Stuffed Mushrooms & Sloppy Joes

So, my family has been blessed lately with some free food resources lately.  With money growing tight throughout the winter, I have taken steps to resolve that!  I go (as often as I can) to a church that has a food ministry on Saturday mornings.  It helps off-set the growing grocery bill.  Here, they have fruits, veggies, breads, and desserts that will be going out-of-date from some of the local grocery store.  Also, my husband's parents and grandparents have some cows that occasionally will be sent away and come back as meat for the family.  This past month, for one reason or another, 3 cows have had to be sent off, which means now there is a MAJOR overflow in meat!  Perfect for my family!  So, all of that to say, I have 2 AWESOME recipes that I have used recently to use some of my resources!

 Marvelous Stuffed Mushrooms (No kidding, that's the name of the recipe)
Taken from Allrecipes.com
Tested by DH and YCGP

Ingredients

• 1 pound large fresh mushrooms
• 1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 4 1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 dash ground nutmeg
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions

1. Remove stems from mushrooms; set caps aside. Finely chop stems. In a small mixing bowl, combine the butter, flour, onion, parsley, mustard, salt, cayenne, nutmeg and chopped stems. Fill mushroom caps. Place in a greased shallow 2-qt. baking dish. Pour cream over mushrooms. Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until mushrooms are tender, basting twice.

 Guinea Pig Rating:  ***** (5/5)


What I did:  I used regular mustard instead of the Dijon and milk instead of heavy whipping cream.

What will I do differently next time:  Cook them a tad longer and baste them a few more times.  They were AWESOME!

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sloppy Joes II
Taken from Allrecipes.com
Tested by: DH, BILs, BIL F, DC, & YCGP 

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
• 3/4 cup ketchup
• 3 teaspoons brown sugar
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a medium skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef, onion, and green pepper; drain off liquids.
2. Stir in the garlic powder, mustard, ketchup, and brown sugar; mix thoroughly. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

 Guinea Pig rating:  ***** (5/5)


What I did:  I put everything in, except for the onion.  I have some BILs that do not like onions.  I think I added in onion powder instead.

What will I do next time:  Next time, I am going to put it over rice, instead of between hamburger buns!  :)

  

Streusel Topped Blueberry Muffins

Streusel Topped Blueberry Muffins

Taken from Allrecipes.com

Tested by DH, DC, and YCGP

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/2 cup milk

Topping:

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 5 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter, diced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375*. Grease 12 muffin cups.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. In a small bowl, sprinkle 1 to 2 tablespoons flour over blueberries, and set aside. (This simple trick will keep you from having "purple" batter)
3. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, and stir in vanilla and lemon zest. Fold in dry ingredients alternately with milk. Fold in blueberries. Remember, fold gently, don't stir. Spoon batter into prepared cups.
4. For Topping:  combine flour, sugar ,and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut inbutter with fork or pastry blender until mixture resembles course crumbs. Sprinkle over batter in muffin cups.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack.

Guinea Pig Rating:  ***** (5/5)

What I did:  I followed the recipe, except for the lemon zest and salt.
What will I do next time:  Add a 1/4 cup more milk to make the dough a little thinner, but it still tasted AWESOME!!!!