Oreo Balls

My final post for tonight is a recipe that anyone in their right mind should enjoy. :D

OREO BALLS!

Ingredients:
1 box Oreos, finely crushed
1 (8oz) package cream cheese
1 package vanilla almond bark
Directions:
Mix Oreos and cream cheese together and roll into small balls. Sit in fridge overnight or in the freezer for a few hours. Dip in melted almond bark.

Seriously, it's that easy. I used a toothpick and a spoon to assist in the dipping. I am warning you though, people will fight over these. They are also really good not even dipped in the white chocolate. No fat and no calories too, of course. ;)

Pineapple Casserole

photo credit to those fancy people at food network

The next recipe for tonight's installment is for those brave enough to take my word on something. (Or those who aren't afraid of strange combinations.)

Pineapple Casserole

Ingredients:
2 cans pineapple chunks
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese
6 Tbsp self rising flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup crushed Ritz crackers
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Drain pineapple and save the juice. Mix the pineapple, cheese, flour, and sugar together. Butter a 9 x 13 baking dish and pour mixture into it. In a separate bowl, mix 6 Tbsp juice with the crushed Ritz crackers. Scoop that onto the top of the mixture. Bake for 25- 30 minutes or until the top starts getting "golden brown".

This recipe sounds really weird but I promise it's good! Family approved! But I will NOTE: it is best served hot! It doesn't taste that great when it is cold, so if you must travel far to your holiday festivities I wouldn't recommend this. 

Buffalo Chicken Ranch Dip

'Tis the season to be cooking!

I will be posting quite a few recipes tonight that I have been field testing so far during the holidays. Maybe you will find one to make instead of the normal break and bake Christmas cookies ;)
My first recipe is for the families who like to spice things up!

Buffalo Chicken Ranch Dip

Ingredients:

1 (8oz) package of cream cheese

2 cups of shredded cooked chicken (or 2 cans for the lazy ones like me)

1 (12 oz) bottle of Frank's Red Hot 

1/2 bottle of ranch

1/2 cup of cheddar cheese (or any other cheese.. I would like to try colby jack)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F and soften cream cheese. 

Mix all ingredients together in a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Bake for 20 minutes or until it is all heated through.

I'm telling you.. awesomeeeeeee. I actually used a large bottle of Frank's the first time I cooked it, but I just couldn't handle it. My husband on the other hand really liked it that hot. It is great served with chips or veggies!

Snack food: Pizza Biscuits

 
Let me set the scene for you. It's midnight. I have a house full of three teenage boys and a husband. They are playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Soon, I hear the words, "I'm hungry." What's a girl to do? I don't want them eating all of my snacks! So I reach back into the recesses of my mind to the first thing I think I learned how to cook - Pizza Biscuits. These things are perfect for any occasion, especially when feeding teenage boys apparently. They are quick, simple, and taste good hot, cold, or leftover. It just works! 

There are just four items that you will need:
Regular Sized Biscuits (the amount is up to you)
Ragu Pizza Sauce
Cheese... any and all kinds
Pepperoni

Basically, you flatten out the biscuits and top them with the other three items. I put my pepperoni on top, as you can see in the middle. Then, cook them as directed on the biscuits. (mine were a little burnt...)

These things go pretty fast.. I only had three left by the time I could take a picture!

Easy Dessert: Pineapple Upside-down Cake

I don't know about you, but I love pineapples. I have been craving a pineapple upside-down cake for weeks! I finally called my mom and asked her the secrets to her recipe. My mom has to be the BEST cake maker in the world. She always let me lick the bowl too (: Me on the other hand... I could never make cakes or even cupcakes without them being batter in the middle! But this time - I conquered it!!! 

Her secret? Cooking it in a iron skillet! Wow. I never knew what to cook in that thing. She didn't really have a recipe, it is kinda just one of those things that gets passed down. Anyway, Here is the *somewhat* recipe:

Ingredients
1 stick butter
brown sugar
1 can sliced pineapples
Yellow cake mix

Directions 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt the stick of butter and pour it in the skillet. Now here is the improvised part. Pour out a lot of brown sugar into the skillet and mix it with the butter. You have to have enough brown sugar to make a good coating onto the outside of the cake. Then you mix the cake batter up as directed on the box. When you get the batter ready, pour it into the skillet so it is about halfway full. I had a bit of batter leftover (with which I made a second, little cake) Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes. Make sure to test it with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, you're good!

Here is the finished product. It was surprisingly easy to flip onto that plate, too. Delicious!

How to save money on groceries

If you are like me, you like saving money. However, when it comes to grocery shopping it isn't that easy at first. So I've come up with a few tips that has helped me so far (and believe me, I've came pretty far in 9 months!) Here we go..

1. Find a grocery store that saves you money! That seems simple, right? Walmart. But no! That might not be the best place for you personally. It all depends on what you want and what stores are available to you. For us ALDI* is my favorite store to shop at. I'll rack up on a buggy full and have never spent over $90!  Some people might not like Aldi though. The setbacks are that there are rarely any name brands except for coca-cola, and they don't bag up your groceries. The benefits is that it is cheap and they have cantalopes and pineapples for a dollar! Another good store is Winn-Dixie but around here they are hard to come by. They have a ton of BOGO and 10 for $10. If you like seafood, that is the place to buy it. There are other stores out there, so just take a receipt and a calculator and find out which one does you better.


*ALDI Tips: Take a quarter for your buggy- you get it back, and take grocery bags or boxes unless you want to buy them there.


 2. Meal plan! It makes grocery shopping so much better. You get finished quickly, spend less money, and you will have everything you need that week. It may seem hard at first, but it is pretty easy. It's hard for me to meal plan more than one week at a time because of our work schedules, but here is a planner I like to use that has the monthly option. Planning your meals also cuts down on how many times you go to the store which also saves money on gas. :)

3. Don't be scared of generic brands! I admit that sometimes generic foods don't taste the same, but it can be very beneficial to your pocketbook if you like it. Especially things like frozen vegetables and shredded cheese. That being said...

4. Skip the conveniently chopped and prepared food. This is especially true when it comes to the fruit section. I hate cutting pineapple, but it is worth it to not pay for the cut and packaged kind. Also skip the lunchables! They are more expensive than making them yourself.

5. Look at the unit price of an item. I always use this when it comes to buying bottled water. Sometimes you may pass up an item because it has a high sticker price, but when it comes to the price per unit it could be a better deal!

EASY DESSERT! Bean Pot Apple Cobbler

This is my bean pot – Berry – I love it!

Okay, this is quite possibly the easiest dessert to ever make. Ever. Also, it is delicious! Add a little ice cream on top.. YUM. It is a great go to dessert when you have family get togethers, church functions, and just because you want something sweet. An added plus.. it's only FIVE INGREDIENTS! I've looked for this recipe all over the internet and could not find it! Maybe it is one of those little family jewels :) 

I will take a minute though, to tell you that bean pots are stinking awesome. They are kind of like crockpots for the oven. I tell you, there is a baked bean recipe that will blow your mind! Celebrating home actually has a lot of great stuff. (GREAT for wedding gifts - my opinion from personal experience :)) Their scent warmers... great. I know people do Scentsy and stuff but I'm a firm Celebrating Home fan! Check out their website.

Anyway, this dessert is so yummy. Let's get to it! 

What you need 

1 stick butter

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 cup milk

1 can pie filling (I used apple, but you can use whatever)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Melt butter and pour into the bottom of bean pot. In a separate bowl, mix flour, sugar, and milk. Pour into bean pot –DO NOT MIX– Scoop pie filling on top of the other stuff. Again, DO NOT MIX. I’m not sure what would happen, but I was strictly warned when I got this recipe. Put in oven and bake for 50 min – 1 hour. 

That's all you do! Pretty simple huh?

Panama city beach!

I might be a bit partial, but south Alabama and Florida certainly have the best beaches in the world! This is panama city, Florida right here. It's a place everyone should go to if they can! Rent scooters from the king of scooters! Go to marina cantina and get shrimp and crab nachos! Explore!

Corn Dip

I love fixing this dip! It is so easy to make. It's also became a few people's favorite! Dips are my favorite thing to fix and I think Tyler's friends enjoy it too :)

INGREDIENTS
2 packs of cream cheese (16 oz)
1can sweet corn, drained
1 can of Rotel

DIRECTIONS
Melt the cream cheese. Mix in the ingredients. That's it! Good served hot or cold :)

Cheesy chicken and rice

This meal was fantastic!! Thursday and Friday I took off from cooking cause we still had so many leftovers haha! I was great knowing that while I was at work I was also cooking a delicious meal :D

I will apologize in advance for not posting any recipes this week - we are at the beach! Who knows though.. we might concoct something amazing!

INGREDIENTS

4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 large onion, chopped
1 -8 ounce box of rice, prepared
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 – 10.5 ounce can cream of chicken soup (regular or fat free)

1 -15 ounce can whole kernel corn, drained

DIRECTIONS
Place chicken in bottom of crockpot and scatter chopped onion on top.
Spoon cream soup over top of that.
Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours or on high 3-4 hours. A few minutes before serving, add in cooked rice, corn, and cheese. Stir to combine, and continue cooking for 5 minutes.

Personally, I think it's better if you cut up the chicken before eating it too.

Meatloaf Minis

This was a fun recipe because I got to mix it up with my hands. This my gross some of you out but raw meat feels really cool! This particular recipe was made for a loaf, but I just converted it into the minis. It made 11 muffins and I say one per person is enough! We ate it with some steamed veggies :) I'd love to try other versions of meatloaf. Anyone have a favorite recipe?

Ingredients
1lb ground beef
1 egg
1 onion, chopped
1 cup dried bread crumbs
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
 
*for glaze*
§  2 tablespoons brown sugar
§  2 tablespoons prepared mustard
§  1/3 cup ketchup
 
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- In a large bowl, combine the beef, egg, onion, milk and bread crumbs.
- Fill each muffin hole with the meat to the top.
- In a separate small bowl, combine the brown sugar, mustard and ketchup.
- Mix well and pour over the each mini meatloaf.
- Cook at 350° for 30 - 45 minutes.

Cheeseburger Wraps

 

So it is quite obvious that I am not the blogger I hoped I would be. I've decided to try harder this time to be continuous. Now is a good time because I am *dun dun dun duuuuun* ACTUALLY COOKING AGAIN. I know, shocker. This week I have started meal planning, which isn't that hard to do so far. I am trying really hard to keep us out of Walmart for spur the moment food stuff. This week is taken care of with a trip to Aldi and these recipes:

• Cheeseburger wraps
• Meatloaf Minis
• Cheesy Chicken and Rice
• Honey Sesame Chicken
• Cereal (give me a break ok?)

Last night was the night for cheeseburger wraps with a recipe off pinterest. I have to admit that I should have taken my own picture but let's face it - you can't get food to look like the pictures! So whoever took that lovely photo gets credit for it, but I do not know who they are.
 
In our house we have a ton of deer meat right now so that is what I used here. But don't fret about that, it'd be okay with anything else. Even turkey burgers aren't too shabby.

INGREDIENTS 
1 lb deer meat

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (could have used a bit more)

1 tablespoon ketchup

1 teaspoon dried minced onion

pepper and salt to taste

5 large flour tortillas

American cheese slices

yellow mustard 

(other toppings like  tomato, pickles, lettuce, etc) 

DIRECTIONS 

Brown meat in large skillet and drain. Mix Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, dried onion, and salt and pepper to the beef and simmer for 5 minutes. Tear the cheese slices in half and lay them longways down the center of the tortilla. Add the meat mixture on top of the cheese (we divided it into four tortilllas but personally that was a little too much). Spread some mustard on top of the beef along with other toppings. **NOTE: if you want one for lunch the next day I suggest not adding lettuce on it. blech.) Roll up tortilla burrito-style and place wraps on George Foreman or panini maker. Grill wraps for about 5 minutes until cheese is melted. Enjoy!

I dipped mine in A1 sauce and it was so very good! Ty liked it too, so this is going on our frequent list. :) PS: if anyone has any staple meal planning tips I'd love to hear them!

ONE DOWN. Three to go.

Garlic Chicken and Baked Potatoes

*thank you Derf and copykat.com for your pictures

Last night was another adventurous cooking excursion for me. Garlic chicken sounded pretty good and I also found out how to make baked potatoes with crispy and salty outsides. YUMMM.

I started with the baked potatoes.
1. Clean your potatoes.
2. Coat the skin in olive oil
3. Pour some sea salt on it.
4. Put it in the oven on 400 degrees for an hour.
You say, it can't be that simple. But it is! I couldn't believe it.

For an even bigger surprise, the garlic chicken was quick and easy too. The night before I set out some frozen chicken tenderloins because who wants to go to Walmart just to get some fresh chicken? And when I got home they were ready to be cooked.
You need:

4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil

I used already minced garlic cloves because let's be serious, I can't cut an apple without an apple cutter thing. It says how much one clove is on the bottle, mine was 1/2 teaspoon. I used a little extra because I read that it isn't as strong as fresh garlic, naturally. Anyway, here are the steps.

1. Up your oven temp or start preheating to 450 degrees. Put aluminum foil on a baking sheet or dish.

2. Saute your garlic in a pan. (for how to saute garlic go watch this video)

3. Remove from heat and stir in brown sugar.

4. Coat the chicken in this mixture -coat it real good.

5. Bake uncovered for 15-30 minutes.

It turned out to be another success, luckily. I've also added it to the meals I will be fixing often :)

Tell me how yours turns out!

Experiment: Crockpot Lasagna

*thanks tablespoon.com for your picture

LASAGNA.
Of course!
Crockpot lasagna none the less.
This is looks SUPER easy and it's Tyler's favorite food so why not get him to be the one to truly critique it?

What you need:
1 lb ground beef
pasta sauce (I used a can of Hunt's sauce from Dollar General)
lasagna noodles
2 & 1/2 cups cottage cheese
4 cups mozzarella cheese

First things first, brown the meat. Apparently that is pretty important. Then, stir the pasta sauce in with the meat. Put 1/3 layer of meat sauce in the bottom of crock pot and layer with noodles (you do not have to cook these first). Mix the cottage cheese and mozzarella together in a separate bowl, then put 1/3 mix over the noodles. Repeat the meat, noodle, cheese steps two more times. Then all you have to do is cook it on low for 4 hours!

HINT: If you have a new crock pot you might want to lessen the time to 2 or 3 hours.

I must say that Tyler was pleased with the results and so was I! It was, however, burnt all around the edges because our crockpot is so new. I think this recipe is going in my favorites though! Now, what to cook next....