Baked apples

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 similar sized gala apples
  
• 2 tablespoons butter, cut into 6 teaspoon-size pieces
• 1 cup spiced apple cider (or apple juice)

Preheat oven to 350. Combing first three ingredients. Core apples (don't puncture through to the bottom). If you do not have a corer a metal 12 teaspoon works great to dig out the insides. Peel off the top half of the apple skin. Line a deep baking dish with foil and place apples in. Fill the inside half full with sugar mixture and sprinkle remaining on top. Pour juice in the bottom of pan surrounding apples. Add 1 teaspoon of butter to each apple. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Check apples for softness if they are done serve them if not pop em back in for another 10 minutes.

I don't have the best picture of this because I was so goddamn excited to eat it I started eating before taking he picture. Also you can make the sugar mixture and just keep it in a tupperware and use it for one or two apples as needed. Last night I just made one for Brandon.

Finally you can put these in the crockpot on low for about 2 hours and your house will smell amazing leaving you with a delicious desert too!

Mini Spanish Frittatas

Frittatas are a cheap and easy thing to throw together for breakfast. You can basically use whatever you have in your fridge to switch it up. The standard frittata is made in a large skillet. Making them in muffin tins makes this fun for the kids.

INGREDIENTS
5 eggs
1/3 cup milk
2 chorizo sausages
1 tablespoon butter
3 flour tortillas, cut into bite size pieces
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
cooking spray

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Remove chorizo from casing, form small balls and place in a small skillet. Cook on high heat about 5-8 minutes, or until no longer pink stirring regularly.
3. In another small skillet add butter and flour tortillas. Lightly brown the tortillas for about 5 minutes stirring regularly. Do not allow to burn.
4. Whisk the eggs, milk, pepper, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the chorizo, tortillas, and cheese.
5. Fill muffin cups almost to the top with the egg mixture. Bake until the egg mixture puffs and is set in the center, about 10 to 12 minutes.
6. Frittatas should come out of the muffins tin easily with a fork or rubber spatula. Serve immediately.

Chicken Wings

SPICY WINGS

INGREDIENTS

2 pounds chicken wings

1 cup Frank's RedHot original hot sauce

1/2 a stick melted butter

crushed red peppers

salt

pepper

garlic powder

DIRECTIONS

1. On a large baking sheet arrange chicken wings in a single layer. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Bake at 400 for an hour turning halfway through.

2. In a large bowl add melted butter, Franks, and crushed red peppers. I use about 1-2 teaspoons, but we like spice in our house so add to your desired spiciness.

3. Place cooked chicken wings in bowl and thoroughly coat with hot sauce.

ORANGE GINGER GLAZED CHICKEN WINGS

INGREDIENTS

2 pounds chicken wings

1 cup orange juice

1/4 cup hoisen sauce

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoon ginger, minced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon corn starch

2 green onions, thinly sliced

DIRECTIONS

1. In a bowl mix the orange juice, hoisen sauce, lemon juice, oil, sugar, ginger, garlic and corn starch.

2. In a large baking dish arrange chicken wings in a single layer and coat with sauce mixture.

3. Bake at 400 for an hour, turning halfway through and recoating with sauce.

4. Serve topped with extra sauce and green onions.

Lemon garlic pork tenderlon - taking help from the store

Another cheapy. A few weeks back I was at the store shopping. I wanted pork tenderloin. They were out of the stuff that was un-marinated. I noticed they had one pre-marinated in a garlic lemon marinade. I hemmed and hawed wondering if I could actually buy something that someone else marinated. Finally I tossed it in the cart and figured I would give it a shot. I got home and realized I could not serve it like that I had to do something to make it my own so I threw together a quick glaze. The husband loved it so I made it again this week. Here is my taking help from the store meal.

1 Lemon garlic pork tenderloin
5 cloves garlic 3 chopped 2 sliced into quarters
1/2 cup soy sauce
5 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup water
2 pinches crushed red pepper
Black pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Combine soy sauce, water, lemon juice, crushed red pepper and diced garlic. Using a sharp knife poke 8 holes in your pork and slide your quartered garlic down into the middle. Place pork on baking sheet fat side up and season with pepper to you liking. Cover with sauce and place in oven for about 20 minutes or until pork reaches 155. I like to turn the pork once in the sauce half way through cooking. Allow pork to rest on counter until inner temperature reaches 160 degrees and then cut on an angle. Drizzle with sauce and serve. Some people may prefer to remove the garlic from the center first.

The pork tenderloin is $7.98 at my walmart. It serves 4 small portions or 2 large ones. I like to serve this with a simple potato and vegetable such as asparagus. The whole meal, with potato and veggie can be made for about 13.00. I had the soy sauce, lemon juice and garlic on hand.

Stuffed bell peppers take two - meals on a budget

As I told you last week I was going to start creating meals on a budget. This was the weeks first budget friendly meal. I'm not sure how to tally the cost since I had the sausage, garlic rice, and onions on hand. However this entree can be made for under 10.00 easily and serve up to 6 single portions.

1 pound pork sausage
4 green onions diced
1 pack mushrooms diced
1/2 white onion diced
5 cloves garlic diced
1 cup cooked white rice
1 pinch crushed red peppers
2 tsp ranch powder
1 cup diced tomatoes in a can
1/4 cup italian bread crumbs
1.5 cups monteray jack cheese shredded
salt and pepper
Olive oil

The first thing I want to say is, to make this meal vegetarian cook the sausage in a separate pan with salt and pepper. Remove your vegetarian filling and make your peppers and then add the cooked sausage to the remaining peppers and proceed to make them.

Preheat oven to 350. Cook rice. Cut tops off of peppers and seed them. Cut just enough of the bottom of the pepper off to make it stand straight. Lightly drizzle olive oil over peppers and place them on sheet pan in oven. Begin chopping all of your ingredients. Heat nonstick skillet over medium heat and add onions (white and green). Sauté and then add garlic and mushrooms. When onions and mushrooms have finished cooking add in salt, pepper, crushed pepper, ranch powder and tomatoes. Over medium heat brown sausage in seperate pan. Combine and cook about two minutes. Add rice and bread crumbs to mixture and combine. Remove softened peppers form oven. Drain oil from sausge and mix it into rice and veggies. Place small amount of cheese in the bottom of each pepper. Fill half of pepper with mixture. Add cheese and pack down. Fill with more mixture to tippy top and add more cheese. Place in oven for 10 minutes to allow cheese to melt and ingredients to combine.

Remember for the vegetarian version you want to stuff your peppers AND THEN add the sausage to the left over mixture.

Look at that melty gooey cheese

(vegetarian version)

Printable Version
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Extreme Breakfast Sandwich

INGREDIENTS
½ pound hot pork sausage
1 everything bagel
cream cheese
2 slices of sharp cheddar
2 eggs
hot sauce
salt
pepper

DIRECTIONS
1. Split the sausage in half and make two patties. Place patties in a hot skillet and cook on each side for 5 minutes or until done.
2. Fry the eggs over easy, or cook longer for less yoke. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Spread cream cheese on both side of toasted bagel.
4. Build your breakfast bagel placing all of the ingredients together starting from the bottom up, bagel, sausage, cheese, egg, sausage, cheese, egg, hot sauce, then bagel.

Blackened Salmon

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
4 salmon fillets, skin and bones removed
olive oil

DIRECTIONS
1. In a small bowl, mix paprika, cayenne pepper, onion powder, salt, white pepper, black pepper, thyme, basil and oregano.
2. Brush salmon fillets on both sides with olive oil, and sprinkle evenly with the cayenne pepper mixture.
3. In a large skillet over high heat, add 1 tablespoon olive oil and cook salmon until blackened about 2 to 5 minutes per side. Salmon will flake easily with a fork.