Mushroom Stroganoff

Lately I have been in such a cooking rut. I feel like I cook the same meals every week- taco's, pasta, stiry fry, and soup.So last week I decided that I am going to try and make something new every week. Last week the new recipe I tried was Mushroom stroganoff. I never liked beef stronganoff when I ate meat but this recipe was amazing and really easy to make! I found it on recipe zaar. If you have never used recipe zaar go right now and use it!

Soup, Soup, Soup

This week has been cold, rainy, and all around dreary. Yuck! This weather makes me want to put on sweatpants, lay under blankets and eat soup from my crock pot. Well not exactly from my crock pot (I just got a crazy visual of me sitting down with a spoon and my crock pot- not that it would be unheard of to do something like that), but soup that has been made in my crock pot while I sit around and eat bon bons and watch daytime TV. When I first became a vegetarian soup was one of the things that I missed the very most. Sure there are vegetarian soups out there- vegetarian vegetable, potato soup, tomato, etc But the soups I was craving were all chicken stock based soups. A lot of vegetarians just simply substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock. I am not one of those vegetarians. I have a confession to make- I. hate. hate. hate. vegetable stock. With 3 hates. Its just so gross and flavorless or the flavor it does have it that of celery. There is no need for a big pot of celery water. Yuck. Luckily I found an awesome brand of faux chicken stock at my local kosher store and it is amazing! My vegetarian soup possibilities have increased exponentially! So without further ado here are a few of my favorite soups…

Stuffed pepper soup

1 package veggie Crumbles (I use morning star or boca)
2 quarts water
1 (28 ounce) can stewed tomatoes (undrained)
1 (29 ounce) can tomato soup
2 cups cooked long-grain rice
2 cups chopped green bell peppers (about 2 large peppers)
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
Add all ingredients to crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours. You can substitute ground beef for the veggie crumbles but I would suggest browning it first before adding it to the crock pot.

Loaded baked potato soup

2 cups potatoes peeled and chopped into cubes
1 8oz pack of cream cheese
2 cups chicken stock
½ onion- chopped
Baked potato toppings of your choice such as bacon, chives, sour cream, etc

Combine potatoes, onion, and chicken stock in a pan and bring to a boil. Once potatoes are tender you can either mash potatoes with a potato masher, blend in blender or pulse in your food processor. It just depends on what kind of texture you are looking for. Once blended add cream cheese and stir until melted. Spoon soup into bowls and top with your choice of baked potato toppings.


Tortellini soup

4 cups chicken stock
½ onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 package of frozen spinach
½ cup carrots peeled and chopped
½ teaspoon celery salt
1 package tortellini

In a sauce pan sauté onions and garlic until tender. Add all remaining ingredients except for tortellini and bring to a rolling boil. Let boil for 15 minutes or until carrots are tender. Add tortellini and cook according to package instructions. Top with parmesan cheese and enjoy!

Dear Rain, go away!

It has been raining non stop since yesterday. Blah! Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. I love the cool crisp weather and getting to wear all of my sweaters. But wearing sweaters in this rain is really cramping my style! Wet wool is not IN this season.

The yucky weather combined by my very limited budget this week has put me in the mood for crock pot meals. So this week's menu has at least 3 days of crock pot meals. I am trying to be consistent and pot my menu every week. However my grocery shopping always varies. So like me my menu posting will be random.

Monday: Crock Pot Eggplant Parmesan with buttered noodles
Tuesday: Mushroom, onion, and green pepper stir fry over rice
Wednesday: Mushroom Stroganoff
Thursday: Crock Pot Curry over rice with homemade apple sauce
Friday: Taco Rice with tortilla chips and salsa

As you can see I never plan for weekend meals. Weekend meals are just basically whatever we have on hand to make or a meal that we eat out. During the winter though I do tend to make a big crock pot of soup on Saturdays and we will eat it throughout the day or for dinner.

I am off to put my rain boots on and head to the store! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Canning Strawberry Preserves

Today I stopped by Aldi's to pick up some essentials (cream cheese, M and M's, and tortilla chips) and I saw that they had strawberries on clearence- buy one pint get one free. I got 4 pints of strawberries and pnly paid $3.80 On my way home it Dawned on my- What am I going to do with 4 pints of strawberries? I still had leftover mason jars and lids so I decided to make strawberry preserves. I used my crock pot and the tips from Grocery Cart challenge on canning and it turned out great!

Here's the play by play...

First I cut up all of the strawberries and put them in the crock pot along with 1/3 cup lemon juice and 1/4 cup of sugar. You can adjust the amount of sugar depending on how sweet your strawberries are.

I let my strawberries cook down for 2 hours on highs. While they were cooking I put the empty mason jars in the dishwasher to sterilize and get hot.

Once the strawberries are soft you can either mash them with a potato masher or if you would like a smoother texture put them in a blender (but be careful because it will be hot and steam plus blender lid = explosion of strawberry sauce all over your kitchen!)

Once your berries are blended or mashed put them in a mason jar, wipe the rim, and put the lid on. Instead of going through the whole hot water bath ordeal just turn the jars upside down and let them sit over night or until they are cool. As they cool the seals will pop.

I have tried canning using a hot water bath and using this method. When using the water bath I would always have 2 or 3 that didn't seal. Using this method I have never had a can that didn't seal. I LOVE this method. It is so much less hassle and makes canning much more enjoyable!

While my preserves were cooking I also whipped up this cute halloween dishtowel using some old halloween material and a white towel I got at the dollar store.

Before:

After:

Today was productive and delicious!

Muffins!

In the summer breakfast usually consists of fruit or some dry cereal and tea. But as the weather gets cooler I tend to crave a hearty and more filling breakfast. Thats where muffins come in to play. They are so easy to make, portable, and very filling! Some of my favorite are pumpkin, zucchini, and this recipe for chocolate banana...

Chocolate Banana Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/3 cups mashed ripe bananas
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg

In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients.
In a small bowl, combine bananas, oil and egg.
Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups three fourths full.
Bake at 350 deg F for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done.

These muffins are so fast and easy to make. I haven't tried the whole freezing muffins thing yet. I think I just have a misconception that they will come out soggy. Does anybody have any tips on how to defrost the muffins? Do I let them sit out over night in the fridge or on the counter? Can I microwave them to defrost? So many muffin freezing questions!

Starsky and Hutch Minus Starsky

When I moved into my house I had exactly 3 cupboards to store all of my dishes, pots and pans, and food. 3 cupboards. I wanted to cry. Luckily my dad knocked out a wall and made a cupboard for us to store a dishwasher and 4 more shelves. Having the cupboard revolutionized our kitchen! But still I didn't feel like I had enough storage. I had been on the lookout for a buffet or island or some sort of piece that would add storage and drawers and beautify my kitchen. Then I saw this dresser and shelves. It was hideous and screamed 1980's faux wood. Ew. But it was only 50 bucks and had definate potential.

Here is a before picture of the dresser part with Jason anxiously anticipating the paint job it is about to get.

Here is the book case that came with the dresser. (Don't mind my ridiculously messy room behind it. That will be another before and after project coming soon!)

And here is the lovely after.

I'm in love with my hutch! It added SIX drawers, shelves for plates, and storage for my cookbooks and canisters.

We simply primed and painted it with white oil based paint, added a precut piece of beadboard to the back and added new hardware. With hardware, paint, and the piece itself we only spent 75 dollars!

Now I am off to organize my drawers with all the stuff that it strewn about my kitchen!

Weekly Menu

So this week I decided to try and stretch what we had left over from last week's grocery order 1. to save money and 2. because I was feeling lazy and didn't want to grocery shop. I had to think on my feet for some of the dinners and others involve more prep than usual. Over Jason seemed pretty excited about the dinner ideas which is always a good sign!

Monday: Philly cheese "steaks"(homemade rolls with sauteed mushrooms onions and peppers covered with cheese) roasted garlic potato's.

Tuesday: Ravioli's with pesto sauce and homemade garlic bread

Wednesday: Veggie Meatloaf with mashed cauliflower and apple sauce

Thursday: Eggplant enchilada's (from my OAMC freezer stash)

Friday: Stuffed cab age soup in the crock pot

Hope everyone has a great week! I am off to make some homemade rolls!