Bunsteads

This is a recipe I remember fondly from my childhood. A few months after we were married I made Bunsteads for my husband and now he too thinks fondly of them. They are filling, warm and tasty.

Bunsteads are a relatively easy sandwich to put together. The mixture can be made ahead of time and refriegerated until closer to dinner time. This leaves only the simple task of filling the bread and putting them in the oven.

Bunsteads
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Yields: 6 servings 

Ingredients
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 can tuna or chicken, drained
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped sweet pickle or pickle relish
1/2 cup Miracle whip
1/2 tsp paprika
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
bread or hamburger buns (not pictured)

Directions
   1.  Lightly mix all ingredients, except bread.
   2.  Fill bread or buns. Seal in tinfoil and place in 350 oven for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through.
   Alternative: Microwave mixed ingredients until warm then fill bread or buns.

Lasagna Soup

In the pot this soup looks like a normal vegetable and broth soup. Once you dish it up on top of the cheeses it turns slightly creamy and absolutely beautiful. There are wonderful layers of flavor in this surprisingly hearty lasgana soup.
The work time for this recipe, like many soups, is not too long but the simmering time means you don't have to prepare it immediately before dinner. The slightly longer list of ingredients might be intimidating but since many of the ingredients are spices they don't create a lot of work.

Lasagna Soup
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Yields: 6 servings

Ingredients:
1 lb Italian sausage
1 tsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced (not pictured)
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
2 T tomato sauce
2 14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 cup uncooked pasta
1 cup spinach, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp basil
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup shredded cheese

Directions:
   1.  In a skillet, cook Italian sausage until no longer pink. Drain fat.
   2.  In a large stock pot, saute onions in olive oil until translucent. Add garlic powder, oregano, Italian seasoning, red peppers flakes and tomato sauce. Cook 2 minutes.
   3.  Add cooked Italian sausage, tomatoes with juice, chicken broth, water and bay leaves. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes.
   4.  Add pasta; bring back to a boil on medium heat until pasta is tender, about 7-8 minutes. After five minutes add spinach and basil. Remove bay leaves.
   5.  To serve put 1/4 cup cottage cheese, 1 T Parmesan cheese and 2 T shredded cheese in each bowl. Ladle soup on top. [When we had this as leftovers it worked well to warm up the soup then put the cheeses on top and stir them in.]

Adapted from: Our Simple Life

Menu 2-28

We absolutely loved the lasagna soup. The cheeses (hidden underneath the soup) are what really make it taste like a good lasagna.

There is something so delicious and satisfying about a good taco. I think it's how all the ingredients are together and wrapped up leaving no choice but for the flavors to mix together. And it's a relatively easy meal too!

The Bunsteads were almost a meal gone wrong. I had it all spread on the bread when I realized I had forgotten to put the cheese in! Back into the bowl it all went. It was an easy mistake to fix and they turned out great.

The Apple Onion Cider Chicken turned out great. I changed a few things as I was making it but it all came together fine. My husband and I actually thought it was better the next day, after the chicken had soaked in the delicious sauce.

We have found the winning combination for Burrito Pizza! A few little changes here and there gave us a wonderful pizza.

I got a cookbook, The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book, from the library this week and tried a few recipes from it. The first was Cranberry Orange Muffins. I didn't have orange juice so I substituted pineapple juice which worked great. These also were better the longer they sat. I'm definitely going to keep this recipe and try it again.

From the same cookbook I also tried Cinnamon Swirl cookies. These too were better the next day. However, they will not be making another appearance in our home. It was a fun recipe to try but for the amount of work and time put into them the results were not spectacular enough.

Finally, a week where I didn't have a hard time making the menu. It's so easy to get discouraged sometimes about trying to get things to work but then you have a week where it falls into place so easily and you are completely rejuvenated!

• Monday: Soup Night! Chicken and Wild Rice Soup: I love chicken and wild rice soup but have yet to find a go-to recipe. Maybe this one will be it?
• Tuesday: Meatballs with Sweet and Tangy Sauce: I'm not sure which Meatball recipe I'm going to use yet. The sauce is a recipe from my mom.
• Wednesday: Quesadillas: I'm hoping to either find a recipe or come up with a delicious combination that uses beans but not meat. I don't have tortillas right now and instead of making a special trip to Aldi I'm going to try to make my own using this recipe.
• Thursday: Chicken Nuggets: This was my husband's request for this week. I'm not 100% sure what type of breading I'm going to use.
• Friday: Pizza Night! Pepperoni Pizza: My husband will add black and green olives and our daughter and I will add tomatoes.
• Saturday Brunch: German Apple Pancakes: I got a great deal on apples last week and these look great.
• Sunday: Leftovers

Visit I'm an Organizing Junkie for more menu ideas.



Cream Cheese Pasta

This recipe is a favorite of the entire family. It has pasta, cheeses, sour cream and sauce--what's not to love?
This is an easy meal to put together. The hamburger can be cooked well ahead of time or the entire dish can be assembled and then refrigerated or frozen until ready to use. Meals like that can be lifesavers sometimes!

Cream Cheese Pasta
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Yields: 6-8 servings

Ingredients:
1 lb hamburger
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 can pasta sauce
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
1 lb pasta, cooked (I typically use rotini.)

Directions:
   1.  Brown hamburger until no longer pink.
   2.  Using a mixer with a wire whisk, mix cream cheese, sour cream and Italian seasoning. Add pasta sauce and stir by hand. Add hamburger and 1 cup shredded cheese; stir until combined. Add pasta; mix.
   3.  Pour mixture in a glass 9x13 pan; sprinkle remaining shredded cheese on top.
   4.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until warmed through.

Source: For the Mommas

BBQ Chicken Pizza

BBQ Chicken Pizza is my favorite! My failed search for a good one is what started my ventures into homemade pizza. Now we rarely have pizza that isn't homemade. I'd say we're pretty glad I couldn't find a satisfactory one!
I like to buy chunk pineapple and then use the food processor to shred it. I also try to precook the chicken, either earlier in the week or the day. It makes it really easy to put this pizza together. We use homemade dough but store bought is fine as well. We've found the key to a great pizza is to preheat the oven for a longer time than normal.

BBQ Chicken Pizza
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Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients:
pizza dough
1/2 can chunk pineapple, shredded
1 large chicken breast, cooked and diced
BBQ sauce
~1 cup shredded cheese

Directions:
   1.  Preheat oven to 450 (or as pizza dough package recommends).
   2.  Roll out dough to fit pan. Spread BBQ sauce over dough, leaving the edges clean. Evenly place chicken and pineapple across dough. Cover with cheese.
   3.  Bake 12 minutes, broiling 1-2 minutes at end, if necessary. Let pizza sit 2 minutes before cutting.

This is linked to Tasty Tuesday.

Eggs in Rolls

We wanted to try something new for Saturday brunch. I was looking for a recipe that was different but not too crazy. I knew I had found it when I saw this. It was in a cookbook that doesn't have pictures for everything so I had to read through it and imagine what it would be like. I was intrigued and knew immediately which rolls I was going to use. Walmart always has these awesome rolls on the clearance rack that we love and they worked perfectly.
These rolls are going to be a great addition to our brunch rotation. All the flavors melded so well. It was amazing how the bread and egg complemented each other in every bite. This is definitely a keeper!

Eggs in Rolls
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Yields: 3 servings

Ingredients:
3 rolls
2 T butter, melted
4 eggs, separated
1/8 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
dash pepper
1/2 cup shredded cheese
3 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Directions:
   1.  Preheat oven to 425. Hollow out rolls, leaving a 1/2 inch wall. Place rolls on a cookie sheet. Brush insides of rolls with melted butter.
   2.  Mix egg yolks, 2 egg whites, milk, salt and pepper. Stir in cheese and bacon. Cook in a large skillet sprayed with cooking spray over medium heat until just under done. Spoon eggs into rolls.

   3.  Beat remaining 2 egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until stiff. Spoon over cooked egg mixture. Bake at 425 until golden, about 8 minutes.

Adapted from: Betty Crocker 1988 Cookbook

Toasted Sesame Chicken

This recipe came to our family thanks to my husband. He wanted to find a recipe for Sesame Chicken, one of his favorite Chinese foods. One day last spring he came home early from work, took over the kitchen and made this dish. We enjoyed it, tweaked it and now it's a regular for us.
It looks like there are a lot of ingredients for this recipe. However, many of them are listed twice because you use them at two different points in the recipe. Within the list of ingredients I separated it into Chicken Coating and Sauce. The original recipe calls for the sesame seeds to be added before serving but I don't care for as many seeds as my husband does so we each just add our own.

Toasted Sesame Chicken
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Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients:
1 cup brown rice
2 cups water
Chicken Coating
2 T flour
2 T cornstarch
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 T soy sauce
1 T dry sherry
2 T water
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 dash sesame oil
1 lb chicken breast, cubed
Sauce
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup white sugar
2 T white vinegar
2 T soy sauce
2 T sesame oil
1 T chili powder
1 T garlic powder
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup water
2 T sesame seeds

 Directions:
   1.  Cook rice: bring rice and water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Once boiling, stir once, cover and simmer for 35-45 minutes.
   2.  In a medium bowl combine flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder. Add soy sauce, dry sherry, water, vegetable oil and sesame oil; stir until smooth. Stir in chicken until coated; refrigerate for 20 minutes.
   3.  After 10 minutes, bring chicken broth, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, chili powder and garlic powder to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Dissolve cornstarch in water and stir into boiling sauce. Simmer sauce until thickened. Reduce heat to low, stirring occasionally.
   4.  Once sauce is simmering, cook chicken in a lightly oiled skillet until no longer pink. Coat chicken with sauce and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve over rice.

This is linked to Tasty Tuesday and Good Cheap Eats.