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Menu Plan Monday

Posted in Cooking, Menu Planning, tagged I'm An Organizing Junkie, Menu Plan Monday, Menu Planning on February 10, 2014|

Friday is Valentine’s Day, folks, so that means we are almost halfway done with February already. Hopefully that also means that winter weather will soon be a thing of the past. C & I went to Lowe’s Friday night and I made most of my garden seed purchase while I was there. I had to fight myself not too buy too much because the packages looked so tempting. They had all of my usual favorites and I picked up a couple of new seeds to try as well. Can’t wait!!

Speaking of Valentine’s Day, do you have plans with your sweetheart? C & I usually keep it low key by exchanging cards and maybe going out to eat. That is our favorite way to celebrate. I hope you and your sweetie have a wonderful V-day!

I am afraid there is nothing new on the menu this week. I just don’t seem to be in the mood to look for something. I need sunshine!!!

Sliders with oven baked fries

Easy deep dish pizza with salad

Tacos with fresh fruit

Bubble up Enchiladas with salad

Shredded BBQ sandwiches with oven baked fries

Please join me at I’m An Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

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Menu Plan Monday

Posted in Cooking, Menu Planning, tagged I'm An Organizing Junkie, Menu Plan Monday, Menu Planning on February 3, 2014| 1 Comment »

I have an announcement to make: IT IS STILL WINTER!!!! I must have thought when the calendar changed from January to February that something magical would happen weather-wise. Nope, it is still same ol’-same ol’ around here. Saturday was absolutely gorgeous and we got out and enjoyed the sunshine with the dogs for a while. Yesterday was rainy and cool before the winter stuff starting falling again. Yuck! Come on, SPRING!!!

This weather makes me want to eat all the time. I am trying to keep it fairly healthy since I seem to be stuffing my face way too much, but I am throwing in a new dessert this week to celebrate the birthday of a special co-worker and friend. Yay for birthdays! They give us the perfect excuse to eat too much cake. Stay warm and safe, my dear readers, and remember that February is the shortest month of the year.

Hamburger stew

Sausage bake with salad

Chili

Grilled pork chops with oven fries & salad

Chunky vegetable soup with cornbread madeleines (new)

Saucilicious pork chops with curly fries (These chops didn’t get made last week.)

Pizza night

Strawberry swirled cheesecake (new)

Please join me at I’m An Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

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Brown Sugar Toffee Cookies

Posted in Cooking, tagged Baking, Brown Sugar, Brown Sugar Toffee Cookies, Cookies, toffee, Two Peas And Their Pod on February 1, 2014| 12 Comments »

Since it is now February (Wow, how did that happen so fast?), I decided to share a few sweet treats I made during the Christmas holidays. These were awesome at Christmas, but I bet someone would love getting these homemade goodies for Valentine’s Day as well? Hint, hint! Winking smile

I usually make candy bags for my co-workers at Christmas, but the rainy weather just wasn’t cooperating so I turned my attention to COOKIES instead. This recipe comes from Two Peas And Their Pod and they are so good. The dark brown sugar and toffee combine to give great flavor and the texture is perfect. Try these…soon. Yes, that is an order!

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cornstarch

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup Heath toffee bits

Extra dark brown sugar for rolling cookies, about 1/2 cup

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat if you have one. (I have two and they are nice.)

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, salt and cinnamon. Set aside. Beat the butter and 1 1/4 cups brown sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Turn off the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.

Reduce the speed to low and slowly add the dry ingredients. I like to sift my dry stuff onto a paper plate so then it is easy to transfer to the mixer. See:

Stir in the toffee bits. Form tablespoon size balls of cookie dough then roll the dough balls in the remaining brown sugar. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Don’t over bake the cookies. You want them to be nice and soft. Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days (if they last that long).

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Menu Plan Monday

Posted in Menu Planning, tagged I'm An Organizing Junkie, Menu Plan Monday, Menu Planning on January 27, 2014|

Is it spring yet? Our little neck of the woods turned into a winter wonderland on Saturday and now it is back to frigid temperatures. I hate to wish time away, but I can’t wait for warmer weather! I would even take our normal January high of 40-something. It would feel like a heat wave right about now. I really need to go to the grocery and had planned on venturing out Saturday, but the snow put a stop to that. Hopefully, one night this week will turn into grocery night.

All this cold and dreary weather sure makes staying on a healthy eating plan hard to do. All I want to do is cook and eat and eat and eat…well, you get the picture. I hope to have two new recipes this week if I can get the ingredients, but that might not happen either. Can you tell that I am so over winter? Yeah, it’s true.

Bubble up sloppy Joes (new) with fresh fruit

Taco pork chops with oven fries & salad

Easy deep dish pizza with salad

Tacos

Saucilicious slow cooker pork chops (new) with butter roasted potatoes

Grocery night

Pizza night

Please join me at I’m An Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

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Maple Cornbread Muffins

Posted in Cooking, tagged Baking, Corn Muffins, Cornbread, maple, maple cornbread muffins, Maple Syrup, Yesterfood on January 25, 2014| 7 Comments »

I LOVE bread of any kind! One of my favorite winter meals is soup and cornbread. I just can’t get enough. I found these Maple Cornbread Muffins on Yesterfood and knew they had to be good. How can you go wrong combining cornbread and maple? You can’t because they are wonderful!

Cook up a batch of the Chuckwagon Stew from last week and fix these muffins. Your family will thank you, I promise.

1 cup sifted all purpose flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 cup milk (I used 2%.)

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup real maple syrup

2 tbsp. melted butter, slightly cooled, for batter

3 tbsp. additional (not melted) butter for muffin pan

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put about 1/4 teaspoon of the non-melted butter into each cup of your muffin pan.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients and set aside. In a second bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Pour the wet into the dry and mix until just combined. You don’t want to over-mix the batter. The batter will be a little thin and have a few lumps left. That’s ok. Let it rest for a minute or two before filling the pan.

While the batter rests, put the muffin pan into the preheated oven until the butter just melts. Remove it from the oven and swirl the melted butter carefully to coat the muffin cups.

Evenly divide the batter into the cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes then remove. Serve warm with whatever you want to eat with them.

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Menu Plan Monday

Posted in Menu Planning, tagged Cooking, I'm An Organizing Junkie, Menu Plan Monday, Menu Planning on January 20, 2014| 2 Comments »

Happy Monday and Martin Luther King, Jr day to everyone! I need to apologize for the lack of activity around here, but my “day job” went a little nuts last week. Shew, we had two different court sessions going on three days last week and, on top of that, we were working an hour or two over every day. That makes for one tired food blogger so something had to take a back seat. Unfortunately, that “something” was this little space on the internet. Hopefully, we are back to normal this week! Yay!!

My father-in-law’s birthday was last week, but because of the crazy work schedule, I am making him a special birthday dinner this week. That just makes the celebration last a little longer, right? Anywho, along with that meal, most of this week is pretty simple with a couple of new easy recipes thrown in for good measure. Have a great week, everyone!!

Famous pork chops, butter roasted potatoes, scalloped pineapple, crescent rolls and orange juice cake(new) (Birthday dinner!)

Taco ring with salad (2 nights)

Sliders with oven fries

Slow cooker vegetable soup (new)

Hot cheese dip with chips & veggies

Basic meatloaf with oven fries

Please join me at I’m An Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

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Chuckwagon Stew

Posted in Cooking, tagged Beef Stew, Chuckwagon Stew, Cooking, Plain Chicken, Slow Cooker, stew on January 18, 2014| 15 Comments »

It has been cold here in South Central Kentucky. Now, I am not talking about a little ol’ cold snap where you may have to wear a scarf and gloves. No sirree, I am talking about sub zero temperatures with wind chills of –18, people! I am not used to this at all! Thankfully, the extreme temperatures were short lived and life is back to normal around here.

If it is still frigid where you live, give this stew recipe a try. It will warm you to your bones. I started out with this recipe from Plain Chicken and adapted it to use what I liked. Their idea of using chili powder in beef stew is nothing short of culinary genius. So good!

2 lb. stew meat

2 tbsp. vegetable oil (Oops, not pictured.)

1/4 cup flour

1 tsp. brown sugar

14.5 oz. can tomato sauce

14.5 oz. beef broth

2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

2 tsp. chili powder (This is a great addition to beef stew. Great idea, Plain Chicken!)

3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 bay leaf

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Toss the stew meat with the flour until coated. Brown the meat in the skillet on all sides.

While the meat is browning, add the remaining ingredients to your slow cooker and turn it on low. Add the browned stew meat to the cooker as well. Cook on low for 7 to 8 hours. Remove the bay leaf and enjoy!

Come on back next Saturday for a delicious maple cornbread muffin recipe that would be perfect with this stew.

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Slow Cooker Orange Cranberry Ham

Posted in Cooking, tagged cranberry, Ham, Holiday Food, Main, Orange, Slow Cooker, slow cooker orange cranberry ham on January 11, 2014| 4 Comments »

Yes, I know last week’s recipe title started the same way this one is, but I promise this is different. “This” was my contribution to our last Christmas gathering and it was a hit. I came home with a little bit left over, but not very much. This dish was so simple and full of holiday flavor that it will definitely go into the “special occasion” rotation. I think I do need a bigger slow cooker though. I had to pull out the bones and cut off a little of the ham for it to fit. That’s just not right.

1 spiral sliced ham (approx. 8 lbs.)

1 can jellied cranberry sauce

1/4 cup orange juice

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 1/2 cups additional orange juice

Combine the cranberry sauce, 1/4 cup orange juice and brown sugar in a small bowl. Pour the remaining orange juice in the bottom of your slow cooker and add the ham. Drizzle the cranberry/orange sauce over the ham. Cook on low for 5 to 6 hours or until heated through. That’s it!!! How simple is that?

I found the original recipe at Add A Pinch and adapted it for the slow cooker.

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Rocky Road Bundt Cake-Dessert Challenge

Posted in Challenge, Cooking, tagged Almond, Baking, Bundt, Bundt cake, Chocolate, Chocolate Cake Mix, Lady Behind The Curtain, Lady Behind The Curtain Dessert Challenge, Marshmallow, Rocky Road Bundt Cake on January 9, 2014| 32 Comments »

I was so pleased when Lady Behind The Curtain decided to continue her monthly Dessert Challenge, but it sneaked up on me a little bit. Thankfully the two ingredients that we have to use this month are some of my favorites: hot chocolate mix/chocolate pudding mix and marshmallows!

Since taking part in this challenge, I have tried to come up with ideas of my own instead of just copying other people’s recipes. I have had a few failures along the way, but this is not one of them. I started with my favorite simple chocolate Bundt cake recipe and just upgraded it a little bit. One thing I had not counted on was the marshmallows melting completely during baking. Oops! You can’t see them in the cake, but they are definitely there in these soft little gooey spots throughout the cake. Yum!! Hope you enjoy!

1 chocolate cake mix of your choice

3.9 oz. box instant chocolate pudding mix

1 3/4 cup milk

2 eggs

1 cup chocolate chips

10 large marshmallows cut into quarters

1/2 cup chopped almonds

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare a Bundt pan by spraying it with baking spray. I just love my new Nordicware pan that I got for Christmas. The cake looks like a big chocolate flower.

Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, milk, and eggs. With an electric mixer, beat on low until just combined and then beat on medium for 2 minutes. Fold in the chocolate chips, marshmallow pieces and almond pieces.

Bake for 1 hour then cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and let it completely cool before slicing and devouring!


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