Fast Yummy Dinner

Tonight it the only night we have ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY NOTHING NADA ZILCH to do or to be at. No football practice. No parent meetings for school. No parent meetings for sports. No playdates. NOTHING!! Oh how I miss these days and how I can't wait to get them back after football. Anywho, tonight for dinner I wanted to make something fun and yet still fast. I don't want to spend forever in the kitchen, I want to be with the family.

I found this great looking dip on pinterest, Pizza Dip, and decided it would be super easy to make individual portions. Here is how I did it:

In each of your ramekins, place a few spoonfuls of ricotta cheese.


Then spread a layer of pizza sauce. Homemade is always better :) but canned is quick.


Sprinkle on some italian blend shredded cheese.


Top with some turkey pepperoni's that have been diced up. You could use italian sausage as well. You could also top with some olives, yummo!!


I covered mine with foil for the first 15 minutes of baking them at 350. Then uncovered them until they were nice and bubbly. This was about 15 more minutes. So a total bake time of 30 minutes.


I stuck them on a plate (when they were cool enough) with some homemade naan or flatbread and that my friends was dinner.


Throw in a salad and we were all happy!


Kid approved!
This would be a good dip at parties because you really have to use a spoon to get some dip out and spread it on your dipping device. Which means no double dipping, yay!

Speaking of naan. If you haven't tried this Indian flatbread, you must.

It is super easy to make at home. It takes about 3 hours from start to finish, but majority of that time is letting it rise. It is not hard, I promise. Plus, it is fun to make it have all those yummy bubbles!! Here are a few recipes I like. Budget Bytes has a great recipe that uses greek yogurt, these little beauties are SUPER soft and so yummy! Today I used AllRecipes recipe. It doesn't use yogurt and these were still really good.

Happy Wednesday....I hear my patio chair calling :)

Back to our regularly scheduled programming....

Discussing what frustrates me helps me to put it all in perspective. This is precisely what happened last night, all night. As much as I hate to say I was awake most of the night, I feel a little more clear headed. I feel most comfortable to be myself. If my craftiness or yummyness is needed, then I am more than happy to oblige. If it isn't, I am not going to draw attention to it. With Ella starting kindy, I am trying hard to provide her with a great friend base that she will have for the rest of her life. This includes us moms trying to be friends. I want this to happen. So the way to achieve this is with my decision. Did you hear it? The sigh of relief? Yep, that was me.

Alright who is ready for some yummyness.



I have some great homemade pumpkin puree that I want to use so what better to make than pumpkin donuts for breakfast!! I found a recipe here at Blue Eyed Bakers. This was a great recipe with nothing too crazy in it. The donuts turned out great. They were super moist and flavor"full" of fall!! Here are few tips after making a few batches:

* using homemade pumpkin puree gives the donuts a more spice flavor, not so much pumpkin flavor. Using canned pumpkin will give these more of a pumpkin flavor.

* I used 1 1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice instead of all of the spices

* This recipe made 6 regular sized donuts (I don't have a mini donut pan, but I will, oh yes, I will!) so I made another batch. This way I can freeze some for another morning when I don't have the brain capacity to make breakfast. Which is a lot these days!

* I used shortening to grease my pan instead of butter. The donuts still took a little finagling to get out but none broke or tore. Just be patient and coax them out.

* I am already planning on using this same recipe for some apple donuts after our trip to the apple orchard tomorrow. Instead of pumpkin, I will use some homemade apple sauce with some big chunks. Should be super delicious with some of those lovely winesaps I plan on picking!!



Here is my new find that I just adore, King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour. It bakes up just like white flour. And here is something I have found in my kitchen. This flour is not that expensive but more expensive than the white flour at Aldi's. This bag runs me $4.35 at my grocery store. I have found that when I spend that money on this flour, I don't bake near as much. Whatever I do make, is a real treat.


Here is Tuesday's Tip
I love my donut pan but filling it is a little crazy. You could put your batter in a old ketchup bottle but that always causes more of a mess for me. I fill a ziploc bag, usually a freezer one which are more substantial, with my batter. Cut a pretty big piece off of one corner. Then just squeeze it in. But that isn't really my tip. As I said earlier, I made one batch of donuts only to realize I was going to need to make another. I didn't want to waste another ziploc bag so here is what I did....


I squeezed a little of the batter back away from the tip and then put a chip clip on the tip so it wouldn't come out. Then opened up my bag on my favorite pitcher and refilled it with the new batch of batter. This worked like a gem!! I know its not rocket science but it made me happy that I didn't end up mopping up my entire floor!

Happy Baking Readers!!

Hard....

Disclaimer: this is a serious post and one that has been coming for a while. There is not one specific person or episode that has sent me "over the edge" but a culmination of things my whole life. I am allowed to be frustrated.

For most of my life I have been an over achiever when it came to doing things. When I was in high school, I can remember thinking and doing all I could with each project to make sure that it looked its very best. I also remember that in high school, I did all I could to make my friends and my boyfriend happy. And when college came around, over acheiverness continued to follow me. I found a way to make every lesson spectacular and every worksheet super cute. I organized my music portfolio in a way that my professor had never seen before, but it just made sense to me to have it all in one place. And when I became a certified teacher in a real school with real kids, I killed myself trying to recreate the wheel in ALL avenues. I was on so many committees in hopes to make a true difference not only in my students lives, but in my district as well. I wanted to be the best and like I said this wore me down faster than anything else in my career. And even if my career and this over achiever that lives inside me kept me going in some of the darkest days , I am learning to hate it.

Ever since my divorce and my life was flipped upside down with no one to blame but myself, I vowed to rebuild. Rebuild me. From the ground up. And I did. I vowed that I was to change for no one. You either liked what you got or there wasn't room for you in my life. I was tired of being someone for people instead of being me. After a few years teaching in that first real school, I learned that over achievers get asked to do alot and are expected to volunteer for everything since we are "good" at it. We make it look easy, my all time favorite saying. So I started to shut down that over achiever. I let it come out every once and a while but most of it stayed hidden from view.  I was rebuilding a new me, one with less responsibilities at work.

When I started working at a different district with a different set of kiddos, this over acheiverness was welcomed and somewhat expected. I had found a place where my abilities could be put to good use. And boy did I. Between committees on the district level to committees on the school level, I tried it all. Then doing all I could to improve my actual teaching and classroom management, it was all so fun. And all so hard. I got tired. Then after having my second baby, I got exhausted. I got angry that my family was making me choose them over this dream job, where my over achiever could run free. And boy did I love my job and man oh man did I love my kiddos at school. It was like a drug to me. It made me feel good. It made me feel wanted and appreciated. It made me feel one of a kind. It made me quit.

Yep, quit. Said goodbye to the whole shabang. I realized that my family was more important than this drug, than this job that I was good at. My kids at home were suffering from my lack of patience at home because I had used it all at school on my 25 other kids. So I quit. Here I was. At home. With two kiddo's and one on the way. Then she came along. With me still here, at home. That over achiever  was hidden at first but it soon came out in little ways like cooking and baking. Then it came out in sewing. And now it is just busting forth with just about everything you can imagine. Pinterest is my playground where I play at recess and man oh man do I LOVE recess :).

I hear you asking, "if you are so passionate about this stuff and seem to love it, why did you say you hated it". I hate it for the same reason I mentioned above. I am tired of being judged because of it. I am tired of women HATING me because I can. And I hate that I am making women feel so bad because they can't.

I do all of this stuff so that I don't lose my mind with my kids. I do all of this to save my sanity. I do all of this to feel pride in myself because things I have done in my life or have had done to me in my life haven't always been peachy. I do this stuff not because I want you to feel bad or stupid, but because I love you, the receivers. I am learning that women don't want to know you can do something they can't. They don't want help and feel immediately threatened when they find out. I don't come off cocky, maybe here I am, but in everyday situations I am not. I want women to feel better about themselves and maybe these things might.  I don't know how many times I have heard "I can't be friends with you anymore because you are just too good" or "Is there anything you can't do".  I know they are all little jokes but they sting. Because you aren't really saying good job or wow you did good. You are threatened and I never meant for anyone to feel that way. And yes, there are lots of things I can't do. I am frustrated and mad that I am always looked down because I can do some things.

I love the gifts and talents that God has blessed me with and the fact that he provided me with a brain so that I can learn those talents I don't already have. I love that I have a family and kiddos and kiddo's teachers to spoil rotten. I love who I am and how much I want to share this feeling of accomplishment with other women.

I hate not having a single friend/women to share it with, without it making them feel bad in some way. I hate being ostracized because I can and I do. I hate being used.  My soul has taken all the damage it can and words/tears can no longer stay hidden. Jaded doesn't even begin to describe this feeling.  Why must life be so hard?!

Menu Time

I don't know about everyone else's calendar but August is already so marked up that I don't think I can fit much more on any of the days. And when the months start to look like that on the calendar, I already start to get stressed and exhausted. In order to help with that I know that meal prep will be a must. I am going to do a two week menu for the next 2 weeks to prepare me for meal prep again. During the summer months, meals are kind of easy going. When schools starts and football begins, meals become rushed. This is an easy time for us to go get something. No more of that option so I must get on it. I am excited about some of the recipes for these next two weeks. Since it isn't August yet, I am hoping to maybe double a few of them so I can have them in the freezer. It is super easy to do that alot of the time. When you make a meal, double it and then freeze it. Not much planning in that. Enough with the talk, here is the menu:

Turkey burgers with a southwestern quinoa salad
Chicken nuggets with sweet pototoes and apples
Black bean quesadilla with fruit
Asian steak kabobs with rice and lots of veggies
Split pea soup with tuna ciabetta melts
Summer Corn Chowder with crusty bread
Coconut chicken with risotto with mushrooms
Spaghetti  with salad
Sweet potato and black bean burgers with cucumber salad
Chicken and brocolli alfredo

I also have two leftover nights on the menu as well as two nights that we will be at the rodeo so no meals are necessary. The items underlined will be doubled and froze for later use.

I found all of these recipes on either 100 days of real food or once a month mom. It took some time but it was fun to look through all those yummy recipes. It is always nice to expand our family's palette when it comes to food.

I'm on a roll

For the most part, my cooking is all from recipes. Whether I find them on Pinterest, cook books, or from family members willing to share their secrets...I am not one to invent things. Last night, however I did. It wasn't anything spectacular but it was yummy none the less. Here is what I did:


Grilled some chicken on our little panini press. I simply put some Wildtree seasonings on it as I laid it on the grill. You could use Mrs. Dash stuff or just whatever herbs you like.



Sauteed 3 cloves of garlic and 1/2 shallot in some olive oil. I let it burn a little. I know your not supposed to but the burning gave it a little more flavor.




Then I threw in some red pepper coursely chopped and some cherry tomatoes, halved. Let that cook over med to med low heat for a while. Until the veggies are to your liking. Then at the end throw in some spinach. I wanted it cooked but not wilted.


I used spaghetti noodles for the rest of the family but used soba noodles for me. I wanted to try the difference. Throw those noodles into the veggies. I put some more olive oil and a little balsamic vinegar because who doesn't love that combo!!


Place that grilled chicken on top and viola, a yummy and fresh dish! The soba noodles gave it a better flavor, I think. My hubby didn't disagree but I know that these noodles do not easily replace spaghetti in our house. I like the flavor but the rest of the family was not impressed with them in spaghetti sauce. Now with some sort of asian inspired food, yes, they work great. Life is all about trying and I liked what I tried last night :).

I also made a peach pie yesterday and it was delish and so beautiful. I made it with my grandma's recipe for pie crust (which is just the trusty Betty Crocker cookbook method) and for once in my life, it worked! For any of you that have attempted a pie crust, you know how hard and finicky they can be. For one to turn out, look good, and taste good, it is a rare treat.

Isn't it just gorgeous!! Oh it was so good last night as well.

Today I have been canning pickles. This is my first run at this and as with most canning, you won't be able to tell if it is any good until you open it. Later......much later in the case of pickles. Here's to hoping they turn out good.


I think I deserve a cup of coffee with all that work! All with love and all worth it!!

A few yummies for Monday

Here are a few yummy recipes for your Monday. The first up is basically ravioli in a crockpot. Now, I know that ravioli with sauce is not that hard to make at dinnertime. But if you need a recipe that you can literally throw in one pot (instead of 3) and walk away, this is it.


Items needed :
1 bag of frozen ravioli - any kind
1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 T italian herbs fresh or dried more or less for your tasting
a couple handfuls of mozzerella cheese
crockpot

Throw it all in and set to high. Leave it for about 2 hours.


Here are some tips or variations
* you can always use canned tomato sauce that you have made or a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce from the store.
*Remember that the ravioli needs a little sauce/water to help it cook so over estimate with the sauce
*after about 2 hours, stir it carefully the ravioli are tender and will break apart easily.
* I LOVE real mozzerella but if I can't use that then I use the other mozzerella in the bag cheese isle

It was a good meal with little prep and nothing got hot in the kitchen which, right now, is a huge bonus!



The next recipe is for a DIY Starbucks Passion Tea Lemonade.


I am hooked on these and really look forward to one anytime I have the chance. They are refreshing and have a tropical flavor to help whisk you away on those hot midwest afternoons! Here is how I make it at home:


Items needed:
Tazo Passion Tea (these are usually at Starbucks but I found mine at Nature's Grocers)
Lemonade mix (you could make your own lemonade from scratch as well, it makes this drink out of this world :) )

I boil a quart of water on the stove. Once it boils, take it off and steep 6 - 8 bags of the passion tea in it for about 4 mintutes. It makes this beautiful dark pink colored tea that smells heavenly!! While that is steeping, mix up 1 quart of lemonade in a 2 or 3 quart pitcher, following the directions on the lemonade mix jar. Remove the tea bags from your tea, carefully! Then pour the tea into the lemonade you have waiting in the pitcher. I like to taste at this point. If you like things a little sweeter either add some sugar, honey, or agave. I load a glass up with lots of ice and pour. Sit back with a good book and enjoy!


I don't make this often because the tea is expensive and I would literally drink it all in one day. But it is nice to have on hand to brighten a day when life gets a little crazy. Happy Monday!

Menu Week 7/9-7/13

I thought that publishing my menu each week would help have a place to reflect back on recipes used and to help keep me more organized. As I have stated before, when I make my menu I keep in mind what I already have in the house and what the garden is providing. Then I plan from there.

Breakfast Choices: Cereal (multi grain oats), Oatmeal, or Eggs. Fruit is also included in breakfast.

Lunch Choices for girls: Cheese Sticks or PBJ with a fruit and veggie of choice that we have on hand

Dinner :
Sunday - Crock pot ravioli with homemade bread and salad
Monday - Grilled Salmon with green beans and wild rice
Tuesday - Grilled Chicken with spaghetti noodles with small yellow squash....thinking there will be a balsamic / olive oil drizzled on top. Throw in some basil...yummo!
Wednesday - BLT sandwiches with some sort of pasta salad with fresh veggies or maybe even some cucumbers and onion salad
Thursday - Pizza from Papa Murphy's that we have had in the freezer for a couple weeks (want it gone before it gets freezer burn)
Friday - Not sure what we will be doing this night.....leftovers perhaps

As for me I continue to find that if I keep to the same meals it is much easier for me to function. By that I mean, if I know exactly what I am eating, I don't have to worry about it. It is almost second nature at this point and I really like that. Breakfast is always 1/4 cup oatmeal with 1/4 cup of almonds. Throw in some dried fruit or fresh fruit, yummy. No sugar, period. I have a cup of cranberry juice and usually 1 cup of coffee.


Lunch is always a spinach shake (learned that it is necessary to drink cranberry juice if you eat spinach alot). My shake is 3 handfuls of spinach, one froze banana, and 1T of peanut butter. Throw in some water until it is blended nicely. It is yummy and super filling. If I am hungry, I throw in some oats but that doesn't happen a lot. If I am hungry between lunch and dinner (usually around 4), I cut up a cucumber or carrot. This has worked well for me.

Tomorrow I will have a post with the crock pot ravioli recipe on it. I have never tried this but have heard it is quick and delish. Let's hope it is :)