New recipes

Chili's Queso Dip - Have you ever had the queso at Chili's? It's good. But in a really bad for you way I'm sure. This recipe can be made lower fat and that is what I did. It call for 1 can of hormel chili so I used turkey no bean hormel chili, 1% milk, and reduced fat velveeta. It was still pretty yummy!

Crockpot Cashew Chicken- Yum. I liked this but it was a bit spicy. I had even halved the 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper to an 1/8th of a teaspoon for the boys. It was still spicy for them. I used chicken breasts ( I don't cook with thighs or tenders) and this definitely had a thai food feel to it for me. I served it with white rice and snow peas.

Sweet & Spicy Cucumbers- I have not made these yet but my sister brought them last weekend to my dad's birthday celebration. They were delicious! I would definitely make these! Yum!

Quinoa Salad - Here is the other recipe Cara brought last weekend. This quinoa salad has mango, avacado, red pepper, black beans and cilantro. It was so good!

Microwave popcorn- This is a way to make air pop popcorn in your microwave without all the chemicals and stuff that is added to microwave popcorn. All you need is popcorn kernals and a brown bag. Easy and tasty. The boys love popcorn and they thought this was really good. I melted a little butter for them and drizzled it on the popcorn and salted it a little bit.

Raw Energy bites- Just made these last night for breakfasts the next several days. Tried them this morning and Wilson and I really liked them. There are a lot of variations you can use to tailor these to your taste buds. Here is the version I tried: (adapted from fooddoodles.com)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup ground flax seed
3/4 cups oat bran
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Follow the link to see recipe directions and all of the other options for mix-ins.

Katie's Wedding Shower

Last weekend Stephanie and I threw a bridal shower for our sister-in-law Katie. More pictures will come when I get them from Steph! Here are the few pics Andy took before he left the house. I made my first banner and I loved it! I have seen so many on the blogs I read and always thought they were cute. I will definitely make these again for future parties. It wasn't hard and it was a really cute decoration for very little cost. We bought the scrapbook paper at Hobby*Lobby. I used the letter punch at school on the paper for the hearts and letters. Then I had an oval cutter for scrapbooking at home. The gifts went on the table at the shower.

Fruit kebabs! Meghan and Lily (my nieces) worked hard to put the fruit on our little bamboo sticks. They did a fabulous job!

The last picture for now- our cupcakes! Stephanie made the cupcake stand. One of my favorite blogs, Annie's Eats has a tutorial on how to make your own cupcake stand. We bought the stuff at Hobby*Lobby and she put it together easily! We bought the cake circles, scrapbook paper (to cover the cans and box at the bottom), and the ribbon. Then Steph used a hot glue gun and there you have it!

The adorable cupcakes were made by our friend, Heather. I found a picture on the internet of some cupcakes I liked and showed it to Heather. She then created these adorable cupcakes. Katie's colors are teal and yellow. These are topped in fondant and then she made little flowers for each one. They tasted great and were adorable on the cupcake stand!

We also had chicken salad in mini phyllo cups. They were cute! I used purple grapes instead of green and did not use the radish garnish.

Katie's maid of honor, Shana brought a veggie tray, and we had salmon mousse that I piped on crackers. Mine did not look like this- I just realized I was trying to pipe it wrong! I did a swirl in the center of each cracker. This was an incredibly easy recipe- with a food processor. I've realized I'm not a big salmon fan. But I heard a lot of great feedback. I'd make them again- they were a nice addition to the food spread and something different and kind of "fancy"! I love the chive garnish on Annie's but the chives at my grocery were half brown so we skipped that step!

One of my favorite things of the shower was the mock champagne punch. It tasted great and we bought plastic flutes at the party store. We garnished each glass with a strawberry on the rim. I so wish I had a picture of the 20 flutes filled and garnished! They looked so cute on the table! Everyone enjoyed the fancy glasses.

I didn't get a picture of any of this - :( - maybe Steph did. But if you click the link on the mock champagne punch and the chicken salad you'll see what they looked like!

Thanksgiving #2

On Thursday Andy and I hosted the Mc. family Thanksgiving at our house. I spent all day Wednesday cleaning and that evening I prepped my food. Andy cleaned the bathroom, mopped, and worked hard on our downstairs bathroom. Thursday morning I finished cleaning and decorated the table with some fall decorations I borrowed from Cara. The boys had made a sign for the front door, place cards for the kids table, and handprint turkeys to hang in the dining room. They were so excited to have everyone over to our house! My parents showed up for dinner and I was so glad for them to come.

Everyone came over around 2ish. We had some appetizers since no one ate lunch. I made Jalapeno Popper dip and served it with toasted bread. Erin brought fresh fruit and spinach dip. Everything was yummy! I also made Pomegranate Punch which Wilson thought was lemonade and poured half of the juice mixture down the drain... :(

We had dinner around 5ish. I made sweet potato casserole, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. (Next time for the cranberry sauce I would reduce the pomegranate juice to 1 cup and the sugar to 1/2 cup.) I enjoyed trying new recipes for the holiday. With both thanksgiving celebrations combined I tried 5 new recipes!

The food was delicious. We also had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, rolls, corn pudding, green bean casserole, and broccoli casserole. Everyone had a great time hanging out. The kids put on their own Thanksgiving Day parade in our basement which was adorable. It was too hot for a fire but overall it was a wonderful day of hanging out, food, and fun! With 9 cousins we have started putting all of their names in a hat. Each cousin pulls out 1 name and that is who they buy a christmas gift for. So the kids all traded gifts since we don't all see each other at Christmas. They were excited to get to open a present!

Pizza Sauce

Last weekend Andy and I made Pizza bites. We've made them before using homemade pizza dough. Yum! The boys love them too. I've wanted to try the homemade pizza sauce from Annie's Eats for a while and finally got around to it. We put ours in the blender so it would be smooth and not chunky. I don't own an immersion blender. It worked just fine! Have pizza sauce in the freezer for the next time!

Ham & Cheese Sliders, Pizza Bites

A couple new recipes we had for dinner this week. The Ham & Cheese Sliders were super easy to make! I used mini Hawaiian rolls and reduced the butter. Wilson, Tyler and I all really enjoyed these and I am not a ham eater. Ham & Cheese Sliders from Annie's Eats. Follow the link for recipe and picture!

The pizza bites were a big hit! I made pizza dough and stuffed 2 slices of pepperoni and a cube of fresh mozzarella inside. I want to try Annie's homemade pizza sauce but didn't have time this week. Pizza Bites from Annie's Eats. Follow the link for recipe and picture!

Here's what we keep eating...

over and over! Therefore I feel like they are worth mentioning again!! So I am cooking just haven't been trying new recipes. I did checkout a few cookbooks today at the library.

Guacamole: Yum. Since Ty and I are the only ones who eat guacamole I've just been using 1 advocado at a time. Solved my problem from this recipe - it made too much and turned brown. Now I just take 1 advocado, mash it in a bowl, sprinkle with salt, 1-2 drops tabasco, 1 splash Worchestershire sauce, and a spash of lime juice. Add a small spoon of sour cream and some diced tomato if I have any. I've been leaving out the onion. And poof, you have guac in 5 minutes. That's a good and bad thing. :)

Chicken Ranch Pizza: Love the pizza dough. It is chewy and delicious. It's our new family favorite. Andy and I really like this chicken ranch pizza as well.

Chicken Quesadillas: Life is good when I get to eat these once a week! Ha! Seriously though, I love them. I like to have homemade salsa and/or guacamole along with these. If you're not up for making salsa buy the Garden Fresh Gourmet. I know you can get it at Meijer and Kroger. It's really good salsa.

Potato Skins

I've made Pioneer Woman's Potato Skins 3 times. Every time they are demolished! They are so good!

8 slices bacon, crumbled (we prefer turkey bacon)
8 russet or idaho potatoes, scrubbed clean
canola oil
kosher salt
1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
sour cream
4 green onions, sliced

Preheat oven to 400. Prick your clean potatoes and rub the skin liberally with canola oil. Place on baking pan and bake 45min-1 hour until fork tender. Meanwhile, cook bacon, shred cheese, and slice onions. Slice the potatoes in half lengthwise. With a spoon, scrape out the inner flesh of the potatoes, leaving a small margin of potato in the skins. Brush both sides with canola oil and salt both sides of the potato. Place skins cut side down on the pan and bake 7 minutes. Flip potatoes over and bake 7 minutes on the other side. Sprinkle cheese and chopped bacon into each potato skin. Return to oven just until cheese melts. Just before serving sprinkle green onions on top and serve with sour cream! Enjoy!

Big Game

Tonight we had a fun UK vs WV party at our house. Unfortunatly for me UK lost. But Andy, his dad, his uncle, his brother, Wilson and Luke were all cheering for WV. Crazy. I can't believe UK lost...but we had fun and the food was good. Decided to go with appetizers for the game. I made Ham & Cheese Pretzel Bites, guacamole, and potato skins. Dan brought chicken honey barbecue anytizers. The only new recipe was the pretzel bites and they were good! I love soft pretzels though.

I'll never hear the end of this loss with so many WV fans on Andy's side of the family!

My new favorite salsa!

Yum. I read a recipe on Pioneer Woman yesterday for homemade salsa. (If you want her step by step picture tutorial click here instead.) It sounded so easy I knew I had to try it. I've always wanted to make homemade salsa but thought it would be difficult. Ha! This was a CINCH! It tastes just the way I like my salsa. For dinner tonight, Luke, Ty and I dipped our chicken quesadillas in the salsa. Really made the meal delicious! Making this salsa is much cheaper than buying the one I like from the deli. That small container I like from Meijer is about 4 dollars. This cost me about $6 bucks to make 6-7 cups of salsa. Bargain!

Bean and Cheese Dip

Yum. Tonight I made this bean dip (scroll down until you see it) to go with our favorite chicken quesadillas. We have been eating the quesadillas for a while from Annie's Eats and love them. We don't grill them like it says in the recipe. Just cook them in a skillet. Now I love the bean dip too! It is really good and was very easy to make. Win-win! There are pictures of both recipes on her blog. Enjoy!

Soft Pretzels - YUM!

Soft Pretzels

Ingredients:

For the dough:

1½ cups warm water (110-115° F)

1 tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. kosher salt

2¼ tsp. instant yeast

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Vegetable oil, for greasing the bowl

For finishing:

Cooking spray

10 cups water

2/3 cup baking soda
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp. water

Pretzel (or kosher) salt

Directions: To make the dough, combine the water, sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed to dissolve the yeast. Add in the flour and melted butter and mix just until the dough comes together. Switch to the dough hook and knead on medium speed until the dough is smooth and clears the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes. Transfer the dough to a bowl lightly greased with vegetable oil, turning once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place, about 50-55 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

Preheat the oven to 450° F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray. Bring the water and baking soda to a boil in a large saucepan or stockpot. In the meantime, divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll a segment out into a 24-inch long rope. Make a U-shape with the rope and holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and onto the bottom of the U-shape in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough. Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 or 2 at a time, for 30 seconds. Remove from the water with a slotted skimmer and return to the baking sheet. Once all the pretzels have been boiled, brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake in the preheated oven until dark golden brown, about 12-14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.
From Annie's Eats

Yummy Snack Recipe

My friend Jenn makes a great snack mix. I've now made it twice and everyone who has tried it really likes it. Yesterday I made a batch. I had left it on top of the stove in the glass 9x13 to cool. I sent Cara home with some and Andy and I ate a little as it cooled. Then I ruined the rest. :(
I turned on the wrong burner to cook spaghetti and burned the mix. Thankfully the glass didn't shatter. All of the snack mix tasted charred so I had to throw it away. I sure was mad at myself!

Jenn's Snack Mix
8 cups Quaker Oat Squares
1 1/2 cups chow mein noodles
1 1/2 cups cashews
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 T soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder

Preheat oven to 250. Combine cereal, noodles and nuts in a large bowl. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over dry mix. Stir. Pour into 9x13 and bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

One step closer...

to putting our house on the market! It's been a CRAZY week. I'm exhausted as usual. I need to go to bed! We met with our realtor this past Thursday and are finishing up a few things before we list our house. We're hoping to have it listed in about 1 week. We were very busy today! Here's what I did:
*woke up too early b/c of the boys
*made eggs, turkey bacon, and frozen biscuits for breakfast
*worked on my consignment sale stuff (bagging ,entering tags in computer, etc) - so far 121 items!
*got the boys haircut
*made taco hummus
*return to Mich*ael's and bought Ty and easter basket while there
*return to Toysr*us and bought Finley's b-day present while there
*went to walm*art to get baggies for the consignment sale
*painted the garage door
*put a few things away in the attic
*made pepperoni rolls
*made potato, broccoli, cheddar soup
*went out for dessert to celebrate Steph's b-day
*washed dishes, loaded dishwasher
*talked to my mom on the phone for almost an hour
*packed one box of clutter
*went to my mom's to pick up a few more wire hangers and visited for a bit

Unfortunately there are still a lot of things on my list to get done this weekend! I need to clean the kitchen cabinets and baseboard so Andy can do paint touch-ups, I really need a nap tomorrow, make menu/grocery list for next week, pick up ergo carrier from Cara so I don't break my back carrying Ty in the bjorn anymore, and CLEAN! The week ahead will be busy too as we get the last few things done before pictures/listing of the house. It's looking good!

Snow Day #4 = Ice

Another day at home with my boys makes me a happy camper - though I'm trying not to think about May or June right now. There's nothing I can do about that! Today we were homebound due to the ice covering everything. We all took a nap except Wilson- I fell asleep with Ty on the couch and Wilson was in there playing. We did some cleaning, lots of playing, and I did some Mary Kay bookkeeping. I gave all the boys a bath and Andy's been doing some laundry. I've been on Facebook a lot reading everybody's 25 things. If you're not on FB check it out! It's a great way to reconnect with friends and to stay abreast of what's happening in their lives.

My nose is doing well! Not as sore today. I'm taking good care of it with my H2Ocean spray. It's a piercing aftercare spray. I'm to use it 3-5 times a day. I just spray the piercing and the swab around it with a q-tip. It's sterile purified ocean salt water.

Today I tried a crockpot recipe from a friend at school, Laura. It was SO good! The best part was how easy it was! I'm going to post it below. We had Jiffy corn muffins with it and I made some of Cara's famous guacamole for me. Too bad no one else in my family will touch the stuff! This recipe will be made again!!

Crockpot Mexican Chili

2 frozen chicken breasts - I buy Market Day ChicNSteakes - they can change your life!!!
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained
1 jar salsa - My fave: Garden Fresh Gourment from Meijer - Jack's Special Mild Salsa
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder

Put frozen chicken breasts in crockpot. Dump other ingredients in and stir. Cook on high 5 hours. Mine was on high for about 2 hours then I turned it to low. At the end of the 5 hours the chicken was falling apart. Take two forks and shred the chicken on a cutting board. Place shredded chicken back in crockpot and stir. I served this in a bowl with shredded mexican cheese on top. You could add sour cream or green onions too. Serve with cornbread or tortilla chips.

Stay tuned for Snow Day #5 tomorrow!! When will we ever return to school?!

Fun in the Kitchen

Here are a couple of good recipes I tried using my new cooking stuff! Chocolate Chip Cheesecake using my new springform pan and electric mixer! Soft Garlic Knots using my new mixer. I love my stand mixer! It is a-mazing! The first time I used it I couldn't stop smiling. No more will I turn on my hand mixer to mix-turn it off-set it down-crack the egg-pick up the mixer to mix- turn it off- set it down- etc! Stand mixers are glorious!! Both were pretty good recipes- that was my first real cheesecake to make using a springform pan and all. It turned out pretty good. I think I overmixed the garlic knots. Andy thought they were good as did the boys but they weren't light and fluffy. I'm still new to bread doughs! The new soup I tried was okay but not a recipe I'm going to keep. It had leeks in it- which I had always wanted to try in a recipe, but it wasn't our favorite! I enjoyed it but can live without it. Andy didn't care for the texture of the leeks which I think are like big green onions without the onion flavor. We also made fondue Sunday night in the new fondue pot Dan and Carol got me for Christmas. It was fun! The boys were so excited but as it turns out, they didn't care for the cheese fondue. Andy and I enjoyed it - though it was expensive to make! Here is the recipe for Three Cheese Fondue. I served it with a big platter of cut up baguette, potatoes, broccoli, zuchinni, carrots, and green apple. That was dinner! I was able to find 2 cheeses at Meijer and the 1 at Whole Foods. The fondue pot works fabulously- it is electric so you don't need a flame or anything. The boys really had fun adding the shredded cheese to the pot and watching it melt as we whisked it into the liquid. I promised them next time we'll do a chocolate fondue! I really want to make homemade marshmallows to dip into the fondue. I'll keep you posted! But I did find a good chocolate fondue recipe I want to try.

New Recipes

Okay, remember when I told you I really liked the new blog I found, Annie's Eats? Well this week I've tried a bunch of new recipes from her blog!
One night for dinner this week I made Chicken Quesadillas with White and Black Bean Dip. Very good. Click the name of each for the link to her blog with the recipe. I made a couple changes to the quesadillas - I cut the red pepper t0 1/4 tsp. because of my boys and I just used a skillet to cook the quesadillas so mine didn't have the fancy grill marks! It was still very yummy.

Tonight I made Spaghetti and Meatballs. The boys and I really liked this dinner. It made a ton of sauce so I froze 1/2 of it and saved enough in the fridge for leftovers. I followed her directions and made the meatballs about 2 T. in size and found they weren't cooked through in 20 min. so I turned the heat up and cooked them another 6 minutes or so. I might make them a little smaller next time. I also did not put mozzarella cheese in the middle of the meatballs. Just plain meatballs. I'm usually a spaghetti sauce from a jar kind of cook but this was easy and good!

Tonight, after getting the boys to bed I made 3 different muffin recipes off the blog- from SCRATCH!! No, they're not all for me!!! I am taking a basket of muffins to a friend at church who recently had a baby. Got that idea off of the blog too! I chose to make the Cinnamon Buttermilk Muffins- I'm calling them Cinnamon Sugar Muffins, Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Muffins (let's call those Double Chocolate Muffins), and the Blueberry Muffins. The recipes weren't difficult at all. I've only eaten 1 muffin tonight- a Cinnamon Sugar Muffin. Man, it was GOOD! Very light and fluffy. I am not a milk drinker and I had to have a small glass of milk after that. I hope the others are as good!

I bought a cute basket at Meijer. Wilson was a little worried that I was going to give all the muffins away but I promised him there was going to be plenty. The boys both REALLY like muffins!! I'll post a picture of the basket once I get the muffins inside tomorrow! I feel like such a little homemaker...

Guacamole Post

This post is in honor of some of my school friends who were talking about guacamole the other day and made me want to try it again! I've always wanted to like guacamole (not sure why) but haven't given it much of a chance. My sister, Cara, has a yummy recipe for guac so I used that and made it yesterday. My mom was over after our trip to Target and I had bought the ingredients at Wal-Mart. So I mixed us up some guacamole to go with our lunch. Neither of us were sure if we like guacamole or not but we both enjoyed it. Try it and let me know if YOU like it!!

Guacamole
4 ripe avocados (reserve 1 pit)
2 tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 medium Vidalia onion
2 small limes (or 1 large lime)
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
6 drops Tabasco sauce
1 t. salt
1/4 cup light sour cream

Chop onion and mash and peel avocados. (This part was fun! I've never worked with avocados before they are soft and mushy!) Mix together and add the lime juice. Add tomatoes and rest of ingredients except for sour cream. When thoroughly mixed, seal guacamole with a layer of sour cream and place an avocado pit on top of the dip to keep the dip from browning. (I skipped this step and just mixed the sour cream in b/c we were eating it right then). When ready to serve, remove pit and mix in sour cream. Serve with tortilla chips.