Happy Thanksgiving

I hope your Thanksgiving was as yummy as ours:-)

Soon We Will Enjoy...

...this!

Check out more Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom and Wordful Wednesday on SevEn cLoWn CirCus:-).

Tackling a Thanksgiving Table

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom . This week, I tackled our Thanksgiving table. I started with a great centerpiece from Pick N Save:

$9.99?? Can't beat that!


I chose golds and oranges this year:

Do you recognize these cookies?

And last but not least, candlelight:

Beautiful, right?

Chicken and Pasta

Check me out over at At Work, At Play or At Home All Day talking about girlie stuff:-)

Here, I am doing more menu planning with I'm an Organizing Junkie and finding more deals at Pick N Save for $5 Dinners .

Thank goodness things are calming down for the week! I have been burning the candles at both ends for a while. Other than Parent/Teacher Conference and Thanksgiving, I don't have anything going on. Also, my youngest has off and I have to come up with something for her to do:-) So...

Good old Pick N Save has chicken on sale for $1.88/lb. (normally $4.79/lb.). Which is good because, I am on my own. The Food Network Chefs Cooking Challenge (FNCCC) on I Blame My Mother is off this week:-) I have Chicken and Pasta on my menu often but, I don't believe I have ever posted the recipe. So, I am posting it today:-)

Here is everything that I am serving this week:

Monday: Spaghetti (Parent/Teacher Conferences)

Tuesday: Chicken and Pasta (see recipe below)

Wednesday: Sweet and Sour Pork

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving:-)

Friday: Leftovers

Chicken and Pasta
Ingredients:
1/2 lb penne
1 Tbs Olive Oil
4 Tbs Butter
2 Cloves Garlic
1 lb Chicken, diced
1 cup Milk
1 packet Alfredo Sauce

Directions:
1. Prepare the pasta per package instructions.

2. Add oil and one tablespoon of butter to the pan. Saute garlic for one minute and then add chicken. Cook until chicken is done, about 4 to 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Melt the remaining butter in a small saucepan. Add milk and sauce mix and whisk until combined. Bring to a boil.

4. Add the sauce and the pasta to the chicken and toss. Simmer for a couple minutes to heat through. Serve.

Servings: 6

Cooking Times
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Nutrition Facts
Serving size: 1/6 of a recipe (6.5 ounces).
Percent daily values based on the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for a 2000 calorie diet.
Nutrition information calculated from recipe ingredients.

Amount Per Serving
Calories 465.09
Calories From Fat (35%) 160.96
% Daily Value
Total Fat 17.89g 28%
Saturated Fat 8.15g 41%
Cholesterol 76.79mg 26%
Sodium 504.26mg 21%
Potassium 432.07mg 12%
Total Carbohydrates 46.68g 16%
Fiber 2.38g 10%
Sugar 3.3g
Protein 28.28g 57%

Recipe Type: Chicken, Italian, Main Course, Simple Supper

Source
Author: Susan Ewing

Recipe Cost: $7.22 ($4.42 on sale)
Serving Cost: $1.20 ($0.74 on sale)

Friday Foto Fun with Thanksgiving Decorations

It's time for Carrie's Friday Foto Fun! And, it is also time for Thanksgiving decorations. This is how we roll:

Gifts of Good Taste

I am going to take a break from gardening for a few weeks to play along with Simply Sugar and Gluten Free for her Holiday Food Fest.

Her host Cents to Get Debt Free is featuring Gifts of Good Taste and I thought it would be great to show you how I am packing my cookies for gift giving this holiday season. Here is what they look like:

And here is how you do it:

(These instructions are for 3 inch cookies)

Step 1: Get a piece of cellaphane that is 6 inches squared.

Step 2: Fold both sides 1 inch towards the center:

Step 3: Fold the bottom half way up to the center and secure with tape on both sides:

Step 4: Place the cookie face-down in the little baggie you just made for it:

Step 5: Bring the top flap down and secure it with a pretty sticker of some sort:

Step 6: Flip it over and viola! It is ready for gift giving by itself or put it with others in an attractive basket:

FNCCC: Week 12

My Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom is going to be more like Wordful Wednesday on SevEn cLoWn CirCus:-).

I am playing along with I Blame My Mother on The Food Network Chefs Cooking Challenge (FNCCC). This week the chef of choice is Danny Boome. I am doing his Mummy Boome's Traditional Shepherds Pie . I posted the recipe on Monday and here is what it looked like:

Isn't she pretty?

The Verdict: It was delicious! A crowd pleaser! Everyone loved it. The only critique we would have would be less potatoes. We could have done without half. That would lower the cost and the fat.

Tackling Extreme Chocolate Cupcakes

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom . I had another Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee Challenge. This month we competed for the best Extreme Chocolate cupcake. My entry was Not Your Mama's Sundae Cupcake. Here is what they looked like:

This ia an ode to Bi-Rite Creamery's Sam's Sundae in San Franscio. It hosts a white chocolate "bowl" with chocolate cake "ice cream scoops", chocolate mousse "topping", olive oil "sauce" and coarse salt " jimmies". Yummo!!

Traditional Shepherds Pie

Check me out over at At Work, At Play or At Home All Day talking about girlie stuff:-)

Here, I am doing more menu planning with I'm an Organizing Junkie and finding more deals at Pick N Save for $5 Dinners .

Another busy week ahead of me. I have my Iron Cupcake Challenge, a PTO meeting, volunteering twice, a stress test and an evening at a comedy club. Thank goodness for good old Pick N Save. They have ground chuck on sale for $1.88/lb. (normally $2.93/lb.) and it's a good thing because...

Amongst all this, I am still playing along with I Blame My Mother on The Food Network Chefs Cooking Challenge (FNCCC). This week the chef of choice is Danny Boome. I am making his Mummy Boome's Traditional Shepherds Pie . Check out the recipebelow!

Here is everything that I am serving this week:

Monday: Chicken and Pasta (ICM tonight)

Tuesday: Mummy Boome's Traditional Shepherds Pie (PTO)(Come back on Wednesday for a picture and a review.)

Wednesday: Sweet and Sour Pork (Hair Cut)

Thursday: Leftovers (Volunteering and Stress Test)

Friday: Eat Out (Volunteering at School and Comedy Club)

Mummy Boome's Traditional Shepherds Pie
Ingredients:
1 Tbs butter
1 Tbs olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbs tomato paste
2 lbs lean ground beef or lamb
2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup beef stock
1 1/2 cups garden peas
4 lbs Yukon gold potatoes, peeled, quartered
4 Tbs butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup grated mature white Cheddar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven at 400 degrees F.

2. Add butter and oil to a large skillet on medium heat. Saute onions, carrots, celery and garlic until tender for about 7 to 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Once the vegetables have softened and start to brown a little add the tomato paste and mix evenly. Add the ground beef and cook until beef is no longer pink about 10 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce and beef stock. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook and simmer for another 10 minutes. Mix in peas. Transfer mixture to an oven-proof baking dish and spread evenly. Place potato on top of ground beef mixture and spread out evenly, once the top surface has been covered, rake through with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely. Place the dish into the preheated oven and cook until browned about 20 minutes. Spoon out the shepherd's pie and serve.

3. Fill a large saucepan with cold water and a tablespoon of salt. Add potatoes to the water and bring to a boil. Let potatoes cook until soft about 20 minutes. Once the potatoes are at a desired density, drain the potatoes and place them back into the saucepan for mashing. Add butter and cream and begin to mash potatoes into a semi smooth consistency. Once at desired texture add cheese and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.

Servings: 8

Cooking Times
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour and 10 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour and 20 minutes

Nutrition Facts
Serving size: 1/8 of a recipe (16.4 ounces).
Percent daily values based on the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for a 2000 calorie diet.
Nutrition information calculated from recipe ingredients. 2 of the recipe's ingredients were not linked. These ingredients are not included in the recipe nutrition data.

Amount Per Serving
Calories 769.21
Calories From Fat (47%) 363.17
% Daily Value
Total Fat 40.08g 62%
Saturated Fat 18.96g 95%
Cholesterol 129.15mg 43%
Sodium 323.68mg 13%
Potassium 2212.53mg 63%
Total Carbohydrates 71.12g 24%
Fiber 6.37g 25%
Sugar 3.8g
Protein 33.22g 66%

Source
Author: Danny Boome
Source: The Food Network
Web Page: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/danny-boome/mummy-boomes-traditional-shepherds-pie-recipe/index.html

Recipe Cost: $12.93 ($10.83 on sale)
Serving Cost: $2.62 ($1.35 on sale)

Friday Foto Fun with The Nature Center

It's time for Carrie's Friday Foto Fun! This week, my daughter's class went to The Nature Center for a field trip. They saw animals, they went on a nature hike and they made name tags out of bark. They had a GREAT time and I had a great time seeing their faces with wonder:-)