Lettuce Wraps…

My oh my the beginning of summer has hit here and the heat has be rising with the hit. We hit a June record of 90 degrees here yesterday and believe me, we ate out last night! Trying to keep this house cool and keep the electric bill down is not an easy task. It just plain sucks.. lets be real.

I have been trying for years to get my boyfriend to let me buy a pool for the back yard but I have yet to be successful. In his words.. “It’s not that hot.” *mental eye roll* Lets just say that I would rather have it below 30 and snowing sideways before I have it be 90 all summer.

Anyway, I have a little lunch or snack for us trying to keep cool throughout our days at home. By the title of this little post you would have guessed it’s lettuce wraps and you are right. Nothing special there, they are simple as can be but I am posting it because there is not over, or stove for that matter if you get the right bacon.

 

Lettuce wraps aren’t anything really special but they are something different form the regular old sandwich or hot lunch you make yourself everyday. I eat a lot of these during the summer for lunch for three reasons. 1: They are simple and cheap to make. It cost maybe $10 for a week of lunches. 2: You can do almost any mix of ingredients you want. AND 3: It’s a refreshing light meal that won’t make you extra full and miserable during the hot summer.

The one pictured above is one of my favorite combinations and during the winter, or when I don’t care much about carbs, I eat it as a regular everyday sandwich. Turkey, cheddar, and bacon lettuce wrap.

Oh I wanted to touch on the part about not stove. How in the heck do I get cooked bacon with out a stove? Well that is easy, microwave! Believe me it’s the best invention since, well sliced bread.

Homestyle Biscuits

Sunday I posted one of my favorite things my mom used to make. S.O.S (a.k.a Biscuits and gravy). Growing up the biscuits my mom used to make were made from Bisquick and I loved them. This product is a super simple and fast way to make things like biscuits or pancakes if you don’t want to spend the time making them from scratch. As an adult I make my own Homestyle Biscuits from scratch, or if I am in a rush I use Pillsbury.

After years of eating Bisquick biscuits I have started to not like them because after living outside of my mothers home and making my own from scratch I can tell the difference. And to me the taste is huge!

 

So after trying many, many homestyle biscuit recipes I have settled on just this basic biscuit recipe found on Allrecipes.

Homemade Country Style S.O.S

This dinner is one of my most favorite things that my mom would make when I was growing up. Most people eat S.O.S, or biscuits and gravy as many call it, as a breakfast food but we always had it for dinner. It is just one of those meals that fill you up and (for me) remind me of a cozy day at home curled up on the couch.

There are many ways to make this, and much faster ways than this homemade version for sure. Many people just get the little packets that are just add water and boil. This recipe does take a while to complete so I would advise this be a Sunday dinner when you’re not in a hurry.

 

Crunchy Honey Garlic Chicken

So I love pinterest… a lot and I like to try recipes that I find at least once a week.and last night it was Crunchy Honey Garlic Chicken. At first I wasn’t to sure about making this because my boyfriend is very picky when it comes to food. So most nights I cook to cater to him and last night I took a chance that he might just like this.

The pin I found led me to Spend With Pennies, (which is a great site btw!!), and to the great recipe. I have provided the link to the original recipe because I altered mine a little.

 

Seaside Vacation…

One of my favorite places to go on vacation is Seaside Oregon. One reason is because of simplicity of it, this small family vacation spot is only 3 hours drive from home. The other reason is because my family has been coming here for years! We stay in the same hotel, on the same floor, and eat in the same restaurant.

During the ‘off-season’ (October-April/May) Seaside falls under the sleepy little town category. ‘On-season’ (May-September) is a lot more busy!

So let me tell you a little about these places.

The Simplest Sloppy Joes

This is one of the simplest sloppy joes recipes you will ever come across, and no I don’t mean that crap that comes out of a can. This is a homemade sloppy joe recipe with out much fuss and my mother has been making it for my whole life. I asked once why other people thought this version of sloppy joes was odd (I made it at a friends thinking it was a normal sloppy joe recipe) and she said, “Well because this is the version I made up when we were on welfare and could afford anything else.”

I found out after many, many years of thinking this was the normal way sloppy joes were made that it was really just something my mom threw together because it was cheap and the ingredients were already in the fridge. Even with that being the start of my moms sloppy joes they are AMAZING! 

Pizza Dough

When it comes to baking I used to be very cautious when it came to making things with yeast. Bread, rolls, pizza dough, and cinnamon rolls, they can all be very sensitive because they are made with yeast. Those who are experience with yeast and making things like bread have said to me, “Oh you’re kidding it’s so easy!”, but unlike them I have had flat bread before!

 

So lets talk a little about how yeast works, when it is combined with the other ingredients enzymes in the yeast and the flour cause large starch molecules to break down into simple sugars. The yeast metabolizes these simple sugars and exudes a liquid that releases carbon dioxide and ethyl alcohol into existing air bubbles in the dough.

Semi-Homemade..

Sometimes you just don’t have that much time to make dinner yourself and that my friends is when, what I call, Semi-Homemade. We have all done it at some point in our homemaking careers and you just have to. So today’s dinner was lasagna, garlic and herb bread, with Parmesan and garlic green beans.

When I have to do semi-homemade meals I always have at least one side dish that is not from a box. So today’s is the Parmesan and garlic green beans that go very nicely with lasagna.

Now not all frozen meal are all that bad! Such as Stouffer’s frozen lasagna, seen in the above picture. It will never be as good as homemade but if you only have an hour to get dinner on the table it is a very good option!

Here is what you will need to make this great little side dish!

WordPress Premium?

Heart and Homemaking might be a .com soon but this is undecided… I have been looking into making my wordpress account premium.. or maybe even the business option though the premium is cheaper.

I am struggling with this only due to the fact that I am not sure how it works. Making a site its own with out the .worpress.com after it and having all of the extras are a wonderful option.

So my question to you, my few readers, would be: Is it worth it?

Pirozhki…Piroshki?

Every year, twice a year, my boyfriend and I go to the Washington State Fair (formally known as the Puyallup fair). This usually happens in April and September. The April fair is the Spring fair and is a little smaller; some of the stands are closed, not as many activities, and not all the rides are going but just like the full fair in September all the amazing food stands are open. This includes funnel cake, elephant ears, earthquake burgers, and a Pirozhki stand! So this is where the subject of this post comes in, the Pirozhki at the fair is one of the reasons my boyfriend even takes me to the fair twice a year. Now with that little bit of background on to the reason for this post… I decided, oh about 4 hours ago, that I would make Pirozhki for dinner, and I did cheat just a little.

Pirozhki with green beans.

Now please forgive the picture and the fact that there are not going to be any other pictures because I didn’t really expect this recipe to be a success! Yet is was, my boyfriend loved it, though he did say it wasn’t exactly like the ones from the fair.