Ugh! I used to pride myself on my mad English, grammar and proofreading schools. Now it looks like I didn’t complete 8th grade English. So sorry friends. I blame my children (as well as for many, many other things – gray hairs, cellulite, ass girth, forgetfulness, burning dinner, under-cooking dinner – I could go on and on but I’m certain a. nobody really gives a shit and 2. you’ve probably already stopped reading!)

So I lied to you yet again. Tacos last night I did not make. I wasn’t feeling tacos so a made a new recipe I found on the line. I’ll preface this by saying I didn’t have all of the ingredients the recipe called for so I improvised. Both my boys absolutely loved it, ate quickly, quietly and without one single complaint. Hubby and I ate it, not quite as quickly, not quite as quietly and with a few complaints. 

I’m a huge fan of beef stroganoff. It was one of my favorite meals growing up and still is to this day so I figured beef stroganoff casserole on a cold winters night would be hitting my taste bud G spot (ok, gross, maybe I shouldn’t have gone there?!). It’s not that the recipe was bad. It was edible for sure. It did, however, lack in the flavor department (in my opinion). The thing that really pissed me off (that’s a lie also, I wasn’t actually mad, more annoyed) was that it smelled amazing. My mouth literally watered when I pulled it out of the oven. I was so looking forward to my first, second, tenth and nineteenth bite (as well as all the ones in between)! Imagine my disappointment when it tasted no better than shitty hamburger helper. But I’ll share it with you in case your interested. My kids loved it so maybe you will too. Unfortunately for them, I shan’t be making it again. 

Ingredients:

1 lb lean ground beef

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp olive oil 

8 oz fresh sliced mushrooms (I omitted them because 1. I didn’t have any and B. I don’t like them)

1 large onion, chopped

3 tsp minced garlic

1/4 cup dry white wine

1 can cream of mushroom soup 

1 cup sour cream 

1 tbsp Dijon mustard (didn’t have any of this either coz I don’t like Dijon mustard; I substituted Worcestershire, coz, ya know, they’re so similar)

Cooked egg noodles

Directions:

Throw all that shit in the trash and order pizza. Just kidding!!!!

Brown hamburger; drain grease

Add oil (weird ingredient if you ask me), mushrooms, onion and garlic

Cook and stir until onion is tender 

Add wine, reduce heat to med-low and simmer 5 minutes

Stir in soup, sour cream and mustard (or its cousin Worcestershire 😝) until combined

Stir in cooked noodles then pour into greased 13×9 inch baking dish

Cover and bake 20 min at 350 F

Uncover and bake 10 min longer

I served with a simple salad and steakhouse dinner rolls then I filled up on Ben & Jerrys milk and cookies. Shit is freaking amazing!

That was it. Make it if you think it sounds like you but don’t say I didn’t warn ya!

Tonight I’m attempting my first pot roast scar! It’s a scary thought! I’ll let you know all about it at some point this weekend but I’m off tomorrow for my weekend with the hubby for wining, dining and get your mind out of the damn gutter! Oh wait! That’s was my mind!!

Happy love weekend, friends! xoxo

I think that’s rule number 1 of being a stay at home parent that provides meals for the family. If someone else wants to cook it, let them!! Even better if its at their house. Even if it’s terrible, you ain’t gotta cook it and you ain’t gotta clean it up! And that right there is called winning folks (not Charlie sheen winning, but winning nonetheless!)

So who cooked me dinner last night? My very beautiful and talented mother (hi mom!). She made some bomb diggity (that’s tight, bomb diggity) Maryland Cream of Crab Soup. Or some shit like that. I forgot to take a picture but I’m sure you can imagine it. It was soup, so liquidy in nature, and cream is in the title so it was creamy if you can believe it and it had delightful chunks of lump crab meat in it (and yes, the occasional shell which always creeps me out because my mouth has texture phobia – completely my mouths fault, not mine)! She also provide grilled cheese for the youngins. Actually, if you want the truth (always a good plan), Jack had a ham and cheese sandwich and I ate most of Colt’s grilled cheese (gosh, I wonder why my ass never gets any smaller?!). So my wonderful mama said I could share the recipe so here goes!

Ingredients:

1 lb lump crabmeat 

1 tbsp fresh parsley

3 tsp old bay (not to be confused with bae which is a popular word among the teens; anyone know what the hell it means (other than the fact that I’m getting old)?

1/4 cup butter

1/8 tsp pepper

2 pints whipping cream

1 qt half and half 

Cornstarch (for thickening – hey ho!)

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups milk 

Directions:

Bring milk, half and half and heavy cream to a boil. Add crab, parsley, old bay, butter, salt and pepper (you make me wanna shoop, shoop-e-doop). Bring to a boil. Make paste with cornstarch and cold water to thicken. Simmer. And that’s all there is to that folks. Seems easy enough! 

On tonight’s menu – tacos, refried beans and chips and salsa. Nothing fancy there – I use the old El Paso taco kit (we prefer the stuff and stand hard shells if anybody gives a flying you know what!). I do add sour cream and shredded Mexican 4 cheese blend to my beans to make them creamy and delicious (I buy the fat free beans and then fatten ’em up so at least they’re not double fat!!!). Also, to save time (and really because I’m lazy) I go ahead and buy my lettuce already shredded coz mama ain’t got time to be shredding no damn lettuce! 

Tomorrow starts the big Valentines weekend and my cooking will be limited! Hubby and I are staying at an oceanfront resort (no matter that the high is a balmy 28) and we have reservations for a fancy dinner and I booked us a couples massage. Oh la la!! 

So until next week, I bid y’all a deux (no idea if that’s who you spell that!) xoxo

So Mr. Wonderful started real estate school last night. It runs Monday, Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s from 6-9:30 for the next 9 weeks. So dinners are gonna be a little strange around here for a while. Brace yourselves! 

When hubby isn’t around for meal cooking time, I like to prepare things during Colt’s afternoon nap so that when he is awake, all I have to do is throw it in the oven and can devote my attention to him and Jack because, let’s face it, the babes only want our attention during meal prep time or absolutely every time they can’t have it!!! Tricky little devils, aren’t they?!

Anyway, that relates in no way to what I prepared last night, but it’s my blog, so I can say whatever I want whenever I want! And you can stop reading it if you don’t like it! Ain’t blog life a beautiful thing?!

Back to last nights dinner. I made a little something called Texas Beef Skillet. Why it’s called that, I have no idea. We can call it North Carolina beef skillet if you prefer. Or whatever state you choose I reckon. Get crazy with it! My secret though, that I tried not to divulge to my boys (it didn’t work with hubby) is that I used ground turkey instead of ground beef. And let me tell you another secret, it was daggone good! Hubby thought we were having albino cow though so I had to reveal the turkey switcheroo!!! It’s super easy to make, and everybody loved it. That’s called a win-win right there!! So, how do I make it you ask. Well let me just tell you. 

Ingredients: 

1 lb of ground beef (or try the turkey switcheroo!)

2 1/2 tsp chili powder

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 can of Rotel (I use medium)

1 can red kidney beans (undrained)

Small amount of cooked macaroni (if you’re really feeling crazy, go for the veggie delight for a healthier twist)

Shredded cheddar cheese

Optional: a few chunks of velveeta for a creamier texture

Directions:

Cook ground beefurkey in a skillet; drain grease

Add chili powder, garlic powder, Rotel and beans. 

Simmer for 20 minutes so that everyone can get to know each other! No strangers in my skillets!

Add cooked macaroni and velveeta (if desired) and mix and cover 

Once the velveeta is melty and delicious, top with shredded cheddar and cover to melt. 

Serve and eat. I like to serve with sweet corn and sometimes just dump corn I the skillet. Simple as that!! 

Now, I did take a picture of the skillet BUT I had already served and eaten before I remembered to take the damn thing. So it may not be too pretty but it tasted good, the kids ate it with 0 complaints (what! what!) and that’s really all that matters! At my house anyway. You do you, boo boo!

Judge lightly my friends!! 

  
Yummy!! Look at that albino cow goodness!! Silly Mr. Wonderful!

I let Jack pick tonight’s menu so pancakes and bacon it is! If you’re anything like me and hate frying bacon and cleaning up, I bake mine in the oven – 350 for 20-25 minutes on a foil-lined cookie sheet! Easy peasy!

Stay hungry…xoxo

So far I suck at this, huh? Well, Friday we went out to eat. At a bar. With our baby (well he is almost 17 months old, so you know, that makes it more acceptable!).  I kept quoting Sweet Home Alabama’s “you have a baby. In a bar!” Much to my husbands embarrassment and annoyance. Just FYI Colt loved having dinner in a bar. The pop/techno mix tunes they were turning out were exactly what he needed to hear Friday night! And we went at 5:30 and there was another couple with a toddler and it was smoke free so put your judgey judgersons away! And in case you were wondering, Jack spent the night with my parents so he didn’t go to the bar. 

Moving on, Saturday night I did manage to crank out dinner and it was damn good if I do say so myself. Again, it wasn’t any of that diet friendly getting skinny shit fad. Ok, I know it’s not a fad and being healthy is good and all that good shit but I’m not a very good healthy cooker girl. Yet. I’ll get there. 

Anywho : here’s a photo of that tasty dinner we had. I’ll share the deets after! 

  
So clearly my photography skills could use some work but what you’re looking at here is turkey schnitzel, roasted broccoli and mac and cheese. Yummy! 

Turkey schnitzel is not something that we have often here at case de loco for a couple of reasons. One being that it’s not exactly heart healthy and the other being that it’s nearly impossible to dibs the proper cut of turkey in this small town. Ideally I’d use turkey cutlets but they’re either not made anymore or just not carried here. So instead I use boneless skinless turkey breasts when I can find them. Which I generally only find them maybe twice a year at Harris Teeter. Now here’s the tricky part. In order for the turkey to come out perfectly you have to cut the breasts in half. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to cut boneless skinless turkey breast in half, but it’s near impossible. The turkey has a bit of a flaky consistency which makes the splitting a bit complicated but I have a trick! They are much easier to split if you freeze them first, then defrost about half way and then split in half. The turkey won’t flake and fall apart in your hand when you cut it while it’s still partially frozen. You’re welcome for that tip! And if you can cut your turkey completely thawed and think I’m a moron, what the hell are you doing reading this blog?! I’m no professional and therefore have no wisdom to bestow upon you!

Turkey Schnitzel ingredients:

Turkey cutlets (or breasts split in half)

1 to 1 1/2 sticks of butter

Italian bread crumbs (Panko, regular or I like to mix both)

Directions:

Melt the butter in a large pan

Wet the turkey cutlets with water. 

Coat completely in bread crumb mixture.  

Fry in butter 10-15 minutes, flipping once 

Plate and enjoy! See? Super easy, super tasty and super kid friendly! (Just block out that it’s fried in butter and work out extra hard the next day!)

The Mac and cheese is nothing fancy – velveeta melted with milk poured over mini farfalle and shredded cheddar mixed in. 

The roasted broccoli is some of my favorites as well as my kids and Mr. Wonderful’s! All I do there is buy already cut up broccoli (that’s my time saving trick for roasting veggies! I ain’t got time to do all that chopping). Dump the broccoli on a cookie sheet, drizzle with extra virgin (hey ho) olive oil and I season with Lawry’s seasoned salt and black pepper. Bake at 350 20-25 minutes depending on how toasty toasty you like it!

Sunday we did snacks for the super bowl! It included veggies, guacamole (Mr. Wonderful makes it and holy guacamole is it to die for!), sausage dip, pigs in a blanket and our good friends brought some freaking amazing chicken wings and buffalo chicken dip! It was all awesome and super fun! And way to go Denver. I will say other than Bruno Mars, that halftime show sounded awful. Anyone else think that?

Anywho, that’s all I got for now y’all! On tonight’s menu – Texas beef skillet! I’ll share the recipe on that later. Right now I gots to go get my yoga on! xoxo

I grew up Catholic so I know confession well. I hated it mind you. I used to make stuff up to tell the priest because I was so nervous. I wanted to perform well at confession. I’ve always been quite competitive so I guess I was hoping to “win” confession. I know what you’re thinking and yikes is right!!!

So, what is my confession you ask. I failed on day 1 of this blog. I did not have steak and roasted potatoes last night. I have many excuses as to why but it really just boils down to laziness. I fed the kids leftovers that my mother (hi mom) so graciously provided me with and Mr. Wonderful and I had hot dogs. Not just any hot dogs though. We made Nathan’s on the grill pan and added chili, cheese and mustard. And I gotta say, it was damn good. We ate without the kids and it was freaking awesome!! 

So there. I admitted it. But I have made the potatoes tonight. I had to go with baby red though because the whites were rotten. I’ll post a photo (if I can figure out how) and until tomorrow, cheers y’all! xoxo

  

Ok, so I’m cheating a little bit, on day 1. Can you believe it? I can so get used to it. The 6 year old has basketball practice this evening so I’ve convinced my husband to grill steak. Don’t worry, I won’t leave you empty handed. I’m going to make oven roasted potatoes and I’ll let you know how I do those super easy tasty morsels (also, by the way, if you’re looking for tasty, nutritious, getting skinny food, this ain’t the site for you! If you’ve seen me, you know that!)

On a side note (there will probably be a lot of these – I’ve contracted ADHD from my husband, minus the hyperactivity, but apparently you can’t have one without the other so I’m an anomaly!) Right, back to the point, have you ever watched 5-6 year olds play basketball? It is an amazingly hysterical gift from God. Nobody has a clue (well, some do but my kid doesn’t so there) what the hell they are doing. And the best part, there are no rules. You can foul, you can travel, you can double dribble. You name it, it’s allowed! I freaking love it. It’s so good for the soul – a mood turner arounder. My child, his name is Jack, he’s 6 and I think he’s awesome (not biased in the least). He told me yesterday that he is the “best at basketball as long as someone shoots for him.” I almost had a coronary laughing so hard. Not lacking for confidence, that one. Must get it from his dad. Definitely didn’t come from me!

Anywho, enough with that tangent. On to the potatoes…(just to be clear, in the future, when time allows (which, let’s face it, will probably be never) I will post pictures of steps along the way as well as finished products.) Today is not that day. Sorry about your luck. I’ve got shit to do.

So, oven roasted potatoes. This is no gourmet recipe but it’s easy and it’s tasty, 2 of my favorite things.

Ingredients:

4 Potatoes (duh) – I use whatever I have on hand, tonight will be white potatoes and I generally cut up 1 potato per person unless someone is exceptionally hungry, in which case cut up more

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (couple splashes)

Mrs. Dash’s seasonings (I mix it up between the table blend and the garlic herb)

Seasoned Salt

Pepper

Parsley (mainly coz I think it makes the potatoes pretty)

Directions:

So, as you may have noticed, I measure nothing in this dish.

Cut up the potatoes and put in a large bowl (I leave skin on for a couple of reasons – laziness being one and nutrients being the other)

Drizzle olive oil over the potatoes

Add seasonings except parsley – again, I do it to taste. You know what you and your family like so do your thang guys and dolls.

Mix it all together – really marry that shit so everybody gets some seasoning love and pour onto a cookie sheet.

I then add that potato beauty enhancing parsley on the top.

Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

Now, my family is a little gross or just truly American so they like to add a little ranch dressing drizzle over the top of their potatoes, coz quite frankly, ranch makes everything better. Not that store bought shit either. I’m talking the kind that involves the milk and the mayo and the whisking. Yum! Yum!

So on the menu tonight – steak grilled by Mr. Wonderful, oven roasted potatoes and a nice salad of mixed greens, carrots and tomatoes.

Bon appetit yall! xoxo