Sweet Roll Sandwich w/ Poppy Seed Onion Spread

Once upon a time a girl moved to rural America and learned how to improvise recipes. Improvising is one of the quick traits you learn to adapt too when the closest grocery store is 15mins away, and the next grocery store is 45mins away. I'm not complaining, the local grocery store is amazing... I just think people go in and stock up on supplies that they know I am wanting to buy. Yup it is a horrible conspiracy against me :P

Ok this recipe calls for poppy seeds, you don't have to add them. If you do random drug testing you might not want to use them. After all you don't want to have an Elaine from Seinfeld moment ha!

This has been another pinterest find: http://beyerbeware.net/2011/04/hunk-of-meat-monday-game-time-favorites.html

I followed the gist of it, however .. well just read and you'll see!

Poppy Seed Onion Spread

2 onions, finely diced

2 sticks butter

1 small jar of dijon mustard

6 tsp poppy seeds (I just kept shaking until I liked the look of it

Melt butter in pan, add onions, cook until tender

Add mustard, and poppy seeds

Simmer several minutes

Cool slightly, and spread on rolls

This was enough to make both batches of sandwiches below. You can top any remanding spread on top of the rolls, I didn't do this. I thought it would be too much.

King Hawaiian Sweet Roll Sandwiches w/ Ham & Swiss Cheese

16 king hawaiian sweet sandwich rolls, need to be sliced

Roughly 16 slices of ham sandwich meat

16 slices of swiss cheese

Poppy Seed Onion Spread

Line a cookie sheet with foil

Place bottom of rolls on pan

Spread Poppy Seed Onion Spread on buns

Top with ham slices

Top with swiss cheese

Place top of rolls on sandwiches

Cover with foil

Refrigerate until ready to be baked

Bake at 350F for 20mins covered

Roast Beef & Cheese Roll Sandwiches

16 sandwich rolls, sliced

16 slices of roast beef

16 slices of cheese, I used chipolte cheddar it gave a nice kick

Poppy Seed Onion Spread

Line a cookie sheet with foil

Place bottom of rolls on pan

Spread Poppy Seed Onion Spread on buns

Top with roast beef slices

Top with  cheese

Place top of rolls on sandwiches

Cover with foil

Refrigerate until ready to be baked

Bake at 350F for 20mins covered

Chimichangas & Sopapilla Cheesecake

Chimichangas:

I am wrap challenged. Seriously, if my life depended on successfully wrapping food in a soft tortilla shell, I would die. By some miracle I was able to get all of these wrapped correctly that the filling didn't fall out. Ok so I might have cheated, and exactly measured out the filling, but it worked. Victory is victory right :P
Now when I think chimichangas I think thinner, neater, than what these turned out to be. Mine were like short fat burritos, but the taste was amazing. I have even made these a few times. Only thing I did different was add cheese, and the second batch I made I added refried  beans. Ok I lied, I did something else different. I didn't butter them until I was ready to bake. I placed them in the fridge to firm up, and then buttered them as I went. If you want to rock out the deliciousness top them with sour cream and salsa.
These do freeze well, do not butter, and wrap individually. Place in fridge to defrost, butter, and bake.
http://www.food.com/recipe/streamlined-chimichangas-16371


Sopapilla Cheesecake:

I wanted a Mexican dessert, and found this gem! Even better it was super easy, and totally wonderful. It is a 100% cheatable recipe, I mean there is really nothing homemade about it. Flavour is amazing, and you can even have it as a sweet breakfast, with a nice cup of coffee. I did add more cinnamon, I love me some cinnamon!
http://myellowumbrella.blogspot.com/2010/10/sopapilla-cheesecake.html

Mexican Inspired Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed peppers are amazing. Typically with rice, tomatoes, seasonings, onions,  and ground beef. I wanted to try to mix it up a little. Who doesn't like to mix it up every once and awhile? I know I do.
Now this might be a shocker but I never really had Mexican / Tex-Mex before moving to the USA, and let me tell you it's some good food. I thought it's about time I try to make some more Mexican inspired dishes, why not? If it turned out bad, I can just blame it on my inexperience right. Happily this was not the case, and I was thrilled. I love stuffed peppers.

Ingredients:
16 bell peppers (I used yellow and green), sliced half from stem to tip (longways, vertical)
4 c cooked rice, any kind
2 onions, diced
4 - 15oz canned black beans, drained and rinsed
2 or 3 15oz canned tomatoes with chilies
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
4 c taco blend shredded cheese
3 or 4 - 28oz cans of red enchilada sauce, or if you can rock homemade go with that.
Large baking pan/s

Method:
Now when I cooked the rice, I added all the diced onion to it, and threw in a dash of red chili flakes.
Place rice / onion mixture in bowl, stir in black beans, tomato, salt, pepper. If it seems too dry you can add some olive oil, but I didn't need to.
Divide enchilada sauce into baking pans. To determine how many pans were needed I placed cleaned out peppers in pans. You want them to fit snugly.
Fill peppers with rice mixture.
Nestle stuffed peppers into enchilada sauce, and cover with shredded cheese.
Cover with foil, bake at 375 for about 20-30mins.
Remove foil, and bake until cheese is fully melted.

These do freeze well.
Do all steps but enchilada sauce, flash freeze in pan, and place into more airtight containers.
To bake: thaw in fridge (overnight), add enchilada sauce, and bake. Might need to add a few extra minutes.

Crock Pot Curried Vegetable and Chickpea Soupy Stew

No surprise that we like chickpeas, vegetables, and curry. Less of a shocker that I love soup. Seriously I could have it everyday. Maybe that is because I am from wonderful British Columbia, which just screams "soup is good!". Ok BC screams all food is good. BC is awesome :P :P

Anyways here is where I spied the recipe: http://www.thekitchn.com/slowcooker-recipe-curried-vege-67520

Now knowing me I didn't follow the ingredient list, sometimes it's because I like to switch things up, and other times it is because I cannot find all ingredients in our lovely grocery store. Either way it's a good soupy stew and you should make it!

Ingredients:
About 1 tsp olive oil
1 large diced onion
2 peeled and diced potatoes
1 tbsp salt
3 tbsp curry powder
2 tsp ginger, I only had powdered
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 c vegetable broth
2 - 16oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 medium cauliflower, washed and cut into bite size pieces (or 1 bag of frozen chopped)
1 - 28oz can diced tomatoes, do not drain
1 tsp black pepper
10oz baby spinach
1/2 can sweet and condensed milk (couldn't find coconut milk)

Method:
Heat oil in pan over medium heat. Saute onion with salt, about 5 mins.
Add potatoes, and saute about another 5 mins.
Stir curry, ginger, garlic, and cook for about 30 seconds.
Pour some vegetable broth, and scrape bottom of pan to deglaze.
Pour onion / potato mix into crock pot
Add rest of vegetable broth, chickpeas, bell pepper, tomatoes (with juices), and cauliflower.
Cover and cook for 4 hours on high.
At about 3 hour to 3 1/2 hours add condensed milk and mix well.
Stir in the spinach (after 4hrs), cover and allow to wilt (about a minute or two).

We just had it as soup, it is rather filling, and super delicious. However you can even pour it over rice, cous cous, or orzo pasta.

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

Have you noticed how much it is to purchase good chocolate syrup in the store? It's crazy expensive. So why not make it. Yah I was skeptic at first, could it really be as good? Yes, yes it can. Plus you can adjust the sweetness to your taste, and you know what is actually in the recipe.

You can add it to coffee, milk, ice cream, milkshakes, etc. Whatever you use chocolate syrup for you can use this. Now I didn't craft some magical recipe, but did come across two that are great, and easy to double, if you have some chocolate sauce fiends in your household ;P

These recipes need to be refrigerated, and if you want to feel like a super star re-use a glass jar, or container you already have. Want to be fancy, you can buy something stylish to put it in. I never turn down a shopping trip!

The first recipe comes from Retro Housewife Goes Green (plus she is a friend of mine) so I knew I would like it ha! http://retrohousewifegoesgreen.com/2012/08/homemade-chocolate-syrup
Seriously 5 easy ingredients, and if you like to bake, I bet you have them all on hand to give it a go.

The second recipe I spied from one of my favorite sites, pinterest. Seriously I think I have a problem.
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/03/homemade-chocolate-syrup.html
This one has the same 5 easy ingredients, but a lot more sugar, and a tad more water.

What one will you try?! I have made both, and both are great.

Fiesta Chicken Casserole

I found this recipe on pinterest, I know shocking. However I went back to click on the recipe and a wonderful "this recipe is no longer available" page showed up. Thanks http://www.tasteofhome.com. Luckily, I have some ocd moments and saved it on the computer.

Ingredients:
1 package of refrigerated pie crust (make sure there are 2 crusts). I am not gifted at making pie crust, if you are (I secretly hate you because I am jealous of you.. yah it's an odd complement, just take it and lets move on)
16oz of chunky salsa, any kind, any heat, homemade rocks too
10 3/4oz condensed cream of chicken soup or 1 small can. I make my own, you can too if you'd like check out: http://nomnomwarrior.blogspot.com/2012/08/condensed-cream-of-whatever-soup.html
1 C sour cream
2 C shredded cheese, can use sharp or fancy blended melodies
24 oz frozen whole kernel corn
2 cans (9.75 oz) white chunk chicken breast in water, drained. I know, I know what in the world. If you want chicken just cook up a breast or two, and dice. Or omit it, I left it out, and it was delish.
1 - 15oz can black beans, rinsed, and drained. I doubled the beans because I left out the chicken.
1 - 9x13 casserole dish

Directions:
1. If using refrigerated pie crust let them stand at room temperature for 15mins
2. Mix salsa, condensed soup, sour cream, cheese, corn, chicken (if using), and beans in a large bowl
3. Spoon mixture into your 9x13 casserole dish
4. Unfold pie crusts on lightly floured surface, lay crusts side by side so they overlap by 3 inches in the center. Press the seam to seal.
5. Place over the mixture in your casserole dish, trim off excess crust, and cut slits in the crust
6. Bake at 400F for 40mins or until crust is golden brown

Sausage, Biscuit & "Gravy "Casserole

This is the easiest, most laziest, most non-homemade casserole every, for reals. It's like cheating on every level, but it's good. Hey sometimes we all need a nice easy thing to make for the family, this is it.

Now "gravy" isn't really gravy, it's cream cheese. If you are like me cream cheese is never wrong, never.

Ingredients:
2 pkgs of crescent rolls
1lb breakfast sausage
1 pkg cream cheese
1 small onion, optional
9x13 pan

Method:
1. cook sausage, add onion, do not drain
2. remove cream cheese from fridge
3. add cream cheese, mix until melted.  helpful hint: cut cream cheese into smaller pieces
4. grease 9x13 pan
5. roll out 1 pks of crescent rolls to fit in pan, pinch seams together
6. add meat mixture
7. to with other pkg of crescent rolls, same method as bottom layer
8. you can refrigerate this, I had it in the fridge for 4hrs before baking
9.  bake at 350F for 22-28 minutes, go for shorter time and check. rolls can get crisp rather fast.

Enjoy! It's easy, and good.  Can serve it with fresh fruit, eggs, or any other breakfast food you like. When I made this, I also made the french toast bake (http://nomnomwarrior.blogspot.com/2012/09/french-toast-bake.html), crockery  pot breakfast (http://nomnomwarrior.blogspot.com/2012/09/crockery-pot-breakfast.html), had fresh fruit and more. Yup I cooked for a lot of people.