BLT Pasta Salad

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Pasta salad is a perpetual favourite of mine.  BLTs are a favourite lunch of the husband.  This seemed as natural a choice as our marriage, and so it landed on our menu for a lunchtime rendezvous that we were both very much looking forward to.

The pasta I used was whole wheat, again, because that's how we roll.  I couldn't find whole wheat shells at our grocery store, so I chose fusilli for a substitute.  Gotta love how those little spirals hang on to the dressing in a pasta salad; in my opinion they were made for cold salads much more than shells (shells are made for cheese, don'tchaknow...) Also, unlike the picture, I sliced the leeks instead of chopping them.  The instructions actually call for them sliced, so I was doing as I was told, though it looks a little less pretty in a picture.

The ranch dressing packet adds a ton of flavour to this dish without having to ravage the spice rack.  I usually find other people's pasta salad recipes to be way, way too bland and boring.  I add so many different things to my own signature pasta salad that it would have an ingredient list a whole page long if I ever took the time to actually write it out.  When I saw that the only real "spice" going into this was that ranch packet, I was skeptical, but my fears were unnecessary.  Oh yum.

This pasta salad is phenomenal, and phenomenally easy to make.  I used pre-cooked, packaged crumbled bacon.  We usually have a big bag in the fridge from Costco, because in recipes like this I can use the bacon that makes my husband happy without stinking up the whole house with icky bacon stink.  Yes, I've mentioned it before; I hate the smell of cooking bacon, and was so relieved I didn't have to endure it for this dish.

Plenty easy enough for a weekday lunch, yummy enough to please people at any pot-luck, and definitely hearty enough to fill up my husband and make him a happy man, this is going on permanent rotation in my kitchen.  Yum!

OmNomNom - healthy and delicious and hearty - who could ask for more?

Crockpot Breakfast Casserole

Original Image by Stockpiling Moms

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My husband seems to be fond of pale dishes made in a crock pot; this was another of his choices, though since I pinned it, I can't exactly blame him for choosing it!  Potatoes, meat, minimal veggies - yeah, it was near the top of his list.  It's definitely "guy food."

We have breakfast for dinner once in a while, and that's when I served this dish, made up in the morning and cooked during the day.  I think this would be great for holidays, especially when mom and dad are up late the night before doing holiday chores and have to serve guests something in the morning; you can put it together and let it cook overnight, while you catch a few precious hours of sleep.

The appeal for my husband was simple; it has both bacon and sausage in it.  This is something he is generally not served.  He gets one or the other at a meal, just like he gets either hash browns or toast.  Unless we're at a restaurant, when I don't do the nagging wife thing and let him get whatever he wants, so long as he doesn't judge me for getting something with mushrooms.  Anyway, the fact that both were required to complete this dish made him grin.  Big time. 

Yeah, not very pretty in the pot actually...

It was easy to throw together.  Pre-cooking the sausage and bacon takes a little time, but that could be done ahead of time and tossed into storage ware in the fridge to keep until you were ready to put this together.  At least, that would be my plan were I to make this for a holiday.

It smelled... well, to be honest, I hate the smell of bacon. Sacrilege, I know.  But I can't help it.  And this smelled a lot like bacon while it was cooking, so I was running the kitchen fan and burning nice-smelling wax tarts and hanging out by a cracked-open window even though it was cold outside.  Be aware that your house will smell like bacon the whole time this is in the crock pot.  My husband came home, breathed deep, and sighed happily.  If you're like him, you'll love it.  As for me, I survived.  Oh the things I do for love.

This wasn't one of my favourite recipes.  It's not particularly special or anything, in my opinion, but my husband rather liked it and anything in the crock pot takes the pressure off come dinner time.  For that, it gets a thumbs-up from me.

But a little better looking on the plate!

The Reuben Dip

Original Image from The Noble Pig

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"Fun Fridays" at our house means that lunchtime is something special - I either make a cool new appetizer, or maybe some kind of hot dip, or something like pimiento cheese or cucumber finger sandwiches.  Unlike other days of the week, I try not to repeat Friday lunches more than once every few months, which means I'm always, always on the search for fantastic new recipes to try.

I found this one on Pinterest around St. Patrick's Day - I think people were pinning it like crazy because of the corned beef component.  At least, that's all I can imagine, because the Reuben doesn't seem particularly Irish-holiday-oriented, even if it does contain corned beef and (pickled) cabbage!

Ready for the Oven

I like that this has quite a lot of veggie component in it, since we were having it for lunch.  You don't want something too super rich in the middle of the day, even if it is a Fun Friday.

It's super easy to make - It took me all of about ten minutes to get everything into the bowl of the mixer (including shredding the cheese! Buy pre-shredded and you're down to five minutes). A little bit of beating and blending and I was spooning the thick and lovely looking mix into the casserole and sticking it into my pre-heated oven.

It came out lightly browned - more like golden, I suppose - and smelled fantastic.  I was a little worried about it possibly having an acidic smell from the sauerkraut, or the sauerkraut making the creamy cheesy mixture separate, but my fears were unfounded - it looked rich and delicious and the spicy scent was like walking into a great city deli.

Browned and Bubbly!

The recipe recommended using the sweet, tiny rye bread slices to serve this on, which would have been wonderful if we were able to find that anywhere at all close to home.  Instead, we settled for Triscuit crackers, which have enough stability to serve as an excellent platform for this fabulous dip.

And by the way, this makes a HUGE amount.  When it came out of the oven, my husband just looked at me incredulously when I told him it was lunch.  Seriously, it would be a great amount for a party of say, twenty people, on your goodies table.  Even as a main dish serving, this worked out to be enough for about three meals for us. (It also re-heats brilliantly!)

OmNomNom - Who's gonna say no to that?

As for husband approval, this got a hearty thumbs-up and a request that I start making this for entertaining.  I was told this would be especially good for guys' game nights, which I think is a fantastic idea.

Dinner at Eight Top

Original Image from Lion Brand Yarns

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Okay, this project may be cheating just a little bit.  Yes, the pin is on pinterest, but... well, I'm the one who pinned it via the pinmarklet.  But it has been in one of my craft pinboards for quite a while now, and since this is my blog, I get to make the rules, and I say it counts.  So there.  Feel free to debate me in the comments section if you have a complaint!

A while back I ordered some brown sport weight yarn, Bernat Cool Crochet, from Herrschnerrs.  Unfortunately for me, they sent me a yarn called "Hippie Shades" which was definitely not the color I was looking for, or what I had ordered.  They corrected the error right away and sent out the right yarn, and told me to go ahead and keep the other stuff.  So it sat in my stash basket for about a year, until I could find just the right project for it.

Then I came across the pattern for this beautiful crocheted top.  The pattern is from Lion Brand yarns, and was designed for one of their pretty, sparkly yarns.  Well, this yarn wasn't exactly sparkly, but it did have a thin gold thread that ran through it, and something about this pattern really called to me, so my mind was made up.

This is actually a super easy pattern for even beginners at crochet.  The top is worked up in alternating rows of single crochet, and the skirt is a simple shell pattern using double crochet and chain stitch.  The increases are simple to work in, and sewing it together takes only a few minutes.


I was bound and determined to wear this on my birthday, so I stayed up til quite late to finish it.  I didn't complete the drawstring, mainly because I want to use a solid colour for it, and I have to find something that matches (I will likely go with white or yellow, based on the colours of the base yarn, in a sport weight). I didn't have anything handy, but it will make the top much nicer to have that little inward tuck at the empire waist.

Note that when you are sewing the skirt portion to the top portion that the skirt is quite a bit wider, and so will have to be eased to fit.  To make that easier on myself, I basted along the top of the skirt with a single length of yarn, tightened it until it was the same size as the top, then got to work sewing it together. This makes it much easier to be sure that you're distributing the excess material evenly, and gives it a pretty, gathered look.

I also added six rows to the bottom of the skirt area.  I had quite a bit of yarn left over, and love the look of tunic type tops, so figured why not?  I simply added increases in the same manner as previous rows and continued the pattern.  I wound up with a garment that would work as a summer swimsuit cover up as well as a top, which is pretty cool!

As for wearing this, the bottom is very see-through.  I wore a white tank top underneath for modesty's sake when we went out to lunch and shopping, but if you're brave, or among good friends, or feeling a bit naughty, you can forgo the tank and just wear a bra beneath - the top gives plenty of coverage over a bra and in this way, it would be fabulous for really hot summer days when you don't feel like wearing a midriff-baring shirt as it gives you a little more cover with the shells.

Wearing this lovely flowy top just makes you feel super feminine and pretty, and the finished project is incredibly beautiful for day or evening wear - I recommend this pattern highly!

Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes

Original Image from Chef in Training

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When you give a man free reign to choose meals from your Pinterest boards, you gotta know that some things are gonna get attention faster than others.  Does he choose the beautiful, colourful salads?  The bright, cheery, fruit filled dishes?

Of course not.  Men go for the meat.

And who can resist that image of hearty, beefy meat on a bun with a rich, decadent cheese sauce drizzled over it?  Well, not my man anyway.  He already loves both cheese steaks and sloppy joes, so this recipe was a match made in heaven, as far as he was concerned.

Cheese Sauce on the Stove top

 The cheese sauce was spectacularly easy to make, as was the beefy filling for the dish.  I did substitute whole grain buns, which we prefer.  Toasted up, they add a sturdy heartiness to this dish that made it even more nom-worthy as far as I was concerned.

It looked lovely on the plate - though it made for enormous portions and tons of extra food - expect big servings from this recipe, especially where it comes to the cheese sauce!  We wound up with four big open-faced sandwiches, or you could have easily made eight regular sandwiches from this recipe.

Sizzle Sizzle Sizzle

So, how did it taste?  Pretty good.  It wasn't spectacular tasting, I hate to admit, though it wasn't bad.  We both found the sauce to be a little bit bland, and the beef mixture to be a little less flavourful than we'd like.  I will very likely make this again, but will kick up the mixture a notch or two by adding a dash of Worcestershire and garlic powder to the beef, and some white pepper and maybe a hint of Swiss or some other tangy cheese to the sauce.

While it was good, it just wasn't quite up there as "phenomenal" yet.  But it has potential to really go someplace.  I think kids would really like this meal, as it's pretty fun and interesting, and it would also make excellent party food on little slider buns.

The big guy's review?  Heck, it's meat.  He'll take it again any day.

How yummy does that look??

Italian Sausage Soup

Original Image from Disney Family

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Ah soup.  One of those lovely things about cold weather.  There's nothing better than simmering a delicious soup all day long and enjoying the steamy loveliness that evening.  I try to make soup once a week in the cold months (this is replaced by a salad entree in warm months) and I'm always looking for new soup recipes to try, so you may see many of them on my Pinterest and reviewed here in this blog.

I have to admit, with how prominently spinach is featured in this recipe, I was a little worried that my husband would reject it.  He usually only likes spinach in eggs Florentine, though I've been known to slip it past him in spaghetti sauce and lasagna before.  Still, he heartily approved of this addition to our weekly menu, so on I went with the preparation.

Pretty Browned Meatballs!

 I did change this recipe up a bit to suit our lives a little better.  I use only whole grain pasta, so that was a big difference, especially since locally I can't find whole grain shells.  I substituted bow ties, one of our favourite pasta choices for soups.  Because whole grain pasta tends to absorb more liquid than white pasta, I upped the broth a tiny bit. Additionally, I used frozen spinach, since I was planning to make this later in the week (we only grocery shop once a week) and spinach tends to wilt pretty fast on us.  Lastly, I just couldn't imagine that the meatballs would taste right to me without being browned.  I get that the meat would cook in the broth and all, but I couldn't wrap my mind around it.  So, all the meatballs were browned on the stove top before heading into the soup.  At the last minute, I ended up doubling the tomato paste too.  I love tomato flavour, and with the extra broth being added, I worried that it might wind up too thin.  It turned out just right.

Mmmm Steamy Goodness

The recipe itself was super easy to put together, and took almost no time at all, even with the added step of browning the meatballs before heading them in.  And let me tell you, this recipe makes a lot of meatballs.  When I saw the giant pile that was being created I knew this would be a husband-pleaser for sure!  And aren't they just prettier browned?  I think so.

We both agreed that this tasted like the kind of soup you'd get at a great Italian restaurant.  It did have a very strong Italian/Mediterranean vibe to it, from either the sausage meatballs or the herb combination or both.  It was fragrant, the broth was rich and flavourful, and the meatballs were tender and had absorbed much of the flavour from the soup.

This is an all-day soup that you make in the crock pot, and the beautiful melding of flavours shows off the wonders that slow cooking can do.  What a yummy thumbs up!

Irresistable!  And Husband Approved!

Braided Spaghetti Bread

Original Image from Rhodes Bread

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This sounded like a great concept, which is why I pinned it.  When I make spaghetti, I almost invariably serve it with garlic bread and salad.  This particular method of service - inside of garlic bread - was ingenious!  Nice, compact, pretty - what more could you ask for?

Well.

Lots, as it turns out.

This isn't a particularly hard recipe to put together.  I used whole wheat pasta, as that's the standard in our household, and my from-scratch marinara sauce recipe, which happens to be my husband's favourite.  With those two things in the mix, we didn't think anything could go wrong.

Ready for the oven

 And, as it turned out, it was easy to put together.  The cutting of the dough was explained in ample clarity, and I was able to create the lovely, complex-appearing braided top in just a couple of minutes.  "This will blow people's minds!" I thought.  "I'm making this all the time for guests - they'll all say I'm a genius!"

I was a little ahead of myself.

 Now, this did, I will admit, come out of the oven looking lovely.  It was golden brown and slightly shiny on top.  The smell was amazing - marinara and garlic and freshly baked bread combining to make the house seem like we'd been transported on whole to Italy.  Or at least the Olive Garden.

Really, who wouldn't want to eat that?  It's gorgeous!

I sliced us off both lovely, steaming hunks of garlic bread and spaghetti goodness.  The melted chunks of mozzarella were oozing through the braid and into the pasta and we couldn't wait and then...

And then we ate it.

Oh.

The pasta had become kind of a soggy lump inside of the bread.  I had cooked it to barely al dente, assuming it would soften more while baking, but this was... strange.  My lovely sauce had mostly evaporated, leaving the pasta dry and sticky.  Worst of all, the inside of the bread was doughy and almost... slimy.  It had that texture that an undercooked dumpling will sometimes get in an ill-prepared soup.

What the heck happened?  We felt like we were eating mushy mouthfuls of raw dough or something.  It was not good.  It was not good at all.

I thought maybe this could be salvaged.  Some things just... taste better the next day, right?  I wrapped up the massive leftovers and stuck them in the fridge, only to discover that minimal microwave heating turned leftovers into hunks of petrified wood.

Blech.

Nope, we won't be making this again.  Ever.  I won't recommend you try it, either, unless you're really brave, or really like mushy textures, or plan on feeding it to someone with minimal teeth and no taste buds or something.  Icky poo.  My first Pinterest thumbs down!

Key Lime Scones

Original Image from Delish Blog

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I love scones.  They are so easy to make, and lovely to have around when you're having a friend over for coffee.  They bake up quickly, and don't take many ingredients.  This recipe sparked my interest because I absolutely adore limes of any kind.  And lime anything of any kind. So lime scones?  I was in.

The problem is, I don't keep white sugar in the house any more.  So I have to adjust any recipes I make to my splenda-fied existence.  That's just how it is.  So task number one when making this was to create some powdered/icing/confectioners splenda.  Yes, it is possible, though it works to varying results.  I buzz the splenda in the food processor with a pinch or two of cornstarch until I get the consistency I'm looking for.  It works okay in some dishes, and not at all in others.

The baking of these scones was the easy part.  They were put together in my kitchen aid mixer, which cuts in butter like a champ, before I even had my coffee.  That's an easy recipe for you.  I let the dough rest in the fridge while I showered, then tucked it into the oven before getting dressed for the day.  By the time I was starting the coffee maker, they were on the cooling rack, waiting for the glaze.

That's where things got slightly dicey.

As happens sometimes when I'm working with my faux sugar blend, the glaze was really really runny.  I would suggest if you're going the non-sugar method, to use some extra cornstarch, and/or less lime juice when making your glaze.  I'd say about 75% of the glaze wound up running completely off the scones and onto the counter below.

That's okay, though.  Because they were delicious anyway, and too sweet of a scone can be too much for me in the mornings.  The lime flavour gave these scones enough of a kick that they were far from ordinary.

For me personally, I thought they were slightly salty, but because I don't use much salt in my cooking and baking (only enough to make leavening work and such) I may be oversensitive.  My guest who was over for coffee didn't think they were too salty at all.  When I make these again, I'll probably cut the salt just slightly; the recipe doesn't call for much, but a tiny trim certainly would be in order, at least to suit my palate.

The original of these looks prettier.  With my runnier glaze, I couldn't create lovely lines across my scones.  Instead, it was more thin and similar to the glaze on a donut, or something of the like.  Still, it became slightly crispy on the outside, as all good glazes should, and added a little surprise sweetness to the mix.

Overall, these will be made again in our house.  I can't resist that lime.  They went very very quick in our house too, didn't stick around long enough to get stale!

Gnocchi Mac & Cheese

Original Image from The Cutting Edge of Ordinary

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Doesn't that look absolutely delicious?

I agree.

We love pasta in our house and gnocchi is no exception.  Interestingly, my husband had never had it before he met me.  I love introducing him to new foods.  Growing up in small-town Canada, he missed things like ethnic restaurants, food festivals, and foreign grocery stores.  But now he has me, and that makes up for everything.  Honest.

And this was another husbands-choice recipe.  When he saw it, he made the kind of happy-stomach noises that usually get made when I serve him something delicious.  If just a picture could garner such a reaction, what would the actual food do?  I had to find out.

This recipe is fairly straightforward.  If you live in an area that doesn't stock exotic cheeses at the regular grocery counter, you may have to do a bit of hunt and gather activity.  Or look up substitutions on the Internet.  Which, to be fair, is kind of what I did.

Ready for the oven

The cheese sauce was majorly thick.  This may be my fault.  Oh god!  It's the emmental!  Yeah, substitutions mess with more than just flavour, sometimes the texture gets off too.  But we like cheese.  We like thick saucy cheese, too, so it couldn't be that bad, right? I also threw just a little bit in the way of whole grain breadcrumbs on top for that extra crunch.

This is not a healthy dish.  If looking at that pot 'o cheese didn't convince you, let me do so now.  This will clog your arteries.  Eat it with discretion. Plan on a long walk afterwards.  Share it with your friends.  It is very filling.  It is also very, very good.

I served up this gooey dish with a tomato-heavy green salad and biscuits.  The top turned golden and beautifully crisp in the oven, and the gnocchi puffed up a bit, just as promised.  Unlike many gnocchi dishes, this wasn't sticky at all.  Not in a weird way, anyway.  It was perfectly creamy, which tells me the potato starch from the pasta must meld well with that cheese sauce.  Or something.  At any rate, it works.

This is a taste-bud pleaser, but only a small portion is enough to make you really, really full.  I couldn't even eat any biscuits, and trust me, I make killer biscuits.  This made about six main dish servings, rather than the four that a package of gnocchi usually delivers, mainly because of the rich, thick cheese sauce.

The Big Guy Commentary?  Make it again!

Re-grow Green Onions? Really??!!

Original image from Socal Girl Meets Nocal Boy

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I'll admit it, I was a doubter.  I saw the pin, and thought what, are these people crazy?  You let a plant go to seed and harvest seeds, then you can re-grow it.  Or you can be lazy, like me, and BUY your seeds.  Or buy your starts.  But... but... re-grow stuff from the grocery store.  Whuuuuut?

Yeah.

I saw a couple of different pins about this over the last few weeks.  Multiple people were doing this trick all over the place it seemed, but I'd never heard of it.  I read a few of the different pins about it (and am highlighting this one because of the extra tip on freezing your green onion tops in an empty water bottle - such a smart idea) and they all seemed to be in agreement; all you need is water, and you can have practically unlimited green onions.

I was still uncertain, because I have a really, really gloomy kitchen.  It doesn't even have a window.  Were they serious about all I needed was water - what about sunlight?  This would really be a challenge of the Pinteresting variety.

When my husband first spied the little coffee mug of green onion bottoms in the kitchen, he laughed.  He thought I was crazy.  But look who's laughing now!!

 My skepticism was not warranted.  You really can grow green onions in a little bit of water, even in a dim, window-less kitchen.  All I did was plop these into a mug, change the water every 24 hours or so.  Some are about two weeks old at this point, and some are about a week and a half old.

It took less than a day to start seeing shoots growing out of the little white stubs, and not a single one failed to thrive on me, which is pretty impressive considering how many fail to thrive in my garden every year.  Of course, my kitchen is pest and disease free, at the very least.

As you can see, it's not a terribly fast process.  It's going to take a solid three weeks, I think, for me to feel like they're "ready" for a cutting, though some are progressing faster than others.  Still, a three-week turnaround when all you have to do is give 'em a drink every day is pretty awesome as far as I'm concerned.

I was surprised to see that the roots themselves didn't really grow much, but that's not the important part.  The important part is that those lovely green stalks are going to save me a few bucks on green onions, and I'm fairly excited about cutting that little bit out of our grocery budget.

I don't expect them to grow forever, but we'll see how long they last!  Definite thumbs-up for a quick, fun, and easy growing exercise.

Thursday Two-fer: Blooming Onion Sourdough Loaf and Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup

Original Image from Just Drops in the Bucket

Blooming Onion Sourdough Loaf

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I for one was always a fan of the blooming onion.  I knew it was bad for me.  All that fried batter and greasy golden onion-ey goodness can't be healthy.  But hey - it has a vegetable in it!  Even if an onion is harder to justify as vegetation than say... fried zucchini.  But as I got older and smarter, my indulgences in blooming onions dwindled to... yeah, I can't even remember the last time I had one.  It's been at least a couple of years and I only do so when there are lots of people around to share.

At any rate, when I saw this lovely pin, I had to grab it right away.  Maybe it captured the taste of a blooming onion in a somewhat healthier capacity!  How could I resist?

The ingredients were simple.  The directions were simple.  I added it to the menu on a night I was making soup, because what's more natural than bread and soup? I used trans-fat-free margarine instead of butter, but otherwise followed along with the original ingredients.

While this went together easily, I discovered a small problem once dinner was on the table.  I hadn't baked this quite long enough.  I followed the directions exactly, and I have a very new oven that heats very evenly, so I knew it wasn't me, but this needed at least five more minutes, maybe as much as seven or eight to get fully baked through.  The center was still cool and the cheese un-melted.

I also recommend having someone with large hands cut your loaf of bread for you.  I have short, stubby little fingers, and I had no trouble cutting the bread in the first direction, but had real issues going the second way.  I finally settled for cutting one side, then spinning around the bread and cutting the other side.  It was the only way I could hold together the bread enough to get nice, even cuts.

 

Dinner Table Delciousness!

My husband heartily approved of this pull-apart bread.  It was excellent with soup, and there was lots left over the next day (to have with leftover soup, of course). It would be fabulous at a party, where everyone can grab a chunk or two, or at a smallish dinner party, where everyone can have fun grabbing from the center of the table.  It is definitely going to be a make-again in our house.

Original Image from 365 Days of Slow Cooking

Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup

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I fully intended to cook this in my crock pot.  I really, really did.  But I happened to head out on the road with my husband on the day this was on our dinner menu, and didn't get home til fairly close to dinner time, which meant it wound up in my soup pot on the stove top instead.  I had to cut the recipe in half to fit in this particular soup pot; this is an enormous recipe.  The half recipe wound up making four huge main-dish servings for us, which was great as far as having leftovers was concerned (and it heated up like a champ - many homemade soups don't).

As you can see by comparing my dinner table pic with the shot from the right, this is a pretty, pretty soup, and it came out looking exactly like the image.  I find this sort of unique among some foods.  Often my stuff looks terribly different from the recipe shot, despite following instructions exactly.  I blame food stylists who spray things with shiny substances and don't actually eat the food they're shooting.

At any rate, this was also quite an easy dish, compared to many home made soups that I have in my recipe repetoire. The prep time was short, and it smelled absolutely amazing while cooking.  I was kind of glad it wasn't in the crock pot because I'd have been going nuts all day smelling how yummy this was.

This made for a fairly healthy main dish item.  My husband sometimes gets cranky on vegetarian night (though he puts up with it in fear, I suspect, that I will suggest a husband-cooks-night as a substitution if he'd rather...) but this night there wasn't a single peep of complaint.  In fact, between the bread and soup, there wasn't much sound other than slurping and nomming and general happy-man noises.  This soup has a rich, full flavour and is creamy without being overly thick. I did substitute skim milk for part of the half-and-half and vegetable broth for the chicken broth.  I also used diced tomatoes with peppers instead of plain diced tomatoes, which gave it an excellent little kick.  There's no question that this is a make-again, the husband has insisted upon it!  Maybe next time I'll try it in the crock.

This is wonderful for cold nights, and would shine as the soup course at a dinner party, particularly served before or after a slightly acidic salad.  It would pair nicely with a spinach salad with citrus or strawberries, or try it as your main dish with some yummy warm fresh-from-the-oven baked goodness alongside.

Double thumbs-up on this two-fer!  Give them both a try!

Cheesy Chicken, Bacon & Tater Tot Crock Pot Bake

Original Image from Food.com

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When I asked my husband to pick a few recipes from my "Stuff I Need to Cook" board for the next week's menu, he jumped all over this one right away.  It has all this delicious man-friendly stuff in it after all - including bacon - did I really think he'd pick a salad or tofu or quiona dish? Look at all that delicious melty goodness.  Who could possibly resist?

This is a super-easy crock pot recipe.  I love crock recipes in general, because I"m more of a morning person.  By the time dinner time rolls around, half the time I don't feel like doing a lot of work for dinner. Of course, this doesn't require a lot of work whether you're a morning person or not, it goes together in less than ten minutes.  And that included grating all the cheese - if you buy pre-grated, you're in for a remarkable lack of prep time.

In my crock pot, just starting the melty-ness

I did make a couple of discoveries on preparing this dish.  First, directions indicate that you should grease the bottom of the crock pot.  I usually use Pam spray in the crock, so gave it a nice thorough spraying and went on with the directions.

Do not do this.

I'm serious here, I lost most of the bottom of the food and a lot on the sides.  It became hard, dark brown, and utterly and completely fossilized. Pam spray is not a friend to this recipe at all.

Secondly, for me this was a little bland.  I think it's probably designed that way, but I like more interesting food, with more color and life to it.  I would suggest (and I'm planning on doing this next time) adding a layer of veggies to the center.  Family favourites around here include bell peppers and zucchini so I'll probably add something along those lines, but just about anything you like would do. I would imagine that spinach, onions, peas, and any kind of squash would work very well in this dish.

On the other hand, if you make a few veggie sides, the starchiness and cheesiness of this may be cut down by that.  I served it with a green salad, which didn't seem to be enough to counter the heaviness of the dish, when it's primarily cheesy potatoes!

Overall, this was super easy and fast to make, which made me interested in it again.  It would be especially handy for hectic days.  With a few small modifications, I think this would be a fantastic addition to any recipe repertoire! Thumbs-up on this dish.