French Dip Crescent Rolls

    OK, so I'm addicted to Pintrest! I love, love, love it! I love the recipes, and the home decor ideas, the DIY crafts, and the hair & makeup advice...Pintrest is my Mommy escape! Well...not too terribly long ago I came across a recipe for Crescent Roll French Dips...I hit repin and forgot about it...Hey I have over 300 pins on my Food & Drink Board...Well, the other night when I was making the shopping list I came across the recipe again and got the ingredients (more or less) to make them. So tonight I made them for dinner, and I gotta say I'm a little disappointed in myself for waiting so long to make them. So...From table to yours here's the recipe I did:

2 pkg. Crescent Rolls
1 lb. of Roast Beef
Dubliner Cheese


    That's it! Roll the meat and cheese up in the rolls and cook for 12 minutes on 375 and enjoy! Now the recipe I had called for a lot more, but I don't like horseradish or Au Jus. I did use some Organic Potato Leek Soup which was yummy...I added some more cheese, fresh rosemary, pepper, and Trader Joe's Garlic Salt.

    All in All it was a very yummy dinner...even my super picky 17 month old gobbled it up. I will note that I didn't have enough roast beef so for the boys I just put 1 small piece of cheese and 1 slice of roast beef on a roll, and I did wind up with one plain cheese roll, but as I said they were all great!




ORIGINAL RECIPE:
http://www.mamalovesfood.com/2012/01/french-dip-crescents-with-easy-au-jus.html

Ode to Salmon

  My family is a HUGE fan of fish!! Salmon, Cod, Tilapia, Tuna...Fried, Baked, or Barbecued...Give us a good fish and we'll turn it into an awesome meal! Tonight was no different!! Tonight I made a Salmon Teriyaki that is to die for!! I amazed myself it was that good!! Don't worry I'm not here to make you jealous, I'm here in my supermom cape to bring you the wonderful recipe that graced our table this evening!!

NOT YOUR USUAL TERIYAKI SALMON

This is AMAZING Teriyaki Sauce!!

4 Salmon Fillets (or however many you happen to be using)
Kona Coast Spicy Teriyaki Sauce
1/2 stick of softened butter
1-2 cloves of minced garlic
1 green onion
A few mint leaves
Rosemary
Pineapple 




First off grease your baking dish...I used Olive Oil because it tastes the best and helps the fish not dry out so fast!! Place Salmon Fillets in dish and cover with Teriyaki sauce..turn over a few times so that both sides are covered in the sauce.
Next mix butter, minced garlic, chopped onion, mint leaves (chopped), and rosemary. (I used our teeny-tiny food processor and it worked great!) Take butter mixture and place on top of the fillets. Also at this time place pineapple pieces randomly around the dish.
Cook on 450 degrees for 6 minutes (uncovered)..check at 6 minutes for doneness...We had to cook ours an additional 2 minutes, but it's always best to check because you don't want to overcook the salmon or it will get dry!!
ENJOY

I gotta say the bags of frozen Salmon at Winco have been a lifesaver!! They thaw out super fast and they taste great!! Anyway, try it out...make it your own and see what you come up with!!

Parmesan Encrusted Salmon & Tilapia

 It's no secret that, sometimes, toddlers can be picky eaters. My oldest is no exception, however I will say that I can't complain too much because, thankfully, he'll eat pretty much whatever we put in front of him with few exceptions. So tonight I wanted to give my family a dinner we all would like, that would fill us up and something that would be healthy. I think I nailed it!
 After scouring the internet for fish recipes, and coming up short, I decided to combine a few. What I came up with this:

PARMESAN ENCRUSTED SALMON & TILAPIA


Grated Parmesan
Spices (I used garlic powder, pepper, and fresh rosemary...thank goodness for our plant!) 
Salmon/Tilapia Fillets (I had 2 Tilapia and 3 Salmon Fillets)
1 to 2 Eggs (For dipping)
Olive Oil


Mix Parmesan and Spices (if using fresh rosemary, don't mix with the cheese) in bowl big enough to dip fish in. Dip both sides of fish in egg and then in Cheese mix. Place in baking dish, place rosemary sprigs on top and drizzle with Olive oil. Bake at 450 for 6 minutes. Check for doneness and enjoy!


All of the above measurements are what I used for 5 pieces of fish. If using less fish cook for about 4 minutes and check.


 I know that fish can be expensive, especially Salmon. I got both the Tilapia and the Salmon at Winco in the bags. They come frozen, in the bag and they are vacuumed sealed and individually packaged and they aren't horribly priced.. definitely cheaper then buying from the meat counter and since they come in their own packages, they're pretty darn good...not slimy. Besides fish is so good for you, especially Salmon and the fact that my 3 year old was excited for "Cheesy Fish!" was a major plus!! I served it with Corn on the Cob (another favorite of my 3 year old) and I must say it was one of the best dishes I've made!!


**I was going to add a picture, but I was really hungry and it looked incredible...so I ate before I remembered the snap shot! Instead, hears a picture of my son who loved his cheesy fish!**

My oldest baby boy

Banger's and Mash...weird name...great taste!!!

   Banger's & Mash, fun stay good to eat!! What is Banger's and Mash you ask? It's an English dish consisting of Sausage and Mashed potatoes...that's it!! There's an endless variety of ways to cook them...well maybe not cook them, but definitely an endless variety of things you can add to them!! Tonight we're keeping it simple! Why? Because we have a 2 year old who hasn't quite developed the gourmet food taste buds that his father and I have :D...don't worry though, he'll come around!! So here's how we made it...

BANGER'S & MASH

They put onion and gravy on
these, we didn't  because
we wouldn't be able get our
2 year old to eat them :D

  We managed to find "Banger's Sausage" at our local Market of Choice. If you don't have a Market of Choice or can't find "Banger's Sausage" that's OK! I'm sure any type of Sausage link would work...Not the hot dog type though...I imagine that would just be gross. Sausage links are usually in the Meat Deli/Counter...Johnsonville and the New York Style Sausage Company also sells Sausage links...Johnsonville has MSG and the New York Style Sausage Company doesn't, whatever one you like better, or can find works. We broil them about 5 minutes on each side. As for the potatoes...yes you can buy potatoes, peel them, boil them, and mash them...however...if you're like my family, you're busy keeping little ones out of trouble and dinner's generally done around 8. It's not that we don't try to eat earlier, it just doesn't usually work out that way. So what do we use for the Mash in our Banger's and Mash? Betty Crocker instant potatoes...yes that's right, we use instant potatoes. They taste great and are done in about 2 minutes! When both the sausage and potatoes are done place a sausage (or 2) on top of the potatoes and enjoy!! 

You can add gravy, sauerkraut, mustard and according to my husband some kind of weird noodle...I guess they do it in Germany and he says it's ridiculously good! ( Yes he's lived in Germany...yes I'm jealous :D ). Do whatever sounds good. That's the good thing about simple meals, you can dress them up!!

Lox

   If you've never had Salmon lox, you don't know what you're missing!!! It's amazingly tasty...it's also amazingly expensive. This is definitely not a meal we make often. The other night though we found some Lox on Sale at Trader Joe's (love this place!!), so we grabbed one and enjoyed a rare treat :D!!. Now as I say, Salmon Lox are spendy! it's not a meal you want to make every week, unless you enjoy being broke!! I'll put down how we make them into a meal though, in case you'd like to try them one of these days!


BAGEL'S AND LOX


1 PKG. SALMON LOX
BAGELS (We use everything bagels)
CREAM CHEESE
RED ONION
CAPERS
ROMA TOMATO


TOAST THE BAGELS. SPREAD THE CREAM CHEESE ON THE BAGEL, ADD LOX/ONION/CAPERS/TOMATO...ENJOY!!

I never put Capers on mine, because I think they're gross. My husband loves them though so he would suggest to at least try them. In case you're wondering what Lox is...it's just smoked salmon. They're actually a better idea for breakfast, but breakfast or dinner it's still yummy!!

My BIG, FAT, GREEK Dinner

   Here at University Land there's a place called The Pita Pit, it's really good, but being married to a college student we don't have the money to eat out all the time. However we both really like Pita's. There filling and as we learned really easy to make! Now neither my husband or I are of Greek decent. I'm German and my Husband's Finn/Scottish/ and French, but we both like good food and trust me when I say that Gyro's are good!!! So this is what we had for dinner the other night! 




PITA RECIPE


1 PKG. GYRO MEAT
TZATZIKI SAUCE
1 PKG. PITA POCKETS
LETTUCE
1 CUCUMBER
2 ROMA TOMATOES
1 RED ONION
1 PKG. FETA


COOK THE GYRO MEAT ACCORDING TO INSTRUCTIONS. TOAST PITA POCKET (IF DESIRED), PUT TZATZIKI SAUCE ON BOTH SIDES OF PITA, ADD GYRO MEAT, LETTUCE, CUCUMBER, TOMATOES, AND ONION...ENJOY!!

This is not our Pita's from the other night,
but this is basically what they look like

Now, we use the pockets because they're easier to eat. They keep all the ingredients neatly tucked inside. You can also use chicken strips instead of the gyro meat. Gyro meat does have MSG in it, which we try to stay away from, but believe me when I say that it's still really good. Anyway, try them see if you like them. You can put any veggie in them and I imagine they'd taste pretty good. The Pita Pit has a whole array of veggies they use, we just like the ones listed above because they give it a nice crisp/fresh taste. Make it your own!!! 

AWESOME PENNE PASTA!

So my husband and I have been trying to eat healthier. We've never been the type to eat at McDonald's everyday, or even every month, but we've eaten our fair share of potato chips. Anyway, we've been looking for healthy alternatives that don't taste like cardboard! The other night we made an AMAZING, inexpensive penne pasta that I thought I'd share with you!!


1 box of whole grain Penne Pasta
2 bell pepper (we used a red one and a yellow one)
4 portabella mushroom (you can substitute different ones)
1 red onion
Italian sausage
Fresh Basil
1 Roma tomato


Cook the pasta (just follow the directions on the box), Saute the mushroom, bell pepper, and onion.(the onion and mushroom take the longest so do those first), cook the sausage (we used the links, cooked them according to the instructions, and then chopped them up).
Mix the cooked food together, add the tomato and Basil...and enjoy!!


I know that the colored bell peppers and portabella are usually really expensive, but we got them on sale at our local WINCO. Keep a look out for sales, you never know what yummy food may become affordable!! This recipe was just made on a whim. Our 2 year old wasn't big on the veggies, but we just gave him some of the pasta and sausage (before we added the veggies) and he loved it!! Hope you like it! Feel free to add/subtract ingredients from it. Make it your own...that's the best part of cooking!!