Crock Pot Cheesy Potatoes

Crock Pot Cheesy Potatoes

1/2 onion, diced
2/3 too half stick of butter (or margarine) 8 oz. sour cream
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 bag of shredded hash brown potatoes (usually 26 to 30 oz.)
2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in microwave along with onion to soften onion.  Once butter is melted, stir in sour cream and soup.  In a very large bowl, mix together hash browns, cheese, and butter/sour cream/soup mix.  (I do recommend doing this in a large bowl rather than right in the crock pot so you have more room to move it around, but if you want to do it right in the slow cooker, go ahead.)  Pour into crock pot, season with salt and pepper, and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.

If you want to be fancy like I did for Thanksgiving today you can transfer the taters into an oven safe dish sprinkle more cheese on top and broil the top til crispy and sprinkle crispy bacon on top!
I also blotted any extra grease off the top with a paper towel because I'm crazy like that...

Roasted Butternut Acorn Squash Soup

My aunt sent me a great fall soup recipe which I tweeked just a bit and it turned out amazing!

Roasted Butternut Acorn Squash Soup

1 small butternut squash
1 small acorn squash
1 onion
4 cups chicken stock
Salt
Pepper
1/8th cup packed brown sugar
Dash cinnamon
3/4ths of a brick of cream cheese
1/2 stick of butter browned

Slice your squash in half and remove seeds. Cut onion in half. You don't even have to remove skin. Lay face down on lined greased cookie sheet. Roast your squashs and onion at 350 until done about 40 min. Cool and scrape out insides of squash and peel the skin off the onion. Place everything in your vitamix and blend until smooth hot and bubbly. If you have to do it in batches just blend til smooth and heat on the stove in a sauce pan.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2 (12 ounce) cans chunk chicken drained (I use the Kirtland ones from Costco so they are a bit bigger than the ones you get from say Wal-Mart which are 10oz)

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
softened

1 cup Ranch dressing

1 cup Frank's or 3/4 cup if using the 10oz cans you get at Wal-Mart

2 to 2 1/2cups shredded Cheddar cheese

celery, cleaned and cut into sticks

Chips or crackers

Directions:

Heat chicken and hot sauce in a skillet over medium heat, until heated through.

Stir in cream cheese and ranch dressing. Cook, stirring until well blended and warm. 

Mix in half of the shredded cheese, and transfer the mixture to a slow cooker or oven safe dish (8x11 or 9x13)

Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top, cover, and cook on Low setting until hot and bubbly if in slow cooker or 350 for 30 min.

Serve with celery sticks and chips or crackers.  I am sure a little blue cheese dressing would be yummy on this as well!

The picture is of a little mini one I made

Protein Muffins

Ingredients

Olive oil spray
1 cup 100% whole-wheat flour
4 scoops protein powder plus more flour to make a complete cup
2  teaspoons baking powder heaped
4 large eggs
1 cup plain, low-fat Greek yogurt (I was out so I blended equal amounts if applesauce and cottage cheese to make 1 cup
¼ cup oil
½ cup honey
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract (if using plain/unflavored protein powder) 1 tsp if flavored
Splenda to sprinkle on top before baking

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, protein powder, and baking powder.In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and yogurt, then add the oil, honey and vanilla.Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture. Mix with a fork just until combined.Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in one of the muffins comes out clean. Cool and enjoy!

Vitamix Broccoli Cheese Soup

This changed my life! So easy...So versatile.

3 cups cooked frozen broccoli (I roasted mine this time the oven with S&P) reserve 1 cup and chop if chunky is your thing
1.5 cups chicken stock
1.5 cups milk
2 cups cheddar shredded
Red pepper flakes
S&P
2 TBS diced onion
1 carrot (I roasted it with the broccoli)

Place stock, milk, onion, cheese, broccoli, and pepper flakes in that order in blender.

On variable speed move up to 10. Then high for 5 to 8 min until hot bubbly and steamy.

Add your chopped reserved 1 cup broccoli and S&P is you need it.

Done!

Pressure Cooker Lentils with Spicey Sausage and Stew Meat

Pressure Cooker Lentils (electric)

1-2 tbs tomato paste

Can of stewed tomatoes (Italian or some flavor…chop them)

1 lb hot sausage in bulk tube cooked (leave a little of the grease to brown the stew meat in drain off rest)

Stew meat browned in the sausage oil

1c lentils

Beef stock 3tbs or so better than beef bouillon

Onion 1 med diced.

Carrot like 4 small/med diced

Cayenne and crushed red pepper

2 bay leaf

S and P

4 garlic cloves minced

6-8 cups water

 

Brown your sausage in the pressure cooker and then drain off most all the oil/fat. Scoop out sausage and set aside. Brown the Stew meat. Next add all the rest of ingredients. Place pressure cooker on high for 25 min if you like your lentils a little soft and 15 min for firmer.

Far Enough Along!

Well the excitement is spilling out from everywhere!!!! And I am far enough along that I feel comfy saying  Woohoo! The hubs and I are expecting our first little miracle! I have been told since I was 18 I would never have children and we had even tried fertility treatment before and failed. After a break of trying for a while we were going to re start treatment when I randomly took an extra preg test I had laying about. After my messed up surgery I am always sick and tired so I didn't think anything of being so tired. So Memorial Day morning I took the test and started hollering for the hubs because the test said pregnant before the control lines even appeared. My hubby thought I was dying or there was a spider on me...same thing in our house haha. Anywho. That weekend I took 2 more tests and that following Tuesday when the DR office was open I took a blood one to confirm...Sure enough! We had a baby on the way! An I hadn't even known it for months! I was almost 12 weeks out by the time I got in that following week with an OB appointment. We are so excited and so blessed its insane! I am still labeled as high risk but all is well there :)

Our little bundle is Due December 18th and we found out 2 days before my birthday we are having a little girl! I swear I have rainbows shooting out of everywhere. That day we went and bought her first little girl outfit to celebrate!

I am trying to be crafty and make a few things for her like burp cloths, changing pad, nursing scarfs, and a couple baby blankets.
Well I made 2 nursing infinity scarfs  and my first baby blanket. The scarf was amazing and I think I will wear it now haha and so easy one seam! You take jersey knit fabric a piece about 30 inches wide and 60 inches long....I found this that was 58 wide and so I just had her cut a little over 30 long to save some cash and not have left over fabric.  Fold the long way in half and sew the two ends together...that's it! Here it is...

 

Here is a pic of the simple blanket I did...