My Mama said there’d be days like this…

Days that make you feel good and accomplished! Today was one of those days!

I played hooky from church and slept in. We were expecting snow and I really didn’t feel like going to church. Ever have one of those Sundays? Well, I did. So I didn’t get up. Instead I woke up refreshed and HUNGRY!

I made a super delish Black Bean and Sausage soup for Jon and I. I was impressed with my skillz in the pantry. It was made with all things I had on hand. Love when I’m able to do that!! A little summer sausage crisped up in the cast iron skillet, cans of veggies, some beef broth, and some spices from my growing collection. I think my favorite part of lunch was the garlic and cumin flavored sour cream I dolloped on top with some shredded colby-jack cheese! I love me some sour cream!!

After lunch was done, I got to making the crock pot Macaroni & Cheese a la Paula Deen. I made it with just a tad more sauce because I used a whole bag of uncooked elbow macaroni instead of just the two cups the recipe calls for. I was worried the sauce was going to be too loose, but it turned out just right. Rich and creamy! Next time I make it, I will cook the noodles for like 5 minutes instead of the 7 so they’ll hold their shape more. Just a tad soft, but still very good. It cooked in the crock pot for about 2.5 hours and then I dumped it into a square baking dish and topped with with buttered panko bread crumbs and threw that baby into the oven! Everyone thought it was the bomb.com!! I served it with pan fried polska kielbasa. I enjoyed it very much, as did the whole family!

I did the dishes in between cooking and straightened up the kitchen. I let the counters get so cluttered! I am surprised I can even cook a whole meal with all the jars and boxes spilled all over. As I was cleaning up, I washed out 8 more IKEA spice jars and filled them with all the spices and herbs I use the most. It’s so nice to get those off my counter and into one place!

I love these little jars! Only $2.99 for a pack of 4!!

When I was transferring the spices/herbs, it dawned on me that I could re-use the plastic jars with flip lids in my craft area. I could fill them with glitter, beads, buttons, or notions. I had an epiphany! When I buy more spices from Aldi, which by the way cost about a dollar, I can just keep re-using the jars! Thrifty organization! Can’t beat that!

When I clean up my craft space {which is on my major to-do list}, I’ll take some pictures and show you how I put them to use! I can’t wait. I have some re-organizing plans up my sleeve too! Those little glass jars would also look awesome lined on a shelf in the craft room with ribbon, buttons, or even paint!

After the spices were in place and the counter cleaned off, I went to work making dessert. Chocolate dipped Oreos!!

I wanted to make these for Christmas, but never got around to it. I also wanted to make Peppermint bark, but that didn’t happen either! I’m making up for lost time.

It’s a super easy method of chocolate dipping. Just put the chocolate bark in a bowl/container and microwave 30 seconds at a time until smooth and melted. Dip cookies and pick up with a fork to remove excess chocolate. I recommend putting them on parchment paper to decorate/harden because the dinner plate I put them on wouldn’t let me pry them off without breaking them! I also stuck one of the bark chunks in a ziplock bag and melted it, snipped off the end of the bag and made the white drizzles, then added crushed candy canes for a little extra flavor!
I made 15 oreos and with the rest of the chocolate I dipped pretzel rings and did the same treatment as the cookies. The salty and the sweet are so good!

I LOVE it!! Probably a little too much! I ate 3. I tried not to think of how many points they were, until my Sister asked. {6 points each.} Good thing I’m not tracking my points. Or is it?

Anyway, all in all I had a great day and felt like I got something done. It always feels good to make a meal for my family and stick with the menu/plan.

Tomorrow: Italian Pork Chops, rice pilaf, and green beans. Can’t wait!!

Have a great week!

Love and Oreos,

July 26, 2009July 26, 2009

“What’s foorr diiiiinner?!” (insert whine here)

It’s the never ending question of the day!

Not, “Can I help you mop the floor?” or “Did you need me to do anymore laundry Mom?”Â Little do I hear, “Mom, did you want me to bring you dinner in bed or fluff your pillows?”

No…”What’s for dinner? I’m hungry.”Â “Why is there no food in the house?”Â “Why do we live on ramen soup and cheese sticks?”

Part of it is being extremely lazy these hot summer days and the other part is, lately I’ve been havingÂ trouble coming up with dinner ideas (but mostly it’s because I’ve been lazy).

I am tired of the old stand-by and the kids are pretty tired of fending for themselves.Â Although I don’t think there is anything wrong with giving them the skills and knowledge to cook basic stuff for themselves so

they won’t starve in college
they won’t starve at home
they eat what they like since I don’t always want to eat pizza rolls for breakfast.

( no they don’t really eat those for breakfast Mom or Leslie…they get up so late these days, they completely MISS breakfast and move straight on to lunch! tee-hee!)

I used to make a menu for the month thanks to the awesome idea from my friend Michelle. She has 4 kids also and it really seemed to streamline her meal planning and grocery lists. It’s basically a calendar in word that once you fill in the meals, i.e. main course, veggie, and starchÂ for each day of the month, you just print and go. If you use standards that you know what ingredients are needed, then it’s not too complicated of a grocery list to do. If there are recipes that you haven’t tried yet, then it gets a little more time consuming to look up what you already have and what you need to put on your list. It all gets a little fuzzy here my dear reader because I am pretty anal retentive when it comes to meal planning. I’ve been in search of the holy graile of menu planners for years, but haven’t found anything that truely meets my needs. I did find this once and used it, but you have to fill it out each time and then still do the calendar menu thing, so it doesn’t feel like it saved me much time.Â Alas, it doesn’tÂ seem to matter what system I use to do my meal planning, it still takes me hours to brain storm, outline, create, and list all the components for a months worth of meals. I try to plan out groceries for one week only, so I don’t waste food or have to thaw meat or other items the day of or put meat in the fridge to thaw days before, only to find I’ve forgotten about it or waited too long to get it into the fridge and we end up ordering out pizza or picking up hamburgers.

Here is a sample of what I used to use-

From this calendar that I change monthy by cutting and pasting from previous menu’s, I create a grocery list based on what I already have in the pantry ( I go thru the freezer, fridge, and pantry) and then cross reference that list with that I need for that week and what I will already buy for staples. It sounds complicated if you aren’t in my brain, but basically I take what we already have, compare it to what I will always buy as staples, and then what is left is what I put on my grocery list. Well, along with the staples, but they don’t change so I just add what I don’t have. Clear as mud?

Here is an example of what I would put on my grocery list and which store I would need to get it from-

One particular month, I was leaving to spend a couple of weeks with my Dad, so I had preplanned meals and recipes for Jon to use while I was gone. It turned out pretty neat because the website I used here not only let me pick from all their recipes, or add my own, but after I made a menu, it printed each ingredient I needed in a grocery list form. In fact, when I just went to get the link, I got caught up in making a menu plan and almost forgot that I was writing this post! LOL

Here is a sample of what the finished grocery list would look like-

Now be aware that the store that uses this meal planner online hasn’t made it to Texas yet. They are planning on putting their stores sometime next summer. They have already built their warehouse/ distribution center in Lewisville from what I’ve read, but you won’t be able to buy your grocery list items in those name brands because we don’t have them yet. But! If you live near an Aldi (check for the location nearest you here) you can use this tool and find every thing on your list! Cool huh? I can’t wait until we get ours in North Texas, they have great prices on staples and their name brands are super inexpensive, which is always nice for a family of 6.

I like websitesÂ (like this one and this one) that I can browse for recipes because I am always looking for new yummy sounding ideas for dinner.Â I used to have a list of standards that I turned to, but lately those have become so boring and my kids won’t eat my favorites anymore, like meatloaf and old stand-by casseroles.Â Now I ask the kids and Jon what their favorite meals are and hope for the best!Â Just kidding…they tell me what they like and it makes my job easier to plan out the meals.

Now if only they could cook it all themselves and do the dishes after that would be heaven!

I hope some of those sites are useful for you. I know they have been for me! Enjoy cooking for you and your family! They’ll love you for it!

June 25, 2009June 25, 2009

Vacation is spelled F-O-O-D…

Large families eat a lot of food. Our family is by no means as large as say, The Duggers, but we can go through some groceries. While we’ve been at Dad’s house we’ve made several trips to the local Aldi food market. It’s not really big enough to be called a grocery store as it doesn’t sell everything but the kitchen sink.Â Although some days you can buy quite a few odds and ends (like corner sanders and hiking boots). What you can’t buy at Aldi, you can find at your choice of three other big chain grocery stores like, Dierberg’s, Shop and Save, and Shnucks (which I affectionately like to call Schmucks). There is a Walmart Super Center in Lake St. Louis which is about 15 minutes away, but you can find most everything you need at the other local stores. O’Fallon has a Walmart that is being renovated as we speak into a Super Center, but that won’t be ready until July, but I digress.

Why all this information on our shopping habits? Well…I’ve been trying to keep track of all the boxes and bags of stuff we’ve consumed in the last 21 days. Seems sort of silly but it astounds me how much our family can choke down!

Oh and as a side note-
My Dad told me to use what he had in the pantry and freezer. One problem with that. He cooks for 1 maybe 2 people regularly and so trying to plan meals for 6 people, means having to add to what he already has. It is actually easier to buy what I need and not add to what he already has. Having said that, we still require a lot of stuff to feed our family. I’m sure we could get by with less. Maybe that’s the secret to smaller butts? Oh wait. Jon and I have big butts, but the kids don’t and they are the one who eat most of the food!!!!

Anyway…

Here is a list of stuff that I can remember buying (I may have left some things out because well, I’m starting to get old and my memory isn’t as sharp as it once was)

6 gallons of milk
5 loaves of bread
6 dozen eggs
16 hamburger buns
16 hot dog buns
14 boxes of cereal
3 lbs. of assorted lunch meats
3 lbs. of assorted sliced cheeses
4 bags of peanut M & M’s
2 boxes of banana bread mix
8 cups of rice
10 lbs of sugar
10 lbs. of chicken (chicken tenders, chicken breasts)
8 lbs. hamburger ( 16 1/4 lb. hamburger patties, 4 one lb. pkgs hamburger)
2 lbs. thin spaghetti
16 pieces Texas Toast
1 huge watermelon
countless lbs. of fresh vegetables used in various dishes
10 pkgs. Mix-aid (Aldi’s brand of Kool-aid)
6 cases of water (24 in each case)
48 cans of various carbonated beverages (generic Aldi brand)
3 lbs. pepper bacon
2 boxes of Whale cheddar crackers
1 case of Maruchan Top Ramen
12 rolls of toilet paper ( we didn’t eat them, but it was only appropriate to add them to the list! LOL )
300 napkins (out of a 500 count package of napkins- no I didn’t count, but estimated based on how many are left)
12 mini concretes from Fritz’s Frozen Custard
22 – 32 oz. frozen slushie drinks from Quick Trip
12 twix ice cream bars
6 klondike ice cream bars
1 pkg. fudge brownies
1 pkg. peanut butter cookie dough
1 long summer sausage
2 nights of Chinese Take out, 2 night of Mexican sit down
1 dinner at a buffet
5 tanks of gas (can’t eat that, but we bought it!)
5 pairs of new shoes/flip flops
summer clothes for the girls
10 homemade lunches for Jon while he was working upstairs

That’s all I can think of for now. It amazes me how much food and “stuff” we needed while we are here. If I sat down and counted all the food we buy at home, the list would be much longer! Now I know why my wallet cries every time drive past Wal-mart!

This is just a small glimpse into our fridge and pantry. What does yours look like??

April 26, 2009July 1, 2009

You say ‘tore-tea-yah’ I say, ‘Dern good!’

**Edited for WFMW**

This is a great way to keep the kitchen cool on those hot summer days!

Have you seen that cooking show on Discovery Health called Just Cook This with Sam the cooking guy? I love the way he just cooks like I would in the kitchen except without the thick eyebrows and black rimmed glasses. When I was flipping through the channels one day, I stopped on him cooking a 5 min. tortilla soup. He timed himself without film editing to see if he could make a simple soup in 5 min. or less. He did it with a good 45 seconds to spare. I couldn’t believe how simple it was to put together. Now some of the ingredients you have to have prepared and on hand like shredded chicken and flour tortillas to crisp up as a garnish on top.Â But the rest was a no brainer.

I got a little hungry around 9pm and decided I didn’t want another sandwich as a late supper. God forbid I would ever, EVER eat a bowl of cereal for dinner. I don’t even like cereal for breakfast let alone dinner. I happened to have some rotisserie chicken leftover in the fridge from earlier in the week because I knew that picking one up at the store on Wednesday would help stave off the last minute hungries. I was right! I got the bright idea to make myself some Tortilla Soup ala Sam the Cooking Guy. Here is what I came up with…

1/2 a jar of Pace Picante Organic Mild Salsa
about 1/4 of canned black beans
1 tsp. minced garlic – to taste
Mexican pinto bean seasoning ( I got this at WalMart a while ago to make my own re-fried beans) to taste; a couple of shakes
2 cups water with chicken bullion or 2 cups chicken broth. ( I used what I had on hand and used enough bullion to flavor the water, but not too salty)
2 small handfuls of cubed rotisserie chicken, about 1/2 cup or more if you like a lot of chicken.
shredded cheese
tortilla chips (didn’t feel like crisping one up in a pan, so I crushed some up and put it in my bowl)

In a small saucepan, put salsa, broth, beans, garlic, and seasoning in together. Heat to simmer. Add chicken and turn heat off.
In bowl or large mug add cheese and chips and ladle in soup. Enjoy!

It’s that simple! I didn’t have any sour cream or avacado, but those would be yummy in it too! I was surprised at how flavorful it was and dare I say, better than some restraunts I’ve been to recently! And I used what I already had on hand. I think it would be just was good with a pico de gallo or any other type of your favoritie jarred salsa.

This would be a great recipe to throw together for an improptu dinner party or pot-luck. You could make the broth and have each person put in the toppings of their choice.

Obviously you can adjust the recipe to feed more people. It’s very versatile.

Sadly I did not take a picture of my soup. But believe me, it was delish! Maybe I’ll venture into food blogging like Pioneer Woman and do a step by step tutorial. Nah.. I’ll leave that to her, she’s waaay better at it than me anyway!

Try it some time…let me know what you think!

October 31, 2008

Welcome to the House of Horrors….

Happy Halloween ghosts and goblins!

I’m not normally the Halloweenie type that really gets into the decorations and such, but this year I found some really cute stuff at my favorite place, the Dollar Tree. Cute plates and serving bowls. Skeletons and Frankensteins, so fun! One wouldn’t think those things fall into the cute category, but these do! They have candy corn that ring the rim of the plate and are black and white. I mean, come on, you can’t go wrong for a buck! I plan on picking up some more plates for next year, one can never have too many ghoulish plates and cups!

So I was looking through a magazine last week and I was inspired to make the kids a Halloween dinner and then carve our pumpkin afterward. Like I said, I don’t normally go all out for them except I gather and purchase their costumes every year. This year I decided it would be fun for us all to have a haunted Halloween feast!

Here is what I picked up at the dollar store:

a purple table cloth
6 spooky plates
2 spooky serving bowls
clear plastic short stemmed glasses
black plastic utensils

I asked the boys what they would like to eat for dinner; either Boo Burgers and Frankentots or Spooky Spaghetti and Monster Meatballs. Spooky monster won them over. Spaghetti is one of their favorite meals.
I would love to show you how the bloody finger breadsticks turned out, or the oozy alfredo sauce looked, or even the spooky spaghetti and pumpkin juice turned out, but my blog is telling me that those files are too big. Not sure how to make them smaller, but trust me, they were awesome!

Ok, well……I figured it out.
How fun is that??? I drew faces on the cups and made “Pumpkin Juice” out of orange juice, orange pineapple, and sprite. I added a few drops of red and yellow food color to darken it up and the kids loved it! I tinted the alfredo with black food color paste and even though it tasted as good as it always does, the color threw everyone off and dare I say even gave Jon a bit of a stomach ache! LOL!! I love it! The meatballs were a hit as well. Dan loved calling them monster meatball brains and at the end of the night, all but three were gone! The breadsticks with almond sliver nails and bloody marks…tasty!! Brenna joked around and said, “Yummm, I always knew chewing on my nails tasted good!”

All in all, it was a fun night and I enjoyed making a spooky, not so scary dinner for my family. I think next year will be even more frightening…we might actually carve a pumpkin!! Muuuuaahahahahaha!!

October 7, 2008

Feast or Famine?

Creamy Carrot Soup

Family:Famine (not really-they ate Chili Dogs)

Me:Feast

â™¥â™¥â™¥â™¥ (4out of 5 hearts)

I have been visiting this awesome blog Pioneer Woman Cooks for a couple of weeks now and everyday that I explore her recipe archives, I canâ€™t wait to get in my kitchen and start making something yummy. Itâ€™s not like her recipes are complicated with a lot of fancy ingredients, on the contrary. They are simple, basic, and look OH SO delicious!! I put it on my short list of recipes to try.

I really enjoyed the texture and flavor of this soup. It was more puree and less soupy though. I think I let the chicken broth boil out too long before I covered it. Sometimes I don’t read the recipe and absorb it until after I have almost all the way cooked it! Then I wonder why it’s not doing what I thought it should! Haha! I didn’t have any fresh basil, so I used fresh dill. I also topped it with crumbled feta cheese. The cheese was a great salty addition to the soup. I will use that next time for sure! I think crispy bacon would be good sprinkled on top as well!

I think I would have given this 5 hearts if I had used fresh carrots instead of the sort of dry ones in the bottom of my veggie bin and I had basil to put on top. Other than that, I really loved this soup.

October 7, 2008

What’s on the Menu??

Oh how I love to cook!

When I was a young girl, I would watch cooking shows on PBS. They mostly came on during the weekend and some of my favorites were shows like:

Yan Can Cook with Martin Yan
The Galloping Gourmet with Graham Kerr
The French Chef with Julia Childs
Cooking with Jacques Pepin
Great Chefs

These cooking shows were on TV before the cooking network was on cable. Well, it could have been on cable, but we didnâ€™t have cable, so I wouldnâ€™t know. Anyway..the whole point is, I would watch these shows and dream of becoming a chef. I took cooking classes in high school as an elective. I learned basic tecqniques that have stayed with me for the last 20 years. I enjoyed cooking for my Mom and anticipated cooking with my Dad. He and I share a love of cookbooks and talking about food; eating and preparing it.
When I grew up and married, I didnâ€™t stop loving to cook. When Jon and I had babies, it was easy to keep making new dishes and experimenting. It was when they got older and more vocal about their food preferences that I began to dread dinner time. For about 3 years, we were limited to a very short list of foods that everyone would eat. I thought I would never enjoy cooking again. I really thought the love, excitement, and joy of preparing a meal was lost. Now that the kids are older and are expanding their palates I feel that twinge of excitement and flutter of happiness when I think about what great meal I can make for my family.

Here I will post my weekly menu plans, recipes I come across, and pictures of my creations! Stay tuned, itâ€™ll be delicious!!

October 5, 2008

Bacon is latin for tho thexy….

I think I’m in love again….with cooking that is. My passion has been reawakened. The chef inside wants to come out and play again…go on a couple of dates. You know…romance this old gal again.
Thanks to my Sister, (thanks Sister for my bigger butt!) I have been visiting this awesome blog Pioneer Woman CooksÂ for a couple of weeks now and everyday that I explore her recipe archives, I can’t wait to get in my kitchen and start making something yummy. It’s not like her recipes are complicated with a lot of fancy ingredients, on the contrary. They are simple, basic, and look OH SO delicious!! I went to the store today. I picked up a couple of basics to get me started on the road to cookery. Is that really a word? Let’s just go with it.

Drum roll please……

Recipes on my immediate to make list:

Mystery rolls – an easy appetizer made with butter, blue cheese, and canned biscuits. Couldn’t get any easier!
Holiday Bacon Appetizers – Another 3 ingredient masterpiece al a 1981. What do you get when you cross a club cracker, parmesan cheese, and bacon? Bliss, I tell ya! (Well, they look like bliss, but I haven’t tasted them yet. I plan to very very soon!)
Creamed Spinach – Simple and delicious. I might even add some bacon to that, but shhhh, don’t tell Pioneer Woman!
Creamy Carrot Soup – She made this with her kids and it was so simple, I may just let MJ help me with this one! He loved his Gramma Kathy’s carrot soup she made last week when she was here.
Marlboro Man’s Favorite SandwichÂ – It’s basically a steak sandwich made with cubed steak. My Dad has always loved cubed steak. Maybe he’ll have to just try this one on for size and see if he likes this one too!
Pureed Butternut Squash – This one will for sure be on my list of Fall things to try. I don’t really have to try it to know I will LOVE it! I already love butternut squash and the last time I had it as a soup, it was delish!

That’s the short list of things I want to try in the next month or so. I think the appetizers will be a hit because how could one not like bacon and/or blue cheese? I mean, come on people! It’s bacon. And Blue Cheese!! I think I’ll try and figure out a way to put an update on how each of my new culinary endeavors play out and if they were well received. Â I think the kids will like the bacon ones. Duh.

What culinary delights do you have to share with us?? Come on! Let me know, andÂ I’ll put them on the list of must makes!

September 27, 2008September 27, 2008

Sorting is for chumps.

Not really. It can be fun if you know how to do it right. You know, with the 80’s music playing in the background while you do the 27,000 fling boogie?
We have done two rooms and will work on 2 more tomorrow. I won’t say which rooms just yet. I’ll reveal that when I put the after pictures up. I also won’t show you the before pictures because well, I didn’t take any so I leave you with this. Draw what ever conclusion you wish.Â Isn’t Jon cute??

Ok, so…how was your weekend?

Wow….sorry…it seems like I am not really explaining the whole sorting thing. Yeah well, for those that know me really well there needs no explanation because they already know what my organization/cleaning habits are and it would just be a moo point and I don’t like cows anymore. Mooo-ving on. Ahem.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLwYpSCrlHU[/youtube]

Ok, so I am sitting here trying to think of something to write. I got nuthin’. I’m too busy staring at the teevee while an episode of Psych is on. It’s such a cute show. Sean is so random and Gus is well….so Gus. Ha! Ok…still got nuthin’.

Oh wait! I got something. I was tooling around the internets and found a website called Bakerella and I want to make these. I didn’t even know what cake balls were until I read this. OMG! I so want to make these, whose with me?? I think I will try making some this week in my clean kitchen. I’ll be sure to eat them all because unfortunately my wonderful Mother In Law can’t have any wheat or dairy and I think cake balls with frosting might fall in either of those categories. It will be a struggle, but I think I might be able to overcome it…yeah right after I polish off that fudge I plan making too. But this time I think I’ll just put marshmallows in there and not walnuts, cuz the walnuts harshed my mallow dude. Get it? Mallow?? Hahaha…I slay me.

I think I may end up staying home with my sick oldest baby girl Lauren. She is feverish and has a nasty cough and sore throat. I might even be taking her to the pediatric after hours clinic too. Poor baaaaby!!

What are your plans for Sunday?? Church? A nap? I vote nap. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Category: Cooking