Who Turned OFF the Crockpot?!

So we were expecting company on Sunday after church. I get up extra early and get a roast going in one crockpot and just before we leave for church I start another crockpot with potatoes in it (suppose to be a pretty "potato roast" but later turned into mashed potatoes with thyme and shallots). Everything should be perfectly done when we got home from church right? Wrong! Why? One word: JACK. I left the crockpots close to the edge of the counter where Jack can reach the knobs and apparently when we weren't looking he turned the beef roast OFF and the potato roast to HIGH. So we came home to mushy potatoes and raw beef. Off to the local cafe we went. The roast and now mashed potatoes were good for supper though... and even better today.

Today I reheated the roast for supper and added flour and eggs to the shallot & thyme mashed potatoes and made potato cakes. The boys loved it. They went so far as to say that it was the best potatoes they ever ate. Maybe not the healthiest lol but the best!

Rice Broccoli n Cheese Cups

Our local grocery store sends out a recipe of the day if you sign up for their newsletter. Recently they sent the recipe for Rice Broccoli n Cheese Cups. We tried out tonight along with the best grilled pork chops and corn on the cob. The boys loved it and they are not usually happy about eating broccoli. I will make a couple of changes to it next time... it was a little dry for me... but it was tasty. Click HERE for the recipe. I swapped regular brown rice for the minute white rice.

Grilled Veggies

We had an awesome dinner... grilled steaks, corn, squash, & zucchini. I seasoned the veggies with garlic salt and lemon pepper and they were delish! I usually eat them just because they are healthy but I really liked them this way. And so did the boys! I didn't realize until after the picture that someone had already taken a bite of my food.... James must have been testing it as he grilled. Ha!

Pineapple Fried Rice

Wow, it's been a long time since I've cooked... I'm getting back to it though and loving it! I'm also trying to excercise, eat healthier (husband and kids too) and just live healthier in general. BUT, I do not want to sacrifice flavor. I don't care how healthy it is, if it's not tasty, I'm not interested!

A friend turned me on to Gina's Skinny Recipes. Basically good food revamped to be healthier and it still tastes good. She has the nutritional value and even weight watcher points for each recipe if you're interested. I tried out the Pineapple Shrimp Fried Rice last night. We all (kids included) loved it! I was a little scared of brown rice but we really liked it and the husband even prefers it over white rice. Score! I think he recipe would be great with chicken or pork too if you aren't a shrimpy kind of person.

I changed a couple of things. I seasoned my shrimp with garlic salt although the recipe doesn't call for any season on the shrimp. I used quite a bit of cilantro because we love it in our house. Rather than just garnish with it, I stirred it into the rice just before serving. It was wonderful. One other change - I already had several cans of pineapple at home so I did not use fresh pineapple. It was still really good though and can imagine it would be even better with fresh pineapple. Cooking this made me wish I had a non-stick wok!

One word: CHOWDER

Clear Springs Cafe has an amazing Jalepeno Crawfish Chowder. I am in LOVE with it. I want to make it home but can't find a recipe for it. (anyone that works there feel free to share it with me!!!) It's spicy, it's a little sweet, it has chunks of crawfish in it... I'm thinking some corn too. It's SOOOOO good. I get it every time we go. Of course, everything I have had at Clear Springs has been good.

I found a recipe on The Pioneer Woman's blog for Corn Chowder with Chilies. I had hopes that it would remind me of my chowder from Clear Springs... just minus the crawfish. It didn't. But it was good! Spicy, corny, creamy... a little "bacony"... and hot...perfect for today!

Bacon, onion, and butter! It has to be good!

It called for two of these but I chickened out and went kid friendly with only one. With these and the green chile's... it was just spicy enough.

Throw in some corn and the peppers...

Add chicken broth and heavy whipping cream, masa/water mixture and simmer.

I added some cilantro for garnish and served with warm flour tortillas. DELISH!

Warm me up kinda food

Today would have been a good day for a nice hot bowl of chicken and dumplins... but we already had them twice this week! Honestly, I could eat them every day that it is below 50 outside but James and the kids would get bored.

When I made these, I didn't have a whole chicken on hand so I used a bag of boneless skinless breasts. It is NOT the same but it works. I boiled the chicken with a couple cloves of garlic, half an onion (left whole so I can take it out), salt, & pepper. When the chicken is done, just shred or dice and add back to the pot. For the dumplins, I used 2 cups bisuick, 2/3 cup of milk, 1 tbsp of salt, 1/2 tbsp of garlic powder, 1/2 tbsp of pepper, 1/2 tbsp dried sage. Mix it up, and drop clumps in the boiling chicken broth, put a lid on it and wait 10 minutes.

They are soooo delicious! We ate all the dumplins up! I had to make more the next day to go with the rest of the broth and chicken. Tell me, how do you make your dumplins?

What happens when you put jalepeno, pineapple,

monterrey jack cheese, bbq sauce, tortillas



and amazing grilled chicken together?



You get Grilled Chicken & Pineapple Quesadilla's! THANK YOU Pioneer Woman!! Sweet, spicy, tangy, cheesy... You must make these. Seriously.

I used the same season on the chicken as she does (Slap Ya Mama) and the bbq sauce we used is Stubbs. We will be grilling the chicken again soon...I snacked on it while I was making the quesadillas and it is probably my favorite grilled chicken ever. Next time we have the quesadillas I'll cut everything into little bites before putting it on the tortilla so I get some of everything in each bite. The cilantro was a great accent!