Pot Roast Italian Style

I posted the first picture for all of you out there who have asked me what is the best roast to buy. I have always had the best luck with a plain ol beef chuck pot roast, they alway come out perfect and never dry.

Now for a different way of serving it this time I made it an Italian Style. I cooked in the crock pot on low for 8 hours with 1 can of beef broth. When it is finished all I added was 2 cans of tomatoe sauce and 2 cans of drained italian style diced tomatoes. Add about 4 tbl of garlic powder, 2 tbl dried oregeno, and 2 tbl dried basil. I served it over angel hair pasta, and it was yummy! Oh and I saved half of the roast for later, thinking about making beef stroganoff with it!

Fried Rice!

This is how my fried rice looks this time, but this is one of those recipes that could be different every time you make it. The only thing that always stays the same is that second picture. Ground Ginger is the secret ingredient that give the rice that yummy Asian flavor. The trick to fried rice is to cook everything separate and then throw it all in the pan together at the end. This is what I used this time...

2 cups of cooked minute rice
4tbl garlic powder
chopped steak (leftover from the night before, but you can use any meat)
5 scrambled eggs
4 tbl ground ginger
1 cup olive oil
2 heads steamed broccoli
4 green onions chopped
salt and pepper

Just cook everything separate throw it in a large pan or wok, and stir fry it!

This is great to cook at the end of the week, because you can use your leftovers from the week. There are so many variations to fried rice, sometime I use shrimp, or chicken, and I always switch the vegetable up. Zucchini or cabbage, whatever your family loves!

Roasted Corn On The Cob

The easiest way to make fresh corn on the cob is to roast it. All you do is shuck the corn and place it on a foiled lined cookie sheet covered with a little olive oil. Roll the corn in the olive oil and sprinkle each ear of corn with sugar, salt, and pepper. The sugar kind of caramelizes on the corn while it roast, and makes it so good and sweet. Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes, and it's done!

Baked Chicken Ham and Cheese

This is not really a recipe it is more of an idea...........Instead of plain ol baked chicken for dinner I sometimes sprinkle my thawed chicken breast with salt and garlic powder, topped with a couple of spinach leaves, a sliced of swiss cheese, and a piece of deli honey ham. Then bake it covered with foil on 350 for 30 minutes. Super Super easy and really yummy!

Why Not Banana Cake Instead Of Banana Bread For Breakfast??

Sometimes I think my kids purposely don't eat the bananas because they know how much their mama hates to waste food, and every time the banana's start to go bad I make this cake!


Banana Crumb Cake
2C sugar
1 C milk
1 C chopped nuts (optional)
2 C self rising flour
1 stick butter
2 eggs
3 bananas
1 tsp vanilla

Crumb Topping
1 stick (1/2 c) butter
1 Cup brown sugar (dark or light)
1 cup flour (self rising or plain, whatever you have on hand)
Spray two loaf or 8×8 pans with cooking spray. Place peeled bananas in mixing bowl, add sugar. Mix until bananas are liquefied. Add margarine, mix until creamed together with banana mixture. Add all other ingredients and blend well.

In medium bowl, place all topping ingredients. Cut together with a long tined fork until well blended. Pour 1/4 of batter into each pan, top with 1/4 crumb mixture. Pour remaining batter over and top with remaining crumb mixture. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour at 350.

Locker Magnets

My big 3rd grader gets her very own locker this year, so of course we had to make it cute! I took scrapbook paper and used a friends die cut machine to cut out a few shape and sizes of flowers glued them together and spelled her name! Aren't they cute??

Back To School Cupcakes/Traditions

Every year I bake the kids cupcakes to come home to after the first day of school. One of my good friends bakes a cake, and my friend Amy has a kindergartner this year, so she is going to start the tradition of ice cream Sundays. I love starting corny traditions with my family, and hope one day they will remember them and start their own.

Onion Burgers! (My Lubi Burger )

Here's a recipe for these delicious burgers we had for dinner last night, they were all gone before I got a chance to take a picture, but this is so easy you don't need one.

There is a little dive at the beach in my hometown Jacksonville, Fl called Lubi's. They make sandwiches that taste just like these. My family love these burgers even more because they don't have to wait for us to visit to eat them!

1 pound lean ground beef
2 to 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 can French onion soup
Yellow mustard
Mayonnaise
White or whole-wheat bread or buns
1 medium onion, cut into rings
Directions
Brown ground beef and drain. Sprinkle in the flour. Add onion soup, stir and cook until meat mixture is thickened and most of the liquid is absorbed.

Spread mustard and mayonnaise, to taste, on bread. Spoon the ground beef mixture onto bread and top with onion.

Back Pack/Lunch Bag Flowers!

I made these cute flowers to add to Susie's back pack and lunch box, but I think I might make a few more to put on headbands! All you do is find 3 to 4 coordinating fabric pieces run them through a flower die cut ( I used our local library), glue them together in the middle and add a button. I found the cute monogram button at Hobby Lobby for $1.oo. On the big flower I glued a few pieces of tulle to make it a little fuller.

Money Tree

I made this cute money tree for one of my 15 year olds best friends. I'm always looking for a way to give the gift of money creatively, and this sweet girl just had her room re-done in a earthy look. After she takes the money off she can display it in her room with cute pictures, necklaces, or hair accessories.

To make it all you do is......find some branches in your front yard, tie them together with a rubber band. Place them in a mason jar wrapped in a piece of burlap held together with another rubber band. Tie a bow, add a flower, and place dollar bills, and pictures with clothes pins! So easy and inexpensive!

Tex Mex At Home

First off these picture are backwords, but I think you get the point.

Yesterday I shredded some chicken breast for a salad. Knowing that I would be making these yummy chicken, spinach, and black bean quesadilla's I went ahead and cooked a few extra chicken breast.

So tonight I melted 1/2 a stick of butter in a saucepan, added 1 and a 1/2 cups of milk, and waited for it to slowly simmer. Once it begins to simmer whisk 1 block of cream cheese (the cream cheese should be room tempature). Then while still whisking the saucepan I added 2 cups of frozen chopped spinach, 3 shredded chicken breast, 1/2 a can of black beans, 2 tbl ground cumin, 2 tbl garlic powder, salt to taste, and 1 1/2 cup white american cheese. This is the filling for the quesadilla's. Now here's the best part.... I recently discovered these uncooked tortilla's that you can buy in the refridgerated section of the grocery store. They are super! You can use regular if you don't have the uncooked. If you are using the uncooked cook them first then add a little extra cheese and put them together like a sandwich. For the premade tortilla's you need to add the chicken filling on a tortilla, top it with cheese, add another tortilla and cook it like you cook a grilled cheese sanwich. This actually looks like a lot of work, but it really is pretty easy!

Oatmeal Cookies

These cookies are so good they probably won't even make it to your cookie jar!


2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1 cup packed brown sugar 1 cup white sugar 2 eggs 2 cups quick cooking oats 1 cup chocolate chips (this time I added heath chips, but you can add almost anything....Raisins, White Chocolate Chips, Walnuts.....etc)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream butter, oil, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Gradually stir in the sifted ingredients until well blended. Mix in oats and chips. Drop from a teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Let set up on the cookie sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Homemade Ranch

I don't know about you, but I can get my kids to eat anything if it has ranch on it! Tonight we are having a big salad for dinner, and I whipped up a quick batch of ranch in less than 5 minutes with ingredients that you probably already have in your cabinet.

1 cup sour cream
1 cup mayo
1 1/2 cup buttermilk (ok most of us don't have buttermilk, but you can use regular milk)
2 tbl onion powder
2 tbl garlic powder
2 tbl garlic salt
2 tbl dried chopped onions
2 tbl dried or fresh parsley
2 tbl dried chives

mix all ingredients and serve!

Corn and Chicken Chowder

Making dinner for my family every night does require a little planning. When I made chicken lettuce wraps this week, I went ahead and made a few extra chicken breast shredded them and put in them in the fridge so that I could use them to make this delicious corn and chicken chowder. All you do is......

put 4 to 5 medium sized baking potatoes in the crock pot with 2 cans of chicken broth ( I peel 2 of them but leave the skin on the others)

after 6 hours on hi or 8 hours on low I stir the potatoes and add 2 cups of milk, 2 cups of heavy whipping cream, 4 cups of frozen corn, leftover shredded chicken, and 1 1 bag of shredded Parmesan cheese. Keep the crock pot on hi for a about 10 minutes to warm up all of the cold ingredients. Add salt and pepper to your taste and it's done!

*if your soup is thicker than you like, all you need to do is add a little chicken broth tho thin it out.

Lettuce Wraps For Dinner

Why order out when you can make these easy lettuce wraps at home??????

First cook 4 chicken breast, and shred it or chop it(We prefer it chopped, but this picture shows it shredded)

In a large sauce pan add the following ingredients in order:

4 tbl olive oil
1 cup chopped mushrooms (drained)
1 large can of water chestnuts chopped and drained
2 tbl ground ginger
2 tbl rice vinegar
2 tbl soy sauce
2 tbl garlic powder
4 to 5 green onions chopped

slowly stir in chopped or shredded chicken, and serve over lettuce leaves!

Back To School Table Decorating Ideas

The preschool department at my church host a back to school luncheon for all little ones headed to kindergarten. I felt very blessed to be asked for the 3rd year to decorate for the party. Here are how the tables looked......

P.S. Look how cute the black tissue is when you write on it with chalk!

Crock Pot Pulled Pork For Sandwiches.....yum

I love using my crock pot on a hot summer day, because it doesn't heat up my kitchen as much as my oven does. This is recipe is so yummy, and if there is any leftover I will just make barbecue quesadilla's for my kids lunch tomorrow. Here's the recipe....

1 pork loin roast, about 5 pounds
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce
1/2 cup lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons)
1 cup vinegar
1 cup water
Preparation:
Place pork loin roast in a crock pot. In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, paprika, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, Worcestershire sauce, pepper sauce, lemon juice, vinegar and water; bring to boiling point. Spoon sauce over meat. Cook for 6 hours on high or 8 on low. Once meat is finished cooking it will shred easy with a for, and you can serve on a bun!

Best Muffins I Ever Made

I stole this muffin recipe from another fellow blogging friend of mine, and I promise if you make these muffins you will agree, these are the best muffins! Check out her blog thevanillatulip.blogspot.com, she has a lot of other great recipes and ideas!




Cinnamon Sugar Muffins
Ingredients
Softened butter for muffin tin (I just used cooking spray)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg (I didn't have any so I just used an extra 1/2 tsp of cinnamon)
1/8 tsp salt
2 extra large eggs
¼ cup canola oil
¾ cup sugar, plus extra for muffin tin
¼ cup brown sugar
¾ cup sour cream
¼ cup buttermilk (I just used regular milk)
1 tsp vanilla extract (forgot to add these and they were still delish!)
for topping
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp cinnamon
¼ cup melted butter

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter muffin tin and sprinkle each cup with sugar, being sure to coat all sides.
I skipped this step...just used my cooking spray and called it a day!
3. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, sugars, sour cream, buttermilk and vanilla.
5. Fold the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until combined.
6. Using an ice cream scoop, fill each muffin cup.
After adding the batter to the muffin cups I sprinkled cinnamon and sugar right on top and then baked instead of following steps 9 and 10. My mom baked the muffins, and then brushed the tops with butter while still hot and then sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on them.
So basically, do whatever you want :)
7. Bake 18 – 22 min.
8. When the muffins come out of the oven, melt butter in a saucepan.
9. In a separate bowl, mix cinnamon and sugar
10. When the muffins are cool enough to handle, brush the tops with melted butter, and then dip into the cinnamon sugar mix.

Raw Corn and Zucchini Salad

One of my favorite summer salads, and a great side with fish!

Cut off the tips of 3 ears of corn, stand corn in shallow bowl. with a sharp knife slice down to release kernals. Add 2 medium zucchini thinly sliced, 2tbl lime juice (tonight I used lemon because I was out of lime, and it was just fine), 2 tbl olive oil, and 2 tbl chopped fresh cilantro. then all you do is season with salt and pepper!

My Favorite Pan Seared Fish

Cooking this Cod is so easy and healthy, you will want to add it to your weekly menu. I buy the frozen Cod at Costco most of the time, but if I ever find it fresh I buy it immediately. If you are using it frozen make sure you thaw it before cooking. I add about 4 tablespoons of olive oil to my pan,and get it really hot. While I'm waiting for it to heat up, I generously coat my pieces of fish with garlic salt and garlic powder. Once my pan is really hot I add the fish. Cook the fish for approx 6 minutes on each side, Sprinkle it with a little black pepper, and it's done!

I found a great website!

Here is a great resource for some really good coupons look up moneysavingmom.com. I got some free pictures from Walgreens, just for creating an account, and a free trial size body lotion at Bath and Body Works! Lots of great coupons!

Birthday present #2

When you have three kids, you get invited to a lot of birthday parties! I really need to come up with inexpensive gift ideas. What better to buy a preteen than a bag of preteen junk. I found this cute reusable shopping bag in the dollar section at Target,decorated it with a clear bag of bubble gum, tied a bow on it, added a Bop (preteen magazine with lots of posters of Justin Bieber), some candy, and an Itunes card. Isn't cute?

Birthday present #1

We are off to a birthday party today for a 4 year old, and my favorite present to give at this age is Play Doh. I know I know most moms hate this, but the kids love it! Here's my little idea to help smooth over for those mama's out there who hate Play Doh, I always top it off with a really cute vinyl tablecloth. This present has a red and white tablecloth wrapped up on top of a box of Play Doh and topped off with a red and white pinwheel that I hot glued a gerber daisy on! How cute is that?

Susie's Favorite Mushrooms

Susie my 8 year came home from camp tonight,so of course I had to make her favorite meal. She loves it when I saute mushrooms. All I do is cut them up and saute them in 2 tbl butter, 1 tbl olive oil, sprinkle them generously with garlic powder, salt them, and sprinkle with fresh Parmesan. Somehow this plate of mushrooms disappear before I even get them to the table!

Baked Creamed Corn

Now I know it seems as though I don't ever make anything healthy, but I promise I do. This just isn't one of those healthy side dishes. You do however want to make sure you save this recipe for thanksgiving, or an unexpected pot luck because everyone who eats this corn loves it!


All you do is.......

Take 2 bags of frozen corn,and thaw them out. One of the bags just dump into a 13 by 9 glass Pyrex dish, the other process in your food processor or if you are like me and don't have one you can use a mini electric food chopper (if you don't have a mini food chopper you need to go to target or walmart and pick one up for yourself....they are only $20, and it will be your best friend!) Once the next bag is chopped, add it to the Pyrex dish, and mix it up. Meanwhile, melt a whole stick of salted sweet cream butter, add 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, and finally whisk 1 1/2 tbl cornstarch until it begins to thicken. once it starts to thicken immediately pour it into the corn. Mix it up, add a little salt and pepper, and bake for 30 minutes!

Easy Skillet Chicken

I love this Asian inspired chicken and love how easy it is to make.

4 to 5 thawed chicken breast
1/3 c Brown Sugar
1/3 c Vinegar
1/3 c Soy Sauce
1/3 c olive oil

Mix all ingredient, put in large deep skillet, cover and cook until chicken is done (approx 10 min). Serve over rice!

I love to cut a fresh pineapple as a side dish to this meal.