Hamburger Rice Hot-Dish

I got this from a friend and it actually was a success with my 2 year old. I hold on to those recipes. I changed the recipe up a little. It wasn't a strict recipe to begin with. But it's a good dish for a family.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef or ground turkey
dehydrated onion or 1/4-1/2 an onion
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 c soy sauce
1 cup of rice
2 1/2 cups water
2-3 TB sour cream (optional-this is what I added for ours)

Directions:
Brown meat in large skillet. Season with a little salt and pepper and onion. Then add the can of cream of chicken soup. Add sour cream now if you wish. Next you add the rice and water. Then add the soy sauce and bring it all to a boil. Reduce it to a simmer and cover. Let it simmer until rice is tender. It's usually between 20-25 minutes. You can add more water if the rice needs it. You can also add or take away the soy sauce depending on how well your family likes it.

Thank you Audra for the recipe!

Teandra's Pizza

This recipe comes from my wonderful and talented sister-in-law Teandra. She is an amazing chef and this is a very very yummy recipe. The only thing you really need to get right on this is the dough. It's great because it doesn't have to rise.

Dough Ingredients:
1 c warm water
1 T yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/4 c olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 - 2 1/2 c flour

Dough Directions: Mix the water and yeast and sugar, let sit until frothy. Add the other ingredients and mix/knead a bit until smooth. Spread on the pizza pan and top as you wish. Bake 400-450 degrees in oven until browned on the bottom.

Thoughts from Teandra: When I start making the pizza dough, I will pre-heat the oven and put the stone/pan into the over to pre-heat as well. I then take the HOT stone/pan out and put the dough on it, careful not to burn myself. Pre-heating the stone/pan will make the bottom crispy and starts the cooking process.

I dice up an onion really fine, and take some minced garlic (jar from fridge generally) and sprinkle that directly on the dough, then I sprinkle some pizza spices on: basil and oregano. Then I put the sauce on (little can of tomato sauce). I like to put the spices on the bottom since I think it helps the flavor get captured better. Then I put the cheese on and top with any ingredients we want. Ingredient Ideas: crumbled bacon, sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, onions, olives, mushrooms, tomatoes and parmesan cheese.

My thoughts on this: Really you can put any ingredients you want on. Once we loaded it with veggies another time we kept it simple with cheese and pepperoni (our daughter likes it better that way usually). But what we LOVE is putting the chopped onion, garlic and spices on before the sauce. The dough truly does capture the flavor. As you make it you'll find what you like and what you don't. For example: we definitely use onion it every time but we never end up putting a whole onion on-usually because of my husband's taste buds. We love pizza on Friday or Saturday night and this has saved us a lot of money.

Taco Pie

We made this recipe at a relief society activity because you can freeze it. It was pretty good and my husband enjoyed it. It could use some fresh tomatoes or avocados or sour cream once it comes out of the oven.

Ingredients:
1lb ground beef or ground turkey
1 onion, chopped
1 package taco seasoning
1- 4oz can sliced black olives
1- 8oz can tomato sauce
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 tube refrigerator crescent rolls
1 cup refried beans
1- 10 1/2 oz package corn chips, crushed
1 cup sour cream

Directions:
Brown ground beef with onion. Add taco seasoning, olives and tomato sauce. Flatten crescent roll dough and press onto bottom of foil baking pan. Heat refried beans and mix with 2 tablespoons of water to make spreadable. Spread over crust. Top with 1 cup of the cheese. Cover crust with half of the crushed corn chips. Spoon meat mixture over corn chips. Cover with sour cream. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup of cheese. Top with remaining corn chips. Cover with heavy foil. Label and freeze.

to serve: Thaw overnight. Bake uncovered 45 minutes at 375 degrees. If frozen bake 3 hours.


When we got this recipe they told us that it was for two meals. You could probably use it for one because when we made it, it was a little thin.

Apricot Nut Bread

This is a "I need something sweet but don't want to feel guilty" kind of recipe. It's good for you and it's filling. And my daughter loves it! That's a rare thing. I have a book called The Green Diet and the author has a website: mygreendiet.com. The book and website have a variety of vegetarian/vegan recipes that taste wonderful. I can't tell you that I eat this way all the time but I do believe in the benefit this kind of diet has on your health. I wish I ate this way more often cause I can tell you from personal experience that I feel great when I do. Enjoy!


Apricot Nut Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 cup apple juice
• ½ cup all-fruit apricot spread or apricot jam
• 2/3 cup chopped dried apricots
• ½ cup oat bran
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 Tbs honey
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ cup chopped walnuts

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.

2. Bring the apple juice to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and add the apricot spread, apricots, and oat bran, let stand for 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, combine the oil, bananas, and honey in a large mixing bowl; whisk well. Add apricot mixture. Add the dry ingredients to the banana-apricot mixture, stirring just until moist.

4. Spoon the batter into a greased loaf pan. Back for 55-65 minutes or until pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool and enjoy.

Easy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love this recipe! My family loves it, it's fun to make around this time of year and it's just so easy.

1 large can of pumpkin (the stuff you buy for pumpkin pie)
2 boxes of spice cake mix
1-2 bags of chocolate chips (I like to use 2 bags and semi-sweet)

Combine all ingredients. Scoop into balls (as best you can) onto a lightly greased baking sheet. The dough is easier to make into balls when it's been in the refrigerator for a while. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-15 minutes (depending on your oven-just keep an eye on them). They are done when the bottoms of the cookie are a darker brown. This makes a lot, like 6 dozen or more.


Daughter rating= 5 (Loved it!)

long time

It's been a while since I've updated this blog. I love new recipes but when I'm trying to find new ones and making them I tend to lose track of my health and weight and forget about eating healthy. Because of this I've once again started the 'eat to live' diet (also known as the Dr. Fuhrman diet). Last weekend we had a little bit of a scare with my blood pressure being WAY too high. I've always had this problem but it wasn't until I got pregnant with my daughter that I realized it was an issue. Since then I've struggled with it. If I don't eat healthy my blood pressure is high. It's as simple as that. I can no longer pretend to not be aware of this and need to make changes. I love food and love when it tastes good. So right now I'm in search of recipes that are vegetarian or vegan that taste good. I won't continue to eat healthy unless I find food that is enjoyable to eat. I have found that the eat to live diet is the quickest way for me to get my blood pressure down so this is one of the reasons for choosing it. I feel good about it though and have a better attitude this time around. So if anyone is reading this and has some recipes to share I would really appreciate it. When I find good recipes that are worth posting than I will share them also. Thanks!

Mmmm, mmmm good recipes etc.

I'm sorry to those that check this blog. I haven't been very good at posting the new recipes I have been trying. But the 4 posts before this were 4 great new recipes that I loved and hope you will too! If you try them I would love to know what you think! I know there have been a couple of you that have sent me some recipes that I haven't tried yet. I haven't forgotten and I still want to try them. So keep them coming and send them to lindsey_pfeil@yahoo.com. I'm also starting to rate the recipe to how my daughter liked it. She's very picky and I'm trying to do new things. She's about 18 months old. We'll see how it goes. Here's how I'm going to rate them. They're not professional sounding at all, but describe my daughter's eating habits very well. She's a number 2 most of the time.

1-Didn't touch it
2- Tried a little but spit it out
3- Tried a little and swallowed a little
4- Liked it!
5- Loved it!