Stuff It!

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was delicious!

I've been being much healthier and been blogging at my new blog about my weight loss adventures. I'm headed there to update next, but wanted to swing by here and put my recipe for stuffing on here before I forgot. Our Thanksgiving dinners were pretty basic: Green Bean Casserole, dinner rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy (from a jar...next year I WILL tackle making homemade gravy...next year), homemade cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Oh, Turkey as well and corn for the boys.

I've never made homemade stuffing before, and usually I think it looks disgusting and won't even try it but this year, I branched out. I actually saw a recipe in a HyVee Ad that looked delicious (Ok, so Curtis Stone was in it lol) but I didn't have all the stuff to make it and decided to adapt it. I looked at several recipes online to get an idea and made my own.

1/2 lb bacon, browned

1/2 lb ground mild Italian Sausage, browned (I actually used about 3 sausages, cut them out of their casings)

1/4 onion chopped

3 celery stalks, sliced

1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored and chopped

1 bag of unseasoned stuffing

2 normal sized (15 oz?) cans of Chicken Broth

2 eggs

I first browned the sausage then let it drain (random tip I learned: put about a tablespoon of water in while the sausage is cooking, it helps pull the grease out).

Then I browned the bacon, but kept the bacon grease.

While the grease was still hot, I dumped in the onion, celery and apple chunks and cooked them until they were brown and softened.

I then added 2 cans of broth and 2 eggs, mixed all the ingredients up well. I dumped the bread into a giant bowl, dumped the other stuff on top and mixed well. Tossed in a pan and baked until done (probably like 30-40 minutes?...enough time to shower, get dressed, toss dishes in the dishwasher and mash the potatoes).

It was deeelish! I cheated the second time I made it, I mixed up the cooked meats and veggies, kept in the fridge covered over night, then added the liquid ingredients the next day with the crouton thingies right before tossing it into the oven.

oh! And the cranberries.

SUPER easy. I will never buy a can again!

1 cup of orange juice

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 bag of cranberries.

Mix the sugar and juice until the sugar is dissolved and boiling.

Toss in the berries. Cook until the berries are popping (trust me, you'll know...) Use a splatter screen, by the way...and a deep pot. Please learn from my mistakes, your stove will thank you!

Toss in your serving bowl and let cool to room temp, then toss in fridge, covered, over night. I think the recipe I found said chill about 4 hours, I made mine the night before, so yummy!)

Off to enjoy some time with my little boys that I am super thankful for. NIght, kids!

Summer's Over...

Time to start blogging again.

I've been out there, cooking, cleaning etc...but I have found the biggest time suck/coolest thing EVER.

Pinterest. If you haven't joined yet...you're missing out! It's fantastically amazing and it has everything on there.
Recipes? check. crafts? check. Inspirational sayings? Check. Ridiculous pictures of Ryan Gosling biting his shirt? CHECK.

Anyway, I'm trying to start a healthier adventure. I'm joining Weight Watchers this coming week.

My goal is to lose 30 lbs by next summer and I'm not going to do it by continuing to eat whatever I come across, and lots of it. I'm hoping to learn portion control and better choices rather than just starving myself or starting some diet that is completely out of control that kills me the second I stop it.

I've started baking, which I thought I couldn't do...but I'm learning. I've made breads. I've made cakes...from scratch. I've made brownies. I've made cookies. (ok, they were more of a fail, but I tried).

And I've been introducing all 4 of us to new foods. Spenny usually won't try them, Emerson's usually down for anything and J's even starting to come around to some things...like Trader Joe's Gnocchi...it was sweet potato flavored and not only did he eat it, he went back for 2nds!

Before I leave, I'll share my dinner experience tonight. I had it all planned out...bbq chicken breasts, green beans (with applewood smoke bacon..YUM!) and some creamy garlic pasta. I start the bacon, mix my water and milk for the noodles and toss my chicken in the oven. About 4 minutes later, I hear this noise that sounded almost like uncooked spaghetti being poured onto the floor. I look for a kid or animal to holler at and realize they are all in the living room...I don't see anything on the floor...and realize the sound came from the oven.

Apparently the pan, which is designated as oven, dishwasher and freezer safe, was NOT actually oven safe...despite being room temp when I put it in the oven, it erupted into a bajillon little pieces and several larger ones. Needless to say, we had microwaved chicken nuggets for dinner with our pasta and green beans....

Have you ever had that happen to you?

Dinner Potential fail

Tonight I tried making Lasagna Cupcakes.

Long story short, I decided they were too much work for the time I had and I made a regular lasagna for tomorrow night and I needed a quick idea.

We ended up having grilled ham, swiss and pineapple sandwiches. SO. YUMMY. We will definately be making these again.

Other than that, we've been pretty much on the same ol same ol dinner path. Lots of grilling, our favorite is the Mango Pineapple Chicken from Dahls, served with some roasted potatoes and a side salad. Tons of fresh fruit has been making an appearance in our house...the boys will eat more of it that anything else.

J's is now staying home with the boys 4 days a week, and we're open to suggestions on what to feed the kids for lunch...they seem to like just the regular kid food--nuggets, hot dogs, mac n cheese...and we'd like to have some new ideas, hopefully healthier ones :)

What's going on in your kitchen?

Salisbury Steak

One of my favorite meals is Salisbury Steak...Simple, Easy and delicious. I usually make up a HUGE batch so I can freeze the patties (or meatballs) and then have quick meals for during the week when we are too busy to actually make it.

Basic Recipe:

1 lb of Ground Turkey
1 cup bread crumbs
Seasonings (I usually use Parsley and Chopped Onion)


Mix it in a bowl.
Shape it into patties.


Or Meatballs if you want...
Brown them in a skillet.
or bake them in the stove, if they are meatballs.
Either way, when they are done, mix a can of Cream of Mushroom soup with a can of 1/2 water and 1/2 milk.
Then serve :) When we eat the patties, we usually have mashed potatoes and peas. If we are serving them as Swedish Meatballs, I do the same thing, but serve over egg noodles. YUMMY!

Yeah Yeah...

I know, 6 weeks has gone by.

It's Tax Season.

That means lots of evenings alone with the little boys, which means a lot of quick meals, since they don't care for people food unless it's in the form of a nugget, dog or something equally processed. In fact, I'm m trying to get my youngest to eat Tator Tot Casserole (TTC) riiiight now. He's eating about one pea every 5 minutes and glaring at me the whole time since I'm on Doggy Patrol...not letting Lola eat what he's throwing down to her. Spenny gave up and ate Fruit Loops in Jello...yeah, he put them IN his jello...whatever, he ate! lol

Before I get too far...how do you make your TTC? I make mine with frozen mixed veggies, which I have boiled, hamburger (or ground pork), cream of mushroom soup, a splash of milk and a handful of shredded cheese. I heat it all together, dump it in a pan, put my already browned tots on top and bake until its...all casserole-y. Makes the total cook time a lot less than when I used to just dump everything and bake until hot.

Anyway.

Most important thing I wanted to post:

REUBEN PIZZA!

I love me some Reubens...especially the sauerkraut. I bought a Mama Mia or whatever honey wheat crust (the pre-made kind, that you find in the pizza aisle) and smothered it in Thousand Island Dressing. Then I tore up about a 1/4 lb or corned beef and spread it all over the top of the dressing. Next was TONS of sauerkraut followed by a ton of shredded swiss then tossed in the oven until it was all golden and bubbly. Totally delish. I must admit, I got the inspiration from Chips, here in Ankeny, but they smother theirs in chopped pickles. SICK. Totally delish and it was the perfect size for my friend Missy and I.

Last week Spenny and I found an easy dessert to whip up as well....so easy, my 3 year old did most of it!

1/2 stick butter
1 c. milk
1 c. sugar
1 c. self-rising flour or Bisquick
1 can fruit pie filling (apple, cherry, peach, etc.)

Melt butter in medium Pyrex dish. Mix sugar, flour, and milk in separate bowl, then pour batter over butter. DO NOT STIR. Spoon filling over batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until brown.

That's it! We used cherry pie filling and Bisquick. I took it out at 50 minutes, it probably could have used the extra 10 minutes, so I'll keep that in mind for next time. Spenny loved being able to mix the ingredients, and of course, dump it into the pan. He wasn't so sure about the cherries tho :)

I have another post I might get around to making, I tried a new process, but I'm not sure how it'll work, so stay tuned.

What's new in your kitchen? Any recommendations for quick, easy, child-friendly recipes to get me through the next 8 weeks until tax season is over?

New Year, New Recipes.

I know, it's been a looong time. But, things have been busy in our household. First off, we bought our first home!! We spent a lot of time and effort in getting it move in ready (cleaning, paint, small repairs) and almost all of our energy went into that, which means that we've been eating a lot of frozen food, and throw together meals.

However, I just had to share my new obsession. One day I was reading IGE and she had this delicious bagel breakfast sandwich...sweet bagel with egg, bacon and cheese on it. I thought that looks good and sorta forgot about it. Last week, I went to Target to pick up some things and they had a loaf of Apple Fritter Bread in the bakery area. The first night, I made some toast out of it, and it was perfect, sweet and crunchy with some soft apple pieces. It was heavenly.

The next night (I usually don't eat breakfast at home) I decided that I wanted an egg. (Side note--A lot of you that know me will be like WHUUUUT! She does NOT eat eggs!! Ever!! But I've been eating them lately and decided they're not all that bad...most of the time. I still do not like them scrambled unless they have potatoes in them.) I made it sorta fried with a soft yolk on the inside and decided to toast some more Apple Fritter bread with it. I was like, why not? And tossed the egg on the bread and placed a slice of cheese on top.

It.
Was.
AMAZING.

The crunchy sweet of the bread mixed with the slightly melted cheese with the egg was perfect. It was so yummy. My only complaint was that egg was a little too runny for a sandwhich and I ended up with yolk all over.

Saturday I wanted to finish up the loaf of bread, so I made the sandwiches for J and I. This time, however, I scrambled up the eggs and made it more like you would for an omelette, then folded the cheese in the egg and also used slices of the Oscar Mayer Canadian Bacon. Also very good, and much easier to eat than the runnier one.

Overall, new favorite :)

We've got a couple new recipes to try this week, I'll try to keep you all updated :)