Cheddar-Ranch Turkey Burgers

I'm always looking for a new way to dress up a turkey burger. I like to keep a bunch made up in my freezer for quick meals. I was excited to come across this High Five Recipe. I changed mine up just a bit:

I mixed 2.5 pounds of ground turkey with a whole envelope of ranch dressing mix and about a cup of cheddar cheese. Mixed it all up, and made 12 patties.

I cooked them on my George Foreman grill until done.

I put all but one in a labeled Ziploc freezer baggie, each separated by a bit of waxed paper. After it cooled, I put it in my freezer.

For a lunch or dinner I will put a frozen burger in my mini crock pot about an hour or two before the meal and by meal-time it will be defrosted and heated through.

I ate one tonight on a Sandwich Thin and with a squirt of ranch dressing. It was delightful! I'm already dreaming of lunch tomorrow when I will have another one.

I will definitely make them again and may experiment with other dressing mixes in my next batch of turkey burgers.

Turkey Burgers

Quick Lasagna

Well, I'm a bit surprised that I am still Eating from the Pantry and freezer. I haven't yet felt like I'm out of anything except drinks, dairy or produce, which has been just about the only things I've had to buy throughout this challenge. As we're coming up to shopping day I don't have anything on my list besides the dairy, produce, and drinks. There's plenty in my freezer to keep us fed for more than another week.

One of the quick mix-ups I made was this lasagna.......

Brown one pound of ground beef and drain. Mix with one 28-ounce can of tomato sauce and 1/2 cup water. Add desired spices: Italian seasoning, minced garlic, minced onions, etc. In another bowl, combine 2 cups cottage cheese with a quarter cup of Parmesan cheese and an egg.

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Spread a spoonful or two of sauce mixture in the bottom of the pan (not much, just to make the bottom pretty). Layer UNCOOKED lasagna noodles in the bottom of the pan and spread with half the cottage cheese mixture like this:

Next, layer with half the sauce, then spread with one to two cups shredded mozzarella or jack cheese.

Repeat with another layer of uncooked lasagna noodles, cottage cheese mixture, sauce, and mozzarella cheese. It's important to make sure all the noodles are covered by the sauce.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes.

See--that was easy. No need to cook lasagna noodles, they come out fine baked right in.

I didn't get a photo of the completed lasagna, but it was delicious. It freezes well, too. It heats up great in a crock pot or microwave.

Lasagna

Doggie Bag Reheat

This is a photo of my leftover food from Chili's. I knew I wanted to eat it for lunch, so about an hour before, I dumped the doggie bag into the mini crock pot.

An hour later, everything was heated through and it came out pretty good. The fries were a little less crispy, but better than I expected. The cheese sticks and burger came out perfect.

That was an easy Saturday lunch!

Slow Cooker

Blueberry Pancake Muffins

I was looking for ideas to use up some pancake mix. Looking around the Internet, I read where you can make a thick pancake mix and add blueberries or just about anything you'd like to make a muffin out of.

I mixed up 4 cups of pancake mix with 2 cups of water and added blueberries.

I scooped them into muffin tins and baked at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

The result is a very bland muffin. Sort of like a plain pancake with blueberries.

Thankfully, the toddlers like them and I bet they would taste better with syrup on them ;)

If I make something like this again, I think a scoop of brown sugar and some other spices or something would work better.

Blueberry Muffins

Eat From the Family Challenge Update

I've been busy here at Pamm's House. Busy using up my pantry and freezer stash. It started out easy making meatballs and squash bread, but now, it's requiring me to think outside my box. More on that later. In the meantime, here's what I've been making......

I used six pounds of ground turkey (including two pound of ground turkey patties--I just wasn't feeling turkey burgers) to make meatballs!

For two pounds I made Turkey Meatloaf Muffins. With the remaining six pounds I made Italian Meatballs using up my end of the cracker barrel, some spaghetti sauce that needed to be used up, 4 eggs, misc. spices, and a can of tomato paste. I mixed them all up, made balls, and baked them up. It made enough for several meals.

I got to looking at some things that I needed to use up: Flat Out bread, cheese, spaghetti sauce, pepperoni -- PIZZA!

I made up as many as I had bread for and used up all the sauce, cheese and pepperoni in the process. I baked them to melt the cheese. The toddlers gobbled up some, then I put the rest in gallon-sized baggies and in the freezer.

For a friend's birthday, I made squash bread with the squash.

I also made some blueberry muffins out of pancake mix, but I'll blog about that later.

If I can get things made and in the freezer, I will use it. Every morning, I search my freezer for something I can heat up for toddler lunches. Meatballs work great in a mini crock pot put in first thing in the morning and by lunch, they're defrosted and heated through.

I'm checking things off my list. You can see my list here.

Grated Potatoes -- Toddler Friendly

What do I do with two potatoes? Baked potatoes are not appealing to me, it's not enough to mash, and French fries are not infant & toddler friendly.

I looked up and saw my grater hanging on a cup hook. That's it! I'll grate the potatoes and bake them until they're soft.

They were easy to grate. I tossed them in a little olive oil and sprinkled with some garlic salt and onion powder.

I baked them at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

They were delicious! The toddlers ate them and there were no choking problems.

I will definitely do it again.

Easy Hot Pastrami

In my effort to try to use food I already have on-hand, I found a Budding package of pastrami and remembered my mom's "recipe" for a hot pastrami.

Melt a pat of butter in a fry pan on medium heat. Add the pastrami in the pan, separating the pieces. Toss in the butter and cook until heated through.

I put it on a Sandwich Thin with a bit of mayo--the whole package on one sandwich. You could add lettuce, tomato, mustard, or whatever you would like on a sandwich.

Easy!