Pinterest Cooking Day 4 - Wednesday

Tonight (Wednesday) we had:

Okra and Tomatoes

and 

Garlic Chick Puffs

You can click on the picture and it should take you to the website where they came from.  I didn't really follow the Okra and Tomatoes recipe, but its a picture.  The recipe called for canned tomatoes, but why used canned when you have some fresh from the Garden.  I also used fresh from the garden Okra!  Jackson liked it till he I told him it had tomatoes in it.  Stephen spit it out and Bart, well he ate it, but I don't think he really liked it.  I liked it, but I'm weird like that!

The Garlic and Chicken Puffs recipe called for canned chicken.  I don't really do that kinda thing.  I just bought mine from Ingles for 1.98 a pound and ended up buying 1 1/2 pounds and just doubled the rest of the ingredients from the recipe.  Instead of cutting each crescent roll triangle in half I just used the whole crescent roll and filled it fuller and wrapped it up really good.  Stephen ate the whole thing.  Jackson ate 2 and gave it one thumbs up.  He probably would have given 2 thumbs up if he would have laid his crescent roll down from the other hand long enough to do it!  I asked him if it was good and he said mmmmmhhuh!!  Bart kept telling me that it was good and I have to admit it was pretty good.

It was something different.  I do have to admit that it would be a great appetizer or a great "shower" finger food!

Pinterest Day 3 Cooking Tuesday

Tater Tot Casserole

Tuesday night I made a Tater Tot Casserole.  You can click HERE to view the blog and the recipe.  I followed the recipe almost exactly ;)  I don't think I have really every followed a recipe exactly, BUT the only different was that I added more cheese.  Who don't like more cheese???  I used the one cup shredded cheddar, but I added a cup of Mozzarella cheese!

Stephen was really hungry while I was cooking and so he had a cheese stick and 2 bananas.  When it came time to eat the real supper he wasn't to hungry.

Jackson LOVED it.  While he isn't to big of a fan on regular cooked potatoes he is a big fan of tater tots and hash browns.  This was right up his alley and ate the whole entire plate.  It even has onions in it.  shhhh don't tell him!!

Bart liked it, but its not his favorite!  He will have to get over it at least 2 more times because I made 3 batches.  We ate one and I put 2 in the freezer!

I LOVED it.  

Pinterest Day 2 Cooking Monday Night

Cheesy Potatoes and Smoked Sausage

This picture is straight from Colletta's Kitchen Sink.  If you click the picture it should link to the exact recipe from her blog or you can click HERE.

A post isn't worth anything unless these two are in it right??

This is what mine looked like right before eating.

This is what I did.

I took 7 potatoes, peeled and cut in small chunks.

Put 2 Tablespoons in a 9x13 pan, ,melted in a 400 Degree oven.

Placed potatoes in melted butter.

I then put the remaining butter from a whole stick on top of the potatoes. (Next time I will not use all of the remaining butter)

I covered with tin foil and cooked in the oven for 30 min on 400.

After it cooked for 30 min I took out stirred then put 2 full packs of smoked sausage cut up in chunks.

Cook for 20-30 more minutes making sure potatoes do not get to soft.

Stirred some and put a whole pack of shredded cheese on top and cooked for 5 more minutes!

Reviews - 

Stephen - this good and this good.  (translation - The potatoes are good and the smoked sausage good)

Jackson - umm!! while giving a thumbs up.  He is not a big potato fan, but he did like them since they had cheese on them and said it was good with the sausage!

Bart - liked them as well and told me that several times.  He did ask for A1 sauce, but he puts sauce on everything so that doesn't mean the supper wasn't good.  He did really liked them!

The recipe from Collettta's Kitchen called for 10 potatoes and I used 7.  Her recipe called for 2 links.  I used 2 whole packs.  Next time I will not use the whole stick of butter.  It was just to much for me.  But it seriously was good, but nobody needs that much butter!!

Pinterest Cooking Day 1 - Sunday

I decided to start something new this week with my family.  I am tired of cooking the same ole stuff every time I cook.  So I sat down Saturday morning with a menu for the week and only eating out Saturday night.  

I LOVE pinterest.  Did you know that??  You can click HERE to see the other things that I have blogged about using pinterest.  I have done several more, but forgot to take pictures or just not blogged about yet.

Anyways.  I made my menu only from pinterest inspired recipes.  Day one was a total hit from my family.

Sour Cream and Bacon Crockpot Chicken

My husband asked for seconds, Jackson tried a bite of Stephens and then asked for his own and Stephen also enjoyed it.

Here is the recipe straight from the site it came from.

Sour Cream and Bacon Crockpot Chicken

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cooke Time: 8 hours

Total Time: 8 hours 15 mins

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 8 bacon slices
• 8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 (10 oz) cans roasted garlic cream of mushroom soup
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup flour (all purpose or gluten free blend)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place the bacon in a large skillet and cook over medium-low heat until some of the fat is rendered. Be sure that the bacon is still pliable and not crisp. Drain on paper towels. If you use this method, reduce the flour to 1/4 cup. Or don’t cook the bacon and proceed with the recipe.
2. Then wrap one slice of bacon around each boneless chicken breast and place in a 4-5 quart crockpot.
3. In medium bowl, combine condensed soups, sour cream, and flour and mix with wire whisk to blend. Pour over chicken.
4. Cover crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours until chicken and bacon are thoroughly cooked. You may want to remove the chicken and beat the sauce with a wire whisk so it is very well blended.
5. Pour sauce over chicken.
6. If you have a newer crockpot, check the chicken at 5 hours. The internal temp should be 160 -170 degrees F.

I didn't use Chick breast, I used tenders. I did not cook mine for 8 hours.  I put mine on about 3:30 and cooked it till about 6 on high.  It was so moist it was falling apart.  Another thing I did was used the 1/2 cup flour with non cooked bacon wrapped around the chick.  

Next time I cook this I will totally cook the bacon, drain the fat and most likely add the full 1/2 cup flour.  My sauce was very runny from the bacon grease and I just don't like that at all.  I would have loved to had the sauce like a gravy, but it was too runny.

Next I served 

OVEN FRIED OKRA - straight from my garden.  I wanted to get a picture, but my battery died as I turned the camera on.  I searched pinterest for the best recipe, but ended up making up my own.  I crushed my Ritz crackers finely with my food processor, added 1/4 cup cornmeal, 1/4 cup flour.  I sliced the okra, dipped in egg, the in the ritz mixture.  Put a tad bit of butter and oil in a baking pan and baked on 350 for about 20 min.  

Jackson LOVED them and Bart LOVED them also.  Stephen didn't try them.  

I also made biscuts.  I can't find the recipe, but everyone liked them.  I have tried to do biscuts before and they have never turned out great.  Still searching for the Perfect biscut!!  

We also had Green beans, cause if the other stuff turned out bad atleast I couldn't mess up green beans!!!

Italian Zucchini

We have LOTS of zucchini coming in so I have been trying to come up with ideas of fixing it.  I made this the other night and it was really good.  Bart and the kids did not try it.

Thinly slice zucchini and put on top of a lightly drizzle cookie sheet with oil.  On top of the zucchini lightly sprinkle with Italian seasoning and  drizzle butter then top with mozzarella cheese.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes till the Zucchini is tender.

Pinterest favorites!

So I love pinterest and I love making things and keeping my kids busy right!!  Well I saw on Pinterest homemade ice cream through another blog I read!  Its super easy and all you need is a sandwich size ziplock bag, gallon size ziplock bag, milk, vanilla flavoring, salt, ice and sugar!  

I let the boys pour their stuff in the ziplock bags.

Then they shook it really good

Then we poured them in bowls.

and then we enjoyed our snack! 

Its really easy and something your kids can do mostly by themselves.

1 Table spoon Sugar
1/2 Cup of Milk
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla

Mix together in small ziplock bag

Fill the gallon ziplock bag half way with ice and spread 6 Tablespoons of salt on top.  Close gallon ziplock bag and shake for about 5-8 minutes till it thickens and no longer runny.

I used skim milk, but saw lots of recipes with half&half and I am sure that whole milk would be tons better!!

All 3 boys LOVED it and we are trying chocolate next!

Cooking

My boys have always LOVED baking and cooking. Stephen has his very own kitchen set that he got last year for Christmas. He plays with it all day long every day even after 1 year! Jackson is such a big help in the kitchen and I can tell him to make something and it will turn out just as good or better than if I were to do it! During Thanksgiving break they helped me make cinnamon rolls!! Can't wait to do more baking during Christmas break!!!

Friday.....Snow Day 1

The pictures got a little backwards. So this is around 5 pm. The big boy named Jackson had been begging to go outside. Matt followed and kept saying Matt go outside please??? So sweet!!! It was difficult getting these 3 little ones looking at me. I settled on posting this one. I actually got some good ones of all 3, but the snow was smack dab in the middle of either Jackson's face or Stephens. This is the best!!! Even if big bubba Jackson had to hold Stephen's face in the right direction!!!

Sweet Stephen!!!

Isn't he a precious doll!!


Jackson thought it would be a great idea to go down the hill pulling Stephen. Stephen is fearless and I was at the bottom so I thought okay why not!!!

They had so much fun sledding!!!

SO THIS ALL HAPPENED BEFORE THE SNOW EARLIER THAT DAY!!!

Whats for lunch??????

Homemade pizza!!!!!!! My boys love when I make homemade pizza. It had been a little while since I had done it so I thought it would be fun to do on a snow day. Jackson had school till noon and I new they were doing sack lunches. He's not crazy about the sack lunch at the school. Just a plain peanut butter sandwich. No Jelly. So the little boys helped me make it and eat it while doing so!! I think they had fun!!

Stephen trying to be cute!!! (Okay I know its not hard for that!!)

This is Matt. Matt is my 2 yr old cousin that stays with us Wed, Thursday and Friday! Isn't he a doll!!!!

And this is my Jackson!! After the bus he enjoyed eating his pizza(that I snuck in cut up tomatoes and he said he LOVED it!!), playing on the webkinzs while the 2 little boys napped and going through all this valentines from school. We looked at them together and discussed his favorites and he enjoyed a sucker!!

Thanksgiving 2009

I hosted Thanksgiving for the family at our house this past Sunday. We had a great time and some pretty good food. Everyone said the turkey was great!! We had SO much food!! I wanted to do something special for Jackson since he would be celebrating Thanksgiving with Rodney. He really really really wanted to play football, but it had been raining and it was so muddy. From L to R: Bart, Holly, Stephen, Pam, Farrell, Jason, Jo Anna and my daddy(Carey)

Pamela, Carley, Carlos and Vanessa. (BTW sorry ya'll had to sit at the childs table!!!)

After lunch they played games. I think they drug out EVERY game Jackson owns and I am still finding white balls for hungry hippo.

Saturday before we made turkeys. They turned out cute, but I don't have a picture of the final project.

This is how Jackson has slept all week!! This particular night Stephen HAD to lay with bubba and he actually fell asleep before Jackson did.

My 3 layer cake did not turn out so good. It started to break in half and this is right after I finished decorating. The next morning it looked even worse. NOTE to self: just make sheet cakes from now on!!!

Hope ya'll had a blessed Thanksgiving. Ours was great except Jackson being gone and Bart leaving for Massachusetts. I have so much to be thankful for. Here are just a few.

1.) a saving and forgiving GOD

2.) my husband (he is great and is a wonderful daddy, person, and friend)

3.) Jackson and Stephen (they keep me on my toes 24/7, but the smiles and love are worth it!!)

4.) family

5.) friends

6.) food and shelter and a vehicle

Well thats 6, BUT I truly have so much to be thankful for. The list would go on and on!!

Have a safe and blessed weekend!!