Sleepy Pigs in Blankets

These are pigs in blankets minus the hot dog. This hardly warrants a recipe, but these are easy, delicious, and fun to serve. What else is there? Serve with some fruit and you have instant breakfast.
The Three Bite Rule - Sleepy Pigs in Blankets

Ingredients:

maple breakfast sausage links
crescent rolls

Directions:

Pan fry the sausages until cooked through. (Do this prep the night before for an even faster breakfast!)
Preheat the oven to 350-degrees. Pop open the roll of crescent rolls. Gently unroll the triangles and lay a sausage link onto the wide end.
The Three Bite Rule - Sleepy Pigs in Blankets
Roll the dough around the sausage and keep rolling to the point.
The Three Bite Rule - Sleepy Pigs in Blankets
Bake according to the crescent roll package, 9-12 minutes.
Serve with maple syrup for dipping. Enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - Sleepy Pigs in Blankets
I love these. I made them awhile back for a group brunch and loved them for the a) ease and b) crave-ability factor. I made these again and they were a hit. The little one had already had breakfast and then sat with us and gobbled a few bites and then ate a whole one himself.

Bacon Blue Cheese Pasta Salad

We tend to be slaw/potato salad folks around here. I almost made this as potato salad, but that takes so. much. longer. This, as pasta salad, was super quick…like end of naptime quick. I boiled the pasta and started to fry the bacon while the pasta got a chance to cool. It got dressed to hang out in the fridge until dinner time. Voila! This is best when chilled for 1-3 hours and served then. To serve the next day it’ll need some mayo/plain yogurt/sour cream. The blue cheese dressing is more on the oily side versus the purely creamy side.

The Three Bite Rule - Bacon Blue Cheese Pasta Salad

Bacon Blue Cheese Pasta Salad (serves 4)

Ingredients:

1/4 box of large elbow pasta
2-3 slices of bacon
1 1/4 cup blue cheese salad dressing
2 tbs fresh chives, chopped (or green onions)
salt & pepper
crumbled blue cheese (optional)
hot sauce (optional)

Directions: (prep at least 1 hour in advance)

Boil pasta according to the package, cooking until soft, less than al dente.
Chop and pan fry the bacon until crisp, then drain.
Let the pasta cool. Stir a few times so it doesn’t become one chunk of pasta. Once cool, mix in 1 cup of the blue cheese dressing and the chives. Add in salt & pepper. Then cover and refrigerate at least an hour, preferably 1-3 hours.
The Three Bite Rule - Bacon Blue Cheese Pasta Salad
Before serving, mix in the rest of the dressing and most of the bacon, reserving a little for the top.
The Three Bite Rule - Bacon Blue Cheese Pasta Salad
Serve with the rest of the bacon on top. Enjoy!
The Three Bite Rule - Bacon Blue Cheese Pasta Salad

This was great! I liked the flavor and the subtlety of it. I didn’t add in additional blue cheese or hot sauce, but this could totally become buffalo blue cheese pasta salad. I used the good, produce-area, blue cheese dressing. I think this is so easy that it is worth repeating and adds a great alternative to the normal, often-lackluster pasta salad.

May 2016 Recap

I did NOT cook that much in May. Normally I have a few interesting items here and there but I thoroughly enjoyed slooooowly getting back to real life after my work event. I had some fun restaurant excursions to Stoked for wood-fired pizza and to Tres Gatos for tapas! I’m all about the fast-ish dinners now that it is nice out and it is more fun to take walks through the neighborhood, or play in driveway with T & his yard-sale bubble mower, or whatever. Mr. J has a new train schedule and gets home earlier -woohoo! I love whenever we can all eat at the same time!

Let’s pause for the sous-chefs who have not had a blog appearance until just lately:
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I was really proud of the ramen burgers! I kind of can’t believe the ramen buns stayed together! It was such a fun one to try! I loved the teryiaki & green onions on a burger.
The Three Bite Rule - Ramen Burger
I loved a quickie flatbread pizza with turkey kielbasa, sweet potato, red onion, and a mustard sauce. It was so perfectly fast and some variety to my typical dinner flavors. The babe loooves sweet potato so having some leftover was great.
The Three Bite Rule - Kielbasa & Sweet Potato Pizza
Puff pastry has such an important place in my heart. I always love it. This eggplant parm pockets were so fun and cooking the eggplant the night before made them even easier. This meat-less meal was spot on and perfectly portioned!
The Three Bite Rule - Eggplant Parmesan in Puff Pastry

The Little One: 
He’s so funny right now. I mean, we always think he’s funny. That’s rule 1 of being a parent. He seems like such a little kid rather than a baby now! We just got him crocs and they’re just the cutest. He loves playing outside and his current favorite toys are books (especially this strawberry one & this truck one), mega blocks, and cardboard boxes. He’s not so into the talking & words but I can’t get over how much he knows. He will go retrieve a specific toy or book when we ask for it, he correctly identifies which dog is which, he knows some body parts, and will mimic some words when we say them like go, milk, choo-choo, beep, etc. T is still a rockstar-sleeper and still eating well. Fingers crossed he keeps both up!

This guy rockin’ the bed-head, pre-haircut last week:
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2016 Goals:

The Year of the: Seasonal Decor I’m counting it, I got this watercolor flower print on wood and love it.
do something a different way: I’ve been focused on putting things where they belong, in the moment. Otherwise I find myself straightening up later which seems like more work.
drink more water: yup, going strong especially with no coffee until 10oz of water…at least on weekdays
make more interesting side dishes: nope
cook more soups & sauces: nah
watch more movies: we just laughed our way through Sisters
make working out a higher priority: Mr. J’s train is earlier so I’m been pretty good about getting up and moving before waking the little one. Plus, work is starting a walking challenge going so I’m psyched to see that.

Eggplant Parm in Puff Pastry Pockets

Yes to breaded eggplant. Yes to Parmesan. Yes to puff pastry. I love all these things so I was secretly psyched for a cooler drizzly day to whip up this dinner. Ohh so good. I liked how quick these were and all the flavors I wanted while still feeling different. Puff pastry is so foolproof. Fill it with anything and you’ll have a happy dinner.
The Three Bite Rule - Eggplant Parmesan in Puff Pastry
Also, let’s discuss my sous chefs: note how they flank where I stand at that neon-green cutting board. It is so nice they want to be a part of everything, but sometimes I just need some room. I fear the babe will think their names are Bailee Move and Windsor Move. They are cute though, aren’t they?
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Ingredients:
(for 1 sheet of puff pastry making 4 pockets)
~12 slices of breaded eggplant (3 slices per pocket)
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup ricotta
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 grated Parmesan

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the eggplant until crisped, flipping once. (I cooked mine the night before to speed it up).
Roll out the puff pastry until it is about 1/8 of an inch thick. Cut into 4.
Top with a slice of eggplant, a few small dollops of ricotta, some shredded mozzarella, and a slight drizzle of tomato sauce (not too much! it’ll get soggy!) Add another eggplant slice and keep the layers going…3 slices per pocket. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
The Three Bite Rule - Eggplant Parmesan in Puff Pastry

Pinch together opposite corners and keep tucking the puff pastry underneath. Cut a few slits into the sides to vent.
The Three Bite Rule - Eggplant Parmesan in Puff Pastry
Bake 25-35 minutes. Check at 25 minutes – mine needed a few more minutes to get golden brown.
The Three Bite Rule - Eggplant Parmesan in Puff Pastry
Enjoy! Serve with some tomato sauce for dipping if desired.
The Three Bite Rule - Eggplant Parmesan in Puff Pastry
I really loved this. The crispy, buttery, flakey outside with the eggplant and all the cheese inside – ohh so great. The little one likes the breaded eggplant and gobbled it up a dinner and lunch in a row. Yes! Winning all around!

Have a happy Memorial Day weekend!

Pizza with Kielbasa & Sweet Potato

I’m always ready for a new pizza. I ran through Delish’s unconventional pizzas and was so ready for kielbasa, sweet potato, and red onion and I added a buttery mustard sauce. It was so great. I’ll always love pizza dough but using naan is just so much faster on a weeknight.

The Three Bite Rule - Kielbasa & Sweet Potato Pizza
Ingredients:
2 naan breads
1 sweet potato
1/2 turkey kielbasa
1 cup Monterey jack cheese
3 tbs butter
3 tbs dijon or grain mustard
1/4 cup red onion

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400-degrees and preheat pizza stone if using one.
Cook the sweet potato either baking it, pealing & boiling it, or microwaving it.
Heat a skillet to medium heat.
Melt the butter and add the mustard. Mix well, add some salt & pepper, and spoon onto the naan.
The Three Bite Rule - Kielbasa & Sweet Potato Pizza
Bake for 10 minutes to toast the bottoms a bit.
Add the sliced kielbasa to the pan to warm through and caramelize the edges.
Slice or chop the sweet potato and the red onion.
Remove the naans from the oven, top with cheese, kielbasa, sweet potato, and red onion.
The Three Bite Rule - Kielbasa & Sweet Potato Pizza
Bake for 15 minutes until the crust crisps and cheese melts.
The Three Bite Rule - Kielbasa & Sweet Potato Pizza
I loved this. The mustardy sauce with the kielbasa was so spot on. Naans are the perfect individual serving. They are doughy and get a bit crisped. The baby loves sweet potato so we were all too happy to have half a leftover sweet potato.