Grandma Dot Came to do Crafts with us

I adore my mom. I am so very thankful to have her. She had a sleepover the other day, and brought crafts! I made the corndog muffins for lunch, and well, they turned out passable. I think the reason MAY be that the box of mix was way expired...oops. Yeah, I need to check those things.

Bowtie Bliss Pasta

Is is Martha that says, "It's a good thing."? 

That's what pasta is. Ha ha.

This meal came about when I ran out of cheese. Horrors!

I threw in a bunch of stuff that I thought would give it taste, and it turned out great. Very Thankful.

Usually, I'm happy if a meal is edible. It's my motto... It may not be amazing, but it's edible. Ha ha!

I'm not a recipe maker, I'm like my grandma. I just throw stuff in. I have no measurements.

Cook the pasta

Throw in the black olives, cut tomato, sliced ham (I used deli sliced- 'cause it's what I had)

Mix in Olive Oil (oh yum)

I used a little bit of the garlic you get in the jar

Salt and Pepper (whatever. just season it however you want. haha.)

Let it all simmer down. Next time, I'll use more tomato. I was just using what I had at the time, and the tomato cooks down. I hope you find this pasta meal as yummy as I did. It's nice and simple, and THAT'S a good thing!

French Dip Crescent Rolls

This was another Pinterest find. I HAD to try it. It turned out scrumptious!

I got it from Mama Loves Food Blog

I changed mine a smidge. I didn't use horse radish, and I made them with the large crescent rolls.

It turned out to be a great night. My sister brought a huge salad, and my brother brought a home made cheesecake. We had such a nice evening together.

Tasty Snack

I surprised the boys today by making them Snow cones... well, bowls, really. I just put capri sun in some snow. haha. They loved it. Usually, they're so picky about food.

I shouldn't have been surprised that this turned out so well. I mean, who doesn't like pizza ingredients?

For New Year's Eve, we made pizzas with english muffins. I had some ingredients leftover, so decided to experiment. 

Chips

Pizza Sauce

Mozzarella Cheese

Toppings (i had mushrooms, and ground meat toppings)

and nuked it. Oh yum.

Chocolate Play Dough

You HAVE to try this craft/food! It's both! It's so simple to make, and really fun to play with...

and it's fun to eat!

I found it at Edible Chocolate Play Dough by

Joyful Homemaking

Mix 16 oz (one conainer) of Chocolate Frosting

1 cup of Peanut Butter

1 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar

I ended up having to add more powdered sugar as I mixed the dough. 

It turned out smelling heavenly, and was easy to work with. We had loads of fun

making shapes, and sneaking tastes. 

Margo says the mixture stays good in a baggie in the fridge for about a week.

Crock Pot Boot Camp

ok, so everyone knows... i hate to cook. i am in my late 30's and have not consistently cooked ever. it's always been frozen meals, or fast food... or sandwiches. sometimes, hubbie cooks mac and cheese, or fried egg sandwiches, or pirogies.

i cook pastas, stuff, but just about everything i make has the meat already cooked.

i've always had a nervousness about raw meat. i don't like touching it, and thinking of all the germs. i don't like being afraid that somehow i'll transmit sickness to the house with undercooked or cross contaminated meat. ugh... so i've kind of escaped from it all these years.

this week, i'm trying something monumental in my little realm. i am trying to cook crock pot meals every day this week. i'm trying to use actual raw meat (gag).

Monday-

i cooked a creamy chicken dish that turned out way overcooked, but it was edible... it was

*peas, chicken breasts, cream of chicken soup, a little garlic, and a chicken spice mix (i hate figuring out spices, and just glaze out if i see too many in a recipe)

i cooked it on low, but jeff got home really late, and so it had been cooking for about 8 hours on low. (def too long)

Tuesday-

tuesday's meal turned out much better, and even then it was a stress for me. it was

*potatoes, beef stew meat (raw, chopped chunks- i had a hard time dumping them in, and one plopped on the ground. eek. so i had to handle them and put it all in by hand- double gag- then i sprayed bleach cleaner everywhere, and wanted to take a shower in the bleach), baby carrots, sweet onions, i added garlic, meat spice, a little tomato sauce, a few stewed tomato, little bit of soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce.

i probably wouldn't have thrown all those extra things in if the can of soup i was going to use wasn't already eaten by my hungry hubbie the other day. lol! so that was a setback. i had already cut everything and added the meat, and learned i didn't have the soup. so i just put the other stuff in and cooked it all plain.

the smell of it after a few hours gave me headache. i'm not sure if it was the onions, or just that it was such a constant strong smell. i mean, it smelled good, like cooking stew, but with a headache, i couldn't take it, and opened the windows to air out the house a little bit.

soooo, that meal was a success all told. and i even ate the leftovers today for lunch. i adore cooked carrots and potatoes.

Wednesday-

Today is Wednesday, and i put some chicken breasts in with an alfredo sauce i had. i have no clue how it will turn out, but i didn't have any soup mixes. i had only planned on doing 3 crock pot meals, so this one is a little bit of a winger. i'm going to cook it 3 hours on high, and put some chicken spice, and cheddar cheese on top towards the end. who knows. we may have sandwiches tonight.

i'll edit and add more as the week goes on.