Crock Pot Chicken Pot Pie

I found this recipe online a few weeks ago, and altered it to fit my own preference. It's an amazing recipe, and SO easy to make. I love crock pot recipes. 

What You Need

3 boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 can cream of mushroom

1 can cream of chicken

1 can cream of potato

1 half onion, diced

1 bag frozen peas and carrots 

1 cup milk

2 russett potatoes cut into cubes

salt and pepper 

2 cans Pillsbury Crescent rolls

What You Do

Combine Cream of Soups, onion, chicken, milk, and potatoes into crock pot. Cook on low for 8 hours. The last hour, dump in your peas and carrots. 

Take out your first can of crescent rolls, unroll them, and place them in the bottom of your casserole dish. Bake them for about 10 minutes on 375 until they start to rise. Take the casserole dish out, and put your pot pie on top of the crescent rolls. Open your other can of rolls and place them on top of your pot pie. 

Bake on 375 as directed on the crescent rolls, or until they rise and are golden brown. 

Let it sit for 15-20 minutes. I serve mine with rice or mashed potatoes. 

Grandma's Deviled Eggs

Before my grandma passed away, she taught me how to make her Deviled Eggs. I know there are different variations of this recipe (some people add paprika, some people add relish) .... my grandma was a firm believer in "not adding unneeded sh*t" :) Her's was really simple, but very yummy. 

What You Need

A Dozen Eggs

Mayonnaise 

Mustard 

Pepper

What You Do

Get a large pot and fill it with water. Place eggs in there, and let them boil for about 20-25 minutes. 

Once they are boiled, remove the pot and drain the water. Peel the eggs. I always peel them under cold water, because the shell comes off easier. Set them to the side on a plate. 

Once they are all peeled, get your knife and cut the eggs in half (long ways). Take the cooked yoke in the middle and put it in a separate container. You can use a spoon to gently scoop it out, or you can just lightly shake the egg upside down so that it falls out. Set the empty egg whites to the side on the plate (or in your deviled egg container)

I made these the night before my grandma's funeral. So while I was cooking, I had her picture on the stove with me while I cooked. 

So take your cooked yoke and add your mayonnaise and mustard. Like I've said previously, I've never been one to measure anything. I go by looks and taste, rather than exact measurement. You definitely want more mayonnaise than mustard. I'd say three tablespoons of mayo, 1 1/2 tablespoons mustard. Add a dash of pepper, and mix up the cooked yoke until it is mixed well, mashed up, and grainy. Taste the mixture to make sure you like it. If you don't, add more of whichever you feel like is missing. I usually always have to add more mayonnaise, just because I'm not a big fan of the mustard taste.  

Next, you want to spoon the mixture into each egg so that it covers the inside, and runs over the top just a bit. Make sure you mixture isn't too runny. You want it to have some substance, and be a little grainy, just so the consistency holds. 

And they are done! I like them cold the best, so I usually refrigerate for a few hours before I eat them.

If you like paprika or relish, feel free to add it into your yoke mixture. I'm just not a big fan of that stuff, and I have always loved the way my grandma made them. 

Sausage and Cream Cheese Stuffed Crescent Rolls

My mom made this one morning for Christmas when I was a kid. I'm not sure where she got the recipe, but I remember always looking forward to her making these on Holiday's and special occasions. So as I got older, I watched her make them one time, and was really surprised at how simple the recipe is. 

What You Need

2 cans of crescent rolls (eight in each can)

1 roll of ground sausage

1 eight ounce block of cream cheese

What You Do

Brown sausage in skillet, reduce heat to medium, and drain sausage. In the same pan, add your block of cream cheese, and dump cooked sausage back in. Mix together until cream cheese is melted and mixed in with your sausage. 

Preheat oven as directed by Crescent Rolls, open rolls and lay out on a baking pan. Take a a tablespoon and put sausage on the biggest part of crescent rolls. I usually do about two tablespoons per roll. 

Wrap them as shown above (from the base where the sausage is, up) and bake as directed by crescent roll can. 

Enjoy! It makes a great side for breakfast :)

Italian Meatballs and Stuffed Manicotti Noodles

I don't even remember where I got this recipe. I think I was looking around online for something different last year, and saw meatballs, and then added my own touches. They turned out really good. The spaghetti sauce is my grandpa's recipe, and I love cheese, so I stuffed them in the noodles. :)

What You Will Need

Meatballs

2 1/2 lbs hamburger

1 1/2 cups Italian Bread Crumbs

1 cup Parmesan Cheese (grated)

1 cup of Ragu Traditional Sauce

Tablespoon Garlic Powder

Dash of Basil Seasoning

Dash of Oregano Seasoning

Spaghetti Sauce

1 large can of tomato sauce

1 small can of chicken and rice soup

1 onion

1 green pepper

dash of garlic powder

1/2 pound hamburger

Two boxes of Manicotti Noodles

Two blocks of Colby Cheese

What You Do

For your meatballs, get out a large Tupperware bowl. Combine everything together from the top list for meatballs. Use your hands and mix it all together thoroughly. Preheat your oven to 375, get out a baking pan, line it with aluminum foil. Shape your meatballs and place on pan. (I make mine huge - like the size of softballs)

Put it in the oven and bake for 45 minutes, or until hamburger is cooked through. Once you take them out, immediately spoon some spaghetti sauce on top of them. 

For your Spaghetti Sauce

Cut up your onion and green pepper, and cook it with your hamburger. Drain. In the same pot, add your tomato sauce, chicken and rice, and ragu. Dump hamburger back in, let it simmer for 30 minutes (while your meatballs are cooking)

Cook your Manicotti noodles until they are firm. Not hard, not over-cooked and soggy. Firm. Drain water, let them cool for a minute.

While they are cooling go ahead and cut up your blocks of colby jack cheese. I cut them so that I can fit two pieces inside of the noddles. So however many noodles you have made, multiply by two, and that's how many cuts of cheese you need. 

Get out your casserole dish, take the cheese and stuff it into your noodles, and line the bottom of the dish with them. If you need too, you can layer noodles on top of each other. 

Take your sauce and cover the noddles, place them in the oven (beside your meatballs, or after your meatballs are done cooking), and bake for 20 minutes on 375. 

Remove from oven, plate noodles and meatballs, and enjoy!

Shepards Pie

This is my daughters favorite meal. It's very simple to make, and taste really good. Of course there are a lot of different variety's (like the one you find at Cheesecake Factory), but I've never tried any other than my own, which my mom taught me how to make. 

What You Need

2 1/2 pounds hamburger

Potatoes (mash them yourself, or use the instant ones if you're in a hurry)

1 can of yellow whole kernel corn

4 cups of shredded sharp cheese (more or less depending on your cheese preference)

Half of a yellow onion (optional)

Salt (for mashed potatoes)

Casserole dish

What You Do

Cut up your onion, and cook it with your hamburger. Drain the grease. In a separate pot, make your mashed potatoes. If you're using the instant potatoes, make enough for 16 servings. If you're making them homemade (which we know is the best), use a whole bag of yellow potatoes, or five to six russet potatoes. Make the mashed potatoes however you'd like. Make sure you add some salt so your potatoes aren't bland.

Once the potatoes are done, dump your can of corn in there and mix it up. Some people prefer to add garden peas or green beans as well. That's up to you. Mix your hamburger into the mashed potatoes as well, and then start layering into your casserole dish. Bottom layer is your mixture, then shredded cheese on top. Layer with your mixture again, and top it off with more Shredded Cheese. 

Preheat your oven to 350 and bake for 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Let it sit for 15 minutes. 

Plate it, and enjoy!

Pot Roast - Crock Pot Style :)

I love my crock pot. It's the best thing in the whole world when I work late nights, and want to have dinner ready (or almost ready) when I get home. Pot Roast is one of the easiest things to make.

What You Need


1 Rump Roast or London Broil
1 Can Cream of Mushroom
1 pack of dry onion mix gravy
1 bag of potatoes
1 bag of carrots
Rice

What You Do


Cut your crock pot on low, dump in your cream of mushroom soup and your dry mix gravy. Stir them together. Set your pot roast in, add your potatoes (I don't peel them. I wash them, and throw them in there whole), you can peel the skin off or leave it on there, it doesn't matter. Some people use red potatoes, I go between the red and yellow. Add your carrots, cover and let it cook for eight hours.

It will look soooo yummy once it's done. 

After eight hours, cut it to warm (or off), and cook your rice and biscuits. 

Plate it up, and serve!

It is honestly, the easiest recipe, and SO good. :)

I always recommend that you cook this on low, otherwise the meat will come out tough. Everything will fall apart after eight hours and be incredibly tender. It's awesome.

Country-Styled Steak in White Gravy

Another one of my favorite recipes that my late grandmother taught me how to make is her Country-Styled Steak. When she lived here with me, I finally got the nerve to try and recreate it, made a total disaster out of it, and had to get her help. But she taught me well, and while I will never be able to make anything quite as good as she does, it comes pretty darn close to hers. :)


What you will need


Cube Steak
Half an onion, diced
milk
water
garlic powder
flour


Simple enough, right?


What You Do


Get out your giant electric fry skillet, go ahead and preheat it on 350, and put enough oil in the bottom to lightly coat it. Don't put too much, or your steak will be swimming in that stuff, and you, my friends, will spend your night in the bathroom. 

Sprinkle some garlic powder and meat tenderizer (if you want too) on the steaks. On a plate, dump some flour, and coat each cube steak in the flour. Once that is done put them in the electric fry pan. As soon as your done with that, go ahead and dump in your diced onions. Turn your steaks over once so they can cook on both sides. Once they are cooked through, remove them and put them on a plate. 

Now, there is going to be some onions and grease left in the bottom of the pan, and that's good. Let it stay there. Take some flower and sprinkle it in there (I'd guess around 1/4 of a cup) and take a fork and mix that flour in with all of that grease. It will look like lumpy white balls in there. 


Next, take a large cup (and by large I mean something bigger than a plastic drinking cup) if you don't have a large cup, you're going to use a regular cup and do this step twice. Fill the cup with half water, and half milk. Dump it into the electric pan. This is what is going to make your gravy, so if you feel like this won't be enough, add more. Just always make sure your milk to water is consistently the same.

Let the electric pan heat until the milk-water mixture starts boiling. Now for the fun part. 


Start sprinkling flour into the mixture while it is boiling, and constantly stir stir stir stir. Do NOT let it sit unstired because it will stick, and your gravy will be a big, hot, burnt mess. Please make sure this mixture is boiling or you will have very lumpy gravy with cute flour balls in there, that don't taste so great. 


Keep adding flour a little at a time until gravy starts to thicken. You don't want  it to be too thick, because it will thicken as it cools off. 

Add the cooked steak back into the pan, and cover it, and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. If you want, you can add salt to the mixture, or add garlic (like I do) because I love garlic :) 

After 20 minutes, cut off the heat, let it sit for about 10 minutes, and then add it to your plate of sides, and enjoy! 

Grandma's Meatloaf

My grandmother was one of the best country cooks that I have ever known. In the 26 years of my life, she never had any teeth, drank like a fish, smoked like a freight train, and loved her family with all of her heart. She died in 2010, at the young age of 65. Prior to her passing, I was extremely privileged to have her live with me so that I could take care of her, and in return, she showed me some of her most awesome recipes that had been passed down for many years. This is one of my favorites. 


What You Will Need


3lbs of Hamburger
2 Eggs
1 can of Vegtable Soup
Half a pack of crackers
Two Pieces of bread
3/4 cup Katsup
1/2 cup BBQ Sauce
1 Pack Dry Onion Mix
Dash of Garlic Powder
1/2 Onion (diced)


Preparation


In a bowl, throw all of this stuff together, and mix it with your hands until everything is well blended together. For the Katsup and BBQ Sauce, I'm guessing since I was always taught to just go by sight as to how you add ingredients (the true country way), but I do know that the ratio of Katsup to BBQ Sauce should be slightly more. The bread and crackers help hold the meatloaf together, so it's important that you have those two things in there, or your meatloaf will fall to pieces. 


Put all of your stuff in a casserole dish or aluminum baking pan. It should look something like this ....

Make sure you compact everything tightly together so it doesn't start to fall apart while baking. 

Set your oven to 375, put in oven uncovered, and bake for an hour, or until hamburger is cooked through. 

Make sure you check on your meatloaf every so often and drain any grease that is accumilating in the bottom. Some people use a turkey baster, and others (like me) drag the pan out and tip it over the garbage disposal to drain. However you want to do it. Just please don't drop your meatloaf in the sink. :)

After Hamburger is cooked through, take it out of the oven, and put some katsup on top (mustard also, if you prefer), and let it sit for about 20 minutes to cool off and mesh together. It should look something like this when its done. 

Enjoy!