"For Anything" Jalapeno Popper Dip

I get rave reviews on this stuff, I make it every year around the holidays and the first cook out of the year. Since the first cookout is fast approaching I thought I would share this wonderful little tid bit.

Jalapeno Popper Dip

2 blocks Philadelphia Cream Cheese room temp.
approx. 1/4 cup Mayo
1/2 Jar Jalapenos roughly chopped
Dash Worcestershire sauce
          Parmesan cheese
          Crushed Ritz Crackers (optional)

That's it, I know, a lot right....
Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Mix and mash the cream cheese, Worcestershire, jalapenos and a shake or two of the Parmesan cheese.
Press the mixture into a ceramic mini loaf pan or something oven safe that the mixture will fit into.   Sprinkle cheese and a few jalapeno slices on the top and cover with the crackers.
Cover with foil and bake for about 30 minutes.
Uncover and pop back in for about 10 minutes.

Once cooled slightly its ready to be served. You can dip crackers, chips, even veggies. Top your dinner roll with it for a little kick in the pants.
Enjoy!

My Famous Corn Chowder

As the wife of a picky husband choosing my meal plans can be a bit of a struggle. This, however, is sure to please even the pickiest of diners. How can you go wrong with bacon, potatoes, corn and cheese.

Famous Corn Chowder
Serves 4
4-6 Bacon strips
4-5 medium potatoes, chopped into bite sized pieces and rinsed
3 cups chicken broth, (or 2 bouillon cubes and 3 cups water.)
1/2 cup fresh or frozen onions
2 cans corn
2 cans creamed corn
1/4 cup heavy cream
couple cups of shredded cheddar cheese to taste
1/2 tsp Garlic salt
salt & pepper

You're going to need a big ol' pot. By that I mean one of those big metal pots that your Mom or Grandma made soup or chili out of, although, any 'large serving' pot will work. Heat the pot to med high heat and fry up all that yummy bacon. Once crispy and crumbly scoop it all out and set aside. Leave behind the fat and toss in the potatoes. Fry those up until slightly browned on the edges. Add the onions until smelling good and you can see through them.
Pour in the broth and bring to a light simmer until potatoes are cooked through. Dump in those cans of golden deliciousness and reduce the heat so the chowder stops boiling and shake in all those wonderful seasonings. Slowly add the cream, (go easy here, if the liquid in the pot is still boiling the cream will curdle and I can assure you that is NOT yummy.)
Sprinkle in the cheese, (go ahead, add a little more. No ones watching.)
Once all that yumminess is melted scoop and serve.
We usually use Vienna bread, toasted in the oven, but crustier breads, like french or italian, are great for scooping the cheesy goodness.
Garnish with shredded cheese and the bacon you made in the beginning.

I will let you know you can add more bacon if you like but the extra fat and bacon bits in the bottom of the pan will turn your chowder mixture brown. I can assure you it tastes just fine but as we, now, call it, it looks like poo soup.

That said give it a try and let me know how it comes out!

Meal Plan Week #2

Well, it's that day again, time to put together our meal plan for the week, pick up the few things we need until shopping day and organize my shopping list. Since I posted a couple weeks ago about my meal planning I thought I would update with this weeks entrees for week night meal ideas.

This week we will be having:
 Baked Mac & Cheese with a panko crust and some broccoli
Loaded Nachos. (not very healthy but you can add any ingredients you want to healthify it)
Corn Chowder and breadsticks. (Pillsbury now sells breadsticks in a can.)
Homemade Pizza/Calzone
Homemade Chicken Finger with a Panko crust, peas and fries
Burgers on the George Foreman and Oven fries
Panini's with leftover chowder
Chicken Caesar salad with homemade dressing (Here is the pin. This stuff is amazing!)

Some staples your will need for this plan is your standard chicken, hamburger, oil and sauce but don't forget to pick up some pizza crusts (tip: spaghetti sauce works just as good as pizza sauce and doesn't go bad as fast.) You will also need some block cheese, panko and maybe some fancy bread for the paninis. You know, if your feeling especially adventurous.

Well, off I go to check out some sales. Good luck and happy shopping.

Food For Tiny Fingers

It's official, my daughter is 1 year old! 

We celebrated her birthday over the weekend followed by my husbands party and it went very well. This morning my husband asks me, as he is making her bottle, "Aren't we supposed to be weaning her off of these soon?" Crap, he's right. That means more finger food, relatively scheduled meals, make ahead breakfasts. (I am out of the house by 6am and home with the other little one but 7am so breakfast is already a pain.) Then I start wondering where am I going to put all these meals and tiny tupper ware containers. Well, I think I've got it.

So There are several things I pick up for my lil munchkin to eat. 
Cut up green beans, peas, carrots, broccoli chunks, any frozen or canned veggies really. Throw some in a cup and microwave or grab a small pot and toss in your veggies. Storage is simply your pantry or canned goods cabinet and they take seconds to make. Pair them with some fruit or pretzels.

I will hard boil some extra eggs and throw them back in the fridge for a pre-made breakfast or an afternoon snack.

Cook an extra chicken breast or meatballs when you make dinner. Bonus: split it with the kids and make some quesadillas for lunch or a salad and you got your lunch too with little work.

I am a big fan of chunks of block cheese with some fruit and crackers or cheerios. All very easy things to put together.

With all these little finger foods filling up the fridge and pantry I decided to throw together some Martha Stewart and Betty Crocker and up-cycled some old formula containers to use as storage.

After you pull off the label you can spray paint it with plastic paint. Then I decorated it with some washi tape. The one on the left I use for storing crafts like beads, pom poms, washi tape rolls, etc.

Using small zipper bags and mini storage you can set these up for where ever you need them. For instance one will have small bags of cheerios, (instead of bulky boxes in the pantry.) pretzles, fruit snacks, snack pouches, really anything. 

For the refigerator snacks like fruits and veggies I have small storage boxes,

The white one you see here houses small tea boxes, instant coffee and all those rogue k-cups and kool-aid packets that make such clutter in your cabinets.

One of these little guys can slide out of one side of your fridge and all your toddler to-go bags remain contained in one place.

Last thing I am trying to do more of is making foods ahead, as I mentioned cooking a little extra the night before so you are all set for lunches and snacks the next day but I also like to load up the freezer. (Depending on space you can use those containers above to hold bags of freezer food.)

I like to make french toast sticks, mini pancakes, mini muffins etc. Its a good project for a lazy Sunday when I have an extra pair of hands for the baby. You can make up a ton of them in the time it would take to make a regular breakfast and on those busy mornings you toss 'em in the oven or microwave and the kids are happy. Not to mention all that breakfast stuff will make your house smell all yummy!

A new one I want to try is yogurt bites. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and use an icing bag (or a ziplock with a hole cut in the corner.) and make dots on the paper. Freeze them and pop them into a bag for a cool summer snack.

Anyway, off I go to start cooking then off to work so my husband can clean the kitchen. ;) 

What time saving tricks do you guys have?

Cooking my day away.

Time for food and fall!

Cooking has always been one of my favorite activities. The dishes, however, not so much. Today my little one and I have the day off, just the two of us and what does that mean? I get to cook something so we are making some home made sauce from the tomatoes from my mothers garden.

My garden didn't do so well, I was very excited to see my green beans taking over the garden and thought, wow, I finally got something to do well out here. Come to find out morning glories had somehow found their way into the garden boxes and choked out everything but the cauliflower. After much cursing and a slight tantrum I ripped them all out and got the beds ready for next year.

As an act of sympathy my Mom shared her abundant garden supply and hooked me up with all kinds of fresh goodies. So off I went, tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic all in my favorite green pot, (we all have a favorite pot) and cooking away on the stove.

Next will be those wonderful fresh cucumbers. They look a little funky but taste just fine. Those will be jarred with some vinegar and brine to make some lovely garlic pickles. I'm not sure when the change happened in me. Perhaps it was just having my daughter and getting married made me a little more domestic but it is kind of nice.

Well I'm off to do some meal planning, it honestly saves hours of, 

"What do you want for dinner?" 

"I dunno, what do you want?"

"I dunno."

etc etc etc

Makes grocery shopping much easier when you already know what your going to be making. There are less of those mid week store runs or getting halfway through a recipe and realizing your missing something vital. I'm seriously digging this whole mommy thing. Anyhoo off I go. To spend a whole weekend with my loves!