#16 Perfect Sweet Tea

My husband is a Georgia boy through and through, so when I saw this I had to make it immediately. I usually get praises for my sweet tea, but this time it was, "Just like home." How can I argue with that? The pinner called it the smoothest sweet tea, no bitterness. My husband heartily agrees.

Ingredients:5 - 8  Family size Tea Bags. (or 12 regular Tea Bags) 
        ( I prefer  #1 Luzianne or  #2 Liptons Brand Teas.)1 Quart  (4 Cups) - Boiling Water
3 Quarts (12 cups) - Cool Water
1 1/2 - 2 (one & a half) - Cups Sugar. 
1/4 teaspoon - Baking Soda (this IS the SECRET Ingredient!!)

Directions:
Boil water, add tea bags and let boil for 3-4 minutes, pour into pitcher, add sugar and baking soda, add cold water to make a gallon!

Thank you Craving Comfort!!!

(I'll let you in on one more secret...I don't like tea, in any form. I've tried them all, and they all just taste like I'm chewing on leaves. Had to take the husband's word on this one. Oh well.)

#15 Chocolate Peanut Butter Crescent Rolls

So, by now I should probably be buying stock in Pillsbury. Saw this one today and just happened to have it all in my cabinet. Who doesn't have peanut butter, chocolate chips and crescent rolls???

It's a delicious snack that the kids got a good kick out. Plus it just smells heavenly when it's cooking.

Ingredients:

Can of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

Peanut Butter

Chocolate Chips

Directions:

Separate the triangles of dough, slather on the peanut butter and then chocolate chips! Bake according to the directions.

So good right out of the oven!!! Perfect for when you've got a sweet tooth.

#14 tonights teaser

Going rogue tonight people...

I'm missing one ingredient for the pulled pork recipe, so I'm going to wing it!

#13 Cheesy Chicken Tater Tot Casserole (slow cooker!)

Let me tell you, I never said I'd cook healthy, just that I'd cook well. This was sooo good. Another new family favorite, that list is getting long! Needless to say I'm working out more to help offset all this yumminess.

Ingredients:
1 (32 oz.) bag frozen tater tots
1 (3 oz.)bag bacon pieces
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup milk
salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:

Spray the slow cooker with cooking spray, or use a liner bag.

Place half the tater tots in 

Place 1/3 of the bacon and cheese in

Put in the chicken, season with salt and pepper to taste

Put 1/3 of the bacon and cheese in

Place the remaining 1/2 of tater tots

Place remaining 1/3 of bacon and cheese on top

Pour milk over entire pot

Cook on low for 4-6 hours

So, super easy, as always. I did make a few adjustments. I have a small crock pot and this dish filled it up. I set it on low as the directions said, but an hour later when the tater tots and cheese on top were still cold I got nervous. I turned it to high for the remaining 3 hours. 

The tater tots were good but broke apart easily. I don't know if that's supposed to happen or not. Next time I'll put everything in earlier and try it like the recipe says. 

I also used real bacon. Nothing beats real bacon! Just fried up about 3 slices then diced them up. You can add more if you like.

 

You can find the recipe here! She also has directions for making this in the oven! 

Check out her other recipes, there's like a gazillion I want to try!

#12 Bacon and Pancakes, tips and tricks - fail...

I think one misstep is ok after all the wonderful dishes I've made. Right? 

I can whip up bacon and pancakes with the best of them, but last night I decided to try a couple of new tricks...

First, I had never seen bacon cooked in the over. I did as the pinner suggested, 350 for 20 min. It cooked fine, but it was rather chewy. And, I couldn't get all the bacon on one pan like they did. 

Then I'd seen a pin where they poured pancake batter over cooked bacon...seemed like a great idea. Not so much. There were no directions, so I winged it. Here's what I was dealing with during this whole process...

 

I have to admit it was pretty funny at the time. My husband didn't agree when he was the one cleaning up the mess on the counter.

Since I precooked the bacon there wasn't much grease, so I didn't have to worry about the pancakes tasting like it. The problem I was having was the pancakes were just falling apart as I tried to flip them. Oh well.

At least they were edible, but next time I'll just make it the old fashioned way. 

 

#11 Easy BBQ Ribs in the slow cooker!

I'm batting 1000 on these recipes. This one though...made me speechless. That's a hard feat I know, but true. So amazing. My husband actually called them, "Phenomenal!"

Ingredients:

1.5 tbsp sweet paprika (3tbsp) (Edited Feb '12 to say I've also used mild smoked paprika with fantastic results)

1 tbsp light brown sugar, lightly packed (2 tbsp)

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (1/4 tsp)

S&P to taste (about 1 tsp each is what I used)

2 lbs pork (baby) back ribs (6 lbs) - leave the membrane on the ribs to help hold them together

1 cup barbecue sauce (3 cups)

Vegetable oil spray

 

So the creator halved her recipe to accommodate only 2 lbs of ribs. My rack was about 3 1/4 lbs, so I used the full seasoning, and about 2 cups of BBQ sauce. I used Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce. I've been a fan since the BBQ hamburgers I made. 

I do have to say that the best invention since sliced bread are crock pot liner bags! Makes clean up sooooo much easier!

I placed the ribs meat side out and down to the outside of the pot as instructed, after seasoning of course.

I found that 6 hours was perfect because the meat still held together somewhat making them easier to handle.

Now the critcal step you can not overlook because it takes them from "ordinary to extrodinary" is reducing the juice and broiling. I have never reduced anything in my life, or at least not intentionally.

 

Super easy though. When I took the ribs out, I laid them meat down on a foil lined broiler pan, then I took the juice from the pot and boiled it for about 10 minutes. That evaporates some of the water and thickens it. I then used that to baste the ribs a couple of times while I had them under the broiler. After a few minutes I took them out and flipped them over repeating the process on the meat side. This made them their glorious color, also giving them a little sauce action without making them drip all over everything!

They turned out absolutely perfect!!! My slab was a little longer than my serving dish, but they were so beautiful all laid out.

 Tip: When turning on the crock pot, make sure it is plugged in. Otherwise you could be eating at 8pm because you realize 2 hours into the cooking process that no cooking was actually being accomplished.


Recipe: Easy Barbeque Ribs

#10 Crock pot Mac N Cheese

My family loves mac n cheese, and my husband has been wanting me to find a recipe for homemade mac n cheese. Well...here it is!

You know my mantra is, "easy is great, and simple is best!" This is definitely a fix it and forget it kind of dish. (Don't forget to set the timer!)

Ingredients:

Cooking oil spray

2 cups skim milk

1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk

1 egg

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 1/2 cups preshredded sharp cheddar cheese

2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni

Definitely be liberal with the cooking spray as it will start to stick to the sides. I did have to do some soaking and scrubbing to get it off. 

They suggested 3-4 hours. I suggest no more than 3. The longer it goes the thicker it gets. I think I would also forgo the egg. I'm not really sure of it's purpose, and I'm not big on eggs myself.

This is a new family favorite!

 

#9 Breakfast Sandwich

This was a total hit at my house yesterday. The boys love having breakfast at all times of the day.

The original recipe called for more overeasy type eggs, and english muffins. I did change it up a bit using biscuits and substituting sausage for the cheese. Although the cheese could easily be added.

I'm not a fan of eggs any way other than scrambled, so I did them scrambled in the pan instead of overeasy.

I took 8 eggs, (there were 8 biscuits) scrambled them and put them in the cupcake pan.They did have to be spread out over the 12 cups, or you could just cut down on the number of eggs you use. Baked them at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

I was able to put the pillsbury biscuits in to cook at the same time, and while those were going I fried up the sausage patties. 

I love multitasking!

So this is what I ended up with...

 

I laughed so hard when I put this together I nearly cried. The patty was too small, and the egg too big. No worries though it'll squish down.

They tasted amazing, and my husband loved the egg because he said it reminded him of fried eggs, which he loves, only baked. 

Tip: Generously spray the pan with cooking spray because the eggs will stick. 

#8 Bottle Cap Keychains

I had seen these around and thought they were adorable, so when I saw a pin on how to make them I decided to give them a try! The pin on pinterest didn't lead me anywhere, so I started to do some searching on my own.

First I went to sites like Hobby Lobby and Micheal's. They had diy kits, but they were pricey and I didn't want the premade designs. Sooooo.....I went to ebay. 

I heart ebay!!!

I was able to buy a kit that had the keyring, jump ring, bottle cap and epoxy stickers all in one! All I had to do was find the images. I heart google.

The kit I bought already had the keychain constructed. All I had to do was print the images on photo paper, and yes it needs to be photo paper. You should have seen what it looked like on regular paper. Not pretty. 

I did have some tools from my scrapbooking days that worked great for cutting out a nice even 1" circle, and the adhesive to attach the image to the bottle cap.

These would make great small gifts or party favors. You could do a theme for a team, support group or book club even! You can buy premade design sheets off etsy as well with designs of just about anything.

Here is what I came up with! Not bad if I do say so myself.

#7 Better than fries potatoes

I'm not a fan of tossing some frozen from the bag fries into the over like my husband is. I loved these! (He liked them too.) The pinner called them, "better than fries!"

I never thought to use olive oil on my potatoes before they were baked. That couple with the salt and pepper before baking made them awesome straight out of the oven. The original recipe for hassleback potatoes called for garlic as well. I will definitely try that next time.

These were great because of the potion size, plus the kids had a blast taking them apart with their fingers!

Ingredients:

4-6 potatoes

Olive oil

Salt and pepper, garlic to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and bake for 40 minutes.

I tossed these in the last bit of time I had my buffalo chicken going.

Tip: I'm going to try cooking some pressed garlic in olive oil for just a couple of minutes, then brush that mixture over the potatoes.

So good, so simple!

#6 Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

If you love buffalo wings this is a recipe for you! All it takes is 3 ingredients and a crock pot!

Ingredients:

3 lbs raw boneless skinless chicken breasts

12 oz bottle of Buffalo wing sauce

1 oz packet of dry Ranch mix

Pour sauce and ranch packet into the crockpot and mix. Add chicken, cook on hi 4-5 hours or low 8-10.

Delicious, but a little spicy for my kids, so they fell back on old faithful, hotdogs. 3 chicken breasts makes for a lot of shredded meat. We'll be eating the leftovers for days! (And we are, this was actually last nights dinner.)

Recipe from: emilybites

#5 Sausage Pinwheels

I'm 2 for 2 today!!! Crescent rolls are my new favorite thing. I literally bought six rolls of them the other day to use for different things.

Today I made sausage pinwheels. Although they weren't much of pinwheels. There were several different pins for them on pinterest, so I may have kind of possibly combined some things.

Ingredients:

1 can of Pillsbury crescent rolls, I buy the reduced fat because I think they taste the same, and then I don't feel so guilty when I eat more than one. Who's with me ladies? I know I'm not the only one who does this...

1 roll of Jimmy Dean sausage

1 small container of cream cheese

Cook sausage, in a bowl, mix sausage and cream cheese, fill crescent rolls, bake!

Couple of things, I hate it when my crescent roll dough falls apart as I'm trying to work with it. Also, the cream cheese needs to be soft or I'll try spreading it on the dough first. I used just enough cream cheese to coat the sausage, but you can use as much or as little as you like.

These were delicious, they'd make a great snack!

#4 Pinapple Lemonade Punch

This punch is the best! My boys are tearing it up! And, it's so easy, go figure. (Starting to think that's my middle name.) Just toss in the stuff, mix, and go! It's really sweet, so I don't know that I'd make it on a daily basis. It'd be great for company or parties.

The original pin went to a You Are My Sunshine baby shower theme.So cute!

Ingredients:

1 cup Countrytime Lemonade mix {or the likes}

2 cups cold water

1 can of chilled pineapple juice {46 oz}

2 cans chilled Sprite {or the likes}

Tip: when you have it in a pitcher or punch bowl, add some sliced lemons to make it look pretty!

I know I need to work on my presentation, but I've never had a need for a punch bowl before. Guess now I do.

 

#3 Best Pizza (& Spaghetti) Sauce in the World - Part 2!

Tonight's spaghetti was awesome! I took the left over sauce from yesterday's pizza sauce added a few things, and viola! A delicious spaghetti sauce that I whipped together in no time!

Pizza/Spaghetti sauce plus the following:

1 small can of tomato paste, to thicken

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can mushrooms, pieces and stems

Meatballs!

Super easy meatballs, 1 lb of hamburger meat, 1 egg white, season with garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste, mix and roll, boil til they float.

Pile all that on top of your favorite noodles. Throw some crescent rolls in the over, and enjoy!

Tip: place a half stick of mozzarella string cheese inside the crescent roll to bake, then when they come out rub a stick of butter along the tops, and sprinkle some garlic salt...mmmmm.

#3 Best Pizza Sauce in the World

Oh my word...I can not rave about this one enough! The sauce was so easy and absolutely divine! The pin had the directions to make, and the picture didn't lead me to any site so here it is...

Ingredients: 

1(15oz) can tomato sauce

1/4 c water

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp dried basil leaves

1/4 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp black pepper

1 whole bay leaf

1/2 tsp lemon juice. 

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan, cook over med. heat...simple as that! 

 I am very proud of myself on this one. I even squeezed a lemon, and I have never done that for fresh juice in my life.

So, the pinner titled it as a pizza sauce. The pizza tasted way better than it looks, promise. I did leave the one corner without pepperoni on purpose. I wanted to try it without to see how much of a kick the sauce had alone. It does have some, but it's not overwhelming.

1 can of refrigerated pizza dough

Roll out dough, cover with sauce, cheese and toppings of your choice, bake!

Tip: Run a stick of butter along the outside crust and sprinkle with garlic salt while it is still warm.

  I had plenty of sauce leftover/ Our family loves spaghetti, so I put it away in the fridge. 

Spaghetti variation, add the following:

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 can of mushrooms, pieces and stems

1 small can of tomato paste

1 lb ground beef

It was great! I think next time I'll saute some fresh garlic instead of using the powder. In fact, I'm thinking that's what we'll have for dinner tomorrow!

I heart pinterest!

#2 Apple Cinnamon Detox Water

How can you go wrong with cinnamon? I went with this one for a few reasons:

1. I LOVE cinnamon!

2. I wanted something to drink other than the soda and milk I had in the fridge.

3. It was simple.

So, I took the advice of the blogger who pinned it in the first place and used 2 apples and cinnamon sticks. I used gala apples. The way I figured it was that granny smith are too sour, red delicious are to bland, so gala worked great for me.

You really do need to let it steep overnight. Otherwise, you drink half the pitcher trying to taste it. It does get stronger over a few days. I personally wouldn't reuse the apples. They were starting to turn brown after 4 days, and I'm just weird like that.

As for a detox drink, I couldn't say. Obviously it did me some good because I actually drank water! My grandmother will swear by the benefits of cinnamon though. She takes a cinnamon vitamin supplement daily. (Been trying to get me to for ages.)

Taste wise, if you love cinnamon it's great! Throw it together with the kids. They'll get a kick out of putting it all in the water and watching it float around when you pour it.

Detox Apple Cinnamon Water pinner

You can find this and other delicious creations here ----> My Pinterest Edible Creations Board!

(Sorry I was slacking on the picture again. I'll get it next time. Promise!)

#1 Double Crunch Honey Garlic Chicken Breasts

I am constantly looking for new things to try. This dish was as delicious as it looked. I am not a fan of Asian food, but the soy sauce/honey mixture coupled with spice of the chicken seasoning was a definite hit.

I by no means consider myself a cook. I need very simplistic directions. When I look at a recipe and see ingredients that I can't pronounce I'm quick to move on. This recipe called for literally all of the spices in my cabinet, all 6 of them.

I would have posted a picture, but with the state of my kitchen...

First, it was a very easy recipe. I think the longest was measuring out the spices into the flour. I probably checked the recipe about 15 times. Have you ever put too much nutmeg in a dish? It's not pleasant.

It's been a while since I've pan fried chicken, so there were a couple of things I could have done differently, like upped the heat and downed the time a little to make it more crunchy.

I used my rice cooker and did microwave steamable green beans as the sides. (My spell check went off, so if steamable isn't a word, it is now.) I needed to keep them as simple as possible in case I came against an unexpected complication with the main dish. Plus, the sides were able to stay warm that way.

This is one recipe that will go in my cookbook of favorites.

You can find this wonderful dish here: Crunchy Honey Garlic Chicken Breasts

One pin down, a million to go...

To try or not to try, there is no question...

For those of you who can spend hours upon hours on pinterest, repinning pins upon pins, thinking to yourselves, "I love that! I want to make that, find that, hang that, eat that...", you're not alone. I constantly find things and go, "I'll pin this, and maybe I'll use it someday!" So far I've done about 4 recipes, which have all turned out fan-freaking-tabulous by the way, but nothing else. 

On my recent trip to Europe I was without my cell phone for 10 days. I survived. It made me realize I wanted to do something a little more productive with my time. I want to be able to see the fruits of my labors, or have labors for that matter. Both of my boys will be in school in less than a month, then I will have all day to myself! I'll need something to do. 

I've decided to start a blog, and try all those things I constantly repin that I never get around to doing. I want to make a wine bottle candle, decorative cupcakes and picture wall decor. I would still like to try my hand at quilting. But I'll start small. Besides this way it'll always be something new! Variety is the spice of life, as they say. 

I'm setting a goal of something new every week. I'd like to do it more often, but I figure once a week is an obtainable goal. You know how it goes, there's those weeks that fly by with appointments, softball games and school event nights. So, wish me luck as I try out something new. Who knows, maybe I'll find my niche, and never go back. At least I know I'll have fun trying. 

-Sarah