Wondering What I Made?

I made a YUMMY crock-pot Apple Pie! Everyone enjoyed this special dessert. It was easy to put together following the instructions found HERE. I substituted canned peaches for apple pie filling.

This is definately one I will make again.

Want to Use Your Crock-Pot?

If so, I have the site for you! A Year of CrockPotting is blog dedicated to someones resolution to use her crock-pot every day for the year of 2008. What a goal! And so far she is at day 288.

This site blew me away. I love that she has a picture of the food, picture of the ingredients, along with great instructions on how to make the crock-pot creation.

Head on over to her blog and plan your next meal, dessert, or side dish. *Ü*

I am going to make something special tonight from this site for my family. Come back tomorrow to find out what it is and to see pictures! What Fun!!!

Enjoy!

ETA: With the events of today, I won't be able to make what I had hoped. I will make it tomorrow. I had to do some shopping and then my MIL came for a visit bringing treats all the way from France! And her yummy bacon balls (a recipe I need to get)!

Menu Plan Monday

Well, here is my very first post for Menu Plan Monday. I can not guarantee that this will be set in stone, but at least I have a plan, right. *Ü*

Monday

Eating out with family

Tuesday

Lunch: Chicken Salad Sandwiches & soup (recipe below)

Dinner: Homemade Chicken Nuggets & Fries (the girls will cook). Recipe can be found in Better Homes and Gardens New Junior Cook Book on pg 73 & 86-87.

Wednesday

Dinner: Chicken Crock Pot w/ carrots and potato's

Placed whole chicken (cleaned & washed) in crock pot, added a little water, 1 package Lipton Onion Soup mix , chopped veggies, and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve with rolls.

Thursday

Dinner: Spaghetti and Garlic Bread

I always make my spaghetti sauce this way: cook ground beef w/ garlic and onion, add 1 can hunts spaghetti sauce, 1 can tomato soup, and a sprinkle of sugar. This helps cut out the acid in the tomato's. Note: Don't add to much sugar as sweet spaghetti sauce isn't too tasty. I also use this same recipe for the sauce in my lasagna.

Great homemade garlic bread spread: soften butter (has to be butter) and add sprinkles of Johnny's garlic seasoning to get it the consistency you want.

Friday & Sat

Dinner at Grandma's

Sunday

Something simple

Again, it feels good to know I have a plan, but to also know if I switch it around a bit, that will be ok. *Ü* This week is not a normal week and I am normally cooking 7 nights a week. Hum... maybe I should have started this during a normal week. Oh well, you have to start sometime, right. *Ü*

To see MANY more Menu Plan Monday lists, click on the graphic above and it will take you to the main website.

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

1 can chunk chicken (I use the type from Costco)
1/4 cup mayo (or enough to make it the consistency you like)
tablespoon full of sweet relish
squirt of mustard
8 slices of bread
8 slices of American cheese

Mix the first 4 ingredients together. Toast bread and lay on baking sheet. Spread chicken mixture on top of toast, then lay a slice of cheese on top. Broil until cheese is bubbly (make sure to watch closely as this can happen quickly). Serve with hot soup, salad, or chips.

Christmas Baking: Christmas Wreaths Cookies

We are visiting a friend today and my girlfriends husbands LOVES my Christmas Wreath cookies. I meant to make these during the day on Monday, but time just slipped by me... So at 9:30pm last night my darling helpful little girl came to my aid.

BTW, these are my favorite cookies too. My family has been making them every year since I was a little girl. Probably even before I was born. My mom doesn't care to make them any more, so now it up to me to make them and pass the tradition onto my family.

Here are some photo's of Jessica helping me. Following the photo's will be the recipe. Have fun making these YUMMY cookies with your children.

(Above) Stirring the melting marshmallows & butter. Just added the food coloring.

(Above) Added the cornflakes and STIRRING more. Boy it gets hard to stir.

(Above) Shaping the wreaths and adding the cinn. dots



Christmas Wreaths Cookies

30 marshmallows
3 1/2 c corn flakes
1/2 c butter or marg. (butter is better)
Green food coloring
Red Cinn Dots

Stir over med low heat until butter and mellows are melted. Add food coloring for desired color. Add corn flakes and stir until well coated. Shape into wreaths on wax paper and add 3 cinn dots to the top.

When wreaths dry, just cut the paper around the wreath. Leave the wax paper on the bottom of the wreath.

NOTE: When I make this, I always double it. Some times I substitute Mini M&M's for the red hots. And have a cup of cold water by you to help you shape the wreaths with ease.

SUPER Pumpkin Seeds

WOW! I just made the BEST batch of pumpkin seeds EVER! Can you tell I am a little excited? *Ü* Every year I try to make these... they never turn out like I had hoped.

While visiting a friend, she whipped up a batch of seeds that were delicious. I asked her how she did it. She said she rinsed them and added garlic salt and baked them at 350 until they were brown. She said the key was to turn them frequently.

So today I decided to give it a try. Here is my "secret" recipe:

Pumpkin Seeds
Garlic Salt
Johnny's Garlic Seasoning
Olive Oil

Place Pumpkin Seeds in a gallon size zip lock baggie. Add many shakes of Garlic Salt and Johnny's Garlic Seasoning. Pour in a little bit of Olive Oil, (enough to coat the seeds well). Shake bag and place them on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 turn every 4 min. I didn't time this, but I would say it took about 6-8 4 min turning of seeds to get them golden brown.

YUMMY Chicken Salad

Yesterday I made my mom's yummy chicken salad. With each bite I take I love this salad more and more.

After church I had some errands to run and my thoughts, my hopes, my dreams... were to come home and enjoy a dish of chicken salad. But... Greg ate all of it this morning and left me with less than a teaspoon. His response, "I wanted to save the last bite for you." I was so sadden... Now I am back to making another batch of chicken salad and figuring out a way to hide it in the frig.

Here is the recipe if you would like to make some YUMMY Chicken Salad for your family:

Chicken Salad

2 1/2 cups diced cooked chicken
2 chopped unpeeled red apples
1 cup diced celery
1/2 cup toasted almonds or sunflower seeds
2/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp grated onion
1/4 cup light cream or sour cream
2 tsp lemon juice

Mix mayonnaise, grated onion, light cream or sour cream and lemon juice. Add other ingredients. Salt and pepper to taste.

In the past I have added bacon bits to it. I omit the celery. Greg doesn't like it... Hey, maybe I SHOULD added some to the next batch I make. LOL

Jessica Makes Creamy Chicken Soup

Our family has been fighting a bug for a couple weeks. I finally got the little microscopic critter Saturday night! So come Sunday, I wanted some creamy soup. I didn't feel like making it all myself, so I had little Miss Jessica a.k.a. as chef Jessie help me make some soup. This soup is WONDERFUL on a cold day... or really anytime you would like some homemade creamy chicken soup.

Now for the recipe:

Creamy Chicken Soup

• 2-3 large carrots
• 1/4 cup green onions, sliced (I didn't have these on hand, so I used Walla Walla onions)
• 1 cup chopped broccoli
• 3 Tbl. butter or margarine (I always use butter)
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup Orzo
• 1 (10 3/4 oz) can chicken broth (I used 1 cube and 1 cup water, and added really chicken broth since DH cooked up some chicken thighs)
• 1 can chunk breast of chicken (I used Kirkland)
• 1 cup Cheddar cheese (I didn't have any on hand so I substitute)
• 1/2 tea. Worcestershire sauce
• 1/3 tea. black pepper
• 1/4 pre-cooked crumpled bacon

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, cook carrots and onion in hot butter for about 10 min., or until tender but not browned. Stir in flour. Slowly add milk, chicken broth, Worcestershire sauce and black pepper. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in Chicken and cheese. Cook and stir over low heat until cheese melts. Serve hot.

Note: Extras I add sometimes are hash brown potato's, pasta, broccoli & bacon.

(This recipe is from Kirkland Signature Chunk Breast of Chicken, but I modify it to my liking)

Taco Pie

Just had to pass this AWESOME recipe on that we tried last night. It was very easy to make and everyone loved it! *Ü* BTW, this didn't only get thumbs up from the kids in our family, but thumbs up from children from 4 other families! I am sure you children will enjoy it too!!!

Taco Pie

1 (8 oz) package refrigerated crescent rolls (I used 2 and used a 9x13 & a 11x7 pan)
1 pound ground beef (I used a little over 2 pounds)
1 package taco seasoning mix
1 (16 oz) container sour cream ( I used about 1 1/2 containers)
8 ounce shredded Mexican style cheese blend
1 (14.5 oz) package crushed tortilla chips (I didn't measure this, I only crushed up a few @ a
time until I completely covered the top of the pie)

I also added a can of refried beans; which I spread on the baked crescent rolls before I began layering the ingredients.

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees F
2. Lay crescent dough flat on the bottom of the baking dish and bake according to the package directions.
3. Meanwhile, brown the ground beef (I added a little crushed garlic to the meat) in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the taco seasoning and stir together well. When dough is done, remove from oven and place meat mixture on top (I first layered it with refried beans), then layer the sour cream and cheese, and then top off with the crushed nacho chips.
4. Return to oven and bake at 350 degrees F for 10 min, or until cheese has melted.

I also provide chopped up lettuce & tomato's, as well as some salsa to put on top of the pie. This was served with Mexican Rice.

The next time I make this dish, I will take a picture and post it here too. *Ü*

**I originally found this recipe at http://www.allrecipes.com/ , but I made some changes to our liking **