Breakfast Sandwiches, Better Than McDonalds.

So, I've been trying to make my life easier lately.  Having three kids six and under some days feels like a lot.  Getting everyone up at seven thirty, breakfast made, kids dressed, backpacks and lunches packed, out the door and at school by eight twenty is a lot some days.  I'm not a morning person, so learning how to do this without completely losing my mind has been an adventure, to say the least.  One thing that has been really helping with the chaos has been prepping food ahead of time.  Now I am not a "prepper" by any means.  I'm not "Super Mom".  I'm just a mom making it through this journey one coffee at a time. 

My first big change was making sure I had breakfast prepped the night before.  I took this a step further and prepped breakfast for the entire week.  My girls really like Raisin Bran cereal, but I'm not a fan of cereal every morning.  I think there are healthier things to have than cardboard flakes dotted with sugar-laden raisins.  I have been going through Pinterest for ideas on what to make ahead for breakfast and the one thing that kept popping up was breakfast sandwiches.  My kids love eggs, cheese and English muffins, so this seemed like a good idea.  I went to Costco and bought the needed ingredients.  In my case I figured, eggs, processed cheddar (I like how it melts), Miracle Whip, Black Forest Ham and English Muffins. 

I didn't plan on blogging when I made these sandwiches so I didn't take pictures of the process, but I did take some pictures just for me, so I'll include them so you can see what the insanity looks like.  I started counting... five family members, five breakfasts, twenty-five breakfast sandwiches.  Oy! 

I have some round, oven-safe dishes - I think they're for making crème brulee or something like that - they're perfect for cooking eggs in the oven and round.  So the first thing I do is split and toast my English muffins in the oven at 375 F  for a few minutes; just long enough to make the insides feel a bit toasty, I'm not going for crunchy.  Next I spray my round dishes with cooking spray.  I have six, so I crack six eggs, one into each dish, scramble the yolk up with a fork and pop into the oven until they're no longer runny.  Thanks to the cooking spray they'll virtually slip right out.  While those are baking in the oven I have placed a slice of cheese on every other, now cooled, English muffins.

 I top each piece of cheese with a piece of ham (I actually cut the slices into quarters and then take two and place those on my muffins, they're a better fit that way).

  Once everything is assembled I place the, now cooled, eggs on top, put a little bit of Miracle Whip on the other side of the muffin, repeat 24 more times.  VIOLA!  Breakfast for five, for five days.

 

My final step is to wrap them individually and store them in the fridge for the week.  I pop one out, place it on a paper towel and put it in the microwave for thirty seconds (longer if I'm pulling it out of the freezer, but certainly no longer than ninety seconds, but every microwave is different). 

 

 

 

 

And there you have it!  Stacks of breakfast sandwiches sitting beside the milk.  What do you do to make your mornings less hectic?  Or are you one of those irritatingly chipper morning people?

Slow Cooker Pork Loin Switch up

So, that pork was definitely a huge hit with my husband. He ranted and raved about it. I'm impressed, cause he doesn't usually rant like that. This was definitely some serial ranting. I, also, loved the pork, and I'm not a huge fan of pork.. never have been. SO, seeing as I had a lot of leftover pork and some sauce I decided to have leftovers the following night. I'm not actually a fan of leftovers, I try to use them, but I have such a hard time eating reheated food the next night. SO, instead I made a new meal.

I whipped up another batch of the sauce for the pork on the stove - SO easy, I just made sure it came to a boil for a bit so it didn't taste like nothing but red wine... it was just like the sauce from the slow cooker.

THEN, I put some rice in my rice cooker and heated up some Tortilla shells.

Got my friend, who was staying for supper, to shred the leftover pork with two forks, reheated it in the microwave (I find adding a couple tablespoons of water and covering with a lid will keep what I'm reheating in the microwave from drying out)

Viola! Dinner is served!

Take a Tortilla, heat (I use the microwave for fifteen seconds), top with rice, pork and sauce. Wrap and enjoy!

Slow Cooker Pork Loin

Well, I don't know how this tastes yet, but it SMELLS amazing! And it was super easy... I'll post a picture once its out of the crockpot... (*Note: I forgot to take a picture before we demolished it... what can I say? Hubby got home at midnight.. life of a truck driver's wife!)

INGREDIENTS:

1 Pork Loin
1 Packet Lipton's Onion Soup Mix (I'm sure namebrand doesn't matter, that's just what I have)
1 Cup Water
3/4 Cup Red Wine
3 Tbsp. Minced Garlic
Seasoning Salt
Garlic Powder
Black Pepper

METHOD:

All I did was grab a pork loin outta the freezer.. (I buy the super big one at Costco, then my sister and I cut it into six meal size portions - enough to feed our separate family of 3 - then freeze them for a later date) So I'd say this is about a 2 - 2.5 lb pork loin.

I sprinkled the loin with seasoning salt and garlic powder, then transferred it to the slow cooker. Next I poured a packet of Lipton's Onion Soup Mix over top and all around. Then poured over 1 cup of water, 3/4 cup of red wine (I'm sure this could be replaced with water or stock if you prefer) and 3 Tbsp. of Soy Sauce. Next I added 3 Tbsp. of minced garlic (I cheat, I buy a huge container of already minced garlic at Costco, I love it.. saves me so much time and hassle, and with a Toddler running around, time is scarce!) then I sprinkled on some black pepper and added some freshly cracked black pepper on top. Covered it with a lid, turned it on high and cooked it for 5 hours. ... like I said, when I take it out, I'll take a picture, but it smells delish!


You can serve this with whatever sides you want, I'm serving mine with some roasted potatoes, and steamed veggies cause that's what I have on hand.

Bon Appetit!

Chicken Soup

Well, I found a video on www.notimetocook.com by a member called The Frugal Chef for Chicken soup. I didn't follow it to the letter, but it was SO good... so here's what I did.

1 Chicken
14 Cups of Water
1 Large Onion
1 Carrot
3 Stalks of Celery
1 Bell Pepper
5 Cloves of Garlic
Pepper
Salt
Oregano
Basil
Bay Leaves
Thyme
Seasoning Salt


Cut your chicken up into pieces, you could leave it whole I suppose, but I find it easier to cut it into pieces. Put in a pot (after rinsing the chicken) with water, coarsely chopped veggies and spices. I didn't include measurements cause I think spice is a relative thing, spice it to your own tastes.

Allow to boil for 1 hour, then turn down the heat and simmer for a few hours. I let mine simmer for about three hours, cause I had to go out so left the hubby looking after it.

Once it has simmered, remove the chicken and set aside. Strain the broth. I usually pour it through a colander to get all the big chunks out, then line a strainer with paper towel and strain it a second time back into the pot.

Check for flavor at this point, I added some more water and some more spices cause I wanted more broth, you can definitely go with your instincts on this one, there is no "wrong way". Meanwhile remove the skin and bones from your chicken and shred it. I chose to use all the chicken in my soup, but I could definitely have frozen half of it for another soup another time and still had plenty of chicken. Set chicken aside for now.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, add a little bit of olive oil and some rice, I added 1 1/2 cups of rice. Allow it to cook, while stirring, for a few minutes. You'll notice it will go white and even a little golden. Allow it to cool a bit, hot rice into hot broth boils over - TRUST ME.

Add the rice to the stock and let it cook for a while, till the rice is tender - about half an hour.
Add in some frozen peas, carrots, corn, whatever vegetable you like really - I did peas and corn. Also add in the chicken. Heat through. Taste, spice, serve.

Enjoy :)

Quick, easy Mac n Cheese

I have never been a fan of KD Mac & Cheese. The whole neon orange, fake cheese thing has always turned me off, even as a kid. However, this afternoon I was having a craving for some cheesy pasta, nice a creamy... so I decided to experiment and here's what I came up with.

Ingredients

Pasta - I used Macaroni, but you can use whatever pasta you prefer


1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1-1 1/2 Cups milk
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Seasoning Salt
1 Cup grated Cheddar cheese
1/2 - 1 Cup more grated Cheddar cheese

* I didn't mention proportions for the spices, this is really an individual thing, in my opinion, spice it to your tastes.

Method:

Put water on to boil for the pasta, make sure to salt the water.

In a saucepan, over a medium heat, melt butter. Add flour and whisk together, allow to cook for a minute or two to lose that "starchy" flavour.

Meanwhile, add your pasta to the boiling water and allow it to cook while you're making the sauce.

Once the butter and flour are all combined and had a chance to cook add the milk and spices. Taste as you go to make sure you like the flavour, remember you'll be adding cheese, so you might want to add a little more spice.

Once the milk has thickened, it will only take a minute or two, add a cup of grated cheddar to the mixture. (I keep a ziplock bag of grated cheddar in my freezer, its great. I go to Costco, come home, grate it and put it in a bag. I always have grated cheese on hand. If it sticks together after it freezes I simply beat the bag with a rolling pin!)

Drain your pasta and put in a casserole dish (If you don't want to dirty another dish you can put it back in the pot).

Pour sauce over pasta and mix well. Finally, add remaining 1/2 to 1 cup of grated cheddar and stir till just starting to melt and get stringy. Serve and season with salt and pepper to taste.

First things First..

Well, I absolutely love experimenting in the kitchen and I love reading other people's food blogs AND I love writing, so I thought I'd start my OWN food blog. I'm not sure yet what I'll put in here, I'm sure I'll have some recipes, some pictures, and probably some random ramblings... so stay tuned!