Shepherd's Pie

Today I made a Shepherd's Pie for myself and Audrey (Bryan won't eat this!). I've actually never eaten a Shepherd's Pie before, but it looked really simple and yummy. I know that there are a LOT of variations of Shepherd's Pie out there. Some people don't use any meat, some use tomato sauce, etc. So I just made up a version that sounded the best to me. Now, unfortunately when I cook I don't use a lot of exact measurements. I tend to eyeball and decrease and increase ingredients as it looks appealing to me, but you'll get the general idea here.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown some ground beef (about two nice sized patties worth) with a bit of chopped onion and season as you prefer (I used garlic powder, salt and black pepper).



Make a large batch of mashed potatoes (or use leftovers if you have them).

Drain ground beef and mix with one bag of frozen mixed veggies.



Pour beef and veggie mixture evenly into a greased casserole dish (I just use stick butter to grease the dish).

Layer mashed potatoes on top of the beef/veggie mixture.

Sprinkle a thick layer of shredded cheese (I used Colby Jack) on top of potatoes.



Pour approximately a 1/2 cup of milk over the cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 35-40 minutes (cheese will start to brown).



Serve and Enjoy!!

Unfortunately, I didn't serve it up very prettily, so I don't have a picture with all of the layers, but you get the idea!!

Chicken Pot Pie

On Friday, I FINALLY made my first ever chicken pot pie! I was so nervous making it, the fear that it would come out and taste horrendous was probably what kept me from making it for so long. The recipe (click on link to go to the recipe) I used is one that my sister in law D came up with. I've only had her pot pie once (at a family dinner back in September), but I remember that it was AWESOME! About a month later she put the recipe up on her blog, so I've been toying with the idea of making it for the last, ummmm, 3plus months. Let me tell you that it was super easy to make and it came out so, so, so yummy!! No more frozen pot pies for me! I did stray from one part of the recipe a bit, instead of using 3/4 cup Monterrey Jack cheese in it, I used a little less than 1/2 cup of Colby Jack (I didn't have the right kind of cheese and I figured that Colby Jack has a bit of a bolder flavor so I used less of it). And let me tell you also, this recipe makes a LOT of pot pie. It's just myself and my 22 month old daughter eating it (hubby is a way picky eater and said that it looked gross), so we've been eating it all weekend and as of right now, I still have enough for about two helpings. Oh, and it tastes yummy reheated (I just stick a slice in the microwave for about a minute and a half).

And as a 'by the way', the picture above is not mine, it's my sister in law's. I was taking pictures as I made it and completely forgot to take one of the finished product!!

Thanks for the recipe D!!!

Things I Love Thursdays...

These new Nabisco 100 Calorie Oreo Candy Bites are awesome!!!
They taste just like the real thing (actually I think they're better), and it's just 100 calories per pack. And you get a nice handful in each pack. Perfect for those sweet cravings, yet completely figure friendly. They have been tested in my house by myself, my daughter and my husband. Everyone loves them (hubby says they're better than regular Oreos too)!
I can't wait to try the 'Chips Ahoy' ones next week.

Pink Cupcakes

How cute are these? I'm thinking of making them for Audrey's birthday party in April. So girly!!!

Yes, I Know....

I've gone a little cake happy, but can I say WOW!!! about this site!!!

A Pink and Brown Birthday

One of the themes that I'm considering for Audrey's birthday is not really a "theme" at all, it's more of a color scheme. If you ask anyone I know, they will tell you that I love, love, love the color brown. My husband actually teases me about it, because it's really more of an obsession than a love!! So I'm considering throwing Audrey a pink and brown birthday party. I think this would end up being cheaper than an actual themed party too. Well, look at this cake I found. Isn't it adorable?!

Oh, by the way, I found this cake at Cakes By MaryAnn. Check it out if you get a chance. There are tons of awesome cakes on that site!!!

Awesome Cakes

So I'm now starting to think about my daughter's next birthday party. It's a little over three months away, but I like to be prepared and party planning is one of my favorite things to do. So I found myself googling different types of birthday cakes tonight. I have several different themes that I'm debating in my head right now. Anyways, one of the ideas that I had was a whimsical type theme, like Dr. Seuss or a Mad Hatter Tea Party. I remembered seeing some pretty cool cakes that had a "Mad Hatter" style. They are SO awesome. Of course, one of these would be a tad out of budget for a two year old's birthday, but one can dream, right?!

I also came across this one that is just so amazingly adorable!!! I love that they look like gigantic cupcakes!

'Deceptively Delicious'

I got this book as a birthday present this year (thanks Bryan!). It just came out about 2 months ago or so. It's written by Jessica Seinfeld, wife of comedian Jerry. And I am SOOO looking forward to actually trying out the recipes. So far I've just been "reading" it. Sidenote: Bryan finds it extremely odd that I like to read cookbooks. Anyways, the whole point of this book is how to add veggies and fruits into your child's diet without them really knowing it. She uses all different sorts of purees (kind of like if you were making your own babyfood) and then adds them into all sorts of dishes. Honestly, I will have to try some of them before I believe that you cannot taste the puree, such as, Brownies with Carrot and Spinach. But some of them actually look pretty good, I can't wait to try the Creamy Potato Soup with Cauliflower and butternut squash or carrot.

The cookbook shows you how to make the different purees (11 vegetable; 6 fruit). It also gives you a basic nutritional guideline for children. And then it breaks down the recipes into categories, breakfast (12 recipes), Mealtime (39 recipes) and Dessert (25 recipes).

Anyways,as you can tell I'm excited about this cookbook! I think it's probably one of those little magical treasures for mom's with picky kids (or wives with picky husbands!)!!

YUMMY!

I made these Eagle Brand Magic Cookie Bars yesterday and boy are they GREAT!!! Everything comes in the box, all you need is 5 tablespoons of butter. It has a graham cracker crust, and is topped with sweetened condensed milk, coconut, walnuts, chocolate chips and butterscotch chips!!
Try it if you ever get the chance!!

Halloween Cookies

So anyone who knows me knows that as the years go by I love Halloween increasingly more!!
So on October 1st to celebrate my favorite month I made a batch of Halloween Cookies. They were just regular sugar cookies from a mix that I rolled out and cut out with my new Halloween cookie cutters (which I got from Target, they were $1.00 for 10 cutters).
The shapes were:
~2 different tombstone shapes
~2 different ghost shapes
~a pumpkin
~a haunted house
~a spiderweb
~a bat
~a scary cat
~and a crescent moon



I put Halloween frosting (orange tinted vanilla) with Halloween sprinkles on the cookies.
I can't wait to make these again!

Make Something New Mondays - Butter Bread

Today I made homemade bread for the first time ever!! Made from scratch and everything. Needless to say, eat wasn't aesthetically pleasing enough to post a picture. But it sure did taste delicious, and the house smelled SO wonderful!! I got the recipe from Bethany's Blog.

Here's the recipe:

1 stick butter
1 cup milk
2 packages yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 large eggs
6-7 bread flour

Melt the butter and warm the milk. Add yeast and let sit for about 2 minutes, then stir and add sugar, salt, eggs and slowly add flour until it is a firm dough.

Knead for 10 minutes and then let rise for an hour.

Punch down, split in half, and separate each half into 3 sections. Roll sections and braid them.

Let braided loaves rise for 30 minutes, then brush with an egg white glaze.

Place in oven at 375 for the 30-35 minutes.

I'm definitely going to be trying this recipe again. I'd love to get it perfected!
Every Monday I'm going to try to make something that I haven't before. Mainly things from scratch. Next week I think I'll do some kind of dessert!!