Stuffed Crescent Rolls

Okay I experimented with this idea when I had a friend coming over for lunch. Sorry, you were my guinea pig. But then again I'm not sorry because we ate practically all of them.


What you need:
1 package pillsbury crescent rolls
and all sorts of stuff you can stuff into a roll. I used:
Cheese, avocado, chicken salad, bacon, broccoli, mac n cheese.
Other ideas I had but I ran out of time and rolls to fill:
Pulled pork
canned chicken
spinach and cheese

PREHEAT oven for 350 degrees

For the first ones I rolled out all my crescent rolls, and placed one on the cutting board. I made three total of these. I steamed some broccoli and put it (after it was cooked) onto the crescent roll with a good size of cheddar cheese.

I also took the liberty of cooking about 3 pieces of bacon till crispy! For the next three I made mac n cheese and bacon stuffed ones. My husband had made some Kraft mac n cheese the day before for my sons lunch so we had some left overs in the fridge. I didn't even need to heat it up. Spooned cold mac n cheese onto the crescent roll and topped it with more cheddar cheese and chopped bacon pieces.

Now I only had two empty crescent dough pieces left. So I made one avocado and cheese and left over bacon. And the other one I put some chicken salad into it and some cheese.

Sorry no picture :(

I folded over the sides to all my crescent rolls so now they kinda just looked like egg rolls.
 After spraying a cookie sheet I placed them all on there. And baked for 10 minutes.

THEY TURNED OUT SO PRETTY. and TASTY!!

Meatballs. Yeah commence happy dance

Okay so apparently, I do more cooking than anything. I realized I should probably give away one of my favorite SECRETS...Cooking secrets that is. I'm talking about Meatballs. Homemade, hands messy, a part of your soul, and a whole lot of love poured into each little ball you hand form. These babies are moist, and they taste amazing. I have REFERENCES.


What Cha Need:

1 lb ground beef. (I dont care what percentage...but I use lean ground beef)
garlic powder
salt and pepper
1 egg
3/4 cups of water
3/4 cups fancy cheese (I used asiago, romano, & parmesan combined)
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I use these A LOT don't I?)
and a honkin' bowl.


Now you see all the ingredients up there? Exactly as they are listed LAYER...See that....I SAID LAYER everything. NO MIXING, no combining early. LLLAAAYYYYEEERRRRRRR. Don't question me on my madness.
This means you put the meat on the bottom, then the garlic powder right on top (now some people in my family are sensitive to garlic so use your best judgement on how much to use), then salt and pepper on top (same use your best judgement rule) and so on and so forth.

Here we are in order

Now when everything is sitting pretty on top of one another in the order listed wash your hands.


Then take off any jewelry that means anything to you that is on your hands. I would hate for meat or crumbs or cheese to get stuck in a diamond, or a crevice you cant clean on your wedding ring or something. See i did it...

This is the part when i usually heat up my pasta sauce for spaghetti and meatballs.

Mixing time!
Now this is fun for the kids to get in on too.

SQUISH SQUISH SQUISH mix that with your hands. Feel the icky gooey, and mush it all together. I would say do this for about 3-4 minutes.

once everything is mixed and loving one another in that bowl you will need to form little balls about the size of a golf ball maybe a bit bigger, depending on how big you want them. I then place them all in the sauce as its heating up and i cover it. 

Occasionally i will come by and jostle the pan, but be careful not to rough them up too much for they might break apart and you end up with just a "meat sauce".

After about 5-7 minutes on one side in the sauce I turn mine GENTLY over. Recover pan. Again these babies are fragile. Another 5 minutes and i would normally take one lucky pup out of the pan and cut it in half to make sure its cooked through. And i sample too...NO big deal. Usually at this moment i revel in my awesomeness because my mouth just went to some sort of sicilian heaven. MMMM

You are welcome! Now you make!

The poor man pasta

The poor man pasta... how do I explain this? 

I came up with this pasta idea, when all I had were a few ingredients to make something for dinner. I became a master at this task when I went to college. You know the saying "starving artist". Well I know it first hand. Now I made this batch just for me and my two year old. so you will have to adjust accordingly.

Ingredients:

Egg Noodles

frozen corn

frozen peas

Frozen spinach (I always bought fresh spinach in the produce section, then when i get home i stick it in the freezer)

1/4 cup bread crumbs

garlic

oregano

salt

pepper

Olive oil

Tyson Grilled and Ready Chicken breasts (always have some of these on hand-salads, quesadillas, pasta dishes such as this, wraps) 

Instructions are easy.

Cook the chicken in the oven at 375 for 18-20 minutes. Or if your really short on time it's microwavable.

Cook pasta. Cook the amount you feel your family will devour.

Cook the corn, peas, and spinach in the same pot...its okay i promise. (since the spinach was frozen all I had to do was crunch it in my hands and it was pretty much shredded into the mix of veggies. hidden from sight..ninja like)

In a little bowl while the stuff is cooking mix breadcrumbs, garlic, oregano, salt, pepper together. 

After pasta is complete drizzle some olive oil over the pasta. Chop cooked chieken-add it to pasta. Drain water from veggies and add to pasta. Mix together. Then add the little bowl of mixed seasonings. mix well. You can add some butter or more olive oil to the mix if i needs a little extra moisture. I added about 2 more tablespoons of butter to it and mixed until it was melted. Thats it your done. Pretty easy.

Pork Chops

Imma break this down for you a bit nasty today. 

So something i should probably mention to ya'll. I am usually cooking for only 3 people (myself included) I know right...must be nice. PFT whatever. Control your self now girly. So if you have like 17 kids and the 2 (boneless) pork chops i used in this recipe wont be enough for you then guess what sweetness- you're going to have to increase portioning on here. Simple math i promise. 

two thick cut boneless pork chops

Half an onion

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1 cup italian style bread crumbs

tin foil

1 table spoon minced garlic

1/2 stick of butter. Divided.

2 tablespoons honey

AN OPTIONAL SAUCE

3 tablespoons sour cream

1/3 cup milk

1 tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon lemon juice

salt and pepper

PREHEAT OVEN 375 degrees

Break out that skillet and get 3 tablespoons of butter a melting in that SON B. You know when i said half of a stick of butter...well sweet cheeks your "hips wont lie" after this meal it's good. SO suck it up and melt those tablespoons of butter away. Or if you wanna be a pansy you can use some olive oil..pppffftttt. Now i left my onion in the rings just cut it into "sections" i guess and placed those in the pan to get them all nice nice **well caramelized (you happy now). Add some salt, pepper, garlic to the pan. 

Now go on and get yourself one bowl and combine the 1 cup of flour and the 1 cup bread crumbs....MIX THEM

Then in another bowl whisk the two eggs. fo sho.

Get out yer pork chops. Now we are going to DOUBLE DREDGE these babies just like we did when I made the CHICKEN TENDERS. (click that puppy if you want to make some homemade chicken tenders)

Pork chop in hand, cover in egg, cover in flour/breadcrumb mixture, back into egg, back into flour/breadcrumb mixture- set that meat aside. Repeat for how many pork chops you have there chicklet. 

Now by the time you have all your chops ready your onions had time to sit in the butter- garlic- pepper- salt mixture and are starting to smell glorious. Take some tongs or your grabber/utensil of choice and place them onto the pan (i had my heat on medium) They can go on top of the onions it is quite alright deary. 

Give the chops some time to have a little meet and greet with the onions and get browned on one side. 

About 3 minutes go by and its now time to see if they need flipping....They do?! awesome flip that puppy over and let it work on the other side. Drizzle a tablespoon of honey over each porkchop.

******Insert sauce instructions here if using*******

Right now I need you to get out your baking/cookie sheet and get two pieces of ton foil out (or however many pieces of pork you have) out in squares large enough to make an amazing flavor pocket. After about 3 or 4 minutes pass and the other side of the pork chop is browned I need you to transfer each pork chop and designated onion/juices/sauce like stuff in the pan evenly between each piece of tin foil. Create a pouch. Not tightly wrapped. Just to seal moisture and all the flavors inside. You can certainly add a tablespoon of butter to each pouch to create a little bit more juice in there. Not required though. 

place all pouches onto cookie sheet, and place in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. Check occasionally if you need to. Now since i DID opt in to use the sauce creation my chops came out not as crispy as they would have if i ya know-didnt use a sauce. 

After about 22 minutes my chops looked like this in the foil

and now on a plate

Now the sauce instructions are as follows.

1 tbs honey

the sour cream

the milk

salt and pepper

and lemon juice

Mix it together and pour over chops where is says "INSERT SAUCE HERE" in my instructions. 

These golden babies were yummy. and i paired them with greenbeans sautee'd with onions and a little bacon grease...just cuz. Lol. oh good lord. Relax It wasnt a lot.

ENJOY them!

Friendship

Friendship.
Having friends has always been so important to me. Trying to be friends with everyone as a kid was darn near impossible ---but i was always trying to create that bridge between two social groups that I apparently never really fit into completely. It never worked, and frankly I am glad it didn't.
Like any other person I learned what a true friend is and what a fake one is. A true friend doesn't leave you out, or hanging by yourself. She wont ever turn you away in a time of need. She can feel it in her soul that something is bothering you when you are troubled. Time apart isn't really time apart, it's time where you realize how how dear they are to your well being. Its the understanding that flows from their being, of knowing you and where your coming from. A true friend will automatically embrace you when you hurt.

"A hug: It's the simplest action, as well as the most powerful." 

When we have the days where it feels like the world is just crashing, and we are almost to the point of tears -its the comforting hug from your best bud that sets our emotions free. The tears start flowing. The venting happens. Your mouth is moving so fast the words are spilling out onto the coffee table, and your trying to make sense of everything around you---Your best friend listens and always understands. And will always be ready with another hug. Not to mention the support, wisdom, and encouragement they exchange with you not JUST during the times of trouble; but all day everyday.
Everybody needs a person like this in their life.
One thing i know

 "Fake and True friends do share something in common; They change you. "

If it weren't for my fake friends constantly trying to change me into something I wasn't - I wouldn't have learned who I am ...and who I am NOT.
My true friends change me for the better. They inspire me to create things, to love, forgive. To praise God in spite of my troubles. I laugh more, and work to create that positive change in someone else's life.
Thank you my friend. For doing all of these things. I don't know what I would do without you in my life. God has truly blessed me with having a friend like you.
Some ladies who deserve special mentioning are as followed (listed based on years known)
Kaydee
Kaye
Erin
Nina
Deb
Celene
**if your name isn't listed it doesn't mean that you're not a true friend. These ladies alone have helped me through some crap. I still appreciate your friendship and I pray it grows and prospers into something amazing.