Fantastic Food!

This month I decided that I was going to avoid making any boxed or "easy" meals. You know the ones I'm talking about like hamburger helper, frozen orange chicken, mac n' cheese. Not that I make these alot, but as a busy student and mother I probably make these convenient meals a little more than I should. So since this is health month for me (time to lost those extra 5 pounds!) I vowed to make homemade meals for the whole month. I have a few "just in case" meals available but I have not had to resort to this yet!

Because I am doing this challenge, I've been discovering many more recipes online, and am in love with quite a few of them. 3 of my favorite recipes I found were for french dip sandwiches, homemade croutons, and stuffed zuchini.

Here are the wonderful recipes:


French Dip Sandwiches (this was amazing because Albertsons also had beef roast buy one get one free!)
2-3 pounds of beef roast
2 TBSP olive oil
salt & pepper
dry onion soup mix (2 pkgs)
2 C Water
2 C beef broth
6-8 buns/rolls
provolone cheese

1. Heat Oil in a large pot. Salt & pepper Roast, and brown in pot.
2. Place in crockpot, sprink with onion mix. Add the water and beef broth over roast.
3. Cook 8-10 hours on low, or 4-5 hours on high and 3-4 hours on low.
4. Shred with Fork.
5. Place meat in the rolls, top with cheese, and broil face up.

*Use juices in small cups for dipping. (The dip is so yummy)
I was bummed though that I didn't have cute little bowls for the dipping sauce! These are now on my wishlist!



Stuffed Zuchini
2 medium 10" zuchini
4 oz. italian turkey sausage
1/4 diced onion
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 diced tomato
1 tsp dried basil
2/3 C italian cheese blend
1 Tbsp italian style bread crumbs
salt, pepper, & olive oil

1. Slice in halves & leave tops on
2. Scoop out zuchini centers (dice up the inside scoop stuff)
3. Drizzle zuchini shells with olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper
4. Brown sausage. ADD onions, garlic, diced zuchini.
5. Cook 2-3 minutes, then ADD tomato, basil, 1/4 tsp salt and some pepper
6. Broil hollowed out zuchini (only for a little bit!)
7. Add Cheese and bread crumbs to mixture
8. Fill zuchini, top with more cheese, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and a little drizzle of olive oil.
9. Bake about 10 minutes at 400-450 degrees. Broil if needed.

Sourdough Garlic Croutons

4C sourdough bread cubes
1 1/2 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp parsley

Bake @ 350 degrees
1. Combine dry ingredients in bowl. Melt butter and combine in olive oil.
2. Pour butter/olive oil mix over bread cubes, and mix.
3. Sprinkle herb mixture, making sure croutons are all coated.
4. Spread onto baking sheet. Cook 10-20 minutes and flip every 5 minutes.

So Easy & Niko loved popping these into his mouth!

ENJOy!