My life as I know it

There is the path of least resistance and then there is the path that I think will be even less resistant than the path of least resistance which actually turns out to be a path with crater-size resistance. Are you following me? Six months ago, when Graham was ready to start eating solids, I decided I was going to make his baby food and save us some money. I was convinced I could make it cheaper and then also make foods that aren't available in the store to broaden Graham's pallet, if you will. In the interest of saving money, I didn't buy the baby food-making blender that I really wanted and instead used the blender we already owned. I had intended to blog about my baby food making experiences long ago but never got around to it. Maybe it's best. A few months ago, my post would have been all rainbows and butterflies. Because that was before I realized that sometimes making your own baby food doesn't save you money but actually costs you more. The day I realiz...

It's a little known fact that I absolutely love soup. Ask my former college roommates and they will tell you, I could eat soup every single night and never get sick of it - even during the summer. So when I got an email last year telling me to save the date for National Soup Swap Day , you better believe I did! When it was finally January 2012 and I saw National Soup Swap Day on my calendar, I wanted to try and participate. So I organized a swap with the ladies at work. We did it a little differently than the official guidelines which recommended bringing soups that have already been frozen and then swapping them. I thought it would be more fun to bring the soups in crock pots so that we could all sample them during lunch. And fun it was. We had nine participants and I am embarrassed proud to say that I sampled all nine soups. Each person also brought their own storage containers and then packaged up whatever soups they wanted to take home with them - or in my case packaged ...

Chicken Tortilla Soup   ( allrecipes.com ) Prep Time: 30 Min Cook Time: 30 Min Ready In: 1 Hr Ingredients 1 -2 pound s skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded 3 10.75 ounce cans cream of chicken soup 3 14.5 ounce cans chicken broth 3 14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes, drained 1-3 4.25 ounce cans chilies, drained 1 10 ounce package frozen corn, thawed 2 cup s uncooked brown rice 1 -3 15 ounce cans black beans, drained and rinsed Garlic salt to taste Cumin to taste Chili powder to taste  Light sour cream (optional) Shredded cheese - mexican or cheddar are good (optional) Tortilla chips/strips...

Tortellini and Garden Vegetable Bake ( bhg.com ) Prep Time: 30 Min Cook Time: 30 Min Ready In: 1 Hr Ingredients 1 16-ounce package refrigerated tortellini 1 medium carrot, thinly sliced 1 1/2 cups sugar snap peas, halved 1 tablespoon margarine or butter (optional) 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces 1 cup chopped fresh broccoli 1/3 cup chicken broth 2 tablespoons snipped fresh oregano or 1-1/2 teaspoons dried oregano, crushed ...

It's 10:52 PM and I'm just sitting down for the first time since I got off work at 4:30. I went straight to the grocery store, then to another grocery store, came home, unloaded the groceries and immediately started cooking. We are having a cookout tomorrow night with Pat's friends from out of town. Tonight I made pasta salad, cole slaw, baked spaghetti and a chocolate chip brownie cheesecake. While I was cooking the night away, Pat was busy cleaning our house. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm not a great housekeeper. When I do clean, I do a pretty thorough job but I just don't clean nearly as often as I should. I'm soooo lucky to have a husband who helps me! I've never made a cheesecake from scratch before, let alone a cheesecake with a brownie bottom. I will let you know how it turns out and if it's a recipe worth sharing, I will share it! Speaking of recipes, I owe you the wonderful strawberry vinaigrette dressing recipe. ...

Stuffed Green Peppers Prep Time: 30 Min Cook Time: 30 Min Ready In: 1 Hr Ingredients 6 green bell peppers salt to taste 1 pound ground beef 1/3 cup chopped onion salt and pepper to taste 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce 3/4 cup uncooked rice 1/2 cup water 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed tomato soup water as needed Directions Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cut the tops off the peppers, and remove the seeds. Cook peppers in boiling water for 5 minutes; drain. Sprinkle salt and cheese inside each pepper, and set aside. In a large skillet, saute beef, onions and 1 tsp. of Worcester...

One of these days I will make sure I actually have all of the ingredients necessary for a recipe before I start cooking. I make assumptions that I have certain ingredients before going grocery shopping and never double-check to make sure my assumption was correct and then the next thing you know I have a hot stove and a recipe started with missing ingredients. Sometimes I get lucky and it's something as simple as milk or an egg and my wonderful neighbors are there to help me out. Tonight, however, I need 1/4 cup of Teriyaki sauce. Not something that the neighbors are likely to have on hand and/or want to share 1/4 a cup of. I would just skip it or try to substitute it with something else but it's a pretty major ingredient in this recipe which is titled, "Orange Teriyaki Beef." There are only three major ingredients and I'm missing one of them. You would have thought a three-ingredient recipe would have warranted a double-check that I actually have all three ingr...