Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Busy Day Beef Vegetable Soup
I first made this dish last winter and it's since become a staple in my house. It's so easy to throw together and so good! I chopped my veggies the night before so when I woke up all I had to do was throw everything into the slow cooker. I came home to a warm, ready-to-eat, delicious meal!
He had a pretty good sized bowl full and it was completely clean by the time he was done. He even asked for more so I gave him a couple pieces of potato and then some applesauce for dessert. The best part? As soon as I sat him down and put the bowl in front of him he said, "Thank you, mommy." And he kept thanking me all throughout the meal. I couldn't have been happier!
This is seriously such an easy dish to make and you can add or remove ingredients to your liking. Next up: Tasty Turkey Chili!
Busy-Day Beef Vegetable Soup
Prep: 20 minutes / Cook: 8 to 10 hours (low) or 4 to 5 hours (high) / Makes: 4 servings
1 pound boneless beef chuck pot roast
3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into ½ -inch pieces
2 small potatoes, cut into ½ inch pieces
½ cup chopped onion (1 medium)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
1 bay leaf
2 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup water
½ cup frozen peas
Fresh parsley sprigs (optional)
1. Trim fat from meat. Cut meat into 3/4 –inch pieces. In 3 ½ - or 4-quart slow cooker, combine meat, carrots, potatoes, and onion. Sprinkle with salt and thyme; add bay leaf. Pour in undrained tomatoes and the water.
2. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 8 to 10 hours or on high-heat setting for 4 to 5 hours. Discard bay leaf. Stir in frozen peas. If desired, garnish each serving with parsley.
Nutrition facts per serving: 269 calories, 4g fat, 67mg cholesterol, 746mg sodium, 29g carbohydrates, 4g fiber, 28g protein
Unfortunately, I don't remember where I originally found this recipe but my best guess is Better Homes and Gardens. I make it according to the directions above, but I do increase the amount of carrots and potatoes and I've even added celery before.
I figured Jack would pick at it before really giving it a chance (despite having had it before), but he immediately started digging in and with 2 utensils!
He had a pretty good sized bowl full and it was completely clean by the time he was done. He even asked for more so I gave him a couple pieces of potato and then some applesauce for dessert. The best part? As soon as I sat him down and put the bowl in front of him he said, "Thank you, mommy." And he kept thanking me all throughout the meal. I couldn't have been happier!
This is seriously such an easy dish to make and you can add or remove ingredients to your liking. Next up: Tasty Turkey Chili!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Wordless Wednesday: "Thumbs Up"
P.S. I created a custom header (yay me!) using Picnik, but I can't figure out how to center it. It's also too big. Anyone know what a good size is and how to center it on the page? Thanks!
Monday, January 16, 2012
Pizza Muffins!
I was looking on none other than Pinterest for some food inspiration, and I found a picture of some pizza creation cooked in a muffin pan. Clicking on the pin didn't take me anywhere though, so I went to good old Google for some help. I found a few different recipes I liked, but ended up using this one as my base.
There really isn't a set recipe and you can pretty much do whatever you want with these. You just need a can of refrigerator biscuits, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese (could probably use another cheese as well), parmesan, spices (if desired), and any toppings you can think of!
Cut each biscuit in half, making 16 pieces of dough. Take each piece of dough, flatten it out, and press it down in a greased muffin pan. Make sure you stretch the sides up. Spoon some pizza sauce into each cup. Top with mozzarella cheese. Now comes the fun part. Add any toppings you'd like! I used turkey pepperoni slices and mushrooms, but next time I might add onions, green peppers, and one of my favorites- pineapples! After you've added your toppings, sprinkle some parmesan and oregano on the top.
Bake in 375 degree oven for 15 minutes. And...voila!
I thought some of my dough wasn't spread high enough, but they don't need to fill the entire space. They baked nicely and turned into deliciousness! I definitely preferred the ones with mushrooms to the ones with pepperoni. I did make a few with both and those were good too. I also sprinkled basil on a few of them instead of oregano. I didn't notice much difference. I made Jack some plain ones because he hates mushrooms and turned his nose up at the slice of pepperoni I offered him. The most surprising and disappointing part of all of this? He wouldn't eat the 2 I put on his plate. I basically forced him to take a bite of the biscuit (I broke a piece off), because I figured once he realized what it was he'd dig in. We had biscuits with Christmas dinner and he loved them. He loves cheese, he loves pizza, and he loves muffins. But he wouldn't eat them. We'll see if he eats the spinach muffins I plan on making soon. Yes you heard that right. Spinach muffins.
There were only 5 of these leftover, 3 pepperoni and 2 cheese. I ate the pepperoni ones today for lunch and I'm happy to report that they were better than I expected they would be as leftovers. I put the cheese ones in Jack's lunchbox and I'm curious to find out if he ate them or not. He tends to eat anything I pack him for daycare. He probably eats a lot more veggies with his lunch than any other kid since he basically refuses them at dinner!
I found a recipe where you brown ground beef or turkey, add your favorite spaghetti sauce, and use that as your filling for the dough cups. Sounds delish and I may have to give that a try too! These would be terrific for a party or game day!
Today I've got beef stew cooking in the crock pot. It's incredibly easy and really good. I'll post that recipe later on for anyone who's interested. Have a great week!
And thanks, Anika, for motivating me to start posting recipes again! :)
There really isn't a set recipe and you can pretty much do whatever you want with these. You just need a can of refrigerator biscuits, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese (could probably use another cheese as well), parmesan, spices (if desired), and any toppings you can think of!
Cut each biscuit in half, making 16 pieces of dough. Take each piece of dough, flatten it out, and press it down in a greased muffin pan. Make sure you stretch the sides up. Spoon some pizza sauce into each cup. Top with mozzarella cheese. Now comes the fun part. Add any toppings you'd like! I used turkey pepperoni slices and mushrooms, but next time I might add onions, green peppers, and one of my favorites- pineapples! After you've added your toppings, sprinkle some parmesan and oregano on the top.
Bake in 375 degree oven for 15 minutes. And...voila!
I thought some of my dough wasn't spread high enough, but they don't need to fill the entire space. They baked nicely and turned into deliciousness! I definitely preferred the ones with mushrooms to the ones with pepperoni. I did make a few with both and those were good too. I also sprinkled basil on a few of them instead of oregano. I didn't notice much difference. I made Jack some plain ones because he hates mushrooms and turned his nose up at the slice of pepperoni I offered him. The most surprising and disappointing part of all of this? He wouldn't eat the 2 I put on his plate. I basically forced him to take a bite of the biscuit (I broke a piece off), because I figured once he realized what it was he'd dig in. We had biscuits with Christmas dinner and he loved them. He loves cheese, he loves pizza, and he loves muffins. But he wouldn't eat them. We'll see if he eats the spinach muffins I plan on making soon. Yes you heard that right. Spinach muffins.
There were only 5 of these leftover, 3 pepperoni and 2 cheese. I ate the pepperoni ones today for lunch and I'm happy to report that they were better than I expected they would be as leftovers. I put the cheese ones in Jack's lunchbox and I'm curious to find out if he ate them or not. He tends to eat anything I pack him for daycare. He probably eats a lot more veggies with his lunch than any other kid since he basically refuses them at dinner!
I found a recipe where you brown ground beef or turkey, add your favorite spaghetti sauce, and use that as your filling for the dough cups. Sounds delish and I may have to give that a try too! These would be terrific for a party or game day!
Today I've got beef stew cooking in the crock pot. It's incredibly easy and really good. I'll post that recipe later on for anyone who's interested. Have a great week!
And thanks, Anika, for motivating me to start posting recipes again! :)
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Christmas Day
Christmas morning was so much fun! Jack was so excited to see all the presents when he came downstairs. Between his birthday and Christmas, he's now a pro at opening gifts.
Inspecting the first gift from Meme:
So excited about his Cars light-up spinner toy
Every year he gets a new furry friend, and this year was a super soft polar bear
He lined up his new cars as soon as we got them out of the package!
"Helicopter fly high up in the sky"
Jack got animal crackers in his stocking and they were gone really fast!
After all the presents were opened (and the cinnamon rolls were out of the oven), I took Jack down to the basement to see the train table for the first time.
He didn't get an excited look on his face like I thought he might, but he loved it. He went right over to it and started lining the trains up on the track. He knew what to do right from the start! It was like it had always been there.
Jack didn't want to go back upstairs for anything, so him and Sidney stayed downstairs playing while I went upstairs and enjoyed a cinnamon roll (or 2). We had a great day playing with all our new things and enjoyed a yummy pot roast dinner. After dinner we had some homemade peppermint oreo ice cream from a local ice cream shop. It was so good!
Then we started another new tradition and drove around to look at Christmas lights. I used to do this with my mom when I was a kid and I always loved it. It was nice to do it again and have Jack there to enjoy it. He kept saying, "lights, pretty."
We saw some incredible houses with crazy light displays all within 5 minutes from home. These houses are kind of hidden and you can't see them from the road. You would never know they're there unless you went down the various streets. I'm so glad we did and now we know where to go next year!
Jack was so involved this year and we had an absolutely wonderful and fun Christmas!
Inspecting the first gift from Meme:
So excited about his Cars light-up spinner toy
Every year he gets a new furry friend, and this year was a super soft polar bear
He lined up his new cars as soon as we got them out of the package!
"Helicopter fly high up in the sky"
Jack got animal crackers in his stocking and they were gone really fast!
After all the presents were opened (and the cinnamon rolls were out of the oven), I took Jack down to the basement to see the train table for the first time.
He didn't get an excited look on his face like I thought he might, but he loved it. He went right over to it and started lining the trains up on the track. He knew what to do right from the start! It was like it had always been there.
Jack didn't want to go back upstairs for anything, so him and Sidney stayed downstairs playing while I went upstairs and enjoyed a cinnamon roll (or 2). We had a great day playing with all our new things and enjoyed a yummy pot roast dinner. After dinner we had some homemade peppermint oreo ice cream from a local ice cream shop. It was so good!
Then we started another new tradition and drove around to look at Christmas lights. I used to do this with my mom when I was a kid and I always loved it. It was nice to do it again and have Jack there to enjoy it. He kept saying, "lights, pretty."
We saw some incredible houses with crazy light displays all within 5 minutes from home. These houses are kind of hidden and you can't see them from the road. You would never know they're there unless you went down the various streets. I'm so glad we did and now we know where to go next year!
Jack was so involved this year and we had an absolutely wonderful and fun Christmas!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Sunday, January 1, 2012
'Twas the Night Before Christmas
Last year I started a Christmas tradition of not putting out any wrapped gifts (even for the adults) or filling the stockings until the night before, so we were very busy after Jack went to bed on Christmas Eve. It's all part of the magic. :) A couple weeks before, I put out my little table top tree with toddler-friendly ornaments just like last year. I think Jack would've been fine (and even thrilled) with a full-sized tree though. Something to look forward to for next year!!
Here's a preview of what our Christmas morning looked like:
It was easy to hide the gifts (some of which we brought back from NY when we went for Thanksgiving, and these aren't all for Jack!), but I'm going to have to get sneaky as he gets older!
I was also extremely lucky to get a hand-me-down train table and Thomas train set from a woman at work. Some friends kept the table for us at their house (I had the box of trains and tracks under a blanket in the basement!) and dropped it off on Christmas Eve. Luckily Jack had no idea what it was, so we were in the clear! This thing is a lot bigger than I realized and I had to make some room for it in Jack's play area in the basement. I knew it would be hard to tear him away from the trains once he saw them and I didn't want it to distract from the other gifts, so I was happy with it being downstairs and out of sight.
We didn't set it up very eloquently, but I knew Jack would just take it apart anyway. I mostly wanted the trains themselves to be on display. There are 2 boxes of trains and tracks under the table and I think we'll have plenty of chances to build it however we want! By the way, is it just me or did the majority of all 2 year olds get a train table for either their birthday or Christmas? For a kid who loves trains, it's a pretty awesome gift! :)
More on Christmas Day and Jack's reaction to his gifts in a separate post. I want to record these moments without making my posts too lengthy. ;)
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