Attempting to be a Super Mom

When I was much younger, I got a cookbook as a birthday or Christmas present from my Grandma called Clueless in the kitchen.  It was my very first cookbook and probably what got me started in cooking.  I can't seem to find the book at this moment.  I'm sure it's packed away in the garage somewhere because we have no room for all my cookbooks anywhere else in the house.  One of my favorite things to make out of there was the meatballs.  I love spaghetti and meatballs, meatball sandwiches, and Hawaiian meatballs.  This is not the exact recipe from the book but this is very close. Meatballs Ingredients: 1 lb ground beef 1 egg 1/2 cup bread crumbs salt pepper garlic powder Italian seasoning Directions: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  In a large bowl, mix the ground beef, egg and bread crumbs.  Season with the salt, pepper, garlic powder and Italian seasoning to your liking. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. ...

I got this recipe from  Full Bellies Make Happy Kids - Creamy Corn Casserole .  I've pretty much come to the conclusion, if Sandra likes it, so will Shawn and I.  I tweaked a thing or two from her recipe, but really it's pretty much her recipe just adjusted to be made year round in the mid west.  If you want her original recipe or any other amazing food recipe of hers, please do go to  http://fullbelliesmakehappykids.wordpress.com/ ! Creamy Corn Casserole Ingredients: 2 cans corn, drained 2 tbsp butter salt, pepper, garlic powder chives heavy cream cheddar cheese, shredded Directions: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  In a mixing bowl season the corn with some salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the corn.  Add the chives and heavy cream.  Add enough cream to make it creamy.  Pour into a baking dish and sprinkle the cheddar cheese over the top. Bake for 30 minutes and then let si...

In my house, we cook a lot of chicken, so I'm always trying to find new ways to cook it, so it's not so boring. This was a hit!  My kids couldn't stop eating it and my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Creamy Baked Chicken Ingredients: 3 large chicken breasts or 5 small chicken breasts 1 egg bread crumbs (I make my own and used about 2 pieces of bread worth) 1 can cream of mushroom soup 1/2 cup milk Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Dip the chicken breasts in the egg and bread crumbs and lay onto a baking dish.  Bake for about 30 minutes. Dilute the soup with the milk.  Mix well and then pour over the chicken.  Bake the chicken for another 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked all the way through.

We eat a lot of spaghetti in this house.  I think it's an easy thing to cook and when you have children, you find yourself cooking a lot of things that they will eat. Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce Ingredients: 3 cans tomato sauce 2 small cans tomato paste 1 green bell pepper, chopped 1 red bell pepper, chopped 1/2 onion, chopped 1/8 tsp paprika 1/8 tsp pepper 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp cumin 1 tsp garlic powder 1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning Directions: Put all the ingredients into a crock pot.  Stir well.  Cook on low for about 6 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

The weather in my neck of the woods: It's in the 40s today and quite cloudy.  I'm excited for the rain that we are supposed to get tomorrow. Things that make me happy:   A good night of sleep. Book I'm reading:   I'm just starting Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert What's on my TV today:   The Closer and Rizoli and Isles tonight As for today, last night's All American Muslim. On the menu for dinner: We have been busy and haven't gotten our grocery shopping done so tonight we are ordering pizza and picking up some food from the grocery store to get us through payday on Thursday. On my To Do List: Fold and put away laundry Dishes Vacuum and scrub floors New Recipe I tried or want to try soon: I haven't been very adventurous lately.  I've been cooking the same things we normally eat.  I'll have to figure out some way to mix it up.  I'm wanting to make a beef stew or something though. In the craft basket: Christmas gifts. Looking ...

We are going through a lot of changes as a family right now.  If you haven't been living under a rock somewhere, you know by now that I'm obviously pregnant.  The baby will be here on Valentine's Day unless she decides to come early (lets hope not), so that's 2 1/2 months away. We are in the middle of the crazy holiday season. I'm excited for Christmas, but I think most people are, especially when you have young kids who are just starting to get it.  Ben is so excited for all things Christmas and both of the kids won't leave our Christmas tree alone. If you can't find the kids, they can usually be found laying underneath the tree.  This is our first year doing a fake tree.  Usually we go to a Christmas tree farm and pick one out, but because last year, Ben had some allergic reactions to our tree, we decided it would be better to go fake from now on.  At first I was sad to not get a real tree, but now I'm really great with the fake one.  Ok, maybe...