Macaroni salad

I have no idea what the mental block is with eggs.  My children are driving me nuts today!  They are not playing with neighborhood kids because they are supposed to be cleaning their room, which means i have to yell till it is done or do it myself, neither option is good.

Kenzie has also figured out how to climbt he stairs to the bunk bed. Those are about to come down.

Kaitlyne made honor roll again, and got ousted from Student Council, that is another story all together.

Yesterday was mother's day. I need a break. My husband has been being handy for a friend of ours for a couple days, and I do not function in the evening without him.

I am grumpy. I am cooking dinner even thought I'd rather nap under the table right now.

Tuna Marcaroni salad made by my dear friend brenda.

2 boxes macaroni noodles
2 pieces of celery
miracle whip
4 boiled eggs.
2 pkg tuna

boil the noodles drain and cool under cold water. Chopp up the eggs. chop celery. add all together, miracle whip untill creamy. Is good stuff and my kids even  eat it.

Times I have yelled get out of the kitchen....none....Im making the sue chef deal with kids for now.

Smooooooooooothies!

So I watched them make the smoothies at Jamba juice formally Zuka juice. LOVE them! But I am poor and cannot afford them, especially because my family likes them too, and lets face it $4.00 for mom to get a little happy isnt so happy when it is $12 for the rest of them to leave mommas happy alone!

I cannot count how many times I hit the curb getting out of the jamba juice in Colorado Springs! Me and a buddy would go in get a smoothie and read the Urban News. (for the life of me at the moment cant remember what it is called) Anyways we'd take turns reading the odd news. I love odd news. Like dumb criminals or people dying because they are stupid. ( not the dying part but the stupid part).  Good times over smoothies.

Almost always the conversation would turn to how good the smoothies would be with Coconut Rum or Kalua in them. Although I think we only tried it once? And I cant even remember that! To be young again....LOL

Smoothies it is really all about the juice!

Smoothies (bannana Strawberry my fav)
low fat yorgurt vanilla
banannas
frozen strawberry slices
apple juice concentrate (frozen apple juice)
Milk
Ice
A good mixer.
OJ if you have it.

Ok so I make them for me and my 4 so this makes about 3 big glasses full.
3-4 scoops of frozen yogurt, 1 bannana sliced, a good handful plus 3 strawberries, a large glass of ice, 1/3 of the fozen apple juice. 1c-2c of milk enough to make the mixer run. 1/4 c Orange juice if you want to. Mix mix mix till smoooooooooothies! They are sooooooo Yummy!And I hear healthy...healthier than a coke and a snickers!

And I always have to kick someone out of the kitchen! They hover for a smoothie.

Chili-How I love thee let me count the ways!

So Chili can be a very vesatile dinner or lunch option.  The left overs are always yummy. Summer or Winter there is always an option for chilli.  In the summer it is a quick fixer. In the winter a bowl of warm comfort.

We used to have game night growing up and mom would make the chili. Diane would bring the fritos and our best friends. We grew up on chili pretty much every Friday night for about 6 or 7 years!  I loved the beans, Josh(my then bff) loved the meat. We'd swap. We would have deer meat chili in hunting season. Turkey chili in diet season. It morphed from a seasoning packet to tomatoe paste, to a jar of salsa, and then to a little of both or a can of rotel. Now my sister adds kidney beans and black beans sometimes.

Baked beans should seriously be avoided, so should peanut butter and sugar mother, really! That was the adventure of the diabetic comma chilli.....Just add more chips and eat it any ways she said.....

So here is some ideas for your chilli.  Use it for Frito pie. A chilli cheese wrap, on a baked potatoe, on the hotdogs, with crackers, on a burger or here in the south they do a three way....Spaghetti noodles and onlions a 4way is with cheese. (Gross)

CHILLI

1lb hamburger
2 cans of ranch style chili beans (you can add kidney beans or other beans if you want)
can or rotel (or salsa or tomatoe paste)
taco seasoning(or chili seasoning I think it is the same!)

Brown it, add half seasoning, add beans, rotel, maybe some water(Wendy likes it thick, I like it watery) Add the rest of the seasoning...simmer

USe it however you like just remember

Beans beans the magical fruit the more you eat.........So eat them beans for ever meal.:)

Nacho Momma!.....nacho papa either!

As long as I can remember nachos are a food group!  I have friends now that are like that could be a good dinner, or really that's all you made for dinner. Um yeah!

There are so many kinds of nachos too! Tonight for instance I think I am making more traditional Mexican nachos. On tostada shells. Then there are sloppy nachos the velveta cheese variety! Yummmmm, and then there is Chili nachos! Then there is the classic the way momma did it Queso Nachos.

When we were growing up our mom's singing group for church where the Nacho girls(Queso). In highschool Friday was bomb because Trish got nachos and let me mooch.(Sloppy). Now on game night I make nachos pretty much everytime. I think I made tikki once and things you eat with ranch that is so another blog!

There are many conversations that go best with nachos. Like when I told Dustin he was going to be a dad for the first time...Debating over skipping class or if we got caught by our biolgy teachers. What boys are hot. Mr. Whats his names Butt....I swear still embarassed. What song to sing, what game to play , and Who is beating my lovely Dodger tonight!

So the Nachos are in the oven.....2 more minutes..Prior conversations about crack potatoes have left me famished!

Here goes.

Queso Nachos
1 lb hamburger meat.
Taco Seasoning
Velvetta 1/2 big block does about 4-6 peeps!
1/4 cup milk
can of rotel if you are frisky

Corn chips of coarse!

Brown it, add taco seasoning...cut velvetta to squares...Turn that heat way down burnt cheese NEVER leaves! add about 1/4 cup of milk. Add rotel if you want. Stir till melted. Put it with the chips.

Chili Nachos ( my fav most the time)
1lb hamburger
2 cans of texas chili beans
can or rotel
taco seasoning(or chili seasoning I think it is the same!)

Brown it, add half seasoning, add beans, rotel, maybe some water(Wendy likes it thick, I like it watery) Add the rest of the seasoning...simmer

Put velvetta in cubes in 1/2 c milk in microwave stir every 30 sec or so to avoid burning.

Layer it on !

Sloppy Nachos
Put velvetta in cubes in 1/2 c milk in microwave stir every 30 sec or so to avoid burning.
Layer on chips add a little lettuce and tomatoes.

Tex/Mex Nachos
refried beans
tostada shells
cheddar cheese or mexican cheese blend
hamburger or left over roast or chicken

layer beans then meat then cheese. put them on a baking sheet let it all melt together, cut with a pizza cutter.

B B Q Chicken and crack potatoes.

On our lovely anniversary weekend my husband and I went to Eureka Springs, AR.  We sampled some of the local cuisine.  The Basin Park Hotel has a pretty good salad, but prices are questionable. Then we tried the hot dog shop across from the hotel. OMG the biggest freakin hotdogs ever! Pretty good too. YUM.  Then we tried the Mud Street Cafe.  Cute little hippy joint.  They have old game cards for conversation starters on the table. And the food....

I had a orange blueberry muffin...YUM and Dustin got the over priced breakfast. Eggs, breakfast potatoes, sausage, toast. Yeah yeah. So I stole a bite of potatoes...HOOKED! These things could give anyone the munchies I swear you want to eat everything because they are so fricken good. We asked the waitress who swore she had seen us before what was on the potatoes she said Cavenders Greek Seasoning.  Dustin said Cavenders crack seasoning the oregano has been switched with something else LOL.

Of coarse we bought some on the way home.

BBQ Chicken
2-3 Chicken Breast
Jack Daniels BBQ sauce
brown sugar

Put the chicken in baking pan, put about 1/4 c brown sugar on it and pour on the BBQ sauce. Bake an hour or so. YUMM Chicken should just fall apart with a fork. It is good on sandwhichs or just on its own.

Crack Potatoes
Cut potatoes into about 1/2 in cubed.
Chop onions
 saute in Vegetable Oil untill tender
Sprinkle in the Crack...LOL Cavenders Seasoning...YUMMM!

YUMMMMM.
So find Cavenders it says it can be used on fish, chicken, steaks, and vegtables.  I believe it ! Stuff is good, and most likely really unhealthy.

So there may be soemthing to this.  I cooked while they were still at school.  Kt has some gymnastic thing tonight in an hour so I thought we'd just eat early instead of me cooking at 7 tonight or us eating out, cuz that is getting so expensive.

Pretty decent little recipe I found online for Mardi Gras. I am so making a king's cake tomorrow.  The king's cake is to celebrate the king's that went to see Jesus. Interesting. So the baby in the cake in some cultures the baby is to be brought to the nearest church on Fat Tuesday. Like Jesus' parents brought him to the church.

Interesting. And it looks yummy of coarse!

Jumbalaya
chop a medium onion
1/2 yellow bell pepper
1/2 a green bell pepper
1 can smoked tomatoes diced
1 box zatarans jumbalaya mix
sausage( the hot dog kind)
and shrimp



add oil to large pan or dutch oven... sautee onions, peppers. Add tomatoes, and cup of water, and zatarans let simmer 15 min. Add sausage and shrimp. cook about 30 min till rice is tender and shrimp is pink and curled.

GET OUT OF MY KITCHENS
0 ZERO ZIP ZILCH
Priceless!

Dang the Eggs!

So me and sous chef decide we are going to make patty melts, and potatoe salad last night.  We make a mad dash to the store because Dustin had a client he had to meet, then come home and of coarse chaos has ensued. The little girls are fighting with the down the street kids. Kenzie is in mass hysteria. And Leylah has gotton herself stuck up a tree so far that dad had to pull out the big ladder and fire man carry her down to safety....See what going to the store for an hour does?

Kt puts the potatoes on and gets them to boil. Then there is a crises over wipes and Knz. I spare the details since it shouldn't go with cooking.

Hands washed. I saute the onions. Then realize maybe starting the burgers first would have been a good idea. So I make the burgers.  Have Kt get her potatoes and cut them in half we add the mayo and mustard...and the chopped onions....and dang the eggs.

I  have no idea why I always forget the eggs.  Most of the time making tuna noodle salad or potatoe salad or even just a good salad on our trying to loose weight days. I always forget the eggs. They make the dish.  Kinda like the name David. It is like a huge mental block for me.  Geez.

Anyways, so I get the onions on the burgers add the cheese and rye bread because some one said patty melt on rye please in some movie....Go to serve and husband says I don't like rye bread. But I will eat it!...Grrrrrr. Of coarse we are all done eating before the eggs are cooked and in the potatoe salad.

Redemption. deep fry biscuits. Chocolate Icing on top and vanilla pudding in the center. All are happy!

Potatoe salad for lunch today.

GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN
Knz:3
Little Girls: 2
And the table was actually cleaned before we sat down to eat, i didn't even ask.


Patty Melts
Hamburger 1/4 lb patty's
Bread (not rye apparently!)
American cheese
butter
onions

1.Fry the patty's
2. Saute the onions in a little EEOV
3. put the cheese on the not buttered side of the bread
4.burger and onion on the cheese side and fry it.

Secret to the perfect grilled cheese ( flip it when it stops sizzling).

Potatoe Salad
4eggs
3 good size potaotes
1 c miricle whip
1/4 c mustard
some onions (wendy hates them, kt loves them, so some)

1. BOIL THE EGGS!
2. boil the potatoes skin on!
3.peal the skin off both.
4. Add potatoes, 3 eggs, mayo, mustard, and onions
5. Smush with potatoe masher