Tasty Thursday

      We are now in week 3 of dealing with a sick baby (a cold, an ear infection, and now croup). Thankfully it hasn't been too bad. Owen is still mainly his cheerful, energetic self though he might be a bit whinier when he is tired. And the croup cough is really startling to hear coming from my baby's bedroom. The first night he had it, we were wondering how a dog had managed to sneak into Owen's room. But after buying a cool moisture humidifier, his cough has gotten much better and he is sleeping through the night again. 


     Owen and I are both going a little crazy from being cooped in the house for too long, but we are heading to the grocery store today so we'll at least be able to get out of the house a little bit. I have missed being able to go to my workout classes and we've also had to miss Owen's last music class and a few playdates. 


    I've still been sticking to making our meals every night though. I really enjoy cooking at the end of the day and for the most part it is actually relaxing to be able to cook while Tim takes care of Owen. The best recipe that I made this past week was the chicken enchiladas from Skinny Taste. They were very good and not too time intensive to make. Otherwise, the majority of the other recipes (pollo in potaccio, sweet and fiery [chicken], and bangin' good shrimp) that we tried were good, but not particularly good enough that we will make them again. My version of Aunt Beth's beef and barley soup was very good though and wonderful for the cold days we've been having up here. We will definitely make it again. Anyway, my picks for this week were mainly chosen to use up stuff that we already have in the freezer and fridge and also to satisfy my cravings for burgers and Mexican food. I also have a special treat for Owen planned. So without further ado, here's the menu for the week.

Tasty Thursday

     The past week has been an interesting and tiring one. Owen caught a cold (most likely at childcare during my workouts) and has been a handful for the past week. He was fine last Friday and then Saturday his nose started running and he was coughing and had a pretty high fever for a few days. He is still a very happy little boy though and plays like there is nothing wrong with him. And I still managed to make most of my planned meals last week so stay tuned for the reviews. Things got more interesting yesterday when Tim suddenly came down with his own cold and it snowed seven inches! At least. We were nearly out of groceries so I braved the snow and drove to the grocery store to pick up our groceries for this week and medicine for Tim (Thank goodness for four-wheel drive). Luckily I planned our menu for this coming week on Tuesday night and was prepared. Driving in the snow was actually a lot of fun and being able to see the city covered in snow was really neat. Pushing a shopping cart through snow drifts in the parking lot at Winco was not so much fun though. I plan to post pictures of the snow soon, so check back tomorrow. 
      I tried two out of the three new recipes I planned to make last week. Last night instead of making chicken tikka masala, I made chicken soup for the sicky husband. But the other two recipes I made were pretty good. The buttermilk chocolate chip scones were really good and very easy to make. I think it took me maybe 10 minutes to make the dough so I had them baked before Tim emerged from the bedroom last weekend. The stuffed cabbage casserole was good, but I think it would be better if it had more cheese. (Cue sounds of shock from those who know that I don't really like cheese most of the time). I had a problem with the layers kind-of falling apart and the cabbage sliding around, so I think if you had a layer of cheese in the middle as well as on the top, it would help hold it together better. Also, the recipe tells you to cook the cabbage on medium-high heat, but when I did that, it started to burn, so I would recommend cooking it on medium heat. It also made a lot so I froze about half of the casserole for another time and we ate the rest over a couple of dinners. And with that said, on to our menu for this week. Oh, and our weekend starts early because Tim just got a text that work was canceled today due to the snow and ice. (He already gets every Friday off because he works long days the rest of the week.) Yaaaaay for another long four-day weekend!
  
Thursday: Steak and cheese sandwiches with onions and mushrooms. (Well, not the mushrooms.) Tim has practically been begging for a sandwich similar to this that I made last year. It was a Pioneer Woman recipe so of course it used about 12 sticks of butter. So after making it the one time, I never really planned to make it again because it was so unhealthy. Then I found a similar recipe on Skinny Taste and decided to surprise Tim with this version of a steak, onion, and cheese sandwich.

Photo from Skinnytaste.com.

Friday: Lightened up beef shepherd's pie. We will have this with roasted green beans. Tim has also requested Beef Shepherd's Pie on many occasions, but I have never found a good recipe for it. He particularly likes the beef shepherd's pie at The Cheesecake Factory. This will probably not taste anything like that because it is a lightened up version (and I heard that the beef shepherd's pie is one of the higher caloric options at that restaurant). I thought that it would be nice and warm comfort food for the really cold week.

Photo from Skinnytaste.com.

Saturday: Leftovers. This time with steamed or roasted broccoli probably. Leftovers will be great today because we are going to my friend Kristina's son's first birthday party. And I am dragging Tim along because I want him to meet her husband. Haha!
Sunday: Crock pot chicken enchilada soup. Tim has also been wanting me to make soup for a while because the weather has been so cold. My friend Katie made this last week and said that it was really good, so I'm interested in trying it out. It uses chiles in adobo sauce so I'm looking forward to a soup with some spice. And the fact that I can make it in the slow cooker is an added bonus. 

Photo from Skinnytaste.com.

Monday: Leftovers.
Tuesday: Crock pot Bolognese sauce with spaghetti. I am really excited about this recipe because it looks really good and has a lot of interesting ingredients like carrots and pancetta. Plus it should make a ton and then I can freeze it for a last minute meal another time. We will eat this with sauteed brussels sprouts and maybe a side salad.

Photo from Skinnytaste.com.

Wednesday: Healthy baked chicken nuggets. We will be having these chicken nuggets this week because A. They are really tasty and I already have every ingredient that we need, and B. We are expecting a shipment soon from my mom containing 5 Zaxby's sauces and about 10 various Chick-Fil-A sauces. We will have them with baked zucchini sticks and green beans.

Photo from Skinnytaste.com.

    And our special treat for the week is this recipe for butterbeer cupcakes. Tim and I just received the last Harry Potter movie in the mail from Netflix and we will watch it this weekend while eating these cupcakes. I have had them bookmarked on Pinterest for a really long time and wanted to wait until the movie came out to try them.

Photo from Amybites.com.

Tasty Thursday

     I haven't been posting my reviews about how my new recipes turned out in a while and I thought I would resume doing that for those of you who might be interested in trying out one of my meals. Last week we had taco cupcakes; beef, potato, and quinoa soup; autumn penne pasta with brussels sprouts; and Italian pot roast. You can check my previous post for links to these recipes. 

Taco cupcakes: These were tasty, but were more of a novelty recipe. You know, the whole cupcake craze. Tim and I both agreed that we would rather just have tacos or a taco salad. This may have been because I did not bother to buy the queso cheese and just used shredded Mexican cheese.

Beef, potato and quinoa soup: This was really good, especially because of the cilantro. I'm not sure if I would bother to buy quinoa specifically for the soup though unless you already have it in the pantry. I don't feel like it really added anything to the soup, particularly because it seemed like a little much with the potato in there too. 

Autumn penne pasta: This was one of my favorite recipes of the week. I like that it still has plenty of flavor with the addition of a bit of hot pork sausage with the ground turkey. And it has tons of vegetables: brussels sprouts, carrots, celery, onion, and tomato. It makes you feel so healthy even though you're eating pasta. 

Italian pot roast: This recipe filled my house with the most wonderful flavor as it slow cooked all day. I really liked the flavor, but I didn't really like it on the potatoes and carrots. I think that I would maybe rather just make the roast in the slow cooker and then make the sides separately. When we ate the meat for leftovers, I made roasted potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and green beans. In fact, it was a better meal than the original!

And here is our menu for this week.

Thursday: Easy mulligatawny. An oldie, but a goodie. It has been really cold here lately so a nice warm soup is on the menu. Tim and I both really love this soup because we like curry a lot and as strange as it may seem, green apple, onion, curry, and chicken are actually good together. 

Photo from Pioneer Woman Cooks.

Friday: Italian pie. This is another of my favorite recipes. It's easy to make and tastes great. And it's an interesting twist on eating "Italian" without having pasta.  I chose to make this because I still have some leftover Italian sausage in the freezer from my pasta dish last week. We'll have it with a side salad or steamed broccoli. 

Photo from Publix.com.

Saturday: Leftovers.

Sunday: French toast with bacon. This is Pioneer Woman's recipe and the best for French toast that I have ever had. I have been craving breakfast for dinner for a while now and we haven't had this French toast in several months. When I made this in the past, I also made fruit butter with it. This time though, I will probably just top it with fresh berries and a pat of butter. 

Photo from Pioneer Woman Cooks. 

Monday: Stuffed cabbage casserole. This is a recipe from Skinny Taste that my friend Katie made last week. She said it was really good and her husband also gave it a high rating so I have high hopes for it. It basically seems kind-of like lasagna, but with cabbage instead of noodles. 

Photo from Skinny Taste. 

Tuesday: Leftovers. 

Wednesday: Chicken tikka masala. I really like chicken tikka masala, but it's not exactly the healthiest meal. This recipe is Skinny Taste's healthier version of the dish. I am interested to see how it compares to the recipe that I normally make. 

Photo from Skinny Taste. 

    And as a special treat this week, I am going to make Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Scones. This is the most recent post to Skinny Taste and it looks really good. I have never made scones before, but the creator of Skinny Taste is well-known for hers. I figure it will be a nice treat and we can eat them over several mornings. 

Photo from Skinny Taste.

Tasty Thursday (Christmas edition)

     Well, we have less than a week until we will be back home in Georgia for Christmas! We are so excited. I'm especially excited because Tim hasn't been back home since July! I think it will be so sweet when everyone gets to see him. And Owen, of course. I am pretty anxious about flying home though because flying is always stressful to begin with, but adding a baby into the mix is just that much more stressful. But at least this time, I'll have Tim with me to help wrangle all our bags and Owen's stuff. Also, to get a better deal on our plane tickets, we had to buy ones that flew out of Spokane and not our airport and we have two layovers! That's three separate plane flights! Oh, the things we do for our families. We will leave early and get in late so we will have a full day of traveling and I'm hoping that Owen will be his normal cheerful self for most of the day. Though with teething still going on, all bets are off. Literally all we want for Christmas is Owen's two front teeth. Haha. 
    We have a short menu week because we will be going to Spokane on Tuesday night after Tim gets off work so that we won't have to wake up in the middle of the night and drive up there in order to make our early morning flight. We will be staying with Tim's aunt and uncle. We are planning on having our own Christmas dinner this weekend when we will open our presents to one another and celebrate before we go home to Georgia. I can't wait! 


Thursday: This week our meals were pushed back a day again because we went to Spokane last Friday for the day and had dinner with Tim's aunt and uncle that night instead. So tonight we will be having chicken fajitas.
Friday: We will be having our own Christmas dinner on Friday night after spending the day opening presents and playing with Owen's new toys. I will be making Creole Butter Roasted Capon with Pecan Green Beans and Cajun Tater Puppies. I found these recipes in the latest issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine.

     And for dessert on our special Christmas day? Eggnog cupcakes! Eggnog is a very polarizing drink and luckily for me, Tim and I are both firmly in the pro-eggnog camp. The recipe is from Annie's Eats. 

Saturday: Leftover chicken with be used in Skinny Taste's chicken pot pie soup. 

Sunday: Order pizza. We will be having to take our tree down, pack for our trip, clean up the house, etc. etc. etc. so I am going to order pizza to take one thing off our to-do list for the day. 
Monday: Skinny Taste Crock Pot Turkey Meatballs. These are super easy and something that I can throw in the slow cooker and then not worry about for the rest of the day. And the sauce is beyond yummy. Plus I have enough half-used boxes of pasta in my cabinet to feed a small Italian village. 

Tasty Thursday

      Last week was a home run as far as our dinners were concerned. Every recipe (new and old) was so good and pretty much every meal had enough leftovers for both Tim and I to be set on lunches as well. The chicken pot pie soup was so yummy and warm and comforting. Especially after our busy day of visiting Santa and getting our Christmas tree and poor Tim having to wrangle the tree into the tree stand. I'm very proud of him though because I think the worst curse word he used while doing it was "Fudge muffins." Whatever that means. The biggest dinner shocker was the Autumn penne pasta with sauteed brussels sprouts. I was a little worried about the brussels sprouts, but it turned out really good and Tim even went back for seconds. High praises for something with probably the No. 1 most hated vegetable in the world in it. Also, and as another plug for the Easy Mulligatawny from last night, Tim had to choose between taking taco meatloaf or the soup to work for lunch and he chose the mulligatawny. And that is the highest recommendation I could ever get for it. 


Thursday: Chicken tortilla soup. This is a recipe from Pioneer Woman Cooks that I've had my eye on for a while, but have not made because of the number of ingredients in it. But now  I've started shopping at a cheaper grocery store (Winco), I can get canned goods for much less than I could at Albertson's. Plus, last week I bought more than 13 pounds of chicken breasts for less than $12. That's less than a dollar a pound! I love my new grocery store! Also, they have a super awesome bulk section where you can buy flour, beans, sugar, spices, candy, nuts, and so much more without having to buy an entire box of something. 

Friday: Leftover soup. Tim will be playing in a charity golf tournament this evening so it will be better if he can just eat leftovers before he goes off to play golf in the dark! The golf tournament is part of Movember (Mustache November), which raises awareness for men's cancer research. 
Saturday: Chicken pot pie with cheddar crust. This is a recipe from Food Network that I have made a couple times before. It is hands-down the best recipe for chicken pot pie that I've ever made. Plus, we already have chicken, carrots, celery, and cheddar cheese leftover from meals that I made last week and I don't want them to go to waste. The only problem with this recipe is that it takes a good deal of time to make the crust and chop all the vegetables and my kitchen looks like a hurricane went through it afterwards, but it is so yummy and makes a ton so we'll have plenty of leftovers. 

Sunday: Leftover chicken pot pie. 
Monday: Crock pot Italian turkey meatballs. This is a new recipe from the blog Skinny Taste. I am really looking forward to making it because I've always wanted to make meatballs, but I've always been a little apprehensive about it. We'll eat it with pasta and steamed or roasted broccoli.

Tuesday: Chicken and white bean enchiladas with creamy salsa verde. I made this the other week and I made some changes to it because I thought it was going to be too spicy with two jalapenos in it, but after I baked it the spiciness wasn't as noticeable and I want to make it again to see if I can't get it to the perfect level of heat.  

Wednesday: Slow cooker chicken rice curry. This is a recipe from McCormick's, the company that makes all the spices and stuff. I'm pretty certain that it's not the most authentic recipe or anything, though I think there are probably a bunch of different versions of the dish. All I know is that I love the flavor of curry and I also love using my slow cooker. The recipe uses bone-in chicken breasts so I'm hoping that will help the chicken not dry out as much. I generally have a problem with boneless skinless chicken drying out when I make it in the slow cooker.

Tasty Thursday

     I will of course not be cooking dinner tonight because we will be going to Vancouver for Thanksgiving dinner with Tim's cousin and her family, but I have our menu for the rest of the week planned so that I'll be ready to get back into the swing of things once we return home on Friday. It does take us about four hours or so to drive home so we will probably grab something to eat out on Friday night, but I'll be back in the kitchen on Saturday evening. So here's the menu for the week. Some of the meals are new and others were chosen to use up ingredients that we already have.


Saturday: Chicken pot pie soup with easy garlic cheddar biscuits. This is a recipe from Skinny Taste that looks really warm and comforting. It also seems like a really interesting idea for a soup and I love a good winter soup recipe! And the garlic cheddar biscuits are supposedly a healthy-ized version of the Cheddar Bay biscuits at Red Lobster. 

Sunday: Paula Deen's taco meatloaf with corn and black beans. One of Tim's favorites.
Monday: Autumn penne pasta with sauteed brussels sprouts in a light ragu. I know you're thinking, "Brussels sprouts? What?" but I have a feeling that this is actually going to be pretty tasty. And I have Italian sausage in the freezer already. 

Tuesday: Skinny Taste chicken nuggets and baked zucchini sticks with green beans. We had this just the other week, but I still have lots of bread crumbs and Panko leftover that I want to use up. And we can dip the zucchini sticks in leftover marina from the night before. 

Wednesday: Pioneer Woman's Easy Mulligatawny. This is one of my favorite recipes at the moment. I just love the warmth and spice of curry. And this soup is perfect for cold weather for those reasons. With some crusty French bread to soak up the delicious broth. Please, be brave and try this soup. Even if you think you don't like curry. It's so so yummy.

Tasty Thursday

     I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is a week from today! November is going by so fast. Not that I mind too much. I am one of those people that could just skip Thanksgiving and move straight to Christmas shopping, decorating, and baking. Forgive me Thanksgiving-lovers. Note: I do refrain from decorating for Christmas until after Thanksgiving, if that helps. I especially am excited for this Christmas because I can decorate this year. Last year we were in the process of moving across the country so we didn't decorate the house or even buy a Christmas tree. I feel extremely deprived. Also, it is Owen's first Christmas and I can't wait to continue and start some Christmas traditions with him. Anyway, here is our menu for the next week.


Thursday: Skinny Taste Turkey Meatloaf with mashed red potatoes and roasted parmesan green beans.  These are two recipes from the blog Skinny Taste. I've been trying to find some more interesting side dishes lately because I'm kind-of getting burned out on sauteed green beans or spinach and steamed broccoli. These green beans were what I started with and then I decided to make meatloaf with them and searched and found this recipe. I may make some alterations to the recipe based on what I think might make it tastier, like adding some Italian seasoning.

Friday: Pork chops and applesauce. And roasted acorn squash and green beans. I'm really excited about this recipe because I get to make the applesauce in my slow cooker. The recipe for that looks really good and uses a variety of kinds of apples. And I can just imagine how yummy our house is going to smell while they are cooking. We are also going to be eating acorn squash, which I will also be pureeing for Owen to eat. He really liked butternut squash so I'm hoping that acorn squash will be a big hit too. Though he has been pretty fickle lately when it comes to eating real food. He has chosen recently to "forget" that he likes peas and gags and shudders and spits it everyone when I try to feed it to him. 

Saturday: Beef vegetable soup. This is my mom's recipe and it is so warm and tasty. Plus it is packed with vegetables. We will eat it for at least two nights and for lunches. 
Sunday: Leftovers.
Monday: Ritz cracker and parmesan baked chicken with roasted broccoli with smashed garlic. This is another of my mom's recipes and one of Tim's favorites. The roasted broccoli is from Skinny Taste and I really like it. Tim isn't much of a fan, but I can just steam him some broccoli to go with our meal. 

Tuesday: Leftover Dr. Pepper shredded pork sandwiches with baked seasoned fries. We have leftover pork that Tim didn't eat while I was in Georgia, so in an effort to use up some stuff that is in the freezer, we will eat this on sandwiches with this baked fries recipe from Skinny Taste blog. My friend Katie rated them high on her blog so I'm giving them a try. 

Wednesday: We will eat out because I will be baking some kind of dessert to take to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. We are driving to Vancouver, Wa. to have Thanksgiving dinner with Tim's cousin Katie and her family. I will miss having Thanksgiving with our family in Georgia, but we're really lucky that we have extended family in Washington. Plus, Katie has two boys and it will be fun to see Owen get to play with them. 

Tasty Thursday

     This week has been really interesting. In case you were wondering, babies don't understand time changes. He did not hear the deal about "falling back." He did not rejoice in the "extra hour of sleep" you get when you change your clocks back an hour. Needless to say, my baby now wakes up when it is still dark outside. The good thing about the time change though, is that he now follows the 7:30 p.m. bedtime that we have tried to instill for the longest time. He had been fighting us on it and trying to stay up until about 8 or 8:30 every night. But thanks to Daylight Saving (not savings, FYI) Time, he is now going down easily at 7:30 p.m. Hooray! Anyway, here is our menu for the week. Bunches of new recipes and one not-so-old favorite. 

Thursday: Leftover crock pot Italian chicken.

Friday: Skinny Taste healthy chicken nuggets and baked zucchini sticks with broccoli on the side. This recipe came highly recommended by my friend Katie. She was also the one who turned my on to this cooking blog. I’m super excited to make this meal especially the baked zucchini sticks. The creator of the blog recommended making these two recipes together because they use the same breading. Chicken nuggets make me feel like a kid and I think this will make a nice movie night meal for after we get Owen to sleep. 

Saturday: Crockpot chicken taco chili. I just love chili and trying new recipes for different types of chili. This is also a Skinny Taste recipe so it should be healthy as well. I will probably not add the chicken to the crock pot because I think chicken typically dries out in the slow cooker. I may even be a rebel and make it with ground chicken or ground beef instead. We'll see what the prices are like at the grocery store. 

Sunday: Leftovers

Monday: Italian pie. This is a Publix Apron’s recipe that I have made before. It is really yummy and one of my favorite Italian meals. I'm not much of a spaghetti person, but I love Italian-inspired meals. I like to make mine with hot Italian sausage to add some heat. 

Tuesday: Leftovers of Italian pie with side salad.

Wednesday: Chicken and white bean enchiladas with creamy salsa verde. This is another Skinny Taste recipe. I love enchiladas, particularly those that have a green sauce. Mexican food is always better (in my opinion) when I make it at home. I'm not sure exactly why, but it's mainly about the quality of restaurant ground beef. Reminds me of dog food most of the time. Yucko! I do love some chips and salsa though. 

Tasty Thursday

     This week, most of our meals are going to be made in the slow cooker. I just love using the slow cooker because it makes preparing meals so simple and it fills the house with a delicious scent all day. Plus, I dirty the kitchen up in the morning and can clean it during the day so that in the evening I don't have to worry about picking up and we can just relax after our meal. Most of my recipes that I'm using this week are ones that I found on Pinterest. Recipes on Pinterest are always a toss-up because while they might look good, you don't always really know exactly where it came from and who designed it. But they generally look good and the majority of the ones I've made so far have tasted great. Anyway, here's the menu for this week. Enjoy!

Thursday: French onion beef roast with baked potatoes and steamed broccoli. This is the recipe that I was going to make on Wednesday night, but Tim needed our slow cooker at the last minute for a work fundraiser so we went out to eat and I postponed our meal.

Friday: Leftovers over rice with green beans.

Saturday: Grilled chicken with foil packet bacon ranch potatoes and steamed broccoli. Tim requested to opportunity to grill and I found the recipe for the bacon ranch potatoes on Pinterest.

Sunday: Crock pot beef stroganoff with green beans. This is a recipe that I found on Pinterest. Tim likes beef stroganoff, but I’ve never made it before. Hopefully, this recipe, which is labeled “The Absolute BEST crockpot beef stroganoff recipe,” is good.

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Crock pot Italian chicken with salad. This is another recipe I found on Pinterest. I just love using my slow cooker and having enough leftovers that we can eat the same thing again the next night. Also, it has like five ingredients, which will save us some money at the grocery store.

Wednesday: Leftovers. I will also be making cinnamon rolls because I have to bring breakfast for the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group that I go to once a month on Thursday and it is also Tim’s last day at his current position in town before he moves out to the project site so I’m going to let him take some cinnamon rolls to his coworkers. This is the Pioneer Woman recipe that my mom and I made the other week when I was in Georgia. It is so amazingly good and fun to make. Look at the picture. Oh mercy.

Tasty Thursday

     I am back home in Washington and ready to start making some homemade meals so I can get back to eating healthier. I ate out a ton when we were in Georgia since I had to get my Chick-Fil-A and Zaxby's fix while I was in the south. Plus, my mom and I spent Monday morning making Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls from scratch. And they were divine. Oh mercy. Just to give you an idea of how decadent these are, I think the phrase, "Can you melt a stick of butter?" was uttered at least four times. 

     So here is what we'll be eating this week. It's a mixture of few brand new recipes, a couple old favorites, and a new favorite. I can't wait to get back into my kitchen!


Thursday: Leftover chili. This is some leftover chili that I left for Tim to eat while I was out of town. He never finished everything that I had planned for him to have for dinners, so we'll eat it tonight.
Friday: Chicken rollatini stuffed with zucchini and mozzarella. I made this the week before I went to visit my family in Georgia. It was such a yummy recipe and so cheap to make. I had most of the ingredients on hand already, so I just had to buy chicken, zucchini and mozzarella cheese. And because the recipe uses chicken cutlets, I had my butcher at Albertson's cut them fresh for me and got three for just $2.15. What a  way to still be able to eat meat, but not have to spend a fortune!

Saturday: Crock pot turkey white bean pumpkin chili. This is a recipe from one of my favorite blogs to find new recipes, Skinnytaste. I mentioned it the week before I went to Georgia. This recipe seems very easy and I just love anything I can do in the crock pot. It frees up time for me to spend with my two favorite boys. The recipe uses pumpkin puree, but the blogger says that you can't really taste it, but it adds an extra vegetable to the meal. 

Sunday: Chicken and rice pot pie. This is a recipe that I got out of a magazine a couple years ago. I can't remember what magazine I found it in and I copied the recipe into my recipe book, so I don't even have the page I ripped out of the magazine. The recipe doesn't have a crust like most pot pies and uses rice in the pot pie mixture instead. I add some fresh thyme to the recipe and it is so warm and delicious.
Monday: Beef stew with paprika. This is a wonderful Pioneer Woman recipe. It calls for beer, but I don't use it because I don't like the taste. It will be a great Halloween night dinner. I can throw everything together in about 10 minutes and let it simmer for a few hours while we hand out candy to the neighborhood kiddos. We're really excited about Halloween this year for two reasons: No. 1, it's Owen's first Halloween, and No. 2, it's also the first time we've ever celebrated Halloween at home handing out candy to kids. Hopefully, people actually Trick or Treat out here. We have plenty of kids in our neighborhood, so maybe we won't be stuck with a bunch of leftover candy at the end of the night. And just in case we do, I've only been buying the good stuff. No yucky Mary Janes at the Rumely's house.

Tuesday: Leftovers of the beef stew. 
Wednesday: French onion beef roast. I have a beef roast in the freezer and have decided that this is what I will make with it. The recipe is very easy to make in my slow cooker and tastes wonderful. We will have it over white rice and with green beans or some other vegetable.

Tasty Thursday

     So today marks less than one week until I will be visiting family in Georgia. I’m very excited to be going home to see our family (both my parents and in-laws live in the same town). Owen has a lot of new tricks to show off and we need to restock his closet since he’s moving up in clothing sizes. (Haha!) Unfortunately, my husband will not be joining us on this trip, but I am so grateful that he was willing to let us go since it will mean he has to spend a week away from Owen (and me). Don’t worry too much about him though because I made sure to stock the freezer full of meals for him to eat while I’m gone. That way he won’t have to revert back to his college days of eating frozen pizza and boxed meals. In case you’re wondering, for dinner next week Tim will be eating: spaghetti, chili, Italian drip beef sandwiches, Dr. Pepper shredded pork sandwiches, taco meatloaf, Italian chicken soup, and macaroni and cheese. But if you wanted to give him a call and check in on him while I’m gone, I’m sure he’d appreciate it. Dinners last week went really well. I pretty much made four things and we ate a lot of leftovers. It has actually been a pretty great system. Here are my reviews for last week’s new recipes.

Chicken parmesan skillet pot pie: A

This meal was super easy to put together. I think it took me approximately 5 minutes after I shredded the rotisserie chicken. Then I put it in the oven and we took a walk as a family. After returning home, I threw together a salad and had dinner on the table in minutes. It’s not the most exciting meal ever, but it was pretty tasty and filling.

Italian chicken soup: A+

This soup was really great. And the recipe makes a ton! We ate the soup for two dinners and at least three lunches and still have two quarts stored away in the freezer. I did make several additions to the recipe and in the future would make some changes from the way Pioneer Woman cooks it. For one, I used less than a whole chicken and had plenty of meat, and I also added kidney beans, carrots, and spinach to the soup for some extra veggies. I also halved the amount of cream (at least) that she included in the recipe. I love Pioneer Woman, but she is seriously addicted to heavy cream. She may have to join HCAA (heavy cream-aholics anonymous).

Slow cooker Bajio chicken: A-

I’m still not having a whole lot of luck with cooking chicken breasts in the slow cooker. They always end up being a little dry. Still, the seasonings were nice. Once again, I changed up the recipe a little bit by using medium salsa and a larger can of green chiles to up the spiciness factor. I highly recommend doing this because otherwise the meat would probably be a little too sweet and needs some spicy to balance out the flavor.

And moving on to this week...

Thursday: Leftover slow cooker Bajio chicken served in baked tortilla bowls with lots of romaine lettuce, black beans, salsa, avocado (for me), and cheese (for the Mister.)

Friday: Chicken curry with coconut milk. This is a recipe from a new site that my friend Katie told me about called Skinny Taste. The blogger makes healthier versions of many common recipes without “[sacrificing] any of the flavor that can be found in their full-fat origins.” (We’ll see…) This recipe seems really interesting and Tim and I both love the taste of curry.

Saturday: Taco soup. This is a recipe that I’ve made before from a blog called For the Love of Cooking. It’s a wonderful cool weather soup and will make plenty for us to have for leftovers the following night.

Sunday: Taco soup leftovers.

Monday: Chicken rollatini stuffed with zucchini and mozzarella. This is another interesting recipe from the Skinny Taste blog. We will probably eat it with a little marinara sauce and a side salad or maybe some steamed broccoli.

Tuesday: I will probably heat up one of the quarts of leftover Italian chicken soup from last week because we will be busy making sure that everything is packed and ready for us to go the airport super early the next day. Also, I can spend more time with my hubby and less time cooking and cleaning up the kitchen.