Charlie Boys

In my college town, there's this fantastic dive bar that is filled with old timers, college students, and everyone else in between. They serve beer in these ginormous frosted glasses called schooners and serve only one thing - Charlie Boys.  These are a close relation to loose meat sandwiches, maid rites, whatever they call them in your region.  But these are really peppery and stand apart from the crowd of loose meat sandwich recipes.  I can't eat one of these without having a beer.  If I'm watching my carbs, I'll put just half of a bun in the bottom of a bowl, dress it up just how I like it, and eat it with a fork.  Just as good.

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. ground beef
1 tsp. yellow mustard
1 Tbsp. horseradish
1 Tbsp. white vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. black pepper (you can add more if you like pepper!)

Pour oil into a cast iron skillet and sprinkle salt into the oil over medium-high heat.  Add onion and garlic, cook 2 minutes.  Add ground beef and brown, breaking the meat into very small bits as it cooks.  Add mustard, horseradish, vinegar, sugar, black pepper, and enough water to just barely cover the mixture.  Mix well and bring to a boil.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until almost all the water has boiled away - this usually takes about 15 minutes, so be patient.  Serve on hamburger buns.  

*If you prefer your loosemeats to not be so loose, you can stir in a little Wondra flour or cornstarch at the end of cooking.  I insist on eating mine with a slice of American cheese, mustard, ketchup, and pickles.  Insanely good. Serve with hamburger buns.  

Simple, Perfect Pan Roasted Chicken Thighs

This recipe is simple.  Cheap ingredients, common ingredients, quick to prepare, but BIG on taste.  Every time we make this, we can't believe it's only seasoned with salt and pepper.  I would strongly recommend using a cast iron skillet for this one - you can't beat the browning of an iron skillet. 

From Bon Appetit - 

Simple, Perfect Pan Roasted Chicken Thighs

Ingredients:

6 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs (about 2 1/4 pounds) 
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper 
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 475°. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a 12" cast-iron or heavy nonstick skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking. Nestle chicken in skillet, skin side down, and cook 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-high; continue cooking skin side down, occasionally rearranging chicken thighs and rotating pan to evenly distribute heat, until fat renders and skin is golden brown, about 12 minutes.  Transfer skillet to oven and cook 13 more minutes. Flip chicken; continue cooking until skin crisps and meat is cooked through, about 5 minutes longer. Transfer to a plate; let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Butterfinger Poke Cake

I'm not a big dessert eater, but my co-workers sure are.  We had a potluck at work recently and I came across this recipe for Butterfinger Poke Cake on Plain Chicken's blog.  The whole thing was gone in no time, much to the dismay of my husband who was hoping to have some of the leftovers.  So I had to make another one the very next weekend when we went to my in-laws' house to celebrate my FIL's birthday!  Again, gone in no time.  If you like Butterfingers, you will love this!

Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix, plus ingredients to make the cake
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 jar Smucker's caramel ice cream topping
1 (8oz) tub Cool Whip
4 regular sized Butterfingers, crushed 

Bake cake in a 9x13-inch pan according to direction on the package.  While cake is baking, mix milk and caramel topping until well blended. When the cake is done and while it's still hot, poke holes in it with a fork or straw. Pour milk mixture over the cake. Allow cake to cool completely.  Sprinkle two candy bars over cake. Spread Cool Whip over the top, then sprinkle the remaining candy bars on top. Chill until serving.

Easy Peasy Sausage Egg Bake

There are a zillion egg bake recipes, but 99% of them are kind of blah and tasteless.  I found this one on Pinterest and it is my new go-to egg bake recipe.  It is full of flavor, simple to make, and takes very little time to bake. When I'm HANGRY (hangry = more than hungry) in the morning, I don't want to wait 2 hours to eat. Nor do my little minions.  Give this one a try, you'll be so glad you did!

Ingredients:
1 (8 oz) can refrigerated crescent rolls (I love those seamless creation ones that Pillsbury has)
1 lb. breakfast sausage
2 c. mozzarella cheese, shredded
4 eggs, beaten
3/4 C. milk
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Crumble and cook sausage, drain.  Spray 13 x 9 inch baking dish with cooking spray and line bottom with crescent roll dough. If you don't have the seamless variety, firmly press perforations to seal. Sprinkle with sausage, then cheese.  Combine remaining ingredients in medium bowl until blended, pour over sausage.  Bake uncovered 15 minutes or until set.  Cut into squares and serve.  

The leftovers are good reheated, too! 

Tortellini Soup

We love the Olive Garden.  The soups and bread sticks moreso than the pasta dishes.  When it comes to pasta, I think I do a better job at home - that way I can make it exactly the way I like and for a fraction of the cost.  The first thing my husband said when he tried this soup that I found on Pinterest was that it reminded him of his favorite soup at the Olive Garden.

Recipe adapted from Little Fellows:

Ingredients:
1 (19oz) bag of frozen cheese tortellini 
1 small bag of fresh spinach
2 (14.5 oz) cans of Italian style diced tomatoes, drained
1 block (8 oz) of cream cheese, softened
1 lb. sausage, cooked and crumbled (I've used regular and Italian, both are good)
3-4 cups of chicken broth (start with 3, add 1 more if it looks like it needs it)


Place all ingredients in crockpot insert.  Cook on low 4 hours.  Before stirring, make cornstarch slurry by mixing 2 tsp. cornstarch with 2 tsp. water.  Stir into soup and stir occassionally until desired thickness.   

Mississippi Roast

My husband is a big carnivore.  Yours probably is as well.  My mother-in-law loves to tell the story of when he was about 5 years old and declared that he "didn't trust nothing green!"  I, on the other hand, am just as happy eating a vegetarian meal as I am eating a well-prepared steak.  This recipe, however, knocked my SOCKS off.  I want to eat it every. Single. Day.  I beg you - please make it as written the first time and don't balk at the peppers.  It is NOT spicy.  You can discard those little peppers at the end and pretend it never ever touched your food, I promise.

Props to Table for Two for sharing this.  It's awesome.  The leftovers are even better, and I get skeeved out by eating leftover meat.  I called dibs on the leftovers, the hubs wanted to fight me for them.

Ingredients:  

3 lbs. chuck roast

1 envelope dry ranch dressing (1 oz)

1 envelope dry au jus mix (1 oz)

6 Tbsp. butter

1/4 C. water

5-6 jarred pepperoncini peppers

Add water to crockpot.  Place the roast on top.  Sprinkle the dry ranch dressing on top of the meat, then the dry au jus.  Dot with butter.  Place peppers around the roast.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours.  When it's done, it will fall apart.  Proceed to swoon. 

You could also shred this with two forks and make the BEST drip beef sandwiches out of it!

Crockpot Beef Stew

Baby, it's COLD outside.  Iowa winters suck.  I tend to make a lot of soups and stews in the winter, but I'm really picky about my beef stew.  I've tried a million recipes, none of which I've been ecstatic with.  I came across this one on Pinterest and doctored it up.  I was very pleased with the results, I hope you will be too! 

Ingredients:

2 lb. beef stew meat, cut into cubes

1 lb. carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

4 medium potatoes, cut into chunks (I like to leave the skin on)

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 (8 oz) container fresh mushrooms, sliced

1 bay leaf

2 envelopes dry brown gravy

1 envelope McCormick beef stew seasoning

1 C. red wine

2 tsp. Kitchen Bouquet

3-4 C. beef broth

Mix meat, veggies, and seasoning ingredients into crockpot insert.  Pour in enough beef broth so that everything is submerged.  Cook on high 4-6 hours or low 6-8 hours.  To thicken, make a cornstarch slurry by mixing 2 tsp. cornstarch with 2 tsp. water - pour into stew and stir occasionally until stew has thickened to desired consistency.  

Spinach, Chicken, and Bean Quesadillas

Found another winner on Pinterest! While this is a little labor intensive, you can make the filling ahead of time and then grill up a quesadilla when you're ready.  This is super filling and extremely tasty.  I can get several quesadillas out of this, so I'm very happy that the filling keeps in the fridge.

Many thanks to the Other Side of Fifty for sharing this gem!!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 -2 cups seasoned, cooked and diced chicken breast meat
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 C. diced onion
1 C. diced red bell pepper
a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 heaping Tbsp. all purpose flour
3/4 cup chicken broth
4 cups fresh baby spinach, stems removed, coarsely chopped
1 (15.5 ounce) can of cannellini beans/chickpeas, drained and rinsed

Cooking spray
Flour tortillas
Shredded cheddar cheese
Avocados, diced
Sour cream

In a large skillet heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and red bell pepper. Season with the crushed red pepper flakes and salt and pepper. Saute until veggies have softened, 6-8 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for another minute or two. Sprinkle the flour over the veggies and stir to combine. Cook while stirring for several minutes so that the flour loses its raw taste. Whisk in the chicken broth and stir until bubbly and smooth. Add the baby spinach and continue cooking for another minute or two or until spinach has wilted. Stir in the cooked chicken and beans and remove from heat.

Spray a large skillet or griddle with cooking spray. Heat over medium to medium-high heat. Place one tortilla on griddle and spread cheese over tortilla. Spread chicken, bean and spinach mixture over one half of the tortilla. Check underside of tortilla and when browned a bit, flip the half with just cheese over the half with the chicken. Remove from heat and cut into slices. Top with diced avocado and sour cream.  (Sometimes I put a little taco sauce on, too)

Chile Colorado Burritos

I found this recipe on Pinterest - as soon as I saw the picture, I knew I had to try it.  People, it tastes even BETTER than the picture! Drop what you're doing, go to the store to buy the ingredients, and make this today.  So. Flipping. Good.  One of my new favorites.  But please promise me you'll grate your own cheese, it's a million times better if you do. 

Props to Food Pusher for this crockpot miracle!!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 to 2 pounds stew meat or other beef cubed (top sirloin is great)
1 large can red enchilada sauce (at least 19 oz.)
2 beef bouillon cubes
1/2 can refried beans (optional)
burrito size flour tortillas
2 C. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded 

Put beef, whole bouillon cubes (do NOT add water), and enchilada sauce into crockpot insert and cook on low for 7-8 hours, or until meat is very tender. When beef is done, shred with two forks.  Warm refried beans in microwave if using.  Crank on the broiler while you assemble.  Lay out a tortilla and place 1/2 cup of the meat (drained by using a slotted spoon) and a spoonful of refried beans. Roll into a burrito and place on a rimmed baking sheet or in a baking dish. Pour the remaining enchilada sauce from the crock pot over the burritos to cover. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and broil until cheese is bubbly, about 2-4 minutes.  

Crockpot Butter Ranch Mushrooms

This may be one of the unhealthiest recipes I've posted, but it's also one of the easiest and most delicious.  My friends beg me to make these mushrooms whenever we're having a get together and I'm happy to oblige, because it's the easiest thing in the whole world.  My mother-in-law graced me with this recipe. 

Ingredients:
4 (8 oz) boxes fresh mushrooms (whole)
1 lb. butter
1 envelope dry ranch dressing

Dump everything into crockpot insert.  Cook on low 6-8 hours.  Serve hot.  Run an extra mile the next day.