Almost is good enough!

I should have blogged last night. I apologize in advance. I made some homemade white chicken enchiladas and homemade salsa that tasted EXACTLY like Chili's salsa. Good recipes. GOOD. But I didn't, so I'm sorry. I almost blogged about them last night, but in that case, almost wasn't quite enough.

There are times when almost is enough, though. Like tonight, when for some reason I am beyond tired even with a decent night's sleep under my belt. Maybe I'm just tired in anticipation of the sleepless night I feel is coming, as Dylan is apparently going to bark like a dog all night. 

Poor baby. And it's not just me. Jeff is already dozing in the recliner, and even the rabid gingers are fairly quiet. Now. And yes, I know that's not a good sign, but they're zoned into the Xbox right now. I only have a little bit of mommy guilt about that. But, in any case, I am having the kind of night where I'm tired and half-a$$ing things and not cooking much seems to be the way to go.

Time to turn to an old favorite of mine-Almost Lasagna.

This most assuredly falls under the category of cheap, easy, everybody likes, and 'makes a crapload' of food. (I realized the other day how sad it is that 'healthy' is WAY down on my list. I'm too excited when they eat ANYTHING.)

You don't need much, and you can get it all here in town. Ingredients are as follows:

12-14 oz of some kind of macaroni noodles (we like rigatoni)

1 lb ground beef OR chicken (we prefer chicken, can be made with either)

I jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce

1 bag of shredded parmesan

1 bag of shredded mozzarella

1 tub of Ricotta cheese

2 eggs

and you can chop and add veggies in if you like, black olives are a favorite here :-)

1. While oven preheats to 350, cook your meat of choice, drain.

2. Mix beaten eggs, ricotta, half of the parmesan, and some salt and pepper to taste (garlic salt is good, too)

3. Mix meat, noodles, any veggies, then add the cheesey mixture in with all of that.

4. In a greased 9x13 pan, add half of this gooey mixture. Place half of the bag of mozzarella all over the top, and half of the parmesan you have left over.

5. Add the rest of the mix, then top with remaining mozzarella and parmesan.

6. Cover with foil, bake for about 20 minutes. uncover and bake another 10-15 minutes to get the cheese all melty bubbly good. 

This is really easy, and even easier when you just throw some frozen garlic bread in the oven with it for the last ten minutes or so. As you can tell by the picture below, I'm not a true food blogger. I haven't yet mastered the art of remembering to take a picture of a dish in all its pristine, 'just-cooked' glory. By the time I do remember, there are gaping holes where my people have already pigged out, myself included. So here's what the chicken almost lasagna looks like:

Oh, yes, there will be leftovers...

 So anyways, that's my food blog for tonight. Not too much else to report on the home front at the moment. As compared to earlier, when the heathen childrens were running around fighting over MY phone. Thanks, Apple for child-addicting apps. I rarely see my iPhone these days. I miss it.

My Twitter (that just sounds bad, lol!)

My Facebook

New recipe? Well, sorta KFCish recipe.

I know, right? Two blogs in one day? How *did* you get so lucky?

One quick note, I finally sat down and decided to figure out how the fine art of hyperlinking works. Turns out, there is actually a neat little button in Blogger that does it for you. Now, I feel oh-so-much more advanced than I did in October, when I didn't have a clue what I was doing :) See, look at that nice, clickable link I just made to an older blog post! Expect to see a lot of this if you read this blog.

So, the actual blog entry....

I'm doing good! I'm actually trying to make good on what I blogged about earlier today, and share when I try a new recipe. I did so just a little while ago. Since my kids all seem to be playing in the living room, I'll take a quick break and tell you what I did. (Yes, there is screaming in there, but it's happy screaming. At the moment.) It was actually pretty easy, and cheap, too. The only thing I didn't already have on hand to make this with was paprika, and I got that at EW James for $1.19 for a little bottle.

After I cooked  it, Jeff and I sat at the table to eat. The conversation went something like this:

Jeff: "This is really good chicken."
Me: "Thanks, new recipe. It's supposed to taste just like KFC, but it doesn't, but it's still good, I think."
Jeff: "No, there's a hint of KFC..."

Obviously, the recipe I tried tonight was a twist on regular oven-baked chicken. It's called 'KFC Chicken'. Oddly enough, it's a recipe that is supposed to duplicate the colonel's chicken flavor. Who'da thunk? And while it didn't exactly taste like KFC (as Jeff later told me, they get their flavor by pressure-cooking) it was really good, and did have a very similar flavor. And it was easy. And cheap. Which, here lately, are my two priorities when I cook. I even had plenty of time to make a super easy, super delicious peach cobbler. Yes, I am writing this post stuffed to the gills with food :)

So here's the recipe. I found it on Facebook; I think my friend Kara posted it. And if anyone wants my stupidly easy and cheap cobbler recipe, just let me know.

What you need:

Chicken (I used 3-4 breasts, and stripped them. I learned a long time ago, when you are breading food, the smaller the pieces you bread, the more you seem to have. Hence, I almost always cut chicken, pork, etc in at least half before cooking.)


Breading:
1 cup of flour
1 tbsp of Season-All salt
2 tsp of paprika
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper

1. MOST IMPORTANT STEP....Try to keep the baby up during the afternoon so he will take a good nap while you are cooking. Failing this, give him to his daddy to hold with this one-liner: "Here, hold him while I go cook YOUR supper." That generally works.

2. Thaw your chicken however you want it pieced up.

3. Place thawed chicken in milk for 30 minutes. I also used a meat tenderizing hammer before this step, but it's not really necessary.

4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

5. Cut up 1/2 stick of butter into a few pieces, and place in a 9x13 pan in the oven for just a few minutes to melt. Make sure butter is spread all along bottom of the pan, then,  if there are any dry spots, spray with PAM to ensure complete coverage.

6. Shake excess milk of chicken, cover completely in breading mix. You can use a big bowl (like I did)  or a big Ziploc bag, which I didn't have.

7. Cook for 20 minutes, turn, cook 20 minutes more or until cooked through.

I probably made that sound a whole lot harder than it was, but anyways, you get the idea. If you try it, let me know if you like it. It was a pretty big hit here. There wasn't any left to take a picture of to put on here, and I didn't figure anyone would want to look at an empty plate.

I must go now, as the screaming in the living room is starting to get a fighting edge to it. Gingers, *sigh*...

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(Oh, aren't hyperlinks cool? LOL)

Not-so-new idea...

This is the point in the day where everything slows down and gets quiet for a bit. Jeff and Emmy are off about their daily routine Bryce is playing the XBox, and Dylan just went down for a nap. Absolutely the time I need to be getting a shower. But what am I doing? Well, duh, blogging :)

(Haha, I wish!)

Since I really do need to take a shower and probably put actual clothes on instead of pajamas, I'll make this kind of short. I had an idea the other day that while I could still blog and all and try to be funny, I thought I might put a recipe in here or there. See, I've been on this kick lately where I am so sick and tired of eating the same thing over and over and over again. ("Pork chops AGAIN, Mom?") So to appease myself and the food gods in my house, I have been looking in what little spare time I have for cheap, easy, and cheap (did I mention cheap?) recipes. We are a one-income family, and groceries aren't getting any cheaper.

Like last night, we had sauerkraut and weenies. Not really anything new or noteworthy, I just hadn't cooked it in awhile. I fried some potatoes with it, and everyone was happy. You don't even really need a recipe for that, but someone who hasn't made it in awhile might say, 'Hmm, that sounds pretty good. And cheap'. And now, you don't have to worry about what you are gonna cook for supper. And in this search for new things, I have come across some really decent stuff. Jeff said the other day, "Wow, you've really turned all Martha Stewart on me." That makes me feel good, that he likes :)

If y'all think it's a good idea, let me know. If not, I'll just keep on the same way I have. (Which, really, is what I intend to do anyway, just with a recipe every once in awhile.)

So, I really need to go shower now while everyone's occupied, so I'll be back later. Tootleloo!




Twitter: @mrsjeffgray2002
Facebook: Roxanne Gray