Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Ingredients

3 lbs stew beef
½ cup flour
1 tsp seasoning salt, to taste
2T Olive oil
2 cups diced carrots
1 ½ cup diced celery
3 – 4 cups cubed potatoes (I really like red!)
1 large onion, diced
2 T butter
½ cup red wine
1 package beef stew mix
3 cups veggie broth (or water)

Directions 

Cut stew beef to size you prefer, I tend to always cut them so they are more bite sized.  Place in bag with flour and salt and coat.  Coat rimmed cookie sheet with olive oil and add stew beef to a 350 degree oven to brown, stir once or twice.

Place potatoes, carrots and celery in crockpot.

Melt butter in saucepan and add diced onion and sautee until soft.  Add packet of stew mix and red wine, blend.  Pour over veggies in crockpot.  Add meat and veggie broth, sprinkle with pepper to taste.

Cook on high for 1 hour, then low for 5-6, until meat is tender.  Take 2T of cornstarch and mix with 1 cup water, add to stew and simmer on low for about 30 minutes.  If you like your broth thinner, add more water.

Enjoy!

 *Note* I do not add very much salt and pepper to my soups as I know everyone has different levels of preference and then it can be added when it is served to the person’s taste.

To can: process at 10lbs pressure for 90 minutes for quarts  and 75 minutes for pints.

Creme Brule Baked French Toast

My kids LOVE breakfast for dinner.  And it gives me the opportunity to make things I simply do not have the time or energy to do most mornings.  Here was one I made tonight, and they raved about it.

Ingredients

 French Toast

1 loaf French Bread (best if a day or two stale)

9 eggs
½ cup Crème Brule Creamer
1 T Cinnamon
 
Carmelized Syrup Topping

1 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 T butter
 

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350.  Spray bottom of 9x13 pan.

 

Slice French bread to desired size.  If it’s a little stale, it’s perfect – then it won’t become too soggy! 

Also, if you’d like to stuff the toast with some type of fruit filling, cut them a little thicker and cut a slice in the top and insert filling.  Fresh fruits or jams work great.

In mixing bowl combine eggs, creamer and cinnamon and whip until well blended.   You can dip the bread in the eggs to make sure each piece is coated.  Then pour remaining egg mixture over the bread. 

 Fun tip – refrigerate this overnight and pop in the oven in the morning.  You will want to increase the baking time, but YUM!

Place in oven.

In a saucepan, melt butter and add sugar, corn syrup and condensed milk and bring to boil.  Pull out the pan in the oven, and pour over the top.  Finish baking.  Total baked time should be about 30-40 minutes.

ENJOY!

Creamy Ranch Chicken

Creamy Ranch Chicken

I came up with this recipe after finding a similar idea on Pinterest. But then once I clicked the Pinterest link, the recipe was NOT to the picture. Uh Oh. I had NO idea how it would turn out, and I was having friends over for dinner. Guess they would get to be my guinnea pigs. According to them, it worked! And I loved it too. So, here you go!


Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 packet dry ranch dressing
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup diced sun dried tomatos
* milk, as needed for consistency

Directions
Spray crock pot with non-stick spray.  Place chicken breasts on bottom so they don't overlap.  Sprinkle ranch dressing.  Mix together soups and cream cheese, pour over chicken.  Cook on low for 4 hours.

Shred chicken, return to crockpot.  Add sun-dried tomatos and milk to get desired consistency.  Cook another 30 minutes. 

Serve over pasta.  (I served it with a side of broccoli, and one of my guests decided that it was great as a topping OVER the broccoli.  And I admit, I enjoyed it that was the next day for lunch).

400 Fans Jam Giveaway

Wow!  I can't believe we've hit 400 fans on Facebook!  In celebration, I'm doing another fun giveaway.  Since it's summer, and I'm jamming - I'm going to give away a selection of the jams I'm making and have made.

I'm working on some updates for the blog page, so I'd love to hear what you enjoy reading, and what you'd like to see more of in the coming months.

Thanks for your fanship!

Here's a fun pic of some of my canning shelf!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Bread

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Bread

I made this bread, and my kids LOVED it. They helped me do the prep as well, as I'm trying to get them more involved as I make healthier foods. 

Ingredients

Bread
1 cup mashed sweet potato*
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp all spice
1/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 cup honey
1 cup buttermilk**

Topping
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup toffee chips
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions ~ with my kids helping!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, adjust rack so that the top of the pan will be in the middle of the oven.  Grease and flour bottom of loaf pan.

Blend together dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and all-spice.  Mix wet ingredients in seperate bowl: oil, eggs, vanilla, honey, mashed sweet potato and buttermilk.  Blend untill ingredients are moistened.  Pour into prepared pan.

Mix topping ingredients, sprinkle over top of batter.

Bake in oven for 90 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in pan 10 minutes, then cool completely on wire rack.  Slice and serve. 


* I peeled and cut the potatoes.  Then boiled until tender, drained and mashed.

** Several bread recipes that I use call for buttermilk.  But I never seemed to have it when I had I needed it.  And when I'd buy it, part of it would go bad.  Then I found this, and I LOVE it.  It's a powdered buttermilk, and it works fabulously!  I hope you can find it in a store near you.

Accuquilt Barn Quilt Contest - FINALIST

If you don't know it yet, I'm totally addicted to contests.  For the second year in a row, I entered Accuquilt's Barn Quilt contest - and this year I'm a finalist!!  The top 100 blocks are voted by YOU, then the top 20 go to a celebrity panel.  It's a short term contest, public voting is only until Wednesday, April 18th!  That's less than a week.

So, I am shamelessly going to ask for your votes.  PLEASE! :D  And thank you.  (Imagine how many more quilts I can make, maybe one for YOU if I win).

http://www.accuquilt.com/barnquilt/entry.html   Quilt #45.  Go.  Vote.  THANK YOU!

Autism Awareness Month - GiveAway

April is Autism Awareness month, and today (April 3rd) is World Autism day.

My son is high-funtioning autistic, and I have a soft spot in my heard for all of those on the spectrum.

Today I'm going to give away a necklace so that you can show your support as well.