Saturday, August 7, 2010

SPAM's Meal Makeover Challenge

Believe it or not, there are people out there who love SPAM just as much as I do and even more. That makes me so happy to know that I'm not alone.

Well guess what? SPAM is putting out a "Meal Makeover Challenge" and this challenge involves the main recipes of SPAM & Pasta. Wow, how fun.

Anyway, check out this link to read their official rules and good luck on winning the grand prize of $1000. Hurry you have until August 31, 2010.

"SPAM" photo courtesy of *yasuhiro from Flickr Creative Commons.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Meatloaf Muffins

Today my husband and I got home late from work, we still needed a grocery run and our stomachs were growling.  My mind was still set on using my veggies (carrots, bell pepper, onions, tomatoes...etc) and making meatloaf with them. So the plan was on a roll.

To cut time I used our mini food processor on all our vegetables and I've got to say that I just love it!

Here's how I make one of my most favorite comfort foods in the world:

Makes a dozen meatloaf muffins + 1 pan of meatloaf.

2 lbs of ground beef
1/2 cup of Miracle Whip (I realised I was out of eggs--way to think on my feet. Master Chef here I come.)
1 cup of bread crumbs (any slice, bun of bread will work just fine, rip into pieces)
1 egg, the only egg in my fridge
2 medium carrots
1 green bell pepper
1 medium onion
1 tomato, seeded
1 tablespoon of onion powder
2 teaspoons of garlic powder
2 teaspoons of kosher salt
2 teaspoons of black pepper
2 teaspoons of thyme, not ground
1/4 cup of worcestershire
  • Preheat oven 350 degrees. Spray cupcake pan and loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
  • Process the veggies until they are small/minced well.
  • Add all the ingredients together. Have fun and use your hands during this process.
  • Make mixture into balls, not too big that they overwhelm the cupcake pan hallow. Turn the rest into a loaf. Place meat in respective pans. For the cupcake pan, place it on an edged cookie pan to keep the liquids from spillage.
  • I baked each pan at time. Bake the cupcake pan for 50 minutes or until the meat is no longer pink. Bake the loaf pan for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. For each pan, before the last 10 minutes, pour on your favorite BBQ mix, ketchup or sweet n' tangy sauces and let it bake for the rest of the time. For more caramelized flavor leave it in for another 5-10 minutes.
For me, I pair my meatloaf with mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans in garlic...ooh gets me every time. Enjoy and hope it brings comfort and happiness to your bellies as much as it did mine tonight.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Puff the Magic Pastry

THIS is how they make Samosas. Mmmmmmmmmmm. 
Hmm I kinda like my title for today.

Well, last night I had a dream that I was in a cooking competition with Chef Ramsey hosting. The theme was puff pastry and we had about 14 minutes to make something delicious. I wish it wasn't 14 minutes because by the time I diced my onion and cooked the ground beef for my puff pastry filling, my sous chef was freaking out because the time was up and we hadn't even started filling the pastry. It was a nightmare but an inspiration as soon as I woke up.

I think I'll be making my puff pastry dream recipe sometime this week. The recipe...I'll reveal once I try it, taste it and hopefully like it. But for now here are a couple recipes I found online that I found tasty and hopefully I get to make them all.

The theme for my choice was "savory" puff pastries. The first one I found was on Savory Sweet Life's blog for a {Simple Yet Fancy}Caramelized Onion Tart recipe. I love me some yellow onions, butter, ricotta and parmesan cheese. What a great picture they posted as well.

Not only did I think of puff pastry today, I had hot dogs on the brain. I can't resist a good hot dog and what better way to celebrate this meat by wrapping it with pastry? Check out Pepperidge Farm's Franks Under Wraps. Tell me what you think.

Lately I've become a fan of Allrecipes.com. It's a great site for sharing recipes, reading reviews and feedback. One interesting recipe I found was a Steak Pie submitted by JIMZGRL (cute name). I don't think 10,889 people would have saved this recipe if it wasn't delicious. So that's on my menu for this fall when it's time to break out the savory, warm and filling dinners my family has come to enjoy when the weather gets colder.

Finally, it's still summer so why not learn to make some samosas for an outdoor cocktail party? I found a recipe that is vegetarian friendly on Mo + Ray's Kitchen blog. Their Samosa Puffs looks so appetizing and I'm pretty sure it tastes just as good.

So I have my kitchen time cut out for me. It's time I turn my dream into a reality of puff pastry magic in my mouth (that's what she said).

Have a great day! Stay cool.

"Best Samosas EVER!" photo courtesy of Alicia Nijdam from Flickr Creative Commons.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

M&M Cupcakes Great for Birthdays

Wow, being a full time wife does take up time that I must learn how to divide and conquer in order to maintain blogs, social networking profiles and so forth.

But in my spare time I have found yet again another excuse for making cupcakes. Hehe. This time it was for a co-worker (my boss to be exact) who is supercool and such a lovely person. She's the kind of person you would want to meet and have in your life because it's rare nowadays to find such a sincere human being who really does care if you had a bad day. Anyway, this was for her birthday and I stayed up till 3 am making these so it would be ready for work the next day or a couple hours later.

I would've gone bold red and bold everything but my frosting and food coloring did not permit me to do so. I was disappointed at first but then looked at it on the bright side...they do look great as Easter cupcakes or just "Summer Fun" colors that would be prominent during this time of year.

I used regular confetti cake mix with white fluffy frosting. Next time I think I will try and add M&Ms to the batter and see how that turns out. Overall it was quite the office hit and by the end of the day I had empty pans/trays to take home which made me very happy. One less cupcake is a couple calories less to think about.  I really can't resist cupcakes.

Well enjoy and I hope you have a great week! Happy August!