What's cookin this week...

Over the weekend I made our family's favorite Meatloaf...and Monday I made a crock pot of chicken soup...we feasted on those meals, and today I'm making my version of a crock pot Tater Tot Casserole that is dairy free. While this recipe is a favorite for some of us, my middle son won't eat it. He won't eat potatoes for some reason...now stop and think of all the things that are made of potatoes...chips, French fries, tater tots and just plain potatoes...yup won't eat them. The only chips he eats are corn chips, and he even prefers plain ones to say Doritos. Sometimes I'm not sure he's even mine...as I've been known to order a salad with a side of French fries. :)

So here is my modified version of Tater Tot Casserole...Crockpot style.


Adapted from Fix-It and Forget-It ™ Cookbook

Tater Tot Casserole

32 oz. bag frozen tater tots

1 lb. ground turkey browned (original recipe calls for beef)

½  tsp. salt

¼  tsp. pepper

2 14 ½ - oz. can green beans drained

10 ¾ oz. can of tomato soup (original recipe calls for cream of mushroom soup)

1 Tbsp. dried onions

¼ cup milk (I use rice milk)

1. Line slower cooker with frozen tater tots, covering the bottom and having the tater tots go up the sides of the slower cooker

2. Combine remaining ingredients. Pour over tater tots.

3. Cover and cook on high for 3 hours.

The small things in life.

It's the small things in life that make Moms the most excited...like today I'm stalking my mailman, and anxious to get my new planner...the slightly larger version of my current planner which I love...oh don't worry I also have one on my smart phone, and a large on one on my refrigerator, you can never have too many right.

 

 Here is my current favorite

Day-Timer Family Plus Planner...which is perfect for my family of 5. Everyone has their own column which makes scheduling a breeze.

 

Well I better get back to the window so I can run out the mailbox the moment the mailman gets here. I can't keep my new planner waiting.

 

The opinions and views in the blog post are mine and mine alone, and in no way influenced by the Day-Timer company or any of their products. :)

Breakfast for dinner...Baked Oatmeal

There are some nights when it is just easier to head out for dinner...and then there are the nights when it's easier to just throw together breakfast for dinner. Tonight would be one of those. Wednesday nights we eat in shifts...my two older boys have church which starts before my husband gets home from work, so I usually feed the kids and then eat dinner with him while the boys are at church...unless I haven't gotten a workout in yet, then I'm sometimes known to head to the gym leaving him to eat alone while chasing our youngest around.

 

Baked Oatmeal adapted from the Simply in Season Cookbook

4 cups rolled oats

 2/3 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

Combine in a medium bowl

2 cups milk (we use rice milk)

1 cup applesauce

2 tablespoons oil

2 eggs (beaten)

Combine in a separate bowl.  Add oat mixture; stir well.  Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan.  Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Serve with milk. 

~~~We often have an “Oatmeal Bar” where

raisins, craisins and cherries may be added~~

It's Official...I can't have dairy...

I'm going to be "upping" my blog posts here, more of a personal journey of sorts. I'm fighting with the idea that I am allergic to milk...and of course milk products. On and off for the past 5 1/2 years I've had to eliminate Milk and Soy from my diet for nursing reasons, and after I stopped nursing my youngest I've never been able to handle milk again. My skin feels itchy, my face and body brakes out in hives, and I've had a red patch on my arm that gets better when I am very careful about what I eat...all this to say I keep testing it out to make sure it's not something else that makes me react. Well yesterday after having lunch with my oldest we stopped at a meat market and picked up some sausages...and of course a bag of fresh cheese curds...who can resist fresh cheese curds. I had a few...no more than 10 and almost instantly my face grew hot, and started to itch...today I have hives covering my face and look like a teenager going through puberty. So I'm back to dairy free...of course I'll have dairy tomorrow night when I eat dinner out with a friend. My goal in "upping" my posts is to be helpful to others who are facing the same issue I am and help with recipes out there that are dairy free or that I can aid people in modifying recipes to become dairy free. My house is not entirely dairy free...but I do mostly cook dairy free and then let those dairy eating people in my house add that cheese after.

 

Let me tell you some of my favorite products that I "live" off of. First off...I do a lot of my baking with rice milk and a milk free, soy free margarine...or I use a canola oil. Canola because when we had to go Soy Free, we couldn't have vegeatable oil...because of Soy Beans. I also have discovered certain brands that I can have…did you know that a lot of brands and products have soy in them…for example generic tomato soup has soy, yet Campbell’s ®Tomato Soup doesn’t.  Tostitos ® have soy yet Fritos ® don’t…even a packet of Taco Seasoning has soy…so I make my own…same with enchilada sauce, so if you don’t have a Soy Allergy some of my recipes you can just canned products. 

 

So tonight it’s left over chili…I season my chili with my own spices, I don’t add a packet of seasoning…I use chili powder, garlic, salt and pepper.