a 2 recipe day!!

2 weeks ago Friday I had a 2 recipe day!  My oldest daughter was quick to point out that if I only make one recipe a week it will take over 7 years to finish the cookbook, and because I have adult onset ADD - and have a great start reflex, but not a great finishing reflex....that would likely end badly for my goal of cooking through the whole cookbook.

So I have been doing more than one recipe a week and it has worked out so well, because just as I had hoped this plan has inspired more blog posts, and has also been inspiration in the kitchen.  Each time that I have been at a loss for what to make, whether it has been for breakfast, lunch, supper or dessert, I have looked to the 9x13 cookbook - and found something interesting to try!  It has been great!

So last Friday I had no idea what to make for supper, and although my freezer seems full I didn't feel like there was anything in there to make.  We had already had pork roast that week, and chicken twice.  I didn't know what to make.

I did have a package of cooked ground beef, so I found something that would work!

 Doesn't that look good?  It was called Cheeseburger and French Fry Casserole!
When you have 6 kids that is a sure winner!
So the jist is to scramble fry ground beef with onions and then add in a can of cheddar cheese soup, a can of mushroom soup and a bit of water - layer that in a 9x13 and top with frozen french fries and bake somewhere around 40 minutes at 400.

Then you can serve it with mustard, ketchup and relish (ew!!)

So that's not hard, so I thought I would tell you instead a few of my favorite kitchen hints.  I heard once from an amazing mom at church - this great hint.  Most recipes that incorporate ground beef start with the instructions to scramble fry it and drain off any fat.  So she said you can take a whole tray of ground beef and put in a roaster in the oven at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or so and it will be cooked, ready to drain off the fat and freeze pre-cooked in small packages.  I do this as soon as I get home from the grocery store, and then it cooks as I put away the rest of the groceries.  You can season it however you like - throw in a chopped onion and celery if that is your thing, whatever you want.  I put seasoning salt, garlic powder and oregano on mine and then freeze it in smaller bags - 2 cups of cooked ground beef equals one pound of beef which is used for most recipes.

It's the best thing!  What I used to do all the time was cook one tray like that and then make another big tray into meatballs and freeze them cooked as well.  I have been a bit of a slacker lately and haven't done the meatballs in a while, because I am well, a slacker!  LOL!! But it is an awesome thing to do, because if you cook the meatballs at 375 for 15-20 minutes, let them cool and freeze them so that you can throw them into spaghetti sauce in a hurry, or quickly make a honey garlic sauce and rice to eat with them, or even in a bigger hurry?  Throw some frozen meatballs in the oven with some cream of mushroom soup and bake them for between 30-60 minutes and you can serve them with noodles or rice -super fast!

But that brings me to another problem - I don't like cream of mushroom soup.  For two reasons, because it is mushroom, and because there is just so much salt in canned cream of mushroom soup.  So whenever a recipe calls for cream of mushroom or cream of chicken, or even as in the above recipe, cheddar cheese soup, I make a quick substitution.

I just melt 2 tbsp. of margarine in a pan, add 2 tbsp. of flour, and cook it for a minute or so and add in 1 cup of milk slowly until it is all incorporated and smooth.  Then you can season it with beef buillion or chicken, or velveeta cheese, or whatever you want and at least you know how much salt is in it.  You can even put mushrooms in if you really want, whatever floats your boat!

No one ever knows that I made my own and I feel so much better about it!

So that was my one recipe and the second one that day we had for dessert, it was a chocolate bread pudding with a caramel sauce on top - Delicious!!! Maybe the best bread pudding I have ever had.  And it worked out so well because I had a leftover loaf of French bread from the senior's breakfast that had happened that morning....perfect for bread pudding!  I will post that recipe later!  And sorry, you get no picture because it was delicious and we ate it all, and I mean all of it!

Dixie got a haircut and another recipe was made

So, I have never had a dog.  We had a cat for 17 years, until he had to be put down because he was sick.  We got another kitten almost a year later, but I realized that I was allergic to cats.  My one eye was always itching and red and I would sneeze most mornings about 25 times - my kids used to joke that I was allergic to the mornings (which may be true) but it seems like it was probably our cat Coon all along!

 So, who knew that dogs have to go to the groomer?  Well, I guess they don't have too but you saw how shaggy she was in the post a couple of days ago, right?  She looks so cute with her short hair!  She did okay there, although she was a little wigged out by the whole experience!  She came home with a cute bandana and everything!

 I made another recipe a couple of weeks ago.  I finally made a dessert one - it was called Nutmeg Cake and it had a delicious lemon sauce!

We made it just as it was in the cookbook (shocker) and it was absolutely yummy!  My husband's review was that it wasn't chocolate - but the rest of us loved it. Don't get me wrong, he liked it, but it just wasn't chocolate.  I thought it was easy and quick and it tasted great.  It was different too, which was nice!

The sure sign of spring

 It's that time of year again!

 Every year that we have homeschooled we have watched caterpillars turn into butterflies.  We used to have a big release party - with sandwiches cut in the shape of butterflies, cookies, or butterfly themed cupcakes....all sorts of fun stuff, but now we are usually just so ready to get rid of them that we just let them out!  You have to wait for a warm sunny day and that is not always a given at the end of May or beginning of June in Saskatchewan apparently!

We still love it regardless!

Pop - up Pizza Casserole

The Princess loves to help cook - and especially if it can be this recipe we found on Pinterest while I was pregnant and craving anything baked with cheese called 4-Ingredient Pizza Bake it was her favorite!  (In case you decide to try the recipe, we don't buy the bisquick, we just make a double batch of baking powder biscuit dough and use an extra 1/2 cup of milk in the dough and drop it in to the pan instead of rolling it out and cutting it - but that does make it more than 4 ingredients!!)

So when I was looking through the 9x13 pan cookbook, I found a recipe called Pop-Up Pizza Casserole and I thought she might like it just as much.

 Pop-Up Pizza Casserole

1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped green sweet pepper
1 clove garlic
1 1 1/2 ounce envelope spaghetti sauce mix
1/2 tsp dried oregano, crushed
1 15 ounce can tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a skillet (who actually calls their frying pan a skillet?) scramble fry beef and drain off fat.  Add onion, pepper and garlic.  Heat on medium until onions are clear but not browned.  Add in sauce mix, oregano, tomato sauce and water.  Cook until heated through.  Pour into prepared 9x13 pan.  Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on top. In a seperate bowl beat milk, eggs, cooking oil, and flour for 2 minutes.  Pour over the top of the cheese layer, sprinkle with Parmesan and bake for 30 minutes until top is golden.

 

Sorry, I didn't clean my oven before we took the pictures.

We served it to company even, with this veggie tray and it was good.  There was a note that you could use 2 cups of spaghetti sauce instead of sauce mix packet, water and tomato sauce.  Which we did.  Also, as you know, if you know me, I didn't put in the onion and the green pepper, because that is yucky.  I did use onion powder though - and it would have been so much better if it had a bit of pepperoni or spicy sausage in it.  Next time we are going to add in pepperoni and see how it is!

Try it out!

Hanging outside

I am not really an outdoorsy person.  I am a homebody.  I don't walk around the neighbourhood and if there is going to be a crowd at something, I really do have to jazz myself up to do it.  I love having a crowd here at my house, the more the merrier!  Bring as many here as you want, but making me go to something big and crowdy outside takes a bit of a build up.

I love the idea of a farmer's market, but we tried to go once here in the city and it stressed me out that there was nowhere to park and then I was stressed about how many people were going to be there and since I don't look for opportunities to be walking around outside, I don't always have my stroller in the truck so that was stressful.  I drove around the block a few times I just decided to try again another day.

When I remember again it will be better because I will be mentally prepared for it.  I will look at getting a parking spot as a challenge and make sure that I have my stroller, my sling and a hat for the baby!  Being prepared makes me feel so much more ready to deal with the event!

But I am not comfortable with my 3-year old riding her bike around our house without big people with her.  There is just too much fast moving traffic.  And I have decided that we should walk more when possible.  Like last Saturday when we dropped off a prescription at the pharmacy and then decided to walk back to pick it up.  Besides, we have this cute dog that never gets to go for a walk!

(sidenote - isn't she cute?  She pulls on the leash like a sled dog, and listens like a cat sometimes, but is cute nonetheless!)

So I would like to make it our habit to walk to close things more.  I had a goal last year to walk over to Sobeys one time, just to do it.  I google mapped it and it is 2.7 km away.  I don't have a dout that we could get there, I just wonder if we could make it home again!  LOL!  I also stress about my kids walking on the busy street.  They sometimes listen like cats too!

I'll let you know if we ever make it!

The baby can crawl

May 19 - first day crawling on all fours!  Don't mind the kids repeatedly calling the dog. 

Another recipe

This one was called Southwest Spaghetti Pie!

It was super fast and easy because we used leftover spaghetti and jazzed up some leftover meat sauce, so it wasn't EXACTLY like the recipe, but close enough!  It was good, everyone liked it and even our most picky eater had two helpings!  WIN for me!