With Spring here and fruit and vegetable stands popping up all over the place, I'm in the mood for some salad. For the first time ever, I've planted some plants. Hopefully this summer, we'll have a ton of peppers, lettuce, onions, and raspberries. Celia and Charlie had a great time helping me plant the seeds. Now I just have to keep them out of the dirt long enough to let my little plants grow! Here's a deliciously fresh tasting Balsamic Cucumber Tomato Salad. I used dried basil, but if you have fresh basil, it will taste even better!
Balsamic Cucumber Tomato Salad
Ingredients:
3 and 1/2 Cups Chopped Tomatoes (I used Roma and Cherry tomatoes)
1 Large Cucumber
1/3 Cup Diced Onion
4 oz Diced Mozzerella Cheese
3/4 TBSP Dried Basil
1 TBSP Minced, Refrigerated Garlic
1 TBSP Honey
2/3 Cup Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
Salt (optional)
Pepper (optional)
1. Chop tomatoes and cucumber. Put them into a medium-sized bowl. Dice onion and cut mozzerella cheese into cubes. Add to bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together basil, garlc, honey and salad dressing. Pour over salad and stir.
3. Salt and pepper to taste.
A while back, our grocery story had spaghetti sauce on sale for ridiculously cheap prices. Being half Italian, I never pass up a sale on anything to do with tomatoes, so I stocked up! The other day I was looking in my pantry and I realized I haven't used any of my sauces yet. This really surprised me. I immediately set to remedy this situation. Since I was on Spring Break and my kids were at the sitter, I wanted to make something fast so I could clean our house a bit between my appointments that day. In these situations, our slow cooker is my best friend. It was rainy and cold that day, I made a Tomato Basil Soup. The aroma was delicious and it was so simple to make. Our friends Erin and Drew came over for dinner that night. We served it with roasted chicken, cantaloupe and cheesy garlic bread. It was a perfectly simple dinner that was delicious.
Tomato Basil Soup
Ingredients:
1 Can Northern Beans
1 Can Diced Tomatoes
1 Can Cream of Mushroom Soup
4 Cups Milk
1/2 Jar of Spaghetti Sauce
1/2 Pack Frozen Peas
3 TBSP Creme Fraiche (or sour cream)
2 Pinches of Salt
1 Tsp Onion Powder
1 Tsp Dried Basil (Use fresh if available, I didn't have any)
1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
1. Pour all ingredients into your slow cooker, cook on high for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally so it won't bubble up and burn.
2. Before serving, pull out about 1/4 cup of liquid. Mix together with 1 Tbsp of flour until a paste forms. Mix paste into soup and put lid on until soup comes to a boil. Continue cooking until soup is at desired thickness.
3. Serve with cheesy garlic bread.
Last week I asked Andy to pick up some hotdog buns at the bread store on his way home from work. When there, he was overcome by the cheap prices and bought a giant loaf of white bread, a 16 pack of hotdog buns, and a box of powdered sugar doughnuts. The doughnuts were gone within 24 hours, but the bread and hotdog buns lingered longer. I have had to think of all kinds of creative ways to cook with bread over the past week. Tonight I made Pizza Burger Pie in memory of my grade school days. I loved when we had pizza burgers at lunch. In fact all the kids loved them. They were basically a bun topped with spaghetti sauce, hamburger, and cheese. I took that basic recipe, made it into a large dish and fancied it up. After it was finished cooking and I placed it on the table, Charlie proclaimed, "That's my favorite- Yummy pizza!" And sure enough, everyone in our family had two helpings. I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine did.
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Pizza Burger Pie
Ingredients:
5 Hotdog Buns
Olive Oil
Garlic Powder
1 Cup Ground Turkey
1 1/4 Cup Spaghetti Sauce
18 Black Olives Sliced
1/2 Cup Red Onions Diced
1/2 Large Green Pepper
1/2 TBSP Dried Basil
2 1/2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Parmesean Cheese
Spray a round 10" to 11" baking dish with Pam. Tear up hotdog buns and spread out over bottom of dish. Drizzle olive oil over torn up buns and then sprinkle garlic powder on top. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes until toasty. Brown ground turkey while buns are toasting in the oven.
Take the buns out of the oven. Spread tomato sauce over toasted buns. Next spread the browned ground turkey on top of the sauce. Add the onions, peppers, and black olives to the top of the pie. Sprinkle dried basil and parmesean cheese on top of veggies. Finally top Pizza Burger Pie with shredded mozzarella. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees until cheese is melted and starting to brown around the edges. Let cool and enjoy!
