Au' Gratin Potatoes

It's not a secret that I'm addicted to carbs and anything starchy. I love pasta, bread, and most importantly, potatoes. I could live on mashed potatoes and homemade gravy. One of my favorites meals is pan fried hamburgers with mashed potatoes and gravy made using the pan drippings from frying up the burgers. It's actually the second to last meal I had before I was admitted to the hospital for my surgery in April...lol

Anyway, I came up with this recipe at Easter this year. I made it for our dinner that day and it was so good. I typically use whatever shredded cheese I have in the fridge and today I used two different kinds.

The potatoes were so good that I didn't even get a picture of them because we demolished the entire pan.What's even better is how simple they are to make.

Katie's Au'Gratin Potatoes

Ingredients:
7 russet potatoes, scrubbed clean (this amount will vary depending on the size of your potatoes)
1 sm. onion, finely diced
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2 cups finely shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish.
3. In a medium sauce pan add heavy cream and warm on medium heat. Do not allow milk to boil. Add spices and stir together.
3. Finely slice each potato and add to baking dish.
4. Add diced onion to sliced potatoes. Gently toss onions and potatoes together.
5. To heavy cream, slowly add cheese one cup at a time. Mix until melted together.
6. Pour heavy cream and cheese sauce over potato and onions. Top baking dish with aluminum foil and bake for two hours or until potatoes are cooked through and soft.
7. Allow to cool for five minutes or so before serving.

Lastly, ENJOY!!!

Happy 4th of July

We're having a small family/friend gathering here at our new house today to celebrate the 4th of July.

Our menu will consist of:
Hamburger/hotdogs
Grilled corn on the cob
Au' gratin potatoes
coleslaw
potato salad

And I'm sure my mother in law will bring her famous fruit salad. I can't wait to get my grub on. Since having my resection surgery and getting my ileostomy, I am finally able to eat whatever I want. It's wonderful to sit back and enjoy the holidays without pain and only being able to nibble at my meal.

I'll be sharing the grilled corn recipe and my au' gratin potato recipe sometime this week.

Be safe and stay cool!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Brownies

I've been trying really hard lately not to buy store bought cookies or other sweets. They are expensive and don't usually last long around this place. We love our sweets, especially my husband. I've decided that I will only make sweets for us from now on, not only to save money, but to help our waistlines. I figure I will want to have a sweet pretty darn bad to actually whip something up.

After browsing the Internet for a good brownie recipe I stumbled upon one that looked scrumptious. The only problem was, was that I didn't have any cocoa powder. Well I had already started to melt the butter that the recipe called for so its not like I could just back out. I forged ahead and created these little beauties. We loved them and the girls enjoyed helping me sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. I love having the girls in there cooking with me. Some of my best memories of my grandma are in her kitchen cooking.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Brownies
Inspired by: bunsinmyoven.com

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
1.) Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10x15 inch baking dish.
2.) In small saucepan over low heat, melt butter completely. Stir in sugar and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add in peanut butter and stir until complete incorporated. Do not allow sugar mixture to boil.
3.) Pour butter mixture into a large bowl or stand mixer, eggs,  and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
4.) Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt.
 5.) Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean after being inserted into the center. The edges should be set and the center should still look slightly moist, but not uncooked. Allow brownies to cool before serving.

Serve with a cold glass of milk and you have  yourself a wonderful, sweet snack!

Juicy Lucy on an english muffin bun.

I know that there is one meal that I can cook my husband that I will get no complaints from. It doesn't matter how I cook it, he'll eat it without a second glance. He fits into the Murphy family so well. My dads favorite meal is also a hamburger. We're those people that grill outside in the middle of winter, we're serious about our grilled meats...lol.

The bad thing about hamburgers is you tend to find yourself in a rut when it comes to serving it. You can only eat a hamburger, on a bun, with your typical hamburger condiments so many times before you get burnt out. Thank heavens for wonderful recipe sites and food bloggers that have allowed me to increase my hamburger recipes.

I came up with this one after hearing about the "juicy lucy" which is pretty much two hamburger patties formed around a slice of American cheese. I hope you enjoy, I know I sure did.

Katie's Juicy Lucy
Adapted from: chow.com

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs. ground beef
1 egg
1 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
3-4 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
4 slices of american cheese
2 md. onion, cut in half and then thinly sliced
olive oil
butter
mayonnaise/miracle whip
sliced pickles
4 English muffins, lightly toasted

Directions:
1.) In a small sauce pan on medium heat, add a teaspoon of olive oil and a two tablespoons of butter. After butter has melted add your sliced onions. Cook until caramelized.
2.) In a medium sized mixing bowl add your ground beef, egg, sea salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and Worcestershire sauce. Mix by hand until ingredients are equally distributed.
3.) Using meat mixture, form into one to one in a half inch balls and then flatten into thin patties.
4.) Taking one piece of cheese, fold into half, then fold again to form a small cube. Place cheese onto the middle of one patty. Place a second patty on top and pinch edges together. Repeat to make four hamburgers.
5.) Cook hamburgers in a large skillet, drizzled with about a teaspoon of olive oil, over medium heat until cooked thoroughly. Probably four to five minutes depending on how thick your patties were.
6.) On bottom half of toasted English muffin, spread a thin layer of mayo. Top with sliced pickles, hamburger, caramelized onions, and then lastly, top half of the English muffin with another thin layer of mayo.

These burgers were awesome and the addition of the egg helped keep them really moist. I was hesitant about the English muffin as a bun, however its all we had on hand and I had seen them used before so I figured, what the heck. I was surprised to how good the burger was on the muffin. I'll definitely be making these again.

Katie's Pesto Pasta

You know what happens when your unemployment runs out and your husband only gets paid twice a month?

You run out of groceries in the days before your husbands next pay day that's what happens!

Well, you don't run completely out of food, you just become limited on what you can actually make.

There are a few items that you can always count on me being stocked up on. Pasta and chicken just happen to be two of those items. I threw this recipe together after seeing a similar recipe on allrecipes.com. It was surprisingly good, both Daniel and I had seconds. I've never used pesto before and after a mis-communication between Daniel and I last fall, he brought me home three jars of the stuff. I requested three jars of brushcetta, still not sure why he then brought home pesto but all is good. I contemplated adding some cream cheese to the pesto sauce, but I was afraid it wouldn't turn out so I left it out. If someone is brave enough to add the cream cheese please let me know how it turns out!

Pesto Pasta~

Source: Me

Ingredients:

1 lb. rigatoni pasta, cooked and drained

2 md. chicken breast, cubed and cooked

2 tbsp. butter

1 roasted red pepper, finely chopped

1 roma tomato, finely chopped

1- 8.1 oz jar of Classico pesto sauce

salt

pepper

Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1.) In a large pot, fill 3/4 way full of water. Bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente.

2.) In a small skillet, add pesto sauce, roasted red pepper, and roma tomato. Cook on medium heat and allow to simmer. Stirring occasionally.

3.) In a large skillet, add butter and cubed chicken. Sprinkle chicken with a few pinches of salt and a pinch or so of black pepper. Cook on medium-high heat until cooked thoroughly and lightly browned on each side.

4.) Drain pasta and return to stove. Add cooked pesto sauce mixture and cooked chicken. Mix until pasta and chicken is coated with pesto sauce mixture.

5.) Sprinkle each serving with Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!!

Sorry about the quality of my photo. I was a couple of bites into my meal before I realized I needed to take a picture. Instead of getting up, getting my camera, and then stopping long enough to get a good picture...I decided to make things easier on myself and just take the photo with my phone.

Once again this meal surprised me. I didn't know what to expect with the pesto sauce but it was really good. Even Daniel said it was good. I would also like to mention for those that may have missed it. The dijon marsala pork tenderloin that I made a couple of weeks ago that Daniel said was delicious, must have been. He actually brought it up at our lunch yesterday with his mom and brother. Looks like I'll be adding it to my menu for one day in the next two weeks. 

Chicken Noodle Soup

I'm trying to come up with dinners that are not only easy to throw together, but are budget friendly for us right now. I have no income coming in and plus having just had surgery, even though I feel amazing for the most part, I'm still trying to take it as easy as possible. I thought homemade chicken noodle soup would be just what the doctor ordered for this recovering Momma and her people. It did not disappoint, even though I just winged all of the ingredients, and both myself and my cousin Heather went back for seconds. She's staying with me this week while Daniel is away on business so she gets to pleasure in all of my home cooked meals.

Katie's Chicken Noodle Soup~

Ingredients:
2 lg. chicken breasts, cut in half
1 sm. onion, quartered
2 stalks of celery, cut into large pieces
2 carrots, cut into large pieces
2 whole garlic cloves
water

Ingredients for the soup:
3 carrots, peeled and diced
2 lg. celery stalks, cut in half horizontally and then diced
1 garlic clove, finely minced
shredded chicken breasts
1 49 oz. container chicken broth
1 tbsp. sea salt
1/2 tbsp. black pepper
garlic powder
1 tbsp. parsley flakes

Directions:
1.) In a large stock pot, fill 3/4 of the way full of water. Add chicken breast, quartered onion, celery pieces, carrot pieces, and whole garlic cloves. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and allow to cook for about two hours.
2.) Remove chicken from stock and allow to cool. Also remove all vegetables and dispose of.
3.) To the pot with your homemade stock, add diced celery, diced carrots, minced garlic clove, and shredded chicken. Add canned chicken broth and bring to a boil.
4.) Add 1 tbsp. sea salt, 1/2 tbsp. black pepper, 1 tbsp. parsley flakes, and a few sprinkles around the pot of garlic powder.
5.) Add one large bag of egg noodles along with about 1/4 a can of water. I use the chicken broth can and stir it around and add to my soup. Cook until noodles are done.

I served ours with homemade mashed potatoes, which score one for Mommy, were pretty darn good. I used 5 medium sized russet potatoes, boiled until soft. I threw them in my kitchen aid mixer, added probably a good cup or so of heavy cream, two tablespoons of butter, and a generous amount of sea salt. They were delicious and for once, the consistency was really good. I was kinda proud of myself since making mashed potatoes has always been a challenge for me. If you are looking for a good comfort food, this is another good one.

Chicken Riggies

Three posts in one week? I must be feeling better!! I love tomato sauces with heavy cream in them. I consider it a lovely comfort food and this one was no exception. I omitted most of the peppers since the girls and I aren't into spicy foods, and I may or may not have added an extra half a cup of cream to the sauce, but overall I was really impressed with the meal.

Chicken Riggies~
Source: allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
1 (16 ounce) package rigatoni pasta
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut in bite-sized pieces
salt and pepper to taste
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cubanelle pepper, seeded and thinly sliced ( I omitted)
3 roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
2 hot cherry peppers, seeded and minced ( I omitted)
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes (I added an extra half a cup)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
 1.) Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the rigatoni pasta, and cook until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes; drain and keep warm. 

2.) Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, and cook in the hot oil until lightly browned on all sides, and no longer pink in the center, about 7 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan, and keep warm. 

3.) Stir the onion, garlic, and cubanelle peppers. Cook and stir until the onion has softened, about 4 minutes. Add the roasted red peppers, hot cherry peppers, and crushed tomatoes. Bring to a simmer, then stir in the heavy cream and cooked chicken. 

4.) Simmer 2 or 3 minutes, then stir in the pasta. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese to serve.

Now doesn't that look downright comforting? I'm making homemade chicken and noodle soup tonight. It's all about comfort food in our house this week.