Grilled Peanut Butter and Honey Sammiches

Lunch is always kinda boring around here. Nothing fancy. Just leftovers or whatever is easy to cook. I noticed that when I started this blog, it was all dinners. No lunches or breakfasts. I think I need to change that. So I tried these and really, like the ham and cheese sandwiches, why didn't I ever think to make these before? So easy and so dang delicious. My son loved it. So I have a feeling I will be making these quite often.

The recipe for these can be found here.

New Update with some Old Ones...

I have only one thing to say really about why I have not updated at all...

Sick. As. A. Dog.

Ugh! I am hoping that this cold is gone by next week so I can start cooking like I have been and start working out again :(

Tonight for dinner I making the chicken pot pie that I made a couple weeks ago. Easy enough and for some reason, I am really craving it.

First night of this 2 week section, we just had a rotisserie chicken. Store bought. Nothing crazy. The next day I put some delicious beef tips in the crockpot. Oh...My...Goodness. This recipe was amazing. And so quick. AND SO EASY! I let it cook all day and then I made a thing of rice and vioila. Dinner. I mean really, nom nom freaking nom!!!

Chicken Spaghetti Revamped?

So I have a  friend named A, she lives in Mississippi. We have never officially met but we talk constantly on the phone, on FB, etc etc. I love her to death!

Anyway, to get back on track...she would hear me say I was making chicken spaghetti (recipe I normally make can be found Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti) and she told me that she herself has her own recipe that she makes. She asked for the link to PWs so I sent it to her and she goes Oh yeah, mine is a lot simpler then that!

This was months ago. This was when the blog wasn't even a glimmer in my eye! So now that I am doing the blog, I was like You know, let's try A's recipe out. She gave it to me and man, its really simple. Like...insanely simple actually. (Recipe will be at the end of this blog entry)

The neighbor child was over once again so I asked if she wanted some dinner, she said sure. I started the chicken and just smothered it in Tony Chacere's. Probably not the smartest thing to do but meh. It was probably the best tasting chicken I have had in a long time so I might even make that with a couple sides, who knows.

The key though, the KEY, is to make sure that you don't have the chicken sitting out while cooking the spaghetti and the soups. The reasoning is simple. You will eat it. Seriously. You will stand there melting the cheese and munching on chicken. Told you, probably the best chicken I have ever tasted. I wasn't kidding.

But proud to admit, it was a hit in the house. Even Little Man ate it and that says a lot cause he is SOOO picky! Neighbor child (again with not saying names) loved it too. In fact the other night when she came by to get boxes (they moved **sniffles**) the girl who lived two doors down said "She told me that we need to come eat your cooking." That's right...I am awesome.

Told you, munch munch munch....

Nom Nom Nom!!!

Eat up!

Recipe courtesy of A: (Love you girlie!)

• 4 whole Chicken Breasts
• Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning, To Taste
• 4 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 cans 28 Oz. Ro*tel Tomatoes
• 2 cans (10.5 Oz) Cream Of Mushroom Soup
• 1 block 32 Oz Velvetta Cheese Loaf
• 1 pound Spaghetti (whole Package)

 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line a cooking pan with tin foil.
2. Lay the chicken breasts on the foil lined pan. Rub a stick of butter on the chicken to give it a nice coating. Then season chicken with Creole seasoning. Season to taste. Put chicken in the oven and cook until golden brown and done.
3. Bring a pot of water to boil. Cook spaghetti until done (al dente, according to package instructions). Drain.
4. Chop up the Velveeta block into squares.
5. Add cans of tomatoes and mushroom soup into a saucepan and bring them to a simmer. Add in cheese. Stir and cook until cheese is melted then remove the pan from heat.
6. Cut chicken breasts into bite size squares.
7. Add chicken into the cheese sauce once cheese is melted.
8. Serve the sauce over the pasta and enjoy.

Chicken Bacon Bake

Most definitely starting to notice a trend here, a trend of eating chicken. If I didn't love steak so much, I'd cut beef completely out of my diet. But this isn't an entry about me and my diet....

I found this recipe on Tasty Kitchen and oh man, did this look gooooood! And its so simple, it really is. Little Man is extremely picky when it comes to eating so I have to make sure that I choose foods that he will eat as well. Now mind you with that battle, I normally lose. Go Mom! Not.

So I did the usual of taking a package of chicken out the night before and sticking it in fridge. Next morning took it out and let it thaw out all day (still frozen, good to know my freezer REALLY works). I used 4 breasts for this and not the three like the recipe asks for but honestly, I doubt it matters.

That afternoon I decided I had enough of waiting and went to buy an electric griddle. I saw a couple on Amazon and found the one with the 5 star review. Yeah...well not sure why this one got 5 stars cause mine didn't work. At all. It heated and then just quit. Not VERY happy about it. But anyway, so I ended up having to cook the bacon in my skillet was well. Fun...not.

Overall, it wasn't bad. I actually kinda liked it. I used Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard and Jack Daniels BBQ for the sauce. Definitely good flavors to mix :D And I don't know about you, but I like my bacon extra crispy. I can't stand tasting any type of fat on anything, including bacon. Barf.

The chicken smothered in BBQ and mustard sauce. Nom.

Another view.

Nom Nom Nom. Chicken, sauce, bacon and mozz cheese over mashed potatoes.

9/11...Time to Reflect a bit...

So I interrupt your cooking schedule to talk about 9/11...

Such a surreal day. Literally. I remember talking to my Grams and my Mother and they knew exactly what they were doing when like JFK and Elvis died. My Grandma remembered D Day. My Grandma remembered seeing the Holocaust pictures for the first time. And you hope that you never have to have a "moment" like that. A moment that you will never forget ever in your life.

Then 9/11/01 happened. I had just started my junior year of high school. All our schools are on the same campus and we had Home Ec in the middle school. First period for me was Home Ec. I remember my old History teach Mrs Bottesch came in and told Mrs McMutrie (sp?) that the WTC had been hit. They were unclear at this time what happened but that she should turn on the news. So she did. Me, in my total ignorance, was like "Isn't that where the Stock Exchange is?" I think Triv was like "no, thats the NYSE building." Yeah, I felt dumb. And we stood there watching this. We didn't know what was going on, all we knew was that a plane had hit a tower. Thinking it was an accident. And I remember someone saying "We see smoke coming from the DC area, can we confirm what is going on there?"

Then we saw the second plane hit. And the shock, fear, terror, could be felt throughout the classroom. Something, someone, was attacking us. Why? What is going on? What is this?

Class ended and we headed back to the high school. All the teachers were in the cafeteria watching it on the TV. It seemed that all the students were just glued to the TV. Some were crying, NO ONE understood what was going on.

I went to my 2nd period of the day which was Japanese. Mrs Mitchell said no classes, we were watching the news. So we did. I remember Joey, big tall Joey, just stand there in shock. We all were. For the first time since we were in K, all of us were stunned silent.

And then the tower fell. That's when my tears fell. All those people. Not enough time. Why? WHAT WAS GOING ON?!?

I will never forget Mr Valentic, my history teacher. He stood there and just kept shaking his head. I never saw him shed a tear but I think he was holding that in. He finally turned to look at us and said to us "From this moment on, none of your lives will ever be the same. Ever. You may not know it now, but it won't."

How true he was. I married a man who is Active Duty military. His cousin was KIA in 2004. I have grown to know countless military families from all over the world. Off the top of my head, I can say I know about 8 people who have died in Afghanistan or Iraq. And countless more that I might not have known personally but I knew their friends. And I watched their tears and tried to help as much as I could.

I will never know what its like to fly and not have tightened security. So many things that we count as norm know, on 9/10/01, they were not.

But our country has shown that no matter what, that didn't break us. Instead we banded together and "fought" the pain and the tears. We became a whole and not someone here or there. Our hearts still ache for those affected and who are still being affected by 9/11.

Even if we didn't know someone personally who was killed on 9/11, our hearts still ached the same for all of them. Their families. Their children. Just for them. The people of United 93 will forever be named heroes. The countless firefights and police officers and contractors who worked countless hours digging and finding/saving people...heroes.

We love them all for what they did. We love people we may never meet. And we love them because in the dead end face of terror, they did what they had to do. And they did it with no questions asked. That is what a true hero is to me.

It was so easy, even I could do it!!!

Ha. Ha. Yes I know. Cracking jokes at my expense. Ha. Ha.

But really, have you ever made a recipe or seen one and you are like Why haven't I done this before? Yeah that is how I felt with this one.

One afternoon, all the neighborhood kids were hanging out around my house at lunch time playing with Little Man. So in true Mom fashion, since I was making lunch already, I asked the kids if they wanted to try it. Of course I was told YES all across the board.

Really simple like I said before. Take some ham sandwich meat and a package of the crescent rolls. Unroll them, lay some ham slices on there and some cheese. Roll them up, pop them in the oven and voila. Delicious and I am actually craving some now.

Too bad I am out of crescent rolls.....

Recipe is here.

Sometimes, your way is the best way!!

Sooo this blog is all about trying new things and getting out of my comfort zone right? Right. And that is what I did!!

I make a tater tot casserole that my family loves. Like nom nom nom loves. Its simple, its easy and the leftovers seem to be better then when it was fresh! Not gonna lie, its a Duggar family recipe. I tried it cause it sounded good and we love it. We add some spices and do our own twist to it, but its still good. I can't even begin to tell you how many people have been like Ewww tater tot casserole?!? That is nasty. "Have you tried?" "Well...no." So how do you know something is nasty? Exaaaactly, you don't :-P

I saw this recipe on Tasty Kitchen and was like Hmm...that doesn't look all that bad. Again, trying new things. Getting out of comfort zone here! And it seemed like my Moms. My Mother makes the BEST tater tot casserole and I've been asking her for years for the recipe. STILL WAITING MOM!!! But anyway back to the recipe at hand.

It was fairly simple BUT the only complaint I had was there was just too many veggies. Like an overthrow of onion and green beans. Not enough salt. Which are all easy fixes! I just..I don't know. I guess this is one recipe that I will continue to make on my own!!!

My first Pie adventure!!!

So for those that have been following along, I have never been the one to cook. I mean I did cook here or there but it was either something easy or something out of a box. Never homemade. So cooking stuff that is "out of my element" is really new to me.

I saw this recipe for a Chicken Pot Pie on Tasty Kitchen. I have seen various ones before and they always just seemed really complicated so I would take the "easy" road and say forget it. This one is incredibly simple. The only spices you use are salt and pepper. Easy! Now of course if you wanna make your own crust, then that would take some time. But again, taking the easy way this time so I bought the awesome premade Pillsbury crust.

While cooking, my son likes to stand on the step stool and watch everything I do. He even helps me get stuff out of the fridge. He calls himself my "Taste Tester". Such a food critics already and he's only 5. If something needs more salt, he tells me. If it needs more of something else, he tells me. Course he will try and tell me to put like cinnamon on something that definetly does not (nor would you want to) need it but still, its awesome. It's a time that my Little Man is mine. No cartoons or toys. Nothing. Just Mommy and Little Man time. And I adore this time that he still cares what Mommy is doing and not "Mom, I'm hungry and gotta run, when's dinner?"

I got everything in the pot to boil and I called my Aunt. We ended up talking for about an hour, just catching up on life and reminiscing about things. She told me that Grams would be proud of me. I said "Oh?" She said "She tried for years to get you to start cooking with her and you just wouldn't. Now look at ya!" I told her I didn't know how well it would come out because I have never done this before. And she said "Never know what you can do until you try it!" So true Aunt J. So true.

I made a few changes and an oops. I used kosher salt and I must have added too much cause its a tad salty but not a turn your nose up salty. But its definitely there. The changes I made were I added sharp cheddar instead of mild. I love sharp cheddar. I think I use it for pretty much everything! And I used Cream of chicken AND mushroom instead of just chicken soup. Overall, this dish was amazing. And I will definitely be making it again :D

I leave you with some pictures of my fine work and the recipe will follow. Enjoy!

Recipe I used:   http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/main-courses/chicken-pot-pie-19/

One of my favorites....

Last night for dinner I made lil cheesy meatloaves (recipe will be at the end of this blog post). Definetly a fave in this house. And it is sooo delicious. I add a tad more salt then the recipe calls for and I also throw in some garlic. Gives the meatloaves a kick.

Really I add garlic because I was "yelled" at when I didn't add it. "Garlic is love! Don't you want love in your food?" Yeah Yeah, get over it. :-P

Well I was on the phone with a dear friend of mine, gabbing to B about random stuff. I just received some distressing news about an EFriend of mine, mind was just NOT where it should have been.

Well mind not focused+cooking=Not gonna happen right!

And no it did not. I added too much oats. I didn't add enough salt AND I didn't chop up half an onion.

Go me!!

Little Man was like OH YEAH! No onion! So of course he ate it right up. So I guess we know who will eat the leftovers and who won't! :D

http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/main-courses/lie28099l-cheddar-meat-loaves/