Pasta and Meatballs Meatloaf

(adapted from Better Homes and Gardens)

Pasta and Meatloaf - two very basic and staple meals in this household... you can imagine how wowed I was when I stumbled upon this mash up of mini meat loaves stuffed with pasta and then placed on a huge piece of garlic bread.  Oh holy delicious! I had to make it and did and we ate until our bellies burst. It was absolutely easy to make and you should really give it a go. Really really.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

1 1/2 lbs ground beef

1/2  Cup dried penne pasta

3 Hoagie buns - make sure you find wide ones. I wasn't able

    to so I found a wide fresh baguette loaf from the bakery,

    which worked fantastically.

1  Medium onion (chopped)

3  Garlic cloves (minced)

2  Eggs

3/4  Cup milk

2/3  Cups fine dry italian bread crumbs

1/4  Cup grated parmesan cheese

2 Teaspoons Italian seasoning

1 Cup pasta sauce

1 Tablespoon olive oil

Shaved parmesan cheese

Parsley

Garlic Butter

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Boil the penne noodles, drain and set aside to cool.
3. Cut each bread roll into half (for a total of 6 individual pieces).
4. In a skillet, saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil. Medium heat.
5. In a bowl, combine the eggs and milk - whisk gently.  
6. Next add the bread crumbs, bread crumbs and grated parmesan cheese.
7. Fold in the ground beef and cooked pasta.
8. Form six mini loaves. Don't worry about them being perfect The mixture will be soft and lumpy.
9. Place the loafs on a baking pan (cookie sheet) and bake uncovered for 25-30 mins or until completely cooked thru.
10. Butter the bread with the garlic butter and bake for 10 mins or until golden brown.
11. While the bread is baking, heat up the pasta sauce.
12. Spread sauce on each slice of bread, sprinkle with some shaved parmesan then top with a meat loaf. Sprinkle some more shaved parmesan and garnish with parsley.
13. Serve with a side of pasta sauce for dipping.

Its that easy! Make pasta, make meatloaf, make garlic bread. Put it all together and Mmmmmm.

Baked Ham Egg and Cheese Boats

(Adapted from Spoon Fork Bacon) 

Ham, egg AND cheese... all in a loaf of bread? Yes Yes Yes! 
There's so many ways you could go with this idea but we'll keep it to the basics today. But seriously, the possibilities are endless.  Think bacon, bell peppers, mushrooms, etc..etc..etc..

Lets just jump right into it because there's not really much else to say about it other than its delicious and my non fancy self secretly felt a little fancy when I pulled it out of the oven and served it up. 

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
* this is based on how many I made. Adjust according to how many you want to eat!

• 4 small baguettes. (you can use hoagie rolls)
• 6 large eggs 
• 1/3 cup heavy cream (you can use milk instead)
• 1 cup diced ham (I just grabbed the sliced deli sandwich ham and chopped it up)
• 1 cup shredded cheese (your choice)
• 2 scallions (sliced thin)
• Salt, pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Hollow out the bread.  Keep in mind that if you hollow it deep then you have to fill it more. I ended up doing this and had to add more ham, egg, and cheese to the mix.

In a bowl, whip the eggs and cream.  

Next, add the ham, cheese, and scallions.

Season with salt and pepper.

Pour the mixture into the bread loaves and place on a baking sheet.  Bake for about 25 minutes or until the eggs are fully cooked.

Allow to cool for a few minutes then cut wedges and enjoy with a nice hot cup of coffee! 

Pork Belly Buns

Holy goodness in a palm sized sandwich.  This recipe here takes a handful of my favorite things and slaps it all together into a three (sometimes two) bite devour.  I love pork belly (think bacon) and Vietnamese Thit Kho/Thit Ba Roi, I love steamed buns (think Banh Bao), I love Hoisin sauce, and I love crunchy cucumbers and carrots.


To make this as quick and simple as possible so that I wouldn't have to wait hours to eat it, I grabbed a pack of pre-made buns from the Korean grocery store. Pop those babies in the microwave for 45 seconds and you've got steamed buns.  The longest process, if that, was cooking the meat, which then I had to refrain from eating all of. It was that good and reminded me of moms cooking.  Assembly took a few moments, eating took less. I never made it to the dining table and my five year old, who I usually have to coax to eat, gobbled three of them - which to me means mega success all around.


What You'll Need:
2 pounds of Pork Belly (skinless/boneless) - you can buy it
   pre sliced to size, or cut it yourself into 1/2 " pieces.
3 tbs Sugar 
2 tbs Fish Sauce
1/2 cup of Warm Water
Fine Black Pepper
1/2 Onion - chopped
2 Thai Chilis - chopped
1 Cucumber - sliced
1 Carrot - shredded
Hoisin Sauce
Pre-made Lotus Leaf Steamed Buns (you can make them yourself.. but that borders on too fancy for me).

Directions:
Put the pork belly in a large frying pan and cook over medium/high heat.  I do not use oil because the meat will provide plenty for you. 


Once the meat starts to cook, add the onions (minced garlic too if you want) and give it a few stirs here and then add the sugar and fish sauce.  


When the sugar has dissolved, stir again to coat the meat and then do not stir the meat for awhile to let it caramelize. About 6 mins or so.  


Once this happens, you can add 1/2 cup of water and stir.  At this point turn down the heat to medium and let it simmer. Stir occasionally. 

While the meat is simmering, cut the cucumber slices, and shred the carrots.

Steam the buns in the microwave, approx 45 seconds under a wet paper towel.  You can also use a steamer - instructions are on the package. And yes, I did steal two and eat them.

By now the meat should look like this and you'll want to add some green onions and red chilis to it along with the black pepper. Stir it well.


You could stop at this point and just eat this with rice, and depending on how many buns you end up eating, you may have leftovers to do just that.

Yum yum yum, now its time to assemble and eat!
Squirt a little hoisin sauce on the bottom bun and place a few shreds of carrot over it. Next place a piece of meat followed by a cucumber slice. Thats it!  And awesome little flavorful Bao.

Mini Bread Bowls

How freaking cool are bread bowls? I came across this recipe for a customizable bread bowl breakfast using mini rolls via Tasty Kitchen and immediately knew I had to make these.  Honestly I didn't even read the recipe to start with, I just saw the delicious pictures and was sold.  A brief glance at the ingredients and the fact that they had photos of a 5 year old making one told me this has got to be easy enough for me to do. 


One of the best things about this recipe was that I could use really anything in the fridge for the filling. The next best thing was that it would only take about 20-25 minutes in the oven. And third, or maybe this should be first (??) is that its all awesomely in this teeny little roll bowl!


Lets get started!


Ingredients


* Mini Bread Rolls - as many as you plan on having! I used 3.
* 2 Tbs butter, melted.
* Salt and Pepper
* Eggs - one per roll
* Fillings - up to you! 


                ~ I used   pepperoni (cut into small pieces)
                                leftover roasted chicken (cut into small pieces)
                                shredded mozzarella/cheddar cheese
                                pesto
                                roasted red peppers
                                spaghetti sauce (1 tsp)
                                fresh and dried herbs

Directions

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Next thing you'll want to do is cut off the tops of the rolls and scoop out the insides.  Press the insides in some along the walls of the rolls, making yourself a bowl. This, is fancy, for the non fancy like me.  

Next you'll want to melt that butter and brush it (I used a spoon) along the inside of the bread.  I opted to follow with some pesto, because pesto is so good, I don't know why I haven't been eating it my entire life.  You know how you can get the jar of it at the grocery store and it its in that oil? I'm pretty sure too you could omit the butter part and just do the pesto/oil. 
Then sprinkle in some salt/pepper.

Continue adding your fillings as you see fit. I went with shredded cheese next, then chicken and pepperoni, followed by the herbs, sauce, and more cheese.

Last, you crack an egg in each of those suckers and you are ready to pop them into the oven.  I decided I'd make one with a beaten egg to see how that would turn out (more so too because I was afraid my 5 year old wouldn't be down with a runny egg). Both ways turned out amazing!  Oh and I cut up the red peppers and poked them into the yolk. Makes it look a little pretty in the end.


25 minutes later, you have these ridiculously cool bowls of yummy goodness that I just know i'll make again and again.


How you eat them is up to you. For my 5 year old, I cut his in half. Because he had the one with the beaten egg, everything held together fine.  The other two were cut in half causing the yolk to run out... but in a good way.


Enjoy!!

                          

Bacon Ranch Cheese Pulls

This is a really easy recipe that you can throw together for a gathering of friends, eat all to yourself, or whatever it is that you do. The one thing that attracted me to this is the bacon. And here's where I initially made a huge mistake.... I used bacon bits. Shock! (anyone who knows me knows its bacon or bust) I had never tried them before this and I will never eat them again. Use REAL bacon. Otherwise it just tastes gross... unless you like bacon bits... but they're gross!! DON'T do it!
Anyhow, easy to make bla bla bla, you are just five quick ingredients to yumminess.


What You'll Need:
1 round unsliced loaf of sourdough bread (you can use other bread too. I used an Italian loaf here)
1 bag of shredded cheddar cheese.
Bacon - cooked and crumbled (or gross Bacon Bits if you must)
1/2 cup melted butter
Ranch Dressing

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Slice the bread in both directions. Be sure not to cut through to the bottom though. 
Spread ranch dressing between the cuts and then sprinkle with cheese. 
Sprinkle your real bacon all over and in the bread too.
Pour your melted butter over the bread.
Wrap it all in foil and place the loaf on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
Unwrap and bake for another 10 minutes and you are done!