Jambalaya

Copycat Zatarain's Jambalaya

Serves: 4

Adapted from: http://www.lifesatomato.com/2014/04/27/copycat-zatarains-jambalaya/

Ingredients

For the spice mix

1 c uncooked long-grain rice

1 t onion powder

1 T dried parsley flake

1 1/3 t beef bouillon granules

1 t minced dried chives

1 t dried celery flakes

1/2 t pepper

1/8 t cayenne pepper

1/2 t garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

For the jambalaya

2 cups water

Spice mix from above

8 ounces tomato sauce

1 pound smoked sausage, cut into rounds

Instructions

Combine all ingredients for spice mix in one bowl.

In a large saucepan, bring the water to boil.

Add the spice mix and stir.

Return to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 15-25 minutes or until the rice is tender.

In another saucepan, combine the tomato sauce and sausage and cook on low for 10 min., just enough to heat through.

Combine both pans and mix well. If the sauce is too thick, add a bit of water and stir.

Recipe - Buttermilk Waffles

Buttermilk Waffles

2 eggs

2 c buttermilk

1 t baking soda

2 c flour

2 t baking powder

½ t salt

6 T oil

Heat waffle iron while mixing batter.

Beat eggs well.  Beat in the buttermilk, baking soda, flour, baking powder, salt, and oil.  Beat until smooth. This is a thin batter.

Bake in hot waffle iron for about 5 minutes per batch.

Recipe - Buttermilk Pancakes

Buttermilk Pancakes

From Ann Byrne

2 eggs  
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoon sugar
2-2.5 cups buttermilk (use 2 ½ if use chocolate chips)
4 Tablespoons vegetable oil

Preheat griddle to 360°.

Combine flour, baking powder, soda, salt and sugar. Beat egg. Add buttermilk and oil to egg. Add buttermilk mixture to dry mixture. Whisk until just moistened - do not over stir! Add chocolate chips here if you want.... :)

For each pancake, pour about 1/4 cup batter onto a hot, lightly greased griddle. Turn pancakes when tops are covered with bubbles and edges looked cooked.

Yield: 16 (4 inch) pancakes

Review - Perogies

I made the Perogies from my meal plan today.  I have to say they were definitely time consuming.  However, the nice thing is that it made enough for 2 more meals + leftovers.  So those 32 or so perogies are in the freezer (in bag below)!  All I will have to do next time we want perogies is boil them and then pan fry them in some oil!

I served them with sliced pan fried sausage and everyone seemed to like it. They made the "every other week" list.  

Changes I made to the recipe/Other notes:

1) I did not brush water on the dough.  I did with the first set, but then stopped because it made them harder to fold over.

2) For the salt, pepper, and onion salt I used 1 t. salt, 1/2 t. pepper, and 1/2 t. onion salt.  
3) Next time, I will cut down the potatoes by about 1/2.  I used regular russets and used about 15 since they were small.  I had a ton of leftover mashed potatoes.  Guess what's for leftovers this week? =)

4) After boiling the perogies, I pan fried them in some oil so they were nice and crispy.

5) This made about 50 small perogies. 

Let me know in the comments below if you try these and if you like them!

Review - Pepperoni Bread

Tonight I made the Pepperoni Bread from my meal plan.  It was a big hit!

My husband has lists he categorizes my recipes into, such as daily/anytime, weekly, monthly, or prefer to never have again.  This helps me know how much he likes something.  He said this goes into the daily/anytime list!  I had a feeling he'd like it because he enjoys my pizza, but it's a little different so I wasn't sure.

I used my pizza dough recipe and made the full dough amount (so enough for 2 pizzas). Then, I doubled everything else in the Pepperoni Bread recipe and made two loaves out of it.  I also added a liberal sprinkling of Penzey's Pizza Seasoning before rolling it up.  Finally, I brushed the outside of the loaves with the beaten egg before baking.

Finally, I used my pizza sauce to dip the bread in.  I made the full recipe (16 oz).

Everyone loved it, including the toddler!  I will be making it again!

Meal plan 1/25/16-1/31/16 and Wunderlist App

Hi everyone!

So, I don't know if I'll continue to post my meal plan each week, but I want to try it out.

Wunderlist App

Before I get to the meal plan, I wanted to tell you about an App called Wunderlist that I’ve been using for a few months and it’s helped me so much.  Y’all know I like to be organized, and this helps me do just that =).  I got the idea from a podcast called Edit Your Life Show.  Things I like about the app: 

     1)      It’s on my phone and so it’s convenient.

     2)      The ding it makes when I check something off =). 

     3)      You can set tasks to repeat (weekly, etc). 

     4)      You can also create multiple lists.  So I have one for my grocery list (I just use this when I’m in the kitchen…my real one is on my computer), to dos,  etc. I put all my cooking, defrosting, and cleaning stuff on here as well as general to dos.

Meal Plan

     1)    Breakfast: Chocolate chip oatmeal muffins – idea courtesy of Sarah.  Never tried before, but looking forward to it.  I have a less healthy version I’ve tried but am looking forward to these.

a.      http://www.thesemisweetsisters.com/2015/03/27/chocolate-chip-oatmeal-muffins-recipe/

     2)      Perogies and Sausage (link kind) – I bought some frozen perogies and served with sausage a few weeks ago.  I want to try my hand at them.  I’m going to make a full batch and freeze some of them, which should make for an easy dinner one night paired with some meat.  I made these a few weeks ago and they turned out quite tasty, but were not the healthiest thing in the world =).

a.      http://allrecipes.com/recipe/84706/grandmas-polish-perogies/

b.      If these turn out good, I’m thinking these could be a go to for us on Fridays during Lent.

     3)      Pepperoni bread – this is a new one for me too.  I’m going to use my pizza dough recipe for the bread and my pizza sauce for the dipping sauce.  You can totally just buy the sauce and bread =).

a.     http://allrecipes.com/recipe/18019/pepperoni-bread/

b.  My pizza recipe

     4)      Meatball Hoagies – I made these a few weeks ago and Matthew loved them.  I have some hoagies left in the freezer from the first time, so it should be an easy meal.  I do cut down the spice for H’s sake (I leave out the hot pepper sauce and cut the cayenne to ¼ t). You can totally just buy the rolls and save yourself a lot of time! =)

a.      http://allrecipes.com/recipe/213742/meatball-nirvana/

b.      http://www.food.com/recipe/hoagie-rolls-126997

c.      Other notes – I add pizza sauce and provolone slices on top of hoagie sandwich after assembling.

Next week, I’ll have to start figuring out what we are going to have for the Super Bowl on February 7!

Comment below with any meal ideas you have!  I love trying new things!

Michelle's Pizza

Servings: 2 Large Pizzas

Sauce:

16 oz. can tomato sauce                              

¼ t. dried oregano                                          

¼ t. garlic powder              

¼ t. dried basil                                                

¼ t. salt

1 t. sugar                                                          

¼ t. dried thyme                              

1/8 t. black pepper          

1 bay leaf   

¼ c. water                                                                     

Combine all ingredients in small saucepan.  Cook over medium heat until sauce starts to boil.  Lower heat and simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes.

Dough:

4 ½ t. (2 pkg) active dry yeast                                     

2 T. oil 

2 t. salt

2 c warm water, warmed to 110-120 degrees        

2 t. sugar             

5-6 c flour

2 t. oil (to coat)

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water.  Add the oil, sugar, and salt.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes.  Add flour and knead for 5 minutes, until elastic. Add 2 t. oil to coat dough to prevent sticking to bowl.  Cover with saran wrap or towel and let rise for 40 minutes, until almost doubled.

Toppings, other items needed for baking:

Parchment paper for baking

8-10 oz sliced pepperoni, Canadian bacon, etc. (toppings your choice)

4 c (16 oz) grated mozzarella cheese

Penzey’s pizza seasoning

Garlic butter for crust:

4 T. margarine

1 t. salt

1 t. garlic powder

Melt margarine and then stir in salt and garlic powder.

Directions:

1) Make sauce.  Make dough and let it rise. Prepare toppings and garlic butter. Cut two circles of parchment paper to fit stone or pan you will cook pizza on.  Once dough has risen, divide in half place each on the parchment paper circles and roll out into 2 circles. At this point, I like to preheat the oven to 500 degrees.  I preheat my stone as well as the oven is preheating.

2) Roll out the dough farther than parchment paper and then bunch up the edges to form a crust.  Add ½ of sauce to each pizza and spread into thin layer to cover dough. Sprinkle Penzey’s liberally on top of sauce. Add ½ of cheese to each pizza.  Add ½ of toppings to each pizza.  Finally, baste about ¼ of the garlic butter onto crust, reserving ½ for after baking.

3) Carefully take preheated stone out of oven and transfer pizza to the stone with a cutting board underneath to help transfer (parchment paper will stay underneath pizza).  Bake 1 pizza at a time, for 8-10 minutes each, until golden brown on top.  Add ½ of remaining garlic butter to each pizza after removing from oven.  Slice, serve, and enjoy!