Egg Roll in a Bowl

1 lb ground pork (I did regular, not HOT, since I was feeding my kids)
1 head green cabbage, thinly sliced (I did 1/2)
1/2 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 T. Sesame Oil
1/4 C. Soy Sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp ground ginger
2 T. chicken broth (I did beef, because that is what I had on hand)

I doubled the recipe above for my family of 6.

1.  Brown meat and drain
2.  Add oil and onion
3.  In a separate bowl mix soy sauce, garlic and ginger
4.  Add sauce from #3 to meat/onion mix
5.  Add cabbage and broth
Cook for 3 minutes (I cooked longer than that)

*Optional--garnish with green onion

Britney's Rotel Sausage dip

I served this at the 2017 Progressive Dinner

1 tube ground sausage (not spicy)
(1) 10 oz can Rotel tomatoes with green chilies (mild)
1 package cream cheese (I used 1/3 lower fat)

Brown sausage and drain.  Add other ingredients.  Cook over medium until cream cheese is melted.  Serve immediately or put in fridge and warm up in microwave when ready to serve or put in crockpot on warm until ready to serve.

Serve with tortilla chips or crackers or celery.

Aunt Olive's Soup

I brought this to Souper Saturday yesterday.  Aunt Olive was my Grandma's older sister.  So this recipe has made it through several generations of my family.  The way this recipe was handed down to me was that you make huge batches and bottle them.  A few years ago I experimented with it and made the recipe smaller so you could just make 1 dinner.  I will include both recipes.  It has basically the same ingredients as salsa...so you can grow the same items in your garden.  Sister Dabb has a really similar recipe (the larger canning version), but she does not put the noodles in before canning.  There are advantages to this...you could then use rice or noodles and the noodles don't take up space in your jars.  But the advantage to having the noodles already in the soup are that it makes it easier to open up and have a quick dinner.  I have listed spicy sausage to add...but you could alternately add ground beef or ground turkey or shredded or cubed chicken.  It is also good without meat.  We were brainstorming yesterday and saying it would be good with beans in it also...but I have never tried that.  Please note that the  bottling methods listed have not been approved by the Utah State Extension Office...they are just what my family has always done.

This is the bottling recipe...

1/2 bushel tomatoes

1/4 C. salt

1 C. sugar

1 tsp. pepper

9 C. macaroni (cooked and drained)

3 large bell peppers, diced

1 bunch celery, diced

5 medium onions, diced

1/2 lb. of real butter

Melt butter in large frying pan add vegetables.  Saute until light brown and fully cooked.

Peel tomatoes (can blanch if desired).  Cut into small pieces or blend in blender.

Fully cook macaroni (do not overcook).

Combine all ingredients except macaroni and boil hard for 15 minutes.  Add hot (and drained) macaroni).

Put in bottles.  Process in water bath.  Pints 20 minutes, Quarts 25 minutes.

Makes about 35 pints.

When serving, if desired, you can add any of the following: sausage, hamburger, chicken, cheese.  I also think it is too thick when I open a jar so I will blend a bottle of tomatoes and add that in.

Here is the 1 dinner recipe...

10 tomatoes peeled and blended in blender, OR 2 quarts of bottled tomatoes (with a possibility of 3 total).  If you do fresh tomatoes you may want to have 1 jar of bottled tomatoes on hand just in case it is too thick.

1 T. salt

3 T. sugar

quite a bit of pepper

2 1/2 C. macaroni (or other noodles), cooked and drained

1 bell pepper, any color

2 ribs celery, diced

1 medium yellow onion diced

2 T. oil or butter  (add more if vegetables start to stick while sauteing)

1 tube Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage (by the hot dogs)

1.  To peel the tomatoes you cna blanch them first to make it easier.

2.  Saute vegetables until lightly browned and cooked through.  

3.  Brown meat, drain if desired (I did not for Souper Saturday...but sometimes I do).

4.  Cook noodles through and drain

5.  Combine all ingredients

6.  Boil hard 15 minutes

7.  If not soupy enough when done, add blended up jar of bottled tomatoes.  And heat through.

Instead of the hot sausage you can do hamburger or chicken if desired.  And instead of noodles you can do cooked rice if desired.

If you double this recipe it will completely fill a large crockpot.

Alternative Hawaiian Haystacks

Last night we made Hawaiian Haystacks. But first off I was out of chicken. Secondly I had left over ham and cooked ground sausage. So we had hawaiian haystacks with cubed ham and ground sausage instead of chicken. I loved it. I think I liked it better than chicken.

As a side note, I was also out of pineapple so we did not have that as a topping. I think it would have been good though.

The toppings we had on hand were...

rice, ground sausage, cubed ham, grated colby cheese, coconut, gravy (Cream of chicken soup with a can of milk), crunchy chinese noodles.

For my family of 5 eaters...I made two cans of soup with 2 soup cans of milk...it was just right.

3 dinners for under $10 total

Okay, so I didn't add up the amounts, but I think I made all three of these dinners for under $10 total. My family does not eat leftovers, so I do not save leftovers. They just go moldy, so I would rather throw them away when they smell good, than when they smell horrible. (I know, not very frugal of me---but that's the way it is.) But, if I can make it into something else, then it works. I haven't done the following plan before, but it worked out quite nicely.

10-12 medium potatoes

Toppings for baked potatoes

1 tube jimmy dean hot sausage

1 yellow onion

1/2 bottle BBQ sauce

9 eggs

S & P

Beef boullion cubes

Biscuits or biscuit ingredients

The first night we had baked potatoes. Mine were red potatoes, but it doesn't matter. Make extra for the following meals... (I think I made 10-12 medium sized potatoes for my family of 5 eaters).

Then a night or two later we had Rancho's Juevos. (My Dad always said it meant "Ranch Eggs" in spanish, but who knows?) Here is how to do it...

After the baked potatoes cool (you can just leave them in the foil and put them in the fridge) or let them cool on the counter for a few hours. Remove the foil and cube. Put them in the fridge in a ziploc until ready to use. In a large non-stick skillet put the potatoes in and brown edges and heat through. Salt and Pepper. In a separate pan cook 1 chopped yellow onion and 1 tube of jimmy dean hot sausage (by the ham and hot dogs at the grocery store). Add cooked sausage to potatoes. In a separate bowl beat some eggs. (I did 9, but it just depends on how many potatoes you have and how much egg you like). Add eggs to potatoes and cook through. Add half a bottle of any brand/flavor BBQ sauce and serve. You can also top with cheese if desired.

For the third meal I made a beef broth with water and beef boullion cubes. I did 5 bouillion cubes to half a big pan of water. (The normal recipe is 1 cube to 1 C. water...and I estimated that it was about 5 cups of water). Then I added the left over Rancho's Juevos to make a sausage and potato soup. The egg looked a little weird, but it didn't taste bad at all. In fact the soup was really really good. (I figured there is egg in egg drop soup). I also made biscuits to go with the soup. I am still looking for the perfect biscuit recipe so I will not post the recipe I used. (Anyone have any suggestions.)

And there you have it...3 cheap, easy, fast, yummy meals!

Baked Beans

Ok...so this is not a BBQ recipe...but if you are going to a BBQ this is one of my favorite dishes.  These are my Mom's baked beans.

3 (15 oz each) cans of Van Camps Baked beans (remove small piece of fat from each can)
1/4 bottle BBQ sauce (any brand and any flavor)
1 lb. Jimmy Dean Hot sausage (comes in a tube)
1 large chopped onion
1/2 C. brown sugar
1/2 C. green pepper (chopped) (optional---I usually use, my Mom doesn't---good either way)
2 T. worchestershire sauce
2 T. mustard
1 C. apples (2 apples) (great way to use apples that are a little mushy)

Sometimes my mom adds in hamburger also I usually don't, but either way is good.  Brown sausage and onions (also hamburger and green pepper if using).  Mix remaining ingredients in a large oven safe pot.  Bake covered at 325 for 1 hour.  Refrigerate overnight.  Then reheat before serving.  You can freeze and reheat also.  These are 200% better if you will let them cool completely and then reheat.  So make a day ahead for best taste.  These are a little runny, so if you are taking to a party or something you might want to bring cups or bowls for people to put them in separately.  We love these so I always make a double batch.  We can eat these as a meal in and of themselves.

Erika...I need a ringing endorsement on these!  Post a glowing comment!

Pasta Bolognese

From Jennica R...


Here is that recipe my husband loves. I do agree it is super yummy. Not the cheapest recipe i've ever made due to the Gouda cheese, but the gouda cheese is a must in this recipe, I buy the big wedge of gouda at costco and I can usually use it in 4 to 5 different meals. Here is the original recipe

2Tbsp olive oil
1Tbsp butter
1 tsp dried basil
Dash crushed red chili pepper
3 medium onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
dash of salt
3 - 29 oz cans tomato sauce
7 oz Gouda cheese, grated
1 pint heavy cream

In olive oil and butter saute basil, chili pepper, onlion, garlic, and salt until onion is tender. Add tomato sauce and cook until flavors combine (at least 20 minutes, but the longer the better). Add Gouda cheese and stir until melted. Add heavy cream and remove from heat (cream should not be cooked). Serve over pasta.

*This is the original recipe, when I made it I changed it up a bit and our family liked it a lot. I only used 2 onions. and i replaced the heavy cream with half a pint of half and half so it wasn't so rich. I added italian sausage for meat. 
Enjoy!