Stace And Yummy Chicken Roll Ups

For my Bridal Shower my mom, knowing my hatred and fear of cooking, decided to throw a cooking/kitchen type shower. The invitations specified bringing some type of cookware and a recipe. One of my favorite (and easiest of course) is Chicken Roll Ups. A dear friend of the family gave it to me and I think of her every time I make them. Not only is it simple and quick everyone in my house eats them and that is a huge win for me.

Ingredients 

Need For Chicken

- 1/2 cup of cooked diced chicken (I use canned)
- 1 can crescent rolls
- 2 oz. cream cheese
- salt and pepper to taste
- Tsp of onion ( I don't care for onion so I've never done that)

Need For Gravy

- 1 can cream of chicken Soup
- 1 cup sour cream

Instructions For Chicken

Cream cheese needs to be room temperature or warmed for easy mixing. Mix cream cheese with chicken and salt and pepper. Put small spoonful on each roll. Roll up and bake according to crescent roll directions.

Instructions For Gravy

Combine cream of chicken soup, sour cream, and a little milk. Heat and pour over roll ups.

Sometimes I make the gravy but a lot of the time I just make the roll ups. BuddyBoy doesn't care for sauces and I'm hit and miss with them as well. The gravy is actually really yummy but the rolls don't need it to be delicious.

Stace And Baked Chicken Chimichangas

For me cooking should consist of picking up the phone and getting some food delivered. Since that can't always be the case I look up quick and easy recipes on Pinterest and one of my favorites so far is Baked Chicken Chimichangas found on www.thegirlwhoateeverything.com. Not only is it a fast and easy dish it does not require odd ingredients that I wouldn't normally get therefore have to buy just for this one dish. Everything for it is cheap and stuff that I already buy and that is what the people want. The Chimichangas are something I can just throw together at the last minute, its always nice to have a meal like that and another added bonus is that every single person in my house eats them. It did take some talking into for my kids to try them but once they did they were sold.

Ingredients 

- 2 cups cooked chicken, chopped or shredded (I use canned chicken or a Rotisserie chicken)
- 1 cup of favorite salsa
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I usually use a little more then that but we are cheese lovers)
- 2 green onions (I don't care for onion for I leave them out)
- 6 (8 inch) flour tortillas
- 2 tbsp melted butter
- Any other fixings like tomatoes or guacamole, sour cream ext

Directions

- Preheat oven 400F
- Mix chicken, salsa, cumin, oregano and cheese in large bowl
- Lay out tortillas and scoop about 1/3 cup into each and then fold with seams on the bottom of baking sheet
- Brush melted butter on top of tortillas. Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown and crispy

I love just throwing stuff in a bowl and stirring and then basically being done its my favorite. They aren't awesome for reheating because even if you put them in the toaster oven they aren't really crispy anymore and I love crispy. They still taste good they just lose the crunchy factor.

Stace's Favorite Cheesecake Factory Dish - Chicken Costoletta

For Valentines Day this year I asked Jared to do something special. I learned after the first year or two of marriage that Valentines Day was not something my husband put to much effort into and usually that's fine with me after all Valentines Day isn't really a holiday. No one gets off work, no school is ever cancelled because of it. But this year I basically just wanted him to plan the date. I am the one who always plans our dates and I wanted to see if he could plan something nice and he did! 

After the kids went to bed he made me our favorite meal from the Cheesecake  Factory Chicken Costoletta. We had a candlelit dinner while listening to cheesy 80's songs and then played Rummikub (I won), it was awesome.

With cooking normally I like to stick with quick and easy, or at least easy. But every now and then its nice to do something fancy. And we are the type of people that consider Chicken Costoletta fancy. I'm also going to add the ingredients for their mashed potatoes because you can't have one without the other. That would just be silly.

Need For Chicken:

4 - 2 ounce Chicken Tenderloins
1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour
2 Large Egg 
1 cup Breadcrumbs
1 Lemon zest
1/4 cup Romano Cheese grated
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tbsp Butter

 Need For Sauce:

1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 tbsp All-Purpose Flour

2 Cloves Garlic minced

1/4 cup Milk

3/4 cup Heavy Cream

1/4 cup Fat Free Chicken Stock

1 Lemon juice only

1 tbsp Butter

Instructions For Chicken

Using a meat mallet, flatten the tenderloins so that they are even in thickness. Try to make them as thin as possible.

Get three bowls. One for flour, the second for the eggs and whisk them with a fork. In the third, combine the breadcrumbs, lemon zest and cheese.

Coat each piece of chicken first in the flour, then the eggs, and then the breadcrumb mixture.

Heat a large nonstick saute pan over medium heat and add the oil and butter. Once melted and hot, add the chicken to the pan and fry on both sides until cooked through; approximately 3-5 minutes per side depending on the thickness. You might need to do this in two batches.

Remove chicken from the pan and drain on paper towels to absorb any excess oil. Set aside.

Instructions For Sauce

Melt the oil in a medium saucepan over low-medium heat and add the garlic.

Saute 1-2 minutes then whisk in the flour.

Whisk in the milk, heavy cream, chicken stock and lemon juice and bring to a boil over medium-high heat until the sauce has thickened; approximately 3-5 minutes.

Next, stir in the butter and pour desired amount of sauce over the chicken.

Need For Potatoes

4 cups Red Potatoes
2 Tbsp Horseradish
1/2 cup Butter
1 cup Gouda Cheese
1 Tsp Salt or as needed

Instructions For Potatoes

Boil potatoes. After boiled place in large bowl and mash. Add cheese, horseradish, butter, and salt. Stir until mixed.

So good! Like I said its nice to change it up every now and then. We only make it for special occasions but when we do we are both so happy and always have left overs. Enjoy!

Stace and Crock Pot Pork Nachos

I'll be honest, I am not a huge fan of pork. My husband is but I am not. I actually found this recipe on Pinterest from www.ohsweetbasil.com  while I was looking for a pork recipe that my husband and I would both enjoy. I'm fine with pork as long as it doesn't taste like pork, like BBQ pork sandwiches for example. I just taste yummy BBQ sauce and not pork. I know, weird. 

What caught my eye with this recipe was that number one its a crock pot recipe which means easy dinner, and that it had pina colada sauce plus I do enjoy some good nachos. Also its simple. I'm all about simple especially in regards to cooking. My favorite thing about these nachos is that you can play with them, add more beans, sauce, and cheese. I like that I can tailor them by preference. I may like a lot of pina colada sauce on them while my husband wants to completely smother them in cheese and not have very many beans.

Once everything is cooked it takes under ten minutes to heat up to perfection. 

What You Need For Nachos

1 Pork rump

1-2 cans Pinto beans, drained and rinsed

Small bag Colby Jack Cheese

Tostitos Scoop chips

What You Need For Pina Colada Sauce

1 small can Crushed Pineapple 

2/3 cup Sour Cream

1/3 cup Cream Of Coconut (usually by margarita mix, found in can or bottle)

Instructions

For Pork

Rub the pork with olive oil and Hawaiian or sea salt (I've only ever used regular salt and it was great) place in crock pot, cook on low for 8 hours. Once done shred.

For Sauce

Mix together sour cream, pineapple juice, and cream of coconut. Set aside.

For Nachos

Heat oven to Broil (toaster oven also works great)

Place chips on foil lined baking sheet (or plate for toaster oven)

Place cooked pork in each chip top with beans, pina colada sauce, and cheese. Cook 1-3 mins or until gooey or nice and crispy

That's it! On the recipe from ohsweetbasil's website there is the option for sweet peppers but its not worth the extra step for me so I've actually never tried it with the sweet peppers before. For the recipe with the sweet peppers you can go to the website at the top or my Pinterest under Best Recipe's So Far and its called Maui Baby Nachos. 

Bon Appetit!

Stace and Cheesy Broccoli Soup

The holidays may be over but winter is still going strong. I love the winter. Not because I enjoy the lovely slosh that is inevitable when snow falls or the dangerous black ice.

Side story. I lived in Idaho a few years ago and one night I got home late and absolutely slipped on some black ice and fell flat on my butt. The next day I called Steph and was telling her about it and I told her that I swore I heard someone laugh after I fell and she, my loving big sister, smirked and said “Yeah, it was probably me.” Thanks for the sympathy.

Anyway! Back to winter. I love the excuse to stay all cozy under a blanket with some hot chocolate and a nice fire. And for me, winter is the season for soups. Soup is perfect winter food. It warms you inside and out.

A soup that we have made a ton this winter is Jared’s Cheesy Broccoli Soup. I have said before that I do not enjoy cooking and that is still very true. Very true. But I do enjoy eating.  What I love the most about it is that the broccoli gets cooked to perfection. I’m not joking, perfection! It’s not all mushy or under done. It’s very fresh and a huge hit with the kids.

Here’s what you need:

32oz chicken broth

About a medium size head of broccoli

Heavy whipping cream

Flour

Shredded cheese

Optional - carrots and salt

Here’s what you do:

Pour in 32oz chicken broth to big pot.

Cut tops off broccoli and add to pot with the broth in it.

Put heat up to middle. put lid on and wait 15 minutes.

Add 3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream, stir till the color is uniform.

Add 4 tablespoons of flour and stir the whole thing until you hardly see any flour chunks (The flour is to thicken the soup and you can leave this out)

Add 1/2 cup of cheese, stir.

Voila! I hope you enjoy. What are some of your favorite soups? I’d love to try them, we still have a looooong winter ahead.

Stace and That One Chicken

I just had a baby so I don't exactly feel like cooking. Granted baby no baby I don't feel like cooking. I have expressed my love of the crock pot because it does everything for you and my fear of cooking and laziness loves that. My husband and I have been spoiled this past month because of all the family that has been in town that has either made our food or paid for our food. They are gone now so its up to me to cook tasty meals. Why people don't just bring me food everyday I'll never know. 

I went back on my Pinterest and rediscovered a meal that I really like. This meal is chicken and it doesn't have a name so I just call it That One Chicken because it kind of has random ingredients, at least to me, and I don't really know what else to call it. The ingredients are:

2 pounds of chicken tenders (I use like 3 or 4 when I use tenders or 2 chicken breasts)

1 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 soy sauce

Put all the ingredients in the crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours (I usually only cook it for 4 hours and it turns out great)

That's it! Random right? But, I think its pretty tasty and has a different enough of flavor that its one I can make fairly regularly. What I really really like with it is Zatarains yellow rice. Delish!

When I make it I usually do a little less soy sauce just because I don't love that flavor and for the pineapple juice I buy canned pineapple chunks and use the juice from that and do whatever I want with the pineapple. I also flip the chicken over about half way through cooking to really get the flavor in the chicken. Also, the sauce does not thicken at all. My husband is really big on sauces and one of the times I made it he commented on the thin sauce but its more of a marinade then a sauce. 
I wish I had made it for Steph when they were in town but we were to busy eating out which happens to be my favorite. 

Give it a try. Its easy!

Stace's Lime Chicken Tacos

I am not a big cooker. I am all about the fast and easy meals which means I am all about the Crock Pot. I came upon this lime chicken recipe on Pinterest with a bundle of a bunch of other recipes and I actually can't find it but its so easy I memorized it awhile ago.

3 or 4 chicken tenders

1 Tablespoon of Chili Powder

3 Tablespoons of Lime (fresh lime or lime juice)

You can put the chicken in frozen and put all the ingredients on top of the chicken. Cook on low for 4 hrs. I turn the chicken over about half way through. When finished take the chicken out and shred it put it back in the crock pot and add corn, salsa, whatever you want. You can also use chicken breasts.

The first time Jared and I had this we went on and on about how good it was. It was a delightful surprise. I've cooked it with both the fresh lime and lime juice. I do think that the fresh lime tastes better, but, I usually use lime juice because I don't always have fresh limes and its just a little easier (and cheaper) and its still really tasty. I also really like that its in the crock pot because we don't have A/C and my oven can make my apartment so stinking hot that its nice to have a really good recipe that doesn't make you want to die from heat.

I told Steph about this recipe and she said that they didn't even use tortillas but just made them into nachos and they loved it. I thought that was a great idea, though I haven't tried it yet. Our favorite way of making them is after shredding the chicken we just add corn to it and stir it all up together then eat it in a tortilla. I just add cheese on top (cause I'm boring) but Jared likes sour cream and sometimes salsa. 

There are a lot of different ways to eat this yummy chicken and when we have people over its one of the things I like to make because its easy and people have a lot of options on what they want to do with it. 
Yum yum.

Steph's BBQ Pulled Pork Potatoes-- Crock pot!!

      It's summer time! My kids are almost out of school and we are getting ready to hit the pool.  In honor of summer I have been going through a BBQ craving phase. I want chips, beans, creamed corn, and as my main dish I always always want pulled pork.  A friend of mine shared this recipe with me but it's fairly common. I've seen recipe's for Dr Pepper pulled pork and I've never tried that but I use root beer for this recipe. It is so delish and insanely easy. We ate it as a sandwich for years and my very picky son still wants his on a bun. He agreed to eat it when I told him it was made with root beer :) But as we were looking for ways to eat gluten free we decided to nix the bun and eat the pork on a baked potato! It's awesome. I don't miss the bun at all, I actually prefer it this way. 

    You will need:

1 pork roast or tenderloin
2 liter bottle of root beer
garlic powder
onion powder
1 large bottle of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce (this is the stuff that makes it so good)

Set your crock pot on a 6-8 hour heat setting and then cover your pork in the garlic and onion powder. I also use a fork to poke some holes in the pork. Place it in your crock pot and then dump the root beer all over it. I usually use the whole bottle or at least until the pork is covered. That's it! 
When the pork is cooked through remove it and drain the root beer from the crock pot and then shred the pork. Once the entire roast is shredded put it back in the crock pot and cover it with Sweet Baby Ray's sauce. Stir it really well to coat all of the shredded pork in the sauce. Let it heat back through and then serve as desired! Use a bun, or load up your baked potato! I love mine with sour cream, butter and cheese. If you do want to have potatoes just throw some in the oven the last 45 or so on your crock pot timer. 

    I hope you try it and I hope you love it. This generally makes a ton so invite some friends over and make some of my creamed corn as well!! 

Steph's Creamed Corn

        Everyone has their "I'm going to a pot luck and need to bring a dish" dish right? Well this is mine. The beauty of the creamed corn is that I almost always have all of the ingredienst in my house at all times. I was invited to a lunch  BBQ for Memorial day at 9:30 a.m. that day so I went home checked my fridge and 30 minutes later I had creamed corn. It's lovely.

    I think I got the basic outline for the recipe from a Betty Crocker cookbook initially but I've made it so many times over the years that I just do it from memory and also I know what has worked the best for me. I think you'll agree with me saying that creamed corn is all about consistency. Too chunky and it's just weird regular corn, too creamy and it's corn soup. No good. 

    Usually I'm making it for a larger group of people (10 or more) so I use an entire bag of frozen corn. I've never used fresh or canned corn. I assume if you wanted to cut off the kernels from a fresh cob it would need to be cooked longer. I also precook the frozen corn in the microwave for about 3 minutes to cut down on time in the oven. So for a batch using a whole bag of corn you need:

Preheat oven to 400
8x8 pan

1/4 cup cream
1/2 cup milk
1 TB sugar
1  tsp salt
pepper to taste
6 slices of butter

Dump the corn in the pan and cover it with the milk and cream. The measurements are "guesstimates" so you want to make sure that the milk comes up a little on the sides but you don't want the corn to swim in milk.  Then sprinkle sugar, salt, and pepper all over the top. If you like sweeter corn use more sugar, if you like pepper put some extra shakes in there, whatever you prefer. Stir the sugar, salt and pepper into the corn and milk then lay the slices of butter on top of the corn. Bake at 400 for 20-30 min. You want the dish to be bubbling pretty well. When it comes out stir it up really good to let some of the heat escape. I then use an immersion blender and blend the corn in spurts. Just blend it to the consistency that looks good to you. That's it. Voila. I always get compliments on this dish, I have never brought any leftovers home either more's the pity. I would eat this stuff every day.

Stace and Parmesan Paprika Chicken

   

     I have noticed that whenever I post about food it's about a dessert; excuse me. So to change my routine,  I decided to talk about one of my families favorite meals, Parmesan Paprika Chicken.  I found it on Pinterest and the reason I even decided to try it was because it looked so easy. I was a little worried about trying it because I didn't even know what paprika tasted like.  Because I was nervous about it, when I first cooked it, I only added about half the paprike that the recipe called for.  Now that we've made it a few times I do a little more paprika, but I don't do the full amount because I don't want it to overpower the dish. I also add extra Parmesan on top of the chicken before I cook it because my husband is a big cheese fan. 

    One of the reasons we like it so much is that it's nice and crispy.  A good side dish to make with it is Zatarain's yellow rice. My two year old even likes it. Sometimes he eats half of my chicken and he always is a rice fan. Another great thing about this meal is that the prep time is 15 min and the cook time is about an hour. I am all about quick and easy when it comes to food. 

    I like Parmesan Paprika Chicken because it's different, easy, and crispy. You really might be surprised who all likes it in your family. I was pretty floored that my two year old did.

Parmesan Paprika Chicken

Steph's Gluten Free Carmelita's

      

        

       Prepare yourselves! These cookie bars are going to change your life. I have not met anyone who didn't like them, and truly if you don't like them don't tell me because then I'd have to judge you. I stumbled across this recipe on Pintrest (of course) and have made them for various functions and parties. The best thing about them is the fact that they are so easy and it was one of the first recipes I tried to manipulate to make gluten free. 

   

      My husband has a gluten intolerance. He has always suffered from various stomach problems, some of which got pretty severe. He had lots of tests done and tried different diet variations trying to solve his problem but nothing was conclusive or particularly successful. About a year ago he stopped eating gluten. He went cold turkey, no gluten at all. It was a big adjustment for our family, especially for me the cook. He felt better almost immediately and it was fabulous, but after a few weeks he started feeling isolated in his eating. Because he doesn't have Celiac disease we didn't have to ban gluten from our house and there was no concern about cross contamination. So when we would eat yummy gluten-ful food he was bummed out. 

   The Carmelita's are one of his favorite treats and so as a surprise I tried to change it so he could eat them and just enjoy. The recipe calls for 1 cup flour and 1 cup oats. Now because he is only gluten intolerant I didn't use gluten free oats I just substituted Pamela's Pancake Mix for the flour. It worked perfectly! He was so excited and I accepted my Wife of the Year Award with aplomb. The recipe originally came from http://luluthebaker.com/ and I will love the inventor of that recipe for the rest of my life.Try the Carmelitas. You will absolutely love them. Make them for others. People will praise you. You can find the recipe on my Sweet Tooth pintrest board as well!

32 caramel squares, unwrapped
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup flour or Pamela's Pancake mix for Gluten Free
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Combine caramels and cream in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until completely smooth; set aside. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter, brown sugar, flour, oats, and baking soda. Pat half of the oatmeal mixture into the bottom of an 8×8″ pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over crust. Pour caramel mixture over chocolate chips. Crumble remaining oatmeal mixture over caramel. Return to oven and bake an additional 15-20 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting.
*A stint in the fridge will help them cool off if you’re pinched for time. They shouldn’t be served cold, but all of that molten caramel takes a long time to cool down. They should be stored and served at room temperature.
**If you want to use homemade or store-bought caramel sauce in place of the caramel/cream mixture, use 1 1/4 cups of caramel sauce, and omit the caramel squares and heavy cream.
***To make a 9×13″ version, simply double the amounts.

     

Stace and Pineapple Upside Down Cake. YES!

    

I woke up the other morning and I was craving, no, CRAVING my mother-in-laws pineapple upside down cake. Like, I was laying in bed wishing with everything inside me that it was already made and waiting downstairs for me because you know what, I absolutely would have had it for breakfast. There's pineapple in it its fine. 

     The best thing about this pineapple upside down cake, other then how incredibly yummy it is,  is how easy it is to make AND it doesn't call for any weird random ingredients I had almost everything but the crushed pineapple and the yellow cake mix. I love it when things are easy to make and don't take a lot of time, its my favorite.

     I worried because I did not have the recipe and California is an hour behind from where I am and I didn't want to wake my mother-in-law up or I didn't know if she was working and I basically needed the recipe right that second or my life would've been over. Then I remembered my mother-in-law has a blog with all her yummy recipes! And sure enough the pineapple upside down cake was on there. Bless her. Something that is really tasty about the upside down cake is that when you are making the cake mix instead of adding a cup of water to it she has you add a cup of the pineapple juice. Its so moist!

    It was the first time I made it and of course I was a little worried about how it would turn out because cooking and I don't get along but it turned out great! And we may or may not have eaten it in two days. Don't judge. It has pineapple, its ok. 

Go to my mother-in-laws blog for the yummy recipe! 
http://twistedflavor.blogspot.com/2012/03/pineapple-upside-down-cake.html

Green Chili Enchilada Soup- Steph

    This soup is pinned to my Gluten Free board. The woman who came up with the recipe has her own blog and I haven't explored it much other than to make the soup over and over again. This is a crockpot recipe. Can I tell you how much I love crockpot recipes? Really a lot. The fact that it's gluten free is a huge bonus. No one in my family has Celiac's but my husband does have a gluten intolerance and he just has better general health when he stays away from it. So, I'm always keeping my eye open for tasty and easy GF recipes to try.

    We gave this one a shot over the winter and I will confess to it being a little spicy for my youngest but the other two ate it no problem. (Well my son doesn't eat anything but PB&J with no problems, he ate it and didn't complain too loudly.) I love this because it's so darn easy to make. Put it in your slow cooker in the morning and by dinner time you're good to go. It does require a couple of ingredients that I didn't have on hand (canned green enchilada sauce) but my local grocery store had all of them.

   I know it's springtime and most places are heating up but I think it's still OK for soup. Try this one out and see what your family thinks. The spice is minimal and we loved it with tortilla chips!! Check out my Gluten Free Pintrest board or visit www.scatteredthoughtsofacraftymom.com to find the recipe.

Stace and the Raspberry Pretzel Jello Dessert, yes please

    So I'm pregnant and we just found out that we are having a girl! We are so excited because we think we are just going to have two children and we will have one of each. See how that works out! Something I have come to realize is that my little girl has a sweet tooth. I am craving anything sweet, and I mean anything. Cereal, milkshakes, gushers, ice cream sandwiches, it doesn't matter as long as it's sweet. For a little while I did indulge in letting myself have all the yummy sweets I wanted because, well, when you have a craving when you are pregnant it is almost an impossible feat to not give into said craving. I have gotten better though with the self control and luckily things like sandwiches and salads are sounding good.

    When I was giving in to all of the sweet fattening treats, I wanted one that is a favorite dessert around here. It is the Raspberry Pretzel Jello dessert. I'm salivating. I had had this dessert before at a restaurant and loooooved it. Then, I got into Pinterest and happened upon it. When I first told my husband I wanted to make it he made a face, apparently to a 27 year old man with the appetite shockingly similar to my 5 year old nephew, pretzels in a dessert didn't sound good. Then, I made it and there was actual moaning and it is now his favorite dessert.

   While I am trying to be a good girl and not give in to all of the sweet yummy treats I want, guess what, a holiday is coming up! And we all know what that means, it's a free day! So for Easter I am going to make this dessert yet again. I can't even talk about how excited I am. The Pin came from NatashasKitchen.com and the only modification I make is in the bottom layer of pretzels.  I like to double what is called for because everything else is made for a 9X13 pan but when I poured the pretzel mix into the pan it didn't cover the entire bottom like it's supposed to. Unfortunately, that means double the butter and sugar. I did try to follow the recipe exactly and just put it in an 8X8 pan and we didn't care for how thick the middle layer was so I just double the pretzel ingredients and try not to think how much weight I am gaining while I stuff my face.   

http://natashaskitchen.com/2011/04/12/raspberry-pretzel-jello/
   

Steph and Paula Deen's Banana Pudding

   So I love food. A lot. I do not however loving cooking food. When I was in college I had a standing agreement with my roommate that she would cook the meals and I would do the dishes. Totally worked for me. I really struggle with the idea that I would spend all of this time and energy creating something and then a 30 minute meal wipes out my creativity. But, the more time I have spent cooking the more I have made my peace with the fact that it's OK for people to eat my creativity. I have even come to find some joy in feeding those that really enjoy my food. That's one thing my husband is very good at. He is really pretty easy to feed. He's a steak and potatoes kind of guy and I think because I started out as such a bad cook, he truly appreciates the fact that as the years go by my food tastes better and better. Bless him. 

   One of the nice things about cooking is sharing recipes. I have a couple of friends that are fantastic cooks and they are so lovely and share their ideas with me.  A number of these friends are also in my book club and for the first few years we met at someones house and the person hosting provided food. There has been a lot of good food shared at book club over the years. One of my favorite recipes from a book club is Paula Deen's Banana Pudding. Oh my goodness! On her website www.pauladeen.com, Paula Deen calls it Not Yo Momma's Banana Pudding. And it's true. I love my mother but she never made banana pudding like this.  I craved it during pregnancy. I drove 20 minutes to my mom's house to get some when she made it after I gave her the recipe. If you like banana's at all you will die for this pudding. I even have a friend who came to the book club where the pudding was served, this friend doesn't like banana's in anything, and she asked for this recipe before we went home.

   The best thing about this recipe is how insanely easy it is to put together. You truly probably have nearly all of the ingredients in your pantry right now. The only thing that was a special purchase for me are the Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies that layer the top and bottom of the pan. Oh I'm telling you the cookies are what makes it, and the sweetened condensed milk , and the whipped cream too......Anyway, it's all just divine. Unfortunately, it doesn't keep well so you should probably eat it all fairly quickly :)  

   The recipe for Paula Deen's Not Yo Momma's Banana Pudding can be found at her website or also on my Pintrest Board www.pinterest.com/shewitt1227/sweet-tooth/ . Happy Cooking!! 

Stace and a surprising new experience with Chick-fil-a

    So I have said on a few occasions that I am a big fan of food, not cooking said food, but just food in general. It's tasty. When I was visiting family, I went with Steph to have lunch at the school with her two oldest children because it is fun to have Aunt Stace come to lunch. We picked up Chick-fil-a and normally I just get some chicken nuggets and of course, the fries. I love their fries, my mom doesn't care for them, but I really and truly love them. 

      When we got to the drive thru, Steph asked if I would share a Cobb salad with her. I do enjoy a good salad but when I go out to eat I'm not exactly trying to be healthy so I just get whatever sounds good, which is usually not a salad alone. If my meal comes with a salad great, but I don't normally "just" get a salad. I told her that I would have some and a few nuggets. 

     While we were eating lunch I nibbled on some salad and it was really good! It actually surprised me how tasty it was. I like Cobb salads with just ranch, but Steph got ranch and also a spicy sauce to put on it. I tried it with the ranch and spicy and the spicy actually wasn't very spicy (which I like) and it did add a new level of flavor but I still prefer just ranch. I also think that when you order the Cobb salad it comes with like a ranch avocado dressing which I have not tried but I think I just might.

      It was a very fun successful lunch even though some fruit punch fell on the floor and in the process of cleaning I got the fruit punch all over my light colored just washed jeans; it was still a great time!

    

Cooking. Is it really necessary?--Stace

    In college I lived off of TV dinners. I didn't even own my own silverware, dish set, nothin. My roommates would take pity on me and share their meals. Each semester a roommate would ask "Why don't you cook?" My answer would be, while trying to sound as nice as possible and not laugh in their face, "Oh, I don't do that." You see, I have always been afraid of cooking, and quite frankly, lazy. But then I got married.

   People judge me for being afraid of cooking. Steph does. She's the cooking queen. Its kind of surprised me at how much she has jumped onto the cooking wagon. Maybe I judge her. I don't like cooking. I don't like the oven. One could say I fear it. Know why I fear it? Because it burns me! Even with oven mitts I get burned. Shortly after I got married, I got home from work early and decided to have a nice meal ready and waiting for my husband when he came home. I had also gotten my hair done that day and wanted him to come home to a cute wife and a nice clean home with a nice meal. Instead what he came home to was a crying wife, a messy kitchen, and a half cooked meal. I had burnt my arm in the oven and oil had splattered on my bicep. I didn't cook for awhile after that. 

    One of my biggest frustrations with cooking is that I feel like even if I follow the instructions to the letter, something always goes wrong. It's very frustrating. But then I discovered the crock-pot! The crock-pot had been a wedding present but I didn't start using it until we had been married for like 2 years.  For a good while I only used the crock-pot, but this past year I have ventured back to trying out the oven and am slowly trying new things. It helped that I had gained some confidence with the crock-pot and my mom also bought me some cooking books and then Steph got me into Pinterest.  But then, once I started really trying to cook I fell into the cooking the same meals all of the time rut. There is just no winning with cooking! People should just give me free food all of the time or at least gift cards so I can eat out daily.
 

Stace's love of Wendy's

So when you are pregnant you go through different stages of wanting food. Sometimes you are lucky if anything sounds good at all and if you can even keep it down. Then you get to the point where something sounds decent to eat, but its still not great. And then the best thing happens, the cravings start. Getting what you crave is an experience like no other and, as one who has always had a great fondness for food, getting to the craving stage is my all time favorite. 
While I was pregnant with my son I went about a month, maybe even two, of needing a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger and a small fries from Wendy's, with the occasional chocolate frosty, at least once a day sometimes even twice a day. 
Apparently with this pregnancy I am having similar cravings. It is not as bad as it was with my first, at least not yet anyway. So I went to Wendy's the other day to get my Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger and fries and the nice lady taking my order at the drive thru informed me that if I donated a dollar to an adoption foundation with my next orders I would receive a free Jr. frosty. So I said sure and donated my dollar and they gave me a frosty key ring and she said to show that every time I came to make a purchase and I would get my free frosty. When I got home I looked on the back of it to see how long it lasted and it lasts until the end of the year! So now I wish I had donated two dollars, whether or not I would've shared my two frosty's or eaten them both is hard to say.