Bacon Cheeseburger Egg Rolls

What happens when someone in your house wants Chinese take out and the other wants to grill burgers?  You make Cheeseburger Egg Rolls!  What started off as an interesting food experiment, turned into a YUMMY dinner!   Serve them with a pickle and ketchup, mustard, or even bbq sauce.  

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. Lean Ground Beef
• 3 Pieces of Bacon (cooked crisp)
• 3 Tablespoons of Ketchup
• A large pinch of Dried Minced Onion
• Salt 
• Pepper
• A Couple Dashes of Garlic Powder
• A Pinch of Crushed Red Pepper
• 1/2 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
• 10 Egg Roll Wrappers
• Water
• About 1 1/2 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• Vegetable Oil

Brown ground beef in large skillet.  Season with salt, pepper,dried onion, and garlic powder.  When cooked thoroughly drain the grease and return beef to skillet.  Add ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, bacon (cooked), and crushed red pepper.

While ground beef is cooking chop up the cooked bacon.

This next step may sound tricky, but it is actually very easy.  Fill a small bowl with room temperature water.  Using a basting brush brush a this layer of water onto both sides of the egg roll wrapper.  Lay the egg roll wrapper so that it looks like a diamond (not a square) and place the meat mixture across so that it looks like the picture below.

Place a generous amount of cheese on top of meat.  Next, fold the bottom corner up and the sides in.  Then roll the egg roll up until completely closed up.  The wrapper should be wet enough to seal it, if not dip your fingers in the water and moisten to seal it.

I placed them on a cookie sheet until I was ready to cook them.  I contemplated baking them in the oven, but I wasn't sure how they would crisp up so I decided to stick with the original plan of frying them in a skillet.

I am sure that you could completely submerge them in oil and cook them, but I chose to heat about a half inch of oil in a large skillet and cook them there.  It took about 2 minutes on each side.

I served them with a side of BBQ sauce and Sweet Potato Fries.  

Pepperoni and Cheese Monkey Bread

The original recipe for this was one of the VERY first things that I pinned and actually accomplished from Pinterest.  I am not sure where the original recipe came from, so I am sorry to the original pinner.  I make it totally from memory now so it was hard to actually measure for this one.  Oh wait...I didn't keep track of the actual amount of pepperoni or cheese that I used, so I guess I didn't as good of a job as I thought that I had.  Sorry!

Ingredients:

• 1 (28 oz) Package of Frozen Pizza Dough (thawed)
• About 3 Tablespoons of Butter
• Minced Garlic
• Pepperoni Slices (less than a package)
• Mozzerella- cut into cubes
• Pizza Sauce for dipping

Melt butter and stir in garlic.Break off a piece of the dough (a little smaller than a golf ball), flatten it out just a bit, and place a piece of pepperoni and mozzerella inside.  Fold the dough around it forming into a ball.  

Roll ball in garlic butter and place in ungreased bundt pan.  Repeating until all dough is used.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.  Turn pan over onto plate and serve with warm marinara sauce for dipping.

Jalepeno Popper Dip

Recently I was at a party and the hostess made this dip, for days my friends and I talked about how delicious it was.  I LOVE the spicy, cheesy, deliciousness of it! I made it for a party we recently had and everyone asked me for the recipe.

**When I made this one I accidentally forgot the top 1/4 cup of cheddar.  Ooops.  It was still delicious, but the top would have been a little prettier with a little more cheese.  Plus who doesn't love MORE cheese!

Ingredients:

• 8 oz Cream Cheese (I used 1/3 less fat, but don't use fat free it won't melt)
• 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup + 1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1/4 cup Panko Bread Crumbs
• 1/2 + 1/4 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• 1- 4 oz can of Sliced Jalepeno Peppers (drained)
• 1 Tablespoon Diced Fresh Jalepeno or more for more spice (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.  In a medium mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese, and jalepenos.  Mix with electric hand mixer.  Don't worry about the canned jalepenos being to big, they will come apart and mix in with everything.  Place dip mixture in 8x8 baking dish.  Sprinkle on Panko bread crumbs and remaining 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and 1/4 cup of Cheddar.  Bake for 20 minutes.

I actually made mine ahead of time and placed it in the refrigerator until I was ready to bake it.  Since mine was really cold and straight out of the fridge it took closer to 27 minutes.

Serve hot with bagel chips, tortilla chips, or crackers.  

Oven "Fried" Zucchini Fries with Spicy Garlic Dipping Sauce

This is one of my new favorite side dishes!  Okay I have lots of new favorites.  Usually I just make zucchini on the grill or deep fried.  This is SO good I am sure I will be making it often!

Ingredients:

• 2 small Zucchini (enough to serve your family each zucchini is easily cut into 9 pieces)
• About a 1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese
• About a Cup of Panko Bread Crumbs
• Pepper to taste
• Salt
• A Pinch of Garlic Powder
• 1 Egg
• A Pinch of Basil 
• A Pinch of Oregano
• 1/4 cup of flour

Sauce

• 6 oz of Plain Greek Yogurt
• Salt and Pepper to Taste
• 1 teaspoon of Chili Garlic Sauce
• 1/8 Teaspoon of Garlic Powder
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Horseradish (Start with less you can always add more for spice)
• 1 Tablespoon of Mayonnaise (for even less fat and calories leave this out) 

Combine all sauce ingredients and stir.  Add spicy ingredients slowly to desired spice level.  Refrigerate until you are ready to use.  

**About an hour and a half before you want to eat the zucchini complete this step!!

Cut the zucchini into the desired size pieces.  I usually cut my zucchini in 9 pieces lengthwise.  Place in colander and sprinkle with salt.  Place a plate under the colander and place it in the fridge until ready to start the breading process.  The salt will pull out the water in the zucchini and make it more crisp after it  it cooked.  

When you are ready to bread the zucchini remove it from the fridge and place it in a ziploc bag with 1/4 cup of flour.  Seal it and shake it around until all zucchini is covered.

Preheat oven to 425.  Next, beat an egg in a long shallow bowl (or whatever the zucchini will fit in)- set aside.  On a plate combine Panko, parmesan, garlic powder, pepper, a pinch of oregano, and a pinch of basil.  Individually dip each piece of zucchini in the egg and then roll it in the crumb/spice mixture.  Place each piece on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until breading is a golden brown color.

Spicy Italian Shredded Beef Sandwiches

Scott's Aunt Wendy gave us this recipe about a year ago and I am just now getting around to making it.   I am so disappointed that I haven't made it sooner. It is SO easy and and SO delicious!  I love anything that I can throw in the slow cooker and forget, but this is one recipe my family raves about!

Ingredients:

• 3-4 lb Roast
• 1 Packet of Italian Dressing Mix
• 8 oz of Beer
• 1 12 oz jar of sliced Pepperocini
• 3 Table spoons of Juice from Pepperocini
• 12 oz of beef broth

Sandwiches

• French Bread or Rolls
• Butter
• Provolone Cheese Slices

Drain Peppers reserving 3 tablespoons of juice.  Place roast in slow cooker.  Combine all ingredients and pour over roast.  Cook on low for about 8 hours.  

Remove meat from slow cooker.  Shred meat with two forks.   

 Place shredded beef back into crock pot with the juices.

Lightly butter the bread and toast on a griddle.  Pile on the Spicy Beef and add a slice of provolone cheese.  I also serve a side bowl of the au jus from slow cooker to dip the sandwich into.  

This recipe was featured in Two Magical Moms March Menu Madness.  Check out the entire menu and try out some of our other YUMMY recipes!

Slow Cooker Loaded Potato Soup

This is one of the easiest recipes you will EVER make!  I made my grandmother's potato soup recipe one time and boy was it difficult.  It was way to much work for something I knew I could make in the slow cooker.  So when I came across the original recipe to this potato soup I was so excited to try it.  Our version is a staple recipe in our house.  Perfect for a fall/winter day and it leaves me leftovers for my lunch too!
Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup diced onion
• 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
• 1 block of Cream Cheese (don't use fat free, it won't melt.  some times I use about 3/4 of a block to make it not so thick)
• 1/2 teaspoon Pepper
• 1 bag of Shredded Hash Browns
• 28 oz of Chicken Broth 
• 6-8 slices of Bacon cooked crispy and crumbled
• Scallions

Combine hashbrowns, cream of chicken soup, pepper, onion, and chicken broth in slow cooker.  Cook on low for about 5 hours.

For the last hour, cut cream cheese into cubes and place in slow cooker.  Add in crumbled bacon and stir.  I usually stir a few times to help the cream cheese melt and evenly distribute.

Top with a little more bacon, some shredded cheddar, and scallions.

This recipe was featured on our Appetizing April Menu. Check out the entire April menu for a variety of dinner ideas!