Two ingredient pumpkin muffins!

Today, I woke up with the WORST migraine in the universe around 5am. I took some Imitrex, and went back to sleep until about 7:30am. I woke up and still had a very slight migraine. I started to get ready for church and BAM!! It came back with a vengeance. So, Monkey and I stayed home from church and I watched some Criminal Minds and Monkey played his game.

I decided that I needed something sweet. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures, but I PROMISE that these are the easiest things that you will ever make.

All you need is a can of pumpkin and a box of spice cake mix.

You mix the 2, put in greased muffin tins, and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

When you bring them out of the oven, they will be hot (obviously!!) so do not eat them, even though you will want to. (Trust me!)

These are absolutely delicious!!!

Sam and I have watched Criminal Minds since they got home from church, which he and Buggy brought home Sonic for lunch, and I put a roast in the crock pot this morning, but, I only had it on "keep warm" so it's totally not ready. :-/ Oops!!

My head is starting to feel just a little bit better, but, it still hurts like the dickens, so, I'm not going to make this a long one.

I hope you enjoy the recipe! Next time I make these, I promise to take pictures. ;-)

Monday Weigh-in and Chili!

Today is my little girls 9th birthday. I can't believe 9 years ago she was just a tiny little thing wrapped up in a pink blanket! She has grown SO much, in more ways than one! She's super smart, she's in all advanced classes in school, she is a helper at our church, and everywhere we go, she always knows someone, and if it's an adult they always tell me what a sweet girl she is. Makes my heart smile. :-)

Anyways! My weigh in! I lost! WOOHOO! I'm at 204.6 as of this morning. According to my Sparkpeople.com goal tracker, I SHOULD be at 201, but, that's okay! I'm slightly behind, but, not enough to be a big deal. I will figure out how to lose that "extra" at some point in time.

Yesterday I put chili in the crock pot before we went to church, and when we got home, the entire house smelled so good I wanted to eat the air! It was REALLY good! Tho, if you have or have people in your family that have sensitive mouthes, scale back on the chili powder a tiny bit. :-D

Crock Pot Chili
Serves 10-15

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 28oz can diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 8oz can marinara (or regular tomato sauce)
• 1 small diced red pepper
• 1 small diced green pepper
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 stalks celery, diced small
• 3 medium carrots, cleaned and shredded
• 4-5 TABLESPOONS chili powder (I used 5, kids said it was a bit spicy)
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 15oz can of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 15 oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed.

1. In a large non-stick skillet, crumble ground turkey and brown, turning often until pink is gone, 6-7 minutes. Transfer to 6-quart slow cooker
2. Add remaining ingredients and gently mix
3. cover and cook for 8 hours on low, or4 hours on high.

Monday Weigh-in and a Recipe!

So, my husband left last night to go to Quantico Virginia for 3 weeks, so these past few days has been "celebration time!" For those of you that don't know, my birthday is tomorrow (12June) and my daughters birthday is next week (18June). We ate out a few times. I didn't get exercise in as much as I would have liked.  Wednesday night Bug came home from school and was crying saying her throat, head, and stomach hurt. I took her to the doctors and she had strep AND the flu. Then Monk started throwing up later that night. They both missed the last 2 days of school. :-/

Anyways! No excuses! I weighed in this morning, and I'm back to 207. GAH! It's okay tho. I didn't go any higher, and I'm getting back on the Turbo Jam wagon, back on the healthy eating wagon, and we'll be fine! :-) Sam is gone for the next 3 weeks, so it gives me time to work out a new routine with the kids being home for exercise and everything else.

Last night we had some REALLY good nachos!! (I LOVE NACHOS!!) I thought I would share the recipe with y'all!

Cheesy Chili Nachos (adapted from Eat More of what you Love)
Serves: 4

• 8 oz lean ground turkey
• 3/4 cup diced onion
• 1 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup diced tomatoes
• 1/2 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 3 oz whole grain tortilla chips
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 2 teaspoons flour
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• pinch of garlic
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Add ground turkey and onion to medium skillet at medium high heat. Cook until meat is browned and onion is soft, about 10 minutes
2. Stir in chili powder, cumin, and cayenne peper. Stir in tomatoes and 1/2 cup water. Reduce hit to low, cover, and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in beans and heat until warm.
3. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt butter and add flour, whisk until smooth. Add chicken broth and garlic and bring to boil, stir continuously until thick. Remove from heat and whisk in 1/2 cup of cheese at a time. 
4. Spread chips out over plate (or platter). Spoon meat mixture evenly over chips, and drizzle cheese over chili. Top with favorite garnish, and serve!

It really  filled you up with all of the whole grain chips, and it was lower in calories!! (around 200)

We watched Secret Millionaire and Extreme Makeover: Weightloss Edition last night. I really like Sunday night "feel good TV." Secret Millionaire makes me happy that there are still people out there willing to help. Gives me hope for the human race. EM:WE makes me REALLY happy! I absolutely LOVE Chris Powell! During the program, he challenged everyone to do his "commercial exercise" which was 15 sit-ups, 15 push-ups, and 15 squats. He said that doing that during the commercials was something easy to do and it gave you quite the workout. I did that for about an hour.. maybe a little longer. I can say that my abs and arms are a bit sore today! I guess that means that I need to do that every night while we watch our TV shows.

Anyways! Busy day today! I thought I would share with you a little video about the program that I'm currently doing. It's called Turbo Jam, and it's REALLY fun!! If you have any questions about this, or would like to order a copy of this AMAZING workout, let me know!!

Project 365 - Week 3

Okay... this weeks P365 is going to be a lil thin... I'll admit.. I can't exactly remember what all I did this past week. I try to write things down in my house manual, but sometimes I'm not exactly successful! I'm also not very good at remembering to take pictures every day. I don't lead a very exciting life.. as my friend Nathan reminded me today I'm "just a housewife." *eyeroll* And yes... I know I'm late again... I'm so very sorry!

15 January

Kimberly left today, but we all went to church at Discovery, which is our home church. That is our associate pastor with the awesome mohawk. There are approximately 15 boys at our church with mohawks now, and countless girls with bright pink, or green, or blue in their hair as well. Bug is disappointed that I won't let her color her hair. We went out to eat at The Kettle after church. We normally just go home and have something at home, but, we splurged a bit. It was nice. :-)

16 January

I started the seeds today for Ivy Hill. It made me think of Lindsay, and how I wished that I could show her the plans for our future farm. Our farms would have been completely different, but, a farmer is a farmer, right? I miss her. We also fixed Monks bed! A while back his friend Joey broke it, and we just hadn't managed to fix it. We either forgot about it, or we didn't have the money, but we got it done! He was SO happy! He said he felt like a king sleeping in that bed. It made me both happy and sad at the same time. I wish that I would have just fixed it a long time ago, but, it's done now. I'm sure in the next few years I'm going to have to get him a new bed anyways. He's going to want a more "grown up" bed, I'm sure of it. I know I always wanted a bigger bed when I was a teenager. Hopefully when Sam gets out of college (if he ever goes!!) we can buy/build a house that has big enough bedrooms that both the kids can have full sized beds instead of twins!

17 January

Today Bug and I went to get hair cuts. She got quite a bit cut off of hers! I was very sad. She wanted to look like Amanda Bynes, but, it didn't quite work out that way. It's okay... it still looks so cute! I also made spaghetti for dinner. Not only did I make sketti, I also made a loaf of french bread, cut it in half, made garlic bread topping, and then made it into garlic bread. My GOONDESS it was good!! So.. I thought I would share it with all of you. :-)

Garlic Bread Spread
2 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 cups flat leaf parsley leaves, lightly packed (I used about a Tablespoon of dried)
1/3 cup grated parmesan
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 400. In a food processor blend the garlic cloves until finely chopped, add the parsley, Parmesan, basil, and salt, and oil. Scrape sides if needed. Blend until smooth

2 Cut bread in half horizontally, spread mixture on both sides. Wrap each half loosely in aluminum foil

3 Bake bread until heated through (about 15 minutes). Unwrap top of bread and bake for another 3 minutes. Cut each half and serve warm.

18 January

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Today I had my MRI for my knee. That's about it. LOL

19 January

Today I had a date with Nicole! We took her puppy to the kennel, went to Starbucks, we went out to look at her new house, and then we went back to her house to look at scrap books. LOL It was a very fun day! I love hanging out with Nicole. :-)

20 January

Happy Gotcha Day Dusty dog!! Two years ago today we brought Dusty into our home. She was SUPPOSED to be a foster, but, she was so sweet and wonderful that we couldn't get rid of her. We totally failed Fostering 101. Dusty usually sleeps with me, but Bug wanted some Mommy time and curled up in my bed. Dusty decided that she wanted to sleep in there too, so she just snuggled right up to Bug! It was so cute.

21 January

I'm not going to lie... I have NO idea what we did on Saturday. I THINK we might have gone to the PX and gotten a bunch of meds... but I could be mistaken. How sad is that? I can't remember an entire day!

As always, if you want to join in on the fun, you can go to Saras blog and join in! If you don't want to join in, you could just look at everyone elses week! Should be lots of fun! :-D 

Parker House Rolls... or not!

So, I've made these rolls for a couple of years. They are FANTASTIC!! I found the recipe online somewhere and it said "Parker House rolls" so I believed it!

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For those of you that don't know, The Parker House is a beautiful hotel in Boston. They have a gorgeous restaurant inside and they serve these fantastic little rolls. Obviously I've never been there, but some day I WILL go!

So, like I said, I found this recipe online, and who was I to say "No way! That's not the recipe!" considering I've never even BEEN to the Parker House. These rolls are seriously phenomenal, and well worth the work that it takes to make them. I halved this recipe this time and it still made 50 rolls, tho I did roll them a little thinner than 1/2" thick. Just keep that in mind! ;-)

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Parker House rolls

Ingredients

• 4 cups whole milk
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)'
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 1/2 teaspoons active yeast
• 8 cups all purpose flour
• 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
• 1 scant teaspoon baking soda
• 1 heaping Tablespoon salt
• 1 cup (additional) flour

Instructions

1. Combine 4 cups milk, butter, and sugar in a large pot. Bring to simmer. When mixture is hot, (but not boiling) turn off heat & cool to lukewarm (~30 minutes)
2. Sprinkle in yeast & 8 cups flour. Stir to combine then cover and allow to rise 1 hour.
3. After 1 hour, add baking powder, baking soda, salt & 1 cup flour. Stir top combine. Divide dough in half. Turn out on floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes, form a ball & cover for 30-45 minutes
4. Preheat oven 400. Also melt a small amount of butter in a bowl.
5. Roll dough to 1/2" thickness and cut circles with 2 1/2" cutter. Dip 2 edges in butter and fold together. Place on cookie sheet, flat side down. Press lightly to encourage sealing. Cover and allow rolls 30-45 minutes to rest
6. Bake 15 minutes or until golden.

Now... if you want the REAL recipe for the Parker House rolls, they have offered it online here. There are some serious differences in these 2 recipes! I'm not sure how MY recipe was labeled as Parker House rolls, but, they are good none the less!! 

I do have 1 more blog post between now and Christmas, so hopefully I will actually get to it!! :-P 

3 bean turkey chili

So, I forgot to take a picture because this was SO good and it was made in the crock pot so I smelled it cooking all day and I just couldn't wait any more. Sorry. :-/
This is a low calorie dinner, but it doesn't short on taste! It's VERY tasty!

• 1.3 lb fat free turkey
• 1 small onion
• 1 28oz can diced tomatoes 
• 16 oz tomato sauce
• 1 4.5oz copped chilies, drained
• 1 25oz can  chickepeas, undrained
• 1 15.5oz can black beans, undrained
• 1 15.5oz can small red beans, undrained
• 1 Tbspn chili powder

Brown turkey and onion. Discard fat and add to crock pot. Add remaining ingredients and cook on low for 6-8 hours

EVERYONE loved this! There were very few leftovers, just enough for Sam and I to have for lunch today. I didn't think that it would be very good because of the chickpeas, but it was AWESOME! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Welcome back!

So, I kinda really suck at blogging lately. Sorry about that...
I decided that I would come back with a recipe. A couple of people asked me for this on my facebook page, so, I thought I would share it.

We had Hamburger Soup and homemade Olive Garden bread sticks. They were DELISH!! I don't follow the recipes exactly, because I just cut stuff up and go "Yup... that looks about right" and toss it in for most things (like onions carrots and celery in this recipe)

Hamburger Soup

Ingredients

• 1-1 1/2 lb ground beef (we used ground chicken)
• 2 cups diced onions 
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 cup diced celery
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 (14.5 oz) cans of chicken broth (I used beef) OR 5 1/6 cup (same measurement)
• 1 (15 oz) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 1 stick (or 1/4 cup) butter
• 1/2 cup flour

1. In a large saucepan or soup kettle, cook the beef, onions, carrots, celery, and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink and the veggies are tender; drain fat. Stir in broth, tomatoes, Worcestershire, and hot pepper. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
2. In another saucepan combine flour and butter on low hear. Cook for 6-8 minutes until golden brown. Be careful not to burn! Carefully stir into soup. Cover and simmer for an additional 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

This yields a fairly thick soup. I added salt and pepper and we still have quite a few left overs. The kids LOVED it and we ate it again for lunch on Sunday. 

Olive Garden Bread Sticks

Ingredients

Dough

1. 1 1/2 cup hot water
2. 2 Tablespoons sugar
3. 1 Tablespoon yeast
4. 1 Tablespoon salt
5. 2 Tablespoon butter, softened
6. 4-5 cups flour

Topping

1. 3 Tablespoon melted butter
2. sea salt
3. 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Stand mixer directions (for those luck enough to have a stand mixer!)

Pour the water into the bowl with the sugar and yeast, let sit for 5 minutes. Add salt, butter, and 2 cups flour. Mix dough on low, adding the rest of the flour half a cup at a time until the dough scrapes the sides of the bowl clean. Mix the dough about 5 minutes on medium speed, until soft and easy to work with. (see below)

By hand directions (for the rest of us.)

Pour the water into the a large mixing bowl with the sugar and yeast, let sit for 5 minutes. Add salt, butter, and 2 cups flour. Mix dough, adding the rest of the flour half a cup until unable to incorporate using spoon. Mix the dough on well floured surface until soft and easy to work with.

Roll the dough out into a log, spray knife with cooking spray and cut dough into 12-14 pieces. Roll those into smaller logs. Spray 2 large cookies sheets with spray and lay the bread sticks out, leaving an1-2 inches between each. Place them in the oven with the temp on about 170. Let them rise for 15 minutes or until doubled in size and remove from oven. turn oven to 400 and let heat. Brush with 1 1/2 Tablespoon of the melted butter and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake in 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Combine remainder of butter with 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder and brush the tops of baked bread sticks when they come out of the oven. Serve immediately. 

Sam and Bug both said that they needed more butter, but Monkey and I thought that they were just perfect. These really do taste a lot like the Olive Garden breadsticks! They're very light, and it's REALLY easy to eat the entire batch way too many!! I'm going to try my hand at taking better pictures, and maybe even having some more pictures for a tutorial or something.