Hello, Blog! Long time, no see!!

I have taken a hiatus from blogging.  Even my cooking blog (Monday Menu) has been put on the back burner.  My life has been crazy.  I am not really going to even try to play catch up.  If I get the opportunity to do a little catching up, that will be ok.... I am just not going to stress myself out too much about a complete catch up. :)

There are a couple things that I want to share with everyone.  I have started writing in my personal journal at least 5 times a week.  Teen years excluded - I have always found it difficult to write in a journal.  So when I stumbled across this website, Graceisoverrated.com, I fell in love with the blogger's journal creations. Go here to check out her awesome journal pages.  You simple download the pages into your Adobe program then print out and fill out.  They are just simple things to fill out each day and I find it more enjoyable to print them out without color and color them myself.

I am trying to fall in love again with blogging.  I hope to "see" you all again soon. 

Monday Menus Have Moved

I decided to move my Monday Menus to their own separate blog.  My first entry is here. 

Monday Menu (9/13/10)

We had a magnificent meal for dinner!  Bill, our master at Mexican food, made enchiladas.  I made two kinds of desserts:  Surprise Brownie Bites and Brownie Pizza.

For the enchilada filling, I prepared some shredded chicken and shredded beef.  For the beef, I knew it needed longer to cook to become tender.  I bought a big hunk of beef (some sort of chuck roast or something - I don't remember) and I cut it into good size hunks (about 3 inches).  I put some garlicky oil in a pan, when it got hot, I added the meat, sprinkled it with salt and pepper, let it brown on all sides, then turned the heat down and put a lid on it to simmer.  After about 40 minutes of simmering, I put it in a glass dish, covered it with foil, and put in a 350 degree F oven.  Then I prepared the chicken breasts (boneless, skinless).  I used the same pan I used for the beef so it had the same juices, then sprinkled with salt and pepper.  I put the lid on the pan and let the chicken just cook thoroughly.  After the chicken was cooked, I put some water in the pan (about a cup total), put the lid back on, then let it simmer on low.

When I checked on the beef, I had to add about a 1/2 cup of water to keep it from drying out.

While I cooked some Four Cheese Rice-a-Roni Bill helped me shred the meats.  Rebekah and Justin grated the cheese.

To prepare the enchiladas, I heated up a few inches of oil in a small frying pan.  I dipped a corn tortilla in the warmed oil then placed on a plate.  Bill took the tortillas and dipped them into enchilada sauce, then put cheese and shredded meat in the tortilla, rolled them up, and placed then in a baking pan that had enchilada sauce on the bottom.  When all the enchiladas filled up the pan, Bill sprinkled on more cheese and drizzled on more enchilada sauce.  We baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

Then it looks like this:

 

 Mmmmm, cheesy goodness!!

For dessert I actually made two:  Brownie Pizza and Surprise Brownie Bites

The brownie pizza is quite easy.  Make some brownie batter, spread some on a greased 12-inch pizza dish.  Bake until done (I don't remember how long it took).  After it was completely cooled, mix about a quarter cup of peanut butter (we used creamy, but I am sure crunchy would have been good) with about 1 1/2 cup milk chocolate frosting.  Then I spread it on the brownie and sprinkled with Reese's Pieces and then took a potato peeler and shaved some white chocolate over the top.  It was very scrumptious!

 Just get out the pizza cutter and slice like so:

For the second dessert, I used the rest of the brownie batter from the pizza and scooped about 2-3 teaspoons of batter into generously sprayed mini muffin tins.  After baking them for about 8-10 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out almost clean), I removed them from the oven and immediately pressed a white chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in the center of each brownie bite. I put them in the fridge to cool.  After completely cooled them, I popped them out of the muffin tins and frosted them with milk chocolate frosting.  (Although later I tried some without frosting and thought it was VERY good.  I also tried some with caramel frosting and Bill liked those. )  After frosting the brownie bites, I placed a quartered peanut butter cup on top. 

Here is the bites with one cut in half so you can see the cross-section.

Overall, this Monday Menu was very successful.  :)

Monday Menu (9/6/10)

For Labor Day, we made some homemade taquitos and chimichangas.  What Bill did was start by heating up the oil in the deep fryer and when it was hot enough (around 360 degrees) he dipped a corn tortilla in the oil for about 2-3 seconds, then removed.  This makes it easier for rolling the taquitos so they don't crack open.  Then after there are about 10 corn tortillas all oiled up. Line up some meat about 1/4 from the edge on the tortillas (we used shredded roast turkey that we cooked in the crockpot over night) and then roll up and stab it with a toothpick.  Bill was able to poke two taquitos through the middles into each other.  He fried them for a minute, then rotated, and fried another minute.  If they didn't look done enough, he rotated a third time and fried another minute longer.  He drained then on a cooling rack with a cookie sheet underneath it to collect the excess dripping oil. 

For the chimichangas, we put a thin spread of beans about 1/4 from the edge, topped with meat (for this one we used ground beef that was cooked, drained, and had taco seasoning added to it), then a good sprinkle of cheese.

To roll up, take the bottom part of the tortilla, wrap up towards the top of the meat and tuck slightly under and hold it tightly together.

Then while holding the middle together, fold the two sides in.

 Then start rolling up.

Then when you roll it all the way up, place a toothpick in it and then deep fry in 360 degree oil for about 2 1/2 minutes on one side, flip, and then about 2 1/2 minutes on the other side.

Put on cooling rack to drip excess oil.

(By the way, don't you just love my mad drawing skills on Paint??)

For dessert, we had something like homemade Twix from this awesome site: Hoosier Homemade.  

They are SO much like Twix bars!  The only thing I would change would be lowering the peanut butter to 1/3 cup and increase the milk chocolate chips to 1 1/3 cups.  I would like to find some way to make a layer of chocolate on the bottom.  Maybe I could line the cake pan with parchment paper, make the topping but put it on the bottom, then while chocolate is still warm, place crackers on top.  Then let it chill in the fridge.  Then make the caramel middle, pour on top, top with crackers again, then chill in fridge again.  Then make the topping again, top the crackers, let chill in fridge until set.  Then slice and enjoy! :)

Monday Menu (8/30/10)

Again, no pictures.... I just don't have time to snap the pics and then upload them.

For dinner, we had what Rebekah likes to call "Tater Loaf" but it is really Chili 'n' Tots.  On the bottom of a baking dish (whatever size you want), spread some chili, top with cheese, then top with tater tots.  Cover with foil (dull side out) and bake in a 350 degree oven until the taters are almost done (around 30 minutes).  Then take off foil and let bake another 10-20 minutes (depends on how crispy you want the tater tots).  The kids would have liked it better had I just used regular turkey chili like I always buy... but I attempted to doctor up the chili and well, it wasn't as yummy as I was hoping.  Next time I will just use the chili the kids are used to and I know they will LOVE it!!

For dessert we had the new Breyers Vanilla Fudge Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches.  They are actually low in fat (4 grams) and low in calories (160 calories).  We all LOVED them!! YUMMY!!! 

Monday Menu (8/23/10)

It has been a while since I have updated our Monday Menus.  I figure instead of trying to go back in time to catch up, I will just start now and if I add them along the way, then that will just be the icing on the cake!

I didn't have time to snap any pictures of dinner because we scarfed them up too quickly. So I am using the picture from the site: Gimme Some Oven.

For dinner, I made:  Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

 
I made a double batch (48 mini ones) thinking that was plenty.  I didn't know that they are not very filling and they seriously disappeared faster than donuts at a Weight Watchers meeting.  I also made a few smaller adjustments to make them to our tastes:

• First, I sprayed each little mini muffin cup with Baker's Joy.  I love it more than Pam when it comes to bready or cake type things because of the flour in the non-stick spray.
• Second, I didn't add any of the fresh basil (mainly because I didn't want to buy it) and then forgot to add dried basil but it turned out fine without it. 
• Third, I made a few puffs without pepperoni for Lily before adding the pepperoni.  After that, I made some pepperoni ones making sure to have enough batter for another variation.  To the remaining batter, I added some bacon crumbles so we had Nate's favorite pizza type: pepperoni and bacon. 
• Fourth, I put an olive in the center of a couple of the muffin cups for Bill and I.
• Lastly, to scoop the right amount of batter, I used a small cookie scooper (2 tsp).  I have THIS one and I LOVE it!

I only baked them for 15-18 minutes instead of the 20 minutes the recipe calls for.  As a family, we decided that these are better suited for an appetizer or snack and not for a dinner main dish.


For dessert, I made Chocolate Peanut Butter Covered Brownie Bites.

Believe me when I tell you, these are very rich and chocolaty.  I personally think that I would have preferred using Milk Chocolate instead of the Semi-Sweet.  Definitely going to make these again!!

Monday Menu (5/3/10)

Today, for our new meal, I knew we wouldn't have time to make anything since Nate, Rebekah, and Lily had dental appointments to get fillings. Since Nate has been begging me for months to try the new Domino's pizza. So I figured it was a good time for that. Also, I got some new flavors of ice cream for us: Baby Ruth ice cream, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream, and French Silk. So yummy! (Smith's is having a sale on their Kroger Ice cream - 3 for $5!)

Monday Menu (1/25/10)

Bisquick recipes today!

For dinner, we had: Ultimate Chicken Fingers, Onion Roasted Potatoes, and a broccoli side dish. I just boiled some broccoli, drained it, and added cheese sauce and bacon.
The kids really enjoyed the chicken fingers. They are not as pretty as the pictures Bisquick takes , but thankfully the taste made up for it. :) The kids liked the potatoes as well, but not as much as what they are used to: mashed potatoes. Only the broccoli lovers at the house liked the broccoli (that was to be expected).



For dessert we had: Apple Cake


I made this cake because we had so many apples in the house (thanks to Bountiful Baskets). This cake tasted ok. But eaten warm with vanilla ice cream helped. It was a dense cake and kind of dry. There are some tweaks I would have to do to make this again.

Monday Menu (December 14, 2009)

Today was one of the best days ever! Bill and I went out to lunch at City Cafe and Deli. I am totally in love with their BLTs. They are divine! After wards we did some shopping for the ingredients for our dinner.

Dinner Time at our home on Mondays is always interesting because the recipes are new. And sometimes they are hits with the kids and other times, well, they miss. Tonight's recipe is going to be a staple on our dinner menus.

The original recipe was titled: Chili Dog Casserole but we now lovingly call it Weenielada.

The only thing we did differently than the recipe (you will find at that link) is that inside each tortilla we put a little chili and cheese before we rolled them up. The kids all devoured theirs. Even Lily, who is not a huge hot dog fan, ate all of hers.


For dessert, we thought we would try Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars. These are definitely something I would wait until they are cooled all the way to eat. I didn't care for them warm, but the next day they were pretty good. Half of the kids did not care for the cheesecake filling. In my opinion, it was just ok. Now the crust of this recipe, that is something that I will have to find new ways to use with other dessert recipes. It was a stroke of genius to put mini chocolate chips in the graham cracker crust! Sooooo yummy!



Enjoy!

Monday Menu (December 7, 2009)

I wish I would have taken a picture of the Quiche we made tonight. It was divine!

Quiche (adapted from a recipe given to me by my mother-in-law)

1 9-inch unbaked deep-dish pie crust
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons flour
a little less than 1 tablespoon Chicken Flavored Better Than Bouillon (you can use chicken flavor instant bouillon)
2 cups cubed cooked turkey or chicken (we used rotisserie chicken)
3 pieces cooked bacon, crumbled
1 cup milk
3 eggs beaten well
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
Extra cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake pie crust for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and reduce temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a medium bowl toss cheese, flour, and bouillon. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well. Pour into pie crust. Bake 45-60 minutes or until set. Sprinkle extra cheese on top. Let bake a minute longer. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving.

I used a full tablespoon of that Better than Bouillon and felt it was a tad too salty. That is why I mention using less than a full tablespoon.



For dessert, I tried something completely new, with a bizarre dessert ingredient: potato chips. Now, before you start knocking it, you have GOT to try them!! They are very yummy!!


Peanut Butter Clusters

2 cups (12 oz.) peanut butter chips
1 cup (6 oz,) milk chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups dry roasted peanuts (I accidentally bought party peanuts and they still worked well)
1 cup crunched up ridged potato chips

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt peanut butter chips and chocolate chips; stirring every 30 seconds. Stir until smooth. Stir in peanuts and potato chips. Drop by level tablespoonfuls onto wax paper. Refrigerate until firm (I just let mine sit on the counter; it is plenty cold this time of year). Store in an airtight container.

Monday Menu (November 30, 2009)

Another Monday came and flew by. It was a long day: Bill and I went out to lunch at Chili's. Then we drove around town while I looked for the remaining presents for our advent calendar (I will post in a later blog about that). While we were at Family Dollar our van got hit in the parking lot and the driver side door opens just a little bit. After our store hopping, we did our final shopping at Wal-Mart and because I suffer from ADD, I locked the keys in the van. However, we did not discover this until we were DONE shopping. Now, the van has a safety feature where if you leave the keys in the ignition and try to lock the doors, it won't lock the driver's door. That only works when the key is IN the ignition... So, I called my awesome friend, Laurie, and she came to the rescue. It was COLD and so we sat on the bench next to Ronald. Gotta love Ronald. Between him and the other freaks walking in and out of Wal-Mart, the time just sped by.

For dinner, we wanted to use our leftover turkey and turkey broth, so we made this: Shaker Chicken and Noodle Soup.

However, we made a few adjustments. We did not use the vermouth because we don't use alcohol when we bake or cook. It does not cook out all the way like people think it does.
So the adjustments:
*I didn't add the alcohol.
*I only had 8 cups of turkey broth left over from Thanksgiving dinner so I used Better Than Bouillon and enough water to make it 13 cups.
*I added some sliced mushrooms.
*Instead of chicken I used leftover Thanksgiving turkey.
One thing I would change, I would NOT ADD the parsley. It turned out funky tasting in the soup and I ended up picking it out of the whole soup after we all had our first bowls.

Other than what I want to call the 'parsley incident,' the soup was very tasty. I will make it again.

For dessert, I made a version of Banana Cream Pie I found online. But I used a pre-made Oreo crust and only two bananas instead of four. Also, I know that when making cream pies, that whole milk is a must. I didn't have any, but I did have some heavy cream in the fridge, so 1 cup was 1% milk and the other cup was heavy cream.
I didn't do the final baking that the recipe said because there were comments of people who said they didn't like that. Then when it was chilled, I added a nice layer of whipped cream. We all liked it very much. I have a picture of the slice I cut out and it looks kind of pathetic, but it tasted really yummy.

Monday Menu (November 23, 2009)

I absolutely LOVE my husband! He is awesome!! Bill is really good at picking out soup recipes! He made Northwoods Wild Rice Soup and even though we had wild rice, we forgot to cook it first like the recipe said, so we ended up substituting uncooked minute rice and added some extra chicken broth to help it absorb the liquid... but we may have not added enough liquid or too much rice because the soup came out really thick. It was extremely delicious though!! I totally ♥ this soup! Oh, we also added some sliced fresh mushrooms.


We knew the kids might not like it, so we made them Meatball Subs and they loved them!


Now for dessert, I wanted to try this recipe from one of my favorite food blogs and we all LOVED it! It is called Crunchy Caramel Reeses Cookie Bars. It was so simple and easy to make. I didn't crush the pretzels like the recipe said because the lady shows step-by-step directions and it doesn't show crushed pretzels, just broken into hunks. One other thing, the recipe says 3 cups Reese's Peanut Butter miniture cups and it seemed like WAY more than she had in hers, but I am not complaining. :-)
And when she says to let it cool all the way, she isn't kidding. Even though it tastes pretty good warm, it tastes SO much better the next day. I ate WAY too much of this.... Someone save me!!

Monday Menu (November 16, 2009)

Wow! The new meal this week was astounding!! I believe Bill has found a recipe we will be making in the years to come!! He made Cheesy Ham and Potato Soup. I made some Rhodes Rolls since those are a family favorite and I knew I wouldn't have time to make rolls myself. Dinner was FABULOUS!! My husband really knows how to work his awesome culinary skills!! I wish I had a picture of the soup, but it was gobbled up so fast, I didn't get a chance to take any pictures!

For dessert, I decided to try out two new recipes I found in Betty Crocker's new Christmas Cookies checkstand magazine full of lots of fattening goodies. I made Black-and-White Coconut Macaroons:When Bill took a bite of this cookie, his eyes glazed over (not just from sugar shock ☺) and he said, "I think these are my favorite cookies now."

and Chocolate-Marshmallow Pillows (except I didn't put the nuts in):

When the kids bit into these, they fell instantly in love. I am glad I made a double batch because I planned on giving some away, but who knows if I will be able to keep the kids away from these.

Monday Menu (November 9, 2009)

Ok, so I am totally a week behind... But things have been crazy.

I told Bill that since he didn't want me to make meatloaf last week, that he could make the dinner on Monday. So this is what he chose: Smoked Salmon and Corn Chowder.
It turned out really well, actually. We couldn't find any fennel bulbs here in Cedar (ok, so we looked only in two stores) and he substituted it with a leek. It had a very tasty flavor, except I think he put two too many shakes of hot sauce in the soup. It was VERY spicy!

For dessert, I made a Twinkie Tunnel Cake. I forgot to add the chocolate chips but it turned out really good. I am not a Twinkie Fan, but it was good!!

Monday Menu (November 2, 2009)

For dinner, I decided to make Bunk House Meatloaf. Granted, the kids have had meatloaf before, but the boys had not had this kind before and it has been YEARS since the girl had it.

Bunk House Meatloaf Recipe:
1 1/2 to 2 lbs lean ground beef
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1/3 cup finely chopped green pepper
1/2 cup cooked oatmeal (quick oat)
3/4 cup cracker crumbs
1 egg
1/4 cup ketchup plus 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
(or 1/8 cup Lea & Perrins Steak Sauce and 1/8 cup ketchup)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Mix all ingredients together.
Place in greased loaf pan.
Sprinkle with seasoned salt with pepper over the top.
Bake at 350° F for about 1 hour 15 minutes.

(I baked them for like 20 minutes in muffin tins.)


Even though I chopped the bell pepper really tiny, it still gave it a flavor that Nathan was not fond of - but he ate it anyway. Next time I will leave that out all together. I served the meatloaf with smashed potatoes and corn.

For dessert we had Cookie Truffles. I did not care for them much, but the kids LOVED them. We tried the Nutterbutter ones. I think I would like the Oreo ones better - maybe some other time I will make them.

Monday Menu (October 26, 2009)

I love how we try new recipes every Monday! It gives the kids something extra to look forward to.

For dinner we had Poppin' Garlic Ranch Biscuit Topped Chicken Pot Pie. It may have a loooong title, but the flavor is fabulous! Each person liked it. Although, Nate did pick out certain veggies, he did go back for seconds and thirds! This recipe is a keeper!

For FHE's treat, we had Chocolate Chip Cookie "DOUGH" Cookies. I am not a huge fan of those Cookie Dough Bites candies but the kids are. So I thought I would make this for them. I was pleasantly surprised at how yummy they were! The kids gobbled them up.

Monday Menu Done on Sunday (10/18/09)

Well, with the kids having a 5 day weekend (gotta love Harvest Holiday, AKA Hunting Holiday) we decided to have our new menu food on Sunday and take it to a friend's house to enjoy the Sabbath and not worry about having to get to bed early because there was no school the next day.

Bill has been dying to have Shepherd's Pie since we got married. I didn't want to make it because his version sounded gross to me and what I grew up with sounded gross to him. However, he was so insistent that he wanted Shepherd's Pie that I finally told him that if he wanted it then he could make it. While this isn't a new recipe, per se, his version was new for me.

And even though I don't have exact measurements for most of the ingredients (or pictures, I was too hungry when it was finally done to think about taking any pictures), you can adjust it to your tastes.

2 1/2 lbs (or less) of ground beef
1 packet of aus jus mix
Garlic Salt
Pepper
Frozen Corn
Potatoes
Butter
Milk
Salt
Bacon
Cheese

Peel and cut up potatoes. Boil until soft enough to mash. While they are boiling, brown ground meat, garlic salt, and pepper. When meat is done (or almost done) add aus jus packet. Then stir in frozen corn. Heat on low until thoroughly warmed.
Drain potato chunks and begin to mash them. You can use an old fashioned potato masher or electric mixer. While mashing, stir in butter, salt, and milk. When mashed, stir in bacon bits (not the fake ones, these ones) until thoroughly mixed.
Spread meat mixture into 9x13. Sprinkle some shredded cheese on top. Then start plopping on the mashed potatoes. Cover with foil and bake at 250°F until thoroughly warmed. Sprinkle bits of bacon on top of potatoes, then cheese on top of the bacon. Bake until cheese melts. Serve warm.

Now for dessert we made those Cookie Dough Pies. Granted, I have made the original recipe before, but wanted to try some fun variations. You will need to click on that link to get the recipe, but I will tell you the variations here:

I got a bag of Keebler Chips Deluxe Coconut Cookies. Between each layer of whipped cream and cookie, I sprinkled some sweetened flaked coconut on. Then when done, I drizzled chocolate syrup on top and then sprinkled a bit more coconut on top. I LOVED this one! It was VERY good.

I was going to use the Keebler Chips Deluxe Peanut Butter Cookies but the ounces of the bag were only 15 and I didn't want to buy two bags and have extra cookies to tempt me.... so I just bought the original kind and then a couple Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (I ended up using 8 PB cups). So between the layers of whipped cream and cookie, I sprinkled some chunks of chopped up Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Then I also drizzled with chocolate and sprinkled with more chopped up cups. This one was FABULOUS! It went the fastest.

Things were yummy that night. It is nice to have one day off a week from my diet. :-)