Best Ever Meatloaf

I'm not so sure I should keep the title of "Best Ever". I have probably eaten 3 different meatloafs (loaves?) in my entire life....each one once. I am not a meatloaf person...unless you count the singer/actor, in which case, I'm a fan. I figured I'd give it a shot, since it's easy to make and I had two packs of ground beef to use. I just don't have enough comparison to really say this is the "best ever".

Let me start by saying that mixing the ingredients by hand is a must, and most of my ingredients were very cold! Just thought I'd give you a heads up. As I added my ingredients to the bowl, I ran my faucet to get warm water to rinse with while I mixed, and I'm glad I did. I left out the onions for this since Dan doesn't like them and I didn't have one anyways. I also had some wheat crackers instead of Ritz, and they worked just fine. It used just under a sleeve to make a cup of crumbs.

The topping/sauce is what makes this recipe, I think. I misread the directions, and added the sauce in the last 15 minutes of cooking, not halfway through. Halfway through would have been better. This is why you always read through the directions, twice, before starting your recipe. Dan is busy as usual, so I don't have his opinion on this yet as he will be heating his dinner up later, so I'm hoping he likes it. I served it with some mashed potatoes and steamed corn.

Best Ever Meatloaf
from Pip & Ebby

2 lbs. ground beef
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup onion, finely chopped
1 cup buttery cracker crumbs (about 1 sleeve of crackers)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

For the topping:
3/4 cup ketchup
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup apricot preserves

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x5 loaf pan.
2. I a large bowl combine all ingredients for the meatloaf and mix by hand until well combined.
3. Press into the loaf pan. Place loaf pan on a baking sheet to catch any juice that may boil over and drip in the oven. Bake for 90 minutes. Halfway through, you will top with sauce.
4. To prepare the sauce, in a small bowl combined the sauce ingredients until well mixed. Pour half the sauce over the meatloaf halfway through cooking. Reserve the remainder for dipping.
5. Let the meatloaf sit for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Forgot to take a pic before I sliced it to check for doneness.

Pesto Chicken Pasta

Here's the other dish I brought to our monthly dinner at my grandmother's house. I just randomly threw it together with things I had around the house. It turned out pretty good and most of it went quickly. For the pesto, I used a mix from Tastefully Simple that I had (and finally used the last of). You could use prepared pesto or find a recipe to make your own. I had about 1/4 cup of it, which is all the pasta needed. It wasn't too overwhelming. I also added in just under a 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese to the pasta as well as I mixed everything together. I think this would be great as a cold pasta salad as well. Cold chicken sort of freaks me out, so I would substitute it with some cubed mozzarella or something if I were to serve it cold. Also, when I used the small jar of sun-dried tomatoes in oil, I rinsed them quickly. I didn't need all that oil in the pasta, since the pesto had some with it.

Pesto Chicken Pasta

1 package any pasta you choose, I used Farfalle
1/4 cup prepared pesto
about 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 chicken breasts, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieced
1 small jar sun-dried tomatoes in oil

1. Boil pasta and drain. Return to pot.
2. Add the chicken and tomatoes. Add the pesto and cheese and mix everything together until well mixed.

Boom, that's it! Easy peasy.

Lemon Parmesan Asparagus

Last night was our monthly family dinner at my grandmother's house. With temperatures in the 80s and the humidity being thick and nearly unbearable, you may wonder why I would choose to roast something. First, I have central air in my house, and second, I craved roasted asparagus. Cravings always win...

I bought two bundles of asparagus and one bundle was pretty large, so I chose to make one and save the other. I should have made both, the asparagus went faster than I had expected it to. This recipe is simple. It's slightly time consuming to dip each stalk in the egg mix and then in the bread crumbs, but 10 extra minutes is hardly time-consuming to me. I made the lemon vinaigrette that goes with this, but found it far too lemony for me. I don't think anyone else used it at dinner either. If you want to make it, click the link for the original recipe.

Tonight, I used the bundle of asparagus I saved and just roasted it with olive oil, sea salt and some cracked black pepper. That was my dinner...a bunch of asparagus. Pregnancy has created some pretty weird meals for me. I eat more smaller meals to prevent heartburn (good Lord, the heartburn!) and because most of the time I just crave one thing at a time a few hours apart. So in about an hour, I'll have dinner part 2, which will consist of who knows what. Maybe the semi-homemade ice cream cake in my freezer...

Lemon Parmesan Asparagus
from Cinnamon, Spice & Everything Nice

1 bunch of asparagus, woody ends snapped off, peeled if desired
2 eggs
2 tbsp. milk
salt and pepper
1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp. lemon zest

1. Preheat oven to 400 and grease a baking sheet.
2. In a shallow dish mix together the egg, milk, salt and pepper.
3. In a separate shallow dish, mix together the bread crumbs, cheese and lemon zest.
4. Working a few at a time, dip the asparagus stalks in the egg, then roll in the bread crumbs to coat. Place on the baking sheet.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until they come out fork tender.

Chicken, Bacon, and Ranch Crescents

For anyone who follows my blog, you know that I love making food with crescent rolls. It's just such an easy ingredient to use and any recipe that uses it is just as easy. Dan and I just spent 4th of July weekend camping with friends at my family's hunting camp, so coming home and having to cook just seemed so tiring. I had written the ingredients really quick on a piece of paper weeks ago on a shopping list that I found on my coffee table yesterday. I don't remember the original source, but I just improvised with what I had. My list looked like this...

Chix. tenders
Ranch
Colby slices
Bacon
Crescent dough, cut into 4 squares

That's it. So I went off to the store with the rest of my list. I remembered that I had 2 extra cans of the seamless crescent roll dough in my fridge, so I grabbed one, just in case I wanted to make extra. Turns out, I did not remember using those cans 2 weeks ago for my Sloppy Joe Bake. Pregnancy brain strikes again. Luckily, Dan grabbed some for me. I also completely forgot to get the sliced Colby jack cheese. I also forgot we brought our bacon camping and used it.

Aye aye aye.

So, I improvised even more. Luckily I keep a pretty ridiculous stock of shredded cheese in the fridge. Seriously, as of Sunday I had a bag of shredded Swiss, 2 bags of shredded cheddar, a bag of shredded mozzarella and a bag of shredded pizza blend. Cheddar it was for these. I also had a bag of bacon bits in the cupboard, so all was well. Real slices of bacon would have been better, but oh well. And what did I serve as a side? Kraft mac & cheese. Not my healthiest pregnancy meal, but the baby can use a few extra calories, right???

Chicken, Bacon, and Ranch Crescents
makes 8

2 cans seamless crescent dough
8 frozen pre-cooked chicken tenders
Ranch dressing
8 slices of bacon or bacon bits
8 slices of Colby jack cheese or shredded cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with some foil for easy clean up.
2. Roll out your dough and cut into 4 rectangles.
3. Spread some ranch on each square. Place a slice of cheese on top, of sprinkle with shredded cheese. Top with a slice of bacon cut in half to make 2 pieces or some bacon bits.
4. Place a chicken tender on that and roll up the long way, making a seal with the edges.
5. Place seam side down on the baking sheet and repeat with remaining pieces.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until chicken is heated through. I baked mine for 20, then covered them with foil for the last 5 minutes to stop them from browning more. The dough will cook faster than the chicken.

Dan absolutely loved these, and they were so easy! My chicken tenders were rather large. If you use smaller ones, you could cut your dough into 6 pieces and make more. They would be great as party appetizers!

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

I've had this recipe saved on my Pinterest for maybe 3 years now. I figured it was about time to try it out. Earlier this week I made some pink lemonade cupcakes for a work wedding party and was asked to bring some cupcakes to my department meeting tomorrow. With it being warm and 8.5 days away from summer vacation, another summer flavor was called for.

And who doesn't love a cold, sweet orange creamsicle on a hot day?

This pregnant baker sure does!

This is another doctored box recipe. I had debated going with totally from scratch, but I'm glad that I had this recipe because I got home later than expected tonight and got a late start. The box is changed up by replacing some of the water with orange juice and by adding a box of orange gelatin mix. The recipe below calls for swapping out 1/4 cup of water for orange juice, but I swapped out 1/2 a cup. I wanted the cupcakes to have the real orange flavor with the frosting having the "cream"sicle flavor. I actually have some orange cream flavoring oil, so it amped it up a bit.

When making the frosting, I added the vanilla extract before the powdered sugar. I also added 1 tablespoon of milk to soften it up a little bit. Then, I removed just over a cup of it for the filling and topping. After that, I added 2 tablespoons of orange juice, 1 teaspoon of orange zest, and a 1/2 teaspoon of the orange cream flavoring oil. Once that was combined, I played around with my gel food colors to get a bright, sort of neon-ish orange that does not show up in my photos. It's a solid bright orange and my pictures show it as a peachy pink. BOOOO! I used a mix of red, yellow, and peach colors.

These are light and fluffy, and the cream cheese adds a slight tartness that the creamsicle flavor needs. It was hard to only eat one sample one and to save the rest for tomorrow. The recipe below is my version of the cupcakes. For the original, follow the link.

Also, if you're curious about these flavor oils I use, they are candy flavoring oils that only need to be used in VERY small amounts for baking. I've never used more than half a teaspoon in a recipe I don't think. I order mine from Amazon, and I use LorAnn brand.

Enjoy!

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes
slightly adapted from The Cake Blog

For the cake:
1 box white cake mix
Eggs and oil as needed on the box
Orange juice *swap out half of the amount of water needed on the box for OJ
1 (3 oz.) package orange gelatin mix
1 teaspoon orange zest

For the frosting:
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk
5 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons or orange juice
2 teaspoons orange zest
1/2 teaspoon orange or orange cream flavor oil (if using)
orange food coloring

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line two cupcakes tins with liners.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the dry cake mix and orange gelatin.
3. Add the eggs, oil, water and orange juice, and orange zest as called for on the box. Beat for 2 minutes until mixed and fluffy.
4. Fill liners 2/3 full and bake for 18-20 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan then move to wire racks to cool completely.
5. One cooled, cut out the center of each cupcake to make a little cone.
6. For the frosting, in the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese.
7. Add the vanilla and add powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Mix until combined. Add the milk to soften it up just a bit. Remove just over 1 cup of white frosting and set aside in a separate bowl.
8. To the remaining frosting, add the orange juice, orange zest, and flavor oil. Beat to combine.
9. Add a couple of drops of food coloring and beat. Add more if you want a darker orange.
10. Using the white frosting, pipe some into the center of each cupcake. Save maybe a 1/3 cup for topping.
11. Using the orange frosting, pipe onto cupcakes however you'd like.
12. With the remaining white frosting pipe a little star, flower, or circle on top in the center to look like the inside of a creamsicle.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

Tomorrow at work we are having a potluck celebration for 3 people in my department who are getting married this summer. I offered to bring cupcakes and decided to find a nice summery flavor to also celebrate that summer is upon us and school will be out soon. Pink Lemonade it was. This recipe actually used a box mix as a base, but it was changed up quite a bit, not using the directions on the box. I usually avoid box mixes unless they are very doctored like this one. I'll still count these as homemade enough, just minus having to use flour, sugar, and some sort of leavening agent. I also almost always opt out of using shortening-based frostings because they end up being such a pain to clean up. The are definitely nice and smooth and glossier than a buttercream, but shortening just gets on everything. The only reason I stuck with it is because my house was slightly humid, and in case it was warm in the school, shortening holds up better than buttercream in the heat.

The only thing I really changed in the recipe was instead of the 3/4 cup of water in the cake batter, I did 1/4 cup and a 1/2 cup of the thawed lemonade concentrate. It was just enough for a little hint of lemony tartness, but not overpowering. The lemon zest alone didn't quite cut it. Other than that I followed the recipe as is and they came out great! The frosting is a bit softer and glossier than my traditional buttercream that I like, but I knew that after a few hours the buttercream would soften up, and that just doesn't taste as good to me. The frosting is packed with more pink lemonade flavor than I expected. A lot of times I add extra flavoring because the vanilla extract and 7 cups of powdered sugar really mask any flavor added, but the lemonade really came through. I had some lemon extract on hand just in case, but never needed it. I also tried to find those lemon jelly candy fruit slices for decoration, but couldn't find any near me, so I stuck with the decorative straws for décor. Also, I used a little yellow food coloring in the cake instead of pink, so I could have the fun look of both the yellow and pink of the lemonade. Hope everyone enjoys these tomorrow! They are a great combination of sweet, fluffy cake and tart lemonade frosting.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes
slightly adapted from Real Mom Kitchen

For the cake:
1 box white cake mix
1 pkg. vanilla instant pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp. lemon zest
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup thawed frozen pink lemonade concentrate
3/4 cup oil
4 egg whites
3 or so drops yellow food coloring

For the frosting:
1 cup shortening
1 cup butter, room temperature (2 sticks)
1/2 cup thawed frozen pink lemonade concentrate
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. milk
the rest of the zest from the lemon
6-7 cups powdered sugar
4 drops or so of pink food coloring

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line 2 cupcake tins with liners.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the cake mix and pudding mix.
3. Add the sour cream, lemon zest, water, lemonade, oil and egg whites and beat on medium for about 2 minutes until smooth.
4. Add the food coloring and beat again until mixed in.
5. Divide between cupcake liners and bake for 15-20 minutes. Let cool completely.
6. For the frosting, beat the shortening and butter together.
7. Add the lemonade, vanilla, milk and lemon zest and beat together. Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing on low speed until all is combined. Give it a good beating for 30 seconds at the end. Add the food coloring and beat until mixed in.
8. Frost cupcakes and decorate as you like!

Maple-Dijon Baked Chicken

I have 10.5 days of school left until summer break. It's a good feeling, but winding down the school year just brings an onslaught of wrapping everything up, which causes some stress. I somehow had some extra energy today, because not only did I make dinner tonight, but I made a batch of cupcakes this afternoon waiting to be frosted. There are 3 co-workers getting married this summer, so tomorrow after work we are having a little potluck get-together and I offered to bring some cupcakes. After I finish this post, I'm going to head back into the kitchen to finish up those cupcakes, so stay tuned for another post shortly.

The original title of this recipe is "The World's Best Chicken". I'm not so sure it warrants that title. It's great, and I will certainly make this again, but world's best? The chicken comes out nice and moist and the marinade/sauce gives it a really great flavor. The only issue I have with the sauce is that it sort of congeals when it bakes. Now, I know that sounds gross, who wants congealed sauce? But just the top of it does under it stays a creamy sort of mustard, so you can sort of smother it over your chicken and it's fine. It's easy to make, with nothing I didn't already have in my pantry. I have 4 different kinds of vinegar in my cabinet at all times, so if you aren't like me, you may need to grab some red wine vinegar for this. But Dijon mustard is pretty common, and who doesn't always have maple syrup? I left out the rosemary since I'm not a huge fan of it.

Maple-Dijon Baked Chicken
from Rachel Schultz

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425 and grease or line a baking dish with foil. I still spray the foil with cooking spray.
2. Mix together the mustard, maple syrup, and vinegar.
3. Place the chicken in the baking dish and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour the sauce on, spreading over the chicken to coat it.
4. Bake for 30-40 minutes, mine took about 38 minutes.
5. Serve with sides of your choice.

Sorry for the super terrible picture below. I made myself a plate before I remembered to snap a photo. But, you can see what I mean when I say the sauce congeals/thickens, since it slides off when you cut the chicken.

And I always slice my chicken to check for doneness. I just never trust myself enough to know that they're fully cooked. I'm kind of a freak about fully cooking chicken....