Showing posts with label biscuits. Show all posts

A Very Sweet (Potato) Thanksgiving

I know, Thanksgiving has been over for, well, over a month. But like always, after Thanksgiving, the days swept buy in a blur of color and festivities as we prepared for even more holiday celebrations. But I promise, this recipe is worth the wait, and will taste great any time of the year.

I finally redeemed myself from a very unfortunate desert concoction last year during passover. Since then I have apparently been dubbed the dessert maker for family celebrations and functions. This is fine with me as I love trying to new dessert recipes, but can't always justify making a batch of cookies or brownies or fudge every day when I live with just myself. There is no amount of running in the world that could counterbalance all of those calories - I like decadent things. Plus, I think, the batter is always the best part, and the person doing the prepping and baking is usually the only one who gets the luxury of licking those spoons.
biscuits dessert Holiday Cooking
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Date Night Dinners - Pot Pie Bites


Brenden and I have been talking about making pot pies for weeks. Each week when date night comes around we bring up the idea once again, but somehow convince each other that we should save it for the next week. It is either going to take to long, or we don't have the ingredients, or one of us is in the mood for something else, whatever the reason, it usually means we will not do pot pies that week. Well this was the week. We finally found a pot pie recipe that was simple, quick, and wouldn't break the bank (although we have never made pot pie before so this could be true for all recipes). Most importantly, this recipe left out the hassle of making or at least using pie dough.


Using Pinterest, of course, we found this neat recipe for pot pie bites. These little delights are made using biscuits (umm, win right there) rather then pie, and are great for measuring individual servings - 1 biscuit, 1 pot pie, 1 serving. Easy Peasy.


We decided to cook out own chicken since we had some waiting for us in the fridge, but the original recipe used cooked chicken to make it even easier. We then heated all of the other ingredients and spooned the mixture into the biscuit dough. Closing the biscuits was the hardest part. We had to make sure the dough was stretched enough and the scoop was the perfect size for each biscuit. Brenden took over scooping duty since I am notorious for over stuffing everything. On taco night, half my taco is usually eaten off my plate because all of the toppings are squished out after the first bite or two. Although Brenden worked at a pizzaria, I took over the dough stretching. Let's just say...he has some dough issues to work out. I found that holding the stretched biscuit in the palm of my hand and having the filling scooped into the center worked best. It made it easier to ensure everything stayed inside while pinching the dough closed. But, if you don't want to get as messy a counter fork will do (just make sure you cover the surface with flour so your dough doesn't stick).


I was extremely impressed with how well these came out. We had popped the filled biscuits in the oven, crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. We were nervous filling would quickly seep out the edges of the biscuits they baked or that outside would bake faster then the inside and we would be left to eat raw dough. Happily, this was not the case. The outsides were perfectly golden with the right amount of crisp. The inside dough was cooked fully and the filling remained intact, was not dry and had a fantastic ratio of mixings in each bite. We also made an unusually smart choice (for us) of checking on the pot pies halfway through the baking process. Our source recipe called for these to bake for 30-35 minutes. When we checked at 15, they were almost perfect. We let them bake a few minutes longer to ensure a cooked inside, but took them out after 17-18 minutes to prevent the bottom from burning. I am guessing the cooking time depends on the brand of biscuits, the strength of your oven, and the thinness you spread the biscuits to. We made ours about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick while spreading. But in any case, my one recommendation would be to check while baking. It will make you a very happy camper.


Like I said, I haven't had pot pie in a while, but if memory serves correct, these tasted just like the real thing. I actually prefer these because I am not a huge fan of pie crust. But biscuits, who doesn't like biscuits? Brenden agreed that they were pretty darn tasty as well. Can this be? A meal that was prepared exactly the same for both of us, with veggies and meat included that we both liked! Well it happened. And, as we were eating Brenden even claimed he isn't usually a fan of pot pie (strange since he was the one who suggested it all those weeks ago). But never mind that. I cannot recommend it more. It is easy, fast, not messy and looks good. I am thinking these would be great to bring to a potluck.

Pot Pie Bites
Recipe adapted from yummyhealthyeasy.com, Easy Hand Held Pot Pies

 Ingredients
  • 1 package Pillsbury Grands Biscuits
  • 3 thin sliced chicken breasts
  • 1 small yellow onion, diced
  • 1-10.5 oz can cream of chicken soup
  • 1-10.8 oz bag mixed frozen veggies, microwaved
  • salt and pepper to taste
Directions

  1. In a skillet, cook the chicken completely.
  2. Once cooked through, remove the chicken to cool until able to handle.
  3. While chicken is cooling, add the onion to the same skillet and cook on medium heat until soft.
  4. As the onion cooks, shred the chicken.
  5. When onion is tender, turn the heat to low and add the chicken back into the skillet along with the soup veggies and seasonings to heat everything.
  6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  7. Open the package of biscuits, take one biscuit and pull the dough with your hands to flatten and spread.
  8. Place a small scoop of the chicken fill in the center of the dough.
  9. Fold the dough around the mixture, to make a half circle shape and pinch the dough closed with your fingers or a fork.
  10. Place the filled dough on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking oil.
  11. Repeat steps 7-10 until all of the buscuits are used.
  12. Place baking tray in oven and cook for 15-18 minutes or until the outside is golden brown and the middle is cooked.
  13. Remove from oven and serve. Eat right away, but be careful, the middle is hot!
biscuits chicken comfort food
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Date Night Dinner - Homemade Remedy

To say school is stressing me out this semester would be an understatement. My new best companions consist of: Advil for my never ending headache, under eye cream for the bags that get darker each day, and chocolate of any kind for the emotional eating break downs I tend to have (every night...). Luckily, I have an amazing boyfriend (or maybe he was just tired of getting snapped at, sorry Brendo). He decided to not only take on getting the ingredients for this week's meal, but he surprised me by choosing it, making it, cleaning it, and writing about it! This night was just what the doctor called for, a delicious bowl of comfort and a relaxing night before my Advil, eye cream, chocolate cycle reset. Hope you enjoy, I sure did.


This week, poor Tracy was entirely not in the mood for cooking especially with a night of classes right after work. I decided to take on the duty of cooking, because really, it's not any different from any other date night, haha. 


I was feeling a little homesick this week and opted to make a family favorite, sausage biscuits and gravy. It's a heavy, stick to your ribs kind of meal and it's super easy, well at least it would have been if the ingredients had measurements (my family doesn't like to write down stuff).

The conversation to get the recipe went like this (through text message):
            Me: hey mom can I get that sausage gravy recipe?
            Mom: sure, 1 bob Evans 1sage, 1 traditional and 1 whatever else. Milk and flour
That was it; that's all I had to go on.  Geez

So I'm calling this Mom's Famous Sausage and Biscuits, but I use that title loosely since I had to take a lot of my own liberation with ingredients. The second biggest hurdle was eating restrictions, I couldn't use the nice fatty pork sausage. I had to use spicy turkey and chicken sausage which tend to be on the lean side of things.


One may say that sounds great, it's healthier. While that's true, I needed more fat to make the gravy. To compensate I threw in a pound of 80 percent lean beef.  Overall I used 3 lbs of meat and about 3.5 cups of milk. Since I didn't use sage sausage I threw in a tablespoon of sage along with salt and pepper to taste.


In the end I probably could have used more flour to get it a touch thicker, but overall it tasted good. It doesn't need a whole lot of seasonings as it relies heavily on the meat choice to provide flavor. I can't say it tasted like home, but it at least tasted good.

Mom's Famous Sausage Gravy and Biscuits
Recipe adapted from Brenden's Mom :)

Ingredients
  • 3.5 cups of milk
  • 3 lbs of sausage/beef
  • 2/3 cup of flour
  • 1 tbs of sage
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 packages Pillsbury biscuits
Directions

  1. First step was to brown the meat. To do this I removed the sausage from their casings and mixed them all up in a big ole' pan.
  2. After that I poured everything in a pot, grease and all, and added milk and flour.
  3. After that I reduced it down to give a lil thickness (you could use more flour, but I like to strengthen the flavor by reducing it instead of watering it down with flour).
  4. While the gravy is reducing, I put some of those awesome flaky biscuits in a can into the oven and baked them according to their directions.
  5. After the gravy was sufficiently thick I added some sage, salt and pepper.
  6. All that was left was to pour the gravy on the biscuits and enjoy.
biscuits comfort food Date Night Dinner
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Date Night Dinners - Taco Biscuits

Tonight was taco night...with a spin. As you may have read, Brenden and I have recently become a threesome - with biscuits. So of course when we found a way to incorporate biscuits (okay, crescent rolls, but crescent rolls are like biscuit children or maybe biscuit parents - which came first the biscuit or the crescent - anyway, you get the idea, they are very similar) we knew there was no turning back; we had to try it. And so we did. And as usual, we were not disappointed. Now, if you are going for a traditional taco this may not be your thing. You don't get the layered flavor affect as you do in a freshly wrapped taco. My personal favorite is corn, then meat and cheese, followed by lettuce, onion, tomato, and topped off with my favorite, avocado. And, if you are keen on hard shell tacos, you don't get that crisp crunch with every bite. But if you are looking for a little spin on the mexican novelty this will do just the trick. I would say it turned out to be like a breaded taco salad, or maybe it could pass for an semi-open-faced burrito. Either way all the flavors are at your disposal to enjoy.

Biscuit Tacos
Recipe adapted from www.soberjulie.com, Crescent Roll Tacos

 Ingredients
  • Cooking spray
  • 2 tubes of crescent rolls (8 crescents per tube)
  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1 yellow onion, diced
  • 1 can of corn, drained
  • 1 packet taco seasoning
  • 1.5 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
  • Garnishes (oprional):
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or as directed on crescent toll tube).
  2. On medium-high heat, cook ground beef in a saute pan until no longer pink.
  3. Once beef is thoroughly cooked, drain fat and return to pan on low heat.
  4. Add onions and corn until warm and tender (about 5-10 minutes).
  5. Add taco seasoning packet as directed on package (typically, stir in the seasoning with a quarter cup of water).
  6. When finished with the beef mixture, set aside.
  7. Spray a baking tray with cooking spray.
  8. Lay out the crescent rolls flat, in a circle with the triangle bases on the inside of the circle (using about 12). Use the remaining 4 rolls to fill in the center of the circle.
  9. Spoon beef mixture in a circle on top of the crescent rolls.
  10. Sprinkle cheese on top of the beef mixture.
  11. Pull the narrow ends of the crescent rolls over and around the beef mixture and cheese, connecting the ends with the dough in the center of the circle.
  12. Place in oven and cook as directed on the crescent roll packaging.
  13. Remove and let cool for about 5 minutes.
  14. Garnish with the topping of your choice (we used lettuce and tomato, with guacamole on the side).
  15. Cut slices and serve.
bake biscuits cheese
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Date Night Dinners - Breakfast Casserole

Yes, another bubble bake. What can I say?! Adding biscuits to a casserole is genius and makes it that much more appetizing. In fact, adding those flaky buttery biscuits to any dish or even on their own is delicious and brings a smile straight to Brenden and my face and heart. Ok, apparently we are having a slightly unrealistic love affair with food, but the biscuits haven't let us down yet, so why not give them another try? And that is exactly what we did.

Our first mexican inspired bubble bake was so fantastic that when we stumbled upon a breakfast one, we couldn't pass it up! Why you ask? Well let me tell you. Breakfast food is delicious to begin with, but breakfast for dinner just makes it that much better. And, in the words of Joey (from F.R.I.E.N.D.S.), "What's not to like? [Eggs], good. [Cheese], good. Meat, good. [Biscuits], gooooood!"

And so it was settled, a bubble bake we would make. And this simple, flavorful recipe did not disappoint. With an easy and quick prep time, minimal but flavorful ingredients, and fast clean up this dish is defiantly a keeper. It was gone in only two days, but again could stretch out for a few meals if you don't have the appetites of a baby elephant as we seem to have. By hey, it is breakfast food, so it is guilt free right?! Okay, maybe not completely but it is defiantly on the healthier side. There is so much worse I we could have eaten, like those new mint Oreos we gobbled up for dessert, or even better, the holiday themed ones. Yum! But enough rambling. Try it out, let me know what you think, and then tell me if you can stop at just one serving!

Breakfast Casserole Bubble Bake
Recipe adapted from mrsschwartzkitchen, Bubble Up Breakfast Bake

Ingredients
  • Cooking spray
  • 1 lb turkey breakfast sausage
  • 1 tube refrigerated biscuits
  • 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
  • 1 small can diced green chilis
  • 7 eggs
  • 1/4 cup milk (I used almond milk and it still worked out perfectly, making the eggs nice and fluffy)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
  2. Cook sausage on medium-high heat in a skillet, breaking into small pieces, until no longer pink.
  3. Once cooked, drain excess fat and set aside.
  4. Divide biscuits and cut each into 8 pieces. (I used six out of the eight biscuits that came in my tube, but you can eyeball it depending on the ratio of biscuit to egg you would like - just remember they rise and get bigger!)
  5. Spray a 9x13in casserole dish with cooking spray.
  6. Place biscuits along the bottom of the dish in an even layer.
  7. Add the cooked sausage to the casserole dish, making a layer on top of the uncooked biscuits.
  8. Sprinkle cheese on top of sausage layer.
  9. Add a layer of the green chilis.
  10. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, salt and pepper until thoroughly combined.
  11. Pour the egg mixture evenly over everything in the casserole dish.
  12. Place casserole dish in the oven for 30 minutes (A knife should come out clean when inserted into the center of the dish to signify it is fully cooked. Note, the cheese might make it seem like the egg is undercooked, but it is just melty, so don't worry too much because it is delish.)
  13. Once fully cooked, let it cool for a few minutes, serve and enjoy every bite.
baking biscuits breakfast
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Date Night Dinners - Enchilada Bake

Yumm, enchiladas! Need I say more?! Not really, but there IS more. Imagine no stress enchiladas. That's what I am talking about - quick and easy, no wrapping, no layering, no fancy techniques, but still packed with a big, bold, delicious flavor. This is probably one of the easiest dishes we have made and it is definitely going on the repeat list.

I found this recipe a few weeks ago and showed it to Brenden, and we immediately decided it was a "Date Night Dinner" must try. We decided to take a stab at it this week and it was well worth it. Like I may have mentioned early, it was a super easy recipe and there was not much clean up which makes it even better. Plus, Brenden was super sweet to go out and buy all of the ingredients we needed while I was at work to make it even more hassle free. And, it only cost him about $12 for everything. (A pretty decent price being this made at least two days worth of food. You can defiantly get even more meals out of it if you aren't an eating machine like me). And, it is one of those recipes that is easy to modify, dress up or down, so it will never get old.

Everything in this meal sounded delicious, but I still had the idea to add some more veggies to it, as the original recipe only called for beans. I wanted to add onions and bells peppers (as usual) and corn. But, Brenden is not as much of a vegetable fan as me, so we compromised by adding just the corn to the dish. At the end of the night though, Brenden did admit that onions would have been a nice addition (must not forget this quote for next time). Again, the meal was totally delicious and substantial, but in the future I may try will accompany it with guacamole (because who am I kidding, what is mexican food without some guac?). In fact, I am surprised I didn't add it this time around. Rice may also be a good side to keep in mind, but that could be a lot of carbs/grains with the biscuits. And, if you like a little spice in your food I would suggest using a spicy enchilada sauce or even adding some jalapeno peppers into the mixture before baking. I like spice, but I can't handle much, so trust me when I say this dish is mild, but I think it would be tasty either way. Brenden loves spicy, but he enjoyed the mild version of the dish that we stuck to. It just depends on if you want to be able to taste the flavors throughout the whole meal or have your taste-buds go numb about halfway through.

Enchilada Bake
Recipe Adapted from Betty Crocker, Enchilada Bubble Bake

Ingredients
  • Cooking spray
  • 1 lb lean ground beef
  • 1 can Pillsbury refrigerated biscuits
  • 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 can white corn, drained
  • 1 can (10 oz) enchilada sauce
  • 1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
  • 1 cup mexican cheese blend, shredded
Directions
  1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Spray a 13x9 glass baking dish with cooking spray.
  3. Warm a medium skillet and cook beef on medium high until no longer pink.
  4. Drain beef and set aside.
  5. Meanwhile, separate biscuits and cut each into quarters.
  6. In a large brown, stir together beef, beans, corn, enchilada sauce, and tomato sauce until all ingredients are fully coated with sauce.
  7. Stir in biscuits.
  8. Pour and spread mixture into prepared baking dish.
  9. Sprinkle cheese evenly on top of mixture.
  10. Bake 30-40 minutes, making sure biscuits cook through fully but do not burn (center biscuit pieces take a bit longer to cook then outer pieces).
  11. Remove and cool for several minutes.
  12. Serve and enjoy!
biscuits black beans cheese
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