Sesame Sweet Beans with Chicken and Feta

Sesame sweet beans with chicken and feta

Ingredients:
Mess of fresh green beans (snapped long)
Butter
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Onions
Sesame
Brown sugar
Chicken breast (diced/cooked)
Feta cheese crumbles

Melt butter into a saute pan and add garlic, saute then add green beans, salt, pepper, and onions, fry until they start to turn darker green then add about 1/8 cup of water to pan. Turn on medium high and cover. Steam until water is evaporated and let beans fry until they start to turn brown.  Add about 1/8 cup brown sugar, stir fry beans to coat, add cooked diced chicken, stir fry again, then sprinkle sesame seeds over them.

Serve with fresh feta cheese.

Spinach Carbonara with Linguine

Sometimes as moms we have to try creative ways to get nutritious foods in our kids, okay let's cut to the chase, WE need help eating better too, and let's not even get started on our hubbies. So here's my trial and error with cooking spinach into our dinner tonight.

First I tried to make bacon wilted spinach, I hated the texture and the taste was just ok. So I added a few things and eventually came up with the following delicious recipe.

Ingredients:
1 bunch raw spinach
3 strips thick cut bacon
1tsp minced garlic or fresh clove
1tbsp butter or margarine
1/2 block of cream cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese grated
1-2 cups of milk
1/4 box of linguine

Take the raw spinach, wash, pat dry on paper towels, and take the stems off.  Cut up and fry the bacon until crisp. Remove bacon and set aside. Remove all but a little of the grease. Add butter and saute spinach until cooked down. Add cream cheese, half the parmesean,  and about 1/2 cup of milk. Stir and boil down. Continue to add milk as the sauce thickens and stir occasionally. Add linguine to pan. (you can boil in water separately for faster cooking) Continue to add milk as sauce thickens until linguine is boiled and al dente stirring often. Serve with crumbled bacon and parmesan cheese on top.

THE MOST AMAZING Potato Cheddar Bacon Chowder EVER!!! (And I made it up myself)

Here's the recipe for the MOST AMAZING and DELICIOUS Potato Cheddar Bacon Chowder.


Ingredients:


4-5 Russet Potatoes, peeled, diced
4 slices of thick cut bacon, cut into small pieces
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1/8 cup of flour
1/4 cup milk
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can chicken broth
2 cups of water
diced onion or onion flakes
salt
pepper
minced fresh garlic or dried
1/4 8 oz. block of cheddar cheese
1/2 8 oz. block cream cheese


Fry the bacon, onion, garlic and butter together in a large dutch oven or stock pot.  When the bacon is cooked through add in the flour as needed until the bacon grease is mostly absorbed by the flour.  You may need more or less than listed.  Once the grease is absorbing into the flour add the milk and whisk until smooth and a nice white gravy roux consistency.

Combine separately your cream of chicken soup and chicken broth with water.  Mix together well and add slowly to the roux/gravy mixture in the pan.  Stir well.  Once blended add the potatoes and boil until they become soft.  Add in the cream cheese cut into small pieces and stir until melted well.  Then grate the cheese and add to the pot stirring until melted in.  Salt and pepper season to taste and serve hot with more cheese and crumbled bacon on top for garnish if desired.


*Optional add-in diced cooked chicken breast, whole kernel corn, or other veggies you choose.

Toddler Pumpkin Decorating

If you have a little one you have probably wondered how on earth you would incorporate the innaugeral pumpkin carving into their tiny unsteady hands.  You know that you can't expect them to work a knife or sharp tool, and you don't really like the look of a painted pumpkin with no face, well then this pumpkin decorating idea is totally for you!!

The Mr. Pumpkin Head method:

Tools needed:

Drill

Mr. Potato Head pieces galore

Pie pumpkin

First you will drill holes into all of the traditional places that a Mr. Whatever Head would have.

Then help you child pick out their favorite style of eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hands, feet, and hat for the pumpkin.  We used this as a great learning tool to keep teaching the location of each body part.  He did a great job all by himself of selecting from my eyes choices and placing them where eyes go.  Then we showed him two or three options for a nose and he chose one he liked best and placed it in the nose spot.  And son on.  Here's our progression of decorating his pumpkin this year.  He's going to be 2 in December 2013 so it was the most age appropriate and FUN filled decorating he would have possibly done.

We had some lips in an ear hole at one point lol.

Putting the finishing touches on as the last arm goes in!

Our Mr. Pumpkin Head

He has a prime spot on the porch on his little bench ready to greet our trick or treaters tonight!

Fall Fun for Tots

It's chilly but nice enough and your tot is having major meltdowns.  As mamas we know they need to be outside but we're at a loss for quick ways to be out and back in before we all freeze.  This fall activity is quick, easy, and free.

Take your toddler on a walk. Let him lead you around the block. Find fall things like leaves, acorns, mums, bugs, feathers, ext.  Collect the items in your tots Halloween pail.

Come home and glue their findings to some cardstock or construction paper.  Enjoy your fall colors.

Hope you have fun. Use the things they find to talk about colors, textures,  shapes, and more.

Caramel Apple Crumble Pie

Caramel Apple Crumble Pie Recipe:

Pie Crust:

3 cups of all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups of crisco

2/3 cup water

1 tbsp. vinegar

Use two knives or a pastry blender to cut the flour into the shortning.  Add the water slowly, working it into the dough, add vinegar and work through the dough.  Roll out into four balls.  Makes 4 12" pie crusts for tops and bottoms.  Make into a bottom crust for the apple pie we're making and shape the sides by pressing one finger in between the thumb and index finger to make triangle shaped indentions in the dough all around sealing it to the pie plate's edges.

Apple Pie Filling:

4 Granny Smith Apples

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp butter or margarine

Peel and core apples, quarter and slice thin.  (I use the Pampered Chef Peeler/corer/slicer)

Add them to the pot with the other ingredients and boil down until soft.  Add apples to the pie crust.

Caramel and Crumble Topping:

Cut butter over the apple filling once in the pie pan and then drizzle the pie with warm caramel sauce.

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup flour

2 tbsp butter

Cut the butter into the flour and brown sugar with a fork until crumbly and add to the top of the pie.

Bake pie at 450 degrees for 25 minutes with aluminium foil covering the outer edges of the crust or a pie shield if you have one.  Take the foil off and bake a final 5 minutes.

ENJOY!  I like mine with a nice vanilla bean ice cream. :)

Homemade Meat Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes

Here is my recipe for Homemade Meat Sauce from Home Grown Garden Tomatoes:

You will need:

10-15 medium sized fresh tomatoes (jet stars are what I had grown) ripe
1 lb ground beef
1 can sliced mushrooms
1-2 cans of tomato paste
olive oil
minced garlic
onion flakes
salt
pepper
Italian seasoning (or basil, oregano, garlic mixture)
Large pot
strainer
paring knife


Start a large pot of water to boil and add several tomatoes to fill one layer in the pot with water nearly covering.  When tomatoes begin to peel or get soft remove tomatoes to a cold water bath.

Gather another large pot and add some olive oil, about 1/8 cup or so.

Peel each tomato, use a paring knife to remove the cores, and rinse out the seeds in each pod area.  Then take each tomato and hand crush them into a pot.  They don't need to be finely crushed just a quick squeeze in the hand should do.  You may use a strainer to strain off the juice from the seedy portions, but you will want to use that juice as well as the meaty portions, this just helps to get some of the extra seeds out.

Once all the tomatoes are crushed into the pot with the olive oil return to the stove over medium high heat.  Begin to stir as it cooks and add the tomato paste to thicken as needed, and add all seasonings, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, extra basil if you like, garlic, onion flakes, mushrooms, and cooked and seasoned ground beef.  (Ground beef seasoned with onion flakes, garlic, Italian seasoning and the grease drained off).

Let the sauce thicken and cook until it's a consistency of a traditional pasta sauce.

ENJOY!!