Where Has Summer Gone?!

 
With Labor Day weekend, comes the unofficial end to summer.  However, in Iowa, that's anything but true right now.  All week we have been in the 90-100's, schools have been dismissing at 1:15 daily and this weekend doesn't look any different.  There could be a break in the heat on Labor Day itself, but I'm not getting my hopes up.  It's hard to believe that fall and cooler weather could be right around the corner.  

This weekend is also bringing the beginning of Iowa State Football!   And even though I've had weight loss surgery, that doesn't mean I have to miss out on tailgating food, thank goodness!  I love tailgating food and you all know how much I love my crockpots, so today I have the best of both worlds.  I have Baby Back Ribs in the big crockpot and am making cream corn in the smaller one later.  Also, for later are some baked beans.  The marinade for the ribs is pretty good, if I do say so myself.  I took some olive oil, black pepper, garlic salt, minced onion and a couple of squirts of Sriracha Sauce, combined it in a huge Ziplock bag and threw the ribs in.  I put them in the bag at about 4pm yesterday afternoon and kept them in there until I put the ribs in the crockpot at about 7:30am this morning.

If you like heat and spice, then you need to try Sriracha Sauce.  It has a kick, so be careful!  I picked mine up at World Market and it was very inexpensive.  Right next to the display of sauce was a cookbook full of nothing but Sriracha Sauce recipes.  Some of them looked good, some looked interesting. 

A little dab will do ya!

The cream corn is also over-the-top yummy!  And SO easy!  Ready?  Here you go...a bag of frozen corn, a brick of cream cheese, a stick of butter, couple splashes of milk, 5 sugar packets, salt and pepper.  That's it!  Throw it all in a crockpot and set it on low for a couple of hours.  DONE!  If you're running out of counter space you can make this in the oven (at 350) or even in the microwave, but no matter how you make it, it will always turn out creamy and wonderful. 

Other than cooking and baking this holiday weekend, I don't have any other plans and I'm okay with it.  With my shift change, I have learned to enjoy being home.  I don't miss going out all the time and always feeling like I was on the go.  I think people call this relaxing?

I have to work Monday, so for those of you that don't, enjoy the day off for me!  I hope you all have a safe and happy Labor Day weekend!  Oh, and GO STATE!!!!!!

Until next time!

What's For Dinner?

This whole week I have been hungry for eggs.  At one point I was even hungry for a fried egg...I don't even like fried eggs!  So today, I decided I would get out my egg cooker so I could have an egg salad sandwich for dinner.

I have an egg cooker similar to this one by Cuisnart that my parents gave me after I had surgery.  I love this thing!  It reminds me of the old food dehydrater...you set it and forget it!  The little timer goes off and VIOLA!  You're done!  You can cook up to 7 eggs or you can even poach them (if that's your thing).  Super easy and a great gadget to have.

This Is My Egg Cooker

My recipe for egg salad is really easy.  I don't have exact measurements, so I'm just going to list what I use.

Egg Salad

1 hardboiled egg

Miracle Whip (at least 1 Tbsp)

Mustard (small squirt)

Ketchup (yes, ketchup)

After I peel my egg, I dice it using an egg slicer.  Then I just mix in the Miracle Whip, mustard and ketchup.  

That's all there is to it.  The Miracle Whip and ketchup give it a little kick.  I know it sounds like an odd combination, but you should try it, honest.  I do the same thing when I make deviled eggs.  I always get funny faces when I tell people that's what I use.  Ketchup, my secret ingredient!  

My Secret Ingredient

Until next time!

Super Easy Sweet & Sour Chicken

Where would I be without my slow cooker?  I have used it Saturday and today both!  I may or may not have a slight addiction to slow cookers.  Currently, I have 2 large ones, 1 medium one, 1 small one and 1 for work.  I have this programmable slow cooker and it gets used the most.  I love that you can set it and when it's done cooking, it will automatically put itself on warm.  My other large one just has a high, low and warm function.  It's my backup slow cooker.  My medium one is about 3 quarts and is the perfect size for 2 packages of little smokies or a dip recipe.  The small one I hardly use because the food container doesn't come out, so it pretty much collects dust.  This one is a food warmer and I use it at work.  It's 20 oz and perfect for heating food.  It's not meant to cook raw foods, but is perfect otherwise.  It has one setting which is low.  When I get to work at 6am, I plug it in and by noon my lunch is ready to eat.  I've been using the heck out of it and the best part?  The food container comes out so you can wash it!  PERFECT! 

Today I decided to make sweet and sour chicken in the slow cooker.  I took the easy way out, but it still tasted pretty darn good!  The only thing missing were the egg rolls.  Maybe next time. 

Super Easy Sweet & Sour Chicken

Super Easy Sweet & Sour Chicken

2 lbs chicken, cubed

2 (16oz) bottles sweet & sour sauce

16oz pkg stir fry vegetables, thawed

2 Tbsp cornstarch

2 Tbsp water

1. Spray slow cooker with cooking spray.  In large bowl combine cubed chicken and sweet and sour sauce.  Pour into slow cooker.
2. Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours.
3. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and water.  Pour into slow cooker and mix well.  Add thawed vegetables.  Cover and cook on high for 30 more minutes.
4. Serve over rice.  

How much more simple could you get?!  Instead of cooking rice from "scratch" I picked up one of those flavored rice packets, the Stir Fry one.  Again, super easy.  This makes a bunch, so I will be freezing some of it and I will be making it again.  Next time I might actually make my sweet and sour sauce from scratch, depending on how ambitious I'm feeling.  And I think I might add some red pepper flakes to give it a kick.

Speaking of ambitious, I suppose I'd better go start folding laundry.  I'm always shocked at how much laundry I have for being single.  Where does it all come from?!


Until next time!

Recipe Obsessed? Maybe...

Since my gastric bypass surgery almost 3 years ago, I have been a little more than obsessed with finding the perfect recipe.  I can't explain it, I don't know why, but I am.  It comes and goes, but lately it's been back with a vengeance. 

I would spend hours.  And I mean HOURS on the Internet looking at food blogs and writing down recipes I thought sounded good, or I thought I might want to try at a later date.  Then I would watch The Food Network or Man vs. Food.  To say I was still obsessed with food would be an understatement.  Then came along Pinterest plus my meal planning and let's just say it kicked my obsession into overdrive.  However, this new found obsession for recipes keeps my hands busy and out of food.  Catch 22?  Maybe.  But I have an awesome collection of recipes to chose from when I want to try something new. 

I now have notebook, after notebook, after notebook full of hand written recipes which have no organization whatsoever.  I'm trying to figure out a way to organize them all and am drawing a blank.  Does anyone have any ideas?  I've started typing them up and printing them out, but my goodness that's a lot of work!  But again, something that keeps my hands busy.  So, this is what I've come up with so far.  I thought of putting them in page protectors and then having a binder for each "category".  What do you think?  Yes?  No?  Something better?  HELP!!!!

On a side note, I've been having a lot of fun infusing my water with different fruits.  I've done a batch of watermelon lemonade (Crystal Light), cherry lemonade and strawberry lemonade.  Earlier this week I did lemonade with fresh lime juice, strawberries and mint.  It was wonderful!  Today I might try watermelon and cucumber.  The possibilities are endless!!!! 

I decided to try another new recipe tonight for dinner, Slow Cooker Lasagna.  And, are you sitting down?  I only changed one ingredient!  Can you believe it?!  Instead of Ricotta cheese, I used cottage cheese. I don't remember where I found this recipe, so if you're reading this and it's yours, please take credit for it☺

Slow Cooker Lasagna

Slow Cooker Lasagna 

1 lb ground turkey

1 jar (24oz) spaghetti sauce

1 cup water

1 container (15oz) Ricotta cheese

2 cups (8oz) mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 egg

2 Tbsp parsley flakes

lasagna noodles, uncooked

1. Brown turkey, drain fat.  Stir in spaghetti sauce and water.  Allow to simmer for about 10 minutes.
2. In a bowl, mix together Ricotta cheese, 1 1/2 cups (6oz) mozzarella cheese, parsley, egg and Parmesan cheese.
3. Spray slow cooker with cooking spray.  Place one cup meat mixture on the bottom of slow cooker.  Follow with noodles (broken to fit across) and then 1/2 of the cheese mixture. 
4. Next, scoop 2 cups of meat mixture, top with noodles and then the other 1/2 of the cheese mixture.  Top with remaining meat mixture.
5. Cover and cook for 4-6 hours on low.  Sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese on top, allowing it to melt.  

The verdict?  Not too shabby!  I will be making this again, but next time I will add some of my own spices like garlic.  There wasn't enough garlic for this girl.  And you could easily change up the taste depending on the flavor of spaghetti sauce you pick out.  I ended up cooking mine for about 5 1/2 hours and then put it on warm for about 30 minutes while the neighbor and I went for a walk.

Well, I'm off to do my menu plan for next week.  I think I'm only going to try one new recipe, so I should probably be picking that out.  Have a good rest of the evening!

Until next time!

Wahoo!!! It's The Weekend!!!

We did it!  We made it to the weekend and not a day too soon!  This week seemed a little long for me because I picked up an extra day last Sunday at work, but the paycheck will be well worth it.  Just a quick post tonight because I have a recipe I want to share with you all.  With the weather being nice and cool this weekend, this one would be perfect to pop in the oven and not heat up the house.

This recipe started as a black bean casserole but I tweaked it.  A lot.  It didn't have any corn, pepper or chicken so I decided to add some and it turned out pretty darn good.  I also messed with the measurements.  I think it would have been better topped with sour cream, so keep that in mind.  Next time I might use salsa instead of picante sauce.  Mainly because I don't know what the difference is.  I'll admit it, I'm no Julia Child LOL  Here is my version of the casserole.

Chicken, Corn and Black Bean Casserole

Chicken, Corn and Black Bean Casserole

2-3 chicken breasts, cubed

1 cup frozen corn, thawed

1 small onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

14.5oz can diced tomatoes, undrained

15oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

16oz jar picante sauce

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp ground cumin

2 cups Mexican blend cheese

12 6inch corn tortillas

   1.  In a large skillet, cook chicken.  Add green pepper, undrained tomatoes, corn, picante sauce, garlic and cumin.  Bring to boiling, reduce heat.  Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.  Stir in beans.

 2.  Spread 1/3 of the bean mixture over the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan.  Top with half of the tortillas (overlapping) and half of the cheese.  Add another 1/3 of bean mixture, then remaining tortillas (overlapping) and top with remaining bean mixture.

3.  Cover and bake at 350 for 35 minutes.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

 

I would say it took me about a 1/2 hour to cut the chicken, onion and pepper and that was the hardest part of the recipe.  So, super easy in my books!  I have to run, but hope to post another recipe tomorrow if it turns out well.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Until next time!