Cheeseburger Ring & Bodacious Broccoli Salad from Jam Hands

I am always bookmarking recipes and crafts that I'm going to make one of these days.  I find all sorts of inspiration from fellow bloggers, especially now that I cohost A Crafty Soiree each week.  That's where I first stumbled upon Ali's blog Jam Hands.  Her Homemade Barbequed Chicken Pizza caught my eye one week and I've been checking in ever since. 

As much as I love bookmarking recipes, it seems like we're always eating the same thing over and over.  It can be so easy to fall into a dinnertime rut.  Well gosh darn it, last week I said enough is enough and pulled up my favorite blogs for some ideas.  We made the yummy Cheeseburger Ring from Jam Hands.  It's a near miracle meal, because all three of us - including the uber picky soon to be five year old like it!  

We followed the recipe pretty much step by step this time.  Next time we think we'd like to try it with Pillsbury's Garlic Butter Crescent Rolls.  Those are so good and I could eat a whole package myself so I'm sure they'd be fab in this meal.   I was also thinking the Cheeseburger Ring would be easy to adapt into a make ahead meal.  You could cook the meat mixture ahead of time, up to step 3, and then add it to the rolls later on.  This would cut down on the time it takes to get it to the table on a busy night.  I think the only thing you'd have to adjust a little is the cooking time, as the meat mixture would be cold. 

I also made the Bodacious Broccoli Salad for our side dish.  I'd been craving the broccoli salad they have in the salad bar at Ruby Tuesday and the ingredients for this one were very similar.  It's minus some of the things I don't really need like raisins, as dried fruit raise my glucose levels, so it's a more diabetic friendly. 

It was a little less successful with our kiddo, but both Brad and I liked it a lot.  It was a nice switch from the green salad we normally have with burgers.  The dressing is lighter tasting than other versions I've had; the lemon juice really gives it some tang.  We ended up doubling the dressing as we like ours to be coated a little more heavily and we used two big heads of broccoli. 

Combined the recipes make a pretty colorful plate!  Both are definitely keepers and will be added to our rotation for sure!   Thanks Jam Hands for the tasty suggestions AND for featuring one of our recipes on your blog!  (Ali recently shared the Bean Dip my friend Margaret is known for.)   We're looking forward to trying more of your recipes, I've already got your Bacon Tomato Dip printed out and ready to go!