Oh the Romance! And Crock Pot Ham

My hubby is so romantic. We celebrated our anniversary and there was chocolate, roses everywhere, champagne, warm baths, shoes, and diamonds! Yep I have a major keeper. So blessed to have this wonderful man. Even if I didn't have all the gifty stuff just the thought and effort he puts into our life in general makes me so thankful. He takes care of me when I am sick (which is all the time), or just does things to love me like snuggling, or dancing, or filling up my car with gas. I pray I make him feel the same everyday.

We went on a marriage retreat last weekend and had a crazy good time. Can we say waterpark! We played in the water for hours. The only downside was I went down this slide on a foam thing on your tummy and my top slid down...But our friend held up my foam thing so I could fix my self. It was so embarrassing but funny looking back now. During the fun we did a class called the 5 love languages. It was actually a great class and confirmed a lot of what we thought or already did. Since I now know what his love language is for sure now (I knew before but the fun test confirmed it) I am going to speak it forever! EVERY DAY

I just feel so loved and happy I could burst. I know that the effort we put into our marriage everyday is so worth it.

We had Thanksgiving this year at a friends house. And had so much fun with them. We ate and ate, played games, drank some wine, and played with my nephew and niece. It was such a great time with lots of laughter. Each of us brought half the dinner and split the leftovers....mmm leftovers. We tried a new recipe for crockpot ham turned out fantastic! And was so easy...

Crock Pot Ham

1 spiral ham
2 cups brown sugar
pineapple slices

Place 1 cup of brown sugar on the bottom on crockpot, then place your ham, 1 cup brown sugar, and then the pineapple slices. I put the spiral cut side down. Let cook for 6-8 hrs on low. Pull the ham out and place in a dish and if your ham came with a  glaze packet (ours was honey) just put that on top and let sit for 5-10 min to soak in...Amazing! So easy!

My friend and I getting ready to get our wine on!

Birthday Dinner...

We celebrated my hubby's birthday yesterday and he chose to have me cook dinner and go out for dessert. He is crazy like that. I wanted to make him something special for his special day and what better than Paella! And I am going to just do it. Yep toot my own horn...TOOT TOOT! It was fantastic!!!

Moroccan Paella

3 large Italian sausages sliced into rounds
1 chicken leg quarter (chicken thigh and drum stick)
1 pound mixed seafood (I had a mixed blend of squid, cod, shrimp, scallops)
1.5 cups rice
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cans chicken broth
2 tablespoons knorr w/ tomato
1 teaspoon crushed chili flakes
2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons dried cilantro
1 tablespoon garlic
1 tablespoon cumin
2-4 lemons, divided
salt and pepper
olive oil
water (if needed)

create a marinade with the chili flakes, paprika, cumin, cilantro, garlic, and juice of 1 lemon. Stick your chicken in and chill for 1-2 hrs.

place oil in bottom of large pot and cook your sausage and chicken making sure to place in all the marinade making sure to scrape off any tasty bits from the bottom.  take out the chicken and debone and toss back in. Pour in the rice and stir to coat everything. Then toss in everything else but the seafood and let simmer and reduce cooking the rice this took me about 30 min but I added a bit extra water. During the last 5 or so min of cooking toss in your seafood and place a lid on top to steam the seafood making it tender and wonderful.

Serve! (side note...next time I might put some veg like zucchini in for fun)

Leftover Glory!

I love to make stuff up. It often turns out to be some of the best food I ever make. Go figure right!
My hubby signed us up for a marriage retreat that his unit is going to. Should be excited and we leave this afternoon to head to the Great Wolf Lodge! I have never been to a GWL before but I hear that they are really cool. And I hear the retreats are pretty awesome as well so should be a great weekend. Anyway. The leftovers...We decided to pack a picnic and on the way stop for lunch somewhere scenic we see...I had no idea what to pack since he eats sandwiches all the time and this is a special fun weekend not to mention the 1/2 pound of ground turkey sitting in my fridge I didn't want to go to waste!
Being (or trying to be) the crafty resourceful wife I rummaged through the cupboards, fridge, and freezer to see what I could do with this meat...when it hit me. A meat hand pie! I had a pie crust in the fridge from the skillet pot pie the other day that I could use and some onion and shredded potatoes I had saved from going bad by tossing them in the freezer a while back...Perfect. A little of this and that and tah dah! These bad boys were made!

Hand Pie Recipe:

1 Pie crust
1/2 pound ground meat
1 large onion, diced
shredded potatoes, frozen or fresh. about 1.5 cups
Salt
Pepper
Worcestershire sauce, a few splashes
1 tablespoon minced garlic

sauté the onion and potato until golden and potato starts to crisp in some oil or butter. Don't forget to season to taste with some salt and pepper. Remove and set aside.

Cook your ground meat in the same pan with the garlic and Worcestershire sauce. Re add the potato and onion mix and stir to combine. Remove from heat.

Roll out your pie crust and make your pie circles as large as you would like your pie to turn out. I made about 4 pies with ours and had filling left over.

Fill one side of the crust with filling and fold over and crimp with a fork. Poke vent holes in the top for steam and bake at 350 for about 30-40 min until nice and golden.

The pups were happy for the left over filling mixed in their kibble this am and these will be so great for lunch even room temp! I know this because I ate one for breakfast haha!

Skillet Chicken Pot Pie...Best pot pie of your life!

Part of the way I show my hubby I love him is cooking yummy things. While back home this summer I had the best skillet chicken pot pie ever. Ever since then I have been trying to re create that beauty for the hubs...Well I did it! So here it is for you...And me so I can remember it for later.

1/2 a small rotisserie chicken

5 tablespoons butter

1 small yellow onion, diced

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1/4 cup flour, heaping 

1½ cups chicken broth

1 cup milk + extra to thin out roux if needed

2 cups frozen mixed carrots and green peas (or one of the small bags)

1 tablespoon of Knorr chicken bouillon with tomato

Salt and pepper to taste

9" Pillsbury refridgerated pie crust

 

Melt butter in a large sauce pan and then sauté the onion and garlic until the onions are translucent. Don't forget to season with some salt and pepper to taste. Next add the flour and cook/ brown until the flour taste is gone and its a nice golden color.

 

Whisk in the Knorr, chicken broth, and milk until creamy and there are no lumps. Add the frozen veg and reduce until nice and silky and thick. Stir in the chicken and then pour in your greased cast iron skillet.

 

Roll out your pie crust and fit over the top pinching the sides around the skillet. Put plenty of 1 inch slits in the top for steam to leave.

 

Bake at 425 for 30-35 min. Until top is all browned and golden. Let sit 10 min before slicing.

 

 

Hits close to home...

As I mentioned earlier one of my dear friends' son has come down with bone cancer. I was sitting praying for him the other day when I thought hey what is something that my family appreciated a lot when my sister was sick that I could do to help out in some little way...Boom. Food!

One is so crazy busy that they don't have time or forget to eat something good. I scoured recipe after recipe for something that I could pre make and they just toss in the oven. I decided on a casserole. And I must say thank goodness for casseroles making easy one pot meal dishes. This one turned out particularly well I thought after some tweeking of the original recipe (the original tasted rather bland and didn't have any rice in it). I ended up creating Cheesy Chicken Broccoli and Rice Casserole with fresh French Bread, and Brownies. For the ice packs I used Beans and Ham soup along with Butternut Squash Bisque. I Make large batches of stews and soups and always freeze half the batch for later meal sized...

The Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli with Rice Casserole Recipe is:

3/4 of a small rotisserie chicken shredded

2 cans of cream of chicken soup

1 cup of mayo

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, reserve about 1/4c for the top

1 bag frozen broccoli, thawed and chopped

salt & pepper to taste

2 cups cooked rice

Garlic and Onion powder to taste

Milk to thin out the casserole I used 1/4-1/3 cup

 

Mix everything together and place in your casserole dish and top with remaining cheese. Bake at 375 for about 30 min until warm and bubbly.

 

I tossed a little left over mozz on top because I had it laying around but you really don't need it...

Scalloped Squash Casserole with Ham

I have been slowly trying to trudge myself back to eating right after my trip back home and to prepare myself for my upcoming trip to Morocco hopefully next month. I am meeting my husbands brothers and sisters and their families for the first time since we have been married and of course wish to look my best. This has meant back to the gym regularly and protein protein protein! Last night I tried a new recipe from a low carb cookbook called Scalloped Squash Casserole with Ham. So quick so easy and amazing. I paired it with a carrot and radish salad with fresh garlic herb goat cheese. High in protein and low carb just the way I like it!

Scalloped Squash Casserole with Ham
Serves 8 (I halved the recipe when I made it but here is the full size)

Cheese filling
15 oz light ricotta cheese
3 cups low fat shredded mozzarella, divided
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper

Casserole
non stick cooking spray
1.5 lbs of yellow squash, very thinly sliced
salt and pepper
1/2 cup thinly sliced onion (I was out so I used onion powder)
1lb cooked diced sliced baked ham or a ham steak cubed.

1. Mix the cheese ingredients together leaving 1 cup of the mozzarella out to top the casserole.
2. preheat oven to 350 and spray your 13x9 baking dish.
3. layer the bottom of the dish with yellow squash, salt and pepper, 1/2 the onion, 1/2 the cheese mixture and 1/2 the ham. repeat and top with the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella.
4. Bake for 50-60 min and then let rest 5min before serving.

Left overs for lunch today!