Strawberry Stuffed French Toast

It had been a while since Jon has been home for breakfast so I wanted to make something special last weekend. I just needed some Challah bread and I had everything I needed to make an amazing breakfast for us!

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 8 slices challah bread
• 1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
• Butter, for cooking
• Maple syrup, for serving
• Confectioners' sugar, for serving

Directions

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and cinnamon. Spread the cream cheese on half of the bread slices and top with strawberries. Top with the remaining 6 bread slices and press around the edges to seal.
2. Melt butter on a griddle over medium-low heat. Dip the sandwiches in the egg mixture for a few seconds on each side. Cook the sandwiches until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Serve with maple syrup, Strawberry Syrup, or confectioners' sugar.

Perfect Lasagna

This was another recipe from allrecipes, changed a bit to suit our tastes even better!

Ingredients:

1 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 pound lean ground venison
1/2 cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tbsp italian seasonings
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
12 lasagna noodles
16 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

 Directions:

1. In a large pot, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, 1 tbsp Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt and pepper. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining italian seasoning and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
4. To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 3 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with 1/2 cup of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a quarter of the mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

New York Style Cheesecake with Chocolate Sauce and Strawberries Or Reeses' Peanut Butter Cups

This recipe was courtesy of allrecipes (I halved the original recipe) and thankfully I had everything on hand to whip this up after dinner one night!

Ingredients:

• 8 graham crackers, crushed
• 1 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
• 3/4 cups white sugar
• 3/8 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8 inch springform pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs with melted butter. Press onto bottom of springform pan.
3. In a large bowl, mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Blend in milk, and then mix in the eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. Mix in sour cream, vanilla and flour until smooth. Pour filling into prepared crust.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. Turn the oven off, and let cake cool in oven with the door closed for 5 to 6 hours; this prevents cracking. Chill in refrigerator until serving. 

For the topping we just melted 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips with 1 tsp coconut oil in the microwave, stirring every 10 seconds until melted, and topped with either strawberries or reeses' cups and pieces!

Korean Venison

We currently have so much deer in our freezer it isn't funny...and you can only eat spaghetti and tacos so many times, so this was my attempt and changing things up! I found the recipe on Pinterest, but it is from Six Sisters' Stuff, I think the only thing I changed was I used ground venison instead of beef! This was sweet and spicy at the same time and had a great Asian taste to it!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground venison
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• salt and pepper
• Brown rice, cooked

Directions:

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and brown venison with garlic in the sesame oil. Add brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger, salt and pepper and red peppers. Simmer for a few minutes to blend the flavors. Serve over brown rice.

Brown Rice Jambalya

Please excuse my lack of pictures for this post, I was in a rush to get it cooked thanks to a screamy little one at my feet! This recipe is originally from About.com, one of my favorite recipe sources, but I changed it up a little bit to suite our tastes a little better. It makes a very spicy, but not too hot jambalaya that is healthier than most options and quite tasty!

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp butter
• 8 oz Andouille sausage sliced 1/4" thick
• 1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast, diced
• 2 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup diced tomato
• 1 large red bell pepper, diced
• 2 ribs celery, sliced 1/4" thick
• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 cup brown rice
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined

Directions:

1. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the sausage and chicken and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Add the paprika, cumin, cayenne, black pepper, and salt. Saute the spices for 1 minute, and then add the tomatoes. Cook stirring for a few minutes to let some of the liquid from the tomatoes evaporate. Add the bell pepper, celery, and  onions; cook, stirring for 5 minutes. 
2. Stir in the rice and mix well. Add the stock, turn the heat up to high, and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and cook for 45 minutes. Remove the lid and check the rice. It should be just tender; if it is still too firm cook longer. When the rice is tender, add the shrimp, stir in, and cook covered for 5 minutes.
3. Serve & enjoy!

Herb Garden

I will be updating you all soon on the status of our garden (it will be planted this weekend!) but for now, I wanted to share! I finally have my first herb garden! I purchased the Burpee Herb Tree from Lowes, but decided I liked them on the window sill better. I made tags for them with cardstock and fastened them with clothespins. I am so excited to be able to start using fresh herbs in my meals!

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

When I was searching for a recipe, I looked far and wide before finding a solution I was satisfied with and that works well for me.

I use:

1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1/2 cup kosher salt
2 packets lemonaid kool-aid (no sugar added!)

Mix together and use 2 tbsp. per load! Voila! Clean dishes, homemade, and cheap!