Product Review: Bush’s Grillin’ Beans- Southern Pit Barbeque

Out of the four flavors of Bush’s new “Grillin’ Beans”, three are vegetarian. This is the second kind we have tried so far. I was afraid that these would also be too sweet for Toby, but he really liked them! I liked them too (even though they have a little bit of a kick to them!). I served these with some (Faux) meatball subs and potato chips.

rating: 9

http://www.bushbeans.com/products/grillinbeans/

Almost-Famous Garden Salad

There’s actually one new recipe in this post and TWO product reviews! I know, I went a little crazy. First, the salad. This is a copy of the Olive Garden’s famous salad! I actually only copied the dressing part and didn’t attempt the salad part. Who knew that there was Miracle Whip in their dressing? I sure didn’t! It was super-easy to make and yep, it tastes just like the Olive Garden! Now for the product reviews. We tried another fake meat product from It’s All Good. This one was “Veggie Pulled Chick’n. I served it on a bun with some cole slaw, kind of like a BBQ sandwich. I didn’t like it. Toby said that it was scary how meat-like it was, and he ate his sandwich plus most of mine. I don’t know what it is about most of It’s All Good’s products…they use some kind of seasoning that I don’t like. Anyway. The second product review is for Bush’s Grillin’ Beans. They have four new kinds of baked beans (sorry, Grillin’ Beans!), and three of them are vegetarian. This first one we have tried is the Steakhouse Recipe. I thought they were really good. Toby didn’t love them. He doesn’t like his baked beans sweet (and I do!). Oh well. Two more kinds left to try.

rating: Olive Garden salad dressing: 8

It’s All Good Veggie Pulled Chick’n: 5

Bush’s Grillin’ Beans- Steakhouse Recipe: 8.5

Almost-Famous Garden Salad
(from the June/July 2009 issue of Food Network magazine)

dressing
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
3 tbsp Miracle Whip
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning

salad
1 10-ounce bag American salad blend
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
4 small pickled peppers, such as pepperoncini
1 small vine-ripened tomato, quartered
2 tbsp sliced black olives
1/2 cup large croutons
1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1. Combine all the dressing ingredients and 1-2 tbsp water in a blender or food processor; puree until smooth.
2. Place the salad blend in a large bowl and top with the remaining salad ingredients. Drizzle with the dressing.

Onion-Topped Sausage-n-Mashed Potato Casserole

I love finding recipes that are meat-based and then tweaking them to make them awesome VEGETARIAN recipes! Yes! So for this recipe, instead of sausage I used the Gimme Lean brand of fake ground beef. I was going to use a sausage substitute, but could never find one, so fake ground beef had to do. I also omitted the basil, and I couldn’t locate refrigerated mashed potatoes, so I just used the instant kind. The Gimme Lean wasn’t as crumbly as I was hoping for, but wow, it has a great taste! I don’t know WHAT makes this dish so good and flavorful, but it was REALLY good, people! Toby had 3 servings! I don’t know if it was the Gimme Lean, the Italian seasonings, or that whole bag of cheese (!), but this is really good. With this, we enjoyed a green salad.

rating: 9.5

Onion-Topped Sausage-n-Mashed Potato Casserole
(from the June 2009 issue of Southern Living magazine)

1 (19.5 ounce) package sweet ground turkey sausage, casing removed (I used Gimme Lean Ground Beef, the whole tube)
2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes in sauce
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, chopped (I omitted)
1 shallot, chopped
1 tsp salt-free garlic and herb seasoning
1 (24 ounce) package refrigerated garlic-flavored mashed potatoes (I used instant)
1 (8 ounce) package shredded Italian five-cheese blend
1/4 tsp dried Italian seasoning
1 cup French fried onions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brown sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring often, 6-8 minutes or until meat crumbles and is no longer pink; drain.
2. Stir in tomatoes and next 3 ingredients, and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Transfer sausage mixture to a lightly greased 11×17-inch baking dish.
3. Stir together mashed potatoes, cheese, and Italian seasoning in a large bowl. Mixture will be dry. Spread potato mixture over sausage mixture in baking dish.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 35-40 minutes or until bubbly. Top with fried onions, and bake 5 more minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Mayonnaise Muffins (aka Quick Rolls)

I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for months but I kept forgetting about it. I got it from one of my favorite cooking blogs: http://www.dingybroad.com/. The author of that blog, Stacy, and her stepson Joel, Jr. are avid readers of MY blog as well! I halved this recipe, since I knew we wouldn’t eat 12 rolls. They seemed really dry when I was mixing the dough (and I am NOT a baker), so I added a little more milk (plain soymilk) and a little more mayo. They just didn’t look right to me when I plopped them in the muffin tins, but I crossed my fingers and shut the oven door. The verdict? These were actually better than they looked! They had a great texture, and weren’t tough at all. We each had one, and I saved them in some tin foil and microwaved them the next night for dinner as well. With these we had some Quorn cutlets, some leftover cole slaw, some Potato Plops (from the same blog- try them! you will be amazed!), and a green salad.

rating: 8

http://www.dingybroad.com/?p=71

Open-Face Veg Burgers with Sauteed Onions

I really had some hesitations about this recipe. I am not a huge veggie burger fan (I prefer a veggie dog). But, hey, I am willing to try new things. And you know what? I am so glad I tried this recipe! Wow! I think the combination of the ciabatta bread, the mayo-mustard combo, and the onions really made this recipe fabulous. I used Yves refrigerated veggie burgers, and just microwaved them until they were warm.  These are open-faced (no top bun), but you can eat them with the bun on as well (that bread is so good!). We will add these to our dinner line-up, that’s for sure. With these, I served some curly fries and some cole slaw.

rating: 9.3

Open-Face Veg Burgers with Sauteed Onions
(from the May 2009 issue of Better Homes & Gardens magazine)

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
4 refrigerated or frozen vegetable burgers (10-ounce pkg)
2 tbsp mayonnaise or salad dressing
1 tsp prepared yellow mustard
4 1/2″ slices ciabatta bread, toasted
1 cup fresh baby spinach leaves
2 tbsp steak sauce

1. In large skillet heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion slices and cook 8-10 minutes or until very tender, stirring frequently.
2. Meanwhile, prepare burgers according to package microwave directions.
3. In small bowl combine mayonnaise and mustard; spread mixture on one side of each bread slice. Top bread with spinach and burger. Stir steak sauce into cooked onions. Spoon onion mixture on burgers.

Cheese spaetzle

Ok, so I didn’t make the actual “spaetzle” part. When my MIL from Germany was in town several weeks ago, she made spaetzle twice. Not familiar with spaetzle? Well, according to Wikipedia, spaetzle are a type of egg noodles and small dumplings found in the cuisine of Germany and regions of neighboring Austria, Switzerland, Slovakia, Hungary called csipetke, nokedli, halusky, (Spätzle or Little Dumplings),in France (Alsace), and in the Province of Bolzano-Bozen. Got it? They are really like little macaronis, except they are solid. Anywho, she made extra and we froze them. They can be dressed up lots of different ways. We decided to have the traditional cheese spaetzle. I let the spaetzle thaw out in the fridge for 2 days. Then I chopped up a whole onion (yellow, I believe it was), and browned it in a frying pan with some butter. Once the onion was brown, I threw in the spaetzle. Then I started adding grated cheese. You traditionally use Swiss or Gruyere, but Toby said he thought those were too bitter. I used some sharp Cheddar and a mozzarella/Parmesan mix. I let all of that melt together, then adding a sprinkling of powdered veggie stock. Toby says that is the secret to all of his mother’s dishes. Shhh! I served this with a green salad. This was really good! We should all have some frozen spaetzle in our freezer!

rating: 9

Garlic Red Potatoes

I decided that I wanted to have one of my favorite meals last night, which consists of Faux-Crab cakes, slaw, and some kind of potato. Usually the potato ends up being french fries or tater tots. We bought a little bag of red potatoes at the local farmers market this past weekend, so I decided to see what I could do with them. This recipe is very easy, and I actually didn’t measure anything, but just kind of eyeballed it. The potatoes turned out just about perfect! I could have even left them in the oven a little longer to brown some more, but was too hungry. What a good summer meal.

rating: 8.5

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Garlic-Red-Potatoes/Detail.aspx