Happy Halloween!

We're still here. I just haven't been inspired. But this morning I made us a yummy breakfast and decided to take a pic and post it here. Maybe I'm just burnt out on sharing my dinners. :)

We had scrambled eggs with a little bit of Jimmy Dean hot sausage sprinkled over them, cheese and ketchup. Strawberries and applesauce on the side. We eat a lot of applesauce around here. The girls love it. It's cheap and easy but I'm always careful to buy the unsweetened kind after discovering the other ones have corn syrup in them.

This is Cate's plate. She loves eggs. Emma's had a sprinkling of cheddar but she still didn't touch them.



And here are my two sweeties just yesterday when we were outside:





Hope you're having a fun Halloween this year! We seem to have been enjoying it for days now. ;)

On The Mend?

Just wanted to let you know I haven't left yet I just am still dealing with the germie kids.

Here's a link to my non-PC and non-kid friendly blog where you can read all about it, if you so desire.

Misadventures Of A Modern Day Alchemist

Baby screaming ... time to head back to reality ...

No Pics, Busy Day

Fed the girls some chicken nuggets, grape tomatoes, and some sliced apple. We were so exhausted from a day of fun that I didn't even think to take a picture.

Baked Chicken

We had baked chicken breasts that were delicious, green beans and rice. I'll add pics tomorrow.

Pork Chops

Shake and Bake pork chops, green beans seasoned with some Tastefully Simple Bacon Bacon and Onion Onion stuff, twice baked potatoes (variation of the Pioneer Woman's recipe).

It was good. The girls liked it but Emma doesn't like potatoes even though she helped me make these.

Oh, and I'm starting to think we need new dishes. These are 11 years old and starting to annoy me with the scraped off flowers. Ha ha!

Beans & Stuff

Last night's dinner was some northern beans I cooked all afternoon. They were really good but Emma and Billy didn't like them so they ate hotdogs. I also made these cheddar garlic biscuits from the beer bread I got from Tastefully Simple. They were just okay. I didn't like how they had a sweet taste to them. Billy said they were good though.

Taking a Time-Out

I'm taking a break from this blog for a few days (if you haven't noticed). I was sick and now both of my older sons are sick with high fevers etc... Neither of them were interested in dinner last night so I didn't cook. I assume this will likely hit the baby soon, so I will be back to updating the blog as soon as we all are healthy.

Thanks!

Pizza Night

As usual, Emma helped. Pizza is her absolute favorite to help make. It was delicious!

Two Meals

The soup (yeah, I kind of copied Tali but this one is not vegetarian. ;) )

The casserole

I worked all day on making this chicken noodle soup. Well, the broth anyway. Then I used the chicken to make chicken salad and this casserole that Billy's aunt used to make - Chicken Divan it's called in the recipe book she made me. I used the broth to make soup without any chicken in it.

Emma didn't like the casserole but loved the soup and Cate liked the casserole. Strange kids.

Tomorrow night I'll be out doing a party - have I mentioned I sell sex toys? Please, don't let that make you lose your appetite.

There will be no post from me tomorrow since the husband will be feeding the girls leftovers.

Aunt Tina's Chicken Divan

Layer cooked and chopped chicken in bottom of casserole dish. Layer with steamed chopped broccoli. Mix up this for the sauce:

1 can of cream of chicken soup (or other cream soup that you like)
Aunt Tina called for 1/2 tsp. of curry but I used this Pampered Chef dill seasoning instead
1 tsp lemon juice
black pepper
1/4 c. mayo

Layer that over the brocolli and then sprinkle with parmesan. Repeat layering process and top with either bread crumbs or stuffing (I used Stove Top). Sprinkle lightly with cheddar and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

These crazy kids:

Pasta E Fagioli

Sort of ... It has a variety of beans whereas, most of the times this soup doesn't, but it's close enough for government work. ;)















Pasta E Fagioli
1 cup Carrots Shredded
1.5 cup Celery chopped
2 or 3 cloves garlic minced
1 Onion chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
8 cups Vegetarian "Beef" Broth
Beans of your choice (usually cannellini beans)
2 Tablespoons dry Italian Herb Blend.
Pasta of your choice
Olive Oil

In a pot saute the vegetables until soft. Add the broth, beans and Italian Herb Blend. Cook until beans are soft -- usually 3-4 hours. Add water as needed (I usually add about 3-4 cups of water by the time the whole thing is over). About 20 minutes before serving, add the pasta and cook until done. Serve with some parmesan cheese on top and a side of fresh bread.

Pizza

Forgot to take pictures because we all were so hungry I just dished out dinner tonight. We had cheese pizza. Nothing exciting because I still feel like crap.

It's Shake & Bake (and Emma helped!)

For dinner tonight we had chicken breasts cut into nuggets and shaken by a 3 year old in some Shake & Bake, some kind of Pasta Roni, and fresh broccoli steamed.

We spent a few hours at the park this afternoon so I thought we'd just have something simple. Unfortunately, Emma filled up on snacks at the park (it was a playdate) and wouldn't touch her dinner. Cate loved the broccoli and the pasta but wasn't too keen on the chicken.

Mmmm. . . MEAT

Another oh-my-god delicious meal courtesy of the Pioneer Woman. I'm in love with that chick and so is my husband! The kids weren't so keen on it but I had a little home shopping party here today and they snacked a lot.

Just for fun, here's some recent shots of my girls getting maximum use out of Halloween outfits:

No-Chicken Noodle Soup

Company has gone home. I can't believe how fast it went. Of course she was only here for 3 days but still, it felt like it went way faster than that. It's prolly good she had to go today, though, because I'm sick! *cries* I've got some sort of creeping crud in my chest and my throat hurts. The best thing for sickness is chicken soup but since I'm a vegetarian we do the No-Chicken noodle soup! It tastes the same if you make it correctly. Alas, I'm too sick to type the whole recipe here, maybe next time. I'm sure I'll post it again over the winter.

No-Chicken Noodle Soup:

Chicken Spaghetti

Thanks to the Pioneer Woman, I have discovered a recipe that I will be making again. This was oh-my-god so good. Even though my picky ass husband had to pick out all the peppers, the kids and I ate it up. Cate loved it more than Emma I think.

A little tip, turn the broiler on at the very end to brown the cheese a little. I just can't say enough good things about this meal. Very simple. Very affordable (one whole cut up chicken was only $4 and change!) Delicious! There was plenty of chicken remaining to make a nice bowl of chicken salad for lunches over the weekend.

A salad with this would be great, too but I didn't bother.

Sandwich & Pasta Salad

Argh! I forgot to get batteries again! So I guess I'll just have to describe what we had last night.

I made some bacon ranch Suddenly Salad and added in some fresh broccoli, grape tomatoes and red onion. Then on the side I had part of a New Yorker sub that Billy brought home. Their subs are famous around here. It's got bologna and salami with some cole slaw and peppers and cheese I think. I only had a tiny portion of it and gave the bologna to the girls (ick!) They thought it was hot dog.

I've really been inspired recently by this blog. I went to the store again this morning and over the next few days I'll be using her recipes to make her famous Marlboro Man sandwich, chicken spaghetti, and beans and corn bread. Yum! I love how she really dumbs it down for the common cook. I've learned a lot just from reading over the past few days. Check her out! And thanks for the comments by the way. Comments are really the bread and butter (heh heh!) of a blog.

Jimmy John's Subs

Had to drive 400 miles today (had to get company from the airport) and then do Cub Scouts after that so no cooking today. So after Cub Scouts we ordered Jimmy Johns. This is a #13 :)

It has: Cheese, Avocado Spread, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Cucumbers (that I pick off - blech!), Sprouts and Mayo. Add that with a pickle and some chips and we had easy dinner.

Dinners of Late

Tonight I made this lasagna. This one right here. But I didn't follow the instructions to the letter and that was my only mistake. I used spaghetti sauce instead of tomatoes and paste like the lady says in the recipe. It was good but a bit too juicy. My husband liked it though. He liked that it didn't contain ricotta.

Last night we had that meat and gravy with egg noodles that I've fixed before.

No pictures because I need some new lithium batteries for my camera.

You know what would be cool? If you could leave a comment letting us know you read us. Feeling kind of bored with this blog lately. Is anyone out there reading? What are your thoughts?

Tostadas

My older sons were convinced that tostadas taste different than tacos so we made them tonight. The verdict? They taste the same but are just messier.

Ribs *Drool*

Gardenburger makes the best fake meat product I've ever had -- the BBQ Riblets They are so good. They taste like real BBQ Ribs and the best thing is they are so much healthier than real ones. This is another one of those fake meat things that I think meat eaters would enjoy.

Tonight's dinner was a BBQ Riblet sandwich (add tomato to mine) with potato chips, a pickle and a small garden salad on the side (not pictured, forgot cuz the baby was screaming for food).

Spagehtti - My Easy Staple

TGIF that's ALL I have to say. I'm exhausted. I have a fellowship this year that pays me to bring "real world" (ie. laboratory) science into k-12 classrooms and this week I was at a k-4 primary academy 8 hours a day. I had a really great time but holy Moses am I EXHAUSTED! I usually work all day long but there's a huge difference in being by myself, in a lab, getting something done and trying to entertain 25 kids ages 5-10 all day long.

Anyways, after doing that and then running errands this afternoon I wanted something easy. So we did pesto-marinara spaghetti with a mozzarella, tomato, and basil salad.

Soup & Bread

Soup out of crockpot and bread from bread machine - that's what this sick and tired mother fed her young.

Recipe:

Stewed tomatoes
stew meat
bag of frozen mixed veggies
garlic
seasonings of your choice

Dump meat in crock pot and let it cook. Drain fat and then dump in other ingredients. Let it cook all day.

Tomato Pasta

Tali can't seem to connect to blogger and hopes the issue is resolved by tomorrow night; however, she had tomato pasta tonight and wanted to have me post it for her.

Salmon, Veggies & Rice

We had salmon baked in the oven and seasoned with lemon pepper and lemon juice, rice, and steamed veggies.

I liked it but I was the only one. The girls wouldn't taste it. Cate's sick so I really just wanted her to eat the rice. Emma wouldn't even taste the salmon. The husband said he doesn't care much for baked fish and proceeded to dump soy sauce all over the veggies and the rice. I think they got spoiled after last night's dinner and thumbed their noses at this healthy stuff.

Fried Chicken (Oh my!)

This was so good. It's hard to believe since the inception of this blog with my dear "vastly different" friend Tali that I have not posted any deep fried meals. We love our deep fryer. LOL

Fried Chicken

Virginia's Best Seasoned Flour
Egg
Water
Lemon
Chicken tenders (hormone & steroid free! Did you know Perdue chicken claims that? Yep, they do.)

Dip chicken in water, lemon, egg mixture. Dip in flour. Drop in super hot oil. (We have a little deep fryer that is cool to the touch and closes - got it at Target for $20 I think.)

Delicious!

We also had salad and steamed peas to cancel out the bad. Oh, and homemade fries with skins on.

I told Emma that the peas turn into magical dragons in her tummy and she couldn't shovel them in fast enough. ;)

Wild haired girls demand dinner!

The Past Two Nights

What's today? Tuesday?

Tonight we had Pizza Hut pizzas which the girls didn't touch. They ate applesauce and these organic cheese things that are rabbits instead of goldfish and drank milk.

Monday I was sick so we just had leftovers.

English Muffin Pizza

I have leftover spaghetti sauce that I need to use, so I was going to make bagel pizza's for dinner tonight but sometime between leaving for work and coming home the men in the house ate 4 bagels. SOooo, I decided to improvise and use English Muffins instead.

As such, dinner tonight is English Muffin pizzas and a Caesar salad.
















Do you really need a recipe? Well, why not.

English Muffin (er... Bagel) Pizza
English muffins split (or bagels)
Spaghetti sauce
Cheese
Veggie or meat of your choice.

Preheat oven to 400. Put spaghetti sauce over the muffin and top with cheese and veggies. Toss in the oven until cheese starts to brown (about 20 minutes).

Soup and a Sandwich

Rainy all day. Chilly outside. Had to get up at an ungodly hour. (I was actually at work this morning before the sun game up). Soup was what I wanted when I got home so that's what we had!

Veggie Soup
















With an Eggplant Sandwich















*Please Note: Each boy only ate half a sub and half a bowl of soup.

Eggplant Sandwich recipe can be found here.

And, as if the weather here wasn't bizarre enough, it's supposed to be 20 degrees warmer tomorrow. Blah. I really can't wait for soup weather.