Taco Soup

I know we've only had a hint of fall weather here in middle TN, but I'm so ready!  I absolutely love fall and to hopefully bring fall on quicker, I've been cooking up some soups.  We love soup because they are easy to make, perfect for the crock pot and such a good, comfort food.  One of our favorites is Taco Soup.  If you haven't tried it, you must!

Perfectly ready cooked on slow in the crock pot

Here's the recipe I use.  Hope you can read it.  It was taken with my phone.

Glad for this recipe - it saved my soup!

I found myself this time without taco seasoning.  Have you ever done that?  I grabbed one of my cookbooks and found a great and easy recipe for Taco Seasoning.  Perfect!  Google is great for that too.

We enjoy the soup with chips and homemade salsa as a side and a dollup of sour cream and a sprinkle of Mexican cheese on each yummy bowl of soup.  It'd be the perfect meal to share with company or when someone else needs a meal.  Try it!

Be Daring

Have you eaten a terrific dish at a restaurant and wished you knew how to make it?  I do all the time and love to come home, google it and try to prepare it myself. Sometimes it tastes perfect, sometimes it needs tweaking and sometimes it sends me back to google. 

Thai Green Curry is one of those dishes. International foods at Kroger help so much with jars of sauces and packets of mixes, many of them coming with recipes. 

Be daring and try your hand at creating your favorite restaurant dish!

More Meal Plans

I know August is almost over and I'm just now posting our meal plan, but I wanted to show you what I did this summer.  I have loved my meal calendar so much!  I wanted to add recipe cards to the system that are tried and true that I use over and over.  It led me to the site, where I have shared before, that has a monthly meal plan for Aldi grocery store, another one for Aldi in the fall and a last one of all Crock Pot meals.  I cut and pasted from the www.momadvice.com site and put into a document.  I made small cards for my calendar for each meal, using the guides that the web site gives for side dishes.  I tried my best to color code them based on the cardstock I had.  It didn't take me too long and I'm so glad I did it. 

For August I planned for us to eat 1 week from each new menu.  I left a week open for leftovers, breakfasts meals and meals on the run.  These are tried and true recipes that my family has loved for years.  It was well worth the effort.

Now that school is in full swing, our schedule is looking a bit crazy.  Beginning next week we will have a cross country meet every Monday, a middle school football game every Thursday and a high school football game every Friday.  That means 3 days a week we will either eat really late dinners or dinners that I need to pack on the go - otherwise we could have some huge eating-out expenses.  I'm hoping to go through my recipe files and find great recipes that I could pack for the games.  I plan on making a list of these recipes and then filing them together for On-The-Go menus.  It requires that I stay on top of my game, but it's essential to get us through the  next 10 weeks....until wrestling & basketball.  :)

Recipe cards

August  meal plan

The Go To Dish

Do you have a recipe that is your go to when you bless others with a meal or when you host company?  One of my favorites is Creamy Chicken Burritos. Add a bag of blue tortilla chips, salsa, sour cream, maybe taco sauce and a salsa. Yummy and easy. Guess what's for dinner tonight?

May Menu Plan

 Did you think I dropped off the face of the earth?  I certainly have won the inconsistent blogger award.  Life's just been busy and I continue to blog in my brain but never take the time to actually make it happen at my computer.  Thanks for being patient with me.

I took a break from coupons last week and the photo above shows you my meal plan for May.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my Menu Calendar.  Having a busy soccer season has made it a bit crazy for supper time, but I cook what I can to take on the road and switch things up a bit.  If you were wondering why nothing is planned for the last week of the month, it's because last month I planned so many meals and didn't really have much flexibility on empty days that I had lots of meal plans left over.  This last week will account for that shifting that will probably occur as the school year wraps up.

Below is a super, duper yummy recipe that we made.  We still have whole chickens in our freezer from when we raised chickens to butcher 2 years ago.  This recipe took some advanced planning but it was well worth it.  The Fish Sticks were eating it off the bone before I even placed the bird on the table.  It was that good!  Try it!

Dinner On The Run

Soccer season has begun and the Fish Fam is finding ourselves on the run about 2 nights a week.  Because our school does not have a home soccer field yet, our games have been about 1 hour away, meaning that we leave straight from school and get home about 7 p.m.  This calls for me to be prepared for dinners so that we don't have to spend $50 on our family at McDonald's or some other fast food restaurant.

All it takes is a little bit of pre-planning to feed your family a healthy, inexpensive meal on the run.

For our first soccer game, I made sub sandwiches and individually wrapped them around lunch time and packed them in a cooler with a bag of chips, water bottles and a small bag of mini peppers.

Last soccer game I boiled 16 hot dogs, placed each in a bun and wrapped individually in foil.  Threw in a can of Pringles and a bag of baby carrots with a carton of hummus.  The hot dogs were still warm when we ate them during half time.  I had a baggy of mustard and ketchup collected from fast food restaurants that were perfect for everyone.  There were enough hot dogs to feed a couple, hungry soccer players on the way home too.

For tonight's supper I just browned 2 lbs. of ground turkey with 1 chopped bell pepper.  Put it in the crock pot with garlic powder, salt, pepper, a few small squirts of mustard, a couple tablespoons of brown sugar and 1 1/2 cups of ketchup.  I set it to simmer on low until I go to pick up the kids at school - in about 3 hours.  I will put the Sloppy Joe meat on hamburger buns, wrap individually in foil, throw in a bag of pretzels and baby carrots and there's supper!

I buy popcorn seeds in bulk and will pop a large pot of popcorn, toss it with sea salt and Parmesan cheese to pour in a paper grocery sack for snacking during the game.  We always have plenty to share.

So remember this the next time you have an afternoon/evening filled with ball games.  You don't have to spend tons of money to eat out during the season.  Just do a little bit of prepping and you can feed your family for a fraction of the costs.  Who wants processed chicken nuggets and greasy fries when you can have yummy, homemade Sloppy Joes??

New Crock Pot Recipe

I'm trying a new recipe tonight that looked really good and uses things I had on hand.

I found it at Lynn's Kitchen Adventures.  She has a great site with yummy recipes and oftentimes free e-books.  I've been a subscriber for a few years.

You can find this easy recipe here for Slow Cooked Tamale Casserole.  I'm going to add some fried okra and we will be set!

Day 1

The Halloween candy is put up and we are geared up to start Day 1 of our month of "real foods."

For breakfast, I made Lorrie's Lazy Granola the day before.  (Recipe coming tomorrow)

The Fish Sticks ate it over plain yogurt with honey and I had it with some milk with sliced bananas on the top. 

 For snack we had 3 slices of blocked sharp cheddar with 4-5 Triskets.

Lunch was natural peanut butter with fruit spread on whole grain bread, hummus with carrots and grapes.

Side note - I bought these things at Aldi and although the peanut butter and fruit spread have a small amount of sugar, they are free of corn syrup and about 1/4 the price of the 100% natural things I found at Kroger.  It was worth the purchase to save the money.

For supper, I have pintos brewing in the crock pot for my favorite refried beans, ground turkey with taco seasonings, and all the trimmings for a Mexican buffet.

So far so good, if I can get my 5 year old to understand "Mommy said NO HALLOWEEN CANDY!"  :)

Doing the Pins

You would all be so impressed.  I have been doing my pins on Pinterest.  I have done several this week but will just post one right now, in case I slow done and need some posting material later.  :)

I was planning on making meatloaf one night but then I saw that someone had made mini meatloafs in a muffin tin (takes so much less time to cook, which is awesome!) and then topped them with mashed potatoes in an icing pipe tube.  My icing pipe tube broke, but I had 2 cups of instant potato flakes I wanted to get rid of and with an ice cream scooper, they turned out pretty cute. 

You can follow me on Pinterest to get the pin yourself.

My Fish Sticks loved them and thought they were cupcakes at first.  They were a big hit and will definitely need to be repeated.

Garden Supper

 We have been eating garden produce for months now and I never tire of it.  Tonight we had BBQ pork loin that had been cooking in the crock pot all day, watermelon, honeydew melon and cantaloupe (all from our garden) and a Turkish-like salad of bell peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers chopped (all from our garden) and seasoned with sea salt, pepper, fresh lemon juice and olive oil.  Many of us add feta cheese to it, but I keep it on the side because 2 Fish Sticks are not keen on feta.  Add pickled okra, refrigerator bread and butter pickles and refrigerator sweet pickles and you have one good meal and all I paid for was the pork loin!

Have you considered gardening?  It's worth it!

Easy & Delicious Refried Beans

 A few years ago I found a recipe that I have tweaked several times to make it what I consider the best refried beans ever.  They are cheap.  They are easy.  They are delicious!!  Not to mention healthy!

 Crock Pot Refried Beans

Rinse and soak 2 lbs. (large bag) of dried pinto beans overnight.  In a.m. rinse again, drain and put in crock pot with 1 onion quartered, 1/2 jalapeno (fresh or jarred), 3-5 cloves garlic, 4 tsp. salt, 1 3/4 tsp. pepper, 1-2 tsp. cumin and enough water to cover beans.  Cook on low all day.

Around supper, spoon into food processor keeping a little liquid in the beans.  I usually split the beans 2 or 3 times to not overload the food processor.  Process until you get the consistency you like.  If too thick, add some liquid from the crock pot.  If too thin, add some more beans. 

Serve.  They freeze great and it makes a large amount so it's perfect for Mexican buffet when hosting a large group of company for supper or for taking a meal to friends.

Vadalia "Candy"

 Last week Aldi had Vidalia onions for 49 cents a bag.  In my family growing up, Vadalia onions are something to be loved.  My Man said we thought they were candy.  Maybe not candy, but close.  They are so yummy.  I hooked My Man up to seeing the love of Vadalias years ago when I started roasting them in the oven.  You start by slicing them a little like a Bloomin' Onion.  Make pie cuts but don't go all the way down.

 Put a pat of butter on the top and fold up in foil.  Place on the rack in the oven that is preheated for 350.  Bake until soft.  My home oven took about 30 minutes but the lake house oven took longer.  Make sure they are good and soft when you eat them.  Crunchy isn't as good.

The Fish Sticks were very apprehensive about eating an onion.  Being a good Mama, I FORCED them to each take one bite.  Let's just say that 4 whole onions wasn't near enough for this crew.  Next time, I made 8 and it was perfect.  Even if you aren't an onion fan, try it.  You might be surprised at how much it tastes like candy...or just a really good side dish  :)

Pizza Friday

 In elementary school, I had a boy in my class named Zach.  Zach's family did meal planning the old fashioned way.  They had the same dish based on the day of the week.  Zach used to holler out in the bus, "Yeah!  It's Monday.  We get spaghetti.!"  or "Yippee - Friday is pizza day."  At the time I thought how boring to have the same ole meals every day of the week.  My Mom was an adventurous cook and tried new dishes half of the days of the week.  As a mom though, I can see the simplicity in doing things like that, although I still don't think it's the way for me.  I have had friends who use the days of the week for themes in their meal planning.  Italian on Mondays, Mexican on Tuesdays, etc.  That way you get some variety but a good system too.

I know for many, Friday is a great day for Pizza.  I think after this past Friday, the Fish Sticks are ready to declare Pizza Friday in our house.

I made a homemade whole wheat pizza crust - a new for us but it seemed a big hit.  I used my new mini skillets (that actually were meant for large cookies).

 I spread the bar with toppings and sauce.  The sauce is so easy.  It's only a small can of tomato paste with 1/2 cup of water and spices like oregano, basil, onion powder and garlic powder.  Perfect and so easy.

 The Fish Sticks made their way through the line, piling on the toppings just like they like it and I put them in the oven for about 10 minutes.

With the leftover dough, I made a large supreme for My Man and me.  So easy and I just used what we had on hand (other than purchasing pepperonis).  Top off with a Red Box and ice cream and you've made a super fun family memory!

Super Supper

 For Meal #2 of Pantry Meals, we had Bacon Cheeseburgers with Steak Fries.  The burgers were neat because you mix dry onion soup mix, oregano, egg, cheddar and mozzarella into the ground beef before forming it into patties and grilling it.  YUMMY! 

The Fish Sticks were teasing me for taking a photo of My Man's plate before letting him eat it that they all posed for a photo to show you how much they liked their meal.

Pantry Meals - Meal 1

Tried meal one of Mom Advice's pantry meals tonight.

Pretty good stuff.

I know my gravy is chunky.  You should have seen me running to the back porch to grab the almost burnt steaks off the grill, while the the timer for the pasta was ringing and the flour/butter needed to be stirred CONSTANTLY to make a nice smooth gravy.  Oh well.  Steaks were a bit over done for me (I am a rare girl) and gravy was lumpy but still tasted good.  One Fish Stick asked if she could eat it with a spoon.

Hope y'all give those easy meal plans a try. 

Bacon Cheeseburgers and Steak Fries tomorrow night!  YUM!

Shh - Don't Tell

 Remember I told you I have an overabundance of squash in my freezer with very few squash eaters?  Shh - don't tell but today I'm sneaking it into our Sausage Beef Spaghetti.  I cooked it well, put it in the food processor.

 Added a can of tomato paste, a couple jars of my homemade canned spaghetti sauce.

Added the browned meat and stirred. I think it's pretty well hidden.  What do you think?  Now, can I get away with it?  We'll see....

Update since writing this post....Good news.  I pulled it off.  The Fish Sticks AND My Man LOVED supper and several Fish Sticks said "I want this for my birthday!".  SCORE!!

Sunday Suppers

 I grew up with a family tradition involving Sunday night meals.  Mom always had a super, delicious, Sunday, post-church meal, but Sunday nights were her night off for cooking.  My grandparents declared that Sunday night supper was ice cream and popcorn.  Growing up, we LOVED that, especially when the ice cream was usually homemade coffee or mint chocolate chip!!  My mom, who was more health-conscious, dropped the ice cream part (much to our dismay) and usually spread the counter with finger foods, including popcorn.  There was usually a fun array of foods to choose from.

I like this tradition and have carried it over into feeding the Fish Sticks.  Sometimes I'll do something special like homemade prezels or homemade caramel corn when lunch involved little cooking.  For Super Bowl Sunday, I decided to try the ultimate finger food buffet with a healthy hint.  It got rave reviews from all Fish Sticks.

Hummus with sugar snap peas, celery, avocado and carrots

Veggie Straws, cheese sticks and a platter of almonds, pecans and walnuts

black olives, green olives, a bowl of dried apricots, prunes and Craisins and a platter of pear and orange slices beautifully arranged by one of the more artistic Fish Sticks

Before you panic over fixing supper when you haven't thawed the meat or planned the meal, check your pantry and try a finger food buffet...especially on Sunday nights.  Every mama needs a rest occasionally.

Breakfast for Supper

We love to have breakfast for supper, especially now that we have chickens who produce about 10 eggs a day!  Every once in a while though I want breakfast but not the normal pancakes, waffles, eggs, biscuits.  This week I decided to try something new. 

Years ago I bought these great breakfast recipe pamphlets from here and I use them all the time.  I thumbed through those and found a few recipes that inspired this supper.

We made a baked oatmeal that was 3 cups of oats and 1/3 cup of coconut mixed together.  Pour 4 cups boiling water over top and bake.  For fun, I added 1/2 cup of butterscotch chips.  It made the recipe and was a huge hit - even to my coconut hating Man!! 

I also found a recipe for Hootnanny Panckaes.  It's 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of milk, 6 eggs and baked.  I cut it into squares and put a scoop of apple pie filling on top.

Last I vaguely remembered seeing on a cooking show once (or maybe it was in a magazine) where they cooked eggs in muffin tins lined with ham.  I gave it a shot and sprinkled cheese on the top.  They were wonderful and all Fish Sticks and My Man gave them rave reviews.

Not your typical breakfast supper but definitely one to repeat!

Creative Leftovers

I don't know about your families, but occasionally usually when I say "leftovers" to the Fish Sticks, it is followed by moaning.  It's not that they didn't love it the first time around, but for some reason, it doesn't sound so appealing the 2nd time around.  This calls for a bit of creativity on my part.  Now some leftovers are just leftovers and there's no 2 ways around it.  Some though I have found I can re-create into a new meal and no one has any clue that they were leftovers.

Last week I made a great pork roast in the crock pot on Sunday with carrots, potatoes and onions using Italian salad dressing as a marinate.  We had it for meal #2 on sandwich bread and then I had 1 cup leftover.  My job was to feed it to them for the third time, stretching one cup of meat into a meal for 8 and preventing them from ever recognizing it.  The best way was fried rice.  A handful of frozen peas, half of a chopped onion, 2 eggs, a tad bit of oil and rice in the rice cooker.  Voila!  They never knew that the yummy pork fried rice was just pot roast leftovers.  It was my one-dish meal with a side of cucumber slices and baby carrots.

I'm not always full of good ideas.  My friend, Amy, will attest to that this week when I served her leftover chili on top of leftover fried rice because cooking rice for 20 minutes didn't seem a good option as we tried to visit with 6 little munchkins to tend to.  It wasn't that bad, but when Amy left and I actually thought about what I had done, I got pretty embarrassed.  Sorry Amy.  I'm so glad we're still friends.  I owe you one of my Martha Stewart lunches.....next time.  :)