Butterscotch scotchies

I recently made these muffins with the kids to take to a playdate.  Before we even left that morning somehow Isaac managed to get his hands on two of them.  Both kids loved them!  They are made with lots of Greek vanilla yogurt and a little bit of sour cream.  So good.  I promise they won't last long.

Before baking

After baking

Recipe:http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2013/01/oatmeal-scotchies-muffins-recipe.html

Who doesn't like ribs?

If you know me at all you know that I LOVE RIBS!!  BBQ country style pork ribs are my all time favorite dinner.  Growing up my mom made the best ribs, with homemade bbq sauce.  NEVER store bought, again spoiled I know.  It is easy, and delicious!!  Ribs at my house are a treat, because they are expensive...being a stay at home mom I am always watching the amount spent on food.  Pork ribs I must say are far less expensive than beef ribs but how can I leave Seth out on rib night.  This particular time around I hit a HUGE savings on beef ribs.  YAY!!!

Just a few steps and you too can have delicious homemade sauce and ribs for dinner!!
1. brown you ribs on all sides, put in a baking dish and sprinkle with brown sugar
2. Place sliced onion over the ribs
3. Add sauce
4. cook at 350 degrees for about 2 hours (depending on the thickness and quantity of ribs baking)

Sauce recipe:
2 tablespoons white vinegar
3/4 cup ketchup
3/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon pepper (black)
1/2 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon wortcestershire sauce

(I have made this so many times I don't even measure anymore.  I always add more spice and often garlic.  I suggest tasting the original recipe first and adding after that).

pork and beef ribs browning (do not trim fat)

I mix my sauce in a pyrex measuring cup

browned with brown sugar and onion

sauce added, all ready for the oven

Valentine's for school

This year Isaac's class is having a valentine's day party.  I am very excited to volunteer, as I LOVE valentine's day!!  I have been talking a lot with Isaac about what it means and why we make special cards for the people we love.  He worked soooooo hard on his valentines for his classmates.  I was very very impressed.  He had to do 18 of them, plus two for the teachers.  I thought for sure he would do a couple and then move on to wanting to play.  Not the case, he had his own little method.  He would first color the heart with marker and then he would put on some CARS stickers, and carefully chose cars that were friends to go together.  Much thought and love went into these valentine's, he and I are very proud of them.  Isaac's first valentine's for his friends are going to be a hit!!!

holding one up to show what he has drawn

applying stickers

some of the finished products

the line up of cars close by for inspriration

other side of the heart..."I have a ball in preschool with you."

the finished pile!

I want to be just like my big brother

Everyday Addy looks up to her big brother about what she should be doing, eating, playing, talking about, laughing about, etc.  She does EVERYTHING he does.  She spends a large portion of her day watching his every move...good or bad she wants to be just like her big brother.  The other day she took it to a whole new level.  She went and got some of his clothes and put on some (the pants) by herself and forced me to put on the rest.  Isaac was working on puzzles at the time so she assumed her assigned role of running back and forth to and from his room to bring him more puzzles.  We have figured out that this keeps her busy so Isaac can actually do the puzzles and she feels VERY important as his assistant!!  :)

delivering a puzzle

opening it up and dumping it out is part of her service

off to get another puzzle....notice the underwear on the outside of the pants.  

got another one

Isaac's silly face while putting together his puzzles.

Roasted Chicken quesadilla

EASY EASY EASY is all I can think of to describe this dinner

Mexican Chicken Quesadilla:
1/2 cup of yellow corn
1/2 black beans rinsed and drained
1/2 cup of chopped roasted chicken
2 heaping tablespoons of your favorite salsa
1 tablespoon of cilantro
2 whole wheat tortilla shells
shredded cheddar cheese

Mix the first 5 ingredients in a bowl
spread cheese on one of your tortilla shells
add the chicken,bean, corn mixture
spread a little more cheese on top so the top shell sticks to the mixture when melted
Put the top on and place on any sort of indoor grill, or sandwich maker.
(if you don't have one, use a large frying pan, saute with olive oil and flip when golden brown)

Slice, and serve with your favorite mexican side dish,rice, beans, etc.  Picture above is of my black beans with cilantro, garlic and green onions.

corn, chicken and bean mixture

cheese on tortilla

chicken mixture added

on the indoor grill

black beans with cilantro & Garlic

Black beans are a fablous side dish to any kind of taco, mexican pizza,quesadilla etc.  Or really a fablous side dish to anything.
This is my own recipe for what the husband says are the BEST beans he has ever had.
It his hard for me to write the specifics of this recipe...I just throw the ingredients in so this is my best guess.  Change it up for your own tastes.

Black beans with cilantro & garlic:
combine all ingredients in a small saute pan, stir and let marinate for about an hour.  Let the beans soak up the juices.

1/2-3/3 can of black beans rinsed and drained.
drizzle with olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons of minced garlic (more if you love garlic)
1 tablespoon of lime juice
1 1/2 tablespoons of cilantro
3 green onions (both green and white parts) chopped
1 1/2 squirts of sriracha Hot chili sauce

After you let it sit for about an hour, saute on low heat for about 10-15 min. until beans are hot and tender.

Black beans in the center served with chicken quesadillas

Enjoy!!!

Chicken Orzo Pasta with broccoli

We are big fans of chicken sausage at this house.  The kids LOVE it too, another bonus.  This week I made some chicken sausage Orzo pasta with broccoli as a side.  Everyone ate some part of this meal...and it is super easy to change around for everyone's specific likes/dislikes.

Any kind of chicken sausage would work...I used some I had boughten from walmart that was artichoke, garlic and swiss cheese. (and Yes, the kids ate it)  The sausage I bought was pre-cooked so that also was a plus because it cut down on cooking time.  

So basically I cooked the orzo accordig to the box and drained and rinsed well.  

Then I added it to my vegetables, olive oil, garlic, white wine and meat mixture

orzo added to the chicken, onion, bok choy,garlic,white wine, olive oil, etc.

the last step I added the green leaf part of the bok choy.

My plate with the side of brocolli.  Brocolli was seasoned with lemon pepper, butter and garlic

Seth's plate: The recipe called for diced tomatoes and feta cheese in the pasta. I don't like either so I left them out and added them seperately per plate.

** This was the great part of this recipe.  I was able to add all the spices and everything to the main dish and everyone at it.  Then I left out two ingredients and added them individually to Addy and Seth's plates.  Addy ate the tomatoes in her's (she loved it and asked for more) and of course Isaac's looked much more like mine.  In fact Isaac and I added parmasean cheese to ours instead of feta and we both thought it was very very delicious.  

For the first time I actually heard the words out of Isaac's mouth, "I will try it."  yay!!!  He tried it and liked it.  It was a little spicy because of the red pepper flakes and the spice in the sausage.  SO Seth got his spice, the kids both ate it and I only had to make one supper.  Triple win makes me happy!!

If you want to exact recipe instead of the vagueness and idea, leave a comment or message here on the blog or on fb.  It is super easy, delicious and it is bound to get rave reviews like it did at our house!!

Pumpkin Pumpkin, who LOVES pumpkin!

Anybody who knows me well knows I LOVE pumpkin.  Pumpkin cake, bread, muffins are all amongst my favorite things to bake.  Recently, I made two new recipes with pumpkin.  Both delicious.  I have to be honest I made both of these with our own pumpkin from the garden that we have frozen.  I have no idea how they would taste with store bought pumpkin as I have never tried, nor will I ever.  Spoiled I know, but that is thanks to my mom.  Real homegrown pumpkin is one of my favorite foods when prepared/baked with properly.
Here it goes:

Pumpkin Poppers:
http://hwescott.blogspot.com/2011/10/tasty-tuesday-pumpkin-poppers.html

The kids said they looked like donut holes, which they did. These are GREAT! Better the first couple of days before the sugar gets gooey.

Pumpkin snickerdoodles:
http://abitchinkitchen.blogspot.ca/2011/10/pumpkin-snickerdoodles.html

I apparently don't have a picture of these but they looked the same as the link/recipe above.  I would however, recommend adding more spice to these.  Looks like a lot of spice but a little on the blande side.  More cinnamon or a little all spice would do the trick.

Of course it goes without saying both kids of course LOVED them both.  I am happy to pass along my LOVE of pumpkin to them.

Sweet and sour chicken with fried rice

Yummy Yummy Yummy!!!  This recipe is GREAT!  My kids are HUGE fans of chinese food.  Chicken lo mein, fried rice, and pretty much any kind of chicken.  Oh and Addy LOVES beef and broccoli.  So I decided with the last post and this one to cook some ate home and see if they still loved it as much as when we take them out,(Which is hardly never) but whenever we do Isaac always wants chinese.

Here we go:  sweet and sour chicken; baked not fried!  Very good but a bit messy to make, and there are a few picky steps before just baking it for an hour.  However, both kids ate it like crazy!!!  Oh, and before I forget I wanted to mention I am planning on doubling the sauce the next time I make it.  All the sauce soaked right up into the chicken, nothing was left to spread on any vegtable or rice.  That was the only downside to this recipe.

cut up chicken

eggs beated and corn starch

chicken coated

browned and in the pan waiting for the sauce

All done after an hour of baking...so good!!

Fried rice:  I used the left over rice from the night before, this was soooooooooooo easy to make and again both kids ate it and the vegetables inside.  Bonus!!!

frozen peas and carrots with chopped onion (finely) garlic, olive oil and sesame oil.

all done!  So good!

Here is the link for the whole recipe.  It is my prediction that your family will love it even your kids and there will be no making two different suppers tonight.
http://life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.com/2010/09/baked-sweet-and-sour-chicken-with-fried.html

Sesame honey Chicken

It has never before happened in this house where the food never made it from the counter/prep area to the table AND where both kids ate so many vegetables at their supper time that I had to make more for Seth and I.  This is a must TRY must READ if you have picky eaters at your house!!!
Oh, and this is a slow cooker recipe, the best part!!  FYI: This sauce is VERY sweet.

Add all ingredients, cook 4 - 6 hours.  

Take the chicken out of the sauce once cooked, shred and return to the sauce. This is where I lost a lot of chicken. Little hands kept making their way up the cutting board for more and more!!!

Here is the link for the recipe for the chicken:
http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/01/slow-cooker-honey-sesame-chicken-recipe.html?showComment=1332008446624#c9189596045663823405

Now...for the vegetables.  We had some fresh bok choy and frozen broccoli.  Super super easy, let the broccoli thaw in your frying pan, (or use fresh) with cut up bok choy (not the leaf part, add that later), minced garlic and olive oil.  When ready to eat, stir fry these vegetables, adding more oil if needed.  When almost done add the lead portion of your bok choy and cook untill slightly wilted.  Like I said, This was a HUGE hit so make lots!!

bok choy is very white and crisp!  Before cooking.

after stir fried

finished plate...served the chicken over white jasmine rice.

Pizza substitute

After being blessed with our first child Isaac, I quickly noticed that my life as I knew it was never going to be the same again.  Not even when it came down to what foods I liked/could eat before my pregnancy.  Life post Isaac left me with very very limited dairy products.  No yogurt, ice cream, cream sauces, etc.  and also no foods high in acid such as tomatoe based products.  This means NO PIZZA, spagehtti, Italian stuffed peppers, etc.
I found an alternative to the pizza...not as good as pizza but it does the trick.

Barbaque Chicken Calzone:

This is pillsbury pizza dough from the tube with bbq sauce on half the dough

Just like pizza: add your favorite toppings.  The left side of this one had: black olives,& red onions, which Seth likes and I don't.  The whole thing had artichokes, and spinach.

Grilled two chicken breasts, marinated in salt, pepper and olive oil.

chopped the chicken and added cheese.  Fold the crust over, pinch sides shut. Sprinkle top with olive oil and Italian seasonings.

Bake at 375 until lightly browned and crisp

Now for the kids...of course mine would not eat this.  They don't even eat regular pizza.  so what did they eat where I didn't have to fix another whole meal.  While I was preparing the calzone I baked a tube of biscuits for them.  Same brand pillsbury.  I did not add all the chopped chicken to the calzone, saved some for the kids plates.  The only calzone topping Isaac liked out of this combination was black olives.  So basically his "pizza" crust was the biscuit, topping was olives and chicken, no sauce.  Addy did slightly better she ate the same as Isaac plus shredded cheese.  For a "pizza" night still fairly healthy.
Here is what Isaac's plate looked like:

chicken, biscuit olives

Again...Everyone is happy.  We each got our own toppings, and Mommy only had to make one meal.  Enjoy!!

Burrr....Warm up with some soup

Spinach Cheese tortellini soup, easy to make and will warm your insides from our January temperatures.  If your kids don't eat soup...I will show you what to feed them with only adding one additional ingredient.

cook tortellini (cheese filled) until tortellini floats and is slightly larger in size.

drain and add 1 large can of chicken broth, fresh parsley, onion and mushrooms. Cook until mushrooms are tender.

add  stewed tomatoes (I used canned from our garden) and fresh spinach

Put tortellini back in

When you dish it up sprinkle with asiago cheese (whatever cheese you prefer).

Now for the kids...Before adding all the tortellini back into the soup keep some out, add a little pasta sauce and you have a kids meal.  I cut the noodles in half for my kids.  Easy and no additional cooking for a kids meal.