Red Beans and Onions

This is an easy side dish that my whole family loves. My youngest son will often eat any leftovers we have by themselves the next day for lunch.

Ingredients:

2 cans kidney beans, rinsed

1 bunch green onions

1 onion

3 cloves garlic

1/4 cup chicken broth

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/4 tsp. pepper

2 tbsp. olive oil

Direction:

1. Chop the onion, green onion, and garlic.

2. Add the olive oil to a skillet and heat over medium heat.

3. Place the chopped onion in the skillet and cook for about 5 minutes, until soft.

4. Add the garlic to the skillet and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

5. Add the, green onion,  kidney beans and broth to the skillet. Reduce heat to low.

6. Stir in the spices and simmer for around 5 minutes, until half the broth cooks off and everything is heated through.

This dish is a great complement to any type of chicken or pork and also goes great with tacos. Thanks for stopping by! See you next week.

Menu Plan Monday 1/25/16

Wow! What a winter storm we had this past week! We are still feeling the chill here in Florida, with wind chills literally down into the 20s and 30s and freeze and frost warnings all over the place. There were even some snow flurries in the northern portion of the state! So, this week I have plenty of soups and hot foods on tap, to warm us up from the inside out.

Monday: Creamy Mushroom Soup

Tuesday: Super Easy Chili

Wednesday: Jumbalaya

Thursday: Chili Soup

Friday: Baked Mac and Cheese with Ham

Thanks for stopping by for Menu Plan Monday! Be sure to come back next week, and please check out my post about my Top Ten Recipes of 2015!

Top Ten Recipes of 2015

Last week, I posted about my top ten overall posts of 2015. Those were a mix of product reviews, posts about homeschooling, and some recipes. This week, I wanted to post a list of my top ten recipes overall. So, these are my most-viewed recipe posts of last year:

1.

 

My Irish Toffee Bars recipe was number one on the  list for this year. A yummy, gooey dessert, I made it for a special project for our homeschool group and also for holidays.

2.

I love my crock pot, and this recipe for Sofrito Chicken is a delicious and easy crock pot meal. It was also number two on the list for last year.

 

3.

Another crock pot recipe, Creamy Herb Chicken requires only a few ingredients and comes out moist and juicy.

4.

According to my oldest son, my Gooey Baked Grilled Cheese is the best sandwich ever.

5.

My youngest boy doesn’t really like mushrooms, but he loves my Cabernet Mushroom Sauce. I make it for my pork chops but I think it would go great with steak too.

6.

My Simple Calzone recipe has been one of my top recipes for about two years now. It is really easy to make and it tastes so good. I make this a lot for our Christmas Eve dinner.

7.

A third crock pot recipe, my Sausage and Peppers recipe is full of flavor. I like to use some Chorizo sausage but you could easily substitute another kind.

8.

A great recipe for cold days, Cheeseburger Soup is easy to make and leaves plenty of leftovers for the next day.

9.

My kids love this recipe for Baked Garlic and Lemon Chicken. It’s pretty cost-effective to make too.

10.

One of my personal favorites, this Creamy Cheesy Chicken is the perfect comfort food.

So, there you have it. My top ten recipes for 2015. Thank you so much for visiting my blog. I can’t wait to share more recipes with you this year!

Creamy Mushroom Soup

With the weather turning colder, I finally get to make one of my boy’s most requested meals, Creamy Mushroom Soup. They ask me to make this all the time, but it is a bit of work, and it really is best for warm days. However, it does taste delicious!

 

Ingredients:

2 large shallots

1 1/2 lbs. mixed wild mushrooms

1/4 cup red cooking wine

3/4 cup heavy cream

7 cups chicken broth

1 tbsp. chopped fresh thyme

1/4 cup parsley

2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

3 tbsp. flour

3 tbsp. butter

Directions:

1. Dice the shallots and slice the mushrooms, removing the stems. (I learned a neat trick for cleaning the mushrooms from watching The Barefoot Contessa on TV. Instead of rinsing them underwater, since mushrooms tend to absorb water, blot and wipe them clean with a damp paper towel.)

2. Melt the butter in a large pot and add the shallots and saute for two minutes.

3. Add the mushrooms and thyme and cook for eight minutes more, stirring occasionally.

4. Add the flour and cook, while stirring, for two minutes. Then add the stock and bring the soup to a boil. Turn the heat down to simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes.

5. Stir in the sherry, heavy cream, salt, and pepper and return to a simmer again, then add the parsley and serve.

I like to serve this with some hot rolls and a homemade chef’s salad. It also reheats well the next day too! Enjoy and come back tomorrow for my Top Ten Recipes of 2015 post! Thanks for stopping by and see you next week!

Check out more new recipes here:

Menu Plan Monday 1/18/16

So far, the first couple of weeks of 2016 have been a little crazy. The weather has gone from cold, to wet, to warm, to stormy, and back to cold again. We’ve seen two rounds of yucky colds run through our house, and one dead car battery that was rather expensive to fix. Here’s hoping it’s uphill from here! At least the weather is still allowing me to experiment with some yummy foods. This is what’s on our menu this week:

Monday: Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Tuesday: Beef Burgundy

Wednesday: Lasagna Soup

Thursday: Chicken Soup

Friday: Leftovers (we have an event to go to in the evening so we’ll be reheating something before we go out!)

Thanks for stopping by for Menu Plan Monday this week! Be sure to come back next week.

Top Ten Posts of 2015

2015 seemed to fly by. My friend and I were talking the other day, and I guess it’s true when our parents told us the years do go quicker as you get older. So, I’ve spent some time looking over my blog stats and I’m doing some review posts. This week I’m going to share my most viewed posts of 2015 overall, and next week I will share my top ten recipe posts. So, these are my most-viewed posts of 2015:

1.

My review of Christianity Cove got the most views of the year.

2.  My recipe for Irish Toffee Bars was my second most viewed post of the year.

3.

Post number three came from one of our crew round ups. Our Top Curriculum Choices was my third most popular post of the year.

4.

My post on Free and Frugal homeschooling from another round up was number four.

5.

This review of Time4Learning made it to number five.

6.  My crock pot recipe for Sofrito Chicken was my number six post.

7. The second crock pot recipe on the list, Creamy Herb Chicken was post number seven.

8. This recipe for my Gooey Baked Grilled Cheese sandwiches was number eight.

9.
My review of Middlebury Interactive Languages was number nine.

10.
Finally, my review of Analytical Grammar was post number ten. We still love this program by the way, my youngest is having great success with it still.

So, those were my most-viewed posts of the year. Thank you so much for visiting my blog. I look forward to sharing more with you in 2016. Make sure to stop by next week to see my list of most-viewed recipes!

Easy Enchilada Casserole

This week, I’m sharing an easy weeknight meal that you can throw together and get in the oven in about 15 minutes. Then you just sit back and let it bake! And it tastes delicious! My neighbor made it when she had us over for dinner at her house and she let me have the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 large rotisserie chicken

4 10 oz. cans green enchilada sauce

4 7 oz. cans whole green chiles

1/2 cup sour cream

6 0z. cream cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded Parmesan

1 1/2 cups shredded Mozzarella

Directions:

1. Pour the cans of enchilada sauce into a saucepan and heat over medium heat on the stove for about 10 minutes until it starts to bubble.
2. Add the cream cheese and sour cream and stir until melted.
3. Open the cans of green chiles and drain in a strainer. Open one side of the chiles and pull the seeds out. Pat them dry with a towel.
4. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray and lay about 12 of the chiles flat across the bottom.
5. Shred the rotisserie chicken and lay half of the meet on top of the chiles.

6. Pour half the sauce on top of the chicken.

7. Layer the Parmesan cheese on top of the sauce.

8. Add the rest of the chiles on top the cheese. Then place the rest of the chicken on top of the chiles.

9. Pour the remaining sauce on top of the final layer of chicken and then layer the mozzarella on top of that.

10. Bake at 350 degrees until the cheese is melted and brown.

I served these with tortilla chips crumbled on top, but the next day, my sons loaded the leftovers on top of the tortillas and ate them like nachos. If you don’t want to use a rotisserie chicken you could definitely cook your own chicken and just shred it instead, but I’m all about short cuts on busy days!

Thanks for stopping by. Make sure to come back next week. Check out more recipes here:

Menu Plan Monday 1/11/16

It’s the second week of 2016 and I’m still working on the whole date thing. The weather is turning cooler finally so I can start cooking some warm, yummy comfort foods. That means I also get to use my crock pot a lot! I’ve been reviewing my blog stats this week and next week I plan to post my top ten recipes of 2015, so make sure you come check it out! For now, this is what’s on our menu for this week:

Monday: Chicken and Dumplings

Tuesday: Spinach, Bacon, and Bean Soup

Wednesday: Shrimp and Grits

Thursday: Crock Pot Corn Chowder

Friday: Rosemary Lemon Baked Chicken

Thanks for stopping by for Menu Plan Monday. See you next week!

Juevos Rancheros

On Christmas Eve morning, I made this very easy Juevos Rancheros recipe for my family for breakfast. I used to have this for breakfast all the time in the mornings when I was in high school, because I could roll it up burrito style and eat it while running out the door when I was late for class. My hubby and kids loved it.

Ingredient:

4 tortillas

4 eggs

1 can black beans

1 jar salsa

shredded cheese (any kind-I used cheddar)

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil to coat the pan

Directions:

1. Heat some olive oil in one small skillet to fry the tortillas.
2. Add each tortilla one by one and fry for a few minutes on each side until they begin to bubble and brown, then remove them to the plates.
3. Drain and rinse the beans and add them to a larger skillet with the salsa and cilantro. Cook over medium heat for 5-7 minutes until heated through, then reduce heat to low to keep warm.

4. Cook the eggs in the first skillet, frying them over-medium or over-hard, depending on your preference. I find the key to frying the perfect egg is to crack it and wait for the white to set completely before flipping it over.

5. Place the egg on the tortilla and top with the warm beans and salsa and some of the cheese.

I served this with some bacon too. It’s funny of course, how quickly teenage boys will spring out of bed even early in the morning when they know there’s bacon in the kitchen! Usually I have to drag them out of bed kicking and screaming, but if I cook bacon, watch out! Thanks for stopping by, check out more recipes here:

Menu Plan Monday 1/4/16

Welcome to first Menu Plan Monday post of 2016! As I was typing this I realized I had written the date wrong in the title and I had to go back and change it. I guess I will be doing that for at least the rest of January! I hope you all enjoyed your holidays, we had a nice break, and last week we welcomed the new year with a pig roast with friends. For my side dish, I brought my spicy bacon black eyed peas, since it is a family tradition to eat black eyed peas on New Year’s Day to bring good luck all year long. I don’t if it works, but it’s fun. Anyway, now that the decorations are put away, it’s time to return to our routine, so here’s what’s on the menu for this week:

Monday: Pork chops with Cabernet mushroom sauce and Lemon Garlic Broccoli (my youngest actually requested this, which is weird because he doesn’t like mushrooms, except when I cook them this way)

Tuesday: Mexican Chicken Skillet

Wednesday: Beef Burgundy

Thursday: Chicken Parm Casserole

Friday: Burgers on the grill

Thanks for stopping by and Happy New Year to you! See you next week!

2016: A Year Of Changes Ahead

2016 is upon us, and this year brings quite a few changes to my life. For starters, my oldest son will turn 18 and graduate high school this May. For me, this is quite a bittersweet experience, because while I am certainly proud of the young man he has become, letting go of my boy is proving to be quite the challenge. His brother will officially begin high school in the fall, so my years as a homeschool mom are waning, and after so many years of being busy with school and having my time spent with my children I am left to wonder, what happens next? I can’t imagine my days without my kids. I have been preparing them for this moment since the beginning, and I am so excited to see them start their future, but it makes me a little sad at the same time…

However, before then my son and I are going on a trip up to Washington D.C. to look at some schools. He has worked really hard and is paying for the trip himself. He is still a little unsure of what exact career path he wants to take, but he has narrowed it down to medicine or something in law. While he will do his undergraduate work here in Florida since we have done the Prepaid college program since our boys were little, he really likes the idea of going to DC for his graduate work. As a young man, he is dying to get out of our small town and experience life in the big city, a feeling I understand as I too grew up in a small town and I had quite the wanderlust in my younger days. It is just him and I going on this trip together, and it reminds me of the college road trip my mom and I took to New York when I was in high school. I am really looking forward to spending a week alone with him. We will of course get to do some fun things up there too and stay with family in the area.

I also have a lot to do for him between now and the end of the year. There are transcripts to take care of, graduation to prep for (my state has a big homeschool graduation ceremony every year), applications to fill out. It’s overwhelming just thinking about it!

My hubby and I are also involved with some friends of ours in opening a business and boy is that stressful too. However, we believe it will be worth the reward in the end, and so we move ahead in the hopes that by the end of 2016, we will be running a successful and profitable operation.

So, it looks like I will be making quite a few adjustments in 2016. Some will be easier than others, but change is a good thing, right? And no matter what, you can’t stop the world from turning, so I’m just going to put a smile on my face and take it one day at a time.