Just wondering :)

Last week I watched the movie Julie & Julia for the first time, I know a little behind the times in my movie watching....Anyway, at one point in the movie, Julie is posting on her blog and wonders if anyone is even reading it. I wonder the same thing sometimes. So....is anyone reading this?.... :)

Another not so original recipe...Delicious Country steak and gravy

Here is a wonderful recipe from my hubby's cousin. Soooo delicious...and my kids love it! It's wonderful served with rice or mashed potatoes! Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 lb beef cubed steak
all purpose flour
vegetable oil
salt and pepper
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 packet Brown Gravy mix (I use McCormick brand)
1 & 1/2 soup can water

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat oil in skillet. Cover the beef in the flour and place in the oil and cook until just brown on both sides. Sprinkle with salt and pepper while browning. Remove beef and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine cream of chicken soup, brown gravy mix, water, and salt a pepper to taste. Mix well with wire whisk.

Place beef in greased 9x13 baking dish. Pour gravy mixture over beef. Cover with foil and bake for 65 minutes.

No More Lost Socks....

I was watching the Nate Berkus show a while back and a lady was talking about how to better manage your laundry....now if there is one chore I HATE, it's laundry...so I'll take any advice I can get! She had a great tip for keeping socks together in the wash... safety pinning them together! So I finally gave this a try....it's works wonderfully!!! I just pin the socks together before putting them in the wash, and then when the load is ready to fold, there's no more hunting matches for socks, they are already paired up!!

Not So Original Recipes...

I love to cook... and I love cookbooks! I love to flip through them and find simple recipes that sound delicious...then I try out these little gems on my family to see if I should serve the dish again, or throw the dish and the recipe out with the trash :) Oh how I wish I was one of those women who know just what ingredients go together to make incredible original dishes for their family....but I'm not! So I am a second hand chef, borrowing recipes from great cookbooks, or from family and friends. And I love to share great recipes as much as I like to borrow them, so I will share the great ones here :)

Here's a super simple recipe for Berry Cookie Cobbler, borrowed from a friend...Delicious!! Enjoy :)

Berry Cookie Cobbler

1 bag (about 12 ounces) frozen mixed berries, thawed

1 container (21-ounce) apple pie filling

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 roll (18-ounce) prepared sugar cookie dough

Vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix berries, apple filling, sugar, and cinnamon. Transfer fruit mixture to an 8 by 8 by 2-inch baking dish.

Crumble cookie dough over fruit, covering thickly and completely. Bake uncovered until cookie crust is golden and crisp, and juices bubble thickly, about 45 minutes.

Serve warm with ice cream.

Great Book..."No David!" by David Shannon

My boys LOVE the book "No David! " by David Shannon. I remember the book from when I taught, and how much the kids enjoyed it. It's great to see my sons laugh as we read it, especially when they do some of very things that David does in the book! It's a very simple book, but so funny and sweet! There are also more books about David's adventures :)

Heart to Heart

When I was expecting my baby girl, I was looking on the internet for decorative letters for her nursery and found the cutest website. It's Heart to Heart and the web address is butterflycraze.com. I have a link to it here.

They have the cutest letters and other great decorative items for little girls' rooms. They also have cute gift and party theme ideas too! Definitely worth checking out!

Llama, Llama....

My kids LOVE the Llama, Llama books by Ann Dewdney. If you don't know what I'm talking about you must check them out! The first one we got when Little Man was small is called Llama, Llama Red Pajama. It's wonderful and our copy is all tattered from being read over and over! I just got the boys another one called Llama, Llama Mad at Mama and it's great too. She's also written another called Llama, Llama Misses Mama, which I will probably purchase soon too. They are adorable, so check them out!

A great reminder...

I was just going through some papers of mine that were in a bookbag from my parents' old house. This bag was filled with college papers, letters, and even high school graduation cards...I have no idea why I kept ALL that stuff!! Anyway I found a bookmark, and love what I had written on the back of it! It is a quote from Oswald Chambers.

"Believe God is always the God you know Him to be when you are nearest to Him. Then think how unnecessary and disrespectful worry is!"

This quote reminds me of Matthew 6:25-34. These verses are great encouragement for worriers like me! Here are some that are especially encouraging:

"Look at the birds of the air... your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?... Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

This makes me realize how crazy it is to worry, when God is in control!

A New Use for the Old Biscuit Cutter

Ok, so I know most everyone probably has a biscuit cutter collecting dust in a drawer, because if you are anything like me, you certainly aren't using it to make actual homemade biscuits! But my cousin, a mom of two, introduced me to a new use for this gadget. She uses it to quickly cut up her kids' food! It took me forever dicing up food with a fork, trying to make it a suitable size for my one year old. But now, I just take out the biscuit cutter and go to town. This works great on spaghetti and macaroni especially!

A fabulous recipe from Facebook, who knew??

I actually joined a crock pot recipe group on Facebook and folks post lots of recipes. I have tried a couple and this one is great! I tweaked it a little and used rotisserie chicken. Even my picky boys eat it!!

Easy Ranch Chicken

about 3 cups cooked chicken chopped

1 cup sour cream

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/4 cup chicken broth

1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing mix

Place chicken in crock pot. Put in all the other ingredients in and stir it all together. Cook on low 4-6 hours. Serve over rice.

I have tried this with reduced fat sour cream and reduced fat mushroom soup. It was still good, just a little "soupier". Enjoy!!

Love this dessert...Oreo Truffles!!

This is one of my favorite desserts from Kraft Food and Family magazine. It's soooo easy and DELICIOUS!

Easy Oreo Truffles

Ingredients:

1pkg. (1 lb 2 oz) Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

1pkg (8oz) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened

1 pkg (8 oz each) Baker’s Semi Sweet Baking Chocolate, melted

Directions:

Crush 9 of the cookies to fine crumbs, reserve for later use. (I crush the Oreos in my blender.)

Crush remaining cookies to fine crumbs, place in medium bowl. Add cream cheese and mix until well blended.

Roll cookie mixture into balls.

Dip balls in melted chocolate and place on wax paper covered baking sheet. Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.

Refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.

*For easy dipping, place truffle in melted chocolate, roll gently to coat, and lift truffle from chocolate using 2 forks, allowing excess chocolate to run off before placing on wax paper.

Easy Chicken Casserole

2-4 cooked chicken breasts (I just buy a rotisserie cooked chicken from the bakery or canned chicken)

2 cans cream of chicken soup

16 oz sour cream

1 sleeve ritz crackers

3/4 stick butter melted

packet of Lipton onion soup mix (optional)

Combine cooked chicken, soup, sour cream

and just a sprinkle of the onion soup mix if you want...(NOT THE WHOLE PACKAGE)

Crush crackers and sprinkle over casserole.

Pour melted butter over crackers.

Cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until heated thru.

This was a recipe I found in my grandmothers recipes, I added a little of the onion soup mix this time and it was good with that. Usually I put in some onion powder (about 3/4 of tsp) instead.

Hope you like it :)

A Great Breakfast Recipe

I found this great recipe for a "breakfast bake" in my Kraft food and family magazine. You can also find it at Kraftfoods.com. It's basically a take on breakfast casserole. It was really good and even my picky 4 year old liked it! The recipe used ham, but I substituted sausage instead.

By the way, if you don't get the Kraft Food and Family magazine, it's wonderful and FREE! Just go to the website and fill out the mailing info! They will also send emails with great recipes as well :)

1 can (8 oz.) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

1 pkg. 1 lb. pork sausage, cooked and drained

6 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 cup KRAFT Shredded Cheddar Cheese

1 cup KRAFT Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

PREHEAT oven to 350ºF. Unroll dough in 13x9-inch baking dish; press to cover bottom of dish, firmly pressing perforations and seams together to seal.

SPRINKLE cooked sausage over crust. Beat eggs, milk and pepper with wire whisk until blended; pour over ham. Sprinkle with cheeses.

BAKE 25-30 min. or until center is set.

Crispy Chicken & Rice Casserole

Here's a delicious recipe that I found in a great cookbook, Everyday Menus by Southern Living.

Crispy Chicken & Rice Casserole

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked rice

2 cups chopped cooked chicken

2 10 1/2 oz cans cream of mushroom soup

1 8 oz can sliced water chestnuts drained (I diced them a little smaller before adding them)

1 4 oz can sliced mushrooms drained

1 cup chopped celery

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1/2 an onion chopped

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp salt

1 cup crushed cornflakes cereal

Directions:

Cook rice according to directions. Stir together cooked rice and next 9 ingredients.

Spoon into lightly greased 9 x 13 dish. Sprinkle top evenly with cereal.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

I split the recipe into two 8 x 8 dishes and froze one to cook later. Here are the directions for cooking it from frozen:

Thaw in refrigerator overnight. Bake covered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. remove foil and bake 15 more minutes or until thoroughly heated. (Can freeze for up to a month)

Enjoy!