recipes and giveaways!!

Oh its time for a giveaway but not from me!! Kristina P and Jenny Mac are both hosting giveaways!!! Kristina is giving away tickets to the Casual Bloggers Conference here in Utah. Jenny Mac is giving away a Jimmy Choo Bag AND a $100 gift card to this Women's apparel store Cosabella. I had never heard of them, probably because it is super high end. On a side note when I entered the gift card give away I left some smart comment about the sizes of the bra and how I thought they were different. They are, I had never seen sizes 1,2,3,4,5 in bra's...... well I got a very nice email from a Company Rep telling me all their sizes and this and that. I was very impressed by her. So much so that I want to win all 3 giveaways... So I am not posting links to these you have to go find them. HAHAHAHA but as a boobie prize I will post a recipe that I found yesterday in Southern Living. I know none of you get that magazine but it is my FAVORITE. The Recipe is Chicken Parmesan Pizza. Its so easy you all could make it, maybe even your husbands.....



Here is the LInk : Super Easy Pizza

I am to lazy to write it all up... but its still easy i am just lazy. Also I have not made it.... But how can you go wrong with cheese, chicken fingers, and garlic bread !?!?! Let me know if you have questions and/or problems I may help!!

3 ingredient cookies! x2

I know I know... I have been MIA... thats because I have not had anything of importance to blog about until about 2 minutes ago. After I posted a facebook status about how I had made 3 ingredient chocolate chip pumpkin cookies.... Did I get 10 likes and tons of praise? NO, I got made fun of.. WHAT THE HELL. I am sorry I use cake mix to bake. Sorry, I did not roast a pumpkin to make my own pumpkin puree... I was busy watching my son, doing never ending laundry and cleaning, and who the crap wants to roast their own pumpkin.... They can suck it. So here are 2 recipes for all the busy mom's out there that want to make tasty, easy, homemade cookies for their young ones.... Or anybody else who likes easy cookies.


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (the recipe I got crap for)

1 spice cake mix
1 bag of chocolate chips
1 can of pumpkin... (the smaller one).

Mix all ingredient together and cook for about 12 mins at 350... SO EASY SO GOOD.



Peanut Butter cookies. ( I thought everyone had this and made it... but my neighbor surprised me and said she had never heard of these....)

1 egg
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of peanut butter

Mix all together and roll into ball. Then take a fork and press the back of it into some more sugar and make press down on the peanut butter ball and then rotate 45 degrees and press again... You know like those patterns in other peanut butter cookies... Cook at 350 for about 10-12 mins.


But by all means if you feel like roasting a pumpkin or making your own peanut butter go ahead... I won't stop you or make fun of you on facebook..... I will make fun of you on my blog.

HAPPY F-F-F-FRIDAY RECIPE BOX!

OH Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a good week. I had a BUSY, but productive week. And I am excited about the Diabetes Walk-a-thon tomorrow morning! So fun.... I was not going to blog today because I was tired and had nothing really exciting to say, then I felt bad and decided that I had not done friday recipe box in awhile. So some background on this uniquely Utahan dish... The Hawaiian Haystack can be traced back to the Pioneers who brought it across the plains and usually made it for special occasions. Where they got pineapple and chow mien noodles is beyond me, but Hey, I am glad they brought this Yummy Mormon recipe with them and have passed it down for generations. I actually remember the first time I had a Hawaiian Haystack... I was 12 and it was at church for a special occasion and was prepared by someone from Utah... go figure. I had never heard of them while growing up in Alabama this was new, exciting and wonderful!! It does make a lot so either prepare it for a group meal or freeze leftovers which freeze nicely in a gallon ziploc back!

What you will need:

12-15 boneless skinless chicken tenders (thawed diced or frozen to cut up when served Its up to you either works fine)
1 14 oz can chicken broth
2 cans cream of chicken soup -condensed
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
A LOT OF COOKED RICE
toppings - more on that at the bottom
a crock pot -directions for stove top at the bottom.

To Make gravy: grease inside of pot with cooking spray of your choice. Place chicken in the crock pot. Mix broth, soup, and milk together and pour over chicken cook for 6-8 hours on low! So Yummy sometimes If I don't have evaporated milk I will make it without it and its fine... OR you can use one the small blocks of cream cheese.... either way its GOOD.

Stove top dice thaw chicken into cubes and cook until no longer pink Pour broth, soup and milk and cook until heated thru.

Serve chicken gravy over hot rice and top with the toppings of your choice like you would in a taco, salad, potato bar setting.

TOPPINGS: pineapple tidbits, cheddar cheese, coconut, chow mien noodles, kidney beans, olives, green onions, ham, And any other topping you think might be good on it! I have seen raisins,carrots and tomatoes, but I won't go there.

camping food!

Dear Readers....

Are you going camping this weekend?? I know a lot of my friends are because its the end of summer =/ So here are a few recipes to help all you folks not going camping feel like you are there. So I am not one to stand up and shout for JOY when the word camping is mentioned. HOWEVER. I do enjoy me some camp food. So here are some easy simple ones you can do at home If you feel like it. Not sure where they originated so I can't take credit for them...

Breakfast: Omelets in a baggie.... Sounds gross but it is not!! It is good, easy and fun for all!!!

You will need:

smallish gallon size "ziploc" baggies of some kind 1 or 2 for each person
eggs
omelet toppins such as:
cheese
mushrooms
ham
onions
you know whatever you want

To Make:
Get the BIGGEST pot you have and get some water boiling in it. Then hopefully you have prepped all your toppings..... Have each person put 2 or 3 eggs in their bag along with their toppings of choice. Seal bag and squeeze, mush, mix up whatever. Place each bag, It helps if you write your name on your bag, in the pot of BOILING water. Cooking time takes around 15 mins depending on how many bags and toppings and such but you don't want it runny. You want it cooked like an omelet. This is really fun for kids and you could even do this when you go camping buy making the baggies at home and taking them with you......


Lunch/Dinner Hobo Style

Well some call them Tin Foil Dinner I call them Hobo because its just fun!!

What you will need
carrots - baby carrots or small chunks
onion peeled and cut
potato =peeled and cut
hamburger patty
olive oil
tin foil

Preheat oven to 400

Prep all your veggies and give each person a large piece of foil.... Have each person take a patty place on foil and top with onions, carrots, and potato. drizzle with olive oil and Salt and Pepper or any seasoning of your choice. Wrap and Bake for 60-90 mins or until the veggies are done. I have had a problem with this and seem to have to cook mine closer to 75 mins. So check after an hour. Every now and then I do put zucchini or squash with this but they cook WAY fast so you can add this just cook them in their own packet. Very good to mix up the veggies with what you have.

And last but not least MY Favorite S'mores.... I know there is nothing like making one over a fire...So if you are lucky enough to have a fire pit at your house fire that baby up!!! So we all know how to make a S'more... If you don't please do not ever come back to my blog......... If you just don't like them.... well I think you are crazy. For this reason I am not even going to bother with all the steps and ingredients BUT will make a suggestion of mixing up the chocolate.... I did this one time because I did not want to buy a bag of plain chocolate but a bag with other stuff and plain chocolate bars.... While making them I was like HEY I want a peanut butter cup on my S'more and it snowballed into all the candy bars that work and DO NOT work on the
S more

YES: Plain chocolate, chocolate bar with almonds or peanuts, Dark Chocolate, Peanut Butter Cups, Kit-kat
No: Twix, Mounds, Almond Joy, Snickers, just candy bars that aren't flat Whoopers do not work either. White chocolate is hit or miss..... So just try it with whatever candy bar you want.

Have fun faux-camping
xoxoxo

Leah

The incredible edible meatball!

Dear Mr. Meatball,

I love you soooooooo much. Not only are you tasty but you make my life so much easier around dinner time. Did you know that there are 101 things you can do with said meatball???




I LOVE that cookbook! I really really really do. You should go and BUY it, and any of the other 101 things cook books that Mrs. Stephanie Ashcrafts has written. I like her cooking style.... cooking on a budget -check easy -check tasty -double check. Because honestly I do not want to cook some crazy dinner with tons of ingredients every night.

I once got a chef's 365 meals with no repeats cookbook.... Yes some of the recipes looked good but really some of the recipes had A PAGE. YES one page of ingredients... NO, THANK YOU. Followed by 2 pages of instructions.... OMG really NO that that does not sound like a 30 minute meal to me. I did not try any of the recipes in there. On that note I know I lost many of you because A- you cook like a 5 star michelin chef every meal - JennyMac and Little Ms Blogger .... Or you don't cook -- Kristina P....... (kristina do you cook?? I don't know) But I know there are my readers to do cook like me.... you know what there are because I have gotten calls about recipes I have posted on here.

But anyways back to my not so any more secret love affair with Mrs. Ashcraft. Um well I have bought like 7 of her cook books and refer to them often and I wish my friends would buy their own copies... - Susan and Stef because not only does she give the meatball a good name and finds different ways to cook it up.... She also wrote 2 cookbooks that changed my life forever. 101 and 101 more things to do with a crock pot. Did you know I made some bread in the crock pot once?? and it was good... tasted like homemade bread my mom use to make.

Back to Mr. Meatball .... please don't throw up your nose at him... He will always love you and never do you wrong. So here are some of my favorite recipes from Mrs. Ashcroft.... Meatballs and Spaghetti Sauce. This is such a easy recipe that you can do a few things with .... So put as many meatballs as you think you will need and as many jars of sauce as you like... I usually do about 45 meatballs and 1 jar of sauce but you know your family better.... And with that you can have your regular old spaghetti and meatballs... OR you can make meatball subs/grinders. Those are so tasty easy!!

Another favorite is the Sweet and Sour Meat ball!!! YUMMO... so about 45 meatballs. I think a rule for meatballs are about 8-10 meatballs per person... 5 for kids OR MORE. But I like my meatballs. Also need is a can of CRUSHED pineapple, 1/2 cup brown sugar, a few dashes of soy sauce. Mix all that together and pour over all the meatballs... I keep meaning to buy pineapple juice to add because hub loves sauce so if you like more sauce add some more pineapple juice and mix with a tablespoon of cornstarch. And serve over rice or pasta. OR you can serve as an appetizer if needed. Someone told me meatball appetizers were so 1960s... and I told them they can suck it. Honestly.

In closing Stephanie Ashcraft is a good cook who writes a mean cookbook! check them out you won't be sorry!! Actually I think those 2 recipes I got from the crock pot cook books.... Well go get those, the meat ball one, and the 2 101 things to do with a cakemix!! SOOO GOOD, and you will thanks me.


xoxoxoxoxo,
Leah