Meatballs! Oh and almost homemade spaghetti sauce, too!

Sometimes when I'm cooking, whatever I'm cooking my husband will ask if I'm that ethnicity. I'll take this as a compliment! He regularly asks me if I'm sure I'm not Italian after eating my meatballs. My Mom also complimented me on them and if she likes them they must be good because she is a fabulous cook!

This recipe is similar to my Grandmother's recipe, but I added in the Parmesan cheese.

1 lb ground meat

1 whole sweet yellow onion (diced)

2 cloves of garlic (through a garlic press)

1 1/2 cups regular or italian seasoned bread crumbs

2 eggs

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (shredded)

1 teaspoon of the following:

italian seasoning (unless your bread crumbs are already seasoned and then add some more to taste)

garlic powder

onion powder

generous amount of salt and pepper.

Mix all ingredients together and roll into balls. Bake at 400 degrees on a lightly oiled cookie sheet for about 15 minutes, turning once half way through.

Quick almost homemade spaghetti sauce

1 jar of your favorite store bought sauce

1/2 sweet yellow onion

1/2 green pepper

(both of these diced)

1 clove of garlic ( put through a garlic press)

1 can of Italian diced tomatoes

1 small can of mushrooms

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

1 bay leaf

Add a generous amount of olive oil to a sauce pan, saute the onion, green pepper and garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes, add the jar of sauce, add the italian tomatoes, mushrooms, brown sugar and bay leaf. Simmer on low for about 20 minutes (while you are simmering the sauce, bake the meatballs) and there you go sauce that people will rave about (you don't have to tell them you cheated unless they ask!) and in half the time of completely homemade spaghetti sauce! Before you serve the sauce remove the bay leaf and discard.

I use Classico Tomato Basil or Tuscan sauce to start because I have found that of all the spaghetti sauces out there they use the least amount of sugar and no high fructose corn syrup.

I forgot to take pictures during this last one, sorry! But the recipes are still just as good!

Chili!

My grandmother used to make chili every fall for my Grandfather to take to his hunting camp in the mountains to share with his friends. I have fond memories of helping her and my mom in the kitchen making chili. I have tasted a lot of chili and kind of combined recipes in my head to get what I want. The chili that follows is a sweet and spicy chili. If you want to serve it at a party and make it a bit tex mex add the black beans.

Ingredients:

olive oil

1 medium size sweet yellow onion (diced)

1 green pepper (diced)

2 cloves garlic( pressed through a garlic press)

1 lb ground meat ( I used Angus)

or you could substitute turkey to make it healthier

1 can diced tomatoes ( I use no salt added)

1 can light red kidney beans (rinsed and drained)

1 can black beans (optional)

1 can tomato paste

1 teaspoon liquid smoke

1/4 of a block of Bakers unsweetened baking chocolate

1/2 teaspoon of the following:

garlic powder

onion powder

chili powder

1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (more or less to taste)

pinch of cinnamon

a couple shakes of red hot/texas pete/etc.

1 good heaping tablespoon of brown sugar

1/2 cup water

In a large stock pot add a decent amount of olive oil, add green pepper, onion, and garlic and sauté until onions and peppers have softened, 2-3 minutes on medium heat. Add ground meat and cook over medium-high heat until the meat is cooked through.

Add tomatoes, tomato paste and stir. Add spices, sugar, liquid smoke and water if you feel the chili is too thick ( I like thick chili) Sauté over low-medium heat for about 20 minutes or more if you prefer. Add beans and stir once more.

Top with grated cheese, green onions, and a dollop of sour cream. Delish!

Pumpkin Muffins

Oh one of my favorite things about the fall is baking and baking with pumpkin and spices! As my mom and I were shopping the other day she asked me to get her some pumpkin and I thought I'll get some too and find something to make. I looked up pumpkin muffins online and found a recipe for "Addictive" pumpkin muffins" on allrecipes.com. I changed the recipe up a bit to make it more nutritious and more geared toward what I wanted.

Ingredients :

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 small can pumpkin
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 
  

• 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C). Grease three 12 cup muffin pans, or line with paper muffin liners.
• 2. In a large bowl, combine the two types of flour, two sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ground cloves. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, pumpkin, and applesauce, until smooth. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and stir thoroughly to make a smooth batter. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I served these for breakfast, but if you wanted to serve them as dessert you could easily frost them with the following icing (ahem, making them not so nutritious, but quite yummy)

Cream cheese frosting:

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 
  
• In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the powdered sugar

These are yummy pumpkin muffins with or without frosting!

• 
  

Sweet Potato Pancakes

A lot of my friends have asked me for this recipe and I made these this morning so I figured this would be a good first recipe entry.

Breakfast is one of my favorite meals to cook for Wes and has quickly become a favorite to cook for Airlie. When Airlie was little and I made all her baby food I went a little overboard and cooked and pureed way too many sweet potatoes. We didn't get through them and she wanted to eat table food. She really liked pancakes and I was looking for ways to make them healthier for her so I decided to try some sweet potato pancakes. I had them once at a restaurant here in Wilmington and they were delicious. So anyway like I said before sometimes I take shortcuts. So this recipe starts out with Bisquick. I buy Bisquick Heartsmart, but I'm sure regular Bisquick would work fine also. Time is of the essence with a one year old running around and Bisquick removes the unnecessary step of mixing and measuring flour, baking soda, and baking powder. So I modified the pancake recipe on the box to fit my sweet potato need. So you will need:

1 cup Bisquick mix or 1 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and pinch of salt

2/3 cup to 1 cup skim milk

2 Tbsp egg product or 2 egg whites

3/4 cup sweet potato puree (about one baked sweet potato; I usually just make an extra one at dinner the night before)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract (buy the good stuff, it does make a difference)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg (if you have it in the house, which we always do because my husband is a spice addict; notice the nice labeled bottle in the pic) or ground nutmeg

In a bowl whisk together the wet ingredients and then add in the Bisquick or flour mixture. You should have a fairly smooth and almost runny batter, if you don't add more milk, up to a cup until you do.

Spoon mixture onto a hot griddle or frying pan; when they start to get the little bubbles in them they are ready to flip (I prefer a griddle, you can make more at a time and it cooks much more evenly)

If you want to fatten up this recipe you could use one egg instead of the two egg whites and whole milk instead of skim. The pancakes will be more dense and I prefer to have light and fluffy pancakes, hence the reason I use egg whites.

Ok now if it's a Sunday, you have company, or you just want to impress your significant other you could also put some fresh cinnamon whipped cream on top. I'm not sure why most people don't make homemade whipped cream, it is so simple if you have a Kitchen Aid Mixer or a mixer with a whisk attachment. Otherwise you may break a sweat trying to get your cream to whip.

Fresh whipped cream:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Put cream and vanilla in the bowl, turn mixer to medium speed, increase speed while adding sugar and cinnamon, the cream will start to whip up and get the consistency of whipped cream in a couple of minutes. I usually turn mine all the way up to speed 10.

Enjoy these cakes with pure maple syrup. I will say I try to shop smart and I don't splurge on all my ingredients, but two things I will always splurge on are pure maple syrup and pure vanilla extract. Believe me you will notice the difference.

Tomorrow is Sunday so you better be whipping up some of these pancakes! Mine don't have whipped cream because I was trying to be a little good today!

P.S. If you are in the Chicago area some of the best pancakes I ever had were at The Bongo Room in the Wicker Park area in Chicago. www.thebongoroom.com. Check it out!

Ok, ok, I'll start a food blog..

So I've finally caved and actually set up a food blog to well, blog about food! So this is my first entry. I love to cook, bake, try new recipes, try new restaurants, exchange recipes, but most of all I love to eat! I also like to make things with fresh, inexpensive ingredients. So here goes nothing! I'll also add a little disclaimer in here. I don't claim to be Martha Stewart, a chef, or a professional. So if something doesn't work, you don't like something or I plain mislead you by one of my crazy recipes I cannot be held accountable. Also I don't claim to be a photographer. I know that people like to see pictures of the food that they're about to cook, but like I said I'm not a photographer, but I'll try my best. And last I don't claim to always make everything from scratch. For me cooking has to be pretty convenient since my husband works at night and I have a 1 year old that is into everything. Sometimes I take short cuts. Some things to me just aren't worth it to make from scratch unless I'm having someone fabulous over. Ok with those things out in the open, I think I'll make my first blog post about pancakes. They are after all one of the easiest yet versatile entrees to make for breakfast. You can change them up so many ways. Check back soon for that first post on pancakes. And tell your friends and neighbors that I'm blogging, you know, so I can get famous like that Julie girl on Julie and Julia.