My Top 10 cheap, easy, YUMMY recipes!!

I'm not a great cook and I HATE spending more time making dinner then actually eating it, who has time for that?! I'm in NO way against box meals, frozen food or grap and go meals.  I'd say I use those half the time and then just want a good "home cooked" meal the rest of the time.  When I don't have a lot of time but still want to eat well, these are the "Family Fav's" that I go to. They all take very little time and are always a hit with the husband and kids.

1. Cheesy Potato Soup (Crock pot or stove top, same directions for both)
6-8 Potatoes (Really depends on how much you want to make, I like having leftovers)
3-4 cups Chicken broth
Sm container of heavy cream
1 onion
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp Cayenne pepper (This makes the soup!!)
Lots of cheese!! :)

Cube your potatoes, toss them in your pot, and fill pot with chicken broth.  Just enough to barley cover the potatoes. Add in your salt, pepper, Cayenne pepper, and minced onion and let boil for about 10-15 min.  Add in your cream and continue to boil until potatoes are cooked.  Here's the trick, mash the potatoes while in the pot to thicken the soup but before you add the cheese.  Trying to clean melted cheese off your masher sucks! I leave some chunks too. Then add in all the cheese you want and your done!!  I like to dip Hawaiian bread in it too.  This soup rivals some of the best I've had and it's def. the best one I've ever made plus you only have to buy like 3 things...LOVE!

2. Chicken Enchilada Soup (Tastes JUST like the one at Chili's)
  About 2 cups chicken broth
 10 (6 inch) corn tortillas, cut into 1/2 inch strips (Cut some extra to fry)
 1.5 cups green enchilada sauce
1.5 (10 ounce) cans red enchilada sauce
4-6 cooked, boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1.5 cups half-and-half
1-1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Cook your chicken and cut it into bite size pieces, set aside.  Pour broth into pot and add in tortillas strips.  Cook until strips are dissolved in the broth. Pour in enchilada sauces, half and half, cheese and chicken.  Cook until hot...DONE! You can cut some extra tortilla shells and fry them up real fast in a skillet and use then to top the soup.

3. Mexican Pizza(Just got this one from a family member over thanksgiving!)

•  Cheese
• Refried beans
• beef
• salsa (I like Pancho's salsa for this, works much better then the others)
• sour cream
• Any other toppings you like on tacos (Lettuce, tomatoes, ect.)
• pre-made pizza crust

Pre-heat oven according to pizza crust instructions. Cook beef with the taco seasoning and set aside. Smooth and layer of beans over the crust, smooth a layer of salsa on top of that, then sprinkle beef over that, now add all your toppings except for the sour cream.  Pop it in the oven, serve with sour cream!!  Perfection!

4. Rotel Chicken Spaghetti
This is my husbands absolute favorite dish!  When he came home from Iraq, this is what he asked for LOL

• 2-4 chicken breasts (whatever you prefer)
• 1 pkg thin spaghetti
• 1 sm pkg spicy buffalo Velveeta (this may be a bit spicy if your kids aren't used to it or if you don't like spicy food, in that case just use regular Velveeta and very mild Rotel)
• 1 can Rotel
• 1 can cream of mushroom

Preheat oven to 375. Cook your chicken, cut up and set aside.  Cook noodles, drain, and pour into casserole dish.  Pour cream of mushroom and Rotel into dish and mix.  Slice 3/4 of Velveeta into cubes and mix in.  Then slice remaining 1/4 into thin slices and lay over the top.  Bake in oven until cheese in melty and bubbly.  Done!  Serve with bread sticks or salad or both or neither :)

5. Baked Spaghetti

• Pkg of spaghetti noodles
• 1 pd beef
• 1 pkg mozzarella cheese
• 1 big jar of your favorite sauce

Preheat oven to 350.  Cook beef, cook noodles pour into casserole dish.  Add sauce and 3/4 bag of cheese, mix.  Spinkle top with cheese and Parmesan cheese. Done!

6. Biscuits and Gravy

• If you have Bisquick then feel free to make your own biscuits, but I usually by the Grands or something similar in the frozen section.
• 2 Pkg's Peppered gravy mix in the baking isle
• 1 pkg sausage (I like my veggie sausage, but most aren't into that lol)

Cook meat set aside.  Pop biscuits in the oven according the pkg directions.  Mix gravy and water on the stove until thickened and then add in the sausage. This is one of my kids absolute favorites!  How easy can it get!?

7. Egg muffins and pancakes

• Dozen eggs
• Hash browns
• cheese
• sausage or bacon or both :)
• 1/3 cup milk
• salt/pepper
• anything else you would like in an omelet type food
• Pancake mix

Preheat oven to 375.  Grease muffin pan.  Cook sausage or bacon and mix with the veggies you want and hashbrowns. Put a spoonful of mixture into each space. Now mix eggs, milk, salt/pepper, and cheese in a bowl.  Pour egg mixture  into each space almost to the top.  Cook for about 20 min or until done.  Make your pancakes while you wait :)  Serve!  The kids love this one because they can pick up their eggs and eat with their hands. Figures...

8. Haystacks
Ok, so you don't actually cook anything but it's one of our fav. Friday night dinners.

• Bag of Frito's
• Beef
• Chili beans
• Cheese
• Sour cream
• Anything else you like on tacos (Lettuce, tomato, etc.)

Cook and season beef and put in a bowl.  Warm chili beans in pot.  Set out all toppings.  Put a layer of Frito's in the bottom of a bowl or plate top with beef, beans and then everything else!!  Yummy!

9. Tatortot Casserole
So this is not a full meal, but I fell in love with this when I was pregnant with Drew so I just made it a full meal because I craved it so bad. We all still love it so much so we just eat by itself for dinner. lol

• Bag of tator tots
• Bag of cheese
• 16 oz container of sour cream
• 1 can cream of potato soup (I prefer the walmart brand to anything else)
• 2 tbs butter
• Salt/Pepper

Preheat oven to 400.  Grease casserole dish.  In a pot melt and mix butter, sour cream, and cream of potato.  Add in salt and pepper to taste. Pour tatortots in dish, sprinkle with cheese then pour sour cream mixture over tots.  Add more cheese and lightly toss.  Top with MORE cheese (Yay!!) and bake for about 30 min. You could just make this a side, but who doesn't want a giant dish of cheesy potato goodness in front of them and knowing they're encouraged to eat huge portions! Come on!!

10. Empty Pantry Quesadillas
This is one of those things I threw together because I hadn't gone to the store and these are about all the ingredients we had in the house.  It has now become our favorite comfort food.  We've had it once a week since that epic night :)

• Corn tortillas
• refried beans
• Block of Pepper Jack cheese
• Pancho's salsa (You can use whatever, but Bill and I both agree it's our favorite for this)
• Sour cream

Heat oil in skillet, slice entire block of cheese and heat beans.  Put skin in skillet for just a few seconds, flip and add 2 slices of cheese and a spoonful of beans then fold and flip.  Do that about a thousand more times and serve with salsa and sour cream.  I'm telling you, it's sooooo good!!


11. Easy Lasagna
I know I said Top 10, but I had to add this one.  Everyone thinks lasagna has to take forever, but this recipe is about as easy as it gets and tastes GREAT!

• 1 pkg OVEN READY lasagna noodles
• 1.5-2 jars fav. sauce (just eyeball it)
• 1 container cottage cheese (If you just HATE it, then use ricotta, otherwise give it a shot!)
• 2 eggs
• 1 lb beef
• 1 bag mozzarella cheese
• Parmesan Cheese

Preheat oven to 400.  Spread a thin layer of sauce in bottom of baking dish.  In a large bowl mix in sauce, cottage cheese, 1/2 bag of cheese, and 2 eggs.  Layer noodles, sauce mixture, beef, sprinkle more cheese and Parmesan on top of beef in each layer.  Repeat until you get to the top then sprinkle more cheese and Parmesan on top. Cover with foil and cook for 45-60 min.  I like to serve it with the Ceasar salad kit. 

So there you have it! I don't cook fancy stuff, nothing seems very healthy, and I never spend very long in the kitchen...Perfect!

My Favorite Things!

There are few things that make my list of things I truly love, but these things make my life easier and are worth every dime!

My newest love is our new cats litter box.  That's right, a litter box!  Why?  3 simple reasons: 1) NO SMELL. 2) NO dusty litter to deal w/ and get tracked around. 3) The pellets only get changed ONCE a month. Yup!  Now you're wondering what kind of miracle this is. Introducing the Breeze Litter Box system. Retails for about $39, but the one I bought from Petsmart had a $10 coupon right on the box.  The initial price is a bit high mainly because it comes with everything you will need for a full month, but to not have to deal with all the mess and stench it was worth every penny!

Next is something I have been in love with now for about a year.  I buy it once every 2-4 months, which means I have one less thing to think about daily. I have people ask what kind of detergent I use all the time because of how great this makes my clothes smell. It's the Bounce Bar! Pop it in the dryer and you're done for months. It's about $7 for the 4 month bar and $4.50 for the 2 month bar.  I'll take it!

I know all you moms can relate to the absolute nightmare keeping up with your floors can be.  My kitchen is the largest space in the house and has 2 doors leading outside from it.  Which means 2 times the dirt all in one area. Sweeping does ok, but that wonderful white ceramic tile needs a lot more attention then that. I was SICK of mopping and SICK of spending a fortune on liquid and pads for the Swiffer.  The solution...The ProMist mop!  I think it's around $15 and the two main reasons this is so much better then the Swiffer if that 1. You use your OWN cleaning solution diluted with water and 2. The pad is WASHABLE! If you want the disposable ones you can buy those separate.  Once you buy it you don't have to buy anything else for it unless you just want to.  Saves money, saves time!

Lastly, I have tried a million things to keep the fragrant aroma of plug ins to stay around longer then a couple days and as you know, the refills are not cheap! My favorite is the Air Wick scented oil, but got sick of spending so much to keep them full.  I found 2 solutions for this! Yay! 1st, They now sell universal plug in refills by Renuzit that fit most brands and cost HALF the price and smell just as good! 2nd is the Febreeze Set and Refresh.  These little suckers are so strong and the smell stays for about a month!  They are about $2 each and I use it mostly in the bathroom, but it's great for the kids rooms too.

So there you have it!  Just a few of my favorite things.  I'm sure I could come up with plenty more, but these are the ones I am showing a lot of appreciation for these days :)

Pinterest Detergent and French Vanilla Creamer!

When I came across Pins for homemade detergent and french vanilla creamer I was excited to try it out!  As a family of 4 with 2 very messy kids I spend a lot on good detergent and stain remover, so the idea of a 9 month supply only costing me $20 thrilled me!  I normally don't use powder, but I read so many great things I figured I'd give it a try. I'm also a complete coffee addict...seriously, it's problem.  The only thing I put in my coffee is french vanilla creamer, no sugar or milk, just my creamer.  I go through a large bottle (I even buy generic) every 2-3 days so being able to make my own almost for free is amazing!!  I have tried out both of these recipes now and am VERY pleased, will continue to make my own from now on :)  Here's the recipes...

Detergent
This is what you'll need:
(1) 4 lb box of Borax - $3.36
(1) 4 lb box of Arm & Hammer baking soda - $2.16
1 box (55 oz) of Arm & Hammer Super washing soda - $3.58
2 sm. containers of Oxy Clean ( enough to equal 3.5 lbs) - $1.96 each
3 bars of Fels Naptha - .97 cents each
5 gal. bucket w/ lid - Bill brought me one home from work for free
= About $16.00 total!!
I also bought some large Tupperware to keep it in which was about $2.50, but if you have something then just use that!

First you need to grate the bar soap just like you would cheese (the pieces will dissolve even if you wash everything on cold)

Then combine everything in the 5 gal bucket lined with a trash bag.  Make sure you mix it all up really well!

Then just transfer a decent amount into a tupperware (or whatever you're using) and start using!  I saved one of the scoops from the Oxy Clean tubs to use as my detergent scoop.  I will be using 2 scoops (around 2 tbs) per wash!

French Vanilla Coffee Creamer
 What you'll need:
14 oz of milk - I already had it on hand so FREE
2 tbs vanilla extract - already had it...FREE
Mason Jar - In the pantry FREE
14 oz can Sweetened condensed milk - $1.50
= $1.50 for a large mason jar full!

Pour it all in and shake it really well...Viola!  I cleaned out my existing creamer container and just transferred it over. 

Perfectly Imperfect!

I'm 27 yrs old, married for 9 yrs (almost) and have 2 kids, 8 yr old girl and 5 yr old boy.  I like things to be clean and organized, but my life as a full-time nursing student, full-time mother, wife, and everything that comes along with these titles pervents me from being able to do it all all the time.  I do what I can when I can and at this point in my life I have accepted that I am Perfectly Imperfect :)

I don't cook healthy meals every night, my house is not always clean, laundry is never completely finished, I don't coupon, my car always seems to have some sort of cracker crushed in it, and my sink almost always has a something in it (ok, so maybe it's a pile of "somethings").  I'm not crafty and if anything needs to be stitched then my husband is who you need to talk to.  But my kids are alive and fairly happy, my husband seems to be functioning ok, and I'm managing to not have a nervous breakdown while trying to complete Nursing school.  All in all I'd say we're doing pretty well!

This blog will basically be a way for me to share what I have learned works best for me and maybe you'll find something that makes life a bit eaiser.  Everything from my favorite quick dinners and how to get your life organized to all things kids and how to get the most bang for your buck (One income for over 8 yrs gives me LOTS of knowledge on this!).  My mind is always running a million miles a minute so it seems to me that writing down all the things banging around upstairs would help to provide more focus and better sleep.  So this is me...Blogging! :)