Pepper Jelly

Last night I made some pepper jelly and it came out so pretty I had to take a picture. Go to my recipe blog here for the recipe.

Easy Layered Cabbage Rolls

We always eat cabbage on New Year's Day and also black eyed peas (which I love and don't know why we don't eat those more often). Here's the cabbage recipe I make every single year. It is easy and we love it.

Easy Layered Cabbage Rolls

1/2 head cabbage, coarsely chopped
1 lb ground beef
1/2 small onion, chopped
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
dash pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/3 cup uncooked rice
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 soup can full of water
1 tbs brown sugar

heat oven to 350°. Place cabbage in a greased baking dish (I use one that is about 7x11x2). Set aside. Brown ground beef w/ onion and drain. Add remaining ingredients to ground beef and stir well. Spoon evenly over cabbage. Cover w/ foil and bake for about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 min.

Taco Soup-yum

This soup is super duper easy and we had it tonight. Steve loves it-the kids don't. They don't like soup (other than Chili and I guess I never thought of chili as soup. I've just always thought of it as chili). So the kids got frozen chicken nuggets. I love soup in the winter so they eat a lot of chicken nuggets and jelly sandwiches in the winter.

Easy Taco Soup

1 lb ground beef
1 onion chopped
2 cans tomato sauce (15 oz each)
2 cans diced tomatoes (14-15 oz each)
1 can green beans, undrained (about 15 oz)
1 can corn, undrained (same size as the beans)
2 cups water (or use one of the tomato sauce cans)
1 envelope taco seasoning (I make this myself-stay tuned for the recipe)
2 cans kidney beans (optional-I don't add these)

note: if you like it extra spicy, use the spicy diced tomatoes for one or both cans. Beware-it is hot (or maybe I'm just a wimp but to me it's hot)

Use a pretty big pan for this. My pans go from a 4 qt which is too close to being too small for this recipe to a 6 or 7 qt stock pot type thing so I use the stock pot. It only ends up about half full but my stovetop stays cleaner.

Cook ground beef with onion (I cheat and use minced dried onions). Drain well. Add everything else and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Pour into bowls and garnish with cheese, sour cream, avocados, or whatever else sounds good. We just use crackers. I might add some cheese next time. This recipe makes a lot.

Taco Seasoning recipe

I found out that the packaged Taco Seasoning mixes have trans fat so I make my own. I do eat things with trans fat (like pop tarts, hamburger helper, betty crocker potatoes...) but if it's easy to substitute I try to do that. This is from Make a Mix which is a really fun cookbook.

2 tsp instant minced onion
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp crushed dried red pepper
1/2 tsp instant minced garlic
1/4 tsp dried oregano leaves
1/2 tsp ground cumin

Mix together. Makes the equivalent of 1 package of taco seasoning.

Basic Meatloaf

Meatloaf is probably one of Steve's all time favorite meals. Only thing is I hate making it. I am really weird about raw meat and I don't like to mess with it. I can put a steak in a pan, a roast in the oven, etc but I don't like to DO stuff with it. I don't want to cut it, pound it, roll it, stuff it, or in the case of meatloaf, mix it. In the past it was even more of a chore because the recipe I had had to be made in loaf pans and they are such a pain to clean. I was using these low fat two piece pans and even if I lined them with foil, I had to poke holes for the grease to drain out and it would end up getting under the foil and making a mess anyway. And lining both parts and then putting them together was like nails on a chalkboard for me. Foil rubbing against foil is not good. Another thing is that the recipe needed 1-1/2 lbs of ground beef and our beef is only in 1 lb packages-we get it frozen from the processor and have no choice, and I wasn't about to 'save' a half pound of beef in my fridge. So I'd use 3 lbs and make two meatloaves, which doubled the cleaning and required a 2 gallon freezer bag to mix it, which is not easy to find sometimes. So anyway I decided to find a recipe that didn't call for loaf pans and that I could use 2 lbs of ground beef instead of 3. I found one on allrecipes.com that called for 1-1/2 lbs but I converted it to use 2. It's very similar to my old recipe and honestly, I probably could have just altered my recipe to work but I didn't think about that until after I found this one. So I made it tonight (used a freezer bag to mix up the ingredients of course-I am not mushing raw ground beef through my fingers. eww.) and it turned out perfect. I did have to add some cooking time.

Basic Meatloaf

2 lbs ground beef
1 egg
1-1/4 cups milk
1-1/4 cups crushed crackers (one sleeve of townhouse crackers was just about the right amt)
1 onion chopped, or 4 tbs dried minced onions
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste (I don't even own pepper so I didn't add this)
ketchup

Preheat oven to 350°. Mix all of the ingredients together, whatever way makes you comfortable. Form into a loaf-like shape in a 13 x 9 baking dish. Mine was probably about 2" tall but it actually got taller in the middle during baking. Squirt ketchup all over the top. I didn't make a picture with it but I might next time. Bake for one hour and twenty minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 165° or so (original recipe said to bake for one hour). Mine was hotter than 165 (which actually makes me happy) but still very moist and not dry or tough. It was perfect and Steve's eyes actually rolled back in his head at one point. For maximum impact I may make fried potatoes with it next time. He loves those too.

Chicken Soup

Today was my daughter's birthday and she got to pick what I made for supper. I didn't have all the ingredients for her first pick so she decided on chicken soup. I'm not sure why-I don't ever make chicken soup (in fact I don't think I ever have other than Campbell's) and she's never asked for it before. I've been sick the past two days though (with a cold) so maybe she subconsciously felt bad for me (had to be subconsciously because she would never openly admit that) and picked something that she knew would make me feel better. So anyway I appreciated it and made the soup plus some biscuits. The other two kids don't like soup (they have never even tried it) so they had frozen chicken nuggets. They love that junk. So anyway I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and tweaked it a little.

Super duper easy chicken soup

1 tbs butter
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion (I cheated and used dried onion)
about 8 cups chicken broth (or water and chicken bouillon)
1 large can (about 13 oz) chicken, not drained
1 cup sliced carrots (I didn't have any so I didn't use these)
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
pepper if you like it (I don't)
about 2 cups egg noodles (I put in about 4 handfuls and I think each one is about 1/2 cup. I should have measured)

melt the butter in a 4 qt saucepan and cook the celery and onion for about 5 minutes. Add the chicken broth, chicken, carrots and the spices. Bring it all to a boil and add the noodles. Let simmer for about 20 minutes or so.

The kids had corn with their nuggets so I also put some of the leftover corn in the soup. It was pretty yummy with the corn.

Easy apple crisp with cheese

I don't know about other people but I had never heard of having cheese with apples. Maybe I'm sheltered. Anyway my husband loves this apple crisp with cheese recipe that I got from his mom. It's easy too.

Apple Crisp with Cheese

4 or 5 apples (I usually use yellow delicious apples)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup water
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup (4 oz) velveeta cheese, cut up (see note at the end of the recipe)

Preheat oven to 350°. Peel apples and cut into slices (I peel first, then cut into quarters, cut out the core, and then slice across each wedge into about 1/8" thick slices). Put them in a baking dish-I use an 11 x 7 dish but I have also used a 9 x 9 dish. The apples should come about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up the dish. Sprinkle apple slices with cinnamon and mix them around to coat them all. Add the water but don't pour it right over the apples or all the cinnamon will come off. I carefully pour the water in between the apples. Set aside.

In a medium size bowl, mix the flour and sugar. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the cut up velveeta and toss to coat. Sprinkle evenly over the apples in the pan. Bake about 50-60 minutes.

note: Cheddar cheese can be used for this recipe but I have found that it gets hard and chewy. For the velveeta, I use lo fat and also, I slice off about 1/4" slices and then cut them up into about 1/2" squares. You have to separate them with your fingers to put them in the dry mixture and it will be messy but it's worth it. If you buy the pre-grated velveeta that's even easier. I haven't tried it yet.

Busy Sunday

First of all my public service announcement. DO NOT buy an eMachines computer. I researched and a lot of people loved theirs. I was reluctant and had a bad feeling about it but I bought it anyway. It did fine I guess but it's 2 yrs old, still under warranty, and it is a piece of junk. It works. But it's slow, it's loud, and half the time the dvd drive doesn't recognize a dvd or cd. When it does recognize a disk it takes twice as long (at least) as the other computers do for it to start up. So it went to the Geek Squad today and hopefully they will fix it. If not (if it's a software issue I am not having them fix it since the warranty apparently doesn't cover that) I will just reformat and hope it lasts another two years.

While we were in the town where Best Buy is (about an hour away from home) we went to Petco. Someone at 2peas had posted about how much their dog loved his Kong Wubba toy. Daisy is somewhat of an aficionado of dog toys and really wants to try as many as possible so we bought her her very own Kong Wubba. You can see that she approves:





Then tonight after supper I made Peach Cobbler. Yummy. Here's the recipe-it is super easy and not as fattening as some I've seen:

about 6 peaches, peeled and sliced (if you like lots of peaches in your cobbler feel free to use more)
2 tbs lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
1-1/3 cup flour
3 tbs sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 tbs sugar mixed with 1/8 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Even though it is August and it's peach season, I used frozen peaches from last year. So I skipped the peach baking step and since they were sweetened, I also didn't add the sugar to the peaches. Also, to peel peaches easily dip them in boiling water for about 1 minute, then put them in a bowl of ice water. The skins will peel right off. Then slice them into the baking dish.

Heat oven to 400°. Place peaches in a 2 qt baking dish. Add lemon juice and 1/4 cup sugar and stir to coat. Cover with foil and put in the oven for about 15 minutes. If you use canned or frozen (thawed) peaches you can skip this step. But drain the peaches first.

Mix flour, 3 tbs sugar, baking powder. and baking soda in a medium bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk and stir just until moistened.

Drop the topping by large spoonfuls onto the peaches (hot ones if you used fresh peaches). Sprinkle top with the sugar/nutmeg/cinnamon mixture.

Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes or until topping is browned.

Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

Pork chops and Movie time

First the Pork Chops. This is a really good and easy recipe for the crock pot. I got it from a Taste of Home magazine a LONG time ago. We had this tonight for supper. The original recipes calls for thickening the sauce at the end but I don't bother. If you want to just add some water mixed with cornstarch (probably about 1/2 cup water with a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch) at the end, turn the crock pot on high, and cook until it's thickened a little.

Tangy Pork Chops
4 pork chops
1 large onion, cut up
1 stalk celery, cut up (if you don't have this just leave it out-I almost never have celery on hand)
1/4 cup ketchup
1 can diced tomatoes
2 tbs brown sugar
2 tbs apple cider vinegar
2 tbs worcestershire sauce (I use Angostura brand)
1 tbs lemon juice

Put the pork chops in the crock pot. Put the onions and celery on top of them. Mix the rest of the ingredients and pour over the top. Cook on high for an hour or so and then low for about 5 hours. Serve over rice.

Now the movies.

We like to watch movies so we have a Netflix membership. It's so nice not having to drive to town to return movies and nice not to buy movies that we really don't have room for. So anyway, we get a lot of older movies from them. Last week it was kind of funny-we got two movies that were both about someone breaking out of jail. Both were pretty good movies too.

First we watched The Count of Monte Cristo. I had never heard of this movie (I had heard of the book and it turns out the movie has been done more than once) but I think netflix recommended it or something. Anyway it was a really good movie about a guy whose friend betrays him, he gets thrown in prison (where he is abused, of course) and he manages to break out and get revenge. Then the next night we watched Midnight Express. This is *loosely* based on a true story and was a very good movie, but from what I understand it is not completely factual. I think I'm going to get the book and read it. Anyway it's about a guy that tries to smuggle some hash out of Turkey and gets caught. They decide to make an example of him but he manages to escape and get back home to the US.

Tonight we watched an old classic-An American Werewolf in London. I saw that at the movies when it first came out and decided Steve needed to see it too. Great fun movie. A couple of days ago we watched another old one-The Falcon and the Snowman. Another movie based on a true story and while it was extremely slow, it wasn't a bad movie. I did read up on the characters afterwards and it really is weird how the one guy broke out of jail, committed more than a dozen robberies, got caught again, and is now out on parole. WHAT? And he was originally supposed to serve 40 years (20 with good behavior, I guess). The other guy got a life sentence and I think he only served about 12 yrs of it. Weird justice system. I thought treason was a more serious crime than that. Maybe in the 70's it wasn't.

Other movies we loved are the Bourne movies. They were really good and unlike a lot of sequels, we thought the 2nd and 3rd were nearly as good as the first.

We are now waiting on Oceans Eleven (and if we like that we'll get the sequels to it too). If anyone has some great movie recommendations I'd love to hear them. We have seen so many movies that we hadn't heard of or thought we'd like based on Netflix recommendations and liked pretty much all of them.

Cheesy Enchiladas...

that's what we had tonight and they were yummy! Here's the recipe. Keep in mind that this is not exactly a low fat recipe. But you can make it a little better by using low fat stuff in it. I'll put exactly what I use. By the way this is an easy recipe even though, at first glance, it doesn't look like it.

1 lb ground beef
2 tbs minced dried onion (if you like fresh better, chop it and cook it with the beef)
1 tbs flour
1/2 tsp salt
dash pepper
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp oregano
1/2 can diced tomatoes, not drained (I put the other half in the freezer for the next time)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I use 2% cheese)
6 eight-inch flour tortillas (I use La Tortilla brand whole wheat tortillas)

4 tbs butter
2 tbs flour
1.5 cups milk (I use skim milk)
4 oz velveeta (I use the 2% kind)
4 oz sour cream (low fat)

Heat oven to 350°. Brown beef (with onions if you use fresh) and drain well. Add flour and stir in well. Add the spices and tomatoes w/ juice. Heat through.

On each tortilla, put some cheese and filling (note-you want to put about the same amount of cheese and beef filling in each tortilla. What I do is kind of eyeball-divide the meat into 6 portions. Same with the cheese. It doesn't have to be perfect, just close). Roll each filled tortilla up and place in an 11 x 7 baking dish, seam down. (Line the pan with foil if you want. I do because I don't like having to soak it and then scrub it for days).

Now make the sauce. Don't skip the sauce or else your tortillas will get all hard and chewy. In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour until smooth and bubbly. Whisk in the milk. Stir and heat until thickened. Add the velveeta and stir until melted. Add sour cream and stir well. Pour sauce evenly over the filled tortillas. It will seem like too much sauce but it's not. Pour it all on!

Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes.

A new cooktop and a new aggravation

Last week we got a new cooktop. Our old one, an electric coil cooktop, pretty much quit working. I had two working burners (both in the back) and one of those was touchy. It was 12 yrs old so it lasted a long time. I thought it would be best to get another coil (we can't run gas to the stove or else I'd have that) because it seems like the smooth ones have too many rules. You have to use pots with flat bottoms. Don't let stuff boil over and don't put wet cookware on it and on and on. It scared me. While we were looking Steve decided a smooth top would be better. He thought part of the problem with the coil top was that the coils move a little when you put a pan on them, so they don't last as long. With less moving parts, a smooth top is sure to be better. Yeah. So we got a smooth top. I really wanted the one with the dual burner, because the others, from what I could see, said to use 'similar size' pots and pans on the burners. Well they had a 9" and 6" burner and I have a 12" pan I like to use. That's not similar to 9 or 6 inches. I found the dual burner one online for less and Home Depot very grudgingly price matched it (even though their website says they match online stores). We got it installed and I proceeded to try to cook something. It turns out my most-used pan is NOT flat on the bottom, but very warped. Without that pan I have a much smaller range of recipes to choose from. It was the pan I used for boiling pasta, mashed potatoes, chili, NO BAKE COOKIES! A true tragedy. So I shopped online, shopped offline, and finally ordered a new pan. I think I might need all new pans now that I think of it-but those will have to wait. I checked my 10" skillet, which I also use a lot, and it's not perfectly flat either. But it doesn't rock like my 4 qt did so I think it'll be ok for now. Until my 4 qt gets here I am still limited in what I can make. Here's what I made tonight.

SOS (it's not as good as my mom used to make but since I have to make it myself now, it'll have to do. It's actually quite good. Oh and if your spouse is/was in the military you might want to check with them before you make this. He or she might be sick of it already.)

1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup flour
2 cups milk (add another 1/4 cup if you need to, depending on how thick you like it)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp beef bouillon granules
pinch pepper
1/4 tsp worcestershire sauce

Brown ground beef and drain. Add flour and stir well. Cook over medium heat until flour is all absorbed. Add remaining ingredients. Stir and bring to a boil. Lower heat and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes. Serve over biscuits.

Here's an easy biscuit recipe. It's a bit heavy because of the whole wheat flour-if you use all white it's probably lighter.
1/2 cup white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tbs sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 cup buttermik*

*if you don't have buttermilk (who really keeps that on hand??) put 1 tbs of vinegar into a measuring cup and add enough milk to equal 1 cup. Let it sit for about 5 minutes and apparently, this is just like buttermilk.

Heat oven to 350°. Mix dry ingredients. Cut in butter with a pastry blender. Add buttermilk and mix just until combined. Don't overmix! Drop onto a cookie sheet (I use the big cookie scoop from pampered chef-if you don't have that I think a big spoon should work) and bake for about 15 minutes. Serve under SOS.

Switched emails

I switched my yahoo groups that were on my other gmail account to my stampsandstitches account. This way I'll be logged in all the time (except the occasional logout by google) and it will be easier to log in to blog. I do have to keep logging in to blog but it's not as slow when I'm logged into gmail. Hopefully this will keep me blogging more often.

Also here's a recipe that is Sammy's favorite. She would eat this every day if I let her.

Easy Chicken A'La King

this is the lower fat version. I will post the original version but not today.

2 tbs butter (I use smart balance buttery spread)
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 large can chicken (about 12 oz) or the same amt of leftover cut up chicken
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
1 small can mushrooms cut up (optional)
1 small jar pimientos (optional)
rice or toast or biscuits or whatever you want underneath the sauce

Melt butter and cook onion in it until it's done. Put milk in a shaker cup and add flour. Shake for about 30 seconds. I have to time myself because I was actually shaking it for about 5 seconds and wondering why it wasn't all mixed. You have to shake it for a long time (to me, 30 seconds is a 'long time'). Add some of the chicken broth if necessary, to make it easier to shake up. Add flour mixture and chicken broth to the onion/butter in the pan, stirring with a whisk to avoid lumps. Keep stirring and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for a minute or two, stirring constantly. Add cooked chicken, peas and mushrooms and stir. Heat through. Stir in pimientos (or don't-I don't use them). Serve over rice or toast or biscuits or whatever. We use rice and call it "chicken-rice-peas" or just CRP when we're too lazy to say the whole name.

Still alive...

I made a roast in the crock pot today. I made mashed potatoes to go with it and I wanted to make gravy but I hate trying to dip the juice out of the crock pot (without getting all the fat) so I made this other gravy. It's very easy to make although not as easy as gravy from a jar. Not that there's anything wrong with jarred/canned gravy.

3 tbs oil (use olive oil and you can tell yourself the gravy is healthy)
5 tbs flour
2 cups beef broth
1/8 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Put oil in a medium pan. Add flour slowly and whisk to mix until dissolved. Heat on med-high for a minute or so, stirring constantly. Add broth, stirring well so it's not lumpy. Add paprika, salt and pepper and stir. Heat to boiling, reduce to a simmer, and let it simmer for 5-10 min or so, stirring often. Easy.

We are taking Daisy to obedience classes every sunday. I will try to get pics tomorrow but it is really dusty there and I hate to take my camera. I need to take some though-she is really growing (18.5 lbs last week) and doesn't really even look like a puppy anymore.

Post Traumatic Vacation Stress Disorder

We got back from our long vacation about a week ago. I've had a headache most of that week-mostly mild but a couple of days it was bad. I'm sure I'm suffering from PTVSD (see my post title-I can't type it all out again). Our vacation was great overall. But the first day out (for the record we drove across the country, up the country, and then back across the country, for a total of about 6000 miles once we did all of our activities) our transmission light came on. Crap. We stopped for the night and learned the next day that we needed it rebuilt. Another day and a half and almost 3K later we were back on our way. The rest of the trip was blissfully uneventful but we did have this expense hanging over our heads the whole time. The rest was actually pretty fun. We went to Disneyland for a day, relaxed on the beach for a day, and spent another day at the San Diego Zoo. We visited with family and threw my parents a surprise anniversary party. Then we drove to Vegas and saw lots of sharks (the kind that swim in the ocean) and went to my sister's wedding. We drove north to Oregon and visited Crater Lake and a fish hatchery (and some more family) and then headed back home. The worst part was riding in the car for so many hours. I was sore from sitting for so long and it was boring at times. I can't do anything in the car or else I'll get sick so I'm stuck just staring out the windows. The kids fought like cats and dogs even though they had books, video games, dvds and more to keep them busy. We ate so much fast food I was sure I gained twenty pounds (but I actually lost a pound-go figure). But we all had a great time. Now we're back to reality. I'll post pictures from our vacation later this week.

This is one of my go-to recipes when I'm feeling like crap. I made this last week.

Super Easy Ground Beef Stroganoff

1 lb ground beef
2 tbs flour
1 envelope onion soup mix (or use my homemade version posted here)
1 cup water
1 cup sour cream
Egg noodles, cooked (we use the ronzoni whole wheat kind)

While noodles are cooking brown ground beef and drain well. Sprinkle flour on top and then stir until the flour disappears. Add onion soup mix and water and stir well. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 min. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream. Serve over egg noodles.

Easy baked pasta

I got this recipe many moons ago from a magazine. I've changed it a little to make it easier to make. Originally it was called Cavatelli but I think that is a certain type of pasta and I don't use that type so I will just call it baked pasta.

Easy Baked Pasta

2 cups (dry) rotini or other interesting shape pasta
1 lb ground beef or pork sausage
1 chopped onion
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can (about 14 oz I think) diced tomato
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried parsley
1 cup shredded mozarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350°. Boil pasta as directed on package. While pasta is boiling, brown meat (and drain it), then add onion and garlic and cook until they're done (or do what I do and use 2 tbs dried minced onion and 1/2 to 1 tsp garlic powder). Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and spices. When the pasta is done, drain it and add it to the meat mixture. Mix well. Add 1/2 of the cheese and mix. Put in a 2 qt baking dish (I line mine with foil because I hate soaking it for days to get all that stuck on food to come off). Cover with foil and bake at 350° for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, remove foil, and sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Return to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.

Nothing at all

That's what I've been doing. Nothing. Well maybe something but nothing creative. I've been doing a lot of thinking about creating something. But no action.

I am going to share a couple more recipes since I've not been sharing much of anything else.

This recipe is directly from the Kraft website (is that legal? I hope so). I changed it just a little. I used the deluxe mac & cheese (with the squeezy cheese) instead of the regular. Partly because all of our regular mac & cheese are cartoon characters and just didn't seem dinner-like. The mac & cheese was the 2% variety. I also didn't put the cheese and sour cream on at the end and I left out the kidney beans because I didn't have any. My kids liked it a lot-even my picky one. And it is incredibly easy to make.

Chuckwagon Chili Mac

1 pkg. (7-1/4 oz.) KRAFT Macaroni & Cheese Dinner
1 lb. extra lean ground beef
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 can (16 oz.) kidney beans, drained
1/3 cup BREAKSTONE'S Reduced Fat or KNUDSEN Light Sour Cream
1/3 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Reduced Fat Sharp Cheddar Cheese

PREPARE Dinner as directed on package, using Light Preparation directions.
MEANWHILE, brown meat with chili powder and cumin in large nonstick skillet on medium heat. tomatoes with their liquid and the beans; simmer 3 min., stirring occasionally.
STIR in prepared dinner; cook 3 to 5 min. or until heated through, stirring occasionally. Top with sour cream and cheese.

The next one is a low fat bread pudding. I think you're supposed to eat sauce or something over bread pudding but this one doesn't include any sauce. I have so much bread in my freezer because no one seems to want to eat the ends (bread machine bread). I had to do something with them so I found this online and changed it a bit. It didn't use up much of my bread stash but it was good.

Low Fat Bread Pudding

4 cups bread cubes (I probably used more. I filled up my 2 qt round casserole somewhat level with large (1" or so) cubes, not pressed down).
1.5 cups applesauce
2 eggs or use 1/2 cup egg beaters
2 cups 1% milk (I didn't have 1% so I used half skim and half 2%. That averages to 1%)
1/3 cup sugar (it could have used more sugar, in my opinion)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg (I buy whole ones from penzeys and grate only the amt I need)

Heat oven to 350°. Mix bread cubes with applesauce. Put in greased casserole dish. In a bowl, mix remaining ingredients with a whisk. Pour over bread cubes. Let sit 10 minutes. Bake at 350° for 40-50 minutes. If you don't want the top crispy you can put foil on it and then take it off the last 10-15 min. It still stuck to the dish so next time I might line it with foil first.

doing absolutely nothing...

...in the crafts department. I'm working on my curtains, but there's really nothing to show or report. Only that I'm bored to death with them. I wonder if the assembly line method is really a good idea. I seem to get really bored sewing the same seam dozens of times and pressing the same shape pieces over and over. I'm pluggin' away at them though, because this summer I really need to have some curtains up in my craft room.

Even though I'm doing nothing, I did buy some stamps. Yes, even though I do nothing, I still buy. I bought some of the clear doodlebug stamps at my friend's webstore, A Walk Down Memory Lane. I ordered them on the 21st and they arrived today, the 23rd (yes I know it's actually the 24th-it's late). That is probably the fastest service ever (and I'm pretty sure it's not just because we're friends). Anyway I recommend checking out her store-she has a ton of neat new stuff. She also sells the Bind-it-All that I posted about before.

Even though I'm not making any craft stuff, I'm still cooking just about every day. So here is my easy peasy spaghetti recipe, which is what we had tonight:

Easy Spaghetti (yes, I realize a jar is easier. But this is better °Ü°)

note: all herbs/spices are dried. If you use fresh, I think it's 3 times the amount. I don't use fresh-I'm not that good of a cook.

1 lb ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1/2 tsp rosemary
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
2 tsp basil
2 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp garlic powder (I reconstitute it with water before adding it to the sauce. If you want, use real garlic.)
1/2 to 1 tsp salt
1 tbs sugar
2 cans (I think 14 oz or so) diced tomatoes
1 can (same size) tomato sauce
1 small can tomato paste (those really skinny cans)
3 bay leaves

Brown beef w/ onion. Drain well. Add everything else except the bay leaves. Stir well. Add bay leaves and stir gently. If you break a bay leaf, it might be a pain to find all the pieces, so I add them last and stir gently. I haven't broken any yet so I can't say for sure if it's a pain. But it's a pain just to find the whole ones so I'm assuming it's a bigger pain to find pieces of them. Anyway, once it's all combined, bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Let it simmer until the noodles are done cooking. I cover it because otherwise, it pops little spots of sauce all over the place.

Serve the sauce over spaghetti noodles. We use Hodgson Mills whole wheat spaghetti. I love whole wheat pasta-it's yummy. If you want to, sprinkle on some parmesan cheese. We just started using the Kraft kind that you grate yourself. It's in a neat grater type container. I think it's probably not as good as the real parmesan cheese in the blocks but we haven't found one locally that is considered safe for Jenny's nut allergies (who would think parmesan cheese could have nut traces in it. Anyway that's what the companies have told me-that we should avoid it).

No-bake cookies

I didn't get a chance to work on my curtains at all and didn't get any pictures yet. So I'll just post the cookie recipe. These are pretty classic and I think just about everyone already has this recipe but just in case, I'm posting it.

No Bake Cookies

note: we have nut allergies in our family so we don't use the peanut butter. Instead, I substitute soy butter or sunbutter should also work. Also, this recipe makes a ton of cookies. I think it's actually doubled.

2 sticks butter
4 cups sugar
1 cup milk
6 tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 cup peanut butter (see note above)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 cups quick oats (edited for typos-sorry!)

Line several cookie sheets with waxed paper. We usually end up using 3 cookie sheets with the cookies pretty close together. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan. Add sugar and milk. Stir well. Add cocoa powder. I sift it through a strainer so that it has no lumps. Stirring constantly, bring to a full rolling boil over medium heat. Allow to boil for ONE MINUTE. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and peanut butter. Stir until peanut butter is completely melted. Add oats and stir well. Drop by tablespoons onto waxed paper lined cookie sheets. I have the three different size cookie scoops that I *believe* pampered chef sells and I use the smallest one. Allow to set up-it takes a while depending on the room temperature and humidity. I always think they'll never set up but they always do.

Chili and cornbread

This is what we had tonight-chili and cornbread. Jake picked it out for his birthday supper (even though today wasn't really his birthday). Here are the recipes

Chili (this is an unusual recipe for chili but my clan loves it)

1 lb ground beef
1 onion chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 can water
2-3 tablespoons chili powder
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
1 cup elbow macaroni (we use Hodgson Mills whole wheat)

Brown beef and saute onion. Drain well. Add everything else except the macaroni and stir. Bring to a boil. Add macaroni, reduce heat to just above a simmer, and cook until the macaroni is done, stirring often. I usually let it cook for about 10 minutes. Serve w/ cheese if desired, and cornbread.

Cornbread-this one is unusual too. I think it's pretty moist (in my experience-I'm no cornbread expert though) and since it's made with whole wheat flour it's really dense and sort of heavy. Hard to describe. Anyway it's got whole grains so it must be good for you right?

1 cup whole wheat flour (or you can use white flour for a lighter corn bread)
1 cup corn meal (we use the Hodgson Mills corn meal-it's not degerminated which I guess is a good thing)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tablespoons butter (I use smart balance buttery spread)
1 egg (I use egg beaters)
1 cup milk (I use skim milk)

Heat oven to 350°. Grease a 9x9 or 8x8 square baking pan. Mix flour, corn meal, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Cut in butter until mixture looks like coarse corn meal. Add egg and milk and stir just until mixed. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Easter food

On Saturday when we dyed eggs (complete with tattoos), we also made cupcakes. Walmart was all out of the Easter sugar decorations so I bought some icing in a tube and the kids decorated them with that stuff. I used a cake mix for the cupcakes (I was going to make them from scratch but with all the things we did that day (Sammy's dancing, walmart, cupcakes, eggs, etc) I decided to just use a mix). I did make the icing though-here's the recipe. It frosted 24 cupcakes and there was about 1/2 to 3/4 cup leftover.

1 stick butter, softened
4 tablespoons milk (or use whipping cream to make it extra creamy)
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar (more or less)

In a bowl, beat the butter, milk and vanilla until smooth. Add sugar about 1/2 cup at a time. Make sure the mixer is on low when you add it or you'll get a cloud of powdered sugar. Experience speaking here. Keep beating until it's all smooth. You may need a bit more or less sugar depending on how you like your icing. I am not picky about it so for me, it's easier to just add the 4 cups and be done with it.

Another recipe-this is not Easter related but it is food. I made this on Saturday and it was really good.

6 pork chops
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 packet onion soup mix (I used one I bought but after this I'll be making my own-I'll post the recipe for that after this one)
2 cans cream of whatever soup (I used one chicken and one mushroom)
one soup can full of milk

Heat oven to 375° F. Brown pork chops in olive oil and transfer to a baking dish. It's ok if they overlap. Sprinkle with onion soup mix. Pour the soups over the top and then pour the milk over that. You don't need to mix it-somehow it mixes up in the oven. Cover tightly with foil and bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Serve with something that goes with gravy, like rice, mashed potatoes, or plain noodles because this recipe makes plenty of gravy.

Onion soup mix (makes enough to equal 1 envelope)

4 teaspoons instant beef bouillon granules
3 tablespoons dried onion flakes
1 teaspoon onion powder
heavy pinch of ground celery seed or celery salt

Mix up and use like you would an envelope of onion soup (does anyone actually make onion soup with it?).

Perfect Chocolate Brownies

These really are perfect. They're easy to make and yummy. That's perfection in my book. I found this recipe on recipezaar which is probably my current favorite recipe site.

Perfect Chocolate Brownies

3/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup shortening (I used butter)
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs (I use egg beaters for anything I bake)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I left these out, obviously)


1. Preheat oven to 350 ° F (my friend Krista just told me how to make that degree mark. yay! thanks Krista! )
2. Grease a 9x13" pan. (Apparently someone posted a review that they stuck to the pan or something because the recipe author posted another step that she would line her pan w/ parchment or foil next time. I used reynolds non stick foil and the brownies fell right out.)
3. Melt shortening (butter) in a large saucepan over low heat, then stir in cocoa.
4. Remove from heat.
5. Mix in sugar and vanilla then mix in eggs one at a time.
6. Stir in remaining ingredients then stir in nuts if using them.
7. Bake for 30 minutes.
8. Cool completely, before cutting into 2x2" squares.