Poppy seed Chicken Casserole

Last night I ran out of time to post this so i'll do it now. When Joe and I were dating my amazing now in-laws gave me a recipe book for my birthday. It has been the best cookbook ever! It's called, "Summer in the Country" it's one of those Goose Berry Patch books. It has soo many good recipes! One of the recipe's I love to make is called Mandy's Easy Chicken Casserole, or as I know it, Poppy seed Chicken Casserole. Here is the recipe for you guys...Enjoy!!!

Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole
Recipe Yields 1 full 13x9in pan

Ingredients:
1-2 Cooked Chicken Breasts, Chopped (basically just put in however much chicken you like/want)
8oz wide egg noodles, cooked
1 10-3/4oz can of cream of chicken soup
12oz Sour Cream
4oz shredded cheddar cheese
4oz shredded mozzarella chesse (if you don't have this just put in all cheddar and it's still really good)
1 sleeve ritz crackers crushed or similar cracker (I had some garden vegetable ritz crackers once and that was really good too!)
1/4 cup margarine, melted
2 Tablespoons poppy seed

Directions:
1. Combine cooked chicken, noodles, soup, sour cream and cheeses in large bowl.
2. Pour into a lightly greased 13x9 baking pan.
3. Mix together melted butter and crushed crackers, sprinkle over top.
4. Sprinkle poppy seed over cracker crumbs.
5. Bake at 350* for 25-30 mins or until crackers are crispy and golden and cheese in melted.

Fun with "firsts" today

Today was a fun day filled with lots of new things! It started this morning when we decided to go to Cabelas. We love eating lunch there so we decided to eat there today. Lately Suzannah wants everything I am eating. If mommy or daddy is eating it she will fuss and fuss until we give her some. So while we were eating lunch today she decided she was going to get some of my soda. After a while I figured, she just wants my straw so i'll just let her chew on it. Well after a while of chewing on it she discovered sucking on it and sure enough she actually got some soda! haha She was hilarious! It was so funny we had to get it on tape so I know, I know, we are horrible parents, we let her take another drink haha it was pretty funny. Needless to say that's the last time I will let her play with my straw while it's still in my drink. At least for a few more months :) Here is the video we got...

Once we got home Suzannah was so excited to get to play. We knew that she loves her excersaucer but today she took her fun to a whole new level... she has learned to jump! Once she started she wouldn't stop haha. Now i'm thinking we are gonna need to get her one of those Johnny Jumper things. It's so fun to watch her, she is getting so big so fast. I swear we have one of the happiest babies in the world. We love you Suzannah! :)

Oh and I just remembered yesterday she discovered how to click her tongue too. :)

No-Bake Cookies

Today I made us some of my favorite cookies! These No-Bake cookies were some of my families favorites growing up. These are fairly easy to make however the most important part of the recipe is the boiling period. You have to boil it for exactly the perfect amount of time to get these cookies to be gooey, otherwise they turn out somewhat dry. They are still tasty however they are amazing when they are gooey and cold. You can leave these out on the counter and they are good but the family tradition is to put them in the freezer right off the stove, they are soooo good! Here is the recipe for you!

Ingredients:

2 Cups White Sugar

3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup margarine

1/2 cup milk

1 pinch of salt

2 1/2- 3 cups quick cooking oats

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. In a sauce pan melt the butter about half way down, then add the sugar, cocoa, milk and salt. Bring to a rapid boil for about 40-60 seconds.

2. Add peanut butter and vanilla. Once peanut butter is about melted start adding the oats 1 cup at a time. Add about 3 cups of oats to your personal preference. 

3. Working quickly drop by tablespoons onto wax paper and let cool. We line some cookie sheets or plates with wax paper and then put the cookies in the freezer till frozen.

Breakfast Quiche and Pancakes for Dinner

Tonight I decided to make Breakfast for dinner. One of Joe's favorite is Quiche so I decided to make it with some pancakes to make it more of a meal. Here is the recipe for you all to enjoy!

Tater, Ham and Potato Quiche

Ingredients:

6oz frozen hash browns

2 Tbsp. Butter

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Dash or two of onion powder

2 eggs

1/2 c milk

1/2 tsp mustard

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup cheddar cheese

1 c cooked ham, diced

1/2 c frozen peas

Directions:

Start melting the butter in a heated skillet over medium high heat. Add frozen potatoes so it's one single layer. Add salt and pepper to taste. Heat until butter is completely melted and well mixed. Put into buttered pie pan. Bake at 400* for 20 minutes or until edges start to brown. Remove from oven. Prepare filling by beating eggs with milk and mustard. Add salt, pepper, and onion powder. Layer cheese, ham, and peas in potato crust. Pour milk mixture over top. bake 350* for 34-40 minutes. 

Serves 4

For our pancakes I also made some basic homemade maple syrup, here is the recipe as well. This is a great recipe if you just need to whip up some fast syrup.

Maple Syrup

Ingredients:

1/2 tsp Mapleine extract

2 cups sugar

1 cup boiling water

Directions:

Boil water, add sugar and mapeline, remove from heat. Stir until well mixed and sugar is dissolved. Serve hot!

Banana Bread

Today I decided to finally make some banana bread, my bananas were getting very ripe! This recipe is from my old college roommate Robin. Robin and I were roommates for about 1 1/2 years and we always had so much fun together cooking, hosting dinners, or just making treats for our friends. I love baking banana bread because it is so yummy and so cheap to make. This recipe is so good! In college we always laughed because within 10 minutes of it coming out of the oven it is always devoured.  Here is the recipe for you guys, I hope you enjoy it!

Banana Bread

Yields: 1 Loaf

Ingredients:

3-4 ripe bananas smashed

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup of sugar (this can easily be reduced to 3/4c)

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

1 pinch of salt (optional)

1 1/2 cups flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*

2. Mix the bananas and butter together

3. add sugar and egg

4. add vanilla and baking soda

5. add salt and flour

6. Grease and flour a 4x8 bread pan, pour batter into pan.

7. Bake for about 1hr or until done

and the drumming lessons begin!!!

Today Joe decided to set up his drums in our living room (iust his electric ones or else all the neighbors would hear him). Suzannah thought it was very entertaining and so daddy let her play with him. She really seemed to like it. I love it when she gets quality time with Daddy like that :) Here are some pictures from their fun.

 
 

Valentines Day Pizza

Our Valentines day fun started yesterday. We had a cute outfit from Grandma Linda and we had so much fun making daddy's candy message.

She was seriously being so funny yesterday, she was either super silly like in this video or she was super fussy. Silly girl!

This Morning we surprised daddy with his candy board! He loved it!

This was Suzannah's cute outfit from Mommy. It was hard to get her to pose for the camera today, she just wasn't wanting to be photogenic today.

When daddy came home he surprised Suzannah and I with roses, chocolate and sweet cards. We are so lucky!

While we were finishing up dinner Joe played with Suzannah. She is getting soo big, she is almost standing up all on her own! She has been grabbing onto anything and pulling herself up!

For dinner I made us homemade pizza and bread sticks! It turned out super yummy! Here are the before (left) and after (Right) pics and the recipe is below.

Suzannah even had cute pj's from Grandma Linda to wear.

Overall we had a great valentines day! :)

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!!!

Pizza Recipe

Yields 2 large pizzas!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 Cups Milk

1 1/4 Cups Water

6 Tablespoons vegetable oil

6 Tablespoons sugar

1 Tablespoon Salt (I used a little less)

2 Tablespoons yeast (or two packages)

6 1/2 cups flour

1 Cup Marinara Sauce

Dash of Pizza Seasoning (totally optional)

2 cups shredded pizza blend cheese

Toppings of your choice (Pepperoni, Canadian bacon and pineapple etc)

1/2 cup melted butter, dash of garlic powder and dash of Italian seasoning

Directions:

1. Mix water and milk in microwave for 2 1/2 minutes. 

2. Mix, oil, sugar and salt in bowl and pour hot milk and water over it. Mix for 5-10 seconds. 

3. add yeast and stir for 10-15 seconds. Let set for 5-10 minutes.

4. Add flour one cup at a time (if you add it all at once or too quickly you will end up using too much flour and your dough will be too sticky. trust me add it one cup at a time). Dough will be very soft, but that is how you want it. It will be sticky but it will only slightly stick to your hands.

5. Let dough raise until doubled. About 40-60 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425*

6. Punch down, divide into two even halves. Lightly sprinkle surface with flour and roll out half the dough. Roll out till its about 1/4 inch thick all around.

7. Roll up edges to form a crust. (mine didn't stay too well, it might be better to roll it under)

8. Spread 1/2 cup marinara sauce onto pizza (or as much as you want) and add a dash of pizza seasoning.

9. Top with 1 cup of pizza blend shredded cheese.

10. Top with whatever toppings you would like.

11. Melt butter and mix in a dash of garlic powder and a dash of Italian Seasoning. Spread this over the crust and on any extra dough to make your bread sticks.

12. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until done.

Enjoy! :)

Lasagna night

Lasagna Night at the Moffetts!

So a while back one of my sisters told me that I should start a blog about what I make each night for dinner. I kind of started one but didn't stick with it. So I'm going to start it up again, every time I make something new I will post what I made and the recipe I used. Tonight I made lasagna for dinner and we had garlic toast made from homemade bread to go with it! MmmMmm it was tasty! :)

Here is the recipe for you, I tweaked it a little bit as shown below but the main recipe came from the target brand of noodles. 

Ingredients:

9 lasagna noodles (about half the box)

1lb. Ground beef

1 24oz jar of pasta sauce ( I used three cheese)

1 8oz package of shredded mozzarella cheese, divided 

1 1/2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese, divided

1tsp dried basil leaves

2 eggs slightly beaten

1 15oz container of ricotta cheese

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375*. 

2. Bring 4qts of water to a rapid boil, add noodles and cook for 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, cook ground beef over medium high heat until browned. Remove from heat. Stir in pasta sauce. 

4. Combine 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, 1 cup Parmesan cheese, basil, eggs and Ricotta cheese in large bowl.

5. Spread 1 cup sauce in bottom of 13x9 -inch baking dish. Top with 3 noodles, half the ricotta mixture and one third of the meat sauce. Repeat once. Top with remaining noodles and sauce; cover with foil.

6. Bake 50 minutes. Remove foil; top with remaining cheeses. Bake 10 to 15 minutes longer. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Suzannah says "mama" for the first time!

On Sunday Suzannah surprised us with saying "mama" for the first time! I was so happy! Since then she says it every once in a while and I adore it every time she does! Joe has now been trying to get her to say "daddy" haha

Our Family

Well I guess I can say that I'm officially a blogger now! I never thought I would start a blog, but once you have a child there are just way too many cute moments for Facebook. So here is an introduction to our family and where we are at right now. Joe (Daddy) and I met in college, we got married in 2010 and have lived in Utah our entire married life. Joe works at a company called Mozy but also builds websites and does videography on the side. In his spare time he loves music and is amazing at playing the guitar and drums. I work as an Event Planner at a business called Round House Racing and I absolutely love to plan events. In my spare time I love to ride horses and I absolutely LOVE to bake and be a Mom (As you will tell by most of my posts)! We just had a baby girl (Suzannah) this last June and she is literally the best thing that has ever happened to us. It has been so fun to watch her grow and she is growing waaayyy too fast! Right now she is 8 months old, she just figured out how to say Mom (Yay! I am so proud!), she is in the beginning stages of learning and being interested in crawling and I swear she is the happiest baby in the world! We love her sooo much and she is so much fun! So that is a brief introduction to our little family. I will be posting pics and videos soon. I hope you enjoy our blog! :)