White Chicken Chili

1 T olive oil

1/2 small onion chopped

3 T flour

Sprinkle of Garlic salt

1 t. ground cumin

2 cans Great Northern Beans

2 cans chicken broth 

1 1/2 c. finely chopped chicken breast

(optional items)

Shredded Cheese

Sour Cream

Bagel Chips

Cook onion in oil for 4 minutes or until transparent. Add Chicken, flour, and seasonings, cook for 2 minutes. Add beans, salsa, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Simmer for 10 minutes or until thickened.

Garnish with Cheese, sour cream, and bagel chips. You can add more salsa if you like.

Cheesy Flax Pizza Loaf

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 c. flax seed
2 T. sugar
1 T. fast rising yeast
1 c. water
2 T. butter

2 c. shredded cheese
1 c. pasta sauce (marinara)
Canadian Bacon, Pepperoni, Ham, etc.
Peppers, shredded veggies like carrots, zuchini, etc.

Heat water & butter until steaming. Pour over the dry ingredients. Mix in more flour if needed. (up to 1/2 c. each of wheat or white flour). Knead 4 minutes. Roll out dough thin into a rectangle/oval shape. Just make it about the size of your baking sheet, maybe a tad wider.

Lay dough out onto pan, add pasta sauce down the middle, top with meat, veggies, cheese, etc.

Now, if you're me, you'll stab at your cheese for awhile. 

(I buy a huge bag of Mozzarella Cheese from Sam's and keep it in my freezer. This is awesome to always have cheese on hand, but it gets stuck together sometimes and you have to stab it. Don't feel sorry for the cheese, it's serving it's purpose).

Ok, next.... 

Slice diagonally down each side about every 2 inches or so. ( Now, if you slice all the way up to the sauce and you use a lot of sauce, then it will ooze out while it bakes. That's fine, but you'll want a pan with an edge in that case. Otherwise, you'll want to stay just a little away from the sauce so it stays inside.) Then lay the pieces over top, alternating sides. Brush with Egg Wash. (Nifty *Tips about Egg washes.)

Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Eat it. Cause it's yummy!!

Camo Camping Party- Hudson's 5th Birthday

  My middle kiddo, Hudson, turned 5 beginning of August. He was wanting a Camouflage Camping theme this year. He is ALL boy that is for sure. He loves anything camo, army, cowboy, camping, knights, pirates, etc. This theme was fun and not too hard to pull off.

 We had a lot of fun... until that is my youngest puked on the kitchen floor during cutting the cake. THAT did put a damper on things. I told her it was a major party foul. But because of that I missed getting very many pics of the kiddos. Really meant to get a group shot, but I was busy bathing a pukey 2 yr old and then holding her wrapped in her blanket for the rest of the evening.

Party Details

Red Lantern, Camo plate, & $1 flashlights for the goody bags- Walmart

Green napkins- Ikea

Large white Frame- Target

Cake Stand- Pottery Barn

Box Cake with homemade Chocolate Icing

Rice Crispy Smores Recipe found here

Burlap, Trees, Scrapbooking paper,  Letter "H" and tiny wood pine tree- Hobby Lobby

Camping shirt- Perry Jayne - me :)

I made the Paper tags for the goody bags and things in Publisher.

For all the ideas I didn't have time to do,  you can visit my Pinterest Board

 The little tent on the right there is just cardboard covered in camo fabric and then a cardboard "5" glued on. The grass is just a bit of felt that I cut up. The flag on top is felt that I hot glued on too. 

 I missed getting pics of the all the food, but the menu for the evening was:

Sloppy Joes (I also added a couple cans of baked beans to mine)

Hot Dogs

Cornflake Potato Casserole

Chips

Pickles

Veggies with ranch dip

Snagged these pine cones from the school's pick up line (It's lined with tons of pine trees). Then just hot glued them to some twine.

 In the goody bags, I put Trail Mix and Flashlights.

Here's a pic of Huds helping me fill the goody bags. He was so sweet to help.

  Hudson wanted his tent on the back porch for his friends to play in. I made sure to put some bug spray out there for them too.

 Hudson got some camo paint from one of his friends and had to try it out immediately. :)

 Hudson with his cake. 

Orginally I was going to plan some games, but the kiddos seemed to have fun just playing in the backyard.

Last, I'll leave you with a few pics of our family celebration, we had on his actual birthday last week.

Portobello & Red Pepper Pita

This is my new Favorite Lunch.

Whole Wheat Pita Pocket
1 big Portobello Mushroom or several slices
 1/4 cup Chopped Red Pepper
1/2 cup Match Stick Carrots
1 cup of "Rainbow Slaw" (shredded veggies)
1/4 cup Chopped Onion
Chopped Dried Dates (maybe 2)
Low Sodium Soy Sauce ( 1-2 Tablespoons)
Grapeseed Oil
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
maybe even throw in a couple Tablespoons of raw shelled sunflower seeds.

The textures in this a great. The crunchy veggies and sunflower seeds contrast with the soft mushrooms. The tastes are great too, the sweet dates, and slightly salty soy sauce. It's so good!! My husband even likes it, although I leave the mushrooms off of his.

I don't usually cook with measurements, so this is sort of guesswork on what I do here, so you can adjust as you want.
So I throw all the veggies in a pan with just a tad of Grapeseed oil. OR you can put them in a casserole dish in the oven for about 10-12 minutes at 350.  Either way.
I put my pita bread in the toaster on the lowest setting, then fill it up.  This should make enough for 2. Yum!!

I've adapted this recipe from the Eat to Live Book by Dr. Fuhrmann

Tortilla Pie

My friend, Shelly from I didn't sign up for this, sent me this recipe from Real Simple for Tortilla Pie. A spectacular "Meatless Meal". It was delicious. I will be making it again very soon. You should try it. It was pretty healthy too. 

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 white corn tortillas
• 1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained, and excess moisture squeezed out
• 6 ounces good-quality Feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes (1/2-inch chunks) or one 14.5-ounce can petite-cut diced tomatoes with garlic and olive oil (such as Del Monte), drained
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 fresh basil leaves, torn

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Spray an 8-inch pie pan with cooking spray. Pour 1 tablespoon of the olive oil into a small bowl and lightly brush each tortilla on both sides. Place the tortillas around the pan to form an overlapping circular crust. Bake 5 minutes, until lightly golden.
3. Spoon the spinach evenly over the tortillas, then put half the Feta on top. Sprinkle with the chopped tomatoes and top with the remaining Feta. Drizzle with the remaining olive oil and season with the salt and pepper.
4. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until the cheese is golden. Let stand for 5 minutes before slicing. Garnish with the basil.

I didn't end up using the basil because I didn't have that on hand, and I only used 4 ounces of feta because that's how much was in my package I bought. And as you can see in the photo I put way more tomatoes on one half because my husband is a bigger fan of tomatoes than I am. :)

No Fail French Bread

This bread is DELICIOUS!
 My family gobbled it up. It makes too die for toast. 
I toasted the bread for turkey & swiss sandwiches and it was so awesome!


Recipe found on Barefoot & Baking


* A few additions to her instructions: I added a little extra flour (dusting) when I kneaded it each time because the dough was pretty sticky. And I kneaded for only about 30 seconds each time. After the last time I kneaded it and it rested 10 min, I then formed it into loaves, in other words- I didn't knead it right before I formed them into loaves. I also cut diagonal slits on the tops, and put a little egg wash on top before baking on the middle rack into the preheated oven- and I didn't pre-heat my stone.

Yummy Blueberry Crumb Cake !

I found this delicious recipe for Blueberry Crumb Cake 

on the Pioneer Woman's Blog. You should make it... 

'cause it's so good! Really good served for breakfast, warm with a nice

 cup of coffee, but equally good served as dessert.

Pizza Night

Sunday night, Ella and I made Pizza. She was such a good helper. She was even good at clean up time. What a sweetie, right? Hudson lucked out and actually napped during the "hard work" and just got to enjoy the fruits of our labor. :)

Super Fabulous Healthy Pizza Dough Recipe

1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. all purpose flour
1/4 c. flax seed
2 T. sugar
1 T. fast rising yeast
1 c. water
2 T. butter

Heat water & butter until steaming. Pour over the dry ingredients. Mix in more flour if needed. (up to 1/2 c. each of wheat or white flour). Knead 4 minutes. Roll out dough very thin.(I can usually get one somewhat large pizza and another smaller one out of this recipe) Top with sauce, and whatever toppings you like (minus the cheese). Then bake 15 minutes at 450 degrees. I like to bake mine on my stone. Top with cheese (we like mozzarella and cheddar) and bake another 5 minutes.
My favorite toppings are squash, green peppers, and zucchini. Although, Hudson prefers just cheese, so we just put veggies on half of it. We also like to use ground venison. It's super lean and tastes great on pizza. And has the added benefit of being free (minus the hunting license- so maybe not so free, LOL. ) But knowing that the venison has no hormones, ate a natural diet and was processed by Jason and his friends gives me peace of mind that the meat is healthy and was processed in a humane & safe way.
Occasionally I make a Chicken Pizza and will sub the red sauce out for pesto, which is also pretty delicious- although makes for a pretty rich tasting pizza.

What's for Dinner Tonight?

Heres the original recipe here. I made a few changes, so here's my revised version below:

1 (15 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (or Mozzarella Cheese)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
Shake on some garlic salt & pepper
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast HALVES

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

I drained the artichokes and then dried them a little with some paper towels, even squeezed them a little. I think the mixture would have been way too runny if I hadn't done that. Then I used my Pamper Chef chopper and chopped them up pretty small.

In a medium bowl, mix together the artichoke hearts, cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream, garlic salt, and pepper. Place chicken in a greased 9 X 13 baking dish, and cover evenly with artichoke mixture.
Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until chicken is no longer pink in the center and juices run clear.

You will want to serve with either pasta or rice. The gooey artichoke mixture is super good, but a little rich to just eat on it's own. I liked eating it on pasta. Very good.

*Here's my extra two cents: Mine for sure took 40 minutes to cook and I had sliced my chicken breasts in half to make them thinner. It would take FOREVER if you used actual full chicken breasts. Also, I thought I could use a 8 X 8 pan and ended up not being able to fit more than 3 Chicken Breast halves and it was super full of the artichoke mixture. It might have cooked faster if it was in the 9 X 13 - where the Chicken would have been so "insulated" with the artichoke mixture.

Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Bread

1 1/4 c. Wheat Flour
1/4 c. flax seed
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. honey
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
3 T canola oil
2 eggs
2-3 bananas
1 cup oats
1/2 c. chopped Walnuts
1/2 c. mini chocolate chips

Mix it up. Spray your pan with Non-stick cooking spray. Throw it in the oven at 350 for 45-55 minutes.
I actually baked mine at 375 for about half an hour and then 25 min at 350- also I was out of brown sugar and used white and it was fine.


* I found this recipe the other day and jotted it down. It come from somewhere in blogosphere- Wish I could give credit. If you see it somewhere you can link it up in the comments. I did add the nuts and choc chips to the recipe. You just can't eat Banana Bread without Chocolate Chips. 

Easy Cheesy Enchiladas

   

Easy Cheesy Enchiladas

•      1 tablespoon olive oil
•      1/4 cup finely chopped onion
•      1 clove garlic- minced
•      1 (7 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
•      2 cups cottage cheese
•      1 teaspoon garlic salt
•      1 pinch ground black pepper
•      12 (6 inch) corn tortillas
•      2 cups shredded Cheese (Cheddar or Monterey Jack)
•     2 (10 ounce) cans mild red enchilada sauce

     

     Saute onion & garlic in olive oil.

     Mix cottage cheese, 1 cup of shredded cheese, 1 can of green chili’s, onion & garlic, garlic salt & pepper.

     Warm tortillas in microwave 30 seconds with a damp paper towel around them to soften.

     Pour a little sauce in the bottom of your 9X13 casserole dish. Then start filling your tortillas with mixture. Roll up a 

     and place seam down. After dish is full, pour enchilada sauce over top and then top with the rest of your shredded     

     cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 min or until warmed through and cheese is melted and bubbly.

     Serve with chips, salsa, guacamole & sour cream. Yum!

    Add Ins OR Substitutions:

     2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - boiled and shredded (or you could use canned chicken)

               -I like to then sauté the chicken in a little olive oil with a ½ c of salsa to really give it flavor

      Frozen or Drained Canned Corn

      Black Olives
You can sub green enchilada sauce for the red. It's super good too.

      You can also substitute cream of mushroom soup or cream cheese for the cottage cheese- or do a mix of all three.

     The best part of this recipe is that almost everything is a canned item that you can keep on hand. The only real 

     fresh ingredients are the cheese products and since you can sub the cottage cheese for cream cheese or cream of                                       

     mushroom soup, I always have one of those on hand.

     ****Disclaimer- I NEVER use actual measurements when making this- so these are my best guesses at how much to use, so you may need to adjust slightly.

Valentine's Day Breakfast

Recipe for muffins. 

I did add the crumb topping to my heart ones above. (although it doesn't look much like a heart. LOL)

How To: Bear Cupcakes

What you need:

Store Bought Cake Mix

Homemade Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

1/2 c. softened Butter

2 T. Milk

2 cups Powdered Sugar

2 t. Vanilla Extract

Nilla Wafers-24 cut in half and 24 whole ones

Reece's Pieces- 48 of the brown ones to be exact

Pink Icing (in a Can or tube) You could color a little of the Buttercream icing and put it in a baggie and cut the tip off or put it in one of those nifty contraptions made for squirting out icing in nice lines, but I'm not that professional.

Make Cupcakes-Let cool-really let cool ALL the way.  Freeze in Air tight container. (Put wax paper in between if you stack them. I didn't and I had gooey bits of cupcake on the bottom of the wrappers that had been stacked on top.) Freezing them, keeps them from crumbling when you ice them.

Frost with buttercream icing.  Use a whole cookie and draw a nose and mouth on. Then add the eyes. Next cut Nilla wafers for ears and put a little pink in the ears. Stick those on. And you're done.

Eat them up. Yum.

My Momma's Homemade Salsa

Black Bean and Chicken Quesadillas and

 My Momma's Homemade Salsa

So delicious!

I made some yummy Black Bean and Chicken Quesadillas on Saturday for my family. One of the few foods my son will eat. He's quite picky, so I try to sneak lots of veggies and protein into the foods he loves. 

Here he is chowing down on his quesadilla.

For the Quesadillas:

 I just spray a little cooking spray in my pan & brown one side of the tortilla. While the first side is browning, I very lightly spray the top with cooking spray and sprinkle it with just a tad of coarse salt. It gives it great flavor. Then flip & fill with: Cooked Diced or Shredded Chicken, My Momma's Salsa, Black Beans, (green chili's if you have them) & a little Cheddar. (I also love to throw in Black Olives, but my family isn't a big fan of those). 

The best part is my mom's salsa.

 She came last week and we made up a fresh batch. Yum! My husband LOVES my mom's salsa, so I was glad to finally write down the ingredients and watch her do it. So much easier than I had envisioned.  You just toss the ingredients one by one into the food processor and give it a good pulse. It's best if you can leave it a little chunky and not get it all liquified. But I really don't think you could mess it up.

Here's the ingredients: but you could vary it to your tastes

Let me know if you can't read my handwriting and I'll clarify. 

(Oh and it says to buy the Aldi's brand of Rotel, if you live near an Aldi's my mom swears this brand tastes the best, but if not any brand will be fine).

Apple Cinnamon Muffins- Yum!!

This is my favorite thing to make for breakfast when my family is in town. (Which they were on Monday.) It's quick, super easy, and very tasty.
Got this recipe from a friend. I tweaked it a tad, here's my version.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
3/4 c. white flour
3/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
1 egg beaten
1/3c. melted butter
1/2 c. milk
1c. chopped apple
1/2 c. chopped toasted walnuts

Not shown in this picture, but I also like to put a crumb topping on these:
CRUMB TOPPING
1/4 c. chopped walnuts
1/2 c. flour
2 T sugar
2 T brown sugar
2-3 T melted butter
Mix together and put on top of muffins before you bake them.

Mix all ingredients. Put in greased muffin tin or use muffin liners.
Bake 18-23 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Enjoy some delicious warm muffins with a big cup of coffee.

Silly Little Treats

My sweet little girl wanted to make treats for her birthday. We were having a big party the next day with cake so we decided to just make a little something fun. So I let her dip pink marshmallows in icing and then decorate them with sprinkles and M&M's. She had so much fun and they looked like cute little cupcakes. She and her little brother gobbled them right up. Fun!