SuPeR BoWl ApPeTiZeR - YUM!

My mom has been making this delicious appetizer since I was in my teens at least or before.  I haven't seen this anywhere on Pinterest yet either, so this is a new appetizer for you all to try.  I will be up front here and say it is definitely not a healthy appetizer but if you only have it on special occasions then go for it.  My best and worst memory of this dish is when my mom made it for a New Year's Party one year and us kids were doing our thing at the party and parents were playing cards like usual.  No monitoring of the junk that we ate that night.  Well I overindulged in this delicious appetizer and ended up getting sick because of it.  Up until this year I haven't eaten them because of that.  The last time I saw my mom she had made them for her book club and had some left over so I tried some and they sucked me in.  I got the recipe from her and made them for New Year's Eve and they were hit.  Then I made them again for the Super Bowl and they were a hit again.

Chili Sausage Bites ~ Step by Step of what to do.  

You can print the recipe below.

Take these tasty chili sausage bites to your next New Year's Eve, Super Bowl or whatever your having a party for.  You'll be the hit of the party!!!

Chili Sausage Bites

Yummy appetizer to take to parties!

Course: Appetizers

Cuisine: American

Serves: 16

Ingredients

• 4 packages Sausage links
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup chili sauce
• 4 Tbsp butter (melted)
• 1/8 cup vinegar
• 1/8 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp garlic salt

Directions

1. Cut up each sausage link into 4 pieces. (4 packages of 8 skinless links.) After they are all cut up put in a skillet and brown until grease is minimal.
2. Put the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and mix together.
3. Once sausage links are cooked put in bowl with sauce and mix them up.
4. Put all ingredients in a crock pot to keep warm for serving.
5. I got all mine to fit in my mini crock pot.

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Plan your meals with this great program!

I just recently came across this website via facebook, I think.  I'm not for sure where I found it but it popped up on my computer and I've been wondering how it works ever since.  I finally got on it the other day and it is a wonderful meal planner with many features.  I've tried other websites and ideas for meal planning and they just didn't work for me.  This is the best I've seen so far. Hope it helps you like it's been helping me.  

1st you get to try it FREE for 30 days.  

What it does:

1.  It supplies you with some recipes that you can play around with and then you can put your own recipes in the program from pinterest, other websites or your own recipes on your computer or on a recipe card (just type it in).  

2.  Then you go to the planner tab at the top and it brings up a calendar.  You can drag and drop your recipes into the days you want to have them.  There you have it your meals are planned PLUS....

3.  It will make your shopping list.  Select the dates you want to shop for and it will pull up all the ingredients you need for the recipes you selected on your calendar/planner.  VERY COOL!  I have tried other methods but this one is the easiest by far.  

Watch the video here!  Boo, hoo we missed the Black Friday deal but I think it's still worth it to get meal planning under control.

Click here to accept my invitation and start sharing recipes. If you don't have a Plan to Eat account, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial after following the link above. 

Plan to Eat is a simple meal planning website that helps you keep all of your recipes in one place and plan your meals and shopping lists so you can eat well and save time and money.

Energy Bites!

Who doesn't need an extra energy boost once in awhile.   I can't guarantee you that you will get tons of energy from these but they are healthy and delicious.  

What's really scary is all 3 of my kiddos liked them.  Side story: My daughter came home from school the other day with an assignment from her FACS class (Home Economics in my day).  She needed to make a recipe and it required them measuring 5 things.  I have to admit a lot of my cooking/baking is out of a box but not this.  The energy bites have 7 ingredients to measure, this is what she made, she did a great job!

I got this recipe from a cousin of mine about a year ago and finally decided to make them.  Quick and simple to make.  

Energy Bites recipe:

Ingredients ~

1 C Oatmeal
1/2 C Peanut Butter or any other nut butter
1/3 C Honey
1 C Coconut (toasted optional)
1/2 C Ground Flax seed
1 Scoop Protein Powder (I used 1/2 C)
1 tsp vanilla

Directions ~

Toast coconut nut if desired.  Then combine all ingredients in mixing bowl, mix with spoon, roll into bite size balls, chill and eat!

Make sure you don't burn your coconut.
This batch went in the trash, Oops!

Energy Bites!

Lasagna ~ Fleck Family Recipe

I've tried many lasagna recipes (frozen, other peoples, & this one) and this one takes the cake.  It's full of spices and flavor.

Recipe for:  Lasagna 

Ingredients:
1 lb. hamburger

Lasagna Ingredients

1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. basil
1 tsp. salt
1 C tomatoes (diced Italian)
1 - 15 oz can tomato paste
1 C cottage cheese
1 beaten egg
1 Tbsp. parsley flakes
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup Parmesan (shredded or grated)
8 oz mozzarella cheese
5 oz (6 precooked) lasagna noodles

Directions:

• In frying pan, brown hamburger and drain.
• Add all ingredients except lasagna noodles to browned hamburger and let simmer for 15 minutes.  Make sure you put the egg in last and mix in right away so it doesn't cook up.
• In a 8x8x2.25 baking dish, layer ingredients:
• 2 noodles
• hamburger mix
• mozzarella cheese
• repeat 2 more times.  You will have a full pan of lasagna to bake and eat!

Lasagnas Ready!

Bake at 375 degrees covered for 30 minutes.  Uncovered for 15 minutes.

Time to eat!

ENJOY!!!

Weekly Menu 9/7 - 9/13

Wow, this week flew by.  Here's the menu from last week.

Sunday is carry over from last week (things change as this was not planned, I needed a break from the kitchen!

Sunday 9/7

• Lunch - Went out to lunch at a new Mexican Restaurant, it was delicious!
• Supper - Leftovers from lunch

Monday 9/8 -  Pork tenderloin & boxed cheesy potatoes (Mom's                              pick)

• Pork tenderloin was seasoned with the following: lemon pepper seasoning, garlic salt mix & seasoning salt.  This was laid on top of a sliced up sweet Vidalia Onion and cooked in the microwave in my Pampered Chef Deep Dish Baker for 25 minutes. YUM!!!  

Tuesday 9/9 - Waffles & eggs (Kid pick)

Wednesday 9/10 -  Leftovers: Sandwiches or leftovers from last     week. Still a couple of things left from last week. 

Thursday 9/11 - Leftovers: Pork Tenderloin, just as good the           second time around, YUM, again!!!

Friday 9/12 -  Homemade pizza (Everyone pick)

• Thought this would be fun to do with the kids.  Trying to use up food already in the cabinets.  Found 3 bags of pizza dough we need to use/make.  Bought every ones favorite pizza toppings  so we are ready to go.  

Saturday 9/13 - 

• Lunch - It's the weekend everyone found something to eat today!  Scrounge the fridge, have some cereal whatever.  This mama is not cooking!
• Supper -  Sandwiches 

Sunday 9/14 - 

• Lunch - Leftovers again!
• Supper - Mom and kids went to Arby's (Mom Pick); Dad had softball, took care of himself.  Since, he knew I wasn't cooking supper tonight.

What's for Dinner?!?! (9/1 - 9/7)

This is the 2nd week of everyone picking something out for the supper menu.  Here's what we've come up with for the week:

Everyone is off to school and work during the week so don't need to worry about lunches too much.

Supper ideas this week:

Monday (Labor Day) Lunch - MOM Pick from last week:  

• French Toast & Eggs

It was a hit with everyone.  (We had french toast from last week since the left overs piled up in the fridge. Need to eat those up before making another meal.)  Need to make sure we work in the left of days throughout the week.

Monday (Labor Day) Supper - MOM Pick: 

• Large pizza from Papa Murphy's

Can't go wrong there, since someone else put it together and they put tons of toppings on the pizza.  We did have to bake it but that's no problem!

Tuesday - Kid pick: 

• V's Manicotti (http://vsitalianfoods.com/) and homemade garlic bread with side salad! 

 Last week we had frozen store bought garlic bread.  This week we bought fresh bread from SAM'S bakery and are going to prep it ourselves.  We had samples of it the other day all doctored up at SAM'S and my daughter just had to have it.  I do admit it was 
pretty darn good!

Wednesday -  DAD pick:  

• BBQ Chicken Tacos 

Frozen Pampered Chef dinner I made awhile back at a dinner's done freezer meals workshop.

Thursday - Leftover night!

Friday - MOM Pick:  

• Garlic Bread Meatball Subs

This is another recipe I made at the dinner's done freezer meal workshop. Although, we ate them 3 weeks ago.  They were a big a hit so we are having them again.   (The kids ended up having corn dogs because sleepovers were happening.  My hubby and I found something else to eat as well.)

Saturday - Lunch:  More left overs!

Saturday - Supper:  Another sleepover night; I made spaghetti for the kids and my hubby and I had leftovers yet again.

Sunday - Lunch:  Out to eat at a new Mexican Restaurant in town.  Delicious!

Sunday - Supper:  Left overs again!

Oops, I've had this typed up and forgot to post it.

Tapioca Orange Jello Salad/Dessert ~

My Grandma has been making this recipe for many years.   I finally got the recipe from her and now take it to family functions, since she doesn't have the energy anymore to make it.  It is delicious, super easy to make, and my kids love it! Who doesn't love whipped cream and pudding?!?!  I call it a salad and my husband seems to think it's a dessert.  Call it what you want, and eat when you desire. With the meal or after, either way it's delicious!

Recipe for:  Tapioca Orange Jell-O Salad/Dessert

Ingredients:
2 - 3 oz pkgs Jell-O cook & serve tapioca fat free pudding
1 - 3 oz pkg Orange Jell-O (any brand) small box
3 cups water
1 - 8oz container cool whip
1 - 2 can mandarin oranges - (I usually get two large cans)

Tapicoa Orange Jello Salad/Dessert

Directions:
In a sauce pan, bring water, orange jell-o, and tapioca to a boil.  Take off stove top and let cool. Put in fridge for quicker cooling or in the freezer for even faster cooling, just don't forget about it.  After it's cool stir in cool whip and mandarin oranges.  Put back in fridge to stay cool.  Enjoy!

With this recipe I'm better off making it the day before since I'm usually making supper that day and with the cooling time it can take awhile.  Make it the day before or early in the day.  Just saying!

Another great way to make this is to substitute strawberry jello and fresh strawberries (cut-up).  Very tasty!