LOADED BAKED POTATO DIP - APPETIZER

For our Summer Soiree I made a couple of appetizers for all of our guests to snack on a couple of hours before we had dinner, and this is one of them. This was a hit and I will most definitely be making this appetizer again in the future!

It was very easy to throw together and had so much flavor. I actually made this the night before and just popped it back in the oven, covered, to warm up right before everyone got there. 

Loaded Baked Potato Dip Adapted from Carolina Charm

Ingredients: 1 cup  instant potato flakes 1 cup  milk 1 cup Light Sour Cream 1 tub (8 oz) Chive & Onion Cream Cheese Spread 2  green onions, sliced, divided 2 cups Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese, divided 2 Tbsp. Real Bacon Bits  Ritz Toasted Chips Original or Wheat Thins   Directions: Heat oven to 350ºF. Mix potato flakes and milk in large bowl; until milk is absorbed. Add sour cream, cream cheese spread, 1 cup of shredded cheese,1 Tbsp of bacon bits, and half the onions; mix well. Spoon into baking dish; sprinkle with remaining shredded cheese and bacon bits. Bake 15 to 20 min. or until shredded cheese is melted and dip is heated through. Sprinkle with remaining onions. Serve with chips.

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LOADED BAKED POTATO DIP - APPETIZER

BEEFY-CHILI MAC - DINNER RECIPE

This recipe is so easy and we had plenty of leftovers for lunches the rest of the week. The best part about it is that you can change it up according to what you like or don't like. 

Beefy-chili Mac

Adapted from Mix and Match Mama

Ingredients 

- 1 lb of elbow noodles

- 1 lb of ground beef

- 2 (6 oz) cans of tomato paste

- 1 (8 oz) can of tomato sauce 

- 1 cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese, halved. 

- 2 - 1-2 Tablespoon of chili powder

- 1/2 teaspoon of cumin

- 1 Tablespoon of parsley

- 1 teaspoon of garlic powder

- Salt & pepper, to taste

Directions

- Preheat oven to 350

- In a large pot, cook noddles al dente and then drain.

- Meanwhile in another skillet brown your meat and then drain.

- Once meat and noodles are done mix the meat in with the noodles. Then mix in all of the other ingredients listed above. Only mix in half of the shredded cheese. 

- Once everything is mixed together well in the skillet, add to a 9 x 13 baking dish and top with remaining shredded cheese.

- Bake in the oven at 350 for 20-25 minutes. 

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BEEFY-CHILI MAC - DINNER RECIPE

EASY SALISBURY STEAK - DINNER

Last week I tried a new recipe and we really enjoyed it. Plus I already had most of the ingredients in my pantry, I love those kind of meals!!

Ingredients:
Patties:

1 lb Lean Ground Beef

1/3 cup Bread Crumbs

2 tsp Ketchup

1 tsp Mustard

1 tsp Worcestershire

1/2 tsp Garlic Powder

1/2 tsp Onion Powder

Gravy:

2 packets Brown Gravy Mix

2 cup hot Water

1 tsp Ketchup

1/2 tsp Worcestershire

Directions:

1. Combine all patty ingredients in a large bowl until all ingredients are mixed well.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

3. Cook patties on both sides until no longer pink.

Lower the temperature to low, so they don't burn on the outside.

4. Whisk together gravy mix and water until well blended.

Whisk in ketchup and Worcestershire. 

5. Pour over patties in skillet.

Allow to simmer until gravy warms and thickens.

This was a screenshot from my snapchat video that I made while pouring the gravy in, and you can hear Matthew sneezing in the background lol.

I used my whisk to stir the sauce every few minutes as it thickened. I also kept flipping the patties so they wouldn't burn.

After it was finished I placed the salisbury steak over a bed of garlic mashed potatoes and then served it with green beans and corn. Such an easy and delicious meal!

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EASY SALISBURY STEAK - DINNER

CROCKPOT POTATO SOUP - DINNER

I made this a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it. It was really easy to make and turned out better than I thought it would!

Ingredients:

- 1 (32 oz) bag frozen hash browns

- 1 (32 oz) can chicken broth

- 1 (10 oz) can condensed cream of chicken soup

- 1 (8 oz) cream cheese

- 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese

- 1 teaspoon basil

- 1 teaspoon garlic powder 

- 1/2 teaspoon parsley

- Bacon bits (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in crockpot

2. Stir together so that everything mixes well.

3. Place lid on crockpot and cook on high for 4 hours or until potatoes are tender. 

4. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Garnish with bacon bits and extra cheese!

As you can see I used one of my slow cooker bags. I love these things and they make clean up so much easier. Of course I still clean my crockpot after each use, but this helps with stuff sticking to the sides and with leaving an odor in the crockpot. I have a had a couple of bags tear a little, but I think it's from where I was scraping food away from the sides, but even with the small tear clean up was very quick and easy. 

Add these to your next grocery list! They are usually in the aisle with the Ziplock bags.

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CROCKPOT POTATO SOUP - DINNER

CROCKPOT SAUSAGE TORTELLINI

During our snowy weekend I put our crockpot to good use. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I LOVE MY CROCKPOT. Seriously, it's great.

One of the things I made...I mean my crockpot made is this Sausage Tortelloni recipe! I made it a few weeks ago and we both loved it so I thought it would be a good recipe for a snow day.

Ingredients:

- l lb of sausage or ground beef (I used ground beef)

- 20 oz Buitoni Frozen Three-Cheese Tortellini (I used Sweet Italian Sausage the 2nd time I made it)

-  32 oz Chicken Broth (I always buy the low/reduce sodium kind)

- 2 cans diced tomatoes (Basil, Garlic & Oregano seasoned kind)

- 1/2 t Garlic Powder (not pictured)

- 8 oz cream cheese

- Grated Parmesan (Optional. And not pictured) for topping

Directions:

Step 1:

 Take your cream cheese out of the refrigerator and let it sit while you are browning your meat.

Step 2:

Add the tortellini to your crockpot.

Step 3:

Add the diced tomatoes. I actually puree the two cans of tomatoes because we don't like chunks of tomatoes :)

Step 4: 

Add in the Chicken Broth.

Step 5:

Add in cooked meat.

Step 6:

Add in garlic powder and cream cheese in chunks and give everything a good stir.

Step 7:

Cook on Low for 3 1/2 - 4 hours or High for 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Stir occasionally.

Here is a picture of it when it was about half way finished

And here is a picture of it when it was finished

So easy and so delicious!

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CROCKPOT SAUSAGE TORTELLINI

CROCKPOT BEEF ROAST - DINNER

Today I am going to share with y'all one of Matthew's favorite meals, crockpot roast beef!

It is probably one of the easiest meals I can make and my crockpot does all of it. I just fix a few sides to go with it and then it's time to eat! I also use crockpot bags so cleanup is REALLY easy. If you haven't discovered crockpot bags yet then get some the next time you go to the store and you can thank me later! 

Ingredients:

- 2-2.5lb beef roast

- 1 package of brown gravy mix, dry

- 1 package of ranch dressing mix, dry

- 1 package of dried Italian salad dressing mix

- 1/2 cup water

Directions:

- Place roast in crockpot

- Pour each package over roast

- Pour water around roast

- Cook on low 8-9 hours

I made this soon after we got married and Matthew has requested it multiple times, so I always make sure to keep those three dry mixes in our pantry. The ranch and Italian dressing mix both come in boxes of 4, and the brown gravy comes in single packs at .50 each. Can't beat that!

I usually fix mashed potatoes, mac & cheese and green beans with this roast, and we always have leftovers for a couple of days- which makes for perfect lunches! Follow along on Snapchat (shelbycoats), I'm usually snapping away while I make dinner, and I love following other bloggers to get dinner ideas.

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CROCKPOT BEEF ROAST - DINNER

GARLIC-CHEESY PULL APART ROLLS

Last night I made a copy cat version of Cheddar's Baked Spasagna and we loved it! It will definitely be going on my Pinned it, Did board on Pinterest. I also made these garlic-cheesy pull apart rolls. They were really easy to make and didn't take long at all.

Ingredients

16 oz tube of refrigerated biscuits

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 1/2 Tablespoon parsley

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1 Tablespoon garlic powder 

3 Tablespoons olive oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut each biscuit into fourths and place in a large mixing bowl. Add in cheese, parsley, onion powder, garlic powder, and olive oil. Mix well.

2. Place 4 pieces into each muffin cup (prepared with non sitck spray.) I was able to get 8 biscuits out of my tube. 

3. Bake at 375 for 10-13 minutes, until biscuits are golden brown.

So easy and delicious! It took me about 5 minutes to get everything mixed and then about 12 minutes baking time. A delicious side in under 20 minutes, I'll take it!

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GARLIC-CHEESY PULL APART ROLLS

Caramel Apple Spice

One of my favorite drinks from Starbucks is their Caramel Apple Spice. I'm not a big coffee drinker and I hardly go there because of the prices. I discovered this drink there last year around Christmas and decided to try it and it was GREAT. It's also cheaper than their coffee drinks ;) Although it is cheaper it's still more than I want to spend on a drink. I have found many recipes on Pinterest for this drink but never tried any until last night. I decided I would try THIS recipe since it looked pretty simple. I also had bought a gallon of  "apple cider" at the store to try hoping it would taste somewhat similar...it didn't. It was just plain apple juice lol. So I still had this huge thing of apple cider apple juice in my refrigerator and I didn't want to waste it. This recipe calls for six cups of apple juice so it did the trick!   Not going to lie, it tastes pretty close to Starbucks!! The lady who found or created this recipe is a genius!!   Here is her recipe:

6 C apple cider (or apple juice)

4 T caramel syrup (the ice cream topping, but not the magic shell kind)

2-3 cinnamon sticks (or 2 t ground cinnamon)

5-7 whole cloves (1/2 t ground cloves)

The dark pieces are the cloves.

Mix all the ingredients together in the crock-pot and stir the caramel syrup in well so it doesn't stay at the bottom. Leave it in to crock-pot for 4 hours on low.

Easiest recipe ever!

  I put it in the refrigerator after it was finished and then warmed some up this morning and brought to work to sip on this morning!

 

This is what I woke up to this morning...our little bit of snow. The schools were actually out and I laughed until I saw the roads. I am assuming the city wasn't expecting snow becuase they didn't treat the roads last night like they usually do so they were pretty icy this morning, and I'm sure the back roads were even worse. Better safe than sorry, I suppose!

 

Happy Tuesday! Hope y'all are staying warm!!

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Caramel Apple Spice

Poppy Seed Chicken

Matthew has talked about his momma's poppy seed chicken before and when we had our cooking day a couple of weeks ago she made some for us. I didn't realize how simple it was to make! We had some this past Sunday and it was SO good!   Here's the recipe from Matthew's mom!   Poppy Seed Chicken -3 cups chopped cooked chicken
-1 (10 3/4-oz.) can cream of chicken soup, undiluted
-1 (16-oz.) container sour cream
-3 teaspoons poppy seeds
-31 round buttery crackers, crushed (we used a sleeve of Ritz Crackers)
-1/4 cup butter, melted   Combine first 4 ingredients. Spoon mixture into lightly greased 11- x 7-inch baking dish.
Stir together cracker crumbs and melted butter; sprinkle evenly over casserole.
Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes or until hot and bubbly.


After she made them we put them in these tin pans and just put them in the freezer for whenever we wanted them. You can either fix it right then or freeze it for later, either way it is SO simple to make!  

 

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Poppy Seed Chicken

Freezer meals- SO EASY!

On Saturday Matthew and I came home. We had planned on staying on Cookeville but he needed to have his car checked for a leak. We drove all the way home straight to the car shop and wouldn't you know the only guy that works there that can check that was off for the day. We should have called first, lesson learned! We had some pretty good plans for that day so it made up for it! Cooking and lunch with his parents. I was SO excited and couldn't wait to start cooking. I had told Matthew awhile ago that I wanted to cook a bunch of meat/meals and freeze it so I can just sit it out that morning and it be ready to cook/heat up when I get off. I had made a list on Thursday of what all I wanted fix so we stopped Kroger and got everything we needed. We also stopped by Dollar Tree to get these bad boys..

They are THE perfect pans to put meals in and freeze them and you get three in a pack for a DOLLAR! So, we did what any normal person would do and got 14 packages ;)

Seriously these are the perfect size for two people!   Since we eat tacos once a week #tacotuesday I wanted to fix some ground beef. We browned 3lbs of ground beef and then put them in freezer storage bags. I made 2lbs of Italian meatballs, I mixed all the ingredients and baked them in oven then let them cool and put them in freezer storage bags as well. We laid them flat in the freezer and they stacked in there perfectly!

  Matthew has told me about his momma's chicken pot pie before so I knew I wanted to make that and we ended up making two!

 We didn't bake them. We put them together and then just put it in a large freezer storage bag and when I get ready to make it I will set it in the freezer that morning and let it unthaw all day and then throw it in the oven for an hour!

 

I also wanted to make us breakfast burritos. I was getting tired of my banana and peanut butter every morning and Matthew's toaster strudles  aren't the healthiest and they weren't holding him over to lunch. These were very simple to make, I got the directions from HERE. She has great step by step directions with pictures and even heating directions!

 

We also bought some chicken, we boiled some for the chicken pot pie and some for the poppy seed chicken. Matthew and his dad grilled the rest for us to freeze :) Here is the poppy seed chicken casserole. Matthew's mom made this in like 5 minutes! I've never had poppy seed chicken so I am very anxious to try it. It looks delicious though :)

  To say I loved Saturday would be an understatement. It was just so fun hanging around the kitchen cooking with Matthew's mom and learning from her. I've said it before and I'll say it again she is the queen of the kitchen! She knows how to make everything! It honestly took a lot less time than I thought it would. I can't wait to have another cooking day and to try new things!   Do you make freezer meals? Anything I should try?

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Freezer meals- SO EASY!