11/21/2012- Roasted Chicken

I've never made roasted chicken. It always seemed too difficult for me. I thought there'd be more work to it than what I did.

This recipe....

Pat chicken dry
Put oil on it
Put salt and pepper in it (about 1tsp each)
Put salt and pepper on it (about 2tsp each)

DONE

May I just say......BEST CHICKEN EVER. I like skin sometimes, but I ate ALL the skin. If I could make just skin and eat that, I would.

I had a 7lb chicken and it was done after exactly 3 hours at 375 and was perfect. Next time, I'm going to make some stock from it!

11/21/2012- Pumpkin Pie Pudding

Easy and SO yummy. Essentially it's just the filling of pumpkin pie put into a crock pot. Either way, we gobbled it up (<--see what I did there?).

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I'm pretty sure the recipe is the exact same as the pumpkin pie recipe, just crustless. Throw some whipped topping in after it cools and you're golden. So yummy.

Mine wasn't as creamy as the photo is, the edges of it got a bit...hard? That's not the right word but it's the only one I can think of.

11/20/2012- REMAKE- BBQ Meatloaf

The first time I made the BBQ meatloaf, it was in muffin tins so they were a lot smaller.

This time I laid it out like the original recipe said to do, formed it into a log and cooked it.

It smelled good and tasted good, but it didn't look good. When I "cut" it to slice it up it was very crumbly. We're not complaining, it tasted good, so that's really all that mattered. It just looked like a giant pile of mush is all.

11/17/2012 - Aluminum Foil Bowl

This wasnt a special pin, just a tip I guess. I had seen it before, but never thought to try....

I was making the potato soup again and forgot the bacon bits at the store, so I cooked up. Now, typically I pour the grease into a disposable cup or even down the drain (with hot water running). I figured this would be an easier solution.

The aluminum foil bowl. Pour it in hot, let it cool/harden, ball it up and throw it away...Simple and works!

See The Pin!

11/16/2012 Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Rolls

Have crescent rolls?
Have peanut butter?
Have chocolate chips?

Then make these!

It had been a long day and I wanted to have something sweet for dessert but also something that was easy. I'd seen the Pin once and it popped in my head when I was trying to figure out what to make.

Noah practiced spreading the peanut butter with his little knife.

He was very careful about where he put the chocolate chips

Then we not so patiently waited for them to bake and then cool

Yum!!!

See The Pin!

11-15-2012- REMAKE- Crescent Pizzas

I got a bit behind :-( Things seemed to get very busy all of a sudden.

Along with doing new pins, I'm remaking some of our favorites. This is a remake of the Grand's Pizzas since I didn't get any pictures the first time.

Noah had so much fun helping squish the dough

Putting on the sauce

Adding a little cheese (it was so cute watching him decide how much was enough, too much or too little)

And yes, that's bits of string cheese on top. All we had was "mexican blend" cheese so I cut some up for baking.

And it didn't melt well....

But it still tasted yummy! If When we make them again, I'll be sure to have shredded mozzarella on hand.

Hawaiian Chicken Drumsticks

I really had my doubts about this, especially since it had peppers in it. I hate peppers, with a passion. But, I did my duty and followed the recipe. The recipe itself was difficult to follow, the wording and measuring wasn't consistent. So, I'll tell you what I did in effort to follow the original recipe.

Ingredients from original:

7 pieces chicken drumsticks, rinse and pat dry with paper.
50 g butter
1 green bell pepper, cut into strips.
1 can pineapple rings in juice, drained and set aside.
1 cup catchup
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup soy sauce
1 onion, cuti into strips
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon powdered ginger or 1 teaspoon thinly sliced fresh ginger root.
½ cup water
a dash of salt and ground pepper to flavor chicken

What I did:
12 chicken drumsticks
1/4c butter
1 green pepper cut into strips
1 can pineapple rings
1 c ketchup
1/2c brown sugar
1/2c soy sauce
2T dried minced onions
1t minced garlic
1/2t ground ginger
1/2 c water

I didn't get the chance to put the salt and pepper on the chicken and put it in the fridge for an hour, so I picked up after there.

I melted the butter in my skillet and put in all the chicken, turning it to "brown" on all sides. It didn't really brown, more...yellowed....

When it was all yellowed, I put it in my giant dish into the oven (my skillet wasn't oven safe) for 28 minutes.

While it was in there, I mixed up my ketchup, pineapple juice, brown sugar, soy sauce and water.

I got really confused when it came to the rest though. I couldn't tell if I was supposed to take them out of the oven and keep them in the skillet or out...I put them in and then realized I was supposed to keep them out, so I set them to the side. In the skillet I mixed about 3T of butter, the garlic, minced onion and pepper.

After 3 minutes I added in the saucy mix and had it on med-high stirring occasionally.

The sauce never really "thickened" after 4 minutes on 8 of 10 heating so I added in the chicken and put the pineapple on top. I turned it twice, once every 2 minutes and then simmered it for 5 minutes.

Overall it turned out pretty good! Aaron had 6, I had three, took one to a neighbor, "tried" one out and gave one to Noah.

See The Pin!

Honey Glazed Ham

In my opinion...If anything will be called "world's best", it will be THIS. Words cannot describe how amazing this ham was.

The recipe calls for 4lbs of ham, I had a 10lb one. Therefore, it cannot fit in a 5qt crock pot....Into the oven it went! I doubled the recipe so it was 3 cups of ginger ale to start with. Covered it with foil and put it in at 300 for 5 hours. Then, I poured on 1/2c honey mixed with 1t ground cloves, 1t ground mustard and 1/2t ground cinnamon.

The end result was heaven. Earlier I told some online friends about this ham and I used words I wont use on here...that's how good.

Behold the ham....

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I felt I would be doing the ham injustice if I didn't try to make a nice dinner to surround it. So, I had ham, Grands flaky biscuits, fresh (boiled) broccoli and fresh cut fruit. And some yummy yummy iced tea.

Tonight's a good night.....

Now go make the ham.

Pumpkin Spice Latte- Crock Pot!

Following my previous post, Noah got his steamer and I got a pumpkin spice latte (decaf) and it reminded me I had a Pin for that. A crock pot one at that.

After we got home, I looked it up and saw we had all the ingredients (minus the whipped cream I ate the day before....). After debating all day if I should make it or not, I whipped up a batch and set it. The house smells divine and it taste almost exactly like the one from Starbucks. So much so, that I decided to put it in my cup from there!

It was too hot for me to get instant gratification from, so to cool it off, I added two spoonfulls of Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream! SO GOOD.

See The Pin!

Vanilla Steamer from Starbucks

^^look! I'm caught up! This happened TODAY!

Not much to this Pin other than showing off my little man. We went to drop off my car to get it fixed (yay, spending a ton of money!). I told Noah we could go to Starbucks and get a drink for our walk home. Thankfully one of the service guys drove us so I didn't have to trek my butt a mile and a half home.

There was a Pin I saw once that said you can order kids. It's basically milk with vanilla I think. Not too hot either! He felt so grown up and loved showing it off. It was adorable and I know I'll be getting them for him again.

See The Pin!

11/09/2012- Lemon Garlic Chicken

So, I was in a bit of a rush this day and didn't get any actual pictures taken. Hey, it gets busy with two kids! Lol.

I did marinate it for 2 hours (the minimum time) because I actually forgot until later. But, it was very easy to throw together and get in the fridge. I used 4 chicken breasts because 1) That's what I had and 2)they were huge.

Also, I didn't use any lemon zest because I have no clue how to make that from a lemon. Cheese grater? Really, how do you do it? Please comment and tell me.

Anyway, you just put all that into a baking dish and cook it. They came out really tasty and made the house smell good. My only complaint, though, would be that the inside wasn't that moist. The skin had great flavor, but if you have thick breasts like I did, it didn't get through enough. Maybe marinating it more would help, but I'm not sure. It did go great with the scampi noodles though!

I'll be making it again, so I'll be sure to add pictures then!

This photo is courtesy of the creator.

See The Pin!

11/08/2012- Mini Chicken Pot Pies

What's better than getting veggies, protein and dairy all in one yummy muffin? Getting a toddler to eat it. These were perfect. Right size for Noah to eat and flavorful enough for Aaron to eat too. I forgot to put in some poultry seasoning, so I don't think there was as much flavor as there should have been, but it was still pretty good.

The recipe calls for about 1T mix on the bottom of the tin and then you put in your veggie/chicken/cheese mix and pour another tablespoon on top. Honestly, the last two that got filled and cooked were better than all the others. Why? Because I ran out of Bisquick mix and so I just stirred the mix around in what was at the bottom. It brought out the flavor more and every bite you got had something delicious in it.

The "recipe" that I used didn't give exact measurments, so here's what I did.

Follow the "pancake" directions on a box of Bisquick
Boil two chicken breasts for 10-12min and shred/cut into bite sizes
While letting chicken cool, add a can of pees and 2 cups shredded cheddar to a bowl
Cut carrots into small sizes (I used a whole carrot and cut it very small)
Mix cooled chicken in with veggie/cheese mix
Stir
Use 1/4c for each muffin spot

See The Pin!
They were so good, even cold, that Noah and I snacked on them the next morning. I'm surely going to make them again. The changes I'll make, however, will be to add the poultry seasoning, maybe a bit more cheese and only using 1T and stirring the mixture in with it.

11/08/2012- Science Experiment

I'm trying to work more with Noah on educational activities. We've talked about color combinations quite a bit, so I figured this pin would be fun. Essentially you use three glasses, put one color water in one, a different in the last and an empty one in the middle. You put a paper towel in each and put them to the middle empty glass. The colored water goes up the paper towel and down into the middle glass. The colors combine and wallah you have a new color.

We started it at about 10:30 and when we got home at 5:30 it STILL wasn't down in the cup. Maybe it's something you should leave out overnight? I'm not sure. I could have tried it but I am not too keen on the idea of leaving deep blue dyed water in reach of a toddler.

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I'll probably try an overnight version or maybe modify it. If I do, I'll be sure to update.

11/06/2012- Baked Potato Soup

This recipe is right up there with the sausage and potato casserole. It was incredibly easy and insanely delicious. I invited our neighbor, Chris, over for dinner that night and he kept saying how good it was and ended up having three bowls and took one home with him.

Noah helped me put it all together and loved helping. When it came time to test the soup, however, he was adamant that he hated it, before he tried it. Once he tried it, though, he was all about that soup. You know if Noah eats it, it's good.

We went to the store to get some bacon bits and I also picked up a loaf of artisan wheat bread. It was divine.

There was enough in there to let Chris have his three bowls, me have two, Noah and Aaron have one, send some home with Chris and have enough leftover for lunch the next day. You can bet I'll be making that again! Now I just need to find some cheap chicken broth like I did (it was on sale for $0.68 per 14.5fl oz can) and I'll be making that soup like a mad woman!

See The Pin!

11/05/2012- Mini Tacos

This recipe was mainly promoted to be a football party appetizer or something like that, a general party food. But, me being me decided it was a good Noah food. He's got small hands, so give him small foods.

Noah LOVED helping make these. He helped put all the won ton wrappers in and fill it with taco meat. He tried putting the cheese on top but it was either too much or too little.

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In the end they were pretty good. The meat was spicier than normal because I used red pepper flakes this time. Also, the edges of the won ton were very pointy and hurt when they poked the top of your mouth. Next time I do them, there will be corn in the mix along with more cheese and maybe some salsa or tomatoes. It was good, but a bit boring.

11/04/2012- Apple and Honey Pork Loin

I like pork and I like apples. I had pork and I had apples. Seems to work well, right? Well, it smelled good, and looked ok and fell apart wonderfully. Honestly though, it didn't taste all that great. I put it on a Grand's Flaky Biscuit with some honey BBQ to give it flavor. The apples and honey didn't do that much for it. I recommend trying it because you must might like it.

It was pretty simple sounding, but I think I made it more complicated than it should be. My pork was actually two put together. I didn't know that until I opened it. So, instead of cutting it in half to have two shorter ones I had two long ones. I followed the directions like it said, but the apples didn't cover the bottom or the top. I also think I put too much cinnamon on.

In the end, it was mushy from the apples and my house smelled like apple cinnamon. Ha, can't complain much about the smell.

This was after it was all cooked and before it was pulled apart/out.

And after it was pulled apart. It literally fell apart as we took it out.

See The Pin!

11/01/2012- Baked Meatballs

Aaron loves meatballs. I mean, straight up love! We used to buy bags of meatballs (Cooked Perfect are his favorite brand) and he’d eat upwards of 8 at a time with his pasta. So, what better reason to make some myself?! I was intimidated by the ones I saw where you cook them in a skillet and roll them. I’d tried it once and the middle never got cooked. This recipe looked promising, though. It was simple to do and you just bake them. Two things, though. Make them all as close to the same size as possible and do NOT use wax paper. I learned the hard way about that one! They were absolutely delicious! Aaron and Noah kept asking for more and I found myself randomly snacking on them the next day. They’re good cold, too!

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