Green Update!

Well, it's been a while, but I'm excited to update our going green experience. So far, we've been able to reduce our electric bill from $450 down to $109.00. Not only are we saving money on our electric bill, but we've also been able to take a nice tax break with all of our improvements!

Solar Benefits!

Sorry it's been so long since I've visited the site, but I'm pleased to say that the solar panels are doing great!! We reduced our need of electricity from the electric company by over 1K kilowatts in just one month! I can't wait to see what it is like this coming month! As far as food bites, get ready to see a new selection of quick (or easy) recipies coming soon!

Snack crackers for chilli, etc..: you will need a large round containter with a lid, a box of plain saltine crackers, 1 cup canola oil, 1 package of ranch dressing mix, 1 tablespoon of red pepper. Mix the oil, dressing mix, and red pepper in a small bowl. Place the saltine crackers in the round container. Pour the oil mixture over the crackers and seal the container. Roll the container around for about 5 minutes ( if you have kids, they will love helping "make" these delicious crackers). When all of the mixture is absorbed by the crackers, they are ready to eat!

Solar panels!

No folks, the solar panels have nothing to do with cooking, however, I'm excited to say that with the panels we've added so far, it's helped reduce our electric bill by a third for this coming month! I can't wait to get a few more up and a wind-generator also!!! No electric bill will be wonderful!!!

Crumbly Burgers

Made another week of school and we're in the process of building a few more solar panels to put on our house so I wanted to find something quick and easy to fix for the family so that we could get back to "going green" lol!!! Here's a quick and easy recipe that you can find on my food website that takes a small twist on the traditional hamburger. Hope you enjoy!!

Crumbly Burgers

Recipe Yields: 6
Recipe Serving Size: 1 burger
Servings Per Recipe: 6 servings

Ingredients
1 pound ground turkey or beef
3 Tablespoons Homemade Gourmet® Grandmother’s Sunday Roast Seasoning
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
6 hamburger buns

Directions
1. In a 10-inch skillet, cook meat and seasoning until meat is well browned and no longer pink. Drain any grease if using beef. Add cheddar cheese and stir until melted.

2. Serve 1/3 to ½ cup of meat mixture on a hamburger bun. Add your choice of hamburger toppings if desired.

Recipe Idea for the Day!

Skillet Lasagna with Garlic Bread

Recipe Yields: 6
Recipe Serving Size: 3/4 cup
Recipe has been resized from 8 servings.
Please use professional judgement when changing ingredient amounts.
Servings Per Recipe: 6 servings

Ingredients
Skillet Lasagna
3/4 pound ground beef or boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced into small pieces
3/4 Homemade Gourmet® Skillet Lasagna Mix with topping packet
3/4 14.5-ounce can petite diced tomatoes
3/4 tomato can filled with water
(Ingredients and directions for topping and bread are below.)
Cheese Topping
3/8 topping packet
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
3/4 cup cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
Garlic Bread
3/8 topping packet
3/4 stick butter or margarine, melted
3/4 loaf French bread

Directions
1. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook meat and drain. Remove topping packet from lasagna mix and set aside.

2. Add mix, tomatoes and water; stir to combine. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 8-10 minutes or until noodles are tender. Stir occasionally to prevent scorching.

3. While mixture simmers, make the cheese topping and garlic bread listed below.

4. Once noodles are tender, spoon heaping tablespoons of the cheese topping over the meat mixture in the skillet. Remove from heat, cover and let sit 4 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve warm with garlic bread.

On The Run

Thank goodness for leftovers! The kids and I got home to find that the dog had gone after some of our chickens. After running around catching the chickens and putting them back in the pen, none of us were up to cooking! Luckily we had plenty of roast left over for sandwiches, so we kicked back and enjoyed some HULU to catch on the internet and try to relax from the day's activities! Now that we've had a rest, we can start working on some more solar panels for our house - trying to give our energy bills a break LOL!

Monday Madness

For a change, I'm not worried about the Monday rush! I'm going to be taking the leftover chicken and shredding it to make some delicious Tossed Salad with Chicken on top! The great thing about this is that I'm not going to have to cook a thing tonight! It's already cooked - all I have to do is shred it and add it to our greens. Happy Eating everyone!!