Tonight I’m in the mood for something really easy, but really tasty.  So I’m pulling out one of our favorite EASY meals.  Italian sausage with onions and peppers with crusty garlic bread.

Buy your favorite Italian sausage links.  I almost always get the Johnsonville Mild Italian because they have the flavor I like.  Cook them according to the package.  In the meantime, slice up 1 red bell pepper, 1 green bell pepper and 1 onion.  Saute them in a little olive oil until tender and slightly browned.  Also have a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce warming on the stove.  I use Paul Newman’s Sockarooni or Marinara.  LOVE IT!

Once the sausage is done, slice it up and add it to the onions and peppers and let saute for a couple of minutes just to give the veggies some of the sausage flavor.  My hubby’s not a huge fan of the spaghetti sauce, so he usually doesn’t have the sauce on his plate.  That’s the only reason I keep it separate from the rest of the mixture.  If you wanted to, you could add the sauce to the sausage and peppers, and it would be equally delicious.  Keeping it on the side allows you to have as much or as little sauce as you personally prefer.

Serve with some crusty garlic bread and the spaghetti sauce.  It’s also very good with pasta.

So I have this egg allergy thing that is super annoying when you love things that contain eggs. Like cake. But I found these, and they are AMAZING.

1 boxed devil’s food cake mix
1 15-oz can pure pumpkin puree (not pie filling!)

Mix the two ingredients in a bowl. The batter will be SUPER thick. Scoop into a lined cupcake mold and bake at 400 for about 20 mins. Makes 12.

These were super moist and oh so chocolaty. You can’t even tell there’s pumpkin in there!

I was trying to come up with a weekly menu the other night while I was over at my mom’s house.  I had everything but one night, and I needed something to do with chicken.  So my mom said, “How about Ritzy Chicken?”  Uh what?  My grandmother used to make this dish on Sundays, apparently.  She’d put it in the oven before they left the house for church and by the time they got home, it was done and ready to eat.

This could NOT be simpler.  Take 2 sleeves of Ritz crackers and BZZZZZZT them in the food processor to get crumbs.  Melt 1 stick of butter.  Roll boneless, skinless chicken breasts first in the butter and then in the Ritz crumbs.  Bake in a 350 oven until they’re done – it took mine about 45 minutes or so.

The crackers had just enough salt that the chicken didn’t need any other seasoning for me.  My husband, odd person that he is, decided to have his with some chipotle mayo that I made for him.  (1 cup of mayo, 2 chipotle peppers and a tablespoon or so of the adobo sauce from the chipotles can… BZZZZT in the food processor and done.)  I don’t like it.  Mayo is gross.  But he loves it.  Whatever.  Try the chicken, it’s delish!

Sometimes I want the flavors of lasagna, but I don’t want the hassle.  I learned this little recipe from my mom who is the Queen of easy meals…. Rachel Ray eat your heart out!

Skillet Lasagna

1lb Ground Beef

garlic salt, pepper and about 1/8 tsp Italian seasoning

2 cans Italian stewed tomatoes

1 small can tomato paste

1 small tub cottage cheese or ricotta cheese, whichever you prefer

1 cup shredded mozzarella

1 lb egg noodles, cooked and drained

Brown the ground beef and season with garlic salt and pepper to taste.  Sprinkle in the Italian seasoning as the beef cooks.  Meanwhile, combine the stewed tomatoes and tomato paste in the food processor.  Process until you have your desired consistency.  I have a 10 year old, so the less chunky, the better.  Once the meat is browned, add the tomato mixture.  Allow to simmer while the noodles finish cooking.

When the noodles are done, add them to the meat mixture and stir in the cottage cheese.  If you want, you can drain and rinse the cottage cheese before adding it.  Sprinkle mozzarella over the top and cover to allow the mozzarella to melt.   Once it’s melted, it’s ready to serve.

For years my mom made this with a specific brand of tomato sauce that was discontinued a while ago.  I asked her how she got around this problem, and she told me about the Italian stewed tomatoes and tomato paste trick.  I am amazed at how close the flavor is to the old style.  LOVE it!!!

I got a really great deal on loin chops at the grocery store today.  I managed to pick up 12 fairly thick chops for $9.99!  So what am I going to do with 12 chops??  Well I’ll break that up into at least two suppers.  Since I already have a package of chops in the freezer in the marinade I use for the pork tacos, I decided to do another of our favorites.  Pineapple grilled chops.  These couldn’t be easier.

Pineapple Grilled Pork Chops

• 6 loin chops
• 1 small bottle zesty Italian salad dressing (I use Wishbone)
• 1 large can pineapple
• 3 Tablespoons soy sauce (more if you love soy sauce)
• 2 Tablespoons brown sugar

Drain the juice from the pineapple into a bowl and set the pineapple slices aside for grilling with the chops later.  Add the salad dressing, soy sauce and brown sugar to the juice.  Pour the marinade over the pork chops in a zip top bag.   Allow to marinate for at least 2 hours — overnight gives the best flavor.  When you’re ready to grill, cook over medium-high heat.  DON’T overcook the chops or they will dry out! Serve with grilled pineapple slices.

This works great in the freezer.  Just put the chops in the zip top bag with the marinade and toss in the freezer.  When you’re ready to cook them, let them thaw overnight and then drain off the marinade.  In this case, I usually just add a small can of pineapple juice to the marinade and open a can of pineapple when I’m ready to grill.

I can hear you thinking, “Geez.  Betsy’s going all Fancy Schmancy on us.”  The thing is, I’m so not.  This is the simplest thing I think I’ve ever seen.

Through the whole season of The Next Food Network Star, one of my favorites was Melissa d’Arabian.  She was a mom (like me!) who cooked simple food (like me!) and had no formal cooking training (like me!).  Well something happened that just never happens.  My favorite, Melissa, WON.  Now she has her own show on Food Network called $10 Dinners.  Cheap and delicious?  Yes, please!

Last weekend Melissa made this crispy skinned chicken a l’orange and crispy potatoes.  By the end of the episode I was drooling as much as my 7-month-old (that’s a lot!!).  It looked and sounded delicious, and it seemed simple enough that I couldn’t screw it up.  So we tried it tonight.

O.M.G.  The chicken came out crispy on the outside, moist on the inside and super flavorful.  I spooned the extra sauce in the bottom of the pan over the chicken after I cut it off the bone to serve.  I caught myself running my fork through the sauce on my plate just so I could lick it off.  I’ll definitely be making it again.  I might even try to put a little twist on it next time and make it an Asian chicken a l’orange with a teeny bit of soy sauce in the glaze.

Without further ado, here’s the recipe you need:

Crispy Skinned Chicken a l’Orange

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 skin-on bone-in chicken breast halves
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
• 4 tablespoons honey

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Liberally salt and pepper the chicken breast halves. Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat and sear the chicken, skin side only, until brown and beginning to crisp, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the orange glaze: In a small saucepan, heat the orange juice concentrate, honey, and salt and pepper, to taste, over medium heat, and boil for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Turn the chicken over and brush each piece with the glaze. Turn the chicken skin side up and transfer the pan to the oven. Bake until the internal temperature reaches 160 to 170 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, brushing on more glaze halfway through, about 15 minutes in total. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes on a cutting board. Remove the chicken breast from the bone and slice the meat on the bias. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter and serve.

Yeah, that says frozen orange juice concentrate.  And honey.  That’s it.  That’s all there is to it.  Amazing, no?  I thought so.  So don’t let the fancy name put you off.  Give it a try, and you’ll be amazed at how easy this is to make.  I even had time to sit down for a few minutes while the chicken was in the oven!

**Photo and recipe courtesy of FoodTV.com and Melissa d’Arabian

Tonight we had one of the most simple dinners possible.  I preheated the grill.  I wrapped some hot dog buns in foil to warm on the grill while the hot dogs roasted.  I served them.

Easy Peasy.

The three of us each have our own way of eating hot dogs.  My daughter… she’s the purist.  She wants hot dog and bun — nothing else.  My husband prefers ketchup.  He’s a simple guy, too.  I’m the complicated one.  Sometimes I want chili and cheese with mustard and onion to garnish.  Other times I want sauerkraut in that mix.  Tonight, I just had sauerkraut and mustard, and I was happy.

Sometimes, the simplest things can be the most satisfying.  I love nights like this.

My family loves pizza.  We especially love homemade pizza because we can put as many toppings on as we want, and we don’t all have to agree on what toppings we want.  But I got curious.  Is it cheaper to make our own pizza or is it cheaper to order one of the $5 specials from one of the local pizza chains.  Here comes some math… this should be interesting.

I rarely make my own crust.  I’m sure it would be cheaper if I did, but I am terrible, and I mean terrible at bread doughs.  I know the cheapo crust mixes work, so that’s what I use

Crust Mix for 2 large pizzas (4 packets) = 1.76

Pizza Sauce in a jar = 1.50

Mozzarella Cheese (2 lbs.. what?  we like cheese!) = 5.00

Pepperoni = 2.00

Green bell pepper = .68

Onion = .45

Mushrooms (small can) = .50

Grand total for 2 large rectangular pizzas (feeds 4 with leftovers = $11.89 (with tax it comes to $12.93)

Now for the pizza chain math…

Dominos Pizza offers 3 medium 1 topping pizzas for $5.55 each.  So lets just see what that adds up to including tax and delivery charge…. (5 minute time elapse to navigate their online ordering system)… ok, 3 single topping pizzas which *might* feed four of us depending how hungry we are comes to a grand total of $20.61 with tax and a $2.50 delivery charge.

Now, like I said before, we each like different toppings, and we like lots of toppings.  A single topping pizza just doesn’t cut it for us.  So we would actually end up spending more if we ordered pizzas with all the toppings we wanted.  At home, we put as much of what we want on the pizzas as we want!  Sure it’s a little more time consuming than logging in to dominos.com and begging for delivery, but isn’t that part of the fun?  It’s especially fun if my 10 year old takes an interest and helps make her own pizza.

Sometimes, I’ll plan homemade pizza night into the week.  We’ll have spaghetti bolognese one night, and I’ll make extra sauce to store in the fridge to use as the pizza sauce on pizza night.  It works out great.  Plus, it’s even cheaper then because I don’t have to buy a jar of pizza sauce.

So yeah, I’ll carry on making my own pizza not only because it’s delicious, but because it’s cheap, too!

Earlier tonight, we went out with my parents and my grandmother to celebrate my husband’s and my daughter’s birthdays.  His is August 14th and hers is August 18th, so we always celebrate them together with a meal out with the family.  Casa Romo, in the heart of downtown Ardmore, OK, is a small, family-run restaurant serving extremely good authentic Mexican food.

I first fell in love with Casa Romo when a friend of mine and I went there for the daily lunch buffet.  The food was phenomenal.  Enchiladas, burritos, fried potatoes with onion and peppers, rice, beans, are all regulars on the buffet, but every day there are other different meat dishes that they add to the mix.  Some days it’s an authentic chicken mole or a braised beef in sauce, or my personal favorite, breaded pork chop.

Shortly after my first excursion into the restaurant for lunch, I went back with some other friends for a girls’ night out dinner and drinks.  The margaritas were to die for, and the menu made everything sound so good it was hard to decide what to have.  I quickly found my favorite, though — carne asada, slices of marinated beef with sauteed onions and bell peppers served with warm, soft flour tortillas, rice and beans.  I almost always have the same thing every time I go there.

Tonight I decided to try something new.  I ordered the guiso de camarones.  It was simple and delicious.  Small shrimp were seasoned and sauteed with onions, peppers and tomatoes.  With the shrimp, I was served a delicious cilantro rice and sauteed mixed vegetables (carrots, zucchini and yellow squash).  It is also usually served with guacamole, but I’m not a fan, so I subbed queso for it.  After I polished off the shrimp and vegetables, I decided that I deserved dessert for ordering something so (relatively!) healthy.  So I ordered a sopapilla.

If you’ve never had a sopapilla, you should.  Soon.  It’s dough.  It’s deep fried.  It’s dusted in sugar and cinnamon.  It then cries out to be drenched in honey.  So simple, yet so sinful.  After I finished the sopapilla, I seriously had to hold myself back from swiping my finger across my sugar-cinnamon-honey covered plate and licking it clean.  I didn’t want to embarrass my entire family.

Anyway, if you’re ever in Ardmore, OK, be sure to hit Casa Romo up for some of the best Mexican food I’ve ever had, and give me a call before you go!  I want to go, too.

When I was in elementary school, I was one of those kids who actually LIKED the cafeteria food.  Sure there were a few days that it was just gross and inedible (BBQ weinies anyone?), but for the most part our school cafeteria had fairly decent food.  This was of course before everything was being bought prefabricated and just deep fried at the last minute.  Our cafeteria ladies put their hearts and soul into the food we got, and we could tell.

One of my favorite memories from the school cafeteria is the days I would get to the front of the line to get my tray and discover a brown square of deliciousness in the dessert compartment of the segmented tray.  As soon as I saw that, I didn’t care what the main course was.  All I wanted was that peanut butter square.  Homemade Reese’s cup only BETTER.

I have looked high and low to find a recipe to match that level of OMG goodness.  I’ve tried the boxed Reese’s squares and they leave a LOT to be desired.  Then I came across this recipe on the Tasty Kitchen section of www.ThePioneerWoman.com.  My search is over.  I have found an exact duplicate of the squares those loving cafeteria ladies used to make from scratch for us at school at least once a month.  And because I care about you, I’m going to share it here.

Peanut Butter Squares

• 2 Cups Peanut Butter
• 2-1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1 Tsp Vanilla
• 1/2 Cup Graham Cracker Crumbs
• 1/2 Cup Butter, Melted
• CHOCOLATE TOPPING
• 4 Squares Semi-sweet Baking Chocolate
• 2 Tbsp. Peanut Butter

Combine everything except the Chocolate Topping ingredients in the food processor until smooth.  Press into a 9-inch square pan.  Melt the chocolate and peanut butter for the topping together in the microwave, being careful not to burn the chocolate.  Spread over the top of the peanut butter mixture.  Chill until the topping is firm.  Cut into squares and try your hardest not to eat them all at once.

I made these on Monday night thinking I would get a picture of them the next day to put up here so you could drool on your keyboard.  Before I remembered to take a picture the next day, they were gone.  Devoured.  Nothing was left in the pan but a few peanut butter crumbs and a small smear of hardened chocolate on the edge.