Newest LOK Kitchen Challenge is up!

The LOK Cooking Challenge has been revamped to include everything Kitchen...cooking, budgeting and organizing. This month's challenge goes along the lines of Kentucky Fried Chicken's tv ad to make their meal yourself for under $10 (how much it costs to buy it at KFC). You can read about it here... October's kitchen challenge

I love this type of challenge! I'll definitely be joining in and might even do 2 of them...a maximum budget ($15) one and a cheapest day I can.

How about you... are you up to the Challenge!?!

Artichoke Spinach Dip

Makes 8x8" pan

3 8oz pkgs cream cheese, softened
1/2 pt sour cream
2 cans artichokes, chopped
1 can spinach, drained VERY well
1 - 1.5 cups parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp garlic powder

Mix cream cheese and sour cream together
add other ingredients and mix well
spread evenly in 8" square pan
bake in 350° oven for 20mins until warmed through and turning golden around edges
Serve with tortilla chips or wheat crackers

Broccoli Soup

Makes 8qts

water
6lbs frozen broccoli
1/2 lb butter/margarine
12 chicken bouillon cubes
milk
1/2 - 1pt sour cream (optional)

Fill the 8qt pan with 1 - 2 inches of water
add butter, bouillon and broccoli
cook 20 - 30 mins until broccoli is soft
stir and mash occasionally
at end of cooking time mash until desired consistency (smooth or chunky)
add milk to taste (I usually add enough to make the pot full)
add some hot soup to sour cream to thin out,
stir sour cream into soup and heat for another minute or so
serve

Menu... October 5 - 11

Yeah yeah I know...think up a menu for crying out loud! I've got 2 days done....does that count? lol

Sunday we had a late dinner since Pat took all his siblings out apple picking. Tom and I were busy butchering 6 roosters while they were out. So I threw together a pot of Broccoli soup (recipe coming up after I'm done here). It was nice to get something out quickly that everyone was looking forward to eating (it's been a while since I've made it). So now onto the rest of the week....

Sunday... Broccoli Soup, bread
Monday... Roasted rooster, mashed potatoes, sweet peas
Tuesday... Homemade macaroni and cheese, ham
Wednesday... Chicken and gravy, rice, green beans
Thursday... Pork roast, sauteed broccoli normandy,
Friday... Shrimp Alfredo
Saturday... church conference...have to bring lunch and dinner
Lunch... sandwiches, chips, fruit
Dinner... taco salad, tortilla

Now lets see how well I stick with it. :o)

New Group Blog for me

I'm a member of the LOK's Large Family Cooking Blog which started up this month. It's off to a good start and my first post is up...

Get it Done Ahead of Time which talks about my favorite shortcut in the kitchen.

Make sure you check out all the posts so far. And of course feel free to comment, we all love to get comments.

Two new dishes this week

Both didn't go over too well. The first one was on Monday and was my mom's vodka sauce. I tried to double the recipe and added a bit more cooking time on it. I don't think it was quite enough time though because the sauce had chunks of tomatoes in it...my mom's never does. I don't know, maybe it was the brand of crushed tomatoes I used. The taste was ok, just the texture was off. I know the recipe is great, everyone always asks her for it. So it has to be operator error.

The second one was Tuesday and was Michelle's version of Chicken Marsala with penne. She picked an Olive Garden copycat recipe. This time we tripled the recipe. We also substituted deboned chicken thighs for the skinless chicken breasts. I'm not sure if she added too much oil or if it was the fat from the thighs (I tried to remove as much as I could) but it was WAY too greasy. It seemed like the sauce turned into a huge layer of butter/oil. I'm not sure if we'll try this particular recipe again but we'll definitely try making the dish again.

Last night I made tried and true homemade pizza. 2 topped with pepperonis and 2 with bacon. I made quite the mess when I tried to slide the pizzas off the tray and onto the rack for the 2nd half of cooking. They were both a bit too soft to be on the rack yet. The first pepperoni ended up in pieces and with melted cheese all over. The bacon fared a lot better. The last 2 came out beautiful. :o)

Today is Michelle's birthday!!! (she's 21 now) She's been wishy washy about what she wants for her dinner. I bought her a carrot cake from BJ's and we'll have vanilla ice cream and/or root beer floats. (I bought Michelle birthday cake ice cream too, not sure if we'll have it for the party though). She's finally settled on breakfast for dinner! So I guess we're having pancakes, sausage, bacon, and fruit parfaits. Can you tell it's been a while since I made pancakes around here? LOL

No set plans for tomorrow but I think I'm heading toward broccoli soup with garlic rolls. Michelle is having friends over on Saturday night. The kids are set to be gone so it'll be just Tom and I with the 2 littlest kids. I'm thinking of doing a snacky party type of meal.

Maybe next week I'll get it together and post a menu BEFORE I'm using it! Oh yeah, and stick to it too.

I almost followed my menu

On Wednesday I realized I made a fatal error in not buying milk Tuesday night. Not having much milk meant that I couldn't make my scalloped potatoes. I'll get a recipe up soon Noelle, it's fairly easy. This time I bought a boneless ham that comes in a loaf. It's not chopped ham quality but not top grade either....works well for dishes and for under $1.60/lb you can't beat it. Instead I browned up a 6+ lb package of ground beef I bought at Wegmans, put half away for a meal (probably chili) and made stroganoff with the other half.

Friday is when I failed. I had spaghetti planned. It's an EASY dish! I can just boil up spaghetti and throw on canned sauce. Or I can make it a bit harder and brown italian sausage in. I could've even made meat sauce with the burger I'd cooked on Wednesday. UB (Uncle Billy) let us know he'd bought steaks that needed to be cooked so that was going to be dinner. Then it was discovered that the charcoal was wet and time was dwindling (kids needed to be out the door). So they had sandwiches and/or cereal to tide them over until they got home. I'd broil the steaks after 9. Yeah right. I was dragging from my new cold and didn't see me making anything (I just wanted to go to bed even though I couldn't). Instead I texted Michelle and asked her if she'd ask her dad if he wanted to pick up $.99 Arby Q's for dinner. He agreed. Give me an F-!

Today instead of BBQ sandwiches (which we had last night) I was going to attempt to get scalloped potatoes in the oven. I just realized though that it's suppose to be warm and muggy today...not oven running weather. Besides I also forgot that UB has steaks that need to be cooked. So guess scalloped potatoes will be in the menu NEXT week. One of these days I'll hold to my written menu.

LOK September Challenge is up!!

LOK September Cooking Challenge

The challenge... create a dish incorporating cereal. Since we are trying to use up the cereal, you should incorporate at least a one cup of cereal.

No limit on which brand or type of cereal you can use. The recipe should be original, or a fair alteration on an existing recipe. Creativity will factor heavily into this challenge, so keep that in mind. (in other words, no rice crispie treats)

This month is going to take a bit of brain work. Cooking with cereal? I can't say that I make anyone besides cookies or marshmallow treats with it. Ok...MAYBE I use it for a coating in fried foods or a filler in meatloaf. I don't think that really counts though. Gotta find and think of something new!

I'm looking forward to seeing what people come up with. How about you? Care to join in?

Menu... August 7 - 14

Sunday... Carrie's birthday...snacked all day...Mozzarella sticks, chicken spring rolls, tomato sandwiches
Monday... Italian sausauge sandwiches, salad,
Tuesday... Hamburgers, buns, sauteed vegetables
Wednesday... Scalloped potatoes and ham
Thursday... Chicken nuggets, garlic egg noodles, green beans
Friday... Spaghetti, garlic bread
Saturday... BBQ venison sandwiches

The only thing I can see needing to buy this week is Rolls for the BBQ venison if I don't get around to making them myself. Then WHY do I keep finding myself eyeing the grocery ads for this week? The bottom round roasts on sale at multiple places is looking really yummy! Of course I'll have to go to the store at some time this week. We'll still need fresh fruit, veggies and milk.

It's that time of year again

Back to school time. Time for summer to be over and fall to start. When supposedly the days get cooler and the nights get downright cold. It's when I start to think of heartier meals...chicken and gravy, soups, casseroles, and homemade baked goods. Unfortunately the weather hasn't gone along with the plan. It's sweltering here now! I'm wanting to make bread and I can't even breath in my kitchen. There is NO WAY I'm turning on the oven. I've taken things out of the freezer to make for dinner and then nixed the idea at the last second due to the heat. No sense making a menu when you aren't going to stick to it at all.

Now that things are settling down a bit making a menu can be useful. There can't be anymore nights of trying to figure out what to eat at 8 (after it's started cooling off in the house) with us sitting down to eat at 9. That's bedtime for a school night now. Church activities have also started back up so many days the kids need to be fed and out the door by 7:30. It's easier when it's dark at 6 but for now...a bit hard. THAT'S where the menu comes into play. No thinking, just do it. Now if only I can get organized enough to stick to it.

So Sunday we'll be starting back up with my menus.

I'm so pathetic

I'm enjoying the look of this blog so much it's ignited a desire to actually make an effort to cook good things and post them here. (as opposed to having the kids throw chicken nuggets into the microwave. It's also renewed my interest in other foodblogs around the net. I've always loved food porn! (just haven't learned the art of creating it) but to actually read the recipes and think about making things...that's different...and I like it! I'm considering starting a running, "I'd like to try" post on here. A place where I can list links and/or recipes to new dishes I'd like to try. Still trying to think of the logistics of it though.


So the propane man came yesterday afternoon and I gleefully ran into the cellar and through the cobwebs to the hot water tank. Kissing the basement floor I got the burner churning and the water heating. For those few minutes I was a goddess! lol

If you read my menu below you'll know we were suppse to have pizza for dinner last night. Let's just say I procrastinated on making the dough a bit too long. Then my kids decided to go for a bike ride and run with a stopover at Drew's and Allison's house. They attacked his Rock Band game with vigor and ended up getting themselves invited to dinner...woohooo! Thanks Drew and Allison! So the few of here had leftovers, no major cooking involved. :o)

With a 5 pound bag of shredded mozz in the fridge waiting to go bad, I pushed homemade pizza to today (Wednesday). Not sure how I'll do the rest of the week (moving things or just forgetting the shrimp alfredo for now or until I need an easy quick meal)

I did a lunkhead thing today. I almost sliced the tip of my right pinky off. I was trying to pick up a can lid off the counter but it was cemented down (I left it there...so it's entirely my fault). Well the lid stayed put but my finger didn't and it traveled around the edge of the lid. I thought it was going to need stitches for sure (and for all I know it still might be a good idea). Fortunately I managed to put enough pressure on it to seal it up and end the bleeding. So I'm trying not to use it because if I bump it, it'll open up and start bleeding profusely again. We'll see how long that lasts.

I was in the middle of making the 2nd batch of pizza dough when it happened. I ended up trying to not to bleed all over and barf while instructing the kids on what still needed to be done. They all pitched in to help put the pizzas together. They didn't do too bad and we all had fun. We made 4 16inch pizzas...bacon and pineapple, pepperoni, cheese, and chicken wing (which no one was really crazy about).



I didn't get my banana banana bread done. :o( Hopefully in the morning I'll be able to do it. Otherwise the bananas will become compost (hmmm wonder if the chickens would like them?) I also want to try to make french bread but that might have to wait a few days.

Menu... August 17 - 23...A gliltch in the system (sorry a rant included)

We are out of propane! I'm getting so sick of this! I paid them last week and told them we were almost out. I ran out in the middle of cooking dinner on Sunday. So I called them Monday morning and specifically said...I was wondering if we were scheduled to be delivered today. She asked what our tank gauge read and when I said we're totally out her response was...We'll get someone there as soon as possible. GREAT! Until 5pm and there was still no delivery. I called again...the owner, no you'll get it tomorrow, we didn't have anyone driving out your way today. WHY didn't she tell me that in the morning!!!

My whole day would've been different! I would've thrown something in the crockpot instead of having to buy something that was easy to cook on the griddle and microwave, taken the kids somewhere to take showers, done laundry and hung it out to dry or taken it to the laundromat to use their dryers. BUT NOOOOO! I've been waiting for the gas man all day instead!!! GRRRRRRRRRR! I'm seriously considering changing companies. Just have to do the legwork to get it done. (which I stink at)

Sorry, back to the matter at hand...the menu

Saturday... Mu Shu chicken was switched to BBQ chicken on the grill after UB decided it's what he wanted for dinner and bought it.
Sunday... Chicken tenders, stuffing, fried zucchini, and salad
Monday... Hofmann hotdogs, corn on the cob, leftover salt potatoes
Tuesday... Pizza, (IF the propane guy comes today!) salad
Wednesday... Shrimp Alfredo, garlic breadsticks, green beans
Thursday... Meatball subs, sides TBD
Friday... Grilled pork roast, garlic egg noodles, peas
Saturday... Spaghetti with italian sausage, bread

Update...I called the propane company in the middle of writing this. They're suppose to be here...any second. I asked her if she could do me a favor...tell me the truth when I call and ask if I'm getting a delivery that day! That doing so allows me to make appropriate plans. I explained how things are here (not that I expect special treatment because of my family size, but it does make things a bit more complicated for me). I also asked if there was SOME way I could get a delivery without having to call and say I'm out of propane. She said she'd look into it and see why it was happening and what she could do about it. So I guess they get a second chance, but not much of one!!

Macaroni and Cheese

3lbs macaroni (or pasta of choice)
3 cans evaporated milk
1 cup butter
onion powder (can use real onions but we have allergies)
garlic powder
salt
pepper
3lbs cheese (I use seriously sharp, monterey, colby)
1 cup parmesan cheese

Cook macaroni according to directions
Add rest of ingredients to saucepan and heat over med heat stirring frequently until cheese it melted and incorporated
Add cheese sauce to cooked macaroni
If you like it creamy serve as is. If you like it dry, cover and heat in 350 degree oven for 15-20 mins.

Corndog Chili Casserole

Mirz/Michelle posted the Corndog Casserole recipe on LOK's Household Tips Board. She also posted a chili cheese dog casserole recipe. I took elements from both recipes and made the corndog chili casserole.

Makes a 11" x 17" Lasagna pan
Oven 400°F

4 15oz cans chili with beans (will use homemade in the winter)
4 pkgs corn muffin mix (I've used both jiffy and store brand successfully)
3 pkgs (12-16oz) hot dogs
1 pkg real bacon bits (can use imitation or omit entirely)
onion powder (can't use real onions due to allergies)
4 eggs
1 1/3 cup milk

Spread chili evenly on the bottom of the pan
Quarter hot dogs lengthwise and dice into bite size pieces
Mix one pkg of hot dogs into chili
Make corn muffin mix according to directions (with egg and milk)
Mix in remaining hot dogs, bacon bits and onion powder to muffin batter
Gently spread batter over chili
Bake 20-30mins until golden brown and done in center

Menu - The rest of this week

Fellowship week was awesome! It was so nice to have all the meals planned out ahead of time. No thinking, just grab and go. Ok...some of them I had to cook or fix before we left..but it was still easy. I changed things up at the end of the conference and Tuesday night we bought food at the grill. I didn't have the time to fix chicken and gravy. Instead we had grilled chicken sandwiches (chicken breasts were HUGE!), hamburger and cheeseburgers, hofmann hotdogs and salt potatoes. YUM! Also once we were home on Wednesday I didn't make the corn dog casserole because they had a lot of leftovers to eat. So it was leftovers night. Corn dog casserole is tonight! :o)

Wednesday... Leftovers
Thursday... Corn dog chili casserole
Friday... Homemade mac and cheese, spinach salad
Saturday... Mu Shu chicken

Fellowship Week worked out

I had to do a tiny revision of this week's menu because yesterday we went to the beach and had hot dogs on the grill. Jake also revised his birthday dinner request. His main thing is the blooming onions. I'm not going to be home most of the day so I told him I'd buy him onion petals from Arby's (they're having their pick 5 for $5.95).

So now this week's menu looks like...

Tuesday...
Wednesday... Shells with sauce, Italian Sausage, bread
Thursday... Jake's birthday, his choice... Steak, mashed potatoes, onion petals from Arby's
Friday... BBQ Venison sandwiches, pasta salad


Fellowship week menu is....

Saturday... Taco Salad, tortilla chips
Sunday... Meatball Subs
Monday...Chicken & Gravy over rice
Tuesday... Venison fajitas
Wednesday... Corn dog casserole (dinner at home)

Lunches will be Sandwiches...Tuna, PB&J, Salami, Turkey

Breakfasts will be...Bagels, cereal, toast, poptarts, hard boiled eggs, yogurt

I'll also have on hand...

Fruit (at least one serving a day)... Grapes, plums, watermelon, cantelope, nectarines...bananas and oranges for breakfast

Veggies... Carrots, cucumbers, celery, spinach salad, garden salad

Chips... Sun chips, cheddar popcorn, pringles, cheese curls, cherrio snack mix, corn chips, and nacho

Snacks... Cheese dippers, honey roasted peanuts...may buy more

Desserts... Berry fingers, zebra cakes, cosmic brownies, rice krispy treats, cookies

ICK! How did THAT happen?

I had a package of 5 dozen eggs in the fridge so decided to boil a bunch up for sandwiches and to eat out of hand. I took off the top of the pkg so I could throw them into the pot of water. Some of the eggs shells had black on them, like they were sitting on newsprint. WHAT was it? Is that mold!?! I had never seen moldy eggs before. I didn't even know eggs could get moldy.

I did the float test...it went to the bottom...so good. I cracked it open to smell it...smelled fine. So I washed off the shells and threw them into the pot. Then something caught my eye. It was the cracked egg and shell sitting in the bowl. Inside the shell were HUGE black mold spots. OK...NOT eating them! I finished cooking them but they are chicken food now.

I was irritated. That's a lot of eggs to lose! Especially at the price they're at now. How could that happen? I was bound and determined to go into the store, complain and get my money back. I reached for the label so I could bring it into the store. That's when I actually READ the label. The sell by date was June 11th!!!! OOPS! AGAIN HOW did that happen? Everyone knows you rotate groceries. So what if it's a huge package and it's easier to grab the smaller cartons around it. Oh well, I guess I'm just as guilty as the rest of them. But grrrr!

Now I'm adding eggs to my shopping list

Menu... August 3 - 9

Why do I even bother? I make a menu, revise it and still couldn't stick to it last week! So why go through all that planning? Oh well at least we ate SOMETHING. This Saturday starts our Fellowship Week at church. I normally camp over there but this year I don't think we will. That means the menu will work since I'll have to plan ahead (can't run to the store) to bring meals that I can take in the morning and serve at dinner. Or I could just bring sides/snacks and buy hotdogs or burgers from the grill. I haven't decided what route I want to go yet...it's too far away to start thinking of it. lol

So this week looks something like this...

Sunday... Homemade garlic and pepperoni pizzas, baby carrots and dip
Monday... BBQ cocktail weiners, mashed potatoes, canned sweet peas
Tuesday... Spaghetti with sauce, Italian Sausage, garlic rolls (ready in the fridge)
Wednesday... BBQ Venison sandwiches, (meat cooking now)
Thursday... Jake's birthday, his choice... Seafood salad sandwiches, blooming onions, poppers
Friday... Homemade Macaroni & Cheese, canned green beans

I'll post the conference meals later in the week (need to figure lunches also)

What's in your freezer?

I've been meaning to do inventory of the freezer for a while. I knew most of the contents were venison but to plan things I needed to know how much. So this morning while everyone was sleeping (yes I was the only one awake for about 15 mins this morning...woohoo!) I took everything out, rearranged it and wrote it down.

Meat
Tilapia fillets - 3lb bag
Pork Roast
Meatballs, Italian - 5lb bag
Chicken & Stock - 2
Sausage, Italian - 3
Sausage, Breakfast Roll
Sausage, Breakfast Patties - 18
Venison - 8 lg packages (could be one meal if an ingredient, need 2 for BBQ or such)
Venison - 5 sm packages (for stew...maybe use 2 for a meaty stew)



Fruit and Vegetable
Cranberries - 2 - 1lb bags
Strawberries, whole - 1lb
French Fries - 5lb bag
Hash Brown Patties - 17
Green beans - 1lb
Carrots, sliced - 2 -1lb bags
Green Peppers & Onion Mix - 1lb
Snap Pea Stir-fry - 2 - 1lb bags



Miscellaneous
Ice - 3/4 bag
Split Pea Soup, Individual - 2
Split Pea Soup, Side dish - 1
Pie Crusts - 4
Hamburger Rolls - 3
Hot Dog Rolls - 2
Hail, 1 bowl
Ice Stick, Small (for water bottles) - 6
Ice Stick, Large (for water jug) - 1
Blue Ice, Large - 1
Blue Ice, Small - 1
Chocolate Santa, foil wrapped - 3/4
3 Muskateers Bar, mini - 1 (now GONE!)

LOK Cooking Challenge - June/July

The latest LOK Cooking Challenge ends today and being the procrastinator that I am...I just completed it! LOL

This month's challenge is to provide a 3 course meal (appetizer, main, dessert) for 4 with ingredients purchased soley at a dollar store. You can't use anything from a cold case, only shelf stock.

I spied a can of Old El Paso Chickekn Cheese Enchilada Flavor Soup and thought...that would probably make a good base for a rice dish. I bought a can to take home for a taste test. It was a hit! It had huge chunks of chicken and veggies, perfect for a base. Eileen loved it so much she begged me to buy more so we can take it camping. So the challenge was on.


My purchases... $14.75
2 El Paso Chicken Enchilada Soup
2 sliced carrots
2 tuna salad kits
pouch of tuna
lg can diced tomatoes
rice
jar marinated garlic vegetables
bag of dried cranberries and golden raisins
orange marmalade
mango perserves
sharp cheese spread
chocolate frosting

Let me just say....Cooking for 4 is HARD! I'm now convinced Tom and I will be empty nesters with multiple freezers jampacked full of leftovers. I'll be making up care packages for everyone who stops to visit. It was so hard to gauge how much rice was needed for a main dish for 4. And the veggies, I kept thinking...that's not enough!

Appetizer



I had two options in mind when I bought my appetizer ingredients. I definitely wanted the jar of marinated garlic vegetables. It was what I was serving with it that I was wishy washy about...Tuna. I was leaning toward tuna cakes but I'm not a huge hot tuna fan. I decided to put out both options. So I took the tuna on crackers picture, crushed up the crackers into the tuna salad and added the additional pouch of tuna, formed it into patties and fried...tuna cakes!



Personally being the country bumpkin that I am, I'd opt for the super easy tuna salad on crackers, it wasn't half bad. It also made the meal a $1 cheaper (didn't need to buy the pouch of tuna). Most of the kids who were up when I did this liked the tuna cakes. They were so so on the marinated veggies which is fine by me...I'll eat the whole jar myself!



Main Dish



The veggie portion of this challenge gave me fits! Knowing that the rice dish was bland and orange/yellow in color I thought canned asparagus would liven up the plate. Thing is...I needed two cans to be what I deemed a reasonalbe serving. Can I serve hot asparagus without any butter or flavoring? Then I spied the canned veggies that were 2 for $1. Hmmm some glazed carrots might be yummy. Won't help me on the presentation but as long as it's good. I thought I grabbed an apricot perserves to glaze the carrots with, I grabbed the mango one instead. It worked, made it intersting and everyone liked it...Sean LOVES them!



I simmered a half pound of rice with 2 cups of water, 2 cans of soup, juice that I drained from the diced tomatoes and half the can of tomatoes. Being the cheese freak that I am, I didn't think the soup gave the dish enough cheese flavor to it. To fix this I decided to add a container of cheese spread to the dish near the end. I opted for sharp cheddar since I was making the dish on the mild side. The pepper jack or nacho might've been a better choice for this dish but the sharp worked out ok. This made TONS of rice for 4 people. It might have even been too much for my family as a side dish. People liked it well enough here (I had some as I wrote this out)

Dessert



I knew the base of my dessert was going to be pound cake. What I didn't know was what I'd serve on it. First I picked up a package of vanilla pudding cups to make trifle. Then a pouch of cherry dessert was in my hand (like cherry pie filling), then a can of lemon pudding, I decided to do something totally different then what we're used to. So I went dried cranberries and golden raisins plumped up in an orange marmalade glaze with melted chocolate frosting drizzled over it. I didn't want to be repetitive with the glazing but thought it was different enough in taste to be ok. A few of my kids aren't raisin lovers so they didn't go gaagaa over it. I liked it a lot and it served the purpose of why I made it...it was different then our normal.



I'd say the challenge was a success. Everything I made was liked well enough by enough people in the house to be ok to serve as a meal. I'm pretty sure I won't be running to the dollar store to get our next meal though.

Other entries...

Anne's
Michelle's
Annie's