Family Supper round 2

It was my turn to cook for family supper on Monday. If you remember last time...it was a complete fail of pictures on my part. But I'm going to attempt to be better this time....and partially succeeded.

For an appetizer I started with my a favorite (ok they're all favorites, let's be real). I love pickle wraps, but I was lazy and went with the dip version.

                                      

Pickle Wrap Dip

16 ounces cream cheese, softened

12 ounces Buddig beef, chopped

16 ounces baby dill pickles, drained, diced

16 ounces Ritz crackers

Directions:

1. Combine softened cream cheese, chopped beef, and diced pickles; mix well.

2. Serve with Ritz crackers, chilled or up to room temperature.

3. Refrigerate leftovers.

I only used 1 package of beef and 3/4 jar of pickles. But could have easily used another 1/2 package of beef. I also added a little sour cream so it wasn't so thick.

For vegetable, Grandma Z's Corn Casserole. Made on every birthday and holiday in college. A Freddy Court/815 6th Street/125 Campus Ave Special. I actually still make my mom have it for holidays at home.

I would love to share the recipe, BUT unfortunately I cannot. 

                                    

For potato I went with the Lahr family recipe for "Party Potatoes" (a lot of people laugh when I tell them they are party potatoes, but it's a staple for every graduation, Turkey Day, Christmas....)(ps. by Lahr Family recipe, I mean, back of the hash brown potato bag) 

Party Potatoes aka Mr Dells Original Potato Casserole

Ingredients

10 cups shredded hash browns
1/4 cup + 2 T. butter or margarine
1 can cream of chicken soup
12-oz. sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped green onions or normal onion
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 cup crushed corn flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375° F. Melt 1/4 cup butter or margarine and pour into 9 x 13 inch baking dish, then add 5 cups of Mr. Dell’s Hash Browns. (No need to thaw.) In separate bowl, mix soup, sour cream, milk, and green onions, then pour 1/2 of this mixture over hash browns. Salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle one cup grated cheese on top. Add remainder of hash browns and pour remainder of mixture on top, salt and pepper. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top, then cover with crushed corn flakes. Drizzle two tablespoons melted butter or margarine over mixture and bake for 55 minutes.

The only problem with this recipe is the corn flakes. Who owns corn flakes? I did not buy an entire box of cornflakes to use only 1 cup. I was going to use Ritz crackers but, nobody's got time for that.

For meat I made Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken. It's a recipe I've had pinned for a long time and really wanted to try it. I went home on my lunch break to put everything together.

Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken

Ingredients

1 (3 lb.) bag frozen chicken breasts

1 (12 oz.) bottle Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wings Sauce

1 (1 oz.) pkg. Ranch dip mix

Directions:

Put frozen chicken, wing sauce, and ranch dip mix into a crock pot. Cook on LOW for 6 to 7 hours.

Using two forks, shred chicken and return to crock pot. Cook on LOW for an additional hour.

Me shredding chicken for the first time.
Amber, do you have any cool tools to shred chicken with besides forks?
-Yeah he's called Jimmy

                                                  

I made about 1 1/2 times the recipe to feed 7 of us. So I used double ranch and 1 1/4 bottles Buffalo sauce. I just bought rolls from the bakery, nothing to fancy but you could easily get some Hawaiian Sweet Rolls OR! make Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheeses. SO good. (Yup. Totally making those later this week)

For dessert I went with real simple, and made these Sunday night. I bought a box of No bake cheesecake, and instead of making the whole cheesecake, I made them into individual muffin tins. Super easy. Buy a box and you'll be able to figure it out. 

(Actually the reason I make them this way, because it makes more. It SAYS it will make 12, but I got 14. And who doesn't want extra dessert?)("oh but Alyssa doesn't that make the rest of them smaller?" Uh no. Plus who even determines how big they're supposed to be?)

Amber let me wear her sweet apron and she set the table all pretty :) gotta love birthday week!

                                     

                                          

xo A

Smiling is just my favorite.

I literally can't help myself. People probably think I have a secret.
I don't.

I'm just in a super good mood.

Go to bed smiling, wake up smiling, good things happen to those who smile.

xo A

Cold oats

This Saturday was the Iowa State/Iowa game. I got together with some other alumni awhile back and decided we would all meet for the game. The "Iowa alumni club" of Fort Myers extended an invitation to us Iowa State alumni to meet at Ron Daos, a pizza place, to watch the game together.

When I pulled in the parking lot, I thought this might have been a mistake. Almost every car in the lot had Hawkeye flags or license plate covers or a sticker. It was a sea of black and yellow. Fortunately everyone was really nice and only semi rolled there eyes when Nicole and I cheered.

       

Unfortunately Iowa State lost, but there's always next year.

Today was going to be a beautiful pool day. Until this.

                                              

       

I couldn't have had my eyes closed for more than 5 minutes and it got super nasty and overcast.  Sadly it never rained, so the day was completely wasted on overcast.

So I decided to make breakfast for next week instead. I found a recipe online for cold oats and decided to try it.

1/3 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 container Greek yogurt

1/3 cup milk

Honey for sweetener (I'm not a huge Greek yogurt lover, so I need some extra sweet)

Tablespoon of chia seeds (I actually haven't bought these yet because they don't have them at Publix)

Mix the top ingredients together. I use small Tupperware containers and I always make two at a time because I've been buying the individual yogurts. 

Lately I've been using red raspberry preserves (1teaspoon) and fresh raspberries, because they're really good right now. But! I have maple syrup and blueberries for later this week.

    

Mix together. Then add your fruit on top.

   

When I get to work I add granola on top otherwise it's a little too mushy for me...

I use the individual yogurt cups for now so I could find a flavor I like. I've tried Raspbery, Vanilla and Honey which are good. But have a Caffe Latte or something that tastes absolutely horrible. And Friday I had Pomegranate which did NOT say Fruit on the Bottom. But indeed it was. Nothing is worse than that awful noise of stirring yogurt. Blecchhh.

                                                  

   

Luckily a coworker offered to stir it for me (I respectfully declined, although I know she would have) 

It was awful.

One of those moments where you keep eating it expecting to get better. Or not really tasting it, just swallowing. Still awful.

Either way it's a filling breakfast and healthy.

Lots of good things coming this week!!

xo A

Miss Iowa

What I'm jammin' to at work. Love love love Luke Bryan

Cute coffee guy called me Miss Iowa today.
I felt like I should have done a Miss America wave. And then I felt like an idiot for thinking that. And probably looked like a tool. But that seems to be normal when it comes to me.

He's a Hawks fan boooo (probably because he has no idea who the Cyclones are).

This post sucks. Minus Luke Bryan, go watch him again.

xo A

Things seen and heard

So then I figured out I wasn't getting Punk'd...
 -Ohmygosh I thought I was getting Punk'd too!


We had another first tonight. Brody pooped in the pool... That got us all up and out!! He didn't understand the sudden exodus...
  (I first questioned the use of "exodus" but it indeed is correct).

ex·o·dus  (ks-ds)

n.

1. A departure of a large number of people.

I don't have time to give you time!


Just forget it! I feel like I throw myself in front of a train every day around here!


She looks like Pocahontas in that.
Hmm I was thinking more like a 70's leisure suit

                                       

Maybe I just think they're funny because I'm so tired. Time for bed.

xo A

The Great Wall of China

I've always really liked the idea of using old frames and hanging them on the wall. I found some great ones at garage sales when I was at home still and painted a few. I wasn't quite sure how many I needed, or where I wanted them

Until today.

I decided on the dining room ish wall. I've gotten pretty good at doing things by myself with this whole living alone thing. So I laid everything out on the floor and used masking tape to map everything out.

       

                                      

                                     

Genius right?! I mean yeah I'm a pretty big deal.

      

                                     

Booooo I'm not super happy with how it turned out, but I'd like to get an oval frame or maybe move them closer together or change the darker brown ones or get a few more and add them in the middle of the other ones.  Garage sales this weekend I suppose :)

Sons premiere tonight!

xo A

 

Pork chop

Just look at this! Such a sleepy boy.

Makes me fall in love all over again.

                                             

                                             

xo A