Impossible Cheeseburger Pie

I got this recipe years ago from the back of a box of Bisquick mix.
It's easy, cheap, & good.

Impossible Cheeseburger Pie

1 pound lean ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 t. salt
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (sometimes I use more)
1/2 C. bisquick mix
1 C. milk
2 eggs

Heat oven to 400. Brown grown beef & onion until hamberger is done; drain. Spread into a greased pie plate (or any 8 or 9 inch pan). Sprinkle with salt & cheese.
Stir together the bisquick, milk, & eggs until blended. Pour over the cheese.
Bake about 25 minutes until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes.

Here's it's served with seasoned fries. I also serve it with oven fries & green beans.
And since it's so easy & cheap & good, I usually fix this about once a month.

Here I am!

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a week! Saying it's crazy busy here is a bit of an understatement.
I started a brand new baby in my day care. Meaning BRAND NEW. I started him almost 2 weeks ago & he was 6 weeks old when I started him. Oh, his teeny tiny baby head has that new born baby smell. Happy sigh.....there's nuthin' in the world to compare to that smell.
He is a 'colic baby'....so he's an awful lot of work. But I'm very thankful & blessed to have him.
Also, our daughter is applying to college, so we're under the paperwork mountain right now.
I took 2 weeks off from the Bible study that I'm doing in order to get it all done. I'm still reading my 4 chapters a day in my Bible, but I just had to set my Bible study back a couple weeks. I miss it.
Since I haven't been here much, I thought I'd share our 6 year old son's recipe with you.
You may get a kick out of it. :)
He calls it Camp Salad.

Camp Salad

Cheerios
tortilla chips, broken up
cheese slice, broken up
cookie sprinkles
cupcake paper

Mix all together & put it in a cupcake paper. Put it in the frig for 1 hour, then put it in your tent to eat for a snack.

(he dictated the above to me) :)

Our son has made this twice. He says that he likes to put fresh parsley from the garden in it, but it's not in season right now. (LOL!!!)

I have a lot of pictures of food, so hopefully I'll be able to post something in the next day or so.

The Lemonade Award!

Oh my gosh! I won my very first blog award! Cool!
Tracey over at $1200 Frugal Challenge 2009 nominated me for this award. Thank you Tracey!


If you are not familiar with the Lemonade Award, it is given by a previous winner to 10 people who have shown a great attitude or gratitude this week. It’s a great way to show these people that you appreciate them.
The following are my nominations for the Lemonade Award:

Becky Perry

Dana's So Many Books, So Little Time

Think Pink

Plaidhearts

Alas, A Squirrel Passes By

Lori's She Treads Softly

Stacey's My Unfinished Daze

The Diabetic Domestic Diva

Claire's Cooking is Medicine

For the Love of Cooking

Leann's Crunchy Culinary Capers

Tammy's Recipes

The Southern Plate

Ok, I picked 13. But the rules listed below say to pick *at least* 10. I take that to mean that I can go over 10 if I want to. :) I read each of these blogs faithfully. It may not be every day, & sometimes not even every week. But when I am able to get online & go blog visiting, these 13 are my 'must visit' blogs. I love every one of them!

What to Do Now:
I want to say congratulations to all the winners. Please share this opportunity with your favorite bloggers by doing the following:
Put the logo on your blog or post.
Nominate at least 10 blogs, which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude! Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

Thanks again, Tracey!

Chicken Spaghetti

When I first saw the words Chicken Spaghetti, I cringed. It did not sound good to me at all. I pictured spaghetti, you know, with tomato sauce on it, with bits of chicken in it. That just did not sound good. Thankfully I read through the whole recipe, & we tried it! It's very good. And there's not a drop of tomato sauce in it. LOL
I found this recipe over at Pioneer Woman Cooks quite a long time ago.

I only made one little change from the original recipe. I do not cook the spaghetti in the chicken broth. Whenever I boil a chicken I save all the broth. I would just rather save all that broth rather than use it to boil spaghetti.
Also, a 9X13 actually makes too much for us (family of 4). I've made it quite a few times, & it makes so much that we eat it for supper, then the kids & I have it again for lunch the next day, & then because I HATE to waste anything, we have it for left-overs for supper. By then my family is ready to eat something else. LOL So, this time when I made it, & divided it up into TWO 9 inch dishes. One was round & one square. One went into the oven to bake for supper, & one got wrapped up, labeled, & put into the freezer for another day. Here's a picture of both of them before they got covered in cheese.

Chicken Spaghetti
2 C. cooked chicken
2 C. Cream of mushroom soup (or 1 recipe of homemade condensed cream of chicken)
2 C. grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 C. green pepper, diced
1/2 C. onion, finely diced
1 -4 oz. jar diced pimentos, drained
3 C. dry spaghetti, broken into 2 inch pieces (I use the regular 16 oz. box)
2 C. reserved chicken stock
1 t. seasoned salt
1/8-1/4 t. cayenne pepper
salt & pepper to taste
1 additional cup of grated sharp cheddar cheese

Cook 1 cut up fryer & pick out the meat to make 2 cups. Cook spaghetti following directions on box for al dente, do not over cook. While spaghetti is cooking combine the rest of the ingredients except the additional 1 cup of cheese. Add the spaghetti when it is cooked & drained. Stir well. Pour into a lightly buttered 9x13 pan. Add the additional 1 cup cheese over the top.
You can bake it now at 350 for 45 minutes. Or, you can cover & refrigerate for up to 2 days. Or, you can cover & freeze for up to 6 months.

I served it with homemade black pepper & onion bread (fresh out of the oven & spread with real butter....mmmmm) & a simple salad.

Whenever I boil a chicken to make a bunch of stock, I ALWAYS save out 2 cups of the chicken & 2 cups of the stock & put them in a large freezer bag. I mark on the bag that it is 2 cups of chicken & stock to be used for CHICKEN SPAGHETTI! I get quite a few meals out of boiling one five dollar chicken fryer! And because I put this into two smaller pans instead of one large one, I feel like the next meal is a freebie.
Thanks to the Pioneer Woman for this great recipe!

Homemade Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup

Here is yet another recipe that I found over at Tammy's Recipe's.
This recipe replaces a can of cream of chicken soup (or any can of cream of soups) that you are adding to any recipe. I made it today & used it in Chicken Spaghetti Casserole (recipe coming soon).
It worked great! I plan on using some of the chicken stock that I have in the freezer to make some more & get a few bags into the freezer so I'll have some quickly when I need it. I think 1 1/2 cups of this recipe when finished equals 1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup.
Here is the link to the original recipe over at Tammy's.

Homemade Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
Yield: 3 cups (about 2 cans)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 dried sage leaves, crushed (about 1 t.)
about 1/2 t. dried thyme leaves
1-2 cloves of garlic (depending on size), minced
1/2 small onion, diced small
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt (or less; taste to test)
1/4 teaspoon parsley
dash of paprika
1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup flour

In medium-sized saucepan, simmer the chicken broth with the garlic & onion for about 5 minutes, or until onion is soft. Add 1/2 cup of the milk, and the seasonings & simmer for a few more minutes.
In a bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 cup of milk and flour. Add to boiling mixture and continue whisking briskly until mixture boils and thickens.
This gets really thick...like cream of chicken is when you dump it out of the can.
Use this in any recipe that calls for a can of cream of chicken soup.
You could add a few diced mushrooms (when you add the onion at the beginning) for cream of mushroom soup, or some diced celery for the cream of celery soup.
Thanks again, Tammy!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

My Kitchen Tip today is kind of an update on the drying herbs tip I did a while back. Here is a link to that post. It explains how I dried my herbs.
Today's tip shows you the end result of all that herb drying.
Here are all of the bags we had hanging up drying.


And here they are all put up in different sized jars. The tall jar in the back is a quart jar absolutely crammed full of thyme. I think I may have to seperate them into two jars. That's a lot of thyme! Next to the thyme in the back row is the parsley, sage, coriander seed, & peppermint.
The front row is dill seed, dill weed, basil, spearmint, & chamomile.

Here's a close up of the parsley. I was surprised at how green it stayed during drying!

Here is the sage. And it was delicious in the Thanksgiving dressing. :)
And the spearmint:
I have found that one little spearmint leaf crumbled up in my morning hot tea is very good! And so is just one chamomile flower (not crumbled, just immersed).

And here is that quart jar crammed full of thyme!
I have saved thyme in a bottle.....LOL..... I know those jokes are just sad. But I can't help myself. LOL

Here's the dill seed & the dill weed (or as I just refer to as dill). I only got a little bit of dill, because I wasn't on the ball with the dill & didn't get it harvested before it went to seed. That's why I have so many seeds! But we had a brief Indian Summer in October & a few dill shoots started sprouting. I left them alone until the night of our first freeze, then I went out & picked them so I would have a little to dry.

And lastly, here's the basil:
This was my first year having an herb garden, & I really enjoyed it. I loved having fresh herbs to go pick during the summer & fall. I really enjoyed drying them too. Hopefully I'll be more on the ball this coming year, & start harvesting a little earlier. I didn't get any cilantro harvested. It went to seed before I realized it was time to do it, hence all the coriander seed! (cilantro produces the coriander seed)

I would highly recommend growing your own herbs. It is very cheap, especially when compared to buying them in the store! I spent .59 on each packet of seed (although I did buy a few plants, but realized later that I didn't need them), & each packet produced a lot! And having the garden & drying the herbs is a lot easier than I realized. I wish I had been doing this for years!

You can see more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammy's Recipes.

Steak Fajitas

I got this recipe out of a Hidden Valley Ranch recipe booklet.

(ignore that messy stove, lol)

Steak Fajitas

1 packet (1 oz.) Hidden Valley Original Ranch Dressing Mix

2 T. olive oil

1 T. water

1 1/2 lbs. beef flank steak, cut into strips

3 cups assorted bell pepper & onion strips

tortillas, warmed

Optional fillings: guacamole, salsa, sour cream, tomatoes, cheese, etc...

Combine dressing mix with oil and water. Saute steak strips in dressing mixture. Add peppers and onions; cook until tender-crisp. Place mixture in tortillas. Add fillings, if desired.

These are very good! I have also used a nice sirloin steak to make these. They always taste great. This mixture is delicious in pita pockets too! Yum.

Birthday Week!

It's birthday week at our house!
Our little baby daughter, who was born the day after she was due, at 5 pounds 12 ounces & a whopping 21 inches long.....turned EIGHTEEN years old on Monday!
Ever since my friend Lori gave me the recipe for Creme de Menthe cake a few years ago, she always requests it for her birthday. It is delicious! You can find the recipe here.
(just ignore that first picture though, that was the first time I made it & I only used a little Hershey's candy bar. I now use the great big one they sell, & we totally cover the cake in chocolate curls. That first picture looks pretty sad....LOL)

And on Thurdsay, our little baby boy who was born a week before he was due, at 5 pounds 14 ounces, 19 1/4 inches long....turned SIX years old! Oh my goodnes, time really does fly! He is such a big boy!
He saw a tractor cake at WalMart last summer & said that was what he wanted. Instead of buying their $20 cake, I made one exactly like it. Nevermind the smudge in the 'dirt', that's where we had the candle in it last evening. I forgot to take a picture of just the cake until after we took the candle out.

We are so thankful to God for blessing us with these wonderful children!

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays

I found a new tip last week when I was putting all of my dried herbs into little jars. I needed to label each lid & I was out of blank labels. I usually keep a sheet of blank labels in one of my kitchen drawers, just a sheet from the package that you use with your printer to print your own address labels. I use them to label left-overs that I put in cool whip bowls & into the freezer. But, I've been out of those for a while. So lately when I've been freezing things, I write on a scrap piece of paper what I'm freezing & then tape it to the lid. That's not very neat looking, but it doesn't really matter for left-overs in the freezer. I wanted something nicer for my jars of herbs, so I went hunting for one more blank label page, even though I knew we were out. LOL
What I found was better! I found two pages of those free address labels you get in the mail from various charities. I think one was from Easter Seals & one was from Saint Jude's Children's Hospital. One page had Christmas pictures on them & the other had flowers, & because these were herbs I picked the flowers. I just used white-out on the printed address. And that's it! It made very pretty labels.

And here's a peek at my chamomile.

I have used up nearly all of my mayo lids for these herbs! I'll have to start saving more. LOL
You can see more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammy's Recipes.

Cajun Teriyaki Chicken Sandwiches

We had these sandwiches last evening & they were delicious! My dh found this recipe for me & printed it. It has only been in my 'to be cooked' stack for about a month. I didn't know the origional source on-line for this recipe because I think he got it from one of the MS forums. I did google it, & it came up as a George Foreman Recipe.

Cajun Teriyaki Chicken Sandwiches
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
8 slices cooked bacon
4 slices cheese (any type)
4 leaves of lettuce
1 cup roasted red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
4 tbsps teriyaki sauce
4 tsps Cajun seasoning
4 sets of toasted buns

Pound chicken beasts to about 1 inch thickness. Cut into 2 equal pieces.Rub chicken with Cajun seasoning and place on a medium hot grill. Grill forabout 5 to 6 minutes or until done. Brush with teriyaki sauce and remove from grill. Assemble sandwiches with 1 chicken piece, two strips of bacon, 1 slicecheese, lettuce and 1/4 cup of roasted bell peppers.Serves: 4

This recipe is a KEEPER! We all loved it. I did use 3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, & I cut them in half to make 6 sandwiches. I also forgot to buy lettuce & the sandwich was fine without it. I also *splurged* & purchased a bottle of roasted red peppers. Oh my, DELICIOUS! I've had roasted peppers before (they are delicious stuffed), but I had never put them on a sandwich. It was really REALLY good! I look forward to doing this with our green peppers next summer.
I put pepper jack cheese on half the sandwiches & monterery jack on the rest.
Also, I didn't grill them, it's too frigid here right now! I just cooked them on the stove in a little olive oil.
This is a little silly, but I must say that this frosty mug of root beer washed it all down beautifully. :)

Books I Read in 2008

Here's my list of books that I read during 2008:

1001 Gardening Secrets The Experts Never Tell You by the editors fo FC&A Publishing

A Light in the Window by Jan Karon

A Man Called Peter: The Story of Peter Marshall by Catherine Marshall

A Skating Life by Dorothy Hamill

An unpublished/untitled fantasy novel

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Apollyon by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

Assassins by Tim Lahaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon

Death by Darjeeling (A Tea Shop Mystery) by Laura Childs

Julie by Catherine Marshall

Life's Journeys According to Mister Rogers Things to Remember Along the Way by Fred Rogers

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Magic Elizabeth by Norma Kassirer

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B. Ross

Miss Julia Takes Over by Ann B. Ross

Mistaken Identity by Don & Susie Van Ryn and Newell, Colleen & Whitney Cerak

Nicolae by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

Obsessed by Ted Dekker

Parenting Isn't For Cowards by Dr. James C. Dobson

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

Rachael Ray YUM-O The Family Cookbook

Recipes from the Herbal Kitchen by Prevention Health Books

Soul Harvest by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

The Beginner's Bible (reading aloud to 5 year old son)

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Indwelling by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

The Last Sin Eater by Francine Rivers

The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, & The Return of the King) by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Mark by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

The Message by Eugene Peterson

The New Testament NIV

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

The Strong-Willed Child by Dr. James C. Dobson

The Way They Learn by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Down by Neta Jackson

The Yada-Yada Prayer Group by Neta Jackson

When Christ Comes by Max Lucado

Peanut Butter Balls

Peanut Butter Balls are pretty much tradition around here during Christmas time. This is my mom's recipe. It's simple, it's easy, & boy oh boy, they are delicious! This recipe makes a TON, so I did cut it in half this year, & I got approximately 200 peanut butter balls.

Peanut Butter Balls
4 C. peanut butter (40 oz. jar)
1 pound (4 sticks) butter or margarine
2 pound bag powdered sugar (& maybe a cup or so more)
Dipping chocolate

Mix the butter & peanut butter in mixer until smooth. Add powdered sugar (not all at once). I usually change my mixer over to the dough hook. You may need to add an additional cup or so of powdered sugar.
Roll into balls & place on a cookie sheet lined with wax or parchment paper. Chill in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Dip into dipping chocolate & place on another cookie sheet with wax or parchment paper & allow to harden. Sometimes I store mine in the frig, but you don't have too.

These also make wonderful little gifts. I made up little bags of them for all of my babysitting parents, my mom & m-i-l, the pastor & youth pastor at church, & we still had plenty! Of course they're gone now, but if I'd had the time to make a full batch, there would be some in the freezer. LOLMy friend Lori puts some rice crispie cereal in her peanut butter balls. I think that sounds really good & I'm going to try that next time. Here's her recipe.