Day 15: Ranch House Pork Chops & Beer Braised Brussels Sprouts

As you can imagine, after 3 days of buffalo sauce, I needed a break from spicy. Before I made the last two buffalo recipes we ate buffalo wings at Buffalo Reef, our favorite wing joint in Ft. Walton Beach. I knew I had a busy day planned so I opted for something I could toss in the crock-pot and forget about it. I chose Ranch House Pork Chops, which had the recipe paired with Parmesan Mashed Potatoes but instead of making mashed potatoes I took the easy way out and bought the Country Crock, Garlic Mashed Potatoes. I felt like we needed a good side dish to go with our meal but I'm tired of the same ole sides I've been cooking lately (salads and rotating between asparagus, green beans, zucchini and squash) so I found a recipe I had pinned for Beer Braised Brussels Sprouts. My husband claims he has never liked Brussels Spouts so this was only the second time I have made them in the TEN YEARS we've been together. As odd as it sounds, I've always like them even as a child. Both times I've made them, he's liked them and this time he LOVED them!!! 

We'll start with the Ranch House Pork Chops. They have only three (3) ingredients!!! This recipe was so easy to make and was very good. We both loved it and it was amazing with my store bought garlic mashed potatoes. It came from a blog called, Real Mom Kitchen ,which is a cute blog whose motto is "Keeping it real in the kitchen".  I liked this blog because most their recipes use few ingredients and/or simple methods and that is perfect for us busy moms!

Ranch House Pork Chops

6 pork chops, 1/2 inch thick
1 packet dry Ranch Dressing Seasoning
10 oz can Cream of Chicken Soup

Place pork chops, Ranch seasoning and soup into a medium sized crock pot over high heat for 4 hours or low heat for 6 hours. Serve over mashed potatoes.

Note: The blogger said she used two cans of soup and two packs of dressing to make more gravy. I was only feeding 2 so I kept it the same but only used two thick cut pork chops, which was plenty gravy for us.


Next, the amazing Beer Braised Brussels Sprouts which is a new favorite in our household! Seriously, this is THE way to cook Brussels Sprouts. They were amazing and will go into my rotation of vegetable side dishes. I found them on a lovely blog called, A Spicy Perspective. There are some incredible looking recipes on there... definitely a keeper in my favorites!

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Beer

Ingredients:

2 lbs Brussels Sprouts
6 oz. thick cut bacon, chopped
1 shallot, peeled and sliced
12 oz. bottle beer, something light and crisp
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
Pinch crushed red pepper

Directions:

Trim the ends of each Brussels Sprout, removing excess leaves. Cut the sprouts in half, leaving the smallest sprouts whole.
Place a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped bacon and saute until crisp.
Add the sliced shallot. Saute another 2-3 minutes to soften. Then add the Brussels Sprouts. Stir and sear the sides of the sprouts for 4-5 minutes.
Pour the bottle of beer into the skillet. Add the salt an both peppers. Bring to a simmer and lower the heat a little. Stir and simmer until the beer has reduced to a glaze and the sprouts are cooked through--12-15 minutes.

Hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we did. Be sure to check out our the above links for more great recipes from these bloggers.

Day 14: Buffalo Chicken Lasagna

After using half of my rotisserie chicken for my pulled buffalo chicken sandwiches, I had to decide what to do with the other half. I started browsing my pins in the "For the Workin' man's skillet" board (AKA crock-pot recipes) and found a recipe for Buffalo Chicken Lasagna, which really doesn't even sound that appealing... pasta and buffalo sauce. I was a little skeptical for 2 reasons: 1) I had a bad experience with egg noodles in the crock-pot a long time ago, so I had never tried cooking any other types pasta in the crock-pot...would they cook without water or be mushy for cooking them too long? 2) In the recipe you mix buffalo sauce with pasta sauce!?!...sounded a little gross! However, the blogger really made it sound good and we really love the flavor of buffalo chicken wings so why not, right?

I found the recipe on a cute little blog called, Hot Mama's Blog and she got the recipe from another cute little blog called Domesticated Momma, who got the recipe from a blog called A Year of Slow Cooking... who got the recipe from here. I traced it back as far as I could go to see how many changes were made from the original recipe. There were a few variations but the original source was a lot different. Check out the links to see the differences before you make it because you might like to change something up.

Overall, we really liked the recipe. It was different but very good. You couldn't even tell that the buffalo sauce was mixed with pasta sauce. And the noodles were perfect so I will not be afraid of other recipes that call for cooking noodles in the crock pot....except egg noodles, which as I stated earlier, didn't not turn out so well. They totally broke down to mush and took on a very floury taste.  I served it with the left over Celery Blue Cheese Slaw [See Day 13]. The recipe made a ton so we have plenty leftover for another meal. I read on one blog that it freezes well too. Note: I did use a lot more cheese than what it called for. So here's the recipe from Hot Mama's Blog...enjoy!

 

Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Lasagna 

Ingredients:
- 3 boneless chicken breasts (cooked and chopped – I chopped my very fine)
- 1 Cup Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Sauce
- 828ml of pasta sauce (I used a 28 oz can)
- Uncooked lasagna noodles
- Tub of Ricotta Cheese
- 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/4 cup of water
Optional Ingredients:
- add in 2 sweet bell peppers (not a fan of those in our house so we skipped it)
- We used more cheese than we required too.
Directions:
- In a bowl combine the chicken, buffalo sauce & pasta sauce – this will be called the sauce from here on
- Spray your 5 qt slow cooker with non stick spray
- Ladle a large spoonful of your sauce to cover the bottom of the crock pot
- Add a layer of noodles – you will need to break them up. We like lots of noodles so we doubled up on this step
- Spread a layer of ricotta cheese across the noodles
- Add bell peppers
- Top with cheese
- Repeat the layers until you run out of ingredients.
- On the final layer top with sauce and cheese
- Pour 1/4 cup of water over your lasagna
- Cook on low for 4 to 5 hours or on high for 2.5 to 3 hours.

Modifications (from Domesticated Momma's Blog) 

If you like bleu cheese, add 1/2 a cup of bleu cheese crumbles to the final layer of the lasagna.

Day 13: Pulled Buffalo Chicken Sandwich w/ Celery Blue Cheese Slaw

 

Clint and I love buffalo wings!! For me, I love the flavor of the sauce [especially paired with a good beer] but I don't enjoy picking over a chicken wing...it's lot of work for a little bite of meat. But he really loves them and doesn't seem to mind that aspect.  A long time ago I pinned a pulled buffalo chicken sandwich that looked amazing but the link never did work. So I searched for more ideas of the same and found this pin, from a little blog called Mrs. Schwartz's Kitchen .  We loved this recipe!!! Very tasty and easy! Below you will find my adapted recipe but to see the original visit the blog above.  I made very little changes like using blue cheese instead of ranch dressing, I used a toasted hoagie bun and used a precooked rotisserie chicken that I bought at the store... I always use rotisserie chickens because of the convenience but they also enhance the flavor too.

Pulled Buffalo Chicken Sandwich with Celery Blue Cheese Slaw

Pull off the desired amount of rotisserie chicken and chop it in small pieces.  I used 1 half of the chicken breast (just the breast meat) and it was enough for 4 hoagies.

Put chicken in a skillet with about a tablespoon butter and the desired amount of Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce. Heat over med/low heat until hot.

For the slaw, I put a large handful of shredded cabbage (slaw mix in the bag) in a bowl. Added 2 ribs of diced celery, Gorgonzola cheese crumbles (its what I had on hand) and I used Ken Steakhouse Blue Cheese chef select with Gorgonzola. I was going to toss in a little poppy seeds but I was out.

I toasted hoagie buns, put my pulled chicken inside and topped with the celery blue cheese slaw. Done! 

This is seriously one of the easiest recipes I have ever made. 

It went nicely paired with a bud light. 

 

Day 12: Cake Batter Pudding Cookies

The Kids and I made these back in the spring to send to my husband when he was deployed. Of coarse, we kept quite a few for ourselves. They were delicious!!!! This recipe is. a. KEEPER! My husband loved them too even after they made the week long trip through the mail to reach him.

If you are sending them to a loved one in the mail, someone recently gave me a really great tip. Package them with vacuum packed food storage/saver bags! Ummm...why have I never thought of that?!? She told me that is how she sends cookies to her son overseas and he says they are really good and fresh when he gets them. She also said she will do several small packs with just a few cookies so he opens them as he wants to eat them. Hard to believe, I've never heard that tip before or thought of it myself.

These fabulous cookies comes from a really great blog called, Chef in Training ! The blogger, Nikki, is a stay at home mom who's claim to fame (at least on her blog) is that she is teaching herself to cook "one recipe at a time". WOW, if this recipe was a learning experiment for someone learning to cook, you'd never know it! Its FANTASTIC!!! The blog is really great too with lots of recipes that I can't wait to try!!! 

NOTE: If you've pinned this recipe in the past on pinterest, the pin may not work anymore...at least it wouldn't for me but I had no problems finding the blog because the blog name was on the picture. I'm so glad too because I would have been really upset to have lost this recipe to internet land!

Enjoy!

 

CAKE BATTER PUDDING COOKIES

1 1/2 sticks (or 3/4 cup) butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix, dry
3/4 cup yellow cake mix, dry
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
2-1/4 cups flour”
1/2 tsp salt
sprinkles
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Stir together flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars together.
Add in pudding package and cake mix and beat until well blended.
Add eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth.
Add flour mixture slowly until well incorporated.
Mix in sprinkles sprinkles.
Roll into 1″ balls and place on greased baking sheet.
Bake at 350 F for 10-12 minutes.
Enjoy!

*Note: It is just the powdered pudding mix inside the packet you use.  Just open it up and pour it in.  It is in a box like this:I hope that helps!

Day 11: Barbie Doll Organizer

 

With the growing number of Barbies entering my house, I had to come up with a way to get them off my floor and organized where they were accessible for Kaylea when she wanted to play with them. I got an over the door shoe organizer to put on the back of her bedroom door. Such a great idea! 

She can look at them whenever she wants and can reach most of them but the ones near the top, she uses her bathroom stool to reach. She also really likes putting them away, which is wonderful!!!

Day 10: Coconut Ginger Chicken & Vegetables

 

 

So here I am about 7 months into this blog where I promised 100 days of pinterest in a years time and I'm only on my 10th post. At this rate I'll complete the task in about 5-6 YEARS! I'm thinking maybe a year wasn't a reasonable amount of time to put on such a task. The biggest setback has been from my husband's deployments and TDY's. When he's gone, I don't cook much. My kids are soooo picky!! They won't eat anything I make hardly unless I want to make all the junk food I've pinned on my "A Spoon Full of Sugar" board but then we'd all weigh about 500 lbs by the end of the year and that's not good! Then there has been those few things I tried that either I forgot to blog about or just wasn't blog worthy. On top of all that we have a possible overseas move lurking in our future [Fall 2013] which I'm sure will be an even bigger setback to this blog... at least until we get settled.

When I'm blogging, I always share the link to the site where the recipe can be found so that I give credit, where credit is due. I also like to post the recipe or directions on my blog because sometimes, those site links stop working and then that idea or Pin gets lost in the world of internet land possibly forever. By posting the recipe or directions on my blog, I am able to have it at the tip of my fingers whenever I want it. So I guess you could say this blog also serves as my own personal pinterest recipe & idea box.

Between volunteering in my son's classroom, being PTO President at his school, helping with the Fundraising Committee at my daughters preschool and keeping up with my children's busy schedules of sports and activities, some evenings I'm just too tired to cook or I've forgotten to thaw out the meat for dinner! So then we have to order pizza or go out to eat. Which, I mentioned above that my kids are picky... Yes, they won't even eat pizza!!! What kid doesn't like PIZZA! MINE, of coarse. My son doesn't even like CHOCOLATE, but that's another story for another time. Anyway, the point I was going to make with this is, due to our busy lives, I'm trying to use my "Workin' Man's Skillet" (AKA the Crockpot) more often! 

This workin' man's skillet recipe, Coconut Ginger Chicken and Vegetables is very eye catching with all the colors. It was good but it wasn't great.... needed a little more flavor. I wouldn't totally toss the recipe, but maybe tweak it next time I made it. My husband and I both think it would have been so much better if it had curry. 

A perfect example of my above statement about losing pins in the land of the internet is this one. Last week it worked for me but today it says the site is temporary unavailable. So I'm going to give you the the web address where it used to be in hopes that it will work again one day. The site is: www.simplebites.net/coconut-ginger-chicken-vegetables-slow-cooker/

Now one would think, that a workin' man's skillet recipe would be a quick toss in all the ingredients, turn it on and go. No! With this recipe you need to allow yourself about an hour's time to get it going, which I did not! So I skipped parts of the process in order to get out the door. I don't think it had any effect on the overall dish. Below is the recipe, adapted by me (the quick way). If you want the long way to make it you'll have to see the website if it ever works again.

Slow Cooker Coconut Ginger Chicken & Vegetables

(Serve with brown or jasmine rice) 

Ingredients:

4 Cloves Garlic

2 inch cube of ginger, peeled, roughly chopped

1 small sweet onion, peeled, quartered

1 TBS olive oil

2 TBS butter, melted

2.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into four (or breast, if you prefer)

2 cans coconut milk, not shaken ( I used lite - see note below)

2 TBS cornstarch

1 can baby corn cobs

1 bag frozen stir fry vegetables of your choice or peas (see note below)

For the spice blend:

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground corriander

1 1/2 tsp ground tumeric

1 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. Combine spice blend together and set aside
2. In mini food processor, combine garlic, onion and ginger and pulse until it forms a paste.
3. Melt butter and olive oil together, place in the bottom of the crock pot
4. Add spice blend and paste; stir well.
5. Add chicken, stir to coat with seasoning mixture
6. Open coconut milk, if using regular [not lite] remove cream from top and set aside 
7. Drain corn cobs and chop in half ( I used the can that was already cut up). Add to crock pot.
8. Cook on low about 4-5 hours
9. Wisk together reserved coconut milk creme (see note if you used lite) with cornstarch. Add to chicken and mix well. 
10. Add frozen vegetables of your choice, cook for another 30 minutes to an hour or until chicken is cooked (no longer pink) and vegetables are done to your liking.

NOTES:

1. I saved myself 200 calories by using the lite coconut milk, which did not have cream on top. So in step number 9, I used a ladle and scooped out a few scoops of the broth that had formed in the crock pot to whisk with the cornstarch.
2. The original recipe called for 1 cup of vegetables. I used 1 bag plus a handful of frozen peas and a handful of frozen peppers and onion from another stir fry bag. I had bought it first but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a bag that had the snow peas, carrots and broccoli. So my version has a lot more vegetables than the original version. 
3. Like I said, I think it would be better as a curry. Not sure how much curry I'd use or which spices to replace it with...if any.
4. This dish is not spicey so it would be safe to serve to your children. If you would prefer it to have a little kick to it, double the ginger and add about 1/2 tsp of chili flakes or crushed red pepper.

Day 9: Lego Tray Gift Idea

How cute is this!

 

This is the cutest gift ever for any little Lego fan. You could also paint it pink or purple and give the new Lego "Friends" for girls. I am so making these for gifts next year. Here is the site where you can find this idea and much more: Somewhat Simple

Step by Step directions:

First, cut 1/2″ plywood to 15″x15″ and 1×2 boards: 2 @ 15″ and 2 @ 16.5″. Then pre-drill pocket holes on all four sides of plywood and attach the 15″ side pieces and then the 16.5″ pieces to the plywood. Just to secure the side pieces together, nail the corners with 1 1/2″ finish nails, then use a nail punch to hide the nail heads and filled them up with wood putty.

After measuring the center of the 15″ side, align and mark holes for handles on both sides. Then, pre-drill holes for the handles. Give the whole tray a quick sanding, then wipe it down with a damp cloth. Give the tray a couple of thin coats of paint. Then, print name, centered on the side of the tray and used a ballpoint pen to trace the letters, creating an indention on the wood.

After painting inside the indention, seal the entire piece with a couple of coats of satin polyurethane. Then  apply Gorilla glue to the plywood and attached the Lego base plate. Weigh it down with some paint cans and let it dry overnight.

 

 Add some felt circles to the bottom  attach the handles.

 

Finally, add a small Lego set, some ribbon, cute bow and tag. Voila, you now have a great unique gift to give at children's birthday parties, holidays or just because!!!