Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms

Here's another low carb recipe for you.

I love mushrooms and they work great for so many things and they're totally yummy, so here is my latest and greatest using them.

Ingredients:
1/2lb Ground Beef
1/4 c Pearled Barley
1/2 small onion
3/4 cup water
1 clove garlic
tbsp dried basil
1 cup of frozen mixed veggies
salt and pepper to taste (I added when I cooked the barley it sucks up all the salt and can get bland)

Directions:

Brown beef with onions, garlic, basil. Once it's cooked add barley frozen veggies and water, cover and let cook for 35 minutes or until barley is cooked and tender.

When all cooked, take meat and veggies and stuff the mushrooms and put back in skillet with a little white wine and evoo adn cook for about 10 minutes or until mushrooms are cooked.

I love this recipe and I will make it again and again.

No-Fry Eggplant Parm/Lasagna

I've been eating carb free for the past 2 weeks and it's going well, but I've been running out of things to eat.

So I figured I could make eggplant parm, and just not fry the eggplant. I was afraid it would work because the eggplant would be too flimsy to keep together, but it worked out great. I do have to say I added some ground turkey to it to bind it together, so the eggplant worked like lasagna.




So here's what I did.

Ingredients.

1lb Ground Turkey
1/2 chopped onion
1 clove of chopped garlic
tbsp of dry basil (to taste)
tbsp of dry oregano (to taste)
2tbsp of EVOO
1 24oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 large eggplant
4 oz of shredded mozzarella cheese (about 1/2 bag)
1 cup of ricotta cheese

Instructions:

Brown turkey, onions, garlic, basil, oregano in EVOO until cooked. After the meat is cooked add the can of tomatoes, all but about a tbsp left in the bottom....save that.

While browning meat slice with a mandolin (if you have one)the eggplant. I cut it in 1/2 length wise 1st, it's easier to slice. use the thinest setting. (If you want the bitterness out of the eggplant place them after they're sliced and cover them with a little salt....trust me it helps.)

Take the little bit of tomatoes in the bottom of the can and add about 1/3 to 1/2 of the can with warm water and add to the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan. It doesn't have to be a lot of water in the bottom of the pan, just enough to cover it.

Add a layer of sliced eggplant to the bottom of the pan untill you don't see any pan left.

Next take the ground turkey and sauce and completely cover the eggplant.

Next take the ricotta cheese (you can add alittle basil to this for flavor, I did, I also added a little dry garlic powder as well)

Drop about 10 or 12 blobs of cheese all over the meat and sauce and spread it into the meat so it's even. Add some mozz cheese to the top of the meat and ricotta cheese mixture.

Next add another layer of eggplant and a little more mozz chesse to cover it.

It's all put together now, cover with foil and bake at 350 for about an hour. After hour uncover let bake for another 5 or 10 minutes to brown the top of the cheese.

I would let it sit about 15 minutes to set up a little before eating.

It came out really good, and it's something I will totally make again.

Must make pie!

I was watching Food Network (shocker I know) but Paula was cooking and I saw this and went YUM!!

Frozen Pineapple Pie

Indepence Day

What a great day a day to celebrate America's 235th Birthday, but a very cute craft. A flag wreath to put out on the door to welcome everyone that see's it.

I found a great tutorial here from My Green Brea Cottage. I saw it and instantly knew I had to make it. It was so cute and so festive and perfect to keep up all summer long.

This is how mine came out. I used about one yard in total of fabric, I bought the 2 3/4 yards the blog called for but didn't use anywhere near that amount.

I made the "stripes" the same way by alternating 5 ties of red and white, and a total of about 20 blue ties. They were all scrunched together and I just love it.

Hope you enjoy it as well.

Adding the ties.



Close up of the ties.



Finally on the door.

Summer time cookies

I saw these and thought they would be the perfect summer time cookie. You don't really want to bake in the summer because it's hot and sticky out, but whats hotter and stickier than s'mores, not anything I can think of.

So to honor that summer time fun how about s'mores cookies? I found this
recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything. And I really can't wait to bake them.

My new addiction.

I've found a new addiction, not knitting, not crafting, not cooking, not sports.

But PINTERST!!

So, feel free to follow me if you would like, I love to find new and interesting things.

Yarn and Flip Flops.

Two great things, that go great together!!

I've done this before, but it's a really cute way to dress up a pair of plain flipflops.

Just wrap the yarn around and tie in to the ends. Super cute and quick and easy craft.

I really need to make these.

This wonderfully whimsical cupcake recipe is courtesy of Karen Tack and can be found in her dessert cookbook "Hello, Cupcake!"

And really who doesn't love corn on the cob?

Spaghetti Dogs.

I don't really know how I feel about these, but I kind of want to make them.

Not so much because I know it's going to be the best recipe every...quite possibly the worst recipe every, but I really want to make them just because they're so flippin' cute.

If you want to try it, just stick dry spaghetti noodles through hot dogs and boil. If you figure out what kind of sauce to add, let me know.

Easter, better late than never.

This year Easter was a little delayed because oif some family health issues, so we're having "Easter" dinner tomorrow.

I wanted to help out the best that I could, so my contribution to dinner was dessert. I went waivered on what I was going to make and after a lot of searching and looking online and though books and magazines I came up with cupcakes, but the real question was, what kind?

Do I make something basic? Chocolate? Vanilla? Red Velvet? All are good, but still not what I wanted to do. Lemon, strawberry, raspberry, and still not good enough. I needed something original. Then I was shopping one afternoon and saw a package of Peeps, and it came to me I remembered a picture of a cake that I saw before that had the Peeps on it, so why couldn't I make my cupcakes that way.

But of course I couldn't just put the bunnies on the cake, I needed to make the bunnies hiding eggs in the grass and that is exactly what I did.

I just made a basic white cake and buttercream icing, but I used a whole lot of green food coloring and here is the final result. I can't wait to taste them.

Yarnbombing!! It's not just for bridal bouquets anymore.

I haven't been knitting the way I used to be, I guess life just gets in the way. I've been so busy with work, the sweater that I'm working on only gets picked up when I go to my Stitch n Bitch group.

So this weekend we were having a little going away party for one of the members of my local group, so I knew I had to do something special for her, and yarnbombing some cupcakes were just the ticket.

Just had to share.

 

Sour Cream Noodle Bake.

"Cheesy Noodley Goodness"

That's the best way to describe the Sour Cream Noodle Bake from The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drumond. I love her recipes, they so easy and well explained, she even gives great instructions and pictures to work with.

This recipe spread like wildfire though The Nest, the only thing I did a little different was I tried to make it a little bit healtier by using fat free cream cheese, fat free sour cream, low fat cheddar, and ground turkey. This way you don't lose any taste, but you will lose a ton of the calories.

I do have to say it's not a quick an easy one pot meal, but it was yummy.

Enjoy some of my pictures.