Monday, September 10, 2012

Menu Recipes

Have you been wondering what recipes I use in my menu?  Well, I know some of you do, because I've been asked for them!  So I thought I'd just go ahead and post them, so everyone can try them out, some of these are from various places, but I tend to change little things in all my recipes to my family's likes and dislikes, so they are a little different than where I go them from originally. 



Chicken Pot Pie
(I think I got this one right off the box of Bisquick!)
Ingredients:
2 Cans Mixed Vegetables
1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
Chicken Breast cooked and cut up
1 ¼ Cup Bisquick
½ Cup Milk
1 Egg
Instructions:
Heat oven to 400. 
Mix veggies, soup and chicken in 2 Qt. Casserole dish. 
Stir in remaining ingredients in small bowl
until well blended. 
Pour into dish on top of chicken mixture.
Bake 35-40 min or until golden brown.
 
Baked Ziti
Ingredients:
1 lb. Hamburger
1 Jar Spaghetti Sauce
15 oz. Ricotta Cheese
2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
4 Cup Grated Parmesan
8 oz. Uncooked Ziti Noodles
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400.  
Cook noodles to directions on package
Combine everything except 1 cup mozzarella
in 13x9 dish.
Cover with foil and bake for 55 min. 
Remove foil and sprinkle with leftover cheese, then bake uncovered for 5 minutes. 
Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Crock Pot Roast
Ingredients:
5lbs Chuck Roast
Lipton Onion Soup Mix
1 Bag Baby Carrots
10-12 Small Yellow Potatoes or Red Potatoes
Instructions:
Place roast in crock pot,
sprinkle with onion soap mix
and add 4 cups of water. 
Add carrots around meat,
clean potatoes and if red-do not slice,
if yellow, cut into 2 inch pieces. 
Cook on high for 4 hour,
then on low for 3-4 more hours.


Spaghetti Pizza
Ingredients:
Spaghetti Noodles Cooked and Drained
Cook and drain 1 lb. Ground Beef
1 Cup Milk
2 Eggs
1 Jar Sauce
Pepperoni, Cheese, or whatever toppings you like.
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375.
Put noodles in 9x13 pan and pour milk and egg mix over noodles.
Spread ground beef over noodles, pour sauce over beef, and top with all over toppings. 
Bake for 20 min. 
Take out and spread cheese then
bake for 10 minutes more.

Tater Tot Casserole
Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef, cooked and drained
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup (substitute with Cream of Chicken if you prefer!)
1 cup Grated Mild Cheddar
1 (2lb) bag Frozen Tater Tots
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350. 
Mix beef and soup in bottom of 9x13 pan,
top with cheese, then spread frozen tater tots over mixture and cheese. 
Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes,
uncover and bake 15 minutes more.
 
 Cheeseburger Pie
(Off the Bisquick box too, I think!)
Ingredients:
1 lb Ground Beef, brown and drain
1 ½ cup Shredded Mild Cheese
1 cup Bisquick Mix
2 cups Milk
4 Eggs
Instructions:
Heat oven to 400.
Grease 9x13 pan.
Spread beef on bottom of pan. 
Sprinkle with cheese. 
Mix Bisquick, eggs, and milk together,
pour over beef and cheese.
Bake 25 minutes, or until knife comes out clean.


 Sloppy Joes
Ingredients:
1 bottle Original KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce
1 lb Ground Beef, cooked and drained
1 can Pork and Beans
Hamburger Buns
Instructions:
Mix beef and beans together,
add BBQ Sauce to taste. 
Heat through. 
Serve on buns.

 Hawaiian Chicken
Ingredients:
6 Boneless Chicken Breasts
1 can (8oz.) Crushed Pineapple
1 bottle BBQ Sauce
4-6 cups Cooked Rice
Instructions:
Grease crock pot, place meat, combine pineapple and BBQ sauce over meat. 
Cover and cook on high 3-4 hours or
on low 6-8 hours. 
Serve over rice.

 Beef Stroganoff
Ingredients:
1 lb Stew Meat
1 block Cream Cheese
1 can Beef Broth
2 tsp Garlic Salt
Egg Noodles, cooked and drained
Instructions:
Place stew meat, ¾ can beef broth, garlic salt and 1 cup water in crock pot, cook on low 4 hours. 
Place cream cheese in microwave safe dish and melt, stirring occasionally,
add leftover beef broth, stir well,
then add to crock pot, stir all together. 
Serve over noodles.
Sauce will thicken as it stands.

 Country Salisbury Steak
Ingredients:
1 ½  lbs Ground Beef
1 Box Chicken Stuffing
1 ½ Cups Water
Instructions:
Heat oven to 375. 
Mix meat, stuffing mix,
1 ½ cups of water until blended.  
Shape into patties, place in jelly roll pan. 
Bake 25 minutes or until done. 
Meanwhile cook brown gravy according to package and serve over steaks.

 Lawnmower Taco
(From HERE)
Ingredients:
1 lb Ground Beef
1 Package of  Taco Seasonings
¼ Cup of Flour
2 Cups of Chicken or Beef Broth
9 oz. Tortilla Chips, Crushed
2 Cups Grated Cheese
Instructions:
In large skillet, brown beef.  Stir in taco seasoning.  Sprinkle with flour over top.  Stir to combine. Stir in broth and bring to a simmer.  Simmer until sauce thickens. Grease 9x13 baking pan.  Place ½ crushed chips across bottom, layer with ½ meat sauce and then half the cheese.  Repeat layers.  If cooking right away, place in oven at 325 and bake for about 20 minutes. 
If making as a freezer meal, thaw before baking.


Meatloaf Muffins
(If you love your meat loaf recipe, use it, just put it in the muffin pans!)
Ingredients:
1 Beaten Egg
About 15 Ritz Crackers, Crushed
¼ Cup Milk, Beer, or Apple Juice
1 Tbsp. Dried Minced Onion
½ Tsp. Basil
½ Tsp. Oregano
1 lb Ground Beef (Lean)
2 Tbsp. BBQ Sauce
Instructions:
Heat oven to 350. 
Grease 12 Cup Muffin Pan.
In mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. 
Spoon mixture into muffin pan. 
Bake for 25 minutes or until cooked through.


Chicken & Noodles
(From the Reames website? Not sure)
 Ingredients:
3 Frozen Chicken Breasts
6 Cans Chicken Broth
Reames Noodles
Instructions:
Boil Chicken and cut up into small pieces. 
Boil Reames Noodles in chicken broth and then add chicken.  Thicken with flour, if needed. 
Serve over mashed potatoes.

 Taco Bowls
Ingredients:
2 Cans Jumbo Biscuits
2 lb Ground Beef
Taco Seasonings
Refried Beans
1 Cup Shredded Mild Cheddar Cheese
Instructions:
Brown and drain ground beef,
season as package instructs. 
Spread biscuits into muffin pans
making cups with them. 
Spoon refried beans into bottom of biscuit bowls, then spoon taco meat on top of beans. 
Bake for time instructed on biscuit can. 
Sprinkle with cheese as soon as you take them out of the oven.

Lasagna
Instructions:
1 lb Ground Beef, browned, drained
2 tsp Dried, Minced Garlic and Basil
1 Jar Ragu Traditional Sauce
1 Tsp. Dried Oregano
Lasagna Noodles
1 Beaten Egg
1- 15oz Ricotta Cheese
¼ Cup Parmesan Cheese
8oz Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Instructions:
Heat oven to 375. 
Mix egg, ricotta, Parmesan, 6oz. Mozzarella,  and spices. 
Combine sauce and meat. 
Layer a 9x13 pan with
1)Noodles
2)Cheese Mixture
3)Meat Sauce
and repeat.
Top with leftover Mozzarella. 
Cover with foil and bake 35 minutes. 
Remove foil and bake 10 minutes more.

Chicken Enchiladas
(From HERE)
Ingredients:
3 Chicken Breasts Shredded
1 Pkg Cream Cheese
2 28oz Green Enchilada Sauce
1 Can Black Beans, Drained and Rinsed
2 Cups Cooked Rice
20 Tortillas
3 Cups Shredded Monterrey and Colby Cheese.
2-9X13 Pans, Freeze 1!
Instructions:
Heat oven to 375.
Cook chicken and shred, boil rice. 
Mix the chicken, cream cheese, and 2 cups of the
enchilada sauce together. 
Pour half a cup of the sauce into the bottom of each 9x13 baking dish.  Layer the bean and rice on each tortilla, top with the chicken mixture in each tortilla. 
Roll up each tortilla and place in dish, seam side down. 
Top with one cup of the enchilada sauce and cheese. 
Cover with foil and bake for 25 min. 
Uncover, then turn on the broiler and broil for 3-5 minutes,
just long enough to brown the cheese.


Chicken and Cheesy Rice
Ingredients:
3 Chicken Frozen Chicken Breasts
1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
6 Cups of Cooked Instant Rice
2 Cups Shredded Mild Cheddar
Instructions:
Heat oven to 400.
Place frozen chicken in a 9x13 dish.
Pour soup over top. 
Cover with foil and bake for 55 minutes.
Remove from oven and cut up chicken.
Cook rice and then mix rice with chicken and soup mixture.
Top with cheese and serve.

 I don't have pictures to go with any of these, maybe someday, if I make a cook book (NOT!), anyway, just passing along some of what my family eats!

Levi

My favorite sister in law had her baby boy a couple of weeks ago, August 28th!  Looking back at all my pictures, is reminding me why I haven't posted in awhile, there has been a lot going on!


He's a big boy!  










 
Came out weighing, 9lbs, 8oz., 21.5 inches long.  





Fresh out of the "oven".





Faith was almost as excited as Eliza to see this little man here.



Ethan thought he was 
pretty sweet.



Zach was more happy to see his Uncle Nick, than the baby, but he was really excited to hold him, "All by himself".

Here's the ol' pro, she's held a lot of baby cousins and baby brothers and sisters 
in her 13 years.  



She's was pretty pleased with this one.

Pretty much on a daily basis Faith asks about Levi now, he made quite an impression on all of us!


How's It Going?

First of all, I am SO HAPPY with our family's new schedule, I really feel like there is now time for everything and that I am not trying to squeeze things in anymore.  Laundry is going so much more smoothly, and I am NOT doing it 7 days a week anymore, which is probably my favorite thing.  The entire house seems to be staying cleaner, things that have kind of been raking on me, like dirty bathrooms, for instance, are now being cleaned MUCH more regularly.

The kids are learning the expectations I have set for them, and accomplishing them, which gives them more freedom, when they thought it would mean more restriction.  While I have always been more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda girl when it came to "schedules", I am finding that we were all missing out.  When the kids were each babies, I immediately had them on sleep-feed-wake time schedules and they thrived, so I'm not sure why I thought this would be different.  It is true, kids CRAVE structure.

I am feeling good about all my goals, I seemed to have taken a week off in the area of exercise when the kids started school, which I paid for, but I'm back in the groove of things now.  My weight loss is right on target, this past Thursday was 2 months since I started this journey, and I'm down 15.6 pounds, my goal was 7 per month! 

Our dinner menus are still working great, even with school starting, and I am starting to experiment with the kids lunches, to keep them eating well, even at school.  Grace and Ethan REALLY enjoy eating at school, I'm not keen on the variety of healthy foods OR the price for school lunches now-YIKES!  To keep it interesting, I'm trying really hard to include foods they love and a wider variety, I hope to post more on this soon.

With Faith and I here alone together, she is learning to play on her own more, and I am taking time to craft (a post coming soon!).  I'm working really hard to not entertain her constantly or let her watch a bunch of cartoons, she is so fun to listen to while she is playing babies.  I told her the other day that someday she will be a really good mommy, to which she replied, "Mommy, I AM a mommy!".  My bad!  She is so cute.

The three younger kids have started AWANA, Faith asks just about everyday if today is the day.  And they are all doing so well with their verses.  Ethan has been working on them every night before bed.  I told him, there is nothing better than going to sleep with scripture on your mind!

Grace is loving her new youth group, and I feel very blessed by that.  Each of the kids are really enjoying attending Covenant Baptist.  It's still a little surreal to me, since I grew up in that church, but it's already becoming home for our family.

Faith and I went to the first MOPS meeting of the year last week, it is going to be a really great year, we are all so excited.  It's a fantastic group of ladies!
I'm one of the small group leaders again this year, we had so much fun doing some videos for the first meeting, HERE is the other one we did!


Back To School

I fully admit that getting back to school has worn me out and thrown me for a loop.  It's been a few weeks and I finally feel like things are settling.  I cannot believe I have not posted these back to school pictures yet!  
Grace in the 8th grade now.
Ethan is a 5th grader.
This is Zach's first year in school, starting Kindergarten, he LOVES school so much, he's actually upset on Fridays!  
They were REALLY excited for school to start!
This was Zach's back to school night, he was so excited that his name tag is yellow (his favorite color!).
There has been a little adjustment period for Zach, he's learning to follow the rules, but he really likes his teacher.
Ethan is really happy to have most of his friends from last year in his class again this year.
He REALLY likes his teacher this year.
Faith is starting preschool on Wednesday, I am really excited to see how much progress she will make there.  Her speech has been slowly progressing, but, like today, some days I can barely understand anything she says.  Unless you have been where I am right now, it's really hard to understand the frustration that we all have, not being able to understand her.  At preschool she will forced to work harder, and she will have a speech therapist working one on one with her.

It's really hard for me to not be mad at the doctor for not catching her issues sooner, and at myself for not pushing the matter more.  I have to focus on how far she has come, and know that she is going to continue to get better.  Something that I have to continue to work hard at is translating for her.  I have learned to understand some of what she says that others don't understand and I am horrible about translating for her, instead of making her work to say it correctly.  All of us are bad about that, Zach has this ability to understand almost everything she says and he translates for us, it's really not helping any of us though, especially Faith, we have to let her fail and succeed on her own.  Being away from all of us three mornings a week, I think is going to make a big difference.

I am so glad that my kids enjoy school so much.  It makes me feel so good that they love learning so much.  It's going to be a great year!