Simplest of Simple Pasta Salad

It's summer time. Life needs to be simple. So this is a simple pasta salad that can be made the night before.

What ya need:

1 box of garden pasta (Great Value for $0.98/box)

1 bottle of Italian dressing (i used zesty fat free Italian)

Ham (the amount is up to you) I always just used left overs or the small inexpensive ham you can get at Wally world

2 small cans of sliced olives, drained

1 cucumber, chopped (optional)

1/2 to 1 lb of cheddar cheese, cubed.

Boil the pasta until it is al dente. Drain and blanch (rinse in ice cold water). Set aside until completely cold. While the pasta is boiling and cooling, prepare the rest of the ingredients, except the dressing and place in a medium-ish bowl. Combine pasta and ingredients. Pour dressing over mixture. Cover and refrigerate over night.

You can also add sun-dried tomatoes, bacon bits...all kinds of fun stuff.

My perfect dinner :) This salad goes really good with BBQ chicken, grilled hamburgers or hotdogs. It's a perfect family reunion dish! Cheap, easy and feeds alot! :) I know you're probably thinking, Jamie, why are you sharing this easy crap? Well, I made it. It was easy. I share. :) I'm sure most of you moms out there are starting to get pummelled with play dates, weddings, , family reunions... I'm just trying to help a motha out :) I'm going to make some BBQ chicken this weekend, I think :) I'll share that with y'all too!!

**for those that HATE olives, you can use pickles**

apologies!! and chocolate

I've been slacking a little this week. For that I apologize!! However! I have a wonderful recipe to share. I made it for FHE this week. Tasty Brownies!! Unfortunately, by the time I got to take a picture, this is all I had left :) In my hubby's defense, we did share with our neighbor :)

Peanut Butter Fudge Brownies

You will need:
1 fudge brownie mix of your choice
10 oz pkg of peanut butter chips
14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup semi-sweet choc. chips
1/2 cup butter
1 TB shortening
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Bake the brownies according to the direction on the box. Cool COMPLETELY before starting anything else!!! Melt butter and peanut butter chips over LOW heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sweetened condensed milk until smooth; pour over cooled brownies. Place choc. chips and shortening in a small bowl and microwave until melted, stirring every 30 seconds to avoid scorching. When melted, mix THOROUGHLY. Drizzle choc. mixture using a teaspoon over brownies. If you want nuts, sprinkle over the top. Refrigerate until firm (about an hour). But into squares :)

I've made it using 3/4 pkg of PB chips and 1/4 pkg of milk choc. chips also. It was super chocolaty!

Am I forgiven? :)

Scalloped Ham and Taters **CROCKPOT**

I don't have any pictures for this one :( But It's a Crockpot idea! :) So I figured I'd get it out there before every one's planning Sunday dinner :)

You will need:
6 or 7 1/4" slices of ham
6-8 potatoes, sliced, not too thin
1 C chopped onion
1 C shredded cheddar cheese (I'm a cheesy kind of lady, so i use 1 1/2-2 C of cheese)
1 can cream of celery soup
paprika (optional)
Salt & pepper

Place ham, potatoes, and onion in Crockpot. Sprinkle with salt & pepper to your liking. Layer half of the cheese over the top. Spread soup over top, making sure to cover potatoes completely. Sprinkle with paprika if you want. Cover and cook on LOW for 7-8 hours. I add the rest of the cheese about halfway through.

It's perfect for Sundays! Get it going before church and then you're ready to eat :)

Strawberry Bread

Strawberries are on selling like crazy here! I went to our local Winegars and got 4 lbs for $5. Needlessly to say I bought a few pounds :) I made some jam and then sat down to think of other things I could make with fresh strawberries. Stevey and I like to eat them as is. Josh-he can leave 'em! :) So I googled strawberries. I found a few different ideas. One was bread. I found 2 recipes and they just didn't seem to have enough UMPH. So, I played with some ingredients and came up with something super tasty :) It's really easy. I thought about it after I was done, but you can add nuts if you're a fan of 'em. I think pecans or walnuts would be tasty!

What you're gonna need:

2 cups fresh strawberries (roughly)
3 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar plus 2 TB
1 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. Slice strawberries, and place in medium-sized bowl. Sprinkle lightly with 2 tablespoons sugar and set aside while preparing bread mixture.

Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and baking soda in large bowl: mix well. Blend oil and eggs into strawberries. Add strawberry mixture to flour mixture, blending until dry ingredients are just moistened. Stir in pecans. Divide batter into pans. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until tester (toothpick or butter knife) inserted comes out clean. Let cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn loaves out, and cool completely

Okay kids, I need some suggestions. Are there any recipes that you've been trying to find, but just can't find 'em? Or anything you really wanna to try? Let me know! :) I'm excited to share all my recipes with you guys! I love to cook! I'm super thankful that my Grandma Ruth taught me well :)

Yummy AppleSauce Muffins

What you need:

1 1/4 C unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
2 TB canola or corn oil
1/4 C honey
1 C whole wheat flour
1 C all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/3 C raisins (i use closer to 2/3, i just grab a handful LOL)

12-17 colorful paper liners

Beat together applesauce, egg, oil and honey. Sift in dry ingredients; stirring just until moisten. Fold in raisins. Divide into 12 muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes at 375. I usually get 17 muffins instead of 12, but I don't fill the cups all the way so I don't have a huge mess to clean off my pan :) :)

These muffins are 143 calories per muffin and 26 carbs, which is mainly complex carbs (the good kind ) I use "Can't Believe It's Not Butter" and sugar-free jam to complete the tastiness. My hubby loves for the morning. They're pretty filling and easy to eat on the go.

Cheap and Easy Sloppy Joes :)

So, I don't know about you, but I'm a fan of sloppy joes. My husband LIVES for his sloppy joes. I know that Manwich isn't super duper expensive, but if I don't have to buy anything-Go me :)

What you need:

1 lb of ground beef or ground turkey
1 med. onion chopped
1 green pepper diced
1 1/2 tbsp. mustard
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 c. catsup
1 tbsp. vinegar
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Start to brown hamburger. When most of the pink is gone, add the onion and pepper. Cook until hamburger is completely done and drain. In separate bowl mix mustard, sugar, catsup, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce.

Combine sauce with hamburger. Heat through and serve on buns :) My hubby says it's not complete without chips :)

Serve and enjoy :)

After a little pushing, I've decided to start a recipe blog :) I've always wanted to own a bakery. I LOOOOOOOOOOVE baking! Heck, I just love cooking! It's a huge stress reliever for me. So, get ready for some tasty crap lol