Friday's Plan B Favorite: Pick and Choose Stromboli

I've mentioned that my All-Purpose Miracle Dough has been a life-saver on more than one occasion. I've mentioned that I use this dough for everything from bread bowls to pizza dough to cinnamon rolls. Here's one more use for this fantastical dough...Pick and Choose Stromboli. It's quick, easy, and filling and my kids are always happy when it's on the menu.

Here are the instructions:

• Mix up a batch of dough. (Recipe found here.)  Let rise for 10-15 minutes in a warm place.
• Roll out on lightly greased baking stone or cookie sheet. Top with your choice of: ham, turkey, cheese, pepperoni, pepperocini, bacon, black olives, mushrooms, red onion...or anything else that comes to mind
• beginning at one end, roll dough in a cinnamon-roll like fashion, pinching all edges to seal
• make a few slices in the top
• if possible let rise, covered, for 20 more minutes
• bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes
• cool slightly and slice into 1 inch portions to serve

If everyone in your family (like mine) has different tastes, divide dough into equal portions and let everyone make their own. I like this idea because it invests the kids in the process--they'll like it better and enjoy it more if they help.


Have a great weekend and come back next week for COOKIE WEEK!

Plan B: To the Freezer

When my mom and dad come to visit I put them to work. Dad knows to bring his tools and Mom gets busy in the kitchen. She fills my freezer with favorites like Chicken Enchiladas, Vegetable Soup, Italian Beef and today's feature, BBQ Meatballs. This recipe was originally given to me by my friend, Tricia, the mom of SEVEN, who gets more done before 10:00 am than I do in a week.

One of my favorite things to do is hitch a ride to Costco and stock up on ground beef and chicken. When I am really on top of things I make these meatballs from some of the ground beef, then brown the rest and divide it into portions for the freezer. I cook the chicken and shred or chop it and put it in the freezer as well. When I need dinner in a hurry, having the meat already browned/cooked is a huge time-saver and keeps us from eating cereal.

BBQ Meatballs

Meatballs:

3 pounds hamburger
1 can evaporated milk
2 cups oatmeal
3 eggs
1 teaspoon chili powder

Mix and shape into balls. Place in 9x13 pan(s).

Sauce:

2 cups ketchup
2 tablespoons liquid smoke
1 cup brown sugar

Combine all ingredients and boil together. Pour over meatballs.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

This makes enough to eat a batch and freeze a batch.

Poppy Seed Chicken

I got this nice Kansas-take on chicken and pasta from Carrie, and I'm guessing it has Mennonite roots.  I've used it long enough I can almost claim it as my own. Michael requested it for his birthday dinner for many years. I've done a lot of experimenting with this one, occasionally substituting a little Ranch dressing for some of the sour cream, or throwing some melted Cheddar into it. Aside from being forgiving, it's also a great plan B dinner because you can keep the ingredients on hand and whip it up in a hurry.

Poppy Seed Chicken

3 cups chicken, cooked and diced
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
3 cups wide egg noodles, cooked and drained

Mix together: 25-30 crushed Ritz crackers and 1 tablespoon poppy seeds. Fold together chicken, soup, sour cream, cooked noodles, and 3/4 of cracker and poppy seed mixture. Put into baking dish and sprinkle remaining crushed crackers on top. Drizzle 3 tablespoons butter over top. Bake covered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Tomorrow I'll share some freezer favorites.

Breakfast for Dinner

When I asked Facebook fans for their favorite dinner-in-a-hurry, it was a toss-up between soup and grilled cheese and breakfast for dinner. Sure you could scramble some eggs and throw some toast on the side, but why not try some of these?

• Sausage, egg and cheese muffin - okay, so maybe the fast food restaurant has perfected this one, but it's super easy to make at home and I almost always have the ingredients on hand. Casey shared a favorite from her house in her comment on yesterday's post.
• French toast a la panini - I'm telling you, everything tastes better on the panini grill, especially french toast. Here's a quick recipe: Beat together 4 eggs, 1/4 cup milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 tablespoon sugar. Dip bread into egg mixture and place on (very) hot panini grill. Cook 1-2 minutes or until lightly browned. Throw a couple slices of bacon on the plate and you've got yourself a dinner.
• Bacon, egg and cheese panini - Since you've already fired up the panini grill, why not try a bacon, egg and cheese? Sourdough bread makes this one an instant winner, although I did get the word yesterday that sourdough bread is "icky."
• Breakfast casserole - I never realized how many different breakfast casserole recipes there were until I was in MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) many years ago. Everyone has their own take on this one for sure. Here's mine: eggs, milk (or cream, preferably) frozen hash browns, whatever acceptable meat I have on hand, basil, salt, pepper and grated Cheddar cheese. Mix it up and throw it in the oven--bake until those eggs are done.
• Breakfast burritos - Not really sure how we functioned before flour tortillas. Scrambled eggs and cheese snuggled up inside of one make a quick and tasty meal. Add some bacon, tomato and avocado or make it Mexican by adding salsa and cilantro.

I'd love to include your favorite breakfast-for-dinner recipe in my cookbook. If you have one you'd like to share, email me here.

Plan B

Planning meals, making lists and going to the grocery store are among my least favorite tasks. If that wasn't enough, every night I have to figure out how to assemble the ingredients in some kind of meaningful, likable way. Sometimes it's a struggle. Between me being gone 2 1/2 nights a week and the kids' sports schedules, it's a miracle we eat anything but PBJ. But we do okay.

One thing that helps is to always have the ingredients for 3 or 4 meals on hand for nights when time gets away from me. Here are a few of our Plan B meals:

• Baked Spaghetti: Mix cooked pasta with prepared spaghetti sauce and place in a greased baking dish. Cover with mozzarella cheese and bake 20-30 minutes until cheese is melted. We like this better than regular spaghetti. I can also leave it in the fridge for the kids to heat up when I'm not home.
• Grilled Panini: Guess what my kids' favorite Christmas gift was? Our Panini Maker. As long as I have "good bread" (a somewhat elusive quest at my house) and ham, turkey and cheese, my kids are thrilled to eat panini for any meal or snack. John has also gotten very creative with the peanut butter. Why it's better than a traditional grilled sandwich, I'll never know. But it is.
• Nachos: It's kind of lame to melt cheese and chicken on chips and call it a meal, but if you throw a few vegetables and Ranch dressing on the side, it qualifies.
• Quesadillas: And speaking of cheese and the panini maker...it's a great way to make a quesadilla. I can work a lot of magic with a flour tortilla. One of my latest (and high protein) creations is to mix one cooked and chopped Morning Star sausage patty, 1 scrambled egg and a sprinkle of shredded cheese and place in a warmed flour tortilla. (Mission has a new--to me at least--whole wheat tortilla that is actually pretty good).

Throughout the week I'll be sharing more Plan B recipes along with some of my grocery shopping lists and tips. I'd love to hear your ideas for dinner in a hurry.