New Cookbook Has Arrived!

I was very excited to see that my new Double Delicious cookbook had arrived this afternoon!  It could not have come at a better time either.  Tomorrow I need to sit down and make the menu for the follow week or so and head to the grocery store on Thursday.  Nick and I are very anxious to dig through the recipes and see what we can try first!  I'm sure you will be seeing lots of yummy pics soon!

Slow Cooker Sunday Chicken

I was having a busy day and knew I wasn't going to be able to spend much time in the kitchen so a slow cooker meal was a perfect fit.  Nick pulled out the chicken while I was at work and it was thawed out til I got home.  Threw the chicken and other ingredients in the slow cooker and it was good to go.  Come dinner time I made a pack of Knorr rice and a can of veggies.  (I said it was gonna be a not busy in the kitchen kind of day  LOL)  The boys and I ate while Nick was still at work and it was another hit with them.  It was a huge surprise for me because the rice had 'pieces of green' (broccoli) in it and Rian usually complains.  He didn't tonight though!
No pic.  Nothing too much to look at.

DD Tuna Salad on Pita

It was just Nick and Lee and I for dinner so we just had DD tuna salad sandwiches on pita bread with tomatoes and lettuce.  Not much of a meal but it satisfied us. 
I had some corn chips with mine too :)

Hubby thought this batch looked more watery than last time but it still tasted just as good!

DD Tacos in tortilla cups

This is the second time we've made this and it was a hit yet again.  We combined two ideas into one.  The first time we made the taco shells we cut the shape out of a larger tortilla and shaped it in the cupcake tin.  This time we used a smaller tortilla and shaped them this same way.  I think we will try the corn tortilla next time.  We add tomatos, lettuce, corn, cheese and taco sauce.

This is how we made the shells.  We put beans in the shells to hold the shape as they baked.

Breakfast Cupcakes

I saw the idea on Facebook from one of my friends and I thought I just had to make them.  They were a huge hit and so easy to make!  I made the bacon yesterday so all I had to do today was to assemble them.  Next time I make them I'm going to try it a little differently.
The littles wanted scrambled eggs instead of dippy eggs :)
We had toast or bread with them too.  Hubby and I wanted toast with just butter.  Lee wanted apple butter on his, Rian wanted peanut butter on his and Kavin just wanted a piece of bread with butter on it.

DD Grilled Cheese

Saturdays are always busy for us.  Lee, Rian and Kavin all have bowling in the mornings from 9am until about 1130 am.  Some weeks I work in the afternoon, some I don't.  This was one that I didn't have to work.  The littles do book it with their schools so we decided to use their free pizza coupons to go to lunch.  We went with friends from bowling and had a great afternoon.
So since we planned on eating a later lunch and everyone being full afterwards we did a small and easy dinner.  We had Deceptively Delicious grilled cheese.  Lee had them before and loved them.  The littles haven't had them before so this was new for them.  Kavin ate it with no issues.  Rian on the other hand fought tooth and nail that he didn't want to eat it.  He had an issue with the orange cheese.  Typically we use white american.  He eventually ate it with no more issues.

Last time we had it with homemade bread.  I didn't have enough to do it this time so we used honey whole wheat.  So yummy!

I also did some prep work for tomorrow's breakfast.  We have having breakfast cupcakes!  I'm so excited to try them!

Hamburger Helper and loaf bread

We had another busy evening so simple was the way we went.  I made a loaf bread earlier in the afternoon so we had at least something homemade for dinner.  As usual it was delicious and made the house smell SO good.  I love using yeast, I love having the aroma fill the house.  The smell of fresh baked bread is so welcoming when you go through the door. 

 

 Nothing fancy but every last morsel got gobbled up!

Special Delivery Chicken

Nick made dinner for us tonight.  It was just Lee and us, the littles are with their dad this evening.  Dinner consisted of special delivery chicken, alfredo noodles and green beans.  The chicken is not my favorite meal but it is one of Nick's.  We don't have it too often.  It calls for 2 cups of sour cream and I'm not a huge fan of it.  I only put 1 cup in and it is still too much for me. 
The noodles were just out of a bag and the beans were from a can.  Nothing too fancy or difficult.  We had an appt so we needed to have a simple and quick meal.
I will post the recipe for the chicken later.  No pic either tonight.  Nick forgot.

Menu making day!

We try to make a menu every 1-2 weeks. This time we are only making a 1 week menu because we are waiting for our new cook book to come in the mail. We also figure out what we are eating on a given night depending on whether or not we have appointments, their time, and whether or not the little 2 are home.  We don't generally list what veggie we are having on a given night, we just kind of wing it with them. I'll be adding another page of our weekly menus for you all to see.

Rian's after school snack request

I had Nick ask the littles if they had an after school snack request.  Rian piped up and said he wanted m&m cookies.  I knew I only had a small bit of M&Ms so I set out to figure out what to make.  I found a recipe on squidoo and tried it out.  I replaced the lack of m&ms with chocolate chips.  They turned out SO yummy!  Everyone else agreed <3

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and butter corn

I wanted to try the meatloaf in the Deceptively Delicious cookbook so tonight was the night.  I seem to fail on every meatloaf I've ever made for some reason.  But after checking and sticking it back in the oven and checking some more it turned out ok.  I plan on making it again but I want to make it in mini loaves.  Maybe I will have better luck that way.  I made homemade mashed potatoes with it.  I was going to do the DD ones but laxed and just made regular ones.  The butter corn is nothing fancy, just a way of getting Rian to get corn.  He is not a fan but when I add the butter to it he will have minimal fuss about eating. 
Here is a not so fantastic pic but you get the idea.

French Toast Casserole

This is always a huge favorite in our household.  Usually I make bacon to go along with it but last night I made maple flavored sausage links.  Kavin absolutely LOVED them.  He actually ate 5 of them! 
There was only a small amount of leftovers which is always a welcome thing for us.
I forgot to take a picture of the finished meal so I could post it here.  Til I remembered it we were already done eating.  Next time I will have to remember.

Quesadillas, Cupcakes, Hamballs, and Mozzarella Sticks

Today was busy busy with cooking and baking. Started our day out by making bacon, egg, and cheese quesadillas. We are going to freeze one of these so that we know if it still tastes good. If it does, we will make enough for 2 weeks of breakfast at a time. With me (Nick) being in college and Mindi working in the morning we do not have a whole lot of time for breakfast.

After lunch we made some Andes Mint Cupcakes. They are AMAZING, and even relatively easy to make.

Dinner was hamballs and mozzarella sticks. The hamballs were good, although Mindi feels that they would be better with some crushed pineapple added to them. We didn't follow the recipe to the letter, but we still liked them. The mozzarella sticks were homemade with a recipe from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook. We made a double batch and figured out that next time we make a double batch we will not be doubling the cauliflower as well. They were good but had a strong flavor of cauliflower.

Recipes will be added as we make things. However, we can not post the recipes from the Deceptively Delicious book.