What's For Dinner The Gluten Free Edition

I started meal planning again this week and hopefully tomorrow I can sit down and plan out the rest of the month of June. Just add this to my list of summer to do's along with my cabinet redo and shed cleaning. 

We started Tuesday since I was out of town all weekend and wasn't prepared to  really cook on Monday plus we had leftover pasta (quinoa noodles) to finish off. The best part about Tuesday is it just so happens to  be Taco Tuesday and everyone lives Taco Tuesday.  I have some Udi's gf tortillas which were pretty yummy. We like our tacos made with ground turkey instead of ground beef. Taco Tuesday is a family favorite that not only includes tacos, but delicious home made fajitas. We also like to make our own Taco Seasoning because if I make it I know it is GF and it doesn't hurt that it tastes so much better and is cleaner then the stuff you can buy in a package. Once you start eating clean you never want to go back to processed foods. Real food just tastes so much better. 

We continued our week with a new recipe I got from, where else Pinterest! I have been wanting to try a 1 dish meal for a while now and I am not sure what took me so long to give it a try. I had to hit up Whole Foods for some frozen bread products and since I already had some chicken at home I decided to use some fresh green beans and red potatoes. I found This recipe and decided it sounded yummy and fresh for such a hot spring day. Yes people I said spring!!!! Summer doesn't start until June 21 and it has already gotten up to 99! God help us all down south. 

I went ahead and cleaned my green beans, cut up my potatoes, visited school, and went to search for part of Brent's Fathers Day gift, and picked up the Little Lady while my chicken was thawing. Once we got home I went ahead and started putting everything together so I could get it in the oven since  it took almost an hour to cook. It all smelled and looked delicious when I was putting it together and I couldn't wait to eat since I had barely eaten anything all day hence the massive headache I am still rocking right now. 

I think this might have been the prettiest meal I have out together in quite a while. The yellow lemons, green beans, and red potatoes were pure dinner perfection. 

Looks delicious doesn't it? 

It could have been if I had completely skipped the lemons entirely and just gone with the olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper. I have decided unless I am eating  fish, lemon drops, sorbet or anything not chicken I don't care for lemon flavor. It was just too intense and lemony. It was fun watching Mckinley make a face and shudder each time she tried to eat a green bean. 

Don't worry my family is used to this by now. Meals either turn out perfect or they are revised and retried unless they are just plain awful. 

So we will try this one again another day. Tomorrow we will bump up our pizza night from Friday to Thursday perBrent's  request. I think he fears another lemon massacre.  Brent and Mckinley will enjoy a cheese pizza from Kroger's deli section and I will be enjoying an Amy's spinach and feta pizza. Lets get real. We all know the  girl will be helping me eat my pizza. I better get 2. 

Here's to not scrambling to throw together dinners anymore and a well stocked, healthy, and gluten free stocked freezer.

Living The Gluten Free Life

No I can not blame my falling off of the meal planning wagon on my food allergies. I fell off way before this new discovery, but I am planning on jumping back on this week. 

Monday we all ate leftover spaghetti (I had quonia pasta of course) since I had been out of town all weekend and the little family was fending for themselves all weekend. Yesterday we started back on our regularly planned schedule of Taco Tuesdays with our Turkey Taco secret family recipe. I gave the Rudi's Gluten Free Tortillas a try last night because I have gotten a little tired of only eating corn tortillas. They weren't the exact consistency of a good ole flour tortilla, but they were definitely yummy.

I have also tried Rudi's bread, but it is definitely not my favorite gluten free product. The consistency is ok, but it falls apart and has huge holes in the top. 

I am now going to give my awards for best GF products I have tried so far.

Bread

So far I have tried 3 brands of bread. I rushed out the next day after finding out I had a wheat allergy and grabbed the first GF bread I could find on the shelf. I can't remember the particular brand, but it was 

B-A-D! It was think and dry and just plain awful! After my first shopping disaster I did a little research and found This list of the 2012 Best of Gluten Free Awards and Udi's topped the charts. I cautiously ventured back out and did a little more research. I didn't want to spend a fortune on food so I went to the 3 major stores in our area to see who had the best prices. Kroger did not carry Udi's bread so that was a bust so it weas off to Fresh Market and Whole Foods. After a little comparing I found that Whole Foods actually has the best prices for most GF foods. So I bought my little frozen loaf of bread and I never looked back. 

Snacks

Once again before finding out about my wheat allergy I found these crackers called Nut-Thins (Kroger). I wanted something that was "cleaner" then a regular cracker , but still tasted and felt the same. I like  Nut-Thins, but only as a dipping cracker. I use them when I want to enjoy some hummus. If you are going to venture into the Nut crackers I highly recommend the cheddar or ranch flavors. 

I have to give the GF Award to Glutino Crackers. Basically anything made by this company is delicious! Another snack I love from Glutino is their GF Pretzels (Kroger). They are so crunchy and delicious and it is all I can do to keep my child from eating all of them.

Cereal

My go to cereal is Chex especially Cinnamon Chex or Mom's Best Crispy Cocoa Rice. You can't go wrong with any of these and you can find them all at Kroger. 

Bagel

Once again Udi's tops the chart for bread products. So far I have tried the plain and cinnamon raisin bagels and both are absolutely delicious.

Pizza

If you are looking for a delicious GF frozen pizza please make yourself happy by picking up an Amy's spinach and feta pizza. The cheese is also delicious, but nothing beats the spinach pizza! 

Pizza Crust

I only buy Amy's pizzas one Fridays for pizza nights, but my usual go to is Kinniknnick Frozen Pizza Crusts. I just buy GF pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese and this is what the Little Lady and I eat at least once a week.

Baking Mix

What can I say about Pamela's Baking Mix! My life was changed the day I found this GF product. I haven't tried any of the other Pamela's baking mixes, but the Baking and Pancake Mix is amazing. I can use it to make absolutely anything. We have made lots of pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins, banana chocolate chip bread to name a few. 

 Pasta

We eat pasta 2-3 times a month so I wanted to find something that I could eat with my family. I have so far tried rice noodles and quonia noodles and The Ancient Harvest Noodles are by far my favorite. I usually don't get to eat alot of my pasta because my child eats it all, but I get a bite or 2 sometimes.

If you have just found out you have a Gluten Intolerance or a Wheat Allergy I hope this little list helps you a little and you don't waste your time or money on searching for good GF foods. This isn't what I eat in a typical day they are just the products I have found that taste the best for when I need them. 

The last thing I will add is if you are craving something sweet and need a cupcake please go to Whole Foods and get either a chocolate or vanilla Whole Foods brand cupcake. They are usually in a freezer end cap right after the frozen foods. You can thank me later. And if you are really really craving something sweet lime I was on National Doughnut Day , but you can't go to your amazingly delicious Doughnut shop down the street try Kinnikinnick's brand doughnuts. I have tried every flavor and they are all amazing, but the cinnamon sugar is the best. 

Weekly Menu

I have moved away from my monthly meal plans and moved into a biweekly planning period. I felt like I was wasting food more than I would like and other people in our home weren't always eating what I was pulling out of the freezer. I am still spending less money on groceries and I love knowing what I need to pre plan ahead of time at the beginning of the week to be ready and not run around like a chicken with my head cut off come Wednesday evening. Now that we are eating more clean and cutting out processed foods I am not really struggling for dinner ideas because this is pretty much how we ate anyways. I am still working on breakfast and lunches, but thankfully I am a creature of habit and eat the same things everyday anyways, but I would like to branch out from my eggs and bacon morning routine once in a while. I think I see more grapefruits, Chex rice cereal with almond milk (My 1 weakness!) , and Honey Cloud Pancakes (with a few ingredient exchanges) in my near future!

For this week we are looking at 

Monday- Turkey burgers with roasted veggies and homemade sweet potato fries

Tuesday-Shrimp Stir fry with quonia for me

Wednesday-Roast with sweet potates

Thursday- Grilled Chicken with veggies (I want to tryn something new)

Friday-Cheese Pizza (Lent)

Nothing fancy, but all super healthy and clean except for the pizza, but what is life without pizza. I make my own a lot of times, but Friday starts my Spring Break so there will be only celebrating and eating that night and no slaving in the kitchen!

Next week I think I am going to try my hand at some home made whole what pasta! And Maybe some home made bread. I just love knowing exactly what is going into my families food and I am really enjoying cooking. I actually haven't screwed up a meal in quite some time and I now have my husband obsessed with roasted broccoli and he has requested it for every meal this week even if it doesn't go with what we are eating. We (I)  also have quite the obsession with home made sweet potato home fries. 

Basically all I do is slice my washed potatoes on my mandolin (my favorite kitchen gadget). Roll my potatoes in some olive oil then I place them on a well oiled cookie sheet covered in foil (I pour the foil on the foil) add some Tony's Chacheres (I just can't make my own so Tony's it is). Then I bake them on 350-375 until almost brown. I am not going to lie I like mine almost burnt, but I like all of my food super done (dry chicken and fish for this girl please). 

I am thinking about getting this shirt because I need some more motivation to hit the gym now that I am coming off of my 2 week sick hiatus. I am so glad to be feeling better and I am about to go pack my gym bag so I can hit the gym right after school tomorrow and get it done! If I am going to be in tip top shape for this wedding next year and to run the St, Jude again I better get my butt in gear!

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My Go To Halloween/Thanksgivingish Pumpkin Dip

I made this dip for our last Faculty meeting at school and our Halloween Party and it was a hit at both. I won't be making it for Thanksgiving because I have been assigned Sweet Potato Casserole for Brent's family and we won't be bringing anything to mine because we will be hitting there second and will miss the main eating events.

If you want something light and delicious for a pre meal snack then this is perfect! I served mine with ginger snaps, but some people like to dip with apples also.

Ingredients:

{1} 15 oz can of pumpkin
{1} 5 oz box of instant vanilla pudding {just the powder, don't make the pudding}
{1} 16 oz container of cool whip {low fat}

{1} small pumpkin
{1/2} tbsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
{1/2} tbsp. Cinnamon

Directions:

1. Mix pumpkin, pudding mix, cool whip, and pumpkin pie spice together {by hand} in a very large bowl.

2. Chill for several hours before serving. Meanwhile, carve your pumpkin!

3. Sprinkle with cinnamon, and serve with fresh apples slices, vanilla wafers or ginger snaps.

I am thinking about writing a cook book one of these days for Busy Mom's. Simple and easy tried and true toddler and picky husband tested breakfasts, snacks, and meals. What do you think. I know most of my recipes are from cookbooks and the internet, but i also have a lot I have put together myself and I think I could come up with some pretty good stuff.

A Month Of Meals {Week 3}

So things aren't going so well with our meals this month. Not in a bad way in a people want to keep feeding us way so a few of our meals planned for last week are still residing in our freezer. That just means the few days Brent is out of town we will be forgetting about our White Bean Chicken Chili recipe and eating up some room in our freezer for next months meal plan. i will however still post the White Bean Chicken Chili recipe for your cooking pleasure.

I am not sure where this recipe originated from so i can't source it, but I will say my dear sweet friends Russell adn Amber have been so kind as to send me this recipe over and over again because somehow I keep losing it. Hopefully after I get my meal plan binder situated it won't go missing anymore.

Are you ready for some cheesy, chickeny, chili goodness??

{White Bean Chicken Chili}

Ingredients
 2.5 cups chicken broth
1 tsp. lemon pepper
2 tsp. cumin seed
1.5 lbs. boneless chicken
1 garlic clove minced
1 cup chopped onion
3 tbsp. olive oil
18 oz. shoepeg corn undrained
4 oz. diced green chilis
3 Tbsp ground cumin
2 (15 oz.) cans great northern beans
2 tsp. chili powder
2 tbsp. lime juice
1 (8 oz.) shredded monterey jack cheese
1 (8 oz.) shredded pepper jack cheese

Directions
1. Cook chicken breasts in first 3 ingredients. Remove and shred. Reserve broth.
2. Saute onion until translucent in olive oil. Add garic at end and saute for 1 minute
3. Add onions and garlic mixture, chicken, corn, chilis, ground cumin, lime juice, and chili powder into reserved broth.
4. Bring to boil and simmer until bubbly.
5. Cook 25-30 minutes.
6. Add more chili powder, cumin, or cheese if desired.
7. garnish with Fritos and montery jack cheese.

Best the day after
ENJOY!

A Month of Meals {Recipes-Week 2}

Sadly Baby Love has caught my stomach bug and poor daddy seems to be heading down the same road. Little is napping right now so I thought I would take a few moments to put together week 2's recipes.

{Loaded Baked Potato Soup}

source Ingredients

1 bag Ore Ida hash browns

2 cans 9or 2 cups) low sodium chicken broth

2 cups water

1 package of reduced fat country gravy

Directions

1. Add chicken broth and water to large pot on high

2. When broth and water begins to boil add hash browns.

3. Mix gravy with a little bit of water before adding to pot to prevent lumps.

4. Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

5. I like to mash mine a bit with a potato masher, but  it is yummy either way.

{BBQ Chicken}

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Ingredients

4-6 boneless, skinless Chicken breasts

1 (18 oz) bottle Barbecue Sauce ( I used 'Sweet Baby Ray's')

2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar

1 teaspoon Garlic Powder

1/4-1/2 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper flakes (optional)

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

DIRECTIONS

 Place chicken breasts in the bottom of crock pot. In a medium bowl mix together barbecue sauce, vinegar, garlic powder and red pepper. Stir sauce and then pour over chicken. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Close with lid and cook on low for 4-6 hours. (The last 30 minutes of cooking, remove the lid from crock pot and let water evaporate to thicken sauce) Serve!

{Chicken Noodle Soup}

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Ingredients

4 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup sliced celery
1 tsp. dried basil, crushed
1 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 cups medium egg noodles
2 cups chopped chicken/turkey

Directions 
In a 3-quart saucepan combine broth, onion, carrot, celery, basil, oregano, pepper, and bay leaf. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 5 minutes. Stir in uncooked noodles. Return to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 8 to 10 minutes or until noodles are tender but still firm and vegetables are just tender. Discard bay leaf. Stir in chicken; heat through. To serve, ladle soup into bowls. Makes 4 main-dish servings.

{Chicken Pot Pie}

{Roast}

A Month Of Meals {Recipes-Week 1}

  When I started meal planning I never thought I would actually have people telling me I inspired them to start planning their own meals. That is one of the reasons I wanted to start blogging about it and sharing what has worked for me and our little family. I love putting my menu together and writing out my grocery list and it doesn't really take me that long to plan everything out, but then comes the recipes. I print them out or pull them from my cook books and then the real work begins. Some recipes I pull from Pinterest or Google searches which makes it so much easier to post them, but this month I wanted to use my Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook which means I will have to peck out those recipes all by my slow typing self. I will be posting 1 weeks worth of recipes at a time or as many as my 1 year old who only allows me to type 5 minutes at a time before she starts screaming at me and trying to press buttons on the laptop.

I Challenged Myself this month so every meal is either something that can be frozen and pulled out later or something cooked in the Crock Pot.

{November Menu- Week 1}

{Roxanne's Roast} 

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Ingredients

1 large roast split into 2 equal pieces

1 bag of baby carrots

1 onion

Potatoes (will not go into freezer. Will be put in when ready to Crock It)

2 envelopes of  Lipton onion soup mix

Beef broth or boullion

Worcestershire sauce

Directions

1.When I get home from the store I cut my roast into 2 equal pieces and place them in freezer containers.

2. Place 1/3 package of carrots into each container.

3. Cut 1 onion into large pieces and add 1/2 to each container.

4. Pour in 1 Cup of beef broth into each container.

5. Add Worcestershire

6. Add 1 package of  Lipton onion soup mix to each container.

7. Place lid in place and freeze until ready to Crock It.
8. Remove from freezer and let thaw in fridge night before you will be cooking it.
9. Dump all contents into crock.
10. Add potatoes.
11. Cook on low for 8 hours.

{Crock Pot Loaded Baked Potatoes}

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Did you know you can cook baked potatoes in the Crock? Well I didn't until this month and you better believe this is how I will be cooking my potatoes next week!

Ingredients

2-3 Potatoes

Foil

Sour cream

Shredded cheddar cheese

Bacos

Directions

1. Clean potatoes

2. Wrap in foil

3. Place potatoes in Crock

4. Crock for 8 hours

WHAT!! I don't have to wait 40 minutes for my potatoes to cook! 

MIND BLOWN!

{Chicken Pot Pie (Makes 2)}

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Ingredients
4 refrigerated pie crusts or frozen crusts
1 rotisserie chicken
2 cans of mixed veggies
11/2 tsps rubbed sage (dried)
1 1/2 tbsps butter
2 cups canned chicken broth
2 tbsp. All purpose flour

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425°F
2. Pull chicken off of bones and set aside
3. Combine flour and 1/2 teaspoon sage in medium bowl.
4. In large skillet/pot  melt butter in heavy large skillet oven medium-high heat.
5. Add chicken broth and  flour mixture to skillet and stir until thickens.
6. Add in chicken and vegetables and 1 teaspoon sage. 
7. Bring to boil, scraping up any browned bits. 
8. Season with salt and pepper.
9. Pour mixture evenly into pie crusts
10. Top with crust.
11. Bake until bubbly and crust is golden brown
12. If you will be freezing for later wrap and store in freezer before cooking. Pull out the night before to thaw then follow cooking directions.

{Mexican Stuffed Belle Peppers (Doubled)}

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Ingredients
4-8 bell peppers
1 pound of 85 percent lean ground beef
1/2 of a yellow onion, diced
1 cup of canned enchilada sauce
1 1/4 cup of shredded jack cheese
1 entire bag of cup of cooked (leftover) mexican rice
salt and pepper
sour cream and diced green onion for toppings

Directions
1. Finely dice a 1/2 of a yellow onion. Pour a cup of prepared enchilada sauce into a heat proof measuring cup and add diced onion. Heat the onion/enchilada sauce mixture in the microwave for about 5 minutes to soften onions. 
2. Cut the tops off of four bell peppers. Remove stems and seeds and dice the tops of the bell peppers. 
3. Pour 1/3 of a cup of water into the bottom of the crock pot and nestle bell peppers in.  
4. In a large mixing bowl, combine one pound of uncooked ground beef, onion/enchilada sauce mixture, diced bell peppers, 1 cup of shredded jack cheese, 3/4 cup of cooked rice, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.
5. Fill bell peppers with ground beef mixture and top with more cheese.
6. Cook on low for about 6 hours. You can test mixture with meat thermometer for doneness. It should be cooked to 160 degrees.
7. f you will be freezing for later wrap and store in freezer before cooking. Pull out the night before to thaw then follow cooking directions.
Note: You must used pre-cooked rice. I used leftover mexican rice,  but you can also use cooked white rice. Just bump up your seasoning so that the mixture is not too bland. You can add chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, chipotle in adobo. Whatever sounds good to you!

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

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Ingredients
1 large pork shoulder/Pork Butt or whatever you like to call it
Onion
Garlic cloves (I use the pre chopped bottled stuff because it is easier, cheaper, and last longer)
BBQ  seasoning
Liquid Smoke
BBQ sauce (I used 2 different kinds because I didn't have enough of either and it was delicious!)
Water
Buns
Slaw

Directions
1. Rough Chop onions and garlic and place in bottom of Crock.
2. Place Pork in Crock and sprinkle generously with BBQ seasoning.
3. Add Liquid Smoke (I was cautious with this, but wish I had added more)
4. Pour in enough water to fill Crock 1/4 of the way up.
5. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
6. Remove Pork Shoulder and place in large bowl to pull apart and remove bones and fat. I found a form and some tongs were really helpful. You will also want a few large bowls for discarded pieces.
7. Pour remaining liquid, onions, garlic, and bits and pieces through colander to strain and discard.
8. Return pulled pork to Crock and begin shredding with 2 forks or hands if you let it cool.
9. Pour BBQ sauce over pork to mix together.
10. Serve on buns with your choice of fixins (that's southern for BBQ toppings and sides like Slaw, BBQ Beans, and Potato salad).
11. Freeze extra meat for later use.

{Joan's Homemade Soup}
Coming Soon
I am still waiting for this recipe MIL!!

A Month Of Meals {November}

I will admit it this past month I didn't make all of the meals I had on my menu, but it wasn't my fault. I blame all of the people who kept bringing us yummy meals like my Mama and Brent's Mama. Good thing is I can use most of the items I had bought for last month's menu for this month's so nothing goes to waste. I still did pretty good following my menu and once again that is the great thing about menu planning you are never scrambling for a meal and if something comes up you can always save that meal for another day.

When I started planning for this month I had to make sure I account for the week of Thanksgiving. Brent will be out of town the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving and then I have to save some room for any leftovers. I am pretty excited about Brent going out of town even though I won't be able to sleep because I get to make something Brent would eat, but us girl's will enjoy White Chicken Chili. I am also making some Cream of Whatever because he promises he will eat anything as long as it doesn't have any yucky cream of nasty soup in it. That means casseroles people and of course chicken pot pie.

Now on to November's menu.

I am really excited about this month. It is finally cooling off down south and we can finally start making yummy soup to warm us up. I gave myself a challenge this month to only cook Crock Pot or Freezer Meals and I believe I have come up with some pretty good stuff. 

We have hit the store and for the low low price of $168.44 we are ready to do some cooking.
I am sure you are dying to know what I got for my money so here is my list. Next month I want to start using  dried beans instead of canned beans. I have never soaked or cooked with dried beans, but it's like everything else I do. Once I try it I can do it.

Grocery List
8 bell peppers
1 bag yellow onions
1 bag baby carrots
1 bunch celery
1 bag Idaho potatoes
1 lb. ground turkey
1 pork shoulder
1 roast
stew beef
rotisserie chicken
jar enchilada sauce
evaporated milk
non fat dry milk
chicken broth
liquid smoke
lipton onion soup
chili powder
2 cans mixed veggies
2 cans great northern beans
green chilis
shoepeg corn
2 jars Prego spaghetti sauce
mexican rice
homestyle noodles (egg noodles)
macaroni noodles
frozen ravioli
pie crusts (forgot)
shredded colby jack cheese
shredded montery jack cheese
shredded cheddar cheese
shredded mozzarella cheese
milk
sour cream
frozen hash browns
frozen broccoli
frozen green beans
eggs
pizza crust
pizza sauce
pepperoni
jiffy corn bread

Extras
Baby Tylenol
Cheddar Popcorn
Honey Ham
Honey Turkey
Canned Peaches

I will have to do another post with all of my recipes because I am too darn tired from cleaning to keep going tonight. I spent all day taking apart and cleaning black mold out of my dishwasher. I will spare you the pictures, but imagine a fuzzy plant literally growing inside my dishwasher door. I am still so grossed out right now and high from the cleaning fumes.

Brent's World Famous Inside Outside Ravioli. A TeamD Staple

A few people have asked for our Inside Outside Ravioli and since Brent made us a batch yesterday I had him sit down with me to write out the recipe. My husband can work magic with a jar of Prego and he doesn't have any exact measurements for the seasonings. You really have to taste it as you make it to get is flavored how you want it. And yes I typed this as the words were coming out of his mouth and he kept asking me if I put Stir Vigorously. He is quite the weirdo, but I am weirder so I guess it is ok.  

{Brent's World Famous Inside Outside Ravioli}

1 pan yields 12-15 servings

Ingredients

1 box small shells
1 lb. ground turkey
1 large pckg. frozen spinach
2 jars Prego italian seasoning
Salt and Pepper
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Red Chili Flake
Nutmeg
Mozzorella Cheese
Parmasean Cheese
2 eggs

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375, cook pasta according to box, drain, and set aside.

2.Brown ground turkey in large sauce pan adding salt, pepper, garlic powder, nutmeg, Italian seasoning, onion powder, and red chili flakes to taste. Stir Vigorously. Mix in 1/2 jar of spaghetti sauce. We prefer Prego, but you can use whatever you prefer.Stir Vigorously. Set aside

3. To prepare Italian Spinach saute spinach and cook through. Drain excess liquid and put back into pan and add salt, pepper, garlic, Italian seasoning, nutmeg. Next Beat 2 eggs, form a well in center of spinach and add eggs. Scramble eggs and slowly incorporate into spinach until cooked through. Add grated Parmasean cheese to taste.

4. Combine ground beef mixture with spinach mixture. Stir Vigorously until thoroughly combined.
5. Add 1 full jar of Prego into sauce pan, add 1/2 of turkey spinach mixture and add Stir Vigorously. Add shells to mixture. Stir Vigorously. Add remaining meat and spinach mixture and remaining Prego to pot. Stir Vigorously until all ingredients are mixed in.

6. Pour mixture into large casserole dish, smooth out on top, and add 1 package of mozzarella cheese. Tent aluminum foil on top and bake for 35-45 min until cheese melted and brown around edges.

7. Remove aluminum foil and turned off oven allowing casserole to rest in oven. This is what Brent does to keep me out of it because I like to eat it mouth scalding hot, but he makes me wait!

8. Pull out of oven and .ENJOY!

I wasn't quick enough to snap a picture before it started getting devoured. Look at that spinachy goodness!

I froze a few portions for the first time so we shall see how those come out after thawing.

Pre K Days {Ms. K and The Kitchen}

{Weekly Wrap Up} 

This week we met Ms. K and learned all about the kitchen, cooking, and healthy and unhealthy foods. 

We made Chefs and Sorted Cookie Shapes

We made a Pizza Glyph

Sorted Healthy and Unhealthy Foods

We Recognized and Highlighted Uppercase Letters (My Own Creation)

and made Kangaroo K's

Thursday we learned about a different type of book called a cookbook. We read recipes in our cookbook and made Blueberry Pancakes and Pretend Soup (a mixture of yogurt, juice, and fruits). Then later that day we had a Share Your Favorite Food Lunch (Idea from Mrs. Nicole our other 4k teacher) where everyone brought their favorite food for their friends to try. Also BIG thanks to my awesome room for coordinating everything so we didn't have 19 mac n cheeses or chicken nuggets. We had a good variety of fruits and veggies, spaghetti and mac n cheese, yogurt and chips and cheese dip. 

School was out today for Fall Break, but the teachers spent the day at a Diocesan Professional day at one of our fellow Catholic schools. I went to 2 sessions where I learned about Developmentally Appropriate Standard-Based Center Activities and another where I learned about Integrating Technology Into The Classroom which was really great because Tuesday when we get back to school we should have brand spanking new SMART BOARDS installed and hopefully ready to go!! Now I am off to watch some YouTube videos on turning on and using your Smart Board.

Ch Ch Ch Changes and Recipes

There have been some changes to the October calendar and a  few things have been switched around and you can thank my mama and her delicious spaghetti sauce for that. We spent Sunday with my parents and my sister so they could get a little Mckinley time and they could help take her mind off of her potentially broken (it's not broken) toe. If you have eaten my mom's spaghetti, ravioli, or any pasta you know she makes THE BEST home made spaghetti sauce and we ate A LOT! Needless to say neither of us felt like eating stuffed shells and cheese last night so I went ahead and made our Roasted Tomato Soup because there is no way my 3 pints of cherry tomatoes would have lasted 4 weeks. I can honestly say this is one of my new favorite recipes. It was pretty easy to make and it was absolutely delicious topped with some cheddar cheese, sour cream, served with a grilled cheese. Perfect for a cold rainy day. It actually tasted better the second time I ate it at lunch today. 

Tonight we enjoyed the Spinach and Bacon Quiche which was also delicious. It needed a little more egg (I was 1 short) and next time I won't leave out the swiss cheese (forgot that at the store). Besides that it was delicious and I shall be enjoying a big ole piece with some Roasted Tomato Soup tomorrow for lunch.

Now how about some recipes! I get almost everything I cook from the Intranet (that's how I spell it so leave me alone) especially Pinterest because I can save things and if I want something to freeze I can go to my Freeze Me Board or if I want a Crockpot recipe I can look in my Crock Me Board. Some recipes I just make up by throwing a bunch of  stuff together so if there is not a link or attached recipe it probably means that is something I just make up as I go and this month I had a bunch of pre prepared meals my sister had given me when she cleaned out her pantry that needed to be used up to make a little room in our overcrowded pantry.

Before we get started here is my original calendar so you can see the changes I made.

Week 1

Roasted Tomato Soup 

  Spinach and Bacon Quiche

Roast
1 medium or large roast depending on how many people you are feeding
red potatoes
baby carrots
2 cups beef broth
Worcestershire sauce
2 packs Lipton Onion Soup mix
2 large Tupperware containers
1. Cut roast in half
2. Put 1 piece of roast  into each Tupperware container 
3. Add to each container: Carrots, 1 cup beef broth, generous amount Worcestershire sauce, and 1 packet  of packs Lipton Onion Soup mix.
4. Potatoes don't freeze well so save those for when you put everything into the Crock Pot.
5. Freeze until you are ready to cook.
6. Add potatoes (I like to cut mine in half) and cook on low for 8 hours
7. Eat
Spinach Stuffed Shells

Week 2

Inside Outside Ravioli 
(recipe to come whenever I can get Brent to sit down and write it out)

Chicken Peanut Satay (Box)

Turkey and Quonia Meatloaf With Veggies
I top with my secret bbq sauce recipe which I can not divulge or I would have to kill you,
but you can use the recipe sauce or create your own
Calzones with This

Dough Recipe

Week 3
Parmasean Tilapia
Inside Outside Ravioli
Chicken Fajitas
(throw some chicken, veggies, and store bought sauce together in a wok)
Turkey Taco Salad
Follow directions on taco seasoning to cook ground turkey
and top with favrite taco toppings

Week 4
Veggie Fried Rice
Throw together some cooked rice, frozen veggies, and sauce
Chicken, Green Bean, and Potato Bake
Roast
Calzones

Week 5
Roast
Quiche

Next month I am challenging myself to only make Crock pot and freezer meals. I am going to work my way through my Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook

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Now for a little Mckinley and a giant pile of laundry (I'm not ashamed) in the background to brighten up your Wednesday

A Month Of Meals {October}

October's meal plan is done, we have done our shopping, and I am ready to cook. This month I wanted to do a few recipes I could double and a few I could freeze. I loved last months meal plan and it made my life so much easier and now that Papa gets home earlier I like to have dinner ready when he gets home. I did pretty good keeping up with my September dinner menu except for this last week. Ever since my mama has been sick her friends have been amazing and make them dinner almost every night which equals a lot of leftovers they can't eat so my daddy drops off meals about every other day which made me slack off a little. I also didn't make meatloaf a few weeks ago because my mother in law makes killer meatloaf and brought me some for dinner the night before and there was enough for dinner 2 nights and lunch the next day.

So, what are we having for dinner this month?

Now that it is fall and the weather is changing a bit I wanted to make more "comfort foods". I will be doubling the quiche, roast, calzones, and inside outside ravioli already doubles itself so I will be freezing a portion of this to eat later in the month. The only other thing I changed was instead of buying fresh green beans which would go bad in a month I bought some steam fresh whole green beans because they are just easier and between school, cleaning, cooking, Mckinley and Brent I try to make those little things as easy as possible to keep my sanity. I have already prepped my 2 roasts, my quiches are in the oven and 2 pans of stuffed shells have been prepped with 1 in the fridge for tomorrow and 1 in the freezer just in case I can't make one of my planned meals. That is the best thing about doubling and freezing meals you always have the option to  switch things up in case you don't have time to fix what is on the calendar and you always have at least 1 extra meal on hand.

My Grocery List
2 Prego (I had 1 coupon for a free Prego)
ricotta cheese
cottage cheese
 3 large bags of frozen spinach
2 8 oz. bags of shredded mozzarella (I had a coupon for $1.50 off of 2 bags)
2 frozen pie crusts
1 package of pre cooked (I don't do like cooking bacon)
all natural sour cream
ground turkey
1 large jar of active dry yeast (for doughs and breads)
1 ground turkey (we already had 2 in the freezer)
tomato paste
Worcestershire
eggs (we will have to go back and get 1 more carton since we used them all on breakfast Sunday morning and my quiches)
1 bag of red potatoes
2 containers of cherry tomatoes
whipping cream
steam broccoli
frozen peas and carrots
steam green beans
roast (to split into 2 pieces)
pepperoni
baby carrots (I always get a coupon for 1 free bag woohoo!)

Extras (not for dinner purposes)
spring mix lettuce
Gorgonzola cheese
raspberry and walnut dressing (my lunch salads)
Catalina dressing (my lunch salads)
truvia (my coffee habit)
creamer (my coffee habit)
milk
bananas
baked tostitos
 2 rolls of paper towels
popcorn
popcorn seasoning

I was really hoping to spend even less ($160) than I did  last time and I didn't too bad my first try. I was so proud when the girl scanned all of my coupons and she even kindly rang through my dressing coupon even though we only had 1 dressing and the coupon was for 2. I couldn't believe my eyes when the grand total came up $151!!!!!!! That is less than most people spend on food a week. Now, we will have to go back and pick up milk, bread, lunch meat, fruit, and snacks for the monkey, but that will only be another $50- $75. That means we barely spend $200 a month on groceries which I think is pretty darn good. I am ready to start Novembers calendar and see if I can get under $150. Challenge Accepted! I REALLY need a separate freezer/deep freezer so I can be even crazier and make 2 months of meals! My mama has one at the lake somewhere and has said I can come and get it so we shall see how that goes down.

I am really really trying to be more organized in every aspect in my life whether it be school, my house, Mckinley, my health because it gives me more time to just sit and relax with my little family which is the number one tip top most important thing to me. Now I am off to enjoy my Sunday. perhaps I shall make another cup of coffee before the monkey wakes from her nap.

Gratuitous Mckinley shot!

 Don't judge me for the beer bottles on the table behind her they aren't mine! The boys had a few before we went out last night and they didn't want to keep walking outside to put them in the recycle bin (hippies) because they are LAZY!

Happy Weekend!

A Month Of Meals

 A few weeks ago I gave myself a challenge to pre plan a months worth of dinners  and so far things have been going pretty good. I may have switched a few dinners up, but since I already had all of the ingredients it was no big deal.

My fridge dry erase calendar where I write all of my important dates like my friend Nicole's birthday and now my meal planning.

 So far the only meal I haven't made was meatloaf and potatoes on the 13 because my wonderful MIL brought us dinner the night before of homemade meatloaf and I didn't feel like eating it 2 nights in a row plus we had some leftovers that needed to be eaten.

I think my new favorite recipe is cupcake muffins. They were super easy to make and filled us all up and we have been able to eat them for a few days.

Why yes I did eat one before taking a picture. I had to taste it and make sure it was ok.

I used store bought  Pillsbury pizza dough and cut it into little squares and placed them in the bottom of a regular muffin tin. I didn't have any pizza sauce so I used a tiny bit of tomato paste, threw on some mozzarella cheese and topped each one with a pepperoni. Next time I will use mini pepperonis and homemade crust if I have some made up, but either way they were easy and delicious. I dipped mine in a little bit of Prego sauce and you could use that as your sauce if you don't have any pizza sauce on hand.

I am looking forward to trying out the recipe for crock pot chicken cacciatore  because it is one of my favorite meals, but it takes so long to prepare and I am hoping this is easy and yummy.

I am actually enjoying one of my all time favorite recipes that we ate the first week of September. Hash brown potato soup. It is the quickest, easiest, and most delicious meals ever! It is also pretty healthy. It is actually a Weight Watchers recipe, but I add a few extra toppings to make it even more delicious plus Brent will eat it so win win!

I haven't felt very well all day and this has been the only thing that sounded good, tasted good, and didn't make me feel sick. This is also the first real meal Mckinley has eaten since getting sick. Do you see why this is one of my favorite meals. If it makes my girl happy then I am happy.

Hash Brown Potato Soup/Loaded Baked Potato Soup

• 1 bag of Ore Ida Hash Browns (shredded, or cubed)
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 2 quarts FF chicken broth (FF=fat free)
• 1 package Fat Free Pioneer cream gravy mix (whisked in 1/2 cup of water to remove lumps)
• Place first 3 ingredients into large pot and simmer for 30 minutes. Add gravy mix and stir. Simmer 15 minutes. Or, you can put all the ingredients in a crock pot on high for 3-4 hours
• I add about a tsp. or cheddar cheese and a tsp. of bacos for flavor and crunch. I keep meaning to try some sour cream too because sour cream makes everything better
• 
  
• On Weight Watchers old point system it was 1 point for 1 cup of soup without the added toppings.