Best Meatballs Ever


My thing is, I like to take bits and pieces of recipes and give them my own touch. I’ll call this one Gia’s Meatballs. They came out so moist and had such a great flavor to them. Ok listen, here is the deal, I always give or take some of these ingredients. To me cooking is not an exact science and sometimes I don’t always have all of these ingredients in my cupboard. So you can play around with it until you master it yourself.

1 lb ground beef (80% lean meat)

1 chopped green bell pepper

1 chopped Vidalia onion

2 tbsp of minced garlic

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp each of onion and garlic powder

1 1/2 tbsp basil

1 tbsp parsley

1 tbsp oregano

1 cup of bread crumbs

2 eggs

0421130918

I usually put some of the meatballs right into my sauce for flavor and then I pan fry the rest but this time I baked them in the oven and they happen to come out a lot juicier and they weren’t fried in grease.

0421130941

Easy mini cheese cake and pumpkin pies


These were so easy to make and everyone loved how they tasted! I have two little guys ages 8 and 9, I’m in school full-time working on my associates in Human Services, and I work from home and substitute teach at the elementary school! I really have no time for fussing around with timely recipes so things like this work perfect into my schedule!

For the mini cheese cake pies:

Jello brand boxed cheese cake mix(follow instructions)

Pillsbury premade pie crust(2 come in a package in the dairy section of your grocery store)

Roll out and use flour for a light dusting so it won’t stick to the cutting bored

Use a round biscuit cutter to make circles to fit for a mini muffin pan.

Grease the mini muffin pan with butter flavor cooking spray. Line muffin pans with the pastry cutouts. Remove from oven when done and let cool.

Mean while when your baking the mini pie crusts, prepare your cheese cake filling. Pour in pie crust and chill.

You can top with a fruit dressing, caramel or chocolate syrup.

Mini pumpkin pies

I like to use Libby’s  pumpkin pie mix rather than the pure pumpkin. I like the taste better and it’s actually less work.

Follow instructions for pie mix and pour into mini pie shells before cooking them. I also like to top the pumpkin pies with nuts.

These were quick and easy deserts that had a nice presentation as well!

Stuffed chili peppers


Over the past couple of years I have been finding ways to use leftovers to make new recipes. I came up with so many ideas and I wish I had jotted them down or started this blog earlier to keep track of them but I didn’t so here I am now.

Yesterday was a lazy Sunday for us. I was pretty bored and considering the space the men were occupying in the house, I certainly could not do any cleaning, so to fill my boredom I decided to make stuffed chili peppers with some leftovers from dinner two days ago.

~ Grilled chicken and vegetables, and a rice and broccoli casserole mix. I used my little nifty chopper to do the obvious(chop).

After preparing the stuffing mixture for the peppers. I gutted the peppers of the all seeds. Whoa let me tell you they had such a strong aroma I had a coughing fit and my eyes watered. My little guy Matthew who likes to watch me cook geared up when he watched me go through my coughing ordeal.

After cleaning the peppers, place on a cookie sheet and coat with a light layer of olive oil. Bake in the over for approximately 10 to 15 minutes. While these are roasting that is when I chopped my mix up. After the peppers are done, stuff with mixture and top with cheddar cheese. Actually, you can use any type of cheese you prefer.

Bake in the oven at 375º for about 20 minutes. The last 5 minutes I like to broil to give it a little crisp on top.

 They really came out delicious. I was pretty impressed and after cleaning the seeds out and baking them, they weren’t that spicy hot at all.

I’m on a roll or I’ll be a roll


Pinterest is going to have the death of me I swear. I browse, I pin, I do, I eat, therefore I’m probably going to become a roll. Well not all of the dishes I’m making are fattening. I made low to no carb stuffed chili peppers, barbecue shredded chicken, and zucchini muffins. And, to boot, that was all just today of which I will be posting about later on tonight. I have to say I am pretty impressed with myself and how all those recipes came out. Once again I tweaked them because of lack of ingredients and wanted to add my own touch. Is that legal on the internet? Can I call them my own recipe? Hmmm… that’s it for now. Laters bloggers.