South of the Border Open-Face Sandwiches

We are big fans of toasty sandwiches so naturally we were big fans of these.  Fresh tomatoes and avocado, roasted turkey, mexican spiced sandwich spread, and melted cheese = yummy.  I was a little leery of "cooked" avocados but it totally worked.  I'm so looking forward to the leftovers for lunch today!  Also these would be an easy way to feed a crowd and quickly.

South of the Border Sandwiches
{recipe originally from the Lion House}

1 loaf french bread, 1/2-3/4 inch slices
1/2 cup olives, chopped (i omitted these)
1/2 t chili powder
1/2 t ground cumin
1/4 t salt
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
1/3 cup mayonaise
1/3 cup lite sour cream
1/3 cup green onions, chopped
1 lb sliced turkey
2-3 tomatoes, sliced
2 ripe avocados, sliced
3/4 cup colby jack cheese, grated
3/4 cup monterey jack cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 and arrange bread slices on a cookie sheet or 2.

In a small bowl, mix seasonings with mayo, sour cream, green onions, and chopped olives (if using).  Liberally spread a tablespoon or so of mixture on each slice of bread.  Top with 2 or so slices of turkey, 2 slices of tomato, and some avocado.  Sprinkle each sandwich with the grated cheeses.

Bake in oven 15 minutes, until cheese is melted and sandwich is warmed through.  Serve!  (8ish servings)

Basic German Pancake

I have vivid memories of childhood sleepovers at my friend down the street Teresa's mom making this very thing for us come breakfast time. And after a night of playing chinese jumprope non-stop for hours ;0) it was a welcome sight! This was not something we ate at my house and so it was made all the more desirable because I only got to taste of it's goodness every once in a great while.

Enter my adult-life and I realize "Hey, I can make this whenever I want!" and so continues our love story with the delectable German Pancake. Crispy around the edges, soft and buttery in the middle, puffy and best straight from the oven. We all gather round to see what the creation will look like this time. The kids love it just as much as I do. It's a 15 minutes start to finish make and bake time. Easy to a dress up with sauteed apples/cinnamon and the like too. So simple, quick, delicious, and guaranteed you have all the ingredients on hand right now to make it today. Perfect for breakfast any day of the week or even a no-brainer breakfast for dinner, (which is exactly how we have it most often, including this past sunday night!)

Basic German Pancake

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)

6 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup flour

1/2 t salt

Turn oven on to 450 degrees. Place stick of butter in a 9x13 glass baking dish. Place dish in oven while it preheats so that the butter melts and the dish is hot before adding pancake batter. Be sure and keep an eye on the butter so that it doesn't burn before reaching temp. (It's OK if it browns a bit though.)

Meanwhile in blender crack 6 eggs, add milk, flour, and salt. Blend on high until well combined. Turning off to scrape down sides as needed and remix.

When batter is mixed and oven is hot with butter melted, carefully pour batter into hot baking dish and bake for 6-10 minutes until golden and puffed. Watch your oven carefully, the recipe I have says 15 minutes of bake time, but mine was definitely done by 6 minutes.

Also, be sure your oven rack is in the middle to lower part of the oven with nothing above it. The pancake puffs up pretty high and I've had the lovely experience of it touching the top element and burning or touching the rack above it and not looking very attractive.

Serve immediately sprinkled with powdered sugar and drizzled with your favorite syrup (this recipe is particularly divine), fresh fruit, whatever takes your fancy.

Tropical Green Smoothie

I've come late in the game to the whole green smoothie fad. (I seem to come late to a lot of things: pinterest, avocados, mushrooms, running, school pick-up the list goes on) But at least I have come and I dare say no one would challenge that I've embraced it whole-heartedly, think kale, spinach, flax seed, wheat germ, groats and the like. Better late than never then? And after a dozen misses in the kitchen lately (yummy keepers of meatless meals are hard to come by, man or things that were scrumptious but we ate them instead of photographing them so we'll have to catch them next time around), sprinkled with a couple cookie failures (really?) smoothies and snacks are about the only things we're getting right around here. But as the baby and I gulped this one down, I realized "hey this is actually worth sharing"!

This smoothie is full of sweet tropically goodness and spinach. I used to be afraid of the green and masked it with blueberries and pomegranate juice and still do because that's a tasty combo, but now I also say embrace the green! Let all that healthy, leafy green goodness stare you in the face. So here you go, a kitchen success. Now if I could just gets my hands on a vitamix...

Tropical Green Smoothie

{Lightly adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod-as an aside: I think some coconut in this would be tasty and while I used canned pineapple as it was what I had on hand, fresh pineapple would be even better}

1 cup vanilla almond milk

1 cup pineapple (canned or fresh-if canned may want to add some of the pineapple juice)

1 cup frozen mango

1 banana

2 cups fresh spinach

1/2 cup crushed ice

Not exactly rocket science here-blend up all the non-frozen items till smooth, then add the frozen (mangos and ice) till smooth again. Drink immediately.

Restaurant Style Blender Salsa {in 5 Minutes!}

A new found love, this salsa has been made and rapidly consumed by us no less than 5 times in the past 2 months. It literally takes all of 5 minutes and is remarkably fresh tasting despite the use of canned tomatoes. The fresh onion, jalapeno, cilantro, and lime juice all help with that. I have zero desire to use store bought salsa from a jar now that we've tried this. And although it doesn't keep nearly as long as jarred salsa (through infinity and beyond?!), it does stay fresh in a screw top container in the fridge for a good week or more. Perfect for healthier snacking and semi-homemade condiment using. Enjoy!

Restaurant Style Blender Salsa

{Recipe only slightly adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks!}

1 can (28oz) whole tomatoes with juices

2 cans (10 oz each) Rotel tomatoes (diced tomatoes and green chilies)

1/2 onion, chopped (we prefer white, but seem to only ever have yellow on hand)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 to 1 whole jalapeno quartered & thinly sliced (may scrape out seeds for heat control)

1/4 t sugar

1/4 t + kosher salt

1/4 t ground cumin

1/2 cup + cilantro, coarse chopped

1/2 to 1 whole lime, juiced (to taste-we tend to like more)

This makes a very large batch as in barely fits in my blender. We usually do it in 2 batches and then mix it all together. A large food processor is recommended, that way everything doesn't get completely pulverized, but alas we don't have that option so the blender it is-and it tastes great regardless.

Combine first 8 ingredients (through cumin) in large processor or blender and blend until well combined. If using blender try to be minimal here, perhaps having everything basically finely diced to begin with (not tomatoes or course though) would help? Add lime juice and cilantro just till combined. Taste and adjust. Serve with tortilla chips or whatever your mexican food loving heart desires. If you can, make it ahead at least an hour so that flavors can meld together. But straight outta the blender ain't bad either!

Snack Time: 2 Ingredient Fruit Dip

This is really more of an idea than an actual recipe. I've had be sure to have 4 servings of fruit each day this week and while that's never a problem for me--it is yummy sweet fruit after all--it's nice to mix it up a bit. Most fruit dips I've come across are tasty and wonderful because of a sugary something and you betcha I'm a fan of that. But in consciously watching my sugar consumption I've had to think outside the box a bit. I found this idea on pinterest and we're already a houseful of fans. 2 ingredients: vanilla yogurt, peanut butter, and voila you're done. I've yet to try almond butter in any form, but might need to add it to the grocery list and see how well it takes the place of peanut butter sometime. Snack time has reached new and healthier heights, yay!

Peanut Butter Fruit Dip

Fruit of choice-apples seem to the obvious what with the peanut butter and all

2 parts vanilla yogurt (we go greek) to 1 part smooth peanut butter (or almond butter?)

Basically I just plop 2 heaping spoonfuls of yogurt and 1 heaping spoonful of peanut butter in a small bowl and stir to combine. Serve with fruit of choice. Enjoy!

Healthy Chocolate Banana Smoothie {The drink that's saving my bacon right now}

So remember how I mentioned that we're on a mission to be healthier? {AKA Operation: Lose the Donut around my midsection by not eating Donuts?) Ya so that's meant a rigorous (and yes it has felt rigorous to me) crackdown on sugar consumption-and a bunch of other things but those don't really pertain to this post. What does pertain though is the 6 days a week of no sugar (including honey), 1 day a week of blessed sugar. You should see my pinterest account, FULL of amazing baked treats that I'm somehow able to avoid actually baking. Go me! Anyhow, a life without chocolate and treats would be a depressing life indeed. So naturally I had to find a healthy alternative and I really think I have with this one.

It's cocoa powder, bananas, almond milk, and ice with an optional shot of cream and dash of vanilla. It's been a wondrous revelation. Sweetened by the bananas, no sugar needed. (Could even be vegan if you forgo the cream) Now I'm not gonna lie and tell you that it's just as good as a scoop of chocolate ice cream whizzed up in the blender, but you know it's almost as good and some might argue better since it's actually healthy. And you don't feel disgusting after eating it. It's truly saved my bacon these past weeks. Let it save yours too. (or just eat an extra cookie for me ;0)

Chocolate Banana Smoothie

2 ripe bananas

1/2 cup almond milk

1 T cocoa powder

Crushed ice (1/2 a cup or so)

Optional: 1 t vanilla & 1 T whipping cream-not as healthy but really good all the same!

Place everything but ice in blender and process till smooth. Add crushed ice and blend till smooth. Serve immediately.

Note: The above amounts are definite guesstimations. Really I just throw it all in there and taste/observe as I go. And it's easily doubled/tripled. Our family is hooked so we need lots to go around.

Grilled Cheese & Guacamole Sandwich

I know I'm pretty much out of commission with any sort of regular posting, I hope to improve. But it's still dark come dinner time and my pictures that time of day are in a word: unappetizing. Plus I'm focusing on more healthy eating with far less meat at the moment and trying to find my way in that recipe world is proving somewhat challenging as far as things I'm excited to share. It's all pretty good, just not amazing-you know?!

Oh my lands was this tasty. Such a revelation. I spent a good portion of my life thinking I didn't like avocados and then bam! one day that changed and now I'm pretty much out of control avocado all the time. Naturally not liking avocados meant I also didn't like guacamole. I'm so happy to live in the world with the stuff now. And then you take that wonderful and divine guacamole (personally the recipe for that alone is the best I've tried to date) and you pair it with with melted sharp (has to be sharp!) cheddar and toasty sourdough and you see skies of blue and all that jazz. This was simple, it was healthy (yes I think cheese and bread are healthy-wholesome may be a better word?), it was quick, and aside from my husband and I inhaling it both my children ate it and asked for more. I think that's saying something. I mean how many children ask for avocados? Make them this sandwich and they definitely will. We paired it with this soup. Oh yum-perfection!

Grilled Cheese & Guacamole Sandwich

2 ripe avocados

1/2 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 small jalapeno, seeded and finely minced

2 T cilantro leaves, finely chopped

1 T fresh lime juice

1/2 t kosher salt

Fresh grated black pepper

1 roma tomato, chopped

Sliced sharp cheddar cheese

Sliced sourdough bread

Softened butter, for buttering bread

To make the guacamole: Cut avocados in half. Remove pit. Scoop out avocado and place in bowl. Use a fork to mash. Add onion, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper. Stir until well combined. Taste and adjust. Add in diced tomatoes and stir. (Tip: I did all of the above in my food processor.)

Heat pan or griddle to medium heat. Spread one side of one slice of bread evenly with butter. Place butter side down in heated pan. Place a single layer of cheese on top and then spread a generous spoonful of guacamole over that. Add another layer of cheese and top with another slice of bread. Butter that side that's facing up. Toast until golden, flip over and do the same. When cheese is melter and bread is toasty, remove and continue process until desired number of sandwiches has been made. Serve warm.

Stromboli & 5 Minute Marinara Sauce

This meal is right up my family's alley. We like to dip, we like bread, we like cheese, and we like easy. The stromboli is made with rhodes bread dough, but you could easily use your own bread dough and it would be divine. For ease of prep though, you can't beat rhodes. The filling can be tailored to your likes, we chose ham and pastrami. Next time I think some spinach would be terrific. And for a vegetarian version a combination of onions, mushrooms, spinach, and peppers would be yummy. So versatile.

The marinara literally comes together in 5 minutes and it is gooood. Perfect for dipping and I'd imagine great over noodles. Can't beat that! A delicious meal that will be gracing our table often.

I also happen to think this would be a yummy and easy to transport take-in meal. Just add a veggie or salad and plenty of the dipping sauce and they'll definitely thank you!

Stromboli

{Note: I made 2 of for our family of 4 and we had enough for some nice leftovers, 1 wouldn't have seemed like quite enough for us.}

1 loaf of rhodes bread dough (not rolls)

4+ slices pastrami (or hard salami)

1/2 cup diced ham

4+ slices provolone cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella (as always I recommend grating your own)

1/4 t oregano

1/4 t basil

Olive oil for brushing

Water for sealing dough if needed

Cornmeal for dusting

Let bread dough thaw on counter, not raise just thaw completely. Once thawed, stretch and roll into a good size rectangle. It's pretty finicky, but just keep at it. Lay pastrami slices down the middle, longways, of dough leaving a little bit of uncovered dough on either end. Sprinkle diced ham on top. Sprinkle with oregano and basil. Layer on provolone slices and sprinkle with mozzarella. Fold one half of dough over and then the other half (it's like folding a piece of paper into thirds with the middle third holding the filling-if that makes sense?!) and seal with water if needed. I used a fork to seal the seam and both ends. Flip over and place on cookie sheet lined with silpat. Brush with olive oil and dust lightly with cornmeal. Place in preheating 375 degree oven for 20-22 minutes, until golden. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing into 1-2 inch thick slices. Serve with marinara sauce.

5 Minute Marinara Sauce

2 T olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 t red pepper flakes

1 T tomato paste

1 28-32oz can crushed tomatoes

1 tsp italian seasoning

salt and pepper

Add olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes to pot. Cook briefly over medium-high heat, don't let garlic burn. Add 1 T tomato paste and stir. Add crushed tomatoes and italian seasoning. Season with salt and pepper to taste and let simmer for 5 minutes. Done!

Both recipes from The Sister's Cafe.com

Ham & Swiss Sliders with Poppyseed Sauce

Wanna a recipe for the tastiest little bite of a sandwich out there? Well here you go! I'm telling you these are one of the best sandwiches I've had the pleasure of eating. They are super easy. They can easily be made in bulk and are perfect for a luncheon, church function or potluck, baby shower, wedding shower or just plain weeknight dinner. They go great with soups, or salads, or pastas, or good old potato chips. They're good hot or cold and they will knock your socks off. Have I sung their praises and functionality enough yet?

The secret's in the sauce, although it might seems a little strange at first to assemble a perfectly good ham sandwich and then pour sauce all over it and bake it, it is not. The finished product is sandwich perfection and you'll want to make a boat load because these little babies go fast. In fact, I might just have to put them on the dinner menu again this week. So hurry up and plan a lunch and join your friends in dying and going to heaven eating these!

Ham and Swiss Sliders

{Recipe source: My good friend Tammy M. Note: On the rolls, you can use either King's Hawaiian style rolls as shown above or hard kaiser-like rolls which will be larger and a dozen or fewer will work with the sauce amount. I like them both ways and say try both and pick your preference or mood for that day!}

12-24 good hard rolls or king's hawaiian rolls

12-24 slices good quality honey ham

12-24 small slices of swiss cheese

1/3 cup mayo

1/3 cup miracle whip

Sauce:

1 T poppy seeds

1 1/2 T yellow mustard or honey mustard

1 stick butter, melted

1 T minced onion, dried is fine

1/2 t worcestershire

Mix mayo and miracle whip together. Spread onto both sides of cut rolls. Place a slice of ham and slice of swiss inside each roll. Place prepared sandwiches close together on a cookie sheet or large baking dish.

Mix ingredients for sauce together and pour evenly over all the sandwiches (note: I like to let my sauce cool and slightly thicken a bit, spoon it over the tops of each sandwich, and that way it melts down over the sandwich as it bakes instead of immediately pooling at the bottom). Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes until cheese is melted. Uncover and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Serve warm.

*Sandwiches can be assembled a day ahead and kept in the fridge until ready to bake.

Creamy Chicken and Vegetable Soup

Nothing says love, warmth, and welcome home quite like a bowl of delicious soup. And this version says all that and more. It's made delightfully creamy with a not so common soup ingredient: cream cheese. And the other great thing about it is that you can personalize to your tastes or to your on-hand ingredients. Got some spinach that needs using up? Pop it on in! Mushrooms? Why not! Bacon, ham, corn? You get the picture! And it's a great non-meat candidate. But that chicken makes it a legit meal to my husband, so in it stays. If you're looking for a no-fail people pleasing bowl of goodness, this is your best bet. Plus the left-overs rock. Gotta love it!

Creamy Chicken & Vegetable Soup

{Recipe source: The Sisters Cafe}

2 T butter

1 onion, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 stalks celery, diced

2-3 carrots, peeled and diced

3 cups chicken broth

1 lb red potatoes, cut in quarters

1 cup milk

4 T flour

1 8oz package cream cheese (1/3 less fat), very soft

1 lb chicken, cubed and cooked

salt

pepper

dried (or fresh) parsley

Optional: mushrooms, spinach, corn, ham or bacon (in place of chicken)

In large pot melt butter and saute onions, celery, carrots, potatoes and garlic. Cook for 3-5 minutes. Add chicken broth and bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. In a separate bowl, whisk milk and flour vigorously until well blended and non-clumpy. While stirring, pour milk/flour into soup pot and cook about 4 minutes until soup begins to thicken. Add very soft cream cheese into pot a little at time, stirringly thoroughly to remove clumps. Add cooked chicken and heat through. Season with plenty of salt, pepper, and some dried parsley too. Serve hot!

30-Minute French Baguettes

If you're looking for the quickest way to get fresh from the oven french bread onto your dinner table look no further. This is the perfect recipe for not-planning ahead or no extra time homemade bread. I have a great regular method french bread recipe I shall share sometime, but for now if you just want it in a hurry give this a try.

Because it isn't allowed much rising time, it's a much more dense bread. I happen to love that characteristic in a bread and it holds up extremely well to being dipped in thick delicious soup. Which is precisely what we did and you're gonna love that recipe when it's shared in the next post. My mouth waters!

30-Minute French Baguettes

{Recipe from Barefoot and Baking}

2 cups very warm but not boiling hot water

2 1/4 t yeast

2 T honey

1 1/2 t salt

4 cups+ flour

Preheat oven to 425. In bowl of mixer combine very warm water, yeast, and honey. Give it a quick stir and then let sit for 10 minutes until yeast it bubbly. Turn mixer on, add salt, and 2 cups of flour. Mix for 2 minutes. Add 1 more cup flour and mix. Switch to dough hook and add approximately one more cup of flour. Dough should be soft and tacky, but not sticky. Knead in mixture about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Remove dough ball from bowl, knead by hand a few times, adding a light bit more flour if you think it needs it.

Divide dough into 4 equal parts. Roll each piece into a rope, about 10-12 inches long. Twist 2 pieces together, pinching ends to secure. Place 2 twists side by side on cookie sheet and you can either pop straight into the oven or if you have some more time allow to raise briefly until ready to bake (15-30 minutes is good). Bake at 425 for 15-18 until light golden. Brush with butter straight out of oven and serve.

TIP: Place a cookie sheet on the very bottom rack of oven and after placing bread dough cookie sheet on middle rack, toss about 4 cups of ice cubes onto the bottom rack cookie sheet and immediately close door. This is supposed to help create the crust that french bread is famous for!

Skillet Chicken Parmesan

This recipe was recently posted on Mels Kitchen Cafe (her recipes NEVER disappoint) and looked like a great toned down (aka quick-er) option for Chicken Parmesan. And it was. It's also a great pantry meal, chances are any well-stocked pantry will most likely have all the ingredients on hand. The sauce offers the best of red sauce yumminess. It's a little bit tangy, a little bit sweet, and with only a handful of ingredients doesn't take all day. The chicken is terrific. I love breaded chicken cutlet's but sometimes dislike the extra steps it takes to get them there. So with just a light, quick dredging in flour even I can't complain. Add to it all the fact that the chicken eventually finishes cooking IN the tomato sauce and you have a recipe for success. The flavors all meld together with melted cheesy goodness. It only took me about 30 minutes to make too. This will be a regular with us for sure!

Skillet Chicken Parmesan

{Recipe Source: Mels Kitchen Cafe}

2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced

28 oz can crushed tomatoes

14.5 oz can petite diced tomatoes, drained

1/2 t dried oregano

1/2 t dried basil

1 t sugar

1/2 t salt

1/2 t black pepper

3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, divided

3 chicken breasts cut in half lengthwise to make 6 thinner cutlets (next time I think I'll be pounding out the chicken then cutting each in half, I wanted more tender chicken and think this would help)

Garlic salt

1/2 cup flour

2 T oil (vegetable, canola or olive)

3/4 cup shredded mozzarella (I had leftover fresh mozzarella that I sliced and it was so good!)

3-4 slices provolone, cut in half

Hot spaghetti noodles for serving

In medium bowl, combine garlic, crushed and diced tomatoes, oregano, basil, sugar, salt, pepper and 1/4 cup parmesan. Set aside.

In a large skillet, heat 2 T oil until over medium heat until rippling and hot. Thoroughly dry chicken cutlets and season with garlic salt. Place flour in a shallow dish and dredge seasoned cutlets, coating both sides. Place 3-4 cutlets in hot pan and let cook only 3 minutes per side until there's a nice golden crust. Remove to plate (they'll finish cooking at a later point). Repeat with remaining cutlets.

Wipe skillet of excess oil and pour pre-mixed sauce contents into the pan, taking care of splatters. Turn heat to medium and gently nestle all 6 browned chicken cutlets into the sauce. The chicken should be mostly covered with sauce. Cover the skillet and simmer on medium low for about 15 minutes.

Uncover and place mozzarella, provolone, and grated parmesan over each chicken piece. Cover and cook 5 minutes more until cheese to melt-y. Serve over hot spaghetti noodles.

Serves 6

The Basic "Actually Cooked" Omelet

I've only recently made omelets a part of my life. Sure I've had them before, but I have a thing with eggs. If there is even the remotest possibility that they might be even slightly undercooked my gag reflex kicks into high gear. I can't eat runny yolk fried eggs (I usually nix the yolk altogether and just fry the whites) and don't even get me started on sunny-side-up- runny-white-part things...so gross! Anyhow back to omelets, since the traditional method involves adding the toppings to a still fairly runny top and then folding it in half and hoping it keeps cooking (ya right) or serving it immediately, there is always (you guessed it) a runny uncooked egg thing going on. But thanks to my husband who was apparently craving an omelet enough to look up how-to video's on youtube, we have found a cooking method that satisfies his craving and squelches my gag reflex. Since this revelation we've had omelets quite regularly and often for dinner. They're a crowd pleaser too. Now go forth and make "actually cooked" omelets, unless you like the runny egg thing ;0)...

The Basic "Actually Cooked" Omelet

{Again as with most of my recipes, there's room to personalize. Whatever veggie, cheese, breakfast meat (or not) combo you want is yours to try. Also this recipe is instruction heavy, but really isn't that involved once you've got the method down. I spend all of about 10 minutes, including prep, making these.}

3 large eggs

2 T milk

salt and pepper to taste

2 T butter

1 T olive oil

Cooking spray or veggie oil

Toppings of choice, we like:

Generous handful of spinach, rough chopped

3-4 slices cooked crumbled bacon (or chopped ham or browned kielbasa)

Generous handful of sliced mushrooms

1/3 onion, finely chopped

1 medium tomato, chopped (or grape tomatoes sliced in half)

Sliced or grated swiss cheese (colby, monterey jack, cheddar, mozzarella are all good options)

Salsa, optional

Turn oven onto high broil. Start by preparing toppings, i.e. cook & crumble bacon, grate cheese and chop other things up-you want all your prep done before the eggs start. In a small non-stick pan over med-high heat, melt 1 T butter and 1 T olive oil. Add onions and mushrooms. Cook till mostly soft. Add spinach and remove from heat. It will wilt on it's own.

On medium-high begin heating a medium size stainless steel or other pan that can go straight from stove to oven. Meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl crack 3 large eggs, add 2 T milk and a sprinkle of salt and fresh-ground pepper. Mix well with fork. Spray the heating pan with cooking spray or use paper towel to swirl around a little bit of veggie oil. Add 1 T butter. You want to be fairly thorough in your oil/butter application in order to prevent pesky sticking later on. When butter is melted (but before it browns), pour egg mixture into hot pan. This next part is key: with a heat-friendly plastic spatula begin pulling cooking egg mixture from outside of pan towards center allowing still raw egg to run underneath and start cooking. Go all around the pan gently pulling cooking egg towards center and more runny egg to fill it's place. The process looks a little like this:

When there's still some, but not a ton, of the runny egg mixture and you've been around the whole pan at least once it's time to pop it under the broiler. It should be in there for a minute or so. You're just trying to get the top of the omelet mostly set. Remove from broiler and sprinkle on toppings: cooked bacon, mushroom/onion/spinach mixture, chopped tomatoes, and cheese of choice. Put back under broiler for another minute or less, until cheese is melted and any remaining runny egg is fully set. Once done remove from oven and gently use spatula to fold one half of the omelet over on itself. At this point, you can top with extra cheese and broil for just a few seconds more to help it melt. Tip pan a bit and with the help of your trusty spatula again, the omelet should slide right out onto a plate. We like to eat ours with some salsa on top. Enjoy!

Broiler BLT's

These aren't your everyday BLT's, they're oh so much more. This is another recipe that you can suit to your tastes. We eat them for lunch or dinner and they are hearty and filling, not to mention ready in a flash. Enjoy!

Broiler BLT's

{Do what you'd like with these...follow the recipe to a 'T' or use it as a jumping off point i.e. pesto, ranch, sundried tomato mayo, avocado, provolone, swiss, shredded chicken, the sky's the limit}

To make 4 sandwiches:

4 kaiser or good hard rolls

Miracle Whip or any other condiment you choose

1/2 lb deli ham

1/2 lb deli turkey

6-8 slices bacon, crisp cooked

2 ripe tomatoes, sliced

1/2 red onion, sliced (yellow or vidalia would do fine)

1 T butter

1 T olive oil

1 t sugar

Fresh ground pepper

Grated colby jack cheese

Green leaf lettuce

Turn broiler on high. Slice rolls in half and place on cookie sheet. Broil, watching carefully, just till lightly brown. Remove from oven and set aside. In small skillet melt butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add sliced red onion and 1 t sugar. Let cook, stirring occasionally until soft and slightly caramelized. Set aside. On bottom half of each roll spread miracle whip. Layer ham and turkey and then a couple bacon slices on each. Next add tomatoes, cooked red onions, fresh ground pepper and grated cheese. Place just these bottoms back in oven and broil till cheese is sufficiently melted. Remove from oven and layer lettuce and any other veggies you'd like. Spread miracle whip on remaining roll halves, top broiled bottoms, and serve.

Rotisserie Chicken Tacos

These could also be called Lazy Man Chicken Tacos because using a purchased already cooked rotisserie chicken means you barely have to do anything aside from cutting up a few extra toppings. When I first started making these we ate them on pretty much a weekly basis, they are that quick and delicious! Making this black bean salad and using the uncooked tortillas that you cook yourself for that fresh, homemade flavor really takes them into over-the-top goodness.

Rotisserie Chicken Tacos

1 rotisserie chicken, shredded

Ready to cook flour tortillas (usually found in the refrigerated section by fresh salsas and fresh pasta) or warmed pre-cooked flour tortillas

Chopped grape or regular tomatoes

Grated cheese, we like colby-jack

1 avocado, sliced

Sour cream

Salsa

Black Bean Salad

Extra cilantro, if desired

Shred chicken and, if not already warm, put in a pan with a little chicken broth and a lid to heat through. May add grated cheese to at this point if you like it all melt-y. While chicken is warming, cook tortillas if applicable. When chicken and tortillas are ready, assemble tacos with desired toppings and eat immediately.