Honey Roased Peanut butter

I live with a self proclaimed peanut butter addict. It is so bad that if I bring "the good stuff" into the house I have to hide it and only bust it out on special occasions...such as a bad day or desperation when there is no dessert. J only likes Smuckers All Natural Creamy PB...my wallet likes Jiff or whatever is on sale. We have been all about natural foods, healthy living and do it yourself type topics lately. Well in conversation at least, the healthy eating part is just taking flight. So J says, "why don't you make peanut butter? How hard can it be? My mom does it." Well right there I knew I would be making peanut butter. Geesh, he had to play the mom card? So on my weekly grocery shopping trip, I was faced with the wall of nuts. What was on sale, what did my little heart desire? When eating peanuts, I prefer the honey roasted, so why not try that? Home I went with my jar of nuts, which I had to steal back from J. The guy doesn't come carry in groceries, put them away or cook them, he just rifles through the bags like a mad man until he finds a treat to his liking and I am lucky if said treat lasts the day. That day he found the nuts.

I busted out the little mini food processor from the back of my pantry, poured about half a cup of nuts in and ground away. Note to self: I need a real food processor..my mini just can't handle the nuts, and it is a much longer process when you have to do half a cup at a time. Grinding..grinding...Now my nuts look like crumbs..hmm..keep grinding...now the nuts are jamming up my blade...still grinding... mini is starting to get a little warm to the touch...ah ha! Peanut butter! It really was a thing of beauty.

By the time I had done the whole batch I may or may not have killed the mini...smoke is a bad thing right? Guess I know what is going on my birthday list.

It took a good five minutes of processing to get that creamy consistency, but man was it worth it. We just sat on the couch with spoons, a jar of preserves and that PB for dessert. I would say it is certainly worth it to know exactly what you are eating, and there are often buy one get one deals, which makes it a much cheaper option than my darlings favorite Smuckers!

Snowed In

Well at least the Weather Channel got it right this time, and gave us plenty of time to prepare for Nemo. We watched throughout the day yesterday as the flurries came and stayed. Only a few inches had accumulated by sundown and we were skeptical of the true strength of what they said was coming. After 2 episodes of the Big Bang Theory ( we are addicted) and a dinner of Portuguese Shrimp and fresh bread we again looked out the window. 8 o'clock and the inches were piling up and the wind was picking up. A plow had not been down our street all night, but the snow mobiles were not having any problems with the road conditions. It was decided that J should leave early for his midnight shift--darn you emergency personnel never getting a snow day! J was rolling slowly down the street by 9:15 and I was snuggled up at home with the wood stove, howling wind and freshly baked muffins. mmmm.... Overall, not a horrible storm right? Ha! Then I woke up at 7 this morning...

Okay, it's white outside, nothing I haven't seen before. When you are just looking out at an open space you have nothing to compare the depth of snow to. I figured I should go shovel a place for J to park his car. Jeans and a sweatshirt went on  over my pajamas, then heavy socks, boots, winter jacket, hat, gloves and 2 hoods...Now where is that shovel?

I had to get out back up shovel to do the stoop because J left the shovel out front by the tree after he shoveled his way out last night. And then I opened the door. Show fell into the kitchen. We have a 4 step stoop and you could not even see bumps to differentiate the steps. The snow was covering the entire stoop--at least 2-3 feet of the white fluffy stuff. Thank Goodness it was fluffy! I shoveled my way off the stoop and stepped into the yard...and sunk into mid thigh deep snow. I finally dug out the shovel from under 30+ inches of snow and for the next 2 hours, dug out a place barely big enough for J's car and a path to the door. By the time J got home after 9 I was frozen without hope of being warmed up, even after crawling back into bed with my personal furnace and hoping for a bit more sleep. It was a lost cause and required a 30 minute steaming shower, a roaring fire and now 2 blankets, hot cocoa and a Lifetime Movie.

Because I am not budging from this place of warmth, I busted out the crock pot once again and have that Italian Chicken cooking away. But for a quick lunch to heat me up..wrapped meatballs!  Yum-O! Super easy and a great dinner if you serve it with a big salad and warmed marinara sauce!

Biscuit Meatballs

• 8 thawed Italian Meatballs- I got a deal on those bags of meatballs from the freezer section
• 1 container flaky biscuits- Grands or similar type
• Several Mozzarella string cheese sticks

1. I semi cooked the meatballs in the microwave
2. Separate the biscuits then cut each biscuit in half.
3. Place 1 meatball and an inch piece of cheese inside of each biscuit
4. Stretch the dough over the meatball and seal--I just rolled it between my hands
5. Place on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with grated parm, garlic powder and oregano
6. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes

That will keep you warm!

1 Crock Pot...3 meals..yes please!

It is cold! I mean wind chill below zero, take your breath away the second you open the back door cold. Ah New England, you have pushed me to the point of pining for Spring once again. I can't wait to be able to open all of the windows, clean the house from top to bottom and not having to put on five layers when I forget something in the car, which is only 10 feet from the back door. Yes, I am officially done with winter. I have been substitute teaching since my long term ended and I do not love not knowing if I am going to get a call to work or not. I especially dislike the morning call. I am not a morning person. Then I have to drag myself out of a warm bed and walk down the freezing cold hallway to get ready. You see, we have been using our wood stove this winter and after 8 hours of no logs being added, my tootsies are almost frostbitten by the time I hit the bathroom. A 30 minute drive to follow plans, or no plans on several occasions--teach a class you don't know that could range from k-grade 5 and have any number of fun personalities to contend with. Oh and no matter what the grade, you have those kids that just love to point out to you what you are doing wrong. Yeah, thanks I know I am not your teacher...in case you haven't noticed, she is not here today, care to help me out? Sigh.... So eight hours later I come home to a wonderful man who has just woken up and is hungry.

Our crock pot is my new best friend, and I totally nailed it this week with getting the biggest bang for my buck. Chicken was on sale ( I adore buy 1 get 2 free deals).

Shredded Chicken Burritos

Day 1:
Put 5 still semi frozen chicken breasts into crock pot...check
Add 1 jar of salsa
Add 1 packet of Taco seasoning and mix as best you can.
Set crockpot on high for 4-6 hours or Low for 8
Shred chicken and return to Crock Pot to soak up remaining sauce before serving.

This lovely combination produced very yummy chicken burritos served in tortillas with lettuce, cheese, salsa and sour cream...YUM!

Day 2: Crunchy Southwest Chicken Wraps

Step 1: Saute half of an onion and 1 bag of baby Spinach

Step 2: Add  left over shredded chicken, half a can of corn and about half a can of black beans to the pan to heat.

Step 3: Add cheese! I used a cheddar jack combo and added handfuls until I like the consistency.

 

Step 4: Assemble! I used 2 methods. I had both leftover tortilla and egg roll wrappers. For the tortilla wrappers, I spooned about half a cup of the mixture into the center of warmed wraps and folded the ends in then rolled. 

For the egg roll wrappers, I spooned 2 or so TBS into the center, spread water along the edges, folded two opposite ends together in the center, then tightly rolled.

 

I lightly drizzled olive oil over all of my creations and put in a 350 oven.

 For the egg rolls, I turned them after 5- 7 minutes, then baked for another 5- 7 minutes without removing. The Tortillas were flipped after about 10 minutes, or when the bottoms were golden and cooked an equal amount of time on the second side.

And here are my Tortilla Wraps: The top was just shredded chicken and cream cheese, the bottom is my Southwest Concoction!

 

And here we have the Southwest egg rolls.

  

This was one of those dinners that J really liked. He liked it enough to take a cold wrap for lunch the next day and comment again on how good they were that night.

Southwest Chicken Salad

And Day 3:

J was sleeping on the couch today and not budging for dinner, so I was on my own and man am I glad he did not wake up mid dinner! I was not going to be sharing this beauty!

 

This is one of those throw everything in a bowl recipes. Here is what I threw...

Chopped Ice Berg Lettuce

1/4 cup black beans

1/4 cup corn

Remaining shredded chicken reheated in the mocrowave

Shredded Cheese

Tortilla strips I had in the pantry for salads 

French Dressing

Throw whatcha got in a big bowl, grab a fork and hide somewhere to enjoy all alone..yum!

Baked Eggrolls

I guess I am at that age where everyone I know is getting married and announcing pregnancies. Sometimes it is hard to grasp the fact that I am an actual....grownup, when did that happen? So being a 20-something means bridal showers, baby showers, weddings and way to many events where I have to wear a dress...cringe. I am a yoga pants (jeans if I leave the house) and a t-shirt kind of girl.I hate getting dressed for work because that means work clothes.  And no matter how hard I try, my hair will just never look like those Pantene commercials. I might straighten it, but I can bet on the fact that by the time I get to where I am going, one side will be flipping one way, and the other side, the opposite way.

So, with wedding season approaching and dress shopping an inevitability, I am keeping a close eye on the scale, which I force myself to get on every time I am at the gym. I am determined to see some sort of downward movement on that stupid scale in the next 3 months. Since I can't magically make the winter insulation disappear, that means finding some healthier meal options. I am trying to do this while keeping the comfort part of winter comfort foods. I just can't do salads daily when it is 12 degrees out, sorry! 

Now I love Chinese food. I love it right when I get it home, I love it as a midnight snack, I love it cold the next day when I nibble it right out of the container while standing in my kitchen pondering dinner options.... But when one is trying to fit into the next size down in 3 months, take out is not an option. But I was able to trick myself into believing I was eating Chinese with these baked egg rolls! Not only were they really easy, but you can play with the ingredients and really not mess up. So here is what I used.

• Eggroll wrappers found in the produce section of my Local Big Y.
• 1 bag shredded coleslaw mix.
• soy sauce
• a dash of ginger
• tiny shrimp, chicken or pork.

That's it folks!

Warm the shredded mix in the microwave and drain any extra liquid
Add your meat of choice and soy sauce to your tastebuds liking.
Spoon the mixture into the center of each eggroll wrapper.
Wet the edges of the wrapper with water and fold two opposite corners to the center, then roll from one remaining corner to the other.

Drizzle with olive oil In a 375 oven bake for 10-14 minutes, flip and bake for an additional 10-14 minutes. and you get something like this...

Crock Pot Obsession

It has been quite some time since my last post, and while I took a vacation from blogging I have not had a hiatus from cooking! I have been busy teaching fifth grade for 12 weeks, then first for another 3. I adored my fifth grade class and wish that could have been a full time position, but that was not in the cards. Now as I face another bout of day to day subbing, I better get working on my cookbook, which of course is going to be my claim to fame, my million dollar check in the bank and lead to my own food network show...or maybe I should keep on the teaching track. Either way, working full time with children at this time of year leads to two things; exhaustion and germs. I just am not in the mood to cook an extravagant dinner when I get home, and by 5pm J wants it ready to eat ASAP. It's not fun when I have to tell him it will be at least an hour. So began my love affair with our crock pot! I can prep before work while I am waiting for my coffee water to boil and my bagel to pop out of the toaster, leave it all day and have not only a dinner ready when I get home, but an amazing dinner ready. J has been loving chicken in the crock pot, which is great because chicken and I have not been seeing eye to eye since my electronic meat thermometer decided to go to you know where in a hand-basket.

I have always been nervous about leaving anything plugged in with the switch in the on position when I leave for work. My mom did a good job raising a girl who triple checks whether or not the hair straightener is plugged in before I leave the house, and probably running back in for a fourth check once I am already in my car. I have even driven half an hour back from work because I left the refrigerator door ajar and I was petrified my cat would crawl in, shut the door and be a cat-cicle by the time I got home.--thanks mom. But here is the great part about having a guy who works the midnight shift...if the crock pot goes up in flames he will be home when the alarms go off and either fix the problem or watch the house go down in crock pot flames from the front yard, neither situation do I want to come home to but it has eased me into leaving the crock pot to do its job while I'm not home.

I have made two amazing crock pot meals with chicken, the first a chicken and dumpling dish, and the second an italian chicken meal which made the most amazing gravy for mashed potatoes!


Chicken and Dumplings: 
3-4 chicken breasts uncooked
2 cans cream of chicken soup
carrots sliced
other veggies if you would like: chopped onions perhaps?
6ish cups of chicken stock/broth: enough to cover the chicken.
1-2 tubes of refrigerator biscuits

Add all of these yummy fixings to your crock pot, cover and set on low for 8 hours
Now go to work!
8 hours later walk into an amazing smelling house!

Now you need to tear refrigerator biscuits into small chunks and submerge in crock pot. Let cook 20-30 minutes until they are not overly doughy on the inside. That's it!

This one is so satisfying for a cold night or soothing for  when you have a cold!


Italian Chicken:
4 chicken breasts uncooked
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 8 oz container of cream cheese
1 packet dry Italian dressing mix
chicken stock

Combine the cream cheese and soup in a saucepan..
I did this the day before because oops I realized my chicken went south after I started my meal prep.It was perfectly fine when I used the combined mixture 24 hours later!
Add chicken, soup mixture and Italian dressing packet to crock pot
Pour enough chicken stock to cover chicken
I gave mine a little stir to combine all of the fixings
Put a lid on it set to low for 8 hours and walk out the door.

The sauce from this recipe is ridiculously yummy and I served it over garlic mashed potatoes!

Hurricane Sandy

Being a native New Englander, I am used to tropical storms, Nor'Easters and as of last year, 8 days without power after a freak Halloween Snow Storm. But I am starting to wonder if these October Mega Storms are the new norm. I am currently snuggled on the couch, tuned into the weather channel and watching the wind pick up out the front window. Work has been cancelled for 2 days, CT highways are closing at 1pm and I already had to chase the trash can lid across the back yard. (J is bringing that to the basement when he gets home at 12).

I learned my lesson last year and went out to buy a lantern, candles, lighters, water and a bottle of wine. We have canned fruit, tuna and granola bars galore. But what about meals? I bought 2 loaves of bread along with peanut butter and jelly and last night I made baked chimichongas! Power or no power, tonight we are having left overs!

Similar to a hot pocket, I used ground turkey to make this dish a bit healthier. I made the turkey as I would taco meat, cook, add taco seasoning and water...add diced tomatoes, cumin and oregano, then 1/2 cup each sour cream and shredded cheese and mix... Then I filled 6 Tortillas with the mix, fold seam side down and bake for 15-20 minutes.

We devoured 1.5 each and topped them with sour cream, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, salsa and cheese. Yum! Even if we do lose power, I am sure they will work cold in a pinch.

With my bathtub full of water, blankets at the ready and snacks filling the pantry, I am ready for this hurricane.

Guinness Pie

When I woke up this morning, I was expecting a somewhat relaxing day, J had a family party that we were planning on attending mid day and last week kicked off our Sunday nights on the couch with the new season of The Walking Dead starting. I was up and bopping around the kitchen in my pajamas, getting out my large bowl for the requested chocolate chip pancakes ( J was taking  a break from his typical 3 eggs and an English Muffin). Before I could grab a measuring cup, I hear an "uh oh" from the living room. J was being called into work on his day off. We finally get a weekend scheduled off together so of course an emergency at work has to come up. So in place of C+C pancakes, I quickly threw together an egg and cheese bagel sandwich, wrap it in foil for that authentic "to go" look and pull down the travel mug for an accompanying coffee with cream. Out the door he went by 9am. So now I have an entire sunny fall day to kick around the house and yard and come up with some delicious dinner idea. Comfy clothes were in order, then it was out the door to plant my bulbs so that the spring will come in with some color next year. J's uniform was up next and I was actually able to get it out of the dryer fast enough that no ironing was required. Now for food. I had all day so time was not an option, it had to be warm and filling as all Sunday dinners should be. I have been looking at a recipe on my pinterest board for awhile now and today seemed like a good time to attempt Guinness Pie: an Irish steak pie.

I needed:
a 1.5 lbs chuck roast ( I used pre cubed beef stew meat)
1/4 lb bacon
 1 red onion diced
2 carrots largely diced
2 stalks of celery diced
3 oz mushrooms sliced
3 cloves garlic
1 bottle Guinness
1 cup beef broth
flour for dredging
2 cups cheddar cheese shredded
1 TBS fresh Rosemary ( I had fresh Rosemary frozen from my garden- if you don't use 1 tsp dried)
1 tsp dried thyme
Salt and pepper
2 sheets puff pastry

In my dutch oven I cooked down the bacon
When done, remove the bacon but keep the grease in the pan.
Dredge the beef in the flour and season with salt and pepper
In batches, brown beef in the bacon grease then remove from pan
Saute onion, carrots and celery until soft ( Add butter if the pan dries out too much)
Add mushrooms until soft
Add garlic and cook for 1 minute
Add Guinness and bring to a boil, scraping up browned bits
Add stock, and meat back into the dutch oven
Place pot uncovered into a 350 degree oven for 1.5- 2 hours, checking and adding stock if needed
Remove from oven add cheese and increase temperature to 400
Line 8x10 greased pan  with one sheet of puffed pastry, scoring then placing in oven for 6-8 min so it won't become soggy.
Spoon beef mixture ontop of bottom crust and cover with the second sheet of pastry..
Create criss cross pattern so as not to puff-- not cutting all the way through
Brush with egg wash
Bake for 20-40 minutes

It is baking now, smells great pictures to come