Crock Pot Pizza Casserole

This is a very simple and fast recipe for either a weekend or a weeknight with some adjustments.

The recipe is for a crock pot, but you can make it in the oven too.  I made mine in the oven, but the recipe calls for the crock pot.  The crock pot version would be great for a pot luck or a football gathering!

In our case I needed to make supper and make in less than 3-4 hours.

I got this recipe from Hy-Vee's emailed recipes.

Here are the ingredients:
1 lb hamburger (I used turkey)
16 oz cooked linguine pasta
2 cans pizza sauce
2 cups mozzarella cheese

Cook hamburger, and then layer either in a baking dish or crock pot.  Layer half noodles, half hamburger, 1 can sauce, and 1 cup mozzarella.  Then layer again with remaining ingredients.  Bake covered at 350 for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake another 7-10 minutes until it starts to brown on edges.  If using a crock pot layer the ingredients like above and cook on low for 3-4 hours mixing occasionally.

It was good and my little guy had 4 helping which was probably 1 serving for me!  Very friendly toddler food!

To make it even healthier use whole grain linguine noodles and make your own pizza sauce.

Pioneer Woman's Pico de Gallo

I love Pico de Gallo!  I usually just chop up whatever I have available and voila snack yummy goodness!  Well I followed Pioneer Woman's Pico recipe for our football day!  Here is the recipe for Pico de Gallo. 

Except I did change a few things since my two year old digs into this dip and eats it too.  I reduced the amount of jalapenos and omitted the guacamole.  I love guacamole, but my husband isn't a fan of it.  I also used some yellow tomatoes I had left from my garden. 

Asian Shrimp Soup

My very most favorite meat is shrimp!  I love the flavor and the texture of it...plus it tastes good in so many things!

When we first tried this recipe my husband made it for me a couple years ago for my birthday.  He wanted to spoil me and cook me dinner.  Not to mention use my favorite meat too.

I was craving this soup and decided to drag the recipe out and make it again.  It was so easy and yummy!

Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
1 lb shrimp (I bought the precooked which are already peeled and deveined)
1 can condensed chicken and rice soup
1 pkg. broccoli stir fry veggies
2 cups chicken broth

Bring chicken broth and soup to a boil.  Then add shrimp and stir fry veggies.  Cook for 20 minutes on low-medium.  Then eat!  See how easy it is!  This is definitely a fast work night dinner. 

Oh by the way...my son who is 2 years old even liked it!  He also loved the shrimp which called chicken, but I wasn't going to correct him since he was eating it so easily!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

My husband and son love Reese's Peanut Butter cups. They are probably one of my little family's weakness. So when I found this cookie recipe I knew it was going to be a hit! I found the recipe on AllRecipes website.

Here is the recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies.

Oh so gooey and yummy!

Pesto Chicken Spaghetti

Last week we had one of our favorites, but strange enough we never eat it.  I love pesto it's such a great smell and taste!  My little Lukas even ate it.  Well he normally eats anything with chicken.  It's his favorite meat.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 16 oz package of noodles (I used linguine noodles)
1 6 oz pesto jar
2 cups whipping cream
2 cups cooked and diced Chicken
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese


Cook chicken and dice into small pieces. Cook noodles according to package directions, and while noodles cook bring cream to a light boil. Add pesto to cream cook on low for a few minutes and add chicken. Drain noodles return to pan and coat with cream, pesto, and chicken sauce. Cook on low for 5 minutes. Top with Parmesan cheese.

It's easy and yumm-O!!!

My Favorite Teas

When it comes to morning cups of warm beverages I am a tea drinker.  I have 3 favorite teas right now.  My best bud the other Jessie Tabor (we married cousins so we have the same name) got me into tea back when I was pregnant.  She would put some sugar or honey and milk in her tea.  Oh and I had to drink decaffeinated tea back then while be pregnant so it was mostly herbal teas.

I do this every single morning except on the days I drink iced coffees.  I have a special place in my heart for those too.  If you buy chai tea and do the milk, and sugar it's like drinking a chai tea latte.  Delicious!

1st favorite is Lipton's Vanilla Carmel Truffle Black Tea.  It's so good!  I have been known to have another cup after I finished the first cup.

2nd favorite is Lipton's Spiced Chai Black Tea.  This was actually my first love of tea after I wasn't pregnant anymore!  Some milk and Equal are awesome in this tea!

3rd favorite is NUMi White Orange Spice white tea.  This is a soft and light flavored tea.  It was perfect for summer.  Plus it's organic!

Tomorrow I am getting together with some friends for a tea date!  Cannot wait!♥ 

Baking Spree...

I have been on a baking spree. The air gets cool and all I can think about is making breads and cookies. The 'past me' would be totally shocked! I never liked baking or cooking when I was younger. Why does that happen? When you get older you like to bake and cook? StrAngE!

Anyway I made some fabulous Zucchini Bread and brought it to work and shared with my co-workers. I got lots of "this is so good" and "what a moist yummy bread!" I was happy! I love sharing and getting good feedback. It's better than them telling me nothing and then I would know they didn't like it.

Here is the recipe *Zucchini Bread* I used from AllRecipes.com.

Oh another note...

I made some Banana Chocolate Chip bread. It's one of my favorite recipes. The recipe is so good that I even made two loaves for my birthday to share in my office last year. However, I will have to blog about it another time. When a two year old is running around and you get side tracked every other ingredient you may forget one ingredient sometimes. Right? Well I made the bread and thought to myself "this dough looks different." I forgot to put sugar in it. It tasted like banana chocolate chip health bread. It sucked! Oh well what ya gonna do.

I think I will make something else and come back to that later.

Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since it's chilly out I have been baking like there is no tomorrow! I made more chocolate chip cookies. This time from Pioneer Woman's blog.



Here is the recipe for the Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies. I did like them. I didn't love them...but I think the butter might have been too warm or too much butter and they totally flattened out. I don't like flat cookies, but I am sure others do.


Also...they didn't taste like a chocolate malt. I was really hoping they would. I may make this recipe again, but next time I am going to do some tweaking. I want to use less butter, a little more flour, and maybe some cocoa. I want a chunky cookie with more of a chocolate malt flavor.


Don't get me wrong though...they are still yummy and we will eat them! No worries there! I just won't follow this recipe exactly the same next time.

Football Night Pizzas

Last Thursday night our beloved Vikings played the first game of the season. To celebrate and watch I made homemade pizzas. Not just any homemade pizzas, but BBQ chicken pizza and buffalo chicken pizza.

Here is the dough recipe I use. It's actually my Mom's recipe she has used for years from her Betty Crocker Cookbook she got eons ago.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:
1 package of dry yeast
1 cup of warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 TBSP vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups flour

Dissolve yeast into water and then combing other ingredients. Mix and toss into pizza dough and then spread out on a lightly greased pizza pan. Score (with a fork make marks all over pizza) and bake for 5 minutes. Take dough out, add toppings, and then bake until cheese turns light brown.

I didn't have any BBQ sauce so I used a homemade recipe from my Father In Law.


Ingredients:
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 TBSP brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup tomato paste

Combine in bowl together. It was yummy!

The first pizza had BBQ sauce, onion, bacon bits, chicken, and mozzarella. Even Lukas dissected the pizza and at the cheese and chicken.


The second pizza had Buffalo sauce, onion, green pepper, red pepper flakes, chicken, bacon bits, and mozzarella.


They were yummo! Too bad our Vikings lost. We are missing some really important players, but I think the next few games will be all about getting the rhythm and we will be victorious! Why not...right?

The Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookie

My little family loves chocolate chip cookies. So when I found this recipe I knew I had to try it. It's basically a monster cookie without M&M's. Oh and they are way smaller than monster cookies!



Here is the recipe for The Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies. My husband and little one loved these! As did I! I made them Tuesday evening and by Thursday night the whole batch was gone and we didn't share them with anyone! Yikes! Now that is when you know you have a really great cookie recipe!

Turkey Tomato Pasta in Mozzarella

This recipe I found off Simply Recipes blog/website. It was great! I accidentally added too much cheese...is there such a thing? Ha ha...we love cheese so it worked out! I also used ground turkey instead of turkey sausage. Give it a try though it's awesome!

Pasta with Turkey, Tomato, and Mozzarella This is the link with the full recipe!

Pickle Beef Rollups and Buffalo Chicken Dip

Last Friday we had a big grill out for my husband's birthday. We had got some hamburgers, brats, and hot dogs for the get together. I also made some yummy appetizers!


I made some Pickle and Beef rollups. These are my husband's favorite! He was eating them while I was making them. Which is actually counter productive, but I let him do it since it was his birthday!

To make these rollups:
1 package of tortillas
1 container of dried beef
1 package of cream cheese
1 can of hamburger pickles

Spread cream cheese on tortilla, place dried beef to cover tortillas, and then put 2 layers of pickles down the middle. Roll the tortilla up and then slice into appetizer pieces. So delicious!


The other appetizer I made was Buffalo Chicken Dip. He loves buffalo wings and this dip is perfect for parties!

To make dip:
1 package of cream cheese
1 cup buffalo sauce
2 cups cooked and shredded chicken
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup blue cheese dressing
1 cup mozzarella cheese

Spread cream cheese on the bottom of a 13x9 pan. Mix buffalo sauce, chicken, and butter then pour over cream cheese. Drizzle blue cheese dressing over the chicken mixture and then top with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Eat with chips! As you can see I didn't even get much of a chance to take a picture. Next time I will double the recipe so I have more to offer!

Yogurt Chocolate Chip Cookies

My friends and I had a picnic at our local park this last Sunday. We all got together for sandwiches and then shared dips, chips, fruit, and cookies. Everything was awesome!

Here is the recipe I followed for the Yogurt Chocolate Chip Cookies. This chocolate chip cookie recipe is probably my favorite right now. I didn't change a thing. I also made these earlier in the summer with margarine, but I used butter this time. I like the use of margarine in the recipe better.



Some other things I brought to the picnic were pico de gallo, grapes, and natural white cheddar Cheetos!