Scalloped Potatoes and Ham

 Tonight I decided to make this recipe because it will probably be the last time for a long time that I get to make it. :( We have to eat healthier so we have no choice but not to eat this delectable deliciousness! As you can probably tell I absolutely love scalloped potatoes and ham, it's by far one of my favorite foods. I think I could eat potatoes everyday, haha.

This recipe is also dear to my heart because in college they were the dinner of some of the best days shared with many friends in my life. If you knew me in college you knew that I absolutely loved to host dinners and every Sunday my brother and his roommates would come over to eat for dinner. I have so many fun memories of those days :) to all of you that we're apart of those days (you know who you are), thank you for making my life so special and so happy. You all touched my life in such a good way and I will always love you all for that.

So because we can't hardly eat them anymore please, for me, indulge yourselves in this amazing deliciousness.

Scalloped potatoes and Ham

Ingredients:
6 potatoes
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups of cheddar cheese (plus a little more to sprinkle on top)
3 Tablespoons flour
1 Cup milk
About 2 cups diced ham (or as much as you desire)

Directions:
Wash and slice potatoes into thin round slices, boil until tender.
Meanwhile in a pot melt butter over medium heat. Add cheese and flour, slowly add milk 1/8 of a cup at a time. Stir constantly until well mixed and thickened.
Drain potatoes and lay in a thin layer in a 10x13 pan
Pour cheese mixture evenly over the top.
Sprinkle on some ham and then cheese on top.
Bake in oven at 350* for about 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.

* another option is to omit the ham and serve potatoes with a side of BBQ chicken.

Riann is 9!!!

My little niece Riann is getting to be so grown up and so beautiful! We've had a tradition the last few years of taking her to Disney on ice for her birthday and that has always been lots of fun. This year the show was Rockin ever after and had lots of fun scenes from Brave, Beauty and the beast, tangled and the little mermaid. 

I was also able to decorate a birthday cake for her friend party, she wanted grass with gummy worms coming out :) it was kind of hard to get a good pic but I think it turned out okay.

 I love birthdays and making them special, so fun!

Saucy Southwest Sandwhiches

The other night I made these and ran out of time to make this post so here you go, better late than never right! :) I also forgot to take a picture so sorry this is a copy of a really old picture I took.

                             

Saucy Southwest Sandwiches

Ingredients:
8oz lean ground beef or turkey sausage
1tsp chili powder
1 can (14 1/2oz) del monte diced tomatoes with Garlic and Onion
1 can (11oz) Del monte summer crisp whole kernel corn, drained
4 hoagie buns

Directions:
Cook meat in a large skillet over medium heat until browned; drain. Stir in chili powder. Now this next step is optional, I personally like to blend the tomatoes up into a sauce and then add it to the meat but you can just add the can in. Blending them just makes it more like a sloppy joe is all. So stir in the tomatoes and then the corn. Heat completely. I also like to toast my buns but that is completely optional as well. Finally spoon the meat mixture into the buns and enjoy!!!

Corn & Squash Soup

Tonight for dinner I made Corn and Squash Soup. What I liked about this soup was that it was very fresh tasting. I did like that it was a good hearty soup as well. I do believe my other squash soup I make is a little better (I'll post that recipe when I make it) but I do still like this recipe and will definitely make it again. I found this recipe on pinterest so I just copied and pasted to save time tonight since I'm a little behind.

TOTAL TIME: Prep/Total Time: 25 min.

MAKES: 8 servings

• Ingredients

• 12 bacon strips, diced

• 1 medium onion, chopped

• 1 celery rib, chopped

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) chicken broth

• 6 cups mashed cooked butternut squash

• 2 cans (8-3/4 ounces each) cream-style corn

• 2 cups half-and-half cream

• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt

• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

• Sour cream, optional

• Directions

• 1. In a large saucepan, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove to paper towels; drain, reserving 2 tablespoons drippings.
  2. In the drippings, saute onion and celery until tender. Stir in flour until blended. Gradually stir in broth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until slightly thickened.
  3. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in the squash, corn, cream, parsley, salt, pepper and bacon. Cook and stir until heated through. Garnish with sour cream if desired. Yield: 8 servings (2-1/2 quarts).
  Originally published as Corn and Squash Soup in Taste of Home October/November 2005, p41

Nutritional Facts:

1 serving (1-1/4 cups) equals 381 calories, 26 g fat (11 g saturated fat), 53 mg cholesterol, 1,021 mg sodium, 29 g carbohydrate, 6 g fiber, 9 g protein.

Granola

I absolutely love eating homemade granola! I remember always eating it growing up and it still never gets old. After trying out a few recipes I've collaborated them and created this one. Enjoy!!!

                  

Homemade Granola
*this makes a ton! It made two gallon size bags about 3/4 of the way full for me so maybe half it if you don't need that much.

Ingredients:
9 Cups old fashioned oatmeal
1/2 lb shredded coconut
3 cups chopped pecans, walnuts or sliced almonds
3/4 cup raisins

1 1/4 c brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/2 c water
1 1/4 c vegetable oil
1 c honey
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp vanilla

1 pkg dried cranberries
3 Cups Corn flakes

In a very large bowl, blend the first 4 ingredients. Then in a large saucepan combine the second group of ingredients and heat until the sugar is disolved, but do not boil. Pour syrup over dry ingredients and stir until well coated. Spread into 3 jelly roll pans/cookie sheets (this may seem like a very thin layer but that is what you want, trust me). Bake at least 35-45 minutes at 300*, turning after 20 minutes. Cool and add Corn flakes and dried cranberries or other fruit if desired. Store in airtight containers in a cool dry place.

* the nice thing about this is you can add as much of the coconut, nuts, raisins, dried cranberries, or any other ingredient you want to your liking. Other ideas that I've seen but i never seem on hand to add are... 1c wheat germ, 2 c sunflower seeds, and 1 c sesame seeds. Just make it how you like and have fun with it! :) My favorite is adding the corn flakes because it's like i'm making my own honey bunches of oats cereal! 

Quick 'N Hearty Vegetable Barley soup

Joe and I have been trying to change our diet and eat healthier, it's so hard there are so many yummy things to eat and I absolutely LOVE to bake! So from now on if I do any baking we are just going to have to give it away and only have a small helping if any at all :(. Any who, tonight we tried a new recipe, "Quick 'N Hearty Vegetable Barley Soup". It sounds nasty (I thought) but it actually turned out pretty good. Here is the recipe for you all...

Quick 'N Hearty Vegetable Barley Soup

Yields: 8 (1 cup) Servings

Ingredients:

1/2lb lean ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion (I used Onion powder and there was also some in my can of tomatoes)

1 clove Garlic, minced (I used garlic powder and there was also some in my can of tomatoes)

5 Cups water

1 (14 1/2oz) can Unsalted whole tomatoes, undrained, cut into pieces (I just used diced tomatoes with roasted garlic and onion)

3/4 Cup Quaker Quick barley

1/2 Cup Sliced Celery (this was just about 2 stalks)

1/2 Cup Sliced Carrots (This was one large carrot or two med)

2 Beef Bouillon Cubes (I realized these have a lot of sodium so next time i will probably emit some of the water and do low sodium beef broth instead)

1/2 tsp dried basil, crushed

1 bay leaf

1 (9oz) pkg frozen mixed vegetables

Directions:

Start cooking beef with Garlic and onion. While that's cooking start prepping and adding all the ingredients except the frozen vegetables into a large pot. Cover, bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add frozen vegetables; cook about 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Additional water may be added if soup becomes to thick upon standing. 

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!

Happy St. Patricks day everyone!

I had to post these pictures of Suzannah and Joe. She gets so excited everytime he comes home and plays with her. She certainly loves her daddy!

Cafe Zupas Yucatan Tortilla Chicken Soup

One of Joe and I's favorite dinners is Tortilla soup. Usually we have a different recipe but we couldn't find it so we decided to try this one tonight and we liked it even better! Here is the recipe for you, I originally found it at lowcalorielove.BlogSpot.com/2013/04/café-zupas-Yucatan-tortilla-chicken.html but I also included my changes below for you.

Cafe Zupas Yucatan Tortilla Chicken Soup

2 Frozen chicken breasts/ I used a Rotisserie Chicken

1 Medium Onion, diced/ Joe hates onion so I used 1Tablespoon of Onion Powder

1 Can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 Cup uncooked brown rice

8 Cups chicken broth (4 cans)/ I used low-sodium chicken broth

2 Cans diced tomatoes with green chiles (mild)/ I blended the tomatos (you can change the amount to one can depending on if you like it really tomato-ie or spicy etc)

1/3 Cup Lime Juice (uses 1 lime)

1 Cup Frozen Sweet Corn

Optional toppings:

Avocado

Sour Cream

Chips

Tortilla strips

Place all the ingredients into a large pot, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer for about 1 hour stirring occasionally or until rice is cooked. Serve with your choice of chips, avocado and/or sour cream. You can also do this in a crock pot and make it really easy :)

Grandma and Grandpa Came To Visit

Okay I've been a bit behind on my blog, tons of things have been going on so here is a little catch up. Last week Joe's parents came to visit us. We had so much fun together and it was so fun to see them again. Suzannah loved playing with her grandparents! Grandpa became her friend very quickly by sharing his breakfast with her :). Here are a few pictures we got of Suzannah and Grandpa together. I wish I would've been better at taking more :(

 

 

We didn't get any pictures of Grandma and Suzannah together, I went to go get one and ended up getting this video instead haha, small technical error on my part but hey atleast i captured a moment of them together :)



While they were here we also went and got some professional pictures done. Here is a link to them.
https://viewimages.jcpportraits.com/sharealbum/sharealbumlist?rndId=AwgBAgRCXA%3D%3D&uId=BAQBAgJBWw%3D%3D

We are so glad that Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us. We can't wait for them to come back!

Since then we have stayed very busy. I'll have to catch up on my recipes cause I definitely have made some and haven't posted the recipes. Another update on Suzannah, she has now started to feed herself. Only when she wants to though, it's pretty funny, I will give her cherrios and she will just play with them but if i give her a cheez-it or a graham cracker she will eat it right up! Here are some videos and pics of her being messy and feeding herself. She also has been doing this really funny sniffing/smile type thing lately so some of these picture are of that too.

 

 

 

Here's a couple of funny videos too
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100495527762124&l=7329255146099139484

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100496181242544&l=2203610052264857839