Crockpot Mashed Potatoes

To go along with our faux Thanksgiving dinner the other night, I made mashed potatoes. Normally, I make them the old fashioned way....boil the potatoes, mash them, and throw in some seasoning and milk. But on Sunday, I didn't feel like spending the whole afternoon in the kitchen worrying about side dishes so I tried a crockpot version. Not only were these super easy, but they were incredibly delicious. Needless to say, I will not be making mashed potatoes the old fashioned way again. I couldn't find the original source for the recipe but I wish I could since someone deserves a lot of credit for this gem!

Crockpot Mashed Potatoes

5 lbs sierra gold potatoes or red potatoes, diced with peel
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup butter, cut into chunks
• 1 tablespoon salt, plus
• ¾  teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 1/3  cups milk, warmed

1. Place the potatoes, water, and butter into a slow cooker.
2. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Cover, and cook on High for 4 hours.
4. Do not remove the excess water from slow cooker. This adds to the creamy texture.
5. Mash potatoes with a masher or electric beater, adding the desired amount of warm milk to achieve a creamy consistency.
6. Keep warm on low until serving.
7. Potatoes keep consistency for a couple of hours after mashing. Just keep the lid on the slow cooker and serve directly from there.

Menu Monday 3/25

Call it spring cleaning (or just plain craziness), but I've spent the last two weeks cleaning out and getting organized. No room or closet has been safe, including our freezer. Spending every second on cleaning/organizing projects left little time for cooking, so I used a lot of freezer meals (which helped us work our way through our freezer inventory). An unexpected benefit of eating freezer meals was that I found a turkey that had been hiding in the dark recesses of the freezer. I knew it would be a perfect Sunday dinner for us and that the leftovers would serve as a starting point for our meals for the rest of our week.

Sunday: Turkey

Monday: Spaghetti

Tuesday: Southwest Turkey Sandwiches

Wednesday: Potato and Turkey Lasagna *

Thursday: Italian Turkey Soup

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: No plan (we have a party to go to...yea!)

*New recipe 

I shared this menu on Weekly Menu Monday:

In No Simple Language

Menu Monday

I managed to stick to last week's plan with the exception of Sunday. I had planned turkey but forgot to move it to the fridge to defrost. We ended up having rotisserie style chicken instead, which gave me a leg up on this week's meals (lots of leftovers) and a chance to restock my supply if homemade chicken stock!

Monday: Chicken Flautas*
Tuesday: Chicken and Ale Soup
Wednesday: Chicken Parm Patties*
Thursday: Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes*
Friday: Homemade Pizza
Saturday: TBD
Sunday: Takeout

*New recipe

I shared this menu on Weekly Menu Monday:
In No Simple Language

Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

Since this is our first week back to a normal routine, I didn't want to stress myself out too much, so I planned really simple dinners.The thing about simple is remembering that simple is not the same as boring. I feel guilty advertising this as a recipe since its more like a method, but its definitely not boring.

For this dinner, you only need boneless chicken breasts, buffalo sauce, and a crockpot. In the morning, just toss the chicken in the crockpot and cover with the sauce. Cook on low for about 6-8 hours and you are set. When the chicken is done, all you have to do is shred the chicken and chose how you want to enjoy this tasty little dish. I typically serve these as sandwiches, but have also used it over lettuce for a salad.You can customize this with ranch or blue cheese dressing or blue cheese crumbles or anything else that you like!

Obviously, my brain is still on vacation a little since I forgot to snap a photo!

Homemade Poptarts

C loves Poptarts and superheros so how great would it be if you could combine them? How great would it be if you could find a way to get some Nutella in there? The answer...pretty darn great!!! This was the only picture I could get because C was scarfing these down faster than anything I've ever seen.

This was so simple. I used ready-made pie crust and our superhero cutters. I always try and get C to help in the kitchen and he was able to use the Captain America cutter and cut the dough out. When your helped is done, take one piece of dough and cover it with a spoonful of Nutella and a few banana slices and top with another piece of dough. Pinch the sides together to seal the pockets (another great kid-friendly job) and cover with a simple egg wash. Follow the baking instructions for your pie dough and enjoy!!!!!!

I knew these were a hit because C has asked for these several times!

This recipe is linked to the following link parties:

 Melt in your mouth Monday

Menu Monday

We've had a crazy month and I am so happy that things are now slowing down and getting back to normal for us. And normal means meal planning! I usually try to look at the month as a whole and then revisit my plan each week. Its helpful to have a long range plan so you can pick up things at the lowest prices and also so you know when you won't need a meal due to a special event. Here is our week...

Monday: Corndog muffins
Tuesday: Pizza from Costco (my husband loves their pizza)
Wednesday: Baked Potato Soup
Thursday: Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches
Friday: Black Bean Tacos
Saturday: TBA (dinner with friends!)
Sunday: Turkey

I shared this menu on Weekly Menu Monday:
http://lilacsandavocados.blogspot.com/

The Year of the Snake

I am not a huge believer in New Year's resolutions, but I do believe in self improvement. So while I won't decree that this is the year I lose ten pounds and learn a new language and travel the world, from time to time, I will mention my long term goals and my strategy on how to accomplish them.

Like most moms, one of my goals is to feed my family in a healthy, tasty manner. I spend a lot of time each month planning and shopping for our dinners but its a struggle to balance healthy eating, taste, and cost. If 2013 is the year of the snake, than 2012 was the year of the chameleon for me with regards to how we eat. I tried out two very different strategies, extreme couponing and green/clean eating.

Let's start with couponing....my extreme couponing was never getting $600 worth of stuff for a penny but I followed the same strategy as those dedicated ladies on tv.

Pros:

• It's super easy to get started.
• There are a lot of really good deals out there if you know how to find them.
• My pantry was overflowing!

Cons:

• It can be time consuming.
• It's very stressful if a deal doesn't work out the way you thought/hoped/planned.
• I had a ton of food in the pantry but it wasn't food we would always eat and it wasn't the most healthy. 

I did a lot of research online about green/clean eating before I got started. I learned far more than I ever thought I would about how food supply and what goes into the things we eat. To say its eye-opening is an understatement.

Pros:

• I felt confident about the safety of the food we were eating.
•  We tried a lot of different types of food and vegetables.

Cons:

•  Since most of the stores near me have somewhat limited selections, I ended up doing a lot of running around.
• This was definitely a costly endeavor.
• It was a hard sell for my husband, a diehard junk food eater and green skeptic.

To be honest, neither of these lifestyles (and it is a lifestyle) was really for me. I have since adopted a hybrid of the two. I do use coupons more than I originally did and I watch the sale circulars, but I tend to coupon only for household items, personal items, and things my husband can't live without. As for the green side, I found that knowing my son's food is safe is far more important to me than convenience and the cost so we still go organic for our meats, milk, and produce. I have found that the added cost of organic foods can be offset in unconventional ways, including going meatless two nights a week (up from one night), reinventing leftovers, and making use of the freezer.

I've got a few other ideas up my sleeve as well so stay tuned!