Thursday, March 14, 2013

Mid march madness

I thought with March break being here we would finally have a relaxing vacation from our busy schedules and get the time to try out some of those fun pins I've been saving for a day with more time. Instead we got a little blind-sided by life and Mommy is stuck on the couch recovering. (I might get to that in a few months when it isn't quite so fresh and raw.) Super thankful for all the friends and family that have showered us with meals and time and love! And for my two beautiful babes and hubby who are so glad to have their chief cook and homemaker back at home, even when she's not doing a whole lot of either.

I thought I'd do a quick post to cover some recipes that were overlooked in my previous months.  On then to crescent rolls. There are so many recipes out there with this as a starting base.

I've always been a fan of crescent rolls. Growing up with homemade everything any kind of store brought bread made the meal. And those light buttery triangles....mmmm childhood memories.

A few staples my Mom used growing up, were crescent cream cheese bars and pigs in a blanket. Now, of course you can buy premade and perfectly sized dough to wrap your sausages in their blankies, but back when I was growing up....

Crescent cream cheese bars are a layer of unrolled crescents (1package), 2 packages cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla creamed as a middle layer, and topped with a second package of unrolled crescent. This is followed by an egg white brushed over the final layer and cinnamon-sugar to get that nice crunchy goodness. Soo good...(I was literally starving when I wrote this part of the post).

My staples as a busy mom are certainly those I grew up with, but we often dress up plain crescents with cheese stuffed in the inside for a quick side to soup. Tasty when fresh and warm from the oven and good if cold for lunches too.

With a couple of crazy weeks at the end of last month I hadn't been able to bake with the M&M and Moose in awhile so we decided to do a batch of cookies together on the first of the month. (Unfortunately our spree also ended there, but sometimes that's the way you have to roll)  I thought these cream cheese chocolate chip cookies would be a normal dough cookie with the extra cream cheese ingredient.  Instead the recipe calls for a layer of crescent rolls, sweet cream cheese mixture, followed by a layer of chocolate chips. Then the dough was rolled and cut pinwheel fashion. Super quick, fun for the kids to help with and definitely yummy!

Another recipe I used from Pinterest was a sausage gravy casserole. Sausage biscuits and gravy are one of the southern US staples that us northerners have latched on to. I'm not so sure the wave ever hit Canada, because I've had to introduce and explain them to A LOT of Canadians. So basically the recipe is flaky biscuits topped with a gravy (strictly milk thinkended with flour and salt/pepper to taste) loaded with breakfast sausage. Ideally a hearty breakfast dish, but also something quick that can be thrown together. When I saw the crescent dough take, I thought, "great way to prepare ahead of time and heat and serve later."

With the crescent dough version, you layer crescents on the bottom, sausage gravy and more unrolled crescents. My only issue was the bottom layer was a little gooey whereas the top was quite crispy. Next time I plan on throwing the bottom layer of crescents in for five minutes before I add the gravy and last layer of crescents.  The pin I used called for cream cheese which I tried, but wasn't sure I like the addition and a few different ways to do the casserole top.

Sausage Gravy Casserole via Rebekah's Pinterest via For the Love of Food

I know there are a lot of other recipes using crescent dough out there. My mother-in-law has an apple dumpling recipe that is raved about. Something to do with sprite, cinnamon, sugar, and crescents wrapped around the individual apples. A friend has a take on this that includes cream cheese somewhere in that mix. Lots of yum! Won't speak to the health aspect, but when one is short on time crescent roll dough is awesome for everything from a quick side to a main dish to dessert!


Still can't believe it is mid-March already!  Excited to get up and moving and finish the planning for my sister-in-law's fantastic baby shower (okay maybe it will only be fantastic in my head, but I've had some dreaming time lately).  I had my mother make us up some of these crock pot freezer meals before she headed south yesterday and I have to say the chicken cacciatore that is bubbling away in the crock pot is smelling great! Check out that pin below. This sight was especially good because it had a grocery list included with the recipes, which was especially helpful as it was also my mother I had to send off to do the shopping. I was amazed by how much less she spent than I usually do. I guess that's a lesson in sticking strictly to the list and not buying any extras!

Slow Cooker Freezer Meals via Rebekah's Pinterest via Six Sister's Stuff




Aren't my leprechauns cute?

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