Foodie Friday- Sloppy Joe Ring

Saturday is our “Leftover” day. It’s a time to use up what has accumulated in the fridge all week. Normally that’s our plan for lunch on Saturday. Unless we’re out all day, and then that’s the plan for dinner. Anyway, we go through the leftovers in the fridge on Saturday. LOL

I recently posted my Sloppy Joe recipe. (No pics of that one, I’ll have to get them next time.) That particular recipe makes a TON of Sloppy Joe filling. We always have leftovers. Here’s what I did with them this time.

Sloppy Joe Ring

1-2 cups leftover Sloppy Joe filling

2 cans crescent rolls

Preheat your oven to 375. Get out a large pizza pan. I got the giant pan in the picture from Wal-Mart for like $3. Open the crescent rolls and place wide side to the center of the pan, over lapping the edges to form a circle. This was kinda tricky for me (Because I am a little OCD and it was really stressin’ me out that they were not exactly spaced and centered on that pan.) and I had to re-arrange them a couple of times. Spoon the Sloppy Joe filling along the inside of the ring, on the wide edges. Don’t put it right on the edge. You need a little bit of space to tuck the pointy bits under. After you get the filling in, fold the points into the center and slightly tuck them under the inside edge of the circle. Put in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until filling is hot and crescent rolls are slightly brown. Easy Peasy.
This was a hit with most of the family. They Hubby loved it. The Large Boy enjoyed it.The Medium Boy ate seconds, which he doesn’t often do. The Small Boy didn’t like the crescent roll part. ( I seriously do not know where this kid came from. No pizza, not a fan of cheese, and now crescent rolls….LOL) I thought it was yummy and supper easy. I will be making it again for sure.

Foodie Friday-Honey Glazed Dump Chicken

Honey Glazed Dump Chicken

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE dump chicken recipes? Well, if I haven't mentioned it before, I really really LOVE dump chicken recipes. You basically just dump some chicken pieces in a zip top freezer bag with your favorite marinade or sauce, label and toss in the freezer. :) This is the recipe that made me totally fall in love with them. This is my all time favorite chicken recipe, hands down. However, it’s not one my hubby enjoys. He’s not big on sweet in general. I can get by making it twice a month. Anymore than that and he’s not happy.

Honey Glazed Dump Chicken
1/4 c butter, melted

1/8 c soy sauce

1/2 c honey

4-8 pieces of chicken



Place chicken pieces in a freezer zip top bag. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Freeze.

To cook: Take zip top bag out of the freezer the night before you want to cook it and let it thaw in the fridge. Pour thawed contents of the bag into a baking dish big enough to contain the chicken and sauce. Bake at 350 until chicken is done. It will depend on the type of chicken you use. Boneless skinless breasts will take 20-30 min, bone in pieces will take longer.

I serve this with rice and ladle the sauce over the rice. It is YUMMY!

Foodie Friday- Sloppy Joes

I recently scored a super good deal on ground beef. I found the 93% lean stuff for .89/lb. I bought a lot. Like 20+ lbs, a lot. Here is one of our favorite ways to use it up.

Who doesn't like Sloppy Joes?? Well, I am sure some people don't (Let's pray for them, shall we?) , but I am sure they are in the minority. Right??? Well, we like Sloppy Joes around here. The medium & small boys like them with ketchup and cheese. I like mine off the bun, in a bowl, with cheese. The large boy & the hubby just like them. Here's the recipe I use.

Sloppy Joes

Here is a super easy, not from the can version ( well, not totally from a can. You know what I mean. ) that our whole family loves. It makes a lot, and we usually have leftovers. You can freezer the leftovers or use them in another meal. I'm working on a recipe for the leftovers. I'll post it when I've got it perfected.

2lbs ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 can condensed tomato soup

1- 8oz can tomato sauce

2 tbsp ketchup

1 1/2 tbsp worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp mustard (whatever you have on hand will work. I have use regular yellow and coarse ground with good results. )

1/4 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder

Hamburger buns

In a large pan, brown ground beef and onion.  Cook an additional 5 minutes or so until beef is cooked through and onions are soft. While the meat mixture is cooking. Put the tomato soup, tomato sauce, ketchup, worcestershire sauce, mustard, chili powder and garlic powder in a crockpot. Drain meat mixture and add it to the crockpot. Cook on low 3-4 hours. Serve over buns.

I have let this cook much longer with no problems. You could shift it to the "keep warm" setting on your crockpot, if you have one, at the 3-4 hour mark if you like.

You can also make this on the stove top. Brown the beef and onions with the chili & garlic powder then add the soup, tomato sauce, ketchup worcestershire sauce, and mustard to the beef after it is browned and let simmer for 20 min or so.

Foodie Friday- Soy Garlic Marinade

I'm a pretty simple cook. I know what my family likes, and tend to stick to those things. I don't use a lot of 'fancy' ingredients. I just like to keep it simple. Here is one of my favorite marinades. I have used it on pork, chicken, and beef. It is my fall back marinade. Everyone in the family likes it, so it's a keeper. :)

Soy Garlic Marinade

1c soy sauce

1c oil

5-6 cloves of garlic

1-2 tbsp dried minced onion

Measure soy sauce and garlic out into a large Pyrex type measuring cup. I use a 4 cup one and just mix everything in there. Saves me from dirtying a ton of dishes.  Peel and mince your garlic. I use a garlic press. It just makes it much easier. Add your onions ( you could use fresh, but I don't always feel like mincing such a small amount, so I use dried) and whisk until everything is well combined. Pour over the meat of your choice and let marinate in your fridge for a couple hours.

I also use this as a freezer recipe. I portion meat into labeled freezer bags and pour the marinade over the meat and pop it into the freezer. Just pull the freezer bag out on the day you want to cook it and let it thaw and marinate at the same time. :) When I am ready to cook, and the meat has thawed, I pour the entire contents of the bag into a baking dish and bake. We usually spoon the extra marinade over rice. :)

Foodie Friday- Condensed Cream Soups

I don't buy condensed cream of whatever soup. It just kinds weirds me out and it is not exactly that great for ya. I make my own. It's pretty easy. If you can make gravy or a white sauce, you can do condensed cream soups. The first time I made it, I followed Tammy's recipe. It's a great recipe. I still use it as a guideline for basic ingredients. Here is my version.

Condensed Cream Soup

3 cups chicken broth

3 cups milk

1 1/2 cups flour

1tsp seasoned salt

1-2 TBSP parsley

1-2 TBSP dried chives

1 tsp ground black pepper

Heat chicken broth and seasonins in a large pan until it boils. In a large mason jar, put all of the flour and enough milk to almost fill the jar. Shake well to fully mix the flour and milk. Pour milk/flour mixture into the boiling chicken broth and whisk until mixture is thickened. I whir it up with an immersion blender just to make extra sure it's not lumpy. Portion out the soup into freezer containers and freeze. I use these.

Ziploc Twist 'n Loc Containers & Lids, Small 3 ea

You can make a cream of mushroom version by adding finely chopped mushrooms to the broth when you are starting. I make the mushroom version quite a bit. Sometimes I can find mushrooms marked down for quick sale, so I buy all of them I can and use them to make this soup. I like the fact that I know exactly what is in it and I can feel good about feeding it to my family. :)

Foodie Friday-Dinner Rolls

I love making breads and rolls from scratch. I usually let my bread machine do the 'hard' work of kneading and rising and all that stuff. But, still.  I have a dinner roll recipe I use all the time and I have used it for years and years. Lately however, it hasn't been turning out as well as I would like it to. It made good roll, but they were not fabulous rolls.

So, I went on the hunt for a new dinner roll recipe to try out.  I found this one, which is fabulous. The rolls are slightly sweet, but not too sweet. They rose perfectly. The texture was great and they didn't taste too yeasty.  I did change it up a bit, so here's what I did.

Sweet Dinner Rolls



1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1/2 cup warm milk

1 egg

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

Mix water, milk, sugar, and yeast in a bowl and stir well. I just used a Pyrex measuring cup that I measured out the milk and water into. Let sit for a few minutes while you gather the rest of the ingredients.  I let it sit until it started to get a little foamy on the top. Pour milk/water/sugar/yeast mixture into your bread machine, add remaining ingredients and run on the dough cycle.

When bread machine is done. Dump the dough out into a well oiled bowl. You can cover it at this point and put it in the fridge to shape the rolls later, or you can shape the rolls now. Shape rolls into balls the size you desire. I made mine about ping pong ball size.  Place dough balls into a well greased pan. The size of the dough balls will determine how many rolls you get out of this dough. I want to say I got just over 20, but honestly I forgot to count. :) Cover  with a tea towel and let rise until doubled. This took about 30 min or so in my oven with the light on. It will take more or less time depending on the temp in your house. Warmer temps = less time. Cooler temps = more time. 

Once rolls have risen, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. At this point you can melt a little butter (1/4 cup or so) and pour that over your rolls. Put rolls in the oven and bake rolls 10-15 minutes or until done. I had to place a tent of foil over mine because the tops were getting a bit too brown for my liking. It could have been because of the butter, but I don't think so. I don't usually cook my rolls at this high of a temperature.

 These made THE BEST ROLLS EVER!!! The texture was perfect. Everyone ate at least 3 of these rolls for dinner.

Foodie Friday- Freezing Milk

In an attempt to keep our grocery budget down and  make our lives easier by reducing the amount of time I actually spend grocery shopping, I freeze a LOT of stuff. I look for really good sales and I stock up as freezer space and grocery money allows.

Earlier this week I took the last gallon of milk out of the freezer. That means I needed another sale on milk. Now, I could pay full price for milk, but I don't wanna. I usually stock up on it when it is on sale and I freeze it. It's pretty easy to do. Anyway, today I went looking for marked down milk, since no one in town had any on sale, and I found some. YAY!! I love how God provides the things you need when you need them. I had just enough grocery money left for the week to buy just enough 1/2 gallons to fill the empty space in our freezer. That is God's provision at work right there. :)

So, how to you freeze milk, you ask? It's easy peasy. You buy your milk and bring it home. You open it up.  You pour a little bit of milk off of each gallon or half gallon or whatever, put the lid back on and pop it in the freezer. Not everyone I know pours a bit off, but I do. I have had milk jugs split, and sometimes you don't know until you are thawing the milk out. Not pretty.

It is super easy to thaw. Just take it out and put it on the counter. Shake it up a bit whenever you walk by. Stick it in the fridge when it's almost totally thawed. Now, I am sure there are some people who are freaking out because I just said to thaw something out on the counter. I grew up in a time where you thawed chicken out on the counter. I survived. But, if you don't wanna take a chance with counter thawing ( I'm not entirely sure how big a risk it really is, actually.) You can put it in the fridge to thaw. It takes a lot longer that way, but it'll work.

I usually take a frozen gallon out to thaw when we are down to about 1/2 a gallon left. That's what works for us. We usually won't finish out the remaining gallon before the frozen one thaws. Lately we've been buying 1/2 gallons, because of sales/markdowns. (See the picture above. Can't pass up that kind of a deal.) I take 2 of those out to thaw when we are down to 1/2 gallon in the fridge.


So, that's your freezer tip this week. Come back next week and see what I'm feeding my family. :)