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!