Nilla Wafer Hamburgers

Get ready for April Fool's Day fun with Nilla Wafer Hamburgers!

This is an April Fool’s treat I remember from my childhood!

My boys got a kick out of this when I told them we were having cupcakes (meatloaf & potato) for dinner and hamburgers and chips (chocolate chips) for dessert!

Have you ever made candy hamburgers?

I just might have to make these for my 3^rd graders this year!

Meatloaf Cupcakes with Potato Frosting #FoodnFlix

Meatloaf Cupcakes are delicious any day, but especially fun on April Fool’s Day!

Last year, on April Fools, I told the boys we were having cupcakes & candy for dinner and hamburgers for dessert (more on that on my next post).

They didn’t believe me.

Little did they know!

I just omitted that the cupcakes were meatloaf cupcakes with potato frosting and chive and bacon sprinkles.  And the candy might have been grapes in candy wrappers!

The laughed so hard when they realized that they truly were having cupcakes for dinner…even if they were meatloaf.

Hamburger Rice Skillet

Hamburger Rice Skillet - another weeknight favorite!

One of my favorite recipes growing up was hamburger-rice casserole.

Actually, Hot Dish. 

Because I’m from the North and we have hot dish up here.  But the rest of the world uses casserole, so I’ve slowly adapted my lexicon.

Anyhow, this was a favorite, but for some reason not one that I made for my family often.

I did, however make a version when Spud was a baby and I tried to go dairy free for a little while (it didn’t last long), but it was one of my first recipe adaptations and it was a little clunky (I needed to adapt it to make it dairy-free and remove the canned soups (which had dairy)).

Then, I slowly stopped using canned soups in recipes, so again, I just didn’t make this recipe all that often.

The one day it occurred to me, since I start by browning the beef in a skillet anyway, why can’t I make this into a stovetop recipe?

Boom.

Chicken Teriyaki Meatballs

Chicken Teriyaki Meatballs are a family friendly weeknight meal!

Ground chicken isn’t something that I tend to have on hand.  I just never seem to know what to do with it.  But, it was on sale the other week AND I had a coupon, so I picked some up and tossed it in the freezer until I could figure out what to do with it.

I finally decided that I wanted to make meatballs, but I didn’t think gravy would be quite right, so I tossed them in a homemade teriyaki sauce and served them over streamed broccoli and rice to make a nice, balanced meal.

Loaded Nacho Soup #SoupSwappers

Loaded Nacho Soup is a quick weeknight fix! 

It’s time for Soup Saturday Swappers!  This month’s theme is Mexican Soups!

Chicken Tortilla soup is usually my go to Mexican Soup, so this time I needed to think outside the box.

I started thinking about my chicken tortilla soup plus all that deliciousness I love on some loaded nachos!

PB&J Martini #FantasticalFoodFight

 PB&J Martini takes the classic sandwich to a whole new level!

It’s time for this month’s Fantastical Food Fight, hosted by Sarah at a Fantastical Sharing of Recipes (click that link to join in the fun).

This month’s theme is PB&J.

Can I confess that I wasn’t all that jazzed (again?)  Ahh!  What’s wrong with me?!?

So, I grew up eating peanut butter sandwiches, because I didn’t like the jelly (such a weirdo).  So, even as an adult, I almost never make PB&J (even though PB&J is totally delicious).

So what to make?

I thought about muffins or pancakes, but I didn’t think I could get my family to eat them (they’re as weirded out by jelly as I am – weirdos).

Then I thought about PB&J Burgers that I’ve seen at a local burger joint.  But I expected a full out revolt with that and frankly, I was a little weirded out by the concept myself. 

Pi Pie #PiDay

Happy Pi Day!!

I love celebrating Pi day.

I mean, it’s a built in excise to eat pie!

Not that one necessarily needs an excuse, but, pie!!!!

This year I decided to make Pi Pie.  Pie with Pi?

The fun is making all the numbers and seeing how many digits of pi will fit on the pie!

I think next year I’ll try to make the numbers smaller and fit more pi on my pie!

You can use your favorite pie for this recipe.  The one pictured happens to be a strawberry-rhubarb pie, however, blueberry and apple pie (or the caramel or cheddar or rum versions) would be great too!

Cherry Cream Cheese Pie by Frugal Pantry

Chicken Pot Pie with Puff Pastry by Family Around the Table

Cinnamon Roll Apple Pie by Moore or Less Cooking

Coconut Cream Pie with Oatmeal Cookie Crust by I Say Nomato

Coconut Macaroon Pie by Jolene's Recipe Journal

Drunken Vanilla Cherry Pie by The Redhead Baker

Gluten-Free Matcha-Chocolate Pie by Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Individual No Bake Mango Pie by Caroline's Cooking

Matcha Buttermilk Pie by All Roads Lead to the Kitchen

Pi Pie by Amy's Cooking Adventures

Savory Spinach and Cheese Pie by Cooking With Carlee

Taco Pie by Tip Garden

Tomato Cheddar Pie by A Day in the Life on the Farm

Slow Cooker Guinness Pot Roast #StPatricksDay

Who’s ready for St. Patrick’s Day?

This is my favorite time of year to cook with Guinness (like I need an excuse to put beer in my food, right?)

Anyhow, St. Patrick’s day is always the perfect excuse play with Guinness and kinda accidentally have half a bottle left that someone has to drink – I mean, you can’t waste, right??  This is, unless you’re putting this in the crockpot at 7:30 in the morning and have to go teach 3^rd grade.  The drinking the rest of the Guinness is rather frowned upon, so you have to put it in the fridge and have slightly flat Guinness after work – like I said, shameful to waste.

How smokes, where the heck were we going there?

Right, so I made this on a day when I stayed at work super late making bulletin boards.  I staggered home so late and exhausted that my family had actually eaten without me (virtually unheard of), but thanks to the crockpot, I still had a hot meal waiting for me (and a slightly flat half Guinness!)

Klah (Dark Chocolate Mocha)

For Christmas this year, my brother gave me a copy of The Geeky Chef.  The Geeky Chef rolls all of my favorite things into a nerdy little package of happiness!  Cooking and geek culture?  Perfect!

As I started reading I appreciated the author’s sense of humor right away.  And I quickly realize that I was way less geeky than I thought.  Wowsa!  There are so many fandoms out there that I’ve never heard of!  In particular, I’m pretty out of the loop of any of the video game fandoms, I’m just not a gamer.

Luckily for me, the Geeky Chef isn’t only about video games, there are TONS of book references (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Hunger Games, just to name a few) and movies/TV shows (Star Wars, Firefly, and Futurama, again just a few.)  There are so many recipes from my favorites I want to try now!

But I haven’t gotten to those quite yet.  Instead, based off the description in the Geeky Chef, I hightailed it to the library to pick up the first 3 books in an older (but new to me) series, Dragonriders and Pern.  Because dragons, you guys!  Who doesn’t love dragons!  AHHHHHH!!!!  DRAGONS!!!!

So funny side story.  I often talk books with one of my co-workers because she & I both love us some historical fiction, so we’ll give one another book recommendations.  Anyhow, I had just started the first Pern book and was already hooked when she came asking for a recommendation.  I started off with the title and was met with a blank look.  I paused and said, “uh, it’s a nerd book.”  I continued on with a brief synopsis.  It did not improve her feelings about the story.  Anyhow, it just solidified my general nerdiness and I’m totally ok with that.

Plus I totally love these books.  And it’s a ginmormous series and I’m going to be enjoying me some Pern books for awhile!  Woohoo!!!

Food is mentioned on and off in the Pern books, but in particular klah, comes up a lot.  Klah is a coffee-type drink and everyone in Pern loves them some klah, so it’s the obvious choice if creating a recipe inspired by the novel!

Xavier Soup #XMenu #FandomFoodies

Xavier Soup is the perfect meatless soup for Lent!

This month Fandom Foodies is hosted by Food ‘n Flix and the fandom is X-men!  I’ve seen most (all?) of the X-men movies (and loved them), though I haven’t read the comics - other than glancing through a few online searching for recipe information. 

I was looking at the comics because I rewatched the first two X-men movies (and just saw Deadpool for the first time - hilarious) and found almost no food other than beer, whiskey, & beef jerky.  Yikes.

After glancing through a few comics, I found a few food references (iced tea and a generic thanksgiving-style spread), I still wasn’t inspired.

Then I had the idea to start looking for foods than began with the letter X.  Most were very authentic Indian or Chinese dishes I would never dream of making – either the spices/ingredients were too hard to come by or they involved fish/seafood in some way.  Yuck.

Thankfully, there was one more on my list, and why I didn’t start with the one I could pronounce is still beyond me.  Xavier soup!  (and also Duh, Charles Xavier - why, why, wasn't this obvious right away?!?) And yet, even this could be a bit of a stretch.

Chocolate Mint Rainbow Shamrock Cookies #FilltheCookieJar

Saint Patrick’s Day is coming up so I decided to make some minty, chocolatey, shamrocky cookies for the monthly Fill the Cookie Jar!

I slightly modified my favorite pudding cookie recipe – I added some mint – and sprinkles – and cutesy little shamrocks!