We've Been Boo-ed!

Happy Halloween!  I was able to sneak in some quick crafting on morning Sunday to get our neighbor surprises put together.  This went into little fun baskets of Halloween goodies for two of our neighbors.  It makes my heart happy to see how excited my son gets while trying to be sneaky during delivery.

This is a 5x7 card that they display in their front window so people know they've been Boo-ed.  The inside of the card gives background and directions on boo-ing another 2 neighbors.  

Do any of your watch American Housewife?  They recently had an episode about Boo-ing and it had me cracking up!

Hope everyone is having a safe and wonderful Halloween.

Green Chile Soup in the Instant Pot

Quick and easy!  Just the way I like it.  This was thrown together together last Friday night when I wanted something warm and comforting.  It had been a long week and pizza didn't seem like something that would satisfy. 

I had planned on adding the green chiles to my bowl and not the Instant Pot because I think Emily would have like it too.  Turns out she was starving and had no patience for waiting. Which worked out just fine because we had beef chili the night before that she loves ("meat with beans" as she calls it.)

Why do I call this green chile soup instead of just green chile?  I hoped for this to be a healthier version without any oil from frying the pork and I wanted to keep it broth based without adding any thickener.  

That said - the spices of this recipe resembles closely what we do with our green chile.

Let's Get Crafty!

3 boneless pork chops (ours were on the smaller size and frozen when they went in)

1 onion, diced

1 can rotel

2 cans low sodium chicken broth

1/2 tablespoon group oragano

1 tablespoon garlic porder

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup green chiles, diced

Combine all but the pork and stir it up to distribute the spices.  Put the pork in the pork and give it one more stir.  

Using the beef/stew setting - I increased another 5 minutes for it to pressure cook for 40 since the small pork chops were frozen.

Everything in and ready to be sealed!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a great day.

Beef Stew - using one of my starters!

Remember a couple weeks ago when there was a really good beef roast sale?  I used one of those beef stew starters on a busy week morning.  I threw everything in the Crock-Pot before we left to face the day.  During my son's football practice my daughter and I ran to the grocery store and picked up some dinner rolls.  Let's be honest!  The dipping of a roll in beef stew sauce is one of the best parts of the stew!

Let's Get Crafty!
Quick and easy... these are the ingredients I added to the bottom of the slow cooker and then put the frozen stew meat on top.  I also added in a couple bay leaves that missed being included on the photo shoot.

So quick.  So Easy. So delicious.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a great day.

Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings

My Mom made chicken and dumplings when we were kids.  It's such a comforting, hearty dish to me.  It was one of my older brother's favorites, so he would often pick it as his birthday dinner.  This is one of those meals that I can make and know my kids will eat it up.  Veggies and all!  I've adapted this recipe based on what I would have done on the stove but used the same time in the pressure cooker idea as the soup from the other day and it worked fabulously!

Let's Get Crafty!
Get your base ready:
3/4 cup onion, diced
3/4 cup celery, diced
1 cup carrots, sliced
1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning (a few dashes over the veggies)
1/4 teaspoon oregano (a few dashes over the veggies)
Salt and pepper to taste (I did about 1/4 teaspoon each)
3 cans low sodium chicken broth
3 chicken breasts
Select the soup/stew option (35 minutes cooktime once the pressure has built)

Get the dumplings in and stir before cooking again:
1 can refrigerated biscuits, cut into 6 pieces each
1/2 cup frozen peas
Select the manual option for 5 minutes

And the lid comes off the second time!

This was so good.  I'm sure we'll be having it again over the winter.  Not to mention that it was an absolutely perfect leftover meal for dinner at the start of the workweek.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day.

Instant Pot Potato Soup

I'm loving the Instant Pot!  This was our second recipe over the weekend.  What am I loving?  I'm loving the flexibility of putting something in and walking off to do whatever else needs to be done knowing that everything is safe in the pressure cooker and doesn't even need to be stirred during cooking!  I will be called back with a wonderful beep when the cooking process is done.

Something I need to keep in mind when I see times for recipes is that's usually just the cook time.  These are "10 Minute Potatoes" that several blogs have posted that I decided to use as the start to a potato soup.  I started getting the potatoes ready at 5:45 and the soup was ready to eat at 6:20.  Still pretty good timing.  The potatoes were a little too soft for me.  I'm going to try 8 minutes next time.

Let's Get Crafty!
Get the potatoes going:
1/2 onion, diced
6 medium potatoes, skinned and chopped
2 cans low sodium chicken stock
Add to the Instant Pot in the order listed.  The chicken stock should just cover the potatoes.  2 cans worked perfectly for us.  You might need to do a little more, if your potatoes are bigger.  I'm putting the onion on the bottom to ensure it gets thoroughly cooked.  I HATE crunching into a crunchy onion.  If you like to... put the ingredients in anyway that makes your heart happy.  (I like to type out my recipes as I'm cooking them - turns out... I think the onions would have been okay anywhere in the pot.)

On the Instant Pot select manual then 10 minutes.  The steamer should be set to sealing.

When the 10 minutes is up - you can do a quick release by switching the steamer part to venting to release the pressure faster.  This still took a couple minutes.

I didn't jump right into mashing and took some of the chicken stock out so the potatoes wouldn't be too soupy before I added milk (about 1 cup.)  Mash up the potatoes to the texture you like.  I like mine pretty chunky so I just used a hand masher for a minute or so.

Let's make it soupy (after taking out some extra liquid):
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 oz cream cheese
3/4 cup cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste (I only added pepper because the bacon will bring in more salt)
Add milk until you get to your desired consistency

I let the butter, cream cheese and cheddar cheese sit covered in the potatoes for few minutes to help it soften so it could be easily stirred in with the potatoes.

I added bacon bits, more cheddar cheese and chives to mine.  The little lady had just bacon bits on hers.  These were the last chives from our herb garden.  They had a good run.  I'm still sad to see them go.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day.

Chicken, Avocado and Lime Soup

This is my first time using our Instant Pot to make dinner!  The original recipe comes from The Defined Dish blog.  A friend shared the link with me and it sounded delicious- so I had to give it a try.  As I always tend to do, I've done some switching up of the recipe ingredients to fit what I had on hand.  What caught my eye about this recipe were the avocados.

Let's Get Crafty!
Using the saute button for a few minutes:
1 tablespoon EVOO
1 onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
add 2 cloves garlic in the last 30 seconds and continue to stir

Hit the cancel button to turn off the saute pan and add the following ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
1 can rotel
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground oregano
2 cans low sodium chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste
Stir all together and select the soup/stew button.  Once it comes to pressure it will cook for 35 minutes.

Once the time has ended and pressure has been released- take the chicken breasts out to shred them with a couple forks.

Squeeze in the juice of one whole lemon (didn't have lime on hand and lemon worked out to be an excellent substitute!)

Ladle the soup over 1/2 diced diced avocado at the bottom of the bowl.  Yep!  I put some on the bottom and top.  I just loved the lightness of this soup.  It wasn't heavy and thick but was comforting none-the-less.

Thanks for stopping by! 

2 Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins

My son loves pumpkin.  Especially pumpkin pie.  This is a quick and easy Weight Watchers recipe that's been around for some time now.  This one seemed perfect for fall time and getting some pumpkin in our tummies.  We made these on weeknight and then had them for breakfast for the couple days to follow.  They've been requested to be made again.  #momwin

I set these on the counter to take a picture and Connor laughed and asked if he could be in it too.  I said Absolutely!!  #lovehimsomuch

Let's Get Crafty!
Preheat oven to 400

Combine two ingredients:
1 box cake mix
1 small can pumpkin
You'll need to get your elbows into it.  The first time I made this and started mixing them together- I didn't think there was enough moisture for the cake mix.  It works!  I promise.  The batter you end up with will be a thicker than a "normal" muffin or cake batter.

We made 12 regular sized muffins right in the tin versus a liner.  It seems like I did these before with a liner and they stuck to it pretty bad on me.  I did spray the tin pretty well with cooking spray.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Ours were ready to come out at 10 and were perfect.

Hot out of the oven.  I set them aside to cool for awhile before putting them in a container to save for breakfasts.  Of course, the kiddos each needed to enjoy one that night. 

Thanks for stopping by!  I would love to hear if you try these or other quick and easy recipes you have!

Cattle Drive Casserole

A friend posted this recipe from 12 Tomatoes on Facebook and I just had to give it a try.  Another similar post on Pinterest called this Comfort Food at it's Finest and I would have to agree.  I mixed it up a little (Shocker!) but the key ideas are pretty true to form.  With baking time and prepping time it took about 1 hour from beginning to end.

I like to cook big batches of hamburger to have on hand for recipes to give a helping hand for a weeknight meal.  I’ll actually be doing that today because I don’t have any left and we're trying to get in the swing of school being back in session! 

Let’s Get Crafty!

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 9x13 pan with Pam

1 ½ hamburger, browned and drained

Add to the browned hamburger:

½ onion, chopped

½ red pepper, chopped

½ cup beef stock, this will help with the simmering process because the fat has been drained.  (You can also add the onion and pepper while the hamburger is cooking but it will absorb the fat and hold onto it.)

Stir in chili seasoning packet

(the original recipe calls for taco seasoning but we had something with that a few nights ago and I thought this might be a tasty swap.  It was!  I would like to try it the other way too.)

Prep the creamy layer in a separate bowl:

¼ cup mayo

¼ cup light sour cream

½ fat free greek yogurt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 small can green chiles (It’s true- I used green chiles from the can here.  I wanted to be sure it wouldn’t be too hot and I wanted to make sure the kids would enjoy it too.)

Get your base layer ready by mixing these in a separate bowl:

2 ½ cups bisquick mix

1 cup water

Stir together.  I needed to add a little more water. 

Press the bisquick mix lightly into the prepared baking dish and bake 8 minutes

Once out of the oven – add the remaining layers:

Beef Mixture

1 Can Rotel (drained)

Spread the sour cream mixture over

Top with 1 cup cheddar cheese

Keep on baking for another 30 minutes

This is a truly comforting meal at the end of a long day.  Thanks for stopping by!

Make-Ahead Breakfast Enchiladas

The original recipe is from Belly Full.  My Mom shared a post of this on Facebook and it looked delicious.  My husband doesn't like breakfast casseroles.  I know... I'm sure you're all gasping and shocked.  It can be a struggle that I absolutely love them.  My ideal day would start off with hitting the "on" button to my coffee, pulling the casserole out of the fridge and begin preheating the oven.

I have a comforting and loving connection with food.  I remember my Mom making a lot of breakfast casseroles when we were little and I loved the smell of them baking.  My Mom was home when I would get home from school and I cherish memories of smelling fresh baked cookies when I hit the door.  I remember the comfort and love I felt at those times and want to share the same feelings with our kids.

Let's Get Crafty!

Mix together and divided between 4 tortillas:
1 cup medium shredded cheddar cheese

3 tablespoons cooked and crumbled bacon

The tortillas were then rolled up like enchiladas and placed in an 8x8 baking dish to be cut down the middle.  This makes us 8 enchiladas that I think will work perfect for our family.  If we were baking this right away, we would have put some green chiles in here.  I was afraid the spiciness would spread to the kid's enchiladas overnight in the fridge, so we'll just add them in the morning.

Get the eggs ready:

4 eggs

1/2 cup half and half

1/2 cup milk (we had 1% on hand)

1/4 teaspoon salt

Whisk all together well and pour over the top of the enchiladas.

On the next morning - preheat the oven to 350 and bake for 35 minutes with the foil on.  Take the foil off and bake another 10 minutes.

The original recipe from Belly Full was for 8 tortillas and used cut up ham instead of bacon.  It used the same amount of eggs but used a full cup of 1/2 and 1/2 rather than splitting between milk and 1/2 and 1/2.  I used the same baking time and it worked great- even on the smaller dish.  My "differently" isn't always necessarily me wanting to change it up.  It's more me working with what I have on hand and hoping it all shakes out.  Accordingly, I'm a horrible baker.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a great day.

Did I just find a Green Chile shortcut??

Green Chile is a labor of love in our house.  On this particular day my husband wasn't home to cook the diced pork and I was working with a pork loin.  I used the same idea in coating it and frying it but I did it in slices verses diced which cut down huge on time (I was trying to get this in the Crock-Pot simmering away before the little lady and I headed out to church) and I have to believe there were calories saved too because more surface for oil to cook in the diced pork must mean more overall oil. 

Please head on back to my Valentine's Day post for the recipe.  The rest of the recipe remains the same.  

Simmering away in the crock-pot.  The house smells fantastic!

Slice up the pork loin

Frying it up

I cooked it just a little under done because I knew it would finish cooking in the crock-pot all day.  

I love the color I was able to achieve.

Oh man.  This is a pretty picture of all the wonderfulness coming together.  

Thank you for stopping by.  I hope you have a great day.

Crazy Easy Breakfast Potatoes

This recipe is a keeper.  It’s from Very Best Baking by Nestle.  What?  Nestle?  No- there isn’t chocolate in these potatoes but it uses Nestle Carnation Evaporated Milk.  I like to buy the low-fat variety and it worked well with this dish.

Let’s Get Crafty!

Preheat oven to 350

4 cups frozen hash browns, thawed

½ cup finely chopped onion

1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

12 oz can lowfat evaporated milk

1 large egg, beaten

8 oz bacon, crumbled (I did half with bacon on one side and half with sausage on the other side)

Layer ½ potatoes, ½ onion and ½ cheese in baking dish and then repeat layers again.  Combine the evaporated milk, egg and seasoned salt.  Pour over potato mixture.

Bake for 55-60 minutes.  Uncover and do a low broil for 5 minutes or so to make the cheese nice and brown.

IMPORTANT:  Let sit for 10-15 minutes before serving.  I sometimes skip this step when we’re in a hurry but it does really help it to set up and that time saved is generally spent blowing on the kids to try and get it to cool down.  

Happy Sunday Funday Friends!  Thanks for stopping by.

Buffalo Chicken Soup

Oh wings.  How I adore thee fried and crispy.  It makes my heart happy that fall time is here and that means soup time!  This recipe pulls in the flavors of wings without all the fat and grease.  I feel less guilty about having a second bowl of this soup. 

Saute together or medium low (I didn't use butter or anything):

1 lb ground chicken

1/2 onion, diced (it was a pretty big onion)

3 stalks celery, diced

Add all to sauteed chicken and veggies and cook on low for 20 mins stirring frequently:

2 cans low sodium chicken stock

2 tablespoons ranch dressing dry mix

1 can cannellini white beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup wing sauce (I would have used more... but this was all we had)

8 oz package of light cream cheese

The kids aren't a big fan of this meal, so I tend to make it when I know we have something leftover that they would like to eat.  Generally, that means everyone is happy.

I initially topped mine with shredded cheddar cheese and chives.  It really needed a crunch factor so I added some crushed tortilla chips.

Thanks for stopping by.  

Rosemary and Mustard Chicken

We don't often go to Safeway.  On a recent trip where we wanted to get home and just went to the closest grocery store... we had a great find!  There was a meat special that included 4 packages of meat for $20. These thinly sliced chicken breasts were were part of the special.  I came home and put this marinade together and froze it so we could have it on hand for a quick and easy dinner down the road.

Let's Get Crafty!

2 lbs chicken breasts (Ours were already thinly cut and it worked well for quick cooking.)

For the Marinade:

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp rosemary, chopped small

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons dijon

1/8 cup lemon juice

1/8 cup soy sauce

1/8 Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp salt 

1/4 cup EVOO 

I mixed the ingredients of the marinade right in the freezer bag so it dirtied one less dish.  I like to mix the marinade separately before adding the chicken so I can taste it and adjust accordingly.  Once you feel good about it - add in the chicken and squish it around to get the marinade all over.  Seal up the freezer bag (getting out as much air as you can.)

I made mine with the plan of freezing it to use later but you could just as easy put it all together and grill it the same evening.  I would give it a good 30 minutes or so for the marinade to do it's thing.

I'm using a pampered chef grill pan here at medium high heat.  

This is what they looked like after 5 minutes on each side (not all the way done yet)

I decided to cut the chicken into strips to finish the cooking process.  Mostly because I wanted to make sure the delicious marinade touched as much of the chicken as possible.

Add a quick side salad and you have a delicious meal that we were able to get on the dinner table in under 30 minutes.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a great day!

2 Beef Freezer Meal Starter Kits

Safeway had a pretty good sale on beef roasts over the weekend and I decided to buy 3 of them (3.5-4.5 lbs each) to cut up for stew for our dinner and use what was left for a few freezer meals.  Turns out there was enough to make 5 freezer meals and our dinner that night!  We tend to do less beef freezer meals because getting the stew meat and roasts can be pricey.

I'm excited to share these couple of recipes with you because this is how I really like to do freezer meals.  The 10 freezer meals post I shared starting August 8, 2017 is great if you have a block of time and want to bust out a range of meals using different meat.  While that's awesome - it isn't the most cost effective.  I like to see what's on sale and then make meals based on that.  On this day - I'm happy that was beef! 

Let's Get Crafty!
In my previous freezer meal post back in August, I mentioned there are a lot of veggies I don't like to freeze because I think it affects the flavor and texture.  On the cook day the fresh veggies will be added.  In the meantime - it won't be taking up room in your freezer.  That's why I call these recipe starters versus freezer meals.

Recipe Starter #1 (made two meals):
Beef Roast
Cut the largest roast in half and place in two labeled freezer bags
Add to each of the bags:
1/2 envelope beefy onion lipton soup mix
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1/2 can french onion soup
Mix together.  I really like this because it gives the meat a chance to soak in flavor.

Recipe Starter #2 (made three meals):
Beef Stew
Cut the other 2 roasts into 2 inch pieces for stew meat (around 8 lbs in total.)  1/4 of the meat was set aside to be used for our dinner that night.  As I was cutting up the meat I was putting it in a large bowl.  I used the same bowl to mix in the following:
2 envelopes onion lipton soup mix
3 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 can low sodium beef stock
Divide the 3/4 of the meat remaining between 3 freezer bags.

On cook day - roughly chop whatever veggies you like to have with you roast or stew meat.  I anticipate we'll add potatoes, carrots, celery and mushrooms. 

Have a great day!  Thanks for stopping by!