Cheeseburger Hot Pockets

My husband is gone a lot. I mean A LOT. He works 6 days a week and often gets held over and has to work overtime through dinner. On top of his "regular" job he also is in the Marine Corps and is often gone for that. This year alone he has already been at training 3 weeks and is currently doing 2 more. So my 3 Things and I are used to flying solo. For most of the day things are pretty easy and we just go with the flow... but I dread dinner time when the hubby is not at home. The big boys are always "starving" and it's usually the baby's fussiest time of the day (yes, he does get fussy). So I am always trying to come up with recipes that are easy and kid friendly that my boys will eat. Tonight, we hit the jackpot! We just got back from being up in the Pacific Northwest for the past week and the refrigerator was pretty bare. I had a can of biscuits, some cheese, and some ground turkey in the freezer... and Cheeseburger Hot Pockets is what I came up with!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 tsp Minced Onion
• Lawry's Seasoning Salt
• 1 can Reduced Fat Flaky Grands Biscuits
• 8 slices cheese (I used Colby Jack)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 and spray baking sheet with nonstick spray. In a large saute pan add ground turkey, minced onion, and season with Lawry's Seasoning Salt. Brown turkey on medium heat until cooked through.

Split a biscuit in half and flatten out each half. Place meat mixture on bottom half, lay a slice of cheese on top of meat, and cover with top half of biscuit. Press down edges and use a fork to seal. Repeat with remaining biscuits, meat, and cheese. Pierce top of pocket with fork.

Bake for 10 minutes or until tops of pockets are golden.

Prosciutto, Tomato, and Mozzarella Bruschetta

This is a great side or appetizer to add to any meal. It's one of those things that I just made up based on some ingredients I had on hand. My family loves it and whenever I have made it for dinner guests it has always been a hit. This is really easy and can be pre-assembled so all you have to do is throw it in the oven right before dinner is served. I typically use my toaster oven for this recipe.

Ingredients:

• Fresh loaf of bread (ciabatta, french, sourdough, etc)
• Pesto sauce
• Prosciutto slices cut in half
• 1 large tomato on the vine
• 1 fresh mozzarella ball

Directions:

I typically slice my tomato first to see how many slices I'll get out of it and then that's how many slices of bread, mozzarella, and prosciutto I'll cut.

Spread a small amount of pesto on each slice of bread. The place one half slice of prosciutto on the bread. Next layer a slice of tomato, and then top with the mozzarella.

Place in toaster oven directly on rack. Turn oven on broil and cook until cheese is melted and starting to get a golden tint on top. Carefully pull out of oven, it will be hot!! Serve and enjoy!

Pork Tenderloin with Cherry Sauce

So between Thing 1's birthday, our Carlsbad/Legoland trip and then getting sick with a stomach bug, there hasn't been much cooking going on around here. Until today! Back before I "retired" from teaching to be a stay at home mom, one of my friends and coworkers shared the results from this recipe with my teammate and I at lunch one day. Let me tell you, it was delicious! We could not stop eating it and I just had to get the recipe from her. It came from the "Everyday Paleo" cookbook by Sarah Fragoso. I modified the recipe because my tenderloin was larger than the one called for in the recipe. No joke, this recipe is sooo good! And the pork doesn't get dried out at all. My kids just gobble it down too! So it is definitely a winner around here.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 1/2 lb pork tenderloin
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups chicken stock or broth
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 lb dried cherries
• 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

Directions:

Heat olive oil in skillet on medium low to medium heat. Cut tenderloin in half so it will cook faster and more evenly. Season with salt and pepper. Place tenderloins in skillet and brown on all sides. It should have a nice golden brown color. Add chicken stock, blasamic vinegar, cherries, and rosemary. Continue cooking in skillet for about 30-35 minutes turning the tenderloins periodically.

While the tenderloins are cooking, it is the perfect time to prep some of my Prosciutto, Tomato and Mozzarella Bruschetta to accompany the tenderloin.

Remove tenderloins and cover with foil. Continue cooking the sauce in the skillet until stirring continually until it has a syrup consistency (about 3 minutes). Discard rosemary. Slice tenderloin and pour cherry sauce over top. Serve and enjoy!!

Banana Zucchini Bread

So this week I had a friend share a bunch of veggies with me. There was some zucchini in the box and with the hubby getting ready to go out of town, I wanted to make something I could freeze. I had some very very ripe bananas and decided that Banana Zucchini Bread would be perfect! I found a Pineapple Zucchini Bread recipe in one of my Taste of Home cookbooks and decided to modify it to use bananas instead of pineapple. This bread was a hit in our house and it was so easy to make! Despite my Things refusing to eat ANYTHING green... they just gobbled it up and didn't even notice that there was "green stuff" in it.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 2 medium zucchinis
• 4 medium very ripe bananas
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup chopped macadamia nuts

Directions:

Preheat oven at 350 degrees and grease loaf pans (I used one regular size and 2 minis). I use Pam baking spray with flour and things never stick! 

Mash up bananas with a potato masher and finely shred zucchini using a cheese shredder. I like to shred the zucchini over a paper towel so that it absorbs some of the liquid and it makes it easier to dump in the bowl.

 In a large bowl, combine the eggs, zucchini, bananas, oil, and vanilla.

Combine the dry ingredients and stir into the the egg mixture until just mixed. Fold in the nuts. I used macadamia nuts because I like them in banana bread (it's how my Mom always made it), but you can use any chopped nuts.

Pour into greased loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for about 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. I started checking the minis at about 40 minutes in case they cooked faster since they are smaller.

Let loaf pans cool down for about 10 minutes before removing bread from pan and transferring to a wire rack.

Slice and serve! I'll be honest, normally I like to spread a little butter on my banana bread. This was so delicious and moist, it didn't even need the butter! I would have liked to have taken a nice final picture on a platter... but with how good this was making the house smell while it baked, my Things pounced on it the minute it cooled down enough to eat. This bread also freezes great, so just pop it into a Ziploc freezer bag, place it in the freezer, and then pull it back out and defrost when you are ready for it.

Skinny Shrimp and Scallop Scampi

So I woke up this morning and immediately began planning out our day. I had high aspirations of making shredded chicken using my crock pot and stand mixer so I could freeze it. I had seen a recipe posted from one of my favorite blogs and I'd been wanting to try it out. I planned on getting all the bedding stripped and washed, going to the gym, and exploring our new Kiwi Crate project box. For dinner tonight I planned on pulling a meal from the freezer that I'd previously made. All in all it was supposed to be an easy laid back day.

Then I remembered that the boys started swim lessons today and the lessons carry through the rest of the week conveniently during dinner time. So I decided to hold off on the freezer meal so I could do it later this week and instead decided to make dinner tonight. I wanted something easy and quick though and I wanted to use ingredients on hand... because let's be honest... after swim lessons, I did not want to be trekking my three to the grocery store to go shopping. I decided on making shrimp scampi. After scouring my pinterest boards I decided to try out the following recipe with some adaptations: Skinny Shrimp Scampi.

I thought the recipe came out pretty good. I'll definitely make it again. The original recipe called for shallots which I didn't have so I just added an extra clove of garlic. The original recipe also called for 3 Tbsp of white wine.. so I upped the ante a little and just went for a 1/4 cup. What can I say... I like my wine. I didn't have fresh parsley so I just sprinkled some dried parsley on at the end. And I was too lazy to measure out the lemon zest and juice so I just zested my lemon and juiced the lemon right into the pan.

I served this with a side of steamed asparagus and it was a light filling meal. I have to be honest and admit that I knew that Thing 1 and 2 probably wouldn't eat it, so I heated up some spaghetti sauce and mixed in a little shredded chicken (which I did end up having time to make and freeze) for protein and gave them that instead.

Ingredients:

• About half a box of pasta (I used linguine and how much you need depends on how many you are feeding)
• 1 Tbsp of butter
• 5 cloves minced garlic
• 1 lb raw shrimp (cleaned and peeled)
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• lemon zest
• juice of one lemon
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/2 lb bay scallops
• optional garnish: Parmesan cheese and parsley (I used dried)

Directions:

Begin cooking the pasta according to the directions on the package. I always add a little olive oil to my boiling water to keep the pasta from sticking to the pot.

Melt butter in a large saute pan over medium high heat. Add garlic and saute for about a minute. Add shrimp and sprinkle crushed red pepper, salt, and pepper over the shrimp. Cook shrimp until the shrimp is pink on both sides.

Use a zester to zest the lemon directly onto shrimp in pan. Then cut lemon in half and use a juicer to juice the lemon into pan. Add chicken stock, wine, and scallops and stir to combine. The scallops cook even faster than the shrimp so I wait til this step to cook them so they don't get over cooked and rubbery. Cook until the scallops have cooked through and the mixture has cooked down.

Drain pasta and pour pasta into serving dish. Pour mixture over top and add Parmesan cheese and/or parsley.

Serve and enjoy!