baked spiral ham family dinner

this dinner is totally going off the menu planner...I found a big spiral ham on sale at the supermarket for only $10 and I could not pass it up...
I think my favorite food of all times is either ham or bacon...I love me some pig, I guess...

so I baked the ham, threw some potatoes in the oven for baked potatoes made some green beans and some biscuits...

yummy yummy of course noone in my house is complaining tonight

crispy chicken with pea pods, carrots & pineapple

when I was first married and then had several babies, I was trying to find my groove in cooking and I devoured recipes and cookbooks as much as I could...on the back of a Bisquick box, they had an address where you could sign up for a Bisquick newsletter and I did it...it was great...once a month, you would get a newsletter in the mail and also recipe cards...

this is where I originally found this recipe...I tried it, loved it, hubby loved it and the kids as they got older they also loved it...my youngest son loved it so much he requested this dish every year for his BD...

over the years, I have changed it to our needs (or wants) and now I am not sure what the original recipe was for...tho I think it had onions and peppers...I add carrots, snow peas and pineapple to mine...that is what my family likes...
I looked on the Bisquick web site and they no longer have this recipe...(does that mean it is mine?) LOL...

it is a different in the fact that it does not have a sauce to it, and might seem dry to some people but for some reason, it just works...if you get a piece of everything on your fork, man there is nothing as good as a piece of the chicken, a carrot, a snow pea and a pineapple all together...
this is a labor intensive dinner, I have to warn you...tho I did get help tonight, Tim came home from work and did the chicken for me...

here goes...

for my family I had 6 chicken breasts, that I cut up into bite sized pieces, then coat them in a mixture of Bisquick and garlic salt and pepper...then into an egg mixure and back into the Bisquick...I fry a few pieces at a time till all are browned...as I finish, I put the previous ones in the oven to keep warm...
when all are browned, I discard the oil (I have a thing about "old"  oil) and add just a tiny bit more to the cleaned pan and stir fry the carrots and pea pods...add the pineapple just at the end to warm up...

try it, I promise you will love it as much as we do...

taco "cupcakes," sour cream & cheese rice family dinner

dinner was interesting tonight to say the least...one of the crazes going around the internet is savory cupcakes (made with egg roll wrappers...)  I have seen lasagna cupcakes, sloppy joes, chicken pot pie, and a ton more...so I took a leap of faith and decided to try them too...

had my eye on them for awhile now and thought tonight would be a good night...

I will start with the sour cream & cheesy rice:

http://cassiecraves.blogspot.com/2009/03/mexican-sour-cream-rice.html
and this is definitely a keeper...I did not quite follow the recipe exactly...and I should have put what it said to put in for the sour cream...ours was a little dry, but nonetheless very very good...this resembles very much like a potato casserole that I have made for years and everyone loves...I cannot wait to make this again...yummy...

now, the taco cupcakes:

http://www.plainchicken.com/2011/07/taco-cupcakes.html
now these to me are OK...before I made them again, I would need to add something...not sure what right now...they are just lacking something...but, neither did I put anything on top like salsa and that
would probably add what I was missing...son and hubby just said that they love them, so we will see...

had refried beans to go with dinner...the princess is with her dad tonight but I saved her a "cupcake" to see what she thinks...

February main dishes (will post sides later)

it is quite a chore finding recipes for 30 days out and then writing them out and choosing sides etc...
took me most of yesterday to come up with February's menus...but I was sort of helped out by the fact that because of either 1. eating out, 2. cat's away meals, 3. eating off of the menu, or 4. eating leftovers, I was left with 10 days of menus from January that will skip on over to February...

so here goes for February...
main dishes...

chicken
    gumbo
    chicken taco casserole
    chicken & wild rice casserole
    poppy seed chicken
    chicken & pea pods
    fettucini alfredo with chicken
    honey glazed chicken  from Jan
    cashew chicken  from Jan
    cranberry chicken  from Jan
    tangy bacon chicken  from Jan
    bourbon chicken
    chicken pot pie soup
    chicken noodle soup

beef
    sloppy joes
    beef stew
    spaghetti
    swiss steak  from Jan
    beef stroganoff   from Jan
    new shepards's pie   from Jan
    meat pies   from Jan
    enchilada casserole   from Jan
    cheeseburger soup
    beef/barley skillet
    cheeseburger helper from scratch

misc...
    mini impossible pies
    macaroni and cheese
    bubble up pizza

15 are brand new to me recipes,  9 recipes are original to me (at least made more than 5+ years) and 4 are ones that I have made recently and am totally in love with...

now to making the side's list, make my grocery list and then look for and cut out coupons...

salisbury stk, gravy & mashed potatoes, family dinner

now, I have made salisbury steak for many years and my family has always been happy with it...but, I just wondered today how I could change it a little bit...I liked mine but I wanted it to be a little moister (or something...)

so today I researched salisbury steak and came up with several different variations while still staying with my recipe sort of...

here is what I did...

2 pounds of hamburger
1 cup of uncooked Stove Top Stuffing mix (this was my original idea)
2 eggs
1 pkg. of beef gravy (the packet kind)

I made into 6 oval patties and browned on both sides...then I put them into an oven pan and covered them with  2 jars of beef gravy mixed with 1 cup of sour cream...this is also new to me, I then put into the oven covered at 350 for 40 minutes...

DELICIOUS
and this will be my to go recipe from now on...

I am getting so good at making mashed potatoes and they sure did deliver tonight with some of the gravy on top...

yummy

my style of cooking...

I was thinking of my style of cooking today while I was trying to lay down with a migraine (that is always the perfect time for me to think about things and prevent me from sleeping...)

so anyway, I got to thinking about styles of cooking and since I of course sort of learned from my mom, I will start with her...
tho, it is not really fair to compare her cooking...we were a very poor family of 12 kids, some nights the bigger kids went to bed without dinner...and when I think of her, she did not have the ability of having money just to go to the store for any ingredients she might need for a recipe...she cooked simply...
spaghetti sauce was tomato sauce
salad dressing was mayo tossed into some lettuce
tuna casserole, was just chicken soup, tuna and noodles
get my drift???
but she was a fantastic baker, when we had the monies for such pleasures...her angel food cakes from scratch with coffee frosting were legendary and her cinnamon rolls were to die for...we all loved her Christmas cookies...

when I got married, I cooked what I was used to and hubby was not too happy with my dinners...I have posted before how he was used to a meat and potato dinner, unless it was Italian and his mom can make a mean Italian dinner...when she still cooked (she is 86) lasagna was always the Christmas dinner...

I started expermenting a little with seasonings and I like to think I got pretty good and hubby started liking my dinners more and more (otherwise I told him he either ate or he didn't...) and I had a month's supply of menu ideas that I could grab at any given time...so from the time we were first married and then kids and then kids growing up, I sort of stayed with my 30 day's of menus...in December, hubby always had 3 weeks of paid leave and I would make up my 30 day's of menus so we would not run out of food while he was off...(money was a little tight, tho nothing compared to my mom...) and this worked for us, especially when I worked...

since retired, I have been more experimental with cooking and especially in the last couple of years, I really can say that I have gotten pretty good...say like this month, I tried 19 new recipes...
and I am getting pretty good at looking at a recipe and decide if I want to keep it the same or substitute something...such as I did with the barley pilaf in the previous post...I did a few changes to it and I ended up loving it...
I can remember just a couple of years ago, when I wanted to make a soup, I had to google or try Food Network for an idea...now, I can think of something, try it according to my thoughts and it comes out pretty good...

I am proud of myself for coming this far and only see good things in the future...

herb roasted chicken, barley pilaf family dinner

I have got to get my camera charged...do you know how many pictures I have missed due to this?

ok...for dinner tonight, I went off of menus and decided to make herb roasted chicken, (it has been raining for 2 days and I wanted a nice cozy home comfort dinner) and I had just found this recipe for
barley pilaf, which sounded absolutely terrific and I made carrots too...

I also got my energy and made chicken waldorf salad from leftover chicken for the weekend...

the barley pilaf is from here: 
http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/barley-pilaf-caramelized-onions-4431?click=recipe_sr
I did change it a little, by putting cranberries instead of apricots

and the pilaf is delicious, will have to see what the rest of the family thinks

homemade pizzas for dinner & smore egg rolls

this really posted out of sequence, it was really Sunday night... tonight was a weird night...personal problems abound...I will get there eventually... Sian is spending the night with Zoe here and with problems I am trying my best... I let them make english muffins pizzas and they had such fun... check out Zoe's blog: www.zoesrecipebox.blogspot.com for dessert they made smores egg rolls...we crumbled up some graham crackers, and put them along with some chocolate chips and mini marshmallows in the middle of an egg roll wrapper...it was cute watching Si roll up the wrappers... we got it in the end and the girls said they were delicious...

beef, bacon, & barley soup with english muffin bread

my camera is out of memory and I kee fogetting to plug it in (sorry for lack of pics...) this is what was for dinner... http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/breads/english-muffin-toastable-bread/ & http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/beef-bacon-and-barley-soup/170e9b81-8754-47ec-b280-ba2516678882/ this is the second time I have made this soup and I forgot from last time if I made any adjustments to it or not...today, I did not have carrots and so put peas instead... the bread is the first time I have made it and it is very good...for a yeast bread it goes together fairly quickly, rose well (a little too much, I was not watching like I should and it went all over the oven...) LOL... as soon as it came out of the oven everyone was in the kitchen getting a piece to snack on... Tim said the house smelled good when he walked in...I love comliments like that... yummy dinner, you will enjoy...

chicken taco casserole

http://bevcooks.com/2012/08/chicken-dorito/ this is what I made for dinner, tho I did change the recipe a tad...it was very very good albiet a little bit spicey... here is what I did; instead of 2 cans of soup, I added one and 1/2 cans of soup, and 1/2 cups of sour cream...with the cubed chicken, I did add the Rotel, taco seasonings, and then I added some frozen corn and some black olives... next time I would not put the Rotel (too spicey for our family) and I would add a little more of the taco seasoning... otherwise very very yummy

new bread

I saw this at the store and was somewhat impressed...I love a good homemade bread, but am sometimes overwhelmed with the ingredients and the getting the yeast just right and the kneading and everything and I did not have that kind of time today... this bread did fit the bill and they have other varieties...you don't have to knead it at all...it rises for and hour and only takes 20 minutes to bake and it was very good...

OMGoodness...chicken in walnut sauce family dinner

this was a fantastic dinner and will most definitely be put on our dinner rotation...so so so good... I have had this recipe on my favorites for more than a year, and I will put it on the monthly menus and it was always the first recipe to be cut if we happened to go out to eat or something... now, I wish I had never done that...I cannot really even describe in words how great all of the flavors combine into one really really good dish... you get a hint of cinnamon and just a little taste of the walnuts and oh my does it just work... paired with homemade mashed potatoes, broccoli, and a sort of handmade bread from a mix... one of the best dinners I have ever made... so yummy everyone loved it...you simply must try it... forgot to add the link where I found it: http://stephaniecooks.blogspot.com/2010/10/chicken-in-walnut-sauce.html

million dollar casserole, green beans, garlic bread

http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/12/million-dollar-casserole.html

I have seen this recipe on several different blogs and had it on my favorites for a couple of months and decided tonight was the night to try it... it is very good and everyone loves it... I did make a few changes, as I added Italian sausage to the meat mixture, and instead of layering the cream sauce, I mixed the sauce into the noodles...I layered the meat sauce first (just enough to line the pan) then put the noodles (mixed with the cream sauce, rememmber?) and added the rest of the meat sauce to the top...baked at 350 for 30 minutes, pull it out of the oven add cheddar cheese on top and finish baking for another 15 minutes... hubby did not throw his in the trash tonight (wow...I am amazed) and Tim is getting seconds...I also think this will make fantastic leftovers... yummy

bacon & potato hash with blueberry muffins

this recipe was loosely based on this recipe: http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/sidedishes/bacon-potato-hash/ but I added celery and carrots too... and I just thought blueberry muffins sounded good with this and even tho I do not care for blueberries, they were pretty good...

pumpkin pancakes, sausage, eggs for dinner

when I first made up this menu for January, I was going to make homemade chicken apple sausage to go with the pancakes... today when I got up, I knew that after a couple of labor intensive dinners I really wanted something easy tonight... I re-looked at the recipe for making sausage and it was going to take me buyin a bunch of spices that I did not have and well, it is the middle of the month (money wise) and I was not sure I wanted to spend (all) that kind of money on spices... so this is what I made and I am very happy with the pancake recipe and will definitely make them again... pancake link: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/spicy-pumpkin-pancakes/f93e66ed-68c6-4f1d-8f98-5dcbd90ed36e

can I just add that early on in our marriage, hubby always liked to tell me that he hated breakfast for dinner, so we don't do this very much at all...

month of january

Bread Machine Baking Month National Candy Month National Egg Month National Hot Tea Month National Meat Month National Oatmeal Month National Soup Month National Wheat Bread Month Prune Breakfast Month National Pizza Week Second Week National Meat Week Fourth Week National Irish Coffee Week Fourth Week Bloody Mary Day January 1 Apple Gifting Day January 1 National Cream Puff Day January 2 Chocolate-Covered Cherry Day January 3 National Spaghetti Day January 4 National Whipped Cream Day January 5 Bean Day January 6 National Shortbread Day January 6 National Tempura Day January 7 English Toffee Day January 8 National Apricot Day January 9 Bittersweet Chocolate Day January 10 Milk Day January 11 Hot Toddy Day January 11 Curried Chicken Day January 12 National Peach Melba Day January 13 National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day January 14 Strawberry Ice Cream Day January 15 National Fig Newton Day January 16 International Hot & Spicy Food Day January 16 Hot-Buttered Rum Day January 17 Peking Duck Day January 18 National Popcorn Day January 19 National Buttercrunch Day January 20 National Cheese Lover's Day January 20 National Granola Bar Day January 20 New England Clam Chowder Day January 21 National Blonde Brownie Day January 22 National Rhubarb Pie Day January 23 National Peanut Butter Day January 24 Lobster Thermidor Day January 24 National Irish Coffee Day January 25 National Pistachio Day January 26 Chocolate Cake Day January 27 National Blueberry Pancake Day January 28 National Corn Chip Day January 29 National Croissant Day January 30 Brandy Alexander Day January 31

crockpot chicken l'orange, rice, homemade egg rolls

have been eyeing this recipe for sometime and decided tonight was the night to try it...it was very good and Tim said to put it on the menu rotation... Tim loves Chinese food, especially since he is trying very hard to eat healthier and he said this fits the bill for him... with it, I made white rice, green beans and I made some homemade egg rolls... here is how I make eggrolls: I brown some breakfast sausage and mix it with some cole slaw mix (from the salad aisle in the market...I roll up in a large egg roll wrapper and fry in a little oil... see how fat I made them? so yummy everyone was happy tonight...

can I just add, the chicken was so tender, it cuts with a fork, but still moist and delicious... chicken link: http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/crockpot-chicken-a-lorange

meat loaf, potato casserole, maple carrots

it is cold here today...very cold for California standards...it was 27 degrees when I walked Zoe to school this morning and I was so so so cold (we are not used to this, LOL)...even with mittens and my heavy jacket, it still took and hour once home to thaw my feet and hands out...
so, thus saying...I wanted a nice home cooked comfort all oven dinner tonight...I wanted Tim to come
home and be warmed and happy to be home...and my good luck was that he had not eaten lunch today and came home extremely hungry...

so this is what I came up with...

 I love meat loaf very much and I scour the internet looking for different meat loaf recipes...I came across this one and it has been my staple recipe since then tho I am not entirely sure this will be my forever one...we shall see...I do really like this one ( a little sweet and a very good taste to it...)  I made it for a large crowd one time and a guy came up to me and said he hated meat loaf since he was a kid but, he really liked mine...so, that was a nice compliment...

meat loaf link:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/30-minute-mini-meat-loaves/d691ebd6-743b-4dc1-a04c-40ee7da480d5?src=SH

and then I wanted something different for a side dish and I have been eyeing this recipe for some time now and decided to give it a try...and it was delicious, just what I wanted and needed for this winter night...

potato casserole:
http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/sidedishes/loaded-baked-potato-cassarole/

then I re-made from last week, the maple glazed carrots...

yummy, everyone was pleased with dinner tonight

chicken tetrazzini and cheese savory "brownies"

OMGoodness is dinner wonderful tonight...a little labor intensive but, so well worth the time put into it...
this is a recipe that I got from Pioneer Woman and is the third time I have made it andeveryone loves it...
I am such a ding dong...went to the store to get all of the ingredients and when I get ready to make dinner I realize something very important that I forgot to do...
I forgot to buy the chicken...yay team me..but, not only that I had already made most of the dinner before I realized what I had done...so, there was no way I had time to go buy the chicken and then cook it too in time for dinner...
we have a busy evening ahead of us...Zoe has tutoring and then later we have the award's thing to go to where they will announce where Zoe placed in the school art contest...

so the only thing I could think of doing was to send hubby to the store and buy a deli chicken...
that is what we did and it turned out great...I still feel stupid...

recipe link for tetrazzini:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/11/turkey-tetrazzini/

then, I had bought garlic bread to go along side dinner but found this weird recipe this morning, and
since I love weird recipes so much, decided to try it...the recipe title says it is "cheese brownies..."
and I was very intrigued...

link:
http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2013/01/cheese-brownies/

and these were very good, everyone loved them...I did not add the jalapenos, but it does need some kind of spice added to it....I might try the peppers next time just to see how that is...and this recipe
definitely has some great possibilities...(thinking green onions, maybe some bacon, corn?)
even, with cooling down, these cheese things are very good...

yummy...a huge thumbs up from everyone for dinner tonight

tacos

so do I really need to give you a recipe for tacos?  everyone has their own taco recipe that their family
loves...mine is no exception...even Tim who is on a eat better diet and eats very little beef, loves his
tacos...and tonight can I just say they came out so perfect...just the right amount of seasonings and the taco shells were just the right crispy and soft...

did have to send hubby to the store (well, really back to the store) cause he got flour tortillas instead of corn ones...but Tim liked the flour ones so much, he made all of his with flour tortillas (I will stick with corn, thank you very much...)

meatball & pasta soup & Mickey Mouse bread

well for part of Saturday and Sunday we spent time at the Happiest Place in the World...and thus saying, Tim bought a loaf of Mickey Mouse shaped sourdough bread...that gave me the inspiration for dinner tonight...
it is very cold here (tho I am not complaining one single bit...) the temps are like high of 50 and low of 37-38...very very cold here in our neck of the woods...I shall surely remember these temps when it is 110 in the summer (oh my...)

so we were tired and very cold...first thing we did when we came home was light a fire in the fireplace and then I made soup...

so easy...
I always start a base with the McCormick's seasoning mix (2 pkgs.) and I mix in 8 cups of water, stirred in some frozen meatballs, any frozen vegetables I had leftover and ditalini pasta (my current favorite) and cooked till pasta was cooked...

everyone loved it and it went so well with the bread from Disney...

am having trouble posting pics here for like 3 days...have to check into this further when I have a chance...

buttercream chicken, mashed pots, glazed carrots & 7 up biscuits

I have known for a couple of days, I was going to make this dinner and I have dreamed about it and it did not fail to deliver...so so so yummy...a little labor intensive, but well worth the trouble...
I wanted Tim to come home to a really down home comfort dinner for after the holidays and he said
it was very good...

the chicken:
http://jamiecooksitup.net/2012/02/butter-cream-chicken/

the mashed potatoes (& can I say how convenient to do these ahead of time):
http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/08/slow-cooker-creamy-mashed-potatoes.html

the carrots:
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/maple-glazed-carrots-00000000007482/index.html

the biscuits:
http://life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.com/2012/08/7-up-biscuits.html

the chicken was delicious, I would season it a little more than the recipe calls for but other than that, yummy...the gravy was perfect...
the potatoes were also very good...and I like how you can do them up so far in advance...I will use this recipe again as I really love a good mashed potato...(tho I am still on the hunt for mashed potatoes that are more like 2 of the Indian Casinos that are around us...
now, the biscuits were so good...very light and moist--the perfect biscuit in my estimation...

try some of these recipes as soon as you can, you will not be disappointed...

peas, ham & creamy noodles...new recipe

first recipe for the new year's...Happy New Year's to everyone...

here is the link to my dinner tonight:  http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipes/dinner/peas-ham-and-creamy-noodles.html

this dinner came together fairly quickly and I definitely will make it again, tho I do not think hubby was too happy when he came to get his plate...he does not care for dinners such as this, but hey ...
sometimes I cannot always please everyone...my philosophy is you either eat or you don't and Tim and I both liked it, so it will appear again...

you should try this for a quick and easy dish...yummy