Spaghetti---Garlic Bread!!!

Hey Everyone,
     I made spaghetti and garlic bread the other night for my boyfriend and I and he ended working late.  I made a very simple recipe.  I had bought texas toast- so I added garlic powder and a mixture of mozzarella and parmesan cheese to the top.  I browned hamburger.  Next time I think I'm going to use half hamburger and half sausage.  Anyways, I used prego spaghetti sauce and added black olives,mushrooms, and chives to liven it up a bit, I used angel hair pasta.  Some people mix their sauce and noodles together but i like mine separate.  I know this meal is pretty basic it still turned out good. 

Pulled Pork Sandwhiches!

Hey Everyone,
     I havn't been keeping up on my blogs so here I go.  Last Sunday I made pulled pork sandwiches.  I bought a small pork roast.  I let it cook in the crock pot about 4 hrs until it was real tender.  Then I "pulled" it apart and put it back in the crock pot. I bought a honey barbecue sauce because alot of the recipes I found said to add honey or brown sugar to sweetened up the roast.  I then let it simmer about another hour to soak up the sauce.  I made macaroni and chees also but instead of just using a box I bought plain elbow macaroni and melted the cheese in myself.  This was one of my favorit meals. 

              

Expensive Meals

Hey Everyone,

I found that the cooking part of my quest really isn't that difficult.  Its the money part of it.  Making "homemade" meals is kind of costly.  What I've been trying to do is make one meal and then use part of that meal for a second meal.  Also I've found through actually combing the aisles at the grocery store that there are better frozen meals than pizza and TV dinners.  I bought frozen burritos and sided it with re fried beans and spanish rice.   This meal was fairly inexpensive but was better than JUNK food.  My next recipe I want to try is using crescent rolls and filling them with my own ingredients and making my own kind of "hot pocket".  

A twist on Chili!

Hey Guys,
     I made chili cheese fries on Friday night.  I'm not really a chili fan but I did enjoy it this way.  I used my fryer and fried up some french fries.  Instead of making a big batch of chili  I cheated and used canned chili.  However if I did make chili this would be a great way to get a second meal out of it.  Anyways, I put the chili on top of the fries and topped it off with shredded cheese.  I put black olives on mine and my boyfriend put jalapenos on his. 

The pic on the left is mine with the black olives and the one on the right his my boyfriends with the jalapenos.

 

Ravioli Marinara

Hey Everyone,
     So this meal wasn't exactly a recipe or anything that I had to make.  It was however something we've never had before.  My boyfriend drives a taxi on some evenings so its hard to find good quality meals that can also be made quickly.  I found these raviolis at Hy-Vee.  They only take a few minutes to cook and then I heated up our favorite pasta sauce and added some cheese to the top.  I also found some frozen garlic cheese bread.  This meal took about 10 minutes and was still very good and filling. The only thing is you need to make sure you drain your pasta really well because it made the sauce a little runny. 

Turkey Time

Hey Everyone,
    So over the weekend I made a turkey roast.  We had stuffing, corn, and mashed potatoes.  Yet again I forgot the rolls.  Maybe that should be something I try to make from scratch.....That meal was on Saturday so on Sunday I took the leftover turkey and made turkey and noodles.  I went to the store and bought rolls too.  We had noodles, mashed potatoes and rolls.  The noodles I used were homemade but not by me.  They are from a lady in Albia IA called Neva's noodles. 
http://ia.serviceslisted.com/3999389-NevasNoodles.htm 


Two very delicious meals!!!!  A total success!!! I think these are the only meals where I wouldn't change anything or didn't make any mistakes-other than I always forget the rolls!!!! I didn't take pics of these meals either I forgot-My bad!

Mucho Margarita!

Hey Everyone,
     So...I had every intention of coming home from work and cooking supper.  I was going to make baked pasta and garlic cheese bread.  Well....that didn't happen-my boyfriend called and said some of his co-workers were meeting at "La Hacienda" for 2 for 1 margaritas and invited me to join.  I have to admit after the terrible day of work I had (received bad news about my job and co-workers)  it was no question what my plan was.  I might add they have this every Monday and Tuesday and they were fantastic!!!! 

  http://desmoines.metromix.com/restaurants/tex_mex/la-hacienda-mexican-restaurant-city-of-des-moines/467326/content

Cookie Monster!

Hey Everyone,
It's been a few days since I posted so here's what's going on.  On Wednesday I had every intention of making a "simple" supper and then some homemade cookies.  Well I made the simple supper and that's all I did.  I made tacos.  However, the cookies didn't happen.  I ended up making the cookies on Thursday night.  I've never made homemade cookies EVER!!! Here is the recipe I used:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/best-chocolate-chip-cookies/Detail.aspx

I whipped them up no problem-I thought the dough looked a little soupy but scooped them out anyways-I was right I baked about 4 big pancake looking cookies-so I added some more flour to the batter and then they were perfect.

 I took a picture of the two batches.  Both actually tasted fine just the ones on the left look more appetizing.  The cookies on the right are the first ones I baked.  The cookies on the left are the second attempt (much better).

Chinook Observer Article

Hello Everyone,
I read this article and thought it was pretty insightful. 
http://www.chinookobserver.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=2&ArticleID=35998

For a while it was just my mom and I-she would have to work until 6 and then when she came home it was time to take care of me (supper, homework,etc).  I can remember eating TV dinners just because they were a quick easy meal.  When she remarried things changed and she was able to not have to work as much and she was more available. I guess this is part of my not cooking because I work full time and go to school and when I come home at 6 I'm ready to chill.  However, I have learned I can cook simple meals with little prep time that are a heck of a lot better than frozen pizza.  No one said meals have to be 6 courses or take hours to prep and make.  I have also learned that coordinating your meals saves money.  If I can buy ingredients that can be used for more than one recipe that's great.  I thought this article really hit home with what a lot of households probably deal with or go through. 

Barbecue--Pizza Style

Hey Guys,

     So tonight I decided to make homemade pizza, with a little twist.  I made barbecue chicken pizza.  My own recipe!  I bought a Betty Crocker pizza mix,  I picked out a spunky barbecue sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's),  I cooked my chicken and then cut it into cubes and use Parmesan and mozzarella cheese to top it off.  I'm not quite used to the new stove I got so things cook quicker this pizza got a little bit more brown than I usually would.  Also, next time I would season my chicken with something to pep it up a bit.  Other than that it turned out pretty good.  I'm proud of myself.  I know I didn't invent this recipe but i picked out my own specific ingredients.

Sunday Pot Roast

Hello Everyone,
     So yesterday I got up and started my quest early.  I decided to make pot roast.  I've have seen my mom make this a few times so I had an idea of what I needed to do.  However, I called her anyway to get the recipe for sure.  I put in carrots, potatoes (cut in half), a four lb. roast, then I used onion soup mix and water a covered it half way and let it cook for about 5hrs.  It was awesome!!!  Only thing is I forgot the rolls so we just had bread and butter!!!

Strawberry Cheesecake Cheat

Hey Guys,

     So I had a craving for cheesecake, usually this would consist of me buying one from the Hy-Vee bakery.  However, I didn't do that nor did I make if from scratch though.  I did buy a box of plain cheesecake and a can of strawberries and whipped one up.  This is a little cheating but not something I would usually do so I thought it could count as a mini quest goal. 

Ciao Italia

Hello Everyone,

     So for my first recipe I chose Meatball sandwiches.   This is a really simple recipe however I still had to go to the store.  I bought minced onion, ritz crackers, marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, and hoagie buns.  I already had the ground beef.  So I mixed the ingredients and the meatballs are baking in the oven as we speak!!!! 

     I looked at many recipes online and took some ideas from 3 or 4.  I mixed 1lb. of hamburger, 1 egg beaten,a pinch of minced onion, ritz crackers 1pkg crushed, salt and pepper and mixed it all up.  I already have changes for next time-I thought about using parmesean cheese in the mixture also.   

.....30 MINUTES LATER--

I put my meatballs in the crock pot that I had heating up with marinara sauce.  About an hour later they will be ready to eat.!!!

TIMES UP....So the meatballs were good definitely edible.  They were kind of bland.  So when I make them next time I will need to spice them up!!!

I WOULD SAY IT WAS A SUCCESSFUL MEAL!!

Let the QUEST begin!!!

     Ready or not today is the day.  Our 30 day quests are started.  I've chosen to cook/bake for my quest.  I started yesterday looking through a cookbook trying to find my first victim (recipe).Betty Crocker for beginners!!! Also this website has a link that says tips and how-to's--- I think it will be useful to me or any other frightened beginner cooker/baker--- http://www.bettycrocker.com/ .  I have to admit it frightened me a bit.  Have you ever looked in cookbooks and it shows the picture of the finish product for the recipe--intimidating!!  I am a little nervous for this, however, I guess it really doesn't matter if I make a mistake.  I just don't want to feel the disappointment.  I would rather write about how delicious my supper is rather than it was junk and ended up eating frozen pizza.  I still have no idea whats gonna be cookin'.  I'm going to have to do a little shopping before the cooking begins-I imagine my time at the store will be longer than my "normal" shopping time-my recipes will be a little more complex than I'm used to.   
  

A little about Me!!

Hey Everyone,
 My name is Sara.  I"m getting ready to take my 30 day cooking quest.  A little nervous since I'm not much of a cooking person.  I hope to be after this quest though.  I'm sure some mistakes will be made but, practice makes perfect.