Dinner Time - The Perfect Patty Melt

To finish out beef week I decided to make cheeseburgers for dinner. Instead of the usual hamburger roll, I decided to toast whole grain honey wheat bread and make patty melts. Well seasoned, medium well hamburgers cooked on medium high heat, gave the burgers a nice char on the outside while the inside stayed nice and juicy.

Burger Seasoning

Salt

pepper

onion powder

garlic powder

My layering technique from the bottom up

1 slice of honey wheat toast (lightly toasted)

Thin layer of spicy brown mustard on the toast (1/2 tsp)

cooked burger patty

cheddar cheese slice

sautéed onions

ketchup (1 tsp)

bacon

2nd slice of honey wheat toast

To accompany my burgers, I peeled and sliced 6 russet potatoes lengthwise, Put them in a bowl , drizzled them with light olive oil, and seasoned them with garlic power, onion powder, salt , pepper and grated parmesan cheese. I baked the potatoes at 425 degrees for 25 minutes, flipped them and then baked an additional 8 minutes. (ovens and cooking times vary). Dinner was prepared and served in under an hour.

And for dessert.. 2 of these babies right here :)

Pancakes With Crunchy Edges are Life...

Who doesn't enjoy a pancake with a crisp edge? You know... the crispiness that only your mom or grandma could achieve. When I saw this meme on the internet, I laughed out loud because it's something my sister Stacey and I talk about all the time. We would go to diners and restaurants and request pancakes with crunchy edges. The waitress would say okay...but return with regular ol' pancakes with soft edges. I gave up. I decided if I wanted pancakes like this, I would just make them at home. When looking at the meme's comments, I noticed that most people stated that only their parents or grandparents could achieve this crunchy goodness. Quite a few of the comments in the meme questioned how to achieve pancakes with crunchy edges? I chime in with "It's really not hard to achieve." All you have to do is add a few drops of cooking oil around the sides of your pancakes while cooking them. It can be vegetable oil, butter, or bacon

Shaken Baken Stuffed Peppers

So the recipe for my version of Stuffed Red Peppers comes from at least a dozen versions found on the internet. My whole approach was to get as much flavor out of these babies as possible. Most recipes called for rice, meat usually beef or turkey, and cheese for those who like it. I like all of these things so I incorporated them into my recipe. I also have family members that either don’t eat beef or don’t eat turkey (oy!) so I did both. I do have a lot of ingredients but the flavors came out really good! This recipe makes about 10 bell peppers. I wanted to try the peppers first in case it tasted funky... I can assure you it didn’t. There was a lot of meat leftover so I used it for 5 prepared meal packages for the week. My only issue was timing. As you can see they are a little well done so I will make sure to adjust my cooking time next time. Every recipe I found had a different temperature and cooking time so I was winging it for real….So without further adieu here is my

My Love For The Cosi Signature Salad

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of having a Cosi Signature salad, then I'm sure you will agree with me, as it is my favorite salad with a dressing you can drink. (kidding) I miss living in the big city so I have to improvise. And with a huge thanks to The Brown Eyed Baker , I was able to recreate it down to that awesome drinkable dressing. This is the first salad I’ve eaten with fruit in it. It has pistachios, red grapes, gorgonzola cheese, pears, and dried cranberries. I added leftover cooked chicken because I was starving and I didn’t want to be hungry later. My hubby sliced up a boiled egg in his. No egg for me. I had one already this afternoon. The chicken was a great companion to the fresh fruit. *Note: The Original Cosi salad does not have chicken or eggs. e is the official recipe courtesy of The Bro Eyed Baker. She did a great job replicating that dressing. Oh that dressing….ENJOY!!

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