What are you waiting for?

There's a lot of great recipes for you try and stories for you to read! I just haven't had time to get them ready for you! I have lots of good stuff waiting for you though! I can't wait to share...

Hungry Man Italian Sub with Olive Tepanade

I love a good sandwich. Ok, I will even go for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich most of the time. Or a peanut butter pickle sandwich (thanks to the Green Girls), yummy! Hey don't knock it until you've tried it. *focus* Anyway, so I am happy to make a sandwich and call it a meal. But the men in my life scoff when I mention making a sandwich, especially if I try to pass it off as dinner. I guess I can't blame 'em. I mean Superman runs miles and miles everyday and has a vigorous weight training schedule...I guess that he has a reason to be hungry man. That is why I had to make the Hungry Man Italian Sub.

This very substantial flavorful sandwich will satisfy the hungriest of appetites! It's full of meats and cheeses, oh ya and veggies. If you haven't tried a Tepanade on a sammy, you will be hooked after this one! A tepanade is a spread generally used on bread. More commonly used in France and the Mediterranean. It is sooo good!

Warning...feeding hungry men this sandwich will cause them to kiss the ground that you walk on! Watch your step!

layer it on...

don't be shy

ready for the grill

oohh la la...I mean *grunt, grunt, grunt* (Tim Taylor style)

Hungry Man Italian Sub


Ingredients
Olive Tepanade
6oz can black olives
7oz jar green olives
4oz capers
1 Tbl Hot Sauce (optional, but man can totally handle it!)
1 tsp dried Oregano
1/3 cup olive oil

Drain olives and capers. Dump all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until it is almost a paste consistency, but still small chunks.

Subs
6 large sub rolls
1 lb deli ham, sliced
1 lb hard salami, sliced
1/2 lb sliced mozzarella
1/2 lb sliced provolone
Red onion slices
Romain lettuce leaves
Sliced tomato

Slice the sub rolls in half length-wise and smear 1/6 of the olive Tempanade on each of the bottom half of the rolls. Ok, now that you've got that out of the way, start layering the meat on. Add 1/6 of the ham, salami, mozzarella and provolone to each of the rolls. Top with a few slices of red onion, tomato and romain lettuce. Add the top of the roll, cut in half and serve to a group of hungry men! We put ours in the panini grill! Even yummier with warm meat and melted cheese!

I dare you to try to eat a whole one. I have to cut one in thirds for myself! Serve, eat and enjoy!

Warmly,
Mary

Blueberry Almond Creme Muffins

Dear Neighbors,

I know that my kids get up early and we play outside before you are even thinking about getting out of bed. And I am terribly sorry that the warrior and the princess were screaming and singing at the top of their lungs as they rode their bikes up and down the street this morning. Please accept this as a token of my sincere apology...when you smell the overwhelming sweet aroma of fresh baked muffins billowing out of my window, just wait on your porch with your coffee and I will be by with my peace offering. I am positive that these wonderful blueberry muffins with a cream cheese filling and an almond topping with make up for your loss of sleep.

Warmly,
The mama of a princess and a warrior

Blueberry Almond Creme Muffins
(Makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients for the Muffins

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
2 cups blueberries

Cream Filling
4 oz Cream Cheese, room temp
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract


Almond Topping Ingredients
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup slivered almonds
2 Tbl butter, melted


Heat oven to 400. In a small mixing bowl beat the egg, milk, oil, vanilla and almond extract. In a Medium mixing bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir in around three or four times then fold in the blueberries, you don't want to over mix muffins, I promise.

Okay, in another bowl add all of the Cream Filling ingredients and with mixer, cream it all together.

Lastly, in a small bowl mix together the Almond topping ingredients.

In a greased muffin tin, spoon half of the blueberry muffin mixture into the muffin wells. Add a spoonful of the filling on top of the blueberry mixture. Spoon the remaining half of the blueberry batter on top. And top it all off with a spoonful of the surgery almond topping. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

If the blueberry muffins weren't enough on their own, filled with cream cheese and topped with a sweet crunchy almonds should definitely win you over! Enjoy!

Warmly,
Mary

White Chocolate French Vanilla Peach Cake

I know! Why can't I just leave well enough alone! I am sure that French Vanilla Cake would be lovely! I am also sure that peach cake would be sweet and refreshing! And I know that white chocolate cake and frosting would be yummy! But put the three amazing flavors together and you get something that you absolutely can not resist! Plus it's a super easy recipe my friends! In fact, looking back, I can't take credit for this recipe at all, looks like the princess and the warrior made the whole thing! Oh well! And looking back, I think that I use the !exclamation mark! too much!!!! Sorry, it's just me!

first the eggs

super easy, a cake mix and a box of instant pudding!

a cup of milk

add the pudding

add the flour, sugar and some other pre-measured stuff

now the oil

mmm...white chocolate

before...

...after

White Chocolate French Vanilla Peach Cake

Ingredients
1 box Vanilla Cake mix
1 pkg French Vanilla instant pudding
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup oil
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 oz good quality white chocolate, chopped into small pieces


Filling
1 large can Peach slices, juice drained and peaches cut into small chunks (reserving several slices if you choose, for the top of the cake)

White Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients
1 cup butter, room temp
1 cup heavy whipping cream
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 oz white chocolate

Heat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with an electric mixer very well. Add all the rest of the cake ingredients except the white chocolate, and beat with the mixer for 2 minutes. Now stir in the white chocolate pieces.

Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Or grease a regular cake pan (if you choose not to do the triple layer like I did). Pour the cake batter into the pan and bake for 15 - 20 min (for baking in a jelly roll pan). When done, remove from the oven and cool completely.

While the cake is cooling let's make the frosting! Melt the white chocolate in a microwavable bowl for 30 second increments, stirring after each time. In a large mixing bowl cream the butter with an electric mixer for about one minute. Add the whipping cream and vanilla and beat for another minute. Add the white chocolate and sugar and mix for 2 minutes, it will look fluffy and lovely!

Mix 1 cup of the frosting and the peach chunks together in a bowl.
Cut the cake into 3 equal pieces. Set the first layer on a serving plate or platter. Spread 1/2 of the mixture on top of the first layer of cake. Set the second layer on top and spread the remaining peach mixture on that layer. Top with final layer of cake. Frost the sides and top with the remaining frosting. Use the remaining peach slices to garnish the top if you choose.

Enjoy this lovely bright and refreshing cake! Didn't the kids do an amazing job! I am so proud! They will each make someone very happy one day!

Warmly,
Mary

Chicken Tortilla Bake

Do you have a hard time getting your family to eat healthy meals? Here's another super easy and healthy meal. Your kids (or even you) won't mind eating spinach because it's surrounded with all kinds of other goodness! Who can resist chicken and spinach when it's topped with cheesy nachos? I know you're busy, so I'll get right to the recipe...okay, after some pictures...

Chicken Tortilla Bake

 Ingredients

1 lb Chicken Breast, cooked and cubed
3 cups fresh spinach leaves
2 cups tortilla chips, broken into pieces
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded (or more if you like it really cheesy!)
1 1/2 cups salsa, plus more for serving
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 small red onion, diced

Preheat oven to 400. In a large mixing bowl add ricotta cheese and salsa and mix until well combined. Add chicken, spinach, onion, 1 cup of the cheese and 1 1/2 cups of the crushed chips. Mix until well combined. Pour into a casserole dish or large pie plate. Now sprinkle on top, the remaining tortilla chips and top that with the remaining cheese. Cover loosely with a piece of foil and bake for 20 minutes or until hot. Serve with additional salsa  and some sour cream if you'd like.

See, quick and easy! And if you had roasted chicken in the freezer from Freezer Meals...My Way, it's even faster! Enjoy!


Warmly,
Mary

Banana Nut Muffins

I once heard someone saying that they didn't like banana bread because it's always dry and tasteless. I thought "what planet are you from?". I had never had dry or tasteless banana bread. Then recently I had it from a mix and in that moment I experienced dry and tasteless banana bread. In 30 years of life I had never had bread from a mix and now knew why. Three thoughts came to mind 1) maybe had they added REAL bananas to the mix, it would have helped A LOT! 2) banana bread is not hard to make...why not make it from scratch? 3) I am now really hungry for the real stuff!

I have a go-to banana bread recipe that I use, but I wanted  to "play around" with creating a muffin recipe. I was ready...had my pen and paper handy and started measuring away. The kids helped, we baked them and they smelled wonderful! Before the muffins even cooled down the kids ate them up like nobody's business...I had to steal 1/2 of the last one so that I knew what it tasted like. But something just wasn't right....what is it? Something was missing...it's moist, great texture, nice banana flavor but not...hmm...not sweet...oh, the sugar! I left out the sugar! And the kids still LOVED the sugar-less Banana Nut Muffins! Even so, obviously I had to make them again, to finalize the true recipe. Yep, perfect! And if you've tried my Very Merry Blueberry Muffins you know I like a sweet crunchy top, which these have!

If you only have 10 minutes to whip up some quick bread...please give these a shot. It will be worth it! If not I have some in my freezer because a 2 yr old and a 4 yr old could not possibly eat another dozen muffins! Even if this batch did have sugar in them!

Banana Nut Muffins

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 bananas, mashed with a fork (Use 3 bananas if you dare! I would!)

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Crumb Topping (optional but totally worth it!)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ cup butter, melted

Handful of chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 400. Spray or grease muffin pan. In a medium bowl mix the first four ingredients. In a small bowl, beat egg, milk, oil and vanilla. Then stir in the bananas and the sugar. Add the banana mixture and walnuts to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Divide equally into the muffin pan. I use a large ice cream scoop and they come out perfectly equal every time.

Now for the crumb topping mix flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter, mix well. Add in walnuts if you choose. Spoon evenly over the muffins. Bake for 20 minutes.


Eat them up while they are nice and warm! Enjoy my friends!

Warmly, 
Mary

Delicous Sausage Gravy...oh and biscuits if you want...

So, I served up some breakfast for my sweet Princess and when I went back into the kitchen to grab my tea I heard some serious lip smacking. Princess girl was sucking the gravy right off the biscuits! I agree hun, this gravy needs no biscuit...that's just wastes tummy space...It is that good!

We don't use salt or pepper...usually...ok, ever (ok, only in baking).  I know it's practically a sin not to add black pepper to gravy...I KNOW! It took me a long time to adapt. But I add a tad bit of garlic and Cheyenne pepper to make up for it. If you feel the need, add your pepper! It won't hurt my feelings.

Sausage Gravy 

Ingredients
1 lb breakfast sausage, turkey sausage if you wish
2 Tbl butter
2 Tbl flour
1/2 tsp garlic powder
pinch Cheyenne pepper
Biscuits...your favorite recipe...

Bake the Biscuits.

Brown the sausage in a skillet over medium heat. Once browned, drain the grease, remove the sausage from the skillet and set on a plate layered with paper towels to absorb the extra grease. Do not rinse the meat with water, it will wash away the flavor that actually makes the meat sausage.

Return the skillet to the burner add butter and flour. Stir and continue to cook for 2 - 3 minutes after all the butter is melted and the flour starts to turn a golden brown, add garlic and cayenne pepper. This is also when you would add 1 tsp of black pepper, if you choose to cook with it. Gradually wisk in the milk, continually stirring so that you don't have lumpy gravy. Return the sausage to the skillet and cook until thick. If you prefer thinner gravy, add more milk. If you like it thicker, just let it simmer longer. Pour over biscuits or toast and serve. Or if you are like the Princess girl, just scoop the good gravy in a bowl and eat with a spoon! Who needs a biscuit with this gravy!

Enjoy!


Warmly,
Mary