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!

Ziti with Meat Sauce

Growing up we ate a lot of pasta dishes, but I must admit ziti (or as my grandmother called it lazy lasgana) was one of my favorites. It always made the house smell so good! So the other day after a crazy week of holiday festivities and traveling I decided it was time for some good old confort food... so naturally ziti was my go to choice, and everyone in my house loved it. :)

For this recipe you are going to need

• 1lb of dry cut pasta (and shape will work)
• 1 8oz block of mozzarella cheese
• 1 8 oz container of ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

You start off by making your basic sauce recipe. If you want to you can add ground beef, sausage or even venison to your sauce. Typically I cook the meat first and then make the sauce as usual. (You can also use sauce from the store)

When your sauce is ready you can put the pasta water on the heat and cook it til just al dente. Because you will be baking it in the oven as well you want to leave it a little chewy so it doesn't turn to mush at the end.

After your pasta is drained you can mix up your ricotta and Parmesan mixture (in a separate bowl). Add in the egg, pepper and oregano and stir to combine.

Now it's time to assemble!

Start by taking a little bit of your sauce and putting a few spoonfuls into your ricotta mixture, so that when you combine it with the rest of the warm ingredients you don't scramble your egg. After that is mixed together you can put the pasta back in the pot and pour in the sauce and the ricotta. Mix well and when it is all combined put it in a 13x9 baking pan and cover with the mozzarella cheese.

Then just pop it into a 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes and you are all set.

Mangia!

2015 Here we come...

Hi all!
  I will be dusting off this blog in 2015. I am excited to share new recipes and stories with you all in the coming year. If there is anything you would like to see me attempt to make please feel free to comment or shoot me a message on Facebook and I will see what I can do. :)

  To give you all an update I am now a proud Mama of 2. Carter will be 4 in February and Julia just turned 1. Having two kids has definitely kept me busy this past year, but has in no way slowed me down from cooking. I have a few new recipes to share with you all already, and I can't wait to find more!

  I wish you all a very happy, healthy and delicious 2015!