Cotton Candy Peeps Rice Crispy Treat, Yes Please!!!!!!!!

Testing out a recipe now for Easter.

Cotton Candy Peeps Rice Crispy Treats

Ingredients:
3 Tbls Butter
10 oz Cotton Candy Peeps
6 cups Crispy Rice cereal

Spray 13 X 9 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

Melt butter over low heat in a large pan.

Once butter is melted add Peeps, stirring constantly until smooth.

Once smooth remove from heat, stir in cereal until evenly coated.

Spray your hands with non-stick cooking spray and scoop cereal mixture into baking pan and press down firmly.

Allow to cool.

Cut into squares.  Best enjoyed the same day.  Use air tight container to store leftovers.

Now that these were a success I want to follow up with these flavors.  I might even give the watermelon, fruit punch and blue raspberry peeps a try just for the pretty colors. 

Day 6 Chimiladas (That's a thing right?)

This is another one of my bombproof, never fail, always keep the ingredients on hand favorites.  I've always called them lazy enchiladas but when I top them with all the fresh yumminess they seem slightly more like a chimichanga from my favorite Mexican restaurant.  So I shall call them Chimiladas.  While they do take an hour in the oven they only take a few minutes to prepare so the actual hands on time required is maybe 10 minutes at the most.

Chimiladas

Ingredients:
- 8 Frozen burritos, whatever kind you prefer, beef and bean, bean and cheese, chicken, homemade, it's totally up to you.
- Canned Enchilada sauce, at least 19oz but I prefer the larger 28oz can.  Red or green is your preference. 
- Shredded Cheese, I prefer the fiesta blend.
- Sliced olives (optional)

Additional optional toppings
- Shredded lettuce
- Chopped tomatoes
- Chopped onion
- Cilantro
- Squeeze of lime
- Sour cream
- Guacamole

Preheat oven to 350

Spray 13 X 9 baking dish with cooking spray.

Place all eight burritos in baking dish, seam side down.

Pour enchilada sauce over the burritos.

Sprinkle shredded cheese evenly over the sauce.

Distribute olives over the cheese if desired.

Cover dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes.  Remove foil and bake an additional 15 minutes allowing cheese to brown slightly.

Remove from oven, enjoy as is

or top with yummy extras.

Day 5, Game Day Pizza

For years and years we've been without cable television.  Until recently our tradition had been to go to the local pizza parlor anytime there was a sporting event we wanted to watch on television.  We now subscribe to Sling and therefore have many of the sports networks but we still enjoy going out for pizza occasionally on game day.

We've been following Women's March Madness and was planning on watching a game tonight so I thought why not still have game night pizza at home.

Pizza might be one of my very favorite foods and that is partly due to it's versatility.  You can put anything on a pizza crust and tonight I decided to make a bacon cheeseburger inspired pizza.

To save time I started with a store bought crust using Thousand Island salad dressing instead of the more traditional tomato pizza sauce.

Since this was a bacon cheeseburger I used shredded cheddar for the cheese component.

Ground beef was simply seasoned and pan fried and put on top of the cheese.

I chopped and fried a package of bacon, drained off the grease and put it on top of the crust with the burger.

I put a little more cheese on just to help hold the meat in place and baked according to the directions on my crust package.

When it came out I had an assortment of cheeseburger fixins to go on top, onion, pickles, and tomato.

My daughter who doesn't like pizza (I know, hard to imagine right?) loved it! She said I needed to make sure I kept that recipe to which I responded, "what recipe?"  Seriously, so easy no recipe is required.

Day 4, More of a Concept than a Recipe

As you know last night hubby made dinner, smoked elk steaks and they were delicious.  He wanted to make sure he had enough left over for his lunch so he made two packages.  As we were cleaning up last night he said, "I guess one package would have been sufficient."

That brings me to one of my favorite time saving concepts, planned leftovers.

I'm not talking about the usual way we all make 15 gallons of spaghetti, not that there's anything wrong with that.  I'm talking about repurposing your leftovers to make an entirely different meal.

Last night's elk steak became tonight's sizzling elk fajitas. Since the elk was already cooked no defrosting was necessary and reheating the meat while sauteing the onions and peppers was a breeze.  I think we were eating within 15 minutes of getting home.

Planning ahead to have leftovers is a great way to save time.  Basically cook once, eat twice.  Whether it's a roasted chicken that you turn into soup or pot pie the next day or turning extra baked potatoes into soup or hashbrowns, you'll be happy to have several steps complete going into your next night of cooking.

Day 3, Hubby Cooks Wild Game

This may very easily end up being my favorite post of the month, but more on that later.

It's been interesting thinking about this blog and the purpose of it.  Clearly we are all here for the same reason.  We want to be able to make a decent dinner for our families when we've failed to defrost or even plan ahead.  Now that I'm writing the blog I don't think I've ever planned more.  It's funny because as I'm researching recipes that I think will work well for our mission I realize I've planned out enough to just go ahead and have things defrosted and ready to go.  I'm committed to the mission though and have purposely been leaving meats frozen just as they would have been before I ever tried to execute this blog.

Even with meals planned ahead though life still happens.  I had planned on making Thai Peanut Noodles today.  The plan was to have it ready for my family before I would be leaving for the evening.  Last night my husband reminded me that he would be visiting his mother tonight and would have our daughter with him. So much for my plan.  Remember what I've said about flexibility, well this is a fine example.  I decide it'll simply be grilled cheese sandwiches for me when I get home, no problem. Thai noodles can wait.

This afternoon my husband calls and says he'll be coming straight home because he had hurt his foot and just wanted to put it up for a while.  I tell him that I don't have a plan for dinner any longer and will be home rather late but that I'd make grilled cheese when I get home.

Now, remember how I said this may end up being my favorite post of the month, here's why.  Hubby says, "I can make dinner, what time do you think you'll be home?"  Isn't he the sweetest? Sore foot and all, he's making dinner.  I tell him I should be home by 8 o'clock and he says, "Dinner will be ready at 7:45"

I wasn't sure what he was going to make, dinner was totally in his court.  I was pleasantly surprised when I came home to the Traeger billowing smoke.  I knew we were in for a delight.

He made smoked elk steak, mac and cheese and salad.

The salad was especially surprising since his specialty used to be the three meat dinner.  😉

Day 2, 8 Can Taco Soup

First, let me start by saying that if you happened to see me leaving McDonald's today at 6:15 I was just getting a drink, I promise. I had just finished my 9 Round workout and was super thirsty.  With a dollar in my console a Diet Coke was calling my name. 😁

Fast forward 45 minutes and I was pulling in the driveway. In less than 10 minutes dinner was done! That's right, I said 10 minutes.

This recipe is maybe my all time favorite, speedy quick, so you forgot to defrost recipe.  This recipe is one that I consistently make sure I have all the ingredients for.  It is literally heat and eat.

8 Can Taco Soup, Ok 9 Can in my case because I like to double the meat.
credit for this recipe goes to https://www.highheelsandgrills.com/8-can-taco-soup/

Ingredients:

• 1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (15 oz.) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can petite diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 (15.25 oz.) can sweet corn, drained
• 1 (12.5 oz.) can white chicken breast, drained
• 1 (10.75 oz.) can cream of chicken soup
• 1 (10 oz.) can green enchilada sauce
• 1 (14 oz.) can chicken broth
• 1 packet taco seasoning

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together in a large pot.
2. Heat until warm, stirring occasionally.
3. Serve with tortilla chips.

I like to offer additional toppings such as shredded cheese, sour cream, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime. 

The best part about this recipe is that all the ingredients are shelf stable so whether you make it weekly or twice a year, you'll always have the ingredients on hand.  

Truth be told, when I buy the ingredients in advance the tortilla chips might disappear but I've also used corn bread as a side and it's just as delicious.

Now that I've made this, the ingredients will immediately go back on my shopping list for the next crazy busy day. 

Day 1, Mexican Stuffed Shells

Kicked off my month long challenge of only cooking, no dining out for supper tonight with a recipe that was very well received.

Mexican Stuffed Shells

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef (or ground turkey)
1 package low-sodium taco seasoning
4 ounces cream cheese
16 jumbo pasta shells
1 1/2 cups salsa
1 cup taco sauce
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup Monterrey jack cheese
For toppings:
3 green onions
Sour cream

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°.
In a pan brown the ground beef; add taco seasoning and prepare according to package directions. Add cream cheese, cover and simmer until cheese is melted. Stir together and mix well. Set aside and cool completely.
While ground beef is cooking, cook the pasta shells according to package directions; drain. Set shells out individually on cutting board or baking sheet so that they don’t stick together.
Pour salsa on bottom of a 9×13 baking dish. Stuff each shell with 1-2 tablespoons of the meat mixture. Place shells in 9×13 pan open side up. Evenly cover shells with taco sauce. Cover dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, add shredded cheese and bake for 10-15 more minutes with the foil removed. Top with green onions or olives if desired. Serve with sour cream and/or more salsa!

Source unknown

I started off with a pound of elk burger.  I defrosted in the microwave on the defrost setting for four minutes.  I then pulled the defrosted burger apart from the still frozen center.  The defrosted meat went straight into the fry pan.  The remaining frozen burger goes back in the microwave on the defrost setting for another four minutes. I also set the water for pasta to boil while the burger was defrosting and browning.  Placing a lid on your pasta water will bring it to a boil more quickly.

Within 15 minutes the burger was browned and seasoned and the water was at a boil. 

After another 10 minutes the cream cheese was melted and the shells were ready for a rinse.

                                                     I may just try my burger this way the next time I want tacos.

After stuffing the shells (I didn't wait for the burger to cool as directed) I topped them with the taco sauce.

Adding yummy cheese is always the best part.

We balanced this supper out with a green salad tonight.

We don't always do dessert, but I've had this recipe in an open window on my phone for about a month and decided yesterday to go ahead and make it ahead so it would be ready for tonight.

This recipe was courtesy of Taste of Home. 

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/banana-cream-cheesecake/?fbclid=IwAR1GOqyRdQYYbUNHgn3KJ1EUNbS6iHs7rBrvMcsaFQ6ORd6jegzVPCqiQC0

In the interest of saving time I used a store bought graham cracker pie crust.

Banana Cream Cheesecake

Ingredients

1-3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
FILLING:
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 carton (8 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed, divided
3 to 4 medium firm bananas, sliced
1-3/4 cups cold milk
1 package (3.4 ounces) instant banana cream pudding mix

Directions

• In a small bowl, combine cracker crumbs and sugar; stir in butter. Set aside 1/2 cup for topping. Press remaining crumb mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of a greased 9-in. springform pan or 9-in. square baking pan. Bake at 350° for 5-7 minutes. Cool on wire rack.
• In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Fold in 2 cups whipped topping. Arrange half of the banana slices in crust; top with half of the cream cheese mixture. Repeat layers.
• In a small bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix for 2 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set; fold in remaining whipped topping. Pour over the cream cheese layer. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until set.