Italian Chicken, Marshmallow Puffs, Taco Bake, and Potato Soup!

Hello, Friends! Anyone else get some crazy storms coming through today? Luckily, it was far more uneventful than predicted, just a few rumbles of thunder, although accompanied by some very large wind gusts, and currently a pretty high sustained wind speed of 30-35mph. I just hope all of our trees hang in there tonight!

So only a few things for the blog tonight, we ended up busier than I anticipated this past week, and although we had some pretty tasty dinners, most of them were similar to something that has already been posted here. I do need to apologize, however, for not having gotten a meal plan up for the last two weeks! I feel like I've let you guys down, but I can tell you that after the first of the year, my posts will be much more consistent, or at least that is the plan! I'm sure I don't need to tell my readers how crazy busy this time of year is... pretty sure you can all relate!

Now this first meal is surely a love it or leave it type of meal. I'd say there isn't a lot of room for "in between" here. Many folks don't like the kick to banana peppers, but in this family, all three of my older kids eat them right out of the jar, it's one of their favorite snacks! So when I found this recipe, it was a no-brainer, I had to try it out. Now the recipe suggests eating this on buns, but I didn't have any, so I made white rice, and that worked just fine!





I do think the next time I will try it on Hawaiian sweet rolls and I will try a bit of blue cheese dressing on top, just to test out a new flavor combination. Blue cheese goes well with spicy in my opinion, and this dish is definitely on the spicy side!







Here is the recipe I used: Italian Crock Pot Chicken

These little oven treats were a hit with all four kidlets! Often called "Empty Tomb Rolls" around the Easter holiday, I just called them "Marshmallow Puffs". I, of course, love anything that involves brown sugar. Add in marshmallows and you've got a winner for sure! 

Here is the recipe I used: Empty Tomb Rolls

This was one of our "new" meals this week, and we really liked it! I will be making it again, but I will make a couple small changes, deviating from the original recipe I used. 

This Taco Bake says to bake the Doritos on top. Next time I will add the doritos after it has baked, or maybe add them with only 5 or 10 minutes to go. The Doritos ended up borderline burnt by the end of the bake time, and I didn't like the flavor of the Doritos that resulted. I also will increase the amount of sour cream the recipe calls for. I don't think I'll quite double it, but close, and I will add some salsa to the mix before baking. The kids were excited for this one, because it involved Doritos, and they all know I won't typically buy or keep potato chips in the house for snacking on. You should've seen their eyes light up when they saw the bag of Doritos! Ha ha! 

And last, but not least... one of my oldest's favorite winter meals, potato soup!

I have used the same potato soup recipe for years, since I was 18 actually! I happened to have some ham left over from ham and egg cups made earlier in the week, and it needed used before it went bad. Potato soup was not on my menu plan for the week, but quickly found it's way there when I realized I had surplus potatoes and ham just waiting to be used!

This is a cheddar cheese and ham potato soup, and it typically uses chunked or cubed ham, but like I said, I was throwing this into the plan spontaneously to use up the shaved ham we had leftover.

Basically, boil your potatoes as you would, I usually boil mine longer than average, which will break some of the potatoes down and help to thicken the soup. When you drain the potatoes, reserve the liquid. You will use this with the milk to make the soup. You are going to want to melt some butter in a medium sized saucepan, and add flour to it, forming somewhat of a paste, and then add the milk in, whisking until smooth. You can gradually add flour and more milk as you go, though often times this will cause the flour to clump together in tiny chunks. If you are whisking well, it should help to avoid that problem. Now, let the "broth" simmer, but stir frequently, or it will begin to stick to the pan. While it's simmering, add some of the reserved liquid to your potatoes, depends on how many potatoes you have used, but I usually make my broth half liquid, half milk. Begin to slowly add the mixture in the saucepan to the potatoes and reserved liquid. Stir it all together, and sprinkle a cup or two (depends on preference) of cheddar cheese into the pot. Stir frequently, simmering soup on medium-low heat, until the cheese has melted. Season your soup with salt, pepper, and onion powder.

Depending on who is eating the soup that day, I will often times add chopped (and cooked) onions and sometimes carrots and celery.

That is all I've got for you right now, and definitely will not likely have a meal plan up until at least Thursday this week. Have had some crazy things going on, had to change some plans around, so grocery day will not be until Thursday of this week. 

I hope all of my Great Lakes Region friends stay safe tonight! 

Strawberry Stuffed French Toast, Bacon Twists, and other Goodies!

So I have been ridiculously busy, like, the craziest two weeks I've had in a very long time! I'm glad all that is over, and we can now focus on Christmas. My favorite time of the year! But I must say, the pageant on Saturday was so much fun, and so very worth the stress and bustle to get everything done! My girls did phenomenal, Miss Spunk worked it on stage, and came in second place, and Miss Aleix Noelle won the talent award for the third year in a row! So proud of both of them!
Here are a few pics of Saturday night and my lil' and not-so-little ladies!

  

Cousins! Miss Spunk is in the middle, niece on right and great niece on left! <3

So this is going to be short, sweet and mostly all food, and after I get the food from the last week up, we will focus on the meal plan going into this week. I am so sorry I never got last week's plan up, I was under a very tight deadline with the design and printwork I was doing as well as trying to get two girls ready for Saturday night's pageant!

In lieu of me adding the recipes, I am just going to link to the recipes I used! Though my schedule is freed up, my house in need of some love. It's been feeling quite neglected over the past two weeks.

First, there are these wonderful little delights! Bacon twists!
This is the recipe I used: http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/peppered-bacon-twists-54511.aspx
The only change I made was I used regular, uncooked, bacon. I baked it in the oven until it was almost cooked through, but still flexible enough to twist. Crispy bacon would not work well here!

These were really good! And really quite easy, which is a double bonus! 

Next was spinach manicotti. I don't use a recipe, this is just something I came up with years ago. :) It's about the only way my kids will eat spinach, although every once in a while I'll find a small pile of spinach on the sides of their plates where they have rummaged through and removed it! Crazy kids! 

Basically all I do is cook my spinach up in olive oil, adding a clove or two of garlic, or garlic powder will also work. 

In a medium sized bowl, mix your ricotta cheese, an egg or two (depending on how much ricotta you are using) Parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder. I don't measure anything, I just dump it all in and do a sniff test! If I had to guess, I use about a cup of mozzarella, 1 1/2 cups shredded Parmesan, probably two tablespoons of Italian seasoning, about the same for garlic powder, and I always buy the large container of ricotta (32 oz maybe?), and I use about 3/4 of it, and typically have a bit leftover. I use one box of manicotti, and it feeds my family of 6. 

This time I served it with the usual garlic toast and the Parmesan roasted asparagus I posted last week. 

Cowboy Casserole, found here: http://thecuttingedgeofordinary.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-09-10T05:55:00-04:00&max-results=7

                                                                                   Pumpkin Cupcakes: I had every intention of using this                                                                          recipe, http://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/687358038//
However, as I got into the fridge to grab some ingredients, I happened to notice a batter bowl with "pumpkin pie mix 10/31" written on it (loving the dry erase marker on my storage containers!), and I thought rather than waste it, by mixing up a very similar pumpkin batter, I'd just add some baking soda and powder and flour and bake it for the same amount of time the recipe calls for. :) I would have forgotten completely about that leftover pie batter had it not been right there, written on the batter bowl!

Banana Applesauce Bread: http://8weekstoabetteryourecipes.blogspot.com/2012/09/banana-bread-8-week-friendly.html 

This is a fairly healthy alternative to normal banana breads. Made with honey, whole wheat flour, and applesauce. I chose to make my own applesauce for it, since I had some apples that needed used up before they went bad. It turned out really good! I will definitely be making this again! Tiny Tornado absolutely loved it, and because of the ingredients, it holds together well when sliced, which usually is not the case with breads like this, causing a path of crumbs from Tiny Tornado.

                               

Cream Cheese Dreams: http://themodelcouponer.com/use-it-or-lose-it/use-it-dont-lose-it-use-the-302-printable-pillsbury-grands-coupon-to-make-cream-cheese-dreams/

Everyone loved these! Only took me about ten minutes to throw together, and if you like cream cheese and cinnamon, this is the dessert for you! 

Now, the next thing, Breakfast Pockets, I don't believe I'll be trying again. I think I'll stick with the same ingredients in tortilla shells. I know I must have mentioned in the past how much I dislike working with yeast, or any kind of dough for that matter. It's just not my cup of tea, and I avoid it at all costs. I thought I would be brave and try this one out... HA! They were edible, but not at all what I had imagined I was capable of in my head. I'll leave the dough-y stuff to the bakeries. I manage cinnamon rolls once or twice and suddenly I think I am spontaneously cured of my dough inadequacies. Notsomuch. 

Anyway, if you are a better baker than I, you may want to try them out. I am sure they aren't nearly as complicated as the seem to me, and I know there are a lot of you who know your way around some dough! 

So here is the link, if you would like to give it a go of your own: http://www.budgetgourmetmom.com/breakfast-pockets/

Where are my broccoli lovers?! I know you're out there! Last night we had BBQ ribs with mashed taters, broccoli with bacon, and mini cheesecakes. I was so stuffed by the time I was done at the table, I thought for sure the kids would have to roll me to the couch... 

And the mini cheesecakes... so easy! All four of my kidlets adore cheesecake, I thought these would be a fun little surprise for them last night... They use greek yogurt and cheesecake instant pudding mix! Doesn't get much easier than that. Here ya go, friends, make sure you give these a shot, http://mom2mycrazy2.blogspot.com/2012/05/cool-sweet-treat.html

I did not use cupcake liners, because for whatever reason, though I bought them at the store, they never came home with me! I have a new muffin tin, so I greased it well and they came right out after being chilled. 

Which brings us to this morning... 

Stuffed french toast! And what's even better, I had leftover filling that The Hubby, Tiny Tornado and I used to dip our animal crackers in! YUM! In fact, it was so good, I am going to plan to whip some of this very same "filling" up for an appetizer at my holiday parties this year (like, all 4 of them I'm hosting!). 

The recipe calls for it to be baked, after you assemble each serving, but I chose to make my toast as usual on the griddle and assemble it after. My kids actually ended up eating it sandwich style with no syrup (yay for no syrup before school!). 

Recipe: http://realmomkitchen.com/369/strawberry-stuffed-french-toast/

So that wraps up the food! I will post again in a bit with my $90 meal plan for the week!

The Crazy Life! Catching up!

Whew! A free moment, which really isn't free, because there are a million and one things I should be doing, like finishing touches on the pageant programs, but I have felt so guilty all week for not getting my usual posts up! And I'm so far behind again... So I'm not going to do the usual rambling (lucky you!), I'm going to jump right into the food!

The first thing I want to share with you are these wonderful bacon wrapped green beans with brown sugar glaze. These have the most unique flavor, and they are amazing! I was so excited to try these out, simply because I typically purchase frozen green beans, and I never do anything special with them aside from adding some seasoned pepper. This time I bought fresh green beans, and I will definitely be doing this more often! Fresh is always better, it may not seem like it, but it's only just a tad bit more work than boiling frozen green beans or heating canned beans.... just have to allow a little bit more time for boiling.

These are quite simple. Preheat the oven to 400, line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, lay your bacon strips out flat. Begin by boiling your fresh beans, boiling until they are tender.

Make sure not to overcook them, you don't want them to be limp!  Bake your bacon in the oven for 12-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of your bacon. You want it cooked about 3/4 of the way, NOT crispy, because you are going to have to wrap it around your beans. After your bacon is cooked, blot the grease off with a paper towel. Wrap each strip of bacon around 4 or 5 beans, placing each "bunch" back onto the baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. While these are in the oven, heat 3 Tablespoons of butter, 1 clove minced garlic, and 1/4c. brown sugar on medium high heat. After you take baking sheet out of oven, drizzle this glaze all over each bunch. That's it! Super easy and definitely high on the "Yum" scale!

Next thing I'd like to share are "Apple Pie Fries". Now, I was in such a hurry the night I made these... I didn't have time to follow the recipe I had to use, and I simply used the concept and did my own thing. It was good, but because I had to leave the house and take the "pie" out of the oven two minutes before I walked out the door, I didn't have time to glaze the top crust with the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture I had planned. They were good, but not great. If you like to bake, these would be fun to experiment with, making up your own "recipe" as you go! The recipe I used called for apple pie filling, however, I wasn't spending $4 on a can of apple pie filling when I have an entire fruit basket full of apples, cinnamon, and brown sugar at home! So I finely chopped my apples, added some brown sugar, cinnamon, and apple pie spice, and I then *attempted* to use my blender to make it into pie filling consistency.

I say attempted because I had a minor mishap... 

.... shortly after turning the blender on, I realized many of the apples were stuck to the sides of the blender. I figured I'd help those poor little apples out by using my spoon to push them down into the mix. DON'T DO THIS! 

....wouldn't you know that little spoon had a mind of it's own and jumped head first into the middle of  that pie filling, taking a little spin in the midst of the blender blades. (Yes... I *am* blaming the spoon... silly thing)

Well... the spoon fared well, but the blender not so much. By the time I had rescued the spoon, it was too late. The blender had burnt it's motor. So, what I had planned to be a puree-type of pie filling ended up being a chunkier type of filling. Not what I had intended, but I had short time and had to make do. 

So, for this, I used two ready made pie crusts, I find Meijer brand to be just as good as Pillsbury, 3 apples, about 1/2 cup brown sugar, and my chosen spices to taste. 

 Basically all I did was spread a thin layer of butter on the bottom pie crust. I then added my filling, and laid the top crust over top of that. I was very careful to pinch the two crusts together, making a sealed seam all along the edge of the pie. I cut a slits across the top, and baked for 30 minutes or so, until my apples were tender.

 Like I said, these didn't turn out as great as the would have been if I had not run out of time! I will be attempting these again soon, using the original recipe I found, with a few modifications. I will be using either apple butter or applesauce for the filling as well, to eliminate any need for the blender, and to minimize the amount of sugar needed to create a "filling" consistency.

These are my featured food of the week I'd say! I couldn't get enough of this meal. I think I had a third helping, which is very unusual for me!

White Chicken Lasagna Roll ups! You have to try these!
You're going to need boneless skinless chicken breast or tenders, Italian seasoning, alfredo sauce, either homemade or jarred, lasagna noodles, and your choice of shredded cheese. I used sharp cheddar.

I used 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into tenders, boiled, and seasoned with Italian seasoning.

While your chicken is boiling, boil your lasagna noodles. I boiled 11 noodles, which is 11 roll ups. After your noodles are cooked (don't overcook, soggy noodles won't work here!), drain them and run cool water over them. Lay them out on paper towels to dry, blotting the tops dry as well. Once your chicken is cooked, drain it and allow to cool while you spread alfredo sauce over each lasagna noodle. You will also want to pour a thin layer of alfredo into the bottom of your baking dish, to set the roll ups on top of. Once your chicken is cooled enough for comfortable handling, make a small pile of chicken at the end of each noodle and roll the noodle up, placing it in the dish. 

When all of your roll ups are in the dish, cover with the remaining alfredo sauce and then apply a generous covering of shredded cheese (more cheese is always better, right?!)

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until cheese is completely melted on top. These will not leave you disappointed! They went great with the parmesan asparagus I am going to share next!

Parmesan Roasted Asparagus

Preheat oven to 350, Snip the ends off of your asparagus, place in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil, the asparagus should be lightly covered with oil. Sprinkle some salt and pepper over asaparagus, lay asparagus out on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Take out of the oven and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Place back into oven until cheese is melted and lightly browned. 

Believe it or not, this was my very first time tasting asparagus! I think I'm in love! It is probably my new favorite veggie and I can not wait to make these again. 

I still have more to catch up on, but it will have to wait a while, as I have got to get back to my projects at hand! Again, thanks for the feedback! I enjoy hearing from all of you. :)