Category: Sides

panko carrots

Panko Garlic Roasted Carrots

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  Panko Garlic Roasted Carrots

This is a perfect side dish.  I’m always looking for another one that isn’t potatoes, because you can’t eat potatoes for every meal.  Right?  Who am I kidding, of course you can!  But this is still a great side.

Panko Garlic Roasted Carrots

Print Recipe
Course Side Dish

Ingredients
  

  • 2 lbs carrots
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 tsp minced garlic
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • Peel and cut up your carrots so that they are approximately the same size.
  • Mix together the carrots, olive oil, garlic, cheese and panko.
  • Pour everything onto your baking sheet.
  • Bake at 400* for 20- 25 minutes until roasted and delicious.
  • Enjoy!

Here’s how I make it:

Gather all of your ingredients, why yes, I do keep my olive oil in my grandmothers vinegar bottle.  Peel your carrots and chop them into sizes approximately the same size.  And then combine everything together and pour onto your baking dish.  Bake for about 25 minutes at 400*.

Enjoy!  They are delicious!

You can find my other recipes here.

ravioli bake

Easy and Delicious Baked Ravioli

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Easy and Delicious Baked Ravioli

If you need an easy and delicious, QUICK meal, this is it.  It’s also just different enough that I can get away with it being something new.  Yay!  Best of all, it’s only FOUR ingredients.

Here’s how I make it:

As always with all of my recipes, if you don’t have something, say ricotta cheese, substitute something else.  I like cottage cheese in bakes like this.  If you don’t have spinach and cheese ravioli, use what you have.  I like this though because it gets more veggies inside us without sacrificing the taste.  This was excellent and I’ll definitely keep it stocked in my freezer from now on.  I HIGHLY recommend the Rao’s marinara though.  Yes, it costs the earth for a spaghetti sauce, but it also tastes amazing, and it doesn’t give everyone in my house heartburn.  Which is worth a gold piece or two.  Right?  Right.

Pour about 1/3 of your spaghetti sauce in the baking pan….

Put down a layer of ravioli…..  Get out your handy dandy scooper….

Put down a layer of ricotta (or cottage cheese)……  The scooper just makes everything more tidy, which makes my heart happy….

Sprinkle over some shredded cheese….

Add another layer of spaghetti sauce….

More ravioli and ricotta…..

More shredded cheese……

And just keep doing that until you are happy or you run out of supplies, OR your pan is completely full.  You do you, boo.Baked Ravioli

Bake until golden brown and bubbly.  I don’t mind that the ricotta doesn’t spread much, but if you do, just smear it about with a rubber spatula.  But I don’t have time for that…. YUM.
Serve with my favorite garlic bread.  And a giant salad.  More salads Tracie……

ravioli bake

And voila!  Here’s the handy dandy printable.

Easy and Delicious Ravioli Bake

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 (24 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce (we LOVE Rao's)
  • 1 (30 ounce) bag frozen ravioli
  • 1 (16 ounce) container ricotta cheese (or whatever yummy cheese you have on hand, like cottage cheese for instance)
  • 1 cup (or more) of shredded cheese

Instructions
 

  • Pour a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of your baking pan...
  • Add a layer of frozen ravioli
  • Then use a scooper to add a layer of ricotta cheese
  • Sprinkle with shredded cheese
  • Repeat the layers until you are happy or you run out of ingredients....
  • Ending with shredded cheese on the top.
  • Bake in a 400* oven until golden brown....
  • Serve with your favorite garlic bread and a giant salad! Enjoy!
Easy Green Bean Casserole

Easy Green Bean Casserole

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Easy Green Bean Casserole

Do you have a favorite easy green bean casserole recipe?  This is mine.  It’s super easy, fast and it tastes delicious.

Here’s how I make it:

Start with all of your ingredients:  I like the French style green beans, a can of cream of mushroom condensed soup, soy sauce, milk and French fried onions…..

Drain your green beans….

Add the can of soup…..

Then add a half of can of milk…..

A teaspoon of soy sauce….

As much black pepper as you can stand.  For me it’s a LOT.

Mix that all together…..

Add in half OR all of the French fried onions.  Just remember that you’ll want to add more to the top later.  So maybe you should buy two…..

Pour into a greased baking pan and bake for 20 minutes until its hot and bubbling.  Then put on the rest of your French fried onions and bake for another 10 minutes.

Or until it looks like this.  YUM.Easy Green Bean Casserole

And voila!  Here’s the handy dandy printable.

Easy Green Bean Casserole

Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cans french style green beans, drained
  • 1 (10.5 ounce can) cream of mushroom condensed soup
  • 1/2 can milk
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper, or more to your taste
  • 1 or 2 (6 ounce bags) french fried onions

Instructions
 

  • Mix everything EXCEPT your reserved french fried onions together and pour into a greased baking dish.
  • Bake at 350* for 20 minutes until hot and bubbly.
  • Sprinkle the reserved french fried onions over the top and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
  • If you can wait for it to slightly cool, do that. Then enjoy!

Easy Green Bean Casserole

 

Fry Sauce

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Fry Sauce

I am back with another “recipe” that’s really not a recipe.  But, it’s so good that I wanted to share it with you in case you’ve never tried it.

We love to dip our fries at our house.  Ketchup, honey mustard, barbecue, ranch – each one of us has a favorite.  But this sauce is one that Denton and I make over and over.

Here’s how I make it:

Start with your favorite mayo.  Have you tried this Heinze Real Mayonnaise?  We like it almost as much as our favorite Hellmann’s.

Start with a tablespoon of your favorite mayo….

Add a tablespoon of your favorite ketchup….. Add in as much Sriracha as you can stand.  For me it’s very little, but for Denton and Liv it’s at least a teaspoon.  I would start with 1/4 teaspoon and see how hot you want it to be.

Splash in some Worcestershire sauce…..Or if you are Denton, leave it out and add mustard instead…..

And make a big mess while you stir it all together!

You can serve it with fries, but we love it with roasted potatoes and pigs in the blanket too.  Let me know what you like it with!

Fry sauce

And voila!  Here’s the handy dandy printable.

Fry Sauce

Print Recipe
Prep Time 2 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 tbsp mayonnaise
  • 1 tbsp ketchup
  • 1/4 tsp sriracha sauce
  • 1/4 tsp tsp worcestershire sauce

Instructions
 

  • Add all of the ingredients together and dip! You can change anything and everything in this "recipe". Denton usually adds mustard to his and leaves out the worcestershire sauce. Whatever floats your boat! Enjoy!

 

sweet potato casserole

Sweet Potato Casserole

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Sweet Potato Casserole

I wanted to share this recipe with you in case you don’t already have a favorite for sweet potato casserole.  I love it.  It’s decadent, and it feels like you are getting away with something by eating it with your meal.  Like having dessert first.  It’s delicious!

Here’s how I make it:

Gather all of your ingredients.

Beat two eggs…..

Like so.  I always start my recipes by beating the eggs first.  That way, if something could be over mixed, it won’t happen.  Make sense to you?  Then add the milk…..

The brown sugar….

And the melted butter.

And the vanilla extract.

And the salt….

Next put in your sweet potatoes.  Or yams.  Either or will fit in this recipe.  Unless you disagree.  So you should add whichever you prefer.  You do you.  I’m not going to judge you.  As you can see I don’t show bias between the two…..

Mash everything together until it looks like a bowl of yumminess.

Pour into a greased vintage baking dish.  Or whatever vessel you have that is ovenproof.

Next, mix together the flour….

The brown sugar and salt.

Pecans…..I use the ones that are already chopped.  It saves me a step and they are cheaper.  Win win.

Next add the melted butter.

Yours will more than likely be less wet than mine.  I had a distracted moment and add double the butter…..Don’t be like me.  Or do.  It will all turn out okay in the end.

Sprinkle over the top and bake.

It will turn out beautifully.  Even if this photo was of just the corner because I forgot to take a photo until after we had devoured most of it!  Enjoy!

And voila!  Here’s the handy dandy printable.

sweet potato casserole

Sweet Potato Casserole

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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 (40 ounce) cans yams, drained
  • 1 stick butter
  • 2 eggs (beaten)
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Topping:

  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 350*.
  • Spray your 9 X13 baking pan or butter it.
  • Beat the eggs, and then add all of the ingredients (except for the topping ingredients).
  • Mix together and pour into the baking dish.

Topping:

  • Melt the butter and mix the other ingredients into it.
  • Sprinkle over the casserole.
  • Bake covered with foil at 350* for about 45 minutes to an hour. Until everything is toasty brown and bubbly.
  • Enjoy!

sweet potato casserole

 

Sauerkraut and Weenies Recipe

Published on by Tracie

SauerKraut and Weenies

Here is a recipe for Sauerkraut and Weenies that belongs in the category of, “It’s Not Really a Recipe”.  We have made this in my family for 1,000 years.  Or at least all of my life.

Here’s how I make it:

This is totally up to what I have on hand.  Most of the time I use regular hot dog weenies, but on this day I only had smoked sausages.  Same goes for the sauerkraut.  Sometimes I use canned, glass jarred, or like today the bagged stuff.  Sauerkraut is good!

Chop your weenies into rounds…..

Pour them into a frying pan…..

Stir as they cook until they are the desired doneness.  This is perfect for Denton, but I like mine more browned like you’ll see below, but it DOES discolor your sauerkraut later…..Sad face from Denton, he likes his sauerkraut to stay white….

Put in as much sauerkraut as you want I usually just cover the weenies…..

Simmer together until everything is heated…..

And enjoy!  Preferably with soup beans and salmon….. Here’s the handy dandy printable.

 

Kraut and weenies

Sauerkraut and Weenies

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Ingredients
  

  • 1 package weenies
  • 1 can, bag, or frozen portion sauerkraut

Instructions
 

  • Chop your weenies into bite size pieces.
  • Fry until they as brown as you would like. You can also just warm them through.
  • Drain the sauerkraut and sprinkle over the weenies.
  • Warm the sauerkraut through, stirring into the weenies.
  • Serve and enjoy! Preferably with soup beans and salmon.
Shrimp scampi with orecchiette

Shrimp Scampi with Orecchiette

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Shrimp Scampi with Orecchiette and Breadcrumbs.

For the past few weeks, I have made this recipe at least once every single week.  It has become a favorite!  It’s so easy and quick and it tastes phenomenal.  Here’s how I make it:

I toast my panko bread crumbs in butter, and add the zest of half of a lemon…..

Quickly fry some shrimp in butter with salt and pepper….Add more butter to the pan….

Throw in 42 cloves of garlic or however much looks right at the moment….

Add in a pinch of crushed red pepper and Italian seasoning…..

The rest of the zest from that lemon at the start….

Mince up some onion…..

Pour in your favorite white wine or chicken stock or even water……

Start dropping in tablespoons of butter, one at time and reduce the wine down….

While all of this is happening, drop your pasta in a boiling pot of water….

And when that is done to your liking, drop it straight into the simmering pan of goodness…

The shrimp go in with the pasta….

More zest if you have it…. or not, my family thought that this was way overboard the first time I made it….

The original recipe that I followed didn’t add this but we love it, parmesan cheese….

Yum!!!

I bought this specifically for this recipe and it made it so, so good… Add about a quarter cup of chopped fresh parsley….

Now you are ready to eat!

Try to restrain yourself as you add this to your bowl and add the toasty bread crumbs…. I followed this recipe from one of my Food Network magazines and I used the same amount of pasta and shrimp, but i did take many liberties and changed the rest of the ingredients to what I had on hand.  IE:  I had no shallots, so I used onions instead.  I had not fresh chives so I substituted Italian seasoning.  Use what you have people!  It was divine!

The recipe says it will feed four people.  I beg to differ.  I also made Alfredo and garlic bread and we had NO LEFTOVERS any of the times that I have made this.  I think that we eat like normal everyday people here at our house, but maybe I’m mistaken and we are all gluttonous pigs, but I would say with small portions this would conservatively feed four people.  Keep that in mind.

Here’s the handy dandy printable.

Shrimp scampi with orecchiette

Shrimp Scampi with Orecchiette and Breadcrumbs

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

For the breadcrumbs

  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
  • 1/2 tsp zest of a lemon
  • 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning (dried)
  • salt and pepper to taste

For the pasta

  • 12 ounces Orecchiette pasta

For the sauce and shrimp

  • 2 tbsp butter or olive oil
  • 2 pounds shrimp I use the frozen that has already been peeled and deveined
  • salt and pepper
  • 3 or 4 tsp minced garlic I use the jarred stuff
  • 1/3 cup minced onions
  • 1 cup white wine
  • 1/2 the juice of half the lemon you used for the zest
  • 1 pinch crushed red pepper
  • 1 pinch dried Italian seasoning
  • 4 tbsp butter, cut up
  • 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Instructions
 

  • Heat the butter in a skillet and add the Panko. Stir until toasted. Add the lemon zest, salt and pepper and set it aside.
  • Boil the pasta.
  • Add the butter or olive oil to the skillet, saute the shrimp with salt and pepper until almost done, about 2 minutes. Remove from the skillet.
  • Add the garlic and onions to the pan and cook for about 1 minute.
  • Now add the wine, lemon juice, crushed red pepper, and the Italian seasoning to the pan. Start reducing.
  • While the liquid is reducing start adding the butter one piece at a time.
  • When all of this has cooked together and the wine is reduced add the pasta and the shrimp and stir. If you are adding the parmesan cheese, now would be the time.
  • Add a giant serving to your bowl, to with the breadcrumbs and a dash of fresh parsley and enjoy!!

Restaurant Style Refried Beans

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Denton and I love Mexican food.  One of the things that I haven’t been able to replicate is the refried beans that you get in a restaurant.  But now I know the secret and I’m going to share it with you, so that you can make them too.  It’s so simple!  Here’s how I make it:

Two ingredients.  TWO!

Use 16 ounces of your favorite refried beans and 1/3 cup of sour cream.  That’s it.

You can slowly heat them on the stove top or just pop them into the microwave.

Mix them together and warm through….

And then you are ready to serve.  This is such a simple addition but it makes a huge difference in the taste.  These are delicious!

Restaurant Style Refried Beans

Here’s the handy dandy printable.

Restaurant Style Refried Beans

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes

Ingredients
  

  • 16 ounces refried beans
  • 1/3 cup sour cream

Instructions
 

  • Heat both ingredients together, either on the stove top or microwave.
  • Serve with cheese on top and enjoy!
Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuffed Mushrooms

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If you want an easy, delicious appetizer, or just a quick, tasty snack, this recipe for stuffed mushrooms is the recipe you’ll want to try next.  They are so good.  Here’s how I make them:

Clean your mushrooms well.

Pop out all of the stems….Put all of the caps into a baking dish…..Finely chop the stems…..Remember how I told you to use everything you pay for?  I keep the ends of my onions in a baggy in the fridge for just such purposes as this.Use it all up and you’ll have so little waste.    Meanwhile, add butter with salt and pepper to a pan….Add your finely diced mushroom stems and onions….  Begin to sauté.  Then add in 264 cloves of garlic.  Or to your taste.     

While that’s doing its thing, put four ounces of cream cheese in a mixing bowl and add your spices….Mix to combine….Add in your shredded cheese.Mix in the mushroom stems, onion and garlic mixture with the cream cheese mixture….Start stuffing the mushroom caps….   I just use a regular spoon.  It goes quickly.   When you have them all stuffed……Bake for 30 minutes in a 400* oven.  And enjoy!   Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuffed Mushrooms

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Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes

Ingredients
  

  • 8 ounces mushrooms
  • 1/2 small onion
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 4 ounces cream cheese
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp onion powder
  • 1/8 tsp cayenne powder
  • 3/4 cup shredded cheese

Instructions
 

  • Clean mushrooms well.
  • Pop out stems of mushrooms and finely dice along with onion; fry in butter with garlic cloves. Cool slightly.
  • Mix cream cheese, spices, shredded cheese and sauteed mixture well. Stuff into the mushroom caps.
  • Bake in a 400* oven for 30 minutes. Serve and enjoy!
Slow Cooker Little Smokies

Slow Cooker Little Smokies Recipe

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If you are looking for an effortless recipe that is very simple and easy to make, this is it.  Slow Cooker Little Smokies.  This is a great potluck recipe, a recipe you’ll want to have when anyone gathers at your house, or just to have as an easy supper to serve with rice or anything else that is quick and easy for you.

I remember the first the time I took this to one of our Eatin’ Meetin’s.  My Mamaw Sylvia and my Great Aunt Bay had an argument about who was going to get to take the leftovers home.  They split them, because they loved each other to pieces.  Food always has such tangible memories for me.

This is a great dump and walk away recipe that you don’t need to stand over the stove to babysit.  You could, but why would you?

Here’s how I make this:

You only need three ingredients:  Lit’l Smokies, grape jelly and BBQ sauce.  I use my small 3 1/2 quart Cuisinart for this because I want the sauce to cover the smokies so that they sit in a hot tub of sauce until they are eaten.

Drain your little smokies….

While that’s doing its thing, I put 2 cups of grape jelly in the bottom of my slow cooker.

Then, I pour over about the same amount of BBQ sauce.  I usually use the sweet n’ spicy version from Sweet Baby Rays, but I was out and I had Kraft Sweet Brown Sugar on hand, so I used that.  It tasted great.

I always whisk the grape jelly and bbq sauce together before I dump the little smokies on top and then stir them together.

Put the lid on and cook on low for at least an hour.  Basically you are just melting the grape jelly and bbq sauce together to coat the smokies with yummy deliciousness.  Stir and serve.

Everyone will thank you and fight over the leftovers.  If there are any…….Slow Cooker Little Smokies

Easy peasy.

Slow Cooker Little Smokies

Slow Cooker Little Smokies

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Prep Time 6 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Course Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish, Snack

Equipment

  • Slow Cooker

Ingredients
  

  • 2 pkgs Little Smokies
  • 2 cups grape jelly
  • 2 cups bbq sauce

Instructions
 

  • Drain the little smokies.
  • Pour grape jelly and bbq sauce in the bottom of the slow cooker.
  • Whisk the jelly and bbq sauce together.
  • Place the little smokies in the sauce.
  • Cook on low for at least an hour.
  • Enjoy!