Meals this week

Hi everyone!
  So we are 3 days into the week and so far the meal planning has been a great success. Let me tell you what we're having this week..

Sunday: Slow cooker pulled pork (with rice and broccoli)
Monday: Tuna Casserole
Tuesday: Beef Tacos (or in my case taco salad)
Wednesday: Lemon Garlic Chicken
Thursday: Sloppy Joes
Friday: Corned Beef and Cabbage
Saturday: Hot dogs and Fries

And here are the recipes

Pulled pork

I have to say I absolutely love this recipe, I found it on thecountrycook.net. That site is amazing, I have used many of her recipes and never been disappointed!
To sum it up take a pork shoulder and coat it in Grill Mates pork rub (which is amazing!) put it is you slow cooker with a small bottle/can of either coke or dr pepper, I've tried both and either works great. And then set it and forget it for 6-8 hours or over night on low. When it is done take it out and discard the liquid in your slow cooker. Then pull the pork, put in back in the pot and cover it in bbq sauce... heaven!

Tuna Casserole

 I know this is not technically a meatless meal but it's a favorite in my house, and this recipe is actually one that I got from my mother and sister in law. Thanks for sharing :)

What you need;
1 bag of egg noodles
1 bag of mixed vegetables
2 cans of tuna
1 large can of cream of mushroom (or chicken) soup
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 tsp onion powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 sleeve of ritz crackers crushed

Preheat oven to 375. Boil your egg noodles and just before they are done add in the mixed vegetables
When they are done drain and set aside. In the same pot you made the noodles and veggies in place the soup and tuna, stir to combine. Add milk and stir. Add seasons and return noodles and veggies to the pot, stir. Place in a 13X9 pan and spread crushed crackers evenly over the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Lemon Garlic Chicken

This is a recipe I have never made before but I have dying to try. I hope it comes out well! I found the recipe here.

The only thing I changed about this recipe is that instead of using whole chicken breasts and finishing them in the oven I cut up the chicken and cooked it in the sauce. I also mixed it with pasta, to stretch it a little and served it with brown sugar glazed carrots. It was amazing, and the kids asked for seconds!

Corned Beef and Cabbage

This is a meal I loved as a child and I would honestly ask for any day of the week. But it was something we made special on St. Patrick's Day. I used to boil everything but then I found an amazing recipes from the Pioneer Woman for corned beef and I've been using it ever since! You can find it here. The corned beef comes out wonderfully!!

Hot Dogs and French Fries

I think this is pretty self explanatory. It is a big hit in my house any night of the week.

Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup
 Another new recipe for me this week! I have actually never made my own minestrone soup but I have always wanted to. I found the recipe here. The only thing I am going to change is that I don't have any sun dried tomato pesto so I'm going to leave that out.

Meal Planning.. a sanity saver!!

So I've been trying since probably the start of the school year.. (yeah that's right I'm talking about September) to get better about meal planning. For both budget reasons and for sanity reasons. :) Although I had the best of intentions nothing seemed to stick. It would go well for a day or two and then something would happen and I would end up defrosting something on the fly or ordering out or just microwaving something. So I took to my favorite place for ideas.. Pinterest! And low and behold I found an awesome pin, that led to an awesome blog post. Yay, right? So here is the link to the blog post... here.

Basically the article talks about how this wonderful mom feeds her family of 4 on $60 a week at Aldi's. (and I love Aldi's!) So I figured what the hey.. and wrote out a month's worth of meals following the schedule outline in the blog post.

Meatless Monday
Taco Tuesday
Web Wednesday
Throwback Thursday
Fancy Friday
Sandwich Saturday
Slow cooker Sunday

I am at the end of week one and I must say I love it. I just look at the schedule the day before and make sure I defrost the things needed for the next days meal. And once a week I go shopping for any fruits or veggies needed for that week's meal. It's kind of amazing.

I'll post recipes for this week soon!

Best Buttermilk Biscuts... Ever!

So I have been trolling the internet for sometime now looking for a really good buttermilk biscuit recipe. And there was criteria that needed to be met before I would accept any biscuit recipe as my go to. I wanted soft, tall, delicious biscuits that I could use at breakfast, lunch or dinner or as a snack for my two little bottomless pit minions (who I adore). :) That's a tall order to fill, I know... but rejoice wonderful blog followers I have found a recipe that meets all my demands! (Happy dance)

This all began because I have started making our butter, and as a result I had a good deal of buttermilk ever week to use. And while I love pancakes... a girl can only eat so many! ;) So I started looking for an application for this buttermilk and would cover a lot of bases, and thus the great biscuit hunt began.

This recipe is from The Pioneer Woman, and it is yet again amazing! You can find it here, or you can use my adaptation below.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups buttermilk

• 6 cups Self-rising Flour, Plus More For Kneading

• 1  Salt

• 1/4 cup butter

• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening

•  Melted Salted Butter, For Brushing

Preparation Instructions

(Important note: You can make your own self-rising flour by taking AP flour and adding 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of salt to ever cup of flour needed.)

Preheat the oven to 475 F.

In a large bowl sift together the flour and salt. Use a pastry cutter, fork or whisk  to cut in the lard (or butter or shortening or both) until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring gently with a fork or wooden spoon until it all comes together. Flour the surface, then turn out the dough and knead 10-15 times, adding a little flour so it's less sticky.

Roll out dough to 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick and use a biscuit cutter to cut medium to small circles. 

Place in a greased 13x9 baking dish 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Remove from oven and immediately brush on melted butter. To die for!

***Baking time will vary depending on the size of the biscuit cutter you use. I made mini biscuits, which took about 9 to 10 minutes. Larger biscuits will take longer, so keep an eye on them as they bake.

**If you want soft biscuits place them close together (or touching) if you want a crispier biscuit place them further apart.

Mangia!

Hamburger Soup

Being that we are still very much in the depths of winter I have turned to soups, to warm my families hearts and feed their bellies. It seems to be going pretty well thus far. :) Today I made my version of

Hamburger Soup that I recently saw on an episode of one of my favorite cooking show "The Pioneer Woman". She makes such great recipes! The soup was a hit.. the Hubby and my Little Man even had seconds. You can find the original recipe here, I changed it just a little.

Ingredients 

• 2-1/2 pounds Ground Beef
• 1 whole Large Onion, Diced
• 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 1 can (14.5 Ounce) Can Whole Tomatoes
• 3 cups Beef Stock Or Beef Broth, Plus More As Needed
• 1 Bag of Frozen Crinkle Cut Carrots
• 5 whole Red Potatoes, Cut Into Chunks
• 3 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt (more To Taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper, More To Taste
• 2 teaspoons Dried Parsley Flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground Oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper (more To Taste)

Preparation Instructions

In a large pot over medium-high heat, brown the meat with the onion and garlic. Remove the pot from the heat and drain off as much fat as you can. (Discard the fat once it cools.)

Return the pot to the heat and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir to combine, then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, then cover the pot and simmer the soup for 15-20 more minutes, until potatoes are tender but not overly mushy.

Soup should be somewhat thick, but if you'd like it to be more "soupy," add 1 to 2 cups more broth OR hot water and heat through. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding more salt if needed.

Mangia!

Awesome Sloppy Joe's

Sloppy joes are awesome! I don't care if you are 5 or 105 they are a great go to meal on a busy weeknight when you have tow hungry kids. To be completely honest sloppy joes were not something I had a ton of growing up, honestly I usually ate them at school but I still loved them. And so when my husband told me of his amazing ability to make them early on in our relationship I knew he was a keeper! :) And this recipe is so simple it'll come out great every time!

• 1 lb of ground beef, venison, turkey or chicken (whichever you prefer)
• 1/4 cup mustard
• 1/2 cup barbecue sauce
• 3/4 cup ketchup

Start by browning whatever ground meat you have chosen to use, we usually use beef or venison but it would work great with turkey or chicken as well. After the meat is brown add your barbecue sauce, ketchup and mustard to the pan. Mix until combined and the sauce and meat and bubbling. Then pile it on a bun and enjoy!

Mangia!

Finger foods

Last weekend after all the holiday festivities were done we decided to have a finger foods dinner. Just a few dishes that are easy to made, and more importantly easy to eat. One of them was my Mom's famous spinach dip. This dip is something my Mom made usually around the holidays or for any family party. And as a teenager my cousins and I would always make it on New Year's Eve. So making it always brings back great memories for me.

Here is the recipe;

• 1 Onion
• 1 Small bell pepper (I usually use green but any color is fine)
• 1 bag of frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 1 small brick of Velveeta

(I usually serve this is a hollowed out round loaf of bread you can use any you like I usually go with sourdough)

Start by chopping up the onion and the pepper and begin cooking them in a pan with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When those have softened add the thawed spinach and cook that until heated through. As the spinach is warming cube up the Velveeta and once the spinach in warm add the cheese and stir until melted.

Once the dip is done place in a hollowed out bread bowl and serve with raw veggies and/or chips.

We also had pigs in a blanket which I love! And the joy is these things couldn't be more simple. I got a package of cocktail wienies and a tube of crescent rolls. I take the crescent roll dough a cut each triangles in half a roll one wienie in each piece of dough. Then I bake them according to the directions until they are golden brown. Enjoy@

Mangia!