BLT Salad

BLT Salad

It doesn't get much easier then this, folks! My hubby and I have been doing the Paleo - Primal diet for a few months now. If you're not familiar with it, you can find lots of info and recipes for it all over the web. It basically takes out any processed foods, sugars, carbs, potatoes, grains, etc. You get the idea. We both have lost a considerable amount of weight, so we are going to continue to stick with it for a while. What I love about it, is you can pretty much eat as much as you want. Oh, and guess what? You can have bacon. I LOVE me some bacon! I've found most of my recipes via Pinterest. If you'd like to check out some of my recipes that I've pinned, you can go here.

So, I'm sure the BLT salad has been made in many kitchens. I've just never thought to prepare it this way. I decided I'd blog about it after posting the picture on Facebook. I will occasionally post a picture of something that I've prepared. After receiving several rave reviews of this, I thought I would share it with others.

Ok, get ready for the ingredients.... Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato. Wow, are you surprised?

BLT Salad for One:
1/4 head of iceberg lettuce, shredded
2 slices of cooked bacon, crumbled
1/2 of garden fresh tomato, cubed
Salt and Pepper to taste
Dressing of choice

Sausage Manicotti and Garlic Knots

I thought I would post about this Manicotti again, since it's been a while since I've blogged. The last time I made it, I made Garlic knots with it also. They are made using canned biscuits. So easy, but very tasty. I've been getting most of my recipes from Pinterest now. Not only do I pin the items, but I've tried a lot of them too. The Sausage Manicotti was a recipe that I found from All Recipes before the Pinterest hype. You can click on either of the links above to see the recipes for these and I'll also post them below. I have a few more details listed about the manicotti in my previous post.

Sausage Manicotti

 Ingredients

• 1 pound ground sausage
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1 (16 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
• 12 manicotti shells

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add manicotti shells and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
3. In a skillet over medium heat, brown the sausage; drain and keep hot. In a large bowl combine cream cheese, 1 3/4 cup of the mozzarella cheese and sausage.
4. Stuff noodles with cheese and sausage mixture; place in baking dish. Pour sauce over top of noodles and sprinkle with extra cheese. Bake for 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.                

For the Garlic Knots recipe, check out Real Mom Kitchen.

Pork Chops with Blue Cheese Gravy

Pork Chops with Blue Cheese Gravy

I've had this recipe for years and made it many times. I LOVE Bleu Cheese but my hubby is not a fan at all. When I first tried this recipe I wondered if I could sneak it in this gravy without him knowing. Well, as you can probably figure out, I did. It doesn't really taste bleu cheesy, but does have a nice rich flavor. I made it again a few nights ago. It had been a while since I had made it last. My husband is very critical of food. Usually when I ask him how something is, he says it's ok. Most people would say good. He takes leftovers to work sometimes and shares. They get devored by the men he works with with always great compliments. So, when I asked him how this was I was surprised when I got "it is actually pretty good".

The recipe came from allrecipes.com. I follow the recipe pretty closely. Instead of black pepper and garlic powder, I add my Tastefully Simple Seasonings. I use my favorite seasoning, Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt and I also add Tastefully Simple Garlic Pepper Seasoning blend.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 thick cut pork chops
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, or to taste
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

Directions

1. Melt butter in a large skillet, over medium heat. Season the pork chops with black pepper and garlic powder. Fry the chops in butter until no longer pink and the juices run clear, about 20 to 25 minutes. Turn occasionally to brown evenly.
2. Remove chops to a plate and keep warm. Stir the whipping cream into the skillet, loosening any bits of meat stuck to the bottom. Stir in blue cheese. Cook, stirring constantly until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Pour sauce over warm pork chops.

I served the pork chops with mashed potatoes and a side salad. If you'd like to try out some Tastefully Simple seasonings, you can check out my website. 

DIY Ribbon Christmas card holder

This is a cute and very simple way of hanging your Christmas cards. I usually get lots of Christmas cards this year and I'm always trying to decide where I'm going to display them. They usually get taped up somewhere, but this is much cuter. All you do is take a wide strip of ribbon and tape it on the back of your cabinet door. I only have one hanging right now, but plan on adding another strip on another cabinet door when more cards start coming in. I used paper covered clothespins to hang the cards, another simple thing to do. I plan on adding a magnet strip to the back of the clothespins after the cards come down. I can then use them on the refrigerator to hang things.

I found this idea from no where else, but Pinterest. If you need an invite to Pinterest, send me your email. Lots of ideas there! The tutorial for the Christmas card holder is from here. You can also make some paper covered clothespins. There are lots of tutorials for these also. I like this one.

Update: I had to make a lot more covered clothespins because I got more Christmas cards. I ended up covering some clothespins in glitter ribbon. I used red glitter ribbon, silver glitter ribbon and gold glitter ribbon. You can see those in the photos that have more cards. I think they added a more festive touch.

Ornament Wreath DIY

I've seen these ornament wreaths floating all over Pinterest! It looked pretty easy, so I thought I would try one out for myself. If you've never checked out Pinterest, you must go check it out! It's my new addiction.  If you need an invite, just send me your email and I'll send you one.

I decided to go with purple. You could choose other colors or mix and match. All you do is take a coat hanger, and form it into a circle. You then thread your ornaments onto the hanger until it is full. The tutorial I first came across was over at Eddie Ross. I've also found tutorials that show gluing the ornaments to a wreath form, but I say use what you have. I used a total of 56 shatterproof ornaments. I would have probably added a few more if I would have had them. It's also suggested that you glue the cap to the ball with a little hot glue. I only had to do this to two of mine. The others were already attached, a time saver for me! I've also seen some pretty satin ribbons wrapped around the top of the wreaths. I may add that to mine later, but don't have any right now. Very easy and  not time consuming. Go for it! I'd love to see if you've made your own.

Save money on gas!

I just wanted to share Lowes Guel Rewards with you, in case you haven't heard of it. I saved $.10 off each gallon of gas I put in my Explorer today. It's not a whole lot, but every little bit counts. It's simple, you just shop at Lowes Foods and use your Lowes card and let the rewards rack up. I wasn't sure how it would work since I was paying in cash. This is a new program and they had a sign up by the Wilco Hess gas pump. I went inside to let them know and they told me to go ahead and fill up then come inside. When I was done filling up, I came in and they scanned my Lowes card. It automatically deducted $.10 off each dollar. You have to buy groceries and have to buy gas. You might as well save a little bit of money while you're doing it.

Images came from the Lowes Foods website. There is also a listing of the Lowe's Foods fuel locations and WilcoHess locations on their site.

Apple Cinnamon Raisin Muffins

Aren't the little things cute? The recipe is below.

Apple Cinnamon Raisin Muffins Submitted by Andrea Woldman (IL)

Ingredients
Bountiful Beer Bread Mix^®
12 oz. lemon lime soda
4 Tbsp. applesauce
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup raisins

Directions
Combine ingredients; stir to blend. Place batter in greased muffin tin. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes. Makes 12 Servings.

Notes:
I made mine in mini muffin tins, so it made more then 12 and didn't take 20-25 minutes. Just keep an eye on them if you decide to use the mini muffin tins.

I also dabbed a bit of cream cheese on them. Yum!

If you would like to know where you can find some of the Bountiful Beer Bread Mix, check out my site here.

Also, check out how many different ways you can prepare the Bountiful Beer Break Mix, here.