Pat-A-Crust

Here is a quick recipe I tried last night for pie crust. I used to buy pie crust. Life was good, someone else did the work, there they were ready to unroll and use... Then I discovered thePW cookbook, so I made them and would freeze them. Last night as Wade walked out of the house with the kids they said "what's mom going to do?"  Wade responded "she is going to make us a pie!" WHAT, I was?  I had no thoughts of the such!!!  I guess, if the kids and the man want pie, then I will give them pie!  Well I was out of pie crusts in the freezer and didn't have that kind of time so I called my friend Donna, who had brought one of these pies to a birthday party I was at.  This crust is so quick and easy, I don't know that I will ever roll another one!  It is a bit more "crumbly" than a rolled crust but that's a sacrifice I am willing to make! ;) (I don't EAT pie, just MAKE pie, so if the crust crumbles, I don't really care~) 

2 c. flour
2 T. sugar
Pinch of salt

sift together in a mixing bowl.  (got that, sounds tough I know)

2/3c. oil
3 T. milk

wisk together

NOW here is the tricky part...mix the dry ingredients and the oil/milk, with a fork, until it is all moistened and crumbly.  (I hope you can detect the sarcasm as this is about as easy as pie making gets!)

Pour the crust into your pie plate and start to "pat"!  I did the sides first then the bottom, just pressing and patting until you have a nice even crust.  If you want some "crust" for the top of your pie reserve 1/4 of the mixture.  I did that last night and then crumbled it on top of my pie filling.  Fill your pie and bake at 425 until crust is golden and pie filling is "set".  There you have it!  This, in combination with the canned apple pie filling I have from our apples off the tree last fall, is going to be a BREEZE to make a pie whenever they want one!  The pie Donna brought to the party was a strawberry pie, so I just might have to get that recipe from her too, it was AWESOME!  Hope you all get to impress someone with your QUICK pie making skills!  Good Luck!

EASY Pasta Salad

3 c. uncooked macaroni noodles
1 c. frozen peas, thawed and rinsed
1 8oz bag shredded cheddar cheese
2 c. miarcle whip
2 T. sugar

Cook the noddles, drain and COOL, then mix in the peas and cheese, then in a seperate bowl mix the mayo with the sugar (I always add some ranch dressing, or honey mustard, or even western dressing).  Mix the dressing in with the noodle mix.  Chill for a couple hour before serving.  Wade LOVES this super easy salad, I make it for him to eat for lunch during the week.  I almost always find some kind of meat to mix in, like left over bacon, ham, or summer sausage...pretty much a clean out the fridge salad, cause I also use whatever cheese I have left over in the fridge...and from time to time, I even have the left over noodles...ok maybe this should be "super easy don't throw that away put it in this..salad"!

Weekly Menu 4/25-4/29

MONDAY:

We had breakfast bowls...which was left over oven potatoes from Easter, left over sausage from Easter and then  I just wisked up some eggs and milk, put the potatoes and sausage in individual ramekins, then poured the egg mix over them and baked them until the eggs were almost set and topped them with shredded cheese!  Good, and super easy!

TUESDAY:

Tonight we are having a chicken skillet meal, I will slice up 2 chicken breasts and brown them (well it is actually whiting them but you know what I mean) then just pour some (about 2 cups) of noodles in that same pan, and add water to cover, once the water has cooked off, your noodles should be done and you can add a veggie if you want (I will be doing frozen peas/carrots) then mix in a sauce, like alfredo or spaghetti, or our new favorite and what I will be using tonight, about half a tub of Philadelphia cooking creme!(the Italian one)

WEDNESDAY:

Putting a couple roasts in the crock pot (to shred and make BBQ beef) and then making "cowboy beans" in another crock pot, I am PURPOSELY doubling this so I can freeze some for branding...we brand when we have time so depending on the weather, Wade usually just gives me a days notice about when they will brand a bunch or all...so it really helps to have the meals in the freezer! 

THURSDAY:

Grilling burgers, here again I will thaw out more meat than I need and use my AWESOME Tupperware burger press and make some extra patties, these come in so handy cause you can throw them on the grill frozen!  I will also make baked french fries!

FRIDAY:

Putting a WHOLE chicken in the crock pot, then will make some Betty Crocker potatoes when I get home...hope to have left overs for chicken salad!  ;)

Fabulous Freezer Idea!

My friend Chistina told me she has made sloppy joe's and froze them in muffin tins (I am sure I will use the cupcake liners) then once they are frozen, pop them out and seal them in a zip lock.  When you need a quick meal they are single serve ready to microwave and put on a bun or piece of bread!  HOW awesome is that!?!  I can't wait to get some in the freezer!  I get so so so excited about new ideas for my freezer...e-mail me if you have any great ideas!

Quick recipe for Chocolate Chip Bars

This weekend my family was out in the afternoon for coffee, so I wanted a quick recipe for some bars, I found this, modified it a bit and they were really good, served the purpose, and you are about to see how easy they were!

1 boxed yellow cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 c. oil
1/2-1 c. chocolate chips

That's it!  Mix the oil and eggs, add the cake mix (This is thick!  I might add 2 T. of water next time, but they did turn out good without it) and then add the chocolate chips, you have to spread (it won't just pour) it in a 9x13 and bake at 350^  for about 20 minutes, you don't want to over bake these, I must have because they were really good warm but when my company left I had to get out a metal spatula to get the rest out of the pan and into the trash... :)

Weekly Menu 4/18-4/22

Monday:

We had Pizza and root beer tonight thanks to my poor planning! 

I did, however, make it up to them with cupcakes!

Tuesday:

sloppy joe's and tator tots

I will make extra sloppy joe's and freeze in muffin tins

for single serve portions out of the freezer!  (Thanks for the idea Christina!)

Wednesday:

Beefy Noodle Bake

This makes 2 casseroles so I will freeze one!

Thursday:

Wade's Birthday! 

Tenderloin roast and oven roasted potatoes

Friday:

Spaghetti and garlic breadsticks

I will again make extra and freeze a spaghetti pie.

This week will be good for my freezer, with springs work around the corner, it is so nice to have the cooking out of the way, I never know when I will be out helping when I should be in making supper, so having my freezer ready is so WORTH the little extra work!

Addition! (No, not another baby!)

 My Dishes = LOVE

Mud Room (and Tucker)

MY Laying Boxes...for all the crap that ends up in a mud room!

Living room area, the door on the right is the bedroom.

FIREPLACE!

Breakfast bar...well sort of, mostly a table Wade cut 2 legs off of!

HUGE Dining room table

more of the table/dishes ;)

Fireplace in the bedroom

Master bath vanity...waiting patiently for my mirror to go 50% off at Hobby Lobby! ;)

Thought I would post a few photos of what I have been doing lately!  This addition has been YEARS in the making and I am happy to say we are down to Wade's office and my closet to finish! It has been really nice to see things come together, we are IN LOVE with how it is turning out and are enjoying the extra space!  As you can see, the walls are pretty bare, but trust me...I have stuff for that! :)

Freezer Organization!

I am pretty excited about something I started doing about 3 months ago that is making my life MUCH easier!  I said in an earlier post that when couponing and stockpiling, it is so important to KNOW what you have and keep like items together.  This is something that can be VERY difficult if you have a chest freezer like I do!  It seems like I would toss things in and NEVER be able to get to them, or buy way too much of one thing and be out of the next, it is very hard to keep things in their place in my freezer.  So with that being said, I decided to organize the freezer!  The next time I went to town I bought 5 rubbermaid tubs with lids that would fit stacked in my freezer like these:

I cleaned out everything in the freezer and divided the stuff amongst the tubs.  I labeled them baking goods, frozen veggies, cheese, meat, and one misc.  Now I have them all stacked in my freezer, if I need to get to something at the bottom I can pull the tubs out and easily get to the one I want. All similar items are in the tub so I know when it's time to "restock", therefore reducing waste due to not remembering what I have!  There is enough room in the "basket" for the meals I like to have on and then the area underneath is where I keep some bread items stacked!  I am LOVING this!  I think it probably takes up some extra space but I think it is so worth it!  I am lucky enough to have a deep freeze out in the garage where we keep all of our meats (like the beef and pork and deer we have so much of) and then in my "fridge freezer" I keep the more commonly used items like toaster strudel, frozen pizza, ice cream and those sorts of things!    Being organized like this sure has made meal prep and grocery shopping a lot easier and more enjoyable! Would sure LOVE to know what is working for some of you!

Weekly Menu 4/4 - 4/8

I know this is late but it might be helpful for next week!?

Monday: Sausage and oven roasted potatoes (these are the best, all you do is cube up some potatoes (don't even peel them) toss with some oil and whatever spices you like (I use chives and garlic pepper) and bake them covered for about an hour!) I also just covered the sausage with water and put it in the oven along with the potatoes (in a separate kettle of course), talk about set it and forget it!

Tuesday: We had hamburger helper, I was going to make hot dish but ended up working, so I think they had hamb helper, now that I think of it, I have no idea what they ate! ;)

Wednesday: We had chili topped baked potatoes.  (Again, so stinkin easy, I had left over chili from Sunday so I just threw baked potatoes in the oven, then cut them open, top with the heated up left overs and shredded cheese!)

Thursday: We are having Beef Stroganoff tonight. Last time I made it, I made a double batch of the meat to freeze so I took it out this morning and all I will have to do is heat it up and make some egg noodles!

Friday: Tacos!  I am planning on making extra of the taco meat to freeze, how easy are tacos on a busy night if you already have the meat made up! My cousin also told me she uses the left over meat in breakfast burritos, YUM!, and you ALL know how much I love a breakfast burrito! ;) 

OK, so maybe that wasn't so helpful, It was a pretty lazy week, but we did have supper every night so I guess maybe this will help you realize how EASY it can be to get supper on the table EVERY night!

Trip to OKC

I am back from my 10 day trip to Oklahoma to visit family.  I took the boys, my sister and her one month old!  We should have for sure had a reality TV film crew with, no doubt it would have been good watching! We had such a good time, I just wanted to send for Wade and Emma and stay there!  With that length of trip it was so nice to be able to spend a LOT of time with everyone down there, I got to see cousins at a cutting, I took in 2 baby showers (same Momma, one in OK and one in TX), 2 rodeos, a trip to the zoo, 2 trips to "Uncle Trent's" farm, did some coupon shopping at stores we don't have, it was just so much fun to be able to do all those things!  I am home now and feeling very refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the house additon project so I can move on to yard projects for this spring!  Did I mention I got to play with the cowboys, you all know how much I love a cowboy!  Here are a couple of my absolute favorites!

Fruity Pebble Treats

Just a quick note to let you in on my kids newest love "fruity pebble treats"!  I just make rice krispy bars but use fruity pebbles instead, and they LOVE them!  They beg for them!  They will clean, they will eat all their supper, they will even take a shower instead of a bath, with the simple promise of "fruity pebble treats"... I think I love them as much as they do! ;) 


PS:  I use the malt o meal cereal so really they are fruity dyno bite treats...but that's just a mouth full!

The Meal Planning Center!

YAY!  Finally a place to have all my cookbooks organized and right at my fingertips in my kitchen!  I love how this turned out, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this old jelly cupboard when I bought it but with a little help from Wade it fits awesome right in the corner in the kitchen and frees up all the space my cookbooks used to be taking up in the pantry! From now on, when you see this picture, know that my weekly menu will be posted with it! :)  Happy meal planning!