Favorite Pasta Salad

I'm not a huge fan of heavy mayo based salads. A little bit is ok, too much will make me gag. So a mom brought this delish pasta salad to our football banquet and I loved it so I've been making it ever since. I made one little adjustment and added fresh basil and freshly minced garlic because I can :)

Here ya go:

1 box of twirly tri-colored pasta cooked al dente then rinsed in cold water
about 1/4 cup of mayo, maybe even less, I just guess
chopped roma tomatoes
chopped bell pepper
chopped black olives
chopped cucumber
about a half cup of fresh parmesan cheese
about a tbsp of fresh chopped basil
clove of minced garlic

put as much of the veggies in as you like, no rules! i also like red onion in it too sometimes.

mix together and enjoy! i can seriously eat the whole bowl :D

Panko Crusted Mashed Potatoes

I know, I've pinned things like crazy, just haven't done anything or had time to tell about it. I've cooked a few things. Every time I plan my menu, I add something new. Like these. These potatoes were super, duper good! Serious!

Here's the recipe, from Allrecipes:

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups chilled mashed potatoes
2 eggs, slightly beaten, (separate bowls)
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1/2 tablespoon black pepper
1/2 cup flour for dredging
1 cup Kikkoman Panko Bread Crumbs
3 tablespoons vegetable oil for pan frying
DIRECTIONS:
1. In a medium bowl, combine potatoes, one egg, onion and black pepper. Divide potato mixture into 8 equal portions. Use your hands to form 1/2 inch thick patties. Dredge patties in flour, then in egg and coat with Panko Bread Crumbs. Meanwhile heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add potato patties to the hot oil. Cook until well browned, turn with a spatula and brown on the other side.

8 servings

The only alterations I made was the egg. I didn't mix egg into my mixture after reading some reviews. I did use an egg to dip the potatoes in.

You can find the original recipe HERE!

Patty Melts

(photo from Saveur Magazine online)

I was scrolling through Pinterest one day, imagine that lol, and Braden (one of my 10 year old twins) was walking by and saw this pic of the Patty Melt and said "That looks good" so of course I pinned it because I'm all about pinning stuff that my kids might like, and I had to agree, it did look good. I've never had a Patty Melt before but it looked like something worth trying and that it was!

Here's the recipe:


1 1⁄2 lbs. ground beef
Kosher salt and freshly
ground black pepper, to taste
5 tbsp. canola oil
2 yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced
12 slices rye bread
12 thin slices cheddar, swiss,
or american cheese
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

1. Season the beef with salt and pepper. Divide meat into six 1⁄4"-thick patties that are slightly wider and longer than the bread.

2. Heat 2 tbsp. oil in a 12" cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and browned, about 12 minutes. Transfer the onions to a bowl; wipe out skillet. Working in 3 batches, heat 1 tbsp. oil in skillet over high heat. Add 2 burger patties; cook, flipping once, until well browned, about 4 minutes total. Transfer patties to a plate.

3. Top each of 6 bread slices with some of the onions, a cheese slice, and a burger patty. Top each burger with a cheese slice and a piece of bread. Using a table knife, spread butter over the top and bottom of each sandwich.

4. Heat a 12" nonstick skillet over medium heat. Working in 3 batches, cook sandwiches, flipping once, until golden brown and hot, about 6 minutes.

And here's how I did it...I mixed the ground beef like it said to and cooked on my griddle. I separately cooked my onions up in a small skillet and I buttered my sliced rye break. Once my patties were cooked, I sat it on the un-buttered slice of rye and topped that with the cooked onions and then topped that with the cheese (I used American because I knew my kids would like that) then I topped that with the other slice of buttered rye, buttered side up and cooked it on the griddle like a grilled cheese. Oh these were so yummy and my kids and husband all liked them. I seriously could have ate 2 because I thought they were that good!

I took pictures of mine but they turned out really sucky! (the pictures, not the sammies!)

Linking once again to

Bacon. Egg and Cheese Pull-a-Parts

Weekend mornings we usually have a big breakfast. It is, after-all, the only time of the week that we are all together in the morning to eat, or usually anyway. I'm always looking for something new to try that everyone will like and this seemed like it would do the job, I mean it has bacon, biscuits, cheese and eggs...who doesn't like that stuff?

Sooo, tried it on Sunday and it was purty delish! The boys really liked it a lot and had seconds even.

Here's the recipe:


Ingredients

1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 (16.3-oz.) can Pillsbury® Grands!® Flaky Layers Refrigerated Original Biscuits
1 (2.1-oz.) pkg. precooked bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 oz. (3/4 cup) shredded Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup finely chopped green onions (4 medium)

1) Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 11x7- or 12x8-inch (2-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. In large bowl, beat egg and milk with wire whisk until smooth.

2) Separate dough into 8 biscuits; cut each into quarters. Gently stir biscuit pieces into egg mixture to coat evenly. Fold in bacon, cheese and onions. Spoon mixture into sprayed dish; arrange biscuit pieces in single layer.

3) Bake at 350°F. for 23 to 28 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into squares.

2 things I changed: I used about 6 pieces of regular bacon, just cooked it up then crumbled into the mixture and I didn't use green onion. I just wasn't in the mood for them :)

The original recipe is found here!

Linking up with the first ever Pinned It, Made It! Check out more Pins that folks have tried out this week!

Bacon Pancake Sticks

I saw these recently on Pinterest, right here .

The original recipe calls for egg, which I don't know why, my pancake batter doesn't call for egg so I didn't add it.

All you need is cooked bacon. I like to cook mine in the oven, doesn't shrink up as much. Pancake mix. Mix your pancake batter up accordingly. A hot skillet/griddle. Once your bacon is cooked, drain and place on griddle. Pour pancake batter, slowly along the top of the bacon until the bacon is completely covered. Cook like you normally do a pancake, then flip it. Serve with some syrup for dipping. My kids liked this one, even the hubby did!

Muffin Tin Pizzas

I saw this recently on Pinterest and added it to the lunch menu this week for the kids. Just took it out for a test drive today and they devoured it. I didn't try them, I opted for a Greek Turkey Wrap that I had seen on there as well, which was pretty yummy! The kids though really liked these little pizzas and isn't that what's really important?!

**Please excuse my icky, stained up muffin tin. I do have a better one that I use strictly for muffins!**

Original recipe for these babies is right HERE
and here's what I did:

What You Need:
Refrigerated pizza dough
Pizza Sauce
Shredded Cheese
Pepperoni
Muffin tin (but I guess by what the original poster says mine is a "cupcake tin"....weren't these the original muffin tins until muffins became the size of a head?

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees (as the package directed) and grease the muffin tin. I used Pam, generously. I laid the dough out and cut into 12 equal pieces and sat in the tin holes and pressed and tried to evenly get the sides up over the top, some did, some didn't, but it seemed ok in the end so don't stress!

Then I spread a spoon of pizza sauce to cover the dough and filled with cheese. I used shredded moz. Then topped with pepperoni. I couldn't find the small circles of pep so I just cut mine into quarters. Then pop into the oven at 450 and cook for 10-12 minutes!

*Oops, just noticed after c/p'ing this from the original recipe that the oven was only supposed to be 425. I went 450 for 12 and they turned out perfect. I could have probably went one less minute or so.*

Framed Maps

I saw this idea and thought it was cool, especially since we've lived in a few places around the country. My husband was cleaning some of his drawers out in the bedroom and tossed an old map book so I thought it was perfect time to do this project which only cost me about 8 bucks in frames.

I decided on doing 5x7's and went to good ol' WalMart and purchased cheapy frames that were less than 2 bucks a piece. Got home, traced my map locales to fit the frames, cut and framed. Then I noticed I bought frames without the hangy things. (that's what I get for being cheap). So I had to improvise and hooked some twine to them to hang.

I like the way they turned out. I'm not very good at hanging pictures straight so I went for a mix-up look so hopefully you can't tell they are crooked. They look straight to me, but that's my problem I always have with hanging stuff. It always looks straight to me, not to others lol.