about 2 cups of whipped topping.  When the cookie has cooled top the gigantic cookie with the "frosting" and decorate with assorted fruit.  

I buy frozen berries and keep them on hand for such emergencies.  Like Friday, for instance, when my husband needed one decorated like a flag for work.  

This is the land of milk and honey.  I married its fruit.

Hey look! A recipe!

You know how there are all those blogs out there that post gorgeous, mouth-watering recipes, and there are photographs of the ingredients all symmetrically arranged on the counter, the lighting is just perfect and you just swear you can actually hear a pot bubbling cheerfully on the stove?

Well this is not one of those blogs.

If you ever see a recipe posted at this blog, you can be sure it has been posted because:

A) It was cheap.

B) I had the ingredients on hand; and

C) There were only a few.

D) It will get me out of the kitchen as quickly as possible.

Those are the only recipes I use.

Ever.

Actually, one time I took a dish to a potlock and it contained dill weed.  I am proud of that.  Dill weed is an exotic ingredient, by my standards.

Anyway, back to my recipe.  I found it on a Crock-Pot blog and I fixed it for my husband last week when the temperatures on base were over 100 degrees for several days without air--it was a hit with hungry husband.

BBQ Porkloin Sammies

Ingredients:

A pork loin

A couple cans of Diet Coke

BBQ Sauce

Put the pork loin in the Crockpot and cover it with the Diet Coke and about a cup of BBQ sauce.  Cook on low all day (8-9 hours).  Shred the meat.  It will fall apart.  Top with a little more BBQ sauce and serve on onion buns.  I topped ours with cole slaw to help beat the heat.  

Enjoy!