Breakfast Burritos

Welcome to another (rare) original recipe! Yes, I know, eggs and tortillas aren't exactly original, but given my lack of culinary creativity, every little bit counts. ;)

I don't remember how or when I "created" this breakfast dish, but it's a big favorite of ours. We probably eat these at least once on the weekends, and I tend to have it a couple of times during the week. They are fast, easy, and pretty good for you.


Ingredients
cooking spray
1 cup Egg-Beaters, Garden Variety
splash of milk
2 low-carb tortillas
1 wedge Laughing Cow cheese, garlic and herb flavor
1/4 cup Cheddar or Mexican Blend shredded cheese

Preheat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray very lightly with cooking spray.

Mix Egg-Beaters with a splash of milk and add to skillet.

Spread half of the cheese wedge across each tortilla. Divide shredded cheese evenly between the two tortillas.

Check on the eggs - lift edges with a spatula. Once they're set, break up the eggs with the spatula. When they are thoroughly scrambled, divide evenly on top of the cheese-topped tortillas.

Fold opposite ends of the tortilla towards the center, and then roll one of the other ends toward the other.

Santa Cookies

Ryan really enjoys cooking and baking with me, so I was really excited when I found these M&M Cookies on Sing for Your Supper (originally from King Arthur Flour). M&Ms? Cookies? Christmas? Score!


He helped me bake them first for a cookie exchange, and was really upset when they were all gone.

"But, Mommy... we need them for SANTA!"

I tried explaining that we would make more, that we had plenty of time... but he wasn't convinced.

We baked them again this afternoon to leave out tonight for Santa, and you could practically taste the relief from this kid when they were finished.

I altered them just slightly to include chocolate chips as well. I don't know if it's the addition of milk or what, but these are so delicious; I'm pretty sure Santa won't be able to resist leaving us some extra special surprises this year.


Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar, light or dark, packed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 2 tablespoons milk, optional
• 1 cup Holiday M&M’s
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease two baking sheets, or line with parchment. Beat together the butter, sugars, salt, vanilla, baking soda, and baking powder until well combined.

Add the egg, beating until smooth. Scrape the sides of the bowl, and beat again until smooth.

Add the flour, mixing it in completely. Stir in the milk, then carefully stir in the M&M’s.

Drop the cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2″ apart. A cookie scoop works well here.

Bake the cookies for 14 to 16 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown, and a bit darker around the edges.

Remove them from the oven, and cool right on the baking sheets.

Superbowl Snack Throwdown: Mini BBQ Meatballs

Another Friday; another voting session!  Kick off your weekend by visiting HighLowAha to cast your vote for your favorite game food; polls are open until 9pm EST.

This week's secret ingredient was turkey.  I am very happy to present to you a very versatile appetizer - something that is suitable for cooks of all levels.

A few months ago, I stumbled upon The Pioneer Woman's BBQ Meatballs.  I've made them repeatedly, and each time they are delicious.  I've used them in sandwiches, on top of mashed potatoes, mixed with pasta, and on their own; no matter how I've prepared them, they were amazing. 

Now that the cold weather is absolutely upon us, this recipe is the first thing I thought up when trying to come up with a turkey snack.  I frequently make this meal with ground turkey rather than beef in an effort to be a bit healthier, and I actually find them yummier as well.

So for this week, I shrunk 'em down and adjusted the sauce to make these the perfect snack to grab while watching your team.

Perhaps the best part about this is that, truly, anyone can make these.  While they are time consuming, they are very basic and simple.  Short on time?  No problem!  Grab a package of pre-made meatballs and just make the sauce.  Easy peasy.

My three-year-old LOVES these, and so will your guests.  Enjoy!

Meatballs

• 1 1/2 pounds ground turkey
• 3/4 cup oats
• 1 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons very finely minced onion
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• plenty of ground black pepper

Sauce

• 1 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2.5 tablespoons vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire
• 4 to 6 tablespoons onion

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all meatball ingredients. Roll into medium-small balls and place on a cookie sheet. Place sheet in freezer for five minutes.

Remove from freezer and immediately dredge in unseasoned flour.

Brown meatballs in canola oil until just brown. Place into a baking dish.

Combine all sauce ingredients. Pour over meatballs and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve with egg noodles, mashed potatoes, or crusty french bread.

Pampered Chef

My good friend Brooke recently became a Pampered Chef consultant, and I couldn't wait to host a show to help her out.

She mentioned that hosts get free stuff, and I expected to score a free spatula or something.

What I didn't count on was all the perks!!  I only had 6 people at my show, yet earned enough to pay $48 for what you see below:

The stuff you see pictured should have cost me $181.50.  I got almost $150 FREE!  I feel like I'm posting an info-mercial.  But wait!  Call now and we'll QUADRUPLE your order!

When you host a show, you get credit (sort of like a "commission") for what your guests buy.  Plus, depending on the amount sold, you get percentages off.  For example, I was able to get 50% off of the 2 most expensive items on my order - and 20% off of everything else.

It was awesome to stock my kitchen while helping my friend at the same time.  Plus, it was a great time with my family and friends (and Brooke demo'd the most DELICIOUS pizza ever, and I made it myself almost immediately - blog post to follow).

If you are in the NJ area and would like to host a show with Brooke, go to her website.

If you are NOT local, you can still visit her site to purchase products or to host a catalog show.

I haven't used all of my stuff yet, but what I have used is awesome - especially the bar pan.  It's what I used to make the pizza and it was fantastic.  I definitely want to buy some more of their stoneware.  The mocha-hazelnut sprinkle has also made my morning English muffin much yummier.

(Oh, I also got credit for people booking shows while at my show - so I can't wait to attend theirs and buy more stuff!)

So check it out - your kitchen will thank you!

Superbowl Snack Throwdown: Mini Aloha Calzones

Happy Friday!  You can celebrate the weekend's arrival by clicking here to vote for your favorite pineapple recipe in HighLowAha's weekly Superbowl Snack Throwdown!  Hopefully, your favorite involves cute little umbrellas... ;)

I never had pineapple pizza until our honeymoon.  We found a little pizza place in Lahaina on Maui, and they had this amazing pineapple and ham deep dish pizza.  I'm not usually a fan of ham OR pineapple (well, except for when I was pregnant with Ryan and ate pineapple like it was my job) but this pizza was absolutely amazing.  More than 6 years later, I still remember it.

I've had similar (but not as yummy!) pies since, though most involve a red pizza sauce.  While those variations are good, I much prefer the delicious flavor combination of the ham and pineapple to stand out on its own and not be masked by tomatoes.

When pineapple was selected as the secret ingredient, I knew I wanted to replicate the yumminess of that pizza.  While you might choose to serve these with a tomato sauce for dunking, I prefered to leave them plain.

One of the things I love about this recipe is how versatile it is depending on your cooking ability - or how much time you have.  You can make your own pizza dough or use store-bought.  Fresh pineapple or canned.  Diced deli meat or last night's leftover ham.  This is truly a recipe that will appeal to all ability levels in the kitchen!

They are very fast to whip up and are sure to disappear quickly.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

• olive oil
• 1 batch pizza crust
• 1 cup ricotta
• 1 cup mozzarella
• 1 cup diced ham
• 1 cup diced pineapple (if using canned, drain first!)

Preheat oven to 400.  Lightly coat a 9x9 baking dish with oil.

Roll out pizza dough and divide into 16 pieces.  Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl.

Take a piece of dough and flatten.  Place a spoonful of the pineapple mixture into the dough and wrap the corners around to seal.  Place seam side down in the baking dish.  Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Bake uncovered for 16-20 minutes.

Superbowl Snack Throwdown: Brie-Stuffed Mushrooms

Welcome to another week of HighLowAha's Superbowl Snack Throwdown! This week's secret ingredient was onions; go to their site to vote for my, uhh I mean your favorite recipe. Voting is on the right sidebar if you scroll down a bit and ends on Sunday at 9pm EST.

When The Pioneer Woman posted this recipe, she opened with, "You want to make these. Oh, you want to make these."

Never have truer words been spoken. I don't think I've ever eaten anything so spectacular. (Dad? Chris? Jonny? If you're reading this, you need to learn to like mushrooms, like, yesterday.)



My house smelled amazing while these guys were cooking. And they were FAST - prep took maaaaybe 10 minutes (and many of those minutes were spent peeling my 3-year-old off of my leg while trying to chop onions) and they need only 15 minutes in the oven. With just a small handful of ingredients and a short time spent in the kitchen, they will make your football party much easier.

Plus, did I mention? They are faaaaaaaaantastic.


The creamy brie and the green onions and the garlic... oh, the garlic! I made about 14 of these little bites of wonderfulness (yes, that is totally a word) and I had to deliberately hide 3 to save for my husband to try.

I ate the rest. And I'm not even sorry.

You need to make these today. It is so important, in fact, that you make these today that I am going to just shut up and get to the recipe so you can get to the store and start cooking.

Ingredients

• 1 package White Button Mushrooms, Washed And Stems Removed
• 4 cloves Garlic, Minced
• ¼ cups Flat-leaf Parsley, Chopped
• 4 whole (to 5) Green Onions, Sliced (up To Middle Of Dark Green Part)
• Splash Of White Wine (optional)
• 1 slice (wedge) Of Brie Cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Melt butter in large saucepan. Add mushroom caps and toss to coat in butter. Sprinkle lightly with salt and cook for 1 minute. Remove mushrooms from pan and place upside down in a baking dish.

In the same saucepan (without cleaning it) throw in garlic, parsley, and green onions. Sprinkle very lightly with salt and splash in wine, if using. Stir around until wine evaporates, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Cut rind off of brie wedge, then cut pieces of brie to fit each mushroom cap. Place inside, lightly pressing to anchor each piece of brie.

Top mushrooms with onion mixture.

Place into the oven for 15 minutes, or until brie is melted.

Note: mushrooms are best when they’ve been allowed to cool slightly. Delicious.

Low Sodium Stir-Fry Sauce

When I made this Crockpot Asian Beef and Noodles, I thought it was DELICIOUS - but very salty. Since I couldn't find low-sodium stir-fry sauce in the grocery store, I set out to try to find my own for next time.

I came across this one from Spark People and it definitely did not have the same level of saltiness. However, it was also a tad bit lacking in flavor. While I would for sure still use it in place of a bottle, I will experiment in trying to spice it up. For starters, I should have used beef broth and not chicken; perhaps I'll add a bit of low-sodium beef bouilon too.

Ingredients

6 teaspoons sesame oil

2 teaspoons minced garlic

2 teaspoons minced ginger

2 cups Swanson Organic chicken broth

4 tablespoons Kikkoman Lite soy sauce

4 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon pepper

6 teaspoons lemon or lime juice

6 teaspoons cornstarch

4 tablespoons water

Crushed red pepper flakes

Heat the sesame oil in a small saucepan. Add the ginger and garlic and stir-fry 15-30 seconds over medium heat to bring out the flavor. Add the chicken broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, red pepper flake, pepper, and lemon juice. Bring just to a boil, stirring. Dissolve the cornstarch in the water and whisk into the sauce. Heat until sauce thickens and reaches a full boil.

Simmer for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and set aside.This makes 4 cups of sauce; you can freeze in 1 cup batches for later.

Easy, Cheesy Tortellini Bake

Those might just be the best 4 words to find in a recipe title, and to come across them all at once is pretty much like Christmas morning to me. ;)

I came across this dinner on Spice in My Life and thought it was pretty good. The spinach in it makes me feel like the tortellini and cheese are healthy, so therefore this dinner is GOOD for me, right?

I prefer this Cheesy Baked Tortellini instead, however. I loved the addition of spinach, so I will probably merge the two recipes next time.


Ingredients

• 1 large (25+oz) packages cheese tortellini
• 1 (16 ounce) jar marinara sauce
• 1 (16 ounce) jar Alfredo sauce
• 1 (10 ounce) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning

Preheat oven to 350.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to package directions; drain.

Bring marinara and Alfredo sauces along with spinach and 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Stir cooked tortellini into sauce, then pour into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with Mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, and remaining 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until cheese has melted and turned golden brown.