She's here!

And I'm just getting around to posting about it.

Cream of Chicken Soup for the Soul

I have a confession to make.  The last three recipes I cooked for my family were made with cream of chicken soup.  Not only that, but I will probably make them all again.  Because, yes, they were that good.

 I have mixed feelings about canned cream of chicken soup (hereinafter referred to as CCCS).  I'm a believer in the whole foods revolution. I don't want all of my food to come from a factory. I know there is crap in those cans of soup that I probably don't want in my body, or in the bodies of my children. But I'll be honest. I am eight months pregnant and pretty happy to be putting food on the table on a regular basis. So, don't judge. If you have sworn off CCCS you can stop reading now. You don't need to glory in my recipe success the way I do.  But ya know, these recipes were all easy. And these days, I am all about easy.



Recipe 1:  Curry and Rice

1 CCCS
1 T. curry powder
1-2 t. sugar
1/2-1 lb. cooked shredded chicken
1/2 c. frozen peas
Cooked rice

I didn't even use a recipe for this one.  I just mixed a CCCS with a tablespoon of curry and about a teaspoon or two of sugar added some cooked shredded chicken and some peas.  Heated it all in a sauce pan and served it over rice.  Even my two year old ate it.  He usually takes one look at what I put in front of him and says "No like it" before even tasting it.  It took a little coaxing (and maybe a few threats) to get over that hump, but he did eat it.  And he did like it.

Source: allrecipes.com via Katherine on Pinterest

Recipe 2: Crock Pot Salisbury Steak

2 lb. ground beef
1 pkg. onion soup mix
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1/4 c. milk
2 CCCS
1 pkg dry au jus mix
3/4 c. water

This recipe was a pin I stuck on my crock pot Pinterest board.  I made it to take to dinner at my in-laws.  We ate it with instant mashed potatoes and canned green beans and it was delicious.  Although next time I will probably make it with cream of mushroom soup instead.

Anyway, all you do is mix the beef, the onion soup mix, bread crumbs together and milk and then form 8 patties.  Brown them in a little oil and place them in the crock.  Mix the CCCS, au jus mix and water together and pour over the patties.  Cook on low for about 6 hours or high for 4.  Makes lots of yummy gravy.

Recipe 3: Creamy Pesto Sauce

1 CCCS
1/3-1/2 c. pesto
1/2 c. milk
1/2 lb. pasta uncooked (I used penne)
2 c. cooked shredded chicken

My sister-in-law and I made a TON of pesto this summer.  She grew an abundance of basil in her garden and we turned lots of it into pesto.  Now I have the pleasure of coming up with things to do with it.  Here is one that I will be making again because it's easy and the kids scarfed it down.  My four year old even had seconds.  When does that happen?

Just mix everything but the pasta in a sauce pan.  Obviously, you will want to boil the pasta before eating it, but I think you might have figured that out on your own.  When the pasta was done I mixed it into the sauce, but you don't have to follow my lead.

Well, there you have it: three easy meals from a pregnant lady.

Easy Caramel Popcorn

I have fond memories of making caramel popcorn on a Sunday afternoon when I was a kid.  I remember that it took a long time to cook the caramel and that it had to get to a soft ball stage.  I liked dripping some into a bowl of cold water to see if it formed a ball.  I didn't like how long it too.

Well, this last Sunday my childhood memories got the best of me and I was craving caramel popcorn.  Of course no one can find the recipe we used as kids so I found this one that seemed simple enough.  And wow!  Super simple, super fast, and super delicious.  No more lumps of caramel in a water bowl.  But I think I can get over that.

Caramel Popcorn

1 cup of unpopped popcorn, popped in a air popper

2 sticks butter

2 cups brown sugar

1/4 cup dark Karo syrup

We put all the popcorn in a large stock pot so we could cover it all at once.  Melt the butter on medium.  Add sugar and Karo.  Turn up the heat slightly and bring to a boil.  Boil one minute.  Stir into popcorn.

It's that easy.  The hard part is no eating it for breakfast.

Cinnamon Applesauce Pancakes/Waffles

Remember how clear back in October I mentioned that I had made some pancakes like these?  Well, I never got around to the post.  They were really too good not to share and we made them again this morning only as waffles.  The recipe works well for either pancakes or waffles.

I am also dedicating this post to my sis, Charlotte, because they use applesauce.  (Now you have something else to do with all that canning we did last year.)

Cinnamon Applesauce Pancakes/Waffles

1 c. wheat flour (Char, you can use all white if you don't want to break out your Blentec)
1/2 c. white flour
1/4 c. corn meal
1 T. baking powder
2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. salt
1/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. milk
 1/4 c. oil
1/2 c. appleasuace

Putting Instagram on Your Sidebar

It's been hard to blog in the past few months and one of the reasons is that I got a new phone and joined Instagram.  Well, I just figured out how to get my Instagram feed on my blog!  I always feel pretty cool when I figure out stuff like this!!  

Guess what?  It's super easy too.  I just used the Webstagram tool to generate the code.  I looked at a few other sites too, but this was by far the easiest.

Common Causes of Internet Trouble

It all started this morning with a few cuss words.  Bryce was in the middle of an email when our wireless internet went down.  We use Clear, and while the service has generally been fine, Bryce likes to grumble occasionally that they don't have ESPN3.  (I personally maintain that it's a good thing that he doesn't have access to ESPN3 while he is in school.  But in the name of maintaining happiness in marriage we try not to discuss it.)

Following the cuss words, (which won't be repeated here because this is a family blog so to speak) I told Bryce that just last night I was having trouble with the internet and had to unplug the router a few times before I got it back up and running.  I also mentioned that there was a class action against Clear that had to do with service issues.  We were both getting ourselves worked up into a tizzy and ready to call and yell at someone over the phone.  (We HATE being without our internet.  It's sort of like air around here.)  So I walked into the other room to see if restarting the modem would work when I saw this:

Our children had unplugged the router and turned it into a place for plastic Thanksgiving decorations.  Well, problem solved.

Ginger Snaps for a Cold Wintery Day

It's been snowing where I live.  A lot.  We live near the mouths of both Little Cottonwood and Big Cottonwood Canyons.  It seems like the snow has barely taken a breather since yesterday morning.  I bet there is at least a foot and a half out there.

We did try to measure it, but it said that it was only a foot.  None of us believed it.

The snow caused me to cancel some plans that I was really looking forward to.  As compensation I made these ginger snaps with my two favorite cooks.  They are a really big help.  Sort of.

We ate them warm out of the oven.  Such a treat with so much snow outside.

Ginger Snaps

3/4 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. molasses
1 egg
1 T. ground ginger
2 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. white flour
more sugar for rolling

Cream the shortening and sugar together.  Add the molasses and egg and mix a little more.  Next mix in all the spices.  Add the flours last and mix until combined well.

Make balls of dough and roll in sugar.  I used my cookie scoop.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet and smoosh with fork.  Bake 10 minutes at 325.

I'll be honest

The past few weeks I haven't really felt like blogging.  Ya know, sometimes life is hard.  But I have thought a lot about blogging.  Here are some of the things I thought about telling you about.

Applesauce pancakes.  Super delicious.

No knead "English Muffin" Bread I saw on Pinterest.  It was easy but not as good as my whole wheat bread.

Grocery shopping with a tiger.

At the zoo with dinosaurs.  (Can you tell we are a little into costumes?)

Chinese tiger hat.

Another Chinese tiger.

 So, life is good and I have lots of projects going.  None of them are making it onto the computer.

Sometimes Life Gets Away From You

Has it really been a week and a half since my last post?  Wow, I must have been busy.  Oh, yeah.  I was.  Here is what we/I have been up to:

Kimball started preschool and I am consequently  trying to adjust to a new schedule.

My in-laws peach tree exploded in fruit and I spent two days canning over 50 quarts of peach jam (no, that was not a typo) and 56 quarts of peaches.

We attended the Brigham City Utah Temple Open House with my in-laws.

I read all these books and couldn't put any of them down.  They are all about cooking and food.  Loved, loved, loved them.  (I tried to make the link work to amazon, but I couldn't, sorry. )

If you are a home cook and want to improve your cooking then the Kitchen Counter Cooking School is a must read.  Loved it!!

Well, now you are all caught up.

Hash Browns in the Waffle Iron

I don't know if any of you have seen this on Pinterest, but it's the simple idea of cooking hash browns in a waffle iron.  I decided to give it a try.  I used dehydrated hasbrowns for the experiment since we have those on hand.  I also decided to pour a little oil in the pan so they would be nice and crispy.  They turned out delicious and were 10 times easier than frying them in the pan because I didn't have to flip them!  Total success.  I will definitely be doing this again.