I knew that I had to make this recipe when my son told me about it, and I knew that tonight would be the night to do it. This is the first night of the World Series, so what better way to celebrate than with cupcakes for dinner! These are special cupcakes. They are meatloaf on bottom with a gooey provolone cheese center and topped with whipped mashed potatoes, cheddar cheese and bacon. Wow…what a combination! These little treats were amazing. They would be really cute as mini cupcakes, but mine were full sized. Try them as a treat for your next baseball or football party. They are pretty simple. Here are my recipes, but feel free to use your favorites.
Meatloaf Cupcakes
Recipe by: The Accidental Cook
Yield: 12 cupcakes
Printable Recipe
Ingredients
Meatloaf:
1.5 lbs. ground beef
1 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped onion (I sauteed mine in butter before adding them)
6 slices provolone cheese
Mashed Potatoes:
8 russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup milk
1-2 tablespoons salt (depends on taste)
Bacon bits for garnish
Cheddar cheese, shredded for garnish
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine ground beef, bread crumbs, egg, milk and chopped onion in a large bowl. Using your hands, mix until well combined.
Press the ground beef mixture into metal muffin pan, filling to the top edge of the pan.
Using a spoon, scoop out a small portion of the middle of the cupcake and reserve the meat that you removed. Take a half slice of provolone and break it up so it fits into the middle of the meatloaf. Place the reserved meatloaf back over the top of the cheese to cover it and make sure the top is smooth and even. Follow this same process with the entire pan.
Place in oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the juices run clear. Remove from oven and transfer to serving platter.
While the meatloaves are baking, add the diced potatoes to a large pot of water. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Boil the potatoes until they are soft and easily split in half with a fork (15-20 minutes).
Strain potatoes and pour them into a large bowl of a stand mixer. Add the butter and let sit for 1 minute to soften. Add 1/2 cup of milk and salt and mix on medium speed until the potatoes reach a whipped consistency. Add more milk if potatoes are not smooth enough.
Place mashed potatoes into a piping bag or into a sandwich bag with the corner cut off. Pipe a heaping pile of potatoes on top of each of the meatloaves and then top with shredded cheddar cheese and a sprinkle of bacon bits.
Serve Immediately.
Special Cupcakes – For dinner???
19 Oct 2011 1 Comment
in Dinner, Side Dishes Tags: appetizer, cupcakes, dinner, food, mashed potatoes, meatloaf, recipe, supper
Sauteed Mushrooms with Sage – The Perfect Addition to your Favorite Steak
19 Oct 2011 2 Comments
in Dinner Tags: chicken, dinner, fish, food, gluten free, recipe, sage, sauteed mushrooms, steak, supper
I think I may be allergic to work. For the past week, every time I walk into the office I start sneezing and coughing. I have never had allergies, so this is all a new adventure for me. My eyes are watering and my nose is itching. What the heck? This is a real pain. I feel bad because my boss bought me flowers for my birthday and I think they may be the culprit. I can’t be 100% certain of this, but it seems coincidental that all of this started when those flowers appeared on my desk. Ugh…what would you do? I have already moved them into the empty cubicle next to me so I could “water them without making my desk wet.” WINK WINK! I think they’re still too close. Oh well, I guess I need to find some allergy medicine and move on.
I have been noticeably absent from my food blog lately. I have been engrossed in my daughter’s volleyball adventures. If you are unfamiliar with “club volleyball,” then you are lucky, and you are about to have a lot more money than me. Club volleyball is the same as a “select” level team, but it is referred to as “club” volleyball. You spend weeks and weeks preparing for tryouts, which take place on the same weekend. All of the volleyball clubs will have tryouts within the same 48 hour period. There’s a lot of time spent coordinating which teams your daughter will tryout for and making sure you can be at each tryout, which tend to be about 45 minutes apart and on other sides of the continent. The tryouts are this weekend, so I’m sure I won’t spend much time blogging this weekend, but I’m planning to get back to normal once this whole fiasco is over.
The hubby and I planned to make baked chicken, macaroni and cheese and mixed veggies for dinner last night. Me being the crazy foodie that I am couldn’t just have a plain, baked chicken. I started looking up recipes for Chicken Cordon Bleu. We had all of the ingredients, but then I decided that the kids probably wouldn’t like it very much. They really just like plain chicken breasts, spiced up with some salt, pepper and garlic powder. Then I remembered a recipe that I wrote down years ago for sautéed mushrooms. When I saw it in a magazine, I knew that it was going to be good. I have made them many, many times, but it has been years since the last time. A boring, baked chicken can be turned into a gourmet meal with these yummy mushrooms. You can add them to beef and fish as well. In fact, the original recipe was written as a topping for fish.
This recipe only requires a few ingredients and hopefully you can gather them up easily so you can make this as a great, last-minute dinner. This recipe is also naturally gluten-free!
Sautéed Mushrooms with Sage
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons butter, divided
1 cup onions, diced
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon sage
1 cup chicken broth
Salt
Pepper
Directions:
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium/high heat. Add onions to butter and sauté until caramelized, about 15 minutes.
Transfer caramelized onions to a bowl.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium/high heat. Add sliced mushrooms and sage and sauté for 10 minutes.
Stir in onions and chicken broth and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer (stirring frequently) until all of the liquid evaporates, about 10 minutes.
Use on top of your baked/grilled chicken, fish or steak.
Honey Mustard Baked Chicken – A Quick and Easy Weeknight Dinner
10 Oct 2011 1 Comment
in Dinner, Gluten Free Tags: baked chicken, boneless skinless chicken breasts, chicken, dinner, food, gluten free, honey mustard chicken, recipe, supper
I spent yesterday doing nothing. I did have to clean up the remnants of the party from the night before. It looked like we had a lot of fun….I’m pretty sure I had fun.
I have to apologize to everyone that called me yesterday. I didn’t answer the phone for anyone, not even my mom. I know it was my birthday, but I just couldn’t gather the energy to have a conversation.
So, I was lucky enough to have to make dinner for the kids on my birthday. I had 4 chicken breasts, and that’s about it. Unless I wanted to force the kids to make themselves Easy Mac, I was going to have to make something. I threw together this fun little recipe. It was very easy to prepare, and you will probably have everything you need to make it tonight if you need to. I made mine gluten free by using gluten-free bread crumbs, but you can use regular bread crumbs if you have them.
Ingredients: 4 chicken breasts, 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup Dijon mustard, 1/4 cup melted butter, 1 cup bread crumbs
In a medium sized bowl, mix together 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup Dijon mustard and 1/4 cup butter.
Pour bread crumbs onto a plate for dipping. Dip chicken into honey/mustard mixture until well coated and then press into bread crumbs on both sides. Place on foil covered baking sheet and bake for 35-45 minutes.
Honey Mustard Chicken
By: The Accidental Cook
Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup melted butter
1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a medium sized bowl, mix together 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup Dijon mustard and 1/4 cup butter.
Pour bread crumbs onto a plate for dipping. Dip chicken into honey/mustard mixture until well coated and then press into bread crumbs on both sides.
Place on foil covered baking sheet and bake for 35-45 minutes.
Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce Recipe
03 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Dinner, Gluten Free, Slow Cooker Tags: crockpot, dinner, food, gluten free, pasta sauce, recipe, slow cooker, spaghetti sauce, supper, tomato sauce
I would like to share a few nuggets of wisdom that I have heard from children lately. These children will remain nameless because I’m certain that they don’t want all of the notoriety that comes along with making such profound statements. For your reading pleasure:
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been poked in the eye.”
“I ALWAYS remember everything that I forget.”
“I stay awake until I fall asleep.”
“Shhhh, I’m trying to smell something.”
I think I’m going to start keeping a log of the silly things that I hear from kids. Have you heard anything funny lately?
Now, back to the food. I try to have everything planned out by Monday, including my menu. I know if I wait, it won’t get done during the week. But, even if I do plan a menu, sometimes it doesn’t work out as expected. I put together a great menu last week and went shopping to purchase all of the necessary items. Well, I’m fairly certain that nothing was cooked as planned. I made so many things that weren’t on the menu…cranberry/orange bread, vanilla bundt cake, French bread, 3 different kinds of dips, and a birthday cake. I hadn’t really thought about how crazy that was until I wrote it here. No wonder I gained 5 pounds this weekend!
I did end up making everything on the menu, it just wasn’t in the order that I planned. Last night I decided to make a homemade spaghetti sauce. The original recipe called for simmering the sauce on the stove for 2 hours, and I knew I didn’t have time to sit inside the house and let the whole thing simmer. I decided to experiment and throw everything in the crockpot. It worked out perfectly. It was the easiest sauce I have ever made. I even threw in some meatballs that I had previously frozen – I’ll share that recipe with you soon.
I served the spaghetti with some homemade bread and Pasta House salad, both recipes will also be posted here soon.
Here are the step-by-step instructions (not many) and the full recipe is at the bottom:
Set crockpot to low. Add to crockpot – 1 can of whole tomatoes, 1 can of diced tomatoes, 1 can of tomato paste, bay leaf, 1 tsp. sugar, 1 tsp. dried basil and ½ tsp. black pepper.
In medium pan, over medium/high heat, add ¼ cup olive oil. Once hot, add 1 cup chopped onions and sauté until soft and translucent. Add 2 tbsp. minced garlic and sauté until fragrant, approx. 1 minute.
Remove from heat and add to crockpot.
Stir to combine and cook on low for 7 hours.
Serve over your favorite spaghetti noodles.
Slow Cooker (Crockpot) Spaghetti Sauce
Recipe by: The Accidental Cook
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
1 can of whole, peeled tomatoes (15 ounces)
1 can of diced tomatoes (15 ounces)
1 can tomato paste (6 ounces)
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 cup onions – chopped
2 tbsp. minced garlic (5 cloves)
1/4 cup olive oil
Set crockpot to low. Add to crockpot – 1 can of whole tomatoes, 1 can of diced tomatoes, 1 can of tomato paste, bay leaf, 1 tsp. sugar, 1 tsp. dried basil and ½ tsp. black pepper.
In medium pan, over medium/high heat, add ¼ cup olive oil. Once hot, add 1 cup chopped onions and sauté until soft and translucent. Add 2 tbsp. minced garlic and sauté until fragrant, approx. 1 minute.
Remove from heat and add to crockpot.
Stir to combine and cook on low for 7 hours.
