New Toy

As you can see it's just a little blender however the reason I purchase this style was for a few reasons which I will list.

1- Price $20.00 over $54.00 for a Magic bullet at Walmart

2- I have a 2 food processors however when trying to mince herbs (the blades are to HIGH) to mince them up this has a smaller/lower blend that I think will be perfect (the blend it just like the type in a coffee grinder which was $12.00 at Walmart and would only be good for chopping herbs since I don't drink or use coffee so that would be a big waste of money)

3- I thought it was cool

4- To mix up dressings

Verdict I used the blender today (Monday) for mincing up Fresco peppers/green onions and red peppers love it...I can already see me using this Blender a lot more the my food processor

Update Home Life Around the Holidays

Most people think I am just a scrooge since I prefer to skip them if I could however that is not the case. Growing up Holidays for me always meant family drama/BAD gifts or people not getting what they wanted ie all around drama.
Growing up every holiday my grandma made Xmas a pain by trying to cause as much DRAMA as possible to even get everyone fighting over stupid things most the time someone would leave due to this.
I am a very giving-helpful person ..However my brother is just the opposite as possible he is the type of person who forget even simple holidays like Mother's day or will go I didn't realize coffee cups were a very bad gift for my parents. Yet he would expect

Homemade Pot Pie

Your all probably asking yourself what the heck to do with all the leftover turkey that someone sent home with you from Thanksgiving dinner.. go searching for a great recipe of course well I found this one at 8 am this morning Turkey Pot Pie

Step 2

Well first remove all the good stuff from the bones and diced it up into small bite size pieces.





This was all dark meat that most people don't prefer/like & they usually toss in the trash but as you know I can't see/afford to waste food I just have to get creative this month my budget is super tight to being off on Turkey day..My mom did dinner at her house this year and I yielded a lot of dark meat to use for this recipe I only needed 1.5 cups however I had 5 cups total so the rest stayed in my gallon Ziploc baggie & go popped into the freezer for me to be able to try this recipe or any other again later next month. ( 3.5 cups of free turkey meat)





Step 3
The recipe calls for 1 small onion minced as usual I don't have an onions except green so I grabbed 5 stalks and quickly diced up w/ my kitchen scissor makes this job really quickly. Don't be afraid to use different types of onions then what a recipe calls for live dangerously and use green instead of white lol or maybe dice up a nice red onion it would give this lots of color.




Step 4

I had to dig in my freeze for my pre-diced stash of celery (2 stalks was what I needed for the recipe) makes meals like this go quicker as well. I see I am getting low on my celery I will purchase 4 bags and diced it all up at once saves time and common sense why dice it 2 -4 time a month if you use celery that much?
I never have regular carrots but I had a bag of what I call munching carrots I need 2 carrots so I just grabbed what looked like enough for yield around 2 and diced away.




Step 5

I washed 3 potatoes and left the skins on and diced up really quickly as well.




Step 6
The recipe called for 2 cups of water and 2 chicken bouillon cubes to yield 2 cups of broth . As usual I don't have them ( they contain a yucky ingredient called MSG I get really bad headaches from this so I skip that when I can) as you can see the label says NO msg :O) So I opened this box and used 2 cups.






Step 7 In a large pan or stew pot melt 2 tbsp of butter I ran out of my dd lactose free butter so I used oil..since the butter is made with evoo so regular canola oil will be fine.




Step 8 In the heated oil drop the carrots/celery/green onions cook until tender then add in the chicken broth and bring to a nice quick simmer.



Step 9
While the carrot mixture is cooking now is the time to add the spices the recipe calls for parsley I have none..& oregano I have none..and salt and pepper Hey I have those... I decided to use garlic powder since dd loves garlic and Italian seasoning since it's close along with salt and fresh ground pepper.



Step 10
DD is lactose intolerant and she can use lactose free milk so that is what I used in the recipe. 1/2 cup of lactose milk in place of regular moo. I poured the milk into a cup to come to room temp.





Step 11
You will need 3 tbsp.of flour I would assume that any type could be used for this step like rice or even whole wheat.



Step 12
I guess I better get the pans ready since I will be making these for me and my dd I decided to use mini loaf pans for a few reasons in place of a circle pie plate.

1 reason takes up less space in the freezer.

Reason 2 dd doesn't like peas and corn and I want to add those to my pie

Reason 3 this allow us to try different extra ingredients to each loaf.



Step 13
Time to drop in the diced potatoes into the boiling chicken broth to cook until tender the smaller you diced (all your food) the quicker it will cook and also you will avoid different sizes being over/under cooked




Step 14 Cook until tender this took about less then 15 mins.




Step 15

In a small sauce pan heat the remaining 2 tbsp of butter ( used oil)




Step 16 When the oil is heat/bubbling add the flour to the pan and stir well to mix up and cook.




Step 17 This is what the flour mixture well look like before you drop in the turkey.







Step 18 Drop in the turkey and coat well.



Step 19 Slowly add the milk and keep mixing well.





Step 20 Drop the turkey mixture pan ingredients into the larger pot of carrot broth mixture and mix uo well.




I like lots of veggies in my food so I pulled from my freezer stash a bag of corn and a bag of peas to add the my pot pie.. DD doesn't like them.



I also wanted to add some shredded cheese to mine as well and since I have NEVER made pie crust I grabbed the leftover pie crust hiding in the lower pull out drawers.



Step 21
I wanted to make these in my toaster oven plus I didn't want to have any tipping/spilling issues so I placed in on a cookie sheet. I then scooped Turkey filling into each then added the extras to the ones that needed them. (remember don't mix them up and forget which is which this happened to me and dd got and upset tummy w/ issues bad mommie!!!)




Step 22 roll out your pie crust dough



Step 22 Wing it and flip your pan over onto the crust and cut around it



See just wing it a lot..



Step 23 THEY DON'T HAVE TO BE PERFECT :o) I RAN OUT OF CRUST AND USE THE SCRAPS TO COVER ONE (TASTED JUST FINE TOO)





Step 24 Make sure you remember to cut slits of you can use a small cookie cutter to cut cute air hole shapes.





Step 25 Bake your pies for 45 in a 350 *F oven until crust is golden allow to cook some before removing. They will freeze/reheat well too :O)

Finished at 11am however I had to stop in between to wash dishes/grandma stopped over to pick up something so was busy for 30 mins and then drove to library and got some DVD's while they cooked :O) Multitasking baby..


Verdict: Picky DD loved them ate 2 however she accidentally got my extra veggie/cheese one and I guess it was so go she didn't notice ( extra veggie yippie) however she got sick but loved the pie so I will make sure to make mine first and put them up :O) I love them as well only change would be to do crust tops & bottoms and add more chicken broth filling was a little dry.

Menu Nov 17-30

This is our plan from Nov 17-Nov 30 however with extra food in the house this menu may last until Dec 8th I will just keep adding to it but I wanted to plan it... ( the Dates with a 19W means that is a night I work so I must cook dinner ahead of time usually around 10 am and package it into container to go to work)

17-Leftover Skillet Enchiladas & Chicken Cheese Sandwich
18W-Chicken Noodle Soup
19W-Meatball Subs & Chicken Cheese Sandwich
20W-2 Mini Meatloaves & Cold Pizza
21W-Asian Chicken Salad
22-Sloppy Chicken Joe
23-Fix it yourself
24-Baked Tacquitos with Mexican Rice
25W OFF-Grandma's House
26W-T-Day Leftovers
27w-Homemade Turkey pot Pies
28 w-Chicken Burritos & Leftover Turkey Sandwich w/ veggies
29-Jerk Chicken Wonton Wraps w/ dipping sauce
30-Turkey Burgers w/ Homemade French Fries

Slow Cooker Oatmeal

Trying to find ways to pre-cook breakfast so I all I have to do is nuke and eat that way I will eat it breakfast more often and quit skipping it. Well I also know that oatmeal is good for you....So why not cook a large batch but can it be done right in the crock-pot? well I was off to find a recipe and read the reviews..Plus I had 4 lbs of regular oatmeal that could be used for this..However after reading lots of recipes on the net I picked this one Slow Cooker Oatmeal and after reading lots of review most seem to think that using steel cut oats over Quick Cook or Regular ( JUST GREAT !! I don't have steel cut & what the heck is the difference? so off to Sprouts to check and see what they looked like since I can purchase any product in bulk bins there and that is usually cheaper as well for a nice little trial and error test.

As you can see steel cut oats are WAY different looking and way smaller. So I decided to give them a try at 79 cents a pound I figured I could always do something else with them later if I didn't like the crock-pot oatmeal.

1 cup steel cut oats

After reading all the review I used 1 cup steel cut & 2 tbsp of regular oats




I grabbed my new 2qt crock-pot since I wanted to try this out as well killing 2 bird with on recipe...

Sprayed Crockpot with PAM



As shown above you need 3 cups of water I just used plain tap...



The recipe stated you should start this recipe just before bed and cook it for approximately 8 hours. I decided to try to make it on my day off and see how long it really takes verus having to deal with any issues on my work day when I am in a hurry. I cooked the recipe from 11 am to 2 pm the oatmeal.



The oatmeal was nice thick and super creamy unlike when you make it on the stove however it may just be the type of oats used that makes the oatmeal better.
I wanted to add diced apples & cinnamon but was not sure how those would turn out in the oatmeal as well I guess that will be a next time TRIAL RUN...

Verdict: There will be a many next times Love this recipe but will try w/ regular oatmeal too

Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread

I find having a sink full of soapy water best to have around 24/7 that way if you have sticky hands or dirty dish you just drop them in to soak for wash when ever as well as not have to worry about trying to turn a handle with hand issues. I have been working on finding a list of quick bread recipes to have on hand as my go to recipes.. I started with this basic recipe and went from there I did a few substitutions as I always do..

1 cup of oil= replaced with 1 cup applesauce
3 cups of white sugar=replaced with 2 cups of white & 1 cup of light brown
Spices-used pumpkin pie spice & 1/4 tsp ginger

Preheat oven to 350 *F



Other ingredients used in the recipe.....




I picked a very large mixing bowl since I had not made this recipe and didn't want a nice mess with a small bowl.




1 can of pumpkin
2 cup white sugar
1 cup of light brown sugar
1 cup applesauce




I prefer to crack the 4 eggs into a separate bowl & scramble them together before adding them to any mix I am making.




The water and the baking soda I measured out into small containers for better camera shots




In a second bowl mixed the following items together well....

3.5 cups of all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

After the pumpkin sugar mixture is blended together



Slowly I add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix well with a hand mixer. At the end I use a spatula to mix well in-case I missed any flour mixture that stuck to the bottom of the bowl. ( YES there was both sugar & Flour not mixed in well ) See why I used the spatula :O)




See the pretty mix = to me it looks like a bowl of Mustard :O)




Lined 18 muffin cups and 4 loaf pans to start. Still not sure how much this batter will yield or how many muffins or loaves.




The muffins were done in 20 mins- 25 mins.




The bread took 1 hour to be done and not gooey.


Verdict: DD Loves them and this will be a keeper recipe..

Yummy....Buttery Soft Pretzels

This recipe started off with a very intimidated ingredient "YEAST" even I have been for years been intimidated by this ingredient however I really wanted to learn to use this ingredient as well as I really wanted to make homemade pretzels to both save $$ going out to eat them at my local pretzel place which for a bag of pretzel bits for around $5.00 a bag. Recipe




Step 1
Large bowl since I was not sure if the yeast mixture would bubble or grow to large or do any thing at all since I have never used it



Step 2

• 4 teaspoons active dry yeast (2 packets removing 2-1/4 tsp from each packet ( to yield correct amount)

• 1 teaspoon white sugar

• 1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F)
  

Step 3

Let sit for 10 minutes after mixing the 3 ingredients together after about 3-5 mins tiny little bubbles will start bubbling to the surface and the mixture will thicken.



Step 4

While waiting for the yeast mixture prep the other ingredients
Starting with 1/2 cup white sugar




Step 5

Add in the 5 cups of flour ( Next time I will only add 4 cups first) then add the extra 1 cup slowly as well may not need all the flour as recipe states



Step 6 Mix the ingredients up well



Step 7 Adding in 1 tbsp of oil



Step 8 Make a well in the dry ingredients



Step 9 Add the oil and the yeast mixture into well created




Step 10

You guessed it it's time for the messy part mixing all the ingredients up well.



Step 11

Mix all this together was a challenge so we decided to dump in onto the counter to mix it better.



Step 12

Still mixing , mixing and mixing plus added in 2 tbsp of water extra as suggested in the recipe if the mixture is too dry ( IT WAS VERY)



Step 13

Oil a large bowl since not sure how much it will rise...Drop in your dough ball and roll it around in the oiled bowl to coat well.



Step 14

Cover with plastic wrap.. Since my house was not what I assumed was warm & it was in the late evening hours & winter time I decided to turn the oven on 235 *F and place the dough bowl on the burned to heat/rise for 1 hour or until double in size.



Step 15

We (my dd & I ) decided bite size piece were better then huge full size pretzels so we divided the dough into 12 piece balls to make it easier to work.



Step 16

Create nice long snakes when I was a kid I was the only one who couldn't get even snakes right lol they just decided to stay fat and short




Step 17

Mix in another bowl the following ingredients

1/2 cup baking soda

4 cups hot water

Step 18 Give your pretzel bites a little bath in the soda water



Step 19

I used parchment paper in place of a greased cookie sheet ( didn't need the extra mess :O) spread out your pieces.



Step 20 Bake in 450*F oven until golden brown about 8 minutes
I turned down the heat to 375 *F and baked 9 mins.




Step 21 EAT NOW!!! I added butter spray and kosher salt


Verdict : YUMMY.....Will make again soon...