Caramelized Onions - Crock*Pot Cafe 3

We ADORE caramelized onions in our household.  But it takes a bit of work and a LOT of time to make them the traditional way.  So when I came across a way to make them in the Crock*Pot I pinned the method right away.  You can find the site I originally found this method at HERE. This week I decided to make it my mission to make them because I haven't done a Crock*Pot recipe in awhile, and onions were on sale.  I got 4lbs of sweet onions (about 10 medium onions) for $1.98.  So this was easy, cheap, and we have a mess of caramelized onions to use on steak sandwiches, in french onion soup, or to make a tart with.  Yum!

***Note - I use a mandolin to slice my onions.  This is the easiest and fastest way to do this job.  

***Secondary Note - The fumes that come off this many onions when prepping can be brutal.  I was crying like no ones business, but that's to be expected.  However, we have a brand new kitten and I had no idea the fumes would affect him, but they did.  The poor little guy was crying and we had to move him outside for a while.  So I recommend that if you have pets and/or kids, you prep your onions in a well ventilated area, with doors and/or windows open.  Or have them stay in another room while prepping. 

Crock*Pot Caramelized Onions

Ingredients:

• 4 lbs sweet onions (or any variety you like), sliced thin
• 2 tbs butter and/or olive oil
• 1 tbs salt
• 1 tbs sugar
• Cooking spray

Directions:

Spray inside of slow cooker with cooking spray.  Place in sliced onions.  Drizzle with butter (or olive oil).  Sprinkle on salt.  Turn slow cooker to the low setting.  After 4 hours, stir in sugar.  After 8 hours, stir again.  Onions will be perfectly sweet, soft, and caramelized at 12 hours.  ***This seems like a lot of time But if you do the first 4 hours before you go to bed and then let them cook the remaining 8 while you're sleeping, it's pretty efficient.

Easy Pepperoni Calzones - Home Cooked Recipe 51

Who doesn't love a good calzone?  Cheesy, pizza crust, and whatever toppings you like to stuff in to it.  Yum!  This recipe for homemade calzones is super easy, super fast, customizable, and sure to be a crowd pleaser. Our night was affordable too, because pizza dough was on sale at my local Publix, buy 1 get 1 free, and I still had an unopened package of pepperoni from July 4th weekend (which I also bought on sale BOGO, plus a coupon which made it less than $2 a package).  I hope you try it soon!

Easy Pepperoni Calzones

Ingredients:
1 16oz pkg store bought pizza dough (this makes 3 calzones, adjust accordingly for your needs)
3-4oz thinly sliced pepperoni (broil for a couple minutes first if desired)
16 oz ricotta
4-8oz shredded mozzarella
1 tbs olive oil
1 stick butter, melted
garlic powder
sprinkling of parmesan
1 - 2 cups of my Pomodoro Sauce
***optional fillings: sausage (cooked), onions, peppers, olives - really, whatever you like on top of pizza, you can stuff in a calzone

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450.  Line baking sheet with foil, grease with cooking spray.
***I like to broil my pepperoni for a few minutes before I put it in my calzone, I just like the flavor and texture.  My bf prefers his right out of the package, so you can do it either way.***
Add 1tsp of garlic powder into the melted butter, along with the olive oil.  Mix well.
Divide your dough into 3 parts.  Roll out and stretch into a flat round on a floured surface.  Put 2-3 tbs of ricotta on half of each round (leaving a 1 inch border around edge).  Sprinkle a tiny bit of garlic powder on top of ricotta.  Top with pepperoni.  Sprinkle on shredded mozzarella.  Fold dough over and seal edges with a fork.  Brush on about a tablespoon of garlic butter (on each calzone).  Bake for 15 minutes.  Brush on another tablespoon of garlic butter.  Sprinkle lightly with parmesan.  Serve with Pomodoro Sauce.
Enjoy!

We Made Room For Dessert 15 - Blueberry Cream Cheese Cake

We made room for dessert this week!  Blueberries are in season and are reasonably priced at my local Aldi's.  I picked a couple containers, assuming I would eat them for breakfast, but then came across this recipe on Pinterest:  Blueberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Simple to make, delicious, budget friendly, and only uses a few ingredients.  Score!  AND, it's great for breakfast or dessert.  Or a snack!  If you wanted to mix it up some, I think it would be great with lemon cake mix.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 box golden butter cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• vanilla extract (I also added a dash of almond extract)
• 1 pint of blueberries (in the original recipe she used frozen, I used fresh, but either way, it works)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• vegetable oil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325.
Grease cake pan (I used a bundt pan, as does the original recipe).  Make sure to grease it very well.
Mix together eggs, sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla.  Stir in cake mix, blend very well.  Fold in blueberries.  Pour into greased pan.  Bake for 45 minutes if using a regular cake pan, 1 hour if using a bundt pan.  Let cool 1 hour (up to overnight) and remove from pan.
Enjoy!

Mediterranean Stuffed Chicken - Home Cooked Recipe 50

50 recipes!  Wow!  In the grand scheme of things that doesn't seem like a super large number, but for me, it's amazing to have given you 50 main dish recipes you can cook at home on any given day.  Of course we have more than 50 recipes total on this food blog, between desserts and sides and special posts.
I wanted to do something special for the 50th recipe, so I decided to stuff chicken breasts!  We have done this before on the blog but I wasn't super pleased with how it came out, because the plain cream cheese was too bland.  So this time we've amped it up by making the stuffing with a more flavorful cheese and adding a lot of seasoning.

Mediterranean Stuffed Chicken

Ingredients:

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin
• 1 onion, diced 
• 1/2 jar roasted red peppers, chopped
• 4 oz package crumbled feta
• salt and pepper
• balsamic vinegar
• olive oil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.  Spray baking sheet lined with foil with cooking spray.
Saute onions for 5 minutes until tender.  Let cool.  Mix onions, peppers, cheese, and a dash of salt and pepper together.  Sprinkle salt and pepper over flattened chicken breasts.  Spread onion, pepper, cheese mix over chicken breasts.  Roll chicken breasts around stuffing and secure with toothpicks.  Sprinkle rolls with salt and pepper, place on baking sheet.  Drizzle chicken with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
Bake for 30-45 minutes.
Serve with rice, or a greek salad.
Enjoy!