Instant Pot Beef Tips & Gravy

recipe from Taste of Home; image from Eazy Peazy Mealz

Naked Eggrolls

recipe adapted from This Old Gal; image from Tasty Thin

Easy Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup (GF)

recipe and image courtesy Evolving Table

Gluten Free Meatloaf

recipe and image from Yummy Healthy Easy

Refrigerator Oatmeal

 

Am I the only mom that has a hard time getting out of bed to make breakfast?

This is one of my go to breakfast or snack ideas. It can be made the night before or a couple days in advance.

It’s supper yummy and easy to make!

Monica over at The yummy life has a TON of different refrigerator oatmeal recipes!

Here are a couple of our favorites!!

  

Meatballs / Meatloaf Mixture

Last week a picked up my order of hamburger from Zaycon foods!

I wish I could get fresh (not frozen) beef from my father-in-law but that’s not how they do it where we get the cows processed.  I love Zaycon foods, their meat is just as good as my father-in-laws!

You might think I’m crazy for getting 40lbs of hamburger, that doesn’t come packaged. At times I think I am! I love having easy meals ready to go in my freezer. Sometimes I just don’t want to take the time to thaw, make meatballs then bake them.

For me it is easier to just take one day and mix everything together (bake if needed) and package it for when I need an easy/fast meal!

This is what i made this time

• 24 lbs of meatballs
• 8 lbs of meatloaf
• 8 lbs of hamburger patties

This recipe is so easy and delicious! I often find my kiddos sneaking into the meatballs that are cooling! 

I love having easy dinners in the freezer.

When I make these I use Gluten Free Old Fashion oats and put them in a food processor to break the oats into smaller pieces. If you don’t want to use oats, sub 3 cups bread crumbs. 

What do you use meatballs in? Here are a few of my go to meatball dinner ideas.

• Slow Cooker BBQ Cranberry Meatballs –can be used as a appetizer
• Spaghetti and Meatballs
• Meatballs and Mashed potatoes

 

If you are interested in Zaycon Foods feel free to use my referral Zayconfresh.com/refer/zf14716

Tater Tot Nachos (“Totchos”)

If I forget or don’t have time to put something in the crock pot on Sundays, we usually end up eating cereal for dinner.  I recently found this recipe on Pinterest and thought it would be a good one for the kids to help make, and it was looking dismally like a “cereal or starve” Sunday last night, so we decided to throw together a pan of “totchos” for dinner. 
image and recipe courtesy The Good Stuff

They were super easy to make, and they tasted pretty darned good, too.  Fun for the kids; I think they could probably practically do this one all by themselves!

Garlic Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

 

I don’t usually make mashed potatoes. :/

Honestly when I have made mashed potatoes I’ve used the Idahoan (dehydrated) mashed potatoes.  Always roasted garlic, four cheese or butter and herb because I don’t really know how to make gravy. 

I’m not so sure why I’ve been so hesitant to make them. They really aren’t that hard. I’ve watched my mother-in-law make the most delicious mashed potatoes and gravy several times now. She always uses a hand mixer and they turn out so smooth with little effort! So I decided to give it this recipe a try! Super yummy and SO easy!

One day I’ll give gravy a try. ;)

Thai Basil Fried Rice

Recently, I was looking for a simple side dish I could make to go along with my Thai Chicken Enchiladas.  I saw this one and it looked simple enough, so I decided to try it.  recipe and image courtesy Wine and Glue

This recipe, as it turns out, while simple to make, has a beautiful and very authentic complex Thai flavor profile.  I know this is one I will make again and again.  We liked it so much I might consider adding some extra chicken and making it a meal in itself next time.  I would also like to try subbing rice noodles for the rice and shrimp for the chicken sometime.  Yum!

Pumpkin Dump Cake

 

This is my go to dessert.  I love it! I crave it!  (I can eat the whole pan.)

I’ve made this many times without the pecans and just recently made it with them.

OH MY! Try it with the pecans! They really make it 10X better.

 

source : thepickyapple.com

Pizza- Deep Dish & Quick and Easy Gluten Free

 

We like to do pizza and movie night every Friday night!

I think homemade pizza is better then anything else. (Although I would never turn down the other stuff.)  About 5 years ago I found Crystal at everydayfoodstorage.net  Her 30 minute homemade pizza dough recipe has been our favorite ever since the first time I made it.

We MISS Crystals recipe and have struggled to find a good substitute.  About a month ago we found one! I think it will be our new GF favorite! Premium gold makes a good  ‘Gluten Free Flax & Ancient Grains All-purpose Flour’ you can buy it off their website or at Costco. I’m excited to try more of their recipes!

 

What do you like to top your pizza with?

Black Bean Soup

 

I don’t know what it is about this soup but we LOVE it!

It is pretty cheap, extremely easy and supper yummy!

It is one of the meals that I make for my sweet husband every week for him to take on the road.

It uses Bush’s seasoned Black Beans. I have found it in Wal-mart and Smith’s, not every store carries it.  One day I’m going to try and recreate it but for now $.89a can at Wal-mart isn’t that bad.

I like to serve this with the oven-baked brown rice.

Copycat Orange Julius

I’ll admit I actually have no idea whether or not this really tastes anything like an Orange Julius.  I haven’t had an orange julius from an official Orange Julius in many years due to the fact that the only Orange Julius places I know of are located inside of shopping malls, and I avoid shopping malls any cost. 

Whether or not it tastes anything like the real thing, though, it is certainly delicious.  My kids have been requesting them at least once a week since I discovered the recipe.   
photo courtesy jmac & kmac; recipe courtesy Raining Hot Coupons

Pasta Salad

This pasta salad is a go-to for us during the summer months.  It’s easy to throw together, using a number of both flexible and fresh ingredients. It is easy to take along in a cooler when you’re going to be away for the day (“Anybody wanna go to the amusement park?”) because you don’t have to worry about keeping a mayo-based salad safely cold! 

It’s not uncommon for us to enjoy this salad all by itself as a light dinner after a day at the pool, but it also makes a great side with burgers on the grill or a welcomed take-along for any pot luck or covered dish. To make it gluten free, simply substitute cooked, cooled quinoa for the pasta.  We like it just as much served this way!  
I can’t remember where I grabbed the image used on this card.  If it’s yours, just let me know and I’ll give credit where credit is due!

Tiny Spicy Chicken

When Sweet Mama shared her recipe (and The Sweet Mister’s love) for sweet & sour chicken last week, I couldn’t believe how similar it was to my own!  Great minds cook alike!  It also reminded me of a couple other similar recipes that my Saucy Family absolutely LOVES!  I’ll share them both today, but I’m going to give them each their own separate post.  They’re similar enough that you probably only need one of them in your Chinese food repertoire, but they’re both good enough to warrant at least one try apiece to decide which one your family prefers.  

This particular recipe is a knock-off of chicken dish they serve at a local Chinese restaurant.  Everybody I know who lives or has lived in Cache Valley knows about the Tiny Spicy Chicken at Mandarin Gardens!  I was so excited when I found a knock-off recipe; I couldn’t wait to try it!  I would say it’s not spot-on, but it is pretty darned close.  Close enough for me, since I can feed my entire family dinner and have leftovers for lunch tomorrow for the same cost of a single dinner plate at Mandarin Gardens!  Just my saucy style!recipe adapted from The Provident Homemaker; image courtesy Mandy’s Recipe Box

From-Scratch Cream of Chicken Soup

I probably wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of making cream of chicken soup from scratch had I not recently been trying to make gluten-free funeral potatoes for Saucy Mama and her family.  I’m so glad I did, though, because this soup makes a really good & hearty meal on its own when served with a loaf of crusty bread or a salad on the side, and then I can use the leftovers to make my funeral potato casserole gluten-free.  I love it when I can prep two meals at once!