Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Just some cute pictures of Easter!!!  The girls are so proud of their eggs!!!

Brittany and her Hello Kitty Egg
Adyson & her Donatello Egg
               







                          








LET THE HUNT BEGIN... 

As Adyson realized there were "girl colored eggs" and "boy colored eggs" she made Daddy hunt eggs with her! 

                       







                         


Hope everyone had a great Easter! See you next week! 




Foods of the week April 14th...


BREAKFAST


Homemade sausage gravy-

1 pound breakfast sausage
1/2 can of ROTEL
1 small onion finely chopped
1/2 cup of flour
3 cups hot milk
1 teaspoon pepper


Brown onion and sausage and Rotel together. Once browned sprinkle flour over-the-top. Mix flour and sausage together. Add milk and pepper and stir vigorously. Until you reach your desired consistency. 

Enjoy!!! 







DINNERS-

Roasted cauliflower-

One head cauliflower- rough chopped
2 tablespoons crushed garlic
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon pepper and onion powder

Preheat oven to 425°. Mix all ingredients. Using a cookie sheet lined it with aluminum foil and spray it. Poor cauliflower onto cookie sheet. Make sure it's all one layer. Put it in the oven for 15 minutes. Pull it out flip/stir the cauliflower, place back in the oven for an additional 15 to 20 minutes or until done. 


Half homemade macaroni and cheese -

1 box Horizon macaroni and cheese-  follow directions on the box
1/4 cup feta cheese
1/4 cup cottage cheese

Mix the cooked macaroni and cheese (after you followed the directions on the box) add feta and cottage cheese. Return to stove and cooking additional five minutes stirring as needed. 


Homemade tartar sauce- I will NEVER buy tartar sauce again!!!! 

This recipe is for individual use you can easily double it if you need more.

2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 -1 teaspoon lemon juice (start small, you can always add more after you taste)
1/2-1 teaspoon dill (start small, you can always add more after you taste)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
a few shakes salt & pepper

Mix and taste! 





Sloppy Joes- These were amazing

1.25 lbs of ground beef
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoon Montreal Seasoning
1 onion chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped
1 tbl worchestershire sauce
1 -16 oz can  tomato sauce
2 tbl tomato paste
4 rolls/buns

Brown onion and meat together. Then mix everything else together and simmer for 10-15 minutes. ENJOY!!! I added shredded cheese to mine! 

Hamburger Taco casserole- 


2 lbs ground beef
1 onion chopped
1 -16 oz can tomato sauce
1 - 15 oz can black beans
1 can Rotel
8 8" tortillia shells
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 tbl chili powder
1 tea ground cumin
1 tbl crushed garlic
1.5 tea oregano

cook beef & onion in skillet until done. drain grease. add all other ingredients and simmer 5 minutes.

Pour 1/2 cup of beef mix in the bottom of  9x13 sprayed with non stick spray.
Layer with shells, the beef then cheese. Repeat until beef mix is gone. Top with cheese

Bake 350 for 20 minute! 



Sorry for such a short post. I'm having computer issues!!! More to come next week!!! 



Sunday, April 13, 2014

Food of the week!

I have my favorites when it comes to food as does everyone. I hope you enjoy the recipes below! 

BREAKFAST-

Homemade oatmeal

1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup water or milk
1/4 cup blueberries
Sprinkle pumpkin spice 
Sprinkle brown sugar
Sprinkle cinnamon

Cook on the stove,  5 minutes & enjoy!  YUMMY!!!



Ham & egg muffins

8oz small diced ham
1 cup shredded cheese
1/2 can rotel
12 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon pepper
1/4 tea paprika
1/4 tea turmeric 

Spray a 12 muffin tin with PAM.

Preheat oven to 350

Add 1 tablespoon of the ham, cheese, & rotel to each of the muffin cups. Mix eggs, milk, pepper, paprika & turmeric well.  Then pour over ham mix, leaving 1/4 inch space at the top. 

Bake  at 350 for 20 minutes until eggs have set. ENJOY!!!!! 
(You can freeze them- put them in sandwich bags, to thaw - pop open sandwich bag, put in microwave about 40 seconds) 




SNACKS-

One of my favorite dips to make is called Pickle dip. It's very simple and it does with plain regular potato chips.

4 ounces room temperature cream cheese
1 Teaspoon dill pickle relish
1/4 teaspoon pepper, onion powder, garlic powder
2-3 splashes of Worchester sauce

Mixed well and enjoy immediately! If you have any leftovers you can refrigerate, but remember cream cheese hardens when it gets cold so the next time you want to dip you need to let it come to room temperature!






DINNER -


Ham steaks with hash brown casserole

Ham steaks- enough ham steaks for however many your feeding-I throw them in the frypan to warm them up just as the casserole coming out of the oven

HASH BROWN CASSEROLE-

26 ounce package of Southern style hashbrowns-(if you can't find southern style you can always add a small can of ROTEL)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 can cream mushroom soup
1- 16 ounce container of sour cream
1 onion finely chopped
1 Teaspoon pepper and garlic powder
2 cups crushed cornflakes for the topping
1/4 cup melted butter. For the topping

Mix together first six ingredients in a large bowl. Spoon mix into lightly greased 13 x 9 pan. Sprinkle cornflakes over-the-top. Drizzle melted butter over the top.

Bake 325° for 1 hour 15 minutes. 




                                   WHAT ARE YOU COOKING THIS WEEK?

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Spring Time!!!

So I can not believe we are in APRIL!!! I am so ready for Spring and Summer! (And all things hot! -Olaf from FROZEN) The girls and I made our rows in the garden today. It was so nice outside. We also planted a bunch of annual flower seeds around the garden to help draw in the bees! We bought many seed packets, hummingbird mix, wildflower mix, zinnias, cosmos, etc. I am so excited. The girls actually had fun planting. My ONLY problem with gardening in Tennessee is the CLAY they have for dirt. That is probably the only thing I miss (besides my family of course)  from my home state of Washington is good black dirt!!!!


GARDENING-
Since I learned my lesson last year, I can not grow veggies inside then transfer them outside. The roots are not strong enough to dig into the clay. So we lost most of them last year. Some also got flooded out. Others killed off others. I tried a "sister" planting last year (corn, beans, squash) together the idea is the corn grows tall, the beans use the corn stalks and the squash keeps away the other critters. Well The beans choked the corn, and the squash took over!

So this year we are just plating a few seeds right in to the ground and buying some plants too! I love planning my gardens and researching plants and soil, etc.

So last January I planted some African Violet leaves does anyone remember? May 2013 I showed you that some of them had sprouted new leaves. Well here it is 14 months after planting, I must say I did loose 2 of the 6 I planted. The 4 that lived are ready to be transplanted to bigger pots!

(The 4th one was already transplanted)
UPDATES---

Goals for 2014 There are a few I need to improve on. I need to get in the habit of working out!! This is a hard one for me! I really need to focus and get in a routine.

My Half- Homemade Beauties  Its been that long since I made my beauty recipes. So it was time to make everything again. I think this time I will splurge and find another perfume oil I like and make a batch of soap.
Here is how I made melt & pour soap.

Adyson's Chart update- Adyson has been responding to her chart very well. I still have a few challenges but life is not perfect! The rewards at the end of the week are simple things such as a candy bar, match box car, staying up 1 hour passed bed time, rent 1 movie, etc. Nothing cost more the $3. She is thrilled at the end of the week.

Saving Money-  This has been working out great! Every week I put money in the bank by the chart! Its very easy to save for Christmas this way. I love knowing I have Christmas almost paid for already, because I did my savings in reverse from the chart.
Example week 1- deposit $52, week 2 $51, week 3 $50, etc... So I am on track for Christmas this year, are you?


                               WHAT DID YOU GET ACCOMPLISHED THIS WEEK?