My DIY mini Mud room

I would personally like to start this post by thanking my father for making me such an amazing handy woman!  Haha okay well I'm not totally handy with out him but I sure do have a great beginning on things.  I do not do saws yet but I'm sure in time ill learn.  This was a terrible closet in my house when you first walked in FULL of JUNK!!  So I took the bar and shelf out, gave it some, paint, hooks, a bench and baskets to hold shoes, mittens and various things.  This was a simple day project, That cost around $50!! I found some old counter top to use as a bench (that my dad so gladly came and cut and installed), We put support on both sides to hold it up.  I found the sign at hobby lobby during there 50% home wall décor time, and used old paint I had to make the stripes. 

 

Have a blessed day!!!

 

Ashley

Cream Cheese Chicken

We got to start our Sunday off in the best way this week!! Praising God!! Always a good way to start!! When we came home of course my son wanted "CHICKEN NUGGETS".  I am sure some of you can relate this constant battle we are presented with against McD's chicken nuggets, but I am determined to succeed against them.  For lunch we had a chicken recipe that is pretty fairly simple to make.  My son is  a big rice fan so it seems like an easy pair for me.  We just bought a bag of yellow rice which was the perfect pair for this dish. 

 

 

Cream Cheese Chicken

Ingredients:

 

4 chicken breasts (trim off fat)

5 Tablespoons butter (DIVIDED)

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

5 Tablespoon Tones rosemary garlic seasoning (DIVIDED)

1 small green pepper (sliced)

1 onion (sliced)

4 oz. cream cheese

 

 

1.  Start by getting you chicken wet in water.  I usually use frozen breasts or tenders and soak them in water to defrost them, so they are already wet.  In a separate bowl add flour, salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon of the Tones rosemary garlic seasoning ,  mix all these together. 

 

2.  In a non-stick skillet add 2 Tablespoon of butter and let melt over medium heat.  While this is melting, take our chicken and just roll the chicken in the flour mix (this is just a light breading), then add to the skillet.  Repeat with the rest of the chicken breasts. While they are cooking cut the onions and peppers.  Let each breast cook turning it half way through so that you have a light crispy edge over all the chicken.  Once you flip the chicken add the remaining butter add the onions and peppers. then the cream cheese and the remaining  Tones rosemary garlic seasoning.  Let it all blend together until the vegetable are tender and the cream cheese is melted.  Stir this occasionally so all the spices and cream cheese are well blended.

 

 

Hope you enjoy this one pan meal!!

 

Have a blessed day!

 

Ashley :)



 

 

 

 

 

Fried Tacos

These are probably one of my favorite meals to make.  These are by no means healthy but none the less some of the best tacos you will ever have.  One hit I had to learn the hard way is always wear long sleeves when making these. :)

Fried Tacos

 

yield: approx. 10

 

Ingredients:

 

1 lb. 93/7% ground beef (this can be substituted with ground turkey)

1/2 Vidalia onion (diced)

1 small green pepper (diced)

1 pkg. taco seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

1 pkg. corn tortilla shells

vegetable oil

 

**optional toppings: shredded cheese, onions, tomatoes, sour cream, guacamole or anything you like**

 

1.  Take the ground beef, onions and peppers and cook in the skillet until meat is brown.

 

2. In a sauce pan or fry pan and fill about 1/2 inch up the side of the skillet. Set your heat on medium (or in between 4 and 5) until oil is hot.

 

3.  Take a large spoon and add one scoop of meat to the corn tortilla shell.  Place in the oil and lay on one side.  This is very tricky because these break really easily!! Also, be careful not over fill these, if the meat gets in the oil it will burn and start to burn and smell. 

 

4.  Once you have the one side of the taco slightly brown with tongs flip the tacos to the other side until other side is brown.  Place on a paper towel and repeat with remaining tacos. 

 

Have a blessed day!!

 

ASHLEY :)

 

FALL IS HERE ( okay well almost)

My favorite season is coming up, from the football, tailgates, parties, smell of pumpkin ANYTHING, decorating my home for fall is my favorite thing.  This is a little centerpiece I threw together.  I found all the supplies for this at Michael's.  This piece includes a charger, pumpkin candle holder, one 3 inch ribbon (color of your choice, I used a greenish brown), different flowers (these were actually a stem with 4 flowers coming off each, that I picked the flowers/leaves and placed them around the pumpkin and they were only $1), a fall colored candle, and some river rocks. 

Place the pumpkin and candle on the charger, loosely weave the ribbon around the pumpkin once and pour the river rocks around.  Then take the flowers/leaves and place them as a filler.  You can place a cheap placemat underneath for an extra touch!!

HAPPY FALL!!

Ashley :)

Cherry Dream Pie (1st place)

This pie has probably one of the funniest stories behind it.  It all started a year ago when my friend Shawna and I were sitting at church an they made an announcement about the annual back to school grill out/pie baking contest.  As a said in my previous post I am NO baker and quite often the trash can eats more of my baked goods then people.  So Shawna looked at me and asked "Are you going to enter?",  I laughed and said "yeah sure this should be a disaster."  We both left laughing about how bad this was going to be, I said I would make it for her and she told me she wanted a cherry pie. That day baking this pie was beyond disastrous.  First, I didn't put enough pie crust filling over the edge and when it baked my crust sunk in, then I forgot to bake the cheese filling so it mixed in with the cherries, and to top it off I barely had enough dough left to for the top, due to the earlier instance of the shrinking crust.  Somehow in the midst of all this, this silly ol' pie took FIRST PLACE!!! I think I about choked on my burger when they announced it. 

 

okay so on to how this pie was made~~

 

Cherry Dream Pie

Ingredients:

 

2 pkg of pie crust

(or if you want to make it home made or one from the freezer section)

3 Tablespoons sugar

 

Cheese Filling:

1 pkg. (8 oz) Cream Cheese

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 egg yolk

 

Cherry Filling:

1 large can cherry pie filling

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

 

 

 

1. Follow instructions for pie crust.  Line the pie crust into the bottom of a 9-inch glass pie dish.  Trim the pie crust 1/2 inch beyond the edge of the plate and pinch the edges together for decoration.

 

2.  Take the 3 tablespoons granulated sugar and spring the pie crust and cover with aluminum foil.  Bake at 450 for 8 minutes.  Remove the foil and let it bake for 5 more minutes.  Reduce the oven heat to 375 and let the crust cool on a rack.

 

3.  In a mixing bowl combined all the Cheese filling ingredients until well mixed and no lumps.  Pour this into the crust. 

 

4.  In another bowl mix the cherry pie filling and confectioners sugar. Heat this in the microwave for 2 minutes.  Pour directly on top of the cheese filling.  Make sure you cover all the  cheese filling and to the edges. 

 

4.  Take the remain crust and sprinkle it with 3 tablespoon granulated sugar and lightly sprinkle some confectioners sugar on top.  Take small cookie cutter and cut out shapes or make a lattice crust.  Bake at 375 for 35-45 minutes.  During the last fifteen minutes cover the pie with foil. 

 

ENJOY!

 

have a blessed day :) 

 

Ashley

 

M&M Cowboy Cookies

My family is always asking me to makes these cookies!! Which cracks me up because these are the only cookies I can make and NOT mess up!!! So take it from someone with terrible BAKING ( not cooking) skills!! ANYONE can make these cookies!!  This recipe I found in an old church cookbook my family had made.  Although I put M&M's instead of chocolate chips and nuts in this recipe.

This makes anywhere from 20-40 cookies just depending on how big or small you make them.  I usually use  a big spoon and measure them out.

 

M&M Cowboy Cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 stick of butter (softened)
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 bag peanut butter M&M's
1 bag mini M&M's

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

2.  In a mixing bowl mix together peanut butter, granulated sugar, packed brown sugar,butter and nutmeg.  After all is combined to a creamy  consistency add the eggs and vanilla extract and baking soda, cream these ingredients all together until well combined. Add the quick oats approximately one cup at a time.  When all the oats are covered mix in with a spatula the M&M's about 1/2 bag at a time. 

3.  Take a baking sheet and spray with cooking spray.  Take a large spoon or ice cream scoop and place a mound of cookies on sprayed cookie sheet.  Put about 3 fingers in between each cookie.

4.  Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes.  Let the cookies sit for about a minute and half before transferring to a cooling rack.

THESE A DEFINATELY BEST SERVED WARM WITH MILK :)
Have a blessed day!

Ashley :)

Garlic Mashed Potato's!!

Every week on Saturday we have a wonder farmers market downtown.  This last week I picked up some Yukon gold potato's.  It might be a little warm out in my opinion for mashed potato's but none the less they were a perfect pair for my Crowd pleasing burgers I posted about earlier!!

Garlic Mashed Potato's 

6-8 Yukon gold potato's

1 1/2 TBS minced garlic

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup sour cream

 cup milk

Salt and Pepper to taste

 

1.  Wash the potato's well under water and dice into pieces.  Add to a large pot and add water until the water barely cover the mashed potato's.

2. Add a dash of salt and bring to a boil.  I let the potato's boil till they are soft and enough of the water is gone I don't have to drain them, I just mash them in the remaining water and add the minced garlic, butter, sour cream, milk, salt and pepper.  Mash this all together and let blend until potato's are good consistency.

**I usually just use a wooden spoon and have some lumps in mine, but beat until whatever consistency you prefer**

 

ENJOY :)

 

Have a blessed day!!

Love, Ashley :)

Crowd Pleasing Burger!!

When it comes to dinner I'm not one that wants to pull out the whole cabinet to make something taste good!! Why should good food be hard to make!! It was perfect grilling weather the other night so I decided to make some cheese burgers for some friends that were coming over!! I will tell you the spice blend I used is something that can be made way ahead and used on anything.  I will post the recipe for the spice seasoning too.

OKAY!! On to the burger that kept my friends raving!!

 

F&W Burgers!!

1 lb 80/20 ground beef

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 Tablespoon Burger and Fry Seasoning

1 pkg. Athenos Feta cheese Tomato and Basil 

1 pkg. Pepperidge Farm sesame topped hamburger buns

1 Yellow Onion (or whatever onion you prefer)

 

1. Add ground beef Worcestershire sauce and Fry and Burger Seasoning in a bowl.  ( I let this sit for about an hour, but if you don't have time don't worry!!)

2.  Preheat your grill

3. Cut onion into rings and separate, lightly sprinkle with the Burger and Fry Seasoning, spray a grill pan (or use tin foil) with cooking spray, add onions and place on the preheated grill.

4. Mold hamburger into hamburger shapes and lightly press you thumb into the middle of the burger (not all the way through), place on grill.

5. Occasionally stir the onions and let the burgers cook on each side about 6 minutes each.

6.  After the burgers have been removed immediately add feta cheese and topped with grilled onions on the sesame bun. 

 

Burger and Fry Seasoning

1/4 cup paprika

1/4 cup salt

1/8 cup garlic powder

1/2 TBS Chili Powder

1/2 TBS Cumin

1 TBS Black Pepper

1/2 tsp celery salt

1/2 TBS Basil

 

** Just mix together and place in a jar**

 

Have a blessed day and I hope you enjoy this meal, from my family to yours !!

 

Love, Ashley :)