Beef Stroganoff

 Crock pot Beef Stroganoff

1-2 lbs cube steak or 1-2 lbs stew beef (which is what I used for this recipe).

2 cans condensed golden mushroom soup

1 cup chopped onion

1 Tb Worcestershire sauce

1 14oz can beef broth

8 oz button mushrooms

salt and pepper to taste

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup sour cream

In the crock pot, combine the meat , soup, onion, Worcestershire sauce, beef broth, mushrooms, and salt and pepper. Cook on low for 5-6 hours. Stir in cream cheese and sour cream about half an hour before serving, stirring every ten minutes or so to break up cream cheese.

Serve over cooked egg noodles or rice.

Taco Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground meat
• Package of McCormick Taco seasoning mix
• 1 can pinto beans 
• tortilla chips
• shredded lettuce
• 2 Roma tomatoes dices
• shredded cheese
• olives sliced
• sour cream
• guacamole 

Directions:

• On the stove top in a large pan brown your ground meat. Drain the fat.
• Add your package of McCormick Taco seasoning. Follow instructions on the package.
• Heat the pinto beans. You can heat them seperately or with the meat it's up to you. I put mine in with the meat and let it all simmer together. 
• On a dinner plate place your tortilla chips, meat and beans, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, olives, sour cream, and guacamole. You can put these in order you like. You can not go wrong!!

I hope you enjoy one of my favorite meals. :) To make this meal even better make a pitcher of margaritas to wash it all down!!

Free baseball valentine

 

This year I decided to make my boys their own Valentine's Day cards for them to give to their friends at school. I ran across the idea of You're a hit Valentine on a baseball and loved it because my boys are constantly outside throwing balls with their dad. 

I took a picture of one of their baseballs and using Photoshop I removed the background and in a new layer typed the wording. I then flattened my image and saved as a jpeg. After printing the baseballs onto card stock and cutting them out I punched two holes to stick a sucker through and then I was done!! So Cute and super easy!! I love the way they turned out and I think the boys will too.

If you would like for me to send you this image as a jpeg please message me and I would be more than happy to send it to you. I can also change the name for you as well or just take it off. :)

Happy crafting!!

 

Whole chicken in a slow cooker

Rub Ingredients:
4 tsp salt
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder

3 1/2 to 4 1/2 lbs roasting chicken

Directions:
Combine rub ingredients in a small bowl.
Remove the neck and pouch with organs from inside the chicken.
Rinse chicken and pat dry.
Rub the rub all over the outside and inside of the chicken.
Cover slow cooker and cook chicken on low for 4-8 hours. Cook until the internal temperature of the leg is at 160 degrees F.
Remove chicken and place in a 9x13 glass baking dish. Place baking dish in the oven under the broiler for about 4-5 minutes. Allow chicken to rest after removing it from the broiler for 5-10 minutes.

*When I cooked our chicken I shredded the meat and froze for future recipes. The chicken literally fell off the bone when I removed it from the crock pot. This was the easiest chicken to d-bone in my life!! Yesterdays post was the Cheesy Chicken and rice bake and I used the shredded chicken from this recipe for that dish. The chicken was so tasty. You could also add carrots, celery, and potatoes to your crock pot while the chicken was cooking if you wanted a one dish chicken meal that day. Yum!!

Modified and adapted from food.com

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts ( I shredded mine)

4 cups cooked brown rice

3/4 cups corn

15 oz canned black beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream

4 ounces, fluid canned green chilis

1/2 cup salsa

1 cup Colby jack cheese, plus more for topping  

2 tablespoons fresh Cilantro for garnish

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine all ingredients,except the cilantro, together and place in a 9x13 baking dish.

Top with extra cheese if you want.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until heated through. 

Garnish with cilantro.

Thank you How sweet it is for this delicious dish! :)

Valentine subway art

 

I love subway art!! I think it is a fun piece to add to any holiday decor. Not only is it cute but I have found a place that you can get it for free. :) Gotta love that. Go to eighteen25.blogspot.com and download the art of your choice and you can print and frame it!! Above is a picture of my Valentine subway art that I have in our living room on a coffee table.

Spicy Thai Noodles

 

Ingredients:

• 1 box linguine or angel hair pasta
• 1-2 Tbsp crushed red pepper
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup sesame oil
• 6 Tbsp honey
• 6 Tbsp soy sauce
• Green onions, cilantro, peanuts, and toasted sesame seeds

Directions:

• Boil noodles
• Chop green onions, cilantro, and peanuts.
• Heat both oils and crushed red pepper over medium heat in a small pan. (2 tbsp makes this dish very spicy. I used only 1 tbsp)
• Strain out pepper and reserve oil.
• To oil, whisk in honey and soy sauce.
• Toss mixture with noodles.
• Refrigerate overnight or until cold.
• Before serving, top each individual serving with onions, cilantro, peanuts and toasted sesame seeds.
• Serve cold

My husband, son, and I really enjoyed this recipe. I added some shredded chicken to the pasta and it was very good. This makes an excellent main course or side dish. We had this for lunch yesterday and had plenty of leftovers so I am excited about having it again today!!

Thank you to a small snippet for this great recipe. :)

Donut Muffins

 

My kids love these muffins! Probably because they are dipped in butter and then rolled in cinnamon and sugar but I will have to say myself that they are pretty good and really easy. :)

Ingredients for muffins:

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup margarine, melted
• 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup all-purpose flour

Mixture to roll the muffins in after they are cooked:

• 1/4 cup margarine, melted
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 and grease 24 mini muffin cups.
Mix the sugar, the margarine, and the nutmeg together. Stir in the milk, the baking powder, and the flour until just combined. Fill the muffin cups about half full.
Bake 15 to 20 minutes.
Place the melted margarine in one bowl and then combine the white sugar, and ground cinnamon in a seperate bowl. Remove muffins from their cups, dip each muffin in the melted margarine, and roll in the sugar-cinnamon mixture.

*After making this recipe a couple of times I like to brush on the melted butter with a pastry brush and then roll in the sugar-cinnamon mix. I feel like the muffins don't get as much butter this way.

Thank you Allrecipes.com for your donuts!! :)

Beef Carnitas

 

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. flank steak
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped

For spice rub:

• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

For Serving:

• corn tortillas
• avocados or guacamole
• cilantro
• salsa
• limes

Directions

Mix together all spices in a small bowl. Rub the spices all over your flank steak-be generous. Then, place your steak at the bottom of your crock pot.

Cover the steak with the chopped onions, bell pepper and jalapeno pepper. Turn heat on low and cook for 8 hours.

After 8 hours, remove meat from crock pot and shred with a fork. It should be incredibly easy to shred. I also cut my meat against the grain of the steak. I found that it was still a little tough if you didn't. 

To serve, heat your tortillas in a skillet on the stove or in the microwave wrapped in wet paper towels. Spoon some carnitas on a tortilla and then top with cheese, salsa, avocados or guacamole, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime.

  

Thank you Eat, Live, Run for this delicious recipe.

Philly Cheesesteak

Ingredients:

• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 pkg onion soup mix
• 1 lb. Black Angus rare roast beef (I buy Boars Head roast beef thinly sliced from the deli)
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced
• 1 large white or yellow onion, sliced
• 8 oz. cream cheese 
• sliced provolone cheese (2 slices per sandwich)
• 3-4 hoagie rolls

Directions:

Bring beef broth and onion soup mix to a boil.

Add roast beef, reduce heat, and simmer for about 5-10 minutes. In the meantime, in a large skillet saute onion and green pepper.

When beef is done simmering, drain juices (you can keep the juice if you want to make an "au jus" dip.) Add roast beef to skillet along with about 4 oz. of cream cheese. (I omit the cream cheese and it is still very good)

Generously portion the beef, onion, and green pepper mixture onto each hoagie roll.

Top with provolone cheese and place sandwiches, open-faced on a large baking sheet.

Broil on high for about a minute or until cheese becomes bubbly and bread becomes slightly toasty. Remove from oven and serve immediately.

Thank you Favorite Family Recipes for this delicious sandwich. :)

Angel Chicken

 

Oh this recipe is SO good and easy!! Perfect for those busy week nights. I found this recipe a few months ago at Eat at home and have made it several times since.

Ingredients:

4-6 chicken breasts

3 tbs butter

Italian dressing mix-1 packet

cream of chicken or golden mushroom soup

4 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup white wine

angel hair pasta, cooked

Directions:

Put the chicken in the crock pot . Melt the butter and soften the cream cheese in the microwave. Stir those together with the Italian dressing mix, the soup and wine. Place the Italian mixture over the chicken and cook on low for 5-6 hours.

Now, I don't care for white wine (I'm a red wine girl) so the first time I made this I didn't care for the flavor as much. So, I have left it out ever since and it is just as good. :) 

Serve the chicken and sauce over a bed of angel hair pasta. 

 How to make your own topiary

I have been wanting two matching topiary's in our entry way but found that they can get rather expensive. So I went on the hunt to make my own and it came out super easy and pretty cheap. I ended up buying all of my items at Jo-Ann Fabrics. I have downloaded their app to my phone along with Michael's and Hobby Lobby. Jo-Ann's honors other stores coupons, as well as their own, of course. Which really brought down the price of my project. So everything I purchased was 40 to 50% off. I love it!!

What you need:

• 2 box wood balls (or any type of ball that you like made out of whatever faux plant you are wanting)
• 2 sticks (you can buys sticks but to make my project cheaper I cut two sticks from the backyard)
• rocks (which I also got from the backyard) :)
• 2 buckets or pots

 Boxwood ball

 

First you take your boxwood ball and place it on the stick. I used the scissors I used to cut the sticks to make a point on one end of the stick so it would go into the ball easier and stay. 

Stick

 

Second, I placed the stick into the empty pot and placed the rocks all around the stick till it could stand straight on it's own.

Pot with rocks

 Lastly, I have a beautiful topiary for my entry way that only cost about $10 a piece to make. 

Love Birds

Love Birds

I have started decorating for Valentine's day around the house and wanted a Love sign to place in my entry way. After searching some of my favorite blogs for ideas I put together this sign in my head. I knew what I wanted but needed something to guide me before I started painting. As I'm sure most of you that know me know that I am totally addicted to Pinterest. I have pinned quite a few free fonts and went directly to those looking for the font I wanted to use for the word Love. I ended up choosing Coneria Script from the Lil Luna blog. I really liked the way it made the word Love look. Just what I was wanting. :)

Now for the rest of the canvas. I knew that I wanted two birds sitting on a branch but wasn't sure where to get my inspiration. I Googled birds on a branch and a ton of images popped up. Some free and some REALLY expensive. I wanted free so I went with the site Clker.com and downloaded the free image.

I have been very interested in transferring images onto canvas, wood etc. and have been seeing several pins on this topic. After reading and trying several unsuccessful transferring techniques I decided to go with, what I think, is the easiest for me at this point. The wax paper method is what I chose from Unexpected Elegance.com. It's really very easy. Her website explains it well, but here is a quick run down. ;)

Wax Paper Method:

• Copy paper
• Wax paper cut to your copy paper size
• A printer
• A photo editing program such as Photoshop

What to do with your image:

• Type the word you like onto a new page in Photoshop
• Go to Image, Rotate, and then flip horizontal (this makes your image a mirror image so that when you place it onto the canvas it is written correctly)

Directions:

• Glue the non wax side of the wax paper to the copy paper
• Place the wax paper side down into your printer
• Print the image reversed
• Quickly place your copy onto the canvas. Your copy is wet so do not touch the ink. Also, once you place it onto the canvas do not move it because it will smear. (I learned this from experience)
• Rub really hard with your fingers or the back of a spoon to transfer the image onto the canvas.
• After checking the corners of your print to make sure you like the transfer then you can remove the paper 

For this project I bought an Artist's Loft 12in x 24in canvas from Michael's , Krylon indoor/outdoor banner red spray paint, and used a craftsmart paint pen in black.

How I made the canvas:

• I spray painted the canvas in red
• Transferred both my images using the wax paper method
• Then went over my transfers using the black paint pen. I found that when I transfered the images they weren't dark enough so I tried the paint pen and LOVED the way it turned out. 

I hope that you like the way the canvas turned out as much as I did. I am very happy. Here is a picture of the canvas in my entry way along with my two new topiary's. I'll explain how I made them in my next post. :)

Crock Pot Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Tonight I tried a new potato soup recipe. Oh my goodness was it delicious!! I found the recipe on the It's what's for dinner... blog.

Ingredients:

• 5 russet potato's
• 3 garlic cloves (minced)
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped really fine
• 64 ounces chicken broth or stock
• 16 ounces cream cheese
• bacon, sour cream, chives, or shredded cheese for garnish

Directions:

I found this recipe at around noon on a Friday and didn't have time after running to the grocery store to cook it in the crock pot so I combined all of the ingredients together (except for the garnishes) and brought them to a boil on the stove top. Once the potatos were cooked I put it on low let it simmer  until we were ready to eat (about an hour and a half).
Serve warm topped with bacon, sour cream, shredded cheese, & chives.

A few nights ago we had a honey baked ham and still had left overs. So, I cut all the remaining pieces off and threw them plus the bone into the soup and it made it DELISH!! :)