Super Easy Use-It-Up Pizza Burgers

I hate that you never have enough burgers to use up the buns in a package of hamburger buns. Plus I can only eat so many sloppy joes in two days and deal with drooling dogs at the grill with burgers. I hate tossing burger buns into the waste bin, it just seems so wasteful to buy 8 buns for 4 burgers. 

I needed to come up with something quick and I realized that I had leftover tomato sauce in the freezer and grated cheese in the fridge (and since when do I not have cheese in my fridge? I LOVE CHEESE). 

My mouth was starting to water as I put these together. I had made sauce with red wine... it smelled extra great to me after a long day in the sun, biking, playing, cleaning, etc...

And the cheese. I should have put more cheese on top so they were extra gooey.

And baked. Crispy bread, hot sauce, melty cheesy goodness.

Pizza Burgers (sort of)

2 - 4 hamburger buns split in half

2 cups pizza sauce, leftover spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce

2 cups of grated cheese - I use an Italian blend or a cheddar jack blend

And pizza toppings of your choice (I didn't feel like anything other than cheese)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Put bun halves on baking sheet.

Top each half with sauce.

Then top with cheese and all other pizza toppings you want!

Bake for 10-13 minutes or until cheese is melty and buns are nice and crispy.

Serve with a salad.

Mixed Berry Muffins

Mixed Berry Muffins from Oprah

Servings: Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups fresh berries , such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, huckleberries or sliced strawberries, or a combination.

Directions

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400°F. Lightly butter twelve 2 1/2-inch muffin cups or place paper muffin cups in the muffin tin.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt to combine and make a well in the center. In another medium bowl, whisk the milk, oil and eggs. Mix well and pour into the well. Stir just until blended. Fold in the berries. Spoon equal amounts of the batter into the muffin cups, filling them about three-fourths full.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove the muffins and serve warm or cool on a wire rack.

Mushroom, Cheese & Spinach Omelette (CSA Box Recipe)

 Mushrooms were unfortunately NOT from the CSA box this week, but the spinach is. I love omelettes. I love how easy they are. I love that if you don't get it perfect, it still looks great on your plate. I also love that there's no leftovers and eggs are so easy to make for one person. (Hey, Bimmer, I know you don't like omelettes, but can you appease me for one weekend and JUST TRY ONE? And it doesn't have to be with mushrooms)

 Spinach is from the CSA box. I obviously sauted the mushrooms first, then added in the spinach to wilt it. When cooking mushrooms, add salt in at the very end. Salt draws out the natural juices and makes the mushrooms tough and chewy. Then add in your regular omelette mix (2 eggs + 1tbsp of milk or cream, salt & pepper). Wait until the eggs have set a bit.

And then when I have a lot of chunky veggies, I don't make a normal omelette. I'd rather consider it a "french" omelette where you shove the food around pan until it's barely cooked, flip it over on itself and then dump it on a plate.

So basically then your plate looks like a pile of eggs and veggies and not really a traditional omelette. But it's still delicious mixed with fresh cheese.

Enjoy!

Black Bean & Corn Tacos

I'm a fan of vegetarian food. I'm a fan of vegetarians. I do like meat but sometimes I get a craving for tacos with black beans and corn. I can't live without them. Oh, and with really spicy salsa. YUM. (And spicy foods are so not Minnesotan... I grew up eating hot dishes, hot dogs, mac & cheese and fresh veggies out of our garden).

I make way more than I can eat to make black bean soup with the leftovers too. The best lunch ever. Delish.

1 can black beans, drained
1/2 bag of frozen corn
Salt & pepper
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp coriander (or less, to taste)
1 good shake of Tabasco
1 small can of tomato paste (or you could use a can of drained diced tomatoes, I guess it doesn't matter as long as you have some form of tomatoes)
1/3 - 1/2 cup water

Taco shells, cheese, salsa, lettuce and whatever other taco toppings you like.

Mix everything together in a pan and let simmer for 10 - 15 minutes or until the liquid has mostly evaporated. You don't want mushy tacos.

Cooking For 1: Mushroom Quesadilla

Due to popular demand, Bimmer Man has been away for dinner for the past week or two (see earlier car racing post, plus they have to swap 3, yes, three engines) and I've had to make dinner for myself. They've mostly consisted of:

1. Cheese and crackers
2. Quesadillas
3. Pizza
4. Scrambled eggs

So sorry, my readers, I just haven't made anything worth blogging about.

But my original thought was this: cooking for 1. What do you make? How do you make your favorites without having leftovers for the next three or four meals? Do you re-package meat individually so that you only have to make one chicken breast at a time? GAH. I hate cooking for one.

But I do like quesadillas and I really like mushrooms. Bimmer Man has never been a fan of mushrooms and I've been craving them a bit lately so I bought some. And then needed to use them up.

Black beans.

Chili powder, cumin, coriander (my staple spices when making anything "Mexican" or southwestern)

Oh, and the quesadilla!

Yum. Ooey, goey, cheesy goodness.

Basics:

2 tortillas
Mushrooms - more than you think
Black beans - 1/2 can or 1 can if you want leftovers to make lunch the next day
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
3 tbsp water or chicken broth if you have an open package in the fridge
Salt & pepper to taste
Cheese - a good handful of shredded cheese

Saute the mushrooms in a small pan with some olive oil or Pam. Whatever floats your boat. Wait until they are nicely shrunken and then add in the salt and pepper. Add in the black beans and the spices. Stir around until mixed together. Add in the water. Cook for 5 - 6 minutes until the water has been absorbed and it's cooked away a bit. You don't want a soupy quesadilla.

Put together the quesadilla. Heat up another pan. Throw in one tortilla. Put half the cheese on the bottom. Spread out the mushroom mix and top with the rest of the cheese. Put the other tortilla on top.

Watch the bottom tortilla - when brown, flip over. Watch the other side carefully, the second half tends to burn faster. When nice and crispy, turn out onto a cutting board and cut into four with a pizza cutter. Serve with guacamole, lettuce, salsa, whatever.

Enjoy!

Breakfast Hash

Eggs

Mushrooms and red bell peppers

Sausage

Pull it out of the casings when you brown it

Add the eggs to scramble along with some cheese and you're good to go.

Breakfast is my favorite!

The Green Omelette

Mmm... Eggs are one of my absolute favorite meals. I can eat eggs for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Omelettes are especially easy - and my new favorite is with just spinach, cheese and a little green onion. YUM. I think I also added green pepper to this one too.

What's the best way to make an omelette?

Use medium-low heat and cook slowly, lifting the edges and letting the still runny egg flow underneath to make sure it's cooking evenly. Then when you close the omelette together, flip at least once get everything all warm and melty, then slide onto a plate. I don't really like my omelettes still runny, so I cook it until it's pretty firm.

And cheese. An omelette is never the same without lots of yummy cheese!

Spinach, Tomato & Cheese Omelet

Yum. Sizzling away in the large skillet... I generally make the dogs their eggs first to make sure the pan is warm enough for my own eggs!

Yep, there is spinach and cheese in it, however, the tomatoes just didn't want to stay put!

Omelets are so easy to make, mix eggs, milk, salt & pepper, pour into a hot pan (the drop the temp to a little lower so the outside doesn't get too brown). Add in your extras and you're good to go!

Happy weekend!

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Enchiladas are one of my favorites, whether I make them myself or not.

Seriously.

I'm going to pull a Rachael Ray here and say Yum-O!! (Have you seen this website? HILARIOUS!!!)

Back to Enchiladas

8 tortillas
1 can enchilada sauce, or make your own, whatevs...
1 block softened cream cheese
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 tbsp cumin
1tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp honey (Yes, really, HONEY!!)
Salt & pepper to taste
Dash of hot sauce
1 can black beans
Shredded cheese for topping
2 chicken breasts, shredded or chopped into small pieces

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine chicken, black beans, cream cheese, cumin, chili powder, diced tomatoes, honey, salt and pepper in a medium sauce pan. Stir to combine until cream cheese is melted and creamy - add in hot sauce to taste. You can add in jalepenos or whatever for heat too, doesn't matter much.

Stuff the tortillas with the creamy sauce and put in baking dish.

Top with can of enchilada sauce (or extra creamy chicken sauce and leave out the enchilada sauce, but I love enchilada sauce so I really couldn't leave it out) and cheese. Lots of cheese.

Bake 15 - 20 minutes or until cheese is golden brown.

Makes EXCELLENT leftover lunches.

Homemade Pizza Pockets

Yum. I'm a pizza addict. If I could eat Tombstone pizza every single day, I totally would. I'm just addicted.

And so one day last week I ran out of pizza, so I decided to try and make my own pizza pockets so I could read out in the yard without the hassle of pizza.

And it worked. For the most part, if you like pie crust...

1 pie crust, Pillsbury or homemade, whatever
6 - 8 pepperoni slices
3/4 cup tomato sauce
2 cups of cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Roll out the pie crust, divide into four pieces. Divide all other ingredients between the four pie crust pieces.

Pinch pie crusts together to form a pocket, pinch tightly otherwise, see above photo for what happens. Poke a hole in each of the pieces to relieve steam.

Bake for 15 - 25 minutes or until pie crust is nice and brown.

Enjoy!

P.S. Here's a good joke:

How do you get Lady Gaga's attention?

You poker in the face

Grown-Up Gouda Grilled (Ok, Baked) Cheese Sandwiches

Bimmer Man tells me that I don't make grilled cheese sandwiches correctly.

And I don't.

I bake them.

On the magical pizza stone. In the oven.

Oh, yes, that's right. I BAKE MY GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICHES.

So I guess they're not really grilled, right?

Ok, so ready?

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees - I use a pizza stone so make sure the pizza stone is preheating in the oven too.

Put the sammies together (butter or margerinize the outside, cheese on the inside... you know... like a regular grilled cheese...). BUT, I used Gouda. It's nice and stinky. With a bit of mozzarella.

Now, I have something to confess. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO MATCH CHEESES. I just like cheese so I throw together whatever I happen to have in the fridge that melts well together. Gouda melts pretty well with mozzarella, so why not? It's better than the processed cheese, which I cannot for the life of me actually call real cheese.

And um, well, put the sandwiches into the oven for 6 minutes.

Flip.

Bake for 5 minutes.

And then they're done.

I made tomato soup to go along with my stinky cheese sammie.

Happy Thursday!

An Old Favorite Revisited

A long, long time ago I blogged about Ina Garten's Parmesan Chicken.

And this time I didn't have parmesan but I did have mozzarella.

Bimmer Man's first taste of parmesan chicken was actually mozzarella chicken.

And so, I think I'll probably make this again with a variety of cheeses.

Unfortunately I'll probably be on a bit of hiatus the next week or so (or maybe I'll post about the adventures of moving across the country with a dog, an extra car and who-knows-what-will-happen).

Alas, make parmesan chicken. And try it with mozzarella. You may be pleasantly surprised!

Enjoy!

Black Bean Quesadilla

Some days my mind is like a blank tortilla. Blank as blank can be. I haven't been too inspired lately, but I'm getting back into the baking mode, which is a good thing considering that I have 10 pounds of flour that I need to use. And lots of sugar too.

But in any case, I have black bean cravings like crazy and while Bimmer Man was studying for his finals, quesadillas were the easiest thing for me to make whilst pining away for my man.

Ok, so maybe not pining because Grey's was on, but still. It's hard to cook for one. Any good cookbooks with meals for two? I would totally buy them...
But I digress. This is a baked quesadilla. I didn't have time for that flipping on the stove crap plus the baking sheet was already out (had someone made a frozen pizza???). So I used it and washed dishes while it baked.

Preheat the oven to 400.

Layer cheese and black beans on top of each other. you can add in salsa, green onions, etc... but I just kept it simple. I don't really care what you put in, mostly because this meal totally reminds me of Rachael Ray (and she probably has made this meal) and she has super easy recipes that you don't feel bad if you swap the ingredients. Or like this recipe from Sandra Lee.
Then top with another tortilla and bake for about 5 minutes on each side.
Cut into 4 sections and eat.

So yes, this is super easy and fun to eat. Maybe good for kids? (I don't have kids)

Enjoy this quick quesadilla!

Spinach Quiche

I love eggs. I love quiche. Bimmer Man didn't mention that he liked quiche until I said that I was actually going to make it. Go figure, right?

So I ripped off a Paula Deen recipe and tried to make it more like my own.You can also find it in her cookbook Paula Deen & Friends. Honestly, I'm not much of a Paula person and I think it's because of the amount of butter. And lard. And fatty ingredients, but whatever. I do still adore southern cooking!
First, start off with this pie crust recipe. Super easy! It's unbelievable...
You'll need about two cups of fresh chopped spinach. I'd actually go back and use 3 cups - spinach wilts down so I used a lot less than what I thought I'd need. Oops - mental note for next time!
All the other ingredients - 2 Italian sausage links, 1 1/2 cups of Italian cheese mix and one small chopped onions.
Chop the onion. (Does anyone need to know how to chop an onion?)
Chop your spinach - but remember that it'll wilt down. So chop more than you need. Please, do.
Take the casings off the sausage, then break it up with a wooden spoon while you brown it.
When you're about half way done browning the sausage, put the onion in the pan to sweat it and make it all nice and sweet.
Then, after about 8 minutes, put the spinach in the pan. See how much it looks like? Well, scroll down, you'll NOT be pleasantly surprised. USE MORE!!! I SAY USE MORE SPINACH!!!
See? Isn't this a puny amount of spinach for a quiche? I'm telling you - don't be like me...
And by the way... USE MORE SPINACH!!!
Then crack open 6 eggs. I got a little egg dirt in them. Oh, well. Minerals, right? You won't need your daily vitamin...
Gently pour in 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream. Oh, yes, here's where Paula Deen comes in. But I gotta tell ya, she does the quiche well!
She says to put it in a blender. Screw it - use your real strength! Don't dirty dishes that are almost impossible to clean by hand! (Especially when the blender might still have a strawberry in it from the last time you made smoothies...)
Layer half of the sausage/onion/spinach mixture on the bottom.
Mmm... I could eat this with scrambled eggs - oh - make a hash!
Then layer the Italian cheese. Repeat.
Pour the egg mixture over the top.
And bake until nice, smooth, cheesy and just lovely. The PERFECT breakfast, lunch OR dinner.

Paula's Spinach and Bacon Quiche

Ingredients
6 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Salt and pepper
2 cups chopped baby spinach, packed
1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
1 (9-inch) refrigerated pie crust, fitted to a 9-inch glass pie plate
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Combine the eggs, cream, salt, and pepper in a food processor or blender. Layer the spinach, bacon, and cheese in the bottom of the pie crust, then pour the egg mixture on top. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until the egg mixture is set. Cut into 8 wedges.

Enjoy!