Idea Queen Tips & News

This recipe was sent in by one of our visitors. I know buns are not something we generally have in the house, but we always have a pound or two of hamburger in the freezer. This recipe requires just a tad bit of planning, since you’ll have to get it ready the night before. However, it sounds absolutely delicious!

No Bun Fun
by Nikki Eddt

Ingredients:
Hamburger meat
Bacon
Onions

Want a yummy hamburger but forgot to buy buns? Marinade your meat the night before (worcester, s/p, garlic, etc.) Make patties and wrap uncooked bacon around with toothpicks. Place in aluminum foil (onions are also good on top) and bake for desired cooktime at 250-400 degrees. Place on place with yummy side dish.

More easy hamburger ideas can be found on Idea Queen.

Well this is new. This is the first time we’ve ever had sausage leftover. Luckily as soon as I realized I was cooking too much, I knew what to do with it.

For supper last night we had breakfast. You know, hashbrowns, eggs, and sausage. The last time I made this, I only used half of one of those tubes of raw sausage. Well, last night I forgot and made it all. Oops! I knew it was way too much and there was no way we’d eat it all.

Although I knew immediately what to do with it - make pizza! For some odd reason, my daughter’s favorite pizza is sausage where as mine is pepperoni (unless I’m making the “mountain pizza“, then just about anything goes). So I informed her the next night for supper we’d be having her favorite.

Really there’s just about enough to make it a pizza topping, so it turned out pretty well. The kids are getting somewhat tired of my pizza, so I think I’ll make a smaller version of it tonight with just sausage and pepperoni. That way everyone will be happy, and we’ll be using up that leftover sausage.

What do you do with leftover sausage when there’s not enough for everyone?

Last night we had a family favorite - Graziano’s hot sausage sandwiches with homemade buns. While this “brand” of sausage you can only get in central Iowa (it’s a special blend from an Italian grocery store in Des Moines), you can still use any kind of Italian sausage. We just prefer this particular kind over the others.

The buns, on the other hand, anyone with a bread machine can make. It’s actually our favorite roll recipe that I’ve dubbed “Tabi’s Awesome Rolls”. I’ve posted this recipe before when I spent the day playing with my bread machine. Turning them into buns for hot sausage sandwiches is pretty easy.

Basically we made them just the way we always do, but added Italian spices to the mix. Someone once told me to add garlic last because it doesn’t let the dough rise, so that’s what I did. Once the dough was mixed and ready to be rolled out, I added the garlic to the top with a little bit of olive oil and cheese.

When you make these at home, expect them to get a little bigger when you bake them. They always surprise me and get larger when I bake them. I always think “hmmm I wonder if these are going to be big enough?” when I roll them out, and they always are slightly TOO big. So when you roll them out, flatten them down just a bit so they work better as a bun.

This roll recipe has also been used to make buns for other type of sandwiches including homemade breaded tenderloins (DELICIOUS!). It would also go good with cold sandwiches or hamburgers as well.

Yum!

We are not big milk drinkers in this house. It’s not uncommon for us to not get through a half gallon of milk before it goes bad. Most of the time we use it only for cooking.

Since we don’t always have milk on hand but I still cook a lot, I had to come up with a quick solution for substituting milk on occasion. Well, I finally figured it out.

Powdered milk works very well, and it’s something I ALWAYS have on hand (I make quite a bit of bread in my bread machine). The other day I had a recipe that called for 3 tablespoons of milk, so I use 1 tablespoon powdered milk with 3 tablespoons water. Perfect! So now I know to use 1/3 the powdered milk as the recipe calls and mix with water (the box also says to make one cup of milk you use 1/3 cup dry milk with 1 cup water).

While generally I want to use “real” milk in my recipes, sometimes I just need a quick fix so I don’t have to run to the store. Best of all the dry milk won’t go bad sitting in my fridge for a week!

Our blender had a little accident several months ago, and I’m just dying to make smoothies for the kids. Since I’ve got tax return in hand, I think it’s about time to replace it.

The best smoothie recipes we’ve ever had were the ones we came up with ourselves. Following a recipe with a few basic ingredients, we were able to come up with all kinds of different types that were oh-so-tasty.

You will need the following ingredients to start:

- Frozen fruit and berries (or fresh fruit/berries and ice)
- Yogurt (plain or flavored, we usually use plain)
- Honey

Yup, that really is all you need! The yogurt gives it a smooth texture, and the frozen fruit or ice gives it the icy texture. Honey is simply used in place of sugar to make it sweet. This is especially important if you have certain fruits that are slightly bitter.

Strawberry has been our favorite so far, although we love to buy mixed bags of frozen fruits and berries to try out new flavors. If you do use strawberries, make sure you buy slices and now whole. Using whole is how our blender died. Oops!

These make a wonderful treat, especially in the spring and summer. Have fun coming up with new blender recipes for kids!

This recipe was sent in by one of our visitors. It sounds delicious and I just might try it out!

Hamburger Curry
by Noreen Tan

1 box Japanese Instant Curry
1 lb. hamburger
1/2 pkg. frozen Mixed Peas, Carrots, Corn

Cook hamburger until no longer pink.  Give 2 good shakes of Garlic Powder and 3 good shakes of black ground pepper.  Now add Instant Curry and follow directions.  Add frozen vegetables and simmer until directions say it is done.
More easy recipes for hamburger available on Idea Queen.

With all these snow days we’ve had recently (yesterday made number SEVEN! ARG!), you may be looking for activities to do with your kids. What better thing to do than spend the day in the kitchen making cookies?

Here is a recipe we pulled from the Chocolate Lover’s ebook for Double Chocolate Chip Cookies (or as I like to call them, chocolate chocolate chip cookies). It’s super easy, and only takes a few ingredients. PERFECT for kids!

Double Chocolate Cookies
18 1/4 oz Package devil’s food cake mix with pudding
1/2 c Vegetable oil
2 lg Eggs
1 c (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate morsels

Combine first 3 ingredients, and beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended. Stir in chocolate morsels. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes. Cool cookies on cookie sheets 5 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Yield: 3 dozen.

Last night we had the most tasty pork chops. They were very tender - I baked them this time instead of frying. Well that and they were smaller chops so easier to cook.

Since I didn’t really feel like cooking a huge complicated meal, I just threw the pork chops in a glass casserole dish with a can of cream of mushroom soup. Nothing else. No water, butter.. nothing.  Just baked for about an hour at 400*. After about a half hour I flipped them over. Oh did they come out DELICIOUS!

If you have the chance to pick up little pork chops, I highly recommend just baking them with little to no extra ingredients. YUM!

Forgive me for the bad title, but I don’t know what else to call these little things. They are not really an appetizer, side dish, or snack. I’m making them for lunch today, but I think you would classify them as a side or appetizer. It’s just really hard to classify them. Either way they are oh-so-yummy.

First you’ll need bagels (of course). The number will depend on how many people you are making for (the beauty of this recipe is you don’t need ANY type of normal measurements or counts). Align them on a cookie sheet. Spread mayo on each, followed by pepper rings and shredded cheese (I use colby-jack). Pop in the oven at 400* and cook until cheese is golden brown (about 15 mins). Cook them longer for more crispy bagels and cheese.

You can leave off the pepper rings for any or all of them depending on your taste. I love them but my kids don’t, so I usually do about half and half.

Enjoy!

Today I thought I’d share a few sandwich recipes from our ebook. Personally I don’t care for chicken salad, but I know others do. So here are two very unique and interesting recipes for chicken salad sandwiches.

 Avocado Chicken Salad Sandwich

1 c. chicken breast, cooked & diced
1/2 c. celery
1/2 c. mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. avocado, diced
2 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
8 slices sourdough bread

In a mixing bowl, add the chicken, celery, mayonnaise, avocado, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Toast gently until thoroughly mixed. Using a spoon or scoop, spread the chicken salad on the bread. Place the other slice of sourdough bread on top. Using a sharp knife cut the bread in half and
place on plate and serve.

Chicken Salad Sandwiches with Smoked Almonds

3 cups cooked chicken, shredded
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup minced green onion
1 teaspoon minced fresh tarragon leaves
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 cup finely chopped smoked almonds
6 lettuce leaves, washed and dried
12 slices fresh bread, your choice
In a bowl stir together chicken, 1/2 cup of mayonnaise, green onion, tarragon, smoked almonds and pepper. Mound mixture evenly on 6 slices of bread, top lettuce and remaining 6 slices. Cut diagonally and serve.
Makes 6 sandwiches.

Want more sandwich recipes? Pick up our ebook featuring over 300 different types of easy sandwich recipes just like the two above.