Cheeseburger Joes get 2 thumbs up!

Last week the Kraft Food and Family magazine arrived in the mail and it was loaded with lots of good recipes. I've been getting this magazine for a few years now and have found many recipes, but alas they've never been made. Not this month! I tore the magazine apart and placed the recipes in my handy-dandy-to-do-binder. Easy organizing, but unfortunately many a recipe have ended up in the binder never to be seen again. Well it is the second day of the school week and I'm on my second recipe.

The Cheeseburger Joes are basically sloppy joes, but no need for a can/envelope of "joe" mix. All the ingredients are already on hand. I of course had to double the recipe, so here it goes...

2 lb. ground beef - browned and drained
1 cup bbq sauce & 1/2 cup ketchup mixed together
Add sauces to beef, warm and serve on buns with cheese.

Add some cucumber slices and carrot sticks and dinner was served in under 20 minutes ;) That's my kind of meal.

Pumpkin is the flavor of the week

This past Sunday since we were planning on going to the later Mass, I made a nice big breakfast for the family. Pancakes, eggs, bacon and a batch of pumpkin pancakes. The kids avoided the pumpkin pancakes (I didn't complain because truth be told I made them for me:). When we got home from Mass the hubster was helping himself to the leftover pumpkin pancakes when Nolan decided he would try them, then Andrew jumped on board the eat-from-dad's-plate train followed quickly by Simon and Mary Kate. They loved them and unfortunately for dad, they ate them all up. They chose to eat them without syrup and revert back to medieval times by using their hands to clear his plate.

I have since been asked to share this recipe by a few people so here goes...
2 cups Bisquick
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
Mix above ingredients and set aside.
Thoroughly mix the following ingredients and then stir into the Bisquick mixture.
2 eggs
1 12-oz can evaporated milk
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Scoop onto a hot griddle. The batter is VERY thick in comparison to regular pancakes and I ended up adding about 2 tbsp. water to the batter. When I scooped it onto the griddle, I had to spread it out a bit. I LOVE my counter top griddle! It looks something like this, unfortunately I don't think they make my version anymore. I consider the griddle one of the most important appliances in my kitchen since I can do 8 grilled cheese sandwiches at one time!!

Crazy Food Names

Crabby Patties, Pink Fish and Frog Sauce could be on the menu any lunch or dinner in the Park house. Sound gross? Well don't be fooled by the name, it just takes a bit of creativity to put some excitement into meal times. We started the naming of meals back when Andrew was a toddler and at the time many things were named after The Wiggles. He is now one of my best eaters :)

So for those of you haven't been visiting during meal times and/or may be watching my kids during meals here are some definitions..

Crabby Patties are taken from a Sponge Bob episode, but I believe they were burgers in the show (I'm still trying to figure out that show). Nothing fancy for us, just a chicken patty on a bun with or without ketchup and sometimes with a slice of cheese. We've also been known to use these crabby patties for making "poor-man's chicken parmesan" - layer sauce, crabby patties, slice of provolone cheese, more sauce and topped with mozzarella cheese.

Pink Fish to most people is boring old salmon. The kids will eat baked salmon, but for a quick meal, I take a can of salmon (Costco's is the BEST), add a little mayo and sprinkle with Emerils all purpose seasoning. Spread on Ritz crackers and a meal with a good amount of Omega -3 fatty acids is ready :)

Frog Sauce was born out of desperation for making pesto sauce sound like something the kids would like. What boy wasn't going to get a kick out of frog sauce? It worked and they love it on noodles and tortellini.

Husbands Delight is...

DELIGHTFUL!!! No worries this a totally G-rated post :) About 6 1/2 years ago I helped put together a cookbook for our Parish to help raise funds. I typed in over 700 recipes and remembered seeing this particular one "Husbands Delight" and thought that was interesting, but never went back to it. Then a few weeks ago, I was talking with a friend that has a copy of the cookbook and she had mentioned that she made the recipe and that the family loved it. Always willing to try something new, especially one with a catchy title. "Hey hon, I'm serving up some Husbands Delight for dinner!" He was on the next train home :)

So the vote was cast and came back with a resounding "make it again mom"! Mary Kate ate the most. After finishing her own 3 helpings, she got out of her highchair and went to the table to help Nolan finish eating his ;) Ri stuck with his Mac-n-Cheese (ONLY Kraft and ONLY the blue box please). Hubby also went back for seconds which speaks volumes because he rarely has seconds since he dropped 30# last Fall.

So for anyone interested here's the recipe (or if you have the book it is on pg 105 in the St. V's cookbook)
Brown & drain 1- 1 1/2 lb ground meat. Add 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1tsp each salt & pepper, 1 Tbsp sugar, 2-8oz cans of tomato sauce and 1 med. onion (chopped) {NOTE since my hubby thinks that onions are made by the devil, I omit them and instead sneak in 1 tsp onion powder}. Let that simmer covered for 15 minutes. Meanwhile cook as directed egg noodles. Mix 8 oz pkg of cream cheese and 8 oz sour cream. In greased casserole dish, layer 1/2 noodles, 1/2 meat and 1/2 cream cheese mixture. Repeat layering and then top with 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese. Cover & cook for 30 minutes at 350. YUMMMM!

Oh and nutritionally speaking, I did use 93% lean beef (you could use ground turkey), light sour cream and 1/3 less fat cream cheese.