Weekly Menu 2/28-3/6

Two things happened this week that I wasn't expecting. The first, I had intended to go grocery shopping on Wednesday and Josh asked me to wait until Saturday...which made dinner planning for those few days fun. The other thing, on Friday, Eden came down with Pink Eye. Well, actually, that was Thursday evening. We noticed her eye was a little goopy and then the next morning it was full on pink and really gross. So I got her into the doctor that early evening and now her eye is pretty much fine. It looks 100% better. It's still a little swollen on top, but the eye itself looks great and normal. But, because of that, we canceled our Saturday evening with my family over and we're carrying that over to this Saturday instead.

Also, it snowed Thursday, which was beautiful and great because Grace was able to play with some friends from the neighborhood and play in the snow. She had a blast for 2 1/2 hours out in the cold, while Eden came in after 20 minutes to cuddle up with me on the couch :)

So if my menu looks like some of the same things you read last week...then that's why.

Monday

Orzo Stuffed Peppers- From Two Peas and Their Pod

Josh wasn't too excited about this meal, but I thought the pictures looked beautiful and I needed one more meal to finish off my menu :)

Tuesday

Baked Potato Soup- From Our Best Bites

Yes, this one has been on the menu for awhile now. I ran out of Chicken Stock and then Josh kept using my bacon...but I have everything now, and I'm determined to make it early in the week so I don't get sabotaged again by the hubs.

Wednesday

Shepard's Pie- This was Grace's request for this week :) and a salad with some garlic bread.

Thursday

Lentil Loaf- Another meal, Josh isn't too enthusiastic about, but I'm sure he'll get over it ;) and Green Beans.

Friday

Paula Deen's Chicken Pot Pie and a side...not to sure yet.

Saturday

My family is coming over and we will be planning on having Sandwiches that Josh makes on the Panini Grill and Chips

Sunday

Crepes- it sounded good to me and Josh makes some really yummy ones. 

I do indeed have a few yummy treats up my sleeve for this week :)

Desserts/Treats

My mom is coming over early this week to help me make my first official pie...I'm thinking Huckleberry Pie.

Orange Yogurt Loaf Cake- From Sprinkle Bakes

This looks so delicious and I can't wait to make it.

Dessert for our Family Night will be Frosted Chocolate Chip Cheesecake...assuming I can find the chocolate wafers I need...otherwise...it will be something else :)

A lot of yummy things are going on over here this week, I can't wait for March to begin, for my kids to be officially healthy again, and I'm hoping for an early Spring. :)

Chicken and Broccoli Stuffed Shells with Alfredo sauce poured ALL over it :)

I first came across this Chicken and Broccoli Stuffed Shells recipe this past summer at Tiffany's Eat at Home blog. I printed the recipe and filed it away under my pasta tab in hopes of making it someday. Well, as I was getting ready for our big move and going through our cramped and very small apartment freezer I came across a lone bag of frozen chopped broccoli and I remember this recipe. I put this dinner on my menu almost 2 weeks ago in hopes of making it, but a problem arose when I couldn't find Jumbo Shells in my grocery store. I went to 2 different grocery stores looking for these and came up empty handed. And then last Saturday, we had some friends over and we were going to watch Unstoppable ( very good movie, btw) and I wanted popcorn. So my doting hubby and one of our friends left to go to the store and on the way out, I asked Josh if he would mind looking in the pasta aisle for the jumbo shells.

My hubby saved the day because he brought back popcorn AND jumbo shells...which made this meal possible. Thanks Hubs :)

I probably went about making this recipe the hard way because I didn't have any pre-cooked chicken in the house. So I took 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast and boiled them for about 8-10 minutes till they were cooked through. While the chicken was boiling, I got the water heating up for the noodles in another pot, and in another pot I put the frozen broccoli in so that it could start cooking as well. Once the chicken was cooked, I cut it up in little pieces but you could shred it as well. Boiled chicken shreds marvelously! I decided to put all of my ingredients in separate bowls, in case I had individual leftovers.

Once the shells were cooked till al dente, I pre-heated my oven to 350 degrees. The shells were scolding hot when they came out of the pot ( duh) and so I sprayed them with cold water till I could handle them without burning myself.  I used a 9x13 baking dish and poured a small amount of Alfredo sauce on the bottom and spread it around before preparing the shells.

Now you could throw all the Mozzarella Cheese, Chicken, and broccoli into one bowl and stuff the shells from that mixture, but I never do things the easy way, so like I said, I used individual bowls, which actually worked really well in my case because I had this cute little assembly line going on. But I put a little shredded mozzarella cheese in the shell first, then a couple pieces of chicken and then the broccoli and laid it down in the baking dish. I did this until my baking dish was full. 

One of the things I especially loved about this recipe is that it makes a lot. Tiffany from Eat at Home uses this as one of her freezer cooking meals, so I followed suit ( since I had leftover ingredients ) and filled up the rest of the shells and placed them in a ziploc freezer bag and into my freezer they went. I now have a complete meal for one of those nights that neither one of us feels like cooking . :)

I poured the rest of the jar of Alfredo Sauce over the Shells and covered it with foil and into the oven it went to bake for 45minutes.  Now you could certainly use 2 jars of Alfredo sauce and it would be very good, it's what Tiffany did for her meal. But I wanted to cut the calories back a little bit since it was a jarred sauce and only used 1 jar. 

I opened the oven door once to throw some garlic bread inside and it smelled insanely good. I told Josh to go take a whiff and he had to remind me that he couldn't smell because his cold has made his nose all stuffed up. ( Poor thing, he really missed out on some awesomeness.) 

I'm so glad his cold didn't mess with his taste buds because that would of really sucked. But, he really loved and enjoyed his dinner and so did my kids. We served it only with Garlic Bread because it has been my experience the shells are rather filling. But this was a really yummy meal. The process of making it can be a bit lengthy, but it was worth it in my opinion. And the great thing about this meal, is you don't have to use just Chicken and Broccoli. You can fill the shells up with anything your stomach is craving and it's all wrapped up in one beautiful little carbo-lisious shell. What could be better than that?

Chicken and Broccoli Stuffed Shells with Alfredo Sauce

Adapted from: Eat At Home

3 cups cooked chicken, chopped or shredded ( I used 2 chicken breast)

3-4 cups cooked broccoli, salted

 ( I used a frozen bag and I didn't add any salt because of the Alfredo Sauce)

2 cups shredded Mozzarella Cheese

1 box jumbo shells, cooked according to box directions

1-2 jars of Alfredo sauce

You can either mix the Chicken, broccoli, and cheese in a bowl together or put it all in separate bowls and fill the shells the yummy goodness before you. 

I took Tiffany's advice and cooked half and froze half.

Pour a small amount of sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish and lay the shells in a single layer and pour the remaining sauce over the shells. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

To Freeze- Place the stuffed shells in a ziploc freezer bag. To cook them, thaw in the refrigerator and then cook them as you did the previous batch.

This recipe is linked to:

Good Cheap Eats- What's on your Plate?

Comfy in the Kitchen's feasting in fellowship

Weekly Menu 2/21-2/27

I love Holidays. I love Holiday that make the banks close down because that means I get an extra day with my husband. <3 I think Presidents Day came at a perfect time, because Josh has come down with a cold and Grace has relapsed and has a double ear infection...AGAIN! Can you believe it?

Grace has maybe had 1 week from Christmas till now where she hasn't been sick. My heart is just aching for her and I wish that I could take that nasty ear infection and give it to myself so that she would no longer hurt, but that she would have the color back in her cheeks and her sweet little personality would shine through again. But since I can't do that, I can give her a daily dose of antibiotics and make her a special breakfast treat this week, in hopes that it will put a smile back on her face.

Monday

Breakfast Burritos

Tuesday

Chicken and Broccoli stuffed shells with Garlic Bread 

( Josh finally found the Jumbo Shells in one of our stores)

Wednesday

Baked Potato Soup

Thursday

( Awana Night)

Thursday's are hard nights to cook for, but I'm going to attempt to make my mom's

Lentil Loaf

Friday

Paula Deen's Chicken Pot Pie

Saturday

We're having my family over for dinner to see the house and play games so Josh is going to be making Sandwiches on the Panini Maker with chips

Sunday

Homemade Margarita Pizza

Yes, we're still trying to get around to this meal too.

I have two treats lined up for this week. I want to make some muffins for Gracie. I made some Bran Muffins for myself a week ago, and now that she is sick again, I want to make her muffins. She says," Muffins are my favorite Breakfast Treat." And then I'll make a dessert for the night when our family comes over.

Treats and Desserts

Pumpkin Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

Frosted Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Is there anyone sick in your household and are you making anything to cheer them up?

End of January Grocery Summery

January was a pretty expensive month for us. We moved to a new town, and any time you move, there are always expenses, and we did a lot of fast food once moving day got closer. We came in under budget with our grocery spending this month...for groceries...however, with the fast food and the little runs to Target...I'm sure we were over quite a bit more. But, I think February is shaping up to be better already :)

Our Monthly Budget is $300.00

We Spent $264.83

For a difference of $35.17

With coupons, I saved us $45.59

So not bad in terms of coupons, but the rest I'm sure I won't be saying was Bad, Bad, Bad.  How did you guys do last month?

Pie Plate Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies

I really liked the idea of having a kid friendly dessert for Valentine's Day. I didn't want something that would take up a lot of time to make, because I was already trying out a new recipe for dinner that night. So I was flipping through my dessert binder ( yes, I have a whole binder dedicated just for desserts ) and I came across these Pie Plate Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies. The only problem was when I wrote the recipe down, I didn't write down who the recipe was by. But after doing a quick search online, I quickly found out that it was by Two Peas and Their Pod.  I find myself using a lot of their recipes, they are just sooo good!

To begin, I pre-heated my oven to 350 degrees and greased my 9 in pie plate.  Then I combined some flour, baking powder, and salt until it was blended and set it aside. 

In another bowl, I creamed some softened butter and brown sugar together until it was smooth.

Then I added 1 egg and some vanilla and beat that until it was blended. Once I had everything looking like it was supposed too, I slowly stirred in the flour mixture until all the flour was combined. 

After I had snacked on a few chocolate chips, I mixed in those, along with my toffee chips until it was mixed through. 

All that was left to do was pour the dough out of the bowl and spread it evenly over my pie plate and top with even more toffee chips, yum!

Done! Perfect! I baked it for about 28 minutes and my kitchen smelled like chocolate chip cookies :)

I must say, this dessert was really tasty and went perfectly with a glass of milk. I gave some of the leftovers to my parents since they watched the kids for Josh and I on Tuesday night and when we came to pick up the kids, only one wedge was left. LOL, I guess they liked it :)

Pie Plate Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies

adapted from Two Peas and their Pod

 1 1/4 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup toffee bits or chopped Heath Bars

Additional Toffee Bits for Topping

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 in pie plate with cooking spray and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk until blended and set aside.

In a bowl, add butter and brown sugar. Beat until smooth. Add egg and vanilla extract, beat until blended.

Slowly stir in flour mixture. Mix until flour is incorporated, add chocolate chips and toffee until just combined. 

Scrape the dough into pie plate and spread evenly. Sprinkle with additional Toffee Bits.

Bake 27-30 minutes until toothpick is clean. 

Substitute, M&M's, Butterscotch, White Chocolate Chips :)

This recipe is Linked To:

Sweet as Sugar Cookie's Sweet for Saturday

Pasta with an incredible Tomato Cream Sauce

My gift to Josh this year for Valentine's Day was to make him dinner, and one of his favorite meals to eat is pasta. This works out well for me because I love pasta too :) I was flipping through my recipe binder last week trying to come up with something to make when I came across a recipe I had printed out months ago, but had forgotten to make.  It came from the Pioneer Woman. We all know how much I love and obsess over her cooking. I quickly read over the ingredients and directions and thought this was a winner for Valentine's Dinner but I had to make sure it was the recipe I thought it was, so sped on over to The Pioneer Woman Cooks blog to find the recipe and ogle over her pictures. After I had reread all I needed to read, my mind was made up. For Valentine's Day Dinner, I was going to make Ree Drummond's ( aka, The Pioneer Woman) Pasta with a Tomato Cream Sauce.

I was so excited to make this meal. I mean, I was dying from anticipation last week while I making out my grocery list for this Monday's night dinner. It was pure torture as seeing that when I decided to make this I was still a week out from our heart shaped holiday. But...they say," Good Things Come to Those Who Wait." Well, I don't know who "They" are, but they were right. This meal....was soooo sooo sooo worth the wait!

In order to re manifest Ree's masterpiece, I had to trust her. Which meant, I had to buy, and deskin, and chop and dice and onion. And so I did. With Bread in my mouth...and I'm sorry to say to you all, that this time because Josh wasn't home, there isn't an embarrassing picture of me with a large chunk of bread in my mouth.  

I proceeded to cut my onion...as quickly as I could, I might add. When I had the onion cut, I drizzled some Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a bit butter in my pan and threw in the onion. While that was heating up, I peeled, chopped, and minced my poor sweet garlic and added them to the party as well. 

While the onions and garlic were cooking, I opened up 2 cans of tomato sauce. 

And poured them into the pan, along with salt and pepper, and sugar. Yes, I said, " Sugar." Oh, how sugar makes my world go round :)

After letting my sauce, simmer, thicken, and get even more lovely for 25 minutes, it was finally done. Which was a really good thing because I was starving and Josh was home and we needed to get our Garlic Bread broiled. 

I took it off the burners for a few moments, per the advice of The Pioneer Woman, I then poured in the cream. And Oh my goodness gracious, the beautiful color that began to emerge made me drool...and then I had to clean up the puddle of water I was standing in before Josh noticed, lol!

To finish our sauce up, I threw in a few small handfuls of shredded Parmesan Cheese ( Not the Kraft stuff in the green bottle) and stirred it all together and my heart was happy and my stomach growled. 

I topped it with dried basil, because I couldn't find the fresh basil in the grocery store and I didn't want to spend $3.99 on a living basil plant. So dried it was. But it still did the trick. I cannot put into words, how amazingly good this meal was. Josh and I both took a bite and looked at each other and all we could say was, " Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..." We both agreed that this was and is the best Pasta dish I've ever made...and I owe it all to Ree - she helped fill our bellies with love on Valentine's Day!

Pasta with a Tomato Cream Sauce

Source: Pioneer Woman Cooks

2 TB Olive Oil

2 TB Butter

1 whole medium ( or small if your like me) onion, finely diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 cans ( 15oz each) Tomato Sauce or Marinara Sauce

Salt and Pepper to taste

Sugar- to taste

1 cup of heavy cream

Parmesan or Romano Cheese, to taste...grated or shredded is fine

Fresh Basil or dried

1-1/2 lb Fettuccine

Cook Pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water.

Heat butter and oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and saute for a minute or so. Pour in tomato sauce and add salt, pepper, and sugar to taste. Stir and cook over low heat for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Remove from heat and stir in cream. Add cheese to taste, then check seasonings. Stir in pasta and bails and serve immediately.  ( Thin with pasta water before adding basil if needed. )

P.S. I'm so sorry the pictures are all a little bit dark. I was cooking around 6pm and the lighting at that time isn't ideal :) But it still looks so tasty!

This Recipe has been linked up to :

Comfy in the Kitchen's Feasting in Fellowship

My Sweet and Savory's Meatless Monday's

Eat at Home's Ingredient Spotlight

How to...Bake a salted crusted potato

Oh how I love potatoes. As I grew up, my dad was a potato man. He enjoyed baked potatoes and my mom's infamous scalloped potatoes the best. However, he's not much of a fan of mashed potatoes, which is a shame because that could be my favorite way to eat them.

The other night, I was contemplating side dishes to accompany the Honey Baked Ham my dad had sent for us as our Christmas gift. The oven roasted asparagus was one side I already had, but I wanted something with potatoes and I was leaning toward mashed. However, when I approached Josh about what he would prefer, he said, " A baked potato sounded good." So that's what I decided to do.

A few moments before I was set to fix dinner, inspiration hit. I wanted to twist up our baked potatoes and give them an edge. I decided to add flavor to our potatoes by salting the skin.

I had Idaho potatoes on hand, so that's what I used, but you could use probably any potato you wanted. I bet it would be delish with a sweet potato. 

If you have not invested in a potato scrub brush yet, you should. They are so wonderful and make cleaning potatoes a cinch!  To make this yummy side dish or meal ( depending on when you eat it) you need potatoes, sea salt, and some evoo.

 Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees and then you want to begin by cleaning your potatoes and drying them off. Stab or pierce each potato 6-8 times to help the steam escape during the cooking process, but be careful and don't cut yourself.  I normally use foil to cook my potatoes in, but I used a baking sheet this time. Lay your potatoes on a small baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, turning while you coat them so that they are completely oiled up. Then sprinkle some sea salt over each potato and rolling them around on the baking sheet. 

Place your baking sheet in the oven and set the time for 60 minutes. A normal cooking time for a potato at 400 degrees is anywhere from 45min- 60min. I've found that for us, 60 minutes is the perfect cooking time.

Now you're done. Go wander around or watch a show, kiss your hubby, or shop online until the oven beeps. When your potatoes they will come out smelling pretty good :) The oil sinks into the skin leaving the sea salt crystals to stick to the skin . 

Now you can get creative with your toppings. I'm a butter, sour cream, and shredded cheese person myself. But sour cream and fresh chives would be yummy or a little cheese and some cooked bacon bits would also be divine with this :) Enjoy :)

Salted Crusted Baked Potato

by; Chels R.

Baking potatoes, or any kind you like

Evoo

Sea Salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Scrub and clean your potatoes. Dry them off and pierce them 6-8 times on all sides. Place on a baking sheet and drizzle evoo over them and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 45- 60 minutes until they are tender and done. Top with your favorite dressings :)

This Recipe is linked to:

Sweet and Savory's Let's do Brunch

How To...Oven Roast Asparagus

I love Asparagus. Even as a young child, I loved it. I don't know how my mom made it, but she made it deliciously and I just grew up loving almost every green veggie there was!

I roast my asparagus in the oven. I know some people like to boil it or steam it. But I just love the way it tastes after it's been in the oven. It still holds so much crispness, but it soaks up so much flavor too.

The first thing you want to do when roasting your asparagus is pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. Then after you've cleaned your asparagus, give the ends a snap. Take your asparagus and hold each end in one hand. Wherever the end of the asparagus snaps, that's where it's at it's hardest and you don't want to use that end. However, I do hear people use the ends for soups. I've never done it, but if you want to get your moneys worth, just hang on to it. I prefer to snap each individual stem, because I like the "snap" sound of it and I think it's fun. But you can use that one stem that you snapped as a guide as to where you should cut the rest of the stems off. 

I love to dress up asparagus in flavor, but I keep it simple. First, arrange your asparagus on a baking sheet. Take 2 cloves of garlic and mince it and sprinkle it over the asparagus. Then, add some lemon juice. You don't need much. You can use fresh lemon juice and just juice the lemon over the veggies or you can use lemon juice in your fridge ( which is what I had on hand) and I poured 2 small cap fulls of the juice over the Asparagus. To give it a smidge of even more flavor, sprinkle some sea salt over the spears. It really gives it an edge. Then drizzle some EVOO over all the greens and mixed it all together so that it was all coated and call it a day. 

Roasting your asparagus doesn't take long in the oven at all. You only need to roast it for 8-10 minutes before it's done. It should just start to get a little golden but still retain a crunch when you bite into it. Any longer than 10 minutes and your likely to over cook it and then you lose all that healthy nutrition that's hiding inside it. So don't cook it too long. :)

 

Oven Roasted Asparagus

This is such a wonderful and easy side dish for almost any meal and at this time of year, they are so affordable, that it would be a shame if you passed it up :)

Serves:4

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 8-10 minutes

Total Time: 23 minutes

Ingredients

1 lb asparagus spears

1-2 TB EVOO

1-2 tsp Sea Salt

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 TBS lemon juice

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Snap off ends of asparagus and discard. Arrange your asparagus stems in single layer on a baking sheet.
2. Toss with evoo, sea salt, garlic, and lemon juice.
3. Roast for 8-10 minutes, until slightly browned, and crisp tender. 

Happy Valentine's Day!!! Weekly Menu 2/14-2/20

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope you are all getting many wonderful sweet surprises from your friends and lovers :) This morning I woke up to a beautiful bouquet of flower from my hubby. We made a trip to the grocery store last night to get something for our tv and I never suspected he would come back with flowers, balloon, and chocolates. I did a real good job of hiding them because I'm pretty sure I could of found them otherwise, lol.

I wish our weather was nicer here though. It's rainy, grey, and cold...typical Oregon weather. What are your plans for this evening? Have you had reservations made for dinner in advance or are you cooking at home? Tonight, I'll be cooking a wonderful pasta dinner for the family and then tomorrow, we plan on going out, just the two of us. It's been a while since we've had a date night, but we thought it would be better for us if it was after the love holiday so that it could be quieter and more intimate.  Whatever you guys have planned though, I hope your evening is wonderful, romantic, and fun :)

Monday

The Pioneer Woman's Pasta with a tomato cream sauce and maybe a salad. 

The salad is up to Josh, I know he enjoys just a plain good bowl of pasta

Tuesday

Dinner out- I think we're going to Macaroni Grill :)

Wednesday

 Homemade Margherita Pizza

I think we'll be going grocery shopping tonight too.

Thursday

(Awana Night)

Possibly chicken nuggets and fruit for the kids and a sandwich for me and Josh

Friday

Chicken and Broccoli Stuffed Shells with Garlic bread

Saturday

Ham Sandwiches made on the Panini grill with Chips

Sunday

Our Best Bites' Baked Potato Soup

I'm not all that sure what treats and goodies I'll be making on the side this week. I made so many yummy things last week, that I think maybe one goodie is enough. I will, however be on the lookout for a Good Carrot Cake. My sister Jewelissa has had a hankering to make one lately, and I myself have never eaten one because of the nut factor. I don't like nuts in my desserts unless it's just a topping...generally. I've been known to make exceptions though. So if you know of a great Carrot Cake, please let me know.

Treats and Goodies

Pie plate Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies for Valentine's Day Dessert. I thought it would be fun for the kids :)

Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal

We had our very 1st Saturday morning here in the house and I've got to say how splendid it was to be able to sleep in past 8am. It was so quiet and my bed was so warm and comfortable and the birds were chirping outside. It was so wonderful. I wish Josh and I could of just laid there and listened to the silence together for a lot longer.

But, ( there's always a but isn't there) we could not just lay in bed all day and do nothing. We still have a lot of things to do, like return the keys to our apartment and Josh wanted to get all of our fluorescent light bulbs and there were a few more things he needed to bring home before we could be done with that place and completely concentrate on this place. We still have to organize the garage, hang up all the pictures, and finish with the drapes...and then we're done. I told Josh this morning I would make breakfast and he could concentrate on the garage until he had to head out. So, after our showers, he got the girls dressed and took them outside so they could wander around our yards and play and he could work on the garage and I made breakfast.

I have to thank Two Peas and their Pod for giving out yet another incredible recipe. I saw their Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal last month and I've been hanging onto the recipe ever since. It just looked so good and I love homemade oatmeal. And since the rain was coming in today and Josh was going to be doing a lot of stuff, I figured this breakfast would help him get the jump start he needed for his day.

Most of the ingredients that this recipe calls for I already had on hand. I had just enough oats, and I was able to score a major deal on the applesauce because it was on sale and I had a coupon- HOLLA!

I began by measuring out the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Setting the bowl aside I pre-heated my oven to 350 degrees and greased an 8x8 baking dish.

In another bowl, I combined milk, applesauce, butter, egg whites, and vanilla. Then I poured the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients bowl.  Once that was all combined I got to chopping my granny smith apple. I'm so used to leaving the skins on my apples that I forgot I had to peel it, but once it was peeled and chopped, I threw the chunks into the oatmeal wonderfulness and mixed it up real good and poured it into my baking dish.

And that's it! I set the timer for 20 minutes, but it actually needed about 10 more minutes and my kitchen smelled like this cinnamony vanilla heaven. Yum!

Two Peas suggest adding some toppings, so when it was done, I topped our baked oatmeal with a sprinkle of brown sugar and some dried cranberries and it was delicious. I knew Gracie would like it because she eats oatmeal fairly often, but Eden loved it. However, I think her favorite part was picking out the Craisins and eating them, lol!

Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal

adapted from Two Peas and their Pod

2 cups old fashioned oats

1/4 cup light brown sugar- I just used whatever was in my cupboard

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups Skim Milk- We don't drink skim so I used my 2%

1/2 cup applesauce

1 TB butter, melted

2 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla- I added a smidge more

1 large Granny Smith Apple, peeled, cored, and chopped

Optional Toppings:

Brown Sugar

raisins

dried cranberries

chopped almonds

other dried fruits

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, applesauce, butter, egg whites, and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and stir until combined. Gently stir in chopped apples. Pour Oatmeal mixture into prepared pan. 

Bake for 20 ( or 30 min) until oatmeal is golden brown and is set. Remove from Oven and serve warm. Add additional topped to baked oatmeal, if desired. 

Serves 4-6

This recipe is linked up to:

My Sweet and Savory's let's do brunch

Bruschetta Chicken Bake

One of our favorite meals to make in the Spring and Summer is to grill Bruschetta Chicken. It's really delicious and it's a meal we would make all year long if we live somewhere like Hawaii or Florida. But we don't live in a tropical climate. We live in Oregon, where it rains 9-10 months out of the year. Don't get me wrong, I love our State. I think it's absolutely beautiful here and we do get all 4 seasons. But the rain and grey skies can get depressing. Which is why I'm so happy I can make our Fall and Winter version of our favorite grilled meal.

For this meal, you will need: Mozzarella Cheese, 1 (15oz) can of diced tomatoes, 1 box of Chicken Stove Top Stuffing, 2 cloves of garlic, Basil, and Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast. When I make casserole type dishes, I normally only use about 2 chicken breasts for our family. It's generally just the right amount of chicken for our family of 4.

Your going to want to start by cutting the chicken into bite size pieces and arranging them in a 9x13 baking dish. After the chicken is cut up and you've washed your hands...(because touching raw poultry is gross); pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. 

Pour the can of diced tomatoes into a mixing bowl along with the juice. Your going to want to keep that liquid to soften up your stuffing. Then you get to do my favorite part, mincing up some garlic. I love love love love love, Garlic! It says to use 2 cloves, but I used 1 huge clove and 1 smaller clove.  Take the garlic and dump it in your tomato bowl and then add the stove top stuffing mix.

Stir everything together along with 1/2 cup of water just to make sure everything is moistened up. 

Once your Bruschetta is mixed together, measure out 1 tsp of dried basil ( or you can use fresh) and sprinkle it over the chicken and then on top of that take 1 cup of Mozzarella Cheese and layer it over the basil and chicken.

Now, take your bowl of your bruschetta and take spoonfuls and press it down over the chicken so that it covers your baking dish. And that's it. All you have to do now...aside from doing the dishes, is pop it into your pre-heated oven and let it bake for 30 minutes or until the chicken is done. 

I served our Bruschetta Chicken Bake along side a simple salad of Green leaf lettuce with dried cranberries, slivered almonds, and my homemade croutons and some green beans. It was a great meal that pleased our stomachs and made our house smell so good. 

Bruschetta Chicken Bake

Adapted from Kraft Foods

1 can (150z) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 pkg ( 6 oz) Stove Top Stuffing Mix for Chicken

1/2 cup of water

2 cloves garlic, minced

1-1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut up into bite size pieces

1 tsp. dried basil leaves

1 cup shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix together tomatoes, garlic, water, and stuffing mix until moistened. Layer Chicken, Basil, and Mozzarella Cheese in a baking dish. Top with Bruschetta mixture. Bake for 30 minutes or until chicken is done. 

Enjoy :)

This recipe is linked to:

Eat at Home: Ingredient Spotlight

Good Cheap Eats ( & What's on your plate)

Amish Pumpkin Pancakes

Well, my Gracie is sick again. I'm feeling pretty bad about this because she has only been over her last cold/flu for a little over a week and a half and here she is not feeling well again. My kid needs a break. Thankfully, it's a real mild cold though...or so it seems. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  I need her to get better real fast because not only will she be a happier child, but if she has to miss one more Awana Club night I think I might scream. Her Valentine's party is tomorrow and I need her well enough to go and play with her friends.

Since I've made a ton of progress on getting the house all cute and pretty and my kitchen is in complete working order, I thought I would make pancakes. I've had this Amish Pumpkin Pancake recipe lying around for years now and I've never made them. I've also had a can of Pumpkin hiding in my cupboards for awhile now and I wanted to use it. And since Pumpkin is a super food, I thought it would be a great breakfast for my girls.

Weekly Menu 2/8-2/14

I cooked my first dinner in this house last night and it felt great to be in there again. I have a question though...because I'm wondering if I'm the only one who does this. When I move into a new place....I'm always really hesitant about all the features. I don't know why, but I get weary about the dishwasher, stove, oven, sink, fridge, and now my own washer and dryer set I get to keep. It takes me awhile to get comfortable with it. PLEASE...tell me that one of you is the same way.

The last few days have been really busy and today was no exception. I organized and unpacked all the boxes that were in the kids rooms, arranged their clothes in their closets, organized my laundry room, decorated my bedroom a bit and took about a 20 minute snooze in my Papasan chair,( which has been in storage for the past few years) which I have so greatly missed. I'm impressed that I got all of that done, plus the grocery list and menu plan. Now...to get to the grocery store. Which is in debate if it will be tonight or tomorrow.

Monday

We had Chili Casserole with a side of corn and chocolate pudding for dessert

Tuesday

Fast Food tonight...I think Burgerville. We don't really have enough bread to 

make sandwiches tonight and frozen pizza doesn't sound good.

Wednesday

Bruschetta Chicken Bake, with green beans, and a salad

Thursday

Awana Night

Leftover Chili Casserole or a quick sandwich

Friday

HoneyBaked Ham with mashed potatoes, and oven roasted asparagus

Saturday

Homemade Margarita Pizza

Sunday

Panini Ham Sandwiches and Kettle Chips

Monday

Valentine's Day

The Pioneer Woman's Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce and a salad

I think that looks like a pretty good menu for the week. I'm excited to get cooking again in my new kitchen...and wait...I have other goodies I'm making this week

Treats and Goodies

I plan on making Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal from Two Peas and their Pod one morning.

Amish Pumpkin Pancakes

Deep Dark Old Recipe Bran Muffins my sister in law just blogged at The Rookie Cookie

And since I'm not really quite sure what are plans are for Valentine's Day, I thought I would make something different- Pie Plate Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies...maybe with Vanilla Ice Cream.

See, I told you I would bake again ;)

No Weekly Menu just yet...we're still getting settled in.

I'll be working on a weekly menu tomorrow or Wednesday ( really, it should be Tuesday), so today's post will be a bit different. I just found coupon organizer in the garage this afternoon so I think that will be my project for tomorrow...along with unpacking the rest of the girls rooms and organizing my laundry room. But today, I wanted to tell you about how our big move went.

It started Friday. I apologize now, my computer isn't hooked up to the thing that holds our pictures. I kind of forgot what to do, so I'll post some pics later on. Friday night, we got the keys to the house and did the walk through. Josh and I brought over all of our clothes and shoes and as soon as we met up with my parents and my bestie Donella and her boyfriend. As soon as all the guys were here Josh, my dad, and Derek went to go get the U-haul and pick up our Washer and Dryer...which if you have seen the pictures on FB you know how excited I was to get those. I have since used them several times and I love them. They are so so quiet! While the boys were gone, we girls got all the clothes organized...well not organized shoved into my closet. My mom was going to color coordinate everything for me ( because that's how I like it), but then she saw how many clothes and shoes I have and gave up, lol! It's okay, it's a project for me for another day.

Saturday was the big moving day. My girls spent the night with my parents Friday night and then my mom and dad dropped the girls off at Josh's parents house so my other mom could watch them before heading down to meet us and help us move. We had a lot of people to help and we needed everyone of them. It's amazing and somewhat embarrassing how much stuff you accumulate over time.

We were able to get mostly everything over in the U-haul, my dad's truck, Josh's dad's truck, and his parents mini-van, and Josh's car. We left about 4% of our stuff back at the apartment and we'll get the rest of it later this week.

We were able to pretty much avoid the rain. It sprinkled occasionally, but I never heard anyone complain and thanks to my sister's discount at Little Caesar's Pizza, we got some pizza and drinks to feed everyone. Which was pretty funny. The only sounds you could hear in our dining room was everyone eating and occasionally making a " Mmm" sound.

After everyone had gotten everything out of all the vehicles, everyone left. Josh and his brother returned the u-haul and made another trip back to the apartment for the electronics and Derek, Donella, and I put together all the beds and the dining room table. My main concern was getting the girls rooms livable for them...which it became. Tomorrow I plan on getting all their boxes out of their rooms and organizing their stuff.

I would say the most challenging room of this whole house has been the kitchen. It's a decent amount of space, but it's less than I'm used too and I guess I have to many kitchen items...(are we surprised by this?)
By the time we got started on the Kitchen it was probably close to 10pm and I was spent and everywhere I looked there were kitchen boxes. I swear we had more boxes for the kitchen than anything else. After we discovered that my favorite set of dishes had nearly been broken ( We have 2 broken dinner plates and 4 broken salad plates) I was on the edge of a nervous breakdown. I finally had to say, " I need a break. Let's just push all the boxes to the side and I'll dig into it tomorrow."

Can I just say here how good I slept Saturday night. You all know I've been missing out on sleep due to our neighbors and my anxiety attacks about the move. Saturday night, as soon as my head hit my gorgeous new comforter set, I was asleep. It was a beautiful thing!

Sunday Morning, Josh and I woke up around 8am and decided to forgo church due to the fact there was so much to be done here. Josh and I took showers and got the girls up and he got started on the garage...that was so completely full of boxes you would of gotten lost in there and I decided to tackle the kitchen. Okay...I attempted to try to attack the kitchen...and gave up. I ended up just trying to get all of the bowls and dishes and appliances out of the boxes and lining them up on my dining room table just so I could see what I had and where it could go and I needed to get the boxes out of my face.

My parents came over at about 1pm and Thank Goodness for them. I want you to picture the scene my mom pretty much walked in on. Picture me...standing in a kitchen...any kitchen...covered in boxes, with every counter space filled with something kitchen related. And then picture on my face your best "Frazzled, frustrated, and freaked out" looking face you can imagine. That was me! I didn't know where to start. My mom walked in and got right in the mess with me and took over. She became exactly what I needed her to be for me. A director/organizer/mother- that was her. She said that I really challenged her with my kitchen, lol!

I will admit, I freaked out on her a bit, raised my voice a few times, hyper-ventilated a million times, and fought with her on the placement on some things until she proved she was right and I was wrong ( thank goodness because she knew what she was doing and I apparently didn't) and helped me get my kitchen to where it needed to be. I needed her so much because she was a fresh pair of eyes who wasn't as burnt out as I was and she is open to change, where as I, am not. I like my things the way they've always been. I just don't adapt well at all.

Basically, we spent the whole afternoon on that kitchen. While my mom and I were busy with the kitchen, my dad was playing Mr. Fix-It to a few things that needed to be fixed in the house and then helping assemble a bookshelf that is acting as an audio pier, helping mount our T.V. and helping assist the Dish Network Guy however he could. My mom and dad make a powerhouse team together! And Our Sunday would of gone a lot differently if they hadn't been there to help. We would never of made as much progress as we did if it wasn't for their help. We even tinkered with the placement of our furniture in the living room.

Today is Monday and I didn't get accomplished everything I meant too, but that's okay. My mom and dad came over again to help me out. My mom had some curtains she wasn't using anymore that she thought would look great in our dining room and my mom picked up some birdseed for me because I had tons of birds this morning in our backyard looking for food. We got the rest of the kitchen put together ( it was just a matter of rearranging some of the counter-top items) and we hung up curtains over the sliding glass door in the dining room, living room, and the girls bedrooms. My dad even hung up my feeders for me so I didn't have too!

When I do finally post pictures of the downstairs of our house: The Kitchen, Dining Room, and Living Room...I want to preface this now; my mom was my interior decorator. I told her my ideas and she listened and tweaked and moved things around and she put the finishing touches on everything. I can cook and bake...but I'm not very good as an interior decorator. It's not my thing. Thank the Lord, it's my mom's thing because I would of been lost with out her!

Tonight I'm going to make our first meal in our home. Nothing to special. Something easy and I have all the ingredients for it. I decided when I went to bed last night I couldn't eat fast food one more day. So I got up with Josh this morning at 5:30am and while he was fixing his coffee, I made his lunch for him. I know he's tired tonight and I know his feet and body are probably hurting just as bad if not more than mine are and I want him to be able to relax tonight.

I will post a weekly menu as soon as I've got it figured out. Till then, Cheers!

Moving Day has arrived

It's Friday and that means we get the keys to our new home tonight :) YES!

I've been so busy with packing up everything and I've gotta say, I'm really proud of myself. I've gotten this whole apartment packed up pretty much by myself. Josh has been so great at bringing home/finding boxes. My parents and my in-laws have also helped immensely. But I did all the packing myself. That's right, I did it :) I knocked out about 10-12 boxes a day for these past 2 weeks and now we're all ready to go.

You should see this home right now. It's mess with stuff all over the carpet and boxes and pictures frames everywhere. I've got the last two boxes that still need to closed up and I have laundry going, but other than that...I guess you could say I'm good to go. Other than I need to actually put some grown up moving clothes on now. I've done all my packing in sweatpants today...I did however manage to put makeup on and straighten my hair ;)

If you get a moment, just say a prayer for us today that every goes smoothly tonight and tomorrow. The weather was looking pretty decent for this weekend earlier in the week and now the forecast has changed a bit. Cloudy and maybe a bit of rain. We pick up our washer and dryer tonight and my best friend is bringing her mom's van to help move things over for us too.

Tomorrow morning, Josh and I will do whatever needs to be done here before all our helpers arrive. I assume that means disconnect our tv and satellite dish. But, before that, we're going to Noah's Bagels for coffee and a yummy bagel breakfast to get us going. I packed up the coffeemaker now, so Josh doesn't really have a choice now, lol.

Anyhoo, I will get back on here as soon as I can. I'll try and take as many pictures as the move as I can, because it's fun to document things like that. Ugh, I'm just so nervous, LOL! Okay, well, I'm going to go lay Eden down for one last nap in this home ( she's spending the night at my parents tonight) and I'm going to finish up the rest of the things and I think I'll start packing my shoe collection into my car, lol...wish me luck :)