Quick Dinner: Bisquick Quiches

I mentioned in my menu plan yesterday that I was relying on my old friend Bisquick® to help with dinner. If you haven’t thought of using Bisquick, you should! It’s more than just a baking mix for pancakes and biscuits.

My boys love the quiches I make for them. Seriously, love them. Hubby even freezes left-overs for his home-made microwave lunches. And I tell you, I don’t mind making them.

First, they are one dish that has most of the food groups in it. Meat, dairy, veggie.

Second, they are easy-peasy! Nine times out of ten, I have all the ingredients on hand and can throw it together in a matter of minutes.

Tip: When you have left over meats such as chicken or ham, dice them up and divide them into one-cup bags, then freeze. You’ll always have your ingredients ready for recipes such as these.

While I linked to a recipe in yesterday’s post, I wanted to share my version and alternatives that I make.

Bisquick® Ham, Spinach & Swiss Quiche

1 cup diced ham
2 cups frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1 7oz can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 tbsp dried chopped onions (or 1/4 cup fresh diced onions)
1 1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup Bisquick®
3 eggs
salt & pepper to taste or celery salt

Preheat oven to 400°.
Spray 9″ pie plate with cooking spray.
Layer first 5 ingredients in pie plate. Add seasonings.
Mix together milk, Bisquick® and eggs and pour over other ingredients.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until center of quiche is firm.

The milk, Bisquick® and eggs are the base ingredients for any quiche I make. I just change-up the meat, veggie and cheese to make a different quiche. Sometimes I add mushrooms and onions, sometimes it’s something else. Here are a few of my variations:

• Chicken, Broccoli, Cheddar and Diced Tomatoes
• Shrimp, Spinach, Mozzarella and Diced Tomatoes
• Ground Beef (browned), Bacon Bits, Cheddar and Mushrooms
• Spinach, Feta and Tomatoes*
• Grated Zucchini and Cheddar Jack*
• Ground or Sliced Sausage, Peppers, Tomatoes and Parmesan

*Note: If not using a meat, increase your main veggie to 2 cups.

Try a Bisquick® quiche for a meal and let me know how it turns out. And if you have any ingredient suggestions, please leave me a comment!

PS: Bisquick® did not provide me anything for this post – no coupon, sample or money. I just love it and wanted to share my recipes with you

Cooking With Canned Ingredients

I’m a fan of the can. Easy-peasy beans, veggies and fruits to incorporate into my families meals. Plus, they’re easy to store in my 1950’s-cute-but-small-cape cod house.

TwitterMoms shared a video link with the group from the Canned Food Alliance that I learned lots of good info about canned foods from.

Like, did you know canned tomatoes have more lycopene than fresh, cooked tomatoes? And that protein is not lost during the canning process, so canned chicken and fish are a good source of it.

Who knew?

I’ve previously shared my Pasta e Fagioli recipe that’s made with canned ingredients. But here is my family’s favorite recipe that I make from mostly canned ingredients:

Tuna Casserole Recipe

Ingredients:
1 5oz can tuna (solid white albacore in water), drained and copped
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
8oz sour cream
1 small can of peas & carrots, drained & rinsed
1/2 box of elbow macaroni, cooked al dente
1/4 cup of seasoned breadcrumbs for topping

Instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 350.
Mix everything together and put in a baking dish (9×9).
Sprinkle top with breadcrumbs.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.

This recipe makes about 4 servings. It can be doubled very easily for bigger families.

Pancake Day

Today, the day before Ash Wednesday, is traditionally Pancake Day. My Irish-Catholic ancestors celebrated “Shrove Tuesday” as a way to use up any stocks of milk, butter and eggs which were forbidden during the abstinence of Lent.

Lent restrictions have changed a bit (at least in my family they have), but it’s still fun to celebrate Pancake Day. Pancakes for dinner – what fun! It’s the toppings that make it especially festive:

• honey
• maple syrup
• chocolate chips or chocolate syrup
• dark corn syrup (Karo Syrup – I personally prefer this over maple syrup)
• jam or jelly
• butter and sugar
• Nutella (My Favorite)

Good Old Fashioned Pancake Recipe

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons butter, melted

1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter; mix until smooth. Let the batter sit for at least 15 minutes.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. When bubbles begin to form on top, flip with spatula. Cook second side to a golden brown color.
3. Serve hot with your choice of topping.

Are you enjoying Pancake Day today?

PS: You can get free pancakes from IHOP next week.

photo credit: not a hipster

Tuesday’s Tip: How To Fry An Egg

I can’t flip an egg without breaking the yolk. At 36 (almost 37 – eek) you would think this is a skill I could master.

Nope. Can’t do it.

I found a way to fry an egg without flipping it:

Yeah, I know he’s a little creepy. But he’s given my a way to enjoy my egg, over-easy. MMM, love to dip my toast in yolk. Add water to the pan and cover it – it’s so simple!

PS: I’m linking to Tuesday’s Tip Jar at BlogMommas – head on over for more tips!

Quick Dinner: La Choy Creations (Product Review)

There are days when a Mom just doesn’t have the time, ingredients or energy to prepare a full home-cooked meal. That’s when having a “meal in a box” in your pantry comes in handy! I always have a couple for those days.

I received a sample of the new La Choy Creations Sweet & Sour Chicken. OK cool – I remember my Mom making the La Choy Chow Mein and remembered liking it back in the day (ahhh, the treat of those little crunchy noodles – I loved them!).

The La Choy Creations Sweet & Sour Chicken was super easy-peasy to make: cook some cubed chicken breasts, add the ingredients from the box (sauce & rice) and simmer. HELLO – can it get any easier?

Served with sugar snap peas and carrots, my boys (Hubby & Little Dude) loved it. I liked it too, especially since I spent a whole 20 minutes in the kitchen cooking. And it made a lot – Hubby had enough for two left-over-lunches that he said re-heated very well.

The other two things I like about  the meal was 1) the sauce really tasted like a Chinese restaurant’s sweet & sour sauce and 2) no MSG.

Two Thumbs Up To La Choy Creations! I can’t wait to try the other flavors. And if you want to try it, there’s a $1 coupon!

I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by www.MomCentral.com on behalf of La Choy and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate

Happy Bean Day

Beans, beans good for the heart…

According to PracticallyEdible.com, it’s Bean Day. While I couldn’t find any “official” information about it, I thought it would make for a good blog post. Beans can really stretch the family grocery budget being a very cheap addition to meals.

Plus they are good for you! Beans are high in soluble fiber and protein which means they are filling. They also contain antioxidants, essential fatty acids, and have folate and potassium.

And they’re so easy! Besides being available in cans, beans of any kind can be cooked in the crock pot. You can’t go wrong with making beans in it because they are cooked slowly and you don’t have to worry about them getting scorched. You can let them cook all day and even when you add the meat to them, you allow for the meat flavor to set into the beans. When the juice is thickened you will be able to enjoy a delicious meal over rice.

You should try to start stocking your pantry with beans. Besides chili (recipe) or soup (pasta e fagioli recipe), there are may ways to use beans in your meal plan. For instance, I learned from Nicole Dean the about cooking with black beans.

So do you already use beans a lot in your meals? If so, please share!

Oh That Oatmeal!

Did you know that January is National Oatmeal Month? I’m a big fan of oatmeal – it’s cheap, it’s healthy and it fills the belly! I eat it all the time – the real kind, not the instant packets. My son loves it with fruit spread swirled in. My Hubby won’t eat a bowl of it, but loves the Peanut Butter Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies I make. He also loves my oatmeal muffins (I’ll share the recipe in a minute).

My friend Susanne, TheHillbillyHousewife, is also a fan and wrote a great report about the benefits of oatmeal – and included some recipes! You can download it for free here: Ode To Oatmeal – Frugal & Healthy: What More Can You Ask For?

You can also use oatmeal in some of your regular recipes: grind in a food processor and use in meatballs or meatloaf, grind it and mix with spices to coat chicken. You can sneak it into lots of things!

It can also be used as a cleansing scrub for your skin, made into clay, and of course the ever popular bath soak to get rid of the itchies! (here’s some ideas on ways to use oatmeal from eHow).

So, what do you think of oatmeal? Are you a fan like me?

PS: Oh, yeah – my muffin recipe!

Super Moist Oatmeal Muffins

Ingredients:
1 C quick cooking oatmeal
1 C buttermilk
2 egg whites (or enough egg substitute to equal 1 egg)
1/2 C brown sugar, packed (we prefer dark)
1/4 C canola oil
1 C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Instructions:
Pour the buttermilk in a large mixing bowl.
Add the oats and stir to be sure all the oats are moistened.
Allow the oats to soak in the buttermilk for 20 minutes.
After the oats have soaked add the eggs, sugar and oil.
In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Slowly add the dry mixture to the oats and stir just until moistened.*
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Grease a muffin tin with a non stick cooking spray.
Fill the cups 2/3 full of batter.
Bake 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

*Once I’ve mixed the ingredients above, I often add craisins (dried cranberries) or chopped dried apricots. Usually the orange flavored. I also add nuts or sunflower seeds. Fruit, like frozen blueberries, are a favorite of Little Dude.
These can be frozen, which makes them a handy breakfast or snack! I freeze each one individually in a zip lock bag. Hubby grabs one on his way out the door and microwaves it for 30 seconds once he gets to work.

If you like a moist muffins, these will be sure to please.

Slap Chopper Offer

I placed another order today for an as-seen-on-tv product. This kitchen chopper has been on my wish list, so it’s not an impulse purchase, right?

See, I’m really bad with knives. Well to be honest it’s not the knives fault, I just get distracted easily. You know how it goes – you’ve got something cooking on the stove while the kids and dogs are under foot and the phone rings. It has become a bloody disaster once or twice. Anyway, the Slap Chop seems like an investment in my safety – LOL!

I had a chopper, but it was cheap and fell apart when I ran it through the dishwasher. The darn thing fell apart and a piece of it actually fell through the rack and melted!

One reason I ordered the Slap Chop today is because of the buy-one get-one deal. (I’m going to give one to my sister-in-law for Christmas. Whoo hoo – cross another gift off the list!). Plus with the holiday baking soon to begin, I need a chopper for my nuts and candy-bar recipes.

You can check out this nifty kitchen chopper on theSlap Chop website.