wallet friendly meal....

I think I may have outdone myself.....I hope....The other night I made a meal for the whole family (5) for only $4.33....WOW!  We had parsley & basil Penne pasta topped with Parmesan cheese ~ homemade garlic bread.  The herbs came out of my garden as did the tomatoes & the garlic. Here is a rundown of the prices....
Penne pasta - $1.19
Parmesan block - $2.15
French Bread - $.99

How yummy

does this look??  It was so easy to do & everyone loved it!  You could even mix up the different herbs that you may have in your garden.....I think that Rosemary & even Oregano would be great!  I follow through with my herb butter as well on the garlic bread.  Which is so easy to do.....

Herb Butter:

1 stick unsalted room temp butter

2 T Oregano

2 T Rosemary

2 T Basil

2 T Thyme

You could even mix it up for your liking....just add on the T herb you prefer more with the one you ommitted :)  Enjoy!

Caramel Cereal snack mix

So I know a lot of us are Chocolate fans but not me so much....my weakness is Caramel!!  I made this Caramel Cereal snack mix 2 days ago & it's just about gone!! 

 Very simple ingredients....  I even had everything here so I didn't even need to go to the store:)

 Look at that yummy mix of brown sugar, vanilla & butter.......

Caramel Cereal snack mix

8 cups Corn Pops
1 cup salted peanuts
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, cubed  ( I used unsalted)
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

********

*In a large bowl, combine cereal & peanuts; set aside. In a large heave saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter & corn syrup; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
*Remove from the heat. Stir in vanilla & baking soda (mixture will foam). Immediately pur over cereal mixture & toss to coat.
*Spread into (2) greased 15"X 10" baking pans. Bake at 250 for 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks. Store in airtight containers.  Yield:  14 cups

You would think that they would be sticky but they are not at all.  I got this recipe from Taste of Home.

Enjoy!

Pictures from my hubby's birthday dinner....

 Here are the homemade refried beans...

 homemade "to die for" corn tortillas....these by far beat any corn tortilla from the store!!

 Side view....there are 3 layers of goodness in there!

A birds eye view from the top:)

My son had 3 .... yes 3 helpings of dinner tonight....I know it's good when it passes the Brady test:)

Happy Birthday honey:)

Today is my husbands birthday so I thought that I would make hime a nice homemade dinner....on the menu we have Chicken Enchiladas with a buttermilk enchilada sauce ~ homemade corn tortillas ~ homemade refried beans.....yummo!!!!  I am so excited about this meal.....only one thing is different ~ I have always rolled my enchiladas....this recipe calls to stack them in 3.....lots of layers must = lots of taste. The website that all of this possible is www.myhomecooking.net.....it looks like they have a lot of different types of food ~ not just Mexican. Check it out!  I'll post pics as soon as I can.....stay hungry!

Asian Noodle Soup

Oh man is this soup good!!!  So easy to make too!!

Asian Noodle Soup:
1- 8ounce package rice noodles (I used rice sticks by Maifun)
4 C Chicken broth/stock OR 8 C homemade (I used homemade stock)
2 C water
1/4 C Soy Sauce
a one inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into 2 pieces (freeze any leftove ginger for later use)
2 C cooked chicken, diced
2 C cabbage (I used 1C green and 1C red)
Red Chili sauce - for serving if you like it spicy

1. Fix noodles according to package - which I just soaked mine in hot water for 10 minutes
2. While the noodles are soaking heat chicken broth/stock, water, soy sauce and ginger to a boil.    Reduce heat to simmer and cook for about 5 minutes.
3. Remove ginger (the ginger is just to add extra flavor to the liquid)
4. Add chicken & cook until heated through (only should take a few minutes)
5. Add cabbage & noodles and simmer for 1-2 minutes. You do not really want to cook the noodles & cabbage.....just to heat through
                              ~~ serve and enjoy~~

Sorry that the pictures are on a angle.....I guess you will just have to tilt your head....lol....

brrrrr.....

OK...I know I live in WI but today is a very chilly start to the day....only in the 50's when I dropped the kids off at school. Pants for everyone today!  Today in honor of the "chillies" I am going to make some more soup....I love soup!  This time though it will be Asian Noodle Soup ~ which means I get to play around with some fun Asian noodles :)  Hoping the kids will like it....I just told them that it is just a glorified Ramen Noodle soup which they love....the only one that i'm really worried about is Breya but I may get lucky and she will eat it :)  Will post pics when done....

Root Vegetable Soup....

So here is the finished Soup that was made the other day.....It was sooooo good!!  I could not find Cleriac in town anywhere so I just added some Daikon Root which is actually a Japanese Radish...very tasty!!  Definately will be making this soup again!

yummy, ummy soup

So the Root Veggie Soup was soooo yummy!!  Even my "non soup" eating kids tried some....wow!!  There must be a lunar eclipse....lol ~~~ It's only 7:30 here in Green Bay and it's already dark! I love Autumn but there is still so much to do outside that I don't want it to be dark yet...Oh well ~ bedtime for the zoo---hoping that I can figure out how to put pics on the blog tomorrow....I have pics of the soup~~yummo!

my 1st post

Ok....so i'm going to try this blogging thing.  Not sure how far it will go but one can only hope....already having trouble changing my background...BUT...anyway......

My 1st post is about Root Vegetable Soup....which the nights will be getting chillier here so it's soup season .. yah!  My Root Vegetable Soup will contain carrots, parsnips (some from my garden), daigon root (japanese radish) ~ which I was told by a very nice lady at the Farmers Market that they are great in soup!!  Yellow Onion ~ and I of course will be adding some homegrown celery ~ yum! Also being added will be some of my Homemade "bestever" Chicken stock.....I can't wait to try it! I'll post pictures as soon as I can (that's if I can figure out how to do it).....have a great day