Pizza Burgers

Don't you love to be busy?  What would you be doing if you weren't?  We would all be sitting around hoping for something to do, that's what.  Even though it makes life hairy at times, frantic or just plain crazy.  Being busy is a great thing. 

To get you through the busy week here is a tasty, fast and easy weeknight meal.  Big hit throughout the dinner table.  Second helpings and thumbs up all around.  This is a meal that could easily go in the right or wrong direction and is why I have a passion for quality of ingredients.  Using naturally raised, nitrate free pork ensures your meat is not highly processed and loaded with harmful ingredients.  Chose a pizza sauce with no added sugars or corn syrups.  The cheese is a great way to provide calcium and healthy fats to your brain and skin.  Using real butter and no fake stuff here will add immune boosting healthy fats too!  And we all know that garlic is good for you and your *breath*.

Note:  This would be excellent on the grill!

Pizza Burgers
Print recipe here
2 pound ground Italian sausage, natural raised and nitrate free
8 ciabiatta or sourdough buns
1 C Muir Glen pizza sauce
8 slices mozzarella
½ C parmesan
3 TB unsalted butter
½ tsp garlic powder

1. Patty up the Italian sausage into ½ cup size burgers.

2. Cook patties over medium heat, 10 minute each side until golden crust on outside and no longer pink in the center.

3. Butter buns and sprinkle with garlic powder, layer each side of bun with 1 tablespoon pizza sauce, top one side with 1 tablespoon shredded parmesan, one side with a slice of mozzarella.

4. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Broil buns a few minutes until cheese is bubbled and browned. Remove, add cooked sausage burgers and enjoy!

Today's recipes where brought to you by, inspired or adapted from:  Saved by the Egg Timer: Original

Linked up at:  33 Shades of Green

Strawberry Banana Yogurt Pops

Bananas and Strawberries....have you ever watched Veggietales?  We cannot mention the two together without getting our {SVEede} accent and acting out "Hello, I am the Englishman who went up the hill and came down with all the bananas. Leaving, of course, the inhabitants of the hill with no bananas and therefore bestowing the term 'selfish' upon myself." and so on and so on...you can watch the poor You Tube clip or find it in King George and the Ducky.  Good story, funny little blips.  I wish they were still owned by Big Idea Productions..they are much better than the newer ones. 

Back to the combining of the Bananas and Strawberries here- it is summer break, there are plenty of chances to have sugar and treats.  This is a sweet, frozen, low sugar treat with potassium, Vitamin C, calcium, protein and minerals from the wonderful healing raw honey.  Easy to prepare and fun enough for the kids to do on there own too.  They won't even miss the absence of sugar in this.

Have the kids make up a batch for Father's Day!  If I know anything about Dad's, I know they LOVE frozen ice cream treats!  Right Hubby?!  Dad?!  Ladies nodding there heads.

Strawberry Banana Yogurt Pops
Print recipe here
8-12 strawberries, sliced, diced or pureed
2 ripe bananas, mashed  (KT#8)
2 TB raw honey
2 C plain full fat yogurt or greek yogurt
12- 3 oz paper Dixie style cups
12 popsicle sticks

1. In a medium bowl combine the strawberries, bananas and honey. Stir in the yogurt.

2. Place 12 paper cups into a cake pan for some stability while transferring into the freezer. Divide the yogurt mix into all 12 cups.

3. Freeze yogurt pops for 10-15 minutes. Remove from freezer, place the popsicle sticks into middle of yogurt cups.  Place back into the freezer for 3-4 hours until frozen through. (Obviously) store in the freezer until eaten.  To easily release them from their paper, run under room temperature water for 5 seconds, then pull straight out.

Note:  Doubling this recipe will still easily fit into one cake pan.  Feel free to mix up the fruits and find your favorite combination.  Suggestion to leave the bananas, as they are there for sweetness. If you remove the bananas they will be a lot less sweet. Replace the strawberries with other berries or pureed apples, pears, peaches, pineapple and plums.  I will also be making these with heavy cream, half and half and full fat coconut milk!  

Happy Father's Day to all the DAD'S out there!!!

Today's recipes where brought to you by, inspired or adapted from:  Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Linked at: Monday Mania

Very Blueberry Lemonade

If life doles out a bunch of lemons...give them a good squeeze!

Wow yourself and guests with this simple, little time needed recipe.  Perfect for any Father's Day BBQ's you may have planning and utilizing the fresh berries you have growing or fresh pick on your counter right now.  You can really do this last minute or way ahead of time, I suggest last minute unless you make extra otherwise it may not make it to your planned destination. 

Blueberries are full of anti oxidants to fight off free radical damage to our skin, including great fiber and high amounts of Vitamin C to support a healthy immune system, not to mention fighting off those allergies!  Lemon regulates the pH in our body and aids digestion, heartburn, high blood pressure and flushes your blood of impurities.  Also packs another punch of Vitamin C to help toss those itchy eyes and stuffy heads to the way side.  Fight your seasonal allergies a step further by sweetening with raw honey, the latest research proves how well it does to combat respiratory symptoms!

Planning a Father's Day BBQ?  Here are some dishes that may be on my table:
Sweet and Sassy Beans and Grilled Green Beans- beans great in the slow cooker too, green beans are a weekly thing here!
Greek Chicken and Greek Roasted Potatoes - still a fave chicken marinade.
Green Goddess Dressing- THE dip for meats, veggie trays and baked potatoes.
Giardiniera- perfect for Father's Day as it is my husband and dad's faves, PS- this is a make ahead.
Diner Style Pancakes with Fresh Berry Syrup and Homemade Breakfast Sausage- breakfast in bed?

Very Blueberry Lemonade
Print recipe here
1 C lemon juice= 6-8 lemons, freshly squeezed
1 C fresh or frozen blueberries
1 C raw cane sugar, ½ C raw honey or 1 tsp stevia
6-8 C water
ice

1. Combine lemons, blueberries and sugar into a blender, bullet or immersion style. Blend until blueberries are as liquefied as possible (Vita-mix owners bragging rights inserted here...I do not have current bragging rights).

2. Pour blended creation into a pitcher, place desired ice into pitcher, fill with 6-8 cups water until desired taste and size of your container.

3. Fill a glass with ice, to make pretty add lemon slices and a few blueberries to the glass. Fill with Very Blueberry Lemonade and enjoy on a beautiful, hot, sunny day.

Note:  Feel free to sub in any berries for the blueberries with equal success!  Easily double this recipe to fit into a sun tea gallon size glass container. 



Today's recipes where brought to you by, inspired or adapted from:  Saved by the Egg Timer: Original

Banana Cupcakes with Candied Hazelnuts

Birthday Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and Candied Hazelnuts sprinkled with Nutmeg.  Official recipe name but much too long.  It sounds complicated and intimidating.  In reality it is so easy, comes together quickly and helps you use up those spotted bananas in the corner of the fruit bowl. Plus so yummy.
Win. Win. Win. Win.
This is a recipe that has a "dress to impress" kind of look but is a basic banana quick bread that everyone knows how to make.   Don't forget to save a step and a dirty dish using my Kitchen Technique #8 with the mashed bananas.

Banana Cupcakes with Candied Hazelnuts
Print recipe here
½ C unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ C raw cane sugar
2 large eggs
1 C full fat, plain greek yogurt (or sour cream)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 C whole wheat pastry flour
1 ½ tsp aluminum free baking soda
¼ tsp celtic sea salt
3 spotted bananas, mashed (KT#8)

1. Grease or line with paper liners a 12 cup muffin tray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a large bowl, whip the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in one egg at a time. Stir in the yogurt and vanilla.

3. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt into the wet batter. Stir in the mashed banana thoroughly. (Kitchen Technique #8)

4. With a spoon or cookie scooper, fill the cupcakes until ⅔ full.

5.  Bake for 14-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only crumbs remaining. Let cool 5 minutes, remove from tray and finish cooling on a wire rack before frosting with Cream Cheese Frosting and topping with Candied Hazelnuts, lightly sprinkle with a bit of nutmeg over top of cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Print recipe here
1- 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
¼ C unsalted butter, softened
1 C organic powdered sugar
½ tsp pure vanilla extract

1. With a mixer, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.
Note:  This is a small batch recipe intended for 12 cupcakes.  If you are frosting a cake, double the ingredients listed.

Candied Hazelnuts
Print recipe here
2 TB sucanat or brown sugar
½ tsp raw cane sugar
1 TB unsalted butter
1/2 C whole hazelnuts
pinch of celtic sea salt
pinch of ground nutmeg

1. Over medium heat, melt together the sugar, butter, salt and nutmeg in a small pan stirring frequently.

2. Keep stirring until it bubbles, add nuts and stir until coated.

3. Continue cooking for 5-7 minutes, stirring constantly until nuts turn golden brown in color and smell toasted. Transfer to waxed paper or plate to cool. Break apart and store in a cool dry place.

Happy Birthday Grandma~!!!

Today's recipes where brought to you by, inspired or adapted from:  Mels Kitchen Cafe,  AllRecipes and Saved by the Egg Timer

New Year's Fondue Party

Happy New Year!!!

Welcome to Saved by the Egg Timer's first 2011 post!  I hope all of you had a wonderful and safe New Year full of celebrations, love and joy.  My wish for you all in 2011 is many good recipe's to be cooked in your kitchen with minimal disasters!  I started my morning off with a disaster...remember I always say "Every good cook has awful tragedies".  I take ownership of this fully!  I attempted to make cinnamon rolls and the dough was so sticky that it stuck to my well floured surface and would not come off....so out came Cinnamon Balls....they where tasty and wonderful.  Improvise...always improvise. 

What did you all do last night?  We stayed in and had a wonderful homemade "Melting Pot".  Here are some photos and recipes that made this an awesome dinner.  The broth was wonderful and made a very tender, flavorful meat. 

Sauvignon Fondue Broth

Print recipe here

4 C organic vegetable broth

2 C Sauvignon Blanc wine (or any dry wine of your choosing, red or white works)
4 cloves garlic
10 peppercorns
1 tsp celtic sea salt
1 tsp sugar

1. Pour vegetable broth and wine into fondue pot, season with garlic, peppercorns, salt and sugar. Bring to boil, turn down and simmer for 1 hour. Bring to a low boil before using. Cook bites size pieces of chicken, beef, lobster, shrimp, duck, any meat...Also, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, green beans and ravioli.

We also had a cheese fondue, it was good but not excellent.  So I will share once I get it perfected.  I mimicked the excellent Green Goddess Dressing from The Melting Pot, which is used to dip your veggies and meats in.  This was amazing!  Lucky first attempt!

Green Goddess Dressing
Print recipe here
1/2 C mayonnaise
1/2 C cultured sour cream
1 TB red wine vinegar
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
¼ C green onions- white and green parts, sliced
¼ C cilantro, chopped
1 TB dried parsley
1 TB dried chives
1 tsp raw cane sugar
1 tsp celtic sea salt
½ tsp freshly cracked black pepper
½ tsp sweet paprika
couple drops of Tabasco

1. Combine all the ingredients together and whisk to combine. Cover to refrigerate at least one hour before using. Store the dressing in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.  Use as a dressing, potato topping, pretzel/ chip dip or accompany any meat.

For dessert we had fruits and leftover Christmas treats to dip into the chocolate.  The raspberries where my favorite.

Chocolate Fondue

Print recipe here

1 C dark chocolate baking chips (60-70% cocoa)

1 C milk chocolate baking chips
½ C heavy cream
2 TB unsalted butter
2 TB coffee flavored liqueur
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
dash of Vietnamese Cinnamon

1. In a small fondue pot or slow cooker, combine the chocolate, cream, butter, liqueur and vanilla. Turn on low stirring when starts to melt. Keep stirring until completely melted and smooth. Keep on low and serve warm. Dip with strawberries, raspberries, apples, rice krispie treats, cheesecakes, cakes, graham crackers, cream puffs, etc. 


Thank you for cooking along with me in 2010.  I am so excited with the response I have gotten and looking forward to a wonderful New Year with you!

~Natasha @

Today's recipes where brought to you by, inspired or adapted from:  Saved by the Egg Timer: Original, My Kitchen Cafe and All Recipes