Allybear's Den logo

Brownie Mix Cookies!

by Leave a Comment

Ever have a happy accident? These cookies are a very happy accident! I was going to make chocolate cake mix cookies, and after mixing up the dough, I was folding the box to put into the recycling and I discovered it was actually brownie mix. I was a little upset, but I needed to make cookies for an event the next day. So I figured I’d bake them and see what happened, and I was so glad I did! Chocolate cake mix cookies are good, but brownie mix cookies are even better!

Brownie mix cookies with a strawberry.

Like all cake mix cookies, these are super-easy! The best part is that they come out crispy on the bottom and chewy on the inside! And they are so chocolately! If you’ve ever been disappointed in a chocolate cookie that just didn’t taste enough like chocolate, try these and you won’t be disappointed again.

The dough does have to be chilled after mixing, because it’s a little sticky. That said, I don’t think it’s as sticky as cake mix cookie dough. They make a nice sized cookie too – not too big or too small. And if you want to treat yourself or someone you love, have them warm! But warm or cool, brownie mix cookies are worth trying!

Chocolate cookies on plate with strawberry

Brownie Mix Cookies

Using a brownie mix in these cake mix cookies produces an intensely chocolate cookie with a crisp bottom and a chewy inside!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Refrigeration 1 hour
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings: 4 dozen
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 box brownie mix (any size)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Method
 

  1. Combine ingredients in a mixer bowl.
  2. Mix until completely combined.
  3. Stir chocolate chips in by hand.
  4. Refrigerate for at least an hour or as long as overnight (if you refrigerate them overnight, take them out of the fridge about 15 minutes before you plan to bake them)
  5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  6. Scoop about 1/2 teaspoon of dough and form into a “tall ball” (the ball should be taller than it is wide). Do not overcrowd on pan – these cookies spread quite a bit.
  7. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cookies should look slightly glossy on top.
  8. Let cool on pan for about 5 minutes and remove them to wire rack to cool.

Let’s hear it for happy accidents!

Sausage, Spinach and Tomatoes!

by Leave a Comment

Dish of sausage, spinach and tomatoes
Made with one pan, one knife, and one cutting board!

Spinning an old recipe!

I’ve made chicken with spinach and tomatoes and shared it with you before, but I never thought of using those ingredients with sausage! One night, I had some sausages defrosted for something that didn’t work (yet!) We still needed dinner, though. I had spinach and cherry tomatoes in the fridge for other meals, and I decided to put them together and see what happened. Well, what happened was JP saying, “you can make this again any time”. Does it get better than that? This is a quick, easy and delicious meal you can make with one cutting board, one knife, and one pan!

Sausage, Spinach and Tomatoes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings: 4 people
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 3 Italian sausages
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 bag spinach
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • ground pepper
  • 8 cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese

Method
 

  1. Remove stems from spinach (If they bother you – they bother me, so I generally always remove them. If you’re ok with them, you can skip this step.) Set aside.
  2. Cut cherry tomatoes in half and set aside.
  3. Cut sausages into 1/4″ pieces.
  4. Heat large frying pan over medium-high heat.
  5. Add olive oil and swirl to cover bottom of pan.
  6. Add sausage pieces to pan and cook for 15 minutes or until browned and cooked through.
  7. Add spinach, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.
  8. Toss sausages and spinach together in frying pan.
  9. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often, until spinach is wilted.
  10. Add cherry tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes – tomatoes should start to pop and release juice.
  11. Remove to serving bowl and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Quick, easy, and (usually) inexpensive!

All of the ingredients are usually on sale at the supermarket, so this is a great way to take advantage of those sales when you’re planning menus! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Bowl with sausage, spinach and tomatoes sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.

Chicken and Strawberry Flatbread

by Leave a Comment

Flatbread with chicken, spinach, strawberries, goat cheese and balsamic vinegar
Yum!

Do you like strawberries? I love strawberries and for whatever reason, I seem to get nice strawberries year-round now. I don’t really like most dinner salads until it gets warm out, and it certainly feels like winter is never going to end here in the Northeast! That said, I make a great salad with these ingredients. I’ll share that recipe once it gets warmer, but as I’ve mentioned this is a great way to enjoy these flavors even when it’s cold!

Strawberry and Goat Cheese Flatbread

A delicious and easy flatbread with spinach, chicken, strawberries and goat cheese
Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Total Time 22 minutes
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cauliflower pizza crust or flatbread of your choice
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 1/2 cups baby spinach leaves stems removed
  • 1 cup diced cooked chicken
  • 1/2 cup goat cheese crumbles
  • 6 strawberries
  • 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar see note below

Method
 

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Remove stems from spinach leaves.
  3. Dice cooked chicken into 1/4″ chunks.
  4. Hull and slice strawberries into three slices.
  5. Brush each pizza crust with olive oil (brush the entire crust).
  6. Arrange spinach leaves over crust, leaving a 1/4″-1/2″ edge uncovered all the way around.
  7. Arrange chicken over spinach.
  8. Sprinkle each crust with goat cheese.
  9. Arrange strawberry slices on top of cheese.
  10. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar.
  11. Bake for 12 minutes or until crust is browned.

Notes

This will work with any balsamic vinegar, but if you can find strawberry balsamic vinegar, it is really great. It seems to me that every touristy town has an olive oil and vinegar shop, and most of them have strawberry vinegar. I also have found that most of these stores ship, so if you aren’t going away any time soon, you should be able to get it shipped to you. If you can’t find it, don’t worry, it’s good with regular balsamic too!

This is a quick, easy, and delicious recipe! And it’s a perfect way to use up some leftover strawberries, or a good excuse to buy some strawberries.

Slice of the strawberry, chicken, goat cheese and spinach flatbread.

Crockpot Goulash (of Love)!

by Leave a Comment

You may be wondering why I’m using a picture of a heart instead of a picture of goulash to illustrate crockpot goulash. Well…true confessions time! One year Valentine’s Day fell in the middle of the week, we had plans to go out on the weekend, and when I was planning menus, I just didn’t think of the date! In fairness, I was working for a startup while going to school at night, so I was lucky I could think or cook at all, but still, I put crockpot goulash on the menu for February 14th. The day before, JP asked me “what are we doing for dinner tomorrow” and I said, “oh, I’m making goulash”. I think he was a little startled. I know I was startled once I realized what day it was what I had done, but ever since then, this has been known in our house as the Goulash of Love.

Even if you don’t choose to make it for Valentine’s Day, it’s a great meal for this time of year. It’s super-easy, flavorful, and nice and cozy on these cold winter days!

Crockpot Goulash

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 8 hours
Total Time 16 minutes
Servings: 4 people
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 2 onions, sliced thin in half-rounds
  • 1 pound chuck beef cubes
  • 14 ounces chopped tomatoes with juice (1 can)
  • 2 tablespoons paprika
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ground pepper
  • 16 ounces sour cream

Method
 

  1. Slice onions (cut in half and cut each half into thin slices).
  2. Add all ingredients except sour cream to crockpot and stir well to combine.
  3. Cook in crockpot for at least 8 hours at Low.
  4. Remove bay leaf, meat and onions from crockpot. Don’t worry if you can’t get all the onions out! Discard bay leaf.
  5. Check seasoning and add salt and pepper if required. I find almost everything needs salt and pepper after it’s been cooked in the crock.
  6. Add sour cream to liquid in crockpot and stir well until combined. 
  7. Put meat and onions back in crockpot and stir to combine with sauce.
  8. Turn crockpot to High for 15 minutes to heat through.
  9. Stir well and serve with noodles, rice, or pierogi.

Valentine’s Day Dinner at Home!

by 1 Comment


Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

There are a lot of reasons why you may be having Valentine’s Day dinner at home this year – it’s a Thursday and you (and/or your significant other) may have to work Friday, you may not be able to find a babysitter, money may be short – the list is endless! That said, there’s no reason why you can’t make your Valentine’s Day dinner at home special! A lot of these ideas can work for birthdays, anniversaries, or any time you want to treat your family!

The Table

  • Bring out the good china! Many of us have at least one set of good china (or part of a set) that gets dragged out once a year and then stuck back in the cabinet until next year. There’s no reason you can’t take it out for your special day. Even chicken fingers seem fancy if you’re eating them off china.
  • If you don’t have good china, do you have anything special you can use? Toasting glasses from your wedding? Glasses you got on a family vacation? Bringing out rarely seen pieces, especially ones with sentimental value, can make any meal feel special.
  • Or bring out the paper plates! Holiday paper plates, or even red and pink (for Valentine’s Day) plates will make your table look like a party without spending a lot of money! You don’t have to worry about breaking them, and you don’t have to worry about washing them! They’re a little wasteful, but don’t worry about that now – it’s a special event.
  • Bring out a nice tablecloth or fancy place mats and napkins – either cloth if you have them, or color-coordinated paper. And if you have table runners or napkin rings you rarely use, this is a great time to use them! Make decorated place cards for each member of the family (this is another fun project for kids to do).
  • Eat by candlelight. And I don’t mean one or two candles – collect as many candles as you can find around the house, turn the lights down or off, and eat by their light. Be safe – keep them in the middle of the table stack them on a plate (or two) if you’re using paper goods, and be sure they’re all out before you go to bed. I got a candle snuffer as a gift a while back and I love it.

The Room

  • Decorate! Be careful about paper table decorations if you’re going to eat by candlelight, but if you’re not (or if you can put them around the room), paper decorations are fun and easy. Cut out hearts and decorate them (or better yet, have the kids decorate them). I found heart-shaped paper doilies in a variety of sizes at the dollar store, and if you can’t find those, you can probably find round ones that you can glue your paper hearts on. How about a paper banner spelling out “Happy Valentine’s Day” (or just “love”, if you don’t want to make that big a banner!) Instructions for a simple paper banner can be found at https://allybearsden.blog/how-to-make-a-paper-banner/
  • While we’re talking decorations, don’t forget flowers. They’re expensive this time of year, but if you’re not going out because of time rather than money, they may be worth it. You may have some fake flowers at home that you can take from their usual spots and rearrange as a centerpiece. Simply glue some paper hearts onto wooden skewers (put one on each side of the skewer so no one has to look at the “back”). Pop them into the arrangement of flowers-on-hand and you’ve got a seasonal arrangement without spending a lot of money!

The Meal

  • Make one part of the meal special. Making a special meal can take a lot of time, money, and aggravation, but making something you don’t usually have – maybe dessert, maybe a nicer-than-usual side dish – makes the whole meal seem that much more special. And making someone’s favorite dish (especially if it’s something you don’t like) is a great way to show you care!
  • Going back to the “good china” idea, even instant pudding can seem special if you serve it in a wine glass decorated with a dollop of whipped cream and a cut-up strawberry!

Just a Sweet Idea

  • Try writing each person in your family a love note – you don’t have to get all squishy if that’s not you, but I’m sure you appreciate something about each of them – write it down and leave it at their place!

I hope I’ve given you some ideas how to make Valentine’s Day special, even if you’re celebrating at home!

Letters i and u with red heart in the middle

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

My Holiday Home (with the Valentine’s Day Basket)!

by Leave a Comment

Basket decorated for Valentine's Day
Happy V’Day!

Hope you all had a good weekend – now that Groundhog Day and Super Bowl Sunday are over, it’s time to think about Valentine’s Day! I didn’t go nuts decorating this year. I’ve been busy at work, so I didn’t have a lot of time to make new things for Valentine’s Day this year. What I did do was recycle a lot of things I had on hand. Some are from last Valentine’s Day and some are leftovers from other holidays. You don’t need to buy a whole bunch of new things to decorate for each holiday!

The Kitchen

Kitchen towels with hearts and dogs.
I love doggies!

I put out my favorite decorative towels in the kitchen – I keep one side of the rolling island for “working” dishtowels and put one or two decorative ones on the other side.

The Living Room

Mantel with red and white flowers and sign that says "love".
A red living room helps when decorating for Valentine’s Day!

I also did a little decorating on the mantel. This vase and flowers were in the basket last year. I got them both at the dollar store and I glittered around the top (because you can never have too much glitter, amirite?

What’s not to love!

The “love” sign is another find from the dollar store – I wrote “Love” on it myself. You can see I also moved my cranberry glass onto the mantel to go with the theme, and simply put a pink heart-shaped doily under the vase and some heart-shaped crystals around the vase.

Vase with red flowers on pink doily
You can never have too much glitter or too many hearts!

The Basket!

And the moment we’ve all been waiting for…the Valentine’s Day basket!

Basket decorated for Valentine's Day
Here it is!

If I say so myself, it really came out well this year! I drew the glitter hearts on plain glass vases last year. The box is another carry-over from last year. I added a few things this year. I painted the inside of two diamond-patterned mason jars with pink glitter paint. Painting the inside helps avoid splotches that can develop when you paint the outside of a diamond-patterned jar. The red candle is one I had on hand – I was looking for something for the center and I actually keep extra candles on a shelf under the “basket table”.

If you’ve been following me, you recognize the candles on the side. Those candles are one of the best things I’ve ever bought! They were a Halloween decoration from Target that I picked up for half-price on November 1st, and I’ve used them for every holiday since then! The little lights are pink flowers, and I bought them for Easter last year.

I think you can see that the lights are pink!

Hope you’re feeling inspired to look around your house and see what you can use to decorate for Valentine’s Day!

Squash and Sausage Soup

by Leave a Comment

Pot of butternut squash and sausage soup
Hearty, savory, squash and sausage soup!
Jump to Recipe

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve come to appreciate butternut squash recently. I love summer squash (especially zucchini) with sausage. Those two factors led me to decide to try doing something with butternut squash and sausage. Unlike a lot of butternut squash recipes, this is entirely savory – no cinnamon or other sweet spices are used at all!

This is a somewhat chunky soup. If you prefer your soup smoother, you can remove the sausage and puree the soup. You can then return the sausage, re-season, and heat through. I think it’s a perfect winter meal just as it is, though. It’s hearty, filling, and warming – great for snow days or any day! And if that’s not enough to convince you to try this, it holds well in the fridge and freezes well. You can make it on a day off and keep it ready for the next time you want to to treat your family to homemade soup!

Sausage and Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut squash and Italian sausage combine to make a filling and delicious soup!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Total Time 2 hours
Servings: 4 people
Course: Soup
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 large butternut squash
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil (I provided for 1 tablespoon for brushing squash – you may need less)
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons salt (1 provided for 1/2 teaspoon to sprinkle on squash)
  • ground pepper
  • 2 teaspoons parsley (I provided 1 teaspoon to brush on squash)
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 stalk celery
  • 1 medium onion
  • 3 sweet Italian sausage
  • 2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 4 cups vegetable stock
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground sage
  • 1 bay leaf

Method
 

Preparing the Squash – this can be done in advance
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
  2. Quarter squash and remove seeds.
  3. Brush with 1 tablespoon olive oil (you may need less, depending on the size of your squash) and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and parsley.
  4. Roast squash in 400 degree oven for 30 minutes or until soft.
  5. When squash is cool enough to handle, remove peel and cut into 1 inch chunks.
Making the Soup
  1. Dice carrot, celery, and onion into 1/8″ cubes.
  2. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in large pot over medium heat.
  3. Saute carrot, celery, and onion for 5 minutes or until carrot and celery start to soften and onion is translucent.
  4. Remove sausages from their casing and put sausage meat into pot (I usually just squeeze the meat out of the casing right into the pot. Some stores sell loose sausage meat, and that works just fine too – you’ll need a little less than a pound).
  5. Add 2 teaspoons minced garlic. Saute sausage meat, garlic, and veggies for 10 minutes or until sausage is browned. Stir often to avoid burning garlic and onions.
  6. Add cubed squash to pot.
  7. Add 4 cup vegetable stock, 1/2 teaspoon salt, ground pepper, 1/4 teaspoon sage, and bay leaf.
  8. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 1/2 hour.
  9. Remove bay leaf. Using a potato masher, mash squash until soup is generally creamy, but retaining some texture. If you’d like it creamier, remove sausage and puree, either in a blender in small batches or with an immersion blender.
  10. Put soup and sausage (if you’ve used the blender) back in the pot.
  11. Add 1/4 teaspoon ground sage, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon parsley, and ground pepper. 
  12. Heat through and serve immediately or store in fridge/freezer until ready to heat and eat.

What’s your favorite soup recipe?

Bowl of butternut squash and sausage soup.

Candy Bar Cupcakes!

by Leave a Comment

Peanut butter cup cupcake and snickers cupcake
PB Cups and Snickers!

Who doesn’t love candy and cupcakes? I combined some of everyone’s favorite candy bar flavors – peanut butter cups and Snickers – to make these delicious and pretty cupcakes.

You can use whatever base you’d like for the chocolate cupcakes – if you have a favorite recipe, go for it, or go for the easy way and use a box mix (I always add an extra egg and replace the water with milk). The same goes for the chocolate frosting – you can make your own or use the premade and it works fine either way.Then you mix up some easy buttercream icing and away you go!

These recipes call for the use of some decorating tips and a decorating bag. Please don’t be intimidated by the cake decorating aisle at your local crafts store! Learning cake decorating is a lot of fun, but even if you have no intention of doing so, picking up a box of disposable plastic decorating bags, a few tips (round and “star” tips in different sizes), and the plastic couplers you can use to switch out tips will make your life so much easier. If you’ve always used the supermarket cake decorating sets with the plastic tips, you won’t believe how much easier it is to get the results you want with these! As a note, very large tips (such as the 1M I use for the chocolate frosting in these recipes) will not fit on the coupler – you drop them straight in the bag and then cut the bag so the tip sticks out.

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

Peanut Butter Buttercream
  • 6 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 3 tablespoons peanut butter
  • 1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
  • 4 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 24 chocolate cupcakes
  • chocolate frosting

Method
 

  1. Bake cupcakes and let cool completely.
  2. If making chocolate frosting, make it now and set aside.
Make Peanut Butter Buttercream:
  1. Add peanut butter to softened butter in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Mix peanut butter and butter together until creamy and well combined.
  3. Gradually add confectioner’s sugar and beat until sugar is completely incorporated.
  4. Add heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time, until frosting is desired consistency.
  5. This will make a little more frosting than you need for 24 cupcakes. You can keep the rest in the fridge for 3 days and use it to ice additional cupcakes. It will harden in the fridge – let it sit out at room temperature for about a half-hour and if necessary, mix in more heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time.
Fill, Frost and Decorate:
  1. Fill decorating bag about 1/2 full of peanut butter buttercream. Using a large round decorating tip (Wilton #10), push down into the cupcake to fill with peanut butter buttercream. As you squeeze the decorating bag, you should see the cupcake fill. Be careful not to squeeze too hard, or the cupcake can crack. If this happens, simply squeeze the two sides together around the filling. Repeat for each cupcake, refilling decorating bag as necessary.
  2. Fill a second decorating bag about 1/2 full of chocolate frosting. Using a large star tip (Wilton #1M), pipe a large star on top of each cupcake, covering the hole where the filling went in. Alternatively, you can just frost the entire top of each cupcake with chocolate frosting.
  3. Change the tip on the peanut butter buttercream decorating bag to a small star tip (I used Wilton #16, but any star tip smaller than the first one will work. Pipe a small star on top of each cupcake.

Peanut butter cups are JP’s favorite, and he loved these cupcakes! I’m not the biggest peanut butter cup fan, but even I liked these. If we’re talking candy bars, I like mini Snickers – I think I’ve told the story of how I thought I didn’t for a long time and then I had one and remembered I do. I’m not sure my waistline thanked me for that revelation…oops!

So, in the interest of having something for everyone, I present Snickers cupcakes! By the way, JP really liked these too!

Snickers Cupcakes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 24 chocolate cupcakes
  • chocolate frosting
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
  • 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 1/8 cup caramel homemade or premade – do not use sundae syrup
  • 1/8 cup peanuts, finely chopped

Method
 

Get Ready:
  1. Bake chocolate cupcakes and let cool completely.
  2. If making chocolate frosting, prepare it now.
Make the Buttercream:
  1. Beat softened butter and vanilla extract until creamy.
  2. Gradually add confectioner’s sugar and beat at medium-high speed after each addition until sugar is completely incorporated (about 5 minutes).
  3. Add heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time, and beat well after each addition.
  4. Chill until ready to use, bearing in mind that it will harden in the fridge. If you’ve made it in advance, let warm at room temperature for 30 minutes and add more cream if necessary.
Fill, Frost and Decorate:
  1. Fill a decorating bag about 1/2 full of buttercream. Using a large round tip (Wilton #16), push into the middle of each cupcake. Squeeze gently to fill the cupcake with buttercream. Be careful not to squeeze too hard – you could crack the cupcake. Continue until all cupcakes are filled, refilling decorating bag as necessary.
  2. Fill a second decorating bag about 1/2 full of chocolate icing. Using a large star tip (Wilton #1M), pipe a star on top of each cupcake, completely covering the hole where the cupcake was filled. Alternatively, you can just frost the entire top of each cupcake with chocolate frosting.
  3. Pour caramel into a squeeze bottle or a decorating bag with a medium round tip (Wilton #5 or 7). Draw an “x” across each cupcake, from side to side (this will cover both the frosted and unfrosted parts of the cupcake). As mentioned in the ingredient list, you can use pre-made caramel, but do not get caramel “sundae syrup” in the squeeze bottle – it is too runny and will drip all over your cupcakes instead of sitting nicely on top.
  4. Finely chop peanuts. Sprinkle each cupcake with chopped peanuts.
Peanut butter cup cupcake
One more picture of that beautiful peanut butter cup cupcake!

BBQ Ground Turkey!

by Leave a Comment

Bowl of barbecue ground turkey
Yum!

Have you ever thought of making your own barbecue sauce? It’s really not difficult and it’s better than the store-bought! You can adjust this recipe to your tastes if you like your sauce sweeter, hotter, or more vinegary, but this is a nice balanced barbecue sauce. One of my favorite ways to use it is on cooked ground turkey. You can use ground beef too, but I actually like this better with turkey. You can eat this on a roll, over rice (regular or cauliflower), with mashed potatoes, or just on its own. The sauce recipe makes enough to coat a pound of ground meat with sauce – if you need more, the recipe can easily be doubled. Even people who think they don’t like ground turkey like this!

It’s a nice barbecue sauce for pork, ribs, or chicken too. Like any sweet barbecue sauce, it shouldn’t be put on the meat until the meat is cooked to prevent burning.

You can make this for a party (maybe this Sunday?) and keep it warm in a crockpot on the “keep warm” setting. I would recommend making a double batch of the sauce if you’re going to do that.

Barbecue Ground Turkey

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Servings: 4
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pound ground turkey or ground beef
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Barbecue Sauce
  • 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
  • 1 medium onion, finely diced
  • 1/4 cup diced canned tomatoes with juice
  • 1/2 cup juice from tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup ketchup
  • 3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • dash hot sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • ground pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Method
 

  1. Heat one tablespoon vegetable oil in frying pan over medium-high heat
  2. Add ground turkey to frying pan and cook, breaking up with spoon, until browned and completely cooked through.
  3. Finely dice one medium onion.
  4. Heat 2 teaspoons vegetable oil in saucepan over medium heat.
  5. Add diced onion and cook for five minutes or until translucent.
  6. Reduce heat to low.
  7. Add tomatoes, tomato juice, ketchup, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder.
  8. Cook on low heat for ten minutes, stirring often.
  9. Pour sauce over ground turkey, stir well to coat turkey, and serve.
Bowl of barbecue ground turkey

Orange Marmalade Wings

by Leave a Comment

Continuing this week’s theme of “things to serve at a football party”, here is another twist on chicken wings. I received a gift of some good orange marmalade made by Trappist monks, and immediately started thinking “how can I use this?” Yes, anyone could spread it on toast…I have to be different! 🙂

I love sweet heat, and if you do too, you’ll love these wings. They are more sweet than hot, but if you want to up the heat, simply add more sriracha. I think they’re pretty perfect as is, though!

Orange Marmalade Chicken Wings

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Servings: 24 wingettes
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 12 chicken wings
  • 4 tablespoons orange marmalade
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 1 tablespoon sriracha
  • 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice

Method
 

Prepare the Wings (this can be done up to a day in advance)
  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Remove the ends of the wing tips and cut wings in half to create wingettes. You should be able to feel where to cut them by bending the wings in half.
  3. Bake wingettes on a rack over a cookie sheet at 425 for 20 minutes.
  4. Store wings in fridge.
The Finished Product
  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Bake wings at 425 for 15 minutes.
  3. While wings are heating, heat butter and marmalade in saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine.
  4. When butter is melted and marmalade is incorporated, add sriracha, Worcestershire, and lemon juice. Stir well to combine.
  5. Remove wings to large bowl.
  6. Toss wings in sauce, adding sauce gradually till wings are covered (you will probably have more sauce than you need, but it’s delicious – feel free to use it all, because it is an excellent dipping sauce).

Hope you enjoy these wings as much as we did!