Meaty Spaghetti Sauce

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Ahhh... home cooked meals. Traditional goodness passed down from generation to generation. This was the spaghetti sauce I ate growing up. It's thick and chunky, and full of amazing flavor. After trying this, you'll never go back to canned sauce again!

You'll notice that the recipe allows for a few hours of simmering time. This is to get the best taste out of the herbs. Your house will also smell amazing! However, this spaghetti sauce is amazing after a short cooking time as well. Brown the beef, drain, and cook everything together for 30 minutes or so. Serve over hot noodles with warm bread and a salad!

Meaty Spaghetti Sauce
The Double Dipped Life


1 lb Ground Beef
1 chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
sliced mushrooms (optional)
1 teas salt
1/4 teas pepper
1 TB Basil
1/4 teas minced garlic
2 TB chopped (or dried) parsley
1 bay leaf
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1 can tomato sauce
spaghetti noodles
Parmesan or mozzarella cheese

Brown meat, drain fat. In the same pan, add in onion, celery, and mushrooms. Cook until soft.
Add browned meat and remaining ingredients and simmer 2-3 hours until sauce thickens. Stir occasionally. Add water if too thick.

Serve over hot noodles! Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and/or mozzarella cheese.
Enjoy!

Shirley J's Sloppy Joes

 

Can I be honest here? I've never been a huge fan of Sloppy Joe's. So, when my oldest son came home from school lunch telling me how much he loved them, I resigned myself to making them once in awhile. Sauce from a can? Hmmm... not that great. 

Enter Shirley J's! 

Shirley J is a local food mix company. They offer mixes of everything from a dry BBQ sauce to bread mixes. They sent me some products to try, and this recipe is the first. (All opinions are my own.)

The BBQ "sauce" is actually dry powder that you then add liquid to. Sounds funny, but it's so nice! It's amazing the flexibility that a powder creates, allowing you to mix in lots of different liquids! This Sloppy Joe recipe was a hit- getting a thumbs up from my oldest! 

BBQ Sloppy Joes

Shirly J recipes

1/2 cup Shirley J BBQ Sauce Mix

1 lb ground beef

1 diced onion

8 oz tomato sauce

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup honey 

Hamburger buns

In a large skillet, brown hamburger and onion.  Drain extra grease and discard.

While meat is cooking, combine the rest of the ingredients in a separate sauce pan. Simmer 2-3 minutes, and add to browned hamburger.  Mix well, and simmer for 10 more minutes. Serve on buns with lots of napkins! 

Enjoy! 

How to form perfect hamburger patties!

Do you want to make perfectly round hamburger patties? It's easy! Use a glass jar ring, or a circle cookie cutter! Press the hamburger mixture inside, and you have a circle!

What are your favorite hamburger toppings?

 

Mexican Fiesta

I have the privilege, through my church, to be a part of a wonderful organization of women. My calling, or "job", in my church is to help organize meetings for the women every few months. Mostly they are service nights, craft nights, or other worthwhile activities.  Once a year, in the summer, we have a Social. It's just that. A time for all of the sisters to get together, relax, talk, and enjoy each other.  This year we decided to do a Mexican Fiesta, and I, of course, volunteered to do the food.

Let me show you what we ate!

We made 3 kinds of chicken: all in the crockpot. 

Cilantro Lime Chicken

Enchilada Chicken: Add Chicken to crockpot, pour sauce over, cook!

Add chicken to crockpot, add this SALT FREE herb mix from Kitchen Stories, and cook! This was the most popular!

We made a batch of plain, cooked hamburger- some of our ladies have allergies! We also made this wonderful Taco Meat recipe from Mels Kitchen Cafe.  Try it! You'll enjoy it!

For sides, I whipped up a batch of Balsamic Black Bean Salsa (my new favorite party recipe), Pioneer Women's Resturant Salsa, and a batch of Mom's Salsa for the mild folks.

What was really good though, was my Guacamole!  I think I got more compliments on that then on anything else.  I really wish I had a picture of this. Just imagine smooth, creamy guacamole. I didn't make my Perfect Guacamole because of the allergy issues. Plus, I figured I probably should make something a little less spicy.  Costco has really great Hass avocados right now. Use those!

Creamy Guacamole

Hass Avocados

Sour Cream

Lemon Juice

Salt

Pepper

Powered Garlic 

Mash the Avocados in a bowl to your desired consistency. I prefer this recipe nice and smooth. Add a large dollop of Sour Cream, and mix. 

Then, sprinkle the rest of the ingredients over the top of the guacamole. Mix in. Taste, and adjust seasonings as needed! 

Tip: Store guacamole in fridge. Place plastic wrap DIRECTLY on the surface of the guacamole to prevent it from turning brown too quickly! 

That's it! I made this again last week, but didn't get a picture... again! Hmmm... I'll just have to make it again... 

We had a great drink as well... recipe coming soon!

All in all, it was a terrific event! We had little party favors, and one of the ladies made a guitar pinata!

Grilled Cheese Hamburgers

One of my favorite food blogs is Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice. She is now doing a fun "Burger Club" once a month, where she posts a recipe, and we try it out!

This is her 2nd recipe, but my 1st time joining in. The picture of the meal was just too good to pass up. See...

I'm using her picture, because I ate mine too fast to get a good one! Mmmm....

This fabulous burger is a mix between a hamburger and a grilled cheese sandwich. I made some changes, but nothing major. I noted my changes in the recipe. I made the meat exactly as the recipe stated, and let me tell you... it was delicious! So much flavor! When I make burgers, we usually put the cheese on after the first flip, so it gets a chance to melt. But, there was just something extra special about grilling it in the bun. I had leftovers the next night, and did the same thing- grilled cheese. Yum! It didn't even need ketchup or A1 sauce or any extras. I do believe this will be a favorite in our house from now on!

So my rating... 4 out of 4 stars! Meaning: Loved! I will make it often!

Here is the recipe, reprinted from Cinnamon and Spice

Logan County Burgers
(from The Comfort Table by Katie Lee)

1 pound ground beef (85 percent lean)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 medium yellow onion, half grated, the other half thinly sliced *
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
12 slices white bread *
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
12 slices American cheese, optional

1. In a medium bowl, combine the beef, egg, grated onion, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Mix until combined.

2. Form into thin patties. Spread butter on one side of each slice of bread.

3. Heat a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the burgers about 3 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels. Drain the grease from the skillet.

4. In the same skillet, place six slices of bread, butter side down. Top each with a slice of cheese, if desired, some onions and a burger. Top with remaining slices of cheese, if using, and bread, butter side up.

**My Changes: I put the onions in the patty, but not on the patty itself after cooking. I have a phobia of too much onions. I did use whole wheat hamburger buns instead of white bread and it was fantastic! I cooked my meat in my Foreman grill; then wiped it off and used that to grill the entire sandwich. It grilled it all nicely, and smooshed it down into a workable sandwich! I added tomatoes as well.

Thanks Reeni for a great challenge!