Super Easy Salisbury Steak.

To add to my confused pregnant cravings, which is getting a little out of hand. My latest craving would make pickles and ice cream sound like chips and salsa to the normal person, 2 items that go together.... Cheese Pringles and Prunes? No, Not so much, huh? The other night I had made my Flounder with mustard cream sauce recipe, that I always enjoy. Except this time around, I had like 4 bites of it and just couldn't eat it. It didn't taste right to me. So I quit eating. 30 minutes later, I decide I want something sweet. Open the fridge to Prunes, they sound good. So I eat a serving of them. Then Michael gets up to go get his dessert and I sweet talk him into getting me the cheese Pringles that I had bought that day. It was delicious and disgusting all at the same time.

After that crazy night, I've had a few normal days, except for the extreme urge to have Taco Bell Nachos. Tonight's is a new recipe that my friend Michelle sent me. She swore by this recipe. She has a family of 5, so I can see why she likes doubling this recipe. It really is super easy. She gave me a great piece of advice for serving kids, make mini patties for the kids portions. Since my munchkin won't eat normal food I just made big patties. They were delicious, and I did improvise with the sauce a little. She found this recipe on Allrecipes.com and I think we both changed the original recipe to make it right for our family. I served ours with Instant Mashed Potatoes and Corn. Not the healthiest options, but just right to go along with this meal, real comfort food. We will definitely make this one again, even if it is giving me really bad indigestion at the moment. Apparently the baby isn't appreciating it as much as I did for dinner.

Salisbury Steak

makes 4 servings

1/2 medium onion diced

1 lb ground lean turkey (you could use lean beef too)

1 -10 ounce can Campbells French onion soup

1/2 cup bread crumbs (I had to use a little more b/c of the turkey needing extra binder)

1 egg

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp All purpose flour

1/8 cup Ketchup

1/4 cup water

1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 tsp Dried ground Mustard

1 cup Beef Broth or 1 can beef broth

Saute the onion in 1 tsp oil, in a pan. In a large bowl, mix 1/3 can of French onion soup, ground turkey (or beef), bread crumbs, egg, salt & pepper. Shape into 4 patties (or multiple sizes for kids and adults). In same skillet with onions, brown patties on both sides. Pour off any excess fat (I didn't have any excess fat with the turkey).

In a small bowl, blend flour and remaining soup until smooth. Mix in ketchup, water, worcestershire sauce, mustard and beef broth. Pour over meat in skillet. Cover and lower heat to medium-medium low. Cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally and spooning sauce over patties.

Shrimp and Cheese Grits.

Tonight I achieved a new culinary feat. I made grits. I know, some of you are going to roll your eyes and say big whoop. But for a girl that has grown up in the South since she was 6... and have had grits a handful of times (out of not wanting to be rude, so taking the smallest serving possible) rather than the desire to actually eat them.

Tonight's recipe came out of Southern Living "May 2009" issue. There is a restaurant that they got this recipe from. It's called the Hominy Grill. Now I have no idea where in the south this restaurant exists but I have got to give them credit. Their recipe looked better than mine, and I only had 1/2 the recipe instructions... so I had to improvise a little. It was delicious, and besides this pregnancy, I'm not sure I would eat it otherwise. But for tonight, I made it, ate it and LOVED it.

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With all that said, I'm not sure how to make it diet friendly besides cutting back on the amount of cheese it calls for. So this may just end up being one of those "splurge" meals that you enjoy every once and a while. I used Yellow grits, because I couldn't find the grits they called for in the recipe.

Shrimp and Creamy Cheddar Cheese Grits (makes 4 servings)

Creamy Cheddar Cheese Grits

Make recipe according to package just substituting 1/2 water and 1/2 milk, instead of all water.

Then stir in 1/2 a block of reduced fat Extra sharp white cheddar cheese (shredded) and 1/2 cup reduced fat Cheddar cheese. Salt & Pepper to taste. I added 2 tsp of butter to it, which wasn't on the package.

Shrimp

1 lb peeled and deveined shrimp

5 bacon slices, chopped (I left that out)

1- 8 ounce package sliced fresh mushrooms

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions

2 tsp hot sauce

1/2 tsp salt (optional)

Heat saute pan with 2 Tbsp Olive oil. Saute shrimp and Mushrooms until shrimp are pink and done through, should be 3-5 minutes. Remove shrimp and keep warm. Add garlic and saute with mushrooms. Add lemon juice, hot sauce and green onions. Add shrimp back and mix together.

To plate, Put grits in bowl or bottom of plate, then top with shrimp and mushroom mixture. Serve hot.

This baby.

So from the beginning of this pregnancy I swear this baby is a girl. Everything is different than it was with Will. I'm already more emotional than I ever was with Will. I have to admit that the commercials for "Coming Home" on Lifetime... make me ball like a baby. Funny story for your Wednesday afternoon.

Picture me sweating it out at the gym at 9:30 am. on the elliptical, watching the television attached to my machine. While there are 30+ other people "working out". (And by "working out", I mean standing around chatting, staring at themselves in the full length mirrors while they flex their muscles- yes there are multiple people at my gym that do this). When all of a sudden this commercial comes on:

And thus starts the tears rolling down my cheeks, and then snotty nose starts, all while I'm trying not to completely burst into tears in front of all these people who don't know me or that I'm pregnant or even care for that matter. The one part that gets me is of course the little girl at the very beginning getting to see her dad and the guy sitting down and start crying when he sees his dad... After that day, I try and flip the channel when I start to even see the commercial coming on. Because I know tears will be flowing in the minute that the commercial rolls.

On top of that, Michael swears this baby is a girl, because it can't make up it's mind. Normally I can't stand grits. The thought of the texture of them, grosses me out... So guess what I just had to have... you guessed it Cheese grits... and I ate the whole bowl. This is on top of craving Taco Bell quesadilla and salad... seriously. So much for the whole... no fast food goal. I've already eaten Taco Bell 2 times this week. And it was delicious both times.

There you go. My crazy pregnant life. Unfortunately we still have like 8-10 weeks until we actually get to see if this baby will cooperate and show us whether it's a girl or a boy.... So should we start a betting pool????

GIRL OR BOY????

7 Layer salad.

Our great Hawaiian vacation didn't go very well. So instead Will and I are in Huntsville while my husband is in Hawaii for work. This will have to wait for a whole other post to explain what all went down and why I had sobbing meltdowns in 3 of the 5 Atlanta airport concourses... Not sure I could type the whole story without crying again... so it will have to wait.

For now though. This baby can not make up it's mind what it wants. If any of you ever watched Gilmore Girls, when Suki is pregnant and changes her mind like 40 times..... that is me this time. And it's annoying. Last night all I wanted was a donut and Taco bell quesadilla. Yes, I gave into both. I ate Chick-Fil-A last week with my stepdad while he was in town. So my streak of 2 years, 3 months and 19 days of no fast food came to an end. But MAN was that grilled chicken sandwich and waffle fries worth it. Sorry, little detour there. Back to the point. This baby is so culinarily confused. This morning I woke up and all I've been able to think about was this 7 layer salad that my mom has made for years... so what did I do.. went to the store bought the stuff to make it, came home. Made it and dug into it for lunch. And it was GOOD.

So here is the recipe: I know you may read the ingredients and say "Really Colleen... that's good". But honestly it is delicious and perfect for summer get togethers and BBQ's.

7 Layer salad

WW Pts Plus will vary depending on the ingredient brands you use

1 head of iceburg lettuce, cleaned

1 green pepper, chopped

1 small yellow onion, chopped

1 small bag of frozen peas

1 small bottle of lowfat or fat free ranch dressing

1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

1 package of bacon pieces

In a large casserole dish or something that you can cover. Break the lettuce into small bite size pieces. Layer lettuce, then green pepper, onion next. Thaw the peas in a strainer with warm water, then place on top of onions. I usually put just enough ranch to lightly cover the peas. It will thin out while it sits. The top with cheese and bacon pieces on top.

It's usually best if you let it sit for a couple hours before serving. And will last in the fridge for 2 days before the lettuce gets too mushy.

Cheesy Shrimp Stuffed peppers.

This recipe I actually pulled out of a Costco cookbook that Michael brought home ages ago from a guy he worked with. So of course I went through pulled out this recipe and stuck it in my 3 ring binder of recipes out of magazines... I finally flipped to it and was like hmmm, baby doesn't hate the sound of that. We'll try it.

The original recipe didn't have shrimp in it, it actually had no meat, but I had 1/2 a pound of shrimp that we need to eat and it sounds like it would go good. And pretty healthy, if you use fat free/low fat cheese. The peppers turned out better than I expected. They were also more filling than I thought, I ate my serving and sat there for a minute and realized I was completely satisfied. The pepper were soft but not mushy, the cheese/ranch flavor was delicious on top of the sweet peppers. I think I actually like this recipe better than any other stuffed pepper recipe I've ever had.... It's is a keeper in our house!!

Cheesy Shrimp Stuffed Peppers

makes: 4 servings

2 red, yellow, or orange bell peppers (whatever is cheaper)

1 Tbsp Olive oil

1/2 onion chopped

1 cup diced yellow pepper

1 cup diced red pepper

1 cup cooked brown rice

2 Tbsp dried ranch seasoning

1 cup low fat shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 lb shrimp, cooked and diced

Preheat oven to 375. Split whole peppers in half and seed them. Set Aside.

Heat olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until translucent. Add chopped peppers and continue sauteing for 3-4 minutes, or until peppers are tender.

In a large bowl, stir together rice, ranch dressing, shrimp and sauteed pepper/onion mixture. Fold in cheese. Stuff pepper halves with the rice/cheese mixture. Place in a baking dish and bake for 30 minutes, or until heated through.

Pasta Soup Classic.

With it being cold and dreary here today I decided that Soup was the way to go. I've made this recipe before but had added a mexican flavor. This time I opted for an italian flare, since apparently this baby is not a fan of the mexican food like Will was. I had added a notation to this one that it was low in points.

I forgot to take a picture. We were hungry and have been smelling it for an hour, so it got devoured before I even thought about it.

Pasta Soup

(makes 4-6 servings)

1- 32 ounce Box Fat free chicken broth

4-8 cups water (depending on how "soupy" you want it)

1 medium onion, diced

2 carrots, peeled and diced

1- 15 ounce can Tomato sauce, no salt added

2- 15 ounce can diced tomatoes, no salt added

2 cloves of minced garlic

1 cup of pasta (any type, I used Penne, b/c I had a box of it open)

salt and pepper to taste

* For the italian flare I added: A sprinkle of garlic salt and Crushed rosemary

Mix all ingredients, except pasta. Bring to a boil and let simmer 1 hour to 1 1/2 hour, then add pasta and let pasta cook until carrots and pasta are tender.

I sprinkled the bowl of soup with a Tablespoon of shredded parmesan.

Besides the little to much pepper I added, it was perfect. Exactly what I wanted today!! You can't beat a meal that feeds a whole family for 1-2 dollars.

Bacon Tomato pasta.

We actually made this recipe a week ago, but that night we got to have my friend from Auburn up here for the night, so I was busy chatting with her, then the whole excitement of telling everyone about our pregnancy. Then of course my laziness of just being so tired because of the pregnancy that I'm a little behind. So bare with me.

This recipe was pretty good, although I'm still not sure why the parmesan cheese in my recipe clumped and the original recipe off of Eat At Home cooks.com didn't. I even went so far as to email her and ask if she had that happen. No such luck. The only thing I can guess is I added it to fast.

Bacon Tomato Pasta

(makes 4 servings)

• 6 ounce (or 1 1/2 ounces per adult) pasta – I used penne, but you could use any shape you like
• 2 Tbs. butter + 2 Tbs. olive oil (this didn’t make it into the picture)
• onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 1/2 cups half & half
• 1 1/2 cups parmesan cheese, shredded or grated
• salt & pepper
• 6 slices turkey bacon, cooked and diced
• 1 can diced tomatoes, drained, no salt added
• fresh basil leaves, chopped

Boil the pasta according to the directions. Melt the butter and olive oil together in a pan and add the onion and garlic. Cook until the onion is tender. Add the wine and cook for a minute or two. Add the half & half, whisking to blend. Stir in the cheese slowly in sections and let it melt. Season with salt and pepper. Toss in the bacon, tomatoes and basil.

Drain the pasta then mix it with the sauce. Serve it with extra parmesan and black pepper if you like. Yum!