Chili Cheese Rice

Wow so much stuff is going ON! I can't believe that we are PCSing in gulp 69 days!!! That means we are trying to plan every last detail, when will the movers come, whens the last day in our house, what route will we be taking, what do we need to take with us and on and on and on! So meal planning isn't really on my list, even though it should be, and lets not mention how I need use up everything in our freezer and pantry. I may be posting some "interesting" recipes in the weeks to come!

Anyways, I wanted a quick easy meal that is a bit of a no brainer. This recipe is stupid easy and it's a childhood favorite of mine. I think it was born out of my Mom's frugality! I mean this meal is CHEAP! And if you're good you planned it out and had the rice cooked already and leftover from another meal!

Ingrediants:

2 cups Cooked Rice
2 cans Chili
3/4cup Shredded Cheese
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large pan combine the Chili, Rice and Cheese over medium heat. Stir occasionaly until the cheese is melted. Serve with a dollop of Sour Cream!

                                                            Enjoy

NEW YEAR 2015 RESOLUTIONS

Ok so I didn't do great on my resolutions this last YEAR! But I'm ready to hit the ground running this year! I've made some new resolutions and simplified some of my old ones. 

Health

Eating: At least one fruit or vegetable at every meal

Exercise: Cardio 3x's a week, Weight Training 2x's a week

Family

Sunday Family Dinners

Family Game Night

Home

PURGE and ORGANIZE

Blogging

Be CONSISTENT

These are my resolutions in a nutshell!

Did you make any resolutions this year? Share them in the comments!

                        Enjoy

Homemade Vegetable Beef Soup

It has been unseasonably cold here lately! I’m talking in the teens and 20’s in the morning! We even had snow already! What is that about?? I know for those of you in the North and North East this is no big deal, but here in the Pacific Northwest it’s a BIG deal! I think I’m actually looking forward to the rain right now because that means it will warm up a little!

It definitely feels like Christmas though, and I like that! I’m excited for Christmas this year I don’t know why specifically, we don’t have any big plans or anything I’m just in the Spirit this year. Maybe because it’s going to be our last Christmas here, whatever it is I’m ready!

Before all the Christmas Feasting begins though I think we need some comfort food that is warm and yummy and good for you too! I made this Vegetable Beef Soup the other day and it was SOOO Good! Just what we needed to warm up!

Put a pot of this on the stove, and snuggle up on the couch and watch your favorite Christmas movie!

Ingredients:

1lb Ground Beef (you could use stew meat instead)

½ Onion, chopped

3-4 Carrots, peeled and sliced

1 cup frozen Peas

1 cup frozen Corn

1 can diced Tomatoes

2 cans Tomato Sauce

6 cups Beef Broth

2 cups water

Ditalini Pasta

Salt & Pepper to Taste

Instructions:

In a large sauce pan brown the ground beef until no longer pink, add in the onions and carrots cook until the onions are translucent, add in the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, beef broth and water. Then add in the pasta, stir and bring to a full boil. Reduce the heat to medium and add in the Corn and Peas. Let cook for about 10 minutes more.

Serve with a nice piece of bread and if you want top the soup with a little shredded parmesan cheese!

*keep in mind you can add any vegetables you like to this!

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Sopapilla Cheesecake

Can you guys believe that it is already almost Thanksgiving? I mean how did that EVEN happen? You know that means that Christmas is just right around the corner too right? And I don't know about you but I haven't started my shopping yet! Every year I say I'm going to start in January and every year I don't!

Since Thanksgiving is a week away have you planned your menu? That's one step I'm done with! I've even bought some of the things I need! Yay Me! If you haven't planned your menu and you still need a dessert you've got to try this Pumpkin Sopapilla Cheesecake! I've made the Sopapilla Cheesecake several times and it's always a big hit! But I knew pumpkin would make it a great fall dessert! And I wasn't the only one if you search for it on Pinterest you will find several recipes for it! I used the recipe I already had and just added pumpkin to it!

Ingredients:

1-8oz pkg Cream Cheese
1 pkg Crescent Rolls
3/4 cup Sugar
1tsp Vanilla
2/3 cup Pumpkin Puree

1/4 cup Butter
1/2 TBSP Cinnamon
Pinch of Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/3 cup Sugar

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a 8in square pan place 1/2 of the crescent roll dough on the bottom. Meanwhile, In a mixing bowl combine the Cream Cheese, Sugar and the Vanilla, mix until combined. Spread the cream cheese mixture to cover the crescent rolls. Top with the other 1/2 of the crescent rolls. Evenly pour the melted butter over the top of the dough. In a small bowl combine the cinnamon and 1/3 cup sugar. Sprinkle over top of the butter cover completely. Bake for 30 minutes or until top is Golden brown. Let cool for 20 minutes and the refrigerate until ready to serve.

Enjoy

Biscuits and Gravy Rolls

Whew ok I missed last week, because my life is CRAZY lol. You would think as a SAHM I would have loads of free time and that I would be creating recipes and crafting and cleaning but the reality is at least lately that none of that happens! I feel like lately I am constantly running around either picking up or dropping Drew off or really WAITING on him to be done with practice or youth group or school. When I'm not doing that I'm going to meetings or events or preparing for those things for our FRG. So I didn't get a post written last week. I did do some PINing though! And I found this great recipe on the Betty Crocker web site!

Biscuits and Gravy Rolls, sounds good right? I love biscuits and gravy growing up it was one of my favorite breakfasts, and really it still is. I haven't ever messed with my recipe, but I thought it would be fun to try something new. And it was a great recipe! The entire family loved it too! This would be a great breakfast on Thanksgiving Morning as you sit and watch the Parade!

Ingrediants:

Rolls:

1lb Sausage

2 1/2 cups Bisquick

2/3 cup Milk

1tsp Sugar

Gravy:

Sausage drippings

2-3 TBSP Flour

1 can Evaporated Milk

1/2 cup Milk

Directions:

In a skillet, cook the sausage over medium heat, until browned and no longer pink. Spoon the sauasge onto a plate with a paper towel to absorb the grease. Keeping about 2 TBSP of the drippings in the pan.  Heat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease 13x9-inch pan.(I used and 11x7 inch pan) In a mixing bowl, stir Bisquick, milk and sugar until dough forms. Place dough on surface lightly sprinkled with Bisquick mix; knead until smooth, about 10 turns. Roll out dough to 15x9-inch rectangle. Spread crumbled sausage on rectangle. Roll up dough tightly from one long side; pinch seam to seal. Cut roll into 12 equal slices(I only got 8 rolls). Place cut side down in pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. While the biscuits are cooking get started on the gravy. Reheat the drippings over medium heat,  Add flour, stirring until the flour is absorbed. Slowly add canned milk, and then the regular milk stirring constantly. Cook about 5 minutes or until thickened. Spoon gravy over tops of the rolls add salt and pepper to taste.

                     Enjoy

Halloween Round Up

I thought it would be fun to share a few different posts about Halloween. It's a busy time of year for us right now and I knew I wasn't going to have time to do any new Halloween projects before Halloween.

 I hope everyone has a Happy and Safe Halloween

Here's a few of my top viewed Halloween Posts

1.Halloween Snack Mix

2.Slimy Worms

3. Trashy Spider Webs

I may have to make these again this year! 

Enjoy

Apple Cider Cocktail

Every year that we’ve lived here we’ve gone to the Apple Squeeze. It’s a local festival where you can use an apple press to squeeze your own apple juice! It’s really really good! And always a lot of fun. I was trying to think of new drink to make with some of the juice. Last year I shared this Pumpkin Spiced Hot Apple Cider. The Hubster ended up going to a school last minute and I completely forgot about going. I was so disappointed too. Because I had this great drink I wanted to share with you.

I decided I could still share it, I would just have to buy the juice. Which is ok and still produced a really great drink.

The original recipe that I had found on Pinterest called for a few things I couldn’t find so I improvised, and I loved it! It’s a really refreshing drink and you can make it alcoholic or not depending on who you are serving it to. I think this would be a fun drink to serve at Thanksgiving.

Ingredients:

1 quart Apple Juice/Cider

4 Pears Juiced

24oz Ginger Ale

Applejack (optional)

Apples for garnish

Directions:

Combine all the Juices and Ginger Ale into a pitcher. Fill each glass with Ice. If making the alcoholic version add 1.5oz of Applejack to each glass. Pour the Juice over the ice and stir. Add a few slices of apple as a garnish.

Enjoy