Good ol' Pot Roast

I love pot roasts. You can experiment with flavors and they almost always turn out delicious.

This time I took a 3.5 lb beef shoulder roast, 1 pkg of onion soup mix, Italian dressing (Light..because I'm trying to be healthier), salt, pepper, carrots & taters.

Put the roast in the crock pot.

Pour some dressing over it. I used about half the bottle.

Rub it with the onion soup mix.

Cook it for about 8ish hours on low. After 4 hours, add the carrots & taters.

4 hours later....

Mmmmmmmm. Delish.

Cheap, Quick & Easy Breakfasts.

I have mentioned this before, but my husband gets up and leaves for work around 4:30/5:00 in the morning. I do my best to wake up and get his coffee and breakfast ready...but let's face it. That is EARLY. I've usually only had a couple solid hours of sleep. Like 2 or 3...I love my kids, I really do, but I wish they'd enjoy sleeping as much as I do. Anyway, I'm pretty pooped that early in the morning. So I'm not usually prancing around in a chef's coat preparing a 5 star breakfast.  What I usually do is make stuff ahead of time and freeze it.

Like the muffins I made a while back. Remember these:

and this:

If it's not 100 degrees outside, I'll bake. Or I'll hit up the reduced price bakery rack. I can usually nab a big old tray of cinnamon rolls for about $2.00 or pastries or...whatever. They're cheap and need to be sold ASAP because the sell-by-date is coming up. If you take them home and freeze them, you're good to go.  So I do.

Separate your goods into individual breakfasts. Stick them in a bag & freeze them.

Take one out the night before and stick it in the fridge to defrost. In the morning...pop it in the microwave for a sec and Viola...breakfast is ready. :)

Country Ribs

I probably shouldn't post this as a recipe because I literally threw some meat into the crock pot and called it a day.  But it WAS a cheap meal.

I love ribs. I never make them though because they can get pricey.  Country style ribs are MUCH cheaper because...well, I don't think that they're technically ribs. I found a big huge pack of them on Manager's Special...reduced price for quick sale because the sell-by-date was coming up quickly.

I paid $6 for all this meat:

So all I did was sprinkle some PC Smoky BBQ Rub on them...

I threw them into the crock pot and poured some BBQ sauce over them.

I cooked them on low for 8 hours.

They were perfect. Served them up with corn on the cob and a green salad. And no...I didn't take a pic of the final product. I told you I was a slacker. I blame camping (as fun as it was...) and my crazy children that seem to perform some sort of brain reduction surgery on me everyday around 4pm.

They were delicious though! I used the leftover meat to make pulled pork sandwiches. Good stuff.

Hello. My name is Annie and I'm a slacker.

Oh my gosh. We went camping a couple weeks ago and I don't think I ever fully recovered.

Sooooooo, yeah. I suck. But I do have some rockin' recipes to share with you. I'm going to add them here in just a few. I'm also making some AMAZING enchiladas tonight that you all will drool over.

:)

Week 8 shopping & Menu

Menu:

BBQ Cups

Chicken Enchilada Soup

Pot Roast

BBQ Beef Sandwiches

Hot Dogs & Mac 'N' Cheese

Leftovers (Soup)

Grilled Brats with Onion and Peppers

I have to show my shopping results a bit differently this week. Normally it's pretty cool outside and I don't have an issue running to all my grocery stores (usually 3) without having to drop anything off at home.  That was not the case today. Summer seems to have officially arrived here in the Rockies. I had to drop off all my Walmart groceries at home before running to the other 2.

So I've decided to show my receipts instead of a pic of the groceries since half were already put away before I came home from my 2nd trip out. Same concept, right?

Walmart: $32.95

King Soopers: $ 18.21

Albertsons: $ 12.76

TOTAL: $63.92

If you really need to know everything I bought, click on the picture and it'll open up larger. I did really well this week. I scored a few great deals. I got 18 eggs for $1.00...Awesome. A block of cheddar for $1.00. I found whole wheat hamburger buns (for my bbq beef sammies) on the quick sale rack for $0.79. I ALWAYS check that rack. It's usually bakery items that are about to hit their "Sell By" date and are reduced in price for quick sales. King Soopers has a section in the meat case that is the same thing. You can get some fantastic deals there.

Something has occured to me.

One thing that I love about doing this blog is that I keep a relatively good variety of meals on my menus. Nobody wants to read about my serving the same spaghetti or hot dogs every night, so I try to keep it constantly changing. My husband is super happy about that. I could probably eat the same thing for a year straight and not have an issue, but he does not share my attitude. Anyway, since I have this blog to keep me accountable for trying new things, I've become a bit adventurous (you might say) with foods. I mean, I have never in my life stuffed a pork chop with more pork. Or made brownies stuffed with chocolate & marshmallows. They were dang good, no question there. But they weren't the healthiest choices on the planet. It's cool...we all do it from time to time.

However, I have grown and birthed two babies and my hips are just not what they used to be. I have funky stretch marks on my once tight stomach and my derriere sits a wee bit lower than I'd like. What can I say? It's all my kids fault.  KIDDING! But they did kick start the lowering of my body parts...I just haven't done anything to put on the brakes.

So, I am going to start eating healthier. I'm NOT going on a diet, because I don't believe in them.  But I am most likely going to stop frying everything I can in oil, butter and/or bacon grease (forgive me, Paula Dean).  This is going to be a challenge because let's face it, eating healthier is more expensive. Well, it can be. What I'll mostly be doing is cutting out as much sugar as I can along with white flour. I already buy wheat bread, but I'm going to take it further than that.

Pray for me. Today I have to try and write out my shopping list and I have a feeling it'll end up with me sitting here staring at the grocery ads while twisting my hair into a frustrated knot. I'll try to stay positive.

:)

S'more Stuffed Brownies

Let me just start off by saying that I would like to thank (and then kill) my friend Cheryl for introducing these to me. As if I REALLY need to consume 37,000 calories in one bite...but they were a delicious 37,000 calories. Yes, ma'am...they were tasty.

Here's what you do.  Line a 9x13 pan with foil. The original recipe actually called for an 8x8 but I ignored that part.

*Make sure you spray the heck out of it with cooking spray*

Mix up a box of brownie mix and pour it into the pan.

Then line it with graham crackers.

Then Hershey's chocolate bars. Yeah, you heard me. Chocolate...just like when making a s'more.

Next come the marshmallows. Lot's of them.

Now mix up another box of brownies.

I never said that these were good for you.  Well, they felt good going down...until they landed at my hips.

Pour the batter over the marshmallows.

Bake them at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes.

Oh. My. Gosh.

I'm not quite sure what I just baked, but I'm pretty should that they should be illegal.

Stroganoff....of sorts.

This meal was not intended to be a stroganoff. It just kind of turned into one. I have no problem with that because I LOVE stroganoff.

I was a bit frazzled when I was making this...1.) because at around 2pm I realized that I forgot to throw it in the crock pot that morning. and 2.) because my 16 month old was having a bad teething day.

So here's what I did.

I mixed up some flour with paprika, garlic salt & seasoning salt.

I then tossed some beef stew meat in it. I used about a lb of meat.

 

Spray a skillet with cooking spray and toss the meat in.

Toss it around a bit and let it cook for just a few minutes....until it's JUST starting to brown.

Toss it in the crock pot along with a can of Cream of Mushroom soup.

Mix it up.

Now chop up an onion. Actually about a half of a large onion.

Place them in the crock pot on top of the meat mixture.

I cooked it on high for about an hour and then dropped it down to low for the next 3 hours.

When the meat was just about done, I made some mushroom rice.  It's basically Rice a Roni...just mushroom flavored.

I served it like this...rice with the meat on top. This is where it became a stroganoff. I decided that it needed something else because it was looking very.....brown. So I plopped some sour cream on top. I served it with buttered lima beans. Those weren't a huge hit with the 3 year old. Or the 30 year old for that matter.

But the stroganoff itself was delicious! I just mixed it all up together and chowed down.

 I'll make it again this way for sure.

Broccoli & Bacon Quiche

I haven't made a quiche in ages. Normally I do the good old quiche Lorraine, but I was feeling a bit of variety with this one.

Ingredients:

1 premade pie crust, 2 cups half & half (or you can use heavy cream...whatever floats your boat), 4 eggs, 1/2 tsp paprika, salt, 1 cup chopped broccoli, 1/2 large onion- chopped, cheddar cheese

And of course....bacon. About 12 slices, cooked & chopped.

Press the pie crust into a dish.

Add the bacon.

Add the onions.

Next comes the broccoli.

And then the cheese.  I did about a cup.

Next you mix the half & half, eggs, paprika & salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk it up.

Pour it in the pie dish.

Sprinkle it with some ground pepper if you want.

Brush the crust with a beaten egg or some milk. I totally forgot to take a pic of this step.

Bake the quiche at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Then drop the temp to 350 and bake for another 45 minutes. You'll want to cover the crust with foil for the 45min stretch to prevent burning.

Take it out of the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Mmmmmm. Smelled so good!

It got great reviews! We had a friend over and he is not a big fan of quiche. He went back for seconds...I took that as a big compliment. :)

Dang Holiday weekend

The long weekend has totally screwed me up in the kitchen. I have only cooked 2 meals here at home since last Thursday. The other evenings were spent either in the mountains or at friends' homes. I can't complain, but I do need to get my head straight and figure out what I have and what I need.

So, I apologize for the lack of organization this past week.  I do have a few recipes to upload though.

:)