Not Your Mama's Stroganoff Recipe.

I have actually have some time to play with recipes again!! Woot!

This was a huge hit with three out of four of us in the house... (keep in mind Lily's a bird eater.) We love mushroom stroganoff, but it was time to try something new. This recipe also has the distinction of being my first gluten-free recipe! 

Now one of my ingredients comes from Mom's Place at www.momsplaceglutenfree.com. I'm not shamelessly plugging them or anything, but if you have gluten intolerance, they're a good place to find flours, bread mixes, and in this case, cream of whatever soups. Also, the lemon bars rock. I have a family member who has celiac disease, so it's fun to try and use new ingredients to make recipes that are safe for her to eat.

Anyhoo. This is great for getting veggies into your family's tummy. It has 3 types of veggies. Well, four if you count onions. It doesn't look very pretty... but it tastes SO good. I promise. On to the recipe!!

Not Your Mama's Stroganoff

Ingredients:

1 pound hamburger (I use 97/3% lean so there's no need to drain grease)

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 head cauliflower, chopped (about 2 cups)

1 red pepper, chopped

1 small can sliced mushrooms (or chopped fresh button mushrooms)

1 package Mom's Place gluten-free cream of mushroom soup mix (or equivalent)

1 small 8 oz. container sour cream

salt and pepper to taste

steamed rice (if desired)

Saute the onion, garlic, peppers, and cauliflower until onions are translucent. Add the hamburger to brown. Season with salt and pepper. Add mushrooms. 

Once hamburger is browned, add cream of mushroom soup mix. I also added the water called for on the package. 

Once you've got things heated to bubbling, turn heat down to a simmer or off if you plan to serve right away. Add the sour cream. It's going to get soup-like, but that's what you want for serving over the rice. If you want to reduce any liquid, let it heat through a bit more before turning the temp down. 

You're ready to serve this yummy stuff over rice or eat as is! We were out of rice so we just threw it on a plate and went to down. It was really tasty and pretty quick. Only took about 20 minutes to make. Some options for changing this up could be different soup mix flavors, different veggies, or perhaps a ground turkey rather than hamburger. This is really easy to personalize to what you need!

I hope you enjoy it! If you try my recipe, I would love to hear your experiences in the comments! 

Happy eating!

I'm going to stand outside. If anyone asks, just say I'm outstanding.

I think that is my best FB status ever. Just sayin'.

It has once again been WEEKS since I've played on my bloggity blog. I have been super productive though! If you count school work and making sure my kids have clean laundry (mine is another story). I have had some wonderful firsts recently in regards to my teaching internship:

I decorated a classroom with awesome blossom pictures cells and made bulletin boards with GIANT MICROBES. If you need to ever get me a present, just get me some of these adorable little guys. Seriously, too cute! I think my favorite was the little sperm with a bow on it's head. It and the egg are magnetic so they stick together. HAHAHA.

We're starting a new unit on bacteria and cells and viruses and body systems and and and... it's all very exciting to me.

I wrote my first test. It's printed and waiting in a pretty stapled stack waiting to be groaned over this week. It's kind of hard. I'm not going to lie. If I was a student, I'd be a bit freaked. I found that realization invigorating and made myself slightly giddy. Those kids learn quick though, I'm sure it will work out just fine. I'm also proud that it doesn't have one single multiple choice, essay, or true/false question on it. I'm breaking test boundaries here, yo.

My house is a mess. My husband has come to terms with the fact that my absent minded noises count for conversation after the kids go to bed because that's when I'm doing homework. I can't step out of the house without makeup for fear someone could get lost in the dark circles that have taken up permanent residence under my eyes. I don't care. It's all worth it. I am having so much fun even as I am drowning under school obligations. This is seriously the craziest, but best semester ever.

Are ya'll sick of hearing me talk about school yet?

While I'm thinking about it, I want to post this fantastic picture of my girls. Auntie Alli sent it to me after she edited it and played with the colors. I am so going to have to think of ways to terrify teenage boy children later on.

Lily's birthday is coming up this Saturday. Eight years old. EIGHT FREAKING YEARS OLD. How does that happen? Can I send in some form to somewhere requesting that my children don't grow up so fast? She doesn't really want a party, she wants to go to the Museum to see the King Tut exhibit. So we'll do that and have a cupcake party afterwards somewhere. I asked her if she wanted to invite some friends from dance or school and she said, "Nope, I will be just happy spending the day with my family." Awwww.

Well, hopefully it won't be another several weeks before I get back to blog land. I have a few recipes to post because the food that is made in my house is delicious and I want to share it with you all. Not bragging or anything... ;)

Oh and P.S... Not only did I get sick, everyone but Lily got sick. It was like the plague had descended upon my household. Wishful thinking didn't work!

Winner winner chicken dinner!

So, my kitchen was in a total revolt yesterday. Of course, it happened because I was in a cooking kind of mood. I had plans for mozzarella chicken, rolls, and no bake cookies. I had a time restraint because husband had to be to work in an hour. It all went straight to hell.

I'm telling ya, one teeny tiny kitchen fire and Husbandy Face (who's a cook in a big kitchen) was up in my cooking business like I had burnt half the house down. 

Was it my fault there was some tiny piece of trapped food that caught flame? No. Who kept her cool and grabbed the baking soda and had it out in about 30 seconds? This lady right here. We're talking about a flame less than two inches high, I'll remind you. Still, he hovered. Which started to get really, really annoying. So I sent him to the store because I "really" wanted a rootbeer. 

While he was gone, I loaded my chicken in the oven, put on my water to boil, and cruised my cookbooks. I had no bake cookies on the brain, but it's always fun to check if there is something else that sounds yummy. Fifteen minutes later when hubs got home, still no water boiling. Uh-oh. I opened the oven, no blast of heat. Crap. It was time to start panicking about why my stove was not working. 

It took some unplugging and plugging back in, a quick google for stove troubleshooting, and a run outside to the breaker box, but I was back in business. I set the timer on my microwave for the chicken, got my water heating up again, and went back to puttering. Husband had about twenty minutes to get to work at this point and he comes into the kitchen. The laundry, including his work clothes, wasn't dry. When the breaker flipped on the stove, it flipped on the dryer too. Oops. So not only did he not have time for a meal, he was going to work in damp clothes.

Oh, and also, my microwave went dead. Gah! 

So despite all the hassle, I got my yummy chicken and pasta done, and it was nom nom nom. If you're looking for quick and (usually) easy, this is a dinner recipe for you. It's like Chicken Parmesan without the breading. Allow me to share the recipe. :)

Mozzarella Chicken

Ingredients: 

Chicken breasts

FRESH (or buffalo, depending on where you live. Same thing, different names.) Mozzarella

One jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce. (One is enough for four large chicken breasts. I suggest Alby's organic sauces. Nom.)

Pasta of your choice. 

You'll want to brown the outsides of the breasts, just 4 or 5 minutes on each side. I salted and peppered them first. Hopefully your stove doesn't decide to hate you and this goes smoothly.

While they are browning, slice your cheese. Yes, this stuff is soft and squishy, so it's hard to slice, but it doesn't have to be pretty.

Once the chicken breasts are browned, put them in a large baking dish and top them with the mozzarella. 

Pour your sauce over all of it, covering the chicken breasts completely. Use the whole jar, because you will use the sauce on top of your pasta once it comes out of the oven.

Throw it in the oven at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes, again depending on the size of your chicken. Mine was giant sized, so it took the full 30. I would just temp it or, cut into one and check it to see if you need more time.

While the chicken is in the oven, boil your water (again, good luck with your stove!) and cook your pasta.

Plate everything, and enjoy...hopefully not by yourself because your husband had to go to work before dinner was done. Ha! I saved his portion in the fridge, which he didn't eat last night when he got home! I think he was worried it wasn't going to taste good after all the madness. His loss, my lunch time gain.

Easy peasy recipe, right? It's delicious too. This would be a good one to take to someone in need of a dinner, or make the night before if you're always short on time like I am. Thanks once again to my mama for coming up with this yumminess.

Hope you enjoy!

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"Mom, that's gross!" And other things I hear at meal times...

My picky eater Lily has struck again. A half hour long fight led to her eating corn dogs and jello for dinner AGAIN.

I worry about this eating problem of hers like a dog gnawing on a bone. Her doctor says that she's fine as long as she is on a vitamin supplement. She's not underweight, or undernourished, but man I would love for her to eat a fresh damn orange or a salad.Attempts to coax her to try new things end up in fights, tears, and her just not eating. That whole "this is dinner and if you don't eat you go hungry" idea doesn't work in my house because she literally will go hungry. It's been suggested that if we are that concerned about her, we should start thinking about an occupational therapist for food, which I didn't even know was an option. Who knew?

 I keep telling myself that age old parental advice: "She'll grow out of it." Some days I think that is true and she surprises me by eating something. The other day I went to Jamba Juice and she loved the smell of the place. I got a smoothie and she ended up sharing it with me. I am now buying stock in that company. She wouldn't drink smoothies last time we tried them. Another new development is that she'll eat cheese pizza now. Before it was just breadsticks - as long as there was no seasoning on them.

Other days, I feel like she's getting worse. And let me tell you, it is exhausting trying to figure out Lily dinner and make a meal for Nic and me. She won't eat any vegetables. None. I can try and hide them, call them something different, give her ultimatums, still nothing.

Her list of acceptable food items goes something like this:
chicken nuggets or cooked chicken breasts as long as there is nothing but salt seasoning them.
Steak, but only if it's Grandma's.
French fries.
Hot dogs or corn dogs
Applesauce, pears, sometimes mandarin oranges.
Apples (with peanut butter), bananas, maybe a few grapes, but no other fresh fruit.
Cereal, but only if it's Lucky Charms.
Peanut butter: this she eats by the spoonfuls. PB sandwiches with no jam, honey, or anything else. If peanut butter ever becomes illegal, my daughter is going to starve.
Cheese, but only string cheese. No grilled cheese sandwiches for my girl.
Bacon. Scramble eggs. Pancakes.

I may be forgetting one or two things, but that's about it. I offer and offer and offer new choices, but most of the time all I get is, "EW! That's disGUSTing!"

She'll grow out of it...


Do you have a picky eater? Any advice?

I'm Blue (da ba dee)

While little Miss Sage was sleeping away the afternoon....

Lily and I had a bit of one on one time. Nic and I have instilled a new policy at the house. We each make sure to spend at least 10 minutes of time one on one with Lily a day. Usually, it ends up being more time, but we start with the ten. We take her to the grocery store because she is an excellent list-checker-offer.You will never lose your list when Lily's in charge of it. Or we go outside and play on the tire swing. Nic and her like to race, him on his skateboard, her on her bike. Just a few minutes each day independently with Mom and Dad to make sure that she is not feeling like she's missing out now that there's a very demanding baby in the house. It's working like a charm.

Today we colored and made cupcakes. Blue was the theme as we were coloring a card and making cupcakes for Lily's biological father's birthday. She knows it's his favorite color (his walls are that color in his house, his christmas tree is all blue, his car is blue...) so it was blue everything. 

She drew him a blue cake with blue candles. I didn't realize that when she asked me how old he was, she was using the information to add the exact number of candles on the cake in her drawing. She was very proud that she was able to fit all of them on there. We talked about how there is even a little bit of blue in fire (for the candles) and what her favorite shade of blue is (sky blue).

Next came the cupcakes. In Lily's world, cupcakes are a mean business. The colors have to be just right. She can hardly contain her joy while waiting for them to cool enough to frost. Frosting is never enough decoration. I have 8 different kinds of edible sprinkles in my cupboards just for cupcakes.


Since these were boy cupcakes, I brought out a secret stash of candy to use as decoration this time.

At first I was worried that she was going to balk at the idea of using bugs and mushrooms because of their lack of sprinkliness, but she surprised me and picked out her favorite bugs and mushrooms to grace the cupcakes.I tried to argue for white cupcakes with blue frosting, but got shot down. So, we have bright blue cupcakes with white frosting and super fun bug/mushroom toppers. Since I was on a countdown with Sage's nap, these were just box mix and easy cream cheese frosting. Honestly though, the cake mix cupcakes are always my favorite. Call me weird, but I make cupcakes with Funfetti mix more than I make mix from scratch because it always tastes better to me. Overall, I think the cuppycakes turned out cute.

To finish off the blue theme we decided a bit of the Smurf movie was in order. All in all, it was a fabulous afternoon and she was so very proud to give her gifts. I'm trying to turn her over to the handmade-gifts-are-better darkside. Hee.

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DELISH.

This is the best stuff in the world. Hands down. I am not ashamed (ok, maybe a little ashamed) that I ate nearly half of it over the course of the evening.

What is it??

Rhubarb Crisp.

I love rhubarb. It's in the blood. It's kind of like a family tradition to love rhubarb. Rhubarb pie, Rhubarb Jam, Rhubarb cobbler....you get the idea. Nom. Nom. Nom.

Well, tragedy struck at my mom's house this year when her rhubarb plants died off. That's pretty impressive since it's a hard plant to kill, but they were gone. Many sad faces were made. Just what was I going to put on my pancakes for the rest of the year?

When I found out a family friend had some to spare, I jumped on it. One huge bag was not enough according to my mother when I gleefully delivered it. We would need more. Back to the plants I went. All in all, I think I gathered 16 to 20 cups worth.

First order of business was jam. This has become a special "Mama and Me" type project for me and my mom every year. We just always end up doing at least a batch together. Lily gets in on it sometimes and we have a blast. My husband salivates at the idea of a new stock of it because we never have enough to last from one jam making to the next.

Anyway, I took home enough to try a rhubarb crisp recipe Mom had stashed away. It was AMAZING. Simple too, which always is a good thing. I may have to track down more rhubarb and freeze it just so I can make this dessert again one or two more times. I tell myself it'd make an awesome breakfast.

Since I'm in such a residual rhubarb haze and want the world to share it, I'm posting the recipe.

Rhubarb Crisp, aka BLISS (that aka is my addition!)

In a 9x13 pan layer:

4 cups washed and chopped rhubarb

3/4 cup sugar

1 small package strawberry jello

1 package white cake mix

sprinkle with salt

Mix:

2 cups warm water

2 cubes melted butter or margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla

Pour over other ingredients, bake one hour at 350 degrees.

That's it. I halved the recipe and put it (barely) into two pie tins because I stupidly decided to share it with my sister. Not enough for me! Haha! I have also heard that raspberry jello is pretty awesome too.

If you make it, please let me know! I would love to know how it turned out and hear your agreements with me that it is possibly the best tasting yummy of all yummy-ness in the world. Credit for the recipe goes to my mom who got it from one of her friends who got it from who knows where. :) If you want the recipe for the jam, too bad. That's a family secret! I might be willing to trade for more rhubarb though....


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