Paula Deen's Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf

So this is one of those recipes we have all the time, we love it here, but for some reason it isn't on my blog.  I don't know how I have missed featuring it, but here it is :).  I found this a long time ago from Paula Deen, either in a cookbook or on foodnetwork.com, but it is great, and I have made very few changes to it.  The way I make it, each serving is 471 calories, and the meatloaf makes 8 servings.  We give this a perfect 10, like I said, it is a family favorite.

Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf

Ingredients (8 servings—471/serving)

• 1 pound ground chuck
• 10 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1 (8-ounce) package sharp Cheddar, grated 
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten 
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs, toasted 
• 1/8 cup mayonnaise 
• 1/8 cup horseradish cream or dijon horseradish mayonnaise (I have used both, we like it both ways)
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 1-2 tablespoons prepared mustard 
• 1 (3-ounce) can French fried onions (I use less than this)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the ground chuck and next 8 ingredients, mixing well.
In a small bowl, combine the ketchup and mustard. Stir 1/4 cup ketchup mixture into meat mixture, reserving remaining ketchup mixture.

Press meat mixture into a 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan, or shape into a loaf and place on a rack in a broiler pan. Spread remaining ketchup mixture over loaf. Bake 45 minutes. Top with French fried onions; bake another 10 to 15 minutes, or until meat is no longer pink. 

Kristen Ashley's Apple Caramelumble

Kristen Ashley made us another winner again, I love me some crumble, and this is just the way I like it, with a good ratio of crumble to apple, not just super appley.  We all gave this a 9, and I made a basic creme anglaise to go with it.  Follow this link to this delicious recipe, and I will post the amounts I used here, it's pretty close to the same as the weighted ingredients.

2 c flour
pinch of salt
1 1/4 c brown sugar
18 T unsalted butter

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
1/4 c brown sugar
1 T flour
pinch of salt
dash of cinnamon

Mix together the apples, 1/4 c brown sugar, 1 T flour, salt and cinnamon.  Pour into a greased pan.  Mix together the first list of ingredients, and then pour them over the top of the apples.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  Serve with custard, vanilla ice cream, or creme anglaise.

Each serving, we made 12 of them, with the cream sauce, was 403 calories.

Kevin and Amanda's Cheesy Chicken Bacon Broccoli and Rice

I found this recipe here, but I will be posting the recipe the way I made it, so it is a little different.  I was a little concerned about how the ingredients would fit together, but it seemed to be a popular recipe, so I thought I would try it.  I was right to be concerned, these ingredients didn't fit well together.

I didn't make the white sauce and add the cheese to it, I just made it with the cheese added to the rice mixture.  I also would suggest making this in a big pot or Dutch oven, it makes a lot of food.  I would next time not add the broccoli, and add some more Mexican flavors, some cumin, etc, because the broccoli was just so out of place in this.  Oh well, try it and see if you like it.  Each serving was 350 calories approximately, and we got 10-12 servings out of this recipe.

JoAnn Fluke's Cherry Winks

These cookies are surprisingly delicious.  They sound a little weird, with the corn flakes on the outside, and the cherry juice, but they are pretty, and have a great texture, and I love the light cherry flavor with the almond and vanilla.  I found this recipe in one of JoAnn Fluke's books, and while I had to make some changes to make the recipe work for me, this was still a great addition.  Noah gave this an 8, and Owen and I gave it a 9.

Cherry Winks

Makes 24 cookies, 172 calories per cookie

Preheat oven to 375.

1 c butter, melted 

1 c white sugar 

2 beaten eggs

1/2  t vanilla 

1/2 t almond extract 

3 T maraschino cherry juice

1 t baking powder 

½ t baking soda

½ t salt

2 3/4 c flour

2 1/4  c corn flakes, crushed

1 small jar maraschino cherries for garnish 

Mix together sugar and butter.  Then add the eggs.  Stir in the vanilla, cherry juice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add the flour and mix well.  Crush the corn flakes and put them in a small bowl.

Roll the dough into balls and put them in the corn flakes and place on a greased cookie sheet. Quarter the cherries and put them into the top of the cookies. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes, cool for 2 minutes on cookie sheet, then finish cooling.

I had to use more flour and corn flakes than the recipe called for, these are my amounts, but be prepared to use less, start with 2 c of both and see what happens :).  Also, if you prefer no almond extract, just use the vanilla.

After letting these set covered overnight, they became quite a bit less delicious.  The cornflakes weren't great after the first day, they were no longer crispy.  So, if you are going to make these, be sure to serve them the day of making them.

Latin American Street Food's Arepas with Chicken Avocado Salad

I didn't love the arepas for this recipe, but I did like the chicken salad, which is what I am featuring in this blog post.  Owen gave this a 6, I gave it a 7, and Aaron and Noah gave this an 8.  Each arepa with a HUGE amount of chicken salad was 715 calories.  The huge amount of chicken salad by itself without the arepa was 428 calories, but like I said this was a LOT of food :).  Anyway, here's what to do

6 c cooked and shredded chicken

2 avocados

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 c mayonnaise

6 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature

1/4 c chopped green onions

1/4 c fresh lime juice

Mix all the ingredients together and mix well.  Serve.  Easy peasy :)

Flour's Brioche au Chocolat

I love brioche, and I love chocolate, and Flour's recipes are always amazing, so it's hard to go wrong here.  Aaron, Owen and Noah all gave this a 9, and I gave them an 8 because I felt like they were a tiny bit dry, my fault because I cooked them a little too long.

My picture isn't great, but these are some delicious pastries, each one 450 calories.  

The brioche is the same as Flour's Sticky Sticky buns that I made before, and you can find the recipe here for the sticky buns, and the brioche dough I used.  I made the full batch this time, and I made one loaf of brioche bread, then made these with the other half.  

1/2 recipe brioche dough

1-2 c pastry cream

4 oz bittersweet chocolate

1 egg beaten

Roll out the brioche dough into a large rectangle on a lightly floured surface.  Spread the pastry cream all over the dough, then scatter the chocolate over the bottom half.  Fold the top half over the bottom, then cut into 10 (I only got 9) pastries.  Lay on a parchment lined cookie sheet, and allow to rise for two hours in a warm place.  After 2 hours, preheat the oven to 350, and brush the tops of the pastries with the egg.  Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the pastries are golden brown.  Serve after cooling for a few minutes.

Latin American Street Food's Bean Stuffed Masa Cakes

This is an easy, fun finger food that has a really good flavor.  I served this with salsa and a slaw that was suggested by the author of Latin American Street Food, and it was really delicious.  We all gave this a 9, and each cake, or pupusa was 163 calories.

3 c masa harina
3 1/4-3 1/2 c warm water
1 1/2 c refried beans (I used canned)

Mix the masa harina and the water together.  Let rest for 10 minutes.  Heat a griddle to about 375 degrees, then wet your hands and divide the masa into 12 portions.  Place 1 heaping tablespoon of the beans in to the center of each masa portion, then form a circle around the beans.  Flatten the cake with your wet hands, being careful to not expose the beans.  Cook the cakes on the griddle, about 5 minutes per side.  Serve with the slaw and salsa, or whatever toppings you desire.

Picky Palate's White Chocolate Lemon Poppy Seed Blondies

I found this recipe from Picky Palate at this link, and I followed the recipe almost exactly, I just didn't sprinkle the blondies with powdered sugar and I used 3 oz of white chocolate bars rather than just the chips.  Each bar was 229 calories, and I cut them into 12 servings.  Aaron gave them a 7, Owen gave them an 8 because he didn't love the lemon flavor, and Noah and I gave them a 9.  Follow the link and try these lemony sweet bars :).  Also, if you have leftover lemon curd like I did, here is another good recipe  using lemon curd, I used white chocolate pudding mix rather than vanilla, and we made 36 cookies at 171 calories each.  Yummy licious!

Latin American Street Food's Red Pozole

We liked this stew, it was hearty and flavorful, and different.  Noah has declared undying love for hominy :), and we all enjoyed it in the stew.  I wish this had had some cilantro added at the end to give it some freshness, but it was still good.  In the recipe, the suggested toppings were lettuce and radishes, so that would've freshened it up, but neither of those sounded good to me, so we didn't add them.  Each serving, and we made 12 servings, was 379 calories, Owen and I gave this an 8 and Aaron and Noah gave it a 9.  This recipe calls for lard, and I used it, but use bacon fat, or vegetable oil if you desire.

1/4 c lard (I only used 2 T of this)
3 lbs pork shoulder, chopped into bite sized pieces and seasoned
3 c onion, minced
2 bay leaves
1 t oregano
1 t thyme
58 oz canned hominy, drained and rinsed
6 ancho chiles
6 dried New Mexico chiles
2 large garlic cloves
salt and pepper

Starting with 2 T of the lard, cook the pork in batches until browned.  Remove the pork, and pour off all fat/juices from the pan except for 1 T.  Cook half of the onions, then add the bay leaves, oregano and thyme.  Return the pork to the pan, cover with water by two inches, and bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce the heat, and simmer about 2 hours.  Add the hominy, and cook for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, submerge the dried chilies into 4 c boiling water and soak for 10 minutes.  Drain the chilies, reserving the soaking liquid.
Remove the stems, seeds and veins from the chilies, the place the chilies in a blender or food processor.  Add 2 c of the soaking liquid, the remaining onions, and the garlic.  Blend until smooth.  Strain the mixture through a sieve into the simmering pork.  Return the chili paste back to the blender, and add another 1/2 c of the soaking liquid and blend again.  Strain the mixture again into the simmering pork, discard the remainder of the paste.  Season with salt and pepper, then simmer for 20 minutes.  Serve.

The Perfect Scoop's Milk Chocolate Brownie Ice Cream

I asked the boys what they wanted to try first out of my new cookbook The Perfect Scoop, and they chose milk chocolate ice cream.  I decided to use the author's suggestion and add brownies to this, and this is some creamy, delicious ice cream.  Owen, Noah and I gave this a perfect 10, and Aaron gave this an 8 because he didn't like the milk chocolate.  I used the brownie recipe in the cookbook, but you could use any brownie recipe and just break them into small chunks.  David Lebovitz suggests only using milk chocolate that is at least 30% cocoa solids, and so I used Godiva milk chocolate that is 31% cocoa solids.  This is a custard based ice cream, which is the only kind of ice cream I like to make, since it makes super rich, creamy ice cream.  It also lends itself to high calorie ice cream, but oh well :).  Each serving, about a 1/2 c serving, is 431 calories, the way I made it.
8 oz milk chocolate
2 c heavy cream
1 c 1% milk
3/4 c sugar
pinch of salt
4 egg yolks
dash of vanilla
brownies

Melt 1 1/2 c cream and milk chocolate together in the microwave, stirring very often until the chocolate melts.
Make a custard with the remaining ingredients, warming the milk, remaining cream, sugar and salt, then beating and tempering the egg yolks before adding to the pan of milk and cooking until thickened.  Pour the custard through a strainer into the melted milk chocolate, stir in the vanilla, then chill thoroughly.  Churn in your ice cream mixer, then fold in the brownie bits and freeze.  Yummy!!!

Pasta Salad from Absolutely Avocados

I liked this salad because of the arugula and dressing, but I didn't love the cheese, and neither did the rest of the family.  I added chicken to this, so we could have a complete meal, and this was such a nice, summery salad.  The original recipe used farro and was vegetarian, so this is really just a take on the original recipe from Absolutely Avocados.  Aaron and I gave this a 9, and the boys gave it an 8.  Each serving was 551 calories, and here's what to do:

3 oz pasta, cooked and set aside
1 avocado
1 roma tomato
1 c small cheese balls, quartered (I would use fresh mozzarella next time)
12 oz chicken breasts, cooked and chopped (I cooked mine in the crockpot)
1/4 c olive oil
2 T red wine vinegar
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T Parmesan cheese
1 t oregano
1 t parsley
1 t garlic
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t salt
pepper
2 c arugula

Mix together the olive oil with all the ingredients up to the pepper, then in a large bowl mix everything together except the arugula and avocado.  Let chill for as long as you would like, then when ready to serve add in the avocado and arugula, mix well, and serve.

Latin American Street Food's Spicy Chicken Tostadas

Yum!  I really loved these, and we liked the ease of eating and making these.  Noah and Aaron gave it a perfect 10, and Owen and I gave these a 9, Owen because he said they were too spicy, and I just don't love chicken tostadas as much as just bean ones.  The Latin American Street Food cookbook came up with a real winner for our family this time.  We split this meat into 12 servings, and each serving was 77 calories.

1 T vegetable oil
1 c onion
2 large garlic cloves, minced
4 roma tomatoes
6 chopped tomatillos
1 chipotle chile
2 t adobo sauce
1 t oregano
1/2 t dried thyme
2 1/2 c packed shredded cooked chicken
1 c chicken broth
1 t salt
tostadas and toppings

Heat the oil over medium-high heat, add the onions and saute until softened, about 3 minutes.  Add the garlic, tomatoes, tomatillos, chile, adobo sauce, oregano, and thyme.  Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes.  Add the chicken, broth, and salt, continue cooking for 20 or so minutes.  Serve with desired toppings.

Cook's Illustrated's Polish Dumplings

These are fun, and different than our usual fare.  These pierogis filled with meat are delicious, and I like that the dough isn't a pastry dough but more like a pasta dough, and they make for a tasty dumpling.  I gave these an 8, and the boys all gave these a 9.  I felt like they could've used more flavor, but regardless, they are fun and good.  The calories for four of the dumplings is 372, but that includes extra carmelized onions on the top and we didn't have that.  Anyway, here's what to do:

2 c flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
1/2 t salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 T vegetable oil
4-6 T cold water
4 T unsalted butter

4 T unsalted butter
3 large onions halved and sliced thin
salt

Meat or cheese fillings

Pulse the flour and salt together in a food processor.  With the machine running, slowly add the eggs and oil, about 30 seconds.  Slowly add the water until the dough forms a ball.  Knead the dough for about 2 minutes by hand, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for about 15 minutes, or up to two hours.  Melt 4 T of the butter, then add the onions and 1/4 t salt and cook until well browned and softened.  Reserve 1/4 c of the onions, chop them finely, and keep them to fill the pierogis with.  (I used the rest of the onions in another recipe, instead of eating them with this recipe.)  Divide the dough into two pieces, roll each out to a very thin dough, and cut the dough into small circles.  You should get about 32 dumplings in all.  Fill the dumplings with your choice of filling, then form them into half moon shapes and crimp them together.  Boil water, adn add salt.  Cook the pierogis until al dente, about 5-6 minutes.  Melt the remaining butter in the skillet used to carmelize the onions, then cook the pierogis 1-2 minutes per side.  Serve.