Smoked Sausage and Sauerkraut Soup

WOW, it has been a while! It's September?! Where has the time gone? Goodness!

Anyways I am trying a recipe I found online out, but of course I changed everything up and made it my own! It smells DELISH in the slow cooker right now, so I'm hoping it tastes just as good!

You will need:
Large jar of Sauerkraut
Container of sliced mushrooms
White onion
Green bell pepper
Garlic
1 pound smoked sausage.

Chop it all up and throw it in the slow cooker on high. Damn that was hard. HA!

Broccoli, Spinach, and Mushroom Alfredo

I got this recipe from Cambells Kitchen and the picture just looked so delish I had to try it! I was honestly kind of weirded out to use cream of mushroom as the base for my alfredo sauce, because honestly I make a really good homemade alfredo sauce. With that said, I reluctantly tried this out.

I have no measurements because I just started throwing stuff in the skillet-as I usually do.

Mushrooms
Onion
Garlic clove
Can of cream of mushroom soup
1 cup of water (I just fill the empty soup can)
Fettucine pasta
Spinach
Broccoli

I started out sauteeing the mushrooms, onion, and garlic.
Once everything was cooked down, I added the soup, water, broccoli, and spinach to the skillet and let it simmer while I cooked the pasta.

I was SHOCKED that it turned out so yummy!!

Cheeseburger Pasta

Well, I have to be honest here, I didn't really try this because the day I made this I had a late lunch and just wasn't hungry by the time dinner rolled around, so I settled for some strawberries instead. The girls and my mom thought it was delish!(Photo is campbellskitchen.com, one of my fave recipe sources)

1 pound of ground beef
a generous slice of velveeta cheese
1 can of condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup water
2 cups of uncooked pasta shells

1) Cook the beef until brown, pour off any extra fat.
2) Stir soup, water, velveeta, and pasta in to cooked beef and let simmer until pasta is tender, stir randomly & serve!

Tator Tot Casserole

(Picture from campbellskitchen.com)

I stumbled on this recipe one night when I was short on time and in need of something different to do with ground beef, because quite frankly ground beef can get pretty boring. I mean how many meatloafs and hamburgers can one make? Anyways, this was a Daniel approved recipe :)

1 pound of ground beef, or ground turkey, or chicken, any one of the 3 will work fine.

1/2 cup of onion (I use yellow or white)

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

Worstershire sauce

Tator tots

Shredded yellow cheese (your preference I use cheddar)

1) Cook your ground meat with the worstershire sauce (to be honest I add a pinch of garlic too) until done.

2) add the can of mushroom soup & onion to the meat and stir.

3) Put meat mixture in a baking dish and cover completely with tator tots and cheese.

4) bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes & enjoy!

This is a SUPER kid friendly easy recipe! It turned out delish!

Mustard & Onion Pork Chops

I need to start uploading pictures of my creations but I am a tad bit blog-challenged so excuse me as I blogger size!!

Anyways about those pork chops..

You will need:
Porkchops
Mustard
Gray Poupon
Pepper
Garlic
Onions-sliced small and fine
Pimento Cheese
(Feel free to omit anything to make your recipe easier, I just happened to have all of this in my kitchen so it got tossed in.)


Bake your porkchops until the desired doneness. While your porkchops are baking, mix together mustard, gray poupon, pepper, garlic, pimento cheese and finely sliced onions. Once porkchops are fully cooked, take out of the oven and spread(I use a Pampered Chef basting brush) all over the porkchops. Put the Porkies back in to bake for another 10 minutes and then serve with whatever side dish you'd like! We chose veggie fried rice :)

Blackened Garlic Tilapia

I know, I know, it's been forever since i've blogged but i've been so darn busy that I haven't really had time to think and compose a normal thought, let alone blog about food!! Anyways, in my absence I have been cooking and I recently reminded myself of one of my favorite tilapia recipies!! It's super simple and not too terrible for ya ;)

What you'll need:
Tilapia
Old Bay Blackened Seasoning (it's a tiny bit spicy if you have sensitive tastys)
1 Lemon
1/2 TSP Olive Oil
Crushed garlic & Garlic powder to taste.
Onion

With a basting brush rub tilapia down in Olive Oil.
Coat with Old Bay Seasoning & Garlic powder on BOTH sides.
Sprinkle crushed garlic & onion on top and bake for 25 minutes!

So simple and when it's done take it out and squirt it down with some lemon and you'll be in HEAVEN!

My Favorite Sausage Skillet

I went to a party at my friend Kristi's house once and she had this AMAZING sausage skillet, of course me being pregnant I made this probably twice a week and randomly added ingredients. I love this because not only is it easy, it's a one skillet wonder!

1 polish sausage
1 bag of fresh baby spinach
3 large potatoes-baked
1/4 cup onion
1/4 cup mushrooms
2/3 cup vinegar

slice sausage into small pieces & allow to cook in skillet.
slice and add baked potatoes.
add onion, mushroom, and spinach (it will cook down).
stir, and add vinegar.

Once the spinach cooks down, you're ready to eat! I ALWAYS put the potatoes in the microwave to cook before adding them, it cuts down on your cook time-lesson learned the hardway.

Cheesy Tuna Casserole

I make this, well I make ANY casserole when I just want an easy night where i'm not standing at the stove forever trying to rush to get dinner done. I love everything about casseroles, especially when they are homemade :)

2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
1 cup of milk
2 cups of veggie of choice (I use corn or peas)
2 10oz cans of tuna
4 cups of cooked egg noodles
bread crumbs
shredded cheese

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl-except cheese and bread crumbs, sprinkle cheese and bread crumbs on top, add to preheated oven (400 degrees), bake for 30 minutes.

So simple!

Chicken Balsalmico

Well I tried this recipe for the first time and it wasn't originally a slow cooker recipe but I figured it couldn't hurt, and it didn't!

Chicken Breasts
1 Zuchini
2 cups pre chopped mushrooms
marinara sauce
Balsalmic vinegar to taste

I just added everything to the crock pot and let it simmer all day, it turned out DELISH!! I totally recommend this! I just made some pasta on the side and used the sauce from the slow cooker.

This week's menu :)

Everytime grocery shopping day comes around I always have my pre-planned bi-weekly menu planned out. It saves us money by going into the store knowing exactly what we need and it also saves us from those dreaded random "just running to the store really quicks"! Which FYI those little random trips for one thing are costly, I mean who really goes in and gets ONE thing? Anyways our upcoming meals are going to be:


Skillet Chicken Parmesan
Chicken Noodle Casserole
Meatloaf(I have a delicious recipie!)
Tuna Noodle Casserole
Shrimp Alfredo
My Friend Kristi's Sausage Skillet
Wild Chicken Balsamico
Beef Quesadillas
Sausage Jambalaya


MMM I think I may try a blue cheese crabcake recipe too! YUM!!

The Easiest Tilapia EVER!

Well tonight I was in one of those "I just ate a Quarter Pounder With cheese for lunch" kinds of moods so I decided fish was a pretty good idea. I sliced up some red & green peppers, tossed in some broccoli & onions and put that veggie combo (I also added garlic powder) in the oven to bake for 20 mins-I didn't cover it. Then I put a dab of Olive oil in a skillet and "sauteed" vice frying my tilapia with some parmesan bread crumbs. It turned out reallyyyyy good! I think next time I will make some rice to go along with it to make it more "man friendly" but DH wasn't here for dinner tonight so his opinion didn't count!

*Ground Turkey Stroganoff*

I found a recipe similar to this on allrecipes.com and altered it so much lol that I just rewrote it myself.


Ingredients:
1 Cup of brown rice (I use this instead of egg noodles)
2 cups of water
1 pound of ground turkey
1/2 cup of minced onion
3 cubes of beef bouillon
1 can of cream of mushroom soup

Directions:
Add one cup of rice and two cups of water to small pan and let simmer until Rice is fluffy, Brown ground turkey in skillet, add 1 can of cream of mushroom soup(you could even use cream of chicken if you hate mushrooms), 1 can of water(use mushroom soup can), add minced onion, and 3 cubes of beef bouillon, stir and let simmer until bouillon has completely dissolved, serve over the rice.

Pretty simple huh? It's super quick too!