Super Easy Crock Pot Beef Stew

Chuck steak cut into about 1 inch cubes
2 bags of frozen stew veggies
1 onion quartered
sliced mushrooms (optional)
1 small can of beef broth
1 T of Worcestershire sauce
1 clove of garlic chopped
salt & pepper to taste

Dump into crock pot, stir and cook on low for 10-12 hours. Mmmmm!

Hot Dog Spaghetti . . .

How fun is this? I saw this on a friend's facebook page today and had to try it out! I knew my kids would love it.


All you need is hot dogs* and spaghetti.

Cut up the dogs and get ready to get your old Kerplunk skills out. (Didn't you just hate sticking all those sticks in the game before you could even start? I did!)


McCartney is my tried and true kitchen assistant. She really liked this project. All you do is stick the uncooked spaghetti through a piece of cut up hot dog. We did 5 spaghetti noodles per piece.

Then you make a silly toothless picture to amuse your mother.


Then you have a plate full for really funny looking things.


Dump them in some boiling water for about 10 minutes.


Then you get this!

The kids really wanted to put ketchup on it, but I couldn't handle the thought. They ate them really well without condiments.



*Don't lecture me about the evils of hot dogs. (I mean come on, I bought the nitrate free ones!) I was raised on hot dogs since my grandfather worked the "weiner machine" as he called it as Eckrich when I was little.

Vegetable Soup . . .

from a facebook friend, Thanks Jody.

One pound of Smoked sausage, cut it into chunks and brown them in a big kettle. (can also use beef chunks)
Add a chopped onion and two 29oz cans of stewed tomatoes.

Add 1 bag each of frozen corn, greenbeans, carrots, and peas. Add 2 cans of chick peas and 1 large can of V8 juice and 1 large can of beef broth.

Last, peel and chunk up 4 large potatoes.

Bring to a boil, turn it down on low put a lid on it and let it simmer 6 hours or more.

Now you can either do it that way or adjust the amount of items to fit whatever size crockpot you have. Put it all in and let it do it's thing. It is amazing. Even better the next day.

Corn Dog Muffins . . .

2 packages (8 1/2 ounces each) corn bread or muffin mix
2 T brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 can whole kernel corn
5 hot dogs slice (or cocktail weinies)

Combine corn bread mix and brown wugar. Combine eggs and milk and then stir into dry ingredients. Stir in kernel corn and hot dogs. (Batter will seem thin)

Fill paper muffin cups 3/4 full.

Bake at 400° for 14-18 minutes or until golden brown

The Coop Keeper's Bread . . .

Jayme runs a fabulous blog here. I made her bread for the first time last week. Since then, I have made it four more times! It rocks, and I hate to bake. I asked before I pretty much stole her entire post . . .

It's a recipe that I adapted from the Mother Earth News magazine for No Knead Bread. I don't follow it exactly as they do, and my results are fantastic. I now have about six ziploc bags made up with the 'bread mix' and all I have to do is add water and I'm done.

The recipe:

3 cups of flour

1 1/2 teaspoons of salt

1/4 teaspoon of yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

Mix the yeast and water in a large bowl and set aside. Mix the flour and salt together. Add to the water. Stir it around until it forms a shaggy ball. Cover it with plastic wrap tightly. Let it sit for 10, preferably 18 hours, at room temperature.

Now comes the fun part....punch the dough down (it will be VERY wet) and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Take a few more handfuls of flour and mix it into the dough, making it just where you can get ahold of it and it feels sorta like a water balloon. It will be a very soft, loose dough. I like to rub flour all over it at this point and slash it a couple of times on the top. Sit it on top of a hunk of parchment paper and cover it loosely with plastic wrap and let it sit for an hour or so.

Heat your oven to 500. Put your dutch oven in the oven while it's preheating.

Don't let the following step freak you out. After the oven is preheated, you have to lift that bread with the parchment paper and put it in the pot. I've never successfully done it without the bread deflating. It doesn't seem to matter!

Lower the oven temp to 425.

Cover the pot, and bake for 30 minutes.

Uncover, and bake about another 20 minutes, or until your bread looks brown and sounds hollow when tapped.

Try to let it cool for an hour before you cut it. Try hard.

Jayme also bakes bread in cans . . . check her out here.

Pretzel Salad . . .

1 cup crushed pretzels

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter melted

Combine above & line a baking dish. Something the size of an 8x8 square dish.

Reserve some for the top.

Cream together:

1 cup sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

3oz. Pkg. Phila. Cream cheese

Mix together:

1 Box lemon Jello

1/4 cup boiling water

Whip:

1 pt. whipping cream

(or 1/2 pt. whipping cream and 1 pkg. LuckyWhip or

2 pkg. LuckyWhip)

Add whipped cream to lemon Jello mixture. Then fold in cream cheese mixture.

Pour into lined dish. Sprinkle remaining crumbs on top.

Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.

When doubling this recipe I use an 8oz. pkg. of cream cheese.

I then increase the sugar from 2 cups to 2 ½ cups.

Increase the vanilla from 4 tsp. to 2 Tab.

Buffalo Chicken Dip . . .

1 8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 ranch dressing
1/2 Hot Sauce
2 cans (9.75 oz) shredded chicken

Soften cream cheese and stir in a pyrex dish with other ingredients. Heat in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until dip is warm and bubbly. I mixed mine together the night before in a bowl and sat in fridge until the next morning when I heated it and transferred it to a mini crockpot to keep warm for the party.

Sausage Muffins . . .

These were made by my sister in law Kari. I have no idea what they are called, but I like them. You use a muffin pan thus I called them sausage muffins!

The inside mixture is:
pound of sausage (she added some pepper, garlic etc to the sausage while cooking)
3/4 cup of ranch dressing
3/4 cup of cheddar
1/2 a green pepper diced

Cook the sausage and drain WELL. Toss in other ingredients when done. She said she can do this the night before and put it all in a ziplock bag in the fridge waiting to fill the shell.

The shells are simply store bought wonton wrappers.

She places the wonton in a muffin pan and spoons in the filling mixture. Cook in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.


Mmmmm!

Cake Pops . . .

Make a cake per mix instructions. I made a basic chocolate cake. Make sure you let it cool, completely! I cut mine in chunks and put it in the fridge for an hour or so.

Make Cream Cheese frosting. I made mine with this basic recipe:
1 8oz cream cheese (softened)
3 cups powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
3/4 stick of butter
1 T milk (or cream if you're feeling risky)
mix with hand mixer until smooth
Crumble your cooled cake. Add frosting until it is the consistency of playdoh. I used the universal measurement of a "glump". (Probably a cup or so.)



Roll cake with your hands to form smallish balls. Put them on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer.


Melt candy melts or almond bark in a mug per package instructions. Dip cake balls that have been put on a sucker stick. Roll until excess chocolate drips off, sprinkle before chocolate cools.



I stuck my pops in floral foam that I shoved in a basket. (I left it wrapped in the plastic so the foam wouldn't flake and be icky)

Frozen Strawberry Cake . . .

Ingredients:

1 box white cake mix
1 box strawberry-flavored instant gelatin
1 (15-ounce) package frozen strawberries, thawed and pureed
4 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix and gelatin. Add about 3/4 of the pureed strawberries, eggs, oil, and water; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour into prepared 9x12 pan, and bake for 40 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool completely before icing

Icing

Powdered Sugar
Butter
Remainder or pureed strawberries
Bit of milk


Mmmmmm!

Green Olive dip . . .

Mmmmm! This one will knock your socks off if you like green olives!

2 blocks of philadelphia cream cheese softened
1 cup of mayonnaise
4 T of olive juice

Mix all together with mixer.

Add one small bottle of olives with remaining juice poured off and finely chopped
1/2 cup of finely chopped pecans

This is WONDERFUL with Cracked Pepper and Olive Oil Triscuits.

Tomato Salad . . .

My husband and I planted a garden this summer. We planted way too many tomatoes (is there such a thing?) so I have had to be creative. I invented a Tomato Sald that I LOVE so much!

A while ago at Sam's club they were promo-ing this garlic seasoning with salmon. It is FABULOUS! I simply pan sear the salmon in butter with the seasoning. I have tried it on chicken, not so good. I decided to give it a shot with tomatoes.

I simply cut the grape tomatoes in half, or quarter the romas. We also planted these yellow ones shaped like light bulbs. Then I simply toss them in a little olive oil, Tone's Rosemary and Garlic Seasoning, salt and pepper. Then, I either add grated parmesan or slice string cheese.

I have also added shells and pepperoni which is really good too.

Enjoy!

Greatest tip ever . . .

A week ago I was eating in a local mexican restaurant. I went to dig into my guacamole and the entire scoop was filled with the avocado seed. When I mentioned it to the waitress she kindly offered to get me another serving, and informed me that the cooks do that to stop the guac from browning. I thought hmmm, wonder if that works?

Today I made guacamole. I left two seeds in. (I figured if one works, two works better!) This picture was taken 3 hours after it was made. Look mom no brown!
I have posted my recipe for guacamole before, but here's a refresher. This is what I did today,

4 avocados peeled, seeded and smushed with a fork in bowl
4 garden tomatoes, I prefer roma
5 or 6 shakes of Tabasco
dollop of salsa (more if you don't use fresh tomatoes)
1/4 cup of sour cream (can add a little ranch dressing for a zing)
salt pepper
an avocado seed (or 2)

Mix and put in sealed container in fridge, with pits!

Sheri's fried rice . . .

I made this last night. I haven't made it in years and forgot how much I loved it. I will let you know how I made it last night, but you can tailor it for you family. . .

2 scrambled eggs finely chopped
1 cup of fresh mushrooms chopped
1 cup of snow peas chopped
1 chicken breast chopped and browned in skillet

Mix these ingredients and toss in pan with a little oil just to warm them. Shake in soy sauce to taste. (I like lots!)

Add to 4 servings of Brown Rice (no butter, yes salt)

Easy!

Chocolate Covered Pretzels . . .

So very easy, and could be boring, but you can do some really interesting and fabulous combos if you just think outside of the box.

I hadn't made covered pretzels in years. I was in the grocery and found these adorable honey wheat mini pretzel twist rods. I thought they would be perfect for dipping. And they are festive and look great on a platter.


This was the fist batch I made a couple weeks ago. I had some Witlon melts in the cabinet so I used those. I remembered that I also had some white dipping bark left over from something or another. These are simply sprinkle ones and chocolate/white drizzled combo ones. I also had some walnuts so I dipped the pretzels in white bark, sprinkled on crushed walnuts and drizzled choclate over to hold them on. They are fabulous, chunky and I think are becoming my trademark!


We had a July 3rd party to go to last night and I decided the kids would love these little-more-than-a-bite-size treasures. I was right! They were a hit. I once again made all of the above and more. While I was standing in front of the pantry looking for inspiriation I found marshmallow-lovers hot chocolate packets. They have an entire packet of marshmallows only, so I made S'mores pretzels. They were gone in 2 seconds! I had nuked too much white bark and was out of ideas. I had been eating celery and peanut butter and the peanut butter jar was still on the counter. I decided to try to add a hunk of peanut butter to the white bark. I rewarmed it and it worked. Voila! Peanut butter dipped pretzels drizzled in chocolate. Yum!



Which bring us to today. We are heading to a cook-out at my parents house and my kids were begging for more pretzels. They would have been ADORABLE with red, white and blue sprinkles, but I am too cheap and too lazy to run out to the grocery. I did all the old favorites (using chunky peanut buter this time) and added white dipped pretzels topped with crunched up butterscotch candy canes (I know it's July don't judge) and we shall see how those are received. I ran out of pretzels so I also dipped some Town House crackers to fill the platter. I dipped those in chocolate and drizzled the left over peanut butter mixture to half. Mmmm!

I almost can't wait until the next carry-in to make more. I have grand thoughts for dipped pretzels with some ground and roasted coffee beans, Fruit Loop pretzels, toffee pretzels, Oreo pretzels and maybe even some with dried fruits! I will definintely keep you updated!

Tomato Bisque . . .

2 Large Cloves Garlic, minced (I use bottled minced garlic – 1 Tablespoon)

2 onions (can use frozen for a shortcut)

4 Tablespoons Butter

1 - 28oz Can of Diced Tomatoes

1 – 46oz Can of Tomato Juice

4 – Bay Leaves

1 – 8oz Package of Cream Cheese - softened

1 – Pint of Heavy Cream (you may also use light cream)

Salt & Pepper to taste

Lemon Juice (I use ½ of fresh lemon)

Saute’ onion and garlic in butter until soft. Add tomatoes, tomato juice and bay leaves. Simmer for 45 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove bay leaves from soup. Put two cups of soup in blender with the cream cheese and puree’. Add cream cheese mixture to soup. Add heavy cream and season with salt, pepper and lemon juice. May be served hot or cold. You can also add cooked shrimp, lobster or crabmeat.

Famous Dumplings in pictures . . .

Mix together:

5 cups flour
3 eggs
1 1/4 cup of broth
1 tsp garlic
1/2 Tspn Baking Powder
salt and pepper

While you are preparing dumpling dough, put some chicken stock on to boil. I used chicken breast that I have boiled and shredded, but sometimes the family just wants dumplings with no chicken.

Mommy's little helper

Flour the counter and roll out mixed dough (dough will be thick and springy)

Cut into long strips with pizza cutter lengthwise and then crosswise to make
strips about 1 inch by 3 inches.

Gather them up in a big wad. They will come apart in the boiling stock.

Drop in boiling broth - they will cook through in about 3 minutes.

They plump when you cook 'em.

Enjoy!

Mmmmm!

(crossed posted on my regular blog)

Sun Dried Tomato Cheese Dip . . .

2 blocks cream cheese (softened)
2 c. Mayo
Garlic powder
Onion powder

-blend above together til smooth

Add 1 jar of sundried tomatoes (chopped)
Add 1/2 jar roasted red pepper
Stir into Cr cheese mixture

Stir in:
2 cups italian cheese blend
2 cups mozzarella
3/4 c shredded parmesan

Baked in a greased pan about  30 min. @ 350

Easy Peas-y Tuna Casserole . . .

1 package egg noodles - cooked
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup frozen peas
2 cans drained tuna
1 can drained mushrooms
2 can cream of mushroom soup

Mix together in casserole dish

Bake 15-20 minnutes at 400 degrees

Top with 2 cups shredded cheese and c rushed chips and bake for 5 minutes more to melt cheese.

Broccoli Salad . . .

2 bunches of broccoli
1 lb of bacon crumbled
1 cup red grapes (or I prefer raisins)
1 small size red onion chopped
1/2 c sunflower seeds

Chop and mix

Dressing:

1 cup Mayo
1/4 cup sugar
squeeze of lemon juice

Stir together and stir into salad.