Creamy Chicken Dip

Oh my goodness!  This was so easy and so good.  It would be a perfect New Years Eve dip to share with family in friends while ringing in the new year.  Nothing quite says comfort food to me like cheesy nachos.  Topping it with tomatoes, sliced olives and green onions really adds a layer of freshness that takes this dip to the next level.

Let's Get Crafty!
Toss it all in the crockpot and cook on high for an hour:
2 cups shredded chicken
1 can rotel
4 oz cream cheese
1 lb velvetta, cubed (about half of the full block)
3 green onions, chopped
3 tablespoons taco seasoning

Oh the fun colors!

Mix it up, put the lid on and let it cook for an hour

Add to the dip and cook another 15 minutes:
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

Look at all that creamy deliciousness after just one hour of cooking.  It makes my dip loving heart happy.  I like to add the beans towards the end so they get heated through but don't get mushy or break apart when stirring.

Then done!  This was so easy and so good.  I think the cream cheese really adds to the decadent creaminess.

Top yours with whatever you like.  We did tomatoes, black olives, sliced green onions and a little bit of parsley.

Potluck Potatoes

These are known by so many names like Funeral Potatoes and Potato Casserole.  I made them for the first time using a recipe from a cookbook that I bought from a school fundraiser years ago.  I really liked knowing the recipes were local and loved that it came in a 3 ring-binder.  That was especially nice because when you opened it up to a recipe then it would lay flat for you.

My recipe has changed up over the years but didn't land far from the original.  One of the big differences is that I don't use a stick of butter and add more sour cream.  I used to make this a lot and don't make it as much anymore, but I was super surprised that I didn't see it already on my blog.  Maybe that's why it isn't there - because I've always assumed that I would have done it already.

On this particular day I was making a double batch.  My husband was taking a pan with him Elk Hunting and I was going to freeze some to have here at the house one night while he's gone.  I'm going to share the recipe for one batch.  When I made two - I made the same thing twice so I could add green chiles to part of it but not all of it.

Let's Get Crafty!

Preheat oven to 375  

Mix everything together and toss in a pam sprayed pan:

32 oz frozen potatoes (I used the southern but the o'brian and hashbrowns are perfect too)

1 cup sour cream

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 cup shredded cheese (I didn't measure... so it might be more. :D )

(Add in green chilies, if you would like to)

Bake covered for 50 minutes (This is if you are making it right away.  Since I cooked mine from frozen - I started checking it at this point and kept adding time until it was creamy and bubbly.)

Pull it out of the oven and add your crunchy topping:

I generally do French Fried Onions but there are many options.  You can use corn flakes, ritz crackers, a bread crumb topping or nothing at all.

Bake another 10 minutes uncovered

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

Christmas Cards using Tis the Season

I love the dark colors of the Christmas collection this year called Tis the Season. I bought the scrapbooking kit and loved the way those pages turned out and then decided to make some Christmas cards with all the paper I still had leftover.  That's one of the fun things I love about the kits!  There's always leftover paper for more fun projects. 

Truth be known... I'm really horrible about throwing away leftover crafting paper, so using it to make cards makes me so happy.  Especially when it's paper I really like.  In this instance - I started making the card on the left and felt like it was a little dark for me for Christmas so I shifted and used some of the fun red to be the background and it lightened up the presentation.

Knee deep in the project.

I make a few Christmas cards each year and hope that one day I will send out all of my own cards to family and friends.  I'm still many years away from making that a reality but it's still fun to get to make a few each year and look at my stash of cards I've made for when that time comes.

Have a great day!  Thanks for stopping by.

Surprise boxes on a long car trip

We recently drove to Georgia to be with family after my Grandpa passed away.  We tried initially to get flights and couldn't make that work around what we needed for timing and it just so happened to be Thanksgiving week... so that probably impacted the number of last minute flights available.

Connor understood right away what 23 hours one way meant and Emily was frustrated that her brother dared to suggest she didn't understand.  She said "I do too know!  It's like 10 minutes!"  We had never bought DVD players for the car and it felt like this was the time to make that happen.  We did and I really like the set we got that had two screens that could be playing the same thing or each person could pick what they wanted to watch.

We knew that we didn't want them just watching movies all the way and wanted to this also to be a fun trip as much as we could make it be.  I found something similar to this idea on Pinterest and changed it up to work for us.

The gist of the idea is - putting together boxes of goodies made up of snacks and activities to do along the way.  Here's a picture of what went into the boxes.  Turns out my eyes were bigger than our amount of boxes and there's way more here than what was actually put in the boxes, but this was my starting point.  I bought the snacks and treats but most of the games and activities were things we already had (card games, coloring books and mad libs), were lent to us (car bingo) or were bought at some point for a rainy day because I got them on sale.

Fun times filling the boxes!  It was perfect timing because I had about 30 mins or so where it seemed everyone was occupied and I was able to get most of this done before anyone noticed what I was doing.  I was trying to keep most of it a surprise.

This last box ended up being just what we needed two times!   We snacked on the chips and dips at the end of the day on Thanksgiving.  I'm sure everyone knows the feeling... you eat a late lunch and aren't hungry for dinner.  Then it's getting close to bedtime and you realize you're kind of hungry.  Fox box to the rescue!  The second time was when we were headed home the day after Thanksgiving and the kids were excited to see they got $5 each to spend at a gas station picking what they wanted.  I had strategically put the only box with money to be one we didn't open early in the trip.  

The initial idea was that we would open a box every 3 hours on the road.  It wasn't a perfect thing because sometimes at the 3 hour mark we would stop to eat or they might forgot and be in the middle of a movie.  I can remember a time when it felt like someone was going to crack and I got to say - Hey!  Let's open a box early!  I just so happened to notice a couple side glances from my Mark where it looked like he was wondering who was enjoying the boxes more - the kids or me.  :D   

I set aside a couple for the way home as we were packing.  This was fun because I kind of hid them and the kids didn't realize until we were headed home there were still a couple boxes. 

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

Grateful Heart Thanksgiving Cards

It seems like its been forever since I made some cards.  I'm excited to share this card today because it's using my favorite colors of fall and I love the new Grateful Heart collection from Close To My Heart.

This card is so simple and I love it!  It feels like the flower patterned paper really shines through.  This card is a standard 4 1/4 by 5 1/5.  If you have a background paper you love and want it to take center stage then cut it at 4 by 5 1/4.  This will give you 1/4 inch of the base card all the way around but lets your B&T you love to be the focus.

I used my cricut to cut the Give Thanks from the Designer's Calendar cartridge and used Goldrush cardstock with for the banner.  I cut out the sentiment first and used that to determine the size of my banner.

A tip to cutting the banner flag by hand is to measure the length of where you want to cut it and then find the halfway point.  From that point go in and make a dot for how deep you want the flag to be.  Then when you are cutting the diagonal line from each of the corners - you have a dot to focus on that is right at the halfway point.

Hope you have a great day!  Thanks for stopping by!

Ripening Avocados in the Microwave?

Have you heard of this?  Turns out that it's a real thing.  I had an avocado I wanted to use and it wasn't ripened enough so I went to my friend google to see if there were some options.  I skipped over ripening it in the microwave a few times and then went back to read the comments because there was post after post suggesting it.

It's really easy and just a few steps:
- Prick the avocado with a fork or knife all around
- Microwave on low for 30 seconds
- Check to see how soft it is and continue this in 30 second low intervals until it's soft

Then you're done.  It's that easy.

There wasn't a big textural change but the avocado was warm... and that was a hurdle for me.  This method could be good when you're adding it to something that will be cooked like chicken avocado rolls or when you have the time to put it in the fridge and let it chill for a while. 

 I'm going to file this in the good to know category.  I anticipate there will be another time when I will want to do it again but I don't think it will be a regular thing.

Hope you have a great day!  Thanks for stopping by!

Pumpkin Seeds!

Our annual family time of carving pumpkins truly makes this Mama's heart happy. I love that the kiddos pretend like they are going to be able to get the guts and seeds out without saying things like "Yuck!" and "Gross!"  This year was especially fun because Connor carved his own Pumpkin for the first time.  Emily was super excited about her pumpkin until Connor's and hers were next to each other and she realized his pumpkin was bigger. 

I love that there are so many options in how you can flavor the pumpkin seeds.  We haven't branched out into anything crazy.  We love the simply seasoned and extra crunchy.

Let's Get Crafty!
Step 1: 
We got about 2 cups of seeds from a couple of pretty big pumpkins.  We rinsed the seeds and tried to get them as clean as possible. 

Step 2:
Then I spread them out on a large foil lined baking sheet and let them set for about 30 minutes to dry some. 

Step 3: 
While the seeds are just hanging out - preheat oven to 325

Step 4:
Add the seasonings that tickle your fancy.  I sprinkled ours with seasoning salt and garlic powder and that was it.  I stirred it once and added more garlic powder... well... because... garlic powder is awesome.  :D

I've seen a lot of recipes that use a little bit of oil here too.  We did that last year and it was good.  We didn't do oil this year and I thought they were just as good.

Step 5:
Bake for 20 minutes.  Stir and bake another 10 minutes at 300.

The size of seeds plays a lot into how long you need to bake, but it's important to bake them enough.  We like ours a little extra crispy - so we may do it longer than what is really needed.

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

Chicken Taco Filling from the Instant Pot

Hello Everyone!  This recipe for chicken taco filling was made at the same time as the beef recipe. The timing worked great so they could be cooling at the same time. 

I really like using the Instant Pot for shredded chicken because it feels like it holds its texture more than when we cook it in the slow cooker.  I'm envisioning we'll use these freezer packets similar to the nachos and enchilada filling that I mentioned with the beef taco filling.

Let's Get Crafty!
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (4lbs)

1/4 cup taco seasoning
2 tablespoons chili powder

Sprinkle the taco seasoning on each chicken breast and add to the Instant Pot

Pour on top of the chicken and seal up the IP:
14 oz can tomato juice

Set your Instant Pot to the manual setting for 20 minutes

We ended up with 4 ziplocs of chicken taco meat to freeze.  I saw some other recipes that used red enchilada sauce in the beef taco filling and the chicken taco filling.  I think I'll give that a try next time to add a bump to the flavor.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day.

Beef Taco Filling Freezer Packets

I didn't do my normal round of freezer meals before school started this year and I've missed having those go-to meals hanging out in the freezer for those busy days.  I've decided to mix it up some from what I've normally done. I did throw together a couple of my traditional meals but I'm also making a couple new recipes that are really just large batches of something we use regularly that will be nice to just warm up.  This beef taco filling is one of those recipes.  The places to use it in addition to tacos and burritos feels endless... salads, nachos, quesadillas, enchiladas, add a can of rotel and some velvetta for a quick dip.

Let's Get Crafty!
For the Beef Taco Filling:
Brown the meat (I did this in two batches):
4 lbs ground beef
1 large onion, diced
I like to take the cooked hamburger and strain it in a colander to get out most of the fat.

Mix together the beef seasoning:
2 cans tomato sauce, no salt added
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt (add more to fit your taste... I added another 1/2 teaspoon but you might not need it if your tomato sauce has salt)
1 teaspoon black pepper

Mix together the beef, onions and seasoning:
Add in 1 can of beef broth and 1 cup of water then bring to a boil

Once boiling - lower the heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes

Let it cool before dividing it among bags.

We got 6 quart sized freezer ziplocs

when putting about 1 1/2 in each.

It made me laugh pulling out the ziplocs that had a date on them from last month.  These were labeled when we were dividing up our roasted green chile to freeze.  We ended up with a lot of extras like this.  :D

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

Freezing Cubes of Basil and Parsley

One of my favorite things each summer is to have several different herbs growing.  This summer we had basil, parsley, rosemary and chives.  Towards the end of summer into the fall as the weather starts to get colder - I always want to preserve those remaining herbs and time seems to get away from me before I can do anything with them.  This weekend I found myself home alone while Mark and the kids were antelope hunting.  I took advantage of that time by freezing my remaining basil and parsley.  I'm already trying to think of soups and stews these would be great to throw into.

Let's Get Crafty!
I started with basil and did the same process with the parsley.  Cut the stalks of basil and rinse them gently until you feel like they are clean. Since I was using low pressure - it took me a couple minutes.

Then pull the basil leaves off the stems and lay them out to dry (I let mine sit for a couple hours)

Puree with olive oil and distribute into ice cube trays.  How much olive oil to use is really a judgement call.  You'll want to make sure it's just enough to get get the puree going.

Divide the puree into ice tray cubes.  I used a small spoon so I could make sure to get as much as possible in the little cubes and not accidentally all over the container.  We didn't have any ice cube trays on hand and I decided to buy a couple to use just for this.  I'm going to store them with our canning supplies and hope that helps me remember not to buy new ones next year. 

I froze ours in smaller portions so I could use 2 cubes if needed, but I anticipate needing a smaller amount most of the time.

We got 12 cubes of parsley

We got 10 cubes of basil 

(It's hard to tell from the picture - but I used about 

half the amount of basil in each as I did parsley since it's

a stronger flavor)

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

Beefy Mashed Potato Comfort Dinner

Fall is definitely in the air... with beautiful changing leaves and cooling weather.  Times are busy with football practices and hectic schedules which makes satisfying comfort dinners even more important.  This is one of those to me.  The roots of this recipe is a stew but we made mashed potatoes rather than chopping up potatoes and cooking them with the meat.  I love to get a lot of the thick sauce to make sure there's enough for every bite of mashed potatoes.  

This recipe is also another ode to "Oh, Instant Pot... how I adore thee."

Stir together in the instant pot and cook on the Meat/Stew setting for 35 minutes: 

2 lb beef roast, diced into 1 – 1 ½ inch bite size pieces

1 onion, diced

1 can beef stock

1 packet of onion soup mix

1 cup carrots, sliced

After the cook time do a quick release.  Once the lid is open - switch the setting to saute and let it come to a boil.  This happens pretty fast since it's already very hot.  

Then mix together until there are no lumps:

2 tablespoons of cornstarch

a little bit of cold water 

Add this to the boiling sauce stirring constantly.  It will quickly thicken up.

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

Doritos Hamburger Casserole

Chicken Doritos Casserole is a family favorite in this house.  This is the same idea but we're using hamburger instead of chicken.  It feels a lot like a beef enchilada bake but the Doritos give it a little something different that was fun.  

Let's Get Crafty!
Preheat oven to 375 and spray pam in a casserole dish

Brown on medium heat:
1 lb hamburger

Mix together for the sauce:
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can mild rotel
1/2 cup lowfat sour cream
1/2 cup 2% milk
1 1/2 tablespoon taco seasoning

Other layers:
1/2 bag family size Nacho Doritos
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Get your layers going:
1/3rd of the sauce mixture at the bottom
1/3rd Doritos
1/2 hamburger
1/3rd cheddar cheese

Repeat layers one time

Then finish it up with a final layer adding the sauce, Doritos and cheddar cheese.  You could do 3 layers of the hamburger rather than splitting it in two but I like have to bigger meaty layers.  Feels like it's more to me for some reason.

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

Oven Baked Ranch Potatoes

I stumbled on this recipe one day scrolling through Pinterest looking for a new way to use some potatoes The site is called MrsHappyHomemaker.com and she calls the recipe Cheesy Ranch Potatoes.  You know me, I didn't follow the recipe very closely but I went with the main idea and ran with it. 

These are really good but they definitely don't fall into the quick dinner category.  We made these on a Saturday evening when we knew we would be around the house and had the extra time for potatoes to be baking away in the oven.

I really liked her approach of anything goes based on what you have on hand.  Any type of potatoes... whatever cheese you like... whatever seasoning suits your fancy.  I'm sure we'll make these again soon and do something to change them up.

Let's Get Crafty!
Preheat oven to 400

Toss together and put in a 9x13:
5 potatoes, diced (I kept the skin on today but peeled would be great too)
1 1/2 tablespoon EVOO
1 tablespoon garlic and herb grill seasoning

Cover the potatoes with foil and bake for 50-60 minutes at 400 stirring once about halfway through
Check to make sure the pototates are fork tender.

Switch to a large baking sheet so there's more room to spread out the potatoes.  (I think I'll just start with the larger baking sheet from the get-go next time.)

Adding the layers of cheesy, ranch-y, bacon-y deliciousness:
1/2 cup light ranch dressing (drizzle over the potatoes and use a spatula to stir and evenly coat)
Top with cheese and bacon bits (I'm a fan of the Kirland brand from Costco)

Toss the potatoes back in the oven at a high broil for just a couple minutes and they come out perfectly golden brown with the bacon starting to sizzle.

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

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Football season is here and one of the things I love about it are the snacks and dips.  Man oh man!  I sure love the dips.  There are so many buffalo chicken dip recipes out there and this one isn't very different from many of those.  I've adapted ours for our tastes over time.  I skip using the canned chicken unless we're in a big hurry because I don't like that I seem to end up with a tuna type texture.  We also use more of the red hot sauce and about half the amount of ranch dressing that's generally called for to help make the buffalo sauce stand out even more.

We were so excited to jump in that I didn't even get a picture of it coming out of the oven all bubbly.

Let's Get Crafty!

Cook in the crock pot on high for 3 hours (or gently boil 3 chicken breasts until fully cooked):
3 boneless chicken breasts

Preheat the oven to 400

Mix together gently:
Shredded chicken
1 package low fat cream cheese (I like to soften the cream cheese in the microwave for 1 minute at 50% power so it will mix easier)

Add to the shredded chicken:
1 cup red hot buffalo sauce
1/2 cup ranch
1 cup cheddar cheese

Spray a 9x13 pan with pam and then spread the chicken mixture evenly.  I like to use a pan with more surface area because I like it to get all nice and bubbly from top to bottom.  When I've used smaller baking dishes, the middle gets warm but it doesn't feel bubbly hot.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until it's bubbly and melty.

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

Taco Stuffed Shells

I don't usually cook with these fun little shells because I always thought it would be a pain to get the filling to stay inside.  It really wasn't but they did need some babysitting while they were cooking to keep them apart.  This recipe gives it a try and it was really good!  Aren't they so cute?!

Let's Get Crafty!

Cook Jumbo Shells according to the directions on the box
They kept coming together so I was using tongs to pull them apart and did a couple extra minutes cook time

Preheat oven to 350

Get the filling going:
2 lbs hamburger, browned and drained

Add to the hamburger and simmer 20-25 minutes:
1 cup water
2 packets of taco seasoning (or 6 tablespoons)
1 can rotel

Let it cool for a bit to be able to handle it to stuff the shells.

Add in:
1 cup of cheddar cheese.  I did this when it was slightly cooled so some of the cheese would slightly hold its form.  It's mostly a mental thing for me... I like to be able to see cheese.  :D

For the bottom of the baking dish mix together:
One cup of the beef filling
1 package of something chili-like (we used Indian Madras Lentils by Tasty Bite that we get in a 6 pack from Costco but a can of chili beans would be good too.)

Stuff the shells

 Add more cheese because... well, more cheese.  :D

Bake just 10-15 minutes until the cheese it hot and bubbly

Hot out of the oven!

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