Mindi's Magnificent Meals

Scrambled Ham & Cheese Florentine

2011-03-29T08:07:00.000-05:00

I am really not a fan of eggs- I could totally pass on ever eating an egg again in my life- but oh man have I ever created a recipe that I CRAVE!!!!

I call it:

Scrambled Ham & Cheese Florentine

(Servings- 2)

Ingredients:

4 Eggs
Tablespoon of Milk
Ranch Dressing
Diced Ham- or you can use Sandwich meat and cut it up
Cheese- we were out of shredded cheese so I used Sandwich cheese cut up- either will work
Spinach- Chopped- I used about a ½ cup

In a bowl mix the four eggs, Tbsp of Milk, ½ Tbsp of Ranch, Diced Ham, Cheese, and Spinach. Then put the mixture into a fry pan and cook on low-med heat, mixing often with a spatula to make the eggs scrambled.

When they are cooked thoroughly dish up your eggs and Drizzle more ranch over the top of your serving. *Optional- Add a dash of salsa or hot sauce to spice things up.

They are so moist and full of flavor and this dish keeps you full all morning long.

Enjoy!

Italian Herb & Cheese Pasta

2011-03-21T08:04:00.000-05:00

I have a new favorite product that I have to share with you!

The container did have a recipe on the back that I followed- with my own special touch to it.

Ingredients:

1 pound diced Chicken
2 cups (cooked) noodles
1 package of steamer mixed veggies in cheese sauce
1 package of Philly's Cookie Creme in Italian Cheese & Herb

In a pan cook 1 pound of diced chicken. I add a little water to my pan to help keep it moist- just enough to slightly cover the bottom of the pan. I also added some lemon pepper to the chicken. While that is cooking cook up your favorite noodle. Half a box, or about 2 cups (cooked).

Once your chicken is fully cooked add the bag of steamer mixed veggies and cover, stiring often until veggies are cooked.

Once veggies are cooked add in the Cooking Creme and mix. Then add in your noodles and stir together and serve immediately.

Add some homemade bread or rolls on the side and you have yourself a well rounded meal.

Enjoy!

Greek Pasta Salad

2010-08-26T08:06:00.000-05:00

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Pasta
2 Cucumbers- chopped into bite size pieces
1 can of Artichokes chopped
Half a jar of Greek Olives
Mediterranean Feta Cheese
Greek Dressing

Boil noodles as directed on package. In the meantime chop your cucumbers and Artichokes. Drain Olives. Once noodles are cooked rinse with cold water and mix all ingredients together. Pour over Greek Dressing and mix well.

Enjoy!

Carmelized Ham and Cheese with a Veggie Side Dish

2010-06-23T08:44:00.000-05:00

Caramelized Ham and Cheese Sandwiches

I have had this before at a baby shower and came across the recipe so I had to try making them for myself, they are delicious!

Hawaiian Rolls- we chose the wheat ones
Ham
Swiss Cheese
1 tbsp Dijon Mustard
2 tbsp Minced Onion
1 Stick of butter (1/2 cup)

Preheat your oven to 350. Slice the rolls and cut your ham and cheese so it will fit nicely on your roll. I did an alternating stack of meat and cheese and meat and cheese. Place the sandwiches into a cake pan. Melt together the butter, minced onion and Dijon mustard. Brush the melted mixture heavily all over the sandwiches, make sure you use all of the mixture. I brushed a majority of it on the top and them poured the remaining mixture all over so that it covered the bottom of the pan too. Bake for 10-15 minutes, keep a close eye on it so the tops of your sandwiches don’t burn. Let sit for 3 minutes to cool and to allow the sauce to harden slightly to give the sandwich that caramelized texture.

Veggie Side Dish

I cut up veggies a lot and sauté them in a pan but this is the first time I used Greek dressing as my oil and I will now never do anything different! Delicious with little effort!

Zucchini sliced
Yellow squash sliced
Red potato sliced into bite size pieces
¼ cup of Kraft Greek Vinaigrette Salad Dressing W/ Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Pinch of salt and pepper

Mix all of the ingredients together and sauté in a pan until cooked, you could also make a foil packet and cook on the grill.

Yummy Dinner!

Grilled Asparagus

2010-05-25T15:14:00.000-05:00

It’s that time of the year to start grilling fabulous vegetables and some are ready to be harvested, for example- Asparagus!

I Love wild fresh asparagus and putting them on the grill is one of the most delicious ways to enjoy them.

Start by rinsing off and chopping off the bottom 2-3 inches of the asparagus

Make a little foil tray with sides to put on your grill

Spray with non-stick cooking spray, I prefer the Olive Oil Pam Spray

Spread your asparagus out in your little foil tray and moderately coat with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or as my cooking icons say- EVOO) and then lightly coat with Ranch Dressing

Now- for the magic to this recipe- gather a ¼ cup of salted cashews and crush up and sprinkle over the top of the asparagus

Grill for about 30 minutes and ENJOY!

The salted cashews give the asparagus the right amount of salt and add some crunch to this dish.

Taco Rice Hotdish

2010-03-20T20:54:00.000-05:00

Ingredients:

1 pound of hamburger
1 can of cream of cheddar cheese
1 cup of rice (we used brown rice)
1/2 can of water
1 package of taco seasoning
1/4 cup of salsa
Tortilla chips

Put hamburger in pan and add taco seasoning and brown. In a bowl mix together rice, cream of cheddar cheese, water and salsa. Once hamburger is browned mix in with the other ingredients. Have oven preheating at 350. Pour hotdish into an 8x8 glass baking dish and cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes. Let set for 5 minutes before serving.

We served ours over a layer of torilla chips. Taylor added taco sauce to his as well.

I chalked this up as a good recipe as Miley had seconds!

Low-Fat Mexican Roll Ups Recipe

2010-01-13T10:10:00.003-06:00

Ingredients:

2- 8oz packages of 1/3 less Fat or Fat Free Cream Cheese
1 can of Rotel (diced tomatoes and chilies)
8 large tortillas
1 package of Mexican finely shredded Cheese
1 tablespoon of Taco seasoning
Plastic Wrap
Salsa

Leave Cream Cheese on the counter to soften, about an hour. In the meantime drain the can of Rotel and finely chop the tomatoes and chilies, I used a food processor. Mix together in a mixer cream cheese, rotel, taco seasoning, ½ cup of shredded cheese, beat until mixed well.

Lay out your large tortillas and scoop about ¾ cups of the mixture onto your first tortilla and spread out thinly across the entire tortilla all the way to the edges. Sprinkle some shredded cheese over the spread and roll up tortilla tightly then wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Repeat until mixture is all gone. Refrigerate roll ups for at least 1 hour to set. When you are ready to serve them slice them in inch sections and place on a tray. Have a bowl of salsa available next to them and encourage your guests to add a dollop of salsa onto their roll up.

Enjoy!

Ham and Cheese Crescent Rolls

2010-01-13T10:09:00.000-06:00

Ingredients:

1 can of Crescent Rolls
1 package of diced ham
1 Eight ounce package of cream cheese, I used the Garden Vegetable flavor
1 package of finely shredded cheese- you can use your favorite

Mix together softened cream cheese, diced ham and shredded cheese. Roll out the Crescent roll dough and break apart into individual pieces. Take a spoonful of the mixture and dab it on the big end of the dough of each Crescent and roll up the Crescent, trying to keep all of the mixture covered. Bake as directed on the Crescent package. Let cool for 5 minutes and serve.

I created this recipe while standing in the isle at the grocery store as Miley so gently stacked up a bunch of tubs of butter and cans of Crescent Rolls. It was a quiet Saturday night at the grocery store and my mind started whirling. I made these for an appetizer for a Christmas gathering and they turned out pretty good! Taylor requested them to be made again.

Chili Contest!!!

2009-11-20T11:20:00.000-06:00

I have to brag a little here....

I WON A CHILI CONTEST AT WORK!!!!!!!!! 1st out of 6 entries.

I have come up with a 3-Meat chili that doesn't have any beans in it.

However, I did use the chili 'broth', if you want to call it that, that Pam made with the tomatoes and peppers from the garden but I'm pretty sure I know exactly how I will make it all from scratch using Rotel, but I just need to make it that way once to ensure I have the recipe down.

I will give a little glimpse into my Award Winning Chili- the three meats are Hamburger, Pork Sausage and Cocktail Weiners! (when you have a bite with the Cocktail weiner in it it tastes like you are eating a chili dog, good idea, huh!)

And the story on how I came up with this recipe... Taylor told me he invited 20 guys over for chili after a flag football tournament... UMMM... how do I fill 20 hungry guys... LOTS and LOTS of meat! I pulled out all the stuff from the freezer and my Chili is now famous! YEAH!

Cheesy Rice and Ham Hotdish

2009-11-08T18:21:00.003-06:00

Ingredients:

3 cups of large cubed ham chunks, I had a fresh ham and cubed it, or you can buy a package of the pre-cubed ham chunks and one package will be plenty
1 package of frozen broccoli and cauliflower
1 8 ounce package of Velveeta, cubed
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1/2 can of water and 1/2 can of milk
2 cups of rice
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together well and put into a large glass baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes, stir hotdish two times while cooking so the rice on top doesn't get hard. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Serve with garlic and butter dinner rolls.

Enjoy!

Mindi’s No Bean Chili- So Far

2009-10-05T10:17:00.000-05:00

Ingredients:
1 ½ pounds of Hamburger- browned
1 can of Rotel- (Undrained) can be found next to the other canned diced tomatoes
1 can of Tomato soup
1 can of water using the Tomato soup can
2 cans of Tomato sauce
¼ cup of Ketchup
2 tablespoons of Chili Powder

In a crock pot combine all of the above ingredients and simmer on low for 2-3 hours or on high for an hour. Serve with saltine crackers and cinnamon rolls.

I say this recipe is ‘So Far’ because I don’t feel I’ve 100% perfected it yet. I’m thinking next time I may try it with 2 full pounds of hamburger and add in a can of Tomato Paste or I may put some chili powder and water into the pan with the hamburger to let the meat really soak up the chili flavor, kind of like you would taco meat. I’ll update my recipe as I try new things with it. I would say using the can of Rotel in my chili is what makes it my signature dish as Rotel seems to be in a lot of my favorite things, it gives it a nice little kick!

Rotel can also be used for a simple chip dip that we have very frequently. 1 can of Rotel per ½ pound of Velveeta, or can add 2 cans per ½ pound to really give it some zing. Cube the Velveeta in a microwave safe dish and drain the Rotel and add to the cheese and microwave and stir every 2 minutes until melted.

Football Chip Dip

2009-10-05T10:07:00.000-05:00

Ingredients:
½ pound of Hamburger
½ pound Velveeta-cubed
1 can diced tomato with green chilies (undrained)
½ red onion- chopped small
½ green pepper- chopped small
1 jalapeno- chopped small

In a fry pan brown the hamburger and turn to medium low. Add in Velveeta and diced tomatoes, onion, green pepper and jalapeno and stir occasionally until cheese is melted. Serve with chips or over a baked potato to create a super stuffed baked potato.

Creamed Eggs-with a Twist

2009-09-21T10:27:00.001-05:00

This recipe I believed was pasted down from my Grams to my mom and now to me and I of course put my own twist to it!

Ingredients:
1 pound of bacon cut into pieces
1 pound of spicy pork sausage (my twist to it)
1 dozen hard boiled eggs sliced into pieces (like you were making egg salad)
About a cup for flour
About 2-4 cups of milk
Toast or biscuits
Salt and Pepper to taste

Start off by browning your sausage in one pan and cooking your pieces of bacon in a large tall sided skillet. Once the sausage is done remove from heat, once the bacon is crispy remove the bacon and keep the grease in the pan. You are now going to add flour to the grease and mix, some bacons make more grease than others so you may need more or less flour. You are going to add flour and mix with the grease until you make a paste. Then you are going to add milk- this recipe was handed down to me by measuring with my eye- so I’m guessing 4 cups of milk is about right, if once you get all the ingredients in there and feel it needs more milk add more. Stir the milk and paste together and heat up, you will need to stir often to get the paste to dissolve into the milk. After 5 minutes of heating on the stove add in the salt, pepper, bacon, eggs and sausage and mix well. Let stand on a medium low heat stirring occasionally. If it feels too soupy you can add in some corn starch to thicken it up. To do that take about a tablespoon and a half and add in a couple table spoons of water and try to mix it the best you can and slowly add that into the mix, you should feel it thicken up quickly. Heat thoroughly and let stand for five minutes on no heat before serving. Then serve over toast or biscuits. And it stores nicely in the fridge and is even better heated up the next day.

Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie

2009-08-27T11:57:00.001-05:00

Ok- I’m stealing this recipe from the Kraft Foods Magazine, this is my most favorite cooking magazine by far!

Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:

• 3 cups diced chicken
• 1 bag of frozen mixed veggies
• 1 can of Cream of Chicken soup
• ½ lb of 8oz Velveeta Cheese cubed in ½ chunks (don’t use the whole thing, I did by accident, it’s good, but really cheesy)
• 1 can of Crescent Rolls

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

In a greased 13x9 glass baking dish combine the first four ingredients and mix well (chicken, veggies, soup, cheese) then open the Crescent Rolls and do not separate, simply lay the whole piece of dough on top of the mixture as your crust. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Serve with a nice dinner salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing and a brownie for dessert and you have yourself quite the tasty meal!

Enjoy!

**Thank you Kraft Foods Magazine**

Two Cheese Baked Penne

2009-07-31T09:55:00.003-05:00

Ingredients:
Italian Sausage- browned
Penne Noodles- Boiled
1 Can of Tomato sauce
2 Cans of Diced Italian Tomatoes
1 Chunk of Cream Cheese- I use the 1/3 less fat kind
Shredded Mozzarella cheese- 1 bag

As you boil the noodles and brown the sausage, in another pot melt the cream cheese, do this on low heat and stir often, once it is half way melted or if it appears that it may start burning put in the 1 can of tomato sauce and 2 cans of Diced Italian tomatoes and stir together and heat through. Once all items are cooked drain the noodles and mix noodles, sausage and sauce all together and add half the bag of Mozzarella cheese and mix well. Pour it all into a sprayed cake pan and add remaining Mozzarella cheese to the top. You can then either refrigerate to bake another day or toss in the oven at 350 for 10 minutes. If you refrigerate bake for 20-30 minutes on 350 or until heated through.

Serve with Garlic toast and a side salad.

**Note- not many people think of melting cream cheese and adding it to a sauce but it really makes it quite tasty, it's creamy and subtly cheesy.

ENJOY!

Here is a picture of it being mixed together.

Mom's Sloppy Joes

2009-07-23T08:32:00.001-05:00

Simple recipe but yummy! And I do have to tell you- I LOVE sloppy joes- but I don’t really like the fancy kind when there are all kinds of veggies and stuff in there- just give me some meat and sloppy gravy and I am 100% satisfied!

Ingredients:
1 pound of hamburger
Minced Onion- amount to your discretion
1 can of Tomato Soup
¼ cup of ketchup
3 tablespoons of mustard
1 tablespoon of sugar
Few shakes of salt and pepper

Brown the hamburger, then add in the tomato soup, ketchup, mustard, sugar, salt and pepper and mix well. Simmer for about 5 minutes to help blend the flavors stirring a couple times. Serve on a bun or bread and enjoy! Some enjoy their sloppy joe to be topped with pickles and/or onions to dress it up a bit. Have the napkins handy- cause they are sloppy good!

Sandwich Salad

2009-07-07T19:56:00.004-05:00

Here is the salad that I dreamed up one night that I made for the 4th of July, it is really refreshing.

Ingredients:
1 box of Pasta Shells
1 package of Diced Ham
1 container Cherry Tomatoes
Chunked Cheese (I took a cube and cut it into chunks)
1 container Sprouts
Baby Dill Pickles- about 20
2 Dried Ranch packet seasoning
To make the Ranch packet you will need 2 cups of milk and 2 cups of light miracle whip
**As you can see all of the ingredients are items you would find in a sandwich**

Cook your pasta shells as directed.

I put my shells in the fridge to cool and got another bowl to mix together the add-ins together.
Toss in the Ham and cherry tomatoes

Cut your cheese into chunks and add to bowl

Chop up the sprouts and add to bowl

Cut the pickles in half the short way (we call it the hamburger way not the hot dog way) and add to bowl and mix all of the ingredients together.

In a separate bowl add the 2 cups of milk and 2 cups of Light Miracle Whip and 2 packets of Ranch seasoning and mix well with a whisk.

Then toss all of your add-ins in with the pasta and mix well, then top with the dressing. I found it best to add in half of both the add-ins and dressing at first and mix well, then add the other half. Then chill over night to let the flavors mix and Enjoy!!

Butternut Squash Ravioli

2009-06-26T13:16:00.001-05:00

I don't have any photos for this one but I still wanted to share this yummy meal.

Ingredients:
In the freezer section of your grocery store look for:
Frozen Butternut Squash Ravioli
1 can of Diced Italian Tomatoes
1 can of Tomato Sauce
(if you have Wildtree products) Wildtree's Spaghetti sauce seasoning.
You can also just use Italian seasoning found in the spice section or buy a small jar or spaghetti sauce for the even easier route

Fill a large pot with water and bring to a rolling boil, adding some salt to your water can help it boil quicker, tip I learned from Grams. :)

Once the water is boiling add in the ravioli and turn down to medium heat.
While that is cooking, in a sauce pan pour in the can of Diced Italian Tomatoes and can of Tomato Sauce and a couple tablespoons of your spaghetti sauce seasoning/Italian seasoning and stir occasionally until heated through.

Stir the ravioli occasionally and as soon as the ravioli's are floating at the top of the water they are finished, drain and return to pot, pour in your sauce and stir.

For the meat lovers, you can also brown some Italian sausage in a separate pan and add that to the pot as well which gives it a little something more. Add a side salad and some garlic bread and you have yourself a well rounded meal!

I like it mostly because I can get some vegetables in Miley, she just loves this meal!

Enjoy!

Guacamole

2009-05-26T20:28:00.002-05:00

This is an easy one- I took the recipe off the back of the seasoning packet and added a twist. I do have to say that my Mom actually made this batch as I watched and chatted with her, but I make this all the time.

Ingredients:
Avocados- 2 per packet of seasoning
Tomatoes
Onions
Cilantro- Fresh
Lime juice
Packet of Guacamole seasoning

Cut open the avocados and scoop the middles out into a bowl, mash up a bit. I find a potato masher works wells. Now, the following items are optional, I add them if I have them- if not- it still tastes just as tasty without them. Chop up tomato and onion into small pieces and add as many as you would like. Cut up the fresh cilantro- I now add this to it EVERY time- to me, it is an essential item, it really gives it a good flavor. Mix this up with the avocado a bit more, then toss in the packet of seasoning- stand back when you pour it in, it is pretty strong stuff. Mix well. Add two cap fulls of lime juice, to prevent browning and gives it a nice taste. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

To store guacamole- put it in a dish and even if you use a Tupperware it is crucial that you put plastic wrap over the dish and push it down on top of the guacamole so there is no air getting to it, this will also help prevent browning. Note: guacamole is meant to be eaten right away, this is not something you can make a few days in advance.

You can buy the package of seasoning at any grocery store, you can find it in the produce department. This is mild, but we also enjoy Extra Spicy.

ENJOY!!!

(Even though this picture looks gross it is OH SO GOOD!!!)

Fried Zucchini

2009-05-26T20:24:00.003-05:00

This is a collaboration of several recipes I found online and then of course, added my own twist!

Ingredients:

Zucchini
Flour
Egg
Lemon Pepper
Garlic salt/powder
Season Salt
Oil

First start off by peeling and slicing your zucchini

Then fill a little bowl with flour and another with egg, I find I start off with 2 eggs and then add another as I need to.

In the flour mix in the lemon pepper and garlic salt/powder. This is my first recipe. The second recipe I just mix season salt in the flour. I don't measure- so I just toss in some, mix it in the flour, and add more as I see fit. I find that I like to be able to look at the flour and be able to see the seasoning in it.

Then you take the zucchini and dip it in the flour, then into the egg and then back into the flour and coat well. I do half the zucchini in the Lemon Pepper mix and the other half in the Season salt. Then lay it on a plate and let them sit for at least 15 minutes, this allows for the flour and egg to set up.

After that has set up I pour in some oil into a fry pan- enough to cover up to the sides of the zucchini. Once that is hot I start putting in the zucchini. 3 minutes on each side. It seems as I go along- the first batch might need closer to 4 minutes on each side and the last batch is closer to 2 minutes on each side since the oil keeps getting hotter.

Then set on a paper towel when you take them out to soak up any extra oil. Then put them on your serving plate. We enjoy them with ranch for dipping.

A little time consuming with the dipping but they taste really yummy. Miley even enjoys them!! But then again, she loves anything she can dip!! I plan on trying fried pickles with this same type of recipe next, maybe I'll try a ranch or dill seasoning mixed in the flour... Humm... maybe I'll attempt that this weekend...

Enjoy!

Family Favorite

2009-05-19T20:41:00.001-05:00

Cheese Pizza Hot Dish

I do have to credit the Kraft Foods Magazine for this recipe but it is one of our family favorites and SUPER easy to make that I just had to share it.

All you need is 3 easy ingredients:

1 pound of hamburger
1 jar of pizza sauce
1 box of Deluxe Mac & Cheese
(side note, Deluxe is really not that good when you just make it to eat it as Mac & Cheese but it totally makes this recipe delicious and I would not recommend making it with regular Mac & Cheese, weird huh!)

Brown your meet in a large fry pan.
At the same time boil noodles.
Drain noodles and pour into browned hamburger, add cheese sauce and jar of pizza sauce.
Mix well and Enjoy!!!

How easy huh!!! And it is SUPER DUPER Delicious!! It is very similar to goulash but not quite as it has that creamy cheesy flavor to it. Miley LOVES it. We eat it with bread and butter and it makes for a tasty dinner, and the leftovers for lunch the next day are just as tasty!

My Hobby

2009-05-19T12:55:00.000-05:00

I wanted to start this blog with some background. My Grams was a WONDERFUL cook! When I lived next door to her I was the lucky one to always get to taste test her new recipes. It was a lot of fun discussing the recipe's with her and trying new things that I eventually caught the cooking bug and started trying new things of my own and bringing over samples for her and my Gramps to try. Since then I have really decided that cooking, Not baking, cooking, is offically a hobby of mine. I actually have a Hobby!! Grams had a few of her recipe's published in magazines and I just think that is really neat and quite an honor. I hope to one day have one of my recipe's published as well.

Last night as I was again trying something new the light bulb turned on- I told Taylor, my husband, that I am going to combine both of my hobbies, cooking and blogging, and create a blog of all the new things I come up with!

My recipe's all start with ideas that I read about and then I just add a touch of 'Mindi' to them. This blog will be my little cookbook for all my blogger followers. I will include some recipes that I found in other places that are our family favorites and mostly recipes that I have created and/or added my personal touch to. I hope to include photos of all my dishes as well so you can really get a feel for the meal. I hope you find this blog as fun as I do and try some new recipes. As I get older my palate for food is expanding and I encourage everyone to try something new. Life is too short, you should go down knowing you experienced the world!

Enjoy and Bon Appétit!