Much to be Thankful For...

As the Thanksgiving holiday winds down, I continue to be oh so thankful for many things in life right now...

There are the blessings that I find each year that I continue to be thankful for...

My health...

My husband (who I LOVED getting to spend some quality time with this weekend)

My family (including one furry feline)

My friends and coworkers..I hope they all had a wonderful holiday this weekend

My home

My job and the fact that I do something I do enjoy (I need to keep this in mind as things get stressful)

A good book (I just finished my first James Patterson novel-I know he has been around for years but I am just starting to catch on)

Great coffee

A good Lifetime movie (I have one on right now)

The fact that I have one more day left in my holiday break before returning back to the grind-its been a wonderful relaxing break and I feel fortunate to get to spend it at home doing relaxing things:)

AND, I feel even more thankful for new, wonderful news that has come our way, including...


- The news of a new addition to the Tomlins family-SO HAPPY

- The news of a great friend heading back to Kansas-SO EXCITED


And now I will leave you with some Christmas decorations we set up around our house...just some touches...

Lydia always helps-or hinders...not sure which one:) 

 We got the toliet cover last year as a "gift". I was hoping my husband wouldn't find it but he did. 

So here it is.

I was going to make a new wreath this year, but instead I just updated one I had by adding an embellishment. I am quite satisfied with it.

For Thanksgiving dinner, I brought dessert-Cinnamon Roll Cookie Bars. They are delicious!

Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
1 box yellow cake mix (butter pecan would also be delicious I'm sure)
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

Icing
2 tablespoons milk
2 cups powdered sugar

Directions
Mix all ingredients and pour into a greased 9"x13" baking dish. Bake at 350degrees for 25-30 minutes.
When perfectly baked remove from the oven and pour icing over the top. 

Note: I added more milk to the icing

I hope everyone has a wonderful, peaceful, thankful Sunday! 

Heres to Lower Temps...

It's finally coming, lower temps! In honor of this, I did some fall decorating.. (pics to come soon-I want to first put together a Pinterest-inspired centerpiece), and brought out the crockpot for a new recipe.

I have been wanting to make pulled chicken/pork sandwiches forever, but haven't really found the recipe I wanted, until I found this one in Woman's Day Magazine.

And here it is:

BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

Ingredients:
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
3/4 c vinegar cider
1 small finely chopped onion
1/4 c brown sugar, plus 2 tbsp packed
3 tbsp molasses
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken breasts
1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken thighs
1 tbsp cornstarch
Buns

1. Whisk tomato sauce, vinegar, onion, brown sugar, molasses, salt and pepper in slow cooker insert
2. Add chicken. Cover and cook for 6 hours (high) or 8 hours (low)
3. Remove chicken, shred with fork.
4. Pour sauce into medium pot
5. In small bowl, blend cornstarch and 1 tbsp water-stir into sauce
6. Bring sauce to boil for 1 min until thickened
7. Pour sauce onto chicken
8. Serve on buns

I hope everyone enjoys the cooler weather- fall is a-coming!!! BTW- the official first day of fall is September 22.

La La Lasagna!

Last night Shawn and I made our first homemade lasagna.

Usually making lasagna for me means popping a Stouffers box in the oven, but Shawn convinced me to make it from scratch, and it was yummy!

Ingredients:
- Lasagna noodles
-Ground beef (however, we used ground turkey-it's an easy way to stay healthy, and really tastes the same when included in sauce and cheese)
-Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
-Cottage cheese (you can use ricotta cheese, but we used cottage)
-1 Egg
-Italian seasoning
- Spaghetti sauce

Steps:
1. Heat oven to 350
2. Cook noodles according to box
3. Brown and drain beef
4. In a small bowl, combine egg, cottage cheese,shredded cheese and some Italian seasoning (you can also use parsley)
4. In another bowl, mix beef and spaghetti sauce (leave some over to top the lasagna with)
5. In a 13 X 9 pan, spoon some beef/sauce onto the bottom.
6. Sprinkle some cheese on top, leaving some for another layer.
7. Lay noodles on top.
8. Continue to layer beef, cheese and noodles
9. Top the lasagna with your remaining plain sauce

Mmmm cookies!

I made Shawn's favorite cookies the other night (just cause I loooove him:) They are actually called delicious cookies. They really are a great, light summer cookie.

Man, food photography is not my bag.

But these are good-I swear:)

Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 c butter

1 c veggie oil

1 c brown sugar

1 c white sugar

1 egg

2 tsps vanilla

3 1/2 c flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp soda

1 tsp cream of tarter

1 c oatmeal

1 c Rice Krispies cereal

6 oz chocolate chips

Steps:

Blend butter and oil. Cream in sugars. Add egg and vanilla. Beat well. Sift together flour, salt, soda and cream of tarter. Mix in creamed mixture. Then stir in oatmeal, cereal and chocolate. Drop on lightly creased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-12 min. Makes 6 dozen (freeze extra:))



Chicken Salad

I know it's hard to mess up a chicken salad, but I did make one that was pretty tasty. I made it according to a recipe, and then ate lunch off of it practically all week! I ate it as a wrap with a tortilla, or on spinach leaves as a salad.
Also, it says you can add cranberries or almonds as well:)

I don't have an exact recipe, but here are the indegredients:
cooked chicken, celery, cream cheese, mayo, celery, green apples

Easy Peezy Taco Beefy...

So, since I am kind of the queen of easy and delcious..I was delighted to discover this super easy and cheap recipe for a taco skillet.

Ole!

Ingredients:
1 lb beef
1 can tomato soup
taco seasoning
1/2 c water
6 flour tortillas
Shredded cheese

1. Brown beef and drain

2. Add soup, water, seasoning (to taste) and tortillas, cut into 1 in strips.
3. Heat to boil, then lower heat and cook for 5 min.
4. Add shredded cheese to taste.

Fried Fun

And the cooking extravaganza continues!

Yesterday (Tuesday) my lovely mom came down to help me move into and set up my new (and huge classroom).

I will get to the fried part in a minute.

Before I proceed, let me first share one of Lydia's premiere laying out spots in our house.

She doesn't come down when called, praised or commanded.

She only comes down for two things....

Friskies cat treats or a can of tuna-aka food. Just like her mama:)

Anywho, my mom and I went into my classroom to do some organizing and decorating. This is what we started with:

And its still a work in progress. So, soon I will reveal some after pics:)

Then, we decided to make some chicken friend steak...yum yum











Chicken Fried Steak (supper easy-thanks mom, I have a feeling I will be making this often)

Ingredients:

beef cube steak
bread crumbs
saltine crackers
2 eggs
milk
cooking oil

Combine cracker and bread crumbs.
Put oil in fry pan and let it get hot on low heat
Beat egg with milk
Dip meet in egg mixture. Press meat into crumbs. Coat well.
Add meat to pan with oil. Brown on each side.

I am really enjoying this cooking streak I am on. I recently read how everyone needs a creative hobby-perhaps mine can be cooking? I think its the eating part I enjoy the most though:)

Hope everyone stays cool this week-I am sooo sick of heat!!!

A weekend of baking

On Friday, Marilyn came down to see our Casa, and we ended up baking and cooking all day Saturday. We first made some delicious coffee cake (which I had always wanted to make)

 Followed by a peach pie, made with homemade crust, not the frozen crust I had to resort to in the past. Hopefully I can use the pie crust demonstration to make my own from scratch!

It was delicious!

We also made some twice baked potatoes, which I didn't take a picture of. I was too busy eating pie:)

"Cooking is at once child's play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love."

La Recipes:

Coffee Cake
2 1/2 Cups of Flour
3/4 C sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 c salad oil
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix together and put aside 1/2 cup to crumble on top.

Mix the rest with:
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 tsp soda
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

Bake in cake pan at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.


Peach Pie
Prepare pastry for peach pie (8 inch pie)
Sliced peaches (about 4 cups)
1 tsp lemon juice
2/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp margarine

Heat oven to 375. Prepare pastry. Prepare peaches and lemon juice. Mix sugar, flour and cinnamon, stir into peaches. Turn into pastry-lined plate. Dot with margarine. Cover with top crust and cut slits in it, seal and flute. Bake until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble-1hour to 1 1/2 hours. Cover edges of pie with aluminum foil to prevent burning.

Easy Spaghetti

Yes, I know spaghetti is already easy. But this spaghetti dish is easy, and DELICIOUS. This is not the spaghetti you make everyday in college because it's all you can make and it's all you can afford-this is much more.

In fact, as I was taking this picture, I could not help but to take my spoon and eat several huge bites-after I had two big helpings for dinner:)

And I am for sure not a food photographer-who takes a picture of a half eaten dish in a pan? Haha-I never claimed to be professional.

Shawn introduced me to this dish- and everytime we make it, I have a hard time staying out of it!

Ingredients:

1 16oz package of spaghetti

1 bag of shredded cheddar cheese

1 can of tomato soup

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

1 pound of ground beef

Preheat the oven to 375. Brown the beef and cook the noodles. Then in a large mixing bowl, combine the noodles, beef, both soups and half the bag of cheese. Add a can of water (just use one of the cans from the soups). Mix together and pour into a pan (I use a 13X9 glass baking pan). Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top. Put into the over for 30 minutes. ENJOY!

FYI- Shawn thinks this tastes even better a day after it's made. 

A Cheesy Chicken Recipe

So, I got this recipe from my Mom's best friend, Pam. It is fast, easy and delicious!

Its not necessarily healthy, but would be okay with some green beans/salad. Shawn and I enjoyed it!

Chicken Divane

Get:
4 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped
1 pkg chopped broccoli
1 cup cheese (I added much more than this, being a cheese lover)
1/2 cup mayo (I did Light Mayo and it was fine)
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1/2 tsp lemon juice
A little bit of milk (for a creamier casserole)

Mix together the cheese, mayo, soup, milk and lemon juice. Then, in a pan sprayed with cooking spray, layer the broccoli, chicken, sauce and cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.