Spinach Balls

This was another estate sale recipe. Although it did have dressing mix in it, it was not excessively carbohydrates-laden, so I tried it.

It says it makes 50-60 balls. I think I made about 50.

This one says it is from the recipe file of Sara Hathcock, but it also says Faith Baptist Church in parenthesis.

This would make a nice party dish, and it is a vegetarian option.

I did think it would have been nice to have crumbled sausage mixed up in these balls, too.

I did wish it had more of a kick, but I usually always want more spice in any food I eat.

Here's the recipe:

2 (10 oz.) pkgs frozen chopped spinach
1 small onion, chopped fine
3/4 c. oleo
1 tbsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 c. herb-seasoned dressing mix
4 eggs, beaten
1 tsp thyme, optional
1 small pkg almonds, chopped - optional

Cook spinach according to directions on package. Drain. Set aside.

Melt margarine, sauté onion, remove from heat. Add remaining ingredients and spinach. Mix well.

Refrigerate about 1 hour or until mixture is still enough to roll into balls. Use about 1 tablespoon for each ball. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 325.

Freeze leftovers. Balls can be frozen before cooking. Freeze on cookie sheet then store in bags until ready for use.

Low Carb Chronicles: 7 Layer Salad

This is another recipe from the estate sale recipe box. I really want to land another one sometime.

I was iffy about this one too, but could it be worse than the cucumber salad? I knew if it was bad, there were some parts of it I could eat.

The mayonnaise was the questionable part. And I was not sure how the peas would taste.

This recipe was surprisingly good!

I actually have a name on this recipe. The card says it is a recipe from the kitchen of Beatrice Uselton.

It says it serves 10-12, and I believe it. We ate it for a while.

The recipe says to put it in a 9 X 13 pan, but I used a big bowl, which worked out fine.

1/2 head lettuce, shredded
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 small green peppers, finely chopped
1 10 oz. package frozen peas (uncooked)
1 pint Hellman's mayonnaise
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 12 oz. package bacon, cooked and crumbled

Put in layers in order above starting with lettuce on the bottom. Do not mix! Cover with Saran Wrap and refrigerate 24 hours.

Serves directly from 9 X 13 pan.

Pineapple Sweet & Sour Chicken

This is another one of the mystery recipe box finds. There were very few things we could actually eat with all the carbs in everything. This is not necessarily super low carb with the sugar in the sweet and sour sauce and pineapples. It also calls for 2 cups of cooked rice. I skipped that.

It was a little soupy without the rice but still pretty good. Cauliflower rice would have been perfect if we had it at that moment.

1 can (20 oz.) pineapple chunks
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium green or red bell pepper, cut into chunks
1 medium onion, cut into chunks
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup sweet and sour sauce (I realized that the bottles often have net weight, which includes the bottle weight. Be careful with that in looking for your size of sauce. Also, Wal-Mart had a disappointing amount of choices for this, and I specifically went to a larger grocery store for this item.)
2 tbsp less sodium soy sauce - (We actually had this in the fridge because we like Chinese food A LOT.)

Drain pineapple; reserve 2 tbsp juice.
Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add peppers, onions and mushrooms; cook until vegetables are tender crisp. Remove vegetables from skillet; set aside.
Cook chicken in same skillet until chicken is browned and cooked through. Add vegetables back to skillet with sweet and sour sauce, soy sauce, pineapple chunks, and reserved juice. Heat through.

Serves 6

GIVEAWAY Time: Mother's Milk Tea

I am a certified doula (birth assistant), and sometimes I get samples to share with new and expectant mothers through a sampling program. 

Right now I have two BAGS of Mother's Milk Tea and raspberry leaf tea and two BOOKLETS of $1 off on the purchase of any Mother's Milk Tea coupons.

They are free if you want them. (Note: local mothers only - I cannot ship them.)

Mississippi folks: I am going home a few times in August if you want to meet up and get some.

Let me know. Yay free stuff!

The Worst Recipe/Food Challenge/Can You Finish This?/Cucumber Salad

I told you in the last post how we got recipes from an estate sale in the last post. Well, this recipe was so odd, it was almost calling out to me to try it.

I am pretty sure a lot of these recipes were in the 60s, and they liked Jello. There is even a meat Jello recipe I saw. Anyway, this was listed under "salads" in the recipe box.

This was so weird that I knew it either was super gross or surprisingly good.

The first time I made it, I made a mistake. I mentioned how the recipes sometimes listed odd things. This one said "salad dressing." I searched on the internet to see what a recipe meant when it said this and only got recipes to make salad dressings. I poked around the supermarket to see if there was something I was missing on the spice aisle. I got nowhere.

So I thought, "What goes well with cucumbers? Ranch dressing."

I made the recipe with ranch dressing, and I told Jared that the dog (Buddy) might end up finishing the bowl.

Well, the dog liked it.

I could not let it go. Jared said that they probably meant Miracle Whip in the recipe. I tried it again this way. It was improved, but still the only good part was the lime jello and cottage cheese. And who needs lime flavored cottage cheese?

My nephews and niece all ate a spoonful of it, and I was proud of them for trying it.

I hate wasting food, but after Buddy had a throwing up incident recently I could not risk him throwing up green jello.

So the wildlife in the backyard finished it off.

But I am wondering - is there anyone out there in my readership that can finish this? Please let me know if you try it out and can manage to finish it.

Here's the recipe.

Cucumber Salad

1 pkg. lime jello dissolved in 1 c. hot water (I used the small package. I'd suggest the bigger one.)
Refrigerate until it starts to thicken.
Add 1 cup chopped cucumber.
3/4 c. salad dressing
1/4 c. chopped onions
12 oz. or 1# carton cottage cheese

Mix well and refrigerate.

Low Carb Chronicles: No Name Note Meal

You may or may not know that Jared and I like estate sales. We have gotten some pretty cool stuff. Sometimes you have to get random things included in a lot to get one item you want, but it is fun. Our favorite find so far is a china cabinet we got for less than $30.

Anyway, so one day Jared got this small metal green box of recipes in buying something he actually wanted. These recipes looked pretty old. They used terminology like Oleo, for example. I felt like I was eating in the 60s; I like history and this was the best time travel because you do not have to worry about breaking down and getting stuck there, which would be my biggest fear with time travel.

I wonder a lot about these people whose stuff we buy from estate sales. It is kind of sad to see pieces of people's life up for sale to the highest bidder. Sometimes you can figure out things from people just from clues of what they have - hobbies, occupation, where they are from, what they love, etc. I wonder what my stuff would say about me if it was all up for sale.

Anyway, this first recipe from this little green box is from a note.

This person, whom I imagine was a wonderful grandmother and a great cook, got a note from a friend about a new meal she tried the other night. The note is not signed or addressed, so I have no idea who these people's names were. The note writer did state that the husband probably would not like the meal. 😂

I tried this recipe that had no name from a note. It all seemed so exciting and mysterious. It was also pretty good. I would definitely cook it again. My  nephew really liked it, and we did not have much left over.

It did brown more than I wanted it to, but Jared got home late that night and I was just trying to keep it warm in the oven.

This is a recipe you could really spice up - add onions, more vegetables, toppings, etc.

Take a small pack of hamburger meat (I did a pound.), a can of tomato soup, and a can of whole kernel corn and mix it all up. Put it in a casserole dish, sprinkle with cheese (I used a Mexican cheese mix and just put it all over the top until it fully covered all the meat.), and bake in the oven for 40 minutes at 375, and it is good. Don't drown the meat, let it cook with the rest in the oven.

^ Besides the parentheses notes from me, this is the actual recipe.

Let me know what you think when you try it!

Also, what would you call it? I called it taco casserole in my head when meal planning.

Low Carb Chronicles: Keto Meatballs

This tastes like spaghetti without the noodles. It was a little tangy for me because I grew up adding sugar to spaghetti sauce, which I did not do this time.

It was simple to make, and I would make it again. I would probably make some zucchini noodles to go with it next time, especially since we got this vegetable attachment for our KitchenAid mixer. (Thanks for the mixer, Kimber!)

Check out the recipe here. (We are getting closer and closer to the point when I stopped using internet recipes and went to paper ones. Recipes will be typed out in the blog starting tomorrow!)