Turkey Meatballs

We usually make these meatballs to add to minestrone soup, but they are so good you can use them for anything! They're extremely flavorful and the texture is unreal! Very easy to make, too. Just pulse, shape and cook! If you're looking for a gluten-free option, dredging each meatball in flour isn't absolutely necessary (we've done it without and they've turned out just great!).


What you will need:

• 1 lb. ground turkey
• 1 oz. parmesan
• 1/4 C parsley
• 1 yellow onion diced
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 egg
• 2 T oil
• Flour for dredging

Directions:

• 
  
• Combine parmesan, parsley, diced onion and diced garlic to food processor.
• Add ground turkey, egg and salt & pepper to combine
• Shape into 1" meatballs
• In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat
• Coat each meatball in the flour and add to the oil in the skillet
• Cook for about 10-15 minutes, turning to brown all sides

Egg McMuffin

Welcome to Hot Cookin' Mama, My Kids Favorite Breakfast edition ;). But seriously, this is my kids favorite breakfast. They'd prefer this over the ones from McDonalds or other fast food, and that's saying something because they really love those.

These are really very simple to make, so I've got them on the breakfast menu once a week. You could of course change this to your liking. Using sausage instead of the ham, for one thing, would be a yummy change!

I know this isn't the most amazing picture, but we're entering into daylight savings time where everything is darker all the time so it's a bit of a challenge finding good lighting in the place I live. 

What you will need:

• English muffins (I get "extra crisp")
• 1 slice Canadian Bacon (usually found in a package of about 6 in the refrigerated section by the bacon.)
• 1 Egg
• 1 slice of cheese

Directions:

• Cook your egg all the way through
• While that's cooking, throw your english muffin slices in the toaster
• Heat up your canadian bacon slice. If it's nice and hot and browned it's done
• Butter your slices of english muffin
• Build your breakfast sandwich!

Maintaining Lemon Water

If you've been reading about the health benefits of drinking warm lemon water each morning on an empty stomach but not exactly sure how to go about that, this might be a great idea for you!

I had been interested in giving it a try for months and months, but every time I went for it, I wasn't sure how to maintain the whole thing. I didn't love juicing a lemon every single morning when I could barely open my eyes, nor did I have the time while cooking breakfast for the kids, packing lunches and getting them off to school.

So here we have what just so happens to be a great solution and you only need what's lying around your kitchen (unless you don't have any kind of juicer. I just use a good old fashion kind which you can find for cheap!).

Once you've juiced your lemons you can put them in your ice cube tray. Just pop one out into your mug of warm water each morning and voila!

The nitty gritty: It still might sound like a lot of work. I juiced 10 lemons here and it filled 14 slots in my tray. It took me about 10 minutes. So the way I look at it is that I spent 10 minutes juicing and only have to do it every 2 weeks.

Now, as far as the water to lemon juice ratio, everyone has their different ideas. Typically, 1/2 C of warm water with enough juice from half a lemon is standard. I figure that 1 cube for that 1/2 C is pretty good!

About the taste. If you're a tea drinker, this will taste better than any tea I've ever tried ;) (I hate tea). It's not delicious, but it's not gross and it's not daunting to drink. So do with that info what you will!

Kielbasa Corn

It sounds so simple. Turkey Kielbasa and corn. Now I'm trying to figure out how I lived my life before it. I seriously stared at my computer for a few minutes trying to figure out what to call this. So act like it's something that sounds really delicious and measures up to the unbelievable yumyumness this has. Oo! Yumyumcorn. Kielyumcorn. Yumcornkiel. Kielbasayum!

My husband and I have been putting it on our menu almost every week since the day we first tried it and we obsess over the leftovers. He of course likes it more with onions in it.

That's the beauty of this thing, you can add whatever you want and it'll be great! P
robably not "whatever" you want, but nearly. Heck, take these two ingredients camping and wrap it in some tin foil together to cook over the fire!

I actually like my kielbasa browned a lot more than this, like almost burnt coloring. But I wasn't paying attention while I was shopping because my son brought "moo-moo" (his cow) with us and was mooing at me and demanding I stare at him instead of shop.

So, I grabbed some kind of sausage type stuff that wasn't turkey kielbasa and I didn't love the way it browned or tasted but....we can pretend it's the good stuff here.

What you will need:

• 6-8 ears of corn
• 2 turkey kielbasa 
• Garlic Salt
• Black Pepper
• Onions, peppers, etc. (optional)

Directions:

• Shuck and boil your corn for 10-15 minutes depending on the texture you like
• While that's boiling, slice your kielbasa into coins
• When it's done boiling, set your corn on the side and drain the water from your pot
• Dump your kielbasa coins into that same pot and start to brown the sides (if you're planning on adding onions or other vegetables, go ahead and toss those in for a bit before adding the kielbasa in)
• While the kielbasa is browning, cut the corn off of the cob
• When the kielbasa is browned, add the corn into the pot with the kielbasa and mix together with seasonings

Spaghetti Sauce

So this sauce was looking a little elaborate for my taste, but only because Pioneer Woman's recipe makes a TON so you can freeze some! Her post about it was so funny to read because she adds a jar of store bought marinara sauce and she was totally mortified by the whole thing but swears by it! I tried it all out and good heavens...can this lady do anything wrong?!

This served my family plenty of sauce for spaghetti (I served it with Cheesy Garlic Bread Sticks), plus 2 large ziploc bags full of leftovers to freeze. She recommends lasagna and sloppy joes! At first I thought the sloppy joes idea was kind of weird until I could smell and taste the sauce and it totally fits. This recipe can be halved for a regular amount of sauce (it will still leave you leftovers but you'll want them anyway!)

What you will need:

• 5 lbs. ground beef
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, minced
• 1 green pepper, minced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 C white wine (or low sodium beef broth....or neither...since I spaced this step. Heehee)
• 1 14 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 2 28 oz. cans crushed tomatoes
• 1 can tomato paste (or none since I didn't have any. Whoops)
• 1 jar marinara sauce (I ended up just using prego traditional pasta sauce)
• 1 tsp. oregano
• 1 tsp. thyme
• 2 T sugar
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
• 1/4 C minced parsley
• 1/2 C grated parmesan
• Rind from Parmesan wedge (optional)

Directions:

• Brown the beef in a large pot
• Remove beef from pot, and drain the grease
• In the same large pot, add olive oil and let it heat up a bit
• Add minced onions and green peppers to the oil
• Saute' for a couple of minutes
• Add the minced garlic
• Pour the white win over the vegetables and let it cook for a minute
• Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste and marinara sauce
• Add the seasonings 
• Let it simmer for about an hour
• Add in the parsley
• Add in the parmesan and wedge if you so desire
• Let is simmer for another 30 minutes
• Serve with fresh parsley and parmesan

Pizza Dough

So once upon a time I swore off baking anything with yeast for 3 1/2 years. Not because of some superior knowledge of how deadly it is (because literally every food in existence is apparently trying to kill us according to the internet), but because I couldn't figure out how to bake with it in Portland. :(

To be fair, I only tried maybe 5 or 6 times before giving up. No matter what I did it was always really dense and awkward. I hated it. So I avoided it.

Back in Idaho and I'm celebrating by baking everything I can think of with yeast. Pizza dough included.

What better recipe to try than....*gasp*...Pioneer Woman? So unlike me....;)

This was beyond easy to make. I'm angry at how easy it was to be honest. It was easier than driving to the store to buy premade, or waiting at home for delivery. Plus my girls loved every second of it. They're on a dough kick like me. It's basically like Christmas around here when they find out I'm making more dough for them to play with.

Anyways. Fun, delicious, easy.  

This recipe also makes two crusts.

So don't go using all the dough for one pizza and then yelling at me for it coming out skiwompus.
Refrigerate the other half if you plan on using it in the next few days. Or freeze it!

Enjoy!

What you will need:

• 1 tsp. active dry or instant yeast
• 1 1/2 C warm water (I stick with 110*)
• 4 C all purpose flour
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/3 C extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

• In the bowl you plan on mixing in, combine the flour and the salt
• In a separate bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let it get all foamy
• Slowly add in the olive oil to the flour in your mixing bowl and combine
• Add your foamy yeasty water to the flour mixture and combine
• Grab another mixing bowl and spray some non stick spray in there
• Form your dough into a ball and roll it around a bit in the non stick spray bowl
• Cover the dough with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge until you're ready to use it (I made mine the night before and pulled it out the next evening. Made things go really fast and easy! I also plopped my dough into a large ziploc....it seemed to be just fine that way!) 
• When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 500*
• Use your hands and fingers to press the dough out to the shape you want
• Add your toppings
• Bake for 12-15 minutes!

Pupcakes

Kind of a random and fun post here! We celebrated our dog's 6th birthday last month and I made him some pupcakes! They're basically normal cupcakes but a little more dog friendly. He got one after we sang to him and I froze the rest. I pull them out whenever there's a pup friend around and every dog that's had one so far has LOVED them! And they were seriously so so easy to make. Small price to pay for your fur babies to have a special treat now and again :).

What you will need:

Pupcakes

• 1 C white or whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 C peanut butter
• 1/4 C vegetable oil
• 1 C shredded carrots
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/3 C honey
• 1 egg

Peanut Butter Frosting

• 4 oz. cream cheese
• 4 T peanut butter
• 1 T canola oil

Directions:

Pupcakes

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Prepare muffin tin with cupcake liners
• Mix peanut butter, oil, vanilla, honey and egg together
• Add in the flour and baking soda and mix
• Add in the shredded carrots and mix
• Bake for 25 minutes

Peanut Butter Frosting

• Mix all ingredients together

Freezable Breakfast Sandwiches

In my quest to make sure I eat breakfast daily, I thought this would be a great idea! If you've ever made an egg mcmuffin, you'll know why I love this. They are soo good! However, I would only make them every once in a while because if it takes longer than making a bowl of cereal, chances are I won't be bothering with it in the AM!

The solution? Just make a bunch and freeze 'em. Duh. Do a quick zap in the microwave in the morning while you take a shower and it's cooked and cooled a little by the time you're out.

What I really really love about this, is that you can make it so different each time. You can be a health nut and get whole grain english muffins, all natural turkey bacon, cage free eggs and use the egg whites only, low fat organic cheese slices, and add as many vegetables your little heart desires!

For my test run, though, I used what I had. That did not include whole grain english muffins, but regular. I also used the whole eggs and although my bacon wasn't all natural, it was turkey bacon at least. :)

What you will need:

• 6 english muffins
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 6 slices of cheese
• 6 slices of bacon
• 1/2 red pepper, minced
• 1/2 green pepper, minced
• 1/2 onion, minced

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degree's
• Spray a baking sheet with non stick spray and line bacon on top (I placed a cooling rack on top of my baking sheet, sprayed that and lined my bacon onto that instead)
• When oven is ready, place bacon in the oven and cook for 5 minutes
• In a medium sized bowl, beat the eggs and add in all your preferred veggies
• Spray a muffin pan with non stick spray
• Pour eggs into 6 of the muffin tins
• Place eggs into oven on the rack above the bacon and cook them all together for an additional 12 minutes (or until bacon and eggs are done)
• Toast the english muffins while everything is cooking
• Place eggs, cheese and bacon onto english muffin and top with other half
• Press down until it's flattened a little
• Wrap muffins up and stash in the freezer

To Re-heat:

• Unwrap the muffins
• Place in the microwave for about 3 minutes