Cabbage Rolls

Yes, this looks gross because the bacon isn't done. :)

3 pounds ground beef

1 pound ground pork

3 heads of cabbage

2 family size cans of Tomato Soup

salt, pepper, garlic salt

3 cups cooked rice

water

2 eggs

2 strips of bacon or more, for seasoning.

1. 
   
   Cook rice and cabbage and set aside. (You can cook the cabbage in the microwave.)
2. 
   
   Take pork and beef and mix together (we used our hands).
3. 
   
   Add eggs, rice, salt, pepper, garlic salt, and 2 tablespoons of soup.
4. 
   
   Take a huge pot and put half a can of tomato soup to cover the bottom of the pot.
5. 
   
   Take the leaves off of the head of cabbage until you come to the part where it's hard to get the leaves off. That part you can later fry or boil. :)
6. 
   
   Take a single leaf and put a small palm size amount of the meat mixture in the leaf.
7. 
   
   Wrap the leaf like a burrito and place opening down into the pot. Keep going until you run out of the meat mixture.
8. 
   
   Add water and tomato soup until almost all of the cabbage rolls are covered.
9. 
   
   Add two strips of bacon over the top and put the lid on the pot.
10. 
    
    Cook about 1.5-2 hours - you want the water mixture to be slightly boiling. Check the top roll; if the meat is done in that roll, then the whole pot should be done.

This recipe was given to my grammy by her neighbor in St Louis back in the 60's. Our family loves this dish and we kid that any boyfriend/girlfriend who doesn't like it, obviously isn't a keeper. She was right about my exhusband for sure! And, yes, hubs loves this dish! Btw, it's not the healthiest in the world either and it is very time consuming! Hope you enjoy it!

Holiday Recipes

Oreo Balls

1 pkg Almond Bark (either the white or chocolate, we use the white)
1 pkg of Cream Cheese
1 pkg of Oreo Cookies

Put the Oreo's in a large food processor until the cookies are finely chopped. Add in the package of cream cheese and mix well. Then, make small balls (think golf ball size or smaller) and place on wax paper. Place the balls in the fridge for an hour. After an hour, melt the almond bark in a microwave safe bowl. Take the balls and dip them into the melted bark. Place on the wax paper and let them harden. You now have Oreo Balls! We usually let ours set in the fridge overnight before taking to a guest's house.

Reese's Stacks

1 box of Ritz crackers - or smaller, depending on how many you're making
1 package of white almond bark
1 jar of peanut butter
1 large bag of Reeses Pieces

Spread peanut butter in between Ritz crackers like sandwiches and make as many as you'd like. Set aside on wax paper. Crush a large bag of Reeses Pieces (or smaller if not making much) in a food processor and set aside. Melt the almond bark. Dip your sandwiches into the melted almond bark and make sure they're completely coated on all sides. Return to wax paper.
Take the crushed Reese's and pour a handful on top of coated sandwiches. Let harden. We then placed ours into the fridge until the next day.


Hope ya'll are having a great weekend!!

Weight Watcher's Wednesday

I usually don't participate in Weight Watcher's Wednesday, but I tried this recipe last night and had to share it!

Fusilli with Sausage, Spinach, and Peppers

8 oz uncooked fusilli (or bowtie pasta)
8 oz raw turkey sausage, casings removed
10 oz chopped frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 cup canned chicken broth (I used one 10.5 oz can)
7 oz canned pimento, drained and chopped
1/2 tsp table salt (I used garlic salt)
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp dried oregano

Cook pasta according to package instructions.

Crumble sausage into a large nonstick pan. Cook, breaking apart sausage, until no longer pink.
Add spinach, broth, pimentos, salt, pepper, and oregano. Heat to serving temperature (3 to 5 mins). Drain pasta, add to sausage mixture and toss to combine. (I continued to cook it all together for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.)

4 servings, 7 points each. Yum-o-licious.


In other news, I ran last night with no shin pain, but some back pain. Girls, it's time for new shoes. Today after work, I'm heading over to get the Asics GT-2140. Also, my time was a tad slower, a pace of 12:49 overall for 4.66 miles. Not too shabby, considering the back pain which caused me to look like I had been beatin up and was only running because I was being chased! ha!

My Weekend In Review

Well, it was the first weekend of 2009 and let me tell ya - it was pretty much great! We got off early Friday, were picked up by my parents, and on to Tunica we went! After arriving and checking into our hotel - we stayed at the Grand Strike (great, great rooms. very impressed. thats a picture from the website) - we went and ate a yummy buffet at the casino! It was seafood and steak night - which, I don't eat seafood and I wasn't in the mood for steak...but I ate some good sides! :)

After chowing down, we gambled the night away. We weren't there to win big money (although it would've been nice) - we were just there to celebrate my dad's 48th birthday! We gambled at the Grand Strike and whatever the name of those two others are called thats connected to it! ha! We ended up making it to bed around 2:30am! Yes, we were night owls!!! After sleeping a few hours, we checked out of our rooms and headed over to Harrah's for Paula Deen's Buffet!

Now, I'd heard great things about this buffet, but let me just say - Man was I blown away!! That was the absolute BEST buffet (or meal even) that I have ever eaten! It was only $24 for two of us and we ate and ate and ate! It was soooo good! It's all southern food and it's some of Paula Deen's best recipes! My family was definitely impressed! And to top things off, I bought a Paula Deen cookbook - and opened it up and it was autographed!!!! Yes, it was autographed by the Cooking Goddess herself! :)

After eating a zillion pounds of food (seriously, we stuffed ourselves), we headed back home. I slept the entire way back!! We spent the rest of the day resting and eating our leftover Southern Caviar dip and watching movies.

Then on Sunday, we got some major housework accomplished, our Christmas stuff put away, and I made two dinners for this week - so that I can focus more on working out than on rushing home to cook dinner (atleast for part of the week!)!! Then, hubs decided we would fix our grill and cook some steak and baked potatoes!! He can make a great steak!! We were having a great night, until I received the call about my storage unit! Oh well, it was a great weekend otherwise. And hey, it could've been worse, it could've been our house that was broken into, right?

Oh, I almost forgot - I made Paula Deen's Squash Casserole -D-e-licious!!! Below is that recipe and the recipe for Southern Caviar! Enjoy!!


Paula Deen's Squash Casserole
Serves 4 (big helpings)


2 cups cooked, mashed yellow squash
2 cups Ritz Cracker crumbs
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cup chopped onion <--could use less
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
pinch of sugar
6 tablespoons butter

Place the squash in a large bowl. Add the cracker crumbs, milk, cheese, and onion, and stir well. Stir in the eggs, salt, pepper, sugar, and butter, and pour into a greased 1-quart casserole. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Southern Caviar

2 cans black-eyed peas, drained
2 cans shoepeg corn, drained
2 cans Ro-tel, drained
2 tomatoes, diced
2 bell peppers, diced <--I left this out
10 green onions, chopped <--didn't use as much
2 teaspoon minced garlic <--used garlic salt and garlic powder instead
1 16oz bottle Zesty Italian dressing

Mix all ingredients. Refrigerate 1 day. Serve with tortilla chips.