For the Hawaiian Pizza Lovers

My husband loves pineapple. He loves ham. Put them together, and he likes them even more. He rarely gets Hawaiian pizza though. Why? Because we are too cheap to pay for pizza from a pizza place. Especially when Aldi’s makes really good take and bake pizza for around $5. When we do eat somewhere that has it, he’s either not in the mood or I’m not, so we stick to something we both want.

As I was browsing Pinterest, I saw a recipe that called to me. It said, “Your husband would love this!” And then when I saw that it was a one pan dish, meaning that it was easy, I was even more thrilled!

Hawaiian One Pan Pasta from Taste and Tell

This pasta tastes just like the pizza…but better.

A few things I did differently than the recipe:

I didn’t want to buy specific ham just for the recipe. I bought a bunch of sandwich meat when it was on sale and froze it, so I just took out a pack of brown sugar ham and chopped that up instead. It worked great and I didn’t have to buy something specific to the recipe.

 

Monkey isn’t supposed to eat gluten until he’s one (almost there!), so I made it with Gluten Free pasta instead. It cooked normally as far as I could tell and it tasted like normal pasta.

I didn’t put the cilantro on top, mainly because I didn’t read the recipe close enough when I was making my list and didn’t buy it. It tasted so good without it, I doubt when, not if, but WHEN, I make this recipe again I’ll buy it to put on, just because it’s something else to buy.

Next time I make this, I’m going to try making it without the ham. It has bacon in it too, so I’m going to test out how it tastes with just one kind of meat in it. I would take out the bacon, but come on…it’s bacon. You have to take the bacon out of the pan after you cook it and after it was cooled, I snagged a little. Holy cow! I realized I haven’t had bacon is FOREVER! It was so good! Why did I ever stop buying it? Oh yeah…because the good stuff is expensive and I hate cooking it cause it takes so long and spits at me.

Back to the point…this is a great recipe. Go and make it…right now. You won’t regret it.

Yay for food!

Chinese Taco Salad

I am not very creative when it comes to words…ironic since I write a blog. Anyway, between my super awesome friend Jacque and our husbands, we came up with a lot of ideas for the name of this recipe. Some were funny, some were offensive, and some weren’t accurate descriptions at all. Anyway, I settled for Chinese Taco Salad.

Engineer and I have been trying to eat healthier. We don’t eat beef anymore, except for the occasional Sunday roast, so I make everything with ground turkey. For the most part, it doesn’t change the flavor and now that we’ve been cooking with it for the last 2 months of so, it tastes normal to me. Anyway, I wanted something easy and that wouldn’t take forever.

I love egg rolls. I could eat them all day. The problem though is that they are fried….and that is not exactly healthy. Then, I love stir fry, but it takes forever to cook. Maybe that’s just me, but when I make stir fry, I’m eating it like an hour and a half later.

This is a mix of both! And it’s fast and easy.

Here’s what you need:

• 2 TBS Olive Oil
• 1 Onion
• 2 cloves/tsp garlic
• 1 lb ground turkey
• Cole Slaw mix
• Soy sauce
• Ground ginger
• Anything else

Here’s what you do. Chop up your onion. The size doesn’t matter. Whatever you like best. Put the olive oil in a pot and saute the onion and garlic. Keep in mind this pot will have everything in it when you’re done cooking, so use one that is a decent size. Once the onions are tender/translucent, add the ground turkey and cook completely. At this point, you can either drain it or leave it. I drained mine to make it a little healthier. Once the turkey is cooked, add the Cole slaw mix, soy sauce, ground ginger and whatever else you’d like. I didn’t measure the soy sauce or ginger, but I probably used about 15 shots into the pot of soy sauce, and a few shakes of the container of ginger. The “anything else” portion of the recipe is really just that…anything else. Broccoli, mushrooms, corn, peas, bean sprouts…the list is endless. After this is all in the pot, you let it cook on medium heat until your desired tenderness level. We were really hungry, so ours was a little crunchy, but still super yummy.

I ate mine in a bowl with a little Thai red chili sauce mixed in. Engineer decided to make a true taco out of it and put his on a tortilla with the sauce. Both ways are super yummy. It’s so easy to make and you can alter it as much as you want. Like I said, I didn’t measure anything. I just kinda threw it in the pot, but it was good and simple. At least, besides all the crying from the stupid onion.

Cupcake Recipe

For church this past Sunday I decided to extend my Cupcake Challenge to the sisters in my ward. I texted our Relief Society President and asked if it would be okay if I brought cupcakes in and did this. She said yes and later told me something along the lines of, “Why would I say no to free cupcakes?” I don’t blame her. I wouldn’t say no to a yummy cupcake either! Anyway, since I was going to be making a bunch of cupcakes, I decided to go with easy instead of homemade, but this did not take away from the yummy factor. So, if you have not done the Cupcake Challenge yet or if you just want to brighten your own day with cupcakes/cake, here is the recipe I used for my Pumpkin Cupcakes and Cream Cheese Frosting! YUM!!!

I used a yellow cake mix from Aldi’s. This is either a pro or con, depending on how you like your cupcakes. Because the mix has pudding mixed into, I think it made the cupcakes on the doughy side. So, like I said, you either like them this way or you don’t. If you don’t want a doughy cupcake, use a regular yellow cake mix and add pumpkin spice and cinnamon, or use a spice cake mix. If you use the yellow mix, I think I used 1 TBS of cinnamon and 3/4 of a TBS pumpkin spice (I didn’t measure it out exactly). You can do this to taste. Then you throw in a 15 oz can of pumpkin, mix and bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.

Here is a horrible picture of my last cupcake. It’s the only one I had left and also one of the worst looking ones I had, but nonetheless, a picture of my super tasty cupcakes. I think I ate 4 of them today…shhh. Don’t tell.

• Yellow cake mix or spice cake mix (Unprepared)
• 1 TBS Cinnamon and 3/4 (roughly) Pumpkin Spice; Only add these if using yellow cake mix
• 15 oz Pumpkin

Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes. Cool and frost.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar

Cream cream cheese and butter together, then add powdered sugar slowly. If too thick, add a little cream (half & half, or whipping) to soften. Be careful not to add too much, because it will get runny fast. You can also use a little vanilla if you’d like. I think that would work too.

Remember to add sprinkles! Have a good day!