A Halloweenie post...Literally

Happy Halloween everyone!
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and growing up we would do a theme dinner, turning normal everyday food into more fun scary dishes.  Thankfully, I married a man who also loves Halloween, so we are carrying on the theme dinner tradition with our kiddos!

So this is more of an idea post, as opposed to a recipe one.  Since our kids are 1 and almost 3 we kept it pretty tame and made Hotdog monsters and brains and eye balls.  I Will put pictures below to show how the Hotdog Monsters are made, they are pretty easy and our kids gobbled them up since they were a novelty, and the Brains were Mac and Cheese with ketchup mixed in, Just enough to make it pink looking, we used black olives for the eyeballs.  So there you have it a HALLOWEENIE dinner :)!

Daddy's Hotdog Monsters (Before they are cooked)

And After (The "hair" curls when it is cooked and the face becomes more prominent)

We cooked them for about 3 to 4 minutes

The whole meal, and yes you should cut up the hot dogs before giving them to little ones, and we did once the picture was taken and they got to see the "Monsters"

Enjoy!

Till Next time,



Angel Chicken

Happy Friday everyone!
I found this recipe from a post on a fellow bloggers Facebook page.  There was no link so I went hunting for the recipe and found several versions, so of course I added my own things to make this my own and let me tell you this was delicious, and very simple to make.  We doubled the recipe to have left overs but I will put the regular size recipe that I created and based it on below

4 Chicken Breasts, dalved
Half of a large white onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, crushed with your knife, no need to mince it
Half Stick of Butter
1 packet of dry italian dressing mix
1/2 Cup White Cooking wine
1 Tub (8 oz.) of Onion and Chive cream cheese
1 can of Cream of mushroom and roasted garlic soup
Splash of sherry cooking wine (if you choose, we like its flavor so we use it in a lot of dishes)
Black Pepper to taste.

Coat bottom of crock pot with olive oil just enough to make sure the Chicken doesn't stick.
Put soup, cream cheese, butter, white cooking wine, italian dressing packet and sherry into a sauce pan.  Heat till all ingredients are combined and the sauce is smooth.  While this is cooking ( about 5-8 minutes total) place chicken breast halves in bottom of crock pot, put diced onions and garlic on top of that, pour in sauce mixture, cover and cook.  this can be cooked on High for 3 to 4 hours or low for 6 to 7. 

serve over angel hair pasta with a healthy portion of sauce.  For the kids I put it over a slice of crusty bread, french or other is fine, since angel hair is difficult for them to eat.  I also served it with steamed broccoli on the side, the kids ate every speck on their plate (including the broccoli), and My son was sucking sauce off of his fingers :)

Enjoy! and if you like these recipes, grab my button and send people over to me, or become a follower, and of course always let me know what you think!

Till next time,

Fajita Quesadillas

We are big fans of Mexican food in our house and finding a way to make it inexpensively as opposed to eating out is always a goal of mine.  This recipe is pretty simple, although does require some chopping but for the most part took me all of about 35 minutes to prep and cook.

2 green peppers, cleaned and sliced into strips
1 yellow pepper, cleaned and sliced into strips
1 red pepper, cleaned and sliced into strips
1 large white onion sliced.
2 tablespoons of crushed garlic
1 package of flour tortillas
2 packages of quesadilla cheese (any brand is fine, whatever your preference)
2 packages of tyson grilled chicken strips, they are by the other shortcut chicken in the grocery store, we used the tysons because it was significantly less expensive than the others and you got more. (or the steak, we did both and bought 2 packages of each)
2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil
dash of fajita seasoning (if you have it) I have used it or just salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a large skillet and saute peppers, onion, garlic, and seasoning.  Saute till onions are translucent and peppers are soft, Add in Chicken strips, since the chicken is already cooked you just need to heat till warm.  Once done, heat a grill pan if you have one, or just a saute pan will work as well.
Put one tortilla on bottom of pan, sprinkle in cheese, we like alot of cheese so we use a pretty healthy amount, spoon in chicken mixture, sprinkle in a little more cheese on top of that and put another tortilla on top.  Heat till cheese is melted flipping carefully so that the sides dont burn and the filling doesn't fall out.  I like to press down on top with a spatula to ensure that it sticks together, continue this process until all the filling is used, we used enchilada size tortillas and we got about 3 good size quesadillas, which gave us about 6 to 7 wedges per quesadilla, so you will have plenty left over, depending on family size of course. I serve this with Guacamole, Sour Cream and Salsa for dipping.

If you choose to do both steak and chicken, you can either double the onions and peppers, or use the same amount and split the onions and peppers between 2 pans when you heat the meat, or you can keep it all in the same pan and have chicken and steak together :).  The recipe is pretty fexible.

Please comment if you try these recipes out and let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

Till next time,

Easy Monday Recipe

Well since the lovely October cold that is floating around has made it to our house, and I am not feeling too hot,  I am posting a super easy Crock Pot recipe.  I found a recipe a few years ago for a crockpot pulled pork using beer, but through trial and error and few kinds of beer, I have found that we prefer root beer and the flavor it gives better

Crockpot Pulled Pork

1- 2 pound Pork loin ( if it wont fit, you may cut it in half to make it fit)
1  small yellow onion sliced
1 12 oz can or bottle of your favorite root beer (A&W makes it sweet, Barqs is less sweet)
1 bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce (we prefer sweet baby rays)

Place pork loin into crock pot, put onions on top, pour in root beer, cover and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours.  Shred pork once it is fork tender, put back into crock pot, pour in BBQ suace, mix, and serve on kaiser rolls.  We usually have a side of coleslaw, or potato salad, and a green vegetable or corn.

This makes enouggh for about 8 servings, I usually buy a bigger Loin so we have left overs, if you get a 4 pound loin just double the root beer, use a medium sized onion, and you may need another bottle of BBQ sauce depending on how saucy you like it.

In total this recipe is about 15 minutes of prep work, and is really really yummy.  It is an easy weeknight meal, that freezes very easy as well.

Enjoy!
Till next time,

Pizza Friday!

Happy Friday Guys!

One of my favorite things to do with the kids is make pizza, I make the dough and lay out the toppings and have Abby make little personal pizzas for her and Jax.  It really gets her involved and one day Jax too when he is old enough to help, plus it gives her some control over what she is eating which always helps to get the food into her :)  It's also a really good way to sneak some veggies into them, I usually put some green peppers and mushrooms on Abby's since she likes those the most.
I put the sauce on for her and then lay out the toppings, usually sausage, some veggies, and cheese, and she does the rest.

you can use store bought sauce or the recipe for the Margherita sauce I have on here works great as well, and can be used since you will probably have some leftover from the night that you made it (so one less step ;))

Here is the dough recipe I have found that works best for personal pizzas, I have tried a few and this one seems to work the best for us.

1 tsp active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

1/2 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2-1/2 cups flour

In medium bowl, stir in yeast, water, sugar, salt, and oil. Mix in enough flour to make a dough that can be kneaded. Turn dough out onto board and quickly knead for 3 minutes, adding more flour if dough is too sticky to knead. Place dough in greased bowl and flip dough over in bowl so that dough top is also lightly greased. Cover and let rise into warm, draft-free place until doubled into size, or about 30 minutes.

Divide dough into 4 equal parts. To make a personal pizza, grease pizza pan or baking sheet. Press one dough part into a 6 to 7-inch circle on greased pan. Put on sauce and desired toppings. Bake pizza at 400 degrees F for about 20 minutes, or until pizza edges are lightly golden. You can bake all 4 personal pizzas or place the other dough parts in a plastic food storage bag and refrigerate or freeze for later use.

Butternut Bacon Bisque

This is a take on a recipe I found last fall, I changed it up a bunch and turned it into a savory bisque, perfect for this nasty fall weather.

1 Large and 1 Small Butternut Squash (about 6 to 6.5 pounds) Peeled (a Y shaped peeler works best) and diced, into large cubes
4 Cups chicken stock
2 Cups chicken broth ( I used bouillion cubes, because we prefer the flavor)
2 Tablespoons of ground black pepper
4 Bay leaves (we like the flavor they give soup, you can use less if you like)
4 Whole peeled garlic cloves
1 Carton heavy whipping cream (16 oz.)
1 Stick of butter
2 Packages of Oscar Mayer recipe pieces bacon bits (found in the salad dressing aisle at the grocery store)
1/2 of a white onion diced

Peel the shell off with the peeler and dice the squash then place in large stock pot.  Add Chicken Stock, broth, black pepper, garlic and bay leaves, Bring to a boil and then turn down to medium low and let simmer for 2 to 3 hours.  Once simmered, remove the bay leaves, and puree the liquid and squash, It would be best to use a blender but I used my Stand mixer and it worked fine, a little messy but same end result. Put back into pot and add whipping cream, butter, and bacon, bring it back to a boil, and then let simmer again, saute the onions in 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil till shiny, or translucent, and add to the pot.  Cook till ready to serve stirring ocassionaly. 

I will be serving this with Homemade french bread, topped with a dollop of sour cream.

This recipe is pretty easy but a little more labor intensive, so if you are not home for alot of the day, I would reccomend making it on the weekend.

This makes enough for several meals, and some to freeze as well.  With the math I did when adding up the cost per serving including the bread this came out to about $2.00 a serving, and in a week or two when squash goes down even more in price, it will probably go down to about $1.50 a serving.

Till next Time,

Crockpot French Onion Beef

This was a fly by the seat of my pants, literally thought about it while I was sleeping and woke myself up to write the recipe down meal.  It came out so so good, it tastes like a roast beef dinner with french onion soup all in one, and besides nearly slicing my finger off with the mandolin while slicing the onions, it was a pretty painless process to make.

1- 4 to 5 pound eye of round roast, or 2 smaller 2 to 3 pound roasts
2 white onions sliced (softball sized)
5 cloves of garlic, whole and peeled
1 can of beef consomme, and 1 can of water
2 Knorr (or simmilar) extra large beef boullion cubes, if you don't have the extra large cubes, you can use 4 small cubes
1/2 cup of cooking sherry
1 stick of butter
Parsley flakes and black pepper to taste
About 6 shakes of worstechire sauce, if you choose (it kicked the onion flavor up a bunch when we added it)
3 tablespoons of olive oil

Coat bottom of crockpot with olive oil, and layer all onions on the bottom, then put in the garlic cloves, and season with the black pepper and parsley flakes (you can always add more as it cooks if you want more).  Cut the butter into tablespoon size pieces and place on top of the onions.  Place roasts on top of that, and pour in the beef consomme, can of water, and cooking sherry over the roast, add the Boullion cubes as is and  set the crock pot to High for 4 to 5 hours or low for 6 to 8 hours, and let it cook, before removing the meat if you choose to use the worstechire shake it in and let it cook for another 10 to 15 minutes .  

Once done let the meat rest for a minimum of 15 minutes, and then slice meat to desired thickness, and put back into crock pot.  Serve over sliced ciabatta rolls with the onions on top and a healthy portion of juice, sprinkle with cheese (we used a provolone, mozzerella blend) and voila! French onion beef.

This made enough for all four of us to have 3 dinners and for My Husband to take for a lunch one day. If you run Low on juice adding in a can of campbells or similar french onion soup will stretch the juice farther

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did!
I would also love to hear comments or thoughts on these recipes when you make them :)

Till next time,

The First of many...

Happy Friday Everyone!
I himmed and Hawed about what to post for my first recipe, I needed something that would start things off with a bang and one that would make you want more, and I couldn't pick from 2 so I decided to post them both! One is a crockpot recipe and one of our favorites, the other is a Sauce that I came up with sort of by accident but has become a family favorite.
so here we go:

Crock Pot Swedish Meatballs

1 bag of Frozen Swedish Style Meatballs (I get the large bag, 32 oz. so that we have left overs)
1 container of sour cream
1 yellow onion sliced
1 white onion sliced
3 to 4 cloves of garlic (I choose to leave them whole, because they get sweet since they cook for so long, but you can also crush or slice them)
2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 can of cream of mushroom and garlic soup
1 packet of McCormick Swedish meatball seasoning, made following the directions
1 packet of McCormick Beef Herb Gravy seasoning, made following the directions
1 can of Beef consomme

Coat the bottom of the crock pot with the olive oil, this will help keep the onions from sticking
Layer the onions on the bottom then pour in the frozen meatballs, put the garlic in at this time as well.
Mix the sour cream, cream of mushroom and garlic soup, the 2 seasoning packets that have been made according to the directions in a separate bowl and the can of beef consomme, in a large bowl together.  Pour over the meatballs, put on the lid and cook for 7 to 8 hours on low.

We serve it over egg noodles, and usually with a green vegetable on the side, Broccoli or Green beans seem to be the best combination

This recipe makes enough for us and the kiddos to have 2 dinners and usually enough for My Husband to take for lunch as well, it freezes and reheats really well also.


Margherita Sauce

1 Green Pepper, Diced
1 Red Pepper, Diced
3 tablespoons of crushed garlic
1 White onion (softball sized preferably), Diced
1 Tablespoon of Butter
2 Tablespoons of Olive oil
1 Large can (28 oz) of crushed tomatoes
2 regular cans (14 oz) of stewed tomatoes (I use Italian style)
1 Small can of tomato paste
1 Regular can of tomato sauce
Italian seasoning to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of sugar

Melt the butter into the Olive oil in a skillet and Saute the peppers, onions, and garlic until the onions are translucent and the peppers are semi soft.  Pour into a large sauce pot
Pour in the cans of crushed tomatoes, and tomato sauce, then as you add the stewed tomatoes, including the liquid in the can, break the tomatoes up with your hands.  Bring to a low boil (be careful because it will splatter if you don't watch it) then add in the tomato paste and stir until all incorporated, add the italian seasoning and salt and pepper, and let it cook on a low heat stirring every once in awhile towards the end add the sugar, it helps cut some of the acidity and draw out the sweetness in the tomates, if you feel it needs more add more.  The longer you can cook it the better the sauce tastes.

This makes enough sauce for several meals, we usually use it once or twice in the week and then freeze the rest. 

I know it sounds complicated but this is something I put together when the kids are napping and it really only takes about a half an hour of work, and then I just stir it every once in awhile through out the day.  To be honest there have been times I have forgotten to stir it, or have taken the kids to the park, or to run errands and it is still fine :).

This goes fantastic with chicken, I also serve it over mostaccoli since that is easier for the kids to manuever.

Our favorite way to serve this over chicken breast;  broil or grill the chicken, then put the sauce over it and put slices of mozzerella cheese on top.  You can then put it under the broiler or use a cheat method, and microwave it in 10 second increments till the cheese melts.  If I make this for Donnie and I's date night dinner on Sunday nights, I serve it over spaghetti, If I make it for us and the kids I use a short cut pasta like Penne, Mostacolli or rigatoni, makes it much easier for tiny fingers to mauever.

I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we have, and I look forward to sharing more of our life and my kitchen with you.

Till next time :)

Welcome!

Hi there!
First I will tell you a little bit about myself, I am a former member of Corporate America, who due to circumstances out of my control became a stay at home mom about a year ago, In that time I have been able to rediscover my passion for all things home making; most notably cooking.

So this blog is born! Yes, I plan to have this be mostly about cooking, baking, recipe creation, and trials and fails, but being that my day is consumed by two beautiful toddlers I am sure that there will be several anecdotal stories thrown in, since let's be honest, my job is my kids :).

As far as my other plans for this "place",  I plan to share some of my favorite recipes, as well as the creations that have been born out of a need for easy yet yummy recipes that not only please my foodie palate, but my Husband, our somewhat picky 2 year old, and our 1 year old who will gobble down just about anything I put in front of him, as well. 

I have a love (eh, who am I kidding have an addiction) to pasta, however, having a Husband who is a meat and potatoes kind of guy, I need to change it up most of the time.  Don't let me fool you, I do not cook every night, however I do try to make a home cooked meal 3 to 4 days a week and one large family dinner on the weekend.  With that being said, I don't believe that you need to spend hours in the kitchen to create a "gourmet" meal or even just a tasty meal, nor do you need to be a chef to create either of those, and with two little ones to chase after that isn't even a possibility most days. 

I LOVE my crock pot, and find that is the easiest way to keep my sanity On Mondays and Fridays, so those will probably be the recipes I post on those days, I cannot promise to post a meal idea every day, But I will try and post most days.  and I would love to hear what you would like to see as well (gluten free, Diet friendly, easy, One pot, few steps, freezer friendly, etc.).

So welcome to my kitchen, I hope you enjoy your time here and I look forward to sharing my love of all things food with you!